Ready for sound check! (Got my Beta 91 in the kick drum - this makes me happy)

Philip making sure he gets everything connected to the amps.

Mics added.

Drums are set up. Just need to add some mics.

Me starting to put my toys together.

Jack and Philip wrestling one of the subs.

Pulled right up to the stage!

Whew! VBC gig is DONE!

First off, a HUGE thanks to Philip H. for letting us use his PA system. Next, a HUGE thanks to Kira for getting our in-ear mix and FOH mix pretty much right from the start. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Got an early start to my Saturday when I IM'd Dana and found out she was heading to Wal-Mart. It was 6:30am and I needed to go so now was a great time! We'd beat the crowds for sure. Threw some laundry in the washer then she swung by and picked me up. I was back home 45 minutes later with all my stuff and ready to get more things done. I accomplished a lot so at 10:00am I rewarded myself by going back to bed for a while longer.

Philip showed up with the trailer and we loaded up all the drum gear I was bringing tonight... it was a LOT as usual. Met up at the church with Jack and then eventually (hehe) Kevin. Made our way to the Von Braun Center without incident. It was especially cool that we could pull right into the hall we were performing in... pulled right up to the stage! That brought the hassle factor WAY down for the loading and unloading. About an hour later, we were sound checking.

Okay, this was the largest room we've ever played in... Kira had my drums ROCKIN. And I mean BIG TIME. I also got a chance to swap my kick mic out for my Shure Beta 91. Simply amazing. Philip and I (we shared an in-ear mix) were just floored with how great things sounded. I think it was pretty obvious I was thrilled with how everything sounded.

I peeked into the hockey game for a moment to check things out. Hunger took over though and I picked up some pizza and a drink then headed back to the stage. Pretty much stayed there till we got going. I could see too well from where I was on stage but we had a decent sized group there which was encouraging. It would have been nice to have more of course but we were thankful for what we had. Thank you to all who came out! Thanks also to those that helped set up and tear down.

Going to post some pics then hit the sack. Got to play again in the morning.

Look what I bought myself for Christmas!!!

An ignitor module for my gas furnace - $504.

Yeah, my heat unit started acting up last Saturday, then Tuesday, then this morning. The previous days, I went outside and cut power to the unit to reset it. That's what got everything going the first time the service guy came out last month. I left the unit in a failed state this morning so the tech could troubleshoot it as is. Luckily, the system didn't "hang" until I was about to walk out the door to work so I was warm the whole time.

Tech got there and removed the panel. The IC board inside has an LED on it that blinks to indicate what the problems is, kinda like a BIOS beep thing on a PC. Sure enough, it was blinking the most expensive message... replace me.

Mike, the Tech, went back to the shop to get the part for me. When he got back, he installed it without incident and gave me the old part so I could put a bow on it and put it under my Christmas tree to me, from me. :-)

In looking at the failed IC board, looks like there were a pair of resistors that failed as there were burn/overheat marks around them. I'll probably replace them and have a spare if this ever happens again. I wish the repair folks would work on these things at the component level. It would save folks some money in some cases.

It's a bit nippy out.

Last night, I had a heck of a time getting Kelsey (my dog) to go back to the room she normally sleeps in. You can't just explain to a dog that you're letting them in so they won't freeze their tail off... literally. I finally convinced her with some doggy treats and some tummy rubbing (hers, not mine).

It was pretty dang cold this morning. 18 or 19 degrees I think. I got all ready for work then had a mini-crisis trying to find the right colored socks to wear. I found some but I have to get out and buy some socks in the brown family. Got tons of blues, blacks and light brown stuff but nothing in dark brown. When I left for work, there was a mountain of socks on my floor.

Spent the morning getting ready for a presentation I was to do later in the day (picture below). That went pretty well for the most part. Got plenty of input and made several new contacts. Back at the office, I finished the day up with another client as we get ready to launch his website in the next few days.

I was SO tired after work. Lesa invited me to Simp's but I was just too tired to go. Plus, I needed to get some grocery shopping done. I got home and suddenly the idea of a nap sounded extremely good. So, I conked out. Got up at 8:30 - no dinner yet... and a 26 degree temperature outside. Got some warm clothes on and headed to Publix. Got plenty of stuff there and loaded up my fridge and pantry. Also picked up 2 bottles of wine and a 6-pack of Negra Modelo. I know my dark beer friends are grinning now. The one checkout woman that was working approached me as I was looking at some chocolate-covered macadamia nuts and made small talk about how good they were. I picked up a bag. Later, she saw me in the wine aisle and asked me what I was looking for. "What wine goes good with ABC's and 123's?" Laughed our asses off. After I checked out, the cart pusher dude seemed, well, off a little. Let's say learning impaired. Anyway, while he was helping me load my groceries into the car, he's flingin' my wine all around... they sounded like Paul Revere's bell as he did his "The British are coming!!!!" thing. After he loaded the last bag, he turned to me like a soldier addressing his superior and LOUDLY said "THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING WITH US AT PUBLIX! HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY!" The only thought I had was "Rainman". I quickly thought that hey, he's not used to someone saying anything else but thank you after that outburst. So I said, "Try to stay warm, okay?". He did what I could only describe as a short-circuit. Didn't know what to say or do. When I left, he was still standing there with my empty cart.

Hope someone came out and told him it was okay to come back inside. People, are fun.

A very poor picture of me doing a presentation this afternoon. I'm up front explaining our concept to a focus group to get their input. Dry armpits brought to you by Arm & Hammer anti-perspirant and deodorant.

Stuffed.

Work was steady for me today. Made a "to do" list and accomplished pretty much everything on it. For lunch today, I met up with Lesa and Lori at The Brick. I had planned to pick up a BBQ pork potato and eat it at home but Lesa called and invited me to join them. After work, Lesa and I headed to Huntsvill to get a laptop for her dad. We found what we needed at BestBuy. I ended up crossing another name off my gift list as well as picking up the movie "Collateral".

Dinner was at Macaroni Grill where we both had some excellent dishes. Good wine, good food... tiramisu for dessert... YUM. Walked off some of the dinner at the mall while I shopped around for some new gloves. Found some on sale at Wilson's and picked them up. Headed back to Decatur afterwards.

As usual, I'm tired. Gonna let Kelsey in to sleep again as it's supposed to get down to 18 tonight.

First things first.

I forgot to mention that I fixed an archive problem with my blog. Apparently, the October and November archives weren't being put where they were supposed to so you'd get an error if you tried to view them. That's all healed now. Sorry 'bout that.

After work today, I ran some errands at the mall - return my tux and pick up 2 pairs of pants from alterations. Tried the pants on already to be sure that they fit right. Thankfully they did. If you recall, this is a remnant of my pants/jeans size malfunction from last week. Linda was helpful as usual. I also found that a suit I was interested in is on sale. GRRR... Didn't buy it though. I've went over on my clothing budget in the last few weeks. I was due for some updates as my wardrobe needed some new things to spice it up a little.

Band practice went well. We're enjoying the music now instead of concentrating so much on learning it. That's a good thing. Talked to Kerry today; he's planning on being at the gig so he'll be able to help me set up and tear down my kit. That's no small feat especially for one person.

Afterwards, me and Kev went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Back home now. Fed Kelsey, but I think I'm going to let her sleep inside tonight since it's getting below freezing.

Hmmm.

You know that feeling you get when you *might* be coming down with something? I HAVE that feeling now. Started this morning. I hope this goes away - otherwise I'll be in for a rough week. In retrospect I have been around a LOT of different people the past 72 hours so there's no telling what might have happened. Just MARVY I tell ya.

Church crowd was a little on the thin side today. Regardless of that, the small crowd we had was great! Dave wrapped up the Old Testament Challenge so now we'll probably be starting on a new series in the next few weeks. Music all went well - even the funny part where I kept on going after the song ended. It was a special moment. Kev's buddy Chad drove up from B'ham to visit. He ended up having lunch with a bunch of us at Logan's. Ran into a few people I knew there. After that, it was back to church for band practice. That went off without a hitch as well. By this time, I was pretty beat. Went home and crashed. I got up and had dinner then cruised over to Kev's and played a few rounds of Super Mario Kart before coming home for good.

Elizabeth and I doing the Christmas picture thing.

The racing crew... L to R: John, Bernie, Me, and Bill.

Bernie's manager David and his wife Debbie. A very nice couple!

John making his way through Watkins Glen. Big props to Bernie... that's a Half Life 2 box on top of his monitor.

The Geek-Mahal view from the stairs. That's Bill on the left, Bernie in the back and John at the steering wheel.

Arabian Club Party

As I mentioned in my last post, I had to go back to bed and try restarting my day as the first try didn't go as well as I would have liked. I finally rolled out a little before noon and hit the Bruns up for some lunch at Firehouse. I had missed breakfast and was pretty hungry by the time I finally ate. I'm glad I escaped the Wal-Mart parking lot... it was a zoo for sure.

Went and got my oil changed then went back home to do laundry and such. Scott came by briefly to talk with me about pistols and related items. I got some magazines together for him to get him thinking about what he might be interested in. We'll probably be making a Larry's trip soon I'm thinking.

Got cleaned up and picked up Elizabeth. Yanked a bottle of wine out of my collection to bring to drink. Had a great time seeing my buddies from Intergraph. As usual, Bernie and Kim did a great job decorating their place. The food was also delicious. I made 2 trips and put a dent in the ham in the process (Elizabeth can attest to this). I also finally got to see Bernie's new basement computer room dubbed the "Geek-Mahal" by Bill. Pics to follow.

Had a great time catching up with John as well regarding his new race car. He should be taking delivery of it in the next 2 weeks sometime. That's got to be exciting to think that he can sit in his house and know that out in his garage is a REAL NASCAR race car.

Oh, I finally watched Van Helsing tonight. It sucked. I never "bought into" the characters, especially Anna. The special effects were okay I guess but know, you can put glitter on a turd and it's still well, a turd.

Posting pics then going to bed. I'm tired.

A pleasant surprise... Jaime was there working the event this evening.

Me, Ellen, Linda and Brian. Oh, and what looks to be 5 bottles of wine.

My buddy Jeremy from the Morgan Co. Economic Development Association and his lovely wife.

Burt and Cheryl. Cheryl works at the hospital now but will so be going into teaching. Burt works at NASA on ground to space communications. In talking with him, I found out that the shuttle no longer has that "blackout" period for communications on re-entry. They can stay in touch with the craft all the way through now.

Linda and Brian. She is one of Ellen's co-workers and Brian has a cotton farm (2000+ acres). Fun folks!

Michelle (ER nurse) and Larry. They were sitting next to me.

Ellen and I.

Ellen next to our table shortly after we arrived.

One party down...

First off, let me just state for the record that my head hurts AND I've partially lost my voice. Nice huh? Work Friday was mostly comprised of this extrememly long meeting with a client. Once that was over, I was back at the office cleaning my desk up for the open hours tours going on later today (Saturday). I took off early and went home to take a nap then get cleaned up for The Gala. I picked Ellen up and we made our way to the country club.

Wow. This event was pretty swank. It was held in a HUGE tent adjoining the club. The entry way was a tunnel filled with trees decorated with snow. I'm not talking a few trees, there were a LOT of trees. Hit the bar then started mingling. Did a lot of walking around, shaking hands, hugging, etc.

Dinner was fantstic. Filet mignon was the center piece. I had plenty of wine. By the way I feel this morning, I would say it was a little too much. Hopefully, I'll feel better after more rest. Met some wonderful people last night and made new friends. After the festivities started winding down, a few of us headed to the Brick for more drinks. Ran into Luke and his woman there. Pics on the way.

Dry weather for a change.

I enjoyed it today while I could. There's more rain moving into the area tonight so the dryness is short-lived. Had a great day at the office today! Started off by cruising over to Huntsville to take the remaining photos needed for a client project. While I was there, I stopped in at the mall to pick up some shirts that I should have picked up last Saturday when I was there. Luckily, what I wanted was still there in my size. When I came back to town, I joined up with Kev and his kid for a sub at Firehouse. Things were hoppin all afternoon getting things arranged for multiple website launches soon. I like it when I'm busy all day, makes things go by much quicker.

Had an issue with my pants today. To sum it up, I do NOT wear the same size dress pants that I wear in jeans. This bugs me why? A 34 in the waist size means 34" right? So why would a 34" in another pant be too big?!?! Anyways, I wear a 34 in jeans and a 33 in dress pants. Grrr. I went and saw Linda at Parisian to alter the pants in question. After that got fixed, I got another pair of dress pants as well in the CORRECT size. Sigh.

On a completely different note, Kay was not feeling well at all today. She's got an abcess tooth going on that won't get fixed till Tuesday. She was at the doctor yesterday when he tried a procedure to relive her discomfort... that didn't work. Quoting Kay to the Dr. "If I could get up out of this chair without help, I'd whup your ass". That was pretty dang funny. Hope she gets some relief soon. Her anti-biotics should be kicking in by now.

Had all sorts of people running around the office today getting it ready for the open house this Saturday. It's looking really nice and festive now. I'll probably stop in for a few minutes on my way to the party at Bernie's that evening. Pictures to come soon.

That was a good idea.

Taking a cue from Kyle, I thought it would be a good idea to post some pics of my office. Lesa was running around taking some pictures (for some reason) of the office and she sent me copies of them.

Holy crap it rained a LOT last night. I woke up around 4 or so to make sure Kelsey hadn't washed away out back. I found her tucked away in her doghouse watching the weather through her door. I went back to bed for a while longer then woke up to find that the rain had abated. I picked up some new windshield wipers at Wal-Mart last night and decided it was a good time to put those on.

Work was good today. Got several things accomplished on a variety of projects. Had lunch with Lesa then went over to the jewelry store with her to look at some ideas for a friend of hers. Ran into someone from the Matrix there that got a little nosey. Hmmm... Originally, the plan was to include Stacey but she had a pregnancy event related to a pop-up migraine. That's gotta suck.

Tonight is my last quiet night till... gee, I'm not sure when. I have band practice for the VBC thing tomorrow night, practice for Sunday music on Thursday, the Decatur General Gala on Friday, Arabian Horse Club party Saturday night (my good friends from Intergraph), small group Sunday night, Guad Monday night... and then more band practice for the VBC thing that coming Saturday.

I need a drink.

Karen at her desk in the reception area.

A peek into one of the offices.

A peek into the art department where all the magic happens.

Conference room view.

Conference room view.

Looking toward the front of the building from down the hall.

Bleah...

Just got through playing some HL2 and now I'm all dizzy and nauseus. I literally hate it when that happens. I try to make it a point not to play this early in the day or I run a very real risk of being sick THE WHOLE DAY. It can be that bad at times. Grrrr.

Switching gears for a moment... I had an epiphany while playing poker this weekend. Being competitive ALL the time is not a good thing. Ya gotta fold when your cards are crap. You can try bluffing and lucking out but more often than not, you'll find your chips adding to someone else's pile in these cases. The first couple of times I played I hosed up and tried making a play on every hand. STUPID. Good times hanging out with the fellas though.

Much soggyness.

Ok, the weatherman LIED. When I watched the news this morning, we were to allegedly have a high of 69. He called it "unseasonably warm". As a result, I left the house in a short-sleeved shirt and no jacket. Froze my butt off all morning. Met up with my sis for some lunch and made a side trip by the house to get into a long sleeved shirt and pick up a jacket. Much mo' betta.

Spent the afternoon on shooting pics for a client website. Should have that all wrapped up by tomorrow hopefully. That pretty much took care of the remainder of my afternoon.

Jo came over around 6 to help me with some sound stuff. She works at a semi-local studio and I needed her assistance with some miking questions I had. We got a lot of things accomplished and now I have a small project to try out an idea she passed along. When we were done, we grabbed some dinner then made a Wal-Mart run as I was out of a few things at the house. Cool girl. She was fun talking to. I wish I could make it to her gig this Friday but I've got the Dec. General Gala to go to that I can't miss. I'll try and make it to the next one though. Thanks for your help girl!

I think I'll play some Half Life 2 then call it a night.

Look! Clean nostrils!

The do-wop girls: L to R - Jordan, Meri, Elizabeth.

Little Kailyn (Kevin and Stacey's larvae).

2 sheep.

Eli, Jordan and Meri belting out some tunes. Kevin in the back thinking "Ooooo! Look at all the pretty lights and buttons!"

Kids around the manger.

It's raining. Again.

It was good to see Dave in church today back to 100% after being out sick last week. I had another infrequent opportunity to sit back and enjoy the service as I was off of drum duty this Sunday. I did get drafted to run the sound though. Not a problem.

After church, I ate lunch with a few folks over at Pizza Hut. It's been over a year since I've eaten there and I must say, it's improved. I trucked it over to the mall by myself as I was needing to pick up some more Christmas stuff as well as an item I was needing for myself.

Milled around the rest of the afternoon and tried to take a nap. I had some WEIRD dreams! Hmmm, maybe pizza wasn't such a good idea after all.

Back to church I went for the kids play and Christmas dinner. Great attendance! It was really encouraging to see the building COMPLETELY FULL. Took some pictures which I'll post momentarily barring any technical horkage. Kevin and I did bust out our Nintendo DS' for some head to head racing action. That wraps it up for today. It's raining out and it's time to pop in a DVD.

"That was a ballsy move..."

Did a little Christmas shopping Saturday as I worked on my short gift list. For once, I think I'm going to get all this done with time to spare. Met up with Scott and headed to Huntsville. First stop was The Humidor so I could restock on some of the Kahlua cigars I enjoy from time to time. I'm no smoker, but on occasion, I will indulge in one of these sweet tasting delights. I'm not into some of those other cigars that smell like you're smokin a turd. Scott checked out some interesting looking pipes but ended up holding off on the purchase. We went further on down the Parkway and stopped at a bike shop I had been meaning to visit and looked around. Checked out some cool bikes while I was there. Even Scott looks like he might be interested in getting into some cycling. I think pretty much me and my friends could all benefit from some physical activity.

Even FURTHER down the Parkway we went to Pride Entertainment to look at gaming supplies. Scott picked up a felt for the table we were going to play on and I got some plastic playing cards... for no apparent reason except for wanting them.

Back in town we made it to Parkway Place to get some new threads. I think we both got a few nice items before making our way back to Decatur. The evening ended with a really good game of Texas Hold 'Em. There were 8 of us playing tournament-style. Lot's of good plays were made as well as some, well, not so bright ones. In the end in was Heavy E in first, me in second, and Scott in third. E and I went back and forth on the last few hands but he finally got me.

Slept like crap when I got home.

Friday. FINALLY.

Thursday at work was good. I was busy setting up a heavy duty G2 Mac at the office. It was suprisingly easy! In the end, I had a printing problem to our color laser that I was scratching my head over. Also got a new 20" LCD widescreen display that I'm using with my laptop for the time being. It's an EXTREMELY nice display. Going to keep it there through our open house next week when we open the building up for the historical district tour.

Lesa made it into work today after several days of agonizing ear pain. After work we headed to Simp's for a drink and appetizers. Met Chuck from North Carolina. He's an inspector for Home Depot. He goes to new construction site to certify the drainage plan or something. Anyway, I suggested Leas's dish to him which he ordered. Seemed like a cool guy. I also ran into an old aquaintance of mine, Callie. She and her sister and mom were there grabbing something to eat. It's been years since I've seen her.

Today, I figured out the printing problem on the G5. Canon's printer drivers were the culprit. Glad I got all that done. I spent most of the rest of the day figuring our how a PERL script worked that does form mail. I did a test afterward that worked so I'm pretty jazzed about that.

For lunch, I met up with Bill and Ralph over at Edo's for some much needed sushi. It was nice catching up with them. We did spend a good bit of time discussing the health insurance shenanigans that are going on though over at my former employer. Let's just say that a lot of people aren't happy over there.

For dinner (my life apparently revolves around eating), I met up with Scott and The Burns clan at Dead Lobster. Kev had his Nintendo DS with him (I had mine too of course) so we played some games while waiting. After a delicious meal (clam chowder, glass of wine, crab-stuffed tilapia, broiled scallops, fried shrimp, loaded potato) we all went over to EB Games. I picked up a new racing game that Kev had showed me AND put a deposit down on Sony's upcoming handheld... the PSP. Scott and Kev followed suit. ;-)

Now John's literally switched to BRUSHES!

John showing me his brush technique. Cool stuff!

Talking about playing with Eric Johnson and G3.

Roscoe autographing my gig poster.

Bow chika bow bow...

Got a lot done at work today. Was in Huntsville briefly for a meeting then took the time to meet up with Bernie at Atlanta Bread Co. just like "the old days". Had to take the obligatory stroll through CompUSA where I picked up Spiderman 2 and a bunch of blank DVD's. Wrapped things up back at the office then met up with Ellen at the tuxedo place to pick my threads out for the gala next week. The basic tux was a little too generic so we kicked it up a notch (okay, several notches) to put a modern twist on things. After that, had dinner at the Guad. We parted ways and I headed to Emiron to catch the Fender thingy going on tonight. When I got there, Eric & Co. and Kyle and his roomies were already seated. I thought I recognized the bass player (Roscoe Beck - Eric Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Dixie Chicks) then it was confirmed to me where I had seen him... on the G3 DVD playing bass for Eric Johnson. Along with Roscoe was Greg Koch, an excellent guitarist and funny guy I might add. "I started playing when I was 12, then puberty hit and I had to rock!" Drumming for the duo was John Calarco who did a terrific job playing a variety of styles. I dug his brush work too.

Of course I had my camera... ;-)

Back to normal.

Woke up to a nice 66 degrees in the house this morning. When you're climbing out of bed, having it be cold is the least pleasant experience. My electric heaters got rid of the chill and I was off and running into my Monday. Lesa was out sick... poor thing. Has some kind of bad ear infection going on. Hopefully, she'll be well soon. Did some website maintenance work this morning then went home to meet up with Jon, the HVAC repairman. He got everything fixed for me (as you can see from the preceeding pics) and got my system cleaned up for winter. While he was wrapping up, my lawn people showed up to do their thing. So, I had 3 people in my yard running around doing stuff all at once - very cool. Went back to the office for a busy afternoon.

The Guad got punted tonight due to the fact that no one could make it. Not a problem as I had a few errands to run. For dinner, I stopped in at Chick-Fil-A. Meri was workin sellin birds. While I was checking out at Wal-Mart, I ran into Charlie S., the photographer that made the print on the wall next to my front door. Had a good time catching up with him. I'll probably get together and do some shooting with him soon. He's got some nice "toys" in his possession. Picked up the Creed Gratest Hits CD (with bonus DVD, LOL) and the new Harry Potter. I forgot to get that one last week.

Anyway, I'm so glad the heater repair thing wasn't a big deal. It definitely could have been worse for sure. Going to watch some TV then jump in the bed.

Now it's time for for these. ;-)

Jon buttoning things up.

Top view of the heat exchanger. These pipes are what gets heated by the gas jets.

Cleaning the "outside" coils.

Closer view of the culprit. BTW, if that blower motor on the bottom right went out (not the BIG HONKIN one on the left), it would have been $600+ to replace. Jon and I agreed that was "just a little" unreasonable. Sheesh! It's just an electric motor and a fan!

Jon, shown here cleaning the inside coils, got my unit working again then proceeded with the annual maintenance. The circuit board on the upper right side of the unit (with all the wires running to it) was what had malfunctioned and only needed to be reset.

As a result of my gas unit problems yesterday, this was parked in front of my house today.

Crappy Crapperson

Ok, first the bad news - the gas heating system at my house has seen fit to crap out on me. This after about 10 years. Something appears to be fubar with the ignition system. Luckily for me, it's not getting too cold tonight. Also in my favor is that I have a waterbed which of course, is heated. I've got some extra electric heaters that I brought in from my storage shed so that I won't freeze my hiney off in the morning. Sigh. I hope to get everything sorted out tomorrow though. Just crap-tacular.

Aside from that minor malfunction, today was great! Music seemed to go well this morning with all the acoustic stuff. Kevin read a stirring message to us (LOL!) before we headed to Applebee's with a BIG group for lunch. Punted VBC gig practice until Tuesday night so I was free in the afternoon. For dinner, 8 of us went over to Macaroni Grill and enjoyed a supremely delicious meal. That was a great way to wrap up a long holiday weekend for sure. Yum.

Blah.

In one word, "blah" describes the weather today.

What did I accomplish today?

• Cleaned out my fridge (wiped off shelves, washed the drawers, etc.)
• Went to band practice - played my djembe
• Visited the ABC store and picked up some liquor - nothing major, just some nice after-dinner type drinks
• Ate at Logan's
• Played drums
• Watched TV

That pretty much sums up my day. Winding it up with some blogging before heading to bed.

And oh yeah...

It's been several years since my days in retail but I'm still SO thankful that I'm no longer a part of that annual debacle. Getting to work at dark-thirty in the morning, snarfing up lunch standing up, straightening things out after the morning rush and then getting ready for the next day's onslaught. It was a crazy time.

But anyway...

I had originally planned to get up early and pick up some USB memory keys as gifts for co-workers but the getting up early part didn't happen. When I DID finally make it out, both Staples and Office Depot were out of the 1GB keys I was looking for. Crapola. I didn't have an alternate gift in mind (yet) so I said the heck with that and went over to EB Games to see what was shakin over there. Still no Nintendo DS when I was there in the afternoon, but I went ahead and picked up some games for it in addition to some of those arcade games you plug directly into your TV. One of the ones I got had Galaga on it. That's my all-time favorite arcade game. I started playing that one in middle-school and was hooked on it ever since. Nick, my buddy at EB, had a few DS units that were waiting to be picked up. He gave them until 6:00 to get them or else he'd sell them to me and Kevin - we were next on the list anyway. As you can tell from the pic below, I've got mine in-hand. I called Kev from EB to see what they were doing for dinner and they had pretty much decided they would stay home and put up Christmas lights and other decorations and tried to convince me to pick something up and eat it over there. You could hear Kevin in the background (I was on the phone with Stacey) protesting getting out. I grinned and mentioned that there was a DS with his name on it at EB and that I already had mine. They were there in 15 minutes. LOL!

Had a good time at dinner for the most part. Kev and I were in full geek mode as we had our DS's out playing Metroid over a wireless link. Pretty sweet stuff.

SCOTT: Go ahead and get your DS like we discussed. "It's time"

Picked up one of my Christmas presents to myself yesterday...

Pictures!

Finally got off my butt and uploaded some pictures from my trip to Atlanta last month for the Alterbridge concert. Big thanks to John and Tera for their hospitality. We took some fun pictures on the day we headed back at a nearby town. Someone tell me the name of it because I forgot. Whoops.

Eric in front of his bling shop.

Scott in front of his bookstore.

John and Tera's homestead.

John and Tera, our hosts while in Atlanta.

Me and Ed Sloan, the lead singer for Crossfade. Met him after the concert loading up their gear.

Humans 1, Turkeys 0

Thanksgiving day was largely uneventful for me until later on in the evening. Played on the drums a little, watched some TV... basically slipped into neutral for the most part. I joined the Burns for "The" meal. Kevin and Stacey put together a delicious meal - thanks for letting me be a part of that. In the process I got to use an electric knife to carve the turkey. K, I'm gonna have to get one of those.

After dinner, we watched a Friend's episode (the one with the backpacking story) then popped in the latest Harry Potter. I had seen it in the theater already but they hadn't. It was a good bit darker than the previous movies but enjoyable. Got a call from Lesa that they were pulling up to the party she had invited me to. There were a LOT of people over there! Met several interesting characters as well. Shot some pool, drank some Corona, observed the bra hanging from the light fixture...

Partygoer 1: "Looks like a Bali (bra)"
Partygoer 2: "I think it's Vanity Fair"
PG1: "Oooo... it IS Vanity Fair, very good. NOW, is it an outlet one?"
PG2: "How can you tell?"

I was watching all this unfold right in front of me. I was pretty amused as you can imagine. Oh, met a girl from Madison named Stephanie. She was there with 2 of her sisters. Her parents live in New Zealand. We talked about that for a bit then about Madison. She had just moved there a few months ago. Probably going to go out and do something with her soon.

Brrrr.

Just went outside to bring my bowling stuff in and it's windy, cold and rainy. Winter's here! Of course it got up past 70 today but that's how it goes. Plenty got done at the office today and as a result, we're taking Friday off. Four day weekend!!! Lesa and I went to lunch today at El Portal then stopped off at the bookstore for latte's and a book she was hunting for. We realized that we're like a couple but without drama and well... some other things. LOL! Seriously though, she's a good friend, fun to be around and has a good sense of humor.

Oh, in an unrelated discussion, the phrase "camouflage thong" was used by a co-worker. This was followed in close proximity by "my man's a hunter"... I was laughing so hard I had to leave my office. Later on, I alluded to this in ANOTHER conversation (with different people) making the one who said it uncomfortable. To top it all off, Lesa (she's not the one that said it BTW but unbekownest to me, she was hip to the story) looked at me, winked and said "Bang! Bang!" while making a gun with her fingers. TOO funny!

Hope all my friends and family have an enjoyable Thanksgiving. Ya'll take care.

What's that smell? Oh, it's me...

Punted the B'ham trip after Lesa reminded me that the Iron Bowl was going on this weekend. The traffic for that PLUS the closed bridge at malfunction juction on the way INTO B'ham would have made the trip longer than I was willing to wait. Staying home was fine with me anyway since I was out kinda late the previous night handing out money.

Spent the day getting things done around the house and taking a nap. The Morgans picked me and Scott up then made our way to Madison to start the evening festivites. First stop was bowling. I like the lanes at the Madison alley because they're as close to perfect as you can find. Bowling in Decatur is akin to rolling your ball down the street. Even worse than that, the alley in Hartselle is like rolling your ball down a gravel road. It's been years since I bowled but I dug out all my bowling gear from back in my league days. Suprisingly, I was able to get adjusted by the end of the first game. My second game was going well but our hour rental time expired and we were pretty hungry. Went to Sushi-Boat for some, well, sushi. Scott was a trooper and tried all sorts of things. Big props to him for not saying "ewwwwww" or anything like that.

After enjoying our last few breaths of clean air, we descended into The Station to watch our buddies in Sister Luck play. Kerry was playing the gig with them (remember the blue Ludwigs I blogged about a while back? those are his) and we were gonna cheer him on. Put my earplugs in and I was good to go. They put on a good show. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we had a great time. Ran into a few girls I knew there that were actually older than me for a change. That was different. 2 cigars and 5 Corona's later, I was done for the evening. Smelled like an ashtray. You know when your hair gets so inundated with smoke that when you move your head around you can smell it? Yup, it was bad.

Sunday greeted me with rain. That's all I need to kink up my wig. I ran a little behind as I set my alarm clock later than I should have. Still, I made it to church and was ready before anyone had to wait on me. Good crowd there today despite the weather. Jack A. did a good job with the message. Music went well... no malfunctions that I could tell although "The Butcher" said he messed something up in Fragile Breath. I didn't catch it though.

Lunch was at Ruby Tuesday's. Kailyn was in an unusual mood. She was spazzing out and me and Kyle had the same look on our face... "What the heck is she doing?" It was funny though. Stacey wasn't feeling too well. You could tell by the look on her face, she was an unhappy camper. Hope she feels better for longer periods of time soon. Lunch was a bit chaotic as there was some sort of malfunction going on in the kitchen. Luckily, nothing could have really messed up my lunch because of "The Reason".

Back to the church for band practice. That went quickly. When that was done, I made my way over to the mall to pick up the pants I had bought last Monday. While I was picking them up, I mentioned to Kristin (Parisian worker-bee) that there seemed to be a lot of people in the store. It turns out that it was customer appreciation day and everyone got an extra 20% off. DANG IT! Time to do more shopping. Got some shoes, a shirt and some jammies. Heh.

Oooo... got a nice bonus in the mail - my rebate for my BlackBerry arrived! Sweet! It actually covered most of the shopping I did today. I LIKE IT.

Save me a spot on the couch...

Didn't fare too well in poker tonight... I was the first one out this evening. I had some good hands but unfortunately, they weren't the BEST hands. As such, I ran out of chips first. Per the rules, I dealt until the next person got put out (that would be Westopher) then piled up on the sofa to watch "The Girl Next Door". Decent flick.

Calling it a night. I'm pooped.

T.G.I.F.

Finally... Friday is here. This means band practice was last night. That went well AND fast. Afterwards, went to Applebee's to grab a bit to eat. I ordered the salmon... it's NOTHING like what you would get at Macaroni Grill. The MG version makes the AB version seem like a bad microwave meal. I will NOT be having that again. I should have stuck with the appetizer sampler which they appear to have trouble messing up (not that they haven't tried).

Work was busy today. Plenty of irons in the fire for sure. Spent part of my lunchtime getting my wig cut then picked up some Irish fast food (McDonald's) and ate it at home. Back to the office for a conference call then off to the coffee shop for a Grande Mocha with the boss.

Poker time's coming up in a bit. I may lay down for a short nap then find me something to eat before heading over. Looks like me and Lesa will be going to B'ham tomorrow to go bike seat shopping, Summit browsing, and P.F. Chang eating. Should be back in time to go to The Station in Madison to check out Sister Luck playing. Kerry will behind his transparent blue Ludwig cannons. Should be good!

Ciao, baby.

Yup, I'm one of them.

I suppose that E's comment to "screw off" was directed at me for removing the link to his blog. That's all well, good and somewhat of a surprise (considering it was coming from a friend)- but when I read the "I'm gone" message this morning, that pretty much indicates that link's going to go bye-bye to me. Do I ask why? No, because if someone chooses to do something with "This is my blog... My thoughts.. My desires.. My dreams.. My pain.." then it's not my issue. In the blog world, all I care about is that my links are live.

Oh, here's what I'm quoting from in case something happens to it:

"Nov.17, 2004
I decided to do some weird, freaky, shit to my blog and some of you took it as an indication to remove my link from your blog... No emails, no calls, no "hey what's going on with your blog". Only 2 people ask me what was going on. "Are you ok", "is there something I can help you with", "Are you going to shoot yourself in the face?"
This is my blog... My thoughts.. My desires.. My dreams.. My pain.. If you don't like it.. Don't read it.. take the link off your blog... There are people all over the world who want to know what is going on in Reggae Eric's life. The rest of you screw off.
Kisses and Hugs"

Another day, another couple of bucks.

Got word from a friend of mine back at Intergraph that they now have to pay for their health insurance. For a single person, the cost is fairly negligible but for someone married with kids, it's a whole 'nother story. To add insult to injury, they just got their raises not too long ago and for a lot of people, the new insurance "policy" erases that... or worse. Dang.

Today was busy at the office. Kay still hasn't grasped my penchant for not talking much the first hour I'm there. I kinda have to get up to speed before I transition from the one word answers you get from me between 8 and 9. Here's a sample:

K: What did you do last night?
J: Housework.
K: I like your shirt.
J: Thanks.
K: Are you mad at me?
J: No.
K: Are you sure?
J: (sighs)

Lesa's hip to the system though:

L: Yo brutha'.
J: Sup.

An hour later:

L: Drinkin a Dew yet?
J: Not yet.
L: K

See? Much mo betta.

Speakin of her, had Mexican for lunch today then browsed through the bookstore for a book on Flash she was wanting. I bought lunch and she picked up some latte's for us while we were looking around. She's a good friend... no issues, no emotional weirdness - just cool to be around.

Finished the afternoon off with a creative meeting then headed home to... do laundry. Whites and dark colors for those of you keeping up with my washing schedule. Next laundry session will probably encompass towels and jeans. Kev ended up picking me up and we headed over to Publix to consolidate a grocery trip. King crab legs were on sale for $11.99 a pound so I got a couple of pounds of those. While there, I took the time to look closely at everything they as I plan to get my cooking back up to speed. Lots of recipies I have call for unusual or unique items that Publix seems to have when the other stores don't. Picked up a bottle of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay as well - I usually have a glass of that when I'm at Macaroni Grill if it's appropriate for the dish I'm having. Oh, I also found the orzcho pasta that the grilled salmon (at Mac Grill) is served with. Cool! I just need to make up some of that honey glaze and I can make one of my favorite dishes at home - grilled honey-glazed salmon.

Was bidding on an eBay item and was planning on sniping it in the last 10 seconds. THEY ADDED AN EXTRA STEP IN THE BIDDING PROCESS THAT WASN'T THERE BEFORE. Subsequently, I lost out on the bidding becasue time ran out before I could click on all the stupid buttons. Such is life though.

It's late and as usual, time for bed.

Monday? Again?

Not a whole lot to report from today. Kay, who shares an office with me for now, is realizing that I'm not all that talkative the first few minutes of the day. All I want is peace and quiet to get my technology up and running and some solitude as review my planner notes to get my day in order. That's all I want.

Met up with the crew for the Guad. I'm sticking with my Corona's now instead of margaritas as again, I like to get other things accomplished during the remainder of the evening instead of just draggin around feeling lethargic. I needed to pick up another pair of "nice" khaki dress pants so I visited "L" over at Parisian. She hooked me up with some that were on sale plus slapped an additional 15% off for good measure. Then she told me she needed a new job that paid more. I asked her two questions:

1) Can you dance?

2) Are you allergic to brass?

If you had been there, it was a lot funnier than what you would think. Strolled on down to Sears and looked at TV's (Dave's fault for getting me interested in them) then over to the T-Mobile shop to stop and talk to Erica. That wrapped up the social activity.

Spent time at home filing receipts and boxing up some of my old Cisco books that were cluttering my office. I still have more to put in storage or throw away but I'll continue to chip away at it daily. I'm going to consciously try to stay off my computer when I'm at home as much as I can because I seem to just waste a lot of time on there not actually doing anything when I COULD be getting things accomplished around the house.

Hmmm... I need more bath towels. That was a random thought for sure. I need to add that to my shopping list. While on the shopping topic, can you believe it's almost Christmas again!?! Suprisingly, I like this time of the year even as a single guy. Some singles get all bummed out around this time but thankfully for me, it's no big deal. Wouldn't turn down an opportunity to NOT be single if the right woman came along though. Oh, I got off topic. I need to go towel shopping.

These random thought changes are Scott's fault. SEE??? Aqua Teen Force has struck again.

Oh yeah. That's what I was needing.

Suprisingly, the music went pretty well this morning. I even got Kevin's Tourette's syndrome to act up. LOL! Actually, he was wanting me to cut off playing but he was too late with his spastic hand waving for me to cut off smoothly so I just kinda faded out. I think the idea with "the signal" is to be subtle, not to have a grand mal seizure. All kidding aside, there were no train wrecks. Big crowd at lunch today at Firehouse. After eating, I ran home to print out my music for the afternoon practice for the VBC gig. That was a bit rocky, but towards the end things were much improved. We'll get it. It'll just take a few practices for us to gel since the guitarist and bassist playing with us for the gig are different from the usual supects (Kyle and Heavy E).

Small group was differnt tonight. Phillip made it out in addition to several others. We had talked about an acoustic music night this evening and everyone remembered to bring their respective instruments along with them. My djembe was EXACTLY what I was needing for nights like this. It sounded great!!! Deep tone with crackin' highs. It was easy on the hands too. I like it much better than playing bongos or even congas. Played everything from worship songs to 80's tunes. Later on, we ended up watching a few episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. My IQ has again taken a beating.

Me bLog you long time...

Action packed day today. Met up at the Burns to load up and head for Nashville. It was Jack's first time seeing Kevin's decision process play out. I think Jack asked me numerous times, "what's he doin?". Granted, Stacey's pregnant and a little unstable these days but when you throw it all in the mix, it's some comical stuff. We finally hit the road though after several gyrations.

The first stop was Joe's Crab Shack where we feasted on soft-shelled crab. There was some sort of drink special going on and Scott and Eric were taking advantage of it. Jack joined in as well but as usual, Corona's were regular price. Oh well. Stacey was trying to find a shirt for Kailyn - I was hoping she would get one that said "Don't be a pecker" or "I got crabs at Joe's" but no luck. That would be some funny stuff on a 2 year old.

Guitar Center was next. Eric was feeling on some hard cases while I was deciding on what size djembe I was going to get. Finally settled on a 14" one. After taking that to the car, Asian #2 and I walked over to CompUSA so I could get an iTrip for my iPod. The Belkin TuneCast transmitter I had been using was a piece of trash and I needed to get something better. While we were there, I talked one of the employees, Maggie, into doing a commercial for the Mickey Mouse PC while Kyle video taped with his camera phone.

Headed over to Fork's where I picked up an extra set of heads for my drums at home and a small part for one of my pedals. They were pretty busy in there. Walked next door to check out a sub that was on sale. Most everyone volunteered to pitch in to help get it but in the end we decided to wait and see if Jack's friend could get us a better deal on all the pieces we need. Hopefully, we'll soon be "with sub".

The Burns/Spooner crowd had to head back early for something but since we had extra cars, me Scott, Eric and Kyle went into town to shoot pool and walk around. Pool was free and draft beer was $2.00 till 6... almost 2 hours away. They had neither of my preferences on tap - Corona or Fosters so I tried Amber Bock. I think that made Scott happy to see me drink a dark beer for once. It tasted... different. Almost buttery. It was okay but it didn't change my favorites. Strolled down to this other brewery/restaurant establishment and had dinner. Had some jalapeno cheese dip that was incredible! Good call Scott. Also had some pepperoni pizza that reminded me of an old scratch and sniff book I had as a child that had a little pizza scratch-off thingy. So, I had a WAY back moment. We walked around some more then headed to Cool Springs mall so Scott could holler at an old budd that works there. I thought I was finished spending money for the day until I saw this really cool watch at Buckle. It's got a wide black leather band on it with a rectangular watch face. The cool thing about it is that the background of the watch is the Matrix Code. After more walking around we finally called it a day and headed for the house.

THAT's the way to spend a Saturday.

Oh, if "TP" is reading this, thanks for visiting! ;-)

Gray day.

It's a gray day outside today. A bit blah if you ask me. It's definitely better than the monsoon conditions we had last night though. It was a fun day at the office as I spent most of the day shooting video for a client's website. For a few shots, I needed a subject who was CLEARLY a teenager - luckily, Jordan was available and stepped up to the plate. Ended up doing 3 shots with her in addition to the dozen or so other ones. Kyle's going to do the cutting and resizing for us. Very cool.

Band practice was good. Pam was back on the mic again just like old times. Jack S. joined us on stage and did a good job with his parts. The new songs were a little rough around the edges but hopefully our pattern of sucking at practice then shining on Sunday will hold true. Afterwards we all went to O'Charleys for dinner and drinks. Suprisingly, my food was good. Wrapped things up at home and settled into bed a little earlier than usual.

Made our plans to go to Nashville this Saturday - good crowd, Eric, Kevin, Jack and I will be heading out then meeting Scott and Kyle up there. I expect we'll have a great time.

On a more serious note, been reading my friends blogs like I always do. The majority of them have kind of a depressing tone to them. I sure hope everything turns the corner and folks lighten up. It would suck to carry that feeling into the holidays. Can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving already. Sheesh.

Meetangs...

Lots of meeting going on these days at work. "That a good thing" as Martha would say. Hopefully, plenty of business will come out of all this.

For lunch, Lesa and I went over to Currie's where I had the chicken dumplings and she had a BLT. She saw one of her old co-workers from Southern Living who happened to be in town to do a photo shoot somewhere. What a small world. Back at the office I worked on a storyboard for a clients website then took a break with Lynn to get a mocha latte at Laginapp's. Mmmm... Finished off the day checking to be sure the office tape backup system was set to clean itself every 75 hours of operation. Met up with Lesa & Co. at Simp's for drinks then crossed town to Red Lobsta for dinner with the Burns.

Back at the house now. Drummed for a bit. Going to clean up the kitchen a little then watch more of my Friends DVD. Oh, got an email from a buddy that had a question about my laundry antics. I know I'm often doing laundry, so let me break it down for ya:

I wash separately:

Whites
Dark Colors
Jeans
Towels
Specialty things that need washing by themselves
Sheets

I dry everything separately typically on low so they don't get over dried and "linty"... I don't like getting the surface of my clothes worn and have little pills build up on them.

I also don't wait until I have a large load to clean before doing laundry. Most of the time when you wash and dry a large load, you've got lots of ironing to do because the large load squishes everything together increasing the wrinkles. Some items are a bitch to iron also. Some things that are impossible for a human to iron I just send to the cleaners where they have machines that get the job done.

Things that I don't send to the cleaners, I iron. You can tell when someone leaves something in the dryer then just puts it on. I do not want to be that person if I can help it. Got a little anal one time and ironed some of the t-shirts I wear under my business clothes. That was not worth the effort. I just fold that crap right away and it turns out good enough to do the job. Most items look better if they're ironed inside-out. That keeps the surface of the fabric from getting shiny or looking lighter in color than they should be. This is especially evident on dark knit shirts. It all depends on the fabrics though.

Wow. That was a lot of info.

Rollin, rollin, rollin...

Awesome weather outside today, a tad bit cool at the beginning but warming up nicely. Got the Cullman and Huntsville appointments out of the way and I was also able to stop off at Best Buy to get the Friends Season 8 DVD set then to Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick up my ultra-fly waffle maker. Slapped down my 20% off coupon and scored a deal. I've been wanting one of these ever since I used one (repeatedly I might add...) at the hotel in Indy where I made waffles every morning.

Sorry to hear Kev's got the funk... seems to be going around though. Lesa had the funk today too but toughed it out and came in around noon. Hope everyone gets to feeling better soon. Doing laundry (again) and gonna watch some TV and drum. Ta Dow.

Oh, congrats to my racing buddy from my old workplace. I understand one of his friends/sponsors has bought Tony Stewart's (NASCAR Home Depot Team) 2002 Watkins Glen/Sears Point race car! How cool is that? This particular car was constructed for these road course tracks as they differ from the oval track cars. This one is more of an all-purpose car. I'm gonna have to go check this out for myself.

My stomach's growling...

Today was a little different at the office. No Kay-ism's to report as she was in a bit of a funk. Didn't hear anything about Rochelle either. She's busy running the old hotel the church used to meet at almost two years ago now. Hard to believe it's been that long since we were there. Time is flying. Did several software updates today, 2 of which were on the server. Those seemed to go without a hitch which is always a good thing. Ate lunch with Lesa and Lorri at Firehouse. I'm really liking that place. Very good food. Lesa bought my lunch today which was nice. That was unexpected.

Back at the office I worked on some client stuff and got ready for some meetings I have tomorrow. Looks like I'll be starting the day off in Cullman then finish off the afternoon in Huntsville. It's much better when you have a day full of meetings. Things go by much quicker.

It's Monday so that means it's Guad night... or so I thought. Kevin and I had a misunderstanding as I thought we had agreed that he would call me *when* they left for the Guad so I could just go over and meet them there. I was still at work (which we discussed - doing those updates that would require rebooting the server) and was going to stay until I heard they had left. I got done and headed toward home figuring I'd dress down if I hadn't heard from him yet. Got home, started a load of laundry, worked on my PC, washed dishes, watched Friends and then realized, "why am I still hungry?". Pick up the phone and find out Special K is having grilled cheese at his house and thought he would call me *if* they left, not when. Nice.

Ended up going by the post office to pick up my mail then to the gas station to fill up on FREAKIN $28 WORTH OF GAS. Picked up some food at Captain D's then took it to the crib. Ate, did ANOTHER load of laundry, watched TV and played drums for awhile. It's getting late again so as usual, time for bed.

Well, you hit "something"...

Man! What a glorious day in Alabama! Crisp tempertures and blue skies. A PERFECT fall day. I actually woke up early and was able to take my time getting ready for church. I spent part of the morning getting my light timers all updated with the daylight savings thing and changed the location of where some were plugged in. I also discovered that one bank of power outlets do not have their ground properly connected. Grrr. Gonna have to get an electrician over to fix that. Now that I think about it, I have another electrical thing I need looked at as well. If you're wondering how I discovered this, I plugged in one of my APC power strips and it indicated "site wiring fault". It doesn't tell you the problem though. That's what this other doo-hickey I have is for. That's where I found out about the ground.

Church went suprisingly well despite some trepidation about the music. After reading Eric's blog, I see I wasn't the only one feeling this way. As usual, things came together pretty well even with Kyle "The Butcher" playing his part (LOL). Don't worry, we all have our off days and he knew today was his. I looked over at Eric a couple of times with that "ewwwwwww...." look and we laughed as we played. It was all good. Funny thing is the "Fragile Breath" song which had me all twisted up when we played it during church went flawlessly when we played it again when people were leaving. That's how it goes I guess.

Okay, gotta rant a little bit. We've got to get our poop in a group when it comes to lunch plans on Sundays. I tried to get Kevin to start thinking about where to go eat and wouldn't you know it? He picked today to start listening to Dave's message. Not that he would have made a decision anyway. Fast forward an hour later - STACEY makes the call to go to Logan's. The Butcher heads out the door to get a table. Unfortunately, arriving at a restaurant at 12:30 on a Sunday afternoon is not the best time to get timely seating. What we need to do is decide where we want to go either before church or immediately after and then have someone go directly to the chosen restaurant to save us a spot. It's not like we don't know this already... we eat out EVERY Sunday for lunch. Ranting done.

After a rushed lunch which I didn't finish, I picked up Jeff then Jack to head over to Swan Creek to shoot. The place was pretty packed but we got a good spot and had two end tables to ourselves. Jack had his new Glock with him that had a nice laser sight on it. He also had his .357 and a few long guns. I brought along my Sigs. Jeff had a .270 WinMag, SKS, and another gun chambered in .308. He wanted me to try the SKS. My shoulder is now bruised. That gun needs a better recoil pad on it. I didn't have fun shooting that gun. He then wanted me to try the .270 which I declined as I was concerned about my shoulder. We skinny folk don't do too well with heavy recoil/no recoil pad combinations. I stuck with the pistols the rest of the afternoon. I think I went through about 200 rounds of .45 overall. I didn't get my 9mm out so I'd have one less gun to clean afterwards. Called it a day as the sun was setting and we packed up and headed home. Found out Jeff used to race cars back in the day. Had some heavy hitters too... like over 900hp at the rear wheels. Of course this engine was just a tick under 500ci and running 13.5 compression. Yowza.

Had a good time over at the Burns for small group. The crabs, which we have now figured out how to do properly, were excellent. Scott showed up and got us all laughing with his Meatwad impersonation. Have a nice time discussing some things then a good time of prayer afterwards. Watched some of the Dave Matthews Central Park DVD so Kerry could check it out then called it a night and went home.

A whole weekend without taking a nap. That's not natural.

That's gonna damage the boys...

Bought a bike off of Kevin so that I'll be able to go riding with my co-workers. Lesa, Lynn and Luke, besides having first names that start with the letter "L", also ride bikes in the NE area of town. Not really the best of seasons to buy one since I won't get much use of it in the cold. I did get to ride a bit around my yard then up and down the street some. But, as my title alluded to, I'll need to get a more testicle-friendly seat. Not being gross, just being realistic. Anyway, this was an inexpensive way to try out cycling to see if it's something that I'd have an interest in. Instead of going all out on a really NICE bike then deciding cycling wasn't for me, I can try this one out. It's pretty decent actually.

Let's see... today I fooled around with my home theater stuff a little. I was trying to get better bass out of my sub and figured I'd try some new locations for it. There was a lot of grunting on my part as I lugged it around the room. I had my sound meter to calibrate things once I got settled. The meter is to make sure the output of all the channels is balanced. You can do it without a meter but I doubt your results would be "right". You may not care OR be too lazy to do it right, but I'll take the time as it's worth it to me.

Kerry came over earlier today for me to see what I could do with his drums. He has some 1978 vintage Ludwig Vistalites. VERY NICE DRUMS. One problem though - they sound like crap. It might have something to do with him not changing the heads in 25 years. Hmmm. Slapped some of my retired heads on there and got things sounding MUCH better. The design of the drums is typical of the era... no resonant (bottom) heads. Except for the 18" floor tom which DID have a 2nd head. Not sure why they only did that one drum. He was very appreciative of my help. I was glad to do it. I'll try and help a brutha out if I can.

Heading to the Burns in a little while to steam up some crab. Yum.

Eh, politics.

I'm glad the elections are finally over. Like I mentioned previously, I have my own set of issues that concern me and went for the guy whose thoughts on the subjects most closely resembled mine. Unless you have plenty of time on your hands, I don't think you can really know politics - it all boils down to people doing things to either benefit themselves or the people they represent or a combination of the two and you don't really know what the outcome is going to be. Let's say for moment that I understand politics. Did that change anything? Oh, looks like that seafood promotion amendment I voted for went through. Yay for me, I like seafood.

Had lunch with Kay today at Cracker Barrel where we had a good time crackin' jokes and making fun of each other. Saw Eli on the way back to the office. Stayed busy all afternoon. After work, Lesa wanted to go sit and talk about some work stuff so we rolled over to Cafe 113 for a drink and appetizer. FROZE MY BUTT OFF IN THERE. Went home afterwards to thaw out. Reheated my leftovers from Red Lobster yesterday and had that for dinner. Gave what I couldn't finish to Kelsey who was very appreciative of the treat. Worked on that new song for church this Sunday. Not too sure I can play that spot-on in such a short time. I'll do my best though.

Time for bed.

All in all, a good day.

Guad was good Monday night - it was the core group of 3 white people, 2 asians, and 2 kids. After eating, we did our usual mall walk. Chatted with Sarah and Rachel down at the music store then made our way over to Parisian's to look around. Pretty uneventful. To add to an even more uneventlful night, I was in bed by 9:30. Slept GREAT however.

Tuesday I swung by the polls on the way to work. I was third in line in the M-Z line. The A-L line was MUCH longer though with about 40 or so folks in line. I got in and out in just a few minutes. Kudos to the old folks running the polling joint for being so efficient.

Had a meeting right off the bat at the office which went well. Ate a late lunch with Lesa at Dead Lobster. Our waiter was new AND he sucked so he had two strikes going against him. Food was great in the end so that balanced things out. The remainder of the afternoon kept me busy as I was researching search engines and how to advertise on them. After work, Lesa and I headed to Simps for some drinks. I had bought lunch earlier so Lesa picked up my tab this evening. I'm tellin you what, she's one of the coolest people to hang around. Gonna have to add her to my Christmas list. I have a box of food left over from lunch which I might reheat later or maybe have for lunch tomorrow. What I ordered seemed like a good idea at the time but turned out to be WAY too much food when it got put in front of me.

Came home and drummed a little. I think I'm going to chill out and watch the returns for awhile before turning in. It sure felt good to get a full 8 hours sleep last night. Let's do that again.

Good food, good times.

Spent Friday evening eating dinner at AB's with the Burns. Unfortunately, Mr. Leatherman was in the vicinity which was the only thing to interrupt a pleasant dining experience. While the food was suprisingly good, our waiter was slow. It's just hard to get a good combination of positive factors going in any of the local restaurants around here. Simp's is pretty good in that respect but that's even skewed because I know people there. I still think they would do a better job of serving customers there though.

The grand plan for Saturday was to head to Nashville. That fizzled out mainly because the Burn's had to be back for the trunk or treat thing at church. Having to be back by a certain time kinda puts a damper on enjoying being out of town. Looks like that trip might be happening next week at any rate so that's cool. Ended up going to Huntsville instead. Had a GREAT lunch at Macaroni Grill. Hands down that is some of the best Italian food to be had around here. MUCH better than Olive Garden IMO. Service was excellent as well as the food quality. Very consistent over there. I don't recall having anything remotely resembling a bad experience there.

Checked out the hhGregg store. It's a good place to go if you're in the market for large appliances but it's not the electronics variety store like Best Buy. Headed to BB next where I picked up a CD player for my living room. My old Denon player was so old that it didn't have an optical output on it so I though it might be time to get something newer. I had been using the old one back in my drum room as a practice tool when I hook my in-ears up to it.

Spent the evening hooking things up in the entertainment cabinet and watching part of the Master and Commander DVD I borrowed. Conked out after that.

Church went well. I got no feedback on the sound so I can only assume it was "as usual". Eric's kid Heidi was playing the bongos and congas. I'm pretty sure her hands are sore from doing that. That's rough for even me. She could have benefitted from a mic and IEM's though so she could hear herself. Scott, did you bring home your IEM receiver again? ;-) I felt kinda bad for her because I know how loud the drums are.

Lunch was at Firehouse Subs. Tasty stuff. We're going to have to add them on the dining rotation for sure. Good food reasonably priced.

Next stop was Home Depot to stock up on batteries (aziz). Picked up 2 packs of 9v for my IEM receiver and a 24 pack of AA's for remote controls and such. Also got some yard chemicals to winterize my... dirt. I should have better luck on the yard next year with more sunshine being able to reach it now that I have 5 less trees covering the place.

Took a short nap and woke up confused as it was dark outside... I thought it was Monday morning, Sunday night, or somewhere in between. Nice. Sat up and found a pounding headache strapped to my head. Where did THAT come from? Made some dinner and watched some tube. I felt much better after eating. Finished up Master and Commander. That was a good flick. I'd give it a 7.

Time for bed. Busy week ahead.

One's bigger than the other I think...

The above comment came as a result of one of my co-workers getting bit on the @ss by a red wasp hiding in her robe. That's a rude awakening right there let me tell ya. She's apparently pretty allergic to them and had some swelling. Unfortunately for her, I got wind of her situation before she told me so as usual, I took advantage of the situation. "Um, is your right cheek bigger than your left one for some reason?" Yes, it was as funny as you could imagine it.

I too had a rough morning. Woke up dizzy, almost nauseus. It wasn't a sick to my stomach thing but more of an inner-ear type deal. That sucked. I was just going to lay in bed and go into work later but I thought I'd at least eat some breakfast and try getting ready for work to see if that improved things. Well, now I was all ready to go and it would be too much of a hassle to get back into bed so I went on to work. I felt crappy up until about lunchtime and then things went back to normal. Sup wif dat?

Spent the day working on I.T. stuff but still found time to do some client work as well. They're not used to any kind of network security at the office so there's a lot of bitching going on when people have to log in to use certain resources and they also get all twisted up when they can't get to other people's files like they used to. A little network security is a good thing as we go forward. They'll be some kicking and screaming for sure but we'll all make it through once I explain everything. I've still got lots to learn about OSX (the OS running on the server) so it's a learning curve for all of us.

Band practice went well. Everyone had a good time for the most part. Sound board was jacked up again (as is the norm) and Kev had to make corrections for the vocals. The drums actually looked less jacked up than normal as they weren't sitting on zero as is the custom of our people. Kev's buddy Andrew joined up with us for some eats at Ruby's. Apparently, they're friends from school. Seemed like a good guy. Dude could hide some groceries though. Man, if I ate like him, I'd look like a grown-up by now.

Looks like there's gonna be another poker night next Friday. I wonder if I'll be making a donation to Wes again like last time? I'm going to have to review the various poker hands so I can tell if I've got something other than the easy stuff... 2, 3, 4 of a kind, 2 or 3 pairs, flushes and stuff like that. Helps to know the rules for sure.

Think I'm gonna go crash now.

Where'd that rain come from?

Another busy day at the office. My server looks to be running as it should. I also had a chance to poke around the GUI a little more and found the server monitoring tools I was looking for. Still, I hope I can find something I can use on the Windows platform to view it instead of needing something running the Mac OSX. Had a few meetings this morning in Huntsville. At lunch, ate at a new place called Sazio's over in 5 points. It's kind of like a smaller Macaroni Grill. It's a cool environment. The bar area looks VERY nice from what I saw of it. Might have to get the brewski crew to head over there for a few one night soon and take it all in.

Had to run a few errands after work. Talked to Rochelle for awhile as she wasn't feeling too good due to some sort of sinus malfunction. Poor thing. I know what that crap feels like.

Not too much else to report. Gonna hop on the drums for awhile then do some more reading.

"Hey! I'm finished looking at it."

Had to use that line at lunch today on Rochelle. She joined up with Kay and I at Logan's. After she sat down beside me, she was chompin on peanuts and was turned so that she could drop the shells on the floor next to the booth. The way she was sitting, her hindquarters were positioned in way that would someone who was saying "look at my butt tattoo" would sit. Anyway, I said the above and the told her "Look sista, once you've sold it, you don't have to keep sellin it". We were all rollin with laughter. After several more inappropriate comments, we found ourselves eating free desserts provided to us by a buddy in management over there. A fun way to spend lunch I'll tell ya. Oh, ran in to Jack S. there as well. Looks like a trip to the shooting range may be out of the question for him this weekend. On the other hand, he IS excited about the opportunity to play at the VBCC gig.

I was suprisingly busy today trying to handle meetings and addressing a few IT issues that cropped up. I did have some server weirdness as the XServer somehow "lost" it's connection (via firewire) to the tape backup system. I rebooted the server and tape drive and all seemed to go back to normal. I'll have to look through the server logs in detail tomorrow to see if I can find anything that would indicate what caused this.

Static IP's are of the devil. Just thought I'd get that out of my system.

Oh, Lesa told me all about her new bike she picked up Saturday. Talk about nice... it's a full-suspension Cannondale. She, Lynn and Luke are trying to convince me to get a bike so I can join them. Dang... that's all I need. Another expensive hobby. You know me, I won't be on some Huffy Wal-Mart special... I'll have a Cannondale, Specialized or a Trek bike. Winter's coming up though so I probably won't get one this season. I would however be open to picking up a good used bike. Those will probably be more reasonable than a new one I'm sure.

My next door neighbor suprised me with a visit. This is the neighbor whose cat Kelsey did a Cuisinart on last year. (In case you missed that, short version: neighbors cat goes into my fenced back yard and leaves in a box courtesy of my dog) Apparently, his car and the car of a neighbor on the other side of him got broken into last night. It looks like they left their doors unlocked and someone simply opened them and went through the stuff on the inside. Some small items were taken but nothing valuable. Hmmm... I usually bring in all my stuff... iPod mainly, when I'm in for the night AND I lock my doors. Kelsey will probably wake me up if anyone comes near my car espcially since she sleeps on the porch a few feet away. I think I might leave the doors unlocked but arm my alarm tonight and see what fun ensues.

It does concern me that this sort of thing has happend right here where I live. You'd think people would just leave other people's stuff alone. Sigh.