yikes!

We've noticed little holes dug in random places around our yard the past couple of days, and we thought is was the quail. But I found the true culprit and I caught it on tape! All I can say is yikes!



We see a lot of raccoons around our house. I think it's because there are several large garbage bins behind our house belonging to the apartment complex through the block. One time I was walking out to my car and got stuck in a standoff with a large, mean, and scary raccoon. It's the opposable thumbs that worry me the most! Eeee!

moto racing

AMA superbike is here in Salt Lake, they are racing at the Miller Motorsports Park this weekend. Brett and I love to watch the racing seasons, we've been renting the DVDs and watching AMA, MotoGP, World Superbike, pretty much any racing that we can get. The riders are beautiful to watch and the races are very thrilling.

But, since the racers are in SLC, we've been seeing them around town. Last night when we went out with Amy and Jamison, we saw a whole crew come in to eat at the restaurant. And today (while I was at work, bummer) Brett got stopped on his way home because they had closed the street and several of the racers were riding around downtown. He saw Bayliss and Corser (racers from Superbike) and a few other riders all cruising around downtown on their bikes. Here are a few pictures of what I'm sure it was like:





I'm sad I missed it. We're thinking of going out to the MotoGP race at Laguna Seca (near Monterey, CA) in July. That would be awesome. And although I know it will be awesome to see the race, it won't be the same without my favorite racer, Sete. He was riding for Ducati before he retired in 2006. I love this picture.

happy birthday to brett!

Today is Brett's birthday. He has noticed the coming of old age more recently, in various situations. Recently he was eating sixlets and failed to shoot the candies out of the packaging like he could when he was younger (He decided that the problem wasn't his weak old fingers, but diminished packaging quality.) On the oldies station, they've started playing songs that he would listen to when he was a kid. And...I've been trying to think of another example of how old he is, but I can't. I think the fact that he gripes about not making the sixlet packages like they used to is enough example in itself. hee hee.

Happy Birthday, Brett. May you live until they start playing your band's songs on the oldies station.

our music gear situation

A little while ago, I was in the basement doing laundry and I noticed a wet spot on the floor. I looked up and noticed a pipe that was leaking. The leak was at a T-section in the pipe, a connector section where two pipes came together. Our plumber said that place is where the pipes are the most thick, so if there's a leak there that means our pipes are in trouble. He said we should expect a flood. Not the type of flood where you find 2 inches of water all over the floor, but to come home one day to water pouring out of our basement windows. Since the plumber told us the bad news, we've found two more drips. In our old house, the pipes are basically rusting from the inside out.

The problem is, we keep all of Brett's recording gear and guitars in the basement. The insurance company won't insure Brett's stuff because they say his stuff exceeds that of a "hobby". And they won't consider it a "collection" because he's too young to have that kind of thing. (Idiots! They obviously don't know Brett.) So none of Brett's stuff is insured. If a flood were to happen, we'd be out of luck.

So...one of my summer projects is to get everything out of the basement and into the house. Whew! For those of you that have seen our basement recently, I'll say it again...WHEW! But we've actually made some good progress. We brought 4 amplifiers, 2 keyboards, and 6 guitars into the office. Here's the video of what it all looks like now.



There are still 3 amplifiers down there (Brett would say there are 2 speaker cabinets and one amplifier, but it's easier to just call all the parts "amps"). And I still need to find places for at least 12 guitars. And we haven't even started talking about the recording gear, all the pre-amps and adats and whatnot.

That's okay, I like a challenge. Especially an organizing challenge. I'm honestly excited about the whole thing. Now we just have to find out if our food storage will be covered under the insurance...

mom and daughters date

For Mother's Day, Amy and I gave Mom dates. We are going to take her out once a month for a year. Mom always gives us fun presents like that for our birthdays. I prefer to give presents that I can enjoy as well, and since this guarantees that I get to go out with my Mom and my sister once a month, I thought it was a great idea!

Today we went to Kneaders (I think that's what it's called). Amy said that they do all you can eat french toast, so we were going to go for a brunch date. They stopped serving breakfast at 11, and we got there after that, so we didn't get the french toast. We'll have to try that again another time. But the sandwiches were great. And for dessert, we got pastries.

We got the pastries to go, because we were all full from the lunch, and then we went shopping. Amy got a chair from the DI (I should have taken a picture of it, but I didn't think of that). She's rearranging her house to fit an art desk. Mom got some really nice shirts and a skirt and a new purse. I love bags.

Mostly we just wandered around enjoying each other's company. It was very nice. We got back to Mom's house and ate our desserts.


A strawberry tart, a key lime pie, and carrot cake. They were all delicious. We got them to share, and since I like order and I'm bossy, I had a method for the sharing. We each had a dessert, then took a bite. Then I shouted, "next!", and we traded in a circle and took a bite of the next one. Very efficient.

I love my family. I love that I enjoy being with them so much, that we have such pleasant converstations. Since Brett and I have been meditating and focusing on managing our stress, I've noticed that I pay more attention to my relationships rather than my task list. I still have a long way to go, but I am remembering what is most important to me. The people around me, my family and friends, make my life so much better.

jackie and joel

Jackie and Joel are our best friends. We've been friends with them for a long time. They went with us to Cancun,
and to Bear Lake,

they were with us when our car got smashed by a deer,

and they like to build and shoot rockets with us.

We've had good times with them for the past seven years. But then Joel decided to go to graduate school in Chicago and they moved away. We've had to find ways to have fun without them, like this:



(disclaimer: this video in no way implies that Cordelia misses Joel in the least.)

Until Tuesday!! That's when they box an XBox 360 and...

YES!! And so we've been playing Rockband on XBox live every night lately. hee hee. Hopefully we will be able to play 4-player co-op on Halo soon! (they haven't purchased Halo, yet.)

springtime??

A week or so ago, my friend Jake posted about springtime in The City. It hadn't happened here, yet, so I didn't feel the same excitement that he did. But now, I think springtime is here! I look in my yard and I see flowers and green things and it's all very thrilling.



It makes me yearn to go out and dig around in the dirt, swearing at the quail that eat all my seeds and at the giant, useless trash trees that only ever throw branches down on my car. The trees, you see, block the sunlight so that when I try to grow a garden everything is stunted. But I did have 4 tulips (they are done blossoming by now). That is a record for me, and it was totally an accident--absolutely unplanned.



It's surprising to me that we are actually getting a real Spring here, because normally by this time everything is scorched to death, brown and yellow. So although many of you are complaining about the snow and the cold weather, I am happy that my grass is still green!



Here are some (very) amateur photos of the plants and flowers in my yard. I'm still learning what my camera can and can't do. (Add "become able to take beautiful pictures" to my list of summer To Do's)

the stable

In honor of the newest addition to the stable, I'm posting about our bikes. The weather has been random so far this spring, so we haven't started consistently riding yet. One day it is 80 degrees and sunny, the next it's snowing, then it rains, then fog--it's all been very unpredictable. But we look forward to a nice season of riding around. Hopefully we can set up some rides with those of you that are willing!

We got the Ducati Monster 750Sie first, in December 2004. It's Brett's and it's cool.


Next, I got my Yamaha FZ6 for my birthday in September 2006. I love it.


And so we had two motorcycles.


Stupid effers at school would bug Brett's Ducati when he parked it there. He would walk up to some random idiot sitting on his bike showing it off to his lame-o friends. At one point, someone tried to steal the bike by sticking a screwdriver or something into the ignition. So, we decided to get an inexpensive little bike that Brett can ride to school on. We bought the 1969 Honda CB160.

Initially we thought we'd get something crappy that he wouldn't care about if someone messed with it, but we love the Honda now. He's had people approach him to ask to buy it. A couple times, someone left a card stuck on the bike with offers to buy and call-back numbers.


Last Friday, we brought our fourth bike home, the 1963 Yamaha YG-1. This one's for me to ride around the neighborhood on. This is our summer project, cleaning it up and such. It doesn't run, but we think it only needs to be cleaned out and get new gas, then it will run just fine.


Here are the two little ones:


So now we're a four bike family! Who knows what we'll add next! (Just kidding, I know. I'm getting the BMW R1200C!)

blog fantasizing...

The other night, while I was playing solitaire to put myself to sleep (Amy, you should tell Jamison that it's genetic because Grandma Gene plays herself to sleep every night too), I was fantasizing about how I will be such an incredible blogger. I was envisioning myself blogging about such interesting things, making witty remarks about the world around me and inspiring my loved ones to be better bloggers and better people in general. hee hee. I think I may have to ease myself into witty-ness, because so far not much is coming. I'll revisit the thought in a few weeks.

I wanted to post about our motorcycles, but I don't have any pictures of the Honda, so that will have to wait until tomorrow or some other day. Instead, I think I'll post some pictures and a video of my wonderful cats.

The following video is the reason we need to keep the cat's water bowl in the bathtub.



My favorite part is when he puts his right paw into the water so that he can splash with the left one.

We had the bowl on the dresser in the bedroom, and one day I came in and water was dripping from the ceiling and walls. The dresser was covered in a sheet of water and the carpet was sopping. So we moved the bowl to the bathroom.

This is Cordelia's favorite place to be, straddled over her post.

And Andrew with his soccer ball. I like this picture of him because you can see his ninja claws.


Another of my summer goals is to play with my cats every day. It's very relaxing for me to be with my cats and they are so silly it's fun to see what they'll do next.

and so, i've finally succumbed

I am entering the blogging world. I have been more quietly active in my blogging recently, but now I am ready to start on my own. I have always preferred to talk about myself and the things I love...and so what better place, correct? Although I feel a great urge to rapidly sum up recent events in my life, I will resist and start from today.

Brett and I decided to take it easy this summer and not go to school. Brett plans to work a maximum of 20 hours per week and the rest of his time will be spent on music. Initially, I had similar plans. I thought,

"Great! I will take it easy this summer as well. I will only work 20 hours at the University, 10 hours at the Deaf Center (for a business internship I was trying to set up), 10 hours for Mom's psych practice, 10 hours with Amanda making cakes...and then I will learn to play the bass, write songs and record a CD, become fluent in Spanish, have an immaculate house, become physically fit, start blogging, travel the country..."

As it turns out, The Universe has decided that I will relax this summer. I have about 45 hours of work at the University total for the entire summer and none of that other stuff really worked out. hee hee. So I think I really will have time to do all the non-work related goals I set for myself this summer. Unfortunately, I seem to have shut down and I'm lucky if I change out of my pajamas every day. I'm blaming it on burnout and have decided to allow myself to be lazy for this week. I get up around 11am and then get online and muck around for a few hours until I get in the shower. I take a lovely 45 minute shower, after which I comb my hair and get right back into my pajamas, ready for a movie or a nice game of solitaire. It's actually been wonderful.

But my week of allowing myself to be a slob is over and tomorrow I will begin to order my life and start accomplishing things again. I'm going to start with...THE DISHES! (dramatic music playing)

I'm going to play around with all the fun things I can do with this whole blogging thing and pretty soon my blog will be interesting and fun. But as for now, I'm going to play solitaire.