Christmas at Home

Christmas on IChat

boo!

flies in the cabin

in the airport.

Blueberries

oh boy! i picked a bunch of blueberries out of our front yard. yum.

So Many Things

I think i've gotten to a point in this (or all of my) blog for nobody checks it anymore because I haven't updated it for was too long. So, I'm figure i'm writing this for my own personal affirmation, or in the name of self sustainability or something. But this is what has happened in the last month or so:

Chocolati (job) is going really really great.
Cynthia and I celebrated our nine months this last Wednesday! woo
Cynthia's parents came to town and visited for a weekend. fun fun. (picture)
Played a show with Cynthia (picture)
The Barn is working on a Christmas album- so good.
For halloween CYnthia was a paintbrush and i was a canvas..awww (picture)
I've started my first online course at Louisiana State University- Ancient Western Civilization.
Worked on my bike- including changing the color scheme to blue and yellow + new handlebars.
kspu.org is rocking.
Filmed a music video of a new song of mine with Zeek: watch it here




I figure that'll due for an update for now. this blog thing is going downhill fast, sorry about that.

green bean v. chocolati

I am currently enjoy a lovely fall afternoon at the Green Bean coffehouse in greenwood, seattle. My good friends lindsay and abby work here now. The Green Bean is a sweeeeet coffeehouse nonprofit place, check it out if you're ever around or here on the internet: Green Bean

In other news, I am officially employed!!! I can now be considered an employed citizen working towards the betterment and support of caffeine addiction throughout the Wallingford community! That's right folks, I've broken down and got a barista job at the hippest coffee hang out on 45th st. Chocolati Cafe , so good. I started on Thursday evening, learning the ways of coffee preparation. and the chocolate is amamamazing!

That's great. the Barn community is moving on just swimmingly. you should come and stay with us. we are great cooks, we have a great and quite study/library, three record players and a giant table made out of old doors. So come and enjoy all that is the barn!

I had a surprising and great wake up call from Dan Zimmer the other morning. He is Turkey and gave me a ring! I was good to catch up a bit with Dan. I'm excited for him to come back to Seattle become an integrated part of the Barn.

That's about it for now. here is a picture of friends here at the green bean, from left to right: jake, abby, lindsay, me, nate. what great people!

Mr. Wind is a Mischief

A huge tree lim fell off our tree and into our yard as the result of an ultra windy day yesterday. Zeek borrowed an ax from our neighbor, Flip, and chopped it up for firewood. Thanks Zeek!

Stay in School and Drink Milk

And you thought this was going to be an end of summer post- got you! no no, tommy's summer has now officially been extended until next september!
Here's the drain: I decided to take this entire school year off and work, take online courses, and keep it real (in Seattle) and then take three quarters of school at SPU next fall, winter and spring, leaving me being a college graduate. Now, you might be thinking "aw, Tommy, that sucks.." oh contrare my good friend, this is actually the most brilliant plan of the 21st century. We are working the system so hard it won't even know what hit them. I'll be able to graduate with only three years at SPU and one year working and taking a couple of anonymous online courses for credits...that's at like twenty to sixty bucks a class. So, although, yes it is too bad I will have a year off great professors and constant intellectual stimulation, but, in such economic times I believe I just made the best choice yet.
So, while all my homies have been going to classes and doing homework I've been frantically searching for some full time jobs; applying to places such as: PCC MarketPlace, Theo Chocolate Factory, Space Needle, Irwin's cafe and bakery, Flying Apron Vegan Bakery (i'm not vegan), and to be a 911 switchboard operator. So far I've got nothing, but we'll see what the rest of the week brings.
The house is settling quite nicely. We have a lovely meal/food system set up, we'll see if we're able to make it last!
Mom and Dad are still jeepin' in Moab- so jealous.
Cynthia got a bike! In fact, she got two bikes! haha, she is doing just about exactly what I did with some guitars quite a few years back: got a bike, found a better one for cheaper and is now selling the first one. The one for sale is a super slick ten speed if anyone is interested. I've been riding it because one- my bottom bracket is shot and two- the extra bike i've been riding received a popped tire when I was downtown yesterday (leaving me to walking back across town with a broken bike).
I suppose that's about it for now. I guess i'll keep updating this site for a bit longer, even though summer is gone and fall has come, just to keep ya'll updated with all that's going on.
Here is a picture of my roommate Nate studying.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, Cynthia! yup, that's right, great. We hopefully will be picking up a bicycle for her today!
Let's see, pj and ashley are in California, school should be starting up on monday, kspu has been my life this week.

Zeek, Nate, Derek Hanson, Katty, Michael Brown and I have been working on making kspu awesomeeee. We painted the station, got a mobil broadcasting system set up, build a seven and a half foot tree out of cds and are currently working on a new website- zing!

Other than this, there really hasn't been a heck of a lot going on. Just a lot of hangin with the homies and keepin it fresh.
We have two pictures today, number one is a conference call we had with zeek about roommate situations and number two is tyler and jesse kickin it in their newly arranged movie lounge. dig.

Digital Barn

I promised it, and you got it- a virtual tour of the barn. The film is a little choppy, the music might be too loud and I mumble a lot, but hopefully this'll give you an idea of what we're dealing with. oh yes, and it's really long, so feel free to fast forward through the whole thing.

Barn

In Seattle. Let's see here, I've been in town now for about three days and I have: fixed my bike (kind of), applied for jobs, Aurora (we have a show on tuesday, if you're in town come), cooked and picked berries. That about covers it.

It's so nice to be back in town with homies and a siiiiick house. Ah yes, the house. Our house in a giant red Dutch Barn; notice the typo in my last post referring to it as a Dutch Castle. It is very big and very nice..probably too nice. We have a kitchen that my mom would be quite jealous of, five bedrooms, two bathrooms (complete with tub), a sweet basement with a (now) movie room and work bench/area. We have a big of a backyard, too. Our neighbors are really kind, I'm planning on making cookies or something for them all as soon as my days aren't spend traveling around trying to get my life in line. I'll put up pictures sometime soon. Promise.

The house is a bit quite these days as there aren't many people around. Kyle and Alex are the only two housemembers present (both are working bunches though). We are also have three subleters: Ben, Dustin and Grace. They are all quite nice and are enjoying their time here I hope.

Good friend, Dan Zimmer is in Turkey. This sucks. But it's also cool. Speaking of Dan, this is what we came across two years ago and is still funny: Blocks Series Railway II

I guess that's about all I'v got for now. Cynthia comes to town on Monday, this is good. oh yes of course, today marks our seven months of monthy months woo

Also, there are two photos here just because I came across them and felt like sharing them: picture one is of my last year's halloween costume, I was a either a lost vietnam victim who had been flown back home and in a mental ward or President Ford on an overnight drunk in the white house (don't worry mom, no alcohol was involved for this costume). Picture two is of Cynthia and I way way back last fall- ironyyyyyyy

Transverse Time

Well dear Moorpark, I suppose this is goodbye, don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you. I'm returning to the lovely northwest once again in the morning morning. My time here back home has been good, short, but good.

Met up with Marty, celebrated Davey and Sam's birthday, quality family time, kicked it with Matt, spent some time with Lindsay and friends, recorded some raps with Matt Markum, and shared traveling stories with Grant. A solid couple days indeed.

I'm going to miss it here. Sometimes I just can't wait to get back to Seattle. But not this time; I mean don't get me wrong I'm very much looking forward to settling with the G8, and naturally see Cynthia and homies, but I've just been feeling a lot of good things happening here, and I'm sad to leave it. But, when it's time, it's time. So, farewell ms. Moorpark and hello baby doll Seattle. (and don't worry, once i pack up my computer here i'm going to go shave this nonsense off :)

Former Indian Residency

India was amazing. We all made it back safe and sound. I know that this is the summer of tommy blog where i'm suppose to write about what all happens, but I don't much feel like making this a long epilogue relaying what all we did. With that you have two options to get the dig on the trip: one, talk to me, call me, email me, etc. two, read through our blog that we kept pretty well updated. I would of course love to tell you all about it, so if you're curious, well then just let me know!

News beyond India: the G8 got a house!!!! For those of you who don't know the G8 is the community house i'll be living in this coming fall (line up: dan zimmer, nate rodgers, zeek earl, tim blok, alex mcbeardy, kyle johnson, mike chadwick, me). The house was described to me as a "Dutch Castle"..I hope it lives up to that. I figure the Haan family will approve and be happy to see this Dutch addition to my life :)

I head back up to Seattle on the ninth. Cynthia comes to Seattle on the 15th. Aurora plays neumos on the 16th. These are the dates i'm looking forward to, particularly the second date.
I've officially applied for a job at the Silva Learning Center (thank you ben) in Ballard. Cross your fingers for me!

That's about it, thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers while we were adventuring around, we most defiantly appreciated and needed them!

India Far Away

I'm currently packing to go to India...whew. I don't have the mental power for the physical desire to make this a legitimate update, so i'll leave you with this:

Things have been quite well, catching up with old friends, garage sales and packing. I meet up with Justin, Teddy and Ben in LAX (hopefully) tomorrow to take off to India. Here is the Itinerary:
LAX to Singapore
Singapore (2 days) to Chennai, India
Chennai to Dharmapuri (via train)
Dharmapure (about three weeks) to Chennai
Chennai to Kolkota
Kolkota to Gangtok (via train)
retrace our steps back home.

So that's the deal. Please please keep updated with us via our dumb blog site: Our India Trip!

Prayers and thoughts would be much much much much appreciated :)
We are going to try to update our site whenever we can to let you all know we are well (who knows how often we will be able to update it, though).
And just look forward to an epic update in about a month.
<3

Musical

Here it is! I have what you all have been eagerly waiting for since last summer- Tommy's musical compilation cd of 07-08! That's right, kids, we're talkin' a complete digital cd package jam packed with eight hit songs!

For those of you who don't know (probably everyone), it is my goal to create a compilation cd of all the music i've been working on over that (school) year along with an art piece or two that i've created. This year I was able to scramble together eight songs, some crazy, some lowfi, none hifi, some with a lovely lady (Cynthia Haan), some mellow, and one live. Enjoy it all you like; i've uploaded a .zip file for y'all, it includes the following: cd cover and back (+printable version), and the eight songs.

AND! That's not it, friends! I've uploaded ALL of my past cds in a similar form! you now can enjoy alllllll of my nonsense in one, great, once in a lifetime deal of free99. RIGHT HERE

Homeboys

The reentry, sucks. Cynthia has returned home and is heavily missed to be sure. The official countdown for India is at a frightening eight days...my word. Anyhow, last evening was spent with my two out of three homboys stephanzski and davey, and here is the story:

We all met up at the movies to see the Dark Knight...sold out. Our contingency plan was to come back to my place for some eats, pool and poker. Poker nights are always fun and usually consists of me fumbling my goofy way through Davey's poker intellect and Stephanz's green thumb. This was nice time (and i know what you're thinking: "tommy, are you wearing a Quailman vest??" the answer is yes). Stephanz and I caught a matinée showing of batman this afternoon. Prognosis: very good, but I walked out with both my socks and shoes still on my feet.

Next on my list: finish accruing items (both mentally and physically) for India, indian giver show on friday and Uncle Steve/Ant Debbie's garage sale on saturday. Awesome.

Donut Wheel

Look at what Cynthia got me:

For those of you who don't know, Donut Wheel is the coolest coolest coolest 24hr donut place on earth. Cynthia and I have shared some nice memories there. I like donuts. and i sure like Cynthia.

Short

Well, the glorious weekend had to come to an end sometime, didn't it...I took Cynthia to the airport this evening after about five days of great great and great. Here is the recap:

After some great family time on thursday (including home smoked salmon and a heated game of nertz), Cynthia and I slept in well on Friday then meet up with Casey (Cynthia's sister) down in Santa Monica which was nice on ice. We visited for a while then Cynthia and I headed over to the Bergamot Station art galleries (highly recommended). After they closed up and kicked us out we rollerbladed from the Venice pier to almost the Santa Monica pier and back during sunset. This was awesome for two (or more) reasons: 1) old skool rollerblades 2) foggy beach sunset. With mutual hunger pining at our bellies we drove back to the promenade and had a fancy fancy tasty tasty dinner. We ended the night with a midnight ocean swim in malibu...cold. wet. awesome.
Saturday was family Saturday. Woke up late and worked around the house in preparation for family extravaganza 2008, here's the roll call: Julie, Matt, Heather (gf), Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Uncle Steve, Ant Debbie, Cynthia and me. A good great group indeed. We all enjoyed some great food and warm company until sundown. This was family introduction via immersion for Cynthia and it went surprisingly smooth- I think everyone liked her and likewise.
Sunday was a lovely lovely day- we met up with Cynthia's sister Andrea and her husband at the Bear Pit (yum good) and visited with them for a nice long while. They are great people and it was really a delight to share a meal with them. Cynthia and I then went to the Getty Museum (so good)(+free parking, thanks mrs. Truex). We then checked out Hollywood/Highland then went up in the hills for a super fancy dessert at Yamashiro (so so good).
Monday was a nice nice nice day that started (yes, started) with a lovely innout lunch with ma and Cynthia. Cynthia and I then went over to pick some lemons and make lemonade with Ant Debbie (not too tart, not too sweet...). Cynthia and I then ended our time together by hiking down to paradise falls in wildwood.
It's sad to have Cynthia gone and I sure wish she could have stuck around forever.

Next on my list to do is: see batman and prepare mentally and physically for India.

Cynthia

teamwork! today cynthia flew here today. and we went to the world gardens. we had a picnic with delicious sandwiches and homemade plums! we are now awaiting cedar smoked salmon fo a family dinner. and we played giant chess! to prove that cynthia is actually here, here, here are photographs and we are typing together- i have the right side and cynthia has the left. phenomenal! yaayaaaaaaay!

Bobby Sherman

The last few days have been nice: church, old church friends, brother, brother's girlfriend, stephanz and davey, mom, dad, alonetime, and kitchen tile grout. Let me expound..

The family meet Matt's ladyfriend, Heather, on Sunday. Heather is quite a gal: friendly, young/hip/now, very passionate about social injustices and just great and great. We had a nice lunch in Simi and then spent some time back at the house. I'm looking forward to more such encounters.

I sat in at the college bible study group that Marty has put together over the last year or so. Time spent there was quite enjoyable both socially and intellectually. We all had a nice discussion on Women and the church. Afterwards some of us classed up the conversation over at Denny's. (this picture is of Linsday Milstead and me wearing our glasses that make us dizzy. She is looking to move to Santa Monica and has been painting a lot- big future things ahead for Steady!)

Monday Stephanzski, Davey and I played nine holes of golf (barefoot) and just hung around for the majority of the day. It was good to finally have some real time back together...two of the best homies anyone could have.

Monday evening was spent with my momma. This is always always a good time! We went out for some fancy pizza and chatted chatted chatted. We set her up an igoogle page. And then she started telling be allllll about the heartthrob Bobby Sherman- we spent a long while looking up old Bobby songs and videos. So good. We then settled and watched the Sigur Ros video, Heima. It was so so so so good, and I think my mom mildly enjoyed it :)

I spent late Monday till early Tuesday cleaning the grout on the kitchen floor. This was great time spent with Tommy. I tried doing it by candlelight, but quickly found that I couldn't much see what I was doing, so I turned on the lights :)

Today was spent with my paps running errands and enjoying our time together. We are trying to replace our front large window (because I demolished the surrounding termite infested wood structure and a new window, i suppose, was the next logical step).

I'll be heading down to Mike Harrington's place in Marina Del Rey (Venice) tonight for some surfing in the morning and beachy beach until I head out to Burbank to get Cynthia on Thursday!

(and, i'm very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very excited to see Cynthia)
two days two days two days two days!