Good morning, hello. Howdy. Hi. How are you? Did you have a nice weekend? Get any ice cream? I shoulda gotten ice cream. See any cool cars? Friends? Eat any french fries?

First things first: Happy Birthday to my sister Valerie Elizabeth. It is a big ‘un. I hope she took the day off and is treating herself to a spa day. I hope Matt watches the kids all evening. I hope she has a lovely day. She is the best. YAY SISTER.

Had a dream last night that included my friend Tom V, Jamie Perkins from the Perkins Builder Bothers youtube channel, Conway Savage formerly of the Bad Seeds, and my old friend Bonnie, whom I have not seen in, gosh, 20 years and now suddenly I miss Bonnie something fierce. I wonder where she is. What she is up to. Bonnie ruled.

We all lived in Sydney running a makers collective together. I spent a lot of time getting the closed captioning working on the Television so I could read the subtitles to Gary Oldman’s Nil By Mouth. Not that I ever need to see that film again. God that was dark.

Fairbanks just voted to rename Pioneer Park back to Alaskaland. Some people say “what’s the point, everyone calls it Alaskaland anyway and this will cost money” but it was important to the indigenous tribes to not have the historcal portions of Alaskaland solely focused on the pioneers. Which is reasonable. And to be fair, the park does a good job of educating on native affairs. But the name was an issue. Also it was dumb. It was Alaskaland, it will always be Alaskaland. Welcome back, Aaskaland.

Of course, before it was Alaskaland it was Alaska 67 Expo Park, of which my grandmother was one of the organizers. I hope in 2067 they name it back to that for the year.

Leaving for boston in 3ish hours. Splurged a little extra to get a mid-day flight. Worth it. Got to see Jane this morning, get to write these words, get to go to the grocery store and be disappointed by the lack of a sale on Zevia. Take out the compost. Read all my newsletters. Morning stuff. Lovely. Tonight I will be in Boston rocking out to the Afghan Whigs and Mercury Rev and it is gonna be great.

I got the blueprint printing done. It was… a lot. Finished it Saturday night. Will the inspector even look at them? Will they even be picked up from my house before I get back from Boston? I know what I would bet.

Props to those who got the Throw Momma from the Train reference last week. I have been reliably informed that the film “holds up.” Might watch it again.

OH. Speaking of which: Does anyone remember an 80’s/early 90’s comedy — could be film or TV — where a guy is offended and appalled by having to pay for air at the gas station to fill up his tires, and he rants and raves about it and then when he’s done with filling up his tires he bags the extra air that comes out of the paid pump, and then there are these grocery bags of air floating around while he shouts “free air! Anyone need free air?”

I think about that bit all the time but I can’t remember what it was from.

Join the GMHHAY slack! Reply to this email and ask for an invite if you’re a human who likes chatting with other humans about topics such as these within!

We are listening to the new Wilco live album, entitled Wilco Live (Yellow). I do not know what the “yellow” is about. Maybe there is another Wilco live album and they are pulling a Weezer here. Well, I know there are other Wilco Live albums but the only one I can think of at the moment is entitled Kicking Television. Let’s look. Nope. Only live album entitled Wilco Live. Mysterious.

Used to love Wilco, back when he was a druggie and a drunk and depressed. I still listen to every album and gotta give em props for the album titles Schmilco and Star Wars I mean this guy is really trying here. I read his book about songwriting and it was very good. I admire his prolificness. That is probably not a word. Wait is that what “profligacy” means? No, right? I mean, I know what “profligacy” means I just thought it might have a second, lesser-known definition of “prolificness.” It does not.

Anyway, Jeff Tweedy from Wilco got healthy and happy and now he makes healthy and happy music at a very rapid clip and has curated a legion of super chill fans who love going to super chill festivals and I am deeply impressed with his successful avoidance of being a depressed middle-aged man, but. I can’t get into the new music. I need my leather and pain, man. I am not yet cured. Give me “Reservations” and “Ashes of American Flags” all the live-long day.

Excellent weekend of chores. I mean it was a fucking TOP NOTCH weekend of chores, even with the blueprint printing. I am so sore. So much studio work. I mean, there’s really not much to write about it. I laid subfloor, I did some caulking to fill in the seams, then I started laying another layer of subfloor. If all goes well, after one more weekend in the studio I will be ready to replace the drip pan under the HVAC unit after having completely rebuilt the floor underneath it. This will be a big step because I can stop stressing that maybe the HVAC unit is gonna leak again onto my brand new subfloor.

Once that is done I can get back to laying Safe n Sound and OSB layer 1 onto the rest of the attic floor that is currently just open rafters. This will be very quick, and very huge, because after that, for the first time, we can really get a sense of how big the place is.

Here is a picture of a completed subfloor section so you can see what the hell I have been talking about for a year now:

Got a little gardening in, but not much. I mostly fiddled with irrigation settings, some beds getting too much water, some getting not enough.

BUT IT FINALLY RAINED. Not a good solid downpour but enough that the plants are very happy. Thank you, Rain gods.

Emma took Jane to a birthday party yesterday where Jane was mayhaps not the best behaved, and Emma seemed a little exhausted by it. Plus it was my last day home for a week, so I did a full Jane bedtime last night. It was lovely. As was this morning. Which means I’ll miss her. If she had been a pill about her teeth last night maybe I would have not missed her? Eh. Dubious.

We did Daddy School last night. We started with one of Jane’s favorite topics: Cats with financial problems. Whenever we’re at a restaurant and she is not being chatty and we ask her what she wants to talk about, she says “Cats with financial problems,” which is a topic that this family has now explored at great length. So last night I shifted it to humans with financial problems and explained the bankruptcy process to her and then loans and interest. Boy that girl cottoned to interest quick. Then credit cards, paying off your card every month, and the decision of when to buy something: sooner with borrowed money or later with earned money. She was very into that. You should earn the money and buy it later, she said. Wish she was around in my 20s to tell me that. Ghost of daughter yet-to-be.

Of course that girl doesn’t ever really want to buy anything but lemonade, so hopefully she doesn’t really have this problem.

We also talked about times it made sense to borrow — things that will increase in value like homes, things that will increase your future earnings like college, things you need now for a specific reason but can pay off quick, like clothes for a new job.

It was great! First day I think I really lived the dream of what I imagined or dreamed that having a kid would be like.

Probably be the last.

Synthpop playlist for you today. Still processing the new Metric, only listened to it once. I don’t know this Jaakko Eino Kalevi fellow but apparently he is Finnish and… I sorta liked that track? Will investigate more. Thank you Jes for the Mary Onettes. Love Austra can’t remember who got me into her but she is great.

All right! Talk to you tomorrow from Boston.