I had to pull down the collar on Joe's sweater to make sure he was still commited to "Tietober."

I woke up before 9 again today. I keep wanting to sleep in until 9 or 9:30, but I always wake up between 8 and 8:30. Maybe Thursday will be the day.

I took Lucy out and then took a shower. When I got out I found Lucy chewing on my laptop power cable. She likes to do this from time to time despite my yelling every time she does. Why can't she just chew on the 15 rawhide bones we have bought for her? I picked up the cable and we had a short discussion about how she should show me some appreciation by not chewing on my things. She also chewed up my favorite Sennheiser in-ears a few weeks ago, which was extremely frustrating. I think they are on sale on NewEgg right now, so maybe I will get some more.

I didn't end up taking Lucy for a walk this morning, because I wasn't in the mood and I had an advising appointment at 11 anyways. After getting ready I just played drums for a while and then left for Greenville Tech. The advising session went well. I have to apply for clinicals by December 15th. If they accept me I will either start in the summer or fall of '09. If they don't I have to wait until spring of 2010. That would really stink, but I hear alot of people don't get in their first time. Hopefully God will work that one out for me, but I guess He knows best.

After my advising session I called Trenton Stokes about meeting for lunch. We decided to go to a Thai restaurant called Sweet Basil, which I have wanted to try for a while. It was way fancier than I thought, and at first I was a little disappointed because they put me at this little table parallel to and only a few inches away from a table of six people. It felt like I was part of their table, and I was having a hard time imaging Stokes and I having good conversation. I don't like to be a picky person, but I got up the courage to ask if I could move to a table close to where I was. There were tons of open tables, so I don't think the lady minded too much. Just in case I made sure I was super friendly the rest of the time. My Siam Fried Rice with chicken and beef was decent, but it sure wasn't Red Bowl. I sure do miss Red Bowl...too bad I was their only regular customer.

Lunch was great, I hadn't talked to Stokes in a while and it was really good to hear what he has been up to the past few years. I have alot of respect for him, and he had a big influence on me in high school. I don't really want to call him by his first name now, but it feels weird calling him Mr. Stokes, so I have settled on Stokes for the time being.

After lunch I went straight to work, and saw that Joe had left the stage setup on my chair. I documented the past weeks setup like we have started doing and then starting tearing down the stage. I have become very efficient at tearing everything down and setting it back up. That is pretty much what I did all afternoon, so I was done around 6:30. Not going out to eat on most work days has also helped my efficiency I think.

I tried to contact AKG about some microphones I have been using as drum overheads at work. They look old, and all they have on them is the AKG logo and the model A51. They sound warmer to me than the SM81's we had been using, but I don't know anything about them. I would really like to know if they are omni or cardioid, as that would affect my placement, but when I google them nothing substantial comes up. I am also not sure if the A51 is the mic model, or if it is just the swivel adapter. Anyways, AKG mostly has out of the country contact phone numbers, so I think I will email them instead. Hopefully they will be able to help me with that. Interesting note, I have always like the AKG D112 in kick drums, and we use the Audix D6 in ours. We have a D112, so last week I switched them out and didn't like the D112 as much. It had tons of slap in it, but I could not get the low end for the life of me. It was very defined, but it wasn't hitting me in the chest at all. I put the D6 back in for now, but I may try a different mic placement at with the D112 later. Joe suggested using both, which I think is a great idea, but I don't know if it's worth the trouble. I switched the Audix mic on the snare out for a 57, and so far I am really liking that change.

After work Kristi and I decided to go to Marble Slab in Simpsonville. The girl working was very cheerful and she told me I had the most creative choice of the day, which made me feel good. I always get coffee ice cream with raspberries and oreos mixed in. People always think it's gross, but seriously it is so delicious...just try it. I was going to give the girl a tip for being so happy, but I didn't have the option on my receipt, and I generally don't carry cash. Oh well. Kristi got sweet cream ice cream with caramel, bananas, and walnuts. The girl also thought hers was very creative. We took Lucy along and she growled at all the kids who walk by. People are always shocked at how mean she is, and it's always embarrassing to tell people that they can't pet her because she isn't nice to strangers. Kids have a really hard time understanding that. Lucy had the last bit of my ice cream, and I think she agrees that it is delicious.

When we got home I went to check my email and needed to plug my laptop in since the battery was almost dead. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cable wasn't working because apparently Lucy chewed through close to the coax DC end. I was extremely frustrated, especially because I wasn't sure there was enough room to solder the end to the cable. I spent a little time working on it, and it is working good so far. It was actually a pretty difficult soldering job, and I impressed myself by doing it successfully. I had to solder each of the 3 cables at the same spot instead of staggering because the cut was so close to the end, so I am a little concerned about a short. I covered it with electrical tape the best I could, but I am still worried. I don't know if it would fry my computer or what. My friend Bryan says I should replace it, but I don't really feel like spending the 30$...what do you think?

I had a really hard time choosing The Office reruns or HGTV's Househunters International in Tropical Paradise tonight, so I watched some of both. I can't spell the island HGTV was at tonight, so I won't even try. Some night this week they are doing a Househunters on Aruba, which I am excited about since I have been there twice. Hopefully it won't be tomorrow night, because I probably will fall asleep in the middle of it.