i'm sunburned again, but not quite so bad as last time. the past couple of weeks i've been doing everything outside - putting up signs, playing badmitten, frolicking amongst the daisies... er, huh??

so, the other day we had to put some new lamps in a bigish sign up on a pole by the highway. in jasper. unfortunately there were only two access holes. actually, the quantity of holes was not the problem... mainly the size of them. robert didn't even try to climb through, but instead called on my narrow torso for the task (he refers to the three of us as the "two fat-boys and one skinny man with a tapeworm"). thank goodness i'm not clostrophobic. i had to stick my head through the slot, breathe, and then exhale deeply to get my chest through. i had a mild sense of, shall we say, urgency, when i once tried to take a breath before i got all the way in.

the fourth of july was wonderful! we were so excited about going to the jones' that we rose with the sun and left the house about an hour and a half later. at about 10:30. the food was glorious, the friends were friendly, the water fight was cold, the sky was overcast (during the hot part of the day, and it never rained. cool!!!), i don't know what the horse shoes were, and caleb shared his jelly beans. it was good to catch up with friends that i seldom see and make new ones.

i had my first guitar session of the summer on thurs. steve showed me a few things on guitars-in-progress in his shop. especially some sides he is bending. they're folded around an aluminum and particle board template which has light bulbs in it to make it hot. the wood is clamped at the waist to force it into the contour of a guitar side and heated for about 20 minutes. then allowed to cool. the process is repeated to set the curve, since it likes to spring back. i'm also highly excited to say that we began work on my guitar. steve is going to make one with me, from the beginning and do each step as i do it. we worked on the rosette first. we made many measurements and drew lines and circles and eventually cut out a very shallow ring in the spruce top, for the walnut ring that will encircle the sound hole. at least i'm pretty sure that's the species we finally landed upon. then we made more lines and circles ("we made lines and circles" makes it sound so easy) and used what i like to call the scalpal (same exacto knife i use in the sign shop) to cut out the walnut ring. it was very brittle, and i broke mine in about three places. i had just finished cutting it out, proudly held up the pretty little sliver, and dropped it on the bench. i felt less bad after steve broke his. eventually we got the pieces glued and clamped, and they're going to look great. billie also prepared a delicious supper to which i was invited - an invitation i readily accepted. i also got to behold a very beautiful maple and rosewood instrument that steve just sold at a guitar convention. ahhhh, and inspiring piece of work.

oh wow! i nearly clicked publish post without mentioning i watched POC dead man's chest last night! we've been talking about it here in the kitchen, and for some reason i just didn't write anything. i won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it yet, but i will say i enjoyed it. it was more centered around the fantastic and the slapstick this time. not so clever as the first one. i thought there were some wasted punch lines (they could have come up with something way better to say and made certain moments perfect), some stuff wasn't developed as well, and certain scenes were too long and all-the-same. there were some good fight scenes, several healthy laughs, and lots of impressive computer animation. hope you enjoy it!

best be off and away. i have a face to shave and a wedding to attend in dallas.