EM'S FIRST POST

Greetings from the Golden State, all you sweater wearers!

It is Thursday morning, and the birds are chirping outside. Sun is shining through the used-car-style flags we have hung up outside our apartment, which I snickeringly thought of to celebrate James' 29th birthday last month. Some traffic passes by every now and then, but I think for the most part, people are at work, as it is 10:23. Yes, I shall be attending the old coffee-sling routine in just an hour; today is one of my short days: 1130-330, on other days I work 7-3.

So, what should I start with... well, I have been spending a lot of time recently coordinating a food drive, which I titled FARE FOR CRONIES. I was going to call it FOOD FOR FRIENDS, but that was just a little too cheesy, so I checked the thesaurus for synonyms and laughed as I made some arrangements: Fodder for Fellows, Cheer for Peers, Cuisine for Cousins, Bites for Buddies, Chews for Chums. Hey, no reason why a little do-gooding can't be a very fun time! I went around to all the businesses with a letter explaining what I wanted to do (have them host a drop-box for a full week starting this Sunday) and got 19 businesses to participate, all within three blocks of the Business District of Park Boulevard in University Heights, which is where Twiggs is located. Twiggs Coffeehouse is where I work. I have been taping up big bright orange posters at local grocery stores and this weekend I will be passing out flyers at the Earth Day Fair, and possibly the Adams Avenue Roots Festival, which, annoyingly, both occur on the same weekend every year. Wish me luck in gathering tasty healthy treats for the less-fortunate. I have already gotten three shopping bags full and it hasn't even started yet!



Besides the food drive, I have been excitedly tending my container garden outside our apartment! I have some decorative flowers, some cactus, some plants I don't know the names of that came from James' old apartment, HUMONGO broccoli, onions, carrots, dill, peppermint, butternut squash, bell pepper, and a poinsettia which I snagged from a line of almost-dead ones at one of our favorite bars, brought it home and back to life, only to have all the leaves be eaten by one Dorothy Snogboggler, who sniffs a piece of grilled chicken with a snooty nose, but would devour all of the leaves of my plants if she had her way. So, again, I am trying to bring that one back to life, and be tender to the broccoli and pepper plants, which she has graciously munched on quite a few times.



Note: none of my plants have produced edibles yet, although there is a very tiny broccoli baby hiding in the leaves!!!



The insatiable Dorothy Snogboggler, or El Gato Dorotea Snogboglier (the g's are silent).

Other snaps from recent times:
(Sorry these are kind of hap-hazard... James has a lot of the pics on his computer, so next time I will try to be more prepared with better pictures!!)








So, James's band the Hi-Lites just released their first full-length album titled Hi-Altitude. It is very good indeed and they have been selling copies at shows. They just signed on with Megalith Records, which is owned by a guy named Bucket, who is the singer of the band The Toasters, a second-wave Ska band from England. The Hi-Lites are planning a ten-day tour of the South-West for the beginning of June! James just finished his latest song which is a voal piece called Golden Paved Road. SO AMAZINGLY GREAT, and I have only heard it played by computer interpretations of musical notes... just wait til the band plays it live!

Also, we bought our tickets for our east-coast appearance, coinciding with the ever-comical 4th of July. J&B/M&D have been giving me updates about the person count and bedroom assignments. IT IS GOING TO THE BEST, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE ALL OF YOU!

Besides that I have been making up recipes for sweet snacks and hearty dinners, also finishing Ayn rand's Atlas Shrugged, which I have been reading for 1.5 years and have about 75 pages left!! Also, riding bikes, walking, sniffing the air, going to the beach, trying to save some money, anticipating Marveller #3, new RI! products, and thinking about the world.

Well, it is time for me to go to work and make slurpy warm caffeine concoctions for the public.

More to come on the blog soon, as there are many shows, events, fun times and deep thoughts going on out here.

I hope all of you are feelin real good.

Love you!

-em

Ps. how do you make the text-size smaller?

Family Gatherings, Florida, and just life in general.

HELLO family.
My mom has been nagging me to put up the photos from our latest family gathering... so today (since I'm on vacation) I thought it was time to share these pictures with you all.

First of all, there was the meeting of Rex...



^^^a lovely picture



I like that picture also.



Interesting how no one is looking at the same camera. Haha

and finally...the only picture of the baby crying...



Interesting whose arms Rex is in where he is crying.....
Haha.

And there are other photos from that night. Like hot tubing



So that was that night. And as some of you know, I was in Florida for the past 4ish days (from Friday morning at 1:30 to 4:00 Tuesday morning) for a chorus trip (slash band and orchestra). It was great fun. We went to disney world and I met many disney charactors (including Mickey Mouse, Lilo from Lilo and Stitch, Wolverine and Storm from X-men, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Buzz Lightyear, one of the little green toy soldiers from Toy Story, Captain America, and many more)
The reason we went was because of a chorus/band/orchestra competition called the Musicfest. We ended up winning 8 first place awards along with one second place award. We won the most awards of all the schools that were there.
And I also went on many rides. (Including some super fast rollercoasters! WOO!)
heres a picture of me and my friends riding on the Tower of Terror.



All of my friends are on the right hand side. I'm the one attempting to pose for the picture haha.
ANYWAY, thats all for now, I hope you enjoyed the pictures and I hope to see you all SOON!!!

GIVE SANJAYA A CHANCE!!!

Come on! I voted for Sanjaya 38 times the other night! Yes, it is that funny to ruin American Idol. Most of you know how I feel about not being picked at MY idol audition a few years ago, instead losing out to a Guy dressed in a Tony the Tiger costume who did not even sing at all, and a girl who sang in a pitch in didn't even know existed, yet she was so large they picked her just to make fun of her on the actual show in front of Paula, randy and Simon. So, why not give Sanjaya a chance? As you know, most people dont need talent anymore to be singers in the music biz...Check out Paris Hilton's new CD or Lindsey Lohan's little sister's X-mas album...yes, i do not even know her name...Does anyone?
The Christening was excellent indeed...Rex slept through the whole thing. He was the most behaved baby there! There was one little boy who had a pretty serious case of "Ants in the Pants" that made us laugh...St. Bart's really is the best church around, even for those who do not like to go to church, it sure is beautiful and peaceful...
I do not have any pics to post that are interesting, so I will wait until something embarassing happens and I can get good shots of it. Oh wait! I do have some audio files of the ALLMAN BROTHERS concert I went to last Thursday! As soon as I can go home and figure out how to add them to this I will! I never sat around so many over 60 hippies smokin dubes and wearing Tye-dyes with ponytails since....well....Ever I guess.

VOTE FOR SANJAYA! HE CAN WIN ON HIS HAIR ALONE!

Rex's Baptism Update, etc.. With Links to Funny Stuff!

This post will be a bit of a hodgepoge...

So Rex (who our innapropriately named neighbor Sandy refers to, in her Whiskey-and-Kools-soaked voice, as "King Baby") was baptized on Saturday at St. Bart's. It was a nice service - some pics are below. Unfortunately we don't have any better shots of Rex being dunked into the deep end of Christianity...





Yes.... Rex has two godmommies, Jessica and Daphne's sister Meghan.... No word yet on whether their duties are only enforceable in Massachusetts.

Can you believe that Sanjaya is still on American Idol? I can. America is just that stupid. My money's still on Melinda. Or Beyonce. She's popular. Speaking of tv, if you haven't had the chance to check out NBC's excellent Friday Night Lights, well... you're SOL until the fall (hopefully they'll bring it back). Seriously though, Daphne and I both think it's one of the five best shows on tv, along with 24, House, The Soprano's (click here for an excellent, if a little foulmouthed, video summary of the first six seasons) and Family Guy (didn't see that one coming did you)?

Friday Night Lights features the yummy Kyle Chandler. To wit:



One of Daphne's "Top 3", along with Kirk Herbstreit (don't ask me)



and John Cusack (starting to look a little puffy if you ask me - where's the hottie from Better off Dead and the Grifters?).



So now you've been fully updated on Rex's baptism, our tv viewing habits (also, don't miss the Shield and Dancing with the Stars) and Daphne's "free passes" as it were.

Come on.. someone else blog... When you don't, you make Baby Jesus cry, but when you do, you make Rex look like this:



Stay Nappy Classy San Diego....