Next Church Post-Show

Next Church is a great venue. I had a good time with Kyra and Tully, as we celebrated some videos from Lenny Epstein, the new E.P. from Kyra and Tully, and Tully's birthday! There was indeed cake. Lia Dawson (of Lady Racers fame) opened the show and was amazing; her set was far too short for my liking. Me Man Jack played some good stuff I hadn't heard before, including a really cool trippy song that had this great Bb / C thing going on -- during sound check I tried to horn-in on the piano on it (Tully was elsewhere for a moment), hoping to steal his spot, but to no avail -- an invitation to replace was not forthcoming. That's a messy sentence. . . After a brief intermission, the Kyra and Tully extravaganza (I'm trying to rename the band this, but I don't think it's going to happen) took the stage.

Peja and I are up early this morning. It's a school day. And we don't have curtains in our room, so the sun keeps waking us up earlier and earlier. Have to do something about that before the solstice. . .

Good times at City Park yesterday for the really summery day. Busted out the sun screen for the first time. Good to see everyone back outside after a long winter. When did my kid become one of the big kids on the playground?

Progress Report

Things are done. Other things are not. Other things will be done soon. I swear.

The kitchen, aside from 2 or 3 drawer handles, is done. The new subfloor in the front room is underway, and when I get a bit more 3/4" plywood, it will be done done done.

The old house closes on the 1st, which means we'll only have 1 mortgage -- which is really just too simple.

Basketball season is wrapping up -- I had my last league game last week, and the 2nd last Central pick-up game this week. Last weekend the junior boys team I coached went to a tournament at LCVI, which was really awesome. It's the first year of our program, and we got trounced by some really great teams -- the boys took it really well and had great spirit. I lost my voice yelling "hands up!" We had a student vs. teacher game yesterday with the grade 6's from both the girls and boys teams -- we got out to an early lead so we eased up a bit; at halftime a bunch of the kids came over and yelled at us for not trying -- just in case you thought they didn't notice. We turned it on in the second half and it was a great game. One of my boys scored a couple of buckets over me, and another one scored a buzzer-beater at the end -- I was very proud.

Music you say? Well, I'm playing bass on Saturday at Next Church with Kyra and Tully. Me Man Jack is playing, and Lenny Epstein is showing some films. It's a whole multi-media night thing. I think we have a bassoon player for one song. BASSOON!

Jesus F'n Moving

Alright, so, I think everything of value is gone from the old place, so I can drowsely announce that we are the proud residents of our new place. It is full of boxes. The kitchen is full of power tools, saw-dust, and un-oiled countertops. The appliances are cute, and functioning. I'm still mystified as to the function of the dishwasher, in that it takes about 10 times longer than manually doing the dishes. . . Shouldn't a machine do it faster? We can land a man on the moon, but damned if a dishwasher can take under an hour. . .

Hope you are well,

Jay.

Moving Continues. . .

I'm done with moving. I'm so fucking done with moving. It's over, in my mind. Sadly, that really doesn't do a damn thing towards getting the stuff I wish didn't have here to turn into stuff I wish I didn't have in the new house. Any volunteers?

Cut a hole for a sink today. Oh, it fit. Don't you worry. It fit.

More moving tomorrow. And renovations. And Peja has school. And Sienna works. Look for me driving my car with stuff sticking out of the trunk and windows, careening down patrick street.

Hope all is well with you,

Jay.

Saturday Morning

Peja and I got up early today (I think it was actually my idea, as I was the first out of bed), and we ate some scrambled eggs and veggie sausages. She's heading off to a sheep farm with her little friend Christopher, and I'm sure I'm spending the day trapped in an ikea kitchen cabinet screaming for someone to remove the drawer and let me out.

Ex-barn flyz guitarist Brent "the wheel" Ferris came through town with his family yesterday and visited our new house. His son is over a year now, and will probably pass Peja in height in about 6 months. . . I missed a chance for the first one on one game on the new court, as I didn't have a basketball handy; I think I could've taken baby James, but you never know.

We're putting in the drawers today, and maybe roughing in the countertops (they have to be cut to length), and I have to somehow steal 2 base cabinet legs that we're short right now. . . Which counter top doesn't really need to be strong? Stay tuned and find out. . . I'll put some pictures up soon.

Take care,

Jay and Peja.

Ikea Kitchens and Basketball. . .

The fine delivery company that ikea uses gave me a call yesterday to let me know that the new kitchen is ready to be delivered. . . Now, I was kind of expecting it in a couple of weeks, so my response was, "Uh, that's great, but the kitchen doesn't have a floor right now. . ." So the kitchen is coming on monday. I rushed over after the call and put the floor down (after 6 rooms, I am damned near a wizard with the vinyl-plank flooring) in just a few hours. As a side note, my knees are ruined. The knee-pads do nothing!

I played some old teammates at basketball on Wednesday night, after sending some facebook trashtalk. . . They played awesome, I played much less than awesome, and they nearly doubled my team's score. Alas. Playoffs next week. Because there's an odd number of teams, and because we're dead last, we get to play our first game against a team that has just played -- all at the full sized court at KCVI.

My junior boys played there first game, and for the first half they completely dominated. They ran hard, got fast breaks, got back on defense, and shot a great percentage. My point-guards got some great assists, and we looked like a well oiled machine. They the girls team took over -- they put in one tall line up and started getting back on D. It was over. They probably outscored us in the second have 10-2. Overall, just a really great game, and tons of fun. The kids were cheering like crazy, all positive stuff, and the energy in the room was really high. It was also my first time refereeing a "real" game, which is more fun that I thought. I was also consistently yelling "push! run!" to my team, as well as giving high-fives after baskets.