Like an Angel With Clip-On Wings

The missus and I have a dear friend who is a fantastic whose mother-in-law will soon be getting remarried. Our friend was asked to sing something during the ceremony and she tried looking for an instrumental track that could be played at the event. She couldn't find a version she liked, so she asked use to record something. The song is the theme from the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service, a book that I am coincidentally reading, and the song is "We Have All The Time In The World."

If you recall the movie, George Lazenby starred in only real movie ever and this film is the one where Bond actually gets married (You Only Live Twice does not count). But right after the reception SPECTRE kills Bond's wife as they are driving off to begin their life together and James utters the words from the song title. With that in mind, I had to ask our friend if she and her mother-in-law were aware of this contextually important trivia. They were all in on it and their plan is to do what James Bond could not, which is to live a long life together.

When the instrumental track is complete I'll get our friend in to record a vocal track so there will be two versions and I'll post them on my SoundCloud page.

Wow, no posts by me this year. Perhaps I have a FaceBook problem. More like, I've gotten lazy. So I'll take myself down Memory Lane, which is a difficult journey even thought clean living has given me a lousy memory.

In early January, shortly after her 14th birthday, Peso could not get herself up on her feet. She could barely walk and would not eat. We even made the dreaded "appointment" at the veterinarian's office. But after three and a half really bad days she started getting better. We kept the appointment but changed the reason. Peso could not walk and was in pain then suddenly she was not. The vet thought Peso had strained her hips, or slipped, on our tile and wood laminate floors. Ever since then we've been giving her semi-expensive pain pills and she is still happy and alive.

The missus is still in grad school at Aquinas College for her masters in music education and she has been a paid substitute teacher three times. Oh, the instruments she has had to learn while getting ridicule from our children and sometimes the dog fleeing the room. My wife is an actual certified genius and most instruments can learn very quickly even if the trumpet didn't really work out.

My daughter has really turned things around and instead of getting decent grades she has become an honor roll student. She's always been bright but now she is applying herself.

The kids and I spent a few days with my family in Louisiana during spring break and we had a great time. Sometimes it is hard with my mom, sisters, and nieces & nephews 1,100 miles away. That trip was much needed.

Right now I am in the endless mixing stage of the Saltmine Canary EP. This truly is a basement project and when the songs are ready to be mastered then we will reach the point where it costs us something out of pocket. In my last band we dropped over $5,000 recording an album that few people heard. This project will might cost as much as $300. Even my broke @ss can afford that.

On June 1st we will be playing at Festival Of The Arts in downtown Gran' Drapids (as the locals pronounce it) and this year I do not plan on breaking two guitar strings during one song.

( Free listens/downloads available to YOU. )

Hey guys, life has been good since I last posted. Grad school has kept the missus busier than normal and her support crew (the kids and me) have been trying to make things easier for her because she is Superwoman and wants to do everything on her own. Our reward is hearing her quickly master instruments including the bugle, flute, French horn, and the clarinet.

Things have progressed slowing with Saltmine Canary with our two singers in school. We are still trying out a new bass player and waiting to see if he clicks. On the upside, this week we will start recording drum tracks for an EP.

And speaking of recording, most of the recording has been completed for our family Christmas album. Veronica was shouldered with playing most of the melody lines on her violin and Sam has been tearing it up on cello. This project is really for letting the children show what they can do and at 10 and 11 years old they are a lot of fun.

Here is my daughter singing "Zat You, Santa Claus?"



Sam on the electric cello:

Yesterday morning my wife decided it was time to take the kids tent camping... that very day. So she loaded up the car top carrier and called me before leaving because our daughter thought that there must be strife in the household if daddy is going on a hastily arranged family trip. I reassured her over the telephone that things were fine and that I would enjoy a quiet night at home to do laundry.

They stayed at Hoffmaster state park on beautiful Lake Michigan while Peso and I took leftovers from the fridge and made stew. I was glad that they could have an adventure without me limiting their options. And I got six loads of laundry washed, dried, and put away.

My mom and nephew are visiting for a couple of weeks and I am trying to keep up with the idea that my mom and I were shopping for booze together the night she arrived in Michigan. We even picked up the flavor of Leinenkugel's that she can't get in Louisiana. Guys, this is crazy.

We debuted this song at Festival Of The Arts in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on June 3rd, 2011. I broke TWO guitar strings during this song. Normally a 4 string guitar is called a ukulele but in this case my A and D strings were gone. Pay close attention and you will be able to see it happen as the song continues.

Last school year the missus tried getting a gifted & talented program started at the kid's school. She even won a grant to make this happen. The principal liked the idea so long as the program was a club open to all and focused on science. She told him that she had to be accountable to the Grant Givers by making the club for children that excel in academics. She won out.

This year the students were learning about arson and how it is investigated. Angie arranged a field trip to a place that teaches fire forensics. Tonight was the last meeting and she came up with a an Arson Mystery Dinner. I played one of the suspects, a teacher played another, and my mother-in-law joined in. We had character witnesses and the children had to look at the evidence.

The story was that a fire broke out in a school library. Last night we took some old books, a candle, and used rubbing alcohol to char it really well. The missus took writing samples from us suspects, finger prints to place at the scene along with a small hair sample. Looking at the evidence the children were able to figure out that it was my character who committed arson. Fun was had by all.

Kids and adults love the Really Annoying Orange. Here is my son's version: