Daily Dose

Melissa – Still Right Here

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Melissa Ferrick, Sights & Sounds /

I remember when we used to see a half dozen Melissa Ferrick shows a year… those were the good ole days. When we were young. Not that I’m complaining or anything. I’ll take what I can get and when I can get a show as fan-fucking-tastic as last night’s show at Evanston Space was… well, that’s enough.

Her opening act, Ria Mae and Margot Durling were talented AND adorable. (Hi Margot! You need a fan page of your own because… duh, you’re awesome. Heh.) 

Anne Heaton joining Melissa for a couple of songs was fantastic, too. (That’s one of the good things about living here, I guess. Odds are higher that we’ll get a surprise guest during a show.)

Michelle, TW and I all have slightly different “favorites” (and our “favorites” lists are very very long) and it was pretty cool that she played one song from each of our “favorites” list. That doesn’t always happen, believe it or not.

I got Nebraska.

TW got Anything, Anywhere (with Anne Heaton, which was a treat.)

And Michelle-Belle got Burn this Guitar (which I didn’t record because a very large guy sat down in front of me towards the end of the show and obstructed the camera view. To record, I’d have had to shift way left or way right and then obstruct someone else’s view.  Darn it.

We couldn’t have asked for a better show. Really. Melissa played hard. She had fun, so we had fun. She was funny. She looked happy and healthy (except for that shoulder) and I’m looking forward to seeing her back here in the spring. (Unless she books some shows in Florida before that, then we’ll have to pull out the credit cards…)

You can see more of my videos from last night’s show here: Melissa Ferrick at Evanston SPACE

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Melissa – Still Right Here Read More »

We’re Going to See Melissa…..

Daily Dose, Melissa Ferrick, Sights & Sounds /

At this point, that’s pretty much all I can think of. I wish we were seeing Melissa in the south.  I wish the weather was nicer (I’m freezing.)  I wish we could follow her around and see two or three or four more shows over the next few days.

Barring all that… seeing her tonight at Evanston Space is pretty damn awesome.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

We’re Going to See Melissa….. Read More »

You Don’t Get a Disease the First Time…

Daily Dose /

Michelle-Belle: “So remember that cheese I brought back from Wisconsin last year? That was good cheese wasn’t it?”

E: (Shrug)

Michelle-Belle: “You didn’t get sick from eating it did you?”

E: (Shrug) “What does cheese have to do with drinking milk from a cow?”

Michelle-Belle: “The cheese was made from unpasteurized milk and it didn’t make you sick.”

E: “I didn’t eat any of that cheese.”

Michelle-Belle: “Well I ate almost two whole blocks of it and it didn’t make me sick.”

E: “Well I’m not you.”

Michelle-Belle:  (Mouth hanging open. Smirking. Frustrated)

E: “And you wouldn’t get a disease the first time, anyway.”

Michelle-Belle: (Audible Gasp)

Me: “Oh. My. God.” (Head desk)

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

You Don’t Get a Disease the First Time… Read More »

That Can’t Be Good For You….

Daily Dose /

Elly is reading The Cow Loves Cookies and she was enjoying it til the end….

E: “No wonder the farmer is so fat, eating all of those cookies.”

M: “Ugh”

E: “That can’t be good for him, drinking milk straight out of the cow.”

Me & Michelle-Belle: “What?!”

E: “What? It can’t be healthy, all of those cow germs.”

Me: “No, fresh milk is certainly not healthy.” (Eye rolling)

Michelle-Belle: “Do you know what kind of crap they put in Pasteurized milk? Haven’t you heard about all of these studies about hormones and girls entering puberty early…?”

E: “No but milk straight out of the cow has to have more crap in it than processed milk! I’m not drinking any milk out of a cow!”

Me & Michelle-Belle: “Whatever.” (More eye rolling)

E: “What?!!!!”

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

That Can’t Be Good For You…. Read More »

Cybils – 5 Fiction Picture Books

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Daily Dose /

I’m so far behind on my Cybils Challenge that I’m pretty sure I will never catch up. The least I can do is knock the picture books off the list, right? Right!  Five down… a bunch more to go.  And these five were all pretty darn good. I don’t have any big complaints with any of them (which is rare – since I’m often less than impressed with a couple…)

Interrupting Chicken made me laugh. Then again, I’m all about the chickens right now. (I just don’t want to own them.)

Chalk also made me laugh and I was surprised. On the first page… I thought I was really going to dislike this book. But I didn’t. I do wonder why it had to be the boy who drew the dinosaur while the girls drew suns and butterflies…

A Beach Tail was cute, too. I was confused by the spelling of “Tail”… until I saw that the tail was connected to a lion which stayed connected to Greg the whole time… lol

Flora’s Very Windy Day – brothers are a-noyyyy-ingggggg and I can’t blame Flora for being a wee bit tempted to let the wind carry her brother off.

The Cow Loves Cookies was a rhyming farm story, like most of those you’ve seen before. Each page adds an animal which adds to the rhyme and it’s all about what farm animals like to eat. The cow, obviously, loves cookies. And I’m pretty sure you know why.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Cybils – 5 Fiction Picture Books Read More »

Nablo Kicks My Ass – Again

2 Comments / Daily Dose /

I’ve wondered off and on for the last couple of years if the reason I don’t blog regularly anymore is because I am inundated with blogs of others. Could that be it?

Could it be that I’m spending so much time reading other people’s blogs that I’m finding it hard to write anything of my own?

There are words in my head but they’re muffled. Muffled by the words of others?

Something for me to think about…

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Nablo Kicks My Ass – Again Read More »

Thank You AT&T, I’m Sorry I was Grouchy Last Night

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day /

Everything was fine last night when I turned off my computer, somewhere between 9:30 and 10. It was, I swear. I even heard Elly upstairs having a video chat with a friend, so I’m extra sure that all was right with the world. At least all was right with the world until Michelle came home from work at 11pm and wanted to play Bingo Blitz and do some homework. Then, everything was definitely not right with the world – the internet world, that is.

There was no connection.

Michelle came to my room and informed me that there was no internet. I did not believe her. But, I also felt fear – a lot of fear. I cannot handle no internet. I have to work. TW has to work. Michelle has school work to do. There’s Bingo Blitz to play. We cannot NOT have internet.

So I got out of bed and there were only two lights on instead of six. Panic set in.

I recycled the modem. Michelle smirked across the desk from me and said she tried that.

I fiddled with the cords. I turned on my computer and recycled the modem again. I reset the modem. Still only two lights instead of six.

I called AT&T at 11:45pm. I was not in a good mood.

I recycled the modem again after the technician tried something on her end.  I reset the modem again after the technician suggested that would resolve the problem.

And when she said, “I will have to send a technician to your house…” I really, really got grouchy. And then she said, “he’ll be there tomorrow between 8am-12pm”.  I was surprised. A technician is coming out on Sunday morning? A Sunday morning in the middle of a long holiday weekend. Huh.

I thanked her and went to bed not really believing a technician would appear. (I have, after all, had some problems with AT&T technicians not showing up when they are supposed to and that’s after waiting a week for an appointment…)

But no, Greg did indeed show up. In fact he called around 9am to tell me he was on the way. He did fix our internet and all was right with the world again.

Thank you AT&T, for sending someone out so quickly. We really, really appreciate it.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Thank You AT&T, I’m Sorry I was Grouchy Last Night Read More »

Dishwasher Love

Daily Dose, Day to Day /

My tiny little smaller than apartment sized dishwasher died a couple of weeks ago. I knew it was coming. There were days when I had to run a load through twice and that’s saying something since I am a stickler for rinsing every bit of food off of every dish, plate, utensil, pot or cup before it goes in there.

I sighed. I washed the dishes by hand and sighed some more. And then I forgot to call the very nice landlord. Or I put it off, really. Because I’d just called him to tell him our air conditioner was out (well one of them… we have two central units…) I figured I’d just break the news to him when he came over to look at the AC. But then I forgot again.

The AC got fixed before the next round of heat arrived and still I had forgotten to mention to J. that the dishwasher was broken. I just kept handwashing the dishes. J showed up a couple of days later to start scraping paint on the back of the house so he could paint. And I still forgot to mention the dishwasher. (I know, right?) Luckily, TW mentioned it to him. So he stopped scraping paint – came in and looked at the dishwasher. Scratched his head and went back to scraping paint.

A couple of hours later, he came in and took the dishwasher apart – doing who knows what to it, and when he started it again it made a horrible, horrible noise. At that point, he gave up and decided we needed a new dishwasher, which was true. I’ve never seen a dishwasher as small as this one. And I’m guessing it’s pretty darn old.

We chatted about what the dishwasher possibilities might be. Could he find another one to fit the space where the existing dishwasher lives? Should he rip out the counter and the shelves next to the existing dishwasher and make room for a full sized dishwasher? Should he just get us a portable?

No decisions were made… I told him that I really did not care. It’s his house, he should make the decision since he’s the one paying for it.

He left. He came back. He decided he’d go for a full sized dishwasher. I said that was fine. He left. He came back. He looked at the floor by the dishwasher and realized if he put in a full sized machine, we’d find ourselves with a section of floor that really wasn’t floor at all – meaning the existing wood floor doesn’t extend under the cabinets he was going to have to strip out.

He couldn’t decide what to do. I told him that if it were me… I’d go with a portable for now. When we leave, because we will not live here forever regardless of how much he might like us to, he can figure out what to do about the problem and in the meantime, a portable would be fine.

He wasn’t sure. He left. He came back. He left. He came back – this time with a portable dishwasher. A huge portable dishwasher. This thing is so large that I have yet to fill it completely even though there are seven people in the house right now. HUGE dishwasher and I am in dishwasher love.

Except that I can’t figure out the best strategy for loading it. That’s a bit of a frustration since I pride myself on being a dishwashing machine loading expert. But don’t you worry – I’ll figure it out soon enough. I like a good challenge.

Dishwasher Love Read More »

Nablopomo bites the dust

2 Comments / Daily Dose /

And I was doing so well…

There’s really no excuse for me to have blown it. I managed to blog every single work day in July. I managed to blog on really busy kid schedule days. I managed to blog during emotional chaos.

But yesterday – a slow, quiet, normal, boring day – I did not blog.

To have gone 15 days and then blow it for no good reason at all is probably the worst thing I can imagine – but it’s also the most normal thing in the world. I’m really good at pulling it out during the busy, stressful days – and really good at dropping the ball on the slow days.

Which might also explain why I prefer working vacations… right?

So do I try to go back to the daily blogging or do I just give it up and call it a good try?

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Nablopomo bites the dust Read More »