Pretty Cool Kid

I've been so impressed with Baylee these last couple weeks.

1. She got a job, which she works at between 15 and 20 hours a week.  On top of that she's still walking dogs and babysitting.
2. She came up with a plan to finish school by the end of May, and she's been getting up hours early every school day and pushing herself to make that happen.  She actually gets up a couple hours before me usually, so that by the time I finally stumble out of my bedroom there's a pile of schoolwork on the dining room table that needs to be checked.
3. She's dedicated to music and puts many hours a week into that.
4. She decided to eat healthier and has been learning to cook good things for herself and others.

In essence, she's growing up into a responsible, hard-working adult.  I love that and her.

Some More Tuesday

I wrote the post about my prank very late last night...late enough that it was technically Tuesday, even though it still felt like Monday.  Now, though, it's legit Tuesday afternoon, and I'm in the mood to write again.  Therefore, you get two posts today.

Awhile back I was looking through the audiobook choices on Overdrive, trying to find something to listen to while I cleaned the house, when I ran across a series that's talked about fairly often among homeschoolers.  It's called Elsie Dinsmore, and it was written between 1867 and 1905.  In fact, that's why homeschoolers like it:  It's old-fashioned and wholesome.  Curious about all the fuss, I put the first book on hold, finally got it, and started listening to it yesterday.  I lasted less than one chapter.  It's horrible.  The main character, a girl named Elsie, is a simpering do-gooder.  Ugh.  I don't recommend it.

By the way, I looked on Wikipedia just now and found this picture of the author.  It explains so much.

Yesterday Baylee had to translate a bunch of Latin sentences, and this was one of them:

Mater irata erat quod filios suos ambulaverant in domo pedibus sordidis.

It means, "Mom was angry because her sons had walked in the house with dirty feet."  I'm pretty sure that sentence was written just for me and needs to be woven into a banner or made into my personal crest.  (I've got a thing about clean floors.)

An encouragement:

Zach, who went through a stage about a year ago where he openly criticized our decision to homeschool him (Not gonna lie, that kinda broke my heart and made me feel a cross between furious, misunderstood, and like no good deed goes unpunished.), told me a few days ago that he realizes now how much I did for him, especially when it comes to grammar and writing.  He said he's the best writer in his English class (his teacher actually told him that this quarter), and that it's thanks to homeschooling and the rigorous curriculum I chose.  That felt good.  You can't imagine.

Tuesday

Yesterday evening I noticed that the red candle I had lit on the dining room table had wax building up on its sides, so I thought I'd try to push the wax down to make the candle last longer.  When I was done I realized that my finger looked like I'd had some sort of horrible accident, so, of course, I decided to play a prank on Mike and Baylee, who were out and about together in the car.  I texted Baylee this picture and message:

Cut my finger.  Let Dad know.

Within a very short time the phone rang.   "Do you need stitches!?!?” Baylee asked.  Not wanting to worry her or Mike (anymore than I already had), I laughed and confessed that it was just candle wax, and they laughed, too.  Then Baylee told me what their second reactions had been; that is, after their initial concern, but before finding out the truth.  Mike's was a loving, but exasperated, “That woman is the clumsiest!" and Baylee’s was, "Hey, do you think this means we don't have to do math tonight?"

Tsk. lol

Monday

Last night Mike and I went to see NËSTRÄ perform at an "underground" venue called Substation.  (When Mike told me that it calls itself "the underground venue of Seattle" my response was, "Another one?")  They did a great job and it was fun to watch them again.

Whoever was playing the keys had to wear the hat.  lol

I've noticed something over the last couple months, and this goes for both Drew and Baylee's bands. It doesn't matter how cool or aloof or talented these kids are.  They still want the adults in their lives to be present, and they soak in encouragement like dry sponges.  And it's so easy.  It costs me nothing to run up to them after a show, give them big hugs, and say, "That was amazing!  I'm so proud of you!"  (PS:  I always mean it, too.)

Yesterday at church I followed along with the Scripture reading in my French Bible.  That was enjoyable!  One of the interesting things I noticed was that in the account of creation, the "tu" (informal, used with people you're close to) form of "you" is used both when God is talking to Adam and when Adam is talking to God.  I like that.

Sunday

Baylee played drums in church today. (I thought she was going to do it last week, but I was wrong.  It was this week.)  It went well!  Our time there did turn into a little bit of a "you can't take them anywhere" situation, though, because I spilled some money out of the offering plate and had a coughing fit (a nice elderly lady gave me a cough drop), and then Baylee fell down the stairs by the door when we were leaving.  She landed on her knees and was totally fine.  We both giggled about it.

I've mentioned before that TMA needs a guitarist, and they've been auditioning people for that, but in the meantime Jonny, the lead singer/guitarist from another band called Cashing in Karma, has been helping them out.  What I haven't mentioned is that I absolutely love Cashing in Karma!  I've loved them from the first time I heard them play.  Their music is great and Jonny is a really good singer/songwriter.  In fact, I told Baylee that I feel just a tiny bit starstruck by his talent when he comes over to our house to rehearse with TMA.  She laughed at me.  (And I'm sure he'd laugh at me, too, if I ever mentioned it to him...which I won't.  He's a very down-to-earth, nice kid.)

Here are a couple Cashing in Karma songs.

Saturday

Today Baylee and I were talking about something, and in the course of our conversation I said (and I promise you I wasn't just throwing it out there randomly.  It made sense in context.), "Well, I've had sex."

Baylee's response was, "Eww!!!  Mom!!!  I know you've had sex, because I exist and so do Zach and Drew!  You don't have to announce it!"

[snicker]  The funny thing is that I wasn't even trying to embarrass her.  This feels like another parenting milestone.

Couple Music Things

There were professional videographers at Sound Off to document the event, and yesterday they released their video of the last song of NËSTRÄ's set.  Honestly, I can't believe how great it turned out!  When Drew showed it to me I got choked up.  Here it is:

And then last night Drew and a group of kids played jazz at Darrell's Tavern as part of a showcase for their school.  (I mentioned it in my post yesterday.)  The coolest thing happened, though.  Before they started a random woman from the audience, someone who loves jazz, asked if she could solo with them at some point during their set.  (Because that's how jazz works.  The players take turns soloing, while everyone else plays underneath them.)  The kids weren't expecting it, but they agreed, and so toward the end of their last song the woman got up and joined them.  She was great and fit right in!  At one point Drew even did some "call and response" with her...she sang and he echoed her.  Here's that:

The only bad part of the evening was that the kids were told they would be playing at 10:30, but because of other groups running over they didn't end up getting onstage until midnight.  The problem was that both Drew and Brady (the piano player) had huge papers for Theory 5 due in the morning.  When Drew, Mike, and I finally got home at about 1am or so Mike and I went to bed immediately, while Drew made himself coffee and got to work writing.  About an hour went by, and then I woke up to find Drew standing at my side of the bed.  "Mom," he said, "I can't do this.  I'm so tired I feel sick."

"You have to," I answered.

"No, I just can't.  I'm going to email my professor and tell him I've been rehearsing for things nonstop, and then this gig went late tonight, and I ran out of time.  I'm going to ask for an extension."

"Okay.  Think of this, though:  He gave you two weeks to do this paper, and you didn't spend it wisely.  He's not likely to give you an extension."

At that point Drew left, and I figured he was going to take the hit to his grade and go to bed.  Early in the morning, though, he was back at my side of the bed.  "Mom, I finished it.  Will you proofread it?"  lol  I was happy to.

A Couple Conversations and Some Talk about the Weather

Conversation with Drew today...

Me:  How was school?

Him:  Good, but in the middle of yoga the fire alarm went off.  There we were in a dim room, being all calm, when suddenly there was a siren blaring and lights flashing.  It totally ruined our zen.

Also, he's going to be playing in a showcase tonight for the music department of his school.  When I asked him about it he said, "We wanted to call our quintet 'The Clown Prince of Jazz and His Four Horsemen,' but our teacher wouldn't let us.  He put us down as 'The Shoreline Community College Jazz Ensemble.'"

In other news, it snowed quite a bit last night, and this morning we woke up to school closures and delays.

 
Here's what it looked like when it first started, but by the time it was done it got to at least a couple inches deep.  It wasn't really the snow that was the problem, though; it was the ice.  It made the roads terrible this morning.

Last night I called Mike on the phone and we had this conversation...

Me:  Mike, something terrible has happened.

Him:  What?!

Me:  Our microwave died.

Him:  That is terrible.

You see, our microwave is like an old aunt who lives with us and does a lot of the cooking.  She doesn't cook very well, but she's extremely convenient to have around.  Luckily, it turned out that she wasn't actually dead.  Her fuse was tripped.


PS:  I may have told this story before, but if I have it's been awhile so I'll tell it again.  When I was in college I was good friends with Trish, the oldest daughter of my pastor and his wife.  In fact, we became friends when Trish was still in high school, because she was at the college so often that it was almost like she was already a student there herself.  Anyway, one day her parents were on a trip and her great aunt, who wore coke-bottle glasses and was considered legally blind, was taking care of Trish and her siblings for a few days.  On the very first evening of her visit her aunt was making supper on the stove, and as she was leaning over, stirring, her runny nose suddenly dripped right into the food.  Her aunt never noticed, though, and just kept right on stirring.  Trish said that as soon as she saw it she called out, "Oh, I just remembered!  I've got a project to finish!" and she ran out the door.  She ate at the college for the remainder of her aunt's time with them.

Wednesday

(This is one of those posts that I might very well get to the end of and then decide to scrap.)

When you're a mom, dealing with a teen daughter is totally different than dealing with a teen son.  Yes, your sons are frustrating on a regular basis as high schoolers, but you don't take it as personally.   When you fight with your daughter, though, it's almost like fighting with yourself.  You completely understand her, but you're simultaneously ready to absolutely lose your mind.

Yesterday Baylee and I spent the entire morning arguing.  If I told you what our issue was you'd think, "Wait, what?  But that's so small!" and it was.  Nevertheless, WWIII broke out over here.  It wasn't pretty and it made me cry and call my own mom.  Thankfully (and as always), by the end of the day Baylee and I resolved it with conversation and hugs.  All is good.  We also came up with an interesting idea for the future:   Next time we find ourselves in an argument, we're going to move it into text.  Like, literally, we're going to text each other.  That probably sounds crazy, but we actually do much better that way, because it forces us to slow down, think through what we're saying, not interrupt each other, and not storm away.  We'll see what happens.

Crazy Day

Yesterday was very full and long.  In a nutshell:

• Mike went into work extra early so that he'd be able to leave a bit early.
• Baylee and I got up in the morning and skipped school in order to survive. Drew and Zach both went to school.  (Incidentally, Drew got up at 5:30am to write an essay that was due that morning.  *eye roll*)
• Drew finished school, came home for about 15 minutes, grabbed something to eat, grabbed his gear, and left for a very big day at Sound Off.  All the contestants had to be there hours and hours early.
• I cleaned the house.
• Patty arrived.  Zach got home and chatted with Patty for quite awhile.
• Mike got home from work.
• TMA arrived and had a rehearsal.
•  Zach went back to school for an evening class.
• Mike, Patty, and I left for a fun night in Seattle.  We went out for pizza and coffee, and then made our way over to the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop) for Sound Off.
• In the meantime, TMA left our house to play a gig in Seattle.  Baylee had to handle that alone, since the rest of the family was gone.  She did fine.
• Eventually everyone came back home again. 

At Caffe Vita

Selfie over coffee

MoPOP and the Space Needle

MoPOP provided a breathtaking venue for the competition.   The room we were in, called the Sky Church, had a giant screen behind the stage.
 

Pictures of NËSTRÄ last night.  (These were on their bass player Amanda's FB page.  She tagged Drew in them.)

Ultimately NËSTRÄ didn't win, but they did an amazing job and I was so proud of them.  (And they were really gracious about the outcome.)  Here's a couple minutes from the very end of their set.

Church Music

Baylee was asked to play drums as part of the worship team for the Sunday service this week, so today she sat down to work out how to play the different songs she was given.  Worried that she might be a little too loud and rock-and-rollish, I told her before she started that she should probably plan on toning it down.  That's when she decided to play a little trick on me.  She came back out after practicing for awhile and said she's going to give one of the songs a big, double-kick finish.

Here's how it's supposed to be (start at 4:09):

And here's Baylee's version:

Luckily she was teasing.  lol  (Although I do like what she brought to the table!)

Random Thought

I took Baylee to work this afternoon, and on my way back home I saw a sign for a new church called Epiclite.  For real.  In my opinion they really should've just sprung for the extra letter and called it Epiclight.  It still wouldn't be great, but at least it wouldn't look like the name of a low-fat salad dressing.

It got me thinking about how it doesn't take much to go wrong with a church name.  Really, just one small change can make all the difference.  For instance, The Door is okay, but The Revolving Door is terrible.  The Path is fine, but The Shortcut would really give people the wrong idea.  Gateway probably works (kind of a nod to Pilgrim's Progress), but Portal is awful.  Portal Presbyterian.  lol  Ack.

Can you think of any?

Tuesday

 Before I say anything else I want to tell you that Baylee memorized the entire Gettysburg Address in an hour and a half last night, and then recited it to me perfectly.  lol  Stinker.  Then she invited Rachel over to celebrate, and they made homemade mac-and-cheese.

Boeing has a dry cleaning service for its employees, but they don't do the actual work there.  They send the clothes out to be cleaned somewhere else.  Well, guess what happened.  They lost Mike's clothes, which means that most of his dress shirts and pants are gone.  Luckily the dry cleaning service is going to reimburse him, so he'll be able to buy new stuff.

NËSTRÄ's performance at MoPOP for the semifinals is coming up on Friday, so they've been practicing their heads off.  They're over here right now as I type, in fact.  Mike and I should just admit to ourselves that our TV room isn't really a TV room anymore.  It's a rehearsal space that happens to have a TV in it.  To be honest, if Drew had his wish the TV would be gone and his piano would be moved in there.

The room from 2 different angles...

 And here's a Sound Off ad.  The guy shown here is the lead singer of NËSTRÄ, Eliyas.

He's more than just the lead singer, though; he's the face of NËSTRÄ.  He's the only person ever shown or talked about in any of the ads/information for Sound Off that have to do with NËSTRÄ.  One time I asked Drew about it, and he explained it by calling himself a hired gun.  In other words, Drew sees himself as somebody brought in to help Eliyas succeed.  The interesting thing is that Drew (and everyone in the band for that matter) seems to accept this with no problem.  I think he's happy just to make music and let Eliyas do all the work with people.

Today Drew told me that he has to write an essay on a piece of music called "Erlkönig" for his Theory 5 class.  Then he explained to me what the song is about and how that's represented by the music.  It's actually fascinating!  Here's an explanation and here's the song:

Homeschooling

I've got a mad teenager here.  She has to memorize the Gettysburg Address for her American history class, and I told her more than a week ago not to put it off until the day before it's due, because it's going to be a big job.  Well, she didn't put it off until the day before it was due.  Nope, she put it off until today, the day it actually is due.

Now she's begging for more time, and I'm willing to give it to her under one condition:  She can't hang out with friends or do anything fun until the thing is learned.  She's not happy about that, so she's very grouchily working on it.  I can hear her walking around the house right now muttering, "...and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

It's hard to be 16 sometimes.  lol

Sunday, Again

I sat down to write this, thinking I'd just jot a few ideas down to flesh out and post tomorrow, but I ended up finishing the entire thing.  No sense waiting, I guess, so I'll go ahead and put it up today, even though it's my second post.

This morning I saw a picture on FB of a beautiful family made up of a mom, a dad, and their 3 sons.  I'm FB friends with the mom because we went to college together, so that's why it was in my feed.  Anyway, all that is neither here nor there, except that seeing the picture reminded me that the dad of that family...the husband of my FB friend...was my college basketball coach my junior year.  You know how something can be painful in the moment, but then after some time goes by you can laugh about it?  That's how it is when I think of being on that team and having him as a coach.

The thing is, he was a very nice, affable Southern guy.  If you knew him outside of coaching you'd never imagine he was anything but friendly.  As a coach, though?  He was...I'm trying to think of the right comparison...like an schoolmaster from the 1800's.  Like this:

Of course, he didn't have a cane or anything; instead he would use conditioning drills and running to keep us in line.  He would say things like, "I'm expecting all of you to run two miles, three times a week, outside of basketball practice.  If I find out you haven't been doing it, I'll make you regret it.  You'll get up with me at 5am every morning and we'll run together.  You won’t enjoy it."  (PS:  Nobody dared test him on that.)

One day, right before I had to go to basketball practice, a friend of mine named Cindy came up to me and asked if I would help her get to a doctor appointment.  (Something to know about Cindy is that she showed up to school at the beginning of that year in a full leg cast.  She had been in a terrible car accident, one in which she was the driver and at fault.)  I told her I couldn't take her myself because I had to be at practice, but that I'd be happy to loan her my car.  (At that point her huge cast was off and the appointment was only a follow-up.)  She burst into tears.  "Please, can you just take me?  I'm scared to drive now."  Well, what was I supposed to do?  I took her.  When I finally got back to school I ran over to the gym, still dressed in jeans and a sweater instead of in basketball clothes, just in time to catch the very end of the practice.   It was obvious by the look on his face that the coach wasn't happy with me, and, sure enough, he told me to stay after everyone else left.  "Where were you?" he asked, and I explained it to him.  I think part of him...the nice, Southern part...understood, but he was all about the letter of the law and following through on consequences, so he made me run laps around the gym for ages with my arms held over my head.

Maybe all that's normal, though?  I have very little sports experience, so I don't know.

Remember I said that Drew got hurt doing something reckless?  A couple nights ago I woke up in a cold sweat, because I had had a nightmare about it.  If Drew had been home I would've gone to check on him in his sleep, just to reassure myself, but he wasn't.  He was spending the night at a friend's house.  Have you heard of drunk texting?  Well, I nightmare texted.  I sent "Are you okay?" to him at 3:30 in the morning, basically out of the blue.  lol  Motherhood, man.  It ain't easy.      
       

Sunday

Have you ever looked at a moment of your life from the perspective of someone on the outside?  It can be interesting, because it can show you how weird you really are.  lol  I did that this morning when I realized Mike and I were having the geekiest conversation imaginable.  First, I excitedly explained something called synthetic division to him (a shortcut method of dividing polynomials), then he told me about the economic concept of game theory and how it applies to something else called the prisoner's dilemma.  We're odd folk.

I took this yesterday.  Both the cat and the dog take immediate advantage of anyone who sits still around here.

Mike bought himself a smoker awhile back, and since then he's gotten really good at smoking different kinds of meat.  My favorite thing that he makes is smoked salmon.  It's amazing.  This weekend, though, he tried something new:  smoked cheese.  I had my doubts before he started, but oh my goodness it's so good!    

Pictures lately

I think one of my spiritual gifts is not running out of gas, because I've never done it, despite all odds.  I seem to have a 6th sense that tells me everything is fine and there's no reason to fill up quite yet.

Here's a picture I took at a stoplight the other day.  Okay, maybe I was a little bit nervous in this case, but I also saw that the pointer wasn't fully over the E.  It still had about a millimeter to go.

I did make it home, too.

And I snapped this the other night when Baylee asked Drew to give her some pointers on playing the bass.  She wants to learn badly and has been working on it in her spare time.

Friday

Something I've learned from my middle child:  If he starts a conversation with "Mom, don't be mad, but..." I can count on being absolutely furious.  Sigh.  I love him...he makes me laugh like no other, and he's very kind...but he's not exactly overflowing with common sense.  He's given me 90% of the gray hair that I have, I think.  (No, he's not in any sort of trouble.  He just got hurt doing something reckless a couple days ago.)

I've finally come to the end of my knowledge of math, and now everything in Baylee's Algebra 2 course is new to me.  (It's because Zach never took Algebra 2 at all in high school, and Drew took it, but dropped out and started college before we were even halfway through it.  Fun fact:  Both boys have since taken Algebra 2 in college.)  Today I had to tell Baylee to give me a few minutes to quickly learn what I was supposed to teach her.  lol

It reminds me of a book I read years ago about a missionary who went to Africa and, to his surprise, found himself put to work as a high school math teacher there.  He said that at first he was terrified because he felt so unqualified, but then he realized he only needed to stay one day ahead of his students.  He ended up teaching them well, and they all passed their big examination at the end of the year.  I'm kind of like that missionary now, only, instead of being one day smarter than Baylee, I'm ahead of her by about 10 minutes.

Mike and I are thinking about going out on a date tonight.  I'm excited!

Edited to Add

I just realized that what I said about Baylee's training doesn't really make sense, so I'll clarify.  She spent the first day and a half of her time there sitting at a computer, watching videos about different things.  For instance, she learned what's on the menu and how to make it, things about safety, the history of Taco Bell (as I mentioned in the other post), etc.  She didn't actually do any "real life" stuff until she was put with somebody taking orders and running a cash register, and then she was only given a half hour with the person before she was on her own and expected to work.   (Again, though, she did well!)

Honestly, isn't that the way all service jobs are, though?  When I was around her age I started working as a cashier in a grocery store, and it was the same deal.  I was shown the ropes...sort of...and then it was, "Okay!  Good luck!"  lol

PS:  Speaking of this kind of thing, did I ever mention that my grandpa took the whole "sink or swim" mentality literally?  When my brother was around 9 and still couldn't swim, my grandpa took him to Richmond Pool in Grand Rapids, MI.  He walked him over to the deep end, hoisted him up, and threw him in.  My brother learned how to swim immediately.

Wednesday

On Mondays and Wednesdays Drew has a couple hours between his morning classes and his afternoon classes, so sometimes he comes home for lunch.  Then, if I'm feeling generous and I'm not busy, I'll give him a ride back.  (Otherwise he takes the city bus.)  Today I gave him a ride, and while we were in the car we had this conversation...

Him:  It looks like they're remodeling JoAnn Fabric.  Do you know anything about that?

Me:  The day I can answer any question about JoAnn Fabric is the day you can be sure I've been taken over by aliens.

Him:  Yeah, you're not the sewing type.  It's weird, because Grandma is so into it.

Me:  It's not her fault.  She tried everything with me.  She tried teaching me to knit, to cross-stitch, and one time she forced me go to a quilting class.  Nothing worked.  Oh, she did buy me a hooked rug kit once, and I made that.  The rug turned out to have a bright yellow background and a big, green frog in the middle.  It was cute.

Him:  Did you like doing that?

Me:  No, it was like prison work.  At least Grandma was able to teach Baylee how to knit, though, so all isn't lost.

Him:  She taught me, too.

Me:  Oh, that's right!  Didn't you and Baylee have a little club?  What did you call it?  The knitwits?

Him:  Yeah.  That was genius.

Mike's getting his Master's from Syracuse University, which means he does online classes.  These aren't your typical online classes, though, because they're live.  That is, there's a set time when the professor and all the students meet, and everybody's face (via video) shows up on the side of the screen.  The center of the screen is the whiteboard.  Anyway, last week, in the middle of his class, Mike took a screenshot and sent it to me.  I wish I could show it to you, but I probably shouldn't because of privacy.  I'll just describe it instead.  Every person in the class looked normal...you could see that they were sitting at desks in rooms in their homes, and you could see their heads and part of their torsos...except for one guy.   His camera was so close-up that literally all you could see of him was his nose.  Mike said that when you first log-in you're shown how you'll appear on video, and you have to okay it.  That means that guy is either an idiot or he's doing his level best to amuse himself.  I suspect the latter.

Baylee finished her training halfway through her shift yesterday (PS:  Part of her training was that she had to learn the history of Taco Bell.  lol) and then they paired her up with someone who was taking orders and working a cash register.  They said, "Okay, now watch [so-and-so].  Oh, and her shift ends in a half hour, then you're on your own."  So Baylee kind of got thrown into the deep end, but she said she did fine and enjoyed it.

Tuesday

You know how people sometimes use "déjà vu" as an example of how the French language has a simple way to describe something, while English has to use several words?   Well, sometimes...more often than not in my experience...the opposite is true:  The French make things more complicated.  For instance, we say "kick," but they say, "donner les coup de pied."  Seriously.  It translates as "give a blow of the foot."

We thought Baylee might have her first day of work last week, but it turned out to be yesterday.  She was there for four hours for training and was in great spirits when she got home.

Last night Zach, Drew, and I were in the kitchen, and I said something about popcorn, only I guess I said it with a strong Michigan accent.  [pahhp corn]  The boys chuckled about it and mocked me a little bit, then Drew said, "The thing I don't like about the Michigan accent is that it makes people honk their words out."

"I do not honk my words!" I sputtered, trying to be offended, but failing because I was laughing too hard.

"Yeah, you do," he responded.  "People with Michigan accents are like saxophone players who keep putting too much emphasis on the wrong notes.  They're playing along and then suddenly 'WHAAAA!'"

Lately

As soon as I started to get better Mike and Drew got the flu.  Baylee's the one who first brought it into the house...she had it before I did...so now the only person in the family who hasn't been sick is Zach.  He said, "I'm not getting that.  I don't have time for it," and so far he's been fine.

These pictures (along with photos of several other bands) were in the Tacoma Weekly News the other day!

On Thursday two things happened:  A tree-cutting company came to our backyard and cut down two dead trees and several branches from other trees.

That was what it looked like when they first showed up, when the ground was still clear.  You should've seen it when they were done, though.  There were branches and logs everywhere.  They cleaned up most of it, and Mike and Dan cleaned up the rest.

The other thing that happened on Thursday, and it happened at the same time as the tree cutting, so you can imagine the craziness, was a band rehearsal and an audition.  TMA had a practice for a couple hours, then a potential guitarist showed up to try-out with them.  From what we could hear on the other side of the door she did a pretty good job.  (Drew and I always secretly listen to the auditions.  This last time Drew sat in the living room with a mug of tea and said, "This is like American Idol!")

Last night Mike and Drew decided to try to make Drew's organ work, because it hasn't since he got it, and they actually did it!  They looked on YouTube and found a video on how to fix a Hammond organ that isn't broken exactly, but just hasn't been played for a long time and won't make any noise.  They followed the man's instructions and had it fixed in about ten minutes.

This is right after they got it going.  Fair warning:  The dog won't shut up and there's dust all over the organ.  Also, that whirring sound is from the motor inside the organ.  You don't hear it anymore once the back panel is put back on.

Drew's been messing with it quite a bit, which means organ music is filling the house.  It feels like we're living in a old-timey movie with tons of cliffhangers.