also, hey, did anyone notice?

We've been doing this blog for two YEARS now.

Go us!

Where's that damn muse?

I have been told I need to revitalize my hobbying strategy. Lately my hobbies have included, in no particular order: advanced worrying, budgeting for the weak willed, feeling guilty for spending money, cooking after cooking, trying not to kill plants, and not finishing hats. Also I have been experimenting with frustration and playing zombie computer games.

Yeah, maybe he's right. But I'm sure you guys can sympathize. I have ideas for things I would like to do, but all of them require Bright Shiny Purchases; right now I can't justify spending for anything new. I have lots of great yarn, but don't feel like knitting or crocheting. I have a scanner, printer, camera, thread, modge podge, awesome aluminum tape, altoids tins, nature, a sewing machine that hates me, a needle punch doohicky, perler beads and the more stuff I put on this list the worse I feel for not doing anything with it and/or feeling like there is a need to buy anything ever. Gah! Rampant vicious consumer guilt cycle! I want little projects, not quite instant gratification but something that I can put down when the pastry cream boils over but still want to pick back up when the strawberry tart is done.

Really, though, I want something that is mine. Something that is more than just copying someone else's project. Something that is immune to the critique of others. I read on someone else's blog recently that cooking professionally is the equivalent of saying I love you to complete strangers every day knowing they will never, ever say it back. What I'm looking for right now is a project that lets me say I love you to MYSELF, because I know I will totally reciprocate.

Know the feeling?

Song-a-Day May: Where the Road Disappears

I can't believe this is the last day!

To celebrate, we wrote a super emo tune about the lengths of the months.

I feel that it is reasonably likely that, after today's song, Schmitty will no longer need to ask me how many days there are in a given month. Good thing, too, as I always have to do the trick where I count across the tops of my knuckles in order to remember.

Well, except February. That one's pretty easy, other than the whole leap year bit.

The plan going forward is that, while we won't write a song a day every day this month, we'll probably write more songs, and perhaps we'll also revisit and improve some of the things we put together thus far.

It should be neat.

Also: The Schmitty has asked me to apologize to you, the internet, for his, as he puts it, "terrible singing." I don't think it's that bad, but then I might be biased, as I am rather fond of the fellow.

Song-a-Day May: Math is hard

Gretchen's still in open D tuning, this time piloted by the Schmitty. I played Josie, who remains in standard tuning.

We were trying to think of good fractions and the only one that came to mind was the length in miles of a marathon.

I have soy sauce on my glasses.

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day!

Song-a-Day May: Open D tuning!

When it comes down to it, as much fun as Song-a-Day has been, we really are trying to learn stuff about how to play and assemble music. Schmitty picked today to teach me about open D tuning. Basically, it's a different way of setting up the relative tones of the strings so that when you strum all the strings, it forms a D major chord. Likewise, holding down all of the strings on the same fret will produce a chord.

This is neat and useful and makes it super easy to play chords...unless you want to play something other than major chords. In that case, you still have to come up with the right finger positions, which is tricky in part because all of the things you learn about how to form minor chords in standard tuning no longer apply.

Serious stuff, people.

Song-a-Day May: The one where the cat helped

If you listen close, the cat meows twice near the beginning of the song, and then, at the very end, rubs his teeth on the microphone. He's special.

Other than that, the song is actually pretty simple.

(Warning: Schmoopy.)

Song-a-Day May: Self-referential

I'm starting to think that we've officially jumped the shark owing to the fact that we're all trying to be clever and make references to our own songs in the lyrics of our own songs.

It's kind of terrible.

That said, we had dinner at Endo Sushi in McLean, and it was delicious, and then I made s'mores using the flame of the gas stove to toast the marshmallows. That's not at all relevant to the whole song-a-day paradigm, but, hey, whatever works, right?

I like making music with this Schmitty fellow.

Dee-Ay-Gee. It's kinda been done.