SO behind...

I'm SO behind on my blogging this week. Finally, I have some time to sit down and get all my thoughts together. Things have been hoppin' at the office as we've had all sorts of new business coming our way that's got us going wide open. No complaints from me though, I like this kind of busy.

Thursday night was band practice night. Kev had a family event that he had to go to Atlanta for so he wasn't there. Eric stepped up to the plate - talked through the songs, discussed possible trouble spots, prayed then hit it. We were a bit rusty on some of the songs as it had been awhile since we'd played them. By the end, we were all feeling pretty good about how it all came together. Big props to Pam for doing a great job as our soloist. A good group of us went over to Ruby Tuesday's for some grub afterwards. (pics to follow)

Friday after work I hooked up with Kyle to grab some dinner at O'Charleys. O'Riginally, we had tried getting into Logan's (which Kyle says he hates but it was his idea to go there - so uh...) but the wait was excessive and I was pretty hungry. O'Chucks has been doing pretty well on food quality and service so I think it might be safe to put them on the regular dinner rotation. Jeff joined the party and we took off to shoot pool at Bumpers in HSV. Pretty decent pool place. I expected to be in smoky places so I had taken my contacts out for the evening and had my glasses on instead. When playing pool I realized that I REALLY needed my contacts because the field of vision is MUCH better with them on. My game suffered as a result, but these things happen. Headed back to Decatur where I promptly took it to the crib.

I had one of those start, restart then start again days Saturday where you just enjoy laying in bed, get up for a bit then hop back in because it's so comfy. I finally jumped in the shower around 11 to kick my day off. I was going to try and do some photography stuff today but didn't because of the late start. Met up with Kyle and had lunch at Princeton's after Eric gave the "all clear" signal after his last visit there. It a pleasant surprise to find that the air and food quality there was much improved. Ran into Tonja there being too lazy to cook lunch also.

Trip to BAM was next where I got a mocha and a few magazines. Was trying to figure out what was going on with a girl there that seemed to be having issues. I was going to say something to her but decided against it. Maybe next time I see her I can ask her about it. We'll see. Stopped over next door and picked up 2 sets of cufflinks I had seen Thursday when I had been there with my co-workers after lunch. Ran into Shane, an old friend of mine that I learned manages the place. Probably going to get together with him for lunch and see what all's been happening with him. Plus... one of his employees may be of interest to me so I'll have to get the scoop on that. ;-)

Racing season's kicking off! Watched the Bud Shootout tonight on the tube. After sitting in the Home Depot car, my interest in NASCAR is renewed - a little. What I'm really waiting for is the start of the Formula One season the first of next month in Melbourne, Australia. With the new aero and engine rules, things should be mixing up a bit. Ferrari will still be strong of course but I think the gap to the other teams is less than before. We'll see.

I'm a little tired.

When I woke up this morning, it was 5 A.M. I have no idea why I got up then, but I was wide awake. I actually got up, sorted out some laundry and did two loads before going to work. How's THAT for some productivity?

Wore my new dress shoes to work today - this is the part I hate... breaking them in. It will be a little uncomfortable the first few times I wear them until the leather relaxes to fit me properly. Overall, I really like the way they look and feel. They should last me a few years.

Skipping back a day, the concert last night was REALLY good. It was refreshing to hear new music performed well. The church we were at was quite large and had a substantial sound system. It was cool to get a glimpse into what the future might hold for us at Crosspoint. Afterwards, a few of us went over to Cracker Barrel as we were starving before making the trip home.

Today though, I was draggin a little since I had a late night AND I got up early. Made it through the day regardless. Oh, filled the position at work that I have been trying to fil for the past few months!!! Got the person I wanted too. He's very talented and will add a lot of capabilities to our team. As an added bonus, he's a drummer and he's into photography - perfect huh? He's into some of that serious stuff though with the large format cameras most people are unaccustomed to. Things will be picking up now so I'm pretty excited.

After work swung by the cleaners to pick up some stuff I had dropped off earlier then came on home. It was time for a short nap as I was almost cross-eyed from sleepiness. Got up and made dinner than ran some errands. Saw "L" as you can see from the picture below then went over to Office Depot to get more photo paper where I ran into Wendy. Stopped over at BAM for a sec then came on home. That about wraps things up.

Looking forward to 3 photo shoots this Friday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate as these shoots will be outdoors. We'll see what happens.

Can you super-size this please?

Stopped to visit "L" at work. She was sporting some new, larger hair tonight.

Listen. Can you hear?

The crowd listens intently to Jeff as he reads.

A black and white moment.

Asian #2 during a more contemplative moment at the concert.

Jeff Deyo (Sonic Flood) in concert.

Jeff sings during a worship time at a church in a neighboring town. He's the former lead singer of the band Sonic Flood. Spent the evening at this event along with others from our band and leadership.

Wasn't it nice out just 48 hours ago?

My how the weather changes around here. After an absolutely fantastic Saturday, Sunday clouded up and today got grayer and grayer as the day wore on to finally end up with showers. Regardless of the weather outside, I stayed busy today with different clients and an impromptu photo shoot. What's nice is having a set of studio lights and rooms painted in light gray. That just works out great for what we need. The picture turned out good although it was just a mockup for a presentation. If the client likes it the way it is, I may stay in as the model. Who knows.

Today it was my turn for shipping frustration with UPS. I have stuff shipped to the office since someone is always there during business hours to sign for anything that comes in for me. Usually, you can avoid missed deliveries and such using this method. My office is on the "business" side of town just one block from the courthouse, police station and many banks. Why then does UPS not deliver to my area until AFTER 5:00PM?!?! Luckily, some of my co-workers had things to do after hours and hung around. Lynn called me at 6:40 to tell me the package I was expecting had arrived. To add to the fun, she told me the box was in rough shape. I finished dinner (New China with the usual) and then drove back across town to get my stuff. True, the box had split open on one side but the contents had been packed well and were intact. Still, this was a pain in the rump to have to deal with.

Met back up at BAM with Kev & Co. and Eric & Co. to sit and read for a bit. I did that for a little while then went on home. It's still raining out. Should be a good night to sleep well.

Supposed to hook up with some friends tomorrow for a seminar or something on worship being presented by the former lead singer of the band Sonic Flood. I'm looking forward to that.

A nice weekend.

I had a very enjoyable weekend... started Saturday off by getting up early so I could be off shooting pictures while the daylight was good. My initial plan was to go to Big Spring Park and take shots there. I also planned to go by Bernie's and see if could get some horse photos out on his farm. Lesa was going to go but she ended up having to stick around her place so I went solo. I did drop by and she loaned me the 70-200 lens and her tripod.

I decided to go on over to Bernie's first to see what sorts of pictures I could get there. It turned out to be a good decision as I later nixed the Big Spring idea. I had been to his place several times before but never really walked around the property to get a detailed look at things. There was so much stuff there it was perfect! I spent a few hours shooting the horses, cats, red-tailed hawks and a buzzard (hey, it looked good from where I was but as Bernie described it, it's an ugly mug). I tried to take some shots of a red robin, but when you're zoomed in and not using a tripod, that big lens had me shakin' like a Parkinson's sufferer. All the more reason to get the Image Stabilized version of Lesa's lens when I take THAT plunge. That will minimize the effects of camera shake. Anyway, I hung around for awhile then decided to head out as I hadn't had anything to eat yet. I was tired so instead of going to Huntsville, I headed back home where I made some lunch and download the pictures. I had over 1.4gb of pictures to move off the memory cards! I was very pleased with my shots. I'll probably take some time this week to sort through them to cull out what I don't like. A big thanks to Bernie and Kim for having me over. I'll have to go to one of Kim's dressage shows to take some photos of her and the other competitors. I don't know anything about horses or riding but it looks interesting.

I went over to The Brick later on to check out a performer but when I got there, there were very few cars out in the parking lot so I just turned around and headed back. Ended up meeting up with Kyle and Jeff over at BAM where I looked through a few magazines and went on home.

Sunday was good all around. Church went very well. Music did too. There were a few minor hiccups but nothing that was noticeable unless you really knew the songs so it wasn't a big deal. Afterwards, myself, Jordan and Kevin ate chicken parts at Zaxby's (I'll get you a picture V. LOL!) before heading home where I took a much needed nap. Woke up feeling... well, not good. I had that you're-in-the-process-of-getting-something feeling. After being up for a bit, I got to feeling better so I'm crossing my fingers that I'm okay.

Went over to the Superbowl party at Jack and Pam's. Big crowd over there! Plenty of good food, pool shooting and just general hanging out going on. Fun times. James busted out with his collection of pool cues and passed on some billiard tips. Good times.

Overall, it wasn't a very productive weekend for me as I usually like to get a lot of domestic stuff done but I ALWAYS do that so it was time for a break. You know, I really have to plan what activities I want to do instead of sitting around waiting for some kind of inspiration. The latter is what I usually do and usually results in a pretty blah agenda. With that in mind, it's been discussed that a trip to Nashville next Saturday may be in order. We'll see how that turns out.

A Picture for V

Veronica: As I was pulling out of the drive-thru at Captain D's the other night, I remembered you hadn't ever seen one before so I circled around front and snapped this shot.

Ah, Friday at last!

Another busy day at the office but that's fine, it's the end of the week, I have a full day, the weather's great - no complaints from me! Spent the morning getting prepared for a lunch meeting. Meeting went very well. Of course, we were at Macaroni Grill enjoying delicious food and drink so many things were going in the right direction. Accomplished all I set to do there. Ran a few errands and then stopped by the Space & Rocket Center to take a couple of product shots for another client.

Finished off the day helping to get some advertising copy down so Lesa could wrap things up. Time to take it to the crib.

Oh, I got my camera case in today! Looks like I made a good choice. FedEx rocks BTW. Also got a book in that I ordered from Amazon. I'm pretty beat from all the running around today so I think I'll take it easy tonight and then get out and about tomorrow to enjoy the predicted beautiful weather. Lesa wanted to go shoot some photos at a location in Huntsville tomorrow. If the weather's as nice as it's supposed to be, it'll be a great time to do that.

I was able to pick my shoes up today, one day early - the one's I mentioned that chewed up the clothing budget earlier this week. I don't buy shoes too often but when I do, I get some good ones that last for years. I've got shoes 10 years old that look like they just came out of the box. If you take care of them by keeping them clean and using shoe-trees and such, you can get an indefinite amount of use out of them.

Sorry, I kind of went off on a footwear tangent for a moment.

Almost the weekend!

Another busy day today at the office. Always good. Had to get my wig cut today which turned out to be quite a frustrating experience. First, had to reschedule last Tuesday. Tried to get a Wednesday appointment but couldn't so I ended up with a noon appointment for today. She called me at 10:00 to see about moving me to tomorrow - covered up Friday and couldn't do it then. She then tried to move me to 12:30, I again said no as I had something to do at 1:00. I get there right at noon. There's someone in her chair - "I'm about 20 mins behind". Fine I thought, I'll wait. I drove across town for this and my hair's too long so I'm getting my hair cut dang it. WELL AT 1:00 I'M FINALLY GETTING IN THE CHAIR. I'm a little peeved at this point. Doesn't help that she keeps trying to make small talk. Normally, I'm pretty friendly when I'm there but what happened today left a bad taste in my mouth. This has happened a little too often in the last few months so it may be time for a change. She's been cutting my hair for over 10 years but again, I only have so much patience left after these last few times.

Picked up some Mickey D's on the way back to the office coz I was starving. Sheesh. I didn't need that crap in the middle of my day.

After work I headed to band practice. I've been off drum duty for the past 2 weeks and the drums were out of position for the way I like them to be. I spent the first 15 minutes or so moving and adjusting everything to my liking. Having the time off was nice for sure though.

It was me, Kevin and Jack at Applebee's for dinner. Had a good chat with our server. Turns out she writes music and plays guitar! We talked at length about doing a few of her songs to see how that would turn out. She was very enthusiastic about it. Hopefully, we'll get something together in the next week or so we can get started. Very cool.

Once again, it's time for bed. You know, days seem to be going by faster as I get older. Supwifdat?

Rainy and cold.

The weather really sucked today - cold and rainy. At least I'm able to get good use from the parka my employer gave me and the rest of the team for Christmas. I don't know why I never got one of those for myself before.

Meetings dominated my day. Unfortunately, they are a necessary evil in order to understand what a client wants. It's also a time to assure the client that you're hearing them. In the middle of all this, I was able to nail down getting a new camera bag as the 2 I have were designed to fit the smaller Olympus cameras I had in the past and not the full-size SLR I have now. Ended up going with the Tenba D-12. I consulted with a guy at B&H Photo to make sure what I eventually planned to have would fit. It was between the Tenba and a Domke after I eliminated Tamrac and Lowepro from the mix. The Domke just ended up being too big for my needs.

L called today and wanted me to stop by the store she works at to look at suits and stuff that were on sale. Reluctantly, I did go by even though I would rather have gone home with the weather the way it was. There was nothing there that I really couldn't live without. I've got some $$$ shoes to pick up this weekend that kind of chewed up the clothing budget for the month so I really didn't need to be spending any more in that category. On a side note, we're supposed to have lunch one day next week. I'm all tied up the rest of this week.

Came home and made some dinner. Going to go drum for a bit now that Dubya's finished with his address.

NASCAR Home Depot #20 Tony Stewart Car

Okay... now that I'm getting the hang of putting albums up on the web as well as protecting my photos I can give this direct link out to the photos I took during last Saturday's garage work.

http://www.jonathanmoral.com/homedepot

If you're a NASCAR or Tony Stewart fan, enjoy!

It ain't easy being greasy.

Went into work late today as I woke up with some kind of headache malfunction. Took some drugs and went back to bed. I was much better the next time around and headed on into the office. I had a stack of messages on my desk when I arrived but anyone that called got the message that I was out and under the weather. I spent the afternoon working on some backup things and also getting info together for another project. Nothing too exciting today.

The train hosed me up on the way home. I had to drive up, down, and around just to get by. I had been meaning to go to the grocery store since late last week and finally was determined to make it. Got my goods then decided I didn't feel like cooking for dinner so I went to Captain D's. It's been a long time since I've been there. The lengthy wait in the drive-thru was still the same as I remembered but whoa! The food quality is WAY up! That was a pleasant surprise for sure and good timing too as I was very hungry.

All is quiet on the home front tonight. Probably just going to watch TV this evening.

To V: good luck with your toe!

Need some voting assistance.

I entered that photo I took of the red/white awning against a brilliant blue sky into a photography contest. If you've got a minute, click the link below and vote for my photo if you like it. Thanks!

Vote for my photo in this month’s DigitalCameraInfo.com photo contest.

Hosted by DigitalCameraInfo.com your source for Information about Digital Cameras.

They were stiff.

If you hang around with me regularly, you know that I send most of my dressier clothes to the cleaners. A lot of my stuff is dry clean only so that's another reason I have to go a lot. Anyhow, one day last week, some new girl took my clothes in and I specified LIGHT starch like I always do. Just from looking at her, I had a feeling she wouldn't get it right. I was not to be disappointed - they came back with an obscene amount of starch in them. The most evident item were a pair of Polo khakis made of a thinner, lightweight cotton fabric. That's what I planned to wear today. I took them off the hangar and tried sticking my feet in. No go - got stuck just below the pockets. I had to flip them over and reach in through the bottom to separate each leg so I could get my feet through. Once I got them on I wasn't really "wearing" them, I was standing inside them. That was special to say the least. I managed to wedge my wallet into my back pocket as I walked out the door. When I sat down in the car, I heard a popping noise as each of the pleats separated. At this point I was laughing.

I was covered up at work today, but that was a good thing. I got plenty accomplished. I also hopped online and ordered some stuff for my Canon the biggest of which was a flash unit. I should have that soon and can begin experimenting with it. By the way, I have an extra camera I don't need anymore. If you're interested it's a Olympus C-5050 in perfect condition with all accessories and the original box. The LCD display has been protected since the day I unboxed it with a plastic film so there are NO scratches on it. In addition I have the B-300 Teleconverter ($150 lens), the adapter tube necessary to use it and several Tiffen filters one of which is a circular polarizer. All the accessories are in perfect condition as well, no scratches or dings. If I do sell it, I'll sell it as a unit as the individual items are of no use to me. If I have time, I may put it up on eBay.

Changed up the routine tonight and went to New China instead. Ivy was there and asked if I wanted "the usual". I did and it was good. The Burns and Kyle also were there. Afterwards we hung out over at BAM sipping drinks and reading. Eric and his larvae were there taking advantage of chess night. I saw a few friends of mine; Lisa, who I offered to buy a cappucino for but she declined and asked that I buy her a drink when I see her at the Brick. Allrighty then. Ellen, my date to the gala was also there with a friend of hers. Met a girl from Applebee's too. Talked with her a bit before heading home.

Kyle dropped by to pick up a CD. When he walked in he asked for a tape measure. After I gave him one he went back and was measuring the size of my drum room. It seems that several of us have got some sort of studio fever going on. Me, Kyle and Kevin all have the peices and parts to put together a recording studio. Big John also has several items so I'm sure we can get him into the mix somehow. For now, Kyle's probably going to rig up his laptop with recording software and his FirePod to do more portable recording. Kevin too is also going to get an interface, the Lexicon one I believe. He's got a laptop that he'll be using as well. I gave my old laptop to my dad. I may have to set my work laptop up so that I can lay down tracks also. When it's all said and done, someone can write a song and each of us can work on our parts separately and then assemble them together at the end. How cool is that?

Is it my turn yet?

Last night, I ended up over at BAM to see if I could read up on my color management malfunction. While I was there, I noticed it was pretty much a freakshow this evening. I looked around at all the kids there and had a flashback to high-school detention hall. Actually, I had another flashback as well - my freshman year in high school (way back in da day) my friends and I would arrive early because our bus picked us up at the crack of dawn. We would arrive at 7 AM and school didn't start till 8:30. What did we do? We ate breakfast and played Dungeons & Dragons. Those were some good times. What we all looked forward to everyday was our buddy Mike Phillips. He was a talented artist, but just really didn't apply himself at all. That's another story though. Anyway, every morning he opened his lunch sack to see what his mom packed him. 9 times out of 10, he didn't like what was in there and the comments he made about it had us all rolling. One morning, he had a sandwich of some sort that had cheese on it. Mike didn't like cheese so he flung it up at the ceiling - where it stuck. As the days, weeks and months passed, you could see the square of cheese shrink as it originally left an oily mark on the tile it was stuck to. As the cheese contracted you could see the oily outline of its original size.

I actually still have my D&D dice. Unfortuantely, I no longer have any of my books - monster manual, players reference guide, dungeon masters guide or any of the maps. I think I sold or traded them back many years ago. I wish I still had them. They would be quite a collectors item now as all my stuff was from the earlier printings.

Back to today. Sorry about chasing that rabbit.

Got a call from Kyle and met him and Jeff over at the Barrel of Crackers for dinner. Food was good. The only thing that might have made things better was if my first glass of water didn't taste like Clorox. You might be thinking "how does he know what Clorox tastes like?". A valid question. Back in my Boy Scout days, there was some Clorox usage in some water purification process we used. (Don't ask) It was a very small amount diluted in large quantities of water so there wasn't a high concentration. Anyway, that taste always stuck in my mind. So I was like "Ma'am, can I have another glass of water? This tastes like Clorox." That went over like a fart in a diving helmet as I probably said it too loudly and was heard by neighboring diners. I finally got a clean glass of water and was happy.

Swung by the house and picked up a few drinks then stopped in at Scott's to hang out with the crew over there. Good bunch of folks there - over a dozen. Watched them play trivial pursuit then went into a game of cranium. What was funny during the Cranium game was that the question was read (I wasn't paying attention) and then the card with the question on it was passed to us to look at. I saw a picture of Lyndon B. Johnson on the front (as Scott was yelling "DID YOU SAY BIG JOHNSON?" from the other side of the table) and I was all about saying "Yeah, that's Lyndon B. Johnson". As it turns out, who was in the picture wasn't the question (in my mind I'm thinking - Enough Corona, you're getting stupid)it was a TRUE or FALSE question. We guessed true and got it whatever the question was. What was funny to me is that I was smugly thinking I got the Lyndon Johnson part right when that wasn't even the question. I was laughing at myself.

Went on home after that and settled in for the evening. That was enough excitement for one day.

More #20 Home Depot car pictures

I posted a few more pictures from yesterday's activities for your enjoyment. The weather wasn't really cooperating - these shots would have been really nice on a clear sunny day.

The car gets hauled around in this trailer. Very nice.

SERIOUS brakes.

These huge blowers with hoses attached are to cool the brakes.

There's nothing "stock" about a stock car.

Can you say AIRFLOW?

The cockpit view from the passenger "window".

Cold, wet - but it's nice and warm inside!

Today was the day I finally got to go see (and work on) the Tony Stewart car some racing buddies of mine bought. Now, Brian and John are no newbies to racing - both have raced in the past in a variety of vehicles. John was who I pit crewed for last year at a local track. The Stewart car is a COMPLETELY different animal. Obviously, this is a professional race car built by a professional racing team. "WOW" is about the only way I can sum it up.

The tasks for today were to check the brakes, the steering box and to remove Tony's seat as it didn't fit Brian properly. He's much taller than Tony. I was the smallest guy there so I hopped in (the seat fit me fine) and did the wrenching inside. Sitting in the car was a unique experience - this exact car was the pole-sitter at the 2002 Watkins Glen race. It ended up finishing the race in 2nd place. So, if you're a NASCAR fan and watched that race, you saw this very car.

Back about 2 years ago, a group of my friends and I raced each other online in a NASCAR simulation. We all had way too much fun - so much fun that Bill's doctor told him to ease up on it because of his heart condition... THAT'S how exciting it got. The following day after racing the evening before was pretty entertaining as we talked about everything that transpired on the track. Good times I tell ya. I never thought that I'd be sitting in an ACTUAL race car though. I must say, the programmers at Electronic Arts (the former NASCAR simulation people) did a fantastic job modeling the car interior.

After we got done, Brian had to head out to go camping in a cave with his kid, Bill had to take his wife shopping and John and I headed to the BK lounge (Burger King for those who don't know) for a very late lunch. Headed back to Decatur afterwards and stopped over at Kyle's to check out his new FirePod and the DVD of our Riverfest performance last year.

I'm back home now. Was chatting with Jo for a bit talking about her first day at work. Now it's time for me to think about eating again. Sometimes eating is just an interruption to my day. Grrr...

Vroom! Vroom!

The REAL deal.

We rolled the car out of the trailer in the cold drizzle then after I took this pic, we jacked it up and got it on the rolling dollies (in front of the wheels) to easily push it into the garage.

Another week older...

Down here in the deep south, we have a problem whenever it comes to winter precipitation. Pretty much anything can screw things up down here:

talk ABOUT snow
accumulations of 1/8" inch of whatever
sleet
somone pouring a Sonic slushy in the street

Apparently, we're under some sort of winter weather advisory or some nonsense like that tonight and tomorrow morning. After seeing the pictures earlier in the week from Rick, what the weather people issue an advisory for down here is ludicrous.

Today was a laid-back sort of day. Met up with Kevin and his kid for sushi at Kyoto. Food was excellent as it always has been but the service is still lacking. The girls there are S L O W. I really hope they kick it into gear as people that were coming in were having to stand around for uncomfotably long times until someone eventually greeted them. Not good.

Wrapped up the day and came on home. Not too much going on tonight so I changed into some sweats and hung around the house. It's nice to have peace and quiet. I savor the tranquility more and more especially after hearing about the stories my friends tell me about their kids/neighbors/family dramas.

Here's an article I found that would be appropriate for my buddy Luke. I'm going to give this to Lesa and see what she can come up with to make this REALLY funny.

Whole lotta' runnin' around.

I hit the ground running this morning! First thing was to heal a "situation" I was having with our backup system at the office. A backup runs automatically every evening to make sure the day's work, especially the artist's stuff, is safely duplicated. The carousel was out of empty tapes and last night the system needed one and didn't have it so the backup job was paused. Anyway, getting this attended to is very important. I get freaked out if something doesn't get backed up.

Off to Huntsville for a client meeting. After that, Lesa and I stopped in for coffee and crossiants at Atl. Bread Co. like we did last time. Also strolled through CompUSA in search of a cable I was needing but had no luck finding it there. Eventually, I found an adpater I was needing at BestBuy. Dropped off a negative at a color processor then headed to the VonBraun center to meet Kay and attend the Tennessee Valley Advertising Federation luncheon. One of the VP's of the New York Times media empire was there speaking to us on new media. Guess what was talked about a lot? BLOGS! Also vBlogs - video blogs. Lot's of interesting information was shared. Saw a couple of people I knew and met several new folks from the local TV stations and newspapers. Back to the office for another meeting. Whew! Wrapped up the day going through email and making sure I covered everything I had listed in my planner to be accomplished.

Met up with Lesa at Simp's for dinner. Ate a good meal and caught up with my friends there as I hadn't been there since before Christmas. Previously, I was there at least once or twice a week. I've just been too busy lately in the evenings.

On another note, I saw on TV where we're under a "winter storm advisory"... PUH-leeze. After seeing those pics from Rick, the 1/16" of whatever we might get is laughable.

Lesa joined me and had a drink while I ate dinner. Nothing too exotic tonight, just some seared salmon.

Here's Kathy, the bartender at Simp's. She's pretty entertaining. She was wondering where I'd been.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Remember back in high school when you heard someone yell that? Everyone it seemed took off running to go see the brawl. The past 2 days, me and technology have been having some differences. Those of you that know me know that I typically have it together when it comes to anything technology related. Honestly, that mainly comes from the fact that I take the time to read the manuals to what I own - no deep dark secret. Anyway, I decided to work on getting color management working between all my digital photography stuff: cameras, monitor, Photoshop and printer so that what I shoot with the camera looks the same on my monitor in Photoshop and that in turn closely matches the print that comes out of the printer. That's not as easy as you would think though. I do have several things going in my favor though, I have no off-brand equipment so everything I have is fully supported with current color profiles that everything recognizes. Thing is, there are a bazillion profiles, even multiple ones for the same device. I'm still working on that but I'm giving up on it for now. Burned up 2 evening screwing around with it already.

Still on the photography front, a local museum is receiving a collection of art handmade by Northwestern Indian tribes. We got several pieces brought over to us to shoot for some print things we're doing. The majority was of masks but we had a woven basket and a ornamental blanket as well. Interesting pieces for sure. Took several good shots. It made the afternoon go by pretty quickly.

Since I've been home, I've just been messing with the color management crap to no avail. Took a break from that to change out the head on my primary snare drum. The one I had been using had gotten pretty worn. As I recall, I put that head on back in the summer sometime before our Riverfest gig. It sounds all nice and crisp again.

Had trouble sleeping last night for some reason. I ended up getting out of bed around 5 AM because I just wasn't sleepy any more. Suprisingly, I made it through the day okay after a few cups of coffee in the morning.

Going to hop in bed in a few minutes, I have several meetings tomorrow 2 of which are out of town. Should be a good day though.

Rick, a drumming buddy of mine from up in Massachusetts sent me a few pictures of what a "real" snow looks like.

More snow.

That's a long driveway.

Snow.

Rick off in the distance with his Husqvarna snow blower.

I actually worked here?!?!

Tonight after work I met up with the Guad squad - The Burns, me, Kyle, Dave and Chuck. I wanted to get done eating and walking the mall without eating up all my evening. I had a taco, refried beans, rice and a beef enchilada all washed down with a Negra Modelo in an ice cold mug. Mmmmm...

I took advantage of a 75% off sale at Dillard's and picked up 2 shirts that normally would have cost $140 for about $38 (incuding our high-@ss sales tax of 9%). Good colors and nice fabrics. Visited Parisian next and found nothing of interest there. Ran into Tanya at Sears. Talked to her a little before takin it to the crib. Walking back to our cars, Kyle and I discussed how much the mall had changed since we worked there many, MANY years ago. We were pointing and naming where old stores used to be - County Seat, Record Bar, Camelot Music, Southern Sound, Athlete's Feet, Afterthoughts, Friedman's Jewlers, Lorch's Diamond Center, J. Riggins, Roger's, Lerner... so many places have been through there. Back in the day, Kyle worked at AB Stephens, a music store. I worked at several places until I shifted into retail management. Wow, those were the days. Fun times for sure. But things are different there now. What once was a decent mall now sucks. If I didn't go to Guadalajara Grill to eat from time to time, I would never go to this particular mall for anything. I'd rather drive over to Huntsville, Birmingham or even Nashville to find what I'm looking for. Honestly, I don't know how the mall tenants here survive. It's crazy.

A clear day!

Skies were beautiful at the photo shoot last Thursday. Here's an artsy shot I took of an awning in a shopping area against the sky.

Laid back kind of day.

Today was one of what I would call a "perfect" day. I got up early and had plenty of time to get a load of laundry done, fix a big breakfast, wash dishes, surf the net... all before heading to church. It was nice not to be in a rush.

Church was great. Good message on "stuff" and budgeting. I think it will help a lot of folks if the guidelines and principles are followed. We'll see how that goes.

A bunch of us were heading to Firehouse for subs when we discovered they were closed for "personal" reasons - whatever that means. We were set on some subbage though so we made it over to Quizno's. Got in in just before the crowd hit. I saw several friends from a former church of mine. Chit chatted with them a little before heading home.

I decided to work with my camera a bit more with Kelsey as my subject. I found it a bit difficult to throw a tennis ball for her to fetch then bringing up the camera to take the shot in time. Anyway, I did get a few photos that I liked. What I need to do is shoot a sporting event. That would give me plenty of practice. A track meet, soccer game or something.

Went over to the bookstore and got my mocha and several magazines together. Sat in a corner and immersed myself in my stuff. Looked up and the girl next to me was pulling out her laptop... a Mac! Made some conversation with her and found out that she was the daughter of a photographer friend of mine - Charlie. He's the guy whose Bankhead forest print hangs in my livingroom. What a small world. We figured we'd see each other again at one of the few coffee shops in town.

I ran out of things to do for awhile so I looked for something to do rather than just sit around and vegetate. I cleaned out the cabinet under my kitchen sink. I had enough chemicals under there to clean just about anything and also kill anything with more than 4 legs. Also had flying critters covered. Swept it all out and threw away stuff I didn't need.

What an exciting evening.

Check out the size of my big, chubby... lens.

Lesa loaned me the big-daddy 70-200/2.8L lens to use this weekend. The weather kinda stunk but I was able to shoot some shots of Kelsey chasing a tennis ball. This is my Canon with Lesa's lens on it.

Just to kill time...

I was reading a friend's bLog and ran across this little age thingy where you answer a few questions then you get a "reading" as to how old you are based on your answers. Here's my result:

You Are 27 Years Old

27 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Enough with the eating out already...

That subject is meant for me. When you add last nights dinner to tonights, I've spent a little over $100. Boy, was it good though! Anyway, I'm going to have to crank it back a notch as even for me and my single ways, that's a bit steep for 2 meals.

Big crowd at dinner though, The Burns, Prevatts, Tiffany, Scott, The E, John & Friend, and of course - me. We all took up one whole table at Kyoto. Service was okay, just the usual slowness in getting started. I had the filet and lobster. Mmmm mmmm good. After the meal, I noticed a kid sitting a table over was playing on her Nintendo DS. "I'll screw with her a bit." I slipped my DS out of my coat and booted it. Sure enough, I saw her come up in one of the chat rooms and proceeded to message her. It was funny watching her look around to see what other kid had a DS. Eventually, she looked my way and saw what I had and smiled. I put mine away after that and started acting my age. We all did miss out on a great opportunity for a big multi-player game of something is Kevin and Scott didn't leave their DS's at home.

Earlier in the day, I accompanied my sister shopping in Huntsville. Let me go ahead and say that Wolf Camera SUCKS!!!! They don't have anything decent in stock and what they DO have, they have priced at suggested retail pricing. It's like they don't know the internet exists or something. Made the rounds at Parkway Place where I was trying to decide on a North Face jacket I had been looking at since before Christmas. In the end, I didn't get it. I did get some stuff at Express though. Hit Madison Square and then Best Buy. Didn't get anything there.

I was hoping to take some shots while out and about this afternoon but the sky was overcast and gray. I hope I have better luck tomorrow.

No weirdness today.

Thankfully, no oddities occurred today. Headed to Huntsville first thing this morning with Lesa and Luke again to shoot more shots with the different sunlight this time of the day. The sky was beautiful but the lighting angles just weren't right. After about an hour we headed back but not without stopping at the Atlanta Bread Company for some crossiants and mochas. Transferred the pictures from my camera then it was time to eat again. Lynn and I ate at El Portal for lunch. Good stuff. I almost fell asleep on the drive back to the office. I had a meeting coming up so I loaded up on 2 Mt. Dews to hopefully keep my eyes open. It barely worked. The day wrapped up with a mad scramble to get our entries for the ADDY awards in - an advertising industry award.

All in all, a long day.

"The Urinator"

Here's the guy I mentioned in the previous entry. He's between the two police officers giving him a talking to. He's wearing a tan jacket.

Um, is that guy... yup, he is.

Weirdness abounded at the end of my day today. The daytime was great! Had some meetings then headed to Huntsville for a photo shoot. Me, Lesa and Luke were running all over the place taking pictures like crime scene investigators. What we were actually doing is getting content for some print media and internet stuff together for a client. It was after lunch and we took what pictures we could with the available lighting but will go back tomorrow morning to shoot things with the sun in a different position. I must say I am extremely happy with my new camera.

Now, on to the Weirdness. I was walking one of my co-workers out to her car - as we stepped out the front door, I noticed a man in the street beside our building with his back to us along with the sound of splattering liquid coming from the same direction. I thought to myself, "is that guy peeing in the middle of the road?". Turns out he was. Let's call him, "The Urinator". He finished his business then continued down the middle of street heading towards the courthouse. By this time, Luke emerged from the building to see what was going on and I pointed the guy out to him. If we were in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, this would not be anything unusual but for where I am, in the neighborhood I'm in, it's definitely out of the ordinary. Long story short, I called the police to give them a heads up. As I left the office on my way home, I saw two police cars that had stopped a pedestrian... it was "The Urinator". I pulled into a bank parking lot across the street and the Asian in me kicked in - I *had* to take a picture. It was dark though and I didn't have Lesa's big @ss lens on me so I had to make do with what I had. I wasn't going to use flash either because (A) it was too far and (B) I didn't want to draw attention to myself.

After that was over, I stopped in at Staples to pick up a memory card as they were still on sale. I went to pay for it with a clerk that somehow knows my family. I handed her my credit card and she ran it though. Here's how the conversation went:

Clerk: "Are you using your father's credit card?"
Me: "Uh, no." (inside, I'm thinking "WTF?")
Clerk: "Why aren't you a Junior?"
Me: "I just am not." (still thinking "WTF?")
Clerk: "Isn't your dad's name Joe?"
Me: "Yeah" (now I'm curious where this is going)
Clerk: "So why aren't you Jon?"
Me: "Because I was named Jonathan."
Clerk: "Then why does your card say Joe?"
Me: (Pulling my card back out and flipping it around for her to see) "IT DOESN'T. IT SAYS JONATHAN"
Clerk: "Oh... (mumbles something), never mind." (clearly embarrassed now)
Me: (rolling my eyes, looking irritated over this waste of conversation)

Sigh.

Later on, I met up at Applebees with Kyle and Kevin for dinner. Had a good meal and related all my fun evening adventures to them. Once again, it's time for bed.

Busy!

Wow! I've been covered up so much the last few days I hadn't even had time to make a proper bLog entry. But, I'm free for the moment and think I can catch you all up.

Last Saturday, I received my new digital camera - a Canon EOS 20D. I had grown tired of my point and shoot digital Olympus 5050 because there is only so much you can do with it. This is especially apparent when I'm at the F1 race in Indy and I simply can't get the reach I need with the one and only lens. Now, I can pick and choose the lens or lenses I need. What helps out a whole lot is that Lesa also has a Canon AND one of the super-momma-knocker telephoto zoom (70-200mm f/2.8 L) lenses I was looking at getting for myself. She offered to loan it to me just whenever I needed it. How sweet is that? So, I'm instead going to get a really nice wide zoom lens (24-70mm f/2.8 L) and an external flash. I can put off the big zoom purchase indefinitely because of Lesa's graciousness. I've already had a chance to experiment with my camera in the past few days. I REALLY like the results I'm getting. Of course, I'm still going to keep my other camera for something easy and small to bring. It works great, I've just outgrown it.

Ate dinner with the Burns Monday night at Kyoto. Kailyn was being difficult - which is unusual. Her parents put the smackdown on her so hopefully they are getting the message across that there's only so much of that crap they'll take before you get swatted.

Tuesday, an old buddy of mine from years back came by and we caught up on what all we had been doing. He checked out the pad... home theater, office, and drum studio. Ate some pizza and watched some tube. That pretty much wrapped up that evening.

Today was one meeting after another. Very productive. Called it a day a little early and headed over to Cafe 113 for drinks on the boss. Most of the crew was there and a good time was had by all. I'm home now and need to figure out what to whip up for dinner. I'm hungry.

There's just not enough drama...

Well, maybe there's enough drama here, it's just that it's the SAME kind of drama all the time. So with that in mind, I've added links to the bLogs of 2 folks that are getting more social action in their corners of the world than we seem to be. There's Veronica from over on the Left Coast - she's actually stopped in to visit and comment a few times in the past weeks. A big shout out and welcome to her! Then from WAY out west (and south) in Australia is Tanya, a Finnish girl attending college in the land down under.

Go visit and see what lives are like outside of North Alabama.

My little girl Kelsey.

It's cold again.

First things first, my dad is doing fine and will be going to visit a cardiologist this week for further evaluation. I pray that the news will be good.

The cold weather is back again. It does seem more "normal" though, having 70 degree temps in January is just a little strange. I've had to whip out some of my short-sleeved stuff the past few days... again, strange for the middle of winter.

Wrapped up a busy week at the office! It was extremely productive. One thing I did a good bit of research on is search engine marketing for promoting a website. Basically, it's how you use Google, Yahoo, Overture, etc. to spread the word about your site. I put together all the pricing and brochures about it in a rough format for new and will clean it up in the coming days. Friday's lunch plan was having sushi at Kyoto with Lesa. Kyoto is still a little rough around the edges. The food is great, but the wait staff still needs to work on customer service a good bit more. As Lesa put it, they're not smooth. It will come in time though. I spent the afternoon correcting the contact information for several domain names we administer. That made me sleepy. Meanwhile, Lesa realized she left her credit card at Kyoto and headed back over there to get it. Lynn must have sensed we were all dragging and took drink orders for the coffee shop for us. I had a mocha. Yesterday, I had a cappucino from the same place (hadn't had one in a LONG time, usually get a mocha) and forgot that it wasn't sweetened. Took a sip and thought ewwwwwwwwwwww! To top it off, I tried sweetening it and couldn't get it right. My other form of caffeine, Mountain Dew, is much easier to work with. I picked up 3 cases today so I should be good for a week or two.

I didn't go anywhere last night. Spent some time working on tuning one of my drums. I think it's time to change out my bottom heads (they control the pitch) as this one particular drum wasn't keeping its tuning very well. I'll probably call Jenny at Fork's soon and get her to send me a set. I think I've had the bottom heads on there for 2 years which is a year too long. I change my batter heads more regularly.

It's Saturday now and to be honest, I have no idea what I'm going to be doing today. I only have a little laundry to do. Hmmm...

Yeah I'm concerned.

Just got an email from my dad informing me that he may have had a "silent" heart attack - but for me not to be alarmed. Not be alarmed? I replied and hopefully will get more details from him soon. For those of you that don't know, my parents are on the other side of the globe from me. I called and gave my sister a heads up and she reacted the same as me. Anyway, hopefully this will have been mis-diagnosed and things will be fine.

People sometimes tell me that they wonder just what sorts of things get me down since I'm a fairly happy and well-adjusted person. Well - anything happening to my parents or family would be first on the list.

Nothing funny and no rants from me tonight.

There is a slight possibility...

... that I will be in this pose again soon. Back 4 or 5 years ago I bowled on a league and bowled SO freakin much that I burned out on it. It looks as though me and some others from my agency will participate in a bowling fund raiser for the local Junior Achievment chapter. Luckily, I still have all my gear from back in the day... 5 balls, my wrist brace, ultra-fly shoes, etc. What's going to suck is the alley we'll be bowling in. After bowling in some REALLY nice alleys with pristine lanes, the one here will be akin to rolling one of my $200+ balls down a gravel road. That's gonna suck.

Hooters.

On the way to the concert last night, we got caught in a torrential downpour. Also saw some ambulances heading in the oppposite direction. Come to find out the next day that there was a small plane crash a mile or so from the airport. Anyway, it was a Hooters night. I had some oh so good Fosters on tap along with my buffalo shrimp. Food was suprisingly good. It's been YEARS since I've been to this place. The last time I was there, the wait staff wasn't much to look at. Looks like they kicked the hiring criteria up several notches. Either that or the hiring manager got some much needed eyeglasses. Our waitress was particularly excited about just having turned 21 recently. She wasn't too rough on the retinas so it was pleasant talking to her.

Finally made it to the concert but it wasn't late enough to avoid the opening bands. Just like in Atlanta, they sounded like... poo. Alter Bridge finally took the stage and I started enjoying myself. The show was rockin! I especially dug the Led Zepplin moment when they busted out and did Zep's Rock n' Roll. It was a good time. Ran into Kusi and his woman there too. The only thing that really sucked was standing for over 2 hours. Got home and immediately went to bed.

Work today was BUSY. Had that site launch today - have over 1000 people sign up for the alert system JUST today! It's a good start. A lot of work went into it so I hope it's a success for the client. Luke joined me for lunch at Kyoto where much sushi was consumed. He was freaking over the amount of wasabi I used but hey, that's just me. Back to the office to wrap things up in the afternoon then me, Lesa, Kay and Luke hit up cafe' 113 for drinks and appetizers.

Now I'm home. I think I'll bust out some of my pots and pans and cook up something good to eat.

Not a whole lot happenin...

It was a good day for a Monday. Had a bit of a fashion malfunction this morning as a shirt and pants I thought went together... didn't. I didn't have an easy backup plan so I had to scramble to put something together. I had a scheduled visit with a client today so I needed to look presentable, more so than just with jeans and a casual shirt.

Okay, enough of that.

I didn't sleep too well last night. Not sure what the problem was but all I know is that it seemed night had passed and I had barely closed my eyes. I guess I rested enough though because I wasn't really feeling tired at any point during the day. My client meeting went well - had lunch with them then toured their development. Lot's of potential.

Finished the afternoon off reviewing material for a multimedia CD we're putting together. Lot's of things happening this week. Should be good.

Guad was tonight. Dinner was over quickly then we did our obligatory walk-around. Picked up a belt from Linda but that was about it. Going to call it a night early - got the Alterbridge concert tomorrow night. Rock on!

Nice end to a weekend.

This weekend has been one of the more relaxed, normal weekends I have had in a while. With the holidays behind me, I can look forward to having more say as to whether or not I have a restful or active weekend.

Church went well this morning. Dave revealed some plans and goals for us to try and reach. That's a good thing otherwise we're all just wandering around aimlessly. Picture the typical worker when the boss isn't around. Yeah, you get the picture. It will be exciting to try and reach some of these goals. I'll be fitting in somewhere with the music ministry of course but hopefully we can get a singles group going. Before we do though, we need a bigger pool of people to draw from. Gotta work on that.

My sis joined the lunch crowd today at Logan's. We took up 4 tables I think when all was said and done. There was some contention among the wait staff as we took up tables in more than one server's section. Please - we're not interested in the restaurant logistics drama, we just want to sit together and eat. Ya'll need to get your poop together in the back instead of talking about it on the floor. Suprisingly, my food was good.

Nap. Staples visit. Wal-Mart. Winn-Dixie.

Kyle (Asian #2) came over so I could help him with some DVD media issue he was having. He was checking out my drums as I was trying to figure out what to do for dinner. As if by magic, Dana calls inviting me to dinner at the new Kyoto Japanese restaurant. Kyle heads over with me and we join Dana & Co. Dinner was very good except for the fact that my scallops got overcooked. Anyway, this place has a lot of potential so I'm glad that it's here. I plan on patronizing that place especially since it has... A SUSHI BAR!!! Finally! A sushi place in town. Not only that, it's near my house! Cool stuff.

The funny part of the evening was Kyle-related of course. Keep in mind that a good portion of Kyle would be made in Japan. We're at a Japanese restaurant, he doesn't like shellfish, can't eat with chopstics nor can he identify the soup he's having. Eating sushi would be out of the question. I'm sure that if there were burgers on the menu, that's what he would have ordered.

Jo, sound guru and aspiring vocal artist.

Thanks for all your help!

I'm a *little* tired.

Last night at the Hard Dock turned into a blast! Soon the crew was there and we were all having a ball together. Good times all around. It was Jack's first time seeing Sister Luck out and I think he was enjoying himself. Kira did a good job on the guitars as usual. I called Lesa and soon she and her crew came on the scene and joined the fun. It was a great night all in all. After the band was done, Phillip and Leslie came over to the house to sit and talk a little as well as check out my drum studio and other instruments. We might be getting some bluegrass stuff together in the near future is Leslie makes good on her mandolin intentions. Got in bed LATE.

Got up Saturday morning then... went back to bed. Got up again, this time around noon and this one stuck. Finally got my day rolling. Met up for band practice which I think everyone will agree - went extremely smoothly especially with Eric and Kyle not having played in a few weeks. It was good to see E back with his bass in hand. He also looks to have finally kicked his stomach funk but not without sharing some of the choice tidbits about the experience. Thanks for that dude.

Spent the evening with Jo - she's the one that helped me with some sound stuff back in the beginning of December. She only has a few more days before she moves up to Tennessee to continue her college career. Did some shopping then sat down to dinner at Macaroni Grill. We ate entirely too much but neither one of us has any sort of weight problem to be concerned with so it was all good. Talked about music, school and weird diets. That pretty much wrapped up my evening. I think I'm going to kick back with some amaretto and watch some tube before retiring for the evening.

Jack, meet Kira... LOL

Me and Kira showing off our stunning dental work.

Kerry on his Ludwigs in full Village People headress.

Kira up on a table doing her thing...

The beginning of funny stuff. Me and Lori groping.

Slight improvement.

Talked to Stacey this morning - Kailyn was finally able to keep some Sprite down but when they drew blood early this morning, her electrolyte levels were still not where they needed to be. So, they may keep her at the hospital another night. The plan is to possibly try some solid food in a few hours.

Back to work.

A sad little girl...

Poor Kailyn. She does NOT look happy in the least bit. Get well soon!

Much improved.

Today was a whole heck of a lot better than my drama filled morning yesterday. I was busy today but it was all about getting things accomplished - no spinning my wheels or anything. Lesa and I tried out the new Mexican place, Aldoria's I think for lunch. The food was delicious but our waitress was a bit on the slow side. Afterward, we stopped over at the new Java Jaay's next door for some latte's. I had a Heath bar one that was absolutely fantastic. They've also got wireless internet in there so it would be possible to haul out the laptop and geek it up a little should you feel the urge.

Chatted online a good bit with Jo. She's about to get things together for her move to school up in Murphreesboro - in Dabster land. She's struggling with a sore throat right now. Not a good thing if you're a singer. I think she's doing a mixdown on some tracks she recently recorded tonight. It'll be a late night for her.

Speaking of late nights, my favorite kid - Kailyn, is in the hospital being treated for dehydration. She's been hit with some sort of stomach bug that's prevented her from keeping anything down. They admitted her to the hospital today to get her on an I.V. drip to replenish her fluids. I talked to Kev and Stacey to see if they needed anything and they were hungry. I grabbed some food the headed up there to visit. Poor Kailyn, she looked so pitiful with her arm all in a splint with the I.V. line going in. The splint and tape was to keep her from accidentally pulling the line out. It was so sad to see her like that. Thankfully, she was asleep on Stacey's shoulder as I was leaving. I hope she can get some rest and recover from this quickly. It's got to suck when you're that young and don't understand why you have this thing in your arm, why you keep throwing up and why you're not getting any food to eat.

I'll go and see her again tomorrow but I think the doctor was only going to keep her there overnight.

Biggest scare in a LONG time.

Today between about 8:45 and 9:15 this morning, I was FREAKING OUT! I was at work taking care of some domain names and hosting services when I thought something happened to a KEY domain name I registered a few months back. It *looked* as though the domain name belonged to someone else. This domain would be for an extremely important project where the domain name I bought WAS the name of the project and all the media... web, print, radio, billboards, etc. were based entirely off of it. I was sweating while asking myself how this could have all happened because I had all my email trail and checked everything out to be sure everything happened as I wanted.

In the end, I was just a boob and freaked out until I found that everything was okay and DID go according to my plans. Good grief. I was physically drained at 9:15 after that scare. My boss was laughing at me as I lay sprawled out on the stairs in our break room looking like I just climbed or fell off the side of a mountain. It's amusing to think about now but at the time I was just about to trip off-line.

The rest of my day was uneventful which was PERFECT after all that drama.

Picked up laundry on my way home then headed straight to the house. I think I'm really going to make it into bed much earlier tonight. Maybe by 10:30.

Squeaky clean.

Popped into the office for a bit this morning before heading to the dentist for my regular cleaning. Looks like the crew there has found someone they want to hook me up with - the only problem is that she's seeing someone. We'll see what happens.

My afternoon was largely spent in a meeting. Got a lot accomplished though so in the end, that was a good thing. I stayed around the office awhile longer before heading to Red Lobster to enjoy Jack's birthday dinner. Dave, Dana, The Burns, the Spooners and of course, me were all in attendance. Got a little 'tude from the hostess when I first got there and told her we had a party of 16.

Me: We've got about 16 coming.
Ho-stess: Smoking or non?
Me: Non.
Ho: (gruffly) I'll have to split you up.
Me: Then put us in smoking if that means you won't split us up there.

Well, she wasn't expecting that last response. Ended up getting the accomodations we wanted in the NON-smoking section, she was just being "difficult" when I first got there.

Dinner was delicious and fun! I was at the table with Dave, Dana, Jack and Michelle and we all entertained each other. Ended the night with Dave doing his special thing with the lemon peel. Always funny.

I need to get in bed earlier tonight. I went too late last night and was paying for it all day today.

There's the groove. I think I'll get back into it.

Wow! That bLog entry title should be sponsored by Kraft 'coz it was so cheesy...

I had a great start to the new year and the week today. Things at the office are going well. For lunch, I met up with Bernie for a sandwich at Bellacino's before heading over to "The Building" to visit my old co-workers. It was good seeing the old crew again. There were lots of new faces there, but my friend's were the most important. Ran into David (Bernie's boss) as well. Didn't get a chance to stay too long as I had another errand to run and needed to get back to my office to get everything I wanted to accomplish today completed.

After work, I went over to Lesa's to hook up her wireless router. She had been struggling with getting everything connected up and working ever since Christmas. I had her browsing wirelessly in less than 10 minutes.

"I got skillz"

Anyway, getting wireless network security working on a Macintosh was a new experience. That took me a little while to figure out. In the end, I just set up MAC filtering till I get some more info on how WEP works on the Apple platforms.

Met up with the REGULAR Guad Squad tonight and then did the requisite speed shopping. Suprisingly, I didn't buy anything. Everything was picked over and prices weren't all that appealing. Came on home shortly thereafter.

I had washed a sinkful of dishes this morning before getting into the shower so that was my only real chore I had to take care of today. Just for good measure though, I found enough stuff to do one load of clothes. Very pleased overall with my productivity over the past several days.

Are you SURE it's January?

'Cause its 72 degrees outside and absolutely gorgeous! Today was a stellar day all-around. Church was great - had some visitors too. Excellent stuff. It was another acoustic set this week with me on the djembe and the fellas on their no "tricity*" guitars. I'm feeling more comfortable with the djembe now as I've gotten to use it more. I can get more tones out of it than when I first started playing it - experimented with muted tones more today more than anything else. It's also a lot easier on your hands than bongos or congas IMO. Despite that, my hands were a little sore after all that.

Ate lunch with a good group with the addition of the Dabster. It was all going well until she found out a friend of hers got engaged or something and she started making all these high-pitched noises that only dogs and bats could hear - in addition to the people in the sub shop that is.

After some Scrambling(tm), we all finally loaded up in the Jack's van and headed east to the tech mecca to shop. I only picked up a few things but nothing techy for once. Just a DVD, some socks, gloves, hangars, and a brush. We all took turns in a massage chair that came highly rated by Kevin. He's the expert in sitting around amongst us. (LOL) Anyway, had to get Stacey up out of the chair so I could try it. It was pretty good. It's not every day you can get a massage like that without either paying for it or hearing "heyyyyy, I'm tired" after only 10 minutes. I got Michelle to take my place in the chair next. When I turned the leg part on, she squealed. When I turned the back thing on, she squealed. Today was a day of high-frequencies for sure. Would have been nice to take pictures of everyone taking their turn in the chair though.

Visited Jack's abode on the way home and got the grand tour. Also checked out the Camaro project he and Jared have been working on. There's something amis with the engine though. Sounds like a spun bearing to me (crank). Not good.

Steamed up over $50 of king crab legs at Kev's for dinner. Elizabeth made a tasty shrimp and pasta dish as well. Ended up surfing the net for a bit testing out Kev's wireless LAN then headed on home after getting toxic doses of kids screaming and just generally being loud.

Off to enjoy my peace and quiet. Nite all.

*per a quote from Heavy E overhead when paying his bill "I needs to get my 'tricity turned back on..."

First post of 2005

It's another new year! It really does seem to go by faster and faster as you age. I remember when I was in my early teens, it seemed like it was taking forever to get 16, then 18, then 21... now I think "what was the big rush?". LOL!

Last Thursday, "Mr. X" (can't use his real name in case his wife somehow finds my bLog) and I headed to Nashville to hit Fork's Drum Closet and Guitar Center. I had a list with me for once and I got most everything I was looking for.

1. Practice pad
2. 18" batter head
3. 2 sets of new cams and beater weights for my double pedal
4. 2 drumming DVD's
5. Cymbal boom stand

I was also looking to get another Shure SM57 mic and a pair of isolation headphones but when I was talking to the guy at Guitar Center (Chad), he was pretty much an ass so I decided to order these 2 things online instead of buying from his department.

The last day of 2004 I spent raking leaves in my front yard. That went by faster than I thought it would which is always good. Part of the afternoon was filled with installing a new deadbolt lock on one of my exterior doors. Let me tell you, if you have to install one of these in a door that is not pre-drilled with the holes you need - it is a BITCH to get done. Even with the right tools, it's a pain. The biggest hassle is having to chisel away the wood so that the faceplates on both the door and the door frame are flush to the wood around it. Anyway, if any of you guys need to install a lock in a wood door, I have the clamp-on template thingy that makes drilling the holes a no-brainer.

Went over to Eli's house for a party - food was great and the house was decorated nicely. Had a fun time just hanging out with everyone. Kev kicked my tail in Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf on our Nintendo DS's. I've been playing "Pirates!" on my PC and haven't really spent a lot of time on the DS. Despite losing, it was still fun.

Rang in new year with everyone then headed home. Called my folks who were already well into New Year's day since they're 14 hours ahead of me. They're doing good.

I think I found my spousal "reference point".

While on the web earlier today, I ran across a picture of a French Canadian newscaster. She has got to be one of the best looking women I have seen in a while. Click on the link above to see more of her. Her name is Melissa Theuriau. How hot is that?

Pardon me while I drift off into my own happy place.

Okay, I think I need to marry this girl.

That's a huge disaster.

I can't believe the death and destruction in southern Asia from the tsunami's. Can you imagine something like that happening? No warning - a nice sunny day in what appears to have been a vacation paradise and then suddenly a huge wall of water appears and wipes out the coastline along with thousands and thousands of people?

The footage I've seen on TV has been pretty graphic. Bodies and destruction everywhere.

I'm just shocked.

Austrian postmark for those of you that are interested in these sorts of minutae.

Suprisingly, this package to me from Austria arrived relatively unscathed. It did take almost 3 weeks to get here though which is kind of a pain considering I got my stuff from Paris via FedEx in a day.

Issues.

Warning: This post is about some general thoughts I was having and not somebody in particular. If you think this is about you, that's your decision. ("Your so vain... you probably think this bLog is about you... to paraphrase Carly Simon) Also, if you're thin-skinned - stop reading. I don't want to hear your whining.

The above warning was provided as a courtesy - I feel no need to apologize for the content of my bLog. I was just being polite.

Lately, I've run across several situations where the "issues" of others have come out. In comparison, my issues are pretty much insignificant. So for me, that's a good thing. Granted, I do go out of my way to limit the number of issues I willingly leave myself vulnerable to and have largely been successful at it. I can't say that about others I've been around though.

Some people just do stupid stuff and cause their own problems. Do you ever just ask yourself HOW some of your issues came about? You can try and point a finger at other people or even situations you've been involved in but pretty much 99.9% of the time, YOU are the reason the issue has developed. Once you realize that, it's easier to get a handle on things. This is assuming you really want to get a handle on things of course. If you don't, and do nothing about it, don't expect anything to change. It will be the same old stupid stuff happening over and over again.

Why did I even bring this up? Well, it's almost time for a new year to start and it's also the time many people make new years "resolutions". Fixing your issues isn't a "new years resolution", it's a fundamental change in your way of thinking. After all, how many of your resolutions from last year have you kept? Before you do something that can have long lasting and or serious repercussions - think through it first:

• What am I not thinking about?
• What are the cons to what I am doing?
• 5 years from now, how will this decision still be affecting me/others?
• What if I don't go down this road?
• What has happend to others that have tried this? Know the good and bad.

When in doubt, ask the opinion of others who will tell you the truth, not those who you know will tell you what you WANT to hear. The latter are a dime a dozen. Find someone who'll give it to you straight. Oh, if you're going to get advice from someone, try and get it from someone who halfway has their act together. If the person you're getting advice from is in the middle of an issue tsunami as well... consider the source.

Now back to our regular programming.

Half day.

Today was busy for the first part then relaxing as the afternoon came around. I worked till about lunchtime then called it a day. My directive for this week from the boss was to come in if I needed to. Since I'm hooked up to the net and get all my email on my Blackberry and also because our secretary can forward messages to me if needed, I really don't physically need to be there this week. I will of course ensure that everything that needs to get done gets the attention it needs though.

Ate lunch with the Burns at Currie's then ran an errand for my sis. Went by Lowe's again to get another lightbulb for the floursecent fixture above my kitchen sink. I replaced one yesterday that had a nice, cool white light. The other one, while it still worked, put off a yellowish color. That's what I replaced. Took a nap then met up with the crew at the Guad. Ate, shopped then came home. Played on the drums a while. Did some experimentation in Jazz which didn't go as well as I would have liked. Playing some of the jazz tempo's is a bit tricky when you're just starting out with that. I'll keep on working on it though.

That's all over with.

I had a pretty busy day today. Got up and played the djembe in church. As luck would have it, I was tapping my right foot to keep time when all of the sudden, I start getting a cramp in it - this is not good. My options are:

1. Keep playing through the pain, risking getting off time as I try and stretch my foot
2. Stop, scream, then tear my boot and sock off and rub my foot like a genie is going to come out
3. Stress out and see what happens

I did a good bit of 3 then tried 1 whilst considering 2. Luckily, the cramp went away. I did start sweating profusely though throughout the ordeal.

After church, about a dozen of us headed to Applebee's for some lunch. We were able to get seated right away which was nice. While waiting for my food, I whipped my Nintendo out which Leah promptly snatched to try Super Mario on it. I got it back soon enough and played a few holes of golf on it. Kev forgot to bring his so it was all just single-player stuff today.

Next stop for me was Office Depot where I picked up some sale items and a complete set of ink cartridges (6) for my photo printer. That's about $80 worth of ink but I wanted to be sure I didn't run out at some inopportune time so keeping a full set ready to go is good insurance. I wandered over to the coffee shop next door and got a mocha before I finally went home.

Took down the Christmas tree which took all of 5 minutes including the 2 it took me to find the box. Re-arranged things in my living room to get it all back to normal then vacuumed up. Finished wiring and micing my drums up - added an overhead and a hi-hat mic to complete the setup. I'm extremely pleased with my practice arrangement now. Did more straightening and arranging there before heading back out to Lowe's for some light bulbs. I couldn't just get bulbs of course, I picked up a set of drill and screwdriver bits for my new power tool as well. :-D

Met up with the group over at Kevin's and played some Halo 2 (which I appear to suck at since the controls take some getting used to) and some rally racing. Ate leftovers from yesterday which were still fresh and tasty. Gonna ease up on the foodage the next few days to make sure my waistline doesn't grow.

Kev looking at the bling I got him for his Nintendo DS.

How many carbs do these things have?

Daniel and my sister checking out the printer I got them.

Got me some drill action.

Me with all the single women... Jordan, Krystin (in my lap) and Lela (Dana's mom).

Christmas Dave - check out the fly Converse All-Stars he has on. Very chic.

The tree.

The table setting for supper.

Yippee! It's Christmas!

It's finally here! As my usual Christmas tradition, I had supper with the Anderson family. Since my sister has her in-laws to hang with and I have no other family within driving distance... they just added me to their family. That means a lot to me.

Andy showed me some pictures from a recent trip he took to Norfolk, VA. While there, he was able to visit one of the ships he served on with the Navy back in 1974-76, the USS Seattle. He visited there with one of the crewmen that was under his command at the time. How cool is that? Interesting photos for sure. Also got to hear a little bit about how the ships refuel and transfer cargo at sea. Never knew the mechanics of how that happened and now I do.

The food was delicious as always. The ladies did an outstanding job! Opened presents afterwards. Everyone got cool stuff. I got a few items in addition to six (6) gift cards to Red Lobster! That was a source of entertainment for everyone. Guess I'll be eating there soon.

Back at my house, my sister and her husband came over and we exchanged gifts. They hooked me up with a DeWalt cordless drill like I've been wanting/needing. A big thanks to them! Hung out and talked with them for awhile before heading over to the Burns for dinner. Once again, delicious food. You'd think that after my dinner at Macaroni Grill the previous evening and the big supper that I would be full! Guess not as I ate a full plate there. Watched "Collateral" again with them then headed on home.

As a bonus, I think I'm getting a sore throat. I think I fought this off last week for the VBC gig and made it through Christmas. I guess it's okay if I get sick now - not that there's ever a good time for that but this is less inconvenient.

Almost here!

Christmas eve... I remember back when I was a child how difficult it was to go to sleep knowing that presents were waiting for me the next morning. One of my first memories of it was when my parents got me a walking robot with flashing lights. They pointed it towards my (crib?) and turned it on. I woke up, saw the robot, noticed it was getting closer... and then promptly freaked out. I'm guessing I also filled up my diaper.

Let me try and list what I can remember as being my favorite toys:

• Giant Tinkertoys
• 500 piece Lego set
• Erector set (in the red plastic box)
• Starbird (spaceship that made sounds depending on the angle you held it at)
• Eagle spaceship from Moonbase Alpha? I have to check on that.
• Atari 2600 (this was a rockin Christmas)
• Toy cabinet my dad built for me
• TCR racetrack (where you could change lanes)

Those are just a few I could remember off the top of my head. Ya know, thinking about all the stuff my parents did for me as I was growing up kinda puts a tear in my eye. I think I'm going to close with that. Gonna call my folks on the other side of the world now.

It's COLD.

Woke up to some really cold weather this morning. First thing I did was check on Kelsey to make sure she was still pliable. (Heh!) Like a good girl, she was curled up inside her doghouse which is also sheltered in an alcove at the back of my house so she's protected. I gave her an extra bowl of food to help her keep warm while I was gone to work.

The office was hoppin' today! I had all kinds of things going on that I thankfully got wrapped up today. Took a break in the middle of it all to meet up with my old Intergraph buddies at Edo's for some much needed sushi. I hate that I can't get by there to eat as often as I used to. Oh well, it's only a 15 minute trip to get there from my office so that's not too bad. Good to have seen everyone and get caught up on all the latest happenings. Lance was lusting over my Blackberry - I think he was going back to his office at Lockheed to see about getting one then retiring to "the lab" to do some research. By research I mean play some Call of Duty. LOL! That was one game I used to play A LOT. Got burned out on all the shooting games though and have taken a hiatus from them. I play more Half Life 2 on the PC and Asphalt GT on my Nintendo DS.

Brought Kelsey in for the night. She's doing better about just sitting in one place instead of *trying* to wander around. I only bring her inside during bad weather or when the temperature gets below freezing. I'm not an inside pet kind of person. I used to be though. I had 2 cats back in my college days - Samantha, my persian and Rhiannon, my big, black tabby. Of the two, Rhiannon was my favorite; she was very affectionate and passive. Samantha was kind of a bitch most of the time. She had her moments but they were few and far between.

On another note, reading Dabney's blog today reminded me of my days in retail many, many years ago. Yup, this is the time of the year you really start hating other human beings. Here's some stupid stuff that I remember:

• Some old woman buying 2 dozen pairs of socks and needing each pair wrapped individually
• Someone bringing an outdoor grill to the service desk at Parisian to be gift wrapped
• People trying to return clothing they OBVIOUSLY have worn and telling you it was like that when they bought it

On that last point for example, I remember times when I knew there was a dance or some kind of event at a local high school. Kids would come in the night before, usually a Thursday and buy their outfits. The event would pass then on Saturday, guess what? "I need to return this. I ended up not needing it." Ok, the outfit has deodorant marks in the armpit and it smells like cologne. How I kept from leaping over the counter and beating these people across the head with my stapler is beyond me. But I digress...

Collateral

Ok, I watched "Collateral". It's a pretty good flick. The ending wasn't as strong as I think it should have been but the suspense and drama are good. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 7 in my opinion.

Twas the Wednesday before Christmas...

Wuzzup people - I've been covered up the last few days pushing my daily blogging duties down in priority... but I'm back!

Nothing terribly exciting or stimulating has happened since the weekend which, in actuality, is a good thing. I was pretty worn out with all that was going on. It's nice to be able to kick back and enjoy the peace and quiet again.

I got all my Christmas shopping done so that's out of the way. One thing I learned this year is to NOT GET THE CHEAP WRAPPING PAPER. I cheaped out and got 2 rolls of some thin crap that tore when you touched it. It also bunched up in the scissors when I was sliding along making a cut. It was pissin me off. Anyway, I can't find my bag of bows either. Grrrr.

In other news, I finished watching "I, Robot". It was pretty good. Better than Van Helsing for sure. I'll probably try and watch "Collateral" tonight.

Got my drums all set back up again and also got mics on them like I planned. Cool stuff.

Anybody watch the final episode of the Real Gilligan's Island? The ending was so freakin anti-climatic. It was like, okay, here's the winner - the money's in the trunk. Go start the car. Roll credits. WTF?!? tbs... NOT funny.

POOF! There went the weekend.

Wow. The last 10 days have been pretty jam-packed for me - professionally and socially. I'm not complaining though. It's just that while I definitely had fun, that was a big spike as far as activities go for me.. no gradual elevation, just BAM, wide open!

I got a lot accomplished though - made a lot of new aquaintances, caught up with old friends, did most of my Christmas shopping, got my furnace repaired - the timing of that still bugs me but as Kevin pointed out to me earlier today, at least now I'm READY for the 13 degree low that's forecast for tonight.

Church went really well this morning. Getting everything connected up and positioned took a few minutes but we were all ready to go. The songs we played this morning were part of the set list from last night so we eased into it without a problem. My in-ear mix was adequate but nowhere near what I had last night. More on that later. Had lunch with Kev and Kailyn before picking up a few more presents from our local technology stores. After that, I went on home.

I had a huge pile of equipment in my drum room from where I unloaded last night. I vacuumed where my drums usually sit to pick up all the wood shavings from my sticks. While I was moving some of my gear around, I decided that I would set my drums back up but this time go ahead and mic them. Hopefully, I can get a GREAT in-ear mix for practicing when I'm home. Heck, I should be able to - I'll have all the time in the world to do it, LOL! Anyway, I'll be able to connect my CD player to my mixer and blend CD track's into my mix. I'll also be able to record to my Mini-disc recorder to listen to myself play afterwards to see how good or bad it sounds. That's one thing I've been reading about in a lot of magazines and drum forums and that's to make it a point to record to find your weak spots so you'll know what to focus on when you're practicing. This will also help me with making adjustments to my compressor units. Back when she came over, Jo suggested that I make some dry drum tracks then play them back while fooling around with compressor and gate settings to get a better handle on how all the adjustments affect the sound. I'll be able to easily do it now. I've still got a ways to go to get everything back in place but maybe tomorrow evening I can finish it up.

Started watching "I Robot" tonight. Looks good so far. I'm just too tired to finish it. It's my fault for starting it late anyway. I'll have time to watch all my new movies soon. I'm off Friday then next week, I'll only go into the office if I need to. Otherwise, I'm off. Ta dow.

Me doin' my thing.

Part of the crowd.

Got our banner up! Banner is courtesy of my sister.

Here's the room where we were set up. That's Philip taping down the snake cable.