Diamond Dave: In which I confess my terrible taste in music at the age of 15

My friend Eleanor introduced me to The Bird and the Bee last year when they came to the Iron Horse. Just two of them on stage - Greg Kurstin on keyboards and the sweet, darling Inara George on vocals. I was completely charmed. Their biggest hit at the time was probably 'Fucking Boyfriend' which sounds like a cute little synthpop song until you listen to the lyrics. By the time they wrapped up the show (with a cover of the Bee Gee's 'How Deep is Your Love'), I was hooked.

I've been listening to their latest album, 'Ray Guns are Not Just the Future', quite a bit at work and it never struck me until today that one of the tracks - 'Diamond Dave' - was actually about David Lee Roth. It should have really. I love the idea that sweet little Inara may have been a huge fan. Because (and I can't believe I'm about to admit this publicly)... I was. My very first concert was DLR himself, live at the Worcester Centrum on his Skyscraper tour. My friend Clare's older sister (for reasons still unknown to me) volunteered to drive three 15 year-old girls to a show two and a half hours away from home. Our parents (uncharacteristically for protective small town Vermont parents) let us go. Poison opened for him. They were nasty and spit on the crowd. Dave was awesome, the total showman we expected. Our little teenaged heads nearly exploded when he rode a surfboard, hung on wires from the ceiling, over the crowd while singing his cover of California Girls. When we got home we plastered our bedroom walls with posters and pages from the program. My obsession didn't last long (teenagers are fickle and I quickly moved on to more broody serious bands), but I still have the t-shirt. And, as cheesey as he is these days, there's a little spot in my heart for Diamond Dave.

Here's The Bird and The Bee doing their tribute to the man himself:

I wasn't sure it really happened until I saw it on YouTube.

I'm in Chicago, for work, and I had dinner on Friday night with my oldest friend Kristina. She suggested this little Italian cafe where we could sit outside. When we got there, we found that a company called Optimus, housed across the street, was having a big block party for their employees and vendors. They had the sidewalk cordoned off and tents set up and music blasting off the loading dock. The music was actually pretty good and we sat outside enjoying the people watching. We had some wine and some lovely calamari and sometime around when our entrees arrived things got very very weird....

Suddenly a stretch Hummer pulls up and out jumps Rod Blagojevic (the scandalous former governor of Illinois). A few minutes later he is out on the loading dock with a microphone singing Elvis' 'Treat me Right'. We have no clue what is going on, why he is there, why he is singing or if the apocalypse is near. As soon as I unfroze from the shock, I managed to get a bit of video. It's not good. I was sitting at a table eating a nice meal and really Blago isn't worth me abandoning my table for a better shot. But here it is:

Blago sings Elvis from katywhumpus on Vimeo.

You don't have to take my word for it. Better videos have been posted.

It was seriously the most random, strange thing that has happened near me in a long time. But it was even stranger than I've said so far...

At one point, Blago pulled forward another man and said it was Fabio. This person was clearly riding around in the rediculous stretch Hummer with Blago. A hanger-on, if you will. It certainly looked like the Italian romance novel cover model/touter of non-butter products. I had to wonder if Fabio had become Blago's Kato Kaelin. I found out later it was probably not him - too bad because the story would be so much better if it was.

DC on a rainy night

I'm in Washington DC for work this week. I took myself to a movie last night and when I came out it was raining. By the time I got back to my hotel I was already soaked, so I dashed up to my room, grabbed my camera and an umbrella and went for a walk. The whole city was shiny from the rain and there was almost no one on the streets.

These photos are probably not technically great, but I like to try to push my cheap little point and shoot camera to see what it can do.

Dept of Commerce

I love how the raindrops look like stars here.

Trying to take a photo while umbrella is being dragged away by the wind... I like it though.

This and the following 4 are at the WWII memorial.

Treasury Building

Alexander Hamilton in front of the Treasury Building.

Is it possible to cry from excitement?

I saw this trailer tonight, on a big screen. As soon as I realized what it was, I was sitting bolt upright with a huge dumbass grin on my face (luckily I was alone...). My eyes started to water from the excitement. Maurice Sendak, Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze. What more can you ask? I, for one, cannot wait.

Also, I have preordered this.

Terrible Yarn Eating Monster or Harmless Wildlife?

I have a zillion things to blog about including several new crafty projects, my brother's wedding and a trip to England. Sadly I am swamped and having to direct all of my blogging energy into other things this week.

But, I'm wondering if anyone out there can help me identify this crazy-ass moth that has been living on my front door for the past 24 hours? I know it's not actually a yarn eating moth, but it is a bit monster-like and I'm curious about it. It's almost 3 inches across when it's sitting still like this (click the photo for a closer look). It looks like a big piece of tree bark or a dead leaf stuck to my screen door. I'm curious also - if your camouflage was this good, would you waste any time sitting on a surface that you didn't match?

Father's Day

Some of the best memories I have from my childhood are from the adventures Dad took us on. We hiked mountains, paddled down rivers, took long bike rides, learned to ski and went camping and fishing. He made the best trail-mix (with M&Ms and chocolate chips). He drove a big blue van and sometimes we'd pile in it in our PJs with a giant bag of popcorn and go to the drive-in. Dad had a key to the tiny library in our village so I always had access to books when I ran out. He read to us about Narnia and Hobbits. He taught us the words to John Denver songs and The Gambler - so we could sing along with him on long car trips. He tried to teach me to play baseball (but I'm afraid I was a disappointment). He humored us and mowed special badminton courts when we decided to hold multi-day tournaments. He grew giant overgrown zucchinis in the garden and didn't mind when we used them as baseball bats (He also grew misshapen pumpkins that made the best jack-o-lanterns). In the fall we would spend hours searching out the best tree in the woods near our house and then spend hours the week before Christmas trying to find it again in the snow so we could cut it and bring it home.

My father has been a dad for almost 37 years now and I know it wasn't always easy on him. I was not the worst teenager in the world, but I was the first one he was responsible for. He managed to teach me to drive (and insisted we practice during snowstorms). He panicked when I burned cookies late at night, but was cool as a cucumber when he had to dig the car out of the snowbank I'd run into trying to get home before curfew. I know he didn't know how to deal with my teenagerness most of the time, but he rode it out and I grew up.

Two days ago my father gained a third daughter in the form of my lovely new sister-in-law (more on that later...). We're happy to share him with her. There are already new adventures being planned.

Not without a Trader Joe's Guy!

I've been incredibly productive over the past week. I have had loads of long term projects on my mental to-do list for months and I finally got around to a few of them. The first of these was sewing up a new messenger bag.


Almost two years ago I took a sewing class with Melissa and neighbor Pete at Valley Fabrics (which is sadly closing it's doors at the end of June). The project was a simple messenger bag. I made a lovely orange, green and teal bag that I gave to my sister that Christmas. Immediately after the class I bought this heavy cotton fabric at Ikea intending to make another bag for me. The fabric sat and sat until I finally pulled it out of the depths of the closet a couple of weeks ago and cut out all of the bag pieces. Last Monday night I needed to hem some curtains (also bought at Ikea many months ago - another long delayed project...) and, since I had the machine out, sewed up the bag.


The bag is super simple, but I am not much of a sewer. I wont invite anyone to look closely at the seams on this, but I think it came out quite well. The fabric is nice and heavy and holds the shape of the bag quite well. And it's reversible!


Tina took these photos today in Trader Joe's in Hadley. One of the clerks saw what we were doing and ran over saying, 'Wait, you can't take pictures without a Trader Joe's Guy!'

If you look close at these photos, you can see Traci behind me looking at soup (with the checkered bag) and if you look in the lower right of the photo with the Trade Joe's Guy you can see Audrey in the bottom rack of the cart. Not sure what's she's doing there. Probably being bored waiting for the best part of Trader Joe's - when they give you a balloon (in your favorite color) at the check out counter.