Anybody out there? Let me hear from you if you're reading this. Thanks!

If you'll remember, July always gets to me with its oppressive heat. It presents you with this spoiled first-world problem of being sick of air conditioning, but at the same time, being thankful you've got it. It was about a hundred degrees for a month around here and it's only cooled off a little over the last couple weeks. It's been nice opening the windows and getting some natural air into the house.

So, kind of did some soul searching and decided against doing the music therapy program. I had so much conviction about it, but once I saw how my life would be for the next 8 years (at least), I backed down. The big issues? None of the classes offered would fit with my work schedule. There are no night classes, no weekend classes, no online classes, no summer classes. So it would mean I would have to get a part-time job, which I can't afford to do. Also, I'd lose my tuition reimbursement since I work for the university. Other things, you have to join ensembles that require extra practice sessions and performances, you have to take private lessons requiring hours of practice a week (and I never did hear back from the person who said they'd give me private lessons when I e-mailed him), you have to attend recitals and convocations scheduled - you guessed it - right in the middle of the working day. In some cases you'll take a required class that only gives you one credit hour. But in order to pass the class you have to attend hours of rehearsals each week. I realized that music school (or at least the one I was headed for) is pretty much geared toward kids fresh out of high school who don't have full-time jobs. It's actually a big releif not to have to be going to school, which makes me know I made the right decision. No need to be slaving away at something if my heart's not in it.

It's been a while - going to rattle off what's been happening, I guess. My mom came to visit back in May and we went to Jack Fry's for delicious food. It was good to see her here. Had some nice conversations and she got to meet our new doggie, Fig. Martha and I celebrated our five-year wedding anniversary at the beginning of June. Again, food was the focus, which is fine with me - went to Havana Rumba - one of the best restaurants in Louisville. Things just kept coming! My dad turned 70, so we went to Cincinnati the next weekend and ate ribs as we toasted his health. It was a really happy time. The day after we returned home for a pony party hosted by Martha's co-worker/boss/awesome friend. I rode a pony, something I'd never done before. I wasn't really into it. I love horses and such, riding them just seems like work to me. What a weirdo I am. The week after that we celebrated Martha's 40th birthday up in Indiana. I rallied a bunch of her friends together and we all had a good time, though I think I tilted into OCD party-host mode and kind of freaked people out with my flailing around neurotic hosty hostness.  Nonetheless, people drank and laughed. Folks saw each other who hadn't seen each other in a long time, so I'd say it was a success!

Damn, that's a lot of stuff! Which is why this holiday weekend, I opted to stay home with the dogs while Martha visited family in Kansas City. It's been alright, I've kind of been a slothful mofo, but oh well. Been eating junk food, drinking, watching movies: True Grit, Bonnie and Clyde, Harry Brown... also been watching a ton of 'Raging Planet' nature specials, which have been giving me crazy dreams. Now it's Monday and I'm trying to clean up a bit, running the Roomba, cleaning the kitchen, spinning records and mapping out a productive day so my whole long weekend doesn't get wasted.

Can't wait till the weather starts cooling off - this summer humidity/heat always slows me down into a stupor. Thinking of hitting Chicago around the end of September, too. It'll be here before you know it!

Laters.

Broken record blog syndrome. Work is busy, broke, not working on music... not feeling too creative. At least, not motivated to execute on any creative notions. Watched a documentary about David Lynch. That 4-times married, Ronald-Reagan-loving, surrealist film making dude. I liked Blue Velvet. He said that too many folks operate under the assumption that one needs to be suffering/tortured to be creative. He says this is not true - that people are more creative when clear-headed and happy. I'm working on being happy and clear headed, I suppose. I've been going to "boot camp" where I work out twice a week at 6:30 a.m. New deal for me - exercise is not one of my strong points.

I like our Roku - I like not having cable anymore. We figured out how to get The Office, Dr. Who and The Daily Show so my wife is happy. We're going to save $100 a month which is good because our credit card bill is going up about that amount due to some interest back incentive that we've had for 3 years suddenly stopping because Citibank is greedy.

Our little dog Fig (Mama Fig) is a handful. We have to watch her now every time we let her out to make sure she goes. She's also taken to eating crap which is, of course, vile and disgusting - especially for a dog that wants to lick your face. So I stand outside like a guard when she's out there and make sure no illegal activity occurs. It's difficult to do when it's still dark out in the morning. But, I love that damn disgusting amazingly cute dog and we haven't had any incidents for a while. Problem is, if I'm standing out there, she's all distracted by me and doesn't focus on the task at hand. So sometimes we have accidents in the house. Somebody needs to write a book on how to train an adult dachshund.

Listening to Bill Callahan, NPR, a Bowie bootleg (live in Santa Monica '72) and driving IDM to get work done while caffeinated. Machinefabriek's free download "De Jonge Jaren (2001-2004)" has been nice for this! Been drinking too much coffee and Diet Coke lately.

My friend Ken stayed with me recently. It was awesome to see him. His dad was in town (he's a world-famous breeder of flowers), giving a talk. Ken, Martha and I went to Havana Rumba for great Cuban food. Nice to be with good old friends. Doesn't happen enough these days.

Martha and I celebrated the 6th anniversary of our first date with Thai Food and a movie, Bridesmaides, which was super hilarious. We're going to be celebrating our 5-year wedding anniversary and Martha's 40th birthday next month. Ahhh June... such a great month. Then comes angry hot July - then comes epic August, followed by a busy, neurotic back-to-school September. Life marches on. As I get older I feel less like I'm going somewhere and more like I'm watching stuff go by. Very strange.

My mom is coming to visit tomorrow, so I have to get the house ready. I want to mow the lawn, but we've gotten rain every day. Our yard is looking wild and a bit neglected. Ah well.

The new job is great - real demanding, but the people are good folk and I like working next door to Martha. But I'm busy! Not working on recording, not working on mix CDs for friends - well, I made one for a co-worker, but it was a copy of a mix I'd already made. Time is at a premium, I'll just say that and the thing is I'm so tired after work, I'm vegging out in the evenings instead of getting stuff done at home.

Going to pay income tax today, have a co-worker over for dinner - housework abounds! Going to get Mama Fig's nails clipped too.

Thinking of switching from cable TV to pure internet streaming goodness. There's a little thingy called a Roku that we might get and it could save us about $100 a month. We'll suss it out and see.

Got accepted to the university, but as an Arts & Sciences guy - music school wants me to take lessons and audition again to see if I can step up my horn playing. So it goes - gotta keep practicing. I guess that's what happens when you don't play for 20 years.

It's been pretty crazy here starting the new job. Lots to learn, not wanting to mess up, etc. I'm liking working next door to Martha and my new boss is really smart/funny/nice. I really don't want to let her down. I'm going to go in today for a few Saturday hours to catch up on a bunch of stuff that needs to be done.

I went to Florida and spent some time with my family for my Mom's birthday. It was in the same town that my grandparents relocated to for retirement back in the 80s. The visit went by really quickly - flew out there, spent two nights with my mom, dad, sister, niece and nephew - then flew back. It was nice to build sandcastles with my niece. We celebrated my mom's 70th by going out to dinner.

I decided to shake things up a bit and get a puppy last weekend. She was an adorable dachshund mix that Martha inspiredly named Fig. But it was not meant to be. One day later the poor pup showed awful symptoms of parvo and after two overnight stays at the vet, she died in Martha's arms in the back room where they keep the sick dogs in crates. It was a horrible thing: such a perfect little dog that was brightly there and suddenly, she wasn't.

The next morning Martha called the Humane Society to see if Fig had any brothers or sisters. It turns out her mom was up for adoption too. So Martha picked her up Thursday. So now I'm negotiating the act of typing with a little doggie on my lap. She's pretty clingy (understatement), but she's housebroken, doesn't yipyap all that much and is super lovey/friendly.

Been enjoying Television's Marquee Moon a LOT lately. Also, thinking of moving my home studio upstairs. The basement gets a little water coming in during heavy rains and it smells a little iffy down there. Plus there are lots of spiders down there, which don't freak me out as much as they used to, but still... not the best environment for creativity. The problem with the upstairs room is that the 2-prong outlets aren't grounded and it gets hot up there in the summer. Don't know if it would be good for my gear... also, I'll have to hurt my back lugging shit up there. But the more I think about it, the more interested I am in trying it. The basement never worked quite right as a recording space.

I finally applied to the School of Music, too. I have to practice really hard on euphonium to get in/pass the audition. Everyone's first question at that place is: "What's your primary instrument?" It's a hell of a thing because I'm not really interested in being a virtuoso on any particular instrument. I just want to use music to help people in a theraputic context. Classical guitar was interesting, but it became obvious that I wouldn't be able to cut it going that route. I played lower brass instruments, reading and memorizing music for 8 years way back when. I feel I've got it in me to resurrect my old training in 'Western Art Music' as they say. I've always wanted to be a classical music nerd, but never had the patience. I've liked stuff here and there, but a lot of it just sounds fussy and complicated for complication's sake.

I've been having trouble focusing my mind - always have, so I'm going to try meditation each morning. That's another new deal. I've only attempted it once and it's really difficult to concentrate on breathing and not letting your thoughts fragment into a million pieces/directions (lots of slashes in my typing this morning - more evidence of fragmented thoughts, ha!) - jeeze, my life seems very much the same, but now that I sit here and type all this stuff out, it appears there are many changes afoot.

Anyway, I really love our new dog. And - rest in piece, Fig. We'll take good care of your mama.

I got a new job in a different department at the university. My first day is Monday and I have the usual 'first day at work' nerves happening, but I'm hopeful it'll be just fine. Change is good sometimes. I'll be working closer to Martha so we can  have lunch together and stuff. I'll be right near the School of Music so when I start taking more classes there I'll hopefully be able to weave them into my work routine. Things seem to look good.

Not much happened in January. The basement studio is 48 degrees and needs 2 space heaters just to be bearable so I haven't been able to record much. It gives me more time to tweak lyrics on songs. I've also been singing little lyrical ideas into my new phone - it's got a handy memo recorder. I always think of little melodies and quickly forget them, so it is nice to have a way to capture stuff.

Been sort of trying to do that South Beach diet, but I cheat on it a lot. Not eating french fries is a drag, but I've lost seven or eight pounds over the last few weeks. It'd be nice to lose about 12 more, but it's an adjustment. I'm not the best eater, so it's about time I try to make my diet a little more healthy.

We got our roof 'fixed' a couple weeks back and then the first big rain that came it leaked just like it did before. The company said they guarantee their work, but of course when I called to hold them to their promise, they took a look and said they were originally trying to save us some money when they repaired it and that it would cost us another $400 to fix the problem. Over the last 3 or so years I've come to realize that owning a home is expensive! But it's nice to not hear neighbors through the walls. It's nice to have a yard. I just wish we had about $30K to re-do the upstairs, build a privacy fence, put in a deck. One can dream.

Been enjoying listening to The Kinks BBC Sessions, The Move, High Dependency Unit, The Alps 'Le Voyage' and old reliable Galaxie 500. Getting used to my new HTC Evo phone - my iPod Nano died after 4 years of loyal service so I'm just dragging and dropping MP3s into my new phone (iTunes doesn't work with it). It overloads/distorts a bit and I had to buy an application to adjust EQs so it didn't sound so flat, but I think I've tweaked it into serving me fairly well. It still doesn't sound as full and loud as my old Nano, though. Someday Apple will hopefully strike a deal with Sprint and I'll be able to get a fancy iPhone.

I'm going to Florida in a couple weeks to celebrate my Mom's birthday. That should be fun. I'm going to the town where my grandparents lived when I was younger. It'll be interesting to see what memories pop up going back there after quite a few years. My parents are already down there and it sounds like they're enjoying a break from the gray Ohio Valley winter.

So the future could be pretty cool I guess. New job, more music classes, recording in the spring. I plan on visiting Chicago sometime in May probably, too. For now I have to keep myself motivated and get some stuff done around this old house - hard to do when it's cold, gray and rainy out. I might just watch movies in bed. There are definitely appropriate times in life for such an activity.

In the morning there is a quiet time that I love. Martha gets to sleep and I get to goof off on the computer and listen to music at low volume. This bubble of calm is constantly under threat though. I have the dog to contend with this morning. He wants to be out of his crate. I've fed him and let him out twice, but he wants to roar around the house, which will wake up the house. So I'm trying something new. When he clatters in his cage, instead of letting him in the house, I immediately let him outside, when he barks outside, I immediately escort him to his cage. This, all in the hope that he will finally calm down and take a post breakfast nap in his comfy crate. I think it just might be working. I have to be extra careful because he might have a UTI. He's been peeing on the bathroom rugs - 3 times in the last 2 days. It's this borderline thing where it could be because he's all freaked out from being away from us for a week at the kennel, or he could have some sort of infection up in his business. Tomorrow he goes to the vet and we'll see if we need to put him on antibiotics.

Martha: "Are you cooking black eyed peas?"

Me: "Yeah..."

Martha: "You understand that I hate them and I'm only going to have but a single bite of them, right?"

I put the new calendar on the wall this morning and cleaned up most of the dishes. We went to a club last night to see a friend's cover band ring in the new year. There were quite a few idiots in the crowd, meaning, it was your typical new year's eve bash at a club.

We're back in town after a long trip to Tulum, Mexico. It was fun, but Martha's aunt got sick and had to stay longer to recover from whatever amoeba, bacteria, critter/ick that got inside her tummy. I sure feel bad for her - they should be getting back today we hope. Martha's family rented a house by the ocean and all 13 of us stayed there through Christmas. I liked the nice weather and the pretty ocean. We managed to see ancient Mayan ruins, go kayaking and catch some gorgeous sunrises by the shore. I made some sound recordings of the surf and took some pictures and video with my phone (which I'm too lazy right now to put up because it means I have to Bluetooth all the stuff to my Mac).

For the flight home, our plane had a mechanical failure that kept it stuck on the ground for 5 extra hours, causing us to miss our connecting flight. This happened after we woke up at 3:00 am to get in a van taking us 100 km to the Cancun airport. We managed to find a different connecting flight to Louisville, which means we have to drive up to Indianapolis to fetch our other car (since we flew out of Indy). But it was worth it, we got to relax and put our minds in a different setting.

Happy New Year folks, I hope it's a good one for all of us. I'm going to eat better, work on music more, try to make some friends, save money and take as many classes as I can this year. I'm also going to try and be better about keeping in touch with old friends and family. That should be enough to keep me busy for now. Until later.