Trying to Stop being Clever

I've got a building bug. The success of the chair has given me a certain amount of confidence in my ability to achieve a goal that I've set for myself. Those square pieces of wood were stacked in that back room for months, just sitting there, mocking me, saying, "you don't know what to do with us. You're going to screw it all up. You don't even know the first step of making a chair." And they were partially right. But it turns out I DO know the first step of making a chair, or making anything, and the first thing you make is a plan. Damn, starting to get clever again. Since I really like my chair, despite its flaws, I'm excited about my next big project, which is to enclose the back porch. Now, there was once a patio off of the dining room and hallway, and that had a roof over it, and many years ago somebody enclosed it. I'm not entirely sure how they did it, but it's got painted plywood on the outside and fake-wood paneling on the in...

Got a busy week coming up. I'm at work Monday, and not at work the rest of the week. I built a chair on Saturday. Felt good to get out there & bust out the woodworking tools. Got to use a circular saw, a jigsaw, drill, router with table, clamps and a framer's square. It's a pretty good-looking, very sturdy little chair. It's a time-out chair for the baby. She needs it. Boy does she. She has started to not listen to mommy and daddy at all. She's testing limits, and our patience is being pulled pretty thin. It was rather unexpected and sudden. If I had seen it coming I might have been able to prepare for it better. We'll get the hang of it. Potty training is not going well either. I will pay my respects to Kay Haas on Tuesday, going to Cirque du Soleil's IRIS on Wednesday, Thanksgiving is on Thursday, and Friday I'm playing again with 13 Knots. Oh yeah, we played for the first time in almost 6 years on Saturday, after I built the chai...

I've been very busy, working hard at the job, raising the little girl. I haven't thought about this blog in months, let alone found time to update. But I wanted to say, I've been trying to catch up on my Burn Notice addiction. Bought season 2 a few weeks ago. I'm on disc 4. Christmas is coming up fast, and I'm going to ask for seasons 3 and 4. I just really like that show. One of the things I've been updating a lot is my YouTube page, www.youtube.com/daddymunro1 . I've added many of my songs, including 3 or 4 I've written in the past few months. I'm also making a fairly regular appearance on Facebook, now that Emily and I have a computer at home, and an internet connection. I was starting to think it would never happen, but we budgeted and researched and ended up with an Acer laptop so she can take some online college classes, and I can do some marketing of my music and budding side project of freelance graphic design. I rebuilt a gate...

Vacation was fantastic. Many many pictures at my photobucket page . Also click on "travels" to get out of the "Delilah" album. Thousands of photos there. I'm back at work and at a new desk, over by Accounting where I was when I got back from Atlanta, but in the front office. There's good and bad about it. I don't like having my back to the door, but I don't know what else to do. My old friend and first drummer Jeromy is coming to work here next week. Finally I have someone to carpool with! And by "carpool" I just mean I give him a ride. It'll be nice getting to catch up with him -- he's been living in Austin, TX for the last 10 years or so. Now he lives in Whittier right near me, but still I never see him. We've just been out of touch for too long. Plus I've changed a lot. He needs a chance to get to know me over again. I'm not the drunk teenager I was then. So that'll be fun. Not much else to say at ...

Great news! Wifey's not going in for surgery. I wasn't worried, except a little. But SOOO glad it doesn't have to happen. Such a relief! Now that it's not a concern, I suddenly started to wonder if we would have had to pay for it. It's not a life-threatening condition, so we might have had a hefty co-pay. I hadn't thought for a moment of the cost. That's a step. That's the kind of thing I always admired in fictional heroes: not one thought of a financial aspect of something typically costly when it concerns the health of a loved one. I've always felt that characteristic may be missing from me. But hey, there it is! Great news indeed.

I put in my request for 1 1/2 weeks off from work next month. On the first day of August my little family & I board a plane for Dallas, and after almost 10 days of traveling around the south we get on a plane in Atlanta back to L.A. We will visit at least 3 states and various family & friends, some for the first time in years, some for the first time. It will be Delilah's first time on a plane. And second. And third. It will be her first time out of California. Except for our drive to San Francisco back in October 2009, it will be our first family trip. This has all been made possible by a man who I'm sure would prefer to remain unnamed due to too many people having access and government conspiracies and coverups & whatnot. Anyway, thanks old man. We'll try to make sure they don't rent us a Kia. So that's exciting. Tonight we're supposed to go on a sort of double date. Again, I don't know that I should name names, but one participa...

This is a very exciting time in Delilah's development. She is talking all the time. She's learning to put together all kinds of sentences, & I hear from parents of other children her age that their babies don't talk anywhere near as well as she does. Besides that, it's great that we can communicate with her now. It was only 3 months ago that I was amazed by her handful of one-syllable words in her vocabulary. Now we carry on conversations. I've always been fascinated by the idea of molding a young mind, creating a human personality. It's scary & adventurous. There's no telling what she's going to turn out like despite our efforts, or rather because of them. She understands an amazing number of things, she recognizes things like t.v. show sets, people's voices (like Randy Newman), & she is showing signs of being a great dancer. She's got rhythm, & for that I am endlessly grateful. I don't know yet if she is going to...

Delilah's birthday party was pretty great. Unfortunately I got hit with a pretty bad flu bug or something that morning, so I felt crappy all day, & went home after the party & slept for probably 18 hours. I broke a fever & had tons of snot. Over that now. I'm feeling pretty good lately. I wrote a couple of new songs, & my bro Martinez is learning one of them. I'm having fun playing them, & I've been bringing my guitar to work. Something's wrong with Emily's car, so I've been letting her take my car for the last couple weeks & I've been driving the faulty car because I can work with it. So it's kind of nice, thinking of her in all that luxury. & her car is not bad in general, so when we switch back I don't need to feel guilty about having the nice new car again. Besides, my commute is a lot longer than hers, so I spend more time in the car. Delilah is growing so much, she's tall, she's talking. It...

It's looking bad for the Lakers this playoff season. First we lose two games to New Orleans in round one, & now we're 0-2 against Dallas? That game last night was embarrassing! At least game 1 we made it look good, not that that windfall of 4 points at halftime was due to great playing or anything, but hey, way to hit those FTs Lamar! 3 for 3 on the half-court-foul shots. At least we were within a couple by the end of that game. Last night we had no excuse. We could not make an outside shot in the second half. What the hell was that? We were at home even! I'm so very disappointed. I'd hate to think we've come this far just to get knocked out in round 2. If we play that badly at home, what's it going to look like when we play in Dallas?? I understand Nowitzki's fade-away shot is nearly impossible to defend against, but we could let him have those if we could just MAKE OUR SHOTS! It was close enough throughout the second half that if he made ...

I'm trying not to make this about anybody else, or to drag anyone into it, but I need to get it out, & I feel really funny talking to myself. This has so far been a safe depository for my thoughts & ideas, so here goes... I think I have realized (been helped to realize) that I am wasting time & money trying to put together a band to play live gigs. It's what I want to do as much as anything else in life, but there are other things which will make me at least as happy, so I'll content myself with those. I'm starting to think it might make it easier to move forward with some other endeavors if I stop thinking about how things will translate into a live show. I'm not saying I will give up music. That would be stupid. Stupid to say, stupid to do. It means far too much to me. But I can concentrate on writing & recording, & maybe I can become a composer of music for other people to play. I don't know. But if I don't worry about if I...

"But if you ask for a rise it's no surprise that they're giving none away." I've taken on a whole new aspect to my job. I'm semi-officially part of the IT Department in that I have a login to the company Help Desk inbox. Yes, I'm assisting various project managers as PMAs with tasks to fix their little changes and glitches in The System. They're usually pretty good about giving me the acknowledgment and compensation for my additional and well-performed duties, & hopefully there's something in this taking-on of more responsibility and lightening the load of the specialists with their deeper understanding of programming & the like. I get to do more mundane maintenance tasks so they can focus on the overwhelming number of other things I don't understand. By mundane I don't mean to imply that it's boring or that I don't like it. It's really just that these things are a time-suckage to people who are in demand for thei...

Jaysson Black on bass, David Martinez on drums, David Munro Coutant on guitar Yeah, we rocked it. Orange Cones and Daddy Munro's DJ services are available for parties and events. Go ahead & contact me any way you know how for details.

Rancho Santa Gertrudes Elementary School 11233 Charlesworth, Santa Fe Springs, CA 3/26/2011, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. block one: warm-up, “I Need to Ask You” inst. Obla Di Obla Da 59th st Bridge Song Sound America Jenga block two Mrs. Robinson Karma Police Papaya I Can’t Take You (C#) She’s Leaving Home CK1 block three: The Boxer Norwegian Wood I Imagine So/Superfluous I’m a Believer Just Like Heaven block four: Electrocube Drive My Car Weezer song Homeward Bound Everything/Wanna Be For Emily Easy Valley Mr. Rabbit Wanna Be We may run out of time but better to have it & not need it.

Delilah at Gymboree. She's taken to climbing inside of things. Last night we went for a walk and she got out onto the porch and said, "outside."  She correctly identified the moon, cars, houses, and her umbrella stroller, which she calls her "ride."  This is such an exciting and interesting time.

The baby is doing wonderfully.  She is getting bigger (taller) and she is talking a lot.  She says bus and book and Elmo and car and mommy and daddy and "meow meow" and many other monosyllabic words, and she's working on saying her name.  She will say "me" and "mine" and "you" and stuff, but her name still comes out sounding like "Dee-ah".  It's great, she's great, everything's great.  She's supposed to start working on getting past the diapers this summer.  She'll be 2 in June.  I can't believe it.  It's funny, when I got married I knew that it would change my life as far as how I spend my time, but this having a baby has turned my world upside down.  I'll definitely take her over my old life in a heartbeat.  I can't wait until she can go everywhere with me.  I want so badly to show her off to everyone in the world.  I just realized, I don't think she's been to Therapak since she could...

News from the doctor: nothing's happening. I'm going to write a poem now. when in life's garden you think you plant a rose don't be disappointed if that's not what grows life is the treasure not the kind it is be thankful for what you've got cuz hey, that's show biz there's a reason I stopped writing poetry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34_Zf6peENI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6_V3rmdbls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN0fZyJVkro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwi4XuRI34k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU2bppN3TIY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JJneuGbFq4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn02vFJi6rY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYDlH6D72dw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-ClGE1LoAk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e67U_AVI2jM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wUWEW1GU5Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoIhVsjEiCs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEf7linL92E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svi564t0mFc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_qIbd9d6ww http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XIl8ECHHdg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45BRWff4UAE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fupZuTeMB_8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKxpqAWOlGc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOv4JtXBu8Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8o4mPo9XdY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUiY3W97Z8Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s...

Traffic is slowing, patience is thinning, things are starting late.  Yes, the Cones are out again.  Bottleneck is making the city a tense place to be.  Let go of some steam, loosen your shoulders, stretch your neck, relax.  Daddy Munro & the Orange Cones (http://www.reverbnation.com/orangecones ) are lightening moods & burdens with their bouncy, smarmy, observational portrayal of life in the twenty-first century in timeless, rhymeless harmony and variety of styles.  In a set including electric independent alt-pop, classic harmonic folk, & synthy, punky goodness, Orange Cones will strike a chord with you in one way or another.  With flavors of Reggae, funk, coffeehouse and Canadian roots rock (?!?) the Cones pay tribute to the likes of The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Neil Diamond, Lou Reed, Simon & Garfunkel and more. If you haven't been taken to school in a while, come down to Rancho Santa Gertrudes Elementary at 11233 Charlesworth Rd Santa Fe S...

I downloaded a bunch of videos from my phone. Watch the baby grow up. Delilah's first time on a playground swing. This is at Central Park, across the street from the Methodist church we are most likely to be seen at. She is still to this day fascinated by watching other kids. It's why we think she needs a little sibling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LU61HLOf0U This is us watching TV one night.  She's really starting to show the personality she is bursting with now.  A lot of the old videos show her just staring & being mystified by everything.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI4HJoTzWM4 This is Father's Day 2010.  I ask her, "Is there anything you want to say to Daddy...?" & she says "no."  Then when I say "Okay," she immediately says "Happy."  I think that's what she meant.  She's in the Eddie Bauer carseat in the back of my 2010 Hyundai Elantra Touring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOsFVXxG3PY I...

  NASA Science News for Jan. 26, 2011  Evidence is mounting that Saturn's moon Enceladus harbors a bubbly subterranean ocean where conditions might be friendly to life. Wow. Think how interesting this could be. Here we are on Earth, being largely deluded about being the only life in the universe, let alone our solar system, & yet there may be life on a moon of one of our local planets. Imagine spending your entire life on a body where the sun doesn't rise & set each day, but where the sun is a distant speck in the constant night sky, & where the dominant astronomical feature is a giant bluish planet with fancy rings on it (which you would likely see mostly edge-on & so wouldn't completely understand the nature of). You would orbit this bluish planet, & you wouldn't know what it was like to be so close to heat & light like Earth is. You likely wouldn't understand the whole planet concept; you wouldn't realize that you were orbiting ...

I got a distressing message from my former bass player saying nobody wanted to play with him. I told him I did. I never asked him to leave the band. So we got the gang back together last week & it felt good. It feels like there's still a lot to do, but it feels like it's definitely do-able. I'm looking forward to getting good & tight again, & putting on some good shows here & there. Please make sure & let me know if you need a band to play somewhere. Check out some of our stuff here: http://www.duramark.com/img/ It's the section labeled as "Orange Cones," as that is the lineup once again. We're adding quite a few cover songs to our set list. Some you will have heard before, others you surely have not.