It's Just 10 Days

In around 6 hours, Ted will be heading east on tour w/ The Tim Lowly Ensemble. He'll be gone for 10 days, the longest he's been gone since Cadence was born, and the longest we've been separated as a couple since his Germany trip when we first started dating.

We spent our last evening together before the extended separation eating brats in Lincoln Square, getting milkshakes at Potbelly and taking some goofy photos.

As most of you know, Ted is a stay-at-home dad, so Cadence spends most of her awake time with him. Not only that, Ted does 99% of the cooking and 80% of the cleaning and 75% of the laundry. Plus he works two days a week at Trader Joe's and brews a LOT of beer. I won't miss the beer brewing so much, but the cooking? I'm not sure how Cadence and I are going to eat...

I don't think Cadence realizes what's going on. We've been telling her that Daddy's going on a trip, a LOOOOONG trip, but she has no concept of that because neither one of us has been away from her for more than one night since she's been old enough to remember. To her, a long trip is going out to Grandma and Grandpa's house an hour away. We'll see how this goes...

In case anyone reading this wants to see Ted's show, here is a list of towns they are playing. If you are near any of them, go to Tim Lowly's Myspace page for more details. If you DO go to a show, make sure you say hi to Ted, and if you're lucky, he may share a homebrew with you.

Jun 27 2008 8:00P Allegheny UUC (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Jun 28 2008 6:00P Art Center (Warren, PA)
Jun 29 2008 2:00P Kirkland Art Center (Clinton, New York)
Jun 29 2008 7:00P The Miller Family Home (West Monroe, New York)
Jun 30 2008 8:00P The Advent (Boston, Massachusetts)
Jul 1 2008 8:00P Pianos Upstairs Lounge (New York, New York)
Jul 2 2008 8:00P St. Andrews Summer Series (Block Island, RI)
Jul 3 2008 8:00P St. Stephen and the Incarnation (Washington, DC)
Jul 5 2008 8:00P The Good Cherry (Forest, Virginia)
Jul 6 2008 1:15P Bedford CC (Bedford, Virginia)

No, I Haven't Changed Domains Again

I'm still here, folks. I'm just kinda tired. My mind is also a bit preoccupied these days. I'm three-quarters of the way through A People's History of the United States, and it's pretty much kicking my social-justice-activist-wannabe conscience to the curb. In a good way.

Besides, the sun's been shining all spring-like, so I had to take advantage. Knowing Chicago, we'll be back in the 40's any day now.

Plus, the Tim Lowly Ensemble FINALLY had their CD release show on Friday night. I missed most of the show as I was watching Cadence in the nursery for most of it.

I let her loose in the show towards the end when things started getting a bit more rowdy. She danced like Richard Simmons on speed.

On Saturday, Ted and I watched our friends Holly and Kyle's daughter Helena all day, and we also went to Berry's Seeds of Change Marketplace, which was almost a whole-day affair.

There was a ton of music going on all day, and my good friend John Berton did a couple talks on solar energy.

Cadence had a blast playing w/ her buddies Rudden and Helena for HOURS. We tried to give them a nap in the nursery, but who were we kidding? We're just lucky no blood got shed and that all three kids LOVED chili, since that was the only main food being served at the event.

Oh, by the way, I had a post up on Shutter Sisters on Sunday. Go check it out:
Sunday School: Get Your Flare On

Back Into the Swing of Things

As you can see from this photo, our family is back to its late-night, partying-til-you-turn-into-a-pumpkin ways. Ted played a show Friday night, and we kept Cadence up until she lost her shoe, just like Cinderella.

My friends Ryan and Jan Hammer opened up with a very special Mystery/Shaddow Puppet version of Tales From Tuckaway. It was a loopty-looper visual and auditory treat. There were a lot of jaws on the floor once it was over.

I was also excited to see Ribbons of Song perform, and geewillickerswhizzo I was not disappointed. Ben, the frontman, accompanied by friends Pete (fellow Ben and Bruno-er) and Erica (of Anathallo) made music that made your heart want to explode onto canvas. And the fog machine? Totally rad. Especially in a church.

I hear Tim and the Boys and Gals played a good show too, but since Ted had to drum for that one, I spent most of their set chasing Cadence up and down the halls. Oh well. If all goes as planned, we'll be making a family road trip out of the upcoming Tim Lowly tour this summer. I just have to figure out just how much suffering and mayhem I'm willing to take.

Ready to Show Our Faces Again

Thanks again for all your well wishes. I'm doing much better, although I still have a cough that seems to have taken up permanent residence in my lungs. Where the heck does all that gook come from?!

The big news around these here parts is that the band Ted drums in, the Tim Lowly Ensemble, got to open up for Rosie Thomas at North Park University. Rosie just happens to be one of my favorite singer-songwriters. Her latest album called These Friends of Mine is a collection of songs recorded pretty informally, mainly with her good friends Denison Witmer and Sufjan Stevens. It's probably my favorite album of hers to date.

Tim was missing his pianist, Maestro Matthew Ganong, and his violinist Ethan Adelsman (who's too busy playing for a gazillion other bands), but Danny Bracken from Anathallo joined in on mandolin, and Rebecca Miller added another guitar. I missed most of the set, as I was playing in the hallway with Cadence, who decided that it was a great time to pretend she was a barking dog while we were in the show.

Rosie's shows are always a mix of her beautiful and often serious and sad songs with her hilarious comedic antics and stories thrown in throughout the set. If you only listen to her CDs, you wouldn't think her shows would be this fun. It would kinda be like if Adam Sandler were performing an all Nick Drake concert, I suppose.

Rosie even performed what almost seemed like her own version of a burlesque show, except it was more like calisthenics and consisted of things like sit-ups, leg-lifts and the like. Only at a Rosie Thomas show will you witness something like that...

Cadence was actually in a good mood all throughout soundcheck (which started at 6:30p) pretty much until we went home close to 11pm. She didn't run amok as much as usual, and she actually did try to be quiet because she had told us she wanted to go to the show, and we'd told her she would have to be quiet. I think she spent so much time being quiet during soundcheck that when it was actually time for the show at 8pm, she was all quieted out and needed to do little kid things like crawl on all fours and bark. Totally understandable. Ted and Dave took Cadence outside to play during most of Rosie's set so I could enjoy the show without being self-conscious about my squirming-crawling-barking 3 year old.

Anyhoo, good times, good times...

Today I Drink My Coffee From a Big Cup*

And boy, do I need it. Since we have to wait until Cadence goes to sleep to get our Heroes fix, we've been going to bed a bit later than normal on work nights. Then last night, we were out with Cadence until past midnight, and today I had to drag my butt out of bed bright and early to pick up our CSA delivery. Ugh. Plus, our upstairs neighbor is having her hardwood floors buffed and sealed, so it's been pretty noisy around here, which means Cadence won't nap. Which means I can't nap.

So Ted & Tim Lowly and gang played a show @ the Beat Kitchen last night. It was an all ages show, which is why Cadence went with us. This is a photo of Tim right before he got abducted by aliens.

The lineup at last night's show was pretty different from the usual. Matt Ganong, the pianist, is in California playing for an opera. He'll be there for a few more weeks. Ethan, the violinist, was somewhere else. He WAS in South Korea visiting his brother, but I don't know if he's back yet. Anyhoo, the lovely and talented Rebekah Miller filled in the gaps.

I hear the show went well, but I wouldn't know as I was chasing Cadence around the block pretty much the whole time.

*The title of this post is a reference to an Ian Moore song, "New Day." Apparently, Ian likes his coffee from a big cup too.