Well I put in the order for the iMac. Couldn’t sell B on the bigger screen but I did manage to get the one with the DVD burner. B got a discount from her agency and another one from the parent company, a couple of hundred bucks. The one from the corporation was about 90 bucks and you have to order through Apple. I wanted to give the business to the local reseller that has my old machine in the shop, I told the sales guy that I would buy from him if he gave me some kind of deal from the repair bill (diagnostic fee and file transfer) and he never even called me back. I ordered online. Go figure.

Big day yesterday. Worked in the yard all day putting wood chips down in the garden. It looks much better now, the lighter chips make the green stand out more. Not much is blooming right now, the tulips are done, but they were pretty spectacular. Some are pastel pink and yellow and there’s another bed of bright red and yellow. They probably would have lasted longer but they took a beating in the storms this week.

The big news is on the birding front. We had an indigo bunting at our feeder! It was there all day, I hope that means it’s nesting near by. I’m wondering if they are making some kind of comeback. I used to see them pretty frequently up in Moorhead where I grew up, but until last summer I’d only had a couple of sightings over the last forty some years. Last summer I saw all kinds of them up on the Crow Wing River on a fishing trip and now I have one at my feeder. They are so beautiful.

The week before last I also saw a goshawk in the back yard. He was swooping through the trees and perching on our fence, looking for the unsuspecting chipmunk or sparrow. At first I thought it was a coopers; they have the same basic shape and wing configuration, and I see them pretty often back there. But this one didn’t have any stiping on it’s breast, just a pale grey, lightly mottled. I thought that goshawks were much larger though. After checking the books, I found that males are much smaller than females and that they were about the size of a black crowned night heron. It couldn’t have been anything else. So two new entries into my long list of birds seen from my backyard.

Good news, Lucia was accepted into the Graphic Design program in the College of Design at Iowa State. They start out with over 200 declared majors and whittle it down to 60 after freshman year. It’s one of the best programs in the midwest, if not the nation. I’ve worked with lots of grads and you can really tell they’re well trained. I’m so proud of her. I suppose that we were pretty confident that she’d get in, since she has about a 3.6 gpa and had -A s in two of her three design courses, but at least we don’t have to worry about it anymore.

Of all people I should know that a career in GD isn’t neccessarily a bowl of cherries, but I’ve been saying that she was born to be a designer since she was about five. At an early age she had this facination with symetry, she would draw a rectangle and start decorating it with little abstract paisly like images, drawing them in mirror image to make the design symetrical. Kind of spooky actually. Once in about fourth grade she had a project to make a poster. Her subject was tigers. She got orange construction paper and painted black stripes on it. Then she pasted photos on it and hand lettered the poster, wrapping the type around the photos. That’s when I knew. I felt compelled to let the teacher know that I hadn’t helped her. Another time she took all of the barbies and assorted other dolls and arranged them in a tableau as if for a photo shoot. It looked like it was done by a seasoned art director.

OK that’s my quota of kid bragging. Later I’ll tell you how cool Quinn is.

Yes, I’m reading The Fourth Hand. I love John Irving, Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Ciderhouse Rules and the earlier Watermethod Man are all favorites. But this book. What a piece of crap. He even has a little blurb at the end about why he wrote the book. Almost an apology. And he should apologize. I don’t think I’m going to finish it. Hollow characters, clunky self conscious prose, it’s supposed to be funny, but the only thing that amusesd me was the doctor who went jogging with a lacrosse stick so he could fling dog turds at the rowers on the river. I think that’s a metaphore for Irving’s flinging this turd at the reading public. Otherwise, be warned, stay away.

I’m getting a new iMac! How can I get Becky to agree to spending the extra $300 for the one with the BIG screen. It’s so pretty!

My computer went belly up on Sunday night.

What’s the deal? I take a huge risk to my ego, getting up on stage with some of the best players in town, not even knowing a single song, train wreck right on stage, get a huge adrenalin rush and make a life changing decision to move to Nashville or maybe Memphis and no one, no one but my dear friend DNW can muster a comment? People, remember, it’s all about me!

Went shopping for Prom Dinner tonight. Ceasar salad, grilled marinated pork tenderloin with mango chipotle sauce, pasta with grilled vegetables and for dessert, assorted ice creams.

Gotta go practice now!

I went to the jam again last night. This time I brought my guitar. You have to understand that I’m a complete closet musician, I play along with CDs and record rhythm tracks and play along to them. I’m pretty good at playing with myself. I’ve only performed in public once before and that was about 15 years ago. Also I’m a blues guy and this is a country jam. My pal is the leader of the session and he assured me that they wouldn’t go out of my depth.

We started out with a couple of three chord rockers that were close enough to the blues that I had no problem, except I did manage to hose up some of the changes. I think my rhythm playing was pretty good, nevertheless. I also dropped a couple of notes on my solos. Then they played a simple two chord country song and I got totally lost. I’m sure it sounded like a train wreck. The last song was a country song which was in E with an F#minor thrown in, and with Clay leaning over and whispering the changes to me I finally got it by the last chorus. When I came off the stage I was soaked with sweat. Everyone is very supportive, but I still kind of felt like a schmuck. Although it was really fun and a huge adrenalin rush….which of course meant I pretty much didn’t sleep last night.

I’m going to contemplate the insides of my eyelids over lunch. It’s great to live close to work!

Observations:

Iowa not only has a lower speed limit than Minnesota, it has a lot more highway cops.

My new car cruises easily at 90, and only turns 4000 at 110. I was tailing a 325i at about 80, knowing that the cops would always stop the beemer first, when two guys came up behind us in little sporty cars, a chevy and a toyota of some kind. We were passing slower traffic and things got a little crowded for awhile and then they blew by us on the open road. I couldn’t resist so I went after them and blew by them in about a mile. I then pulled over and let them go by. OK so I’m immature. But the car can do that AND fit all of Lucia’s stuff in the back for the ride home. Sport Wagon indeed!

I’ve heard the story a hundred times before. Lucia says that most of her male friends are missing at least one body part. One of her friends lost his foot up the the ankle. Seven, auger, shoelace. He was on the ISU football team until he decided he needed to hit the books harder if he was going into Vet Med.

Lucia had just come off her first all nighter. I’m amazed she got through all but one night of freshman year. She must be better at planning than I was. She was putting her portfolio together for her design school application. She gashed herself with an Exacto knife. When she dropped off the portfolio, the faculty that was taking them in tood one look and identified the wound. I guess that it’s a designer’s rite of passage.

One of her friends bought a goat for her brother’s birthday. They had to smuggle into the dorms and keep it hidden for four days. It’s a baby goat, three months old. It’s a breed that’s known as a fainting goat. When they’re startled their legs go stiff and they fall over. They were trying to get it to faint but they were the one’s that ended up rolling on the floor with laughter.

We are hosting Quinn’s prom dinner. I haven’t figured out the menu yet but it should be a lot of fun. Maybe I’ll rent a tux and play a high class waiter.

Tomorrow I’m driving down to Ames to pick up L and bring her home for the summer. And now we wait until mid June to find out if she got into the Graphic Design program. I’m betting on her, she made the Dean’s list this semester and she seems to be doing well in drawing studio class she has.