One of my favorite people in the world made a surprise guest appearance at my CD release show last month. He's also RUNNING FOR CONGRESS! When I met him, he was a high school dropout, who happened to be incredible at any instrument with strings, well-traveled, and spoke several languages. In the past 17 years since we met, he went to university, then law school, then opened his own law practice specializing in Civil Rights, then took a landmark case to the SUPREME COURT and gained marriage equality for the United States of America. I have no doubt that our children will write papers about him. Law students probably already are.

Politics aside, he is a good person, who really, truly, wants what is best for humanity. And here he is playing guitar with l'il' ol' ME! Swoon.

 Good morning from Heine Brothers! No babysitter/nanny/co-parent today, so I'm doing the best I can with what I've got. Anyone out there want to trade babysitting for piano lessons? Or guitar lessons? Or background music at your Christmas party? We had an quasi au pair for a while, but it didn't work out because our schedules never quite meshed. A professional au pair is a bit out of our reach, but someday ... someday.

I do have these visions of hitting the road with my babies and bringing along a nanny -- someone who is up for adventures at the drop of a credit card and who keeps a valid passport at all times. Maybe someone who wants to be an artist herself, but who could use the boost of free rent and flexible hours. I know, I know, I could ask at nearby universities, but I'm sort of hoping this situation comes about organically, much like it did for me when I was a live-in part-time nanny for a magical family in NYC. We were perfect for each other, and I was even able to maintain a full-time job at CBS News simultaneously.

In the mean time, I desperately need to find some sort of structure and routine to my wacky self-employed career, so I can properly balance it with parenting and coordinating babysitters. I'm very good at making lists, but I'm not so great at implementation these days.

Yesterday, however, I started a weekly video series in order to hold myself accountable to playing music for the public (all I do are private parties lately because THEY PAY WELL!):


Also, there is this -- have openings Friday October 6, Friday October 13, Sat. Oct 21 -- looking specifically for Shelbyville, Lexington, Berea, Bowling Green, so if you've ever wanted to host a concert in your home, please read this:












Currently reading: A Distant View of Everything by Alexander McCall Smith
Currently watching: Reign, Season 3.
Current mood: melancholy, like this song (but also, of course feeling heartbroken over the state of the world and donating to the Red Cross and ACLU because I'm not sure what else I can do):

My kids only sleep on airplanes. I'll take it.

My mom's chemo has been postponed several weeks in a row now because of low blood counts, so I decided to take her on a last-minute trip to NYC this past weekend. If you know me at all, you know that I love spontaneous travel -- even when it involves a sick mother and a needy toddler. I bought cheap flights out of Cincinnati, packed the three of us in one carry-on bag, and off we went.

Having lived in NYC on less-than-a-student budget for 5 years, I am pretty good about budget traveling in NYC. Mom was a trooper and didn't flinch at taking the bus and subway from the airport. We bought unlimited MetroCards and were at our hotel in less than an hour.

We stayed at the Sheraton TriBeCa (for free on points!), which was great. The Club Lounge offered a rooftop view of the Empire State Building, and we saved a lot of money by snacking there. They even had free wine in the evenings.

Leaving both the wheelchair and the stroller at home was a good idea, as there are too many curbs and stairs to navigate in NYC. Angus traveled in the Tula all weekend, and Mom brought a cane for stability.

The subway system is horrible for anyone with mobility issues, so we opted to take the bus more than the train. It was slower (and on Sundays ran less often), but it is a GREAT way to watch the city roll by. When you take the subway, you see rats and darkness. When you take the M3 down 5th Avenue from Central Park East, you see The Plaza, Tiffany's, Trump Tower, the New York Public Library, the Empire State Building, the Flatiron Building, and the Washington Square Park Arch. It was like those Hop-On-Hop-Off tours, but quicker and without tourists.

We did take about 3 taxis for short distances when a bus wouldn't drop us close enough (Mom's a trooper, but she does have stage 4 cancer, and I didn't want to wear her out), but we definitely got our money's worth on those unlimited metrocards.

Drumroll, please, though, as we know the most important part of any vacation is the FOOD!!

Rooftop Club Lounge at the Sheraton TriBeCa.

Little Italy dinner.

Primavera in Little Italy.

Something with seafood in Little Italy.

Sharing my primavera with Angus.

Lounging in the Club Lounge rooftop.

Stopped by for a photo op, but no beer for us.

Proper pickles and pastrami at 2nd Ave Deli.

Visiting an old friend, Lorcan Otway, at his pub, The William Barnacle, 80 St. Mark's Place.

Angus at Tompkins Sq Park

Too tired for dinner on day 2, so Seamless it was!

Hoteling.

A proper schmear! Waverly Diner.

Waverly Diner

Challah french toast.

Washington Square Park

Eclipse-viewing by The Plaza.

Playing on the William Tecumseh Sherman statue during the eclipse.

Eclipse in NYC. We made lots of friends because we had extra glasses.

Subway to the airport!

Our splurge of the trip: Tea at the Plaza. #bucketlist

Family pic that has nothing to do with laundry, but aren't they all just delicious?

Laundry. I'm going a little bonkers after weeks of solo parenting and a (very-part-time) nanny who clocked out on August 1, but my savior, oddly, is laundry.

You see, for a few months we had someone living in the basement. She babysat several hours a week in exchange for room and board and I was able to, like, finish my record and take the occasional mental health break. But it also meant that my access to the basement -- aka the Laundry Room -- was limited.

This turned out to be a most excellent problem because it forced ROUTINE on my household duties. We agreed that I would only do laundry on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

It turns out that when you do laundry every 7 days, you suddenly: 

1) don't have a gigantic pile of clothes all over your floor/crib/treadmill/guest bed/dog crate/bathroom closet.

2) have all your clothes clean at once

3) realize you own WAY more clothes than you need because you keep going back to those same cute underwear with the vintage bicycle print

4) realize you aren't nearly as minimalist as you though

5) can purge your closet and dresser

6) can purge your children's closets and dressers (because they don't need 30 t-shirts either!!!)

7) suddenly have WAY more room and WAY less clutter.

I used to be in favor of owning enough underwear to avoid laundry as long as possible. Now, I'm all about 14 pairs of underwear TOPS -- and only because you might go out of town or, as every woman knows, you have to have some icky period underwear just in case.

Anyway, hot tip, people: Laundry. Once a week. That's it. And get rid of most of your clothes. Except the cute bicycle underwear.

My wee boy started KINDERGARTEN this week! It's great to have him back on a schedule because he loves routine and structure and rules and art projects, and home-schooling is just not my game, (unless I have a Maria-von-Trapp governess on the payroll because I've won Powerball, then I am 100% homeschooling). Anyhoo, here are the boys on the porch:



They are both sweet as can be, and I remind myself how lucky I am -- particularly at 1am when Angus is waking up for the third time, and I'm just a ball of sleep deprived mess.

I also have failed to alert my faithful blog readers that we got a new family vehicle!! It's amazing. I've been on the road with it for about 3 weeks now, and I love it more every day.



It's a Taga 2.0, and we bought it on Kickstarter over a year before it was delivered. As we have been car-free for the past six years, this is a game-changer. I swear, it feels almost like I'm cheating when I zip around toting the kids or the groceries. Part of that guilt is because it's got an electric pedal-assist, so I can conquer the hills of my neighborhood (aptly called "The Highlands") without breaking a sweat. It's fantastic, and I now want to electrify every bicycle we own.

In business news, BUY MY NEW CD, PLEASE??!?!? 

Also, I'm booking a house concert tour for the end of October and early-November, and I'd love to play in your living room. Curious about hosting a house concert? I wrote an FAQs page here. Check it out.

I was 22 the first time I had a proper meal. It was Paris. A lunch. It was a friend of my parents, who had taken us all out to lunch at a classic brasserie -- red awning, sparkling wine, tables too close to your dining neighbors, and only one vegetarian item on the menu: a plate of green beans drowned in a stick of butter. It was the most delicious meal I'd ever had, and entirely because of the company, the atmosphere, the wine, and the fact that it took three hours.

Since then, my ultimate #treatyoself or vacation goal has been: a long and delicious dining experience, coursed out over a couple of hours.

It's a rare experience for me and David, however, because we are vegetarians. When we travel, we seek out the nice restaurants that offer a vegetarian tasting menu -- not just one with a chef willing to tolerate or "create something" for us. Not having to make a special request is everything, and I relish the chefs who recognize that most food, actually, is not made of animals. 

Some of my favorite meals of yore:

New Orleans. Restaurant August. Edinburgh, Scotland. The Kitchin.New York City. Cafe Boulud.Edinburgh, Scotland. David Bann. 

I was just lost in a fantasy remembering other delicious meals (Yellow Bar in Florence, Italy. That conveyor belt sushi place we found in Paris. A breakfast sandwich from Pick a Bagel in Manhattan.), but today my focus is VEGETARIAN TASTING MENUS.

Today I am excited because a LOUISVILLE restaurant (The Fat Lamb) is smart enough to offer up an entire Vegetarian Tasting Menu event this month, and I CANNOT WAIT. 

The Fat Lamb is already my favorite new restaurant in this town, and this acknowledgment that vegetarians, too, might like a swanky night out, well, it just cements that honor. 

August 20, with two seatings: 5:30 and 7:30.
Wine pairings optional.
Menu available here.
Facebook event here.

I'll be at the 5:30 seating because I have babies, so I can't be eating at 7:30 like a normal person. 

Here are some photos from when David and I created our own vegetarian tasting menu experience back in January. I meant to blog about it then, but I meant to do a lot of things last winter. 

MY CD RELEASE SHOW WAS AMAZING! If you weren't there (the place was packed, but I still missed many of your smiling face!), then you missed a spectacular display of support for live independent music. But goodness knows I understand other responsibilities and the difficulty of getting out to hear local music. 

Alex Wright is one amazing guy, and he was great fun to work with on this show. He's as good at the business end as the music end, and (unfortunately) that is just as important, if not more so. I think it was a good partnership. Go "like" his Facebook page. (And like mine, while you're at it, please! It seems minor, but it's oddly a really good way to help indie artists.)

Twisted Events hosted a special VIP section at Headliners, with heavy appetizers and a beautiful cupcake display for my birthday. Tyra is the owner of Twisted Events, and she's got incredible vision and implementation.


Joe Mays of Alien Twilight Photography took some video of the night, and I don't even know where to begin to post it. But it's good to FINALLY have some professional footage of a full band show. Thank you, Joe! Will be posting soon.

Catch my band LIVE for FREE on Thursday August 3 at Metro Hall in Downtown Louisville. I'm playing the Mayor's Music & Art Series at noon. It's a full-band show. If the weather holds, it'll be outside. 

End of the night hanger-outers!

The MERCH BOX!

T-SHIRTS! Pre-order one today!