Shutterbug Mama

In around 6 hours, Ted will be heading east on tour w/ The Tim Lowly Ensemble. He'll be gone for 10 days, the longest he's been gone since Cadence was born, and the longest we've been separated as a couple since his Germany trip when we first started dating.

We spent our last evening together before the extended separation eating brats in Lincoln Square, getting milkshakes at Potbelly and taking some goofy photos.

As most of you know, Ted is a stay-at-home dad, so Cadence spends most of her awake time with him. Not only that, Ted does 99% of the cooking and 80% of the cleaning and 75% of the laundry. Plus he works two days a week at Trader Joe's and brews a LOT of beer. I won't miss the beer brewing so much, but the cooking? I'm not sure how Cadence and I are going to eat...

I don't think Cadence realizes what's going on. We've been telling her that Daddy's going on a trip, a LOOOOONG trip, but she has no concept of that because neither one of us has been away from her for more than one night since she's been old enough to remember. To her, a long trip is going out to Grandma and Grandpa's house an hour away. We'll see how this goes...

In case anyone reading this wants to see Ted's show, here is a list of towns they are playing. If you are near any of them, go to Tim Lowly's Myspace page for more details. If you DO go to a show, make sure you say hi to Ted, and if you're lucky, he may share a homebrew with you.

Jun 27 2008 8:00P Allegheny UUC (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Jun 28 2008 6:00P Art Center (Warren, PA)
Jun 29 2008 2:00P Kirkland Art Center (Clinton, New York)
Jun 29 2008 7:00P The Miller Family Home (West Monroe, New York)
Jun 30 2008 8:00P The Advent (Boston, Massachusetts)
Jul 1 2008 8:00P Pianos Upstairs Lounge (New York, New York)
Jul 2 2008 8:00P St. Andrews Summer Series (Block Island, RI)
Jul 3 2008 8:00P St. Stephen and the Incarnation (Washington, DC)
Jul 5 2008 8:00P The Good Cherry (Forest, Virginia)
Jul 6 2008 1:15P Bedford CC (Bedford, Virginia)

Labels: rock.n.roll, teddy, this.busy.life, tim.lowly.ensemble

I'm still here, folks. I'm just kinda tired. My mind is also a bit preoccupied these days. I'm three-quarters of the way through A People's History of the United States, and it's pretty much kicking my social-justice-activist-wannabe conscience to the curb. In a good way.

Besides, the sun's been shining all spring-like, so I had to take advantage. Knowing Chicago, we'll be back in the 40's any day now.

Plus, the Tim Lowly Ensemble FINALLY had their CD release show on Friday night. I missed most of the show as I was watching Cadence in the nursery for most of it.

I let her loose in the show towards the end when things started getting a bit more rowdy. She danced like Richard Simmons on speed.

On Saturday, Ted and I watched our friends Holly and Kyle's daughter Helena all day, and we also went to Berry's Seeds of Change Marketplace, which was almost a whole-day affair.

There was a ton of music going on all day, and my good friend John Berton did a couple talks on solar energy.

Cadence had a blast playing w/ her buddies Rudden and Helena for HOURS. We tried to give them a nap in the nursery, but who were we kidding? We're just lucky no blood got shed and that all three kids LOVED chili, since that was the only main food being served at the event.

Oh, by the way, I had a post up on Shutter Sisters on Sunday. Go check it out:
Sunday School: Get Your Flare On

Labels: fair.trade, photos, this.busy.life, tim.lowly.ensemble

As you can see from this photo, our family is back to its late-night, partying-til-you-turn-into-a-pumpkin ways. Ted played a show Friday night, and we kept Cadence up until she lost her shoe, just like Cinderella.

My friends Ryan and Jan Hammer opened up with a very special Mystery/Shaddow Puppet version of Tales From Tuckaway. It was a loopty-looper visual and auditory treat. There were a lot of jaws on the floor once it was over.

I was also excited to see Ribbons of Song perform, and geewillickerswhizzo I was not disappointed. Ben, the frontman, accompanied by friends Pete (fellow Ben and Bruno-er) and Erica (of Anathallo) made music that made your heart want to explode onto canvas. And the fog machine? Totally rad. Especially in a church.

I hear Tim and the Boys and Gals played a good show too, but since Ted had to drum for that one, I spent most of their set chasing Cadence up and down the halls. Oh well. If all goes as planned, we'll be making a family road trip out of the upcoming Tim Lowly tour this summer. I just have to figure out just how much suffering and mayhem I'm willing to take.

Labels: live.music, ribbons.of.song, tim.lowly.ensemble

Thanks again for all your well wishes. I'm doing much better, although I still have a cough that seems to have taken up permanent residence in my lungs. Where the heck does all that gook come from?!

The big news around these here parts is that the band Ted drums in, the Tim Lowly Ensemble, got to open up for Rosie Thomas at North Park University. Rosie just happens to be one of my favorite singer-songwriters. Her latest album called These Friends of Mine is a collection of songs recorded pretty informally, mainly with her good friends Denison Witmer and Sufjan Stevens. It's probably my favorite album of hers to date.

Tim was missing his pianist, Maestro Matthew Ganong, and his violinist Ethan Adelsman (who's too busy playing for a gazillion other bands), but Danny Bracken from Anathallo joined in on mandolin, and Rebecca Miller added another guitar. I missed most of the set, as I was playing in the hallway with Cadence, who decided that it was a great time to pretend she was a barking dog while we were in the show.

Rosie's shows are always a mix of her beautiful and often serious and sad songs with her hilarious comedic antics and stories thrown in throughout the set. If you only listen to her CDs, you wouldn't think her shows would be this fun. It would kinda be like if Adam Sandler were performing an all Nick Drake concert, I suppose.

Rosie even performed what almost seemed like her own version of a burlesque show, except it was more like calisthenics and consisted of things like sit-ups, leg-lifts and the like. Only at a Rosie Thomas show will you witness something like that...

Cadence was actually in a good mood all throughout soundcheck (which started at 6:30p) pretty much until we went home close to 11pm. She didn't run amok as much as usual, and she actually did try to be quiet because she had told us she wanted to go to the show, and we'd told her she would have to be quiet. I think she spent so much time being quiet during soundcheck that when it was actually time for the show at 8pm, she was all quieted out and needed to do little kid things like crawl on all fours and bark. Totally understandable. Ted and Dave took Cadence outside to play during most of Rosie's set so I could enjoy the show without being self-conscious about my squirming-crawling-barking 3 year old.

Anyhoo, good times, good times...

Labels: live.music, rosie.thomas, tim.lowly.ensemble

And boy, do I need it. Since we have to wait until Cadence goes to sleep to get our Heroes fix, we've been going to bed a bit later than normal on work nights. Then last night, we were out with Cadence until past midnight, and today I had to drag my butt out of bed bright and early to pick up our CSA delivery. Ugh. Plus, our upstairs neighbor is having her hardwood floors buffed and sealed, so it's been pretty noisy around here, which means Cadence won't nap. Which means I can't nap.

So Ted & Tim Lowly and gang played a show @ the Beat Kitchen last night. It was an all ages show, which is why Cadence went with us. This is a photo of Tim right before he got abducted by aliens.

The lineup at last night's show was pretty different from the usual. Matt Ganong, the pianist, is in California playing for an opera. He'll be there for a few more weeks. Ethan, the violinist, was somewhere else. He WAS in South Korea visiting his brother, but I don't know if he's back yet. Anyhoo, the lovely and talented Rebekah Miller filled in the gaps.

I hear the show went well, but I wouldn't know as I was chasing Cadence around the block pretty much the whole time.

*The title of this post is a reference to an Ian Moore song, "New Day." Apparently, Ian likes his coffee from a big cup too.

Labels: cadence, coffee, i.heart.metropolis, tim.lowly.ensemble

...and it's coming from this blog. Yes, lame-age abounds around here these days, I totally admit it. It's been a rough week, people.

So Monday through Wednesday, I had this meeting in downtown Chicago with other folks within the compensation world in my industry. My boss asked me to make a presentation about our company and our compensation practices. I was totally stressed out because 1) if given the choice between a root canal WITHOUT anesthesia and speaking formally in front of total strangers, I would gladly pick the root canal and thank the Lord for my good fortune; 2) I knew I'd be the LEAST experienced person professionally in the room; and 3) I just don't know my sh*t as well as I should.

To make matters worse, Cadence kept me up most of Monday night, so I went into this meeting on Tuesday with only a couple hours of sleep. Plus, I was starting to feel a cold coming on. Last, but not least, I was scheduled to give my presentation at 4:30pm, right before everyone would be heading to their hotel for the cocktail reception at 5pm.

I can't tell you how the presentation went as I've permanently repressed the memory, cuz everybody knows that anything more painful than a root canal without anesthesia (except for childbirth) should qualify for automatic repression within the memory banks. All I know is my boss didn't fire me on the spot, so it must have been okay. And no, I'm pretty sure I wasn't great.

Anyhoo, if that whole debacle weren't bad enough, I developed a migraine Tuesday night (from lack of sleep Monday night) and had to sit through Wednesday's meeting with a bruised head. Thank goodness it was a half-day meeting. I'd had plans of going on a photoshoot as long as I was downtown, but instead I went straight home and threw up. I missed our friend Erik's birthday dinner, and my head kept on hurting right into Thursday. Plus, I developed a full-blown cold by Thursday morning and couldn't stop sneezing, which made my headache worse. I stayed home from work, but I barely felt well enough to attend the Tim Lowly art reception/music show that evening.

Nevertheless, I really wanted to see Tim's art as he is one of my favorite artists, so I dragged my sickly self (actually, I should say WE dragged OUR sickly selves, as Ted is sick too) out of the house to see the show. I'm glad I did, because I hadn't seen most of the stuff he was showing, and it's pretty flippin' rad. That's Tim in the photo above, wearing the Tim Lowly ensemble t-shirt that the lovely and talented Katie Schofield embroidered. And that's my good friend Amy taking some Super8 footage.

I also took some of my favorite photos in a while, so click on the photo above for the whole slideshow. You can also see some of Tim's artwork, as well as photos of the music show that followed the reception.

This is actually my favorite photo from the night. It's just kinda wacky, ya know? Tim says it looks like a scene from a play, and I would have to agree. Katie C.(the violinist) looks like she's about to say something really poignant. And Matt looks like he's just gonna ignore her. And then there's that bottle of wine off to the side...

Tim's really nice to let me bring Cadence to all the shows. She was running and dancing and hopping around a lot, and at one point found her way onto stage. She told me she needed to talke to dada. No, really. That's what she said: "I need to talk to Dada." And she was totally serious.

Speaking of the munchkin, she's turning 3 on Monday. Another reason we're kinda stressed in this household. We're not having a party or anything--just cake w/ immediate family, no kids or anything. I'm glad we planned it that way, cuz I don't think I would've wanted to host a party w/ other folks' children in the condition I'm in right now--all snotty and achey and whatnot.

So that's the scoop, y'all. I'm sorry I've been bad about responding to comments or catching up on your blogs. I hope things mellow out in October...

Labels: blogging.schmlogging, cadence, fess.up.time, photography, photos, this.busy.life, tim.lowly.ensemble

So after Rudden's birthday party, we high-tailed it back home to get ready for Ted's show w/ the Tim Lowly Ensemble that night. They were playing at the Dawghaus Café, a new eatery/venue right on the lakefront off of Sheridan and Grandville in Berger Park (which also happens to have our favorite playground in the city).

I was especially excited about this show because my friend Sarah and her daughter Eleanor were going to be at the show, as Sarah's husband Ben was opening up for Tim's band under the moniker Ribbons of Song. With the awesome playground right next to the venue and the lovely lakefront as the backdrop and the weather totally cooperating by 7pm, I knew we'd have a good time. And Cadence was totally psyched about playing with Eleanor again.

And here's Eleanor playing on the playground next to the cafe. She's one spunky kid — super creative and funny and cute and smart.

Here's Eleanor sharing her milkshake with Cadence. Note the worried look on her face. Needless to say, I had to get Cadence her own smoothie after that.

I took some photos under the streetlights that line the trail next to the lakeshore, and I'm kind of surprised at how much I like them.

I don't do too much night photography any more now that I'm usually home trying to get a toddler to sleep after it gets dark. I used to love doing nighttime street photography with my little Nikon back in the day, and I'm starting to remember why.

There was this one big super bright light illuminating the stage, and it was perfect for shooting with my superfast 50mm lens.

There WAS this one really, really loud cricket, but I thought it added to the charm and ambience of the evening.

Oh, and there was this big beautiful spider web right behind Tim. Spiders are awesome, even though I'm scared to death of the ones living in our home.

After the show, a bunch of folks (but not Sarah and Ben and Eleanor, who were all pooped) came back to our place for homebrews. We drank beer and talked until a little after 1 am. Man, what a long day.

Oh, Cadence didn't go to bed until midnight, and then she woke up at 4am whimpering and contorting her body in pain. It was either gas or constipation (probably the latter, as she pooped in the morning). I was so desperate for sleep that I finally ended up somehow upside down on the bed with her on top of me, tummy to tummy. I didn't get out of bed until close to 9:30 the next morning.

On Sunday, we went to church and then came home so Cadence could nap for a bit. As soon as she woke up, we had to run out the door again, this time to Tim and Sherrie's house where he and Ben and Ryan and Jan (Tales from Tuckaway) were playing a house show.

Cadence and Eleanor got pretty raucous, and Tim was recording the shows, so Sarah and I were mostly outside with the girls.

We did go inside for a bit between sets. Here's Sarah, Eleanor's mama, sitting in Tim and Sherrie's living room.

At one point, Eleanor's dad Ben threw out lollipops at folks in the living room. Cadence, being the deprived child that she is, didn't know what they were until she saw people putting them in their mouths. She then started begging for her own "popsicle." I relented, but explained to her that this was a special treat, and like Christmas, would come around only about once a year.

And here are the two girls, sharing a chair and toasting lollipops. It doesn't get any better than this, they're thinking, I'm sure.

Alas, soon after, we had to say goodbye to Eleanor, who had gone sans nap all day and finally collapsed in her mama's arms right about when they were going to be heading back to Grand Rapids. We miss you already!!!

OK. That's about it. We went out for the best tilapia tacos on the planet with Hilary, Katie, Matt and Ethan afterwards and didn't get home until close to 9pm.

So minus the sleeping and napping, we had pretty much been going nonstop from Saturday morning 6:15am until bedtime Sunday night.

It sure was fun, though.

Labels: friends.who.rock, grand.rapids.REPRESENT, photos, ribbons.of.song, this.busy.life, tim.lowly.ensemble

It's been a busy weekend and then some around here. I took a lot of photos, and I'm just too plain tired, busy and lazy to say much about them, so please excuse me while I let my photos do most of the talking.

Labels: anathallo, get.up.johns, live.music, photos, think.dance.collective, this.busy.life, tim.lowly.ensemble