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We made some waffles and had Tim and Jude over for breakfast, then we went to church while Tim and Jude headed over to the Festival. At church, Roseann was asked to fill in again for Becca's class, and I joined her after a while, and just in time, as apparently she really had her hands full with a large group of kids in a small room.
After church, we went to the Festival and made it there just in time for Tim and Jude's set. Tim is probably best known as a children's performer, but this set was meant to feature more of his acoustic Americana music, though he did one new children's song, which was really good. He is definitely a talented songwriter and performer, no matter what material he's doing, and we enjoyed his set very much, which also featured Jude playing some impressive fiddle on a few songs. We said goodbye afterwards and headed over to the playground area and the girls had a lot of fun there. They have a zipline swing that is really cool and that's always a favorite attraction when we go to that park. We stopped at the performer hospitality area for some food, which we had skipped out on yesterday, and then headed home and went to bed.
I had a show this morning at the Tumbleweed Music Festival, which is an annual concert held every year at a park here in Richland. My show was only the second of the day, so a lot of people were still coming into the park during my set, but I had a decent throng of local fans there and it was a fun show and a really beautiful day for the event. We stayed for a while and listened to some music and the girls got face-paintings, and then we went out for lunch and then back home for some final house rearranging.
At about 6, Tim Noah and his son, Jude, came over. Tim is a legendary children's music performer from the Seattle area and we'd been hoping to meet him at some point, so when someone from the Tumbleweed Fest contacted us to ask if we could provide lodging for some of the out-of-town performers, we were happy to offer the clubhouse beds to Tim and Jude. We all went out for dinner and talked for quite a while, then came back and put the girls to bed, then talked some more. Tim and I definitely seem to share some perspectives and experiences with our kids' entertainment, and it's been great to get to know him and learn more about his extensive career.
Becca and Evee with pigtails (Evee picked out her own clothes this morning!)...
Running around like crazy during "Hot Sand"...
The last "This Little Light of Mine" for the summer...
I got up bright and (too) early at about 4:30 this morning to go into the KVEW (local ABC affiliate) TV station to do a segment on their Good Morning Northwest show. I did a brief interview and then performed "The Elephant Song" with the two anchor ladies and the weather lady acting as my peanut gallery. I had intended to record the show and include a clip of it here on the blog, but by mistake I set our DVR to record "Northwest Today" instead of "Good Morning Northwest". I flipped through the recording later, but apparently I didn't make an appearance on "Northwest Today". Oh, well...
We spent more time today cleaning and rearranging things between our house and the clubhouse (where my studio is). It's all looking a lot better and I hope to be able to get back to some music work starting on Monday. I took a nap in the afternoon and then we had dinner and put the girls to bed. Gramma Jean was supposed to monitor them while we went to our game group, but the girls heard her come in and wanted to get up to hang out with her... Roseann ended up leaving the game night a little early to come home and relieve Gramma (who had put the girls to bed again after a while), and I stayed there a little later.
Setting up for a game of Stone Age with our friend, Nyck...
We mostly hung around the house today and worked on various things, including a lot of spring cleaning (which can be done in the summer, apparently) and redecorating. We made some pizzas for dinner and watched the movie Nim's Island, which we thought was pretty good, then went to bed.
The girls having a tea party...
I had a show this morning at the Albany Library, and it went very well, but I have to make an addendum onto the rule that I stated after my show at the Crossroads Bellevue that said; "If ever there is a show where I plug in my guitar but don't actually turn up the volume and strum it quick to make sure it's working correctly before the show, that will be the time when the battery for the pickup will have died." I have to add: "-or- that will be the time when the cord will have died." Now, I am always prepared with an extra cord, however, I forgot to replace the extra guitar cord that had gone dead a few months ago, so the only extra cord I had was a very small cord normally used to connect my wireless system to my sound system. Roseann could tell during the "Name Song" that my cord was dead, so she went rummaging through my equipment box and found that tiny cord and had to laugh. I plugged it in and used it, but for my guitar songs I was limited to kneeling on the floor right next to the sound system, which was a little awkward.
Anyway, after that we stopped at Skippers for lunch but I regretted getting the "all-you-can-eat" shrimp and fish, because I was already very full after the first serving... it kind of defeated the purpose of the "all-you-can-eat" aspect. We drove about five hours back home, thus ending the travel for our spring/summer tour this year. I have a show at the Tumbleweed Festival in Richland on Saturday, so that will officially be the last show of the tour, but it's good to finally be done with the traveling for now, as much as we've all enjoyed it.
This is a picture of The Invisible Band that I hadn't seen before...
The little cord...
I had a show this morning at the Woodinville Library and there was a really terrific audience there that was laughing and playing along with full exuberance. We left from there and drove for about five hours to Albany, Oregon. We were slow going in traffic for a while near Portland and a car drove around the traffic at an exit point to pull up next to us onthe roadside so the lady in the vehicle could yell, "We love the elephant song!" It definitely put a smile on my face... It's wonderful when someone really goes out of their way to say something nice like that. It was pretty late by the time we got to the RV park, so we pretty much went right to bed.
Becca making it clear that Zeke and I are not the same person...
It was raining again this morning, so we stayed in the bus for a while, but by the afternoon we really needed to get out, so we went to eat dinner at Izzy's, a favorite pizza buffet place of ours, and then went over to the Everett Mall. We stopped into a hobby store, where Becca and Evee eagerly played with their Thomas the Train display. It's really hard to tear Evee away from those!
We stopped into Petsmart next and looked at the rats and fish and birds. We were thinking that someday we'd like to get a parakeet (I had some when I was young), but that wouldn't work out while Tiggy is around, because although he'd like us to get a parakeet, too, he wouldn't have the best of intentions for what to do with it. Realizing, though, that we'd forgotten to celebrate Tiggy's birthday (which is, best we can guess, around August 1), I ended up buying him a fun toy with a bird that sways around and tweets. He really loves it and spent much of his time this evening playing with it.
We went browsing through a few other stores and then headed back to the RV park and played some games before going to bed.
Tiggy enjoying his new bird toy...
I wasn't feeling so great today, and I was totally wiped out and needed a nap, so we ended up staying put and taking more of a literal "day of rest". We did some reading, played some games, had some dinner, and talked to some family and friends on the phone. Not much else to report...
No pictures today, so I'll take this opportunity to get caught up with some of the video snippets we took with our digital camera during the trip... (These go from where I last left off through the end of June... I'll catch up with the rest of them soon.)
05/29/08 - At Uncle Brent's in Dallas; Evee playing with Audrey and Becca doing magic tricks for Daniel and Brent...
06/03/08 - The girls singing "Chocolate Rain"...
06/05/08 - A few clips from a show in Galvez, LA...06/12/08 - "This Little Light of Mine" from a show in Scotlandville, LA...06/12/08 - Dancing at Boutin's Restaurant in Baton Rouge...
06/13/08 - Horseback riding at Maranda's in Zachary...
06/16/08 - Tiggy amusing himself in the bus...
06/16/08 - A snippet of "How to Move a Monster" at the Greenwell Springs Library in Baton Rouge... 06/17/08 - Becca's first lost tooth... 06/17/08 - Tiggy meeting a smitten kitten... 06/22/08 - The puppet Louis singing "Under the Bridge" back at Brent's, with Audrey and David looking on... 06/26/08 - Dancing along to Monty Harper in Oklahoma City... 06/30/08 - Watching the Duttons in Branson...
I had a couple of coffeeshop gigs today over on Whidbey Island. Of course, I used to do nothing but coffeeshop gigs before doing kids' music, but it's very rare that I do them anymore. But I saw a listing looking for people to do acoustic gigs at Mike's Place in Langley, and I figured as long as I'd be staying out in Everett at this time anyway, that I might as well go ahead and do that. And it turned out that the owners of Rockhopper's Daily Grind in Clinton (also on Whidbey Island) recognized me from their grandkids watching the YouTube videos and asked if I could stop in and do a show there as well.
Seeing as the fee for transporting a motorhome on the ferry is pretty exorbitant, and these weren't really high-paying gigs, I rented a car for the trip over to the island. But it turned out that the car wasn't quite as "mid-sized" as I hoped, and there just wasn't room for all of my equipment and for my entourage, so Roseann and the girls stayed back and hung out in the bus, playing and watching movies and having a nice girls' day together.
Mike's Place had a sporadic audience coming in and out, as is usually the case for coffeeshops, but I had fun singing a variety of songs for the people who hung around. I used to have a set list of over 300 songs when I was playing these kind of gigs all the time back in Buffalo, but I was shocked at how few of them I could still remember at this point. I couldn't even remember some of my own originals... Nonetheless, I was able to dig into my memory enough to fill out the time and everyone there seemed to enjoy it quite a lot, but next time I do a gig like this again, I'll really need to go over some of those songs again, or bring along some cheat sheets, at least.
The Rockhoppers show was just put together a few days ago, so there only ended up being a few kids there and a smattering of adults, but every one of the kids was already a big fan and knew my music very well and the adults played along very generously and we all had a really great time together. After the kid songs set, I did a few of my coffeehouse songs for the grown-ups there, and then a couple more kids songs for some kids who showed up later.
I went back over the ferry and got back to the RV park in time to put the girls to bed.
A picture from the ferry ride...
Doing "The Bicycle Song" at Rockhoppers...
It rained a lot again overnight and the sky was looking very ominous this morning, so we had to make a decision about my show in Everett, whether to have it outside in the park, as scheduled, or whether to move it in to a smallish meeting room in the park complex. Now, I'm no meteorologist, but though the sky looked dark and gloomy, it just didn't feel like it was going to actually rain, so I went with that feeling and we set up outside. Thankfully, I was right, and the weather held out, with the sun even coming through now and then. I think we lost some audience because of the iffy weather, but a good number of people ended up coming out, regardless, and they were a really fun group.
After the show, we went back to the RV park and pretty much vegged out for the rest of the day. The girls played with each other and on their computers, and we did some computer work and watched a couple of movies; Hide and Seek, which was kind of creepy, and The Italian Job, which was okay.
Evee was the only kid braving the front of the stage area at first...
...but not for long...
It was raining pretty hard this morning, and though it stopped by about 9, the ground was still very wet at the park in Kirkland where I had a show, so it was held under the big pavilion there, which worked out well. There was quite a lot of wind, though, underneath the pavilion, and there was some kind of conflict with the wireless frequency that made my microphone a little choppy at times (I should have remembered that the same thing happened at that place last year). It threw me off a little bit, but I tried to make the best of it and the show went fine, regardless.
Thinking about it now, I am happy and somewhat amazed to be able to say that in four years of doing several outdoor shows in the Seattle area during the summer, none of them have been rained out. (knocking on wood) In fact, I think this is the first one that was even moved "indoors" because of the weather. When I tell people around the country that I live in Washington, they often mention how it rains there all the time. Of course, that's definitely not the case in the Tri-Cities where we live, but even in Seattle, I think that's overstated. Yeah, it'll rain fairly regularly here, but usually not for very long, and there are quite a lot of days when it's sunny and beautiful. At least, that's been my experience.
After the show, we stopped for some pizza, then went to an RV park in Everett where we'll be staying for the next several days. We went out shopping for a while, then came back and the girls played on their computers and Roseann and I watched the movie, The Illusionist, which we'd seen before but enjoyed enough to watch again.
We spent a few hours this morning cleaning up and packing up for a week of shows out in the Seattle area. After being in the bus for over four months and coming home for only two weeks, we were surprisingly unprepared to all go out together again. We left at about 3 pm and drove out to an RV park in Bellevue and stayed for the night. Not much else to report, but it's good to be back on the road as a family.
Babysitting Zeke's kids...
The temperature finally came down into the 90s today, so we went next door to the clubhouse and I did some work while the girls played. There is a window air conditioner there and a couple of fans, but they just weren't cutting it when it was 105. Today, it was at least bearable over there.
Roseann did some work painting some dressers for the girls room, but she wasn't feeling very good later in the day, so I ended up having family home evening with the girls while she rested. We played together on the Clavinova and did a "name that tune" kind of thing, then we played several rousing rounds of "Hide and Seek". For Becca and Evee, there is probably no greater thrill than playing "Hide and Seek", and the funny thing is, they barely even play it right... they'll hide somewhere and then jump out to expose where they are if you're even remotely near their hiding spot. It kind of defeats the hiding and the seeking... They have also played "Hide and Seek" in the bus, where there are maybe two or three hiding spots, and even in empty library meeting rooms after my shows, where there is really no place at all to hide. But they don't care... There's something magical about the act of counting and seeking and hiding... or at least pretending to hide in the case of the empty library meeting room... and they just go nuts whenever we play that game.
Becca drew the picture below of The Incredibles, and insisted on taping it to our mailbox outside, in case The Incredibles themselves might come by and see it (after all, they could be working incognito for the Post Office). Becca's greatest wish is to make cartoons come to real life, and she keeps asking how that can happen. Of course, there is always that possibility in her imagination, and with things like Disney on Ice... but I also tell her that who knows... someday she might help develop real-life moving and talking cartoons.
The girls serenaded us with an impromptu jam session this morning, with Becca on toy guitar and vocals and Evee on toy recorder and shaker. It was quite a beautiful noise, I must say, and the picture below captures their exuberant enthusiasm very well, I think.
We went to church and Roseann was asked to sub for teaching Becca's 5-6 year old class. I wasn't called on to sub this week (my church calling is, essentially, Sunday School pinch hitter), so I joined Evee in her class for a while and then helped out Roseann with Becca's class.
It was still 100+ today, so we were eager to change out of our church clothes when we got home. We had dinner and watched The Ant Bully, which was fun, then we went to bed.
Another hot one today... 105 again, I think. We mostly stayed inside and did what work we could during the day and then went out shopping and ran some errands. I met up with my local game group for a couple of games tonight. Normally, Roseann would have joined me, but our babysitters (her folks) are out of town, so she stayed in with the girls and they started work on a new abstract tree painting for one of our walls, which Roseann finished later after they were asleep.
Roseann and I brought in the pieces for the Clavinova (heavy!) and Roseann attached it all together. The girls enjoyed playing on that and it will be a big improvement from our old piano, which we picked up free from down the street, missing a key and all...
It was about 105 today, and the clubhouse where my main work studio is doesn't have air conditioning, so I didn't get much done in that respect today. I should mention that the Tri-Cities area, being a desert climate, typically gets this hot in the summer, which is why it's nice that we're usually not around much in the summer. In any case, with the heat expected to stay about this high for the next few days, and us leaving again for Seattle next week, I've become resigned to not really doing much actual work until September. On Labor Day, I will labor...
We went out and did some shopping and got some materials for Roseann to do some home makeover stuff that she's been wanting to do for a while. The girls went to bed and we worked a little bit on a video project then went to bed ourselves.
I had a show this morning at a park in Renton, and it was even hotter than yesterday. I had about 50 die-hard people camped out in the sun in front of where I was performing, and then about 100 or so waaaay back under the shade of the trees across the field. You can see what I mean from the picture below... So it was kind of a strange show in terms of the audience proximity, but it turned out to be a really fun one. I was drenched with sweat by the end, but I had a blast throughout.
After the show, I made a couple of stops to pick up some things in the area that Roseann had found on craigslist, including some mattresses for the bunk beds (we had borrowed some mattresses from Jean) and a Clavinova. I drove home and got back just in time to put the girls to bed.
I didn't sleep very well last night... there was a fly in the RV that kept landing on me and tickling me awake. I felt too tired to get up and try to swat it, though in retrospect I probably should have just taken care of that right away.
I had a summer concert series show at the park next to the library in Mill Creek. Last year when I performed at the same place it was so hot that my entire audience was huddled off to the side under the shade of the trees, and there were a few canopies up near the stage where more people were huddled. This year, it was hot out, but not quite that hot, so I had the same basic audience arrangement, though there was a group of kids who braved the sun and hung out right in front for the whole show. Normally, when I'm doing a show outside and it's really sunny and hot, I would cut back on the more active, dancing around kind of songs and do more story songs and other things like "The Elephant Song", where there's participation but you don't need to get up and move around so much. But this group of kids was really eager to dance, the heat notwithstanding, so I actually skewed the show the other way and did more dancing songs, though I kind of felt bad about working them out so much in the sun like that. Then again, they obviously had tons of energy, so it was almost certainly more of a workout for me.
Drew from the fun Seattle kids' band, Recess Monkey, was at the show with his daughter, Mira, and we talked for a little while after the show. I've been trying to hook up to see a show of theirs over the past year or so, but we haven't been able to get the timing right. They came out to the Tri-Cities to do some shows earlier this summer, but of course, we were gone then. I think we'll be able to see their show next Friday in Seattle, so I'm looking forward to that.
I was feeling desperate for a nap, so I had planned on getting one when I got to the RV park, but when I saw the pool there I ended up going swimming and felt a lot better after that. I did some computer work and made some dinner before going to bed.
Back at home, Roseann and the girls went shopping and played together and went to a play group meeting at a park.
With Drew and Mira...
Mary Jo and her kids left early this morning. We hung around and did some work and laundry and such, and I watched some tube with the girls. I left in the afternoon to drive out to Seattle again for some shows tomorrow and Thursday. I stopped in to meet with a game group in Bothell, then went to an RV park nearby to stay for the night. Roseann and the girls played a rousing game of The Sims on Roseann's laptop. Well, the girls don't "play" it so much, but they like to help Mommy decorate the houses and give names to the families, and they have a lot of fun with that.
