Wavy Jake's fat zebra had Mexican pig liquor.

Hey kids,

Someone found my blog via the above phrase. It's a pangram, which is a sentence containing all the letters of the alphabet. Here are some others:

• By Jove, my quick study of lexicography won a prize.
• Crazy Fredericka bought many very exquisite opal jewels.
• Ebenezer unexpectedly bagged two tranquil aardvarks with his jiffy vacuum cleaner.

So, someday the two of you will be wondering just what your mother was up to during those few days during summer vacation while you stayed at Grandma's. Well, thank GOD you will have this blog to refer to. Aren't you just the luckiest?

Saturday I slept late. I don't usually get to do that. I had plans to get my hair cut and get some shopping done, but I wound up futzing around on the computer most of the day in my pajamas and taking a long, leisurely shower, which took me all the way up to the time I was supposed to leave for the John Doe and the Sadies show, with Richmond Fontaine opening.

I love John Doe. But I've seen him in various incarnations at least a half dozen times over the years, so I was really really excited to see Richmond Fontaine for the first time. RF's frontman is Willy Vlautin, a Reno native and UNR grad and an extraordinary writer. Of songs and of novels. He's written two so far, "The Motel Life" and "Northline," the latter of which made me cry pretty hard. He signed Motel Life for me a couple years ago at a reading at UNR, and I got to shake his hand and say something to him that I had rehearsed a dozen times in the car on the way over. I can't even remember now what it is that I said.

Another song that breaks my heart. Brilliant:



His dad was sitting next to me in the audience, and after RF's lovely set, Willy came out and sat with him to watch John Doe. I was way too shy to say anything to either of them. I wonder if his dad sitting there had anything to do with him cleaning up his language whilst performing the song posted above. Awwwwww.....

Sunday, then, was hair cut day. As I sat there getting my $12.95 haircut (plus I had a dollar-off coupon! Don't forget the dollar-off coupon!), I wished with all my heart that I had back all the money I had ever spent over the years on $60 haircuts. But I also sadly noted that $60 gets you a few perks: baklava and herbal tea in the waiting area while the receptionist hangs your jacket in an armoire. The previous client's hair is never, ever lingering on the floor when I am ready to sit. There's a shampoo and condition with expensive, exquisitely scented products, a scalp massage, flattering and mood-altering lighting conditions, a blow-dry and a quick run-through with a curling iron afterwards.

For $12.95 (plus a dollar-off coupon), I'm lucky if I get a blast of cold water in the face from a spritz bottle. But... the end result is the same. And at this price, I am able to get my hair cut a little more often.

From there, I headed to the theater to see "Julie & Julia." Director Nora Ephron has said that her goal was to have everyone leave the theater wanting to make a boeuf bourguignon. Well, put that on my list of things to do. Seriously. Stand by, because I will attempt this sometime in the near future. The movie was okaaaaaay, but Meryl Streep was wonderful. Overall, I felt about the movie pretty much the way I felt about the book. Here's a link to a 2005 blog post about trying to slog my way through it.

Four years later, I'm still trying to come up with a gimmick that will get me noticed and published, and eventually snag me a movie deal.

Shopped for groceries and a few school clothes items after the movie. Well, after the movie and lunch at Qdoba. Faux Mexican cuisine just isn't the same without you two.

RITE OF PASSAGE ALERT: This is the first time I shopped for you two entirely in the kid's departments. Precious little in the toddlers department fits Wavy anymore, so I forewent that entirely and shopped exclusively in the Hannah Montana department, otherwise known as Little Girls. And for Jake... I'm currently enamored of the whole Ed Hardy look. Yeah, I know, it can be totally greaseball guido shit, but for some reason I am in love with the t-shirts. And the hats and the bags. But until I can afford to buy you some genuine Ed Hardy shirts, Jakob, you're getting Penneys and Target knock-offs.

Also picked up Season Two of Mad Men. Which ruined my day today. I sat up watching episodes until about 3:30 a.m. then had to get up at 7 to go to work. I'm so stupid. Sitting at my desk today was torture.

And tonight? Tonight, I cleaned the top of the refrigerator. I've only been meaning to do it for about five or six years now. There was all sorts of crap up there. Takeout menus, kids art supplies, loose recipes, Jake's school artwork, vitamins, kids medicines, I even found a bottle of wine up there that I thought had gone missing about two years ago. Yeah. It was that bad. And grimy. That bad, yet it only took about 25 minutes to complete the entire task. I threw away a lot of stuff, wiped everything down, consolidated, arranged, disinfected. 25 minutes. And it took me five years to get around to it? Shame on me.

When I was done, I fought the urge to rouse your daddy from espn.com or whatever the hell he was doing, to show him my accomplishment. I was excited, and I felt everyone else should be, too. But then reality set in, and I realized that if I dragged him to the kitchen to show him, he would say most likely say, "Wha? I didn't even know it was dirty in the first place." Which would set me off. This is a script played over and over between your daddy and me throughout the years, and I wasn't in the mood tonight, so I gloated alone, told myself I was fabulous, and went on with my evening. I might have mentioned to him later in passing that I wiped up the top of the fridge a bit. No praise or validation or parade was forthcoming, and none was expected, so no feelings were hurt. Yay, me!

Anyway. That was my past three days. I gotta go to sleep now and try and recoup some of my brain cells that I lost last night. But first, just ONE more ep of Mad Men.

Love you. Come home to me. Soon.