Almost, Kinda...FAIL

Yeah, yeah, I know....where have I been?  What have I been doing?   Awww, you know.  Just sitting around eating bonbons catching the last Oprah show and all that.  If wishes were horses....

But the other day I got up off my duff and at the request of several, I once again put hand to flip video.   Over the last many days I have tried and cajoled, uploaded and canceled that frickin flip video about a billion times.  Notice how it is not attached to this post.  I am a flip failure.  I even had my IT God, George the Elder try to copy it to Mother (our big giant computer upstairs that dims the lights in SF when it is turned on) and it was still a fail.  Fail, fail, fail.

Last time I did this I held the camera, shot the video, uploaded the video, added some music, made a movie and uploaded it to the blog.  Like falling off a horse.  About now, that same horse is now running aimlessly without a tether.  Dang.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try and shoot it again.  Who knows, maybe I corrupted the file by holding the camera incorrectly.  You know, like in my own hand or something.  Think good thoughts and stay tuned.  This can be done....

Black and Blue

While I'm not quite ready to share interior photos, things are definitely shaping up around here at the CMR.  It's slowly beginning to feel more like home again, and I'm hopeful that it won't be too terribly long before I stop slamming into my bedroom dresser every single damn time I exit the bathroom.  It's this weird combination of "knowing" the house from before and things being different now.  Big furniture used to be "there" and now it's "here."  Some things are familiar and other things - - well - they cause you to have a proliferation of really superior looking purple/yellow bruises on hip bones, shins and arms.  This bruising can be socially problematic.

I went to see a dermatologist the other day to get a little doohickey removed from under my eye.  While I was there he suggested a full body check (white girl, aged 50+,  used to hang out in the sun, and all that..)  He checked out all the inches of my lily white wrinkly body and then became oddly silent.  I think he was thoughtfully composing exactly what he wanted to say... something on the lines of: Does your husband beat you and did I know that there were organizations to help me get out of that abusive relationship??  Nice to know he's not only concerned with my dermatological well being, whether or not George The Elder is a wife beater.  All good.

CMR Moving Day Photos: I am not a tech Goddess

What did I learn today??  I learned how to embed a Picasa Slide Show in to my Blog.  These kinds of things make me happy.  Why?  Because I am a tech-dope.  My mother knows more about operating her computer than I do.  If something should happen to George the Elder I am TOAST.  The Geek Squad will need to move in to the guest room permanently.  I am awful.

But today I "learned" - - all on my own.  One - I googled how to do it.  Two:  I watched a You-Tube video.  Three:  It actually worked.  My whole day has been made by a 4 minute tutorial.  Small life, eh?

And so.....drumroll please.....  Please find the embedded slide show of the CMR the morning of our move in.  It doesn't take a genius to know that it no longer looks like this.  Instead it is filled with many things and most of those things are sitting where they are not supposed to be.  I am making progress - - slowly...very slowly.... but with any luck I will whip out the flip camera over the next few days and you can see it "with stuff" - -


(NOTE:  If it looks just like a black box, click on it.  If you can't see the comments click on the text box next to the person...  OK...maybe I'm not as good as I thought....)

It's a Date and Spinal Tap

I went on a date last night with George the Elder.  We went to hear some live music. We grabbed a bite before the show while the boys stayed home and ate pizza.

"Wowza!", you are thinking.  "How amazingly sweet for your husband to plan an evening out on Mother's Day!"  Now, you know how much I love George the Elder, and many of you know that he loves me too.  But, those of you who know him best would also know that while he is sweet and kind and generous - - remembering Mother's Day in ADVANCE would not be one of his hallmarks.  Nope.  This musician just happened to be playing in SF on Mother's Day.  George the Elder likely realized this on Saturday morning.  Still, it was pretty serendipitous.  So, Go Him.

We only go hear live music occasionally.  And most of those occasions are to see artists that George The Elder would like to see.  More often than not - - and last night was no exception - - it's a BIG surprise to me who this person is.  It's also a big surprise as to what they are playing since I have never heard of these people I would not have them on my i-pod play list.  That's assuming I owned an i-pod which I don't since I have this really weird thing about putting earphones in my ears and not being able to hear anything around me.  I find it all really hinkey.  Another story for another day.

As we were waiting for the music to begin, I asked George the Elder, "what does this guy look like?"  He declined to answer - - he wanted me to see for myself.  This is William Fitzsimmons....

Big Beard.  Bald Head.

A little disconcerting (get it?  dis-concerting??? - - never mind).  On stage walks what can only be described as a cross between mega-mind, an Hasidim Jew, and some guy in safety glasses and a lumberjack shirt  - and then this guy, this weird looking guy - - alone with his guitar starts to sing.  Amazing.  And while, as he admits, most of his songs are sad-wrist-cutting in nature, his voice is hauntingly beautiful and he plays a sweet sweet guitar.  I'm pretty sure, if you click on this little link below you can hear him sing....

We had a really great time. 

But, before Fitzsimmons came on, we were "treated" to a little warm up act.  They, not so memorable, since I can't remember their names - were excellent food for fodder as we waiting.  My observations?

• Never watch Spinal Tap (or portions of Spinal Tap) prior to going to see live music at a small independent theater.
• If you do happen to watch Spinal Tap prior to going to see live music at at a small independent theater, it will be impossible to take anything seriously no matter how good they are.  The words, "11", "haberdashery" and a vision of a teeny little Stonehenge descending can't be erased.
• Songs starting with the lyrics, "Tilt your head back until the bleeding stops" and "Singing to the houseplants" just add fuel to the fire.
• Dear small group, just because you have digital music equipment that allows you to play every instrument known to man plus a few of your own inventions- you do NOT, and I repeat, do NOT need to use every one of them in every song.  Pick a couple.  Stick with those.  There's no good reason to have bagpipes. honky-tonk piano, english horn and ancient zither in one 3 minute song with a synthesized percussion going great guns in the background.
• If you are only playing about 10 songs you do not also need to bring 17 other musical instruments on to the stage with you.  a)  it looks cluttered and b) those three cords that you played on the banjo in song #5 could have been done without.  It didn't add much, and hey!  why is that the one instrument that you didn't use your digital equipment for?

Paper Fingers

After months of construction, minor trials and tribulations - WE'RE IN!

"We're in" is not to be defined as "amazingly-they-have-everything-in-it's-place" - it's more of a looser term meaning that things were indeed delivered in many boxes, things have been removed from said boxes and are currently sitting in around in great piles waiting to be put some where at some time.   I have not given myself a goal as to when this will be done.

All I know is that, unlike prior moves when I had everything done and pictures hung in 72 hours (or less), this particular move is going at a much slower pace.  Why?  I am old.  10 years of aging has a way of making you decide that going to bed is a much better option than staying up until the wee hours of the morn trying to figure out where the coffee table books look their loveliest.  Now, my feet and legs are screaming out "stop you damn fool!"  Not to mention that George the Elder has been riding my butt reminding me that nothing is going anywhere - - so why kill yourself...  True that.

Along with tired aching joints and the almost feral desire to buy numerous pairs of stupid looking, yet comfortable, shoes (like crocs or something of the sort) - - I am now sporting some of the driest hands this side of the Central Time Zone.  I forget that when unwrapping china (along with nearly everything else that had been in storage for the past 2 years - - including a small wrapped package containing exactly one small plastic die in three large sheets of packing paper) that each move has likely been directly responsible for the decimation of enough rain forest to displace a moderately sized village of  Kayapo tribesman.  It's mid blowing.  I must finger each one of those pieces of paper.  Unwrapping, flattening and repacking the paper to take up less space that then box it was delivered it.  The result?  Paper Fingers.  The kind of dry that no amount of industrial strength bag balm can address.  Only time, and the eventual molting of all hand skin, will heal.

I do have photos of the house right before we moved in - - so I will post those as soon as George the Elder can figure out how we lost our video signal on our computer from the time it was disconnected at the temp apartment and reconnected here at the CMR.

And, at some time in the future, when all the art books have been creatively arranged and the myriad of elementary school ceramics have been places on shelves, I will also take some photos of the CMR-with-stuff.   Cools beans for sure!