In the Yard

I always hated working in the yard. For at least one weekend every summer my brother and sister and I would have to help my mom and dad rake up leaves, pull weeds, pick up the trimmings left behind by the shears and repaint the benches and rocks in the front of the house that had been stripped of their life by the winter. As far as I was concerned though, summer was summer and one weekend was one weekend too much to spend on the yard.

Things are different now. I look forward to giving a haircut to an out of control yard. I have a few ideas as to the reasons my attitude has changed, but mostly, I like getting dirty and hanging out with my wife on our one day off together.

Last Saturday we spent about 7 hours in the yard. It had been about a month since we had done anything more than mow the grass, and it was bursting. We were able to get a lot done though, including throwing down about 8 gallons of some really disgusting compost. Afterwards, as the sun was going down I busted out the lights and attempted to make a portrait of Deborah.

I don’t practice lighting as much as I’d like to. It was slow. Thankfully D was willing, and patient.

Little Brother Gets the Led Out

My brother and sister are awesome and I’m so happy that our bond keeps getting stronger as we get older, especially considering that they’re twins and could have easily shut me out! Ha. With that said, I have to brag on my little brother for a second. He’s been a member of the band “Fancy Bastard” for a little while now. He’s made some good friends in the music scene and last week he was invited up on stage to sing a song with Minneapolis based band, God Johnson, at their farewell show June 25th at the Cabooze in MPLS.

He told me he was really nervous and that there were about a thousand people packed into the bar for the show. To make it worse, he was going to sing Led Zepplin’s “Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid.” I’m no singer, but I can only imagine that it would have to be a little intimidating trying to pull off a Robert Plant-esque performance.

The nerves showed a little at the beginning, but he calmed down and did a damn fine job and didn’t come off too cool like these goofballs…yuck. 

I know this seems like someone pushing baby pictures on an unsuspecting stranger, but if you care to listen go here and find “Heartbreaker” in the song list in the upper right hand corner. Or listen to the whole show.

Mitch and I singing “Mr. Roboto” during Karaoke at O’Garas in St. Paul, MN. Thanks for the photo Kia.