Hey People!

Well, lets see now. The outdoor pool opens on Friday so they'll be moving water aerobics outside. I have a hard enough time waking up to jump in the pool as it is, outside now??? I dunno, but I'll drag myself there all the same.
My dance class is going great. We had our social the other night & danced 3 hours straight. It was fun and crazy and feels great to be dancing all the time now. Later this month we're dancing at a VA hospital so that should be a good time.
My daughter just got her dream job. She's to be an attorney for the largest union in NYS. She loves labor law. They only have 7 attorneys for all their 58,000 members so she'll be traveling the state doing arbitration's and such & helping their members keep their jobs & get whatever they're entitled to. She's thrilled beyond words.
My son-in-law went before the Board of Ed of the Hudson City School Board & explained to them just how important music education is and how, should they decide to lay him off, there'd be no middle school band to feed into the high school band & therefore the entire band program would end. It even made the papers. Happily they paid attention to him and they're not cutting his position. Music will live on in Hudson, NY!
My son finished his on the job training for the insurance co. he's working for. Now he's making good money & I no longer have to pay his rent. *much rejoicing from me & my wallet*
I had to run my dog to the vet last week. He had some type of infection. He's on antibiotics & feeling much better now.
Donald Trump is a front runner for the Republican Presidential Nomination. He still feels Obama was not born in this country. I think The Donald has been smoking bad weed.

Now aren't you sorry you asked????? :D

alrighty...what's been going on...

Marcella just went down for her nap. I'm limiting her naps to 90 minutes now. She'll sleep 2.5 hours if I let her, but then she becomes unbearable for Kat at night and doesn't get to bed until 11.

Kat is due in early July. It will be a crazy time because I'll need to be working at Sidewalk 4-5 nights a week to catch up financially, but we will all be home with each other during the day for a few months once the baby is born and that's going to be a special time.

I've stopped reading the news because I find it's a dangerous procrastination. There are so many things I need to do at home, but I find myself checking on whatever is going on in Libya. And of course the dishes need to get done but, "darn, people are dying over there and I need to read about this right now!" And nothing around the house gets done. So I've cut myself back to a week or so. I never read the Facebook wall much and now I read it less. I do find it fun, so sometimes I'll check in and comment on someone's post, but I don't scroll down to see other posts.

Sidewalk is still being renovated and they are training the new chef. I'm about to let everyone know that May shows shouldn't be expected. I imagine that the restaurant will open as soon as it is ready, maybe a little sooner than the back section. I'm very excited for the new look and sound system. For the music, I've started booking June shows like the Sprinkle Genies release. I negotiated full salary for three weeks before we open, so that's when I'll start doing most of my booking work. There are about 500 unanswered emails in my Inbox right now, though, so when I get started on that, I'm thinking about getting a hotel room discounted on Priceline, checking myself in for 24 hours, and just working in a robe and slippers away from everyone overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

I haven't run or done yoga much in a week and I'm feeling the effects. I've been pretty productive, though. I worked out a 15-minute "Blast" where I have a checkoff list on my iPod touch and on 30-60 second bursts I tackle sweeping, dishes, garbage, and other chores around the house. By doing this 3-4 times a week, things are much easier to deal with. I also redid my desk area and am back on the horse with weekly task/project check-ins. I use Omnifocus for that. One way that helps me is that I can categorize errands by context. So when I went to Home Depot yesterday, the program reminded me that I needed various supplies for the window garden I'm making with M, brackets to mount one of my synths in the studio, plastic stepping stools that M can use to wash in the bathroom, office supplies, galvanized plumbers tape for securing furniture that can tip if M tries to climb on it...I would have forgotten a bunch of things without my system, but now several projects are that much farther along. We planted eggplant, peppers, sunflowers and broccoli in a few window gardens around the house.

I've been doing a weekly sound collage journal that I'm going to be continuing for a year or so. It's on my site. Every week I'm getting better at something involved with that. One half of my studio is setup with synths, guitars, mixing boards, drums, preamps, etc...all in an area about 7x8 feet.

I'm also trying to help my friends find a renter for their apartment. They had to relocate to the UK because that's where work was, and they own this co-op apartment that they need to keep rented in order to afford the mortgage. It's a wonderful place with lots of light and space and I'm sure I'll find someone, but the whole craigslist/hunt/etc is pretty stressful. Without me I don't know how they'd manage, though, so I'm doing my best.

I'm finishing the mixes on the first part of my record. I'm not sure when I'll release it, but it will be at Sidewalk.

I'm doing freelance work for my wife. One of the things she does at the advertising firm where she works is find guests for a podcast they run weekly. I take the podcasts and post-produce them. She snagged Clotaire Rapaille ("reptilian hot button" guy), Jimmy Wales (founder of wikipedia), Mike Hughes (his firm is behind the gecko & cave man ads for Geico)...editing these podcasts has been really interesting. I'm not always crazy about what some of these people do, but it's very clear that they LOVE what they do, are very smart, very focused. Best advice I've heard: make sure your product doesn't suck. Hype, advertising and promotion evaporate if you don't have something great. I think that could apply to anything from a record, to a club, to a happening.

I'm in the preliminary stages of starting to write & illustrate more children's books.

I spend my late evenings watching movies and surfing YouTube with AudioHijack activated. When I hear something that strikes me, I sample it for upcoming collages. I've been into Kurosawa movies lately.

I'm currently (still) reading 2666 by Roberto Bolano. Also, re-reading Getting Things Done by David Allen. Since Finnegan's Wake is supposed to be a book of the night, I'm trying to read two pages a night, which will mean I've finished it in a year. We'll see how long that lasts. I do it before I turn off my studio lights every night.

I was in that songwriting contest last year and since I won, I'm a judge this year. It started this week. There were 20 songs. The title given was "First Blood" and the non-optional challenge was that the song had to be educational. I get to listen to them each week as we whittle down the contestants. It's a lot of fun...there's no other motivation on SongFight than that.

There's more, but I've gotta go do my 15-minute blast!

A dude murdered his girlfriend and her mother in Gravesend, and is suspected to have fled to Russia (he bought a one way ticket).

A lady that accused two cops of raping her (well, one raping her, the other keeping lookout) finished her third day of testimony. There were a few inconsistencies, but she was drunk and her memory might be a bit fuzzy. Personally, I don't know who to believe.

Donald Trump may be seriously throwing his hat into the ring and trying to snag the Republic party Presidential nomination. Most serious political analysts seem to think he's kind of a joke. I imagine especially after the whole Palin debacle that the Republicans are going to try and pick the sanest person they can this time around.

A guy shot another guy coming out of an elevator. The shooter was caught on four different security cameras. He was wearing a black hoodie with a green hood.

A Norwegian record-holding marathon runner has died after her six year struggle with cancer. I forgot her name.

NEWS!

On a more personal note, my girlfriend is this close to getting a job (knock wood). Keep your fingers crossed.