So this is where Paul Cotton's been hiding

Seems my favorite member of still one of the best bands out there (Poco) spends a lot of time in Key West. Who could blame him? I'd sure follow him there. From the first time I saw Paul Cotton back in Jan '06 I've loved everything about this man, his voice, his stage presence, his personality. And from the many times I've seen him since I feel even more of the same about him. Paul is one of the nicest, most unassuming and unpretentious artists I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Hopefully he'll be with Poco again on the following dates. If not, I may just have to sacrifice and make a trip to the Keys (haha, I wish).

Paul Cotton and Poco performing "In The Heart Of The Night" -
Solid Gold 1982


Paul Cotton playing again "In The Heart Of The Night" - Poco Live 2004

It's raining babies...

Erin's baby shower was on Sunday and her family and friends did a great job of making the 2+ hours fun for everyone. So many people are eagerly anticipating the birth of this special baby boy (my grandson). I, myself can't wait to meet him. 43 days and counting!

Saturdays in summer

Saturdays in summer are great. It's the one day of the week where I'm free to sleep in as late as I want and stay up as late as I want. I usually don't do either but it's good to know there's one day I could. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty for not using my Saturdays to do the "little" things I should be doing (keeping my house up, yard work, cleaning out closets, that sort of un-fun stuff). But when the opportunity arises, especially in the summer, I'm ready to drop that guilt like a hot potato. Ouch! Besides, isn't all that "un-fun" stuff what winter's for?

Below are some pictures from this past Saturday when Mark and I started the day early by going to the Farmer's Market in Tower Grove Park. From there we went to Villa Marie Winery where we had a nice lunch and bottle of wine. Wine is another thing I love to do in the summer...

Missing Merz

Sometimes when reading a blog continuously over a period of time it almost feels as if you begin to know the writer of the blog personally (even though in reality they are a complete stranger to you). I guess in a way that makes sense because reading someone’s posts are a little like peeking into their private diary (with permission). As someone who is always in search of new music I’m a big follower of music blogs. I visit a handful of them on a consistent basis and others I only skim once in a while. One music blog I found myself returning to nearly every day was called "Mars Needs Guitars" (MNG, for short).

In the beginning I would visit the MNG blog simply because the blogger and I seemed to have the same taste in music. I have to admit I would often ignore his posts about the artists and merely grab the free downloadable music he so generously supplied. Then one day I read, really read, what the blogger had to say and noticed he wasn’t really writing much about the music. He was more often than not writing about his life and there was something in his words and tone that caught my interest. He seemed to me like the saddest person in the world and it touched me. After reading his profile stats (late 40s, divorced, male, went by the name Merz, lived in Melbourne, FL, etc) I felt by his writing that he seemed to be a man spiraling downward and possibly out of control. From that point on I frequented his music blog more for words than for music.

Merz (as I thought of him now) continued to write bits about the music he loved but mostly he wrote about struggling with his depression and a lack of motivation and direction in life. He would talk about days at a time where he could barely pull himself out of bed in the morning. He would talk about how hard it was just to be and write and in his writing he made the reader (myself for one anyway) feel what he felt, like what was the point of it all, what were we all doing, where were we going, and why. Comments left from other readers were mostly sympathetic to his plight. They thanked him for his great music blog. Some even offered suggestions or ways they thought could help but nothing seemed to lift Merz up. Once I tried myself to offer positive words but failed with no response. I don’t know anything about the life of this man, what he did/does for a living; I’m not sure he did anything at all, but some times days and weeks would go by when he would stop doing what I knew him to do. He would stop posting music, he would stop writing words, he would as far as his readers knew simply disappear. And then eventually he would return and in a new post mildly apologize for his long absence. It seemed he was apologizing for being sick, to strangers, and that to me seemed the saddest thing of all. The “Mars Needs Guitars” blog doesn’t exist any more and I’m not sure why. Merz shut it down a year or so ago. Maybe he grew tired of confiding in strangers or perhaps even grew tired of the music. Every once in a while I’ll still search for his blog in hopes that it’s back up and his mental health has improved. But after clicking the old link today and seeing his message I'm sad to say I don't believe that's so. http://www.marsneedsguitars.com/

Sunset at The Oasis

Emily and Holly arrived in Austin in the wee hours of the morning and in a matter of just a couple hours the lucky dogs will be sitting on one of the 40+ decks of The Oasis Restaurant overlooking beautiful Lake Travis while waiting for the sun to go down. The Oasis is known world wide for its' spectacular views of blazing sunsets and if I ever make it back to Austin I'll be there to see another one. http://www.oasis-austin.com/ 

The Oasis Restaurant - Sunset Capital of Texas

(450 feet above Lake Travis)

View of beautiful Lake Travis from The Oasis

A "not so traditional" wedding

I went to a kind of non-traditional wedding this past weekend. I wasn’t sure what to expect because several times I heard “it’s not going to be a traditional wedding” and well, it wasn’t -- but in a way it was. I mean, it had a bride (a woman), a groom (a man), bridesmaids, groomsmen, a flower girl (in matching mini bride dress), a ring bearer (in matching mini groom tux) and I think somewhere in there I even heard the word “obey” uttered (followed by a loud guffaw or two). Do they really still say that…is that even legal?? This wedding also had a reception, a cake, even an ice sculpture. So what was so "not so traditional" about it? I don’t know. The bridesmaids dresses were black but I think that’s ok now and personally I love black. The groom's hat had a long green feather sticking out of it but is that so crazy? Some of the bridesmaids wore large colorful tattoos but that’s pretty common now days too. Maybe it was the wedding and reception taking place in the same room. But aren’t so many things being consolidated these days to save time, money, space? Why not weddings? Maybe it was the music that made this wedding a little different, or the way the bride made her appearance to the beat of a Bob Marley song saying something about “don’t worry, everythings gonna be alright” (the traditional wedding march, it was not). Maybe it was the shared laughter of the wedding party, audience members, and even the preacher himself during the entire ceremony. Maybe it was the light silly mood and un-seriousness of it all. Some may think of such a wedding as a mockery of what is usually a serious (even somber) occasion. Getting married is a serious thing; that’s true. But is it really so important how one goes about it? Today we have underwater weddings (wow), weddings held in a hot balloon (no way), skydiving weddings (no earthly way!), pirate weddings (arrrgh!), bungee jumping, zombie weddings...so on and so forth. I don't believe there is a wrong or right way. As long as the two people taking the giant step feel good about it, as long as it’s “right for them”, does the rest of it really matter? After all, traditional weddings like any other don’t guarantee success. Personally, I think the success of a marriage (or lack of) is more about what comes after. Maybe that's where the seriousness should really begin.

Couple taking their underwater vows, in which they promised to dive with each other even when they get too big for their wetsuits.

I'm baaaaack!

Did anyone miss me? Uh, never mind. Though I’ve been back from vacation for almost a week...returning home to a broken A/C unit, being sick, having a super busy week at work, and other daily distractions...has caused a vacation posting delay. So without further ado, here’s a slideshow of our week in the Ozarks.

(Warning:  it's a long one -- you may wanna grab a bowl of popcorn or something) :)

After returning from a night out we found this critter in our lake house (on the carpet in the girl’s bedroom…eeek!!). At first glance, we thought it was a strange looking mouse without a tail. At second glance, we discovered it was a BAT!! Yuk! (click on his pic for a better look). Wish I had a video of us girls screaming and running for our lives…ha ha! Thanks to Fred for capturing the little guy and setting him free outside. Whew!

Vacation videos to come (hopefully)…

Dog days of summer...literally

Tomorrow I'm off for a week of fun in the sun (or rain) with friends, family...and dogs. Oh boy. :)

May Recap

Bye bye May. Hard to believe but another month of 2010 -- gone. This month was a busy one and as usual flew by like the rest. The thing I like most about the month of May is that with the passing of Memorial Day it is now officially ok to wear white. :) Slideshow below includes a few highlights of the past month.