happy birthday to my brother raul! who’s lucky enough to share his birthday with cinco de mayo – so there’s always a reason to party 
(and who is usually much better with babies than this picture would indicate!)
love you lots. have a great day.
ghostface killah (f/ trife) – be easy
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part two birthday mix for you: 
kate’s bday playlist too! (M3U)
i hope bubbles enjoys listening to these
here’s the 
.
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Ani DiFranco – Joyful Girl
Lizzie West – Prayer
Fiona Apple – Paper Bag
Tori Amos – Happy Phantom
Rusted Root – Send Me On My Way
Amy Winehouse – Fuck Me Pumps
The Futureheads – Hounds of Love
The Arcade Fire – Keep the Car Running
Primus – Jerry Was a Racecar Driver
The Von Bondies – C’mon, C’mon
Anti-Flag – Turncoat
The Blow – Parentheses
Bernard Fanning – Wish You Well
Ride – Vapour Trail
Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – Stars Fell on Alabama
Nick Drake – Northern Sky
my baby sis turns 30 today!
this one’s for you elliot.
even if i’m not there, i’ll always be right here.
a bubbles birthday mix for you:
the first of two parts (part two to be posted tomorrow because i couldn’t decide which i liked better!) it reads like craziness, but there is a method to the madness 
here’s the .
Cake – The Distance
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – Desperado
The Thermals – Here’s Your Future
Nada Surf – Pressure Free
Sugar – A Good Idea
Sublime – What I Got
Lily Allen – LDN
Kirsty MacColl – In These Shoes
The Pixies – Wave of Mutilation
Leona Naess – Blue Eyed Baby
U2 – Dancing Barefoot
NIN – Every Day is Exactly the Same
Queens of the Stone Age – In The Fade
Tori Amos – Talula
Modest Mouse – Missed the Boat
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
Califone – The Orchids
Cyndi Lauper – True Colors
mmmm, a box of sisterly love! thank you katie!
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my dad was here for a long weekend visit.
i love him. of course i do – how could i not? but we have a hard time not hurting each other. i wish i knew why, so i could fix it. i wish we could talk without land mines. i wish our conversations were not fraught with the barbed unsaid, the sharp edges sidestepped, the little bruises we inflict in our fumbling attempts to communicate. it’s death by a thousand papercuts.
still: we keep trying, the pull of halves trying to make themselves whole. the father/daughter connection crashing headlong against the walls of our hearts. and maybe all family relationships are like that. trying and struggling for recognition, acceptance in spite of the pain – the kind of ache that only someone who knows you as part of themselves, can cause. maybe the love that comes after is the exceptional bit.
but there is love.
a few photos – more here.
guided by voices – hold on hope
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my friend diana [aka "benal"], (CEO of the Business Improvement District Council for san diego, ca) takes on evil giant wal-mart. you go girl!! give a listen here.
she took her sweet time doing it, but piper finally walks!
now that we’re saying goodbye to people, it’s all starting to feel very real. and i don’t think that i have as yet properly acknowledged the help and assistance of all the friends and family who made this possible. like kim and andy, who lent us a freeview box which made the last 10 months more tolerable, who generously agreed to watch after most of our shit for the next six months, and who have been so steadfast and inspiring in so many ways, from inception to culmination.
like kerryn and tracey – who kept our “social calendar” on life support by continually asking us to do stuff, no matter how often we turned them down. by agreeing time and again to hang out with us, having a homemade dinner and watching a dvd on a saturday night, and calling it “entertainment”. By letting us invade their space with our luggage and live in their lounge these past two weeks. lending us their car. lending us their furniture. being more supportive than anyone has a right to ask their friends to be.
like my expat and other “traveller” friends, who have showed us how it’s done, shared their knowledge, shown genuine interest and excitement for us, and helped keep everything in perspective when it all just seemed too much to endure.
like the families. who have put aside their trepidation in order to be enthusiatic and excited cheerleaders. who have shown their caring and consideration in innumerable ways. who we will miss so very much, and who will think of us, worry about us while we are gone, and keep the homefires burning until we return safely.
thank you all. i cannot thank you enough. we could never have gotten this far alone.
and we will never be alone – for you are with us always.
to kerryn and tracey… who’ve made the momentous decision to say "forever and ever".
all our love…always.
jen and jonno
happy birthday to my dear sweet jo
your friendship has saved my sanity more times than you’ll ever know, and i am so lucky to have you in my life. thank you for everything, and may the coming year bring you all the love and joy you so deserve.
always,
jen
santa did *not* stick to the budget this year…
i never really got the appeal of ipods… but now that i have one? oh. my. god. i can transfer thousands of photos onto it. i can put audiobooks and maps on it. i can actually put whole movies onto it. i can put every disc I own onto it.
goodness – it’s a brave new world!
i was sung “happy birthday” at quarter past midnight, a thoughtful touch. chistmas day itself was a bit of a washout. we were up very early, and j and i exchanged gifts, which was lovely. then we headed off to m & a’s for what was meant to be a christmas lunch. Lunch turned into a 7 hour affair, which basically pre-empted our xmas dinner. j was planning to bake a cake for me, but since we didn’t get home until late, that didn’t happen. then we all fell asleep during an evening movie. after phone calls with my family, i crawled into bed.
so today is going to be my alterna-birthday. j attempting to use flour should be funny at least!
will add photos later today… hope everyone is enjoying their holidays!
added: photos are here
sooo very tired. I’ve been up for 36 hours straight now, but i’m so tired i can’t even register it anymore. blah. jetlag fucking bites.
anyway, here’s the photos. warning: massive quanities of incredibly cute baby photos here. i’m gonna miss a whole year’s worth, so i was trying to make up for it in advance. nothing very exciting, really – just chilling with the family. and, babies, babies, babies of course.
back to work tomorrow, then off on wednesday for the dylan concert… hooray!
finally caught up with my friend jessica the other day. we’ve known each other for 13 years now (!!) most of the success of our friendship is due to the fact that she’s one of those friends where no matter how long it’s been, i can pick up the phone and call her, and we fall back into things as if we only spoke yesterday.
it’s been a while since we spoke. i sometimes think that she worries we don’t have enough to talk about, because she has two kids now, and is a stay at home mum. in fact, all i really want is to hear her voice, to crack jokes about stupid shit, and just reconnect with the jess i know and love.
anyway, in all the hubbub over kate, i managed to miss her newest baby’s birth – good friend, huh? so i now present, ava elise. daughter to jess and jay, sister to hunter, and cutest little girl in all of sterling…
Yes, as my niece’s name is piper lilian, we have taken to calling her p.lilly. because you could do worse than nicknaming a baby after a billionaire rap mogul.
since buying our rtw tix, I have spent the past 24 hours comparing and contrasting no fewer than 53 types of rucksacks. I even made a spreadsheet. seriously. how sad is that?
perhaps I’ll start a cheesy ticker for that! 26 weeks and counting…
J’s parents announced via email today that they’re arriving Saturday morning and staying til Wednesday.
oh, did I mention they’re coming from south africa?!?! Geez, it’s a good thing we weren’t planning to have our swinger friends over this weekend!
(and on the miniscule chance you’re actually reading this mum, the above was a joke!)
well my sis and her husband have not gotten their act together yet, so all i have is the hospital photos, but here she is throwin’ gang signs (she lives in massachusetts, but is apparently a west coast rapper…)
The Laws of Physics
You defy gravity
The inexorable pull of the world’s spinning
Has not yet creased your brow or
Settled its weight into your malleable bones
The earth spins on today
And leaves you unfettered
Asleep at the nuzzled breast
Peace smoothes your light cheek
Whispers formless dreams
In your shell ear
Bliss and milk
Wash away an easy tear
Beneath your wet lashes
a mist of knowing smile
swirls the corners of your mouth
You’re laughing at me
With your sly fearlessness
Fingertips precociously toying with air
Space and time stretch endless between them
Blushless toes dance an airy abandon
In time to a chorus of fluttering leaves
Pink oh! lips proclaim your arrival
The wind’s silent native tongue
Disguised as a soursoft yawn
Evening stars will fall
Your darkness holds no meaning
The sun will come again
You have no sadness at the daylight’s passing,
No quiet heartaches for unnamed longings
Restless yearning for the nebulous undefined
Fear to once again lay your desires bare to the jagged rocks
Of mundane disappointments and sharp shattered possibilities
You will feed your brave hopes every morning
And mourn their death on your pillow
But not tonight
Night stars will fall
A spangled curtain to signify the next act
The sun will come again
And there is no weariness in seeing it
Your shiny bouncing new sun.
The veil of memory dissolves like an early morning fog
And you will forget you once knew all this
You will become earthbound, a mortal subject to the laws of physics
Rain and granite and grass will claim you as their own treasure
But your toes will remember the dance, when they feel the trees echo
Long after you open
Your eyes.
three weeks early… piper lillian was born today. 5 lbs. 12 oz., 18 inches are her stats.
my baby sis is a mother.
happy and sad and wishing, all rolled into one.
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