Birthday Recap

The Manling's first birthday coincides with the release of the Decemberist's new album!

Speaking of birthdays, mine was actually a really great time. I didn't receive a single gift, which was a bummer, but Mark got me these amazing flowers that were about 4 feet tall, purple, and just crazy looking. I have no idea what they are called. Then, of course, the show!

We ended up having Mark's friend's wife babysit, way up it seemed near the Wyoming border. WE dropped the Manling off, and I had some anxiety that he would be hard to handle. Apparently, he did great: a little aggressive toward the little girls there, and then shy and miserable until he fell asleep. But no real tantrums, thank goodness.

We got to Red Rocks in the broiling sun only to find out that due to the request of Social Distortion that no containers, including the all-important-in-90+-degree-weather water. I was like you've got to be kidding me, and figured that that was the first sign of a very bad time.

The first band, 9 Black Alps, started promptly at 5pm, and ended at 5:30. I wasn't a big fan of them, so we had trekked up to the top to grab the first of the 4 margaritas I ended up drinking that night. I'm not sure what they put in those things (tragi-comic attempt to downplay my complete lack of tolerance anymore), but I was completely hammered by the end of the evening.

The Supersuckers played a vy brief set as well, and gave a shout out to the hometown darlings the Railbenders. I was hoping that Eddie would pull Jim Dalton up on stage to sing a song or 2 but since they were bumped by Tiger Army, I figure they didn't have the time. The highlights for me were "Pretty Fucked Up" and "Bloody Mary Morning," which Eddie dedicated to his wife, who was also having a birthday that day. During this set, L&K arrived and we 4 congratulated ourselves for being baby-free for the evening.

Tiger Army came on next, and despite the extremely long lines to get drinks, I was already pretty drunk. I do remember them playing most of my favourite songs, and that the bassist had a green bass, which I thought was very striking. It was the first time I'd ever seen Tiger Army and it was great! M,S, and M's "gaggle" of friends that he always seems to have, showed up during this set, and more making fun of my light-weightedness occurred.

I was having the time of my life, however. It felt good to be away from the Manling for more than 3-4 hours. This was the first time I had been away from him for that long. I wasn't too anxious about it, although I did keep thinking about how when I was his age, my parents left me with my aunt and I pulled a hot-water percolator onto myself causing major 2nd-degree burns which gave me major scarring since before I can remember anything and that really embarassed me when I was a kid. I figured that odds were severely against something like that happening, but it did keep running through my mind. I think that's why I really decided to drink - to get my mind off of it.

Social Distortion finally took the stage around 9pm. It was so weird to be at an early show, but since we had to drive back up to the North Pole to pick up the Manling, well, Mark was driving, not me, it wasn't really a bad thing. Mike Ness was in rare form, and played lots of oldies and goodies. Best of all, he wasn't in a ranting mood. Definitely one of, if not THE best Social D set I've seen ever.

I was really surprised to see that a good majority of the seats were empty before they played, but the place filled up when they took the stage. I like Social D quite a bit, but I didn't imagine that they'd draw such a crowd. Then again, D, J, J, and R told me that they only came to see Social D, and only came in right before their set, so I guess others felt the same way.

On the way out, we saw Eddie Spaghetti, his wife, and child (Quattro? Was his name really Quattro?) at the Supersuckers merch booth and gave him kudos for great but way too short set, and acknowledging the shout-out to the Railbenders. At least that's what I hope came out of my slurred converstaion.

The venue was exquisite. The weather eventually cooled down to a very tolerable temperature. The stars were shining. I had a nice drunk going. There were a bunch of my friends there. The line-up was a dream come true. All in all, it was in my top 5 Best Concerts Ever, and definitely beats out the other birthday concert I've seen - Material Issue at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia for my 16th birthday.

Picking up the Manling was the best part of the night though, and I sat next to my sleepy baby on the way home. He'd been asleep for 4 hours before we got there, and it was a good 45 minute drive home. Of course once we were at home and I really really needed to pass out, he decided to wake up and not go back to sleep for what seemed like an eternity. I crammed down a whole pizza and some water, gave him a bottle, and finally just let him crawl all over me on the floor until both of us fell asleep.

It was a great birthday! (I'm not even going to get into how I felt the next day, and I babysat a 5-week old infant!)

Randomosities

So far I'm 2 for 3 on the myspace friends thing. I'm really quite pleased. I miss people. I wish I wouldn't get so much anxiety about these things.

The enormous spider escaped a few days ago. Mark thinks I left the lid ajar. I think the huge spider pushed his way out or else sent out spider-messages to his equally huge buddies who helped him make the jailbreak.

I hadn't mentioned this before, but I somehow have lost our cordless phone. Not the crappy hard-to-hear one, but the one attached to the answering machine. You'd think since I have the house torn apart that I would've found it by now, but no. Chalk it up there with Mark's vy expensive snowboard gloves, and one of the diamond studs I got last year for my birthday. All MIA. I'm thinking about creating those metal bracelets like the POW/MIA groups use.

Speaking of birthdays, mine is coming up in 2 days. The Powers That Be have taken steps to make it unpleasant as usual. Somehow they had slipped up and allowed Social Distortion and the Supersuckers to play at Red Rocks that day. I got tickets on pre-sale 2 months ago, and started looking for a babysitter. Fastforward 6 weeks when I had just about given up on the idea I'd get to go see this show. Tiger Army was added to the bill, and my conviction that it was ok that I'd miss this awesome show flew out the window and I really, really wanted to go again. My friend S said she'd babysit, and life was ok again. Then, just yeasterday, I was made aware that the 5pm time on the ticket was not when the doors opened, but when the 1st band was starting. This show starts insanely early: doors open at 3pm. So S won't be off work in time, throwing me into another bout of anxiety. Luckily Mark's coworker had said his wife would babysit. He'd offered her up previously, but they live 30 miles north of us so I'd thought that it'd end up being too late by the time we got back up there. But with the show starting at 5, I think it'll be over by 10pm. I guess Mike Ness can't handle staying up late anymore?

I guess I should start pumping so the Manling will have something to eat that day.

Stripping on a Saturday Night

Between stripping the stink from the Manling's Fuzzi Bunz, I was cruising on that entity known as m.y.s.p.a.c.e. and I saw quite a few new (to me) profiles of people I used to know. Do I contact them? Would they care? I even found my ex-best-friend from grades 4 - 10 and my ex-boyfriend who stole every single CD, album, and tape I owned when we broke up. Not to mention numerous other people who I'd like to rekindle friendships with. It's just so hard. It worked with J and N&D, but will it work with others? Should I even bother?

Mark will be home from work soon to distract me from this.

Today I edged in the paint for our bedroom. The Manling hated watching me from his exersaucer and tried to suffocate himself with the dropcloths. I wasn't falling for that escapade, however.

I still haven't been able to locate the source of the cat pee stink, and I'm beginning to be obsessive about it. It seems to be moving. My newest hypothesis is that it's really the Manling's diapers; hence the stripping.

Poltergeists and Other Monsters

I had to wait until evening to play CSI:Feline. As a side note, if I was a CSI, I'd definietely want to be Marg Helgenberger. I've loved her ever since she was KC Koloski, the amiable but tough whore on China Beach. Evening fell, and I got out the old blacklight recommended to me by those experts at my local big box home improvement store. I scanned every square inch of the office and our bedroom only to find....

Nothing.

Some quick googling led me to discover that not all blacklights are created equal. I, of course, had gotten the "cheap, novelty" kind. That explained why nothing at all really glowed - not cat pee, not white t-shirts, nothing of any day-glo emanations.

In the meantime, the smell of cat pee had been replaced by the smell of fresh paint since I had finished painting the trim so I could hang the new blinds up to regain some semblance of privacy in the bedroom.

The next day, I returned the 2 non-recommended odor removers and the cheap bulb and headed off to my local pet-crap-o-rama big box retailer where I purchased a UV black light for the princely sum of $20. Which reminds me, those "experts" told me at the other place that I didn't need a UV light, and that only medical supply stores sold UV lights. Did I mention the pet place is right next door to the home improvement place?

Evening finally rolled around, and Mark and I took turns being Marg and Gary "Warrick" Dourdan. Once again, we found zero evidence of any cat malfeasance.

Mark is of the impression that there truly is no cat pee. I cannot bring myself to accept that conclusion despite no evidence to the contrary. I smelled something. He smelled something. In 2 separate rooms separated by different floors. I also cannot bring myself to return the $30-some dollars worth of odor detectors/removers because I am convinced that once I do, the smell will come back.

The only good thing to come of this episode is that we are painting the bedroom finally! I've only been wanting to do this for the past 4 years. Other good home improvement project news: the stonework in the front of the house is 95% complete. Only a few more of the capstones need to be glued into place. Mark was taking some trash to the dumpster earlier this week and some neighbors who live on the opposite side of the alley complimented the yardwork we've been doing and asked him when we'd moved in. I think Mark mumbled something about living here for a while. Pure comedy. The other good news is that when my parents come to visit later this month, they're bringing my 14 yr old nephew M, who apparently loves to do chores for cash. We've been concocting all sorts of things for him to do.



I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this, but Mark is vy terrified of spiders. So much so that Luanne got him this as a gag/real gift this past winter holiday. I don't mind them until they reach a combined leg/body size of a quarter; then even I reach for the bug gun. Earlier this week, one of those behemoths home-invaded our bedroom (earlier that the cat pee episode). Mark ran for the gun and threw it at me. I sucked up the monster, and encapsulated him in the see-through container. He's been living on our dining room table; I'm surprised he's lasted so long; most of them die after a day or so. His longevity and resilience so far makes me glad I didn't put him outside like we do to the smaller folk. He's kind of like Shelob in Lord of the Rings!

I'm going to attempt to revamp the shuffle playlist and see if I can come up with some topical recommendations:

• Honky Cat - Elton John
• Lovecats - the Cure
  
• Piss Up A Rope - Ween
• The Stench of Piss - Pro-pain
  
• Blacklight - Misfits
• Red Paint - the Promise Ring
• You Blister My Paint - Screeching Weasel
• Waste of Paint - Bright Eyes
  
• Here Comes the Neighborhood - NOfX
  
• Buggin Out - A Tribe Called Quest
  
• Spider - They Might Be Giants
• I Whupped Spiderman's Ass - Wesley Willis (check this out for a chance to create your own Wesley Willis song!)

Berlin - Take My Breath Away

About a month or 2 ago, we took down the Berlin Wall, AKA the swinging gate, that separated the cat sector of the house from the dog sector of the house. One of the cats assimilated pretty well, and the dog settled down (mostly) after a few weeks although she still likes to wolf down the cat's food if left unattended. The second cat, my first and favorite pet in the house, has emphatically **NOT** assimilated.

This morning I awoke at 5:30 am, leisurely stretching and basking in the feeling that I had gotten an entire night's unbroken sleep. And then I smelled it.

Cat pee.

From an undisclosed location.

I woke up Mark and then tore the room apart trying to discover the location to no avail. I needed to run some errands so I hung out for a few hours until the other locations opened; I was not going to be one of those people who go to major unnamed retailer at 6am when they first open even though I considered it. A blacklight was needed immediately! While I was running around putting stuff from our room in other places I went downstairs to my office and realized that the smell I had thought was the drain backing up from the laundry room was really crime scene #2 for cat pee. I hate cat pee. It stinks so damn bad.

In the meantime, I decided that while the bedroom was fairly free from clutter, I would hang the blinds that have lived in boxes in the Manling's room for months since his replacement blinds came in. To hang them, I needed to paint the window sill and trim. To do that I had to remove 75 years of old blind hardware and scrape paint off the panes, yes the actual glass. As I was scraping I mentioned to Mark, who'd been trying to sleep as I tore apart the room and took down the hardware and was finally up getting ready for work, that one of the window panes seemed to be separating from the casement/trim/whatever and that I should pick up some glazing while I was out. He leaves; I continue scraping. I get to the last pane, the last side, the last 4" of glass when ping! the pane of glass snaps in half.

All of this before 7:30 am.

I go out and do my errands and come home with the blacklight bulb and 3 types of enzymatic odor/pee remover. I'm shining the blacklight all over the carpet just like CSI, but unlike them, I didn't have the crazy sunglasses and the sun was beating down on the carpet rendering the blacklight useless. Why didn't I shut the blinds, one might ask. Because I took them and their hardware down just hours before!

Later, I get the news that my friends J&C will not be moving out here in August. J. said that the idea has not been abandoned. I am sad it will not be happening soon, but I'm glad to hear that Operation Go West Young Man has not been aborted.

The good news is that J. said one of the 3 products I got to deal with the cat pee is fantastic.

Someday soon I will re-start my shuffle playlists again. Just not today.

Tickers

I just added a "Ticker" showing how old the Manling is. I am undecided if I like it or not. I think tickers are pretty silly. I like the dragon, though.

And the age doesn't seem to jive with what I reckon he is: the weekly tally says he's 1 day shy of 29 weeks, the calendar says he's 1 day shy of 9 months, and this ticker says he's 8 months 4 weeks and 1 day old. I don't get it.