oh. hi.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Did I mention that we were busy? I hope so. I hope the complete and utter lack of posting also showed that.

Let’s recap:

*On December 31st, 2010 we moved into a new rental house with a one year lease.
*In mid-April 2011, the owners of the house [heretoforthwith knows as Dickheads] (who had put it up for rent after
it wouldn’t sell when the husband’s job had him transfer out of state TWICE) called our agent to tell her that,
“Hey. The job is moving me back to [local city] and we want our house back.” Period. End of story. So begins
rental hell. With that came several months of neighbours-who-were-previously-sweet-and-super-friendly-and-who
we-later-found-out-were-friends-with-Dickheads [now to be known as Fatties or Assholes Next Door] constantly
calling and complaining about noise from guitars and band practice (they had been totally fine with it for four
months!), sometimes IN TEARS, and traffic from Ben’s students and grass being unmowed (for more than five days,
if it wasn’t mowed, they called our agent complaining about snakes–in a goddamned subdivision!!!). It was awful.
Truly truly horrendously awful. Our sweet sweet agent, who technically worked for The Dickheads, was constantly
apologizing for their retched behavior. Keep in mind, this awfulness lasted NON-FUCKING-STOP from mid-April thru
mid-September. (Including a story from September about me walking out of the shower to find The Dickheads
circling the house with open blinds.)
*On May 7th, 2011, our ten-year anniversary, we got married. It was a semi-elopement that we didn’t tell anyone
about (grandparents got 10 days notice to attend) and was more stress/work than anticipated. Because our
anniversary fell on a Saturday, that meant the courthouse was closed; which meant we had to hire someone; which
meant more money; which also meant we had to have a location in which we could be married; which meant more
money; we wanted to write out our own ceremony; which meant a fuckload of time and even more money…you see
where this is going? All along with the news that The Dickheads wanted to push us out. But you know, it was still
a whole hell of a lot of fun. Plus we had a badass four-day honeymoon of fun.

Sister made the most lovely star garland in our favourite colours for our location.

*Mid-May 2011–Very-Early-August 2011: When we got back from the honeymoon we started looking for houses to
buy…well, first we started talking about buying a house A LOT more seriously than we had planned on doing
(original buy date would be sometime in 2012) and then we started looking to buy. And we looked and looked and
looked and looked and said no to a shitload on the internet and viewed a few houses before rejecting them and our
sweet agent (that same dear hippie lady who kept apologizing for The Dickheads continuing harassment) was about to
give up on us when she e-mailed me one morning with a link to a newly-listed house and the subject line, “LOOK!
LOOK! LOOK!” and inside all it said was, “This one came up in my search this morning and it seems perfect for
you!!!” and it was ADORABLE! And looked so good!! And so very Us. We made an appointment for two days later to
view it and when we pulled up, Dear Agent walked out of the house and told us in no uncertain terms that if we
didn’t buy this house, she will fire us as her clients. Of course we loved it and of course we put in an offer and
of course we ended up buying it. And of course we are absolutely completely and totally head-over-heels-in-love
with our house. OUR HOUSE. It’s beautiful.

Hastily taken photo of front door seconds before we moved in.

I plan on writing a huge post about buying/moving with pictures of the house…but please, be patient for I will
scream if pushed to do too much too fast. My poor Rock Star nearly had a meltdown at the signing of the contract
for the bid for the house. Near. Catastrophic. Meltdown. My wonderful man does not accept change easily. But he
did. And we did. And at the first of August so we began the house-buying process. (Details to come, I hope.)

*Within days of putting in a bid, having the bid countered, signing the contract, having an official house
inspection, etc. etc. etc. we went on our already-planned 10-day vacation to see wonderful people we knew in
Virginia and to tour D.C. (I’d been twice, but my museum-loving Rock Star had never visited). After the incredible
stress of the first part of August, seeing my sister, my lovely and amazing friend, and Ben’s very best friend was
just what we needed to calm the ever-living-fuck down. We first saw Sister and her fabulous dog, Lizzy, then we
stopped at the ever-wonderful Erin’s house, then we trucked up to see Josh in DC. It was fantastic seeing my
sister as it always is when she lives too far away from me; and spending time with Erin is about as happy and
peaceful as any time I’ve ever spent. Josh was an amazing sport about letting us crash at his place and showed us
some wonderful sites (sights?) in the downtown area. With him as our guide we had some of the most amazing food we
had ever eaten. I’m so glad we know wonderful people who enjoy food and history as much as we do. We really do
have fantastic friends.

Happy Lizzy looking for a bellyrub

Me standing inside an Alexander Calder sculpture at the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden

Comet Ping Pong's The Smokey & The Yaley--HOLY SHIT! You have to try this pizza!! It's too good to be true!!

Ben in awe of ancient mummy in Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Josh and Ben about to enjoy the hell out of their Dogfish Sampler of various beers

*We came back mid-August (nearly bypassing my birthday entirely [cue: guilt and extreme sadface] and began to
finalize the closing and go through the entirely stressful closing process as well as the extremely stressful
packing-cleaning-moving-cleaning-unpacking process and let me tell you, we have a lot of shit. No. Really. I don’t
think anyone understands just how much shit two childless twenty-somethings can acquire when they live in a house
together for several years. It’s way too much. It’s embarrassing. But on September 17th, 2011 we moved in to what
(if we so choose) could be the last house in which we ever live. [cue: angelic voices singing heavenly tune]

*Since then we have cleaned, unpacked, painted, rearranged, cleaned, unpacked, painted, painted painted,
rearranged, unpacked, cleaned, painted, rearranged, painted, painted, unpacked, painted, tiled, painted,
rearranged and back to tiling and painting some more. That’s house stuff. And [re: hopefully/skeptically] soon I
plan on posting more detail on house stuff if only for my own records.

*October 22nd was the Homecoming Day for my five-year college reunion. Not only did the beautiful Erin come to town
to visit, but I got to catch up with some of my favourite old art alums (how fuckin’ snooty does that sound?!?)
and that was a metric ton of fun–plus we came home with a beautiful piece of art by the always wonderful Robin
Grace Venable who provided the alumni exhibit this year.

*BUT Halloween is our favourite holiday and last year we were in the process of looking for a new place and had
previously thought we would be moving in October and didn’t decorate at all and just threw a meager little
Halloween party. This year we knew we’d be only five weeks in our new house, but we couldn’t forgo the annual
Petler Inn Halloween Bash, so we invited costumed close friends to our transitioning house for an awful good time.
And the week prior, we participated in something we had always dreamed of doing…sort of: It has been a life goal
of mine (and now the Rock Star’s too) to die some gruesome grisly death in a B-horror zombie movie. Our super
talented friend, Ben (affectionately called Other Ben), participated in a local grindhouse-style horror trailer
contest to go along with a local Horror Fest our town throws each year, and we got to be the zombies!! We had way
too much fun making it, and even though Other Ben’s didn’t win on account of it being “too pretty” and “not
grindhouse enough” (although we counter that the genre he drew, “Knoxploitation” is AWFUL) it was still one of the
best ones entered and we LOVED it.

As for our costumes this year, we went all out for the zombies for the movie and were so focused on cleaning
up/painting/tiling the house before the party, that we didn’t even start to think of anything until seven-ish
hours before the party was supposed to start (with us having to work in between that time-frame). Ben went as
Rorschach from The Watchmen graphic novel and I went as a clean basket of laundry–I was particularly proud of the
crumpled dollar bill and wad of thread I hot-glued to my tshirt along with socks and a sock on my headband. Not
too shabby for last minute; my costume problem also had to account for being able to literally throw it on when I
got home from work in less time than it takes to pee (also accounts for the utter lack of makeup as I drove home
like a maniac and ran upstairs to don Halloween garb). Even though it was small and not-that decorated, it was
still an super fun time with awesome people. And we’ve already started planning out next year and the full on
epicness that will occur.

in zombie garb for pseudo-movie

That damn basket bruised my thighs, I was so sore the next day.

Funnily enough, to answer nerd questions everywhere, he wasn't wearing anything underneath that coat.

And with that, I have skimmed my life forward to present day. There is so much left out and so much more to add. And [WITH GREAT HOPE] I will get back into my regular blogging schedule; which is to say, two or three times a month.

cheers!
-K

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hey, ya’ll–remember me?

Hi.

Yeah, sorry I’ve not really been present at all. I’ve been super-duper busy. Fighting with my landlords (they want their house back WAY before our lease is due); sooner-than-expected talks of buying a house with each other, with our real estate agent; going on a quick vacation to Tybee Island/Savannah, GA that wasn’t really a vacation…

it was a honeymoon.

Because we got married. (eep!)

But we like to keep things complicated, so of course it was a secret marriage.

And I learned some things:

1. It’s reallyreallyreallyREALLY hard for me to keep my own secrets as I typically do not have any secrets and I’m used to just walking around and gabbing to anyone who is in range about what’s going through my head.

2. I do NOT handle stress well. Back in high-school/college era, I was a stress-managing machine–a good German through and through, I could itemize, list, and conquer with the very best of them. I have since turned to a life of mostly leisure and am now quite unaccustomed to a stressful way of living. This means that I turn into a little ball of bitchiness. It’s not fun. And it’s real fucking ugly.

3. I have no idea how women (or men) who plan full weddings do it. NO FUCKING CLUE. We had us plus nine people and a minister at a park on a Saturday morning and guys, it was just too much for me to handle. We didn’t even have invitations–just stopped by to visit grandparents and parents and let them know about it. Seriously, it was ridiculous.

4. Honeymoons are awesome. I mean, for real. In all our years, we’d never taken a vacation that was just the two of us. We’d always go along with our families or we’d plan trips with our friends, never had we traveled long-distance over several days just the two of us. And it rocked! We did nothing but sit on a beach and stare at the ocean for three days (fourth day we walked around Savannah), stuff our bellies with the most amazing seafood we could find, and have lots and lots of sex (sorry, mom). It was a blast.

So, hopefully, I’ll get back into regular blogging that I’m sure will be all about how awful it is trying to find a house. We’ll see.

I’ll leave you with our wedding announcement we posted after we got back. Made pretty much entirely by the lovely Rock Star:

-K

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Upcoming Movies

Some forthcoming movies that I cannot wait to watch:

Although the story seems semi-weak, I LOVE nearly every single person involved in this one:

I’m not really digging the animation style, but I’m a sucker for Disney:

In Westerns, EVEN BETTER!! A Coen flick!!:

I’d like to learn more, but this one has possibility:

REALLY looking forward to this one:

This one looks campy enough to be awesome:

And of course, I couldn’t post movies I’d like to see without including this one:

-K

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I have an awesome new job.

Yes. Yes I do. My mother and father used to give Ben and I such shit about how eventually we were going to have to finally “grow up and join the rest of the adult world.” You see, we are night people (Ben more than me even). We aren’t conventional people. Ben is a musician who has started painting guitars on the side. And I am an artist who is so very sick and tired of working in retail to pay the bills. My parent’s kept trying to convince us that our late-nights and casual attire were going to have to become a thing of the past. HA!! I say. We have become some of the lucky ones. Ben teaches guitar and I have recently been hired as a camera-woman for a local vendor show. We each “work” only about 20ish hours each week (actually if you include his swirling time, Ben works about 30ish probably). And they’re both late shift jobs. Ben in the afternoon/evening and me during the evening/night. Our days are totally free. We’ve become that couple you see walking around on a Tuesday afternoon and you (or at least I would) wonder how their bills get paid.
I love it. It’s so wonderful. And it’s just further proof that if you stick to your goals, you don’t have to wind up some grumpy old man who hates the job he’s had for the past 30 years.

We beat the system!! Cheers!!

-K

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Hey!! Look at this!!!

So we’ve been absentee bloggers for a bit, but that is because we’ve been setting up a new blog for Ben and his numerous guitar/musical endeavors. We’ll have a Petler Inn catch-up pretty soon, but in the meantime:
Check out Ben’s new blog!!!

(for those who found us by searching for guitar swirling pictures and techniques and/or ibanez searches and/or any other guitar/bass/music related search–we are now separating all of that stuff into this new blog–please read and enjoy!)

-K

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Geek Patrol!

Alrighty, even though we are totally NOT fucking hipsters. And even though we typically don’t dive in for the latest new gadget, and even though I’m a huge apple fan (although I do not own A SINGLE apple product). We both really really really really REALLY want the new iPhone 4. Really. Really really. So very badly. Want.


-K

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Swirling Misha Mansoor (aka Bulb of the amazing band Periphery)’s Ibanez 8 string!

All right, for starters, for the past year or so our entire house has been dotted with paint. Green, purple, black, blue… there are little bits of paint all over the place. A lesser girlfriend would have killed me by now, for certain! I have gotten into swirl painting guitars… this is a really unique process similar to marbleizing paper. I first saw it, like most people, on the cover of Steve Vai’s landmark Passion and Warfare album. Years later, one of my guitar students actually got one of the guitars Vai had on the cover, a 1990 Ibanez UVMC. it was the first time i had seen a swirl in person, and i was floored! I knew i had to have one. Of course, now those guitars are upwards of $5,000, so in the meantime, until i make my millions, i’ve been making my own damn swirls.

I recently started doing these for other people, too! And right now, i have my biggest project yet: an Ibanez RG2228 8 string that belongs to Misha Mansoor, otherwise known as Bulb! What follows is my post i put on a few guitar message boards:
Aw yeah!!!! This has been an extremely fun project and Misha has been such a nice dude to deal with.
First off, i should mention that i have been listening to Misha’s stuff for probably like 5 years now, back when i stumbled across his clips he would post on the Meshuggah boards. Since then he’s been a big influence on my own playing and writing, so getting to do some work on one of his guitars has been a joy and a privilege! Misha and had talked online a little bit prior to this , but after i got into the swirling thing i contacted him on a whim to ask if he’s into that style of finish… we got to talking about some potential color schemes, and he ended up choosing one based on a sample piece i did earlier this year. Now on with the pics!

Ooh, got a huge box in the mail…. what might it be?

Only one way to find out… pop it open!

oh my! it’s Misha’s RG2228, ready for a fresh new look. i think i can help. This is the same guitar that you saw in the Icarus Lives video. The poor thing does have some battle damage that will need to be fixed, though:

But it’s alright! i can help.

The 8 getting to know my 7′s… what a nice bunch of axes!

Alright, now its time to get to work! Step 1, take it all apart:

A primed headstock appears!

4 color blue swirl is used:

It’s super effective!

Alright, now on to the main event… that big ol 8 string body. Primed up and ready to go:

And after a little magic happens in the swirl tank….we get this!

(just so you know, the neck pocket and black trem foam is taped and waxed off so no water or paint can get to them)
Here’s the back, which i love:

and a few more random shots:



Looking at the pics, i gotta say that the colors are WAY more intense and deep in person! Misha and i are both quite happy with the results! I gotta say, when Misha picked out the color scheme, i was a bit skeptical… but now that i see it on the piece, i’m blown away. A HUGE improvement over that galaxy black for sure! Now the guitar is off to my brother to get a nice shiny clear coat. i’ll post pics of that once it gets done, too! Its going to really make those colors pop even more. As far as i know, this is the first swirled Ibanez 8 out there, and one of the very few Ibanez 8′s that have been repainted at all. Cool stuff! More pics to come.
-ben

***All guitar swirling/related posts have now been moved to Ben’s new blog.***

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Man Man!

Last Thursday, Kate and i trekked out to Lexington KY to see one of our absolute favorite bands in the world, Man Man! They are a band that we came across because Kate’s cousin suggested we check them out when they came through Knoxville last year. He told us that they were the best band he’d ever seen live, and that we wouldn’t leave disappointed if we saw them… he was totally correct on all accounts. They blew our minds, and we’ve been hooked ever since!

Rather than trying to describe what they sound like, which would take far too much time and every adjective in the book (plus a few made up ones), i suggest you head over to their myspace page and give them a few plays. every song they have written is awesome. seriously. super cereal.

So we headed out around 5 pm thursday to KY… we used my new Tom Tom, Damien, for guidance, and it guided us there no problem! We got to the venue (Cosmic Charlie’s) and we initially very amused at the eclectic bunch huddled outside the club. there were stereotypical hippies, trendy scenesters, a few “normal” people, and WAY more metal-looking people than you would have guessed.

I saw one of the Man Man dudes at the venue, so i said hey and told him how much we loved their music. he seemed down to earth and cool! (Notice i didn’t say i saw the band’s “bassist”, “guitarist”, or whatever… you can’t label any of the dudes in the band with a particular instrument because they’re all constantly playing so many different things! keys, horns, drums… nothing is safe) He also told me that they are going to begin recording a new album here soon, so i’m already pumped about that.

The opening band was from our town of Knoxville, yet we had never heard of them! Strange, huh? They were called Shortwave Society, and they really impressed us! It’s also some really strange music… semi-electronic, semi classical, a little Radiohead… odd stuff, but very cool! check them out at their myspace page.
So onto the main event, Man Man… they started off with a song we had never heard, and it was great! It had almost a surf feel to it, which is unusual for the band. Very cool. They played another few songs which we got to enjoy before the unfortunate appearance of Dance Commander.

I do not know Dance Commander’s true identity, but he is at every show i ever attend, no matter the location or the band. You have probably also met Dance Commander. He’s the douche factory at every show who feels obligated to show you how much he likes the band by dancing enthusiastically in very close proximity of you, usually stomping on your feet, bashing into you, and whipping your face with his hair. He often appears at metal shows under the guise of Mosh Commander, the guy who knows that even though you are clearly just there to *watch and listen to* the bands play, what you really ought to be doing is moshing with him and the other sweaty guys in the pit. He is oblivious to any attempts you make to let him know that you are happy doing what you are doing. He knows better than you.

This time, Dance Commander (henceforth “DC”) was in the guise of a tall skinny guy with lank blone hair, wearing an army jacket. He looked like a wormy, scrawny mid-20′s version of Mike from Opeth. He looked like shit. We were standing next to a couple we didn’t know, and the girl was even shorter than Kate. I feel bad for short people at concerts, that can’t be much fun at all… so, DC gets all riled up and is bashing into all four of us, especially the girls who were farther in front so they could see better. We all are trying to grab him by the shoulder, push him forward, keep him away etc, and the guy just keeps his jive on, flipping out like some poor shit afflicted by St. Vitus’ dance.

Dude doesn’t let up. I am in the habit of pushing DC’s forward with my elbow rather than my hand (god forbid i jam a finger and don’t get to play guitar for a few days at the cost of some dancing shithead at a concert). I am a bony guy in the first place, but i had also just sharpened my elbows on my grindstone that morning in preparation for any potential DC episodes. So i’m grinding my elbow into dude’s back to keep him away from myself and the short girls (have i mentioned NOBODY else around us is dancing, just this guy? what a douche), and he just flips out and acts all pissed for a second and shakes off my elbow. He is such a bitch that he never turns to any of us to say “screw you guys, i’m having fun!” or anything like that, either, he just stands there for a second, then resumes with his spasming. Kate grabs him by the arm with kung fu grip for a solid 5 or 6 seconds before he even acknowledges her, and he looks at her all pissed and tries to get out of her grip. That pretty well pissed me off. So, i step in front of the girls to try and better keep DC away. After a song is finished, i put my hand on his shoulder and say “dude, you can have a good time without slamming into everybody. you’re pissing everyone off. knock it off”. He, of course, didn’t even act like he heard me, but when the next song started, he was a bit more chill. then his phone rang and he walked off. The show was MUCH more fun after that.

They played a few familiar songs, but about 75% of the tunes were new! They sounded fantastic. A little less gypsy influence than their old stuff, a little more drum heavy, and a lot of xylophone (which i could always use more of). As a followup, a few songs later, DC returned, although he was several rows of people in front of us. He stood in front of a few teenagers who looked pretty much just like the crew from the movie Kickass. They all had matching “WTF???” looks on their faces, and endured many brutal hair-lashings by the end of the set.

Overall, it was TOTALLY worth the drive. They really put on an amazing show, and put a lot of feeling (and fun) into what they do. If anyone could see this band live and not crack a smile or nod their head with the beat, i would be convinced that they may be some type of replicant. In the latter scenario, i would have no choice but to administer a Voight-Kampf Test then and there.

Don’t ever be Dance Commander, people. Man Man’s music is SO fun and they are SO great live… yet i was so distracted by this crapbag that i didn’t even get to enjoy a handful of their songs. If you’re at a show, be respectful of people who are standing around you. At metal shows, there is usually a section of the crowd that is made up of other moshers; join them, and leave others in peace. At rock shows, there might be a group of people dancing and bashing into each other all willy nilly. If you want to do that, go stand there. Leave everyone else alone! DON’T BE DANCE COMMANDER!!!

-Ben

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tusa is tusa amháin, go deo

Today we celebrate nine years together. Well, technically tomorrow we celebrate them, but today is the official day. Today I had to work, and he has a show to play tonight. Oh, the life of a rock star. But tomorrow we do nothing but stare at each other until we’re ready to spend a day apart.

Not really.

Really, we’re going to Asheville to wander around and visit some of our very favourite spots. And be all ooey-gooey in public and wish we had enough forethought to order our gift early enough to use. (Anniversaries mean community gifts here at the ole Petler Inn; and this year the gift was a brand new [14 megapixels with super-macro wide angle lens!!!!] point-and-shoot camera for us to carry with us everywhere and also so Kate doesn’t have to be thisclose to an aneurysm each time Ben touches her good Nikon.)

Nine years with a person is a really long time. And it’s even longer when you live in the second notch of The Bible Belt and are still unmarried and have the absolute gall to live together.

And yet it seems like barely anytime at all has passed. He’s still the most amazing person I’ve ever met. And I’m still just so happy I walked up to that bowl-cutted (it’s a word now, dammit) homeschooler shopping with his mother and bugged the ever-living crap out of him until he agreed that yes, I am the most wonderful and fascinating person on the planet.

our happy zombie family

-K

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Please pardon my sap

**DISCLAIMER: If you know me or him IN REAL LIFE, please do not get too excited; these plans are quite far away in the future and not happening anytime soon.**

So we’re not ones for overtly cheesy cards/gifts/proclamations of enduring love and eternal romance.

However, what with a nine year anniversary coming up, talk of buying a house and decorating it, plans for elopement and those eternal bands of jewelry and the celebratory party afterwards; the sappy romantic in me has surfaced. And it’s somewhat embarassing because corny romanticism is so NOT me or us; and I’ve never been comfortable running around the world shouting how wonderful he is, or how perfectly we fit within each other.
Additionally, I made a promise to myself that I would be totally honest in this blog despite having given the URL to several friends and family (most of whom probably don’t remember or read–or so I may be stupidly assuming).

It’s just so strange to me, this process we’re going through in the precious alone hours we have. Finding a ring. Finding a ring that fits into our lifestyle and onto our heavily abused hands; one that matches; one that means something; one that is uniquely ours. Who we will include in the secret; who will come with us; where we will go; how we will tell everyone else after we get back; what sort of party (“reception” whatever.) we’ll throw in our own honor when we get back.
These discussions are so different. So new and completely foreign for us. It’s an entirely new thing to go from “One day in the future so very far away from the right now we will have THIS and we will make sure to also include THAT…” to the “How about THIS? Do you love it? I do. Let’s remember THIS.” of our new conversations.
And it’s all so simply sweet and somewhat scary, but we’re on the same page; we’re clasping our hands and looking into a new reality but one that we have always known has been there.

It’s so strange. And a small part of myself wants to run around and tell every single person I see but a much larger part wants to hold it close; keep it secret; keep it just ours; because I’ve always believed that speaking too much of love causes its greatness to be diminished.

And what we have between us, it is too great a thing. Actions are not adequate enough, there are no words big enough to encompass all of it. It’s so pure and solid and there is nothing we can do or say that can fully explain it.

But it is ours. And it is so perfect.

-K

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