Grrrr..... was supposed to go hiking today. I should be getting ready for Lost Maples right now. But my hiking partner blew me off again so here I sit..... grrrrrr........

And to make matters worse, I'm out of coffee. Oh well, I've got a cup of Tazo Chai tea brewing right now, which won't wake me up, but at least I'll feel like I'm doing something.

Last night we had the most spectacularly gorgeous rainbow behind our house. Our house is on a cliff that overlooks a river below, and the rainbow made a complete arc from one side of the cliff to the other... more vivid than any rainbow I've ever seen (you could see every color)... and there was a second one just above it that spanned about halfway across the gorge. I wish I had a camera!

Tonight we are playing with Chris for his CD release party at Cibolo creek... there are around 19 people in this band tonight, so it's going to be interesting logistically! Chris always manages to pull these crazy things off, though, so I'm not worried.

Our first CD release party is next Friday at the Scenic Loop! I'm excited and a little nervous... I hope we have more than 4 people show up. I'm interested to hear what the loyal fans think of the new stuff... we haven't had any feedback yet. I just hope they like it.

Punky and I have started reading "The Chronicles of Narnia" at night before bed. I love Narnia. Narnia shaped my entire existence when I was a kid... so much of who I am today is because I read Narnia in my formative years, I believe. Oh, I loved those stories! And it's so good to be reading them again and sharing them with my son. I was a little concerned that they would be too advanced for him, what with the language being almost Victorian stylistically (it's certainly not "See Spot Run," which is what he is used to). But I remember gaining much of my vocabulary from hearing those books read to me, and they gave me a love for literature and fantasy and depth... I'm sure that's why I ended up majoring in Brit Lit... it's always been close to my heart. Anyway, we're reading "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" right now, so we've only just begun.

As we were reading last night, Edmund had just come into the White Witch's castle, and he finds a stone lion upon entering the courtyard. It reminded me of being in London, stumbling onto the South Gate Lion (I think it's called) at the end of Westminster Bridge, and how much that stone lion looks like what I always envisioned Aslan to look like. I love that lion! I have a picture somewhere... I'll have to post it.

Okay, must... go... clean. My house is ugly.

This post is dedicated to my brother Ed, who has recently relocated to DC, and who loves Narnia as much as I. "Oh, do, let's!"

Okay, so I got scolded for not upddating my blog, and I promised that I would be better. It's like 6:15 am and I'm barely awake... haven't had coffee yet... in fact... hang on.

Yeah, that's better. Because decaffeinated blogging just doesn't work.

Took Flo out for her birthday Tuesday night and we had our quad cappucinos around, well, 9:30 or so... "Why?" you ask. Well, because we never get to go get coffee anymore, and decaf quad cappucinos are pretty much pointless. So I got home and was wide awake and stayed up till 1:30 putting together mailers for our preorders.

Tuesday I was off work all day, and had one of the most productive days I've had in awhile... it felt so good to actually knock out some of this LJG stuff that's been hanging over my head! So we've actually started sending out the preorders and that makes me feel like we're finally moving forward with this CD release. I drove around much of Tuesday, dropping off press kits and buying office supplies. I had our Chevy Cavalier with the sunroof that day, and I have a nice sunburn working on one arm. Sexy!

We are still loving our house... I swear it's like living in the Wonderful World of Disney at times. Every night when I'm pulling into my drive, there are usually around 4-6 deer, 3-4 jackrabbits, and 2 skunks that all run in various directions trying to escape the terror of my headlights. The other night I was doing the dishes while Punky was in the bathtub, and I heard all sorts of commotion on the porch. I looked out, and 2 raccoons were fighting over the catfood (well, one was eating it and the other was yelling at the one eating). I summoned Punky and we opened the door a crack to see them better, and they just sat up on their haunches, continued to eat, and looked at us like, "What?" We were at most 2 feet from them. It was cool.

And we have a fleet of cats now too. One cat, Lizzie, came with the house. But I think she's got a big mouth and has told her friends that there's free grub at the house, because suddenly 3 more grey tabbies showed up. One of them is a tortishell tabby, and he's gorgeous, and he has totally adopted us. I swear I'm turning into one of those crazy animal ladies. Before you know it, I'm going to have 89 cats and a pet squirrel all stuffed into my laundry room....

I'm having coffee angst. I actually had to buy Folgers the other day (blasphemy! treachery!) because that's what I've been reduced to since my espresso machine is dead and I was desperate on a Saturday morning for coffee. Well, see, I could have gotten some decent coffee, but that would have required driving at best 45 minutes into San Antonio. I was too sleepy, so I settled for driving into Bandera and paying way too much at Super S. Ugh. For Folgers. See what my life has become? It's a travesty.

Okay, so I guess I should go get ready for work. CJ (and CJs sister), this blog was updated just for you, so I hereby dedicate this entry to you. It's the least I can do... I got added to their list of "cool people." Awwwww.........

Long night. Can't sleep. Can't turn the brain off. It's been a weird day... was very, very inspired this morning, and then received some news later that blindsided me, and now I'm finding myself praying but not really knowing what to pray for. What do you do when you've prayed and prayed for something and it just doesn't seem to ever change? You ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking. I'm doing some pretty hardcore knocking tonight.

Saw The Passion of the Christ Sunday night. Oh... my... gosh. Wow. What an utterly devastating movie it is... what an amazingly beautiful work of art... I have never been affected by a movie as I was this one. I left broken, speechless, utterly in awe that all that suffering, all that blood, all that agony was done for me. Me. If you are a Christian, there is no way you can see that movie and be the same afterwards. Heavy stuff.

Gearing up for the release party April 9... we have so much to do! Press, rehearsals, radio, etc.... I'm trying not to be overwhelmed. Yeah.

Gonna try and blog more tomorrow... I'm tired and still have much laundry to fold and put away. I am sleepy!

Oh yeah... I still need to write about the guy in my store mentioned two entries ago. Wow. I'll do that later tonight or tomorrow.

I want coffee.

I'm getting ready to leave to go to Dallas for the weekend, and I am out of coffee. I got home at midnight last night from the show (I'm playing in the orchestra in "The King and I") and the realization hit me as I was getting ready for bed. That's an ugly realization.

So instead of packing right now, I'm lamenting on screen about my lack of caffeine. Makes sense, right?

Oh, I need to be a better blogger. But you would not believe my life right now. I haven't been home in two weeks! Not because I'm traveling (I wish I was), but because my evenings have been totally filled up with things that require me to be elsewhere. It's exhausting. And frustrating. Because I'll do a load of laundry when I get home at midnight, throw it in the dryer in the morning, dig out of the dryer what we all need to wear for the day, and the rest of the laundry gets thrown on the couch to be folded "sometime"... and then we rush out the door for the day. But since I'm not home "sometime," it hasn't gotten folded in like a week and a half. No joke. You should have seen the pile! I finally sat down at 10:00 Thursday night and had to call my mom, and that's always an hour conversation at least, so I put my new headset on and called her and folded laundry. It's amazing how just getting control over clothing can change your outlook. I was going insane because I couldn't find anything in the pile every morning, and was frustrated because I couldn't do anything about it, and it made me very grumpy every day.

So this orchestra thing will all be over next weekend, and I can breathe a little bit.

Yeah, okay. I guess I'd better go get my things loaded up.



Dadgum cedar. I don't wanna go outside.

Oh. I totally forgot to write about the wacky guy I encountered at my store. Yeah.