Saturday Chat.

Barb, we had some of those rains yesterday too -- but for only about 8 minutes, and it was while I was outside I was soaked and my socks were squishy!  I took the car to this nice mechanic down the street from work, and he scanned the car for a code for me -- free!  It was my first time there, but he came highly recommended.  Figures the first open appt to fix said issue is June 8, but for good work, I will gladly wait my turn.

So I have the upstairs bath primed - and could've used a bit more primer, it didn't cover all too great (gray primer over white), but I used up every drop and am not buying more.  Later tonight or tomorrow, the first coat of red goes on.  And I painted the downstairs bath blue - it looks really good!  I love a bit of color, the house still had factory, flat, off-white paint and we're the third owners

I also went up to the nursery and got green peppers, watermelon, canteloupe, pumpkin, cucumber and lettuce plants and a cool double-blooming lilac that I hope smells like the "regular" variety.  Can't wait to plant them tomorrow!

If any Facebookers are interested, I posted pics of our new grass.   

We spent all day working in the shrubbery beds, getting them ready to add mulch, which we'll do tomorrow.  Also dug out some bushes near the deck I wanted to get rid of.  Then BF and a friend hooked up a temporary sprinkler system so we can water the new grass every day without moving the sprinklers 100 times a day, lol.  I'm exhausted, but I think I want to go out to dinner tonight.  Now, to convince BF that we should....

It's so pretty here today.  I cruised through our Farmer's Market this a.m. and snagged a cup of coffee, resisted the amazing baked goods in favor of something called Tabouli salad (very good BTW), and some peanut butter dog cookies.  The people  behind the house next door are using their pool so they're either heating it (which must be raising cain with the old PG&E payment) or the kids are immune to ice water.  It takes a lot higher temps for a lot longer time to make the water feel good enough to jump in.

Shammy, you're close to the coast so you're going to get coastal fog, even in the summer.  You'll have some nice warm days but not the blistering heat you get in other places and you'll come to love not having humidity.  If you get homesick for **hot** you can always take a road  trip east into the valley.  We can offer you triple digits on some days, but not humidity.

Joyce

Moonlight

I've not been planning to add another dog at all until I can add a dane that is small dog safe from a rescue, but there is a crestie at our local humane society who has been there about a month.  I'm thinking of going to 'meet' him today.  Pray for my strength!

You are soooo screwed!!! 

I went to see my grandmother today.  She is back in the hospital because of a bladder infection.  She has been taking dialysis for the past 7 years, & because of this the infection wasn't caught nearly as soon as it should have been, so currently, she's septic.  The doctors are hoping that they can get the infection under control. 

While I was in Houston, I decided to look at a few houses.  I am seriously considering taking a position in our Houston office.  The person who I would be replacing is scheduled to retire in January, so I have time to make a decision.  I looked at two houses on the lake because I really want to live on the water.  One was spectacular.  I loved everything about the house, & the yard was nice as well.  The other house was too small for us,  but it had a spectacular yard.  I could have lived in that yard. 

Every time I go to mow the lawn this week,  it starts raining.  Yesterday was a mega downpour.  Today was rain in the morning, then sun, then rain, then sun, then rain and now kind of a mixed bag, so the grass is still damp and not good for mowing.  Guess it will be tomorrow.

Has anyone used Patch Perfect, or anything else to mitigate the yellow spots from dog pee?  We have a smallish yard, but being in the heart of the city, it's more than enough for dogs to run and potty.  We had some scorched spots before the dogs ever got to it, and it is a mixed bag of grasses (you can see different colors and textures!lol)  I don't need a perfect lawn, just thinking maybe I could help some of the yellow dead patches.  But don't want anything to make the dogs sick.

miranadobe

Has anyone used Patch Perfect, or anything else to mitigate the yellow spots from dog pee?

BEVOLASVEGAS

You are soooo screwed!!! 

Figs!  I think you might be right.

The little man apparently doesn't like anyone but one volunteer in the time that he's been there.  Guess who he likes?  It's so unusual for him to allow someone to pick him up, that they took my picture while I was holding him b/c "No one will BELIEVE this if we don't get a picture!!".

He needs groomed.  His skin is in rough shape.  He's fat.  He's very shy, and may be fear aggressive.  But he picked me.......

I'm going to think over it long and hard b/c his issues will require some working through.  He will be a 15-20 lb dog though, so I suppose he'd be my "Big" dog?  ROFL. 

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon fiddling with the audacity software because I really wanted to do a two track version of the song I linked the other time. This time, I put the guitar track through a wah-wah effect, which is kind of neat. It not only wah-wahs, but it moves from right to left channel.

I tried different eq settings on the vocal track but none sounded right. So, I just opted for compression.

I'm used to doing the song live, while playing guitar, so it has taken some time to get used to songing with playback. Plus, I need to get headphones because I can sing louder than the playback on the speakers and I don't want to get lost. Fortunately, I have muscle memory on some songs and know physically how it should feel. But I am in danger of going sharp if I don't hear and flat if I pull back enough to hear.

So, I will torture you guys, again.

"Brandy (You're a fine girl)" was the one and only hit for the band, Looking Glass, in 1972. It was a big hit in California and stayed that way for a year or two. It reminds me of the naval shipyards and my first step-father, Gerald, boiler tech 2c USS Ogden at the Port of San Diego, formerly the port of Los Angeles. Before that, he served on another destroyer in the Sea of Japan in the Viet Nam "Conflict."

The melody is deceptively simple but can be a struggle because the original singer sang in a conversational tone, in baritone, essentially and floating around the true pitch. I'm a tenor and I'm putting melody where there wasn't much of one before. I re-recorded a number of times before I could find a pitch and resonance that would work for what is really a spoken piece.

 I searched and searched for something to help lawns with dogs and all the landscaping companies / turf grass distributors say nothing works. I hate it!

My nieces spent the night last night. We got up early, went to breakfast, then for a nature/bird walk (they loved that), then to the YMCA to do some swimming. We ended up playing water volleyball and had a blast. Then it was off to my sisters for a graduation party.

Pretty busy day. I even got some plants potted.

The mice are back in my garage though, gah. I thought I beat those little suckers!

Ron, I love that song, and I really liked your interpretation.  In parts, on the recording, the guitar overshadowed your voice a touch, and I would have prefered it to be the opposite, but I really, really liked it!  :D

I've never asked for vibes before, but my bestest best friend in the world has a home visit tomorrow with a bulldog rescue, for a wonderful 3-year old girl named Sophie, so if anyone could spare some "awesome home visit" vibes, we'd both appreciate it!  Thanks ya'll!

Moonlight

he picked me.......

Strange how those three words change everything.

I have determined that I must like my husband like I like my dogs..."special".

This is an actual phone call from a little while ago.

• DH:  Hey babe, the kids & I are at D&B's.  We were about to leave, & we've ran into a little problem.
• Me:  What's the problem?  Is everyone ok?
• DH:  Yeah, we're fine, but the flat entrance in the parking lot is closed off, & the rest of the ways out all make you go uphill.
• Me:  You called me for this, why???
• DH:  We  took the jeep, & it's a standard. 
• Me:  So?
• DH:  I can't keep it from rolling back on the inclines.  Can you come get us, & drive the jeep home?
• Me:  I'm on the way.

On the drive over, I was fully prepared to make fun of DH mercilessly, but when I got there & saw the embarrassed look on his face, I decided against it.  When I got out of the vehicle, he smiled & said "You don't know how glad I am to see you, & how glad I am that you didn't drive the card."  (The car is a standard.)  I'm so glad that he's mine!

 Thank goodness Beastie has finally collapsed for the night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

He sure hates to think he might miss something LOL

Heather you've got the vibes

 Went to the movie theater today......I am so blessed to have a DH that has a man-crush on Russell Crowe....

Moonlight

Ron, I love that song, and I really liked your interpretation.  In parts, on the recording, the guitar overshadowed your voice a touch, and I would have prefered it to be the opposite, but I really, really liked it!  :D

Thank you very much. I have recorded this song before on my little digital camera, which has a crappy mic that flattens everything out and it didn't sound like me. This recording, however, sounds as close to how I sound as I can get. The original mix had my voice overpowering the guitar. I can see it in the waveforms of the tracks. My voice is recording at twice the amplitude of the guitar. The only effect on the voice is the compressor, which brings up the low volume parts and controls the high volume parts to provide a more even or balanced volume to the track. Over the years, I have developed quite a range and a lot of power and volume.

Another song I have enjoyed singing is "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns and Roses but I have been working on my own single guitar arrangement and I'm still not satisfied with the results, so I will keep working on it. That's the difficult part of doing cover songs. You are singing songs that were written for another voice and had way more effects thrown in than I have used, including pitch correctors. I don't pitch correct the track. I keep going until I get it right, primarily because I am used to playing and singing live for friends and a few clubs.

Music has been a passion for me for a long time. I started playing guitar in October 1974. And sang but without much range and resonance. In 1987, Guns and Roses released "Appetite for Destruction." "Welcome to the Jungle" was the first big hit. But "Sweet Child of Mine" exploded all over the place and it inspired me to work on my voice. In 1988, I found a book by Graham Hewitt titled "How to sing olympically."

I have been compared to a lot of people but I don't sound like any particular singer, though at times, I thought I might have sounded like a cross between Robin Xander (Cheap Trick),  Lonnie Van Zandt (Lynrd Skynrd). Other times I thought I sounded like Klaus Meine (Scorpions.) My wife has sometimes thought I sounded like David Byron (Uriah Heep.) That's a fairly close match and we even look alike, except that I have blonde hair. My father-in-law once thought I sounded like Luka Bloom, an irish tenor folk singer. Especially the way he sings on "Ciara." It's funny because I was singing "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas.

One time, I did a funny version of "Highway to Hell" and someone compared me to Justin Hawkins (the Darkness, especially on the song "I believe in a thing called love";).

Usually having a unique sound is a good thing. It's more important than range, really. But when I tried out for bands in the 80's, they really wanted someone who sounded like Robert Plant or David Coverdale. I can sing anything those guys sing but I don't sound like them. But I have played to pleasing reviews with "Stairway to Heaven" ( Led Zeppelin) and "Dream On" (Aerosmith. And yes, I can hit that note.) I have hit the high note in "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Many people don't know it but that high stuff was not sung be Freddie Mercury but by the drummer, Roger Taylor.

I did "Brandy" at the Elks Lodge in Sherman, Tx, which was a hit with everyone, especially the lady bartender. Surprise, the song is about a lady that serves drinks for a living. Go figure.

Another friend who was in a band setting up for a show liked it that I entertained for a while with an acoustic guitar and no mic. I did "Down Under" by Men at Work, that time.

At a New Year's party, I teamed up with a local jazz legend, Josh, and we did the only version I know of "Freebird" by Lynrd Skynrd with a tenor sax doing the solo. I had long hair then and a top hat, which gave me a Lonnie Van Zandt look.

I really need to start writing my own stuff again. Not only would it be written for my voice, but then I could submit the stuff to Glenda's son at the radio station in Florida.