Reader's Digest version of my day

Up early.
Watch part of Hungarian Grand Prix.
Head to Jason's.
Head to Birmingham to the Barber Motorsports Park.
Watch racing.
Take pictures.
Sweat like a dog.
Meet cool people.
See fast cars.
Eat at P.F. Changs.
Drive home (Jason's Lancer Evolution is WAAAY fast).
Shower.
Bed.

All done!

Took the bike out and rode for a few miles. Everything looks to be in order - new tires worked well. I was also MUCH more comfortable wearing the padded cycling shorts. That's the ticket right there.

After killing a few ants and spiders, I was able to get out my big ladder to get up on the roof. The ladder's in a storage shed on the back of my property. I don't have a need to get in there much so all the little bugs have time to settle in a little. I think I'll just get my bug guy to spray back there and keep all the wildlife under control from now on.

Clambered up on the roof to see what the deal was. Yep, this one panel up there was warping on one side. Luckily, I was able to hammer it down but unfortunately, that's only going to be a temporary fix. I'm going to have replace that board. What I did will buy some time but I need to plan on doing that in the next few weekends.

While I was all nastified from being outside, I went ahead and trimmed back some bushes. My crepe myrtle plants got a little out of control and needed a lot of work. I also cleaned up around some rose bushes in the back yard. The other big task was to trim off all the crap growing through the fence from my neighbor's yard. Things look a lot better now.

To wrap things up, I gave Kelsey a much needed bath. She had been following me all over the yard wanting to play fetch but I was busy trying to get done and back into the comfort of the A/C. She was happy to get cooled off and clean. I let her have a big honkin' doggie biscuit for behaving well. It's funny, she's considerate enough to walk far from me before she shakes the water off so I don't get wet. How cool is that?

2 Down

K, I had 3 things I wanted to accomplish today - working on my bike, watching F1 qualifying to the Hungarisan G.P. and doing that roof repair. I've watched the qualifying and got the tires changed and wheels re-mounted on my bike. That was easier than I expected. The tires I got were these. I also replaced the tubes. The other thing that was different on these from the old tires was that the new tubes use presta valves instead of the schrader valves. I ordered some adapters though so I can use my regular air pump with the presta's. I'm gonna go for a spin around the 'hood to make sure all is in order then start on the roof thing.

Just as I predicted.

I was draggin most of the day because I didn't sleep well last night. Luckily, I had a lot of running around to do all day so there was really not much time for me to get too comfortable - except for the ride to and from lunch. Kay drove today, she and Lesa up front and me trying to get comfy in the back. Logan's Roadhouse was where we went today. My food was good... the girls' steaks however were overcooked. Subsequently, they got their meals free. Mine was fine so I didn't care that I had to pay.

Meeting, meetings and more meetings. There was a point to them though! Got several projects signed off on which is the goal of my existence. Kinda.

Oh, that bike stuff I ordered the other day arrived right on time. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my new tires mounted up tomorrow and ride a little. I also got the padded shorts in. I tried them on and thought, this must be what it feels like to have one of those ultra-mega maxi pads on. Kinda like having a sofa cushion between your legs. That's new. By the looks of it though, riding will be much more comfortable.

I've got to take a look at my roof tomorrow. There's a spot above my porch where the plywood is warping a little. Hopefully, I can just get up there and nail things down. If not, then I'll be picking up some felt paper, shingles and some new plywood which will turn out to be a big chore for the day. I'll just hope for the best.

Sunday should be good. I'll be heading to Barber Motorsports Park for a racing event. My buddy from Inday, Reed Stevens will be there racing in Formula BMW. Be good to hang with him for a bit and see what's been going on with him for the last month.

More HNT participants...

I had to poke around a little more on other people's blogs but I did find more folks getting into the HNT groove. Grace, Mel's friend had this. Another girl had her first attempt at this here.

I probably need to just add a list of blog links on the side for all the HNT participants I run across. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

In other news, today's probably going to suck just a little bit. I drank 3 or 4 Mt. Dews yesterday and got the boneheaded idea to have a mocha latte at about 4:30PM. Guess what? I slept like crap. At least it's Friday though!

I have come to realize...

That I have ZERO pictures of me involved in anything scandalous to contribute to HNT. Sigh. I must be slowing down in my old age.

As I mentioned before, props to Mel for upping the ante from the foot shots last week. I'm not sure what she's got up her sleeve(?) for next week but something tells me it involves 2 things... Alcohol and - Grace. See? Anywhere you have Asians, something fun breaks out. And pictures get taken. How ironic.

For lunch today, I talked Lesa and Luke into sushi over at Miwon. Yum! I got my fill. I also had a little TOO much wasabi in one bite and almost choked. Nice. After I wiped away the tears, things were okay. I was kinda laughing at myself but holy smokes... that got hot FAST.

After work, I went over to a friends to set up her wireless network with her new DSL connection. Normally, it only takes me a few minutes to get going but there was something f*'d up about this and I was unsuccessful. I was pretty frustrated. My friend invited me to dinner instead where I was glad to have a drink and some good food. I'm still stumped as to what the problem with the network was. I'm going to have to figure that out or it'll bug me.

While I was getting frustrated working on the network, I get a call from Kevin. I was supposed to loan him my in-ear monitor for band practice tonight. Crap. Sorry dude. Next, I get a call from Jeremy. He's drumming in my place this week. He wanted to borrow my tambourine. Can't do it, I'm on the other side of town. I feel like a heel now. Sorry guys.

Did I miss any other good HNT shots? JaB had her usual style of photo up today which was cool. Veronica has dropped off the face of the planet I think, and none of my local friends stepped up to the plate.

I need more friends.

You GO Mel!

Okay, Mel has upped the ante on HNT. Check her photo for today's event HERE.

Got the electric bill today

As I was suspecting, it was higher than normal because of the oppressive heat we've been having. That's PERFECTLY fine with me as I like the house nice and cool, even cooler when I go to bed.

Last night for dinner, myself, Kyle, Kevin, Phillip and Leslie met up at Aldoria's - a local Mexican restaurant.

Me: How much are your top-shelf margaritas?
Waitress: $4 I think
Me: Can you check on that? (seemed too low)
W: Oh, they're $8
Me: Geez... I'll have a Corona I guess.
W: We're out of Corona
Me: How about Negra Modelo?
W: We're out of that too.
Me: I'm sorry, is this a Mexican restaurant?
W: Uh.
Me: How about a Dos Equis?
W: We have those!
Me: Are you sure?

Sigh.

Anyway, we discovered it was Phillip's birthday so we celebrated that. Another aquaintance of mine, Jessica, was celebrating her birthday too. She was there with someone or else I would have spent more time with her. After all the eating was over, I swung by the grocery store to pick up a few things I was needing.

Today, MelMega has started a new trend in the spirit of HNT... what I call TTT or Totally Trashed Tuesdays. I can't wait for Thursday though. Hopefully she's have something more JaG-like hehe!

Oh, in other news, I'm gonna try and get out on my bike soon and go riding trails with some friends. I need to get some biking shorts though as I've got to be sure I don't damage "the boys". That would be a bad thing.

Lastly, I finished my Harry Potter book today. Crap. Now I can't wait till the next one comes out. Shazbot.

WHOA! 70's flashback.

It's broiling outside...

According to the weather gadget on my desktop, it's 94 degrees outside with humidity in the 80% vicinity. That's HOT. It's not in the triple-digits like some other parts of the nation but it's definitely not comfortable by any means. I'm glad that on days like today my central air is working like a champ and my cable and satellite TV feeds bring in hundreds of channels of entertainment to choose from.

Speaking of hot, yesterday's outing was quite warm. Luckily, we were on the banks of a river underneath a canopy of trees. It was still warm but nothing like being in the direct sun - that's for sure. There was a great turn-out of folks! It was great seeing all the people, both old friends and new coming out to participate. I took advantage of the crowd and took several hundred pictures.

The food was beyond delicious. It was your regular picnic fare plus a whole lot more! Drinks were provided free of charge from our local Pepsi product dealer. Since I'm a big Mt. Dew fan, I wasn't disappointed. As hot as it was though, bottled water was my preferred drink.

The highlight of the day was the baptism in the river of a couple, who incidentally were hosting the party. Nice folks. I'm sure it was encouraging for them to have just about everyone there at their place to witness it.

Off the dock they go!

Family time...

One end of the food table!

I was actually IN a picture thanks to Jared. It was the only one though.

Ribs, chicken, corn... mmmmm.... you could smell the food cooking out on the water!

Some like it hot

Last night, it was 89 degrees at 8:00PM. This morning, it's already 86 at 10:30. We're supposed to be on our way to 96 or so. Oh, don't forget to tack on the obnoxious humidity of 80% or so!

Getting ready to go to the "Pig-Out" today, our church's version of a church picnic. Should be a good time. I've got my camera stuff, water stuff, folding chair, cooler and then of course my djembe in case we have the energy to play some music at some point. We'll see if I survive the heat.

Last night after work, I made a dreaded trip to Wal-Mart. I really do loathe going there. The new Target that's supposed to be coming can't get here soon enough. Wal-Mart is just so crowded and tight. I only go there to get dog food and bottled water. Everything else I get at Publix or some other grocery store. Oh, I do also send my photos under 8x10 to printed there. Unfortunately, they've got the best quality and prices locally for now. That's not so bad though - I do all that online and just come by the store to pick them up. Payment is handled online so I don't have to deal with checking out - the major cause of frustration on any Wal-Mart trip.

Met up with Kyle at Applebee's where Donna took care of us at the bar. I had my usual combination of food and drink while kicking back to relax. Talked about the heat situation with a guy named Corey. He's a welder down at a shop near Smith Lake. Take the temperature outside, add it to the heat inside a welding shop, put on a mask and heavy gloves and weld with 1500-2000 degrees inches in front of your face. THAT'S HOT. Applebee's A/C was straining to keep the temperatures down, a battle it was losing. It was a bit stuffy in there.

Off to take a shower. It's kind of a moot point since I'll bust out sweating as soon as I walk outside, but at least I'll enjoy being clean and fresh for a few minutes.

Home at last.

Another long but productive day at the office! Whew!

Earlier in the day, I called my friend Ellen up and told her I was looking at my "To Do" list today and her name was on it... We planned on hooking up for drinks after I got off work today. After wrapping things up, I headed to 113 where I found Ellen, Linda and Brian. Soon Larry joined us. It was a repeat of most of the group that sat together at the Decatur General Hospital Gala last December. What a fun bunch of people! I made fun of the "ship" in Ellen's backyard. We also talked about the neighbor growing corn in their front yard - yup, that's still going on.

On another note, HNT was a minor success. JaG gets an "A" for her efforts. Mel and Cindy get honorable mentions for the foot pics. (Mary? Where you at?) Veronica needs to get with the program. She's dropped off the blogger wagon and needs to get back on. Mel - you talked to her lately? Oh, I also added you to my links girl.

Friday is almost here. The weekend should be good, but hot. I'll be bringing the "big" camera to the pig out this weekend to get all the fun on camera. I should have some cool stuff to post soon. Take care everyone!

Half-Naked Thursday is here!!!

Here we go! It's half naked Thursday (HNT). A big shout out and a bow to JustAGirl for kicking things off with a bang!

(Jeff - you're not gonna want to click on this from work.)

I think Garrison has something brewing too. Need to see what Veronica and MelMega come up with next. Jo... you should step up to the plate. ;-)

Ahhhh....

I'm relaxing with a fresh margarita now mixed to perfection! I upped the sugar in the "simple syrup" portion and now it's spot on. That's really a nice drink to finish out the evening on.

I did a lot of running around today at work - here in town, over in Huntsville and more back here in town again. Definitely makes the day go by FAST! Since I was over in Huntsville, Luke and I stopped for lunch at Miwon for sushi. So far, I haven't been disappointed there. Delicious and fresh sushi! I had my usual - crab, smoked salmon and a crunchy shrimp roll. Luke had a seaweed salad that at first dindn't sound that appetizing but after it arrived and I got a good look at it, I may have to give that a try. Life's too short to eat boring food. Once again, Luke was amazed by the amount of wasabi I use. I can thank Bill G. for that.

You know, I didn't always like sushi. I held the stereotypical thought of "ewww... I'm not eating raw fish... that's nasty". I didn't realize how completely wrong I was. First, there's a LOT of stuff that falls into the category of sushi so don't go assuming that it's all the same. Also, it's not all slimy and smelly. That's the one thing about sushi, it's made from ultra-fresh, ultra choice meats. If it starts smelling funky, there's a problem. I could go on but suffice it to say that until you try it, you may be missing out on something that could be your favorite food. If you DO try it, be sure to try some wasabi and soy sauce with it. Some sushi can be fairly bland but with wasabi, it transforms the flavor. I remember the first time I tried sushi... I was bracing myself not to gag. To my surprise though, it was delicious. That was totally unexpected. For awhile, I ate sushi by itself - no wasabi. Bill gradully talked me into trying it and it turned out to really add to the flavor. He used what I thought were toxic amounts of the stuff while I only used a smidge. That was years ago. I'm all about the toxic now. Good stuff.

One thing I do want to try that I haven't had a chance to yet is Thai food. I just need someone that knows me and is knowledgable about the different dishes to go along with me and steer me through the menus. Same thing with Indian food.

Anyway, spent the evening on the drums and resting. I was so tired after work that I hopped in bed after I got home to get some energy back. I got up and watched some TV before I got a call from the Arbitron rating people (I had done a survey before) to get some updated stats on my TV and shopping habits. They aren't annoying like most survey people. They're courteous. The also give you a few bucks for your time which is cool.

Oh, I got on IM with Mary today - a blog friend I mentioned not too long ago. What up girl! Nice to chat with someone you feel like you know through their blog. While on this subject, we should get together with as many of our blog friends as possible (since most of us local ones are a pretty tight-knit group) and get a group picture. That would be kinda neat. We need to talk about that and plan something.

Guess I'll go finish off my drink while reading a few more chapters of Harry Potter. Ciao!

UNIX blues

I spent a good part of the evening working in UNIX trying to install an application on my webserver. While I was unsuccessful this go around, I learned a lot. Thanks to Wes for helping me out here and there. I only did some very limited stuff in UNIX years ago, most of it I've forgotten. Nice. It's frustrating when that happens.

Anyhoo... my pest control dude showed up today and coated my house inside and out with toxic anti-bug fluid. My main concern was the ant situation I had going on. Hopefully this will put a stop to that crap. Pesky little buggers I tell ya.

Here's an idea that needs promoting.

Some of my female blogging buds out on the west coast (HOLLA!) have this thing going called "Half Naked Thursday" or HNT for short. Veronica is giving it a whirl as well as her friend Mel. JaG on the other hand, stays half naked all the time (or so I think!) which is pretty dang cool. Anyway, I think the overall object is to take a pic (or crop one) of a section of your bod with a good bit of skin showing. I'm of course pushing this for the ladies. So, for my female friends that blog, ya'll need to step up to the plate. ;-)

Garrison - you should set up a gallery of some sample HNT shots to give out some ideas. Heh.

Thank God for Air Conditioning

Dinner was at Applebee's tonight where I joined Kyle and Jeff. Seating duties were left to Kyle who promptly had us seated in some strangers section instead of with any girls we know. (Flashback to the "Betty" incident on 6/28) I did introduce myself to one of the waitresses there as she walked by so it wouldn't be a wasted effort. She remembered me from when I had lunch there with co-workers. I guess that's a good thing.

They had plans to play tennis over at Wilson Morgan park afterwards. I thought it would be a good chance for me to work on some of my night photography. I got all my stuff - camera bag, vest, monopod, water, etc. and headed over there. MAN WAS IT HUMID!!!!!! It was sweltering. It reminded me a lot of when I visited the Philippines back in 2003. Super humid. After about 30 minutes of that crap I called it a night and went home. Got a couple of good pics and sent them on to the guys for them to do what they will with them. I've still got more practicing to do.

Freshening up

If you visit my blog regularly, you'll notice I changed up my template. The one I had been using just got old. Unlike the last time I did this, I saved the text file for my old template so I could just cut and paste things missing in the new template from the old. I like the way it looks better now. I've got something else in the works also but it involves me working a good bit in UNIX... not my favorite activity since I only know and do a very limited amount of stuff on that platform. I'll let you know when that's ready for public consumption though.

Church was good today. More of an informative "State of the Flock" message. We've come along way for sure from our days of meeting in a rented hotel ballroom to where we are now. I think we started off with 22 people attending when we moved into our current building and now we hit 112 today! That's exciting! There's plenty to be done to accommodate the growth so I'm sure we'll all be busy in some form or another pitching in to help.

Small group for lunch today. Initially there were going to be a few families going but as is becoming more the norm, they can't get their poop in a group to go. Plus, it's a hassle to have to talk to both spouses to get them to agree on where to go. Ok... guess I'm just peeved that I waited a long time for a table to accomodate everyone (which is natural for noon on a Sunday) when I could have sat down immediately at a table for the eventual 3-person group.

Congratulations to Mary (one of my blog links on the right) for surviving her first night as a waitress over in the Phoenix area. Hopefully, patrons will take care of her and she'll like it. I'm sure she'll be posting how it's coming along.

Oh, ran across THIS BLOG in my surfing. It's authored by a couple traveling around the world. They make thir posts regularly and with pictures making it seem like you are traveling along with them. Very cool. I'll add them on my links as well so they're easy to find.

Sound stuff...

Someone asked me the other day about how I have my drums mic'd up at home so I can either play along to a CD track and/or just play but have control over the volume. If my kit was electronic, it would be simple but since I have acoustic drums, it gets a good bit more complicated.

Toms = Each has a Shure Beta 98
Kick = Shure Beta 91
Hi-Hat = Shure SM81
Over head = 2 - Shure KSM37's

I don't mic my snare at home since it comes through the overheads quite clearly. All the mics plus a feed from my metronome and a CD player go into an Alesis 12-channel mixer. I also have 3 - dbx 266XL compressor/gates that I can use in addition to a TC Electronics M-One XL reverb processor I can use to add ambience to the sound. Anyway, I have a set of isolation headphones that plug into the Alesis that lets me hear what I'm doing without me going deaf.

At church, I have a simpler setup because of the limitations of our current PA system.

Snare = Shure SM57
Kick = AKG D112
Overhead = Audix SCX One

There I use Shure E5 in-ears through my Shure PSM600 wireless system. Ta-dow.

If you've got any questions, just leave a comment and I'll try and help out.

The Perfect Margarita

As many know, whenever I'm in Applebees I usually have what they call their "Perfect Margarita". I like it. It's a good tasting smooth beverage. The downside is that it ain't cheap at abot $8 a pop. A friend there hooked me up with the recipe for it so I could make one at home. Today was the day I decided to give it a shot. I needed to make a few stops to get the following:

Cuervo 1800
Cointreau
Grand Marnier
Lime Juice
Sweet & Sour Mix
Martini Glasses (I just like those better)
Shaker and measuring cup

First stop was the local ABC Store(Alabama Beverage Control) for the liquor. It was there I realized why the drink was so expensive. $82 later, I was walking out with the three bottles I needed. Next stop was the Dillard's home store where I found the glasses and bar tools I needed. Last was Publix to get the lime juice and sweet & sour mix. Ran into Luke and his woman over there and we compared notes and realized that his chocolate martini ingredients cost along the same line as well. Wow.

After dinner, I gave it all a whirl. First, I made a quart of the sweet & sour mix and put it in the fridge. Next, I made the simple syrup by boiling some water then mixed in sugar by ratio then set it aside. Put ice in my shaker, measured and poured everything together and voila! A perfect margarita was born. Mmmmm good. Could stand to be just a tad sweeter though so I'll adjust the sugar ratio in the syrup. It was good nonetheless. I consider it a success as I'm feeling kinda well... relaxed.

Components for tonight's excercise.

Hmmm... looks like rain again.

Saturday is starting out soggy - a familiar theme this week. I've already been up for a few hours doing random stuff... load of laundry, moving clothes around from closet to closet, did some vacuuming, sorted and threw out some old drum heads (how's THAT for random) and it's just now 8:00 AM. Since doing something outdoors today doesn't look too promising, I'll stay on the domestic track since my place needs some straightening out. I need to get my drum room back in order. I've got music, electronics, and just CRAP everywhere. Grrr... I hate the clutter. My kitchen is a bit messy still after the retro gaming night earlier this week. I'll just need to put the old Atari's away and that'll be a big help.

I talked to my parents the other day. They asked if I had some new pictures I could send them. I've got a bunch, but I have to prep them to print. I need to do that also some time today. While I'm out, I'll swing by the bookstore to pick up that book I mentioned yesterday. I don't think I'll have time to start reading it yet.

Yeah, we're pretty goofy.

Had lunch today with a group from the office. We reverted back to our teen years by following just about every sentence with "That's what she said." To which we added "Before the bed broke." and subsequently "after the toe ring slipped off." Suprisingly, it was funny even after the 50th time. Maybe we're just losing it.

Oh, I got caught up in all the Harry Potter frenzy and pre-ordered my copy of The Half-Blood Prince. So, I have an option to be at the bookstore at midnight to pick my copy up. I don't think so. I'll just go tomorrow.

Sup party people in the place to be...

Ok. I have been remiss in my blogging duties so I'll try and get back to regular daily updates.

Corn update - the corn growing in a front yard down the street contines on unabated. I have yet to schedule a drive by with a barrel of RoundUp at this point but believe me, that's coming. Next thing you know they'll have chickens out there and I'll have to bust out with my Daisy Red Ryder to fix THAT. C'mon people... we live INSIDE the city limits.

Moving on, I did try to set up a photo shoot this weekend with Holly, but she had a work schedule conflict and that got nixed. Shazbot. Not a problem though, I do have a good number of useable shots from past shoots that I have a sizeable selection to make a portfolio out of. I am still missing certain types of shots, but with time, I'll get those done as well.

Work has been busy lately, but in a good way. I've got plenty going on right now. I want to keep building on that and always have projects in the pipeline. Good stuff I tell ya.

Ate dinner with the hosts to the Jeff & Kyle show the past few nights. Steak in Moulton yesterday and Applebee's tonight. Good times. Donna was working the bar tonight and hooked me up with my usual Perfect Margarita. That's a tasty albeit pricey drink. You pair that up with a children's chicken finger basket and you have a first rate meal. ;-)

On the music front, I'm really ready to start getting involved in more projects with different people. I'd really like to be exposed to more different styles of music as well as different influences. I play a lot with the same folks but kind of play the same types of things over and over again. I think that's the same feeling at least another one of my friends is getting. It's not a bad thing of course, it's more just like saying, "ok, what's next?". While I enjoy playing in church, I want to get more practice playing secular stuff live. That's just not happening right now.

Just look at the time... it's bedtime again ALREADY. Sheesh, my life is going by.

Bloggity-do-dah

Busy day at work. Funny quote of the day as a friend was commenting on a girl her ex-husband went out with... "why that's just like throwing a hot dog down a hallway..." I was laughing till I cried. If you don't find the humor in that, I ain't explanin' it to ya.

Picked up some birthday cards after work for family. It hard picking out a card that conveys exactly what you want but I did end up finding some eventually. Spent the majority of the evening watching Real World on MTV and cleaning up around the house. For dinner, went to Applebee's. Tasty & Cheap. Just like I like my...

Anyway, it's that time again. I swear, I spend a lot of time sleeping.

Soggy in the valley...

Had rain on and off today. No biggie though. It could have been much worse, that's for sure. After work I ran by the mall to pick up some things from Radio Shack - a 9 volt battery harness to fix a flash meter at work and an RF adapter to hook my Atari's up to my kitchen TV. Stopped in to see Linda - I hadn't been by in awhile to see her and she let me know it. We did our usual thing of planning to go to lunch together which I'm skeptical of. We'll see if that actually comes about.

Got home and couldn't find my soldering iron for the 9 volt thing. Great. It's around here somewhere so I'll have to do some digging. I also had a bit of an ANT issue. Just GREAT. Kyle was over by then and he pitched in on the ant massacre. Still, it's a pain in the ass to deal with.

ANYWAY, Jeff made it over shortly and we got on with a big retro-gaming evening. Mostly we played on the Atari 2600 but I dig get the 7800 Pro System out a bit too. I did just discover that one of the 7800 controllers does not go to the right though. I'll have to see if I can fix it.

Ate pizza and watched Hell's Kitchen (Brad: I finally got the day it comes on right...). That's some high-stress work I'll tell ya.

Once again, it's bedtime.

Here comes the rain!

Now that hurricane Dennis has made landfall, our weather has taken a turn for the wet. Not so bad right now, but I have a feeling that tomorrow morning won't be quite so pleasant.

I got up early to watch the British Grand Prix live so I was up by 6:00 AM. That's not hard for me because that's the time I normally get up during the week. The race was good. Fernando only managed second though despite a great drive. He made no mistakes, he just wasn't fast enough to pass the McLaren of Montoya. McLaren is really stepping up to the plate now and turning up the heat on Renault. Montoya did benefit from a new spec engine from supplier Ilmore though. Hopefully there will be an upgrade to the Renault powerplant soon.

The music went off without a hitch at church this morning. I was kinda pissed off that I couldn't find where the wrench to tune the bongos and congas went. I was going to use the bongos this morning but they were a little flat. I needed to tune things up a bit but without the wrench, I just had to go with flat. Oh well.

Oh, I did some housekeeping on my cymbals part of the afternoon Saturday. They were getting a bit dirty and tarnished. I cleaned about 5 of them before I decided that was enough and moved on to other things. It's tiring work as you have to do a lot of rubbing. I've got a LOT of cymbals. I'm a Zildjian man all except for one set of hats which are my Meinl.

Hmmm. I just heard the wind start gusting pretty hard out. I better wrap up in case power goes on the blink.

Do you NOT know how to drive?!?!

I was reminded just the other day at how many just do not know the rules of the road or how to drive in general. I saw one person STOPPED on an entrance ramp to a freeway looking for a break in traffic when they had 100 yards of merge lane in front of them. WTF?!? Adjust your speed an get in there - don't freakin stop!

Ramps and merging are famous places for stupid stuff to happen. Here's another common scene. You have car #1 on its way to merge into traffic. The driver looks over his shoulder to see that car #2 is a good way back and that he can go ahead and merge. For some reason car #2 wants to speed up and "beat" #1. This usually ends up in a cluster where driver #2 is all pissed off for #1 cutting him off when in reality #2 was the boob for speeding up. Either way, whoever has a better view of the situation needs to adjust to keep problems from happening. Don't be an idiot and then blame the other driver for a problem YOU clearly caused. Here's another clue, if you see someone trying to merge and find yourself speeding up then braking hard to avoid an accident - suprise! Your speeding up probably put you in that situation.

4-way stops. OMG. Do people know how 4-way stops work? You wouldn't think so. Typically, it's a first to stop first to go scenario. That's why it's important to pay attention when approaching an intersection. Look around to see who stopped. Look around to see who got there after you. People there before you need to go. People that stopped after you need to go after you've already gone. Simple right? To avoid confusion, if I'm pulling up to an intersection and me and another car look like we're going to stop at the same time, I'll usually keep rolling a few more inches before stopping to let the other driver know I'll go after they do. If it's a total cluster, you'll have to resort to the hand wave to indicate who goes next or a bunch of start/stops/gestures to get through the intersection.

Grrr...

Shooting one-handed, this newly released butterfly hangs on to my free hand.

And in envelopes like this!

The butterflies come in this box...

Alyssa sets a few butterflies free.

Dennis Jimenez

Unless you live in a hole with no TV or broadband access, you're aware we're about to get clobbered by hurricane Dennis down here in my neck of the woods. Despite that, I had an enjoyable, albeit steamy day today.

Started off early in the morning watching the qualifying for the British Grand Prix. My boy Fernando Alonso and Renault got the pole position again. Much happiness and joy.

Alyssa met me at the botanical garden bright and early this morning. I had mentioned I was doing some shooting this weekend and she wanted to tag along. We had a great time! One nice bonus is that we were in the butterfly garden when a new shipment of butterflies arrived. The attendant there asked us if we would like to release some. Sounds like fun! I didn't realize how they ship butterflies... in small envelopes via FedEx overnight. I finally grabbed a few envelopes myslef and released some while shooting pictures one-handed. That was cool.

After all that excitement, we made our way through the rest of the gardens and discovered all sorts of new things that had started blooming since the last time I was there. MAN WAS IT HOT! A few hours later, we both were spent. We cooled off for some lunch at Macaroni Grill before parting ways. I went on home for a much needed nap.

Got up, gave the dog a bath then met Kev at Publix to pick out stuff to grill. New York strip and corn for me. Had a nice time enjoying a leisurely dinner before finally heading home. I think I made the most of the last dry day for a while.

First Hump Day of July.

Suprisingly, there was no humping involved to celebrate.

Besides work today, I finally made a grocery store run to refill my fridge and pantry. I actually picked up a few fruits - bananas & strawberries in addition to limes for the Coronas. Publix was my grocer of choice this evening. I got inspired while I was there to get out some of my cooking magazines and pick out a few dishes to try. I've been eating out WAY too much and need to get back to doing my own cooking again.

I did go on over to Moulton and had dinner with Jeff an Kyle at the steakhouse there. New York Strip and a baked potato - mmm mmm good. I'll sleep well tonight.

Looks like the fun weather is getting cranked up. Storms with names are cropping up. "Dennis" just got classified as a hurricane. Sucks to be living on the coast right about now. You rebuild after one storm and another one is right on its heels it seems.

Oh, F1 race this weekend at Silverstone in the UK. Those of you the get Speed TV should check it out if you're interested. Also this weekend, I'd like to try and get a photo shoot set up. I'll do some checking around and see if I can find a good subject.

Rain on, rain off.

We had all kinds of weather today... cool, hot, humid, rainy, sunny, rainy. It was a surprise everytime you walked out the door. Still a good day though. I got plenty at the office accomplished. Had lunch with my friend Jason over at Applebee's. He had recently sent off the ECU from his Lancer Evolution to be reprogrammed and were talking about the performance differences. It made me miss the days of my TransAm back in the 90's. Anyway, we're going to try and make it to the Barber Motorsports complex down in Birmingham at the end of the month to watch some racing and maybe even get his car on the track.

Lesa and I headed to Simp's after work for a drink. Soon Lori and Jim showed up for the party. Good times talking about goofy stuff - Lesa was trying to get Jim to donate a piece of artwork to a charity auction coming up soon. This is tied into my friend Tracy that's painting the mural downtown. We'll see if Jim comes off some canvas for the cause. Hehe.

I got hungry but didn't want to spend $25 on dinner so I got everyone to head over to 113 for a bar burger (they're delicious there). No luck. The place is closed till the 11th. Craptaculation. I found myself at home cooking for once.

Anyone been watching the latest season of Real World on MTV? They filmed it in Austin, TX. I've got a few friends over there as a result of my last job. Austin is a GREAT town. Plenty of cool people, things to do and most importantly, live music to die for. You Austinites need to get out and enjoy what you have. Ya'll know who you are... ;-)

After work drinks today.

A typical scene repeated all over the country today I'm sure.

Tim A. manning the he-man fire pit.

Happy 4th!

After sleeping in (loved it!), I finally drug my well-rested hindquarters up out of bed and into the shower. I got some laundry going then headed over to the Anderson's for a good time hanging out and eating food cooked over a fire. Mmmm mmmm good. Burgers, hot dogs, beans, chips... the staples of a cookout. When all was said and done, all the fellas sat around talking about programming and old video games. I always like when I can work in talk about my old computer and video game collection. Yeah it's geeky for sure, but cool nonetheless. It's astounding how far video games have come along from back in the PONG and Atari 2600 days to the Sony PSP I have now. The plan was for me to get my 2600 at the house and bring it over to Dave's so we could play and get some pool time in. Mother nature had other plans. A storm was brewing and moving our direction. Lunch weighed me down and suddenly a nap seemed like a really good idea. I'll tell you what, there's nothing more enjoyable than a full stomach, a hot summer day outside, a cool house inside and a steady rain falling on the roof to go to sleep to. Good stuff right there.

Eventually, I went over to Kevin's, Atari in hand for some pizza and games. After a few unsucessful tries with video adapters we finally got the right thing we needed to get the game working on TV. I'm amazed that those graphics had me mesmerized for hours on end back 20+ years ago. I'm determined to keep my vintage toys operable so I can share them with others long into the future.

Oh, if any readers out there are looking to get rid of any old video game stuff and it's in exceptional condition, I'm looking for:

Vectrex
Magnavox Odyssey
Timex Sinclair ZX81 or 1000
Sega Genesis
Sega Saturn
Atari Jaguar
Mattel Intellivision

Just leave me a comment if you have one of these and I'll get back in touch with you.

Last, but DEFINITELY not least - please remember the reason for this holiday and for the sacrifices families have made in order for us to celebrate our freedom.

A vision of the future? E posing with Phillips supafly Fender bass.

MixMaster E on the soundboard yesterday morning.

Kyle making up a new part for a solo that he's not going to rememeber how to play anyway. (LOL!)

Birthday boy Phillip gets his strings cleaned off before we start playing.

Collective Soul

Today was a good day all around. Got up early to watch the French Grand Prix race live on the satellite. Renault won! Woot! Pretty good race to watch. The kerbs (yeah, that's how it's spelled) there definitely toss the cars around if you hit them at the wrong angle. Good stuff.

Church went well. A big thanks AND a happy birthday to Phillip on bass duties today. It was good to see Kerry and Jeremy, the other drummers at church in attendance as well. I was also very pleased with the new drumheads. I got a nice warm tone out of them today.

Me, Eric and Kyle hit up Logan's for lunch. Afterwards, I went on home and watched some TV before taking a nap. Later, I joined up with a crowd over at Kevin's for some burgers and "Hitch" on DVD. Big thumbs up to Kevin for having everyone over and especially for doing the cooking. You da man.

Me, Kyle, Shama and Nisha headed to Point Mallard for the Collective Soul gig. Plenty of people there. I was drooling over the kick drum sound. If Eric was there, he would have been sporting some wood over the tone and power of the bass rig.

That pretty much summed up the day's activities.

On a completely different tangent, one of my neighbors has seen fit to put a chain-link fence in their front yard. No one else has one on my street so that alone makes it stick out. That's not all though... they've planted freakin' CORN around their mailbox AND in one of the corners of their front yard. C'mon people. Corn is not an ornamental shrub. It's a vegetable. I may have to do a drive-by with some Round-Up.

Let's see here...

Ended up going on an excursion with Kyle for lunch today. The original plan was to hit up Carabbas in Huntsville to try it out but Kyle wanted to stay local and do that later. Met up at Taco Bell and found out that Jeff wasn't going to make it and that we could go on to HSV. It's like making plans with girls sometimes I tell ya.

Anyway, it's around 2 and I haven't had anything to eat yet so I was starving as we pulled up to the restaurant. CRAP! They don't open till 4. Ended up down at Copeland's where I hadn't eaten for several years. The place could use a facelift, but the food was decent. After that, caught the matinee for Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Pretty entertaining flick. I came home and crashed for awhile. Kyle told me he and Jeff were heading to the Brick. I thought it was a bit early and asked why not wait till later when there are people around and a better chance to meet others to which the reply was "we're just going to shoot pool". Not really the answer to my question but whatever. LOL

WAtching some of the Pepsi 400 race down in Daytona. Round and round we go. I'll be getting up early tomorrow to catch the French GP. Can't wait for that!

Already rollin'

Got up out of bed around 6:30 this morning and tuned in to Speed TV for French Grand Prix qualifying. Renault's Fernando Alonso is on the pole. He's my favorite so I was pretty pleased. Should be a good race tomorrow morning.

After that, I went ahead and went over to church to work on my drums there. I got a new set of heads in as the current ones were over a year old and had lost much of their tone. I also needed to move the drums and vacuum around them because it looked like a sawmill with all the dust and chips from sticks scattered all around. Jack stopped in to say hi before he and one of Candy's kids mowed the lawn. I got everything cleaned and put back together before coming back home.

It's blazingly hot and steamy outside. I may need to try and find a pool to lounge next to for the afternoon. I also need to get some photos scanned in for a friend. There are about 50. I'm kind of regretting offering to do it now as that'll take up a bunch of time. Maybe if I just do a few a day it won't be so bad.