10/11/08 - He's got legs... He knows how to use them...

I'd like to introduce you to our new pet, Sticky, a giant African millipede. Initially, Evee had named him "Butterfly" when we thought he was a girl, and that seemed like a nice name for a millipede, but then we checked and found out that he was a "he", after all, so "Butterfly" didn't seem like the best name. I suggested we call him "Velcro" because he sometimes attaches himself to you like velcro, but Becca invoked her right to name him (as Evee had named Tiggy). Becca preferred "Sticky", so officially, for all court records and bank accounts, he will be known as Stick E. Velcro, but we'll just call him "Sticky" for short.

So how did we end up with a pet millipede? Well, Roseann and the girls went out to a pet store today and when the owner noticed Roseann taking an interest in the millipede she offered him to her for half off (only $5) because nobody had bought him after several months. Roseann felt bad for him and apparently she had always thought it might be interesting to have a millipede for a pet (you know, the whole "a girl and her millipede" thing). She did some research on them and they are very low maintenance and docile, so she talked me into getting him. He is very cool looking and it's amazing to watch all of his legs working together. It's also quite a chore when he decides he wants to back up and has to shift gears to start all of the legs going the other direction. Our best attempt at counting his legs added up to about 260, but he'll still grow some more segments and legs, so it might get up to about 300. At first, Tiggy didn't seem to have any interest when Sticky was in his cage, but then Roseann had him out on her shoulder and Tiggy was suddenly very eager to check him out and pet him. We made sure he kept his paws (and claws) away, though. Sticky will stay over at the clubhouse, where he can curl up safely in his cage.

10/7/08 - Bellevue

I drove out to Bellevue today for a school show at Somerset Elementary. It was an evening "welcome back to school" event (they had a teacher's strike for a few weeks, so school didn't start until later in September), and boy, were the kids fired up. They were a really wild crowd, and it was a lot of fun except for when someone threw half of a hamburger up on stage. It looked like a perfectly good hamburger, so I was sorry to see it go to waste.

I'd been to Bellevue many times, but never up the hills on the south side, which is where the school was. I had to pull over twice to take in the view, which looks out over all of Seattle and Bellevue. The pictures below don't do it justice at all...

Stage? Who needs a stage? This chair will be just fine...

10/5/08 Some pics...

Here's a few pictures from Becca's camera from the past week...

10/4/08 - Spokane Day 6

We went over to Gwendolyn's house and had a really nice breakfast with her and her husband, Greg. We talked a lot and played a game of Pandemic (losing horribly) while the kids played together. Gwendolyn had to go to work, so our visit wasn't as long as we'd all have liked. We stopped at a Halloween store for a while and looked at all of the spooky stuff, then headed over to my gig at the Spokane Valley Library, which was the last of the stretch here. The show went very well, and then we drove back home and went to bed.







The girls rockin' to some 50's tunes on the A&W jukebox...

10/3/08 - Spokane Day 5

There's a big game store warehouse in Spokane, so we stopped by there this morning and picked up some new games. Then we went to the Spokane Valley Mall, where they have a fun play area for the girls. We went to McDonald's to meet our friend, Phil, and his kids. We met Phil a couple years ago through his great blog, A Family Runs Through It. He lives in Coeur d' Alene just over the border in Idaho, and we've become good friends and try to meet up when we're in the area to talk about music and family and life in general.

I had only one show today at the Argonne library, and that was a lot of fun. After the show, we headed back to the RV park and had dinner and played a couple of our new games, then went to bed.





With Phil and his kids...




Having a rest after some serious bouncing, flapping and twisting...

10/2/08 - Spokane Day 4

We went back to Kenn's house this morning. Roseann talked with Kenn's wife, Ann, and the kids did some finger painting and other crafts, while Kenn and I went over to record an interview for Carlos Alden. Carlos has hosted a radio show on KPBX in Spokane for many years which features a combination of Celtic music (which he performs with the local Celtic Nots band) and kids' music. The interview was a lot of fun and Kenn and I got to talk about some of the things we've worked on, which we've never really done together in an interview (there have been some written articles about the two of us, but we were interviewed separately for those). Kenn read a few of his poems and I played a couple of the songs that were adapted from Kenn's poems, including "The Tale of the Sun and the Moon" and "Snow Day". I also did "The Elephant Song" with Kenn providing the impromptu interruptions. It's a good thing he picked up on the idea to do that, because I forgot to ask him ahead of time if he would. After the interview, the three of us sat around and talked for quite a while, and kind of wished we had recorded some of that conversation. It turns out that Carlos and I share a lot of favorites in the kids' music world, including Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang and Trout Fishing in America.

Kenn and I grabbed some deli food, then picked up Roseann and the kids and went to the park for a while. It was beautiful out at first, but then a sudden rain cloud came by, so we had to make a quick dash under a big tree. We said goodbye to Kenn and headed out to my gigs at the Otis Orchards and Airway Heights libraries, both of which went really well.

With Carlos Alden...


The finger paintings...

10/1/08 - Spokane Day 3

We did some shoe shopping this morning. Evee had wanted some nice church shoes and also picked out a pair of Lightning McQueen crocs. Becca and I got some new sneakers and Roseann picked out a new black hat.

A rock flew up as we were driving to my first gig and made a nasty crack on our windshield, so we had to call for someone to meet up with us to fix that. Fortunately, it was small enough that some resin did the trick.

I had two shows today, at the Medical Lake and Cheney libraries. Both shows went well, but the first one had one of the most rambunctious crowds I've ever seen (with Becca and Evee a part of that mix). I think my brother Zeke may have overdone his crowd-warming shtick... they were already "warmed" and he just put them over the top. It was a little crazy and difficult to manage at times, but also fun to see those kids having such a wildly good time.

Evee enjoying the funny mirror at the shoe store...