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!

Wet Blanket

today was like this:for those of you who do not posses the gift of interpretation: first lazy day that i had trouble keeping occupied by nothing (which is one of my goals this month- to be able to sit with nothing to do and be able to find "beauty where beauty ought not be found", or that i seem to always look past.) i successfully resisted the use of mindless television and empty internet adventures to occupy myself- congratulations.

Seven Eleven

I'm tired. I rode my bike around thirty five plus miles today. I rode out to Simi Valley on an epic adventure to find my long lost friend Jaspal. I went to high school with Jaspal- we kept the bench some great company during volleyball season. Jaspal is from India and I thought I would track him down and talk India with him...he was working at a 7-11 in Simi a few months ago...but apparently not anymore. My last 7-11 stop I was informed by Oscar the friendly worker that the date today is 7/11 and slurpees are free! So, I retraced my steps and stopped at all the stores on my way back to moorpark and got four tasty slurpees. I stopped by my sister's place in hopes Matt Birch (brother inlaw) would be around, but alas, empty. My nice long ride ended with a cool refreshing lemonade and brownie from from kids at their lemonade stand.

In other news: Cynthia's dog, Stella, had puppies today! Aww, isn't that adorable? Big thing's happenin' at the Haan house..big things.

My time at home is still quite well: cleaning rain gutters meeting up with old friends, bon fires at the Krills, errands and all the great stuff. Oh and got these glasses for free at the thrifty store today.

Sub Herbs

I'm back in Moorpark (CA). Things are nice, it's good to be home and with family again. Things that I have enjoyed the last few days:

3rd of july fireworks with mom and dad
4th of july fireworks with stephanz, mom, dad and grandfather
chillin' with matt for the afternoon
seeing some old homies
amalea lorayne krill (baby)
yardwork

This week should be a doozie! I'll be cleaning out rain gutters, more yard work, and getting vaccinations (finally!). But in other news, I got the entire Talons' (band) archive for free which is great great great. I'm beginning to feel a little too relaxed now...like I should be doing something. Too lazy. We'll see if I can't remedy this and do something more productive for others this month.
11 days.

Alex Wins California

Here we are, off to summer great adventure number two: California! I flew down to Moorpark this morning and let me tell you...hot. My line of four different rides to the airport all failed me so Lindsay beach was kind enough to give me a lift to the airport this morning. Time with Lindsay is always full of good conversation. After missing the airport exit twice I finally made it and got out of the rain- and yes, Seattle has been having thunder, lighting and much rain the past two days. I spent yesterday evening trying to squeeze my bicycle into impossible dimensions so as to take it home with me. This failed. I packed my frame up nicely, but the wheels were the pests that lead to abandon the project. Anyhow, I got pulled aside because I forgot about a knife I had in my bag. So I went and mailed to myself, then got pulled aside again because my spool of hemp looked like a bomb or something. Finally making it to the plane, I boarded, had good conversations with an old couple, had a terrible terrible terrible headache and had lots of free ginger ale. My mom picked me up and we met and my dad for dinner at Los Torros (best bean dip. ever.) Now, we are hanging at home waiting for the notorious 3rd of July Moorpark firework extravaganza!

There are a few things that have happened this week worth noting: Tuesday was the last Aurora show until September, we played at Chop Suey with no crowd. We talked with a producer who wants to put us on EyeBall Records- we'll see. I almost took a craig's list rideshare ride down to LA on tuesday (with two dogs), but later decided against it. the G8 house got a house, but then immediately denied it on the grounds that it was too small. That's probably all anyone, including myself, needs to know about this week. 14 days.