Takin care of bidness.

Friday came and went, work was suprisingly slow. While I accomplished a few things, for the moment all fires were put out. Big kudos to Bill who sucessfully coordinated a site turn-up pretty much by himself. Nice to know that there's at least one other person that can help me out in a pinch. On another note though, some power tools got stolen out of his garage. That sucks. It was unexpected because he lives in what I would consider a "nice" neighborhood.

Got word from Jack that most of my new drumheads came in. He was dropping them off on the way to the volleyball game. After work I did some shopping around HSV before heading homeward. Stopped at church and Jack was there dropping my stuff off. The other team forfeited which gave our team the win. Woo hoo! Anyway, got right to work on changing out the heads. 90 minutes later I was done (lot of drums... 5 toms and kick) changing out both heads on each. It was getting late so I left but planned to finish up the following day.

Saturday morning I got a bit done around the house then headed to my storage building. Jack met me there to pick up some wheels he had left there. We broke down boxes and threw away a lot of stuff to vacate my space. As usual, Jack went beyond the call of duty in helping out. He could have just picked up his wheels and said "See ya!" and I would have thought nothing of it. Instead he stuck around till the job was done. That's pretty dang cool. Kevin showed up a little later to transport some items to my place that were too big for me to tote. His SARS was acting up again and... oh wait, I mean his throat was bothering him making him sound a little froggy. Hopefully he'll be well enough to croon tomorrow during worship. We shall see.

Had to run into HSV in the afternoon for a group picture. Evidently, we're going to be featured in some industry magazine as a result of a Help Desk Institute (HDI) certification we recently received. We actually went through a lot of hoops to get this cert so it's not just some bogus thing we received. That's pretty cool though. Anyway, they wanted my camera to be used as they needed it in the highest resolution possible. Took a few shots and it was over. While I was there anyway, I cruised all the way into town to hit the mall on S. Parkway. Haven't been there since the fall. I found a couple of things I liked but changed my mind on picking them up so I left empty handed. Came home and had supper then went back over to the church to finish with the drums. I got everything organized and sounding good. Also re-ran my mic wiring to clean that up a bit. Sheesh, that's a lot of work. Looks like my reverb unit has a software update available for it. I'll have to get a MIDI interface set up on my PC so I can send the new software to it. Might do that later tonight.

Congrats to my buddy Kyle for getting a DVD player finally. Good job holding out 14 years to get one. Oh wait, HE didn't get one... the BUSINESS did. LOL!

At any rate, the SuperBowl party is tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it for sure. I'm not a huge fan of the sport, but I am a fan of hanging out with friends and having a good time. Formula 1 is another story though... can't wait till that gets cranked up. I've already got my tix for Indy this year (4th year in a row baby!!!) and I've upgraded along the way so I've got some PRIME seats now - right at the first turn at the end of the straightway and also the exit from the pits. Lots of drama there.

Polishing away.

I'm still at the homestead polishing this turd I've been assigned. I've pretty much given up on polishing it, a couple coats of primer and some sanding will give it a nice finish... seriously though, this spreadsheet work is a drag to do.

On the bright side, it's a nice albeit cold day outside. Got a buddy of mine from work swinging by later to check out some drum gear and maybe chat about work and stuff. He's a drummer as well so we'll have a loud time for sure.

Band practice went well last night. All my drum parts were simple and straightforward so there were no issues with that. I do want to try more challenging arrangements though as a lot of the music we do now have simple 4/4 beats. If I mix it up too much it could make the song sound weird. At any rate, I know my place in the band is to try and keep solid time and not really draw attention to myself. I'm cool with that.

Had a BIG dinner at Logan's with the Burns clan (as usual). Saw my friend April there whe asked if (Kailyn) was my baby. "Um, look at her - does she look the LEAST bit Asian?". Heh.

Progress at last!

All has been relatively quiet today. My director was in the office today doing what she could to stem the river of crap usually flowing in my direction. Actually, I get continually interrupted at the office making it hard to concentrate on things. A lot of what I do would be easier if I could have peace and quiet to think through things and develop solutions instead of simply reacting to everything that comes down the pike.

With that said, I've completed some procedural documentation to off-load some of my more mundane tasks to the 1st level tech-support people. That should free me up a bit from a predominantly repetitive time consuming ordeal. Now I'm putting together a spreadsheet enableing me to keep a closer eye on my profit margins. In the past, I usually had to rely on quarterly reports to see where things stood. Soon though, I'll be able to look on a week to week basis and hopefully be able to take corrective measures sooner.

In other news, I met up with Kevin and his larvae at KFC for some bird. I also passed a CD along to him with the majority of the Crosspoint related pictures I had for a project he's working on. Then I headed next door to the storage place to meet the dudes from the rescue mission to donate old furniture to them. I gave them my crap, they gave me a receipt and now I have a virtually empty storage area. I've still got a few boxes in there that I may want to keep but for the most part I can throw a lot of that stuff away.

Going to continue working up until time to head to band practice this evening.

Hump day.

Wow. Midweek already.

I ended up having a very busy day yesterday. Got side-tracked by a myriad of small but time-consuming issues that kept me from working on what I stayed home to do! Very frustrating. Took a break from it to meet Kyle for lunch at Logan's. Once again I ate too much. Ran in to Brian Baer up there as well. He was getting ready to leave just as we arrived. Kyle and I talked about the past weekends events as well as made plans to attend the WPBA tournament late next month.

Once I was back home, I spun my wheels for the rest of the afternoon and was unable to finish what I intended to. Felt like a wasted day to me.

My sis stopped by to pick up some things to help me make room for my folks when they visit in March. I ended up picking up a steamer so I could steam some crab for us for dinner. It was quite tasty but truthfully, I am getting a little burnt out on it. I'll take a break from that for a while I think.

Ended the evening playing drums and a little Call of Duty.

At lunch today, I plan to meet up with some people to pick up old furniture at my storage building. After the furniture's gone, I'll just have a few boxes to break down and some miscellaneous items to dispose of or trash. One less bill to worry about though!

At the home office today.

Working from home today to try and get my hands around project duties that I can't finish at the office from all the interruptions there. I hope to make plenty of progress over the next 2 days or so to get things in order. Even so, my management STILL put some other stuff on me to do even though avoiding that sort of thing was the reason for me even working from home. Sigh. Got a conference call in a few minutes then I'll be back at it again. I'm all hooked up though here at the house - got a window with my corporate email in it and another with our work ticket system in it. Most of my important contacts use instant messenger so we're in contact just the same as we would be if I was in the office. It's just quieter and more peaceful here.

Monday really picked up after lunch - stayed busy all afternoon making it go by quickly. On the way home, chatted with a friend of mine that just got back from a weekend trip to NYC. She had a great time even though is was very cold. She got to visit some nice places as well as seeing some of the changes in the last 10 years - the last time she visited.

Played drums for a little while then headed to the mall to meet with the Guad Squad. Saw Dave and Dana there but they had arrived earlier because they were unaware of our meeting time. It changes depending on Stacey's work schedule. When we were in full swing, Kev & Co, Eli & Co, Brian & Co, and Me & well, just me were in attendance. That was about it. Came home and wound down for the night.

Monday, no doubt.

There is no mistaking that it's Monday in the work world. Email, phone calls, critical issues, ice storms... I've had quit a gamut of activities to handle so far this morning.

Oh, Ferrari unveiled their 2004 F1 contender today. I'm a big Formula 1 fan so this is probably more important to me than other non-F1 people. Car looks similar to last years but with some upgrades in key areas. By the way, the race car only weights 605Kg. That's about 1300 lbs. WITH driver and wet (wet includes fuel and other engine fluids). Add to that close to 1000 horsepower. It's no slouch.

Looks like lunch will be at Atlanta Bread Co. with a side trip to CompUSA. Me, Bernie and Bill are the scheduled participants.

The end of the weekend already!?!?

Action packed day today! It rained all night and some into th morning but by the time I was walking out the door to load the car, the rain miraculously stopped! Wattabargain. Anyway, hoofed it to the church building a few minutes behind schedule but went straight to setting up so I really didn't delay anyone too much. Church went great! Super crowd today, plenty of first time and return visitors. That's VERY encouraging! Everything clicked and we made it through with only one minor battery related glitch. Afterwards, headed to Sub Zone for some grub. Had a front row view of how two teenage sisters interact. **YIKES**.

Daniel (Joel's brother, not my Bro In Law), a new drummer, was in need of some hardware. I had received a cheap cymbal stand for free with a recent music purchase so I hooked him up with that to be a blessing to him. I wasn't going to use it so I might as well let someone who will get some benefit from it.

Did a little bit of shopping after he took off. Headed to Staples and found nothing then went to Pier One. Found some cobalt blue glasses there and picked a few up. Went over to Michael's next and looked around. Didn't find anything but they do have a good selection of picture frames. I have several 8x10's that I'd like to hang in a group. I may end up picking up a few identical frames to make a nice display. On to Winn Dixie where I stocked up on some drinks as well as picked up a few pounds of crab legs. Been putting a dent in the crab population of late.

Back at the house I set my cymbals up and practiced for a bit then surfed the net for awhile. Dave called for some assistance putting together a piece of furniture for one of our aquaintences. On the way home I got a ring from Kev with the evening plans. Looks like the usual get-together at his place for food and fun. FUN being the key word. I steamed up a heap o' crabs and munched down. Brian made some pizza. Sat down and watched part of a Sheryl Crowe concert on DVD at which point there was more fun than can be documented here. Nuff said. ;-)

Kevin's blog should have some interesting quotes from tonight I'm sure so I won't steal his thunder by posting them here. Well, maybe one... "Um, that's NOT the remote control".

Drivin drivin drivin.

I spent Friday afternoon heading up to Nashville for a drum lesson. On the way up, I stopped in Franklin, TN for a bit to eat at the Atlanta Bread Co. there. After that, I went on into town and hit Fork's to pick up a few needed items. While I was there, I also checked out some new heads for my kit at church as it's time to re-head that kit. Got to attend to that soon. Chatted with Gary for a bit and caught up on some NAMM stuff. Tried out some cymbals with Jennie's help but didn't find what I though I wanted. Johnnie Rabb passed through and saw me and asked how my single-handed drum roll was going. He showed me how to do that a few months back. He was late for a lesson so we didn't get to talk much. Went next door to Corner Music to look and see what they had in the way of new stuff was. I found some REALLY NICE mic stands there. I forgot the name of one brand but the other one was by K&M. Very heavy bases and great build quality as well. A little on the expensive side though, $50 and $80 respectively. Kevin may end up getting one as when he's on the keys the boom on his stand is extended pretty far making the whole thing a bit unstable. Along the lines of music gear, I've just recently realized how the band members (in particular) have really been blessed to be able to get the majority of our music gear on our own. If the church had to buy us everything we used, that's some serious $$$. We got a good starting point by picking up the PA used at a good price. Included with that was a Mackie board, STRONG amp, some effects, case, and two JBL loudspeakers. Also, the church picked up a drumkit exactly the same as the one I had been hauling back and forth as well as an acrylic shield. That was a HUGE blessing as moving drums is no small logistical feat. Putting mics on the drums was no small expense either and now there's a first class complement of them surrounding my kit. Along the way came the concern of me going deaf - so picked up some in-ear monitors from a friend in another band that sold me his. Eric also picked up some basses along the way. First an Ibanez which was later replace by a Lakland - he's sporting some top of the line gear here. He also picked up an amp although I sneaky feeling that it's going to be replace with something else soon with more power/flexibility. Kevin had a lot of stuff already in the way of equipment although now he's in the market for a new electric guitar. He really needs one anyway so that he'll have a backup in case he breaks a string. He's coverd on the acoustic side of things with his Taylor. Recently, he threw down some serious coinage on his new Roland keyboard. That is da BOMB-DIGGITY (not bomb-diggy Kev...). Heh. Kyle also had a lot of gear already from his Mesa Boogie amp and effects to his many guitars, one being an Ibanez Jem. Suprisingly, he choses to play out using his hooptie Peavey amp that needs a swift kick every so often when it's output goes haywire. Everyone has their quirks I guess. I'm just waiting for him to put the new Honda in the garage and start driving the 200SX as his everyday car LOL.

But I digress. The worship band as a whole was no small feat to assemble. 3 years ago I had no drums. Eric had no bass. Kyle had no DVD player (and still doesn't). Pam was uncomforatable singing in front of crowds. She's WAY over that now. We've got STUFF now. All we need is a tour bus. Seriously though, what a long way we have come in what seems like such a short time. I can't wait to see what the future holds.

I was reading Dave's blog. Looks like he's going through a realization of his limitations. One thing he forgot on his suck list was clapping. He's like a Sears shop-vac when it comes to that. But there's a lot he doesn't suck at - being funny, preaching, UNIX, movie reviews, dealing with a concentration of estrogen at the homestead, and being a good listener just to name a few. So with all the negative air pressure, there are a few sources of positive airflow. Plus, you have a pool. That outweighs a lot of deficiencies.

Now where was I? Oh, I had my drum lesson then stuck around for some pizza before the drive home. It was a nice evening out and the drive back was uneventful. Talked to Kevin on the way home and found he was awaiting the arrival of his love muffin coming back from a business trip. I think the whole time she was away he accomplished two things, progress in computer games and stripping 1 (one) chair. Oh, he did manage to keep his daughter alive as well. You da man!

So far today I've raked the front yard and cleaned leaves off my patio. I'm going to need to rake the back yard AGAIN because of all the frickin trees in mine and the surrounding yards. I loathe raking leaves. Gonna take a shower then run some errands. Got a toilet to repair.

Ah... Friday.

It's been a while since I complained about traffic, but this morning there was a boob in the left lane on 565 that was matched to the speed of the cars in the right lane. Grrrr... It wasn't like it was only for a minute or two, it was 10 minutes - almost the whole time on 565.

Tying up loose ends at the office this morning as I'm out this afternoon. TGIF.

Whew! FINISHED.

Got that report I was working on DONE and SENT OUT. Woo hoo! Only one month to go before I do it all over again.

Met up with Kev and Kailyn at New China for lunch. Ivey was decked out in some traditional Chinese clothing in celebration of the Chinese new year. Some dude in front of me was trying to put the moves on her and mentioned "It's the year of the Monkey isn't it?". Quit macking fatso, there's a skinny guy behind you and you're the only thing between me and my food.

Not sure what's going on tonight, but it's definitely nice to have had a break from the office and be able to work on something without interruption. If I ever get to do project management full-time, this is the way to go.

Nothing's happened yet.

Between my last blog entry and now, the only things that have happened is me bringing Kelsey in, sleeping, and me letting Kelsey out. I'm ready to tackle another day of report work though. Looking forward to finishing that up.

Good eatin...

Made plenty of progress on my report today. I met up with Kevin for lunch at Logan's and had a big meal... rolls, fried mushrooms, salad, steak. Went back home and tackled more report stuff and almost fell asleep after all the food. Got as far as we could today (Greg was working with me on it if you'll remember) and found a stopping point. NAP TIME! Laid down for about an hour then got up to pack and head for band practice. That went very well. Dave was there too walking around looking like a building inspector. I'm sure he's cooking something up to use as an illustration for a coming message. Also might have gotten to the bottom of who keeps pressing the tape loop button on the mixer and LEAVING it on.

As if lunch wasn't heavy enough - me, Kev, and Kailyn headed to Cracker Barrel. Must have had a newbie waitress because after she had only brought me my water, she came by and asked how everything was. "Um, the water's fine." She giggled and said something stupid then went on her way. Called up Elizabeth to invite her out. She showed up a short time later and hung with us. As usual, there's some drama going on at her house. I hope that she'll soon be able to move out. That should help tremendously. It will also help her address Emma's discipline issues without the hassle of getting undermined by "others". More power to her in the meantime. I don't know how she does it but I'd have long ago planted one of her Birkenstocks WAY up someone's....

Oh, Kev burned me a CD with a demo of a game called "Far Cry". WOW. Excellent graphics in that game - lighting effects especially. Wish I had more time to play it but since I am working from home for 2 days, I for sure better have something to show for it when I get back.

Time for bed. I'll leave you with this thought: HOLY CRAP.

Workin at the crib.

Got some extra sleep this morning since I'll be working from home today. Rolled out of bed at 7:45, made and ate breakfast and was in front of my PC at 8:00. Presently, I'm waiting for my counterpart in Louisiana to get back from taking his kid to daycare so we can get craking on this report. It's my first time to go through doing this so I'll need somone to walk me through the process. I already know this is going to suck, so I'm resigned to that fact.

Last night I got a lot of drumming in. I'm really enjoying having my new kit back in the studio again. It sounds SO nice. I'm sure my neighbors appreciate it too. I also got in several rounds of Call of Duty with the guys on the rTr clan server. The server seemed to be running better than the previous night when lag was in full effect. Still, the avatars that identify friendlies from enemies was a bit slow to appear and I sent lots of lead at the wrong parties from time to time. I also fired up a few games of Battlefield 1942 since it's been about 2 weeks since I've done any of that. Didn't do too bad but I did realize that my aim with the Stinger missiles was a bit off. Typically, I use them to take out helicopters as it's easier to predict where they're going to be since they're slow... relative to jets. Jets are easier to hit when they are coming straight for you since you have a reduced amout of area to aim for. Helicopters, while easier for me to hit, are a risky proposition since if you miss and they see where you are, they'll smoke you with their arsenal of rockets and guns.

Brought Kelsey in and let her conk out then watched some Jay Leno before going to bed.

The short hairs.

Escaped from work early only to have to do some work related stuff later on tonight. Also going to be working from home the next two days to avoid the interrputions I get bombarded with when I'm in the office. I hope to make big progress this way on the monthly server monitoring reports.

Stopped by Kevin's to help him move a desk and then to help setup his new monitors and video card. Following along in my footsteps (hehe), he's stepped up to the mighty Radeon 9800XT card. I played a little Max Payne 2 on his sytem after installing everything and it really does look sweet. He'll be happy with that card for awhile.

Next, headed over to Holly's for my bi-weekly shearing. She got slightly over-enthsiastic with the brush though. "If you needed a DNA sample, you could have just asked...?!?!?" There's enough of my DNA on her brush to clone a small army of me. Sheesh. In true Holly style, she was in tears laughing.

And away we go!

Wow. It was C O L D this morning. I couldn't just scrape the frost off the windshield, I had to chisel it off. Kelsey was thankful that I let her sleep inside last night. Funny thing was that when I let her out, she went straight for her water bowl and bonked her nose - frozen solid.

Hit the ground running once I made it to the office. Phone was ringing. I've got a site move this Friday that's going to take a lot of prep work to make happen smoothly. As is my standard procedure, I have set my expectations very low and envision everything going down the toilet. This way, if anything does go right, I'm pleasantly surprised. This little excercise actually works well if applied to other areas of life, not just work. Set your sights low and you'll never be disappointed. :-)

I've got a lot to do today with multiple deadlines of tomorrow on them. It will be interesting to see what my management decides can wait till later and which fire they think is burning the hottest this morning.

Finally.

Five O'Clock could not have come sooner today. I left there looking forward to dinner with the Guad Squad or a quiet (well, in my terms...) evening at home. When I got to the house, the little brown truck had come by and left the new camera bag I had ordered last week. I had been using my last camera's little leather case but the new camera was slightly bigger making it a tight fit. My other option is a fairly large bag that I use when I carry all my filters and lenses - it's overkill to take to a party or something. It's more suited to tourist or travel duty. At any rate, new bag is perfect. I had scoped it out at Wolf Camera. They'll bend you over at full retail there. I ended up saving $12 by ordering it from BH Photo.

The Guad love-fest fell apart for various reasons so it was time to fend for myself. I wasn't in the mood to get a big meal rolling so I opted for one of my Lean Cuisine Chicken in Peanut Sauce dishes. By far it is the tastiest of the frozen dinners in my opinion. I also had the opportunity to whip out my corkscrew and open up some wine to go along with my meal. Nothing like a delicious meal, tasty wine and watching people move cow hearts with their mouths on Fear Factor. Just goes to show you can get people to do just about anything for the right amount of money.

On and off throughout the evening, I got on my drums to get familiar with the music for practice this week. Lot's of good stuff but it's material we haven't played in awhile. Made some notes and got some good playing in. Looking forward to my lesson this week as it's also been a while since I've done that.

While on the subject of music-related things, Kevin got his case for his keyboard last week just in time for the rain to arrive. It's just the thing he needed although it's still a heavy beast to move around. With that brushed metal finish though, it would scratch in a hearbeat without protection.

As I look back on the weekend, it was a real good one. Got together with friends both days. Also had some delicious seafood. Church was awesome. What more could you ask for? Also getting a chance to hang with Brian and Amber more. They are really good sports and fit in well with everyone's personalities. Got the same sense of humor too. That's ALWAYS a plus.

Kevin mentioned cliques in his bLog. I certainly hope that certain circle's of friends don't present an aura of "cliqueishness" to them. Face it, we tend to congregate around people who share similar interests or experiences. I like to surround myself with interesting people and learn things from them and laugh with them. If you're boring, you're probably not high on my list to hang with. Actually, if you look at a group and think, "They're being a bit "clique-y" - who do YOU hang with? If no one hangs with you... hmmm. Just a thought.

Lunch.

Went to Bellacino's for a late lunch and brought it back to the office. Here is the "after" picture. Much more fun in store this afternoon as I review more subcontractor bills and our invoices. Whee.

Welcome to the fold!

A big welcome to Brian, the newest member of our bLogging community! I have provided the approprite link-love to your right.

Hitchless.

This morning's worship service went off without a hitch... once some technology glitches were addressed. Note to everyone involved - like I said a long time ago, it can't be the amp causing "reverb". The amp takes a signal and sends it to the speakers. There is no provision in an amp to "store" a signal and send it out twice (or more). Easiest thing to have done would have been to bypass the board completely and send an audio signal from a CD player or something directly to the amp. Also, if you're going to be working the sound board, might want to think about reading the manual to it **if you haven't already**. That's just common sense. There are a lot of knobs and switches on it and to try and fix a problem by twiddling something whose function you don't understand - that's bad juju. You might "fix" it but break something else in the process that won't show up till later.

At any rate, the latest techno bump was not met with the normal irritation that usually occurs. People were working on the problem and those not involved kept quiet for the most part to let the folks think through the problem. In the past, undergarments would have been puckering up and axles would be found to wrap around. It was a good excercise overall and a definite sign of more maturity in our group.

Kevin's keyboard sounded great! It kept the wall of sound more solid than when we were without it. Otherwise, it looks and sounds like a guitar trio on stage. Eric laid down the bass lines and I did my thing on the drums. What could be improved? The monitoring. Geez Louise. The girls definitely need more control over their mix. I really feel for them as they have to hear themselves over my drums and the guitar amps right behind them. It's a miracle they hit their notes at all. The ideal solution would be to use IEM's. They're cost prohibitive right now but the benefits would be awsome - lower stage volume because of the lack of monitor wedges, no need for separate amps to drive the wedges, more space on the stage (since the wedges would be gone), lower chance of getting feedback through the system and everyone, depending on the number of free channels can get roughly what they need to hear tailored to their needs. If we do move to IEM's in phases, the vocalists should be first in line. Despite the monitoring issues, Amber and Elizabeth belted out their parts. From what I could hear, they did well.

My drums sounded amazing to me this morning through my IEM's. Don't know what it sounded like in the crowd but I was diggin what I was hearing. Wish my kick had more bump though.

Plenty of visitors this morning. That was encouraging for sure. I hope they enjoyed what the heard and saw. The message was good despite the fact it got "Dave'd" a little. He handled it in stride though. You can see the experience at doing this coming out now. Nothing caught fire, derailed, or was folded, spindled or mutilated. Also, no animals were harmed during the message.

Went to KFC to pick up some fried bird. I ordered my usual but they ran out of legs. The woman at the window asked if I would have a problem with two thighs instead. I looked at her with a straight face and said "Two thighs are never a problem." Grrr. Wasted humor when no one was around.

Made a trip over to the Wall of Marts in Decatur. In comparison to the Madison store, the Decatur store is like a flea market... I'll just leave it at that.

Going to try and watch some of the AFC playoffs and think about some work issues. I'll be heading over to Kevin's later for some seafood and an episode of "The Man Show".

Sheesh, what a week.

Man, what a crappy week at the office. What an even crappier Friday I had. I didn't get to leave the office till 6:30. It also looks like I might have to think about work stuff over the weekend to top things off. It's just a frustrating time.

After I finally escaped from Gitmo, I headed to the Wall of Marts in Madison to pick up several needed items (a corkscrew being one of them) in addition to a couple of pounds of crab clusters and king crab legs. There was an elderly gentleman working the seafood department that was not the fastest moving individual around. I told him I had a bit more shopping to do and that I'd come get my order in a few minutes. Did my running around and made my way back only to find him swamped with people. To his credit, he looked up and saw me and made it known that he was behind in getting my order to me so the waiting crowd wouldn't freak if I jumped in front of all them. After about 10 minutes, he got my stuff together and was on my way. While I was there, I noticed they had a large batch of really big lobsters. They get such a better selection of seafood at this particular location. Ours in Decatur sucks in comparison.

I tinkered around a bit once I got home and then settled in to practice different things on my drumming. There was actually something therapeutic about using my metronome and just keeping a steady, simple beat for an extended time. I plan to work on more of that today to take my mind off of the weeks events.

On another note, I've been keeping up with the new gear being introduced at the Winter NAMM show in L.A. For those of you who don't know, NAMM is where all the music industy related manufacturers release their new stuff. Pearl revamped a lot of their gear... new hardware, drums, color options, etc. Out of it all, I really like their new cymbal stand design. They are much more versatile than their current offerings. I may pick up a few of those eventually.

Grrr.

Work stinks. I've been so busy the last few days I haven't had a chance to even think about updating my bLog. I've also cut back the time I spend on my PC at home to do more stuff with friends and to focus on my other hobbies and interests. In other words, hang out with The Burns and Elizabeth and play the drums a lot more. ;-)

Today I've got a meeting to discuss why (again) one of my projects is losing money. This irritates me because I am having to do project management stuff but I haven't been trained in project management nor do I have the time to do it because of the other aspects of my job. Picture being on a sinking ship and having a bucket in one hand bailing out the boat. Now picture someone coming up to ask you if you can row with your free hand. That's how I feel sometimes. Give me a life vest and flare gun and I'm jumping off this tub.

Halfway to the weekend!

Not that the news is all that great, it's supposed to be a soggy one. Luckily, most of my interests and hobbies are indoor ones so my fun level should stay pretty much on an even keel. Yikes, I got a later start to work this morning than normal. What a difference 15 minutes makes... I-565 was packed.

Should be an action-packed day for me as I hope to crank out my billing paperwork for December today. One of my cohorts in Virginia is running the billing macro for me right now and should have the data ready for me to review in about an hour. Hopefully it will be right the first time and I can get that shipped off by lunchtime. When that's all done, I have to look at a big customer facility up in Michigan that's having some performance issues. I'm already pretty certain it's their application though. They just always like to try and blame the network until it's proved to them that the network is running as it should.

Tonight we have band practice, so I've got that to look forward to. Going to make myself a reminder note to print out the music for this evening. If have a chance, I'll try to print that out before lunch and make the notes I need on it while I eat. Nothing beats being prepared. [Rant]Lack of preparation pisses me off.[/Rant]

Got busy all the sudden.

After a lull in the action this afternoon, my office suddenly sprang into action. Both Bill and I were working full bore the last few hours of the workday: Bill on a network management issue and me on a new batch of invoices. That sped things up and 5:00 got here in no time.

Went home and found a gift from my cousin who just recently got married as well as a small package from Musician's Friend. It was grip tape for my drumsticks. That stuff is the shiznit. Definitely going to keep spares of that around for all the sticks I use - at least the ones I use playing in public. I played for a long time tonight and ended up moving my toms to the more "traditional" position over the bass drum instead of off to the side like I had them before. It's just easier to play that way instead of having that big space between my rack and floor toms. It took a little while to get everything adjusted as there's so many things to loosen and tighten. Then you have to double-check everything to make sure you haven't forgotten something so there are no surprises from something coming loose unexpectedly. I'll try this setup for awhile and see how I like it in the long run. It's similar to my church kit setup so it makes sense to practice on the same layout at home.

Played with Kelsey outside for a bit then fed her and got her a fresh basin of water. I love my dog.

To wind down, I hopped on the rTr CoD server and played one round. None of the regulars were around. I guess they had a clan match going on somewhere else.

It's past my bedtime.

Lunch today.

Went to the mall with Bernie and had this:



It's chicken terriyaki with fried rice and vegetables for those of you who have never seen food other than in a microwave dinner plate.

No ants yet.

I sprayed around the perimeter of my office last night with my handy dandy can of Raid. So far, no ant sightings yet. Yesterday by this time I had snuffed the life out of about a dozen of the critters. PETA will probably be picketing outside later today as a result.

Kev let me know that the steamer I got him and Stacey for Christmas arrived unscathed. This was a repacement for the first one they received. It looked like it had been drop kicked. Bed Bath and Beyond took care of it though with a minimum of fuss. I'm still batting .1000 on my online shopping. After spending literally thousands online, no problems to date. Knock on plastic.

Got a busy day on tap. Looking forward to getting much accomplished to keep the peace around here. I think all my deadlines are reasonable dates so I'm confident that I'll be able to avoid any schedule horkage.

Wrappin up.

Drove into HSV after work to return an item to Best Buy. They had a sale on DVD -R media so I picked up a spindle of those. Looking forward to the higher write speed as they are certified for 4X. I can do 8X but I haven't found any media for that locally. Went by Old Navy and picked up a few things then headed home. Met up with some of the Guad Squad for some grub. Naturally, Eli was late. ;-) She's sometimes so late that she doesn't show up the whole time we're there. Anyway, I harassed her sufficiently when she arrived... not that it's going to change anything, I just needed to get that off my chest.

Kev passed on some good news, Amber's going to be joining us this week. Excellent stuff. We've got a cookin set of songs for this week so I'm pretty excited. I need to work on my church kit a bit and get everything in tune. (Jack, if you're reading this - you can go ahead and get the heads I told you about... I'm needing them now) Also, my wiring isn't ran as neatly as I would like. Hopefully I'll squeeze some time in before the weekend to get everything just the way I like it.

It's bedtime.

Mmmmm good.

Dropped off a package at Airborne Express then headed over to Tony's Italian Deli for lunch. Nothing better than Italian dishes cooked BY Italians. Delicioso would be how I describe my spaghetti w/meatballs. Had plenty of time left so Bill and I went to Wal-Mart so I could get some ant spray, dog food (50 lbs. baby) and some Reses cups.

Ants?!?

I'm having a bit of an ant problem in my office. We generally all have an ant problem but my buddies in a neighboring office had their office sprayed last Thursday - herding the little irritants in my direction. Killed about a dozen so far this morning. Going to have to do something about that for sure. It's so ghetto.

DING! Fries are done.

Okay, starting afresh and anew with unadulterated HTML. Something got horked up on my other bLOG page and I lack the HTML skills or patience to troubleshoot and repair the damage. I'll add a link to my old bLog once I get the rest of my new page set up with links to other bLogs and such.