What me worry?

Rehab: I've been busy. It's to be expected. I knew months ago it was going to be like this. It is 1:20am and I just finished working for the day. It's been about a 16 hour work day.

It's all because we have our first open house on Sunday. We're selling our current home so that we can move into our soon to be completed house next door. It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't such a procrastinator. When we moved into our house there were still many things that needed to be done. When we got married in our house (it'll be a year ago Sunday) I finished a bunch of things but not everything. Now I have to finish everything so that we can get top dollar. I've been busting my ass.

All week I've been splitting my time between working on my current home and my new home. I've learned to prioritize very well. I have not been able to see more than 2 days into the future. I do what has to be done right now and can't worry about something that has to be done tomorrow. It's been eye opening.

This week in the new house I had a new basement floor poured (busting up and hauling out the old one was a joy and a half), sanded and primed the drywall, purchased vanities for the bathrooms, tiled 1 bathroom, started tiling another, ordered a stainless steel handrail, ordered a vanity top for the master bathroom, priced all new appliances and cabinets, and did a bunch of prep and painting in my house to get it ready to go on the market.

The baby is due in less than 3 weeks so it doesn't look like the new house will be done, but it is getting there. Everyone says the baby just sleeps in a bassinet in your room for the first couple of months anyway. So he won't know that his room in his new house isn't done yet. Why stress about things 3 weeks from now when I have a million things to stress about for tomorrow?

Listening: While I'm working I've been trying to listen to music more often. I frequently listen to NPR but I have had my fill of Katrina and Iraq coverage for now. I've been listening to the Fruit Bats, Lucero, the Mountain Goats and several other new releases along with all the old favorites. Helps keep me company.

Watching: Very excited about Lost starting up again. I also enjoyed the My Name is Earl premiere paired up with The Office for a solid hour of non reality tv on NBC. This week saw Martha's Apprentice, Donald's Apprentice, Next Top Model, and many other Fall shows broadcast across my screen.

Not clueless

Baby: Last week we took a tour of the hospital where my son will be born and yesterday we took a caregiver's class. In the class we learned rudimentary elements of taking care of a child that included feeding, changing and bathing. I don't think either of us learned anything surprising, but it did help reinforce the fact that we aren't completely clueless.

Rehab: The house is coming along. The taper/mudder finished up yesterday. The flooring guys made all of their repairs and started sanding the perimeter of each room. They have another job they need to go to for a week and then they'll be back to finish up. I'm going to spend the week priming the walls of the whole house and setting the tile in all 3 bathrooms. We've picked out our cabinets and are working on the counter tops. We've decided to go with inexpensive unfinished cabinets since we plan on painting them a custom color anyway and instead spend the money we'll save on the counter tops and get something really nice. I haven't completely eliminated the idea of doing concrete counter tops, but it is a time consuming project and I don't know if I'll have the time to spare.

I just counted and I have 32 days before this baby arrives. That also means I have 32 days before our new house needs to be done and our old house needs to be on the market and preferably SOLD. It's going to be an exciting month. If you don't hear from me don't worry. I'm just working myself to death before a take an 8 week paternity leave.

Gallery Opening

This weekend was a fun one. I've been working on promoting a gallery opening for the past couple of weeks and the show was on Saturday. The show was called Paper Cuts and Track Marks and was a gig poster show inspired by my own collection. There were 11 artists involved and a couple of the artists came from out of town to be at the show. We received some good press and hung posters throughout town. There were family members of the artists, people I knew, people I didn't know, people I wanted to know and they all seemed to have a good time and get along. I hope we can do another poster show in the future and maybe even make it an ongoing show every 6 months or so. There are plenty of artists making posters on an ongoing basis making it possible to do frequent shows of new material.
Andrew Vastagh of Memphis, TN

The work of Brady Vest of Hammerpress in KC, MO

Bob Boring of Boring Inc. and Steve Walters of Screwball Press Chicago, IL

Admiring Crowd

Aaron spinning tunes