What a week. You’d think that starting the week off with a holiday would be refreshing and invigorating. Maybe I’m feeling overwhelmed because the holiday was actually the end of a huge weekend for us. With all our Christmas dough, we went to The Home Depot to buy everything we need to finish the master bathroom. We spent almost two and a half hours there. We got floor tile, shower stall tile, all the grout and mastic and little tools like trowels and spreaders and nippers; we got all the lumber to make a new vanity, and we bought a new sink; we got drywall to replace around the sink area and we even had enough to buy an electric wet saw for cutting the tile (this will come in handy now and later, when we begin to tile the rest of the house). Two and a half hours at The Home Depot. Bugger. And of course I couldn’t fit any of this into the Civic. At first, I was going to have them deliver it, which wouldn’t be until Tuesday (we bought everything Sunday night, and that was past the deadline for a next-day delivery). Not only that, but delivery would be $45.00. For only $20.00, I could rent a pick-up and take it myself. So, I got up at crack-thirty (as Jessamyn would say), rented a truck, loaded everything up and was backing into my driveway as a wash of pale yellow spread in the sky. And when I backed in, the truck beeeep-beeeep-beeeeep-beeeeep-beeeeeped. I felt so … so … manly backing a beeping truck into my driveway while the rest of the neighborhood was still asleep, probably annoying more than one person. Actually, I felt tired as hell and just wanted to get back to bed.

Ari and I then spent the better part of Monday cleaning out the garage to make for a comfortable work space. I started building a new tool cabinet for myself that will (hopefully) look very much like this one. This will be my first attempt at making drawers, which will be good practice for when I have to make the drawers for the bathroom vanity. I plan on using a box joint, and even though I can’t find a dado set to fit on my table saw, I think I can fabricate a version of this box joint jig that will work.

And, on top of all the other stuff I want to do, there is a Serials Review column that is due in less time than I care to consider. Fortunately, I’m very excited about my column. I got to interview Ariel Gore and Bee Lavender, publishers of the way cool parenting ‘zine, Hip Mama. Most of the work is done, I just have to organize it all into a cohesive form.

The most stressful part of the week so far, however, involves Ruta Maya Coffee House. In case you didn’t know, I’ve volunteered to help organize local arrangements for the upcoming Fray Cafe at SXSW in March. I booked Ruta Maya back in October. I had a subsequent email conversation with the booker in December confirming the date and time. If you were at Fray Cafe last year, you’ll remember that it was wall-to-wall, SRO, packed to the gills. It was a big night for Ruta Maya and Fray. Well, Ruta Maya was sold about a month ago and the new owners promptly began remodeling. I called the booker to see if this affected us in any way. Two weeks later, after many more calls and some emails, I finally talked to him. Apparently, all shows have been cancelled through the first part of March. I’m glad we were informed. (In case you can’t tell, I’m being sarcastic–lucky for me I kept calling, otherwise I never would have known this.) Anyway, Ruta Maya is already in the SXSW program as the location for Fray Cafe. The booker said he would try to work it out, but I haven’t heard anything yet. I’m keeping a positive outlook and fingers crossed, though. If they decide they can’t take us, that means we get to find a new venue. How hard could it be, you ask? SXSW is less than a month and a half away. It’s probably the biggest single event in Austin. Finding anybody with an open stage at this late juncture is highly improbable. So, rather than worry myself blue I’m choosing to remain optimistic.

And it’s only Thursday.

Last night, Ari and I had a nice little laugh. Waterloo Records gives out free bumper stickers at the checkout counter. Recently they added a second sticker intended to pair with the main one. The main one reads “waterloo records” and the second one reads “.com”. That’s it, just “.com”. I grabbed about five of the “.com” stickers a while back. (I had visions of lining my back bumper with them. Thank God for second thoughts.) Last night, Julien got ahold of one of the “.com” stickers and stuck it in the middle of his shirt. He wore it all night. Julien “.com”. (The real julien.com is registered to a law firm in Calif., by the way.) Anyway, we thought it was funny.

So, on deck for Michael (in basic order of importance): finish Hip Mama article, resolve Fray Cafe crisis, finish box joint jig, finish tool cabinet, remodel bathroom, make something pretty for mom for her birthday. If all goes well, I might even have time this weekend to solve world hunger.