Well, that's kinda funny.

A funny thing happened today. A former church I attended had its domain name expire today. The funny part is that the domain name is registered to my current pastor. Neither one of us had overly thrilling parting of ways from this particular church back several years ago. How ironic that now their domain and email functionality is in our hands.

As ironic as that is, the decision to transfer ownership of the domain to them has been made. While that was the right thing to do, it would have been entertaining to point the domain to... let's just say, a "different" website.

In other news, Stacey took me by her new office to check out "cabinet-gate". Apparently, the colors of the cabinets and shelves were made by a colorblind person. I wondered just how bad it could be. It was worse than I imagined. The building itself is great. Nice brick, layout, painting, flooring, etc. It's ruined by the fact that some obstinate old guy decided it would be FUN to do ALL the cabinets in primary colors. This has transformed the look of the place into a nursery or day care. I mean cabinets are done is yellow, red, blue, yellow... incredible. They all match great!!! IN THE DARK. It's a sad situation.

Things at my office are going well. I've been spec'ing out the new server I'm having installed to replace the old one we currently have. After a vast underestimation of what my budget was, I am redoing my specs and proposing a much more powerful server. It's nice to now be involved with a company interested in doing things RIGHT from the get-go instead of half-a$$ing it. I'm going to have to get rid of my old ways and expectations and start from scratch. Not a problem. ;-)

On another note, looks like I'll be heading up to Nashville this weekend for a drum lesson from Johnny Rabb. My regular teacher, Chester Thompson, is still on tour with Phil Collins. It sounds weird to be saying that, but it's cool to be taking lessons from drummers known worldwide. What a blessing that is. I only wish I could have started when I was younger.

We've got the "stuff".

Well, everyone's gone off and done it now for the most part... Kyle has his Mesa-Boogie rig (that he hardly brings out), I've got my off da' hook drums, Eric added to his Lakland bass with a new amp/effects/cabinets and Kevin brought up the rear with a new Vox rig (he already had a new Strat). So as far as equipment goes, we're all hooked up.

The plan for Riverfest is to bring out the good stuff unless of course the weather's iffy. Then, it'll be time to bring out the less-bling gear. Whatever happens th0ugh, we'll have a lot of stuff to tote around. Hopefully, we'll have some extra folks to help us set up and take down.

Had another good week at the office. Making good progress there on the new job. I still can't get over what a blessing it's been for me to change careers. Very cool things are happening.

Lesa and I had some business to do over in Madison, and I lucked out and Bill was able to meet up with us for some sushi at Edo's. Had a good time catching up with each other. Regretfully though, it sounds like things are still the same there at the 'graph.

Today, I met up with the Burns, Jordan and Kyle at Mickey D's for lunch. There was a downpour going on outside the whole time. As usual, there was funny stuff involved. Jo-Jo tried out the love meter thing that tells you how you rate romantically, you'll have to ask her what she was rated though.

I got a bunch of domestic crap done at the house today, laundry, vacuuming, dusting... generally straightening things up. Fooled around with drums for a good bit also. Not too much else happened. I stopped over at the Burns for some Steak Out. Kyle was there trying out Kev's new amp. Jordan came over to show off her furry pink slippers. That about wraps it up.

I have some extra bacon.

What a busy past few days! Wrapped up Friday with the crew over at Jemisons. Part of the crew was my sister's ex-sister-in-law with her new fella. She seemed to be doing well. It was also interesting to hear some of the OTHER side of the story. Anyway, just hung out and had a sandwich as well as a Corona with NO lime. Supwifdat?

We loaded up into Kevin's Explorer and trekked up to Nashville to eat, shop, and stroll. For the eating, we headed over to Joe's Crab Shack in Franklin, TN. Eric ordered some fried soft-shell crab which I tried a piece of. IT'S DELICIOUS. You eat the whole thing too! It just looks like a big fried crab-shaped mass. That may not sound appetizing to you, but trust me, it's great.

Next stop was Fork's Drum Closet http://www.forksdrumcloset.com to pick up some other items I was wanting. Got a few more heads, a stick holder and a snare drum. This is the one I got: http://www.pearldrum.com/c9114p.jpg

After I got all my stuff, I walked over to Corner Music where the rest of the crew was drooling over guitars and such. Eric was caressing another Modulus bass while Scott was caressing... well, Derek. LOL! Just kidding. Actually, Scott was cheking out a Fender guitar that he subsequntly dropped on the floor. See kids, that's what happens when you don't wash your hands after handling bacon. (Kyleism: WHAT?!? I don't even know what that means.)

Rolled downtown next and walked around. Eric wanted to stop at the Hard Rock Cafe to pick up a new cap. The selection was non-existent. Did some more strolling around and I saw these really cool cut crystal globes I wanted to look at. The globes turned out to be beautiful, but for $140 a pop, they weren't THAT beautiful.

Kailyn got to pet some horses that were pulling carraiges through town. She really liked them. I took a couple of pictures that I'll post soon.

Next stop was back to Decatur for a get together at Dave's. Bunch of folks there. Good times were had by all. Nice to see new faces there as well. That's always a good thing.

Sunday was rockin. I was going non-stop from the time I got up till the time I went to bed. Our biggest crowd ever at church so far. There was a lot more energy in the room. Had a great time playin. Met some new people and saw some old friends. Afterwards, a bunch of us headed over to Applebee's for lunch. When that was done, it was back to the church for Riverfest set practice. Scott joined us and made some awesome contributions to the music. Dude's got skillz.

After practice, headed over to Wal-Mart to pick up stuff I was needing as well as some food for the thing at Kevin's. Another good crowd at Kevin's along with having the Spooner's there. They're fun folks. After that was all over, I finally made it home and got in bed.

Cooter Johnson

Well, the above was my attempt at a new band name. Definitely not "churchy" but it does have a funny ring to it. You THINK there just might be some other meaning to it but you can't quite put your finger on it. ;-)

Anyway, getting ready to head to band practice #2 for the week in a few minutes. Should be a good time. Helps us to not suck when we play out live. We had a practice session last night where one of our less reliable members failed to show up. Sigh. Due to an unscheduled beach trip rescheduling (diagram THAT sentence), our regular guitarist will be playing again this weekend.

BAND BLING. Heavy E pointed his wallet to the north and lit the fuse this week. The companies he was aiming for returned fire with packages delivered by the Santa in the brown truck. Hopefully, he'll get all his stuff in time for this weekend. I'm happy for him for sure. It's always cool to get new stuff. What's gonna suck is when he'll invariably have to turn it down so he doesn't overrun the mains... kinda like how the drum mics are run. Heh. At any rate, it's always better to be able to turn down instead of not be able to turn it up any higher. The size and shape of our playing space kind of dictates the volume we can run.

Oooo.. gonna be late if I don't leave now.

That was a new experience.

Just got through with 2 days of jury duty. It was very interesting to see how the trial process unfolded. The whole thing from panel selection, "striking" a jury, plaintiff's case, defense presentation, cross examines, closing arguments, jury deliveration and finally rendering a decision... very cool stuff. Luckily, we had a fairly straigtforward case on our hands and we came to a decision fairly quickly. A friend of mine in another case may be in court through next week!?!?

In other news, I received my new laptop yesterday. Wow! It's a hoss. It's not one of those "thin and light" models for sure. It's what they call a "desktop replacement". I'll be using it with clients as I show them some of my company's capabilities and such. I needed a quick one since a lot of the multi-media stuff we do may not present too well on a slower, less-capable machine. At any rate, I'm pleased.

Gettin old...

This week was another good one. Got things cranking a bit more at the office as I get used to things and what I need to be doing. Got to go on a video shoot for a project we're doing for a local organization. It was interesting to see. Lot's of cool equipment: lights, lightboxes, jibs, cameras, teleprompters, scripts, etc. Plenty of things going on.

Realized that Macintosh OS9 and Windows PC's just don't want to play together without using translator programs. OS-X is supposedly uch more PC-friendly. I'll have to do some more research before I get us a new Apple server. The agency is all Mac except for me. My long term goal is to keep the creative folks on Mac's and put everyone else on PC's. I'll have to do lots of planning before I pick which way to go. I don't want to go and spend a lot of money to find out that I overlooked a crucial speed bump. Speaking of PC's, my laptop has shipped - YIPPEE! I'll be able to retire my 4 year old one and get back up on the cutting edge. I think I might give my old one to dad since he travels a good bit in the Philippines. Otherwise, I have no practical use for it at home since I'll have my new one.

Had a nice birthday party at the office when I arrived Thursday. My co-workers had some fun presents for me. Joel and I headed to Huntsville for lunch and stopped off at CompUSA before trekking over to Larry's to check out their firearm inventory. I didn't get anything but I got some ideas of what I like to get next.

Eric and I headed up to Nashville today (Saturday) to just get out of Decatur for a bit. Grabbed lunch at Joe's Crab Shack in Franklin then made our way to Fork's and Corner Music. I exchanged a cymbal, picked up some heads as well as an Iron Cobra beater (for my kick pedal). I also checked out some shallower snare drums. Went next door to see what Eric was up to in the bass section. He was playing this Uber-nice Modulus 5-string that had a gorgeous neck made of carbon fiber. The finish was transparent leaving the intricate fiber pattern visible. It would look KILLER under stage lights. Checked out the bass heads and cabinets also. Eric did the right thing and will wait to get what he wants instead of picking up something he really didn't want. I think he ended up getting a set of replacement strings and a heavy duty instrument cable.

On the way back, we stopped off in Franklin again but this time we went to the Harley store and checked out the bikes. Very cool stuff. Pricey as all get-out, but nice nonetheless. Got home in time for dinner with the family.

Watched some of the olympics and now I'm getting ready to hit the sack. Getting up early in the AM to catch the Hungarian Grand Prix. I have a feeling the red cars are going to win again. We'll see.

Well looky here...

I made an update...

Now that I've made the job change and all, there's a lot less to post about! No more traffic goofiness on I-565 in the morning, heck, I don't even have to get on 6th Avenue! No issues at the office, just learning new things.

It has been an adjustment to find out where the good eating places in Decatur are, especially on the side of town that I'm on. As you all know, I'm all about some good food. So far at lunch I've visited: Logan's, The Brick, Currie's, B.B. Perrin's and Ruby's. After work, I've headed over to Simp McGhee's with Lesa to have dinner. The food there is delicious albeit a little on the pricey side. Can't be making that a habit. It even puts my old trips to Edo's for sushi look fast food bills.

Spent Friday night over at a friend's having some dinner and watching one of my DVD's on an extremely small TV. Played a game of UP-WORDS which I lost at. It's like scrabble except you can place letter tiles on top of each other to make new words up. I'm not used to seeing the board that way so it was a little tough. As I am quite competitive, I was not happy with the end result. Gonna have to work on my UP-WORDS skillz.

Saturday, me and A#2 headed to Huntsville scoping out some new threads. When I was at Intergraph, my department was "jeans casual" every day. At my new office, jeans are fine but I would actually feel more comfortable if I took it up a notch and stayed business casual the majority of the time. I picked up some shirts, some DVD's and one of those Tempur-Pedic pillows from Brookstone. I've actually been looking at those pillows for years but never bought one because they were expensive. Well, they aren't as expensive as the best down pillow you can get (@ $130+) but they are up there. I figure it would be a good investment since:

A) It's for me
B) It's supposed to be good for you
C) I'll use it every day

Slept on it a couple of times so far. As far as I can tell, it seems to do it's thing. I'm comfortable, sleep well and have no pains or anything after using it. I've got 90 days to decide if I want to return it, keep it or upgrade to another size or style.

Church today was great! Plenty of folks out. It was great seeing all the folks there. Music went well, Dave did a great job - all in all, it was a terrrific day. For lunch, about 20+ of us went to Applebees and chowed down. Later, a small detatchment of us headed to Publix to pick up some stuff for tonight's get together.

Heading over to the B's now.

Sigh.

First off, one of my friends passed away Monday. It's a sad situation for sure... Definitely had me thinking a lot about what's going on in other people's lives. Kind of puts things into perspective as well. Some things that seem like big problems aren't quite so significant when other people are going through much, MUCH tougher situations.

By the way, not to get "preachy" or anything, but ask yourself if you do know where you're going when you pass from this life? You CAN know... regardless of what religion you are. If you don't know, you owe it to yourself to find out. It's in the Bible. Go read it. I think we sometimes spend more time researching the purchase of a new gadget than we put in trying to find out what's gonna happen when we die. That's a bit sad.

How's that for short and sweet?

Weekend's over with.

This weekend was fairly restful. Friday night I went and listened to Gulliver at the Brick. It was okay (there were a lot of new members) but not as rockin as the "old" band. Came home smelling like an ash tray and crashed.

Slept a good bit Saturday. All the rain made staying in bed sound like a better and better idea. I ended up doing some stuff around the house but finally got the urge to get out. Headed over to HSV to the mall in search of some things. Found what I was looking for on sale (schwing!). I also found some cool stuff at Bananna Republic but I'll have to go back there when I have more time and can also bring someone along with me to get some opinions. Now that I'll be dressing more "business casual", I have to change my wardrobe around a bit. I actually prefer that to dressing slouchy though slouchy has its place. Some folks consider anything remotely being "dressed up" as being equal to "not comfortable". That could not be farther from the truth. You just have to get the right clothes. But I digress.

Tinkered around with my drums a little then watched TV till I was sleepy.

From all the sleep I got Saturday, I ended up waking up at like 5:30 AM Sunday. Whoops. Played some Joint Ops online for a while till it was time to get breakfast going and packing up all my cymbals and stuff for church. Stepped outside into a freakin SAUNA. My contact lenses even fogged up. SHEESH! Set up all my stuff and also put my shiny new portable tornado into service. (I got a new floor fan yesterday). It gets hot up on stage with the lights and activity. Things were much improved with the airflow. I got my breeze on. Church went well - had a good crowd out. Music went off without a hitch which is always nice.

After church, an equally large crowd headed to Logan's for lunch. The Spooners join us which was a nice addition. They were talkative and a lot of fun to be around. I sure hope they connect with us and join in the fun. Watched some of the Nascar race while eating. Little E ended up having some kind of malfunction and swapped out with John Andretti for driving duties. Anyway, ended up eating too much then went home for a nap.

Headed to the B's later for some dinner with everyone. It was the usual crowd. Props go out to Heavy E for all the lasagna.