The next level

I have enjoyed learning how to play the banjo. I feel like between my fun riot of an instructor and the group of people who jam together weekly, I have made social connections while I am learning something new. As far as I'm concerned, that's what this life thing is all about. 

I've thought about how I ended up playing old time music, and it's one of those funny things. A friend from the dog park just happens to play fiddle in this kind of music. My goal for learning to play the banjo was to be able to play as part of a group of people sitting around and playing. I don't need to solo and as yet can't quite swing singing and playing at the same time. It's a good fit.

After a little over a year of playing, I can tell that my beginner banjo is just that, a beginner banjo. When the third string is pressed over the second fret, it's supposed to be an "A" tone. Play that string open and it's supposed to be a G. My banjo cannot be tuned to do this. Tune to the G and the A is flat (or sharp, I can't remember, but it sounds funny). Go the other way, and the G is weird. I use both a lot, so this is a bit of a problem. 

Enter dad's Christmas gift money. Looks like it's time to buy a new banjo, so I've been looking around and I think I have found what I want. With dad's gift and some of the craft show bucks, I can throw in a some money and get a new plunker. The above picture is what I'm thinking of - isn't it nice? You're thinking, a banjo is a banjo is a banjo. Here's what I like about this one. It's an open back banjo. There's no resonator like in bluegrass banjos, so it sounds more old timey. It's got what they call a scoop neck, so the first part of the neck up from the pan is a little lower than the rest of the neck. This makes it sound plunky, too. Finally, look at the neck. It is largely unadorned, which I like. It's got a little shooting star motif by the fifth peg, but otherwise nothin'. Some banjos are almost gaudy in the neck inlays, IMO, and it doesn't affect the sound. 

A friend is looking around to see if there are any vintage banjos for sale right now that might also be what I want. Apparently some of these old instruments (100 yrs or so) can sound really nice and they are in good shape. If he doesn't find anything in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to order this one. 

Back to work

Mr W and I had a really nice Christmas. I feel a little bad that he doesn't get a strong traditional Christmas when he's with me, but we end up doing what we feel like doing. I suppose that's not a bad thing. This year we had a good meal on Christmas Eve (spaghetti) and Christmas Day (ham and roasted veggies), and those made yummy leftovers. We were supposed to drive to Denver to join friends at their traditional Polish feast, but it there was snow forecasted, and I didn't want to chance it in my old Civic. Instead we drove around town and saw some lights, coming home when the roads were getting a little treacherous from said snow.

We went to the Denver Botanic Gardens and saw the lights, which were fab, plus it wasn't too cold and we got in before the crowds. We went to a winter solstice service at my church in lieu of the Christmas Eve service and that was good. Reflective.

He got me up on Christmas at 6 am, and we had a nice time opening presents. My family sent several things for us and it was fun to open all the loot. SIL L got hardback books for each of the families made from the vacation pictures she took when they were out here in August. It's really cool to have hardcopies of the pictures, in a book - I know, sort of like the old days. Just about all my pictures are digital these days.

And when his dad came to get him yesterday, so Mr W could spend time there and celebrate Christmas with them, I fought back the melancholy, like I always do. I get used to having him around, and when he's not, I miss him. I can't to go back to how things were, so the only option is to move forward, and thinking that way helps. I've got plenty to do around here - thoughts of remodeling projects are sloshing around in my head...

I'm working W-F this week, and will take a couple of days off next week. Not too many people at work, but I've got plenty to do. I'm trying to get some background (via the primary literature) of the genetic work that's been done in insecticide resistance in the mosquitoes we work with. I find it really interesting, so that's good.

One of the people from the group of old-time musicians that plays together weekly is having a New Year's Eve party, and I will likely swing by there. I've decided to start saving for a new banjo. My dad sent a generous Christmas check and I've got some craft show proceeds that could go toward it. Twang, twang, twang.

Things are good.

As promised

Here is a clip of my banjo instructor and I at the recital last night. It wasn't nearly as harrowing as I thought it could be. Glad I did it.

And next, we have Linda on the banjo

I have my first ever banjo recital tomorrow. I'm trying hard not to get tweaked out about it, because it doesn't mean anything, and I know the songs, and it's a more than friendly crowd, and most importantly, I WANT to have this experience. 

I'm doing two songs, Blackberry Blossom, which is sort of old-timey/bluegrass, and Cripple Creek (not the one by The Band...). They are songs I have played as practice for months and months, so I know them very well. It's funny how each time you play, though, it's a little different. 

The picture above is from a jam that my instructor had a couple of weeks ago. That's me and my banjo in a contemplative moment there on the right. Actually, I didn't know the song, and there was someone to my immediate left, so I was holding the banjo upright while I was waiting, to make a little more space. 

As an aside, can you see my shoes? I do most of my clothes shopping at the consignment store. It takes more time, but it's so much cheaper that it is largely worth it. It's hard to find shoes that work for me because I think if shoe are comfortable, people hang onto them. As a result there are a lot of 5" pumps for sale and, well, I just don't have occasion to wear such shoes. But I was perusing the racks the other day, and happened upon the mules you see in the photo. They are really pointy-toed, they have a 2" heel, and they look like cowboy boots, although they cover just a little more than what a regular tie-up shoe would. In other words, they are cool shoes that I probably would never buy. And they fit! And they were $18! So I had to have them. They are not walkin' shoes, but I loves them anyway. 

OK, back to the jam/recital. I'm glad my instructor hosts these jams, because they, like going to the Old Time jam downtown, are such good practice. In my mind, this music is meant to be played as part of a group. 

But she also hosts a cool recital once a year, at the local Grange. I remember when Mr W took piano lessons for a year, he had a recital and it was about what you'd expect. Kids in their good clothes playing the same piece of music over and over. No. This recital is more like a party, where there is food and drink and everyone has chosen what they will play. My instructor will play along with me, and sing the words to Cripple Creek. 

I'll see if I can get someone to shoot a video. It'll all be over in about 3 minutes. Then I'm having a glass of wine. 

Just funny that way

So I'm at my banjo lesson yesterday, and I have practiced maybe 30 minutes the previous week. I almost always feel guilty when I don't practice enough, even though my instructor doesn't admonish me for it. But I feel like I get my money's worth more if I do practice, so that we can move along as I get better.

Anyway, I had sent her the music in a tabulature (not sure that the right word, my spellcheck is no help)  form for several song that are played at these jams I go to. She was playing this one when I arrived at my lesson.



This is called "Shove the Pig's Foot a Little Further Into the Fire". It is not a cooking song, it's a blacksmithing reference, which someone had to tell me because I am clueless about such things. Anyway, it's a really nice old timey tune and I'm really pleased she's learning it to teach to me.

We were playing a song together as practice, and as we went along, I did this thing that cracked her up and she said it was bizarre. In the good way (so she said...). But as we played, if I lost my place, I would sing in a dum-de-dum kind of way until my fingers could jump in and pick up the playing again. Kind of like the singing was a placeholder while I found a place to get back into the song. I figured everyone kind of did that, but apparently not. I later though that it's probably because I'm not relying on reading the music; I've memorized the song and so am not looking at the sheet music.

Anyway, it's an adventure.

Better

My ankle (or "cankle" as one dog park friend called it - calf + ankle looking) is much better. Thanks for the well wishes. I thought at the time it happened that it wasn't too serious and sure enough the swelling is down a lot. I might get a good-sized bruise out of it yet, which is always a conversation starter :-)

What else. We are making the transition to Mr W's middle school schedule reasonably well. I've been getting up 15 (just a puny 15) minutes earlier and I have felt it. Or so I think. After two weeks of it (on school days) I woke up last Friday a little before the alarm and took that as a good sign. However, I've also been in sort of a rut of waking up in the middle of the night and having trouble falling back to sleep. Nothing's wrong, I'm not anxious, I just can't fall back to sleep. It's frustrating, and hopefully will turn around soon.

Work is good. I handed in another manuscript to my boss so we can get that study published. It's a sometimes painful process, the editing and the back and forth about how things should be worded. He's nice about it, but it can be a long process. We've got two other authors this time around who will want to (and should) have input, but at least the ball is rolling. This means I can go back to the lab and do lab stuff, which is my favorite part of the job. Try this, try that, run samples, get data. I know it's not for everyone, but I do like it.

The bracelet stuff has taken a lot of my free time lately, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I need to promote the stuff, because just listing items on Etsy doesn't go very far. I use their within-site advertising, so if someone searches "button bracelet" my stuff will be at the top of the page, and that gets some views, but so far not many sales. So I'm beefing up my blog presence at my other blog, and trying to make those connections with people who make things out of polymer clay, mostly. They are by and large warm and friendly people and that makes it not so much like work. So much interesting stuff out there.

But it's hard to know when to stop with the checking and promoting and what works and what doesn't. I'm still not in a spot where I feel like my efforts translate into selling my stuff. So far that, and feedback about pictures that I post, are the signs of "success" in this for me. However, I do still get a kick out of making the stuff. I love it when a piece comes together and all the parts look good. I feel like I need to focus more on that, but would really like for this little hobby to at least pay for itself.

And for heaven's sake, don't take the above paragraph as a plea for you to please go over and buy something. Don't do that.

In the meantime, I have not played my banjo enough, and am making a concerted effort to practice more. I hate feeling guilty about not practicing, and really don't want that to be my motivation. I want to practice because I enjoy it.

I have had some insights about the garden this year that I will share in another post. Growing veggies didn't go quite as I had hoped this year. My tomato plant is monstrous, but with few fruits. The powdery mildew came early, and I probably, because I planted cukes near my cantaloupe, have some weird melon-cuke hybrids. The fruits between the two plants are more cylindrical than the first melons I  harvested. More on this later.

Heaven help me...

I have started a new blog just for my crafty stuff. I'm going to drone on about my experiences as a mom, lab worker, and gardener here. Might also use it for sharing sciencey stuff.

But here's the address: http://physariadesigns.blogspot.com

Things are good around here. I'm getting stuff out of the garden to eat, and that's been fun. Two cantaloupes are almost ready. Every day I go out and see if they will "slip" from the vine. The outsides look done, so I might have to sacrifice one and see what it's like on the inside. The only other time I had a melon go to completion, it was too ripe by the time it slipped, and it was sweet but mushy.

My banjo teacher has been working with me so I can play stuff in different keys. It feels weird and strange and is hard for me to hear it such that I can easily play the next chord of familiar (read: children's) songs. It's a process, though, and still fun.

Bittersweet

 

Mr W had his 5th grade "Continuation Ceremony" this past Friday. It was a nice ceremony, and at the end, a teacher read this little piece about how kids are like dogs, and teens are like cats. I hadn't heard it before, and when she read the final line it brought tears to my eye. The mom in front of me actually wept briefly. 

We went to a graduation party, and I don't know many of the parents very well, so I wasn't talking to people very much. I looked around and some moms were filling water balloons. I have to say that this will be my mantra from now on in social situations where I feel a little awkward. I will try to find a job to do. I stood there and tied water balloons for an hour and a half and chatted with a group of moms. It made the experience very pleasant. 

Saturday, I volunteered at the old-time music festival that a couple of my dog park friends (and the people who told me about the weekly jams) helped organize. Again, I didn't know many people there, so walked around a bit, and then sat at the ticket desk for an hour before my shift started, chatting with the other volunteer and people who were coming in and milling about. There were two jams that were held right in that area, so I got to listen to good music too. I'll feel more confident next year participating music-wise, and left my banjo in the trunk. I do enjoy doing that kind of volunteering. Keep busy, chat with people, and have a job to do. 

We took Sally to the dog park in town that has a pond, and she loved it. We've been there a couple of times, but it's farther away from our regular dog park so we don't get there often. We threw the ball into the water for about 30 minutes and it wiped her out (in a good way - she was tired). I had felt bad because I left her alone all day Saturday to go to the festival. When I got home it was raining, so I didn't walk her that day. I will definitely remember the pond for hot days this summer. The water wasn't something I'd want to swim in, but for dogs it was fine. She ended up looking cleaner than when she went in. Not surprising, as I've had to wait an extra month for a grooming appointment due to one of the groomers quitting. 

I got my sample buttons sent off to the button lady. I like the colors and how they turned out. I improved my method of poking the holes in the buttons after a bunch of trial and error, and feel capable of turning out 800 in a relatively short amount of time. Fingers crossed and I'm glad for offers of help from a couple of friends. 

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Monday recap

Another good weekend here. Mr W got a new computer game, and is crazy about it in a way that is fun to see. I did get some work out of him, though. We got the rest of the flowers planted that he picked out a couple of weeks ago, and he cut the grass. That last one is a job that I'm thrilled to pass on to the next generation. He had a friend over yesterday, and they walked downtown to get ice cream. By themselves. This was a big deal (for me!). The first time he's done that with a buddy. They were more than ready for the adventure. No big deal for them.

I did get a chance to see the eclipse. A glimpse of it anyway. I made a pinhole in a piece of paper and projected it on another piece of paper. Still pretty cool. I saw a picture of my cousin's set up in Las Vegas, where they could see the whole thing. She set up a pair of binoculars backwards towards the sun, set in a piece of cardboard and on a tripod. A really good set up. They the image was projected on a black piece of paper they had taped on a fence about 2 feet away. Cool.

On Saturday, the group of people I play banjo with was doing a jam downtown as part of the city's street art program. The city sets up areas around downtown and brings in performers, visual artists and the like, and people get to watch and ask questions. Sorry for the blurry picture. We played music and got a good response. This music is perfect for square dancing, and there are a couple of people in the group who know how to call dances. This is so very cool. When enough people were gathered around watching us play, the callers got them together, gave them quick instructions and got down to it. We played relatively simple songs, so it was good practice for me. This being the first time I played outside like this, I found myself easily distracted and lost my place several times.

This dancing stuff is one of the things I really like about old-time music. It's simple enough so a beginner like me can jump in, and one can learn the melodies and have fun with that. And, people can dance to it. There were lots and lots of smiles when people danced. That community aspect of it is very appealing to me, too. 

I talked to S, the woman who wants 800 buttons, on Friday and am excited about the project. I've ordered the clay cutters and met someone last night who might be able to make a holder for them so I can cut more at one time. At the moment my process is very labor intensive, with each button cut out by hand and each hole poked by hand. This will be a good opportunity for me to streamline things so I can more easily do bigger quantities. She's going to send me samples of the embroidery floss that goes in the kits and I'll match the colors. Did I mention this project is for making buttons for cross stitch kits? How cool is that? 

And, finally, here's something else I've been working on. It's the first CVB necklace I put up for sale on Etsy. Friend C, to whom I sent a prototype, worked out the last bit of the design, so I'm using her initials in the name. I like these. 

Running

As far as exercise goes, I've never been much of a runner. Come to think of it, I've never been much of an exerciser until the last couple of years. Really. It goes to show that one can make changes and get benefits just about anytime, one just has to start. But I always feel heavy when I run; it always feels like work. 

Now biking is a different animal all together. And the group fitness thing has always been a good motivator for me, so Spinning has worked out well. So much so I'm sort of considering getting a road bike at some point. Not immediately, but I'll consider it on the list. Unlike some places, bikes rule here, meaning that it's a very bike-friendly town. 

But running. My Spinning instructor and another person in the class are running in the Colorado Marathon this weekend. Instructor C is running the whole thing (!) and fellow spinner J and her husband are doing the half (still, !). They do it because they love to run. J has had knee problems and it's affected how much she can run, but she's trained and wants to do this race, so she'll give it her best shot. 

They all did this last year, and another spinner D went down to the finish line to make noise and cheer them on. I vowed to be there this year, so Mr W and I will hop on our bikes and head down to the finish line to do just that. Heck, if I'm not going to run, I can at least be a good cheerleader, right? 

In other news, I'm learning Foggy Mountain Breakdown in banjo lessons. This guy plays really fast and really well, but if you squint your ears a little, you'll be able to hear sort of what I sound like. Maybe you can imagine slowing it down like they do in the movies. It's short and sweet.

 

A good weekend

It was a busy and good weekend. A friend (someone I used to date) was in town and it was great to catch up with him. Funny how things were really familiar and comfortable, yet placed into a different context now that we aren't dating. He travels extensively for work, and I worry about the toll it takes on him, despite doing a job that he loves. I'm all "well, you could try this", "take a class" "get an ap to get organized for the writing you have to do" blah, blah, blah. I feel like I'm all advice sometimes. It's more important to accept people for who they are.

He commented at one point that I seem content. I would have to agree, although there is an internal dialog about the partner search that dribbles on, and it sometimes gets kind of loud in my thoughts. It's clearer than ever to me that taking up the banjo and starting to make bracelets were/are an outlet for some of the mental/emotional energy I was devoting to finding Mr. Right-for-me. It's a wise use of free time.

Speaking of the banjo, he was gracious enough to come with me to a special jam that was going on with the usual Tuesday night folks, in honor of a music festival downtown. There were only six of us - three fiddles and three banjos, and it was a lot of fun to play in a little more relaxed (and slightly slower paced) environment. I bought a finger pick for my right index finger, and tried that out. I really like it, I don't have to strum so hard. More importantly, though, because the nail on that finger has never responded well to being used so much when I play banjo, using the pick might let it grow out a bit. I might get a thumb pick while I'm at it, we'll see.

And finally, I sold another bracelet from the Etsy shop. Wahoo! I've been spending some money on Facebook advertising, and someone who saw my ad ended up buying a bracelet.

Impulse purchase

Banjo legend Bela Fleck is playing in Fort Collins tonight. We were talking about this when I was over at my banjo instructor's house last Saturday playing music. I confess I'm not familiar with his work, but I know that he is an innovator and has been around for a while. I downloaded their current album this morning. :-)

When I got home that night, I went to the website to see if there were tickets left and it looked to me like there was but one left. Taking that as a sign, I bought it. Impulse purchase. Money's always a little tight for this kind of thing, but I figure it'll be worth it.

Saturday!

Well, it's Saturday and I'm looking forward to lots of puttering about in the house and yard. The dog is snoring at my feet. Happy camper.

On tap today is cleaning out my garden beds. I thought I should leave last year's growth on so that if/when it snows again that the young plants would be protected. However, they've just gone ahead and poked right through, so I guess I'll clean things out today. I am thrilled (THRILLED, I tell you) to have made the decision to sign up to have the trash hauling company take away my compostable yard waste. Wahoo! I always seem to have stalks and woody stuff that simply accumulates instead of composting, and now I can get it outta here. I'll keep a compost pile for easy stuff like grass, leaves and kitchen scraps, but the other stuff will be gone.

I'm making good progress on painting my fence, so need to continue with that. The house needs some attention on the inside, and I need to go to the grocery and hardware stores. Just little chore things that aren't urgent and I like not having to absolutely get any of it finished.

Tonight I'm going to play music at my banjo instructor's place with other students and friends of hers. The last time I did this I had a lot of fun, so am looking forward to that.

Finally, I've been looking for a summer sweater project, and am thinking of this:

I'm thinking making mods so that I just do the drop stitch pattern all the way down the sweater, and not do the sleeves below the yoke, so it would be short-sleeved. I need to look through my stash to see if I've got enough of the right kind of yarn to do this. I'm thinking some kind of cotton blend, worsted weight. The pattern uses a strand of lace and a strand of sport weight.

Saved by technology

I looked forward yesterday to going to another old time music jam with the group that meets weekly. My previous experience had left me frustrated, and this time I was looking forward to my teacher attending the jam as well.

Earlier that day, I recalled how someone at another jam had a tablet computer with him, which I presume he used to look up information about the songs that were played. This made a little lightbulb light up over my head and I thought I'd bring my laptop to the jam so I could look up the chords. Then at the dog park, E suggested I just use my phone for the same purpose. Brilliant!

So I settled in at the jam, took out my phone, and saw a text from my teacher that she was unable to come to the jam because she was nursing a sick boyfriend. *sigh* I ordered a beer, started playing and it all worked out. Most of the core group knows the songs so well that all one of them has to do is start playing, and everyone knows what it is. Last night, they called out the name, I'd look up the song and try to follow along.

These people play pretty darn fast. But I don't want them to slow down, I need to be able to speed up my playing. As it was, I just strummed in time instead of doing the finger picking with my right hand, and concentrated on trying to do the chords. Most of the time, I am proud to say, I could follow visually where we were on the chord chart - which is saying a lot for me! I even made my hand make the right chords in the right order a few times - success!

I feel like I'm better prepared now to go to these things, and will have my trusty phone with me to help with the chords. There are over a hundred songs (easily) that they choose from, so I have no hope of getting them all learned immediately. This link is to a site with the chords, and I suggest you go there if you'd like a laugh because of the names of some of these songs. My personal favorite: "Squirrel Heads and Gravy".

And my teacher did show up eventually. She came without her banjo, which told me that she thought it was important to be there because I was there, even if it was for the tail end of the evening. I appreciate that. I offered my banjo to her to play for a couple of songs, and she got to play a bit.

I'm so exciting!

When Mr W was little, he'd say, "I'm so exciting!" when he meant "I'm so excited!". Well, I'm excited for sure because I got an email yesterday morning from my brother R in South Carolina. He asked if I'd be around for certain dates in August for them to come to CO to visit, as he found some really good airfare prices for the four of them.

I replied back immediately - yes!

For whatever reason, it's hard to get from there to Denver. Not sure why. The fare he found was a little more than half of what it usually is. A couple minutes later, he sends another email that he went ahead and bought the tickets. Yea!!

And just like that, I've got family coming out to visit in August. They want to go cabin camping for a few days, so we'll look into that. More pressing to me is how my little house will accommodate guests. My other brother and SIL might come too (haven't heard from them yet - fingers crossed that they can make those dates), so I might need to house six.

I was thinking about sleeping arrangements, and if I bunk on the floor in Mr W's room (which I don't mind in the least) I can give J and M my room, and R and L and the girls can be in the basement. I recently made a push to make it sort of a sitting room, so it's partway there. I need to think about how to best make them comfortable down there, but it's certainly doable.

I think the visit is a good excuse to finally push to get the deck built off the living room. I've been hemming and hawing over doing it, but it's time. We do a lot of hanging out for these visits, and it would be nice to have the extra space. I also just want it for me. Every year I've been here, I feel like I hide in my house in the summer because the yard is in full sun most of the day. I'm planning on having a deck with a pergola kind of roof and placed for shade cloth (and eventually grape vines). Morning coffee on the deck - ahhh.

In other news, I did chat with my banjo instructor about how I felt lost trying to keep up with the other players at the jam last week. Turns out she's teaching me a different style from what people out here play, which is more of a three finger style, and she's teaching me a two finger style. Ooohhh. So it turns out how I'm playing is complementary, but a little different than how they play. Well, that makes sense, and I feel better about it. She's going to come with me next week and showed me how to play a couple of the songs that B gave me that they play pretty frequently. I feel better about it.

Newbie

I went to my second old time music jam last night, and was disappointed and frustrated. Boo. And intimidated, I felt intimidated as well. This was all internal, no one made any comments or in any way discouraged me. I just didn't know how to keep up, besides strumming with the rhythm (which is really fast!)

Here's a random video I pulled from youtube of one of the tunes, where the player is going about as fast as they were going last night.




The tunes they play at the jam all sound about like this. There's two phrases that get repeated and I know (so they tell me) that one can either play the melody, like in the video, or one can do rhythm, which means just doing chord changes, and not the really quick stuff on the neck. My goal for the short term is to be able to play rhythm. It's an endurance thing as well, my hands got tired!

Bleh. I've been practicing what my teacher has been giving me, and doing well at that, but it's like I'm learning a different language that doesn't translate into keeping up with the playing at this jam. At my lesson this week, I'll be able to say, I want to play like the guy does above. I also got a list of songs to learn from friend B, who is an awesome (really impressive) fiddle player and dog park friend (who watched Sally when I was out of town last time), and who coordinates the jam. It's because of her and her boyfriend, an awesome banjo player, that I'm even going to the jams, as I would die of embarrassment if I didn't know anyone.

The banjo may look like a simple instrument, but there's lots of ways one can work either hand, and that's one of the things that is taking me time to learn. Different styles. And tunings. About three or four different tunings.

I know I need to do what I've been saying all along. Practice and I'll get better. Now that I know specifically what I want to learn, I'll learn it.

Twang twang

Tonight I had the pleasure of going to my banjo instructor's studio/house to jam with what turned out to be her and some of her friends (it was open to all of her adult students). At first we crammed into the smallish living room and made small talk and drank some wine, and then moved into the studio and played songs for a couple of hours.

It was a blast! We played several songs that I actually knew, so I could keep up, and then they, because they had acoustic guitars, branched off to Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, REM and Paul Simon. I sort of limped along and tried just to pick with my right hand to keep time for those, but I could see there will eventually be a point where someone can say "it's A, C, Em, D and G" and I'll be able to do that. As it was, I did not embarrass myself, which will be my goal for the short term. It was fun to kind of connect with these people through the music.

Yea! It's been so fun to learn the banjo and see how I'm slowly progressing over time. I had Mr W with me, and hoped he would see how much fun we were having and fingers crossed think he might want to try an instrument again. He accompanied us with a maraca, and plunked on her drum kit a little, so those were good things.

Fun indeed. Tomorrow, we'll head down to the Denver science museum to see their new IMAX film "Tornado Alley" and then I've got to drop off Mr W and Sally at their respective places for the next 4 days while I'm out of town M-Th. I've practiced my talk a couple of times, and I think it's just about there. A few more run-throughs and it will be ready to present.

The kidless stretch

I dropped off Mr W's new computer and some school work to his dad's house last night and realized with a sigh that I kind of liked having the kid around as much as he was during the holidays. We've got a nice little routine here. I think he appreciates that it's just me, him and the dog, so things are pretty peaceful. It's his dad's weekend to have him and he'll be with him for the next few days.

Not that his dad doesn't take good care of him. Financially, and time-wise, his dad has always stepped up and done his duty as a father. I'm thankful for that, and don't worry that my kid will be mistreated. He likely won't see fresh vegetables at his dad's house, but one has to pick one's battles. I hear stories, good gravy, I hear stories of the extent to which parents shirk their duty (yes, I'm using the word deliberately) to their kids, and I shudder.

So, I miss Mr W, but a kid needs a dad. I had a dream last night that his dad showed back up and wanted to move into my little house. And I was sort of scratching my head saying, "Didn't you just get married? And anyhow, I don't want you!" Even for the kid's sake. Funny.

I do get a twinge of envy when I see him settled into his new life with his nice wife and plowing money into remodeling their house. But I don't begrudge them their happiness. I would like my own, thanks. And I'm fairly confident that I'll someday look back and see how it all led to being with the guy I end up being with.

In other news, I went to my first old time music jam with my banjo. They are at this place that is so very Colorado in what it offers: it's a bike repair shop, coffee shop and bar all in one. I had Mr W that night, and he didn't have school the next day, so was happy to play on is video game thingy. I got him a hot chocolate, and tried to not embarrass myself.

I've got a really long way to go on this banjo thing, but it was a good experience to sit with these folks and just try to keep time. They tell me that eventually I'll be able just do simple chord changes (C, D, G) and keep up. I sat next to E, who is a really good player, and watched his hands a lot. There were three banjos, three guitars, three fiddles and one mandolin. I heard that's on the small side of what they sometimes get.

Anyway, I am more motivated now to keep at it and get better. I enjoy the songs themselves, which all do kind of sound similar, but you can see civil war-era ladies in big dresses dancing to them. Or two little girls with pink cowboy boots, as was the case Tuesday.

This and that Saturday

The plan is to get out of the house soon, so that I can do my best to beat the inevitable crowds of holiday shoppers that will be where I'm shopping today. Included on my to-do list today are the following:

1. Buy new banjo strings
2. Do some miscellaneous bracelet stuff
3. Set up Mr W's new netbook that he'll get for Christmas (can I tell you how nice it will be to get my computer back?)
4. Make spaghetti
5. Catch up on laundry
6. Get the rest of the Christmas lights up

That's about it. I need to replace all the jump rings of the first set of bracelets because one of them (that I made myself) gave way on a piece I was wearing. Wouldn't that be awful? Sell bracelets that come apart after a few times of wearing them? Ick.

I've been bidding on some old cufflinks on Ebay and have been outbid at literally the last minute on stuff that would be really nice to have on the bracelets. Maybe that's going to be a future effort, as they're kind of expensive. I need to figure out just how much I'm willing to spend per piece. For example, this morning, these lovely cufflinks  were listed, and I bid up to $8.00 for them. In the last 30 seconds, when my bid was still at $1.29, someone swooped in and outbid me by $.50. No time to up my bid, which I suppose was just as well. Is $2.00 in the ball park of what I want to spend per "charm"? I think so.

I think my Christmas shopping is done. I'll pick up one more gift card, but I can do that at the grocery store. It's exactly what this person will want, so that's an easy one.

I'd better get going. Hope you all have a good Saturday!

The one that started it

This is the bracelet that I bought a couple of weeks ago that started my obsession interest in putting my own spin on making something similar. This morning, before I got out of bed, I checked my auctions on eBay (only two of them) and found I had been outbid. I upped my bid from the comfort and safety of my own bed.

As you can see, there's a bunch of elements, copper coils, ladies watch faces, a couple of gears. Next to the rectangular watch face is a little pop of purple, hard to see. It's a small half-domed clear piece of plastic or glass that I think really adds something to the piece. Just a little zap of color. My plan is to work with polymer clay to add another kind of element. Still in development, but I hope to spend some time on it this weekend. Along with hitting the flea markets looking for non-working watches, and learning how to coil wire so it lays flat. The glue I bought smells so strongly, I think I'll have to buy something else. Anyone readers know it that dissipates or if there's a less smelly product?

Once I get done, I'm going to give a couple away to friends to see what the design issues are. I know they aren't particularly durable. The flower-shaped medallion on this bracelet came off when I was putting on my lab coat at work the other day.  My design has fewer points to catch on coats. The other thing I liked about this is the scale. A lot of what I looked at on Etsy was larger in proportion, and I just wouldn't wear it. I like my bling on a smaller scale.

I ended up listing the van on cars.com. No nibbles yet, but the ad has only been up for a couple of days. I'm resigned to keeping it over the winter until interest picks up in the spring. We had that big snow storm on Tuesday night, and in the end got almost 10" of snow. One of the trees on my treelawn (the patch between the sidewalk and the street) split at the base and two 6" trunks came to rest on the van. I cut those away and the van seems fine. The trees around town took a big hit, though, as many still had their leaves on them. It's tough being a deciduous tree in CO. I'm hoping that the remaining half of the tree is OK, as it provides a nice privacy screen in front of my bedroom window.

Going to see live music tonight! Out with the friend that I dated briefly who likes the same kind of music. No expectations, and I like that. We're seeing Greensky Bluegrass. They've got a banjo player, so it's likely my kind of music.