This is a backyard on Garden Highway. Even though the pool below the balcony is a good twenty feet above the level of the river, it was underwater for six months last year. The roses bloomed anyway, poking their blossoms out like water lilies.

I played a trio job at the Croatian Cultural Center. The theme of the party was, I think, Chicago in the 20s. The men dressed like George Raft and the women wore flapper dresses.

This is an image I may use for this year's Christmas card.

This could be the Jetsons' chair, except for the old-fashined materials. You can rotate the seat back and forth or even take it out and put it right on the floor.

A broken headlight on a Jeep being held together with cable ties. You can fix almost anything with cable ties.

When you find a dead bird, you're supposed to report it (because of West Nile Virus). But to whom?

Natasha put googley eyes on her contact lens case.

Chris the barista says this isn't a wife-beater, it's a wife-lover.

Elaine and Diane have their backyard done completely in Tiki. Here I am possibly raising a piña colada.

Every music stand in the pit had this little horse on it. Clara, the heroine of the show, is a little retarded because when she was a girl, a horse kicked her in the head.

Last night I sat in the pit between the pianist and harpist for Light in the Piazza. The piano part is amazing and so is the player, who's only 25. The harpist, Lynette, is also fine. She is playing an electric harp that she bought from Mary Jane. She also subs for Laura Sherman, who I met while playing Peter Pan in Stamford.

Every dog is a Buddha.

Something was given away free. But what?

This amazing painting is a portrait of my customer in front of a Reno casino. It really captures the underside of the dream of the West.

I tuned this morning at Discovery Park where radio station The Zone is sponsoring an outdoor festival. Every band has their equipment set up on rolling platforms which the stagehands will switch in and out. Overheard: "I can't hear you because I'm ignoring you."

Gretchen, who used to be Rachel's day-care teacher, is cleaning out old pictures and trying to find the people in them. She sent us this wonderful photo. At this school fair Rachel played a fortune teller called Isabel Ringing. The sign above Rachel's head is still hanging in our garage, much faded.

The painting on the left shows two sisters, one of whom is my tuning customer (now a woman in her 50s). On the right, they recreated the picture using the two daughters of my customer's sister.

Today was the first really hot day of the summer, as indicated by the Prius display.

1stCom chamber session

The string recording session with Wendell was last night. It went great. Wendell intended that he would conduct and I would engineer, but I ended up conducting almost the whole thing (because the engineer is the real conductor on a recording session).

Finally! Relief for my bi-cultural dry hair problems.

This will soon be R5, the record/video store of Russ Solomon, founder of Tower Records. He kept the original colors.

There was a grand opening party at the Avid Reader bookstore which featured this cake from Freeport Bakery. Much too nice to eat!

I tuned at the recording studio Sacramento Sonic Works today. It is a small studio but amazingly well equipped. In the keyboard area, they have (see above) a Steinway B, a Clavinet, a Wurlitzer electric piano, a Rhodes, a Mini-Moog, a Poly-600, other vintage synths, and a Hammond B-3 with Leslie. I haven't seen this complete a collection in any other studio in town.

I'm having my name legally changed to BABY BUNNIES!!!! because then everybody would love me.

This West Sacramento convenience store is called Bridge Veiw Market because, of course, it has a veiw of a bridge.

When Sweetwater Sound sends you a catalog they include candy.

Wendell's very well-equipped studio includes a bug zapper.

Brady's son drew this picture which makes me think of Bat Boy.

I saw this bike parked in front of the Whole Foods Market this morning. I'm sure lots of people had adventure fantasies looking at it. Very Indiana Jones/National Geographic/Mad Max. Notice the dog sitting in the sidecar.

This is my customer Chaya Pitcher, a contemporary Christian artist who will be trying out for American Idol next year. Remember the name!

Playing with Ron Davis and his big band at Savannah's... the baritone sax part for "Street" has a rubber stamp of Lisa Simpson playing the sax. In fact, a woman was playing bari sax for us that night.

We took the historic cemetery tour today. There were a couple of goth girls in the group, one of whom had these wonderful tattoos on her calves.

Jack's Urban Eats has these wonderful retro graphics on the wall. Unfortunately, they have switched to a 70's "Super Fly" theme.

Ceiling fan