what a weekend

Hi kids. I'm back from the Ball. And boy did I have a ball this weekend. Party hopping is always a joy when led by Handsome Keith. I have gone through and edited the photos and added names and tags and fixed the red-eye and such. I also got some of Keith photos--and it seems he took rather many "action shots" of me on the dance floor. All in this flickr set.


Let's just say, I'm a "strong lead."

And as you may know, I really, really can't sing. But it's amazing what a lot of vodka and an empty bar can do. And I like this shot Keith took:


I got to spend Saturday having quality time with The Kid. Leland isn't talking yet but he is all energy and smiles. He continually cracks me up, but he is into everything and I don't see how his parents keep up.

One of the games he loves is pushing me or Mac down, and when we sit back up, he pushes us down again.



Depending on what's on the playlist, he might climb on top of me and start dancing.


Both Mac and Emily (his parents) love music, and love to dance. Leland now spends most of the day standing with his hands on the speakers and dancing. Every now and again, when a big swing number, or oddly, Barenaked Ladies track is played, he'll do the monkey. We have no idea where he picked that up. At 18th months, it's hilarious.

Everybody dance now:



Gonna make you sweat, baby. Emphasis on baby. (I made a DVD of Leland videos for Mac's Father's Day gift. And I edited the videos and made the disc just on the morning of. I love Apple.)

We also took Leland to lunch at Zoe's in Brentwood...


..where I flummoxed my brother because I could not keep my eyes off the super hunky DILF. Mac thought he might be too young to be the daddy, so perhaps he was an UILF. For subtlety's sake (who me?) I could only get a shot from (ahem) behind.


Trust me, the dude was ripped. And arms the size of my skull. And they had just come from the pool and were all wet.

Just sayin'.

Mac and Emily leave towards Brentwood, which use to be all hillsides and farmland for miles and miles and miles. It has seen a tremendous amount of development over the past decade, and lots of new money and country music stars have built enormous homes out that way.

But now the developments are just getting ridiculous. One: they're huge. Like, larger than most high schools. Who needs 45,000 square feet? Two: oh my GOD with the ugly. Even the "smaller" homes in the developments clearly have the same architect who repeats the same, hideous elements throughout. It's like being in a wretched Thomas Kincade painting (redundant, I know). *shudder*






My favorite part? They are so caught up in appearances, one development has a Yard of the Month contest. And yet, the sign is so rural roadside Baptist church.


(And yes, I realize I just sound snobby and bitchy in this post, but you all know that's why you read it and have only yourselves to blame.)

Saturday night was the Swan Ball and it will get it's own post. I just finished one article and four sidebars for Nfocus last night. I was actually pretty anxious about my writing, and they were on a deadline so I had to crank these things out without much revision or time to edit or have my personal editor James give it the once-over. No worries though--the editor loved my stuff, bumped two other features to include my work, and said hiring me as the West Coast Correspondent was the best thing she's done as Editor.

High praise indeed!

And *Pshew!*

As for the typos and missing words, that's what their copy editors are for. Although, with my voice (i.e. smart ass), I think I may have brought the tone of Nashville's swankiest society magazine down a peg or two. I freely used the word "bosoms" in my interviews.

I'm just sayin'.

I did buy a ridiculously expensive digital recorder before going to the Ball so I could take notes and get some good sound bites. It worked so well I'm willing to write them a review. I may even have enough for a podcast if I ever figure out how to edit the WMA files on a Mac.