Help me believe in anything. 'Cause I want to be someone who believes... yeah.

Here's Evey, Adro and Boydee on Evey's first day.

I'm back from Denver/New York. Both were good. Exhausting.

***

Evey loved her first week of school. She's excited to get back into it now, for week two. She tells me that I need to come to school for lunch someday. That sounds like awesome fun to me... better do it before she gets to the age where she doesn't want to be seen with me!

***

We painted Evey's room this weekend. Well, Adro did most of the painting. I helped on day one, Evey did too. Then Adro did day two by herself so it would look good.

We painted the room a nice yellow... the room is brighter now. Evey gets a bunk bed this week. Her room is going to be all new soon.

Believe in me.

Evey on her first day of school.

She LOVED it.

More details and photos later this week...

so come dance this silence down through the morning... sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, yeah... uh-huh... yeah-ahhh-ahhh. Cut up, Maria! Show me some of that Spanish dancing... pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones!

As Borat would say... "GREAT SUCCESS!!!"

This weekend we had a garage sale... and we sold almost every "big" item we had, including a fridge, a desk with book case, a bed, a jogging stroller... even an old tube TV (we gave it away.)

Grand total for our stuff we wanted to get rid of? Guess...

Guess again.

Nope, higher.

The answer: $605 made on the garage sale. Holy shit.

I even sold a box of comics for $6. Adro was impressed for about 5 minutes.

It helped that we had beautiful weather, a ton of kid's clothes, and a giant sign at the corner next to ours that read "MOVING SALE." A lot of people came our way, and traffic was good on both Friday and Saturday.

I'm SO happy we sold the old desk/bookcase. I told myself that this was the last time I was ever going to move that piece of furniture, after moving it in and out of the garage about ten times. I'm also happy to have moved that old TV without having to pay to recycle it. I'm also happy we sold the old fridge, because it was creeping me out.

Great job, Jones family!

***

Evey was enjoying the garage sale, and she was encouraging us to sell her stuff. She wanted to see it go away. She even brought things out of her room and would put a sign on them.

Observe, the lower photo.

She decided it was time to sell her Sesame Street alphabet bus.

Take a close look at the sign on top of the bus. See what it reads?

The word "the," then A through Z... and "bus." Apparently for the low, low price of $12.

I was so charmed by Evey's description of her alphabet bus. That little girl spelled out the entire alphabet to describe that bus. So sweet.

We managed to not sell the bus -- we wanted to keep it for Boydee. Evey's outrageous price helped us out.

But her sign gave me perhaps the best laugh of an otherwise stressful garage sale.

***

Tomorrow is a big day. It's Evey's first day of kindergarten.

I'm taking her to school. I'll be sure to document the occasion with a ton of photos, and a full report, here, soon.

with a black-haired flamenco dancer... you know she dances while his father plays... guitar... she's suddenly beautiful... and we all want something beautiful... man, I wish I was beautiful.

Boydee does this move whenever he's fighting sleep... he's laying on his back (like he is above) and he picks up both legs and slams them down, repeatedly.

Sometimes his legs hit Evey in the head... sometimes his legs hit me in the balls. It's never a good time.

So, on behalf of the rest of the Jones family... please, Boydee, stop kicking like this. It's not cool.

***

All of a sudden, Evey is less than a week away from her first day of kindergarten. She's quite excited. We have this paper-chain hanging in the kitchen... each day she gets to pull one link off. We're less 8 links away now. Unbelievable.

Evey gets to meet her new teacher on Thursday (Mrs. Paul.) Then, next Monday, her first day.

Where did the time go?

***

The other day, Adro and Boydee went to bed early (like 7 p.m. early!) Me and Evey stayed up and watched the Olympics.

Evey was playing with this small blanket on the ground, rolling herself up in it like a little churro. I grabbed her and laid her on top of me. The two of us layed there for a while, watching the Olympics together.

"Dad?" Evey said to me. "I'm kind of scared about going to kindergarten," she said to me in the meekest little voice.

"What? I thought you were excited, Evey?" I asked.

"I am! But... I don't know how to tie my shoes yet, Dad..."

"That's OK, Evey, we'll get it figured out..."

"But I try, and, Daddy, every time! -- my brain just can't remember what to do next!"

I told her it would be OK, and that I didn't know how to tie my shoes at her age yet, either. But I wasn't much older when I did learn... and this seemed to comfort her a little.

***

We've been trying to get Evey to sleep on time (8 p.m.) and up on time (7:15 a.m.), as if she was going to school right now. She did OK on going to bed, but she struggles getting up still.

The other day I went in trying to wake up Evey and she told me she just wasn't ready yet...

"Dad! I'm just not ready yet! I woke up with a grumpy attitude!"

Grumpy attitude.

That convinced me to let her sleep for ten more minutes.

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la... oh, uh-huh... I was down up in New Amsterdam... stare'n at this yellow-haired girl, Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation...

Took Evey and Boydee swimming with the cousins, Jess, Mark and Noni today. Evey swims like a fish now. Boydee gets a kick out of being in the water, which is nice. Boyd did a pretty good job at the Johnson's today. He's a charmer. He's a good boy. Everybody loves Boydee.

 ***

Watched Lollapalooza streaming live tonight on YouTube. Jack White melted the stage, but, my friends, he's looking more and more like Robert Smith of the Cure everyday. Not a good thing. 

***

Special thanks to Adro who steam-cleaned all the upstairs carpet tonight. Boydee appreciates that too, as he wants to put anything he can find in his mouth.

***

Felt good to hit one game winner and several threes this morning at pick-up hoops. Also had a great block that got called for a foul, but the ensuing GAME WINNER three I hit made up for it. Karma. Knees feel like crap though.

 ***