Did anyone catch Queens of the Stone Age on Saturday Night Live last weekend? Brian passed out on the couch around 11 that night, but I wanted to catch their first set on SNL so I stayed up. It was well worth the wait. They played “Little Sister” from their latest album. This actually ended up being the funniest thing I saw on SNL that night (their skits have been absolutely horrible this year). A few years ago, they did a skit that was Blue Oyster Cult playing “Don’t Fear the Reaper”. Will Ferrell played the cowbell in that song. It was ridiculously funny. Well, “Little Sister” has (what I think is) a wood block throughout the song. But, while QOTSA was playing it, Will Ferrell (that night’s host) was on stage playing a cowbell. Classic! Of course, the musical entertainment shouldn’t be the funniest thing on the show…
more of the same
Playhouses and gardens seem to rule my life these days. I wonder what I will do with my free time once all of the hard work is done? Once the playhouse is done, it’s done. But, I guess the garden will take up most of my summer (but, that’s kind of the idea…). My gardens have been subpar the past few years due to lack of time to attend to them. I hope to remedy that problem this year. No large projects are planned for this summer so that should give me plenty of time to putter around outside. And Jake does a pretty good job of keeping himself busy these days, so that should get me more time over previous years.
My grow lights were an interesting twist to this year’s gardening plan. It, of course, is a lot more work to grow your plants from seed, but I find it a lot more satisfying as well. My first batch of plants didn’t fare as well as I’d hoped, but I did manage to salvage a few plants from the bunch. I cranked up the lights for an additional two hours per day for the remaining batches and they are all doing well.
Last year, I put in a butterfly garden where my rose garden used to be. I was pleased to see how many plants survived the winter and how much bigger they are versus last year. Of course, many of the plants in a butterfly garden are closely related to the weed family, so it’s no wonder they grow so well. But, I think it looks pretty nice and the fact that it’s easy to maintain is a bonus.
I put in a new herb garden this year. I still don’t have all of the plants for that yet. I also need to put some sort of a border around it. I think I’ll use rocks. I’d like to replace a lot of the grass in the garden area with decorative rocks. Maybe someday… I doubt Brian will complain as he hates to mow the grass and mowing around all of the stuff in our back yard probably takes more time than when it was all grass back there.
That said, I need to get back to my garden!
happy birthday, jacob
Today was Jacob’s 5th birthday. We gave him his present, the playhouse (in case you haven’t been paying attention), yesterday evening. It’s not quite done, but it’s close enough that we were ok with giving it to him. Hopefully we can wrap it up this weekend. He really seemed to like it (he was grinning from ear to ear), but he couldn’t reconcile the fact that it was his. He kept saying, “but, where are we going to keep the garbage cans?”
This evening, we had a party in his honor. Most of the family came over around supper time and we ordered pizza and wings and had the requisite cake and ice cream. Batman was the theme this year.
Jacob got a ton of great gifts (the kid always makes a haul). And best of all, most of them are for the outside, so we won’t have to cram any more toys in his already overstuffed bedroom.
qotsa & nin
Recently, we purchased the latest Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails cds. Both are great albums.
I can’t say enough good things about Queens of the Stone Age’s Lullabies to Paralyze. What an incredible album. I started getting interested in them after seeing their video for “Go With the Flow” (which was a really cool video done in vector art. listen to me–talking like a graphic artist!) from their last album. With their basic, drums-driven songs, it’s no wonder Jacob likes their music. Best of all, there isn’t a bad song on the album.
I’ve been anxiously awaiting the new Nine Inch Nails. I’ve liked them ever since Brian turned me on to Broken way back in ’92. I was a little disappointed in their last album, The Fragile, but not disappointed enough that I wasn’t looking forward to another album. Six years later, it finally arrived. With Teeth made its debut last week. I have to say, I really like this album. There are a few weak songs on it, but it’s quite good otherwise–not as good as The Downward Spiral (one of my all-time favorites), but that’s a hard one to top.
mother’s day 2005
We spent Mother’s Day at my parent’s house. We had a great dinner consisting of gnocchi, meatballs, beef short ribs, fried eggplant, broccoli, salad, bread and apple pie for dessert. Yum! I got a cool set of nesting glass mixing bowls and a hand-made (by Jacob) stepping stone that I’m going to put in my new herb garden.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there!