(This is our house in the background)

First up, my Uncle Ron is turning 75 today! Happy Birthday, Uncle Ron.
I use this occasion to show off one of my favorite old family photos. It is of Uncle Ron when he was in the Air Force. This photo is at least 50 years old and the original is so beautiful. I may have posted it before, but I love it so.

Next is my cousin Emily, who turns 31 today. We’re just a year apart. I’m going to assume she’s celebrating in Atlanta today, but with Emily who knows, she could be in pretty much any country these days.

Last, but not least, is my friend Nicky, who is just 6 days older than me, turns 32 today. Originally from Wales, now residing in the Boston area, Nicky and I met through our love of Harry (Connick, Jr.) and I was lucky enough to attend her and Chris’ wedding in Wales a few years back. I hope to visit her someday soon!

Happy Birthday to all!

It was a lovely day after Thanksgiving day. This morning my mom and I went and got my Christmas tree. It was a spur-of-the-moment change of plans before she left town. The tree was procured at my local Earl May garden center. Which was handy since it was a mile from my place, if that, so we could just have the tree wrapped up and semi-shoved into the back of my car for the trip home. It may not have resulted in the crazy tales from past tree getting expeditions, [note to self: good blog topic for December] but for once, easy was fine. My apartment is now home to a lovely 7′ premium fraser fir. Its been drinking all its warm water today and tomorrow it will be properly decked out.

After the tree was standing and stable, Mom and I went to lunch at Takanami in downtown Iowa City. Their bento boxes are awesome. I had the salmon and mom was daring and had the tofu. The eel was tasty as always. After lunch, we walked around the block to The Prairie Table where my big Black Friday purchases were a new scraping spatula and a new turning/flipping spatula. (Did I mention yesterday that there were people lined up at Best Buy on Thursday night at 5:30PM? When the store wasn’t even going to acknowledge their presence until 3AM on Friday? Insanity. I’d only get up that early to shop if Steve Jobs himself was going to be giving me 50% off a MacBook and ringing it up himself.)

After the big shopping, my mom headed home and I took a shower and then intended to blog, but my internet was down. Annoying. So I watched five minutes of ‘Survivor’ before I realized it was a clip show and deleted that and then watched last night’s ‘Ugly Betty.’ After that, I went to the movies and saw The Mist the latest movie based on a short story by Stephen King. I’d read the short story, so I knew the basic plot, but I knew the movie had a different, more conclusive, ending than the story. But word is that Stephen King loved the change and said he would’ve used it himself if he’d thought of it at the time. Its totally disturbing, even though I kind of thought I knew what was coming. Like a train wreck where you just can’t look away. Overall, the movie was a bit uneven, where some of the special effects/monsters didn’t really measure up to the much more real psychological drama/trama the characters were experiencing. The thrills and chills are there; if you like Stephen King or you like thrillers, I’d say give it a look. If not in the theater, then on DVD.

Immediately following the movie, I went over to Jerry & Sara’s to have some dinner and conversation with Frosty, Margaret, and Brian Moon, who I hadn’t seen in forever. Good times with good friends. Taly was cute as always and Heather & Taylin dropped by for a few minutes to drop off Taylin’s latest Build-A-Bear creation for Taly (a terribly cute Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). We played cards and chatted and I just got home, fed the cat, and watered the tree.

Click on the photo for more pictures of my first few years of birthdays.

Also, Happy Birthday to my favorite musician who was privileged enough to be born a year after me, John Mayer.

Friday evening, I went over to D’s for a girls’ night shopping party she was hosting. Even though I’m not usually one for jewelry or purses, I did order one necklace that will fill a void in my very small necklace wardrobe. And even if I hadn’t bought anything, it was worth the drive to see The Roethlers and eat Ma Zillman’s tailgating cracker crack mix.

I awoke on Saturday morning to our condo being more like a college dorm. Rachel is in the Iowa Swing Dance club and the club was hosting a three day event at the university. Other swing dancers came in from the area and Rachel had volunteered to host some. (yes, I knew in advance, I didn’t just wake up to the downstairs being full of girls.) There were seven girls staying so I was charitable and let some of them use my bathroom. When did I get so old that college sophomores look SO YOUNG? Though one girl was shocked to learn my age. Either she was humoring me or I got more confirmation that I did win the genetic lottery at least as far as aging goes.

I was considering going over to Kinnick for the spring “game” and taking in some tailgating. But when morning rolled around, I was tired and it really didn’t feel like spring out too much. Not enough to motivate me to go sit outside and watch the football team practice. I miss the days when it was an actual game. Knee injuries ruin everyone’s fun.

My mom arrived in town that afternoon as we were driving over to the Dubuque area (St. Donatus to be exact) for a memorial service for my cousin Martha Marie who sadly died way before her time. Its very strange for me to think that she’s dead. She was a member of my generation of my family. I did not know her well as she grew up and lived (for the most part) on the east coast, but the times I did spend with her, she was a very interesting and fun person. My fondest memory of her was a few years ago when I was in NYC for a long weekend seeing Bonerama (New CD out in 2 weeks!) shows. After three shows in a row, I was pretty much exhausted and getting rather ill. I already had plans to stay with her for my last night in town and she just took such good care of me. We went out and had real New York cheesecake while she told me stories about her life. Then she took me back to her place and let me rest while her roommate made us this truly wonderful meal. It was just a really nice time with a wonderful member of my family. She will be greatly missed.

I woke up Sunday to the household full of girls again, but they did eventually leave. I spent most of the day sorting through clothes in my closet and drawers in preparation for moving in two weeks. (Anyone want to help me out the weekend of the 28th??) I also dug out some storage containers that had clothes that I had packed away before I moved to my current residence a year and a half ago. Most of those went straight into the “see you later” pile. I have five bags of clothes that I will sort one more time tonight in order to determine what I can take to the consignment shop and then the rest goes to goodwill. All the sorting and considering actually took many hours.

After the bags were moved to the basement, I sat down and watched The Amazing Race (boring ep. Shut up, Mirna! Go Danny & Oswald!) and then the premier of Drive (with the delicious and talented Nathan Fillion). Did anyone else catch Drive? I really liked it. Tonight it is on during its regular time slot at 7pm central, right before 24. Please watch it so Fox won’t cancel it. (Who am I kidding, I like it and its on Fox. Its doomed.) In some ways it did remind me of a fictionalized Amazing Race (but sadly, no Phil). One of the female leads looked so familiar to me. I kept trying to place her. In the second hour, I finally figured out where I knew her from: The X-Files, of course. Duh. The actress is named Kristin Lehman and she played Esther Nairn/Invisigoth in the episode ‘Kill Switch’ from season five. That I could recognize her without all the black eye makeup and nose ring made me laugh. My brain is still full of X-Files facts. Good to know.

Its been a great birthday long weekend and I will post full details along with photos including pictures of people other than myself tomorrow, but right now I just want to say thanks a huge thanks to all my friends and family who made this a really memorable birthday by remembering in one way or another.

Extra special props to my roommate, Rachel, who managed to put together a surprise party for me last night!

Even though its only the 11th, July is passing quickly. The month started off with the Iowa City Jazzfest. I volunteered to help this year. After some miscommunication with the volunteer coordinator, I wasn’t really sure what I was going to end up doing when I showed up on Saturday morningish. The volunteers each get a free jazzfest t-shirt to sport while working. I picked mine up on Friday night when I went downtown to check out the opening night of the fest. They had women’s cut shirts, but those weren’t the ones they were giving us for free, naturally. So a regular guy’s cut tshirt it was. After running into Jerry & Sara, as well as Tammy, I headed back home and decided to get creative with my tshirt. Its amazing what ten minutes of time and a pair of scissors can create. I just shortened the shirt and the sleeves and made it a v-neck. It was much cooler and I kept having women stop me and ask me where I got it or how I made it.

Anyway, beyond my ever-so-stylish tshirt, I had a good time working on Saturday. I ended up helping with the youth side stage, where the performers are all of high school age or younger. A fun group to work with. The other volunteer was a college student named Cole who was really nice. She was fun to chat with during the day. The guy who was running the sound board and handled all the equipment was also enjoyable, but I can’t remember his name. The way it works at Jazzfest is that there are three side stages (local, youth, college) that play all at the same time in between the acts on the main stage. My job entailed introducing the acts on our stage, giving shout-outs to all the sponsors, and then, in between sets on our stage, hanging out on the stage and watching all the equipment. You could hear the main stage acts from our stage, so that was nice. Heard a lot of good music on Saturday. There wasn’t any main stage act that I had heard of before or was jazzed to hear from their descriptions, but the music was mostly great. On the stage I was working, the last act was a real treat. Sixteen year old kid from Illinois named Adam Larson. He plays the saxophone; soprano, alto, and tenor and had his own quartet. This kid was UNREAL for someone that age. I would’ve thought he was some 40 year old guy who’d been gigging his whole life if I’d just heard and not seen him. And thankfully, he was really nice and unassuming. (ah the differences between sax and trumpet players…) He’s obviously used to the acclaim, but when people were coming up after his sets and telling him that he was the best thing they’d heard all day, he actually appeared suprised and pleased. I chatted with him for a bit, wished him luck, and told him someday ‘d be able to tell people I’d met him back at the beginning of his career. His dad gave me one of his CD’s as a thank you for helping them out that evening. Which I still haven’t listened to because its just been kind of crazy and I want to really listen to it, not just throw it in when I’m not paying attention.

Saw several friends during the day, wrapped up the evening with J&S and S’s parents, Rod & Elaine and their new dog, Malay (or however they spell it) catching the last main stage act on the Pentacrest. It was a beautiful night, though it had been blazingly hot all day. I drank around six bottles of water during the day. SWEATY! Got home sometime after 11pm on Saturday night, I’d been at the fest for more than twelve hours. Oh the shower felt good!

I learned the hard way that one should really only volunteer for one entire day of jazzfest per year. Getting up and getting back downtown twelve hours after I got home was a bit of a stretch and the guy I was working the local side stage with wasn’t what I needed when I was a bit tired. I showed up and introduced myself to him and he stared at me like he could’ve cared less who I was and why was I bothering him with my name and a handshake anyway? Then he came up to me a few minutes later and asked if I wanted to introduce the first band and make the announcements. I had done this all day the day before, so I wasn’t opposed to doing it, but I was kind of tired, so my enthusiasm was waning just a bit. I responded with a, “It doesn’t matter to me, I can do it if you want.” Because, that’s how I felt. Get this: the guy responds with, “I only deal in absolutes. ‘Yes’ or ‘No’?” The hell? That guy was way too intense for me. I did introduce the first band, but he did the rest because he was way more into it than I was. I basically sat around waiting to be needed, snacking on tasty mango gelatto. The band I did introduce is really great, Euforquestra. I had heard them this past fall at a NOLA relief concert. Their current sound is described as afro-cuban. A great beat… they’re only two years old and from Iowa City. Check out their site and they are getting more gigs around the country. I need to get their CD. Gotta support the up-and-commers.

The rest of Sunday was a bit of a blur. Sleepy Wendy.

Monday, the 3rd, as I previously indicated, I worked. Then on the 4th of July, I got up at like 5:30am to get down to Bussey for our big hometown 4th celebration in time for the morning pancake breakfast and the parade. Not a huge crowd of family this year, but things tend to be a little quieter when the 4th is in the middle of the week and people might only have that one day off. But the weather was nice and I saw a few of my high school classmates I hadn’t seen in awhile. Ate too much pie and got a bunch of Stephen King paperbacks for $.20 each at the library book sale. mmmmMMMMMmmmm book sale. Headed back east in the afternoon and went to the Roethler homestead for an impromptu BBQ gathering. Domino bounced a lot and Lindsey was generally cute as always. J&S were there, as well as Sarah, Stacey, and Lucas Harrison, and several of D&A’s neighbors. I left the party around 8pm I think and went home and went to bed. No fireworks for me. I don’t believe in driving to fireworks. If I can’t see them from my deck/porch, no thanks.

And then because I hadn’t been out of the house enough (who needs to do laundry?), on Wednesday (the 5th) I went to see Superman Returns in IMAX in Cedar Rapids with G-reg, Will, and Stacey & Sarah. We had dinner beforehand at HuHot with the rest of the Hodgi (aka Carly and Kaitlyn). My summer blockbuster movie roundup post is forthcoming, so I’ll just say this for now: see Superman Returns but don’t see it on a domed IMAX. And if you do, don’t say I didn’t tell you not to. Oh, and we sat in front of Nate Kaeding. Random.

Thursday I did laundry and vacuumed and tried to get some handle on the general state of my life because on Friday immediately following work and my chiropractor appointment, Jeff rolled into town. He’ll have photos of the highlights (I have a few) and the weekend unfolded pretty quickly as we were off to the Vine in Coralville for wings and beer priced to amuse those used to paying $15 for a drink on the east coast. The roll that night included Frosty, the Steeles, the Roethlers, and the Hodgeses. After dinner, Jeff & I went downtown which was hopping because the weather was complete perfection which brought out good crowds for the Friday Night Concert series. We just walked around and Jeff observed all the downtown changes/upgrades. Ice cream was procured from Whitey’s. They have a new S’mores flavor: cocoa ice cream, marshmallow cream and pieces of graham cracker—delish! We wandered over and consumed our cones on the steps of the Old Capitol now that the steps are all open again. J&S came in after Jerry’s softball game (I don’t even know if he won) and we checked out the newish Donnelly’s Pub, which is nice and smoke-free. Eventually we called it a night and Jeff and I headed back to my casa and watched some Simpsons’ dvds before retiring to bed.

That was pretty much the set up for the pattern of the rest of the weekend: meet friends, eat and drink with friends, sleep at some late point.

Saturday we met J&S for coffee, a walk around the farmer’s market, and brunch at the Hamburg. Then Jeff and I did some semi-quick shopping as Jeff needed another pair of Merrills, I got a couple of things at Old Navy, and then we bought tiki torches and supporting tiki accoutrements for the Steele’s deck where we were having a BBQ gathering later that afternoon. It was a great six hours or so with friends, including; Jerry & Sara, Diane & Andy & Lindsey, Frosty & Margaret, Stretch, and Josh (who we’d finally drug away from his work in Des Moines). Many tasty things were grilled and eaten. mmmMMMMmmm hot coals. After the food was consumed, we needed dessert, and, as if on cue, we heard the distant tinkling of the ice cream man’s melody. We were quite a sight: eight adults in the front yard with a light rain waiting totally impatiently for this truck to roll down the street. Jeff has pictures, they’re amusing. We got ice cream. G-reg finally showed up and we continued socializing until Jeff finally decided that he just had to go out downtown. So I went with Jeff, Greg, Stretch, and Josh. Amusing. We went to College Street Billards and ran into Russ, as I tend to do every eight months or so. Then we went to the Dublin and they have Woodpecker cider on tap. Yea. There was pool and this never ending game of darts. Then it was last call and spilled out onto the sidewalk with the rest of humanity. Grilled cheese was eaten and we were highly entertained by the people swirling around us, half of which had apparently gotten dressed in the dark. We then said our goodbyes because Josh and Stretch were insane and were driving back to Des Moines that night so they could work on Sunday. Oh the horror. We went home, Simpsons, sleep.

Sunday we got up, went back downtown to Donnelly’s Pub to watch the final of the World Cup with J&S and Frosty and his dad. They have really really good sweet potato fries and onion rings there! Italy won. Go Italy. Got to see the headbutt heard ’round the world. What was that guy thinking? Came out of the pub around 3:45 and had been thinking about going to play a round of frisbee golf but it was just HOT and humid out, so that plan quickly turned into “let’s go to the movies!” And so J&S, Jeff and I got our pirate on and joined everyone else in the country apparently, in seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. We went to a 5pm screening and it was pretty much sold-out. I think a lot of people had the same idea we had at that time of day. More movie comments forthcoming, in short: see that movie (if you haven’t already) it was really fun. After that got out it was nearly 8pm and Jeff and I rolled back to my place one last time. We watched more Simpsons and I made hamburger helper. He packed up and headed over to J&S’s for the night and that was the end of my weekend.

A really really great weekend with friends! But man, I’m still a bit tired…

Way back in March of 2005, the room appeared as it had for years, except there used to be more things on the walls, which I’m sure you can all imagine easily:

Then we cleared out the room and started the soul-crushingly slow process of removing 80+ years of wallpaper and paint. We knew it was going to take a bit longer than we thought early in the first day when walls looked like so:

… and then the earth cooled … the waters receeded …

My mom had worked on the room off and on over the months, but it was more than a year later when we started again in earnest. Eventually we got down to the original walls, a brown plaster (no crappy drywalls here) with the dark border around the top.

The walls were in rather good condition considering their age. Just some minor patching was required. The final weekend went so much faster than all the scraping. We did two coats of primer, the base color paint and the stripes in three days. Two days really since the paint had to dry for at least 24 hours before we put the stripes on. Hours all total between the two of us, I figure we spent at least a week and a half of 6-8 hour days scraping those walls. Painting over wallpaper should be a crime.

In the end, there were stripes! I’ll have to get a better picture later on after she puts the shelves up (which will be black). I couldn’t believe we actually finished it and it was getting late on Monday afternoon, going into evening, so I just snapped a few quick pictures before heading home.

And for those who are really interested: photographs of the entire process.

Friday
At 4:30pm, I dashed home to shed my workday attire and headed over to Bob’s Your Uncle (eastside) to finish my role as social secretary to Bonaducci, party of 17. Yes, by some random twist of holiday weekend fate, 14 friends and their children had managed to carve out an evening when they could all be in the same place. We’re (mostly) former HMB tenor saxes, and if the tenors had a motto, or six, it would be: HMB Tenors: We don’t do planning. Yet despite the lack of motto and just a dash of “planning,” Andy Tauke, Diane & Andy, Jerry & Sara, Greg & Carly, Joe & Mo, Sarah & Stacey, and I, and three cute tenor kids (who’s names have been omitted to spare them the embarassment in 12 years or so when they start googling themselves), all showed up, generally on time for dinner. Unfortunately, Bob’s Your Uncle didn’t think seating us was a priority despite me showing up half an hour before the group wanted to sit down so we could get a table. I could go on and on about the “service”, but half my reading audience was either there to experience the whole thing or got to hear about it at some point over the weekend. To sum up:

Bob’s Your Uncle’s no-reservation policy + manager’s suggestions for dealing with large group + hungry/tired children + pregnant friends + good food – free drinks – free pizzas + 3 hours in the restaurant = me not recommending you go to Bob’s with more than 6 people. Ever.

Restaurant issues aside, it was a great gathering and fun to see people catch up. Some people hadn’t seen each other in several years. I realized I was lucky in that I had seen everyone within the past year and most people within the last few months. The kids are all growing and its fun/scary to see how they take after their parents. There were a few comments that maybe we could make this an annual thing around Easter weekend since people tend to be in town (if they don’t already live here) to visit family. That would be cool.

After dinner, some headed home, but some of us wanted to hang out more, so J&S, D, Tauke, Sarah & Stacey, and I went back to my place and hung out with my roommate, my cat, and assorted flavors of ice cream. I think we ate a couple heads worth. I threw everyone out around 12:45am.

Saturday
At an all too early hour on Saturday, I got up and headed to Bussey. My cousin Darlene had passed away earlier in the week and the funeral was that morning in Albia. For those of you who don’t know my family and are thinking this must be someone my age cut down in their prime, I wasn’t raised in a family who only considers first cousins (the children of your parents’ siblings) to be cousins. Darlene was 73. She was my mom’s first cousin, making her my first cousin, once removed. And I know this because my family is paradox in that we understand all these relationships and the terminology for it, yet we could really care less who’s a first, second, or how many times removed. Its all family.

The consequence of a very large extended family is that I’ve probably been to a lot more funerals than other people my age. And I know I’ve mentioned before my feelings on funerals. But I must admit, this was a nice service and I wasn’t nearly as anxiety-ridden as I usually am. This was a cremation, so there was no casket. No viewing to contend with and that’s really my problem with it all. It was nice to not have fight the overwhelming urge to flee from the church and be able to focus on the pastor’s words, the music, the poem read bravely by her teenage granddaughter, Jessica, who was more composed than I could’ve ever been at her age, or probably even now.

After the church service, we went to Hiteman Cemetery for the internment. Because I couldn’t belong to my family if I wasn’t a contradiction, I will mention that I just love cemeteries. I hadn’t been to this one since I was very young. Its this great location on top of a hill. It fills the requirements that it is always windy and has at least one evergreen tree. I took some photos of the other family graves that are there. Including one of my ancestors who was born in Llanidloes, Wales. (It is misspelled Lianedloes on the stone, but it seems to be a common misspelling, people at Ellis Island couldn’t figure out that double L.)

After that came the requisite luncheon at the church. No self-respecting Methodist church lady would allow you to get out of town without something to eat. I had marble cake, angel food cake, and for dessert, more marble cake. Hey, I hadn’t had any breakfast.

Those of the family, me included, who had to drive eastward didn’t hang around very long as another round of bad storms were predicted for the afternoon. They never materialized for my drive/area, but I was glad I came back when I did. I did some shopping and then got home and was totally wiped after getting the worse amount of sleep for me (between 4-5 hours is just gross for my system). But I had to press on because the next day was Easter and I was bringing the dessert to Easter dinner at the Fitzgerald home. There was King Cake to be made.

I bought a king cake mix at a store on Jackson Square when I was in New Orleans and had been waiting for a reason to make it. There was mixing and kneading and waiting and rolling and waiting and baking and cooling. I watched the final season of ‘Arrested Development’ while waiting for things to happen. The whole process took about four hours. There was flour and a tape measure. There are photos coming.

Sunday
After a nice amount of sleep, I welcomed Easter Sunday. Frosted and decorated the king cake, then showered and was getting ready when my mom arrived. We met Jerry and Sara at church and my mom grabbed a quick bite of breakfast from their between services meal. Jerry was performing with both the worship band and the choir performance. He really does a great job playing the soprano sax. Glad to know someone’s getting some use out of it! A nice service (despite that new-fangled modern worship music that makes my teeth itch, all sax playing excepted) and the beginning of a series of sermons on the truth about The DaVinci Code.

After church we ran home to get my cake and pick up Rachel, who had gone to an earlier service at another church. Dinner was tasty. In keeping with my eating theme of the weekend, I had ham, ham, and ham. With cake afterwards. Heh. Sara and Jerry served a very tasty ham and I got to see the remote meat thermometer in action. My mom’s superterrific sweet potatoes were a hit with everyone else at the table. I was pleased with my king cake. The flavor was just right, I’d just like it to be a bit lighter and flakier, but I had an issue with getting the yeast properly mixed right at the beginning, so I think next time, better yeast mixing and letting the dough rise longer will fix that. Not bad at all for something from a box.

It was a great weekend where I saw a lot of friends and family. It was great to see everyone.

The work day is mostly over, a good development since about an hour ago I started feeling a bit “off.” Not sure what’s up with me. Hopefully its just a case of the ‘Mondays.’

The weekend was nice and relaxing. My mom came up Friday afternoon and spent the weekend. She needed an escape from the home renovations currently underway at her house. Other than going out for sushi on Saturday, we just stayed in, she read a lot, I got through a major freelance project, and we watched some DVDs.

It feels good to have the freelance project 90% finished as I leave for New Orleans for Mardi Gras one month from yesterday! I have a lot of other things to do before heading down to NOLA. I can’t believe its really almost here. I booked my flight so long ago. We’re talking months before Katrina early. Our krewe consists of me and my friends Tracy and Lisa & Mike. We got lucky in that our hotel wasn’t damaged at all and we’re good to go as far as accomodations are concerned. I’ve got my ball ticket and dress. Tiara too!

My big project before departing is going to be to construct my costume for the St. Anne’s parade which is on Mardi Gras day. I’ve been dreaming about this costume since I was there in 2003. Items for construction have been arriving from eBay and other internet retailers for the past month. I have the oddest things. I will be documenting the construction process, but I’m undecided if I want to show off anything until the day it is to be worn. We’ll see…