What is going on?!?

SHEESH! I just got to feeling slightly better after a headache I had earlier today turned into some kind of freak fever and major headache this afternoon... I was really wanting to heave over to Dave's to hang out with everyone but felt so bad that I didn't even want to try. That's rare.

I got up this morning to watch the European Grand Prix. Once again, it was a great race after you just skipped over the fact that the Ferrari's were out front again. Plenty of action as usual. 3 more weeks and I'll be watching the show live and in-person at Indy. I can hardly wait!

Packed up my gear and headed for church. I brought along an additional stand and mic for my hi-hats. They seemed pretty weak during Wednesday's practice so I thought I'd take some steps to fix that. I also brought along an extra mounting bar to add a second splash cymbal to kit since "History Maker" is a 2-splash song. Got warmed up and ready to go. It was a pleasant surprise in that it looked like no changes needed to be made from Wednesday night's IEM mix! Now, the whole band will pretty much have a consistent mix each time. Ahhh....

My folks came out this morning. We all had a good time and they got a chance to meet several new folks. I'm gald they had a chance to come out. Dad spoke briefly about the ministries he's involved with in the Philippines and gave the group a glimpse into what's going on. Dave then followed with an excellent message regarding becoming an "effective" Christian.

Me, The Burn's, my parents, and my sis and Daniel headed to Red Lobster for some lunch. Ran into the Drakes there as well as Ray Solley. I hadn't seen them in awhile. On the way to our table I ran into Emily. It was nice to see her again. From what she tells me, she passed her classes last semester - she was struggling last time I talked to her so it's good that things turned out okay.

On the drive home, my headache kicked into high gear. Laid down and napped pretty much the rest of the day after I realized how crappy I felt. Is this what happens when you get old? Stuff going wrong all the time? That sucks.

Looks like we're going to be in for some rough weather overnight. I'll probably end up sleeping through it though.

On another note, from the sounds of Kyle's blog, he sprayed a healthy dose of time-release female repellent on yesterday. You should market that stuff man... it would sell big at monastaries and certain cities on the west coast.

What is up with this?

When you take a step back to consider how goofy some of the things people do are, you run across something like this that just confirms your suspicions.

It's the weekend!!!

Woo hoo! Made it through another week. I'm another week older though. You know, I sometimes just look back on a day or a week that's gone by and ask myself truthfully... have I *REALLY* done anything with my time? Yeah, I worked... but is anything that I did there going to really matter or be remembered into the future? That's doubtful. From the time I woke up this morning to the time I laid down in bed, did I just fill the time with "stuff"?

Whoops, sorry... getting all depressing there.

Dropped by and visited my pal Lynn over at his place on my way home. He was busy trying to organize a bunch of paperwork into storage bins. Caught up on all the latest happenings in our lives before I made my way on home. Spent some time playing this new pinball game I got and played all the pinball games I enjoyed growing up. That was a nice break from the usual games I play. I also took some time getting my snare drum all sorted out after I fooled around with it's tuning last night.

Finished up the Fellowship of the Ring with my folks and also got through The Two Towers as well. Guess we'll wrap it up with Return of The King sometime over the weekend. It's actually kind of cool to watch a movie with my parents. Had to keep mom on track with all the action though since there's a lot going on in these movies.

Read Kevin's blog entry about "issues". I strive to be as "issue free" as possible. As a result, I tend to stay single. With me, there's only so much crap I have to deal with. Add another person to the mix and you're wide open on the level of crap you're exposed to. Let me qualify that, add THE WRONG person to the mix and you're hosed.

My issue right now is that it's late and I have to get up in a few hours to watch qualifying for the European Grand Prix. I'm going to bed.

Wasabi.

Had a good lunch yesterday with Tom, Brent and Bill over at Edo's. I had mentioned to Tom that I was going to get my car repainted soon and needed to also get my wheels up to looking new. Conincidentally, he and Brent were friends and Brent own a wheel repair/restoring business that I checked prices on about a year or two ago! At any rate, we all had a good time discussing F1, video games, Cuba and cigars.

Band practice was a unique experience as the rest of the band was now equipped with IEM's. While they were working on that, I was struggling with the sound of my drums. I hadn't played them in almost a month. They sounded off and the setup was a little different since Jeremy changed things to suit his time on the throne. I of course don't mind anyone else playing, esp. Jeremy but what I don't like is if anything changes. I'm also not a big fan of having young children up on stage either. Everything on stage it seems has a knob or a switch on it and the settings they are at were usually arrived at after much trial and error. Anyway, something got weird on my drums and I'm not too happy with the sound.

Donny, the mains sound better when you turn the amp on. (LOL)

I'm debating bringing my good drums out for this weekend. I'll see how that goes. Don't want to make a waste of them just sitting at home.

After practice, me and the B's headed to Ruby Tuesday's where I amazed them with my rib-eating-with-a-fork-and-not-using-my-fingers technique. I discovered that Stacey and I share a trait... if we're hungry, we ain't happy. I'm quite cranky, man and short-tempered if I'm missing a meal. Ya'll might want to note that down.

Woke up this morning with some sort of sinus headache malfunction. I thought that some drugs and more rest would make it go away faster but it didn't. As a result, I had an unscheduled day off.

Photos and stuff.

Trying out a new service to more easily publish pictures on my blog. Got some action from Friday night at the track as well as an older photo of me and my drum teacher.

Almost ready to start... the driver's were signing autographs for the fans. We were just waiting around to push the car off once the engine fired. 

Getting ready to push John out for his qualifying run. 

Straining. 

Here I was Friday afternoon torquing up the new tires to get scuffed up for the last practice before qualifying. 

Here's a picture of me with my drum teacher - Chester Thompson of Genesis. 

Another weekend older.

After my late night Friday night then early morning Saturday, I was left tired at about 9 Saturday. Back to bed I went for a few more hours. Once I finally got rolling, I saw the folks take off to Tennessee and I continued to take it easy. I did manage to complete at least 4 loads of laundry though. Once that was done I practiced on the drums for several hours as I didn't have a chance to play for a couple of days. I really didn't do much else Saturday. My yard people came by and cut the grass - much appreciated when you're in "slug mode" as I was. Nothing much happened the rest of the day.

Got up early Sunday to watch the Grand Prix of Monaco. WOW!!! What a race! Lot's of excitement and drama. Once that was done, I got ready for church and headed out. Things went well even though I was playing hand percussion which is not my favorite thing. Without regular playing, it's hard on your hands and forearms. Kevin did a good job with the message.

Applebee's won out as the lunch venue even though I threw Macaroni Grill out as an option. Stacey lit up at that suggestion but eventually AB's won out. Crap. Got to work on getting more friends that don't freak out so easily at the idea of having to wait for a good meal. It's better than waiting for a crappy meal I'll tell ya. Anyway. Lunch company was good. Suprisingly, Merideth provided much good lunch conversation. She was actually a lot of fun.

Got home and slithered into bed once again for another nap. You can't have too many of those on the weekends. Got up a few hours later to head to Dave's for the pool party. There was a good crowd there! Nice to see plenty of new faces participating in the group. We've got some entertaining people that are starting to open up. After all the food and fun it was getting late so I went back to the homestead to retire for the evening.

Monday started off with a less-than-intelligent phone call. That set the tone for the rest of the workday. Bernie and I headed to Atl. Bread Co. again for lunch then examined new video capturing technology next door at Comp USA.

After work was the regular Guad squad. It was a bit thin tonight but fun was had nevertheless. Kyle joined the party late but still made the rounds with Kailyn. Speaking of her, she was quite pleasant this evening... sedate, smiling and quiet. Ah...

Made a Wal-Mart run later for some needed stuff for the house. Ran into several people there including my parents. That about wraps it up. Woo hoo!

I've been busy...

I'm still alive, but been so busy I haven't had a chance to make any updates. Had a late night last night on pit crew duty for my buddy John. It was me, Bernie, Mark, Brian and his son, Frank and of course, John in the pits. Bill, Diane, Daniel and Lisa were in the stands. John managed to finish the race without any major damage, but he really didn't put up much of a challenge. I was timing his laps and while in testing he was lapping at 13.8-13.9, his qualifying time was about 14.1. His race pace was between 14.3-14.5 but the leaders and most of the field were lapping un 14 seconds. The leaders were lapping at 13.6-13.7. As you can imagine, being over half a second slower each lap makes a big difference in a 100 lap race.

I was Mr. Tires, checking pressures on both sets - the sticker ones mounted on the car and the spare set. Once the tires were mounted up, I torqued up the whole set. That was my overall contribution for the evening. There was no need for any major work like the last time I was there when John hit the wall so in comparision, it was a quiet night. The driver one stall over from us was from Sevierville, TN, my old stomping ground. His name was Gary Helton. WOW! He had an awesome car. He had one other races in the series and it was nice to take a peek to see the differences in his car and John's. First was the frame, Gary's engine sat MUCH lower to the ground lowering his center of gravity. His crew was also very good, getting some major carbureator work done between sessions. With only 3 laps to go, Gary suffered a flat tire on the front right side!!! He was in 2nd place too! His crew managed to change out his tire in about 10 seconds. 3 laps wasn't enough to get back to the front though. He's racing in B'ham tonight so hopefully he'll fare better there.

Let's see... had band practice Thursday night. It was the only night that Steven could practice with us. He and Derek will be joining us in the band this Sunday. I'll be providing conga and bongo sounds. I'm not a big fan of playing hand percussion since I don't do it regularly and it hurts my hands. Waaaaaaaah! Seriously though, it is rough. Everyone except Derek (who had to go to work) went to eat at Logan's afterwards. Late night though! Got home at 10:30. Sheesh.

Just got through watching the qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. The first Ferrari is in 5th place! Congrats to Jarno Trulli of Renault for taking pole position. Should be an exciting race tomorrow.

Hair, food and books.

Got a lot accomplished at the office. That felt good for sure. Ate lunch with Bernie at Atlanta Bread Co. with the obligatory walk-thru of CompUSA. Didn't buy anything though.

 

After work I stopped to see Holly for my haircut and also brought her some "manly" magazines to read instead of all the girly crap she has. The last batch of magazine I brought her got taken home by some of the other customers. Gee... why do they leave those other magazines there? Because they SUCK! That's why.

 

Checked with my dinner club members to see what we were in the mood to digest this evening. I threw out Dead Lobster as a suggestion and we eventually convened there. Dinner was excellent. My top shelf frozen margarita was excellent too... till I saw what the liquor tax was on a $6 drink... $1.40!!!!! WTF is up with that? I never noticed that before. Hmmm. While there, we were able to add another item to Kailyn's growing phobia list, translucent window shades. Not sure what was going on with that but I assured her parents that it would probably come out in therapy later on in her life.

 

Popped over to the mall for a few minutes to make the salespeople nervous thinking we were going to continue to browse past closing time. Next stop was the bookstore. Nothing really new there, but Kevin picked up a few items. After that I went home and relaxed.

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore...

A torrential downpour kept us in the mall a little longer than planned tonight. The core Guad squad was there sans Stacey - she was earning the coins down in Cullman today and wouldn't be in town till well after 8:30 or so. After eating, we all took the usual stroll down the mall each doing his or her own thing, Kevin off to do something video game related, Eli entertaining her child and the Asians... well, our usual. I followed the kids into the toy store just messing around. As luck would have it, I ran across one of the big Matrix Sentinel models I secretly wanted since I first saw one in one of my myriad of catalogs. Not only was I surprised to find it but it was 50% less than what it was in the catalog!!! I plan to put it on my desk or monitor as a conversation piece. Kyle was making fun of me buying toys till he realized he wanted some G.I. Joe stuff. Both of us strolled out with bags. I found a great deal on a shirt a Parisian that I picked up. Kyle missed out on a meet and greet opportunity apparently. Kyle (who is known for his keen sense of his surroundings... yeah right) was oblivious to what was going on. Here's the thing though, I think the outcome would have been the same even if he had noticed her. ;-)

Chatted with the girl at the sunglass place a little more and found out she was a Calhoun student studying elementary education. That's a good sign. We see her every week so it might be time to pass her a connection card and invite her to church. We'll see how that goes. Speaking of that, I need to remind Carlos to try and come out one Sunday. He'd make a good addition to our group.

Thanks for the hat Kev. Think I'm gonna head to bed now. I didn't sleep too well last night when one of the burgers I ate the other day decided to attack.

Just a lazy Sunday...

Had a very leisurely morning - ate breakfast and actually played a few rounds of UT2k4 online before showering and getting dressed for church. I was off drumming duty today for the first time in a LONG time so there was no need for me to be at the church by 9. The crowd was a little thin when I arrived but quickly filled up right at 10:30. Jeremy did a great job drumming of course. It's nice to hear songs you play as their done differently by someone else. It definitely gives you some new ideas to try. Sound-wise, everything seemed pretty good. What's a pain is that the room sounds totally different from the emptiness of Wednesday practice to the full room of Sunday morning. That's just something we have to deal with. I really enjoyed everything.

Big group went to Ruby Tuesday's for lunch; the Burns, the Asians, Tania and her mom, and John and Sharon. It was especially nice to have John and Sharon there. Hopefully they felt comfortable around us nit-wits. They seemed to enjoy it. Our waitress was Nicole. She usually has the personality of a wet towel but today she appeared to be a little more personable.

Stopped in at Lowe's to pick up some storage bins for the loads of winter/fall clothes I have. While I was there I was checking out some of the grills. There are some really nice ones there especially the one with the buil-in deep fryer and rotisserie. It was by Coleman I think. There were some others there by Jenn Air and Char-Grill. I'll have to look into those more seriously soon. The B's picked up a piece of storage furniture for their kitchen to organize things.

Relaxed a bit when I got home then decided to take a nap. Wrapped up the evening with some dinner at the B's and watched the majority of "Anger Management". That's about it. Time for bed again to get rested up for the usual Monday shenanigans at the office.

Random thoughts... and a little poo.

After listening to band practice the other night (when I wan't playing) I realized something. Pretty much nothing you do on the soundboard relating to drums does anything to the sound. Oh, you might PSYCOLOGICALLY think you have done something but no, not much has changed. The simple reason is that for changes at the soundboard to be evident, the PA system has to be able to "overpower" the natural acoustic sound of the drums - which ours doesn't. With Jeremy playing, I pulled the main faders for the drum channels all the way down and listened. Then, I pushed them up to 80-85% and listened. No change. Donny looked over at me with that "SEE WHAT I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU" look on his face. The only thing we can possibly do with our PA (relating to drums that is) is possibly make them slightly louder (by turning up the trim and going 100%) which isn't going to happen. Making them softer through the PA isn't going to happen either because if you turn the PA off... the drums are just as loud nonetheless. The one comforting thing is that with my kit being miked, even though I'm not "really" running through the PA, it does provide me with the sound I need to hear myself playing. Am I frustrated? Actually, no. We're not putting on a rock concert by any means but that also doesn't mean we have to compromise on sound either. I know that not everyone is a fan of drums or loud instruments for that matter. For those folks, the least we can do is make what they don't like, sound good. At least that way we have a chance to change their thinking. If we make what they don't like sound like poo, then there's little to no chance their feelings toward drums and loud instruments will change.

We'll soon be able to go all IEM on stage and get rid of the floor wedges. This will be interesting for sure. On one hand, we'll have more room on stage, a few less cables running around, everyone will be able to hear themselves (probably the most important) and there will be less volume from the lack of wedges (4). The guitar and bass amps will still be going though. Here's the OTHER side of the equation - the floor wedges were partly filling in the sound coming from the middle of the stage. Now, that will be diminished significantly. This is what I call the "poo effect" or P.E. for short. Because our left and right main speakers are so widely spaced and there is nothing to fill in the space in front of where their output converges, P.E. will be in full force for the majority of the front rows. I'm not complaining mind you, just making a prediction. What can I do about it? I don't know, I'm just the drummer. ;-)

At any rate, took it easy Friday night. I was going to go to HSV to check out Scott's band but I was a little tired. Kyle was up for it though it seems. I invited the Burns' along but I never heard back from them. I'm guessing they might not have been able to get childcare on short notice. Come to think of it, they've never went to HSV to check out any of the bands that I'm aware of. Bishop Black, who we saw in the studio earlier this week will be playing tonight in HSV. I wonder if anyone will be going?

It's a tad gray out today so I'll probably try and get some work done at the homestead. I've got some more minor cleaning and straightening up to do. Whee!

WOW! What a shot!!!

Just got through watching the last few minutes of the Spurs/Lakers game. WOW! What a shot from Derrick Fisher!!! Made the game winning shot with .1 second (a tenth) of a second left!!! Amazing stuff. Lakers win 72 to 71.

Quiet night at the homestead. Ate at home then did 2 loads of laundry. Woot.

Steamy Thursday

Yesterday evening, I went by to check on band practice to see how things were going. Things sounded good overall, but the drums were pretty loud... and a bit muddy. I talked with Donny about fixing the muddy part... send him the overhead mic output directly so he can add the high end as he needed to into the main mix. The loud part is going to be the difficult piece. Jeremy plays louder than I do, so I'm not sure it's too much of an issue when I play. When we go all IEM and no wedges, the drums will stand out even more. We'll have to figure out something for sure.

After practice, me, The Burns', Donny and Kyle headed to Logan's for some foodage. Not much to report from there other than that Kyle needs to work on getting his cellphone camera out and operational much quicker than he does now... like maybe while the subject to be photographed is still there...

Woke up to a rainy morning today. Luckily, I had no "plumbing" issues and started the day off well. Wrapped up my server report this morning and now I'm working on the billing. Ate lunch with Bernie at Zaxby's. Oh, we got new badges and crap at work today. We revamped our logo so in addition to badges we got a t-shirt, a pen, and a badge reel all with the new graphics on them. How nice.

Snatch the pebble from my... WHAT?!?!

Everything was going well last night until a routine bathroom trip turned into a very long saga. Apparently, a small kidney stone that should have passed normally DIDN'T. It got hung up on the way out. Without going into detail (which is unusual for me), it was rather uncomfortable. It was difficult sleeping but I managed to doze off a bit. Woke up this morning still in the same condition so I thought it best to stay home and not move around much and drink LOT'S of fluids. A little after lunch, things were MUCH improved. I rested a while to try and catch up on the sleep I lost out on last night.

Luckily, things cleared up by themselves without having to make a Dr. visit. I have a suspicion that what they do to fix the situation just might be a little more uncomfortable than what I would like. At any rate, I'm glad that's all over with.

Late in the afternoon I ran some errands with Kevin & Co. I picked up a DVD and he got a new case for one of his guitars. Also had a chance to talk to Kira a bit. She's got some excitment coming up next month as she and Gisele are heading to France for two weeks. I hope she has a great (and safe!) time over there. They'll be staying in Paris just a few blocks from the Louvre.

I stopped by the church on the way back home to hook up the IEM system so that Kyle and Eric will be able to hear what's going on. After that I went back home to rest a little more.

Quiet night.

I was a slug all day after my pasta lunch. Sheesh. When I got home, I piddled around a little then took a short nap. Ate some dinner then drummed for awhile. Got a call from my buddy who located an IEM system for the church and got us a rockin deal on them!!! Saved us over $1k!!!!! That's awesome. Can't wait to hear how we'll sound afterwards for sure. There's gonna be a lot of tweaking to get things just right since we only have 2 mixes right now but we'll be miles ahead of where we used to be.

I'm going to get in bed early... like right now.

Change in plans.

Since my original Indy travel buddy is now all gimped up, the Bernie-meister will be replacing him for the USGP pilgrimage to Indy next month. Got all the financial details to him so he can see what the dollar damage will be. He got an "all clear" from his cruise director so he's all set to go.Should be a blast! He's never been to an F1 race before but he follows the action just as closely as Bill and I. I went ahead and took advantage of my AAA membership and got maps and travel stuff to go along with my plans.

Hmmm... might have to bum a camcorder off someone. :D

Late start.

Hmmm, had a late start this morning and had to break the sound barrier a few times to get to the office. Just in front of me was Bernie's manager - he too was a low-flying jet as well. He would be another driver that can be certified as "knowing how to drive" during the morning rush.

Arrived at Stalag 15 only to be surprised by the presence of CRUTCHES in my office! Apparently, Bill is broken. He did not climb down off a ladder successfully. Tore a bunch of ligaments in his right ankle that will keep him in a cast for weeks then over a YEAR for complete recovery!?!? Dang. That's rough.

Guaddage

Work was okay today. MAde progress on my reports and such. I should be able to get one of them out tomorrow. Next will be the billing stuff. The programmer working on that is pretty good so hopefully we'll just have one painful time getting this first one together then have smooth sailing in the future. Work's just kind of frustrating these days. It's not interesting like it used to be.

Came home and played drums a little then laid down before meeting up with Kev/Stacey/Kailyn/Kyle at the Guad. Carlos and Rey hooked us up as usual. Our drinks were being made as we walked in. Nice.

Afterwards, went walking down the mall and talking to different folks and making new friends. Saw Tanya and chatted a little. She was dealing with an irate customer on the phone. Big fun for her I'm sure. My buddy Nick hooked me up with a Zelda t-shirt (LOL)! It will be a cool drumming shirt I think.

A friend's band was in the studio recording their new album so Kyle checked to see if it was cool for us to check out the session. It was and he, Kevin and I went over to listen to them work on one track. I think we'll be recording there sometime in the near future. We need to put a new, better demo together now that we've been playing longer and have upgraded our gear and skills. I'm looking forward to that.

I'm off drumming duty this week so I can take a breather. I still plan on working on new stuff though. Talked to Kerry today as well. He's the drummer I mentioned that visited church yesterday. I'm going to get with him soon as he was wanting to watch me play and "steal" some of my stuff... he's got some good licks too so I'm sure we'll be able to trade things out. It'll be nice to hang out locally with some other drummers. It's a great way to learn stuff and develop new ideas for sure. Now if I could only make money at this...

Technology upgrade

Kyle ACTUALLY upgraded his early 90's cellphone with the latest and greatest Sprint had to offer. Now he's got color screens (inside AND out), picture ability, video WITH sound and the list goes on. I predict his blogs will become heavier with media content going forward...

Spent Saturday cleaning up around the house. I especially took the time to clean my desk which had gotten piled up with mail and crap. It's much better now. I also got in plenty of drumming time. That evening, Kyle and I rode out to HSV and grabbed some food then made our way to the Jazz Factory for some pool shootin. Got all smokified before heading back home.

Got up at Dawn's crack to watch the F1 race in Barcelona. The Renault of Jarno Trulli took off like it was shot out of a cannon. Unfortunately, he could not hold off the Ferrari juggernaut. Even when Michael's exhaust broke at lap 11, he managed to stay in the lead and finish without his car failing. Ferrari just has all the elements, best driver, best car, best team, big budget... you name it.

Church was good as usual.Plenty of guests there! That continues to be encouraging. Dave had a really cool 3D walk-thru of the area where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. That was a great visual piece. Music went very well. The drummer from another local church checked us out and enjoyed it! He complemented my playing which is nice to hear especially when it comes from another drummer.

BIG CONGRATS TO JACK AND PAM for the birth of their daughter Claire!!!! That's pretty exciting. Pam and Claire should be coming home today.

Had our evening get together at the Burns'. Lot's of folks there. Even saw someone's kid playing with a dog turd. I do't care how old you get to be or how dry your sense of humor is, a kid with a turd is just a funny sight.

Ate some grilled chicken then sat down to watch an Eagles DVD. Not too much happened after that.

Shiny and new...

Got my spiff on this morning during lunch and revamped the bloggage. Kevin re-did his this morning making mine look fairly blah in comparison. Not one to be left behind, I too made the change. Things might not work quite right for a day or two till I get everything the way I want it so hang on to your horses and be patient.

Busy, busy, busy.

Had a very busy week at the office, nothing out of the ordinary. Friday, on of our customers got the SASSER virus. That made things exciting. Enough about work though.

Band practice went well Wednesday night. Kevin's new mic sounded really good. Be nice if we had more of those. ;-) Jo-Jo Thongbottom was in quite a mood. She apparently had some kind of field trip school bus malfunction. Ah... if only my problems were as simple. Got through the music just fine then made a run to the Guad for a little Cinco de Mayo celebration. Carlos was there ad hooked me and Kev up with our shrimp nachos. DE-licious.

Thursday night I headed over to Kevin's to watch the final episode of Friends. Kyle joined us then Stace came home. Enjoyed the show although it was sad that it was ending. I'm going to have all the episodes on DVD so I'll contiue to enjoy them for sure.

Friday, I ate burgers over at the Burns'. Afterwards, watched some of my Phil Collins DVD to see my drum teacher play.Very cool stuff.

A perfect day.

Headed out early for a friend's place about 45 minutes away. It had been years since I had been there and a lot had changed. First off, there was a cabin Ray built about a year ago. It had 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom and a living/dining room. This cabin was located across the lake from his main residence. Dad and Lito (the missionary visiting us) took off to go fishing and I busied myself setting up targets to shoot. I burned through several magazines and got back to my shooting form of old when I used to do it in competition. Next, Ray hooked me up with an ATV so I could go explore all the trails. It took me a little while before I felt comfortable on it as I had no idea how well it would handle. All I knew is that I didn't want to flip (or worse). Luckily, I had no problems. Ray caught up with me later after he and dad ran out to get some bait. He showed me around the areas I hadn't checked out yet. Man, he's got a LOT of land.

The took off in a boat to check things out on the other side of the lake as they weren't having too much luck fishing off the bank. They were out there for a few hours so I went back to exploring and shooting some more. When they got back, I let them shoot to their hearts content. It was the first time Lito had handled a gun so I went over all the safety stuff. I get kind of nervous around new shooters for some reason. He did great though! Dad also sent a lot of lead flying. All in all, we had a great time out there. It was DEFINITELY a nice way to spend a Tuesday for sure.

Headed back to Decatur in time to get my hairs cut. Afterwards, I went and got some of that famous Scottish fast food... McDonald's. Hehe. Chowed down then hit the drums for about an hour or so. Oh look... it's time for bed again.

Wow, that was a stretch...

Sorry for the lack of updates fans... I've been busy.

Last Friday, a missionary friend of mine and my parents came into town. He's from very close by where my parents live in the Philippines. Had to put him up in my drum room so things are a tad bit cramped in there for now. He's only here for a week so it's not a big deal. Nothing much else happened that evening. Just took it easy for the evening.

Saturday found me working on my equipment rack from church. Rather than work on it there, I drug it home. I pulled out one of the compressors I wasn't using and rack mounted my in-ear transmitter. It's less likely to be damaged that way than when it's sitting on top. I also spent a LOT of time fixing how my drums sounded through the PA. It is MUCH improved now. For the time being, Heavy E is sharing my mix. Got confirmation from him Sunday that things were much better this time around. Ate dinner with the Burns that night. Dana and Stacey had been working on a project all day and had a mess they didn't want to leave behind. So - met Kevin up at New China for take-out. Ivy saw me some in and asked "Same thing?". Shrimp with lobster sauce is my "same thing". It's delicious.

Woke up to a rainy Sunday morning. Loaded up my stuff and headed to the church to get set up. VERY pleased with the IEM system I'm using now after Jesus tweaked it a bit (no really...). Everything sounded amazing through it. E and I realized, since we're currently the only IEM users, is that we're in a sonic utopia where everything sounds great! It may sound like crap out in the audience but we won't know. It's not our problem anyway as that's someone else's job. Hopefully though things are turned up to where it sounds good and musical. All went well. Lot's of folks there... more people are becoming "REGULARS"! That's very encouraging. Afterwards, the usual crew headed to Dead Lobster for some lunch. Ran into some old friends in the lobby then sat in Emily's section. It was good to see her again.

Post lunch we went to Best Buy/Circuit City and Old Navy to do some shopping. We all picked up something then went home. Met up later at the Burns where we ate, drank and were merry. I mentioned to Kevin that I would buy the subwoofer if he would buy the amp... or vice versa. He made some high-pitched noises which I took to mean something other than "ok" or "yes". Heh.

Work Monday was... work. Nothing to note there.

Had the regular Guad squaddage with the associated post eating fun in the mall. Went to Office Depot to pick up some supplies then hung out at the bookstore with everyone till I was too tired to stay up. Went home and here I am.

Taking the day off tomorrow to head to the lake to do some fishing and some shooting. Haven't had a chance to do that in a long time. I'm looking forward to it for sure.