Sing Out America

Hey dudes and dudettes. I've got a fun story to share from my day off yesterday. Didn't get to write about it last night since Mia decided she didn't want to sleep and would rather play last night. Crazy Kid. Anyways, so yesterday I was upstairs with Mia. We were playing with Remi. Like a normal day. She enjoys walking through our hallway and discovering him laying on our bed. I looked over to the corner of our room and saw my bass guitar. It's a black Ibanez. Nothing real special about it. I bought it when I was 17 years old. It was a time in my life, when I had played drums quite a bit and wanted to branch out and try a new instrument. I'm not that great, but I'm good enough to read tabs correctly and figure things out by ear at times. Anyway when I noticed it in the corner, I thought "hmmm I wonder what Mia would do if I played the bass with her...?"

So I pulled out the beat up bass and we had a total blast. I was strumming it, and she found it fascinating! She would hold the strings down and watch me strum with this major smile on her face. Like "Dad, how are you doing this??" It's been the highlight of my week. Today during her photo shoot at the studio playing with my Pearl Piccolo snare drum come second. I was showing her "Mia, hold the drum sticks and hit the snare like this" and quickly she'd figure it out. She seemed to enjoy throwing the sticks more though, but that's alright. She's got the music in her blood, her soul and her heart. Just like her Dad.

Tomorrow, maybe we'll play a little bongos. It's been a while. She's been enjoying walking and wobbling around the house more and more. Exploring the rooms and seeing what she can play with. Won't be long before she's doing it without holding on to my hands. Then I'll have to chase after her. Good grief. On my way to a work leadership thing today I put in Decibully's World Travels Fast record in the car. Almost forgot how perfect that album is. They were one of Milwaukee's finest bands live and on record and sadly, most of the people here probably aren't that familiar with their work. But then again, that may have been a good thing because they may not have gotten the same experience from their music that I did. Easily one of the most creative bands I've ever heard. Anyways, back to my bowl of grapes, then to the showers, then to sleep. Peace out kids.

Sauve Les Requins

Hey dudes. Tonight was a perfect night. No, really. It was. We love Wednesday evenings. During the day, I spent a little time with my Dad. Did a surprise visit with Mia. He really wanted a picture of himself with Mia in Tampa Bay Lightening Gear (the Bolts are his fav hockey team). Later at night, Jill and I had a nice dinner, bath time for Mia followed by a hilarious episode of Modern Family; one of our favourite sitcoms on TV. This is the life. Through my teenage years, I never imagined having a family like this. Hell, I never thought I'd ever find a person I'd get married to. It's an added bonus that we have this little peanut-kid that cracks us up every day. So when Jill & I have days together or just a few hours at night, we take advantage of it. Mia absolutely LOVES it when we're both home together. You can tell in her face. She crawls around super happy. She was tackling me Sunday evening when I worked the day shift. It must have made her day because she was super stoked. A happy Mia makes me a happy Dad.

So my last blog post, I said I'd come up with a list of goals for the year. I didn't make all of mine last year, so a few will make this year's list.

Get SERIOUS painting done for a possible art show.

Create and put together a new website for my artwork

Design a popular shirt for Threadless (hopefully)

Play music again

write some music? Maybe?

Do some creative photography

Design some new Thrill Factory logos. Most likely will be Incorporated in the new website.

Try to play some pond hockey before Spring.

Start a dog portrait for a customer

Not a lot of goals on this list, but some are pretty challenging. I will do my best to complete more this time around. My time is always limited to what I can do and when I can do it.

Call Me Home

First post of the new year. Lots going on folks. Lots of goals, perhaps a trip and a slew of weddings this year. Let the craziness begin. So New Years (like last year's) was quiet. Sorta. Drove down to Illinois listening to my new Florence & The Machine album (thanks to my awesome friend Micaela) I could barely contain the excitement to see Mia and Jill again that day. When I walked in the door, Mia was re-familiarizing herself with my face and mouth. It was pretty cute. That night he kept it chill. Her parents made a delicious crab legs dinner with veggie pizza and a tasty tart. Jill crashed early, her bro went to a part-ay (or a box social as some call it) and her parents headed off to sleep. Remi and I rang in the new year together. Aw. And there were big fireworks shooting off in Oswego. Lovely.

So the last few nights have been pretty rough here. The teething is getting the best of her, making nights very painful, especially for Jill. Thankfully tonight. it's quiet upstairs and they're both asleep. Jill needs like, 2 solid days of sleep. Too bad that's not possible eh? haha.

So after 6 or so painful years, I got a new ride and dumped my lousy Dodge Neon. Good riddance to a horrid car that caused me so many problems. It's got low low miles on it, but let's face it, the car sucked a ton, didn't cost a lot at the time and nickel and dimed me for the last time. Jill and I looked at crossovers for quite some time. Especially my dream vehicle; the Mazda CX-9. A sleek, quick 7-seater perfect for the familia. Sadly, they're expensive. Very expensive. The cheapest we saw, was like 20K. Ouch. So long story short, we went to Carmax and got a good deal on a car, yes a car. It wasn't in the cards to get a bigger vehicle no matter how much we wanted. We wanted to keep payments low, but wanted good MPG and low miles on the vehicle. So without further or do, I'm now owning a Toyota Corolla again. Dark midnight blue. YES, Jill and I both have Corolla's now. Silly, but that's okay, my bro and his wife have his and hers Civics :)

Both our vehicles should last us a long long time. Maybe our next car will be a crossover, who knows. I now feel a little safer in my ride, unlike my Neon that almost broke down a few weeks ago on the freeway. It wouldn't be a big deal if it was just me driving around in it, but I can't take risks with Mia. Next post, I'll give you a list of goals and things I'd like to accomplish this year. Hopefully.