Four hours later, and I am Mr. Handiman. This post could also be titled, "How to use a spline roller."

So the yard out front is really done. And I mean done. Lawn mowed and edged. Swept. New mulch. I even covered up the hoses on my poor man sprinkler system. OK, so that's done. Then, I replace the front and back door screens. They have pulled out, and this is a problem for two reasons: one, the insects get in, especially in the kitchen, where we like to leave the door open because it gets very hot in there. Two, the front screen had pulled out and the cats could jump out. No problem. 45 minutes with the spline roller and bango - new screens front and back. This completes my handiman projects for the day. I will now wash up, go to the grocery store, and then settle into my evening.

OK, so I got motivated. I'm taking a little break, because I'm pruning the shrubs, and it's a pain in the butt. I don't really know how to prune, so I just hack away and hope for the best. We have some Rhodedendrom that have gotten to be absolutely enormous. You can tell how much they've grown when you get all underneath them, and you see the brittle remnants of the other shrubs that used to be there. So anyway, I'm taking 'em way back, baby. And if they die, the die, and we'll find something else to put there.

They neighbors are throwing an enormous party, with an outdoor tent and all. When I left to go to Home Depot, I was stunned to see cars on the street everywhere. Now I can't mow my lawn, because I have three cars parked partway on the grass strip in front of my house. Parking on the grass doesn't bother me so much, although it's a little annoying, but I really did want to mow the lawn today. I even bought and installed a new blade for my mower, because it just didn't seem to be cutting anymore, and it only cost $6. Hopefully, the grounds of Welgate manor will look sumptuous and manicured for Kara when she returns home. Or else I'll have some Charlie Brown shrubs looking pale and weak. Whatever. It'll be done, anyway.

Hey, the weekends here! Rock on. What am I going to do with myself. I have all these projects stacked up, including receiving the music for my upcoming gig. So I've spent a lot of time listening to the tunes and playing guitar. I got some rough tracks - lyrics, some chords and so forth. It's pretty fun, really, since it's somewhat of a collaboration. I have a lot of lattitude to composing guitar for the tunes.

Anyway, I stayed up late last night watching TV, and woke up late this morning, which I haven't do in a long, long, time. And it's kind of damp and chilly, which would be great for attacking the outside projects, but I haven't got my motivation up yet.

I talked to Kara and Katherine last night. Katherine's having a bit of trouble adjusting. She misses me. Kara told her that she mentioned daddy, and Katherine looked all around, and then smiled. And when she put Katherine up to the phone, she recognized my voice. That's nice.

This is a wee hours of the morning blog. I'm home alone, since Kara is away, and I've been playing guitar all night and my fingers are killing me. I haven't played much recently, so my calouses are gone. However, I find that my chops are pretty good, which is good, since I actually have a gig coming up with Kim Davidson. Although she still hasn't dropped of my music, KIM.

Anyway, I miss Kara and I really miss Katherine. I thought I could be the swinging bachelor for a week and get lost in my own business, but I find myself thinking about her a lot. I got a chance to hear her on the phone today, at least. Kara managed to keep her up until 7:30 PM the day of her travel, which is amazing, since she's three hours behind in Washington State. Katherine was drop-dead tired, but Kara told me that she checked up on her a few minutes after bedtime, and Katherine was sitting up with her hands on the rails of the crib with lovie hanging out of her mouth - she was sucking on its ear. What a picture. I can only imagine how cute it must have been.

Anyway, here I am irresponsibly staying up until all hours. I didn't even have dinner until 10, so I guess that's kind of the bachelor thing. I'm looking forward to the weekend, because I have some projects I need to do around the house, and I just don't have any time to do them with K and K around. I suppose I could have done some of it over the last two nights, but I'm still adjusting to being alone. Wow, this sounds pretty depressing. But I'm not depressed, although maybe a bit melancholy, so don't get all worried about me or anything. I just miss my two favorite women.

I had a very interesting experience at work today, which I will now share with you, my public. I had a business meeting with Jimmy Guterman, who runs The Vineyard Group, a consulting firm. However, he has a really interesting past, including a stint as a writer at Rolling Stone magazine. Anyway, I was poking around at his web site, reading his blogs and so forth, when I realized that he wrote a book I have called The Worst Rock n' Roll Records Of All Time. I bought this book just after it came out in 1991 when I was still living in Washington D. C., very into music and in a band, and I got a huge kick out of it. So anyway, I dug it up and brought it into work as an icebreaker. We had a pretty funny conversation about it, in which he, in his dryly humorous and acerbic way, pointed out cleverly and discretely, that I was a great example of a regret that he has. You see, Guterman has actually been involved in at least five books, including books on Sinead O'Connor and Jerry Lee Lewis, and the book I have is not the one he wants to be remembered for.

Nevertheless, I made him sign it, and he wrote, Thanks, but I deny everything! Billy Joel Forever!

ROFLMAO.

It's been a long couple of weeks, and I haven't blogged much, so I'll catch you all up a little.

We had a pretty good weekend. We went to a BBQ for a friends one year old son's birthday party. (Happy Birthday Kevin! Have your mom and dad explain this to you when you're older...) It was pretty fun, in a family sort of way. There were a lot of small kids running around, which was nice for us with Katherine crawling all over the place. It was also a chance for me to spend a little time with Kara's friends, and the people she has playgroups with and so forth. I also got a chance to take a bunch of pictures, which will be back from the developer tomorrow or the next day, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing them. Kids are great subjects, because for the most part, they don't play to the camera. So you can just sit there composing and recomposing, and take lots of good candid shots. I'm also excited that I might get some nice shots of my friends kids, and be able to give them copies.

On Sunday, we went out to brunch with some friends with two littles ones (Hi Nat, Bobby, Liam, and Owen!). They introduced us to a new, kid friendly place in Cambridge - Full Moon, on Huron Street. It was very nice, and we had a good time. Liam is the older of their two kids, and was running all over the place generally getting in trouble. Owen is very young, and slept the whole time. Ahh, for those days again.

Later that day, we went out for a boat trip on the Merrimack River with our friend K. Hi K! He recently got a boat the old-fashioned way, his dad bought a new one and gave him the old one. So we tooled around in the Sun in his 18 foot boat. Swam, picniced, and generally had fun in the sun. It was great and very relaxing. I was worried about this weekend, because since I work all week, it's kindof nice to just sit around the house on the weekend, mow the lawn, barbeque and stuff, but we had a great time, and it was a nice break from the grind. I brought my camera along for this trip too, and we'll see how that turns out. K was great, because he doesn't play to the camera either, and he has a lot of tattoos and piercings, so I'm hopeful that there's some interesting shots there.

And Kara leaves on Wednesday for Seattle to visit her sister's family. They have a newborn also (are you getting the picture here?), and Kara is going to spend some time with them. Which leaves me a week of kidless and wifeless time, most of which I'll probably wander around the house wondering what the hell to do?

Actually, I have a lot of projects lined up, so I don't think the time will bother me, although I'll miss them both terribly.