Sometimes you have an affection for an inanimate object far beyond what can be explained. Sometimes that thing has meaning and symbolism in it that you can not explain. Sometimes you pretend to yourself it doesn’t matter because it is just an inanimate object, and an imperfect one at that. Only you understand its value, nobody else notices.

Sometimes you lose the object. Sometimes you grieve. Big deep belly sobs, pacing the floor anguish. Obsessing the mind with its loss for days. Powerlessness is the theme of your life as you consider how you could have changed what is now unchangeable.

Sometimes you lose many things in a short time. Lose a friend (who must be grieved), lose the best summer of your life, lose an inanimate object? And the losses, though unequal, roll up into one big ball which is impossible to swallow whole… and which makes it hard to go forward.

But it’s just an inanimate object. If only I could tell my heart and mind to shut up…

I have so much work to do. I don’t have time for this.

Today is the 12th anniversary of my marriage to Brian. I usually am full of words, but what can I say?

Marrying Brian is the luckiest thing that ever happened to me. At age 38 I was a bride, and my life just got better than I ever imagined it could be.

The “stuff” in our lives is modest. No matter, I’m rich. My husband lights up when I walk in the room. He is kind. He is interesting. We feel like this is yet the beginning.

What else could I want?

OK, this one is boring if you aren’t into problem solving or geeky stuff. Come on back tomorrow, if this is not your cup o’tea. OK? Yeah, the photo is a decoy and not about much in this column. (LynnH hugs you as you leave…)

Geek, Geek, Geek (again)

I spent much of 3 days trying to solve my problem saving Mom’s book #1 properly. I read the help files on the site I was planning to use to print her book, I read everything I could find on Google, asked a few friends who do similar work. No luck.

Then I wrote to an email group on Yahoogroups, where the members of that group do basically the same sort of work I do (writing/self-publishing patterns). I got several really helpful emails, some of which told me to do what I had already done.

The issue in particular, for those interested in details, was that I needed to create a .PDF file from Adobe InDesign, and it had to have the font fully embedded. The font I was using did not have restrictions on doing such a thing. Yet no matter what I did, I got the font embedded as a subset (not all the characters) rather than the full font. I must have tried to do it a dozen different times, with the same result.

When I tried to upload a PDF with a subsetted font (or no font embedded at all) just to see what happened, the site would error out and tell me I didn’t have proper embedding. Which was true, if I was to meet their specific requirements (and then be able to order copies of the book).

VISTA Woes… Again

With folks on my team (email list) who do this sort of thing every day, telling me I did it totally right, I took a bold sideways move. I installed the InDesign software on my old WindowsXP laptop which has been threatening to quit working for a year and a half.

I made the PDF according to the instructions I’d been following for 3 days on my VISTA machine. And I hate to say it, but it fully embedded my font the first time.

Apparently VISTA could/would not do what I told it to do, even when I ran the program “as administrator.” Even though the dialog boxes I had worked in, looked identical to those in Windows2000 where an internet tutorial said they would work properly.

Good News/Bad News

So the saving of the PDF properly is the good new piece of news. I was able to upload the inside of the book as specified. I uploaded a front and back cover. I clicked “Save and Finish.”

And then something happened and the site I’m working with for printing (lulu.com) would time out/freeze before saying I had “finished.” So I waited. For hours. No response, never a “finished” message.

I tried it with more than one browser, more than one operating system, two different computers. Still a time out.

So Saturday night I had Brian watch me and he could figure out nothing I did that would be wrong. And he found a “live support chat” link on the site. I mean, at 11:30pm on a Saturday. And we clicked, and I had a live chat with someone who confirmed I was on the right track but something was not working. So I now have a tracking number for the unusual website response.

They will contact me probably by Tuesday with a technician letting me know what is up there. So for now I can go forward on other things. Brian and I have our anniversary on Sunday, which is also his mother’s birthday, so we will go visit her and some of the family out of town for the day.

The Ones We Love

Brian and I had dinner together and a concert, on Saturday, for our time alone together. His family is pleasant company, and we will play music and chat and knit with them on our actual anniversary. I will enjoy the change of pace, will work in the car and relax when we are there. I usually work on Sundays so I will plug away on things when it is reasonable, and enjoy family when that is the focus.

Pair #163 and Hat Knitting

For the record, I have been knitting. I just bound off my 163rd pair of socks since Spring 2001. I’m also working very slowly on my chevron lace hat. It is ridiculously simple if you are a lace knitter, a 10-stitch, 4-row pattern where every other row is “knit all stitches.”

There are only 6 repeats, a total of 24 rounds with about 100 stitches per round. Yet I’m not much of a lace knitter and it is easy for me to mess up if I try to knit it while with other people. I am eager to wear the hat but I’m in the middle of repeat #5 and have a hiccup from a previous row to fix. That one is waiting for a quiet time with good lighting.

I guess I should be working on a pair for Brian if it’s our anniversary, huh? I do have a pair or two started for him, waiting for me to pay attention to a turned heel or some thing of that sort. Maybe I need to pay attention again, huh?

Oh, the photo? I spent several hours Saturday knitting and doing my best to mellow out with Kristi, mom of these two incredible almost-two-year-old boys. This photo was taken in May at East Lansing Art Fair, it’s my most recent photo of them even though I saw them when we sang at JazzFest in August.

The photo isn’t really much about this post other than seeing Kristi, though the boys are expert at crawling… quickly, not slowly!

Running in Circles

What a crazy time it is to start the school year. I do not have children and do not teach in a school classroom, but it still impacts my life. One night a week, I teach community ed Computer classes, but it seems other things in my life also revolve around the seasons, starting in autumn.

I have been doing without sleep trying to catch up on a backlog of computer/desk work. I’m still working on things I thought I’d finish long ago. Time to be living in the present! At least I’m never bored.

Change, and more Change

So much in my life is changing right now. As they say, there is nothing certain in life except change. I discontinued the very-very-beginner computer class, which I’ve been teaching since probably 1993 in one or more locations. It is puzzling to me how hard it was to let go of that.

I have continued with the “exploration” class which reviews basics and then proceeds forward, depending on the interests of the actual students that term. I punt a lot and go where their questions lead, and it works very well. I have sixteen students in that night class, and they take turns thanking me as they leave at the end of the night, waiting in line to say goodbye. I love it.

In Praise of Care

And I have found a wonderful new doctor. My health was very rough last year and I felt I had almost no support. Now I have a new allergist who turned things around for me early this year, and now a new GP.

May I sing the praises of caring health professionals? We hear so many complaints, and I have complained a bit myself, but I can make a list of healthcare people over the years who have changed my life and who have truly loved me with their actions. It is good to feel I’m in that situation again. I know it’s not a bed of roses in that field sometimes, and I really appreciate the caring folks I’ve had the joy to work with.

Don’t Faint

Also, the big news: I am no longer working for my beloved Foster Community Center. This is where I started teaching computers and then got into teaching knitting. I ran my CityKidz Knit! program there for I think six years.

They still love me, and I love them, but between extra paperwork to be re-hired again (I have been a temporary employee, rehired every year since 1993 or 1994), and other considerations, I decided now was the right time to bow out gently.

The yarns still at Foster center will be available to all the kids I’ve knit with thus far, my boss will take them into my old room and let them stock up on yarn and needles and bags. And my program that I’ve had at Rae’s Yarn Boutique this summer will continue at that location.

Sniff… Some Things Say Goodbye

I moved out of my classroom today, with the assistance of one of my knitters and two of her family members. Also I had three kids from CityKidz last spring, who came to collect yarn and needles in bags so they can knit on their own. I have photos of my last day at Foster, and stories to tell but it has been an exhausting day. I need to delay that for now. No photos…hence the title of this post.

…and Some Surprising Things Return

And speaking of change… I started my Friday back at a location where I used to do computer consulting (in 1999, for Y2K). I’ve discontinued my computer consulting (custom databases, corporate training and web design) for at least 4 years now. However, I designed a complex system in Microsoft Access 9 years ago, for them to run their business. It contains dozens of tables, forms and reports. Parts of the system have become corrupt overnight, but the data is still there safe and sound (sigh of relief here).

So I get a call out of the blue, for help. The good part is that I’m back temporarily working with people I really like and haven’t seen much in the last few years. The harder part is to make sure they are ready to go for their deadline October 1.

Whew. It is a little like going to Mexico years after your last Spanish class.`You know how to do it, but you need to think as you proceed for a while. I fixed the first big part but will spend some more time this week getting that healed and happy. Healthcare for the computer, I guess.

Color, Color, Color!

In ColorJoy news, Lansing has turned red and yellow and orange on the edges this week. I noticed my first electric-red tree on Thursday (across from Sansu sushi restaurant on Hagadorn in E. Lansing). Now color is everywhere. It’s still mostly green, but the colors really pop at this early part of the season. Lovely.

…and Eternal Hope on the Part of my Tomato Plants

I have maybe 2 dozen green tomatoes in the three pots on the back step. This happens every year. I have literally picked 3 tomatoes all year, and now one plant has 9 fruits at one time! They sort of crack me up, they are so optimistic! I keep watering them and will do my best to help them along while it is feasible.

Photos tomorrow… I have so many, but no time to develop them properly for the website.

Here is another photo from the gathering at my mother’s house. She iced a yellow cake with sour cream (this is influenced from her Norwegian heritage) and then decorated it with fresh fruit.

I am told by family that Norwegians like to decorate food as it is presented on the table. A smorgasbord might contain bowls of potatoes or something, with cherry tomato halves and green peas assembled in some artful arrangement to make it prettier.

It was such an artform that the birthday girl did not at first want to cut into the cake. In the end, she was glad she had done it.

(For the record, the soft-turquoise tablecloth here is closer to the real color than the photo I posted a few days back.) 

1. First things first. I guess I need to knit more garments, you guys are wonderful. I have not had this many comments in a long while. Loving every word, thank you.
I think I do look happy in that photo, which is super cool since I seem to have many moods since the weather turned cold. It’s really great to finish something and have it work out that well.

Now the sad part. I heard on Tuesday about the deaths of two acquaintances. One day, two people. Ugh. But I will celebrate each briefly. And post photos of growing things. My tomato plants are optimists, making flowers like crazy as the weather turns chilly. I love that about tomatoes, they seem to do it every year. Grow, fruits, grow!

Here is my small attempt at honoring two people who worked and didn’t complain. Good folks who are gone now, sigh:

2. Jean Lutz was someone I met through the Mid-Michigan Knitters Guild. She volunteered with my CityKidz Knit! program at Foster Community Center the first two summers, along with Luann C.

I could not have made CityKidz happen without them. I had a LOT of kids and needed as many helpers as I could get, and they worked without complaint.

I remember we would get yarn donated in tangled messes, and then the kids would tangle it more. Jean would take that yarn home and untangle it, rewinding it by hand into center-pull balls for the kids. They thought those balls were just magical, with the yarn coming out of the middle. I thought *she* was magical for doing all that work!

Jean also volunteered at Potter Park Zoo. I know she took animals to the schools for them. I’m sure they will miss her very much over there. Good folks are worth celebrating, you know? Thanks to Jean for the work she did for me personally, and for the kids of Lansing in general.

3. Phil Wintermute was a musician in Lansing. He worked at Elderly Instruments and recorded an album under Earthwork Music’s label. I met him at his CD release party a handful of years ago, though Brian knew him before that.

His album’s name was “A Handful of Dirt.” As a happy city girl, it took me a while to understand why someone would name anything like that!

In the end, I heard the song of the same name and realized that it was about the holiness of growing things. “There is nothing so sacred as a handful of dirt” is how his lyric went.

I would always ask Phil how his garden was. We shared a love of Swiss Chard, among other things.

He was one of the most grounded, peaceful people I knew. You know, there are some people I just want to stand next to, so I can sort of get more peaceful from their vibes. Phil was one of those people.

I just wrote about Phil in the wee hours this Monday when talking about the fun at Dagwoods. I linked to his MySpace page where you can still listen to some of his songs from that album.

Phil was one half of the band “Scratch and Sniff.” It was two guys with gray hair playing mostly old time music. The other guy is Paul. The joke was: Who is Scratch and who is Sniff? The answer? Phil was “and,” and Paul was “Scratch, Sniff.” That still cracks me up. For those who knew them, it sort of fit and neither minded the joke. Here is a photo of Scratch and Sniff, Phil on left and Paul at right. I took this at Rendezvous on the Grand while they were on stage.

Here is a photo I took at Dagwoods when our friend Aki was visiting in August. The blur at left is Phil dancing with someone who I do not know. On stage is Aki at center photo and Brian at right.

4. Now the fourth thing, the hopeful thing. Kitty Donahoe, singer/songwriter once from Lansing, now from Ann Arbor, played her song “There are No Words” at the Pentagon today. The occasion was the dedication of the 9/11 memorial there. She was accompanied by two other Michigan musicians.

She won an Emmy for this song in 2002. If you want to see a web page with a video of her singing the song solo with her guitar, you can click here.

If you would like to hear an interview with Kitty, aired on WJR Detroit today while Kitty was still on the Pentagon grounds, you can go here:

http://wjr.com/Article.asp?id=883083&spid=6552

I always used to say that Kitty had the most beautiful voice in Lansing. I only stopped saying that when she moved away.

And not only is her voice beautiful, but she has this natural beauty that makes me sometimes stare at her just a little too long. She’s glowingly pretty in a relaxed, Irish sort of way, and she moves beautifully. I think sometimes she wonders why I’m looking at her! I’m an artist; I don’t paint or I might like to paint her.

But that is merely skin deep, and she’s best known as a powerful songwriter, wonderful singer and performer. It is great to see that she is being honored for that, even if the occasion might be a sad one. She found words somehow, and her song has helped a lot of folks.

—
Now, turn your focus to these lovely tomato plants who are trying to make some fruit in spite of a chill. Poor plants, they really love hot sun and now the furnace runs in the mornings.

Maybe I will bring one plant inside again this year when the frost arrives. One time I got red tomatoes in November. That was wonderful! Talk about hopefulness. We all need a little of that sometimes!

It is Tuesday again. This is a good day of the week, in my life. Tuesday nights I can go to Dagwoods (with Brian, and often with Rae) for the open mic which is hosted by Jen Sygit.

Dagwoods is an institution in Lansing, it was started in the 1940’s. This was a time when East Lansing was a dry town, so bars just outside the East Lansing City Limits did well. Somewhere in the early 1970s, they changed all that (maybe late 60s) and the places which had thrived had a rough time. Dagwoods was one of those places.

Luckily for us, it looks about the way it did when my father went there in the dry days of East Lansing. It is a tiny, crowded place, but full of great folks. The bartender is a friend, who once worked with Brian. The musicians and customers are also friends/acquaintances.

Last time we went, I had a chance to chat with Jeremy Herliczek, photographer for the NOISE newspaper. I met him when the paper sent him to my house years ago. He was to take photos when they ran an article on me and my socknitting. We talked and laughed much longer than expected, we had such fun.

Jeremy owns a blockprint I created for a Working Women Artists group show. He walked into my house and saw another from the same series on my wall, saying “I have that print, too.” I was honored. It was wonderful to see him again at Dagwoods. There is always someone I’m glad I ran into, at the Open Mic night.

It’s an excellent Open Mic. There are so many good local musicians who love Jen, that they turn out in force. It can be a roll call of Lansing talent on a busy night. I have seen Mike Ross (of Scarlet Runner Stringband), Phil Wintemute, Paul Bennett (of Scratch ‘n Sniff), the Flatbellys, Andy Wilson (of Steppin’ in It), Susan Fawcett, Tamineh Gueramy, Luke Winslow-King, Chris Dorman, Cindy Lehmkuhle and more. Every night is a different mix but it stays a quality show.

I love the whole thing. I don’t drink at all, am not a bar sort of grrl, but this is an East Side landmark with a scene I adore.

I’ve never been to Dagwoods on a night other than Tuesday. I am sure each time of the week has its own regulars and its own flavor. Tuesday nights? it’s a young, creative, funky sort of crowd. I don’t fit that description but these are my friends so I belong anyway.

Brian took a few photos of Rae and I knitting together. Rae doesn’t perform but Brian and I usually do… this was while waiting our turn. I had somehow brought my purse without any knitting in it at all. Rae had emergency yarn in her car. I had needles. I started a pair of wristwarmers in cobalt blue Ella Rae classic worsted weight wool. They might come in handy very soon!

Photos: The Flatbellys minus one, plus my Brian (peeking through from the back); me knitting with Raein a relatively quiet moment.

I have not had such a nice weekend in so long I can not remember. I hope all of you did, as well.

The weather was gorgeous, sunny, hot, and perfect for daytime hammock sitting and almost-twilight bicycle riding. I worked on my Mom’s project (phase 1 of 4 is very close to done, we are both pleased). I knit, cooked, cleaned a little, did a project I had put off a long time.

I uninstalled software I don’t enjoy using, and installed some I like better. I cleared out old stuff from the office, cleared off the desk a bit, played some music with Brian and knit some more.

On Saturday I socialized a bit, tea with Sharon P and then a birthday/music party. I even got time to read some friends’ blogs and some of my email groups.

If there are three sorts of days off, I got approximately one of each with a little work thrown in. One day of socializing, one of lazing around and one of getting work done. Life is not often this lovely.

I wish for all of you that you feel a bit of my relaxation through the keyboard as you read this. I’ll bring photos back in the next post, but right now I need to go tuck myself into bed at a not-exactly-reasonable hour.

I don’t have an appointment Tuesday till 6pm, but I have more yet on my to-do list before I go out. Mom’s project will get another real push, and I have more software configuring to do. My goal there is to make the calendar I keep on my computer for classes, synchronize with Google Calendar for the world (my family and students, mostly) to see. I hope.

I think I have all the right pieces to do it but now I need to make all the gizmos and programs talk to one another… Palm Pilot to computer, computer to Google, all with different programs going on. It’s theoretically possible so I am pursuing it, will check back here to let you know how it’s going.

Drat, I’m chatting too much and it’s almost 3am. Goodnight, my friends!!!

P.S. if you want a nice photo or a few to look at, do go visit Kristin Nicholas’ Getting Stitched on the Farm!

I love summer, I love heat more than anyone I know… and am getting a little blue seeing nights cool off. We are supposed to have four warm days in a row, including Friday which just passed. This should be great news. But I woke up Friday with a headache. The kind that makes you want to shave your head, because maybe the weight of your hair is making it worse.

Somehow the allergy stuff in the air has changed in the last week and my body has to get used to the new breathing load. Ugh. It’s not a migraine, just sinus anger, and it will calm down soon enough. For now I’m all about Excedrin and vitamin C.

At the same time, I am doing a project for my mom which is just lasting longer than anyone imagined. Getting started was the hardest part and now it’s plugging along, slowly but plugging. Poor mom is eager to have the project in her hands, like a teen sitting by the phone waiting for a beau to call. And I’d be the same way if I were her. So I’m just plugging along, headache or not.

I have only 2 appointments this weekend and both are Saturday. Both involve knitters I love. One involves musicians, too. This could be good. It will be better if I can get mom a draft copy of her project before I disappear for most of the day…

…so for now, it’s back to Mom’s project until I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. The project is starting to really get moving and I can not afford to slow the momentum that has finally started building… send good vibes.

One day in July, Brian and I went on a road trip to Ohio to sing for a wedding. On that day, we saw two beautiful old cars worth photographing. The first belonged to the groom:

A Cutlass 442 from the mid-70’s. I remember a guy at my high school who tried to impress me with showing up at my house in his brother’s 442. (I graduated in ‘76 so this was probably ‘75 or ‘76.)

I was not very big on cars at the time, and did not get how cool it was. Mind you, I drove a ‘75 red AMC Gremlin and I thought *that* was very cool. It was small for the time, and it was colorful and cute. The 442 was white, yawn!

That guy went on to date a friend of mine. The cars remain cool, and now I understand.

OK, back to the Sunday wedding drive. On the way back home, we stopped in Ann Arbor for dinner at Zingerman’s Deli. I met reader Tessie who works there. She came up to me while I was in line for a cup of tea, and said “I know you but you don’t know me.” What a cool way to say hello! She totally made my day.

And on the way out of Zingerman’s, we passed by this lovely little machine:

It had wood in the dash, a lovely little zooming gizmo on wheels. My mom had a Chevy Corvair with similar curves in the back, probably a few years later than this and not at all as fancy. Why is it I remember things that are now considered classic? I’m still merely 49 years old, for a few more months.

In any case, the pretty cars did make the day more fun. The relationship stuff was better than that, between the wedding reception where we were much appreciated, and the simple act of meeting Tessie who reads this column. What a great day it was!

Well, I officially give up on posting anything in the order in which it happened. I give up on posting some things I had wanted to post. But today’s post brings me a smile, so maybe it will do the same for you.

There is a child who is special to me and who I do not see often. He and I (and sometimes his sister) like to dance in the dance tent together, at the Folk Festival each August. Usually we do this on Sunday afternoon, and that is what we did this year.

His sister was busy with other special adults in her life when I got there. So it was two of us who headed over to the tent together.

I usually like to take as many photos as possible in the dance tent. In fact, I did take photos both Friday and Saturday nights and have not shared them here yet. But on Sunday, the best photos of all happened. You see, I gave a kid a camera.

Magic happens when you let a child take a camera into their hands. With the miracle of digital photography, there is no film cost involved. Yes, he could drop it but so could I (trust me, this camera has survived a few experiences with gravity already). I guess it costs me a little battery life and time downloading them to my computer… then uploading to Flickr, in this case. But hey! The photos are so worth it.

People light right up when a child points a camera their way. Someone who might be shy or something when I am holding the camera, will beam at a child. And the photos a kid can get of other kids? Priceless.

Please condider taking a bit of time to check out my Flickr photoset, “Give a Kid a Camera: Great Lakes Folk Fest 2008.” When you get to that page, at the top right (just under a text search box) there is a light gray screen “button” which says Slideshow, if you want to see it that way. Once you get into the slide show, you can set the speed to slow or fast in the bottom left corner. You can tell it to go directly to the next photo by taking your mouse to the right side of the screen until a large triangle pointing right shows up… and clicking the triangle.

I think my young friend did a great job. (I only removed totally blurry shots, shots that were of someone’s back and nothing else, and duplicates when there were more than 2 or 3 of a certain person. The photos here on my blog are cropped/edited, but the ones on the Flickr site are as they were taken.) Go, Kid!

I don’t know the people here. Well, except the turquoise one would be me. I can make a fool of myself fully for a child I love! If you know any of these folks, do let them know their picture is here. I can either identify them if they wish, even link to their own internet presence, or even remove the photo if they wish. I personally love the fun energy revealed by a kid with a camera…

My mom, the amazing Liz Troldahl, turns 74 today. She has always told her age. This is good, because she is a beaming example of looking great and living well, at whatever age. If those of us who look great say our real age, we won’t be so surprised when someone looks great at any time, you know?

Mom and Fred were on the news again in the last week because they were ballroom dancing. They win lots of medals in Florida, the Polk County for their ballroom dancing: polka, foxtrot, tango, jitterbug, waltz, you name it. Mom can kick her foot higher than I can, I’ve seen her make shoulder-height not long ago.

Mom rides her bike a couple of times a week to the mall and back, so that she can exercise with friends. It’s a bit more than 3 miles one way, about 7.5mi (12km) round trip. She bought a recumbent three-wheel bike and usees it well and often.

You know I love color, and so does Mom. You know I love to dance, so does Mom. I love music/singing, so does Mom (she used to sing with her two sisters in Minnesota). Mom is an artist in many ways, both traditional and off-the-cuff. The longer I live, the more I understand that saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” That would be us.

Big, huge, happy birthday, Mom! I want to be like you when I “grow up.”

It seems every day lately is a social event and a place for photographs. It’s a good thing that on Sunday (the 3rd of August, that is) I mostly cleaned house and cooked, preparing for a guest. At least one day was not photogenic, which is a relief after all the photos taken at a music festival!

Our friend Aki, from Osaka, Japan, came on Monday. He stayed for 3 nights. Brian has known him for 20 years. They met at a bluegrass banjo camp (I think in Tennessee), and have stayed in touch ever since. I think this is the third time Aki has stayed with us since I met Brian about a dozen years ago.

The first night he was here, we went out for sushi and sashimi at Sansu restaurant in East Lansing. Aki loves to explain how things are done in Japan, and why, and show us things we may not know. He enjoyed showing Brian how to use chopsticks the way adults use them in Japan. I never paid much attention to how Brian used them, since they seemed to work fine for him. Lucky for me, Aki did not correct my form. (Sigh of relief.)

The main theme when Aki is here, is that music is played every minute possible. (The second rule is good food, usually at small mom-and-pop restaurants.) On the way home from our dinner, I called several old-time fiddle friends to let them know Aki was here and they were going to play music on the porch. One friend did come, and the three guys spent happy time on the porch playing many tunes.

Tuesday night we decided to show Aki the 1940’s neighborhood tavern, Dagwoods. Those who tune in here regularly know that we go there from time to time on Tuesday nights for the Open Mic night which is hosted by Jen Sygit. It’s a friendly place and all sorts of top-notch musicians hang out and take turns playing.

Brian and Aki did a set of bluegrass tunes. Brian played banjo and Aki was on fiddle. They sure had a good time. I had a hard time photographing them, they were moving so freely to the music! Wonderful.

In one photo here, you can see a blur of people dancing… one of whom is Phil Wintermute. I don’t know the other dancer’s name.

Brian and I also played a set, of course. It was also extra-nice that Rae joined us after her work was done, too. We all had a great time.

The blog called The Ukulele Evangelist has interviewed Brian this week (dated August 9, 2008). He did a really nice job.

He also linked to one of my favorite YouTube videos of Brian, where he sings “My Red Hot Gal.” It’s no secret that I like songs (vocals, singing) better than tunes (instrumental only), and this one is so lively!

This particular video includes Brian doing what is called “eefin’” which is something like a scat… vocals which are used much the same way as a trumpet solo, for example, in the middle of a song.

It’s a bit silly and makes people smile, which is the point. I used to go to Brian’s solo concerts because I thought he was so good at entertaining, and the eefin’ was no doubt part of the attraction.

It’s funny… off stage, I tend to be the lively one and Brian is more reserved. On stage? I look a bit like a vacant girl full of adoration for the wild guy. I had no idea that was how it looked until our 3rd Midwest Ukefest when friends took a video and sent it to us. It just sort of turned out that way.

As they say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” So we keep it up and everyone has fun, including us.

I don’t mind. It’s perhaps a little like George Burns and Gracie Allen, except I’m pretty sure few people are as smart as Gracie was. But the adoring woman on stage with her man? Yeah, that’s us. Good thing he’s a whiz on that uke, too.

(I’m not sure how I chanced into this fun life… lucky me, huh?)

First photo was taken by friend Hanno at Stage 1210 (Lansing’s Old Town) in January 2008. Second photo was taken by Regina at Altu’s Ethiopian Restaurant in 2004.