12/17/04 | ||
We share with you this year another in the line of classic kitty poses from our photo archive. Please note the cooperation in posing that our felines provided. Of course, what you can't see are the resulting claw marks on Andy's chest that resembled railroad tracks. Cats from left to right are Mali (14), Monk (4), Mango (4) and Pomp (2). Mali has just been through a bout of inflammed intestines (yuck) and has been having a bit of a hard time over the last two weeks. She's been feeling nauseated and logy (as Cheryl's Dad would say). The 3 lads are great cats, very affectionate and loads of pers...er, cat-ality. Our remaining parental units (a/k/a Dads) are both doing well. Dad Winston (John) is making a trip out to Colorado from Buffalo in his Chevy Suburban, which we are all convinced was a gangsta or narc car before - dark blue with tinted windows...a repo which ended up in Salamanca, NY, from its home in North Carolina. (Things that make you go "hmmm.") Dad Conners (Ron) is now 93 with a cardiac problem here and there, a little logy-ness, but he still does his own taxes, laundry, dishes, and vacuuming (in that order). 2004 brought changes but the one big change that we had hoped for was a change in the party in power, and we are not so happy about the results of that. (OK, so the two of you who didn't know our political leanings before do now.) Music took us to San Diego for Folk Alliance in February. We were having dinner on the wharf on Oscar night when a dead ringer for Governor Arnold came in. The giveaway was (1) no accent, (2) there was no entourage, and (3) "Maria" looked more like Morticia from the Addams Family. In April, we traveled to Hot Springs, SD (which used to be a mob hideout in the '20's and '30's when things got too hot in Chicago), Milwaukee, and Omaha. We hit Great Bend, KS (great Mexican food), and Arlington, TX (sweat) in July (Ok, call us crazy). There were Colorado gigs, too. We visited with our Buffalo friends and family a couple of times, and finally got our two tickets to paradise for our 20th wedding anniversary celebration in Kaua'i. (Like MacArthur, "we shall return," except to Hawai'i, not the Philippines). Here we are in Princeville (near a land called Hanalei) at the Bali Hai Restaurant, with Hanalei Bay in the background. We have tans. Quite an achievement for two kids from the great white north! Well, that's enough for a holiday letter. The Christmas tree is up and the slot car track (remember those?) set up around the base is keeping the cats occupied. Happy holidays to all of you. We hope that 2005 brings wonderful things your way, especially good health and many happy moments. And we will continue to wish for lasting Peace On Earth. |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
12/1/03 | ||
The fall saw us playing in some new places and spreading the gospel of The Winstons to new folks. The Bieroc Cafe and Bakery is in the cozy little town of McCook, Nebraska, where people can still leave their front doors unlocked at night. The town boasts the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in the State of Nebraska and has not one but two independently owned and operated radio stations (one is over 100,000 watts!) Take THAT, Clear Channel! We immediately fell in love with McCook, and met quite a few people who have recently escaped the busy city life in Denver and traded it in for the tranquility of southeast Nebraska. There's a real sense of community in McCook and a reverence for ancestors and history. One of the owners of the cafe also owns and runs the adjoining bakery. Members of his family have been bakers since the 1500's in Germany. We played to a sold-out audience, had an amazing time, and spent the night with the owner's parents, who are retired bakers and now write books on local history. You should have seen the spread they had waiting for us when we got to their house after the show! If you find yourself in McCook, be sure to stop on in at the Bieroc Bakery, say "hey," and pick up some of their awesome breads or pastries. We also played the Aspen Meadows House Concert series in Nederland, Colorado, for the first time. Greg and Debbie Ching have the house concert thing down to a science. They spoil the artists with an amazing pot luck before the show and one of the best living rooms in which to play music. They know how to establish an inviting atmosphere. Their patrons come to listen, and they really love the music. We were honored to play for them. Next we traveled to the great State of Texas. We had outstanding Mexican food every day, which is reason enough to go in our book! We played the Live Oak Coffeehouse in Austin. Our good friend Jean Synodinos opened for us. She's got an amazing new CD out, "Lucky." You should definitely check it out. Jean has a voice that will pin you to your seat, and her new album is killer. Very R&B, with horns and everything. We also played the Walden Coffeehouse in San Antonio. Another husband-and-wife duo, Lady Jane Grey, opened for us. They call themselves progressive folk and offer a cool blend of harmonies, cello and guitar but struck our ear as clever pop, reminding us a bit of GrooveLily. Lend 'em your ears! On the drive home from Texas, we decided to stop and check out Capulin Mountain. It's about twenty-five miles east of Raton, New Mexico, off of Route 87. It's a dormant volcano. We've passed it a number of times and this time decided to check it out. There's a road to the top and you can hike around the rim and down into the crater. It gave Andy an opportunity to confront his childhood fear of volcanoes. (It's a long story. Ask him about it sometime.) And there he is on the rim trail overlooking the crater! The views are amazing. From the rim, you can see all of the other surrounding volcanic features, as well as to Colorado and Oklahoma. It was once a real active place. Well worth the detour. This fall saw us part ways (amicably) with our booking agent. We felt a need to be more hands-on and directly involved, and decided the fewer filters the better. So, we're back into the booking business and accepting dates for '04 and '05! Book-wise, Cheryl is almost all the way through "The Artist's Way," and has tackled Thoreau's "Walden" and Twain's "Life On The Mississippi." Now she's reliving the 1974-75 Rolling Thunder Revue tour as captured in Larry "Ratso" Slocum's "On The Road With Bob Dylan." Andy is also meandering through "The Artist's Way," and is deep into the second installment of Stephen B. Oates' Civil War trilogy, "The Whirlwind Of War: Voices Of The Storm, 1861-1865." As for movies, we both loved "Heaven," with Giovanni Ribisi and Cate Blanchett. Every frame is a painting, especially the outdoor scenes, and the ending will leave you musing. Andy also caught "Kill Bill, Vol. 1," and dug every non-stop relentlessly action-packed chop-saki-rich minute of it. Either you love Quentin Tarantino or you don't. There's no in-between. On the music front, our current favorite CD is Rodney Crowell's "Fate's Right Hand." It may even rank as a desert island album! We hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the upcoming holidays. We can't wait to see what the new year brings! |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
9/12/03 | ||
It's hard to believe it's been two years since 9/11. It's all still so fresh. See a video clip or a still photo and it feels like it just happened. And how the world has changed. Regardless of one's politics, you can't help but sense the abrupt change in our lives after the attacks. The hardest thing about the anniversary is seeing the families who will never recover from their losses. Losing two greats in the music world ain't helping our mood, either. Warren "Excitable Boy" Zevon and Johnny Cash were each rebels in their own way. Both left us so much music to appreciate, a lot of it kinda dark. But that's alright. That's often the best kind. We just returned from the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance Conference in Austin, Texas (think trade show for acoustic musicians). We played a bunch of showcases and got to sing with one of our new favorite people, Stephanie Corby, who has a voice as big as Texas. She's from New England but is trading in Boston for Austin at the turn of the year. Other discoveries who blew us away were Tena Moyer from Tucson, AZ, who writes piercing, honest songs, plays guitar like nobody's business, and has a biography guaranteed to make you feel like you've waisted your whole life, and Michael Troy from Fall River, MA, a life-long working stiff who just released his first album and sounds like his parents were Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen - no kidding. Other favorites we re-connected with were Jenny Reynolds, another recent transplant from Boston to Austin and fellow New Folk Finalist at the this year's Kerrville Folk Festival, and Jim Photoglo, Nashville songwriter extraordinaire. Do yourself a favor and check these folks out. You won't be sorry. While we were in Salt Lake City a couple of weeks ago, we finally went to see "A Mighty Wind," a spoof on folk musicians from the 60's by the same, uh, folks who brought you "This Is Spinal Tap." Very funny and almost too easy to draw parallels to actual artists of the period. As for what we're reading, Andy just finished Al Franken's new book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." Gut-busting funny, informative and infuriating all at once. Andy never believed anything Bill O'Rielly, Ann Coulter, or any of the other right-wing wanks had to say anyway. Now he knows they're all full of shit! Cheryl has been more meditative (and protective of her blood pressure) lately and has been working her way through Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity." The book seeks to help free the creative impulses. A kind of therapy, really. Cheryl feels like it's changed her life. Summer is gradually giving way to fall. The colors will be changing soon. There's no more beautiful a time to be in Colorado. We hope your corner of the world is as pleasing to the eye and soul. |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
8/28/03 | ||
Kerrville was unlike any other festival we've been to. We felt more at home than we do most places. We had the benefit of having a veteran show us around (thanks be to Andrew McKnight) and being adopted by some of Austin's finest (Steve Brooks, Austin Kessler, and the good folks of Kamp Kantagree). Breakfast was had every morning for a song (literally) at Bruce and Liz Rouse's brand spanky new camper. We heard and made new friends with some of the best songwriters you haven't heard yet but probably will. We were not among the six winners at Kerrville. We're officially members of the "#7 club." The disappointment was short-lived, though. We had such an amazing time that we're determined to go back next year. Count us among the new Kerrverts.
Some of the folks playing the main stage were new to us. We both were blown away by Eric Schwartz. He would often start out poignant, morph into twisted and end up outright hysterical. "Telltale Kitchen," about the worst room in a bachelor pad prior to the big date, had us peeing our pants with such zingers as, "If you are what you eat, I'm maggoty meat." Pure poetry. Ray Bonneville's slinky, syncopated bluesy spellcasting caught our ears. Killer guitar work, and what tone! Think John Lee Hooker meets Bruce Cockburn. The post-main stage picking circles at the various camps in the campground are, of course, legendary. So are the bugs. Texas has spiders as big as hub caps! Andy let out a girly scream mid-song that earned him some nicknames.
We were sad to hear of June Carter Cash's recent death. She was one of the last remaining vessels of an amazing country music tradition. We've been reacquainting ourselves with a lot of the old Carter Family repertoire. The simple beauty of those songs just knocks us out. And speaking of June and tradition ... June found us in Salt Lake City to play the Gallivan Folk and Bluegrass Festival. We had a grand ol' time and managed to put on one of our best sets this summer. But the high point for us was getting to hear our pal K.C. Groves in her all-girl quartet Uncle Earl, playing traditional old-timey tunes with the kind of harmonies that would make the Carter Family proud. If they come through your zip code, don't miss 'em. Movie-wise, we've been re-visiting some of the classics, like "To Kill A Mockingbird." Cheryl caught the latest installment of the Lara Croft franchise. She wasn't able to continuously suspend her disbelief. As for what we're reading, Cheryl is in the middle of "Seabiscuit." Who knew horsies had egos!? Andy is into "The Whirlwind of War," part two of Stephen B. Oates' trilogy on the Civil War. Here's hoping y'all enjoy the rest of the summer, the planet Mars' fly-by, and the upcoming primary season. |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
4/28/03 | ||
We were just notified that we have been selected as one of the New Folk Finalists at this year's Kerrville Folk Festival! Kerrville accepts six hundred entries every year. Thirty two are picked to play the two songs they submitted. From that group, six winners will be chosen by a panel of judges (Tracey Grammer, Aengus Finnan and David Roth). The winners then return the following weekend to play a short set. The Kerrville Folk Festival runs from May 22nd through June 8th in Kerrville, Texas. We'll play our two tunes on Saturday, May 24th, between noon and 3:00 p.m. in the Threadgill Theater. It's an honor to be chosen. Most unexpected. Wish us luck! |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
3/21/03 | ||
What a difference four months makes. We're at war with Iraq. Our remaining friends aren't too happy with us, either. Who knows how all of this is going to play itself out. Stay tuned. Our March tour has been cut short. We've fallen victim to the blizzard of 2003, the worst Colorado has seen since 1913. We were scheduled to play the Kirkland Art Center in Clinton, NY, with Dana Robinson, and Moore Music (In The House) in Rockville, MD, with Kevin Briody this weekend. Denver International Airport just reopened after being closed for two days. Our flight was canceled and there's no getting out until after the weekend. So, we can't make either gig, and we're just sick about it. We're already talking to both venues about rescheduling. We'll let y'all know when those gigs will happen. On the up side, Dirty Linen has reviewed our latest CD. You'll find it in the April/May '03 issue on page 88. The Folk Alliance conference in Nashville this past February was a hoot and a half. We played a ton of showcases, which unfortunately cut down on the number of artists we could catch. We did get to hear our pals GrooveLily. They just keep getting better and better. They've got some killer new material. We split a showcase with The Malvinas and were totally charmed by them. Great blend of voices. After the conference, we hung out a couple extra days to look at houses. Did we mention we're thinking of moving to Nashvegas? We're still mulling it over. It sure would have neutralized the weather factor this month! After Nashville, we visited a friend in Chattanooga. In college, Mike and Andy were two-thirds of Moses Jones, a band which played any damn thing it wanted to, usually way too fast. Mike took us up on Lookout Mountain where we traced the steps of Civil War soldiers in the Battle Above the Clouds. It was quite by accident that Andy was wearing blue and Mike gray. Don't read too much into it. From Chattanooga, it was on to Memphis. Memphis is different from the rest of Tennessee. You know you're in Delta country. The food, the accent, everything is different. We figure it's got to be The River. The Mississippi is magical, especially at night. We made the obligatory pilgrimage to Graceland. For the record, Andy really dug the house and could see living there. The Jungle Room is where it's at! Dinner was on Beale Street, which has a Vegas-y neon air about it. The gumbo was awesome, though. After Memphis, we hit Little Rock, where we opened for the bluegrassy power duo Jim Hurst and Missy Raines at the Acoustic Sounds Cafe. Jim is known as a champion flat-picker but his finger-style stuff is just as incomparable. And Missy bosses her bass around like nobody's business. Our abbreviated March tour took us first to WUMB in Boston and The Steeple Coffeehouse in Southborough, MA, where we opened for Valerie and Walter Crockett. We did a live on-air radio interview and mini-concert with host Marilyn Rea Beyer while Boston was getting blanketed by its own blizzard. Then it was a four and a half hour ride to the Cape where we were staying with Andy's aunt. We had already driven through one blizzard on the way out and been rear-ended just outside of Erie, PA. So, bear with us if we feel like the weather gods have been against us this month. On the way home, we came across the annual migration of the sand hill cranes and geese outside of Kearney, Nebraska. The sky was alternately black and silver with 'em, depending upon which way they were turning at the time. Any puddle of significant size was carpeted with the birds, who politely seemed to take pit stops in shifts. After New England, we slid on down south to play the Shenandoah Coffeehouse Series in Shepherdstown, WV, and Reston, VA. We played Shepherdstown with Deb Cowan, who sings traditional songs and packs a mighty voice. We split the night in Reston with Lisa Taylor, a family therapist by day and singer-songwriter by night who doesn't tour but should. Great writer with a muscular guitar style. We stayed with our buddy Andrew McKnight at his house in the rolling Virginia hills west of Washington, D.C. Andrew took us on a tour of the backroads while giving a narrative like the Civil War historian that he is. We've been kind of lame when it comes to keeping up with pop culture and the new crop of movies. We haven't seen anything. The Academy Awards will be a total mystery to us. Scrubs is our new favorite show on TV. We pee our pants we laugh so hard! Book-wise, Cheryl is re-visiting Huck Finn. Andy is plodding through The Best American Short Stories - 2001. We hope you and yours are warm and safe at home and not sleeping on the floor of an airport or the sands of a desert. |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
11/7/02 | ||
Time flies when you're having fun, and we've been having some. Since we last checked in with y'all, we've taped our second appearances on the nationally syndicated radio shows River City Folk, hosted by our good friend Tom May, and the WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour, hosted by our pal Michael Johnathon. We appeared on WoodSongs along with The Chapmans, a great up-and-coming father-and-sons bluegrass band formerly of Colorado and now out of Missouri. Young John Chapman holds down the guitar chair and is a man to watch. He sings like Ricky Scaggs and plays like Tony Rice. And he's only 24 years old! Other highlights over the summer and the last few months were our CD release shows at Nietzsche's in our home town of Buffalo, NY, and at The Trilogy in Boulder, CO, the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest in Lyons, CO, the Tumbleweed Music Festival in Richland, WA, and rave reviews for COMING THROUGH from Vintage Guitar (August 2002) and Victory Review (September 2002). On the return trip across South Dakota after playing shows in Minnesota and Wisconsin, we rescued a 3 month old Siamese kitten that was sitting in the middle of a street waiting to become a coyote snack. Pomp got to see the Badlands and Mount Rushmore (which is much smaller than we thought it was), rode all the way home with us, and has never left. In the new development department, we've signed on with a booking agent. Susanne Millsaps of 365 Management out in Salt Lake City promises to work us a whole lot harder. We've known Susanne for years and she's one of the really good folks. Besides doing the booking thing, Susanne is also a DJ at KRCL. Music is her passion. On the culture side, Andy's soaking up the geo-political wisdom of New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman in his new book Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11. Cheryl is burrowing through the journals of Lewis and Clark, reliving the journey of the Corps of Discovery. Our guilty pleasure de jour is the new CD by the Dixie Chicks. There's some great songs on there by the likes of Darrell Scott, Maia Sharp and Tim O'Brien. We just can't say no! As Thanksgiving approaches, we hope everyone can find something to feel thankful for and a reason to have hope about the future, despite the gloomy state of current events both abroad and stateside. Look for us at the shows. |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
3/29/02 | ||
The new CD, COMING THROUGH, is finally out! It's available via mail order (send $16.50 to THE WINSTONS, P.O. Box 4687, Boulder, CO 80306) or at Amazon.com. It will also be available here just as soon as we conduct some major surgery on our web site. Keep checking back. We've got some great gigs coming up. We're looking forward to hitting the road again. We're especially excited to be playing a CD release/homecoming show at the fabled Nietzsche's for the folks in Buffalo, NY. We can almost smell the chicken wings from here! We can't wait to get out there and start playing the new stuff for y'all. Thanks for all your past support. Here's hoping you like the new tunes! And if there's a radio station in your area that plays our kind of music, drop us a line with the call letters for the station and the name of the show/DJ you listen to so we can send 'em a copy of the new CD. Then give 'em a call and request THE WINSTONS. |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
12/12/01 | ||
We're pretty broken up over the recent loss of George Harrison. When we heard that he had died, we played records (remember them?) to relive the real experience as George Martin intended it to be heard - the "director's cut," if you will, not that re-mastered digitized stuff. George arguably has had more of a lasting cultural influence (re-introduction of Eastern music to the West, higher profile given to Eastern spirituality, genesis of the benefit concert) than the others. It's always the quiet ones! Love and compassion seemed to be his core values. He rarely sniped in the press and wouldn't have been caught dead naked on his album covers. Andy's most recent acquisition was a white Telecaster. One reason for buying it, aside from it possessing a killer sound, was because of the Concert for Bangladesh movie. George played a white Strat which absorbed and took on the color of whatever light was on him at the time. That was the coolest! Work continues on the new CD. It always seems to take longer than expected but we hope it'll be well worth the wait. The songs are shaping up to be our best work ever (if we do say so ourselves). Guests, so far, include Grammy®-winner Sally Van Meter (Good 'Ol Persons), Tim O'Brien, and Valerie Vigoda (Groovelily, Joe Jackson, Tina Turner, Cindy Lauper, Trans-Siberian Orchestra). Hopefully, we'll be mixing over Christmas (before our engineer absconds to Utah to work the Olympics)! We hope the coming holidays finds you all well, with a roof over your head, food in your belly, a warm bed at night, and someone to share it. |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
9/17/01 | ||
There are no words. The events of September 11th have left us absolutely shocked and horrified. There's no understanding people who willingly throw their own lives away and take the lives of thousands of rank strangers. And for what? Our hearts go out to the families of the victims. Now we face the inevitable standard operating procedure during times like these: sabre rattling, chest beating, surrendering of civil liberties, scape goating, retaliation, and - that ugliest of euphemisms - collateral damage. And in every heart the eternal struggle goes on: should we turn the other cheek or show 'em the back of our hand. Dubya vows to "rid the world of evil." It seems the lull since the Crusades is over. The struggle to cast the infidels from the Holy Land continues. The new metaphor for the new millennium. It almost makes something like playing music sound trite. Yet we continue to find refuge, salvation and a little bit of grace in it. So, we'll keep on keepin' on. Peace. |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
7/9/01 | ||
Ah, summer's here, and that means festivals! We had an awesome time playing the Silverton Jubilee Folk Festival on June 30th with our band, Big Tobacco (Chris Engleman on bass and Christian Teele on drums). Thanks to everyone who came out to see us! It was our first time playing Silverton. What a beautiful setting! The drive in is something special, too. Red Mountain Pass ain't for the squeemish. The biggest thrill was getting to sing four-part harmonies along with Mollie O'Brien and Bryan Bowers on a couple of tunes (the classic "Angel Band" and A.P. Carter's "The Storms Are On The Ocean") during Bryan's Sunday morning set. (Andy calls it the Sermon Set.) Chills! As usual, Mollie turned in a rockin' set with her band (Chris, Steve Ivey on drums, and Ross Martin on guitar). Laura Love helped Mollie amp it up on the gospel romp "No Hiding Place." Lord have mercy! Rich Moore (Mr. Mollie O'Brien), who has just released his first CD, STEADY STATE, played a sweet set of finger-style guitar instrumentals and tunes. New friends we made in Silverton included folk powerhouse Cosy Sheridan (what a voice!) and Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band, a pop-grass quintet from Salt Lake City, UT. Killer chops, catchy tunes, great stage show. Can't say enough about 'em. Check 'em out! We finally start recording the new CD on July 10th. We know, we've been saying that for a while now but we really mean it this time. The studio is booked! It's been a long time comin.' Can't wait for y'all to hear the new tunes. We've already started debuting some of them at the most recent gigs. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer. Put on that sun screen and drink that water. We'll see ya at the shows! |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||
6/4/01 | ||
We attended the 13th Annual Folk Alliance Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. What a wonderful city, and it sits in such a beautiful spot! We had a great time showcasing, re-connecting with old friends and making new ones. Saw some of our favorite artists (Annie Gallup, James Keelaghan, Jennifer Kimball and Lynn Miles), and made some new discoveries (Jonathan Kingham, Groovelily and The Therapy Sisters). Got spanked by both U.S. and Canadian Customs for the lack of a passport or birth certificate but managed to get there and back unmolested. We're psyched about the upcoming gigs, especially the appearances at the festivals. On a sad note, we had to put our beloved cat, Layla, to sleep on March 26th. Her passing was very peaceful. Layla had faced a number of challenges the last few years: hyperthyroid; hypertension; two strokes; kidney disease; dehydration; and three urinary tract infections over the last ten months, which lead to loss of bladder control during the last two weeks. Layla was born November 10, 1983, in West Valley, New York, at Andy's parents' home. She was also known as Pumpkin, Pumpkin-kitty, Layla Bo-Bela-middle-name-is-Consuela, Wee Beastie, and other things, depending upon whether or not she pointed the business end the wrong way and peed over the edge of the litter box or puked in Andy's sneakers (during a band rehearsal no less, in front of God and everybody!). She was the daughter of Moon and the elder half-sister of Stuff Opus (1985-1999), Paws and Clone. We think her dad was Tippy...(men!). Andy had the privilege of living with Layla longer than he has with Cheryl. He raised her from a kitten. Layla was his first roommate in his first apartment after college on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, New York. He house trained her after catching her peeing on the couch (literally scooping her up in one hand while she was in the act). Andy remembers waking once in the middle of the night to the sound of the bottom of the water heater popping open, followed by the sound of claws on linoleum scurrying away from the approaching tidal wave. (Her litter box and food bowl were nearby.) When Andy and Cheryl married and moved into a second floor flat on Greenfield Street in Buffalo, Layla adjusted just fine. Her favorite thing was to tightrope-walk along the wood railing surrounding the porch. Layla made the move from Buffalo to Boulder, Colorado, with Andy and Cheryl. The move was not uneventful. Layla, hopped up (or down, rather) on kitty Dramamine, sunk her fangs (to the hilt!) into Cheryl's index finger while Andy was speeding west on I-90! At night, she ran around like a Tasmanian devil in the motel rooms. (We snuck her and Stuff in at night without telling the proprietors.) Layla loved Colorado, especially the total absence of fleas. She made herself the center of attention at her recent 17th birthday party, hanging out with the crowd in the kitchen, meowing for bites of chicken wings, a request honored by many a guest. Layla lived a good, long life. She was always very dignified (she never liked her behind or her front paws touched, as it was unsightly and without grace), had beautiful eyes, and was a legend in her own time. (In her last year, we took to calling her the Lazarus cat.) Layla is survived by Mali (10) and Monk (11 months). We will miss her more than words can ever express. We hope this finds everybody doing well. We look forward to seeing you at the shows. As always, we cherish your support. |
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- Andy & Cheryl | ||