Read any good books lately?

I have! Austen was reading Water For Elephants. And I couldn't help but pick it up and read it in two days. It was very good.

Here's some information on it from Amazon.com Review:


Jacob Jankowski says: "I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn't always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn't a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn't write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison.

Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and... he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea.

The most interesting aspect of the book is all the circus lore that Gruen has so carefully researched. She has all the right vocabulary: grifters, roustabouts, workers, cooch tent, rubes, First of May, what the band plays when there's trouble, Jamaican ginger paralysis, life on a circus train, set-up and take-down, being run out of town by the "revenooers" or the cops, and losing all your hooch. There is one glorious passage about Marlena and Rosie, the bull elephant, that truly evokes the magic a circus can create. It is easy to see Marlena's and Rosie's pink sequins under the Big Top and to imagine their perfect choreography as they perform unbelievable stunts. The crowd loves it--and so will the reader. The ending is absolutely ludicrous and really quite lovely. --Valerie Ryan


Then I read Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet. I don't have a picture of it, but here's some information (also from Amazon.com):


As a little girl, Jane has no one. Her mother, the powerful head of a Broadway theater company, has no time for her. She does have one friend-a handsome, comforting, funny man named Michael-but only she can see him. Years later, Jane is in her thirties and just as alone as ever. Then she meets Michael again-as handsome, smart and perfect as she remembers him to be. But not even Michael knows the reason they've really been reunited. Sundays at Tiffany's is a love story with an irresistible twist, a novel about the child inside all of us-and the boundary-crossing power of love.


And now I'm reading this gem. Book 9 of the Sookie Stackhouse novels. Love them all. A bunch.

Nicholas' 15th Birthday.

Wow. Seriously. Where is the time going? It feels like only yesterday that my nephew was entering the world, and then I babysat him for a while (fun times), and now I blink and here we are the big 15th birthday. Crazy. Well, Nicholas ... we sure hope you have a great day. Wish we could be there!

80,000 plays.

So, another milestone has been hit (I think it's a milestone anyway). Today the boy's Myspace (Carcerys Vale) hit 80,000 plays. As of this typing they are officially at 80,300. Pretty cool. Considering they had about 45,000 at the beginning of March 2009, that seems pretty darn impressive.

Um ... what's new?

Feels like not much has gone on lately, but I thought I'd do a mini update anyway.

Saturday, 5/16: New venue for Carcerys Vale. They played at a place called Pop-Ups in Elk Grove.

Tuesday, 5/19: Bailey had her Open House at school. We all went to dinner as a family, and then stopped by her classroom and the cafeteria to view the Science Fair projects.

Wednesday: Austen had his first CV practice over at Will and Jeremiah's house. All went well, except for the fact that driving back and forth is a royal pain in the butt. Milo is supposed to be taking and bringing him home, as he lives very close to us. I hope that works out. If not, they may need to re-think practicing over there.

Thursday: "Lunch with Someone Special" at Bailey's school. I joked with her and asked, "am I the special person or you"? Haha. She said I was the special one. I'd have to disagree and say it was her. I brought McDonalds for both of us. Not my choice. Hers. :)

Friday: Went to the Chrysler dealer to have the ABS light looked at. They wanted $1,018 to change out all four ABS sensors. Puleeezz! Come to find out, after I had decided not to have the work done (I'm taking it elsewhere), the paperwork actually said that two sensors were out. Conveniently, the service tech didn't say that. He said all four needed to be replaced. Such crap.

Austen had practice over at Will's house today.

Kale and CJ rode their bikes all the way to Taco Bell! Dang. I'm going to have to find out how far that is. He said it was easy, but ended up being lazy (after eating there) and calling to get a ride home. Haha.

Saturday: Spent most of the day scrapbooking for Amanda's daughter's graduation gift. It will end up being two complete 12x12 albums. A large sampling of her life, from birth up until now (she's 18). So much work involved, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah! Obviously this is being done as a barter. Well, the time is bartered and she reimburses me for materials, so it works out quite nice. I will be glad when it's all finished, though.

Bailey had Lauren over (see pictures below). They had fun playing with water balloons, jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler (hey, when you don't have a pool ... you get creative), drawing all over the driveway with sidewalk chalk, and doing quite a few crafty things. It was a busy day.

The boys went to see the new Terminator movie tonight. They met up with their friend Mike Feb (Feblowitz ... something like that). It's funny how they shorten all their friends names. Jessica Richardson is J Rich. Haha. Jessica Swol is just J Swol. Jordan is Coo-J. Jeremiah is Fairy (he hates it, but it has stuck for some reason). Michael Lopez (their guitarist) is Milo. I like all the nicknames and find myself calling them the same things. Anyway, Mike Feb is also spending the night tonight.

I also know that tonight was Alexa and Bryan's housewarming party. I thought of you often, so I was definitely there in spirit. Would love to have been there "for real". Planning to work on a little housewarming gift (a little late), so I'll keep you posted when that's on its way.

Lost footage ... haha.

Well, not really "lost footage", but I had forgotten that these were on Bailey's camera. Happy to have them, of course. You know me ... I love to document it all. :) I didn't actually make it down to the studio. I did have Shawn take Bailey's camera and instructed him to take some photos, though.

The hallway leading to the recording area.

Jeremiah, Austen, Will (seated behind Jay). To the left is the window looking into the recording booth. Milo was in there at the time.

You can just barely see Milo in there, working some magic, I'm sure.

May 16th, 2009

Hope you have a wonderful day. We miss and love you guys!

On a more positive note.

Here are some of the promos that we shot the other day. I think the one above is my favorite. I do wish Austen had worn a dark shirt, but other than that, I really like this one.

This was Kale's idea. He shot it standing up on a brick column, looking down. I like the effect. In this one, I like that Austen has the light shirt. For some reason, he ended up in the middle, and it works here.

I loved all the worn out, run down crappy stuff in the area we were taking these. :) Old brick, peeling paint, splintering wood, wrought iron fence (in the background). Cool stuff.

I really like the vintage, grainy look. This was another one that I really liked. For family members: all of the images are posted on my picasa account, if you'd like to take a peek.

On to other news: the new songs are up on the myspace and seem to be doing very well. The first day they had 2,045 plays and the second day they had 1,003 plays. Very impressive. The daily plays have since slowed down, but it's still cool to think that there's that many people listening.

Such a shame.

Well, as mentioned in the previous post, Kale is taking a hiatus from the band. Sunday was a super tough day. Emotional and sad. But we are moving on from that. The fact that Kale needs to improve in the singing/recording department is a given. It’s good for him, and we are fine with that.

What I'm not fine with is how Kale has been treated since he stepped down.

I guess I’ve had some time to look at the big picture. This whole band thing. Carcerys Vale. You see, as of right now, this moment … it is merely an overpriced hobby. Seriously. I don’t mean any disrespect to the band, and certainly not to Austen. But let’s face it. This is a bunch of kids, amateurs, trying to make a go of something big. And that is an incredible thing. I love the passion, and the hopes and dreams. It’s all good. And something could certainly happen from all of this. They have potential. But in the grand scheme of things … this band would not exist if it weren’t for Shawn and I. And boy, I don’t want to sound like I’m tooting our horn. I don’t mean it like that. Everything Shawn and I have done has been from the heart, with no expectations. We have opened our home and hearts (and our wallets) and we have supported this venture 110%. And we have supported the entire band. Not just Austen and Kale. In the past nine months we have spent about $5,000. Yeah, can you believe it? I couldn’t either. And I would guess that that’s a low estimate, as I’m sure Shawn doesn’t want me to completely freak. Haha. (Not that I would). Whether it be on drum heads, sticks, cymbals, microphones, mic stands, the bass guitar, meals, snacks, drinks, transforming the game room into their practice room, fuel, guidance, show tickets, PA system, extra recording money, you name it … we’ve done it without a second thought.

So I think because of all that, because we have been so supportive, I’m having a really difficult time with the way in which Kale has been treated since stepping down. I mean, the very night he stepped down, his name was removed from their Myspace. That night! Why? A few days later, when new promo pictures were posted, an original promo (from the very beginning that included Kale) was quickly deleted. Why?

And really what I’d like to do right now is list every awful thing that has been said about Kale since then. But I won’t. I will say that there were so many things that should not have been said. Instead of being encouraging and supportive of Kale, they have chosen to be rude, disrespectful and mean. That pisses me off. And sadly, as I stated at the very beginning of this post … it’s such a shame.

Not the way we planned.

Well, the recording weekend is finished. They were able to complete an intro and three songs. Just what they had hoped to do. So cool. Everything sounds amazing. Very professional. But ... how do I say this? Kale was not able to do his vocals. Heartbreaking, to say the least. From what I understand, the act of recording brings out the absolute worst in your talent/ability. And I don't mean that as an insult to Kale. It brought the worst out in all of them. It took Austen 6-7 hours to record about 12 minutes of music. Crazy. That just gives you an idea of the intensity and the level of perfection that Jay (the FatCat guy) was striving for. Thankfully, for Austen it was drums, and although exhausting, it's something that you can keep trying to do over and over and over. The same is true for the guitarists. Vocals, on the other hand, are probably the most difficult thing to record, as there is no way you can spend 6-7 hours (or even an entire hour) trying to get something "just right". I mean, your voice just can't do it. So, that is where the problem lied. Kale just could not hit the high notes. He tried. Over and over. But it just wasn't meant to be. Milo stepped in for the vocals on Eyes of Desire. Kind of fitting, as it is a song he wrote. And I don't mean any disrepect to Milo, but he is not a singer. But he did manage to hit the necessary notes, and the song sounds amazing. They ended up recording the other two songs without vocal (just screaming), which is difficult for me. I hear the song, and I miss Kale's parts, of course. But overall the recordings are superb. We are happy with the end result. The drums sound great, but we sure miss Kale. Dang. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you plan.

So, for now, Kale has decided to take a hiatus from the band. He is going to focus on his vocal lessons, and really putting an honest effort into practicing. (Something he has not been good about). And we'll also look further into having his ear fixed. (He believes, as do I, that this could be part of the difficulties that he's having). That may require a little bit of surgery (tubes), and the recovery period for that. We are all so, so sad. Shawn and I especially. It just won't be the same without Kale up on that stage. We are so proud of him for putting himself out there, and really coming out of his shell. He has brought so much to Carcerys Vale, and we know he has helped them get to the level they are presently at. The door is always open for him and when he feels ready, the guys will welcome him back with open arms.

Please check out their new material here: Carcerys Vale

Happy Momma's Day.

Note: Picture taken on Mother's Day, 1944. My mom and her mom. :)
First and foremost ... Happy Mother's Day to the most important Mom in the world ... mine. :) I've gotta say she is definitely the best. I'm still trying to live up to her example, and I think I'm close. My kid's friends actually call me "mom". I believe I have arrived. Happy Mothers Day, Mom. Love you. And miss you.

Next of course is Mom Butler, Shawn's wonderful mother. We love her dearly, and are so grateful for all that she does. Hope your day is perfect.

And to all the other incredible mommas I know: I don't want to list names. You know who you are. You all mean the world to me.

Fat Cat Recording *update #2*

5:49pm: Austen texted to say "um got not featuring little wayne and eyes of desire done on drums ahaha. bout to do you're not born a monster and the intro hella fast. i couldn't go to a click track tho, its so hard. it sound great, i think".

7:55pm: we tracked three songs and the intro. now coo j (jordan) is almost done with his bass.

11:30pm Shawn picked Austen and Jordan up. They were exhausted to say the least. They managed to also complete almost all of the two guitarists parts (they will finish that up this morning ... Sunday), and then Kale and Jeremiah are up for singing and screaming.

Fat Cat Recording *update*

So today was the big day. The band headed to Fat Cat for some serious, authentic studio time. They arrived at 11:00am, and basically would go for as long as it took. Haha. Not really, but sort of. I guess the guy who runs the place is willing to go pretty late into the evening/early morning. They are scheduled for today and tomorrow, and at $500/day, they are hoping to accomplish a lot. From what I understand drums come first. Everything is recorded separately, and then put together as a finished project. I believe each instrument listens to headphones to hear what has been recorded to play along to it, so it is pretty involved and difficult to do.

So, here's where they're at:

11:20am: Shawn calls the house to say he's heading back to the house to pick up a set of Austen's new drum heads. Would have been nice to know in advance to bring those, but happy we had a spare set.
12:22pm: Austen texts and says: "still tunin' my stuff. he is super legit. my set sounds freakin' awesome!"
1:40pm: I text Austen to ask if he's started. He responds by saying "bout to".
3:12pm: Austen texts to say "haven't finished a song on drums yet. so hard ...."

Dang, that was not the progress they were hoping for. But I imagine they are going to pretty stoked with the end result. It should sound incredible! I'll keep you posted.

Ever so long.

It feels like it's been ever so long since I've been on here. Thought I'd do a random update:

1. Carcerys Vale hit 70,000 plays on their myspace this week. They are officially at 70,106!


2. Carcerys Vale is recording new songs this weekend at Fat Cat Studios in Sacramento. They are stoked, to say the very least.


3. Met with Austen and his counselor last week to see how he's doing as far as progressing towards college and of course, graduating. This is something the high school does for all Sophomores, which I think is so helpful. He is doing great! He has accomplished so much already and is definitely on-track for college.


4. Shawn, Bailey, her friend Lauren and I saw our first IMAX movie this past weekend. It was Monsters vs. Aliens (boring), but a very cool experience nonetheless. The boys also went along. They chose to see the new X-Men/Wolverine movie.


5. Monday: I finally got myself a new phone. I had my previous phone for so long, I actually forgot how long I had it. Haha. I picked the enV2. The same phone Austen has. Bailey got a matching phone, as they were running a deal ... buy one get one free, plus I got my extra discount for knowing the manager. Basically both phones were free. We just paid the tax, and that was it. Pretty sweet. So, yeah ... technically she's still pretty young to have a cell phone. I mean, I don't think she has but one friend who has a cell phone, but you know how it is when you've got the older siblings. Austen got his first phone when he was about 11. That was due to the fact that he was playing sports, and it just seemed necessary. Kale was about 10, and wasn't playing any sports, but still ended up with a phone (still trying to remember why, exactly, that happened). Thus, setting the precedence that Bailey would figure "10" was the magic age for getting her phone. Well, we made it to 10 years, 4 months.


6. No big plans for Mother's Day. (See comment #2 above.) The boys will be recording, which is totally fine. I think Bailey and I will definitely spend some time working on her science fair project which is due next week. What are your plans?


7. My ribs are still killing me. This really has become ridiculous. I went to the chiropractor Monday to see if an adjustment might help. My thought process? Well, both Shawn's co-worker and my friend Amanda had said that a common thing to have happen with ribs is that they "go out". So, I thought, "yep, that must be what's going on". I'm sure an adjustment is just what I need. The chiropractor did a battery of tests, and was pretty sure that I didn't have an actual fracture or broken rib (good news, I suppose), and then he set about to adjust the hell out of me. I'm not gonna lie. It was not pleasant. And I'm the type who looooves to be adjusted. But, it's been years, and I never had the rib thing going on. So, the two combined for a very unpleasant experience. Good news, though. I'm no worse than I was before, so that's got to account for something.


8. Took a walk this morning. Took Roxy with me. My goal? Really, really, really make an effort to take her for a walk each and every morning. Just a quick one, but something. For her, and for me.