I’ll be sworn in tonight at City Hall in Austin!

Update on life/love/living:

Tonight I’ll be sworn in at City Hall at 6 pm because I have been appointed by Councilwoman Laura Morrison to be on the Austin Music Commission. AMC is dedicated to informing
the City of Austin of the needs of our city’s musicians and their families. I promise to do my best to speak out on behalf of US!

Waiting for the pilot of the Super Pal Universe footage; we are in the final stages of editing and I’m going to go over it with a fine tooth comb and make a few changes. Yes, I am a
taskmaster because these kids have worked super hard and dagnabit, I want this thing to be EXCELLENT before anyone sees it.

Waiting on the almost completed edit of the performance of Poor David’s Pub…it will be released soon as a live DVD/CD! I sat down with Russell in Dallas last month and we talked through
edits, so looking forward to that arriving so I can make sure it, too, is tee-ri-fic before it goes to press.

Excited to have Shulz’s Beer Garten here in Austin to come onboard as the venue for our MUSIC FOR LIFE Finale on October 1. Please come out and be a part of this year long event that is coming
to a close. This month we are in Waco (Oct 18) with the Austin Lounge Lizards! The Mayor of El Paso, Mayor John Cook, will most likely also be coming, as well as speakers, and I’ll perform, again;
our finale will have Kinky Friedman, Terri Hendrix, Shelley King, me, the Mayor of El Paso and, hopefully, a very special surprise guest…along with speakers, who once I know who they are, I’ll list here.

Brownies starts back up today. iolana’s third year AND she’s in third grade. We love her teacher. This should be a great year for her!
Junior high is a big change for all of us, but I think it is kickin’ off alright for Lily. Riding the bus has been something I didn’t think would be a part of our family life, but it seems to be working out
alright. And Lily has some really amazing teachers, too. She is very happy with her language arts teacher and is looking forward to Japanese Fine Arts. I hope to find some time to start watching the
Rosetta Stone we bought at Christmas so I can learn some Japanese phrases…

THIS WEEKEND:

Labor Day: Went with my family out to a lakehouse on Lake Travis where we cavorted in the sand, sun and surf in kayaks and with fishing poles, chips, root beer and tofu pups (vegetarian
hot dogs.) Here’s something anyone who likes to fish probably already knows: fish do not like veggie dogs on the hook.

Came home from Boston, here’s the follow up:

On the plane ride home from Boston, I lost half of my back molar. It just cracked in half. Don’t worry! It didn’t hurt, but boy-oh-boy, is it jaggedy! I don’t know if I swallowed half of my tooth or what.
Somewhere, out there, is half a tooth….

WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Club Passim: There were people present! Roger, my brain, was relieved! And people had REQUESTS! So I performed “Salvador” and “Best of Times” and everyone in attendance were very PRESENT. I had a good time
talking to Jeff afterwards. He was very enthusiastic! Thank you, Jeff! David Mauzy sent his friend, Tiffany, and her partner out to the show…I wish I could have talked with them afterwards. I’m glad they could come
out! Thanks, David!

THURSDAY: Hung out with Laurie. I actually relaxed and got a pedicure. Then, Laurie needed to get a bunch of school supplies for kids because her assistant, Debbie, is a social worker, too, and helps kids prep for school, so Laurie and I
went to Staples and used Laurie’s coupons to buy enormous quantities of goods to help these kids. I was zooming around the store with a big cart getting folders, scissors, crayons, erasers, pencil sharpeners, and Laurie was zooming in the other direction getting pencil boxes, paperclips, filler paper, notebooks, you name it. We stopped at another store where she purchased some bedding goods and then to TJ Maxx before stopping at an Italian restaurant, where we met up with Danny Click (musician/great guy) to eat dinner. By then I was ready to hit the hay! I did end up sauntering over to the piano bar and singing “When I Fall In Love” with the pianist. That was fun! He told Laurie I was pretty good!

FRIDAY: Boston Children’s Museum: FANTASTIC! Lots of families, lots of children, wonderful sound system, and all bundled under a HUGE white tent (with WINDOWS!) and a “Tower of Friends” (what I called the
giant wooden sitting area), singingand dancing along. I hope to get my music into the gift shop at BCM because it is a SUPER DUPER museum. Thanks to Club Passim and Charlie for getting me in the summer sing-a-long series!
I’d love to return next year. I really need to do a “Mother Hugger” tour because, I swear, hugging and connecting is really the best part of what I am blessed to be able to do…

Fox Run (Sudbury, MA): Fantastic, as always. I met Shelley, a sweet woman and her husband, Brett (who I kept calling RHETT until I realized there was a “B” sound before the “R” sound…doh!) and my mom’s awesome
friend of 45 years came out with her neighbor of 40 years! and towards the end of the show there was a group of six folks who had smiles like Cheshire cats and I had to jump in and smile with them.
Smiliness rules, especially SINCERE SMILINESS! Neil did a superb job on the live sound and recorded the performance, so maybe there’s something I can upload to the website…who knows?!
Adam Klein (formerly of WBOS, where I met him so many years ago) came out and that just made me hap-hap-happy! Thank you, Adam! Danny Click opened the evening: great guitarist, super spirit.
He used to play with Jimmy La Fave, and he is going to be playing slide on “State of Emergency”, a song I wrote for Wendy and Mike, a couple who have two children that are autistic. Mike wrote a book
about autism and asked me to write a song that they can include on a cd in the back, so after reading his book, there was no way I wasn’t going to write a song for them. Thank you, Neale, for helping us
get Danny on tape!

Staying at Fox Run is really nice because they provided me with my own room/bath, they have excellent snacks (they have DRAWERS OF ORGANIZED snacks, I am not kidding you), they also have HEALTHY snacks
(grapes, peaches, juices, water…) and Laurie and Neale are very good folks. So is Deb, their assistant. And their dog, Carrie, looks like a tiny wind up mop, all white and furry/hairy with a dot of a black nose and two
shining eyes hidden in all the wispy bangs. Sudbury is just a gorgeous, old old town. Many of the homes were built in the 1700-1800’s, and the lazy lawns full of flowers and trees and everything so
well-kept and loved. I walked around in the little downtown areas and meandered in and out of shops, eating, finally, at the Lotus Garden, reading a local paper about homes for sale. They call them “antiques”, not “old houses.”
So I ate and fantasized about living on property with an old red barn and a creek and having a horse or two. Nice way to relax.

READING:
I’m currently reading “What is the What” by Dave Eggers.
Last book I read was “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyers and “The Vampire Armand” (Anne Rice).