Audrey in the Sky with Diamonds!

One of the most incredibly fun things I get to do now as a parent is expose Audrey to all kinds of music for the first time. Thankfully she LOVES music and now, thanks to the iPod that Bill got me last Christmas we listen to it all the time.

She totally bloomed when she first heard "Yellow Submarine" so we figured The Beatles were a sure hit. We were right. Lately her favorite song of all is "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." This kid has taste for sure. She will ask for it again and again and again in the car on the way home. Then she wants "the one about the rain getting in" ("Fixing a Hole) and then "the on with the SITAR!!!!" ("Within You, Without You"). After that she wants to tone it down a little so we listen to the Weepies' "Stars". By then she is ready to rock again and asks for my friend Ehren Ebbage's new CD and we listen to "the one where he says 'Nadra ("Not Right Now") a couple of times and then we're home!"

Bill started playing Johnny Cash for her probably a year ago by now. She LOVES the "youtube" and thankfully there are a wealth of musicians who have been on Sesame Street! She's particularly fond of Johnny singing "Jackson" with Miss Piggy. I am certain that we are now into triple digits for sure on that one!

Pardon the extra crappy camera work on the clip below - I was SUPPOSED to be driving, not shooting hilarious video of my child. I was using the rear view mirror to check to see that I even had her in the frame. The focus never kicked in - but the joy is undeniable! This is Ehren's "Ten Cent Souvenir." This is officially our favorite CD right now by MILES. You should definitely check it out.

Whatsup with your Mutsup?

Audrey LOVES to make a good joke. The other day we were having lunch and she was trying to ask for more ketchup and she accidentally started to say Mustard. She stopped halfway through, gave a wry smile and said MUTSUP! She laughed hysterically at her joke. My mom and I were there and started singing a little "whatsup with your mutsup?" jingle. I thought she would split a gut she laughed so hard. Now every time she has ketchup she asks me to sing the song. Oh, how I love this kid!

I find that when I have the most to say I have the least time to say it. I'll put up some photos and video clips of the most recent "Floydian Slips" show that we just did down at Cuthbert Ampitheatre in Eugene last weekend.

So THIS is Rockin Out?!

Our latest landscape adventure involves the creation of our new guest parking area and entrance to the yard/house. The goal is to get it covered in rock and gravel before the rain hits. For 8 hours, 4 people (thankfully two of them were teenage boys...) moved 10 tons of rock to the area and that's just a fraction of what's to come. Luckily the bulk of the rest of it will be dropped from a dump truck and spread with a tractor instead of moved, moved again and placed and stacked by HAND. Imagine, if you will, a gracefully curved slate curb and walkway that leads to the house where it is met by a half-moon staircase leading up to the wrap around deck. As of September we will have one less patch of mud here at the Wall Street Farm! Only one left to go around the house and that will become the deck. This, of course, will just free us up to make more.

The hardest part will be making the puzzle fit just right when it comes to laying out the rock. This will take a couple of weekends (read months) at least. I always was good at jigsaw puzzles though. I once spent an entire 5 days passing the time on jury duty by doing a 500-1000 piece puzzle per day. I guess the only lesson there is that I'm old enough to have spent a full 5 days on jury duty!!

Here's a panoramic of the project as it sits today.

Sadly, as I look at this photo it does not translate well the sweat equity invested. Maybe it's the funky angle, or the distance. However, this, among other projects, is a good barometer of how much work all this takes to do it yourself. 2 days of tractor work removing dirt and grading, 3 days of edge cutting and prep, 2 days of rock transport. We did finally break down and buy a pallet of pre-sorted curb rocks to save everyone's backs and some time. You know when the young ones start to show real fatigue it's a serious job. Half the fun is designing it on the fly and watching the boys roll their eyes as I ask them to move the same rocks 2 and 3 times! Luckily, everyone is very good natured about it.

If anyone has some extra lottery cash laying around that they are looking to pawn off I'd be happy to take it off your hands... Just think, I could hire THREE teenagers!

More to come.