Charging...

This is now my favorite word.  Charging.  It implies an onward rush of motion, speed, and intensity and also the availability of power.  Ahhh, power!  That elusive three-pronged wonder that is wired to our lives.  Power has become all the more special in mine because of it’s painfully-apparent absence.  My computer was once equipped with the amazing ability to charge at will and hold on to every hurt with all it’s heart.  Now it has abandoned all such dreams forever.  This stark and glaring realization forced me to drastic measures.  And so it was with a heavy heart my brother Andy my sister Kat and I took my poor ailing Macbook to the genius bar where I was given the heart-wrenching news that my battery was 'consumed'.  

If anyone has ever been told that their computer battery has been 'consumed' then you will know how it feels.  For those of you who haven't, it's something like hacking your guts out with an ice pick, tossing them into a blender coated with the sour sting of lemon and turned on high while being pulverized by all the spare change you've ever had in your life, served with a twist of costumer service.  

There was only one good thing that came out of the whole experience and no it was not the fact that they cleaned my computer screen, although that was a nice bonus.  The only redeeming factor was while they couldn't fix my battery (because they couldn't), they could repair the small crack on my computer top caused by over-exuberant slamming and weak plastic.  This whole procedure would replace the top of my computer including keys and be absolutely free because Apple is just cool that way.  The only down side was that they would need to keep my computer for....3 DAYS!!!!  If anyone has ever met me outside the show, you'll know that my computer is usually glued to my side and is the only thing besides my iPod that I always pack with me.  My computer is like an extra arm and the decision to leave it behind, alone in a strange mac store all by itself was excruciatingly painful.  What if they forgot to leave the night light on and it got scared?

Alright, so maybe I exaggerate, but can you blame me?  Wait, that question was rhetorical.

Well, to make a long story longer, I got my computer back yesterday all shiny and happy (with a clean screen too!)  and I expect to receive my mail-order battery in...well, the mail, today or tomorrow!  Because of this whole dilemma I now know more about batteries and how to make them last than I ever wanted to.  Things like each macbook battery only has 400 charge cycles (as a minimum) and then it is classified 'consumed'.  Even partial charges count as partial charges, so the best thing you can do is leave it plugged in but give it some exercise (leave it shut down for 2 hours fully charged then run it to the ground and charge it back up) every month.  As if I needed to know all that!  If anyone else has experienced this problem and wants to commiserate I will be on blogger and available for whining between takes in the studio.  Ahhhh, the studio...now that's a whole different story...

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Short Night! Florida For the Holidays:

Merry Christmas!

You were beginning to think I had forgotten you, weren't you!

Come on!

There's no need to pretend!

Okay, so I've been a little busy... but it's all GOOD busy.  For one thing we started recording a new CD!  Psyched?  I knew you would be!  Also, we spent another day filming for the reality pilot!  Keep your fingers crossed! If everything goes according to plan we should start really filming in February! Can you believe it?!  And as if that wasn't enough of a Christmas present this year, we also got to spend time with our family here in Florida.  We decked the halls (a.k.a. Grandma and Grandpa's house),  made homemade Norwegian cookies that have been in our family for generations (my Grandmother's Norwegian.  If you can snag one for a grandparent you are lucky! ...or maybe it's just my Grandma...)  The cookies are made from a Top Secret ancient family recipe that uses butter, sugar, almond, eggs, and flour!  ...ooops!  There goes that family secret!

We sang Christmas carols accompanied by bagpipes (a cacophonous combo) to any innocent bystanders who didn't run away.  We even got my dad to wear a Christmas hat, and from a distance the pipes almost looked like a sack of toys... unfortunately no one was fooled.

My blog has become sort of infamous around our family and my Aunts and Uncles have taken to saying things like...

"Don't put that in the Blog now!"

and

"You're not going to write about me are you?"

With their best interest at heart I have therefore decided to leave their names out entirely.

So you will not hear me mention my Uncle Tom or my Uncle Leo and Aunt Jeannie (also musicians, you can find out more about them at: http://www.sleepindogz.com/ )

Consider them never mentioned ;)

We still wake up insanely early every Christmas morning.  We still jump on mom and dad's bed and drag them to where the presents wait.  We still spend every second before they come jumping in our seats until they roll into the living room and give us the go ahead.  Some things never change :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Some New Changes!

Check out the Slideshow for some pictures of our tour in Ireland!

An intro to our 2008 season of the Turkey: Being Thankful

It's that time of year again, when we go out into the streets in our autumn regalia, raid the grocery stores and invite family members we only vaguely remember we had into our homes.  

Our family skipped out on most of the Thanksgiving festivities this year.  It's not because we have anything against Thanksgiving or being thankful in general.  In fact my family loves Thanksgiving.  We look forward to this holiday every year, an entire day that is devoted to family, being thankful and the opportunity to eat copious amounts of food to prove a point!  No, we missed some of the on-the-day Thanksgiving activities because we were doing a 2 1/2-minute spot on ABC for the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade.  That's right, I'm talking the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Macy's move aside because ShaeLaurel is going to rock your socks.  Sure the Philly Parade may not have as many floats or attractions, but they have us!  If you don't believe me, check out the video of our performance on youtube:

The Parade was awesome and we met so many amazing people!  I had the opportunity to show exactly how little I know about modern pop culture by asking Mario (the solo R&B artist, actor and recently the dancer on 'Dancing With the Stars') what group he was backing up.  Ouch!

We also got to meet the descendants of the Von Trapp family.  They are so close to our carbon copies that it was almost scary.  We shared stories and talked for as long as time would allow.  We are all roughly the same age, we have all been performing for the same amount of time (7 years) and are all homeschooled.  We also both did tours in Europe and Asia.  How strange is that?

We celebrated a little in Philly with our good friends/family from Boston, then drove down south into the warmer weather where my Aunt and Uncle had postponed their own Thanksgiving celebrations to wait for us.

There was turkey and stuffing, and mashed potatoes and gravy, and even this really cool pear dish whose name escapes me.  It was a blast.  I even learned how to cook a turkey....

Surprisingly, as the only vegetarian in our family, I have very few problems with the Thanksgiving holiday.  Besides the fact that this is another in a long line of holidays centered around a fictitious event whose primary purpose is to slaughter an animal that was almost our National Emblem, I'm down with the whole turkey thing.  (Although I'm more of a mashed potato person myself.)

Back to Thanksgiving, we played Bananagrams (see The Games We Play) until our eyes hurt and the levels of our amazing word creations made our heads explode.  We even had time to do some family projects....More about that later :)

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is over! Does this mean that I'm back mentally....? Ummmm...Can you repeat the question?

I did it, I made it out alive!  If you missed the last few posts here's a brief recap.  My sister Kathryn and I joined 120,000 novelists with the crazy intention of writing 50,000 words in one month.  We completed our goal: Kathryn's novel The Immortal Forest, weighing in at 54,250 words and my novel, Another Place to Fall, weighing in at 108,000 words.  (Apparently, I have a lot to say.  Who knew?)

All right, so that's the recap.  Now here's what you missed:

As Promised, Bella's Lullaby!

When it came down to brass tacks the song was recorded in 2 minutes.  Dad sat down at the piano and played and that was it.  And here it is, finally, as requested, my version of Bella's Lullaby!

Ladies and Gentlemen: November is National Novel Writing Month

So, Here's the Skinny:

If you have noticed a distinct lack of updates on our Blog it is not because of your eyes, you can trust your sanity and my perserverance in laying down the fantastically true tales of our family's travels, it's just that...well...we've been kind of busy.  Alright, I take that back, I've been kind of busy.  In the interest of your sanity and the danger of repetitive key clicking syndrom, there will be very few posts this month.  Sorry. 
It's not your fault, it's not the world's fault, and most importantly it's not my fault.  It's the fault of National Novel Writing Month and my 8th novel which is peeking its pasty, wrinkly newborn face out at the world and trying to make sense of what it sees.  To be honest, it's pretty ugly at this point; it's also very time consuming.  For the last 16 days my family has watched me retreat into the dark reaches of the RV, shutting out the world and all it's people, so full of enticing distractions, sparkling conversation and tantalizing opportunities for wrist massages.  I have become a hermit in my own home, glowing in the eerie blue light of my computer, the only sound the fruitless slamming of fingers on computer keys...okay, it's not quite that dramatic but you get the point.

An "I Love this Blog" Moment:

Okay, so maybe I'm procrastinating at this point, but it's for a good cause!  You deserve to hear what's going on out here in the wide world of musical entertainment and travel.  My novel can wait 10 minutes while I type this, and even the couple of hours it will take to find reliable internet to post it, then it's only a matter of copying it word for word onto the Blogger web site (why I can't just paste it, I'll never know.) chasing down a reliable parental unit, running it through the mom spell checker and presto!  All my writing time has suddenly evaporated into thin air.  Yes!  I love this Blog! 

Back to the Original Point at Last:

Anyway, the chronicles of our adventures will return with shiny new pictures, lot's of new words (thanks to Kat's SAT Preparation, can anyone say "celerity"?) and tidbits of information you never wanted to know about our family.  Time stands still for no man, and the road calls us onward.  We are still bouncing all over the country meeting new people, playing new shows and generally whooping it up, it just hasn't been written yet...heh, Oh dear.  Let's just say I'll have a lot to write this December.