It's funny how everyone starts to speak spanish in Mexican restaurants...for the last time, the waiter is not your amigo.

Tuesday's are nice because it is the first day I can ease into the day after Sunday. I never mind waking up super early (read before 6:30) as long as there is a day soon after where I can take it easy in the morning. As I've said before, I feel bad for my wife, because she has to wake up super early 5 days in a row.

This morning I woke up at 9, and then watched Sportscenter and checked emails for a little while. I then went outside to use my new functional weedeater, which worked wonderfully. I didn't wear pants, which was probably a mistake, because rocks sting quite a bit when hitting your bare legs at blazing speeds. By the way, I was wearing shorts...that last sentence sounds a little weird. I also spent some time digging up dead grass, but got tired of that really fast. I think I will do more of that on Thursday.

After the yard work I took Lucy for her daily walk. She decided to get incredibly dirty again, which meant that I had to give her another bath. Surprisingly she engaged in minimal growling, which was nice.

I took a shower and left early for work because I wanted to stop at Best Buy. I was excited to find that they had both the new Anberlin and Jack's Mannequin in stock. I didn't even bother looking at Wal-Mart, so often Wal-Mart is useless when it comes to CD's. The first thing I checked was the producer on the Anberlin CD, and as I thought the name was not "Aaron Sprinkle." I decided to listen to that CD on my way to work. It is called "New Surrender," and I tried my best to have a good attitude about the new producer. I want to withhold my full opinion until I've listened to it a little more, but early reports show dissatisfaction. I wouldn't say I'm disappointed, it is just kind of what I expected with the new label and the new producer. I still like it though, and let's face it...following up an album as amazing as one like "Cities" is pretty hard.

So far I am enjoying the Jack's Mannequin CD quite a bit. There is some really interesting guitar work, which I think is probably a product of this CD being more of a band thing than just an Andrew McMahon CD like the first one. I do miss Tommy Lee playing the drums, although the drums are fine. They made some interesting choices in not doing a whole lot of production to McMahon's voice, but I kind of like it. I will comment more on that CD later also.

Work today was pretty busy. We shot some footage off site at a local Mexican restaurant, which was fun. There was alot to do setup wise because of tearing down the sails, and the enormous group on stage this week. There is a full band and also an orchestra, which means alot of inputs, chairs, stands, etc. Dan Leslie suggested putting the orchestra in the middle, which we ended up doing, and it looks pretty good. There is alot for me to clean up when I get to work tomorrow.

Today was the first day of me packing my dinner. Really all we had was sandwich stuff, so that's all I had, a sandwich. It worked out ok, except I was still incredibly hungry. I will have to make sure to get some side items real soon. I think I am still going to eat out on Wednesdays, and then take my lunch on Fridays.

I'm watching The Daily Show right now, and Jon Stewart was talking about congress being out because of a Jewish holiday...seriously? Our country's economy is about to completely collapse, and congress is taking a break? Weird.

Tomorrow is such a long day. My parents said Lucy can come over again, which is nice. She wouldn't eat her food tonight, so I'm hoping she won't get sick. I guess it would make for an interesting blog post though...

I just tried to put some html tags in my title, and didn't realize that you wouldn't see them because they would be used....shows what i know

So I worked on the look of my blog quite a bit. Joe gave me some tips (what is it that he wants to be called...my muse?) and I did my best to take the design to a new level. I am still deciding what I think, right now I think I may like it. The big problem with redesigning is that I am severely hampered by my lack of html knowledge (or xml, or whatever I'm editing in, I don't really know). I pretty much just read through the code and try deleting things and changing values to figure out how to make things like I want.

Today i actually went to school. Psychology was not my favorite again. We spent most of the time discussing childhood obesity as a class. I am not much for class discussion, I would rather the teacher lecture about the material and teach me things I need to know. Maybe it's just my personality, but if you were in this class with me you might agree.

Micro lab was incredibly short, and I didn't feel like hanging around for an hour just to go to lecture, so I headed home to eat some lunch. I didn't have eggs today, which is rare, because we had some sandwich making material in the fridge. Last time Kristi and I bought cheese we went to BiLo as opposed to Wal-Mart, and I must say that the deli person did a lousy job with the Muenster. You can always tell when a deli worker cares about their job, because the cheese is at a reasonable thickness and the slices are separated on different pieces of plastic. This BiLo cheese...let me tell you...it is thicker than any normal person would prefer, and it is all mounded together, meaning that it is practically impossible to get an entire sheet of cheese off in one pull. You end up with several smaller, torn, misshapen pieces, which makes the sandwich that much less enjoyable. Maybe next time at Wal-Mart I should thank the person for their care in stacking my cheese.

A little after lunch I went over to the Boyds with my weedeater. Charlie (my father-in-law) had offered to look at it and see if he could figure out if it was starting. Even more amazing and kind, he told me that he would give me his old weedeater as he was looking to buy a new one. He wasn't able to figure out my weedeater's problem, but he did give me his to take home. It seems pretty powerful, and has a straight shaft, so I am fairly excited about it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the other one.

After working with the weedeater I talked to Karen (my mother-in-law) and Kristi's grandmother for a little while. They had some interesting food items for me to try, including pimento cheese and hummus. Neither tasted too bad, but I'm a big texture guy, and I don't know that I can handle the texture of hummus.

After a little bit I came home and waited for Kristi. When she got home we decided just to go through the Chik-fil-A drive through and then I dropped her off and went to Wal-Mart and Lowes. Lucy needed some new chew items (other than the household items she prefers) and also I needed a wheel barrow so that I can start digging out the grass for our expanded mulch beds. I barely fit it into the car, and I'm not sure what I would have done if I wouldn't have been able to get it in. Maybe I could have walked home?

That's about all I did today. Kristi went to bed pretty early, so I've just been watching football and trying to keep Lucy from barking. Tomorrow will be pretty busy. I think I'm going to do some yard work in the morning and then I work in the evening. I'm going to start trying to save more money, so I'll be packing my dinner tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about it not being enough, but I need to find a way to cut down on food expenses.

By the way, the bailout didn't go through, and Wachovia was bought out by another bank. I thought that was pretty funny considering the discussion last night. It also makes me feel weird as I am a Wachovia customer. I guess I've got a new bank now? I hope they offer me an interest rate on my checking!

Guess how many points we scored in the 2nd half...if you guessed less than 1 you were right.

This weekend was a good one. As I said before, the Hurleys came up and stayed with us which was so much fun. They have 3 kids; Nathan (6), Elli (4), and Asher (2). They are pretty much the most interactive kids for their age you have ever met, for instance Asher doesn't really say many words yet, but he understand literally 90% of the questions you ask him. Nathan on the other hand will often ask you how your day was, as well as attempt to solve any problems you might be wondering about. Jon and Kerin, the parents, are pretty great too.

They came up Saturday around noon. Once they got here we all spent some time putting together some food for a picnic and took off for Falls Park. There was a little debate about whether we should go to Cleveland Park or Falls Park, but since the Hurleys haven't really spent any time in Greenville, Falls Park was an obvious choice. The rain held off, and it was quite pleasant downtown. The Reedy River is pretty low, so there isn't too much water falling over the falls, but the park is still an ideal area for Saturday general enjoyment.

After lunch we drove through downtown a little and then came home and hung out for a while. Thanks to lunch I missed the Clemson game, and it is probably good for my health that I did. Remember how I just posted about Clemson being mediocre every year? Well...

See my very factual facebook group entitled "How long is Tommy Bowden's Contract Again?" for more details. We are on our 3rd year now, and I am expecting a membership spike real soon.

So anyways, I started making dinner around 5 which consisted of chicken, baked potatoes, corn, and rolls. Something didn't work quite right with my chicken. Everything tasted fine, but the chicken was a little bland. I am capable of much better, so I was a little disappointed. Kristi made some delicious angel food cake for dessert (with strawberries of course), so that made up for the bland chicken.

We were able to hang out and have some great conversation with Jon and Kerin after dinner when the kids went to bed. All joking aside, they really are one of our favorite families, and we miss seeing them on a regular basis.

After everyone went to bed I watched some recaps of the crazy football day and also watched Alabama stomp Georgia. I love to see good coaches come in and turn around teams. Remember how down and out Alabama was a few years ago before Saban came in? I think they were 6-6 or something, and that was like 2 or 3 years ago. I must say they look pretty solid these days.

As usual I got up early and got to church by 7:15 today. When I got in, Joe and Brad were trying to troubleshoot a ground loop in the bass guitar rig so I helped a little with that. Ground loops are frustrating. After that I cleaned up the stage a little and then was the "shader" for the services this morning. This involved playing the videos, controlling the irises for the cameras, and turning the rear screen on and off for lyric display (I sometimes forget the latter). The announcement video was pretty hilarious today. I'm not sure if it's because I didn't help with the taping this time, or because it was really that funny. I think it was probably a combination of both. Oh yeah, and the stage looked really cool. They couldn't use any of the cans that I put on stands, which was kind of disappointing, but they were able to use the movers on the sails, and it still looked cool. Joe took some really great pictures and posted them on his blog (http://www.resurfacedblog.com/). You really should take a second and look at the setup. I think we may leave the sails up for a little while.

After the services the Hurleys, the Boyds, and Kristi and I went to Atlanta Bread Company. That was fun, but afterwards we had to say goodbye to the Hurleys as they left for Columbia. I'm sure we will see them again soon.

Tonight Kristi and I went to community group, which was fun. It seemed like everyone was still working some of the awkwardness out as far a sharing goes, but I think people will open up as time goes on. There is this one guy in the group that is into the stock market and was telling me that Wachovia is going to rebound big time this week because it dropped so far before the bailout came into play. I thought that sounded really interesting, so I talked to him a little about trading and then when I came home I registered for a TD Ameritrade account. Unfortunately if you direct deposit funds from your checking there is a large minimum, and I was only going to use just a little bit of my allowance from this month to see how everything works. Oh well, at least I have my account now, and I may save a little of my allowance and mail it in. The stock market really intrigues me. At times like this it also makes me happy I'm not an investor. All Kristi and I have right now is her 401k, which has pretty much been tanking ever since we got it (last year). I feel old just talking about this stuff.

After community group we came home and I watched a little football before bed time. What a great weekend, a little tiring, but great. I think the only one that didn't enjoy it was Lucy. She doesn't like kids, so she pretty much growled and barked for 2 days straight...how annoying. At least she's worn out now....good night!

I guess I could talk about the ending if I put a big SPOILER ALERT tag on it...

So that "Red in the morning...Red at night" thing definitely isn't true. Like I said, last night the sunset was super red and today the weather was quite dreary.

Friday is the one day of the week I go in to work early in the day. I got there around 9 and did the usual email checking. I also set up a "Remember the Milk" account so that Joe can make a task list for me to check when he isn't there. I think that is going to work pretty well, today I was able to accomplish alot of the things on the list, and it kept me busy pretty much all day. I worked on some pricing research of sound equipment (oh how I love sound equipment) and I did some troubleshooting with the wireless mic. It was just patched digitally to the wrong place. Joe had to show me how to find the patching because I still don't know where all the menus are on the Yamaha board. I think I am going to get to run sound some more, and I am pretty excited about that.

Around lunch time Joe and I decided to go to lunch, it just seemed like the right thing to do. We saw Ben out in the lobby and invited him to come along. This trip was especially exciting because we rode in my very clean car. We went to Chik-fil-A, and on the way back Joe's drink spilled because the cup holder was a little big for his cup. So much for my clean car, thanks alot Joe.

When we got back Joe and I worked on some of the backlighting for some sails that are on the stage. I think the whole setup is going to look pretty sweet this week. I assume Joe will take some pictures, so I will either post one or put a link to one he puts up. It's hard to appreciate with just me explaining.

I left work a little late and came home to let Lucy out. I wasn't really planning on taking her one a walk since it was so miserable, but she was so hyper that I decided I would just take my big umbrella to stay dry.

On a side note, this umbrella is amazing. I think the shaft is graphite, so it is light weight, it has amazing vents for wind, and it's huge. The Berglinds got it for me for my high school graduation, and at the time I remember being confused...I mean an umbrella for graduation? Ironically, this gem is one of the few things I remember getting for graduation, and it has been amazing. Not only did it keep me dry on many many long walks to class at Clemson, I now keep it in my car trunk should it even be raining outside. The only graduation gift I may have gotten more use out of is the stereo my parents got me, but even with that it's a toss up.

Anyways, Lucy and I set out on our walk. We stayed on the sidewalk for a while, but she eventually wanted to go down a grass road into the woods that leads to a big drainage ditch. It didn't look too muddy, so we walked around down there for a while. There was a big almost pond like area that was filled with water and mud. I wasn't really interested in going down there, but Lucy wasn't interested in turning around, and she succeeded in pulling out of her collar. At first I was going to stop her, but then figured I might as well let her have her fun. She headed straight for the water and ran back and forth through it. For a while we played a game where I would throw rocks into it and she would pounce on the splash. After she got tired of the game she decided to dig a huge hole in the mud and stick her face in it. Her face was pretty much completely orange, along with her legs and stomach...it was a mess. I wish I would have had my camera, but all I had was my phone, so I took the best picture I could with that:

After a while I walked back out of the woods and when Lucy decided she was ready to go she followed. We walked back to the house where I took off my outer layer and carried her inside straight to the bath tub. Lucy hates baths, but I try to explain to her that if she wants to get filthy in the mud, she will have to have a bath afterwards. It doesn't work, and really that's the problem with Lucy, you just can't reason with her. When you give her a bath she gets extremely grumpy, and begins to growl. Her least favorite part is getting dried off, and really there's no way to explain it other than to say she acts like she is going to kill you. I am not exaggerating. I have never heard such a nasty growl from a dog. Her lips curl and she snarls like she is about to attack you. I do my best Cesar Milan impression and act very confident while continuing to dry her off. I'm pretty sure she would never bite and break the skin of Kristi or I, but I'm also pretty sure I won't be letting anyone else wash her anytime soon.

Kristi got home shortly after that whole ordeal, and we went on our date night. Neither of us were in the mood for fancy food, which is suprising because food is kind of a hobby of ours, so we went to Panera. It was ok. We had some time to kill after dinner, so we went to a few stores and then to Petsmart to get a nail clipper for Lucy and a new tag for her. Her old tag has my old number, although we laughed about how if she ever was lost she would never let a stranger anywhere near her. Actually, if the stranger had a dog with them there might be a slight glimmer of hope.

After shopping we went to see Eagle Eye, because I have really been wanting to see that. I was interested in the previews, and I saw the actor on Leno the other night and really liked his personality (yes I know he's from Even Stevens). I looked up the movie on Rotten Tomatoes, and it didn't get good reviews, but Rotten Tomatoes is often a bad measure of how much I will like a movie. I actually really enjoyed it. I don't think it's the most realistic, thought provoking thing ever, but it is pretty entertaining. I think reading all the negative reviews had me going in just for the pure entertainment, and that worked out pretty well. My only complaint is that it is intense for almost the whole movie, and I needed a break somewhere in there. Other than that, I liked the plot and how everything tied together, and I like the actors and actresses. They comic relief was actually genuinely funny I thought, as opposed to dumb humor. I wanted to talk about the ending some on here, but then I realized that a couple people who actually read this blog may want to go see it, so I'll save that for now.

Tomorrow the Hurleys come and I am really excited. I am also excited because both Anberlin and Jack's Mannequin have a CD coming out Tuesday of next week. I think they are both available on iTunes already, but like usual I want the real CDs. Anberlin joined a new label, so Aaaron Sprinkle probably didn't produce the CD, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little anxious about that. He is one of my favorites and I think is definitely responsible for alot of Anberlin's success. I will let you know what I think on Tuesday.

Red in the morning sailor's warning?

I did in fact wash my car today. This came after taking Lucy on her daily walk (do you get tired of hearing that?) and having an eggwhich for brunch. It takes me a while to wash my car, but I tried not to obsess too much today. I love driving a clean car. In high school my car was always very clean, in college it was hit or miss since I lived at school. Last year there was absolutely no convenient way for me to wash it, and I wasn't going to pay to wash it, so it has been filthy for about a year. I am excited that I can get back on track in that area.

After that I did some cleaning around the house. The Hurleys, probably the greatest family ever, are coming to visit this weekend, so we would like things to be clean. Kristi and I are both very excited about them staying with us.

I made a few phone calls to MetLife and other places until Kristi got home, and then we went to eat at La Fogata. We had a coupon, but we had to buy expensive things to use it, so the bill ended up being a little more than usual (we eat there at least once a week). See, that's how they get ya. Afterwords we went to Ross and TJ Maxx to look at furniture and other decorations. Kristi found a little leaf decoration she liked and I found a sweet zip up hoodie. That was a big deal, because I don't buy clothes very often.

We got home pretty early because Kristi wanted to watch Grey's, and I wanted to watch the office. It was actually my first time watching a current episode. I just watched reruns on TBS last year because of rehearsals on Tuesday nights. I really like the office, but alot of the time it makes me extremely stressed out. I empathize too much with awkward situations, so I feel really anxious during alot of the show. It is hilarious though, and so I continue to watch.

I just took Lucy out a little while ago, and it is creepy outside. It's pretty chilly, and very windy. That combined with the overall stillness of our neighborhood made the weather seem ominous or something. The sunset was red though, I thought that means "sailor's delight?" Anyways...

Not too exciting of a day I guess. Right now I am watching USC (the real one) get beat up by Oregon State. College football confuses me sometimes...it's hard to tell how good teams really are becaue there are so many, and all of them mainly stick to conference schedules or cupcake games. Seriously, how could USC be losing this bad? Is the big ten really that bad, or the Pac 10 that good? Of course Notre Dame almost beat them a few years ago, so are they just having a terrible game? Maybe they'll come back, we'll see. One thing I can always count on is the Gamecocks being bad and Clemson not living up to expectations...I guess there's something to be said for consistency...I'm not sure what though.

The lady at Lowes told me to get off-brand RoundUp, I wonder if that's why it isn't working...

Lucy woke me up around 8 this morning and after I took her out I layed in bed contemplating whether I was going to go to Psychology or not. Like I said, I didn't have lab today, so I definitely wasn't going to Micro, and I wasn't sure if it was worth driving all the way in for the one class. As I was deciding my mom called and wanted to talk for quite a while. That pretty much solved my dilemma, because by the time we were done talking there was no way I could get ready and get to class anywhere near on time.

If yesterday was nice weather wise, today was amazing. Also, I love where my house is. It doesn't take us too long to get anywhere, but we don't live in a congested area. I also love that our backyard backs up to woods. It's so nice to look out of our sunroom and see just trees.

After I took Lucy for the usual walk I finished my song. I finally got the vocals to render correctly after trying a few workarounds. I don't know what the deal was, but it was frustrating. Anyways, here it is...it's just about how I felt when the stress of things in Columbia was creating some tension between Kristi and I. A little sad, but turns out good in the end:

All We Need

I don't really like the title, but it's not like it's going to be a big hit or anything. I also posted the hymn I re-did a while ago. If you want to listen to it, you can find it here. My senior project is also on my soundclick page if you have never heard that. The production is way better on that stuff as it was actually done in a studio environment and not one of our bedrooms with junky equipment. By the way, if you want to have the songs and you are my friend, just ask me, you don't need to pay for them on that site. I just have them for money in case someone random stumbles across them and wants them. I think I have to have 10$ to cash out, and right now I'm like at 4$. I highly doubt I'll actually make it to 10$.

After uploading the songs I decided to go kill the grass again where the mulch beds are going. The roundup only worked on about half of it, so I resprayed everything. Tomorrow or maybe next week I'm going to dig it all up so we can put some good dirt down and plant stuff. It's gonna be pretty sweet when we're done.

Somewhere in there I made some eggs for lunch, I don't remember when. Either way, after 2 I left for work. I finished setting up the stage, installed SP3 on my XP, and then moved the MobilePre to my computer. By the time all that was done it was almost time for the worship team meeting, so I went to Zaxby's and picked up some food for Joe and myself. He was shooting baptism testimonies all afternoon, so he couldn't come to eat.

The worship team pre-rehearsal meeting was interesting because we all went around and talked about a book we were reading or had recently read. It was interesting to hear what people had to say. I said I was reading a Dave Ramsey book because Kristi and I are so rich and we need to know what to do with all of our wealth......right.

We had some trouble with a few inputs tonight at rehearsal which was slightly frustrating. There was a bad mic cable and I had hooked up the drum mics slightly wrong. Also, one of the wireless mics isn't working. The signal is coming into the receiver, and the cable going from the receiver to the snake is good, so I have no clue what the issue is. I guess Joe and I will have to work on that next week. The stage setup is cool this week. It's a real small band, so the the drums are close to the front right in the middle, and Brad made the set alot smaller. We also didn't use the drum shield, which looks so much nicer. Drum shields are usually a necessary evil unless your running more like 100 - 105 dB, but Brad is using Hot Rods this week and taking it easy, so we didn't have to use it. There is a ton of space in the back of the stage that Joe is going to put light trusses and sails in. It's gonna look cool I think.

Rehearsal went pretty long, so I didn't get home until about 10. Kristi was already in bed, so we just talked a little and then I got a drink and went to bed. Right now Lucy is out in the living room growling at something...I don't know what her problem is.

Tomorrow I was supposed to have lunch with Keith, the youth guy from NHCC, to talk about re-doing the cable routhing of their sound system, but I haven't heard from him, so I don't know if that's happening. Maybe if I'm up to it I can wash my car....it is so dirty. The nice thing about living in a house is that you can wash your car whenever you want...I'm excited.

Maybe I won't do full CD reviews, I don't really feel qualified to be that intense...

The weather seriously has been beautiful lately. I don't remember having more than one or two days like this in Columbia this past fall. Makes me glad to be back in the gorgeous upstate for sure.

This morning Lucy was pretty pooped from the dog park, so she didn't even wake up when Kristi left. That was nice because I didn't have to get up until 8:30 when she decided it was time. By the way, Lucy snores so loud. Between Lucy's snoring and Kristi's talking in her sleep it's a wonder I get such good sleep. I guess it's a good thing I'm a heavy sleeper.

Lucy and I went on a walk and then I finished writing my song. I recorded a pretty good scratch track of it, but I don't feel like converting it to mp3 and uploading it tonight. Also Cubase is doing something weird where it isn't rendering part of the vocal track correctly...I'll have to figure that out tomorrow. I use an old version of Cubase SE because the new version costs money and I have no issues with the old one. Really i would love to have a version of Pro-Tools and an interface with at least 6 more inputs, but the MobilePre and Cubase has held me down for quite a while now. There is so much musical equipment I want eventually, and it is all so expensive. I try to piece stuff together bit by bit over holidays and when extra money finds me, but it takes forever. If you'd like to donate please let me know.

I went to work a little before 1 and stopped to get Kristi something she needs for school on the way. I listened to the new Bebo CD on the way. It is pretty good, typical Bebo Norman stuff. The thing I like about him is that he seems to just do his own thing and he is talented enough to where one of his songs gets popular every once in a while. I don't think many people know how many CD's he actually has. On his new CD he's got this song he wrote as sort of an apology to Britney Spears for culture bringing her down. I know, I thought it would be cheesy too, but it actually is a pretty good song. I love the album artwork for the CD. It is really clean and simple, but not in an obnoxious way. I like the fonts, the black and white, the lines, everything. I also love Bebo's stuff because of it's general simplicity and smooth production. By the way, if you want to hear some amazingly smooth production you should listen to Augustana's new CD. It is one of the most amazing CD's I've heard production wise. Everything just kind of melts into everything else, and it doesn't have the normal scooped sound most pop CD's do. If you want to hear what I'm talking about listen to the vocals on track #2 or everything on track #4. I never know the titles, just track numbers.

Work was pretty typical, I spent time cleaning up rooms and the catwalk and did a few other random odd jobs. Tim, Joe, and I went to Moe's for dinner and then set up the stage together afterwards. None of the volunteers showed up which kind of stunk. Around 8:45 I offered to just finish it by myself tomorrow. Usually I leave around 8 so I was ready to go, and since Joe has alot to do tomorrow I figured I could just do the rest myself.

I got home and talked to Kristi a little. I put a few finishing touches on the scratch track and played it for Kristi. She thinks it is a little on the sad side, but says she likes it.

Tomorrow I guess I'll go to my psychology class, and then probably come home. My micro teacher cancelled lab, so I don't think there's any way I'm going to sit around for an hour and a half for lecture. Lets not forget I got a 102 on my first test. I told Kristi I need to figure out how much priority I need to place on my Greenville Tech classes, because I apparently overachieved way too much on the first few.

Tomorrow I'll try to post the mp3 online for anyone that wants to listen. I will also post a scratch track of a hymn I rearranged a while ago. I recorded it for the worship team down in Columbia but then left before we ever really used it. I wish I could do full band versions of these songs, but alas I don't have enough inputs to record drums. I think the scratch versions are interesting to me because I have all these ideas of how full versions would sound floating around in my head, and it makes me sad that other people can't hear them. Like I said, let me know if you want to donate...

I felt like a dad trying to get my spoiled kindergartener to go play with the other kids...

Don't worry, you didn't miss too much without a post on Sunday. The only thing worth noting is that last night Lucy didn't want to eat so I ended up putting her food bowl in bed, and she ate it without even standing. I'm not sure if she's the most spoiled dog ever or the most lazy. I wasn't really willing to let her go without though, because chances are she would have woken me up at 5:30 by throwing up on our bed. Oh, also we tried out a community group, it seems like a good group of people.

I was really tired this morning because I woke up before 6:30 both days this weekend. I didn't go to psychology, and just got up in time to go to my Micro lab. Actually I left a little early by accident, so I ended up taking back a CD shelf to Target that I got to exchange it for one like you saw in the picture. I had gotten another one Sunday night that was bigger to add to the one in the picture, but it was really junky, so much so that the shelves sagged in the middle when I put CD's on them. So I took the entire thing apart (I had just assembled it) and put it back in the box. I realized later on in the day that I forgot to put the screws and 2 little pieces back in the box. Oops, someone is going to be frustrated if Target puts it back up for sale without checking it.

I went to lab and then went to lunch with Nate. I had planned on skipping Micro lecture and just going home (ah the joys of no attendance), but Nate asked if I wanted to eat lunch. After lunch I took him by NAPA to get some u-joints for his truck, and then by a mechanic to drop them off. So much for getting home early...

It was such a beautiful day today. When I got home I took Lucy for a long walk around the neighborhood. She is really good at sticking with me, so today I didn't use her leash at all. She found a beach ball back in the woods at one point and was really excited about that.

I put my new CD shelf (which is exactly like the other one) together after that and organized the rest of my CD's. My music room is looking pretty good, and I will take some pictures once I get my drums back in there. I have some great ideas for acoustical treatment and art too, but I'll save that for when I post the pictures.

While I organized my CD's I listened to the new EP by Andrew Osenga (which is free: www.ilikeandy.com). I only really got into his stuff after he started playing with Caedmon's Call. I knew a little of his stuff with The Normals, but not much. His new EP is called "Letter's to the Editor: Volume II," and the idea is that people send him stories about things going on in their lives, and then he writes songs about some of them...pretty cool if you ask me. He has this one song one there that is about everyone writing their stories to him and the lyrics are amazing, so I wanted to post them:

My friends have sent me letters
I've read them all and then
I tried to make sense of the stories
But I was overwhelmed

So much anger, so much pain
We've had to go numb to survive

So I am closing my eyes
And I'm praying for those in my life
Let us feel, let us love, let us be alive
Let us know You

My friends have shared their secrets
I have given mine
The anarchy of what we think
No one will ever find

But in the daylight, to our surprise
Our secrets are shades of the same

So I am closing my eyes
And I'm praying for those in my life
Let us feel, let us love, let us be alive
Let us know You

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with You
You parted the seas, You hung up the flame in the night to guide us through
You drew in the sand, dropped the stones from violent hands
You heard the cry of the crow and set Your eyes on a faithless friend
You are who You are, and You are, and You were and will be

I am opening my eyes
And I'm praying for those in my life
Let us feel, let us love, let us be alive
Let us know You

"Let Us Know You" - Andrew Osenga

That was one of those songs where I completely stopped what I was doing and just sat there for a little bit after I listened to it. For some reason it reminds me of that song that Sufjan Stevens wrote about the serial killer, where at the end he sings, "And in my best behavior, I am really just like him. Look beneath the floorboards, for the secrets I have hid." It's called "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." and it's an incredible song. For some reason God has really given me an appreciation for the brokenness of this world, the brokenness of myself, and how all these broken situations come together for His glory in some way. I guess that's the good thing about living in community also, that once you get your crap out in the open you figure out that everyone else is just as broken as you are, and then all of a sudden real relationships start to build where people are really helping each other. I feel like people are going to read this paragraph and come away thinking I'm a serial killer, but hopefully you get what I am saying. I'm not a serial killer...seriously.

Anyways, after putting my shelf together I emailed Kristi (I can't call her while she's teaching) and asked if she could come home early since it was such a beautiful day. She came home around 4 and we decided to take Lucy to the dog park downtown. Lucy absolutely loves playing with other dogs, so we figured she would love the dog park, even though she has never been to one before.

The trip was quite an adventure. There were probably 10-15 dogs of all sizes at the park, and they were all pretty well behaved. Unfortunately Lucy was extremely overwhelmed by the amount of dogs. She spent almost the entire time standing right beside Kristi and I just watching the other dogs play and looking nervous. Dogs came over to say hi to her every now and then, but she was pretty much just paralyzed. She also had this weird thing where her mouth started foaming...it looked like she had rabies. I googled it when I got home, and apparently dogs do that sometimes when they are really nervous. Near the end she started to play with a 6 month old Doberman, but he was so big that she was starting to get grumpy from getting knocked around, so we decided to leave. We took her for a walk downtown afterwards, which was really nice.

We decided to bring Lucy home and then go out for dinner. We got a coupon for a whole free dinner at MiMi's Steakhouse in the mail, which is incredible. We couldn't really figure out if they are desperate and going out of business, or doing really well. They supposedly were voted "Best in the Upstate," for Japanese food last year, but it doesn't really seem like a happening place. I guess only time will tell...the food was good either way.

After a delicious dinner we came home and I worked on my new song some more while I watched football. I think it's going to be a good one, it is just taking forever to write.

Tomorrow I think I am just going to run a few errands and then go to work. I don't know what's going on in church this week, so I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but I hope it involves soldering!

Househunters and Househunters International are pretty much the greatest shows ever.

As usual when waking up before 7, I awoke this morning to Kristi telling me that my alarm was going off. Maybe I could record her saying my name and use that as an alarm clock or something.

The music went really well this morning also, although I didn't think we were quite as tight as last night. I thoroughly enjoyed playing for the weekend as a whole. I've been practicing drums alot, and I could really tell that I was more steady than I used to be. I really love playing drums, maybe if I work hard enough it can be my new #1 instrument.

After we finished I came home, ate lunch, and watched football for a little bit. Kristi and Lucy had went to her parents house in Riverwalk so that they could walk along the path by the creek. Lucy loves the outdoors, especially when water is involved. Sometimes I think she should live on a farm or something. I think they must have had a good time because Lucy was passed out on the floor for the rest of the day once they got home.

After watching football a little I got started on the yard work. I mowed the lawn, after which I tried my weedeater just hoping that it had been miraculously healed...no luck. I guess I am going to let Charlie (my father-in-law) look at it and then take it to a repair place if he doesn't know what the problem is. I talked to my dad about it a little too, but he thought it could be a variety of things.

Kristi and I plan on doing a good bit of landscaping in our yard. The first thing we want to do is increase our "curb appeal" by enlarging our mulch beds and planting bushes more strategically. To do this I needed to kill the grass where the mulch is going to go. Kristi and I outlined the new beds with a shovel and then I spent the rest of the afternoon spraying off-brand Roundup on the grass with my new tank sprayer. It worked great. Also, this reminds me...did you know that Charter does not offer HGTV in HD? This is extremely frustrating to me. I actually called Charter about this, and the lady had the same reaction all my friends have when I tell them..."You mean Home & Garden Television?!" Yes, I love Home & Garden Television. Also, my ESPN-HD is always pixelated or messed up in some other way. I think when our 6 month introductory rate is up I'm going to switch to Direct-TV.

After the yard work I watched a little more football and then we went downtown with my parents. We went to Mellow Mushroom, and then were supposed to go to "Art in the Park," but my parents got the times wrong and it was over when we got there. We went to Target instead, and that was good because I got another CD shelf.

So that was my day. We came home from my parents and I just watched more football and got in bed. I am thinking of building a deck in my back yard. I don't know if I could make a fence look really nice, but I think I can do a simple, nice deck by myself. If you've got any tips please let me know...

I'm glad I don't wake up before 7 every morning like my wife!

I totally forgot that I was supposed to take Lucy to my mom's house this morning when I woke up. How I can write about it the night before and then forget in the morning, I have no idea. I was taking my time starting my day, and then at 8:15 as I was getting in the shower I remembered. This posed a problem because I am supposed to be at work at 9:00. I rushed through my shower and took off, making it to church around 9:15. Usually Joe isn't even there until 10:00, but just as my luck would have it he was there when I got there. People not being punctual is one of my pet peeves, so it really bothers me when I'm late. Oh well, I guess nobody can be perfect right? Lucy got to play with Molly and my sister's dog Carter all day also. Jenny was in Boone, NC interviewing for an ER job (she is a doctor). By the way, in case you aren't familiar with my family, here we all are:Joe had alot for me to do at work today, so I stayed busy. Part of it involved crawling under the tech platform. The thing is so small that I inch on my stomach and my back scrapes the studs the entire time. It is extremely claustrophobic, but it's also kind of like a challenge each time. If you want a picture for reference, Joe took one a while ago and it is somewhere on one of his blog posts.

For lunch we went to this place called Papa Chin's. I have been excited about this place ever since I saw it earlier this week, and it did not disappoint. It was a little pricier than I would have preferred, but I got fried rice with chicken, steak, and shrimp, and it was delicious. I asked for no peas, but they forgot and the waitress was extremely apologetic. I really didn't care at all, and I kept telling her that, but she kept apologizing. Joe and I talked how I should have been a good American and completely flipped out about it. Anyways, I'm sure I will go back sometime. In case you didn't know, Thai/Japanese fried rice is my favorite food, especially when it is made spicy. Wings are also right up there with fried rice. Have you ever heard of Guiseppi's?

I went to NHCC right after work to set up for the youth conference. Since we are playing a good bit of songs I wanted to use my own set. I am using my 2 toms, kick, and snare, and then I borrowed some nice cymbals from different people. Together everything sounds amazing, especially through their system which consists of 2 powered QSC mains, 2 powered QSC subs, an Allen & Heath GL2400, a DBX Driverack, and various other rack gear. I actually planned the system out while they were building their new facility, but then moved before it was finished. It sounds awesome.

The worship time was awesome. NHCC has about 250 in their youth group, I think 150-200 were there tonight. They have a ton of really godly kids who are really great leaders, and I have never seen a group of people be so passionate and get into worship so much as a group. What's more amazing is that we are talking about youth. We did a great set that Ryan put together:

Solution
Madly
Mighty to Save
From the Inside Out/The Stand

I had never played "Madly" before, and it was alot of fun. The last two we jumped back and forth between which was also really cool. I met Jared who plays guitar for a hard core band called "Divide the Sea." He is friends with Ryan and played lead tonight, and he was great. I thought it was one of the best sounding groups I have played with in a while. We were very tight and very musical. I left my camera in the back for the computer tech to press record on when we started, but he forgot. It seems like every time I am a part of something musical that is great it somehow doesn't get recorded. Oh well, just trust me.

I have to get up at 6:30 tomorrow to go practice for tomorrow morning's set. That is too bad because I have to get up at 6:15 on Sunday too, but I would get up early anytime to go play some good music. I think tomorrow night Kristi and I are going to hang out with my parents, which should be fun. The not fun part of the day will be mowing the lawn and cleaning. Anybody like mowing lawns for free?

Maybe I should hire a trainer...

I forgot to tell you that I didn't end up running Tuesday morning. For the first time in forever Lucy decided to sleep until 9:30, and I was pretty tired, so I ended up doing the same. Since I missed the early morning I figured I'd wait until next week to start. I wonder if I will ever actually start.

This morning Lucy decided to sleep until 9:30 again, which is wonderful for me. I guess she was still tired from playing with Molly. After she woke me up I got ready for the day and then cleaned some things up around the house. I remembered that my friend Kenny (who I was going to eat lunch with) had taken the time to make me some CD's of the weird music he likes as a moving gift when Kristi and I came back to GVegas. I felt guilty that I hadn't listened to them yet, although in my defense my CD's are still in boxes (well, actually now they're not, but they were this morning). I scrounged around in the boxes and then remembered that I had put those particular CD's in my night stand, so I went and got them on my way out for something to listen to in the car.

Kenny likes some weird music. The first CD he made for me, which I listened to most of the way, consisted of some Indie/Rock songs that he likes. There were a few that interested me a little, but there are two things I get really excited about with music...production and melody. Since alot of the songs were indie, they didn't have very good production at all. Also, the music Kenny likes is more technical with not much emphasis placed on the lyrics and melody. For these two reasons he and I come from completely different worlds when it comes to musical preferences. Sometimes it amazes me that we played together so well in church.

The second CD was some weird post-progressive rock or something. I liked the production better, but alot of the songs on that one don't even have words. Oh well, I guess at least now I have some exposure to a new genre I will call "Kenny's Weird Favorites."

I forgot how hot it is in Columbia. Since my AC is broken in my car I roll my windows down when I drive. It was a pretty cool day in Greenville today and when I started I was quite comfortable. I got hotter and hotter as I got closer to Columbia, and by the time I was downtown I was sweating a good bit. Let me tell you, I do not miss the heat.

I got to Moe's in downtown Columbia and not only was Kenny there, but my friend Randy had also decided to come. Originally he couldn't come because he works out with a trainer Thursday afternoons to be more healthy, but he had decided to move his training days around this week so he could see me. I was really excited that he made it and it was alot of fun being able to catch up with both of them.

I realized after getting a few dirty looks that I had worn a Clemson shirt. This one USC student in line was pretty much staring at it, and it was kind of awkward. He was probably just staring and meditating on how much better our football program is.

After Moe's I headed home and reminisced about my time in Columbia on the way. I decided to listen to some regular music on the way home, so I put in Chris Tomlin's new CD. Ed Cash has some amazing sounding drums, but for some reason I always feel like he ruins some of Tomlin's live stuff in the studio. A good example of this is "Made to Worship." The live version is so much better (in my opinion). On the new CD I do not like what they did with "God of This City." They tried to put all these different chords in there, but I think it just ends up being weird. I guess it's all subjective, but simplicity is a preference of mine when it comes to music. I feel like if you schmootz it up too much it eventually overruns the song. I've never had to spell schmootz before, and I don't think that's right. Anyways, I think I am going to put a CD review every now and then on this blog, so in the next week I'm going to start with that CD and one of Robbie Seay's that I just bought.

I got home and worked on organizing my CD's. I finally found a shelf I could use to put them in at Target the other day. I was pretty excited because my CD's have been disorganized for over a year, and I haven't really been able to see what I have. Last time I counted me CD's was several years ago, and I had in the lower 100's, so I bought a shelf that holds 150...that was a mistake. I realized this when I was only through 3/4ths of the first of two boxes and was already running out of room. Apparently I have more like 250-300 CD's. See, I like CD's for the album art, and also, if Apple is going to DRM my music AND charge me 10$ a CD, why would I not just buy a real CD? Makes sense to me. I had no idea I had that many though.

Before I could go any further Kristi got home and it was time to go to dinner. We celebrated Chad's birthday with the rest of her fam at Arizona tonight. It was a fun time and the food was really good. The have mixed vegetables as a side, but the waitress told me they could make just steamed broccoli for me if I wanted it. I did, and it was great. I think it was probably more fresh because it was made just for me. Now I know to ask restaurants with steamed vegetables if they can make me just the broccoli...you learn something new every day.

After dinner we went back to the Boyd's house, ate some cake, and watched Chad open presents. Kristi didn't want to go to bed too late, so we went home after just a little bit.

When we got home Kristi got ready for bed and I finished organizing my CD's as much as possible:

What you see there is a few categories. Everything on the shelves is alphabetized through somewhere in the N's, totalling about 140. To the right of the shelves are a bunch of other CD's that I want in my main collection that haven't been alphabetized completely (waiting to get another shelf). I counted those and there are a little over 90 of them. To the left is the Christmas category and then a bunch of CD's that I don't really see myself listening to regularly. I think I will put them in a box somewhere. I didn't count those, but I'm guessing probably around 60. On top are a few CD's I need to give back to owners and a few CD's missing cases and a few cases missing CD's. One time I left about 20 of my CD's in Guatemala...that was really lame-o.

Through the whole organizing process I saw some great CD's that I had completely forgotten that I have. I am pretty excited about getting those out and listening to them. It also reminded me that there are a ton of CD's I need to rip to my computer...that is going to take forever. Did you know that I bought a desktop computer for 80$ for my music room the other week? Pretty exciting I think. I did buy 2 gigs of RAM for 50$ so I could record with it, so I guess it was really 130$. It is working wonderfully though, not bad for that price.

After finishing up there I put my drums in my car because I'm playing for a youth conference at NHCC this weekend. I love to play drums and I'm pretty excited. Tomorrow Lucy is going to my parents' house again because I and going to NHCC right after I get off of work. We are playing some pretty sweet songs like "Solution" and "The Time Has Come."

By the way, Joe's blog today ended exactly how mine ended yesterday. I wonder if he did that on purpose or if I am just subconsciously influencing him to be more like me...I will ask him tomorrow.

I have a hard time knowing what to put for "Political Views" on facebook.

And I'm back. Last night I studied so much for statistics that I didn't really have any desire to post. It wasn't that exciting of a day anyways. Highlights included eating lunch with my mom and working on a ground loop in the video system for a long time and getting nowhere.

Today; however, was a Wednesday, which you know is the busiest of all. I had arranged to take Lucy to my mom's this morning to play with Molly all day. This allowed me to take my statistics test after Micro and not go home before work, which in turn saved me from making an extra trip to Greenville Tech. Like I said, I ate lunch with my mom yesterday and told her I'd pay for her since she watches my dog, to which she replied, "no, I'm going to pay for your lunch." Free dog sitting traded for not paying for my lunch sounded like a good deal to me...really that doesn't even make sense.

Psychology was fine, and I finally got my test back, which I got a 100 on. Our teacher was still not done grading them, so she had us read on our own and come up with possible essay questions while she graded. To be honest I felt like we were just doing her work for her while she worked on grading. It made me wish I would have slept in until Micro.

When I got to lab our teacher told us that she thought she may have used the wrong scantron key for our tests, and that our grades might be wrong. This kind of freaked me out because I had made a 102/106 (96%) on my test. I had visions of my grade being lowered to a D or something. We got out of lab early and Nate and I went to Moe's quickly. When we came back for class she told us that our grades were in fact correct. Not only that, but the test had been curved 4 points and 2 points were extra credit, so I actually made a 102% on my test. Talk about a turn of events!

Feeling quite pleased with myself I went to take my statistics test. It was really tricky, and I felt like there was way too many short answer questions. I had the math down backwards and forwards, and was only slightly familiar with terms. There were lots of questions about terms and discussion of terms, so I'm not sure how well I did. Oh well, I'm sure I got at least a C and this class isn't too important. I'll know to study more terms for the next test.

I got to work expecting to have to set up the whole stage, but I was pleasantly suprised to see that Joe, Tyler, and James had done alot of the setup for me. I had to finish up some mic cables, aviom cables, power cables, and arranging, but it really wasn't bad at all. Kevin showed up super early for rehearsal, so Joe, he, and I went to McAlister's for dinner. I found something I kind of like there, so I don't mind going anymore. I don't jump up and down about it, but it's alright.

At dinner Joe and Kevin talked a little about politics. I am an extremely opinionated individual, and actually have some pretty strong views on politics. Like I've said before, I try to shy away from dogmatism although I am often unsuccessful. I have noticed that I can have a tendency to come across as way too opinionated which can intimidate or annoy people, so I really try my best to listen more than offer opinions. Like I said, I am often unsuccessful, but tonight I did succeed at not really getting involved in the discussion. I felt like if I got started it could be a long conversation that wouldn't go anywhere in the end. Discussing politics with people is like discussing theology with someone who is Reformed. Everyone already thinks they've got everything figured out, and discussing usually just ends up being super frustrating...if you're reformed please take that last statement as a lighthearted one. Many of my friends are reformed and I like them, I just don't discuss theology with them. :)

After dinner we returned to the church, went to the pre-rehearsal team together time, and then I ran slides again during rehearsal. They were finishing up around 9, which is when I'm supposed to get off, so I went ahead and left to get Lucy. I love it when she stays with my parents because she is so tired from playing with Molly all day.

When I got home Kristi was already in bed and I was still hungry, so I made some dip-eggs (sunnyside up for those of you unfamiliar with my terminology). Now I have mentioned before that I am probably the best egg cooker you know, and I am guessing that many of you (or at the least the 2 of you who read this blog) did not believe me. Tonight as I was admiring my eggs while they cooked, I decided I should take a picture. I warn you though, in the same way the watching John Mayer play guitar makes me want to stop trying to play, looking at a picture of my eggs may discourage you from cooking eggs ever again...they are just that awesome:

Pretty good eggs I'd say, just look at that delicious butter.

After eating my eggs and toast I felt very satisfied and got in bed. Tommorrow I am driving to Columbia to eat lunch with my friend Kenny. I am pretty excited about that. I miss some of my good friends from Columbia, and Kenny was definitely one of them. I'll have to find some good music to listen to for the drive.

As if yesterday's post wasn't boring enough...

Today was pretty non-eventful. I went to school, the highlight of which was taking my microbiology test. I got a 96...yup, I'm pretty much a genius. After that I came home and mostly chilled out. I had a pretty bad headache, which got me thinking...I've been pretty tired the past few days. I started drinking only diet ginger ale again, and I wonder if I am addicted to caffeine. I used to get caffeine headaches if I didn't drink anything caffeinated because of the enormous amount of diet coke I was used to consuming each day, but then last year I decided to break the habit. It was actually pretty rough, I was worn out and had headaches quite a bit during the process. Lately though I haven't been being careful about how much I drink, so I wonder if I got addicted again. I guess I'll stick to diet ginger ale for a while just to make sure I'm not.

Tonight Kristi and I went to eat at Chik-fil-A and sketched out some landscaping plans while we were there. I wanted to get started killing the grass where we want to put mulch this week, so I needed to know what the plans were for sure. I think it's going to be a big improvement once we get things going.

We also went to Target. Kristi's Aunt gave us a housewarming gift card, and I finally found shelves to put my CD's on. I have somewhere around 150 CD's, it's kind of a hobby of mine to buy them, and I really needed somewhere to put them. I'm pretty excited about that. I also bought the movie Rudy, because I love it and it was only 5$ for the DVD.

We came home and I watched some Monday Night Football. I was going to study for my statistics test and take it tomorrow, but I decided that it would be better if I could take it Wednesday and not make an extra trip to campus (we can take the test for the online class either day). This required Lucy not being in her crate all day, so I called my mom and she agreed to keep her. I feel a little lazy, but am glad I don't have to study tonight...I'm pretty tired.

Tomorrow I think I am going to run in the morning. I keep wanting to start back running, but ever since I got married I haven't been able to work it out with my schedule. I think I am finally at a point where I have at least 2 morning I can always run, and then squeeze in a 3rd every now and then. I guess I'm going to go to sleep pretty early tonight. Lucy and my wife are both conked out beside me, which makes me all the more tired. Good night all!

All this talk about gram postive and negative makes me hungry for graham crackers.

Every Sunday my alarm goes off around 6, and every Sunday it does not wake me up. I usually wake up to Kristi telling me that the alarm is for me, not her (usually she gets up first). Come to think of it, I almost never wake up with an alarm except on Sundays, so that could be the problem. Usually I have to wake up to take Lucy out, and then I am really good about not oversleeping after that.

I got to church around 7:15 and helped with a few things here and there. Joe told me I was going to help him call camera shots out during the children's choir, which made me a little nervous. I really have no idea what is happening when it comes to that sort of thing. I ended up not so much calling shots, but reminding Joe and the camera guys what solos and lyrics and things were coming up that were important. I spent most of the first service taking notes, and then read off of those in the the other two. Hopefully it was helpful, it seemed like it was.

We also showed a video commemorating Art's 10 years as executive pastor, which brings up a funny story I wanted to tell earlier this week but couldn't. Joe was out sick most of the week, so on Thursday I went ahead and recorded Matt doing the narration for the video. On Friday I was editing it, just cutting out messed up lines and noises, when Art walked in. I quickly stopped the video and he talked to me for a few seconds, and I felt like I looked super guilty the entire time...like a kid who gets caught secretly doing something his mom just told him not to. I guess he didn't hear what was going on, but I'm not sure how...it was fairly loud, and it was talking about him being a vet. I'll have to work on my nonchalant face so that next time something like that happens I don't make it so obvious.

Anyways, the services went well, and I thought that the live video was pretty cool with the choir. They did a ton of movement and the two front cameras had some good shots. One of them was on the side, and Tyler had the idea of moving the other up to the catwalk, which I thought turned out really well. I must say though that I can probably sing a few of the songs after sitting through it 3 times.

After church we went to the Corley's to celebrate Chris Corley's birthday. The food was good, it was from Olive Garden, and it was a fun group too. Kristi and I headed home after that, and I fell asleep on the couch. For some reason I was completely exhausted, and my head hurt a little too. Lucy was not very happy that I was not taking her for a walk, so I didn't sleep very well because every 10 minutes she would come over and bark at me just to remind me that she was waiting.

I dozed in and out and watched some football, and then we left for "Group Connect." We are trying to find a small group to be in, so we went to a function to meet some of the leaders. We found one that we are going to try out next week...meeting people isn't a talent of ours, so we'll see how it goes.

When we got home I finally took Lucy for her walk. I needed to study for a Microbiology test for the rest of the night, so I knew that I would need to wear her out some. I think she appreciated it because she left me alone for the most part after we got back. Kristi went to bed pretty early while I finished up my notecards and went over them a few times. This test will be way harder than the essay test, so we'll see how I do.

Tomorrow I've just got school and then I may do some yard work tomorrow afternoon. Still no word on the weedeater...what a disappointment.

Tiger > Canine, but Canine > Chicken

Today was a wonderful day. I woke up fairly early this morning because the Basham's were leaving early and Lucy refused to stay asleep since she could hear them getting ready. I dozed on the couch until they left, and then laid in bed and watched gameday for a little bit. Kristi and I took Lucy on a walk, and then I made some brunch.

By then it was time for one of my favorite things ever...Clemson football. I've been a little down about the program (see my longstanding facebook group), but nonetheless I knew that we were playing NC State which should provide a good ACC win. The Tigers did not let me down, and it was good to see us win fairly decisively. During half-time Kristi and I went to get some groceries for the week at Wal-Mart. We were supposed to go out to eat with all of the Boyds for Chad's birthday dinner tonight, but he got tickets to the USC game, so that was cancelled. Instead, Kristi's parents and grandmother came over for dinner, and I made the best dinner I have in my arsenal. I had to get a few things I needed, and we also got the rest of the groceries for the week. We decided to try out Bi-Lo instead of our usual Wal-Mart, and while we agreed the overall experience was better, it's still just a little more expensive on some of the essentials...don't worry Wal-Mart, we'll be back next week...we're sorry we ever doubted you.

We came home and I watched Clemson finish their win, and then moved on to watching the USC vs. UGA game. After watching for a little bit I took Lucy for a second walk. She really loves the outdoors, and just gets so hyper. Anyways, everyone all week had been talking about how UGA was great, they were going to blow USC out, blah, blah, blah...I've watched the past few years of football and I knew that for some reason the Gamecocks always play the Dawgs tough. And just as expected history repeated itself. Thankfully Georgia pulled it out in the end. I missed the big fumble because I was in the middle of cooking...as much as I hate USC football, that had to be pretty heartbreaking.

Kristi family came over and we ate dinner. It was alot of fun, although Lucy barked a little too much. The food and conversation was good and it was nice to have some company over. After they left Kristi and I watched tv for a little bit and then went to bed.

I did work on my new song some and I think it's coming along nicely. When I'm done I'll post a link to a scratch recording along with the lyrics for anyone that is interested.

Can a day get any better than that? Relaxing with family, eating good food, taking the dog for walks, and watching football. Not only that, but Clemson wins and USC loses...what a great day.

Tomorrow I'll be up at 6:15 so I can get into work on time. I think I am just the stage manager again, so I don't know that I'll be doing anything. The "Children of the World" choir is performing for all 3 services, so I hope they are pretty exciting. Maybe by the third service I will have learned their songs and can make a guest appearance. If only they knew how good I am...

Everyone always misses the first down cheer...but it's my favorite

So I didn't post last night...the first time since I started this thing. Joe posted so little this week because he was sick I figured I would pay homage to him and skip also...not really, my day just wasn't all that exciting. I did go to the junkyard and get a mirror for Kristi's car. I love junkyards, seriously, and the mirror was easy to fix, so that was good.

Today I worked alot of the day. I ran some wires for the extra cameras we are doing this weekend and taped everything down. I moved a few more things off the stage and helped out with a few other things. I also ate lunch with Zach and Josh, which is always a good time. We ate at Moe's, and then I took some Moe's back to Joe at church so he would have something to eat. Joe and I talked alot on IM today because his voice wasn't too strong. It was actually really weird because when I went to lunch we discussed what I would get him and said goodbye all over IM...sitting right next to each other...I felt really weird leaving without verbally saying anything.

I got home a little after 5. Lucy had been in her crate since 10, which is never good. We went on a walk and she was pretty hyper. We have this one street in our neighborhood which doesn't have any houses yet, so lately when we take walks I've been letting her off her leash on that street. She loves it, she runs back in forth in all the tall weeds and sniffs around. After she wanders for a bit we race down the road and back to the house. For some reason she has always just loved to run. If you start running she will usually just run beside you for as long as you want. Sometimes if she wants to run she will just start pulling on my jeans and growling until I oblige.

When we got back she was still very hyper, which was pretty annoying because she just barked at me for about 15 minutes non-stop. I tried my best stern voice telling her to stop, but she didn't really seem to care.

I went through the mail, and we got 2 letters from our HOA. This is really hard to explain, but the first was a letter stating they noticed we had changed our mailbox and it wasn't uniform with the rest on our street, which I thought was strange because not all the mailboxes are the same on our street. It also came with a structural improvement request that we were supposed to fill out (for a mailbox?).

The second letter was minutes from our HOA meeting (we didn't go). I read through it, and one part stated that they talked about how the new section of the neighborhood had different mailboxes, but that there was nothing they could do because the covenant doesn't state they have to be uniform. I didn't remember this from the covenant we got either, so I took it out and read through it...yup, definitely nothing about uniform mailboxes.

I mailed the structural improvement request form back with the required info and also with a note saying that our covenant doesn't require uniform mailboxes. I also put that not all the mailboxes on our street are uniform anyways.

I found it funny that there were several other covenant stipulations that actually exist that aren't being met. For instance, it says you can't have lawn ornaments, and it also says if you have a privacy fence it has to be a shadowbox style. Lots of people have lawn ornaments, and none of the privacy fences are shadowbox. All of this is interesting to me, and it made me wonder if someone actually mentioned our mailbox in the meeting.

I think I might like to get involved with our HOA. I could probably meet some neighbors that way, and also work for the betterment of our neighborhood. Sounds like a very adult thing to do. I think I will email the lady tomorrow to ask about it.

Tonight the Bashams are staying with us, which is fun. They are going to the Clemson game tomorrow, so we had dinner and then went downtown for a bit. They are sleeping here and then leaving early tomorrow morning. It's been good to catch up a little with them.

I am excited about tomorrow, there are some football games I am interested in watching, and I will probably work around the house some. I have been trying to write a new song, so I may try to finish it and post the words on here. It's been a while since I've written one, so be excited!

I learned everything I know from my dad.

I was so ready for my test today....wait a second, that sounds familiar. No but really, I did actually have my psychology test this morning and I think I nailed it. Not only was it essay, but she gives us possible questions she pulls from the week before...what is this, high school?

After my test I went to my lab for micro and then the actual class. Everything was fine, except I forgot to wear closed toe shoes to lab, so most of the time I hid my feet under my bookbag. I'm not sure that my teacher would have even cared, because we weren't doing anything dangerous, but better safe than sorry.

After school I headed home but stopped by my parents' house on the way. Apparently I left the garage light on when I got the circular saw, and the person taking care of their pool mentioned it to them. I don't even remember turning the light on, but I guess it had to be me as I am the only person in Greenville with a key to their house right now.

I got home and took Lucy for a walk. I really feel sorry for her on Wednesdays...I take her to play with Molly whenever I can on Wednesdays because otherwise she just sits at home by herself all stinkin day. She did her usual cry pitifully at your feet and act like you've been gone for months routine, and then we went for a walk. Right after that I had to leave for work. Today I cleaned off pretty much all of the stage except for the big stuff. We have to finish doing that tomorrow for the Children of the World Choir to come in. Joe has classrooms reserved to store things, but they won't be available until tomorrow morning.

I went straight from church to a worship team get together, which was alot of fun. The food was good and we played some team games. One of the stations in the game involved ladder ball (or polish horshoes, blongo-ball, whatever you prefer). I felt like I had an unfair advantage because I've played it so much at the Basham's house in Columbia. I also love to play repeated motion games like horseshoes and ladder ball, and I am pretty good at them...not as good as my dad though, I'm pretty sure he could be in some kind of olympics for those type of games. I won a gift card for my team winning the entire competition and also another gift card for having the highest individual score at ladder ball. I told Chad that I felt a little bad about winning the gift cards as alot of people don't really even know who I am yet, but he said not to worry. Either way it was a good time, I also enjoy seeing the worship team people interact and how everything is structured since I was organizing a worship ministry last year. I've already gained alot of good ideas for if God ever puts me in a leadership position again somewhere.

I also learned tonight that apparently Chad, Joe, and I are supposed to have a secret hand shake...apparently it was so secret that no one told me. Anyways, I'll be working on it to make sure I have it down now that I know.

Tomorrow will be another pretty busy day. I am going to clean some for Kristi, go get a new mirror part at a junkyard, eat lunch with Robbie, and go into work. Hopefully there won't be a ton to do at work since I already cleaned off most of the stage. I think Joe wants to change some gels out and stuff though. At least I will get to sleep in a little (as long as Lucy lets me).

I think my wife's car is cursed...

I was so ready for my test today...I got up a little after 8 and got ready with plans of studying some and then getting to the testing center by 10:30 to take it. Right before I left I got on the discussion board to see if there was any breaking news I should know about. The only new thread I saw was about a study group happening this weekend...I thought to myself, "that's a dumb idea seeing as how the test is today and tomorrow.......................................or is it?" That's right, I then checked the calendar and the test isn't until next week. I guess at least I'll be super prepared?

With that out of the way my morning opened up a good bit. I ended up watching some sportscenter, playing guitar and drums, taking lucy for a walk, and then going to the bank on my way to work. The teller was very friendly and we talked about Kristi's job and where her kids go to school. She asked where I lived and then said that she used to work for the company that runs our HOA. I was tempted to ask if we are allowed to have a different mailbox than everyone else (seeing as we weren't really sure when we decided to change it), but I figured that would be better left alone. I figure it looks so good, no one can complain.

When I got to work I saw Ruthie and talked to her some. She said that she hadn't seen Joe all day, which got me thinking. Joe hadn't updated his blog last night, and he wasn't feeling good Sunday. I texted him to see if he was ok, and it turns out he's sick. I made a few phone calls for him and did what I could around the church, but ended up just going home eventually. With the children's choir coming in this week, there isn't much I can do without Joe there. I think I'll be going in on Thursday to make up my hours.

On the way home I got to talk to my friend Jon Hurley again. He, his wife, and their 3 amazing kids are coming up to stay with us at the end of September, which is very exciting. They definitely are the coolest family ever...I hope that one day Kristi and I can be half as good at parenting as they are, and I hope that our kids are half as cool as theirs. We talked for a long time about a few things going on in Columbia. There are some weird situations happening down there that really make Kristi and I hurt for the people involved. At times it is hard for me to know what to pray about for the situations, but I just have to trust that God knows what he's doing. It's also hard for me to know my place as I don't live there anymore, but was involved in some of the situations before I left and care deeply about what is happening. Talking about some of the things going on always brings back a deep sense of sadness and frustration for me, and so I thought Kristi said something very profound tonight when she told me, "as much as it seems like alot of little things are going wrong here and there, you can be thankful that you are not living in those situations day to day anymore." Leave it to my wife to put things in perspective for me.

Sorry for the serious moment, and sorry it is a little vague. I don't want to write too much about important situations and say anything I shouldn't, but I would like to mention things I am going through from time to time. I even think I might like to take a day off from journaling and write about a topic I've been thinking about every now and then....I don't know though, I generally shy away from dogmatism and feel like blogging about my opinions could come across as pretty dogmatic.

Anyways, after that I studied for my psych test (which I know I have tomorrow) until Kristi got home. We then left to eat at La Fogata.

One thing you should know about me is I don't have a good track record when it comes to backing out of driveways. I have backed into my dad's car on 3 separate occasions, as well as my uncle's ginormous yellow truck once. Tonight I did it again. As I was backing out and trying to make sure I didn't hit the side of the garage (our garage is really tight), I forgot about the trash can and broke Kristi's sideview mirror. Pretty frustrating...I am not really sure what is wrong with me lately. From forgetting about school, to getting dates wrong, to backing into things, to breaking weedeaters, to defective tires, to my car's ac breaking...it just seems like alot at once. I took the mirror apart, and thankfully the only thing I need to replace is the steel mounting bracket, which should be easy. I'll be looking for an auto salvage yard tomorrow that has a few 92-96 camrys in it. Kristi was really nice about it, which was very gracious of her, because I know she was pretty frustrated about some other things that have broken on her car (i.e. two broken door handles, oil leak).

So we ate at La Fogata, took care of her parents' mail, and then bought a b-day card for Chad (it was his b-day today, but we are going to celebrate Saturday). Then we came home and I hung pictures and then studied again until now. I am going to wake up a little early tomorrow to finish studying, but I feel pretty good about it. Like I said it's all essay and I like to write.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, as usual for Wednesdays. I'm thinking Joe might still be out of it a little though, so I may not be working a whole lot tomorrow either. I am excited about going to a worship team get together though. Now I just need to figure out how to get to the person's house!

The phrase "Back to School" has a new meaning to me.

I didn't end up going to my class today. I knew all we were doing was discussion and review, which I am not big on anyways, and since I didn't have my other 2 classes it seemed like a good day to skip. I went back to sleep after Lucy's normal morning routine and then woke back up around 9:15.

I decided to work on the weedeater this morning with hopes that it was something simple. I have called and emailed the person I bought it from, but I'm not too optimistic about them getting back to me. Today I took a few things apart, and I couldn't get the spark plug to fire. I went and bought a new one (it was only 3$, worth a try) but that one doesn't seemed like it is sparking either. I don't know what that means exactly, but I do know it means I can't fix it. I will give the lady a few days and then take it to a repair person I guess.

After that I had an early lunch and then took Lucy for a walk. I needed to study all afternoon, so I wanted to get her tired before-hand. It worked well, and she slept all afternoon while I studied. I took occasional sanity breaks to play the drums, put numbers on the mailbox, watch tv, etc...but really I just studied all day. I did also take Lucy on a second walk in the evening. She was getting hyper again, so I needed something to calm her down. Kristi came home late because she had an open house, and we went to eat and then to her parents house to take care of some things while they are out of town. When we came home I went back to studying and she went to bed. She has to get up at 6, and she was already pretty exhausted. I watched some football while I studied, and finished pretty much everything I wanted to. I am going to look over a few things tomorrow before I go take the test, but I feel like I will make at least a solid B with what I've done so far. I've been out of school a while though, so we'll see.

One of the times I took Lucy out tonight there was a praying mantis on our back door. I love to take pictures of nature stuff, so I grabbed my camera and took a few. They didn't really turn out all that amazing, but still they are kind of cool.

And as promised I took some pictures of the work we did to the house. I think you'll agree that things are looking pretty sharp. When we get some landscaping in there it will pretty much be the nicest house you've ever seen.
Tomorrow I'm just going to go take my test and then go to work. I think I will leave pretty early because we can't do too much until Thursday. There is a special children's choir thing this Sunday, so my schedule will be different. I also have to study for a test on Wednesday tomorrow night. It is all essay though, and I am good at writing, so I won't need near as much time. That's good...because I won't have as much time...

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Lately I feel like I live in a state of perpetual tiredness. Adulthood is good in some ways, but in some ways it sucks because I often feel like I just can't keep up with all my responsibilities. That mixed with usually getting up early equals tired. I can't imagine what I'll feel like when I have kids.

This morning I got up at a lovely 6:15. I made it to church a little early and did a few odd jobs here and there. I was just Stage Manager today, so mainly I filled in for people in different areas every now and then when they needed to go do something. I also closed the black curtain on the side of the stage. I had to do this about 5 times between each service because band people end up walking through and opening it again. I close it, they open it, I close, they open, I close, they open...it's a vicious cycle. It's really hard to tell when they are done walking through which is why it takes multiple times.

The services went well, although I did sleep some in the first service. Sometimes when I am in the back room and don't have any responsibilities it is really hard for me to stay awake. I think it's ok because I heard the next two sermons (or most of them). At one point I went upstairs to help them fix a problem with showing a video file on the screen in room 202. All I did was drag the window over to the projector, I'm not sure if that was the problem or if the problem had fixed itself, I was really confused about what they were saying needed fixing. After I moved it over they were happy though, so I guess I did alright.

We ate with Kristi's immediate family after church and then I came home and immediately left again with Kristi's car. She has a bubble in the sidewall of one of her newer tires, so I took it back to Sam's Club. They said the warranty was good and went about ordering the new tire. Unfortunately I guess Crossroads dropped my card off of their list because when they scanned it, my membership was expired. Apparently in the fine print it says that you have to keep your membership for a tire warranty to be effective, so I was out of luck. I almost left (I walked out to the car), but then decided that renewing my membership was cheaper than buying a new tire, so I walked back in and got a "Collegiate" membership (I am a student again after all). This was cool because I got a free 15$ gift card, so all in all I guess it wasn't too bad.

After I got the tire thing sorted out I came home to finish the mailbox. Kristi pointed out to me that there was a huge dent on the back corner. Lately I feel like my life is a series of unfortunate happenings (that would make a good book series). I sighed and took the mailbox back to Home Depot to exchange it. Once I got back I put everything together, and it looks fantastic. I will take a picture tomorrow...didn't really have time today. I tried to start my new weedeater after that...still no luck. I am extremely frustrated, and I contacted the lady to see if she will give me my money back. I realize it was a classified, but still, I haven't even really used it. She had some others for sale, so I also offered to just trade her for a working one.

While I was finishing up work, Joe texted me to tell me he wasn't going to go to the show tonight. I was pretty bummed and figured I would skip it too, but called my friend Ryan just to check to see who he was going with. He said he was going alone and that I would know people there, so I decided to go and I was really glad I did. The bands were very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also talked to my friend Robbie who I hadn't seen in a while, as well as met the sound guy and offered some volunteer help. I absolutely love running sound, so I figure as long as Kristi lets me I'll run sound for some stuff sometimes if the do need help. I took the guys number and will call him later this week.

After that I came home and now I am going to bed. Originally I was thinking I had nothing to do but study tomorrow, and then I realized I have to go to school. I am really bad about forgetting that I have class. I think it's because I didn't have any school for a year. Oh well, I only have one because one of my teachers is out of town. I'm not positive that I'll go to the one...we'll see.