Late, rushed, harried… with a ton of photos!

I am…

Dressed, late, rushed, waiting to go talk to a friend about real estate investments, fending off a wild daughter and I have way too many balls in the air. In other words: it’s a pretty typical Tuesday. Our Au pair has just arrived. She is a lovely woman. This means I only get a few more minutes to type before jetting off.

Last month’s journal was my All Zombie Exclusive.

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It was kind of fun, a little silly and a tad scattered. Just like me. The only downside from that journal is: I didn’t get to tell you fun things I did in January. What kind of fun things? Well we visited both a military vehicle show and the Crossroads of the West gun show. Both myself, and the head of festival security went to look at “things that go ‘bang’”, with my friends the Esparzas. You may remember them from last year’s journal. The Esparzas too are gun crazy. If the IZA happens while we’re in town, the first stop is at their house to gear up.

After a brief pause; it is suddenly Thursday night

We’ve done some really cool stuff since that meeting I wrote about last paragraph, but it looks like you’re gonna have to wait until the March Journal. I might, however decide to write that one about Scarlett’s fear – the Unavoidable Robot Uprising (crazy right? What do you want, she’s three!). I will tell you some of our other highlights from February: On Groundhog Day Scarlett got to her first (of what will be two) Birthday celebrations.

Holy Crap! My baby is THREE!

We arrived at Chuck E Cheese to meet a smallish cadre of our friends. Scarlett freaked-me-out by instantly shouting out Chuck’s name when she saw the sign on the restaurant. She can’t read; near-as-we-can-figure, she knew his face from commercials during the kiddie-shows she watches. The night was all-kid: Pizza, a singing mouse and loads of games. Scarlett dragged me into this cool tube/slide playground. Scarlett and Malcolm tried to stage a prison break, unsuccessfully. Finally it was time to gather our child, gather her repeatedly-discarded shoes and socks, and taker our happy family home.

So you know I have fortes that I don’t talk about right?

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One of them is working hard, another is construction. I found myself, two weeks before the show helping my good friend Jamie Harvey re-roof the Wax Hands booth. Initially it was supposed to be a simple re-shingling. But once we pulled all the old shingles off, we eventually discovered that we needed to re-sheath the whole roof, as well as install joist hangers, a few support beams, lag bolts, a ton of nails… There were a few moments when we were on the roof, prior to the repairs when we were pretty certain the whole thing was on the verge of collapse. We survived. The new cedar shingles are beautiful, as well as being another skill I can add to my resume. I managed to take a few breaks during the construction; there were a lot of delays as we waited on the booth owner. Some of my off-time was filled with Scarlett’s newest passion, Tea Parties! I find it so interesting that with no cultural indoctrination that I have ever seen – one Tinkerbelle DVD notwithstanding – Scarlett has picked up on such an archetypical passion.

My wife is Crafty; and by that I mean artistic.

There are times when the benefits Heather’s artistic ability are amazing; like the Watchmen logo she created for me from Play-Doh. There are other times, however, when her artistic ability and warped mind conspire against me. We were sitting around, Scarlett, Heather and I as we often do, naked, in our living room. Our tiny daughter started drawing on herself. She does it a lot, probably because of all of our tattoos. Rather than stopping her, we just joined in. First the whole family colored Scarlett. Then Mommy got the treatment; black lips, whiskers and cute, red nose. By evening’s end all three Baumans were covered head-to-toe in washable marker. We have loads of pictures; most of which we can’t show you because we were all still nekkid!

Finally it was Showtime.

Lots of work in the week before show’s opening, including an invitation to the dress-rehearsal for the feast-hall show. Loads of computer work for Heather’s boss, the Tortugas and the drums, and scurrying about to get things ready, finally, wonderfully it was time to go back to the job I love. Bright and early on a Saturday morning Uncle Riki, Uncle Jef, and Daddy (Scarlett is commenting on photos as I write this) Kicked off the 2011 season.

There is so much to like at this show.

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We share a stage with Muggsy (Ded Bob), one of my favorite people. People still think we are the same person – we both have the same horrible voice. But I am no more Ded Bob, than there is a true rivalry between our shows. We love our stage, our Stage manager (Hey Bryon!) and the amazing fans we have here. We also LOOOOVE Tea party. I don’t mean the weird Glen-Beckian whack-a-doodles, but the social event and wind down at the end of every show day. Tea Party takes place at the booth of the parents of my sort-of-sister-in-law Dakota. Opening weekend even some non-performers showed up; including Jon “Pocket Tortuga”, and Heather and her ample bosom. Speaking of Jon “PT” Wray, he even joined Riki, Jef, and I on a Heather-mandated “Boy’s night”.

The first weekend “in the books”, we had more stuff to do

We ate massive platefuls of Ethiopian food to celebrate the birthday of our friend and drum-honcho Justin. Spending off-time is better than my mornings on faire days. My sitter watches not-only Scarlett, but also 'Xander… sometimes they BOTH climb into my lap and want to cuddle. The Horror! I spend a lot of time at my desk. Writing, research, maintaining both facebook and the content for the fan club... whew! Scarlett likes to help daddy work which isn’t nearly as productive as you might imagine.

We have a pretty cool job

We make people laugh, we have fun and we occasionally appear on television. But we’re making a splash. Folks are noticing us. (Make sure you read the article AND check out the map!). Actually, it is more than just the job, our LIFE is great. We have loads of friends. We have fun things to do. We even have an incredible yard where we have constructed both a gazebo (I call it the Teahouse) and a lovely garden.

We have lives that are almost too busy.

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Heather has a Girl’s Day every Wednesday in our Teahouse. My friends Byron and Tony chose to utilize that time to visit what Byron called “The Taj MaOutdoors” Cabelas. We looked at boats, camping gear and guns (they have a Gun Library!!!!). I bought a holster, some bits for my IZA survival kit and a blow-gun for my wife (who genuinely hyperventilated when I told her I was doing so). Meanwhile I’m also booking shows for both the Gold team, and Blue. I am managing drums and the slide here in Phoenix. I’m booking private and corporate parties. I am also helping push both Heather and Tortuga Twins businesses into more fairs this season. SO busy my head hurts.

The weather has been challenging.

We have had cold, rain, fog and even a weird snow-like event this year, here in the desert. The weather tends to be beautiful during the week, and significantly less so on the weekends. We’re muddling through. The imminent weekend is promising to be gorgeous and we are all very excited.

So that sums-up my February journal.

I’m sure there is both more; and less that I should have covered. It is time now to edit and upload this journal, and then I am going to “clock out” for the night and actually get to enjoy my family for a bit.

Unavoidable Robot Uprising.

Ridiculous.