A Campfire Birthday

Wow, what a fun night! Thanks EVERYONE. You even braved the cold to come hang out. Luckily, the fine folks at the Irie Bean made us a fire and no one had to burn their guitar for fuel. (Thanks, Angela, Jay, and Raf!) I met Julie and Greg for the first time (we have mutual friends and they are new to Austin - welcome, kids!), and without even knowing me, they got me one of the coolest presents ever. A Tater Mitt. That's right...As Seen On TV...and now I can peel a potato in under 8 seconds. I can't tell you how many times I have had the need for a potato but not enough time to peel it. Click that link for the video. It makes me happy. Here's Katie modeling the Mitt of wonder. Katie pays attention and once I said to her, "I always wanted one of those giant super balls as a kid. I never got one." So what did I get? Not only a giant super ball, but one with GLITTER inside, that MOVES. It's like a glitter-super-ball-snowglobe. Heck yeah. I'll be entranced for days. If there was a campfire jam during a nuclear winter, or perhaps post-apocalypse, I think this is the color scheme it would be. We ended up doing a song circle around the fire, and it was so great to hear everyone. Josh Britt and Kalu James and Amanda Pearcy (and Jesse!) and Melissa Mullins and Matt D'Orazio and even my good buddy Nic (Irie Bean open mic host extraordinaire) jammed on a song. And Katie Lessley, when not tater-mitting, busted out some fine guitar chops and sang one of her lovely tunes. As my college-friend-now-in-Austin-for-grad-school-because-she's-smart Catherine said, I wish I could have a recording of all the tunes from the evening. I have awesome neighbors. Talented ones, too. Come see Amanda and I swap some songs this weekend...Friday night at Austin Java and Saturday at The Oaks! Let's do this again. Maybe in a year. Thanks, kids. :)