Flower Dog Fan Club

Oh, the places you’ll go…

It has been 5 Years, 1 Month, and a few days. 3 States, 8 or so addresses, and too many hotel stays to even begin to count. This has been the nomadic life of Molly and Me since we got married in March 2007.

We were living in Redondo Beach at the time, with Flower dog. We were a few blocks from the beach, and living in an apartment we affectionately called the closet, because it was all of one bed/one bath, and about 700 square feet. But then again, we were near the beach, and village, and work, and happy. What more could we want?

A little extra living space? Some career growth? To be closer to family? A second bathroom?

And so it was that we jumped at the opportunity to go back to Dallas a year after the wedding. We were going to start our own family soon, and being near family in Dallas made a lot of sense. So we moved into temporary housing in Los Colinas, TX, and our second address on our five year journey was added to the list.

Temporary housing only lasts so long, so Molly, Flower, and I settled into an apartment in Lower Greenville (Dallas). We were within walking distance of a great record store (Good Records), a terrific burger and beer (The Libertine), and a few places to see live music (The Granada). Molly settled into her new role as a Consultant, I grew into my new work role and got involved with Theater in Dallas again, and Flower got sick. Real sick, and died. (Read any of the Flower related posts on this page)

Then Molly’s Dad got sick.

And Bizzy and Bill.

And we were on the move again, and it’s only 18 months later.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

We’ve never been to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

We settled into temporary housing on Corporate drive in mid-town (4th Address), and tried to discover our new town. We found a great record store (The Compact Disc Store), a couple of good places to have a burger and a beer, and pizza (George’s, Fleur De Lis, Oscars), and Cake Balls. We found Cake Balls at Brew Ha-Ha! Oh how we ate in Baton Rouge.

And, we found a House on the Northeast side of town (5^th Address). Our first House!

But Molly’s Dad got sicker, and left us in May.

We started looking for a Church; we needed a way to meet people. Did I mention we’d never been to Baton Rouge, Louisiana? And we did find an amazing place and amazing people at First United Methodists Church-Baton Rouge.

We adopted Wally and Ash, two new pups to place some more joy in our new home.

And then Tommy Schmuck showed up!

And we started going to Sunday school, and started an indoor soccer team.

And, had an amazing Oscar party.

We were in Baton Rouge for about 18 months, and people came to visit, you couldn’t help people showing up when you are that close to New Orleans.

Then the phone rang.

California? Again?

Wow. That was quick. We were really starting to love Baton Rouge, because as Rhett Miller says, “Love feels good when it sits right down, puts its feet up on the table, and sets up all around.”

But we were headed west, to the left coast, to California, a place that makes us happy.

Wally, Ash, Molly, and I on the forth floor of an apartment complex (6^th Address) in Westchester for temporary housing. Do you know what 2 puppies that are less then two years old don’t care for? Living on the forth floor. And apparently pro basketball players, Ash decided to bark at Greg Oden as he was walking by us one morning on his way to the gym.

And we started looking for a house.

And Molly is pregnant.

MOLLY IS PREGNANT!

We really need to find a house, with a nursery for the baby, and a yard for the dogs…

And we look for housing.

And we look.

No Luck.

So, it’s an apartment in Rancho Palos Verdes (7^th Address) until we can find a house. The dogs like it here better then they did the temporary housing, but we keep looking for a house. Even though our view of Catalina Island is amazing, and the neighborhood is quiet, and we are really dreading packing and moving again, but we keep looking.

Several deals fall through. And Molly is not getting less Pregnant.

And I’m training for a marathon, because I really want to finish a marathon.

And we find a house, in Long Beach (8^th address).

It’s perfect. We are the second owners of a house that was built in 1950. We have a nursery, and a yard for the dogs, and it’s a quiet neighborhood that the perfect place for us to live and start our little family.

January, I participate in the Pick of the Vine festival.

February, the Spirit Awards. And Molly makes one last trip to Baton Rouge.

March, the LA Marathon!

April. April 14, Miles arrives.

It has been 5 Years, 1 Month, and a few days. 3 States, 8 or so addresses, and too many hotel stays to even begin to count since we got married, and now, Molly, Miles, Ash, Wally, and I live in Long Beach.

Until we move somewhere else.

Austin City Limits 2010

Our trip to ACL's 10th anniversary was amazing, fun, and a nice bit of R&R from the move back to SoCal. Here are a few highlights, and low points, from the weekend! First, we got to spend the weekend with Allison and Fred, which were great partners in crime for the festival!  Friday, day 1: The Secret Sisters: Terrific sister duo that sings great Country Music. Great way to kick off the festival. They did a fair amount of covers, but their song "Tennessee Me" has just the right amount of charm. Delta Spirit: An Allison pick. The lead singer is from a band we like, Middle Brother, and we decided to give a listen to an alt-country act from Long Beach. Fred picked up a CD after the festival, and we are certainly looking forward to hearing more. Ray LaMontagne:  Finally got to see him. Good set, but the highlight was the Secret Sisters joining him for a version of "Mama Tried" Cold War Kids: as good as advertised. Bright Eyes: one of my favorite sets of the weekend. A lot of songs from the album I'm Wide Awake it's Morning, which was a bonus. Molly and I both love the song Traveling Song, and we got to hear it live, together. Kanye West:  Amazing! Probably would not have seen Kanye otherwise, and was bummed when we had to leave other(Parking garage where we ended up was closing earlier then we anticipated) got to song along to "Golddigger" with a few other 1,000 people which was nice. On the way out somebody told us that all the people at the Kanye stage were thugs, not knowing I was at that show. So I guess, ummm, Thug Life, represent? We missed Coldplay for Kanye, and were a little bummed to miss The Smith Westerns as well. Saturday, Day 2 Early morning start, but we got to see a little more music. Antlers: good set, but a little somber to start the day. The Belle Brigade: terrific brother/sister act. Their song Loser(not a Beck cover) is pretty darn good. So about now it starts to rain, the day takes an odd crowded turn. Young The Giant: my favorite discovery of the weekend, picked up a CD before we left Austin.  For the last couple of acts we had selected a spot between two stages so we could see all of these acts. At first it was fine, but after Young the Giant it got really crowded. We couldn't really go anywhere and people were all over the place. It was a bit unnerving. Iron & Wine: odd electric set by Iron & Wine, not what I was expecting. It was hard to really enjoy this set, the crowds were just overwhelming. Allison left midway through to go get My Morning Jacket autographs.  Oh and it's still raining. Fitz & the Tantrums: yes! Great fun, and a terrific cover of "steady as she goes" Rain stops, and we head to a smaller stage for one of our highlights of the weekend! Wanda Jackson: you know what rocks? An 80 year old ex of Elvis that sings Rockabilly! And covers Amy Winehouse to boot. What an amazing talent, and what a great treat to get to see her play live. We did a quick swing by to see TV on the Radio, on the way to the evening's headliners! My Morning Jacket: they did not disappoint, the best just pure Rock concert experience of the weekend. For the final part of their set they brought the preservation hall jazz band on stage, which made a great set even better!  Molly and I left My Morning Jacket to head over and catch a song by the evening's other headliner, Stevie Wonder. Who knew Stevie would be so political, and curse so much! It was kinda awesome. After the festival the four of us headed to Casino El Camino on 6th Street for some burgers. Even though it was a 45 minute wait, and we didn't eat until midnight, it was well worth the wait! Sunday, Day 3 We started the day with Breakfast at Magnolia with Paige and Althea! It was great to see a very pregnant Paige, 9 months and 2 weeks, just wish we could have spent more time with her. Sadly, we didn't get to see J.T.. Paige's parent's house was destroyed in the Bastrop fires, and J.T. was out helping them clean up the mess. It's a lot hotter today then it has been all weekend. The head and the heart: Their first album has been a constant on my iPod or in my car over the last couple of months, and they did not disappoint! I get a little chocked up just hearing the line, "my roots have grown, but I don't know where they are..." Our first casualty, Molly is completely overwhelmed by the heat, and decides to call it a festival and head back to the hotel. (she looks like she made the better choice at days end when she comes back to retrieve the rest of us) Airborne Toxic Event: Great Act! They had a lot of fun talking about getting hassled by the police, and then did a cover of "I fought the law". They will head back into regular rotation for me. Did I mention it's hot? Allison, Fred, and I head for the shade of the food court to try to cool off a little bit. Ryan Bingham & the dead horses: if in TX, you have to add in a little country. The set was good, but I can only imagine the guys on stage were suffering the heat almost as much as we were in the audience in front of the stage. Caught just a little bit of Elbow as we were setting up for the next act. Fleet Foxes: I love Fleet Foxes. They did not translate well in the heat, from the distance we were from the stage. I'll just have to continue listening to the albums. Allison decided to stay behind and save our seats, so Fred and I headed over to the next act. Hayes Carll: boy you ain't a poet, just a drunk with a pen. So sad we couldn't make it through the full set, because this was good stuff! Hopefully he'll make his way out to lala land soon! Arcade Fire: last show of the festival did not disappoint! 90 minutes of pure pop-rock goodness. Anyone that is not a fan need only to see them live. Great end to 3 days of mostly fun... And some rain... And some unruly crowds... But mostly just good old fashioned rock n' roll fun! Monday, just worth a note, Allison got to the airport and the folks from Arcade Fire were on her flight. Fred, Molly, and I (after a quick stop at Waterloo Records) got to the airport and found out The Airborne Toxic Event and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin) were on our flight! Very Rock n' Roll to fly coach with the band!

Charlie and Molly Go to Orlando Part 9 of 9, apparently, since this is the last.

5-22-11

8:08am

Heading back to Baton Rouge, LA!

11:25am CT/12:25pm ET

Time Change! About 17 miles east of Marianna, FL!

5:32 hours to go! / 387 Miles.

________________________________________________________________________________

And that was that! We had a great time and have mucho pictures! If I ever get around to it I'll upload them online and post a link.

Charlie and Molly Go to Orlando Part 8 of Many...

5-21-11 Day O' Random

Today was kind of busy, but relatively mellow. We slept in-ish!

We started at the Complimentary Photo Session with Eric. We took several shots and ended up with a good one. Then we were off to downtown Orlando!

• Orlando Museum of Art-->Kind of disappointing considering it's a such a big and well known city. The exhibits were random ass and disjointed. But, we got to see one Warhol of Marilyn Monroe. There was a Gender in Art exhibit that we were excited to see and some pieces were great and some were "meh." The plaques with the pieces were annoying and pushy with what to think. Lame.
• Lunch at Brooklyn Pizza-just a little pizza place in an Orlando neighborhood. It was by the slice and tasty.
• Park something something CD Shop-can't remember the name exactly-A local CD/Record shop near downtown. It was nifty. Charlie bought 2 CDs. I wandered to Dear Prudence, a clothing, jewelry, and beading boutique. Neat stuff-particularly if I made jewelry.
• Pointe Something outdoor mall near our hotel-wandered around, had Ben & Jerry's and then saw Bridesmaids. Good movie-really funny and sweet and sad and nice. Charlie hearts Melissa McCarthy.
• Dinner at TooJay's-a deli-we had matzo ball soup and sandwiches and rugelach (cinnamon!)! Hooray!
• Now winding down and thinking of packing-Home tomorrow. Boo!

Charlie and Molly Go to Orlando Part 7 of Many...

5-20-11 Disney World! Take 2!

Today we headed to Hollywood Studios & Epcot. Here's what we did:

Hollywood Studios-

• Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. It was cute-but definitely for kids.
• Star Wars Star Tours Grand (re)Opening! It was supercool. It's a motion simulator. And fun.
• Picture with Queen Amidala!
• Shopped a bit.

Epcot-

• Had lunch at the Electric Umbrella.
• Spaceship Earth-ride inside the big Epcot ball thing. Kinda creepy animatronics about technology and progress.
• Walked through the Whole Wide World :) Or, the UK, Canada, France, Morocco, Italy, China, Norway, Germany (Charlie's birthtown was represented-Wurzberg!), US, Japan, and Mexico. Was all pretty neat-lots of food and shopping.
• Shopping!

Peaks & Valleys from the day:

:( -No Chelsea jerseys in Charlie's size at the UK shop-BOO!

:) -Found a Squeeze Me Orange shirt in the U.S.-YAY! (MS Note-My Dad brought me a Squeeze Me Orange shirt that was bright yellow from Florida when I was little and I wore it CONSTANTLY. This one isnt' the same-but very similar! It's even bright yellow!)

:( -Too tired to wait for Fireworks.

:) -Dinner at Cheesecake Factory.

:) -Found Nerdy Mickey and Minnie, et all stuff-got a wallet and necklace (Goofy has braces!)

***WHAT WE'VE LEARNED Side Note-Old people will cut in line AND fart openingly. P.U.

 

 

Charlie and Molly Go to Orlando Part 6 of Many...

5-19-11 Disney World!

Slept in until 9:30am-AWESOME. (MS Side Note-I use AWESOME and YAY ENTIRELY too much). got to Disney and the did the following:

• Pasteries and coffee at "Bakery" on Main Street.
• Train ride! Around park and thru Frontierland. A little girl in front of us was FASCINATED by my braces. She kept asking her dad about them. It was supercute.
• Saw a "Celebration" party in the square.
• Saw Cinderella's Castle-took a bunch of photos-makes me want to watch Cinderella!
• It's a Small World!!! Awesome and scary and cheesy and supecute we took lots of pictures. Probably with a forbidden flash-whoops. Made "Is this racist" jokes.
• Riverboat Ride! It was just a pleasant 20 minutes to ride on a boat.
• Lunch at Pecos Bill's-took for. ever. to find a place and everone was getting situated for the big 3pm parade-we luckily sat in a spot we could mostly see the parade from, save the people standing in front of us. The song was AWFUL. Charlie pronounced that he'd like to punch it in the face. I concurred.
• Hall of Presidents! A brief history of our Presidents focusing on major moments in history. Then there were CREEPY animatronic presidents-all of em. Oh and Morgan Freeman narrated. Natch.
• Monsters Inc Laugh Floor-So cute and funny-an interactive comedy show with animated monsters-so neat. So clever. And very funny.
• Buzz Lightyear! I whooped Charlie. Then I saw the older gentleman's score in front of us and he REALLY whooped us. I was like damn! We suck!
• Back it up! Before the boat we did Haunted Mansion. It was spookier than the Nightmare Before Christmas themed one we went to at Disneyland.
• People Mover-It was a weird tram thing that takes you all through Tomorrowland and previews other rides. Weird.
• Teacups! We spun and spun and spun-I felt a little wobbly for a bit. It was neat to do finally.
• Shopping! I bought a Tink necklace and we got our ears-Yay! They're custom-you pick the cap, the patch and your ears-then get them embroidered. So cute.
• Back it up again-before Tomorrowland we went on Pirates of the Caribbean. Neat.
• After shopping we were tired and decided to leave and get dinner. We had Panera. we came back to the hotel, got some drinks at the bar, watched some kid karaoke and then headed to dip our feet in the hot tub-it was fantastic!

Now we're just chilling and watching the Mavs v. Thunder Finals. Good times!

Charlie and Molly Go to Orlando Part 5 of Many...

5/18/11 Charlie's 35th Birthday!

Pool Day!

The day started a bit late-big plans to sleep in and the screaming children and parents started. It was awful. We still slept in some-until 9ish-yay!

In search of a good breakfast place online, we came across Bad Ass Coffee and headed there to find it gone-closed. Boo! As a sad alternative we went ot Johnny Rockets thinking they'd have breakfast-they didn't-so we at a very disappointing lunch. We walked around the outdoor mall it was in for a minute, but soon tired of that and came back to the hotel for some hotelling! We spent several hours poolside reading, swimming, etc. It was a very laid back day. We could have done without the 4200 children running around, however. Lesson for next time, avoid the family resorts! After a while we headed back to the room for showers and to get ready for our big dinner at Texas De Brazil. Yay for Charlie's Birthday!

Charlie and Molly Go to Orlando Part 4 of Many...

5-17-11 Harry Potter Day!

• Dunkin Donuts-hooray! Could not get the lady to understand what Charlie wanted and we couldn't understand what she was offering and we ended up with the wrong donut-or extra donut. Eventually got the right one (MS Note-So happy I added a note about the donut-WTF?!)
• Parked in JAWS! Walked 100mi to Islands of Adventure. Hyperbole!
• Hogsmeade!
  • Walked around in awe, got asked if I was from Azkaban due to my stripes-ha haha!
  • Waited in line about 1 Hour for Flight of the Hippogriff - Well shaded thankfully. Buckbeak was there-yay! Ride was only, literally, like 35 seconds. Was way fun though. Charlie not a fan.
  • Bathrooms-Moaning Myrtle was in the Women's Bathroom-so awesome! And not in the Men's. Awesome.
  • Three Broomsticks! Supersmart layout. Charlie had Fish & Chips and I had these little meat pasteries. We both had Butterbeer. Mine was iced-Yum! tasted like cream soda but sweeter with a crazy thick cream on top that was crazy sweeter.
  • Honeydukes & Zonko's-So awesome! Candy from the books & movies & just other pretty awesome candies & then at Zonko's-all of the fun joke stuff. And, pygmy puffs! Pink & purple ones.
  • Dervish & Banges-Awesome-wands and book stuff, etc.
  • Ollivander's! About an hour wait-but it was pretty neat. It's a mini-demonstration for finding the right wand. Ollivander did snap at some woman for translating two times. It was weird. Afterwards bought a wand based on my birth date. Neat.
  • Conductor at Hogwarts Express - Picture! (MS Note I didn't capture before - Went all Ricky Gervais a bit).
• Then off to Jurassic Park-walked through Camp and Discovery Center-neat but a bit aged.
• Walked over to Universal Studios. Shrek 4D - A short movie that takes place after the first movie-with moving seats and air and water that sprays you-and it's in 3D. It was really funny and made me squeal a few times. Especially the spiders-Ick!
• The rest of the day was spent wandering Universal and then we had dinner on the city walk at Pastamore. It was, meh. Oh! we did hit up NBA City too-it was OK, a little disappointing.

Overall-Awesometastic day! Yay!

Ooh! After all that-I napped and Charlie worked and talked to his fam. Then we went to Friendly's!

 

 

 

Charlie and Molly Go to Orlando Part 3 of Many...

5-16-11

Early day! Woke up to a screaming child-must have a room connected to small children. Hooray.

Went to try to watch the Endeavor launch-too cloudy-couldn't see anything. Spilled coffee on myself-d'oh! those 2 events are unrelated. Now we're at the Harbour Bar and Grill at the Hotel, having coffee and breakfast. Then we're off to a presentation on buying a resort room. Expect notes.

2 Hours Later...

We survived the presentation-it was a one-on-one-BARF City. Yeah, I went back to 8th grade with that. his name was Neal. Some highlights:

-Random alone laughter out of nowhere to try to lighten the mood.

-A little sweating near the end.

-When explaining why to buy in he compared vacation to a home or car-"Don't rent your vacation...own it!" So cheesy-but should've been better.

-When we were explaining that we may want more unique experiences he shot back with, "But you're staying in Orlando at one of our resorts!" HA! We got him to be snarky! And he implied we wouldn't take our kids to some of the places we would go that's unique-HaHa!!!

-He also implied regular hotel guests are "Pesky"--what?! And those from the JW Marriott-the highest of the Marriotts--ick!

-Our CS Lady checked us out of the sale situation->So rude and rushed through. We basically got an F.U. and get out from it.

3:15pm

Just got back from some awesome game playing.

Game 1: Putt-of-Course Putt-Putt-->Charlie took the first game, I took the second and did much better than on my first and I had enough to beat him overall-hooray!

Game 2: Air Hockey-hold up-between games we got chipwiches-holla! We ate those while we played-I won both games-hooray

Game 3: Foosball - I dominated for a while and then Charlie came back and almost beat me and we ended up tied & then I got game point. Woo Hoo! He keeps pointing out he me at basketball last night-which is so true. I lost very badly. That is not my sport.

Now we're relaxing/getting ready before we head out to Tampa for the Rays/Yankees game.

11:53pm

Back from the Rays v Yankees game. Rays win! 6-5. It was a good game. Rays came back from 5-1 Yankees. It was cool to watch. The field is crazy weird though, for the following reasons:

1)It's enclosed-I've never seen an enclosed baseball field. ever. Charlie either. And it's full of these catwalks and lights. Odd.

3)The "grass" is astroturf and even the "dirt" lining the field is just brown astroturf. The mound and baselines are actual dirt. Odd.

3)There werea freaky number of Yankees' fans there. And they were really loud. Really obnoxious. For a while they seemed to outnumber the Rays' fans-but once the tables started to turn, the Rays fans started to stand out.

4) The field/seating is really, really small. It makes it look like a minor league field-which I supposed it used to be-or so we're to understand.

But-even with a weird field, it was fun. Good game, the stadium food was actually pretty good, and the Rays won. Oh & we got to see several yankees who will likely go into the Hall of Fame A-Hole (Rod), Derek Jeter, and two other people I can't remember.

Traffic was awful getting there and it's just a long drive-but it was worth the trip to Tampa.

Tomorrow=Harry Potter!

 

Molly and Charlie Go to Orlando Part 2 of Many...

5/15/11

7:43am 

We're off to Orlando, FL until next Sunday! First, coffee! As we listen to NPR Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.

9:10am

Crossed into Mississippi! Apparently NASA has a space command thing here and a Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command.-->The Joseph Stennis Space Command.

10:18am (MS Note-I stopped taking time for a while, but then do again later?)

Alabama! No welcome sign?! Just plain road sign...wait, there it is. "Welcome to Alabama the Beautiful!!"

We passed an exit for Bayou la Batre, which is Bubba's hometown in Forrest Gump--> We're in Forrest Gump country! Maybe we'll see a sign for Greenbough?

Mobile, AL! We were going to stop for lunch-but it's too early-we're too quick apparently. So, we wait! Weird-the speed limit dropped from 70 to 50--there's no construction or anything. And no one else seems to be heeding it...so...here we are puttering along...

Downtown Mobile is really cool looking-the architecture and skyline were neat. We went through this crazy tunnel. BIG BATTLESHIP!

11:15am

Florida! Charlie's first time in FL! Charlie's driven through 4 states today. He wanted that recognized in history. Next stop, Pensicola-ish! At a Hardees! Ooh look, the 7th Day Adventists welcome us to Florida. Thanks y'all! 

Pensicola! If we were in Baton Rouge, we'd be at church right now. Probably singing. 

Around 3:30pm-ish

Tallahassee!

As of 3:59pm ET the Hitchhiker count = 4 Confirmed, 1 Likely (2 groups with dogs, weird).

4:00pm

3h 28m remaining until we get to Orlando!?

6:05pm

Gainesville! Dinner at Steak n' Shake! Under 2 hours left until we get to Orlando!

Tampa Bay lost to Baltimore today.

Ate too many pretzel M&Ms-ugh. And Rebecca Black is not pregnant.

9:30pm

Arrived at the Harbour Lake Resort about an hour ago. This place is very nice- a little crazy-but nice. Checking in was an adventure!

Lucy checked us in and warned us against putting our room key by our cell phones or credit cards-so I stuck mine in my bra strap. Natch. Then on to to our concierge ladies-there were 2-and we were passed from one to the next as they tried to help many of us at once. Luckily they were so nice and helpful. It just took a while to get said help with being passed back and forth. But, we did get some hand sanitizer and maps. And we signed up for a "presentation" to hear about buying into these rooms. We get $150.00 for doing it. Well, $150.00 in gift cards either to Marriott or Disney or wherever else in the area. We did $75 Disney and $75 Marriott. We'll do some mini-golf or massages or whatever-spend it on food etc. (MS Note-we ended up swapping out the Marriott $$ for more Disney $$).

The space launch is tomorrow-the Endeavor-down/over at Cape Canaveral. We were told not to go see it b/c it's crazy and we may not make it. And we can see it from here apparently. So, skip that. Now checking stuff out. 

D'oh! We had Dunkin Donuts! And I was told I was cute with my braces - yay!