Wailin, part deux

Although I have written about the Wailin Jennys before, I believe another concert attended deserves another blog post written. And here we are.

Last night Katherin and I (along with our friends Martin, Amy, and Justin) jumped in the car and drove 1.5 hours to Platteville WI. The concert was held at UW-Platteville, in a very nice auditorium on campus. The acoustics were very nice.

For the third time, these ladies knocked my so-called socks off. We got to hear lots of songs we know (we have both of their CDs) as well as a few new ones they are working on. I was amazed (over and over) by their musicianship and passion. We stuck around afterwards and got to talk to them and get our CD signed. Woohoo!

"Spraining your ankle is God's way of keeping you safe from bears"

I had quite an adventure in Leavenworth myself, and I haven't even blogged about it. Shame on me. Its almost been a week!

Well, my first day there I went for a run on a secluded gravel road. About a mile into the run, I turn the corner and see this gal --->
Well, not exactly since I didn't have a camera on me. This was stolen from google images. Even better, she had a cub right behind her. They took one look at me, and took off down the hill. Neato.

Then next day I go for run #2, and instead of finding a bear on the trail, I find myself a sprained ankle. Ouchie. I hobbled back to Willy and Eron's place, and proceed to have it swell up like no other. Off to the emergency room where I get x-rays, crutches, an aircast, and some drugs. Needless to say, there was no more running and lots more sitting around and reading for the rest of the trip.

We had even more craziness the last day of our trip. We all went out to an amazing dinner in town, and arrived back after dark. We let their doggies out, and Ghani-ma ran straight into the night and started barking. We all followed, and found the black bear she treed. Awesome! I got a brief glimpse of this one, and then she decided she was outnumbered, and took off.

In summary: Two Bears = awesome. Sprained ankle = el sucko.
-Carl

EDIT: CORRECTION: THREE BEARS = AWSOME-O. SPRAINED ANKLE = EL SUCKITO

Trouble at the lodge (a little vacation story)

The lodge that Willy and Eron are caretakers of was empty last week so Carl, my parents, and I were very excited to have the huge place all to ourselves. It's a 1930's house, with about 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and 2 fireplaces. There is even a maid's wing. It's generally updated with most modern conveniences, like a furnace and hot water heater, but the kitchen was retro-fitted with a 2 burner cooktop range and a wall oven, leaving the original cookstove in all it's massive glory.

So, we settle in to the lodge and Willy turns the furnace on for the first time that year. It kicks on just as expected and we hang out comfortably by the fire. About bedtime, I'm thinking it's a little cold, so I turn the heat up just a touch. Sometime in the night, my dad wakes up feeling cold and turns the heat up another notch. Later yet, my mom wakes up and turns the heat up again. But, the furnace just won't kick on, which is fine if you're into freezing.

So, the next morning no one wants to get out of bed cause it's cold. But, we wander over to Willy and Eron's house to tell Willy the furnace isn't working. Willy immediately goes to check it to find nothing obvious wrong. My dad checks it and can't find anything either... and these are 2 handy guys we're talking about. So, we suck it up and just try to warm the lodge with the fireplace for the next night until Willy can call the furnace repair person the next day. I'll admit, it wasn't so bad once I was under the covers.

Next day my mom decides she should take a bath (they have several fancy bath tubs), only to discover there is no hot water. She makes the walk of shame back over to Willy and Eron's house to tell them, "now the hot water heater isn't working either." So, again Willy jumps up to check it and there is nothing wrong with the unit itself. They had checked the fuse box the day before, but check it again, to find nothing tripped. Then we notice that the small electric cooktop range won't turn on either. Obviously this isn't a furnace problem, so Willy cancels the furnace repair person and calls the electrician. Surprisingly enough, the electrician tells him to check a few things first, so Will grabs his tools and my Dad and him went off to test the fuse box.

So, there's a cover to the fuse box that you're never supposed to take off... so they took that off to find a peculiar site. There was a tree frog frozen in the middle of a step, fried to a crisp. He was apparently (I'm not sure on the lingo here) completing the circuit and shorting out the major appliances that needed both sides of the fuse box to work, but things like lights and stuff, that run off only one side, were able to work just fine. So, they cut the power, took out the frog and everything instantly worked again. The end.

-Kath

Can a Vacation and Wedding planning mix?

Well, the answer is, "just a little." Which brings me to a brief backstory.

Right after Carl and I got engaged, we saw our friend Damian in Milwaukee, probably at a party. He had just been up to the twin cities to visit his sister and had, for some unknown reason, made a visit to a local paper/stationary store called The Paper Source. Damian, being the considerate fellow that he is, picked up a few catalogues for us and gave them to me. I appreciated the thought, and all the help I could get, but back in February wasn't really thinking about invitations yet. So, for the last 2 months I've been hitting the stationary stores pretty hard. I've gone to some pretty strange and unlikely places just hoping to gather enough ideas to get off the ground as my intention is to design and make these myself (with help from friends, of course). So, after a night of brainstorming with my very patient and creative friend Amy, my memory was suddenly sparked and I went to get those catalogues from Damian. Turns out there are many locations, but none in Madison. Strangely though, there is a location just outside of Seattle and I was only a few days away from leaving for vacation. But, I talked myself out of taking any info with me because I thought my parents and Carl probably wouldn't want to make a side trip to a stinkin' paper store.

Now, as vacation is just beginning and I'm sitting on the plane with my mom, who is notoriously agreeable, I mention my paper dilemmas of the last few months then tell her there is a store only a few minutes out of our way. She asks my dad, and before I know it, I've got directions to the joint. So, our vacation officially started with a trip to the stationary store. As an extra triple bonus, 2 Honda Fits, just like mine, drove by while we were walking into the store. I think it was a sign.

As expected, they had all kinds of good stuff and I walked out with a bag full of goodies and a warm heart knowing that I can cross several tough TO DO's off the list.

So, that's my little shout out to Damian for being such a darn good guy. Thanks man.

In a separate, but related story, I made a trek over to Milwaukee on Tuesday to meet Hillary and Gabe at another paper store to try to get all the details worked out so that I could have a proto-type ready by the end of this week. After a consultation with Amy Holste, then adding Hillary's new perspective, we got the details shook out and I'm finally feeling excited about this invitation project.

So, I'll conclude with an additional 3 shouts out to: Amy for her patience and persistence, Hillary for finding that fabulous ribbon, and Gabe for keeping it real-- real cute, that is.

78 days, people. Are you freaking? I'm freaking.

-Kath

Remember, wear clean underwear in case it's your birthday

Happy Birthday, Justin P. Richardson. Wishing you a day full of monsterita's and beer dip. Don't forget to take a bath!

-Kath and Carl

Knock, Knock - are any readers home?

Tony Pierce, who is kinda a pro at this blogging thing, says, "never apologize for not blogging... just starting blogging again." So, in my round about way of maybe apologizing for the delay, I'd just like to say this isn't actually a real post. Ok, well... yes, it is a real post in the technical aspect, but what I'm trying to say is that Carl and I have just, not two hours ago, returned from a lovely vacation out to Washington with my parents to visit my brother, Sister-in-law, and their ranch (IE homeS, petS, wildlife, farmin', and the like). And, as I've said before and will say again, strange events have a way of finding me (and my family I guess). Therefore, I am delighted to say that I will have some quality material to blog about next week. For the moment, however, you'll just have to take this pseudo-blog as a teaser until I get home to Madison tomorrow and am able to transfer all the photos off the camera over to the computer. Then, there will be a brief period where Carl and I will have to arm wrestle to see who gets to tell which stories. Then, blogging will commence. Kinda magical, huh? :)

-Kath