Cramped.

Wow. You don't realize just how small a room really is until you get some oversize equipment set up in there. The room I'm speaking of is my living room and the equipment is 3 studio lights, 2 of which have huge softbox diffusers on them. Had to move the sofas around, put the cocktail table in the kitchen, take a painting off the wall... lot of action to make room for the photo shoot. In the end it was worth it as I got great results from the shots I took. A lot of funny stuff happened in the process also but like they say about Vegas and Cancun - "What happen's at J-Mo's, stays at J-Mo's". LOL

Headed over to a studio in Madison bright and early this morning for a Photoshop class from another photographer. Met several other photgraphers there along with Maria, a photographer herself and also a model living in Miami. It was time well spent today as I got some new insight into techniques with the program. I couldn't wait to get home afterwards to try some things out. That'll keep me busy for awhile. I'm supposed to do more shooting tomorrow so I left the lights set up and my livingroom and kitchen a disaster area for now.

Gonna go play with pictures some more then slither into bed.

Had a photo session with Jo last night. Here's one of the shots.

Freakin' Friday

Work was uneventful today, which is a good thing. I got things done, just nothing earth shaking. Ate with Lesa, Luke and Kay for lunch. A taco and 2 enchiladas made up my meal. Stayed busy till the end of the work day then headed on home.

Kyle arrive shortly after I did and helped me get the livingroom all set for shooting photos. It was tight quarters in there. Jo made it in right on time. I'll tell you what, I give big props to a girl that can keep a schedule. She showed up right when she said she would once again. Got several good photos!

Once we were all done, I grabbed some dinner at Ruby's then made it back home before the weather started going down the tubes. Time for me to hop in bed. I've got a Photoshop class all day tomorrow. Whee!

So what's new today...

Well for starters, I'm having a lot of trouble on this racing game I've been playing on my PSP. There's a particular race on the Pro 19 tour where I race against a single, very fast car. You have to be just about flawless to pull off a win. I have come so close to winning only to miss out by a car length or less. Grrr...

Work was good today, I didn't accomplish a whole lot but I made progress in several small areas. Had to restore some files from tape archives, get some papers signed by clients and returned to me, set up photo shoots for next week... stuff like that. Speaking of photo shoots, I went over to Wal-Mart today at lunch to pick up some clamps and some king-size sheets to use as backdrops. I've got a project I'm working on and need those items.

Band practice was good tonight. I think Leah provided the most entertainment with her comments. Jordan was kind of a downer for some reason. Not sure what was up with that. Kinda whiney. She improved though as practice went on. We're breaking things down into an acousic set this week so in my case, instead of drums, I'm using my djembe. It's nice to do this for a change of pace. Lots of guitars, lots of harmonies.

It's time for bed already. Got a busy day tomorrow. Heck, got a busy next couple of days!

Back in the saddle.

Went to the Dr. so she could check on my eye progress. It was looking a lot better today. After examining me, she gave me the go ahead to join the general population again. Met my sis at Applebees for lunch then rolled on into the office.

It was a fairly quiet day for me - just waiting on some clients to get some things back over to me before I proceed. One bummer though, my trip to Sonoma, CA got axed as the client changed their mind on the photography I was going to be doing. Oh well.

I think I'm gonna lay low tonight. I've got to get some domestic stuff done anyway.

Dreary Tuesday

I've already been out this morning - stopped over at the office to pick up my laptop and some paperwork so I'll be able to get things done today from home. Also dropped a pile of clothes off at the cleaners too.

My eye doesn't look any better yet but I guess that takes a little bit of time. Hopefully, tomorrows checkup will be a good one and I'll have made some progress.

What a way to start the week.

Went to the optometrist to get the low down on my eye "issue". I told her that I had went online to WebMD to research the problem a little and discovered that there are several types of "pink eye" the worst of which was viral. That spreads as an STD among other things. I told the Dr. that I wasn't aware of doing anything recently that would expose me to an STD. That got her laughing. All kidding aside, turns out I have some bacterial thing going on. With prescription in hand I headed to the drugstore where I ran into David working there (poker playing buddy). I walked up to the counter and said "I need a refill on my Methadone". Anyway, turns out the pharmacist that filled my prescription was one of the models from the recent fashion show I shot photos at! What a small world AGAIN.

Called up the office to check in to see if I was missing any excitement. I let them know I was going to work from home tomorrow since I'm contagious and don't want to spread this thing around. They rescheduled my appointments for tomorrow so I'm all clear to stay at the house. I'll actually be able to take care of some much needed stuff tomorrow I think.

Eyeball Status.

Yup, I've got some sort of eyeball malfunction going on. My left eye is pink and watery. Got a visit to the doctor scheduled in the next little bit to get the details.

I took off from work today like you're supposed to - I don't want to be "spreadin the love".

Tanya from Saturday morning.

Weekend recap.

This weekend got off to a good start and ended... okay I guess. I was feeling kind of iffy Friday. I was busy at work but wasn't feeling all that great. I think some kind of allergy thing was getting ready to kick me in the boo-tay because I had that weird "I feel sick but I don't think I am" kind of vibe going on. I had plans to do some photography over the weekend but I wasn't sure if I'd be up to it.

After I left work, I went on home and laid down for awhile to see if that would do any good. I woke up hungry and headed out the door for dinner. I decided to visit Kathi (Jamie's mom) and brought along some of my portfolio and extra prints I had. She showed off the pictures I had taken and was very complimetary of them. I had her pick her favorites out and luckily, the were ones I had duplicates of and I gave them to her. She hooked me up with drinks and dessert. Ran into some friends there too. After visiting with them for awhile I took it on home.

Tanya showed up over at my place to get her shoot done. Kyle made it in a few minutes later as we were deciding what outfits to bring and where to go. We packed up and headed to Huntsville. It was a bit on the cool side but she toughed it out. I dressed warmly as there was no reason for ALL of us to be cold (heh). Kyle had his hands full trying to shoot video AND use a reflector to light the scenes up. We had to hurry during breaks in the clouds when the light was good. After a few wardrobe changes, we wrapped up and headed to Macaroni Grill for a late lunch. Made a pit stop at BestBuy to see what was new. Tanya picked up the "Larry the Cable Guy" cd which we listened to on the way home. That was some funny stuff right there.

We all parted ways, Tanya to go get ready for work and Kyle home to mix up some Metameucil and to soak his dentures. I meanwhile started downloading images from the morning's session to my PC. I picked out several of the better looking shots and processed then sent them out to be printed. I thought I'd suprise Tanya with a quick turnaround on a few shots as she didn't think she was photogenic or some noise like that. Picked up the photos then headed over to see her along with Kyle - he was going for other reasons though, mainly to see his woman. You can check his blog for that story though. Tanya was all giddy when I showed her the shots. She took off and showed them to her co-workers there. That about summed up the evening.

Sunday morning I got up and felt like poo. It was cold outside, I didn't feel good and someone else was playing drums this week so it was at least convenient for me to stay in bed... which I did. Got up watched the San Marino Grand Prix which my favorite team won. GO RENAULT! Not wanting to be totally unproductive, I washed and folded 3 loads of laundry.

Guess what? I think I have pink eye. How special is that? I don't know that I've been exposed to it but I must have been. Either that or it's some weird aspect of allergies that I'm just now discovering. Just great. I might be working from home tomorrow.

It's a small world after all.

Remember Jaime, one of the ladies I photographed recently? I come to find out, her mom is my favorite bartender at a local restaurant. She had always referred to her daughters as "the twins" and not by name so I never made the connection. Jaime showed her some of the shots I took (which she really liked) and asked who the photographer was. After a few questions, one of which was "Is he Asian?", she figured out that she knew me.

What a surprise.

Communications issues.

Men are from Mars, women from Venus?

Here's a dialog I had with Kay today:

Kay: I want to see Lesa's pictures (from the ballgame yesterday)

Me: I put them on the server in a folder named with yesterday's date. You won't be able to see them though, they are in a format you can't open. I haven't uploaded my shots to the server yet.

Kay: These aren't the pictures from yesterday.

Me: Are you looking in the folder with yesterday's date?

Kay: Oh.

(pause)

Kay: I can't open them to see them.

Me: (SIGH) I know, I already told you that would be the case.

Kay: Where are your pictures on here?

Me: (SIGH) Did you not hear ANY of what I said a minute ago?

Kay: Oh.

Alrighty then.

My partners in crime for the evening.

Busy Thursday.

Kicked off the day visiting a client a few miles south of town where I took a tour of their manufacturing facility. Interesting stuff for sure. While there, I got a call reminding me that I had a haircut appointment at 1:30. It's a good thing they call or I would have forgotten. I grabbed some lunch then came to the office for a bit before heading to my appointment. This is where the fun begins. I had my hair all fixed the way I liked it and wanted it to come out looking similar. I also did not want to get sprayed with what I call the "grandma-smelling" spray either. I wanted something manly (of course). Anyway, after all was said and done, I got sprayed with... you guessed it, grandma in a can. Now I'm not happy. The hair was looking good, but I was smelling wrong. The fix? Re-shampoo. Now, the hair gets all restyled then sprayed with the correct stuff. The only problem is that my hair looks like Johnny Bravo hair. Either that or the dude from 21-Jump Street (from back in da day, yo!). I got in the car and my hair was touching the roof. Nice. I got to the office and found one of my co-workers in my chain hunched over filing something in a cabinet. She looked up and BUSTED out laughing. Sigh. I walked down the hall and slowly, laughter erupted in each office. The owner of our agency got his camera out and took a few shots before I could make it to the bathroom and fix things. Luckily, a little water and a little finger work got things situated back to some semblance of normalcy.

After work, Lesa, Kay and I headed to Huntsville for the HSV Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event. Got our money's worth with out drink tickets and some good food. We plopped down in some seats right next to the field and started taking photos. Kay got in the habit of rubbing up on the players making the mistake of wandering over too close. Lesa and I got snapshots of it all.

I was approached by a lady that asked if I could take pictures of one of the people throwing out the first pitch. I said sure then moved to get set up. WTF?!? I thought that you'd have one person throw out the pitch?!?! There were four or five people out there that started walking towards home plate with a ball in hand then all of the sudden they just flung them with NO WARNING. So... I got before and after shots. That kinda pissed me off. Oh well.

Looks like I've got a shoot set up for Saturday morning. I'm very close on finishing up the female portrait section of my portfolio and will need to begin focusing on other subjects. It will be time to get some pricing together for that sort of thing.

Grrr... I'll need to get all my biznass paperwork setup.

Mid-week happenings.

Nothing earth-shaking going on so far this week, just business as usual. Best of luck to my old work buddies as they try and win a major contract this week. I think they get to hear the decision tomorrow on that.

Over in my neck of the woods on Tuesday - I stayed pretty busy at the office doing some research and getting pricing details together. Met up with Jeremy for lunch over at Logan's where we had a good time talking about goofy stuff - custom ashtrays, garden gnomes and a novel idea for a fishing rod holder.

After work, I went home briefly then came back to the office to shoot headshots for Wendy - a friend that does some stage acting. Since I was going to have the studio lights set up, it was easy enough to take some shots of her husband Eric. Kyle was there to assist wth lighting and I shot a few of him too while waiting on Wendy to change outfits. I think I can safely say that I'm now getting a handle on studio lighting. I had an epiphany last night as I was getting everything dialed in - while making my adjustments, I had a "OH!!! So THAT'S how you do that" moment. Sure enough, when I got home a dumped my memory card to my PC and started reviewing the shots, things were looking REALLY good.

I'm happy.

My "in" with the motorcross crowd.

Motorcross pics were made possible thanks to Tanya. She told me about the track and invited me out.

More action.

Jumpin, jumpin...

I thought this shot was real cool with 2 riders in the air, #9 looking back at the other.

Stirring up the dust.

Frustrated.

Do you ever just get frustrated at a situation that's right in front of you? Without me getting specific, there's been a few situations I've been a witness to that have just been mind-boggling. Sigh.

Today was a good day. Spent time in client meetings in the morning then most of the afternoon working on product photography. That's not nearly as fun as portraiture, but it's necessary. The product I was shooting was quite small. Instead of setting up the whole studio lighting rig, I brought in a desk lamp from home that did the job quite nicely.

Took it easy this evening. Ate dinner and hit Publix for some stuff. I'm going to try and get in bed before 10:30. I was incredibly sleepy this afternoon.

Could it be? ANOTHER beautiful day?

Today proved to be yet another great day all around. Got up and made my way to church (on time I might add), where we had a pretty rockin' set to play. That's always fun. Kev wasn't at 100% though and we shortened the end of a few songs to accomodate. Hope you get to feeling better dude.

Ate a quick lunch at Quizno's and had an interesting experience there - some Asian folks were in line when I got there and I got in line behind them. What was funny is that the girl that puts the lettuce and crap on your sandwich was asking me about the people's meal in front of me as if we were there together. I think today was the first time I've ever had to use the phrase "We may be Asian, but we're not here together". Kyle snapped a picture of this and posted it on his bLog.

I changed clothes at the house then headed to a nearby motorcross track to meet up with Tanya, a friend of mine who rides. I wanted to work on some action shots of bikers in the air and such. Kyle came along and was taking some video footage. One thing for sure is that it was EXTREMELY dusty. Because of that, I just picked one lens I would use the most and stayed with that - no lens switching for me. I got plenty of good shots. I've already gotten some positive feedback from one of the riders I shot so I'm pleased with the initial results.

Back at the house I cleaned up then played drums awhile. Steak Out provided dinner tonight while I watched TV. I was pleasantly surprised with a visit from Sarah. It's been quite awhile since I've seen her so we had some catching up to do. It was good seeing her again.

That winds up another weekend here in Alabama. Woo hoo!

Obligatory butterfly photo.

Nice contrasts here.

More flowers.

Tulips.

Nice weather.

Wow. As predicted (for ONCE!!!), this weekend's awesome weather made itself known. Once I finally got rolling this morning, I called up Kyle (who was still looking at the inside of his eyelids) to see if he was up to helping me shoot at the gardens. Half an hour later we were on the way.

When we arrived, there were a LOT of people there. Kyle remembered there was some sort of plant sale going on. With all the folks around, the parking people routed us to park WAY off from the entrance. I was kind of pissed about that because as we walked up to the entrance, there were several open parking spaces there. Grr.

Once inside, there was considerably more stuff in bloom then my last visit there just a few weeks ago. I was able to take plenty of good shots. I also realized why many photographers carry multiple camera bodies with them - changing lenses frequently gets tiresome. That's the price you gotta pay though to get the kinds of shots that make people go "wow!". It was a productive time - took several shots and also came up with more ideas for a side project that's in the works.

Lunch was handled by Landry's. At first, they gave me the dinner menu. I don't mind expensive food, but I wasn't in the mood to spend $20+ on lunch. After I asked, they brought me the lunch menu which was much more reasonable. I had some fried oysters and a hunk of catfish. The catfish was VERY tasty. Much more so than what I've gotten at Cracker Barrel. It's not that the CB catfish is bad, just that the Landry's version is MUCH more flavorful.

The next stop was to be at a park but lunch was kind of heavy so I figured we'd walk it off by strolling around BestBuy to see if there was anything I couldn't live without. Ran into Big John there. Right after that, Scott came on the scene. He was there getting a "system" installed in his car. Cool stuff. Went to Barnes & Noble and strolled around then dropped into Old Navy to see what they had. After not buying anything we started to head to the park then decided we were both tired... and old. LOL! Headed back to town and dropped Kyle off and went home.

I think I'll do some reading tonight and take it easy. What a good day.

Some bright colors for sure.

Green feathers.

Another.

Fashion show shots from Thursday.

It's the weekend!

Today was a day of highs and lows. The low was sending off a significant check to the U.S. Treasury. Once that was done, everything else seemed much better. The weather today was awesome! So much so that we all left the office early to get a head start on enjoying it. I was tired though and took the opportunity to go home and nap for awhile before I did anything else. I got up in time to rush over to a spot to take some evening photos. I got a couple of good ones but nothing I'm completely thrilled with.

When I got done there, I met up with Kyle and Jeff over at Cracker Barrel to eat. Watched Napoleon Dynamite again afterwards then parted ways. I spent some time looking over some new prints I received. Things are looking good! There's still a lot of room for improvement though so I'll continue to push on.

Sigh. Looks like the shoot that was getting set up for tomorrow fell through. I'll go with my backup plan at the botanical garden then.

In other news, there's a strong possibility I'll be travelling to California to do some photography at a client's location there. I'll definitely take time to visit the vineyards and wineries in the area if I go. There should be some spectacular shot opportunities.

Lighthouse shot I snapped earlier this evening.

I hurt the pimp hand.

While I'm all for "Keepin' tha pimp hand strong" there are some times that it's not possible. That fashion show shoot yesterday where I was hanging on to my camera for a long time coupled with band practice with my throne so low took a toll on my right wrist. It's sore today.

Sigh. Goofy injuries happen more frequently as I get older. Just great.

On a high note, I got all the tax stuff in the mail. Whee.

OUCH!

That's what my checkbook is screaming after I made my annual donation to Uncle Sam. Aside from that unpleasant experience, I had a good day otherwise.

Today was the day of the Decatur General Foundation Fashion Show. First Lady Patsy Riley was in attendance and actually participated in the show. The event was well attended with around 500 people there. I was on hand for photography - squatting down or resting on my knees at the end of the runway. THAT'S ROUGH ON YOUR LEGS I tell ya. I wish the runway lighting could have been better though. I ended up using my flash. For the first time, I shot all my flash shots in manual mode. W00T! I used JPEGs this time instead of RAW as I didn't feel like post-processing hundreds of pictures. We'll see how some of them came out.

Had band practice tonight. Grrr... my drum throne at the church got jacked up. Ya just can't have nice things these days. It's one of my thrones so that makes it even more frustrating. Because of this problem, I was sitting too low tonight making it harder to play. I'll have to fix that or by Sunday or just bring my good throne along with me if I don't have time to get to it.

I'll possibly be shooting again Saturday so I'm looking forward to that. Kyle's actually trying to get that set up so we'll see how successful that is. I do have some backup options in mind "just in case" though.

The art of being busy.

There's 2 kinds of busy. The busy where you tell others you're busy but in reality you haven't done anything and the actual busy where you have something to show for it. Most of the time, I try to fit into that latter category.

My week started off well. Monday went by without incident. A friend brought to my attention that a local photographer, Beth Boldt was going to be doing a presentation for a local photography club on glamour photography lighting techniques. It was free so I thought "why not"? I'm all about learning from others so I planned to go. Kyle went also since he's been the one helping me on shoots so it would help for him to learn the same stuff I am.

When we arrived, the crowd was a bit more, let me say, "senior", than I expected. I assume that they were there primarily since they were members of the photography club and not that they did this sort of thing professionally. It was entertaining to watch their faces as the presentation went on. Beth did a good job explaining things despite fighting off some pretty severe allergies. The one thing that stood out to me most was the intensity of the lighting used in this style of photography. The lights were BLAZING. I did end up learning a few things although had the presentation been more organized, there probably could have been more information passed along. What would have been nice would have been a one-on-one or small group setting instead. I'll check if that's even a possibility.

Afterwards, ate a good dinner at Macaroni grill where I ran into Chandler H., an old friend from my Intergraph days. We exchanged pleasantries and went about our business. After that, it was time to go home.

Today was busy for me as well at the office. I got plenty accomplished so I didn't feel like my workday was wasted. Lot's of stuff happening there. Went on home after work was over but not before I tried to get some shots of a construction site for another project I've got going. No luck there as the sun's position wasn't working out for me.

I decided to stay in this evening as I was tired from my non-stop days the last week or so. Mainly worked on some examples in a Photoshop techniques book I'm reading. I really need to know that program backwards and forwards so it's time well spent. Ended the evening playing the drums awhile. I finally got everything positioned where I wanted it.

In a blink of an eye.

The weekend's over. I think the perfect length for a weekend is 3 days. 2 is too short and 4 just feels weird. Eh, whatever.

Got up early this morning and fiddled around with some of the photos I took yesterday. I was perched at my desk (at home) with a warm cup of coffee, iPod playing Paul Simons's 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (how ironic) and me dressed in my 'jammies. How's that for an image?

Eventually I got rolling and made it to church. I was off the schedule this week so I got to sit in the crowd and enjoy the music. It was nice for a change. Afterwards, I headed over to Wal-Mart to print some images. I had tried to do the online submission of my photos but somehow, that got all hosed. If that had worked, my prints would have been ready when I got there. I had a feeling something like this would happen so I had duplicates of what I sent with me on a CF card. Brandon hooked me up there and got my prints out in just a few minutes instead of me having to wait an hour.

Ate lunch. Went home. Watched part of the NASCAR race. Took a nap. Went back out and at dinner and now I'm home. How's that for wrapping up the day?

On the steps outside the great room.

Out on the balcony.

Jaime in the foyer.

I've been at it again...

What can I say? I can't let a glorious weekend go by without doing at least a LITTLE photography. Saturday was no exception. Initially, I had plans to do a shoot with Jaime but it turns out she hadn't checked her email since last week - good grief. I had emailed her about details for the shoot and such and had not heard back from her. My backup plan was to make it over to the botanical gardens and work on some nature shots. To my surprise, I talked to her Friday evening which is when I learned she had been remiss in her email checking. I gave her a hard time about that of course. Despite all this, she was up for the shoot anyway.

I got going early Saturday morning - Jaime then Kyle soon joined me and we headed over to Lynn's sprawling estate for the shoot. There are so many photo possibilities there that I'll probably be using it as a regular location. Not only that, it's conveniently near my house - about 10 minutes away.

Jaime had brought along most of her clothes so we had a wide selection of looks to choose from. She had to work later in the afternoon so we stayed focused and moved from spot to spot quickly in order to get as much done in the limited amount of time we had. She was very patient and extremely easy to work with. As is the norm, Kyle was a very capable second set of hands in helping moving things around and also to work the reflector when needed. He was also shooting video as well - unfortunately, he had some technical issues (see his blog).

The day proved to be very productive. I think we all had a great time. I know I did. I also got several fantastic shots. I'll post some samples shortly.

One more.

Another.

Sample from today.

To Nashville and back...

One of the best known drummers around was in Nashville yesterday to do a drum clinic. Me and several of my friends rode up to take part. First stop was at the store I get my drum stuff from - Fork's Drum Closet. Jennie saw me come in and came bounding over with my envelope of tickets. My buddies Jeff W. and Jeff K. were already there. A big thanks to Jeff W. for getting a poster autographed for me as I missed the signing time (dangit).

Grabbed a quick bite to eat on the way over to the arena at Lipscomb University. We had to split up to get good seats but it was worth it. Before everything got started, I took several pictures of the drums from all angles, even getting up on stage behind them at one point. I hustled back up to my seat just as they introduced Steve. As a side bonus, Cragie Zildjian, the head of the cymbal company... Zildjian, was on hand to thank everyone and share some kind words about Steve.

Steve started by grooving and humming along with a little tune. He played and played some really good feeling stuff.. silky smooth... very cool. All the while I was snapping photos with the Big White Lens. There was an extremely long question and answer session but Steve made the best of it and patiently answered everything and also doing a few demonstrations for some of the participants - had them come up on stage and even in one case, had them play on the kit! Ha!

I had a great time. Boy was I tired when I got home.

Today at work I had one early meeting at a client's office then I stopped over at the hospital to visit Ellen (my neighbor that works there). Chatted with her, Linda and Trudy. They were getting all geared up for the fashion show next week. I'll be one of two photographers there. (yay me!) The rest of the day I spent shooting photos for a project Lesa is working on that has a baseball theme to it. I'll post a couple of my better shots from today.

After work, I met up with Jeremy at The Brick for a few drinks and laughs before heading across town to meet up with Kyle for some dinner. FINALLY got a chance to talk to Jaime about the photo shoot this weekend and to my surprise, she's in! I didn't expect that. Anyway, I've got 2 locations lined up for it so hopefully, I'll have enough variety in settings to get a good mix of shots. We'll see.

The one and only STEVE GADD

The man himself in action at Lipscomb University last night. A pleasure to experience the performance.

Here's the artwork I hung up in my livingroom yesterday. COLOR!!! YAY!

Grrrr... headache.

You ever get one of those headaches when you feel as though you could pull your eye out so you could rub your brain where it hurts? I had one of those today. To a certain degree it's still around although it has diminished a good bit. I was trying to figure out if it was because I had TOO much caffeine in the AM. I had 3 cups of coffee by 10:00 then switched over and had one Mt. Dew by 11:00. I ate lunch and only drank water then on the way back to the office - I got that pain right behind my eye feeling.

So I'm sitting at my desk thinking about taking drugs, going home or just toughing it out when one of my co-workers starts whistling. I put a stop to that. To add to my headache it also rained all day. Just great.

In other news, I was checking on a potential candidate for some photos (a friend's aquaintance) and found out she was really in a rough situation. Abandoned the photography idea and now I'm trying to find a way to help her out. I'll use my business contacts to see if I can get her a job somewhere as she currently doesn't have one AND she has a dependent. Not having an income is tough. Having someone else to support in that situation... I can't even imagine how stressful that would be.

I have another person I consider a friend over in Atlanta who's having his own tough time right now. His situation is that he was heading to Indianapolis to house sit for quite awhile and in the meantime would find new work - he's a photographer so his business is kinda portable. Anyway, through an incredible chain of unfortunate events, he's stranded in Atlanta with literally NO money and NO way to get to Indy.

I have no room to complain about anything. Suddenly, my headache seems quite unimportant.

Glorious weather.

I wish that the weather I experienced today would be the norm. Everything was perfect - temperature, humidity, breeze, light clouds... fantastic I tell you.

I had a pretty quiet day planned at the office but ended up tagging along on a client visit with cameras in hand. Long story short, this client was going to need an EXTREMELY fast turnaround on a brochure about their company. After talking with them and gathering up their information and finding out where their interests lay, the shutters were blazin. I took close to 100 shots today of various electronics, cabling equipment and the associated machinery with producing these things. When I got back to the office, I was VERY pleased with the results of what I captured. I did all my flash shooting in manual mode... ALL of it. There were two of us shooting so I was confident that if I hosed up some shots, the other camera would have some as backup. I was pleasantly surprised with my results! Still, I prefer natural lighting if possible.

Ate a delicious lunch at Main Street Cafe'. I had the sauteed chicken breast with some sort of peach sauce on it along with mashed potatos and mixed vegetables. I started things off with a cup of delectible clam bisque. MMMMMMMM!!!!!!

I had to hit the Mt. Dew hard in the afternoon to stay conscious.

After work, I decided that I wanted to hang up at least one of the paintings I picked up last night. I was trying to decide which wall to put it on when I saw my neighbor Ellen walking by with her dogs. I yelled at her to come in for a second to give me her opinion. She was leaning towards the same spot I was thinking of so BAM! It's up there now. It definitely adds some color to the livingroom.

Had dinner at home tonight but I did run out for a drink over at Applebees while visiting with Charity. The recording from the weekend was a big hit! That's great. In another unrelated event, one of the other waitresses approached me and asked if I was in a certain TV commercial (I was). It's funny that I get recognized that way. This is the same TV commercial I blogged about back in February when we were taping it.

Oh, I gave my dog a much needed bath this afternoon. She's much happier now. I have done my part as a pet owner today.

Nice weather for a Monday.

All was good in tha' hood today. Things at the office went smoothly - that's always a nice way to start any week. Suprisingly, I didn't suffer any ill effects from the time change. BIG plus right there.

Went and got my wig cut today as I was looking a little unkempt. My hair was exceeding the holding capacity of the gel I use. To top it off, I learned that the gel I use has been discontinued!?!? So, if anyone has a line on Texture Gel by ARTec - let me know. I need a 55 gal. drum of it. It's nice - not sticky, doesn't smell like fruit and it DOESN'T FLAKE!!! That's the key right there. I'm out on looking like I've got dandruff.

Dinner tonight was at Cracker Barrel where I enjoyed some grilled catfish, fried okra, corn and a tall cold glass of water. Ahhhhhh... Did some running around after that trying to visit and catch up with friends. I finally made my way over to a buddy's place to pick up some paintings he had made a few years back. I was wanting them to add color to my living room (which is gray, white and black). Now I've got to figure out exactly where I want to hang them.

I decided that I liked my drums set up the way I had them before I made the last set of changes and moved the rack toms over my kick. I started putting things back the way I had them but with some slight changes for the better. That's going to take more energy than I have this evening so it will have to wait for me to finish. Positioning drums is easier said than done. There are multiple adjustments to be made to get things exactly where you want them so there's a good bit of trial and error involved.

Another weekend passes by.

Got up incredibly early this morning for some reason (even WITH the time change) and was able to catch the Formula 1 race in Bahrain LIVE. After another exciting race, my favorite team and driver won - Renault's Fernando Alonso. They certainly have their package working well this season despite all the rule changes. The major rule changes are that each driver gets one set of tires to race on and each engine must last 2 full race distances. Prior to the changes, drivers had a pretty much unlimited number of tires to use during a race and the engines only had to last one race each. While on the subject of F1, I received my tickets to the US Grand Prix (the F1 race in Indianapolis) over the weekend. Sweet.

Music at church this morning was rockin' as I had predicted. Other than Jack having some feedback issues with his guitar and amp, everything else went smoothly. Eric was able to work in the bassline from one of Audioslave's songs into one of the worship tunes today. I think some of the crowd realized that something different was going on but I'll tell you what, Eric and I were having fun with that groove.

I ran out of gas fast after church and skipped out on any lunch plans. I went straight home and crashed for a nap. It was SO beautiful outside that I wanted to really get out with my camera but I was on the verge of passing out from getting up so early. After a much needed nap, I got out and headed to Lowe's where I picked up a soil testing kit. I suspect that my yard is a bit on the acidic side and needs some lime to bring the pH down some. I've been needing to find out about this for a long time now so I'm glad to finally be able to address it. I'll probably do the test sometime this week.

Ended the evening watching Extreme Home Makeover (again, I LOVE this show) and then an epiosode of Iron Chef America. Fast times for sure... LOL!

One song down... for the most part.

Got the band all gathered together today at Kyle's to record a track with Charity. After we all warmed up, things started coming together nicely. We did a few takes then broke for lunch. Logan's was the dining establishment of choice. For a moment, we thought we were going to get "the undesireable" waitress but were relived when it was Jessica instead. We were all hungy which made the food especially delicious. I was alarmed when Charity took some ice from her water glass and put it in her wine. After I gave her a hard time about it she said she didn't really like wine at room temperature, she wanted it cooler. Okay then.

When we had left for lunch, we thought our last take was the best. We were very pleasantly surprised when we tried again on full stomachs and it turned out great! Kevin and Jack had to leave at that point but the rest of us stuck around to work on another song with her. It soon became evident we needed to work on this other song more and called it quits for the day. I dropped Charity off then came on home where I pulled pictures off my camera.

I know I got up early today but I'm incredibly tired! Concentrating on playing your part right takes a toll on you. Gonna take it easy tonight. Got pizza ono the way. Pizza, beer and some Final Four on the tube. Perfect.

Guys, this is how the song goes...

Charity typing up some lyrics for us so we'd know where we were in the songs.

Sound engineer for the day's session.

The string section. Eric on bass and Jack on rhythm.

Yours truly getting ready to lay down another drum track this afternoon.

I ran across this disturbing sight while grocery shooping this evening. No further comment.

Friday, at last!

Last night, band practice went well. I especially liked how E managed to integrate the really cool bass line from another song into one of the worship songs. That's gonna be smokin on Sunday for sure. Afterwards, we ate dinner at O'Charley's. YUP, it's time to take them off the dinner rotation again as the food SUCKED. My soup was too salty and my prime rib was well, just weird.

Busy day at the office for a Friday. Meeting, calls, lunch meetings, afternoon meetings - it's as if I spent my whole day just meeting. In the evening though, I got out and enjoyed a performance of the Alabama Symphony. They were playing at the Princess Theater here in town. I'll tell you what, nothing beats some good classical music sometimes to clean out your mind and ears. I don't listen to classical very much in my everyday life but tonight reminded me that there's some good stuff out there. A long time ago I used to play the viola. My how time passes.