"I have many Calvin and Hobbes comics memorized" probably should have been on the list...

Just as I thought, today was quite a busy day, yet also productive. I wasn't successful at waking up before 9. I thought about getting out of bed at 8:30, but the rest of the family was all sleeping so peacefully beside me that I just couldn't do it. I ended up getting out of bed at 9:45 instead.

I was just going to take a shower to get started, but I discovered that there wasn't really any hot water. Kristi had taken a bath instead of a shower, but I guess that tub takes a good bit of hot water to fill up. Since there was no way I was going to take a cold shower, and no way I was going to start my day without one, I decided to run first. I felt really good running today...in fact I felt so good that I decided to run through Heritage Park after my first loop. We live right by the rear entrance. I wasn't sure how far I ran, but I measured later on in my car and it came to right under 4 miles. I think I may make that my normal run from now on, and then when I am up to it start doing longer runs on the weekends.

I took Lucy on a walk right away when I got back and then took a nice hot shower...hot being the important word. After that I left for Wal-Mart to do the grocery shopping. Kristi had a hair appointment this morning, so I told her I didn't mind doing it by myself. The trip took a long time, partly because I had to spend a good deal of my time reading birthday cards, and partly because Wal-Mart is so freakin busy on Saturday afternoons. I did get some free food samples though, which was a nice treat.

After unloading the groceries I made an omelet for lunch and then played drums for a few minutes. I have been playing around with the tuning on my new snare, and am not sure what suits it best yet. You can hear a clip of it here, and here are some pictures I took:

Pretty sweet, huh? A really woody, thick sound...very different from my Ludwig and Yamaha.

After that I studied Sociology for a while. This test is online, and open book, so I am not sure how detailed I need to be in my review. The teacher has also been bad about explaining what the tests are like, so I really have no idea what to expect. Surely with the book in front of me I can do great though with minimal studying...right? Lucy slept with her head on my leg while I studied and Oliver slept at my feet...it was so nice.

At 4 I went ahead and started making a cheesecake for the super bowl party tomorrow. We are going to the Southside worship team party, which I am fairly excited about. When talking to Dawn about what we should bring, she mentioned dessert as an option, and I couldn't pass up making the cheesecake...it is just too impressive. Once it was done we left it in the oven to cool while we went to Moe's for dinner. I haven't been to Moe's in over a month, and I enjoyed it. The ingredients always seem so fresh, and they never feel heavy in my stomach.

We stopped by the house after Moe's to put the cheesecake in the fridge and then left to meet my parents at the theater. We went to see "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" tonight, quite a different movie than "Taken." It was even dumber than I expected, but it was pretty funny, and especially had some great one-liners. I think they should have made Paul's love interest look closer to his age...that was my only complaint.

After the movie it was just home and into bed. Before writing this post I finished up my "25 Interesting Things" note for Facebook. I had an extremely hard time thinking of 25 random things that people would find interesting about me, but I think it turned out OK. It definitely isn't nearly as interesting as Robbie Wisnewski's, but we all know he is a little insane...right Robbie? I personally thought my last point was pretty interesting to know, but you'll have to friend me on Facebook in order to read it. I just verbed a word...eat your heart out Bill Watterson. As Calvin would say, "Verbing weirds language."

Tomorrow is Sunday, and we all know what that means. Hopefully I can get the orchestra sounding good, because I didn't even touch their mics on Wednesday. I knew they were going to be moved around though, so there was really no point. Joe if you're reading this, start getting excited about the cheesecake...

My excellent soldering streak comes to an end...

What a good Friday. My morning consisted of getting up and going to work. I wonder if Lucy gets confused on Friday because her walk gets moved to later in the day. She seems to take it in stride at least.

Work was pretty relaxed today. Other than doing the light plots and cleaning up the stage, there wasn't much I absolutely had to get done. I spent part of the day working on this old Shure SM91 microphone I found in the closet. All the info I find on it lists it as a kick mic, but I'm pretty sure it's similar to a boundary microphone. I am interesting in velcro-ing 2 boundary mics on the piano lid and closing it, to see how the technique sounds. Assuming that it sounds pretty natural, it would provide much better isolation from other instruments, as well as cut down on feedback issues even more. I decided to test it out with just the SM91, but unfortunately the mic didn't work. I tried taking it apart and re-wiring it, but I think I might have messed up the capsule with the soldering iron. The solder point were extremely tiny. When I was done, it sort of worked, but had all kinds of noise that was just as loud as the signal. Oh well, I'm sure I can find boundary mics somewhere else that I can borrow.

I left work on time today and came home to take Lucy for a walk. We did the short route instead of the long route, partly because there were kids on skateboards down the long way, and partly because I was cold. I made sure to play with Lucy extra when we got back to make up for it though.

After that I played around with the tuning on my sparkly snare for a little while and then recorded some clips with it. I plan on posting them, but I ran out of time today, so I'll do that tomorrow. I'm not sure I chose the right heads. It is an extremely open drum with ring that is a little out of control, so I bought an Evans EC2 Reverse Dot. It's OK, but I'm not loving it. I think I may want to try a Remo Powerstroke III Coated next on it...but I can live with the Evans for now. I was also wondering what diecast rims would sound like instead of triple flanged. It still sounds great as it is, I think you will agree when you hear it.

Kristi got home a little while later, and after sitting around (well me sitting around and her ironing) for a little bit we left for dinner with Diego and Melissa. We did end up going to Oriental House, which was delicious as always. I wonder if I will ever get tired of the place...probably not. There had been some debate over which movie to see after dinner. Diego and I were up for "Slumdog Millionaire," but the girls weren't that into it. No one was excited about "Defiance" and "Benjamin Button" was a little long. Diego and Melissa had already seen "Gran Torino" and "Valkyrie." After some discussion we settled on "Taken," which everyone seemed satisfied with. We had some time to kill, so we went shopping across the street at Greenridge for a little bit and then drove to the theater. It was good that we got there early, because the movie was a packed one.

I didn't enjoy the movie, and I wouldn't really recommend it. It had it's interesting parts, but overall I would say it just made me feel sick. I couldn't keep up with the body count, and I honestly couldn't have cared less about the lead guy's relationship with his daughter after all the crap that went on in the storyline. That's the short explanation, I don't feel like going into detail, plus I don't want to spoil it for somebody that wants to see it. We saw a friend from NHCC on the way out from the previous showing that loved it, and Diego seemed to like it OK, so maybe I am just weird. I don't think Kristi liked it too much either though.

After the movie it was pretty late, so we came home and I pretty much got straight into bed. Tomorrow I have much to accomplish, such as grocery shopping and studying for some tests, so I want to get up hopefully before 9. Tomorrow night we are going to see "Mall Cop" with my parents. With the expectations I have for movies like that, I'm pretty sure it would be impossible to be disappointed....

I would put a picture of the "Chris Sligh Band" up, but I didn't have a digital camera back then...

I think Wednesdays wear me out. This morning I woke up very tired, and so I didn't get out of bed until 9:15. My friend Jon says my life is ridiculous, and I guess he's right. First things first, so I took a shower and then took Lucy on a walk. I've been working on my technique of getting her to walk without pulling on her, and things have been improving. She tends to get distracted by anything on the ground other than dirt, grass, or concrete. I've actually read some Jack Russell forums for fun, and I'm pretty sure that there is ultimately nothing I can do about this.

When I got back I gave Lucy a quick bath (she got a little muddy), and then tidied up around the house a little. I also started tonight's dinner. I was planning on grilling on my miniature Weber grill, and so I went ahead and marinated the steaks. I think what I do is more like a rub I guess...there is some liquid involved though, it's just that I made it up and so I don't know which it is...you decide:

Anyways, after that I made lunch and then got to putting heads on my blue sparkly snare...that's right, I paid it off and was finally able to get it out of the closet and start using it. I took a few pictures, but I want to record a quick clip of it, so I will wait for that to post any of them.

By the time I was done with that I had to go to work, so I put Lucy in the sunroom and took off. Actually, right before I did that I burned songs from "The Summer Set" onto a CD to listen to in the car. Kristi's got the Ipod, and I keep forgetting to charge the Zune, which meant I needed a CD. I have been getting into The Summer Set more and more. Sometimes I feel guilty because they are so "teeny-bopper" (as my wife would say), but I've always known I'm a sucker for anything pop, and their songs are just so catchy and downright good. I enjoy the individual parts a great deal too, which I guess is mostly production.

On that musical note, I am a little stressed because there are quite a few CD's I would like to purchase this month, but that would mean severely cutting back on lunches out. The first one I want to buy is obviously the "Jesus Culture" one. Also important is the new "Fiction Family" CD. We've already established on this blog that Jon Foreman is pretty much my hero, and along those lines I typically love anything musical he does, and the thought of a Nickel Creek/Switchfoot duo makes me extremely excited. The other CD I am excited about comes out next week and is from "A Day to Remember." Warning: if you do not enjoy intense music, it is best that you skip that link. Kristi for instance is not a fan of anything in their genre. I on the other hand don't typically get into screaming, but some bands are just so good that I can appreciate what they do. Another similar band which I love that comes to mind is Blindside, although they have evolved into a slightly more tame type of sound. Underoath is another great band in that genre that is also Christian, but they are so intense sometimes that it is a little scary. You know who loves bands like that? Daniel Peek:

Also on a musical note, I found out this morning from my friend Tim Wadsworth...
...that Chris Sligh wrote Rascal Flatts new single, "Here Comes Goodbye." How cool is that? I always did think Chris's greatest talent was his songwriting ability. In case you are unaware of the connection, Daniel, Tim, Joseph, and I used to play with Chris in the "Chris Sligh Band," and then I also played in "Half Past Forever for a little while. It's fun for me to be able to say that I played in his band for several years...come to think of it, it's probably my influence that got him where he is...right.

So where was I? Oh yeah, work. I spent most of the day cleaning up and rearranging today...not really my favorite things to do, but someone's got to do them. Orchestra weeks aren't my favorite from a logistical standpoint because it is so much work to set up the stage and so much harder to mix. I know from a musical and congregational standpoint it is awesome though, so I try to keep everything in perspective. I left work right before 5, which was nice. Thursday seems to be the day I can consistently leave on time with my new schedule.

When I got home I got started on dinner. I put the potatoes in the oven and cleaned up the grill. I have grilled many times before, but always on a gas grill, so I called a few people for advice and read some instruction on Google. When it was time I put the charcoal in the grill and lit the pieces. I waited about 20 minutes like everything said, and the briquettes looked ashed over, so I went ahead and spread them out and put the lid on, letting it heat up for a few minutes before starting the grilling. Unfortunately something went wrong. When I started grilling the steaks, they just weren't cooking. I left them on for like 8 minutes, and it wasn't really going anywhere. I don't know if I let the charcoal burn too long, not long enough, didn't have the vents set right, or what. I was pretty frustrated, especially since my cooking has taken a serious downturn as of late. I ended up finishing the steaks on the trusty George Foreman. Everything tasted wonderful, but I am pretty frustrated that I didn't do the grilling thing correctly. I will have to try again next week.

After dinner Kristi and I cleaned. Kristi was doing some laundry and noticed the washer leaking onto the floor. This obviously did not seem good, so I looked up on Google (man, what would I do without it?) what to do, and learned how to take the cover off and watch for leaks...so that's what I did:



We never did see a big leak, and think that it might even be that the machine gets too full with too big of a load and spills over some. I'm not really sure, but we'll keep an eye on it.

After all of that we watched some TV, and then I did some homework. I haven't really studied for Sociology yet, and my first test is next week, so I'd better get on that. Story of my life with online classes.

Tomorrow should be a good day. I work in the morning, but then should have an enjoyable free evening afterwards. I think we might go see a movie or something. Mostly I'm excited about going out to eat for dinner...maybe we can go to Oriental House!

You know, I almost didn't write this post, but I'm glad I did...it turned out pretty well...

Good thing I left my soldering iron at the church...

Frustration, frustration, frustration...today was a frustrating day. I woke up a little before nine, got ready, and then got my things together for a meeting with my advisor. It was a struggle getting this set up, but today was the day, so I left the house a little before 10, deposited a check on the way, and then was early for my 10:30 appointment. My advisor was ready a few minutes later, and we talked through my application for clinicals. She didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know, but I think it was probably good to talk through it anyways. I think I was under the impression that we could complete it and turn it in, but I guess I will just complete it before I have to go to class tomorrow.

After that I came home so I could eat lunch and take Lucy on her walk before I had to go to work. The walk was not very enjoyable. Lucy has become really talented at slipping out of her collar if she wants to. She has loose beagle skin and a small Jack Russell head, which is a bad combination. Today she just wouldn't settle down. She found a small pond of water in the woods and kept slipping out to go run around in it. Finally I gave up and gave her the old "I'm just going to walk home trick" When I got about half way up the street she got nervous and came running after me.

Lunch was fine, and I headed straight to work after eating. I finished soldering an XLR cable when I got there, and then Joe gave me to stage setup plan and I got to work. There was alot to do, so I knew I would have to get a good bit of it done before Dan and Tim got there if I wanted to leave before 8, the time I'm supposed to go home. Things were going fine until I knocked over Matt's Aviom. I typically unplug them all and then pull the cables, except somehow I didn't see his and I pulled it over since it was still plugged in. Buttons popped out, which isn't usually a problem, except this time two of them broke the button part on the plastic piece that attaches to the circuit board. I spent a little while trying to fix them, but it wasn't going to work. At this point I figured my only shot was to remove buttons from the older broken Aviom and solder them on to the circuit board of the one I was working on. It made me a little nervous as I haven't ever worked with circuit boards, but after an hour or so of working I got everything together and it worked great. I guess I could have taken pictures of the process, but I wasn't really in the mood.

By the time I had all of that done I had significantly cut into my stage setup time, which meant I didn't have much done when Tim and Dan got there. We worked pretty efficiently, but I still only ended up getting out of there at 9. At least I made it home before Kristi got in bed, and I got to see most of Fringe too.

Tomorrow is another day, and should be a good one. I am going to turn in my nursing application, and I should find out 2-3 months from now if I am accepted. It is a point system though, and I should have plenty of points. I am a little apprehensive about clinicals, but I know I can do it, it's just a matter of whether I will enjoy it.

On a brighter note, I found a drummer on YouTube that is incredible:

I mean, are you serious? Not only is he great, he has so much style. You definitely should at least watch the last minute or two. His "Tripping Billies" cover is great too...and really so are all of his other ones. I also really enjoy this cover of a PlanetShakers song:

In other news, I've decided to quit trying to play drums. Just kidding...

Does Diet Coke have milk in it or something?

This has been a fun weekend. Yesterday Kristi and I took Lucy downtown to walk around and also go to the dog park. There were at least 30 dogs there, it was a little out of control. Kristi and I got to sit on one of the swings at one point and random dogs kept coming over and sitting between us for a little bit. I guess we just look like a friendly couple. Lucy just watched and didn't participate in the ruckus like usual, but she seemed less nervous than usual.

Saturday night Kristi and I went to Nate's birthday party, and it was a very fun party. His parents' house is awesome, complete with a massage chair, indoor shuffleboard, pool, a tanning bed, and just about anything else you can think of. We ended up stying fairly late and I didn't want to blog as I had to get up at 6:15.

Today was also a great day. The services went very well today, and I was really happy with the sound again. I also thoroughly enjoyed both the Coldplay opener and the Brooklyn Tabernacle song, "Jesus I Love You." Not only that, but I got the nicest note from some young girls in the church saying that they appreciate what I do and that they are praying for me. I think all the tech guys got one, but I like to pretend it was just me.

After church we ate at Midtown Deli, and while I have been underwhelmed at said restaurant previously, I found an item I supremely enjoyed today. Not only that, but their Diet Pepsi was the perfect mixture of carbonated water and syrup, which is a huge plus for me. You know where else has a perfect mixture with their beverages? Chik-fil-A. After lunch I stopped by Kristi's grandmother's nursing home with her and then headed to NHCC to play for the youth tonight.

I haven't played for the youth at NHCC in a little while, and it was fun tonight. My friend Ben from Southside actually ended up coming to play bass. Ryan needed a bass player, so I figured I would use my new Southside connections to help him out. I used a click track for 3 of the songs, which turned out really well. Not only did it make it so easy to be steady, I think it saved my ears some having my in-ear Shures in. For some reason playing with a click has always come fairly natural to me. We did a few great songs, but my favorite was definitely the "Jesus Culture" one I posted a few days ago. I turned my camera on and set it on the floor behind me so that you could see everything from my perspective...although it turns out all you can really see is my feet...but it's still kind of fun I think:

After church Kristi and I went to Zaxby's with my parents and talked for a while, coming home a little after 10. Lucy was extremely hyper, so I ran around some with her in the backyard before getting into bed. Since then I've just been waiting for my video to upload and trying to keep Oliver out of my Diet Coke. Seriously, why does blogger take half an hour for an 80 MB .mpg file to upload?

Tomorrow shouldn't be too busy, although I dread running again. I'm pretty sure I gained back anything I had lost the past two weeks this weekend. That's OK though, at least I'm getting in better shape, which is really what's important. Oops, gotta go, Oliver's head is in my Diet Coke cup again...

Really I think Oriental House may be #1...just sayin'

I have been very productive at work this week...almost too productive. Don't get used to it Joe. I got there a little after 9 today and got right to work. I only had two Clearcom boxes left to wire, and Joe had already run the wire and mounted the last box, so it didn't really take that long to finish. After I was done we tested it and everything worked great. May I add that it also looks great. It felt good to get that finished, although it took me a good chunk of time to clean everything up afterwards.

After putting the finishing touches on everything I went ahead and ate my lunch, which I had brought from home. I used the toaster oven to heat up my pizza today at the prompting of Sue, and it was much better than in the microwave. I will have to do that from now on.

Joe and I worked on light plots after lunch, and then I changed out the blue gels, put the skirts up on stage, wrote some light cues, and finally made Joe some short XLR cables to extend the Clearcom cables in the control room. When all of that was done, it was 3:30 and time for me to come home.

I tried to take Lucy on a walk when I got home, but it ended up being short lived because there was some kid riding around in his wagon, which meant Lucy was frozen with fear. I try to be Cesar Milan and make her comfortable around things like that, but I just can't do it. I succeeded in getting her to move towards it for a little while...but once she got to where she could smell where he had been on the ground she wouldn't go any further. So we ended up running back to the house in an attempt to get some energy out.

Once we were back I started to do some household cleaning. The past few times I have used the vacuum I haven't thought it has been sucking very well. Today it was really lousy, so I decided to open it up and see what was going on. Sure enough, the plastic tubing on the bottom was completely clogged. It was like it had gotten damp and all the dust had been crusting together for a while. I really should have taken a picture, but I didn't think to. Once I got it cleaned out it was like using a completely different vacuum.

After some cleaning, I took Lucy into the backyard to release more energy, and we ended up walking through the woods for a little while. We back up to the rear access of Heritage Park, so we just have woods behind our house. The Simpsonville City planner told our agent that they will just put a few walking trails back there, so if that remains true we should maintain a really nice wooded area behind us. That was a big reason we bought the house. Lucy loves the outdoors, and I think she enjoyed exploring immensely.

When we got back in I decided to take some pictures of my sock. Sometime after getting to work, I noticed my right toe feeling a little funny and took my shoe off to reveal this:

Lucy loves socks. In fact, I think she wanted to make sure she was given credit for her handiwork, and so she posed for a picture with the sock:
As you can see Oliver was also quite impressed with the damage:
Oliver also has been doing this weird thing where he hangs his leg over the edge of the bed...almost like he is hanging his arm out the window while driving. I think it's kind of funny, so I took some pictures of it tonight:
Kristi got home a little later and I cleaned the bathroom before we left for...you guessed it...Oriental House. It was crazy tonight! I think more and more people are discovering the amazingness that is Oriental House. Chad told me that apparently it is rated as one of the top 100 Oriental restaurants in the US. It was so crowded that there were several parties waiting for tables. Even the back room was full. Kristi and I ordered and then finally got a table right before our food arrived. Good thing, 'cause that would have been awkward eating standing up.

When we were done eating we saw Chad and Jaime eating, as well as one of Kristi's students named Kennedy. She was easy to spot because she was wearing her "Stoeber Stingrays" shirt. Kennedy has a great voice, and when Kristi mentioned it she said she wouldn't mind singing for me. It was kind of different having her sing in the middle of such a crowded restaurant, but she got some applause when finished. We talked the Chad and Jaime too for a little while and then left for the mall.

I need some new clothes, but unfortunately it typically takes me a while to find things that I like. I did find a sweet hoody type deal at PacSun for 8$ tonight. You just can't be 70% off. I tried on some other things at other stores too, but nothing ended up working out.

We stayed at the mall for a little while until Ryan and Rebecca Ferguson called us to let us know they were home. They are some friends from NHCC that Kristi and I are going to start hanging out with for some mentoring. Tonight was alot of fun, and I am looking forward to spending time with them. We talked for a while and ended up getting home around midnight, which meant we went straight to bed.

On another note, I don't know if you noticed, but Joe helped me purchase a domain name today. That's right, you are now on the fancy new website....www.andrewstoeber.com. Now it is pretty impossible to forget the web address for my blog, so you really are without excuse. You should definitely be reading every day, maybe even more than once a day. Tell your friends, you know you want to...

Maybe they should hire someone to transcribe their phone messages into emails...

I couldn't really fall asleep last night, and Lucy apparently decided that she wanted to use my face as a pillow, so that didn't help any. I kept moving her, but she was pretty determined. Due to my lack of sleep I slept until a little after 9 and then got up to start my day. I ran even though I didn't feel like it, then got ready and took Lucy on her walk. I let her off of her leash thinking that the ground everywhere would be fairly dry, but I was very wrong, so I had to give her a quick bath when we got back. She just loves the mud.

I spent some time tidying up when we got back and then ate lunch. I didn't feel like cooking any eggs, so I had a frozen pot pie instead. Those are never something I am excited about eating, but I guess it keeps me from eating too much. It was almost time for me to leave after all of that, but I had to make some phone calls first. I called guitarcenter.com because I placed an order a week ago and hadn't received a shipping confirmation. I had some things I needed, such as drum heads, and I have been avoiding the Greenville Guitar Center after my experience there, so I ordered online instead. Anyways, apparently their accounting department is a little "backed up" but they are going to upgrade my shipping to 2nd day air. I swear I have had the weirdest shopping experiences lately.

I also had to call my advisor again to try to set up an appointment. I had left her 3 messages the past 3-4 days with no response, and I need to meet with her to go over my clinicals application. She didn't pick up again today, so I called the advising office and the lady said, "Well did you email her? We don't really return phone calls because we get so many, that's why we put their emails on the advising page." I was a little confused...here I thought it was their job to return my phone calls...but I went ahead and emailed her and finally got a response. Have I mentioned Greenville Tech is very different than Clemson?

I had gotten in the car and starting driving to Lowes during the last phone call I made. I had to purchase some boxes and hardware for my project at work today. I am rewiring the Clearcom system because of issues you can read about at Joe's blog. In a nutshell, I am wiring a direct line from the main box to the outside platform, where I am wiring 4 boxes in parallel. Everything is going OK so far, although I did have to redo the first box because of a misfire with the staple gun I am using to pin the wiring down. Here's some pictures of my progress today; tomorrow I've just got 2 more boxes to do:

That was all I did at work today, but I've really enjoyed it for the most part. Anything involving wiring and soldering is typically fun for me...except for the squeezing under the platform part. I took my own soldering iron which was a good call because the fine tip was way easier for what I had to do. By the way, I use the sponge to make sure the tip of my iron stays clean.

I left work around 5 and came home to cook. I had gotten out some pork chops to thaw earlier in the day, although I saw that the date was October of 08 on the package. I know things keep in the freezer, but that seemed kind of old to me. I wasn't really in the cooking mood, so I tried to make up a recipe, and it was kind of a disaster. The recipe didn't turn out tasting very good, and the pork chops tasted kind of weirdly old. Sooo....Little Caesar's ended up providing our meal tonight. I kind of feel like I have lost my touch with cooking lately, but I think I need to just go back to the things I know are delicious.

After that Kristi and I watched TV and played with the pets, then got into bed. It looks like Lucy is going to leave my face alone tonight, which is nice.

Just to throw a political theme in the mix for today, I wanted to mention that I am cautiously excited that Obama is already closing Guantanamo. I know the arguments about how we aren't safe if these people are brought to the US and go through the court system, but I don't buy any of that stuff. I don't think that anyone will deny that some sketchy stuff has gone on there, and I don't think that having a legal process for these types of prisoners within the US makes the public any less safe...and really I don't know if it matters. On "The Daily Show" tonight I thought Jon Stewart said it well when he stated, "No matter what we do, there is no guarantee that we are safe. That’s the price of a free society." The way I phrase it is, "I don't think my personal sense of safety should ever supersede basic human rights." I actually think that anytime you are suppressing rights and invading privacy in the name of safety and/or because of fear, you are in extreme danger of straying away from a free, democratic society.

So that is probably the most opinionated I have ever been on my blog, and I think I'll stop there. Disagree? Go ahead and leave a comment...

Tomorrow I am going to finish up my Clearcom wiring, probably help Joe with light plots, practice for Sunday, and then I think Kristi and I are hanging out with some old friends from NHCC. Maybe I can get some schoolwork done too...but probably not...

It's probably a good thing I missed the Clemson game.

Today was busy as planned. I woke up at 8:15 and decided not to run. Not only did I have a few things to get done before lunch, it was like 20 degrees outside which is pretty rough on the lungs. I figure I'll make it up tomorrow morning.

Since I didn't run I checked my email/facebook quickly and then got ready. Lucy of course needed her daily walk after that, so that was the next thing I accomplished. When I came back I tried to run through the songs I was supposed to play for the audition, but I didn't really know them that well so I figured I'd wait until I got to work so I could see the chord charts. Instead I spent a little bit running through the songs for Sunday on the drums. One of them has a weird feel to it and I am not entirely sure how I want to play it yet. I can't tell exactly what the drummer is doing on the CD, so maybe I will try to watch some performances on YouTube. Seriously, what did I do before YouTube and Google? I can't remember.

The following item of importance was some school work. I had a short quiz in Physiology I had to study for, and I also needed to do my weekly discussion post for my online Sociology class. We were supposed to post about a religion/sect that we think is countercultural, meaning some of it's practices oppose society's common values. Most of the posts I read had to do with Muslims or Mormons, so just to ruffle a few feathers I posted something about fundamentalist Christianity being countercultural. In my post I just stated that American society values individual freedom more and more, and used extreme examples of fundamentalism that contradict that idea...such as the lifestyle of that church who protests at soldiers' funerals...I don't remember the leader's name. The only response I have gotten agreed with me, so I guess no one really cared. I thought that living in the South there might be some who would take issue with what I said, but I guess not. Oh well, at least my post was more open to discussion than the others.

By the time I was done with my schoolwork it was time to go to lunch. I met Robbie at Taco Casa, but they only take cash so we went across the street to Subway. I don't understand these places that don't take cards. For every cent they are saving without the percentage charge, they are losing much more because most people do not carry cash anymore. At least that's how I feel. I will probably never go back to Charlie's or Taco Casa simply because if I actually have cash in my wallet, there is something else I need it for. Just make me pay 20 cents more for my food, I don't care...

After lunch it was time for class. Sitting through 3 hours of Physiology is really rough, and today I struggled. I didn't take many notes, and to be honest I wasn't paying attention half the time. Good to know I'm only in the third week of the semester. Our professor (she is actually a Dr.) reviews every class though, so I think I should be OK. Today we talked about phases of cell division. She suggested we remember it with the acronym, "I Pee More After Tea," which I didn't think was as good as my, "I Poop More After TacoBell." Funny that they were so similar though, because I really did come up with that before she said hers. That was about the only interesting thing that happened in class.

I was going to get something for $2 at McDonald's on my way to work, but since I am way behind on my allowance for this month, I decided to call Joe and see if he wanted to eat at Zaxby's. I hadn't been there in a while, and apparently neither had he, so we both enjoyed it. I overheard a really funny conversation while I was ordering that went something like this:

Kid: "Hey Amber, can I have a resume?"
Manager: "You mean an application?"
Kid: "Yeah, whatever, that's what I meant"
Manager: "...Nick, you work here...you don't have to apply, you've got the job"

It made me chuckle, but apparently Nick just needed it for a project at school. I also learned today that Zaxby's employees are not supposed to slide your tray to you when you pick up your food. Instead, they are supposed to pick it up and hand it to you. I am so gonna get the next person who slides the tray to me fired.

After dinner we went back to the church and I ran through the songs a few times before rehearsal. No one gave me words for the one I was supposed to sing, but I looked them up and learned them well enough to get through the song OK. I went upstairs for the worship team meeting after that, and then ran sound for rehearsal. The team is doing this song from Brooklyn Tabernacle that I really enjoy. I am amazed at how they can do so many styles fairly believably. It's not like we've got gospel singers and musicians up there, but the product sounds great and doesn't come across as forced.

Rehearsal ended and it was time for the musicians to audition. A lady needed to take my place because she needed to go home to her kids, but that was fine because I preferred to go last anyways. Some of the other musicians were talented, especially this new bass player. He was from Nashville though, and I guess if you are from Nashville you'd better be good at something musical. My audition went fine I thought. I was extremely nervous, because I haven't sang since I left Columbia. You know how you get nervous and act weird and forget things? That was me tonight. But anyways, I thought I did OK. The songs were easy to play, so my guitar playing was good, but my singing I didn't think was great. It's not like I'm able to be on a rotation anyways though since my job is with the tech team. It was really just so Matt had a reference of what I am capable of in case he ever is in need of something I can do on a specific occasion. Here's a picture of me "auditioning" taken by Joe:
Joe, I left that in high resolution just for you.

By the time all of that was over, it was late and I hurried home. Whenever I'm gone for a long period of time Lucy goes crazy when I get home. Tonight for instance she just buried her head in my stomach and cried for a few minutes. It's so nice to feel so missed, although I wonder if her attachment is unhealthy or something. I talked to Kristi a little about our days, but it was pretty late and she has to get up early, so I tried to be quiet for the most part.

Tomorrow will be another full day. I need to solder all those Clearcom boxes, which means I need to get some outlet boxes to install them. I am really hoping that I do this correctly and it doesn't end up not working at all. If I mess it up I guess the tech team can just learn some sign language...

The best part of filling out the worship team form was putting the pastor as my first reference...

I woke up at 8:45 this morning, which I felt pretty good about. I had gotten kind of lazy those two final weeks of December, and needed to start getting up before 9 again. I spent some time checking email, and then got ready and took Lucy on a walk. I was a little disappointed in the lack of snow on the ground, but we've still got a few months of winter to go.

After Lucy's walk I spent some time making drum loops in Cubase. I use an old, cheap version of Cubase SE, and I use all free VST Effects/Instruments. It really is amazing what you can get for free these days on the internets. So anyways, I use a free drum sampler and free drum samples to make loops to use as click tracks whenever I record. I was talking to Ryan online last night and we decided it would be especially exciting if I used a click track for some of the songs on Sunday night. I figure I can just play them off of my laptop, and I still should be able to hear the monitor fine. My Shure in-ears don't block out all outside noise with the foam tip, they just knock it down a few dB's. I've only made a loop for 2 of the songs so far, but I'm thinking about doing it for 2 more. When I practiced with the loops after I made them I actually thought it was easier. It's like it takes the struggle to be steady aspect away, and you can just focus on what you are playing.

I stopped playing the drums in time to watch some of the inauguration, which I wanted to be sure to do. I had good timing, as I turned it on as Biden was being sworn in. Did everyone see/hear the simple gifts arrangement that was played? Because it was incredible. In case you missed it, take the time to listen:

I love reed instruments when played beautifully, especially the clarinet and saxophone. And of course everyone loves the cello. I also enjoyed Obama's speech, and I feel very optimistic about his presidency. Only time will tell if he will make wise decisions...he certainly has a difficult task ahead of him.

When I was done watching the inauguration and news wrap up, it was about time for the piano tuning dude to get to my house. He was supposed to arrive at 1, but I got a call from him around 1:10 saying he was running late. He followed that up by saying "I should be there in an hour, is that OK?" I proceeded to explain that I had to go to work, so we should reschedule. He asked if I could leave when he got there and let him lock up when he left...but the problem with that is that Lucy probably would have had a heart attack, and the noise she would have made would have made tuning a piano impossible. So I think he is going to call me sometime soon about rescheduling.

I got to work about 45 minutes late and got to work. I spent most of the day today working on re-wiring the ClearCom system. There are some noise issues with one of the runs, which for some reason goes all the way to the stage and then comes all the way back to the booth...weird. So, we are going to wire a direct line to the booth instead. I love to solder, but this project is going to be extra tricky because it isn't your typical 3-pin XLR deal. I hope I don't screw up!

I ate dinner in my office tonight and then helped Dan and Tim finish up stage setup afterwards. I think running sound is going to be fun this week, there is a mini-choir and I get to mic Chad's amp again. We finished up everything before 9, and I headed home in time to see the last of American Idol.

After American Idol I watched an episode of Fringe. It is one of the few TV series that I have really enjoyed. I used to love X-Files (pre Mulder's exit), and Fringe really reminds me of that show. Other TV series I have gotten hooked on are House (with his old staff) and of course Seinfeld re-runs. I can't really think of anything besides those. I talked to Kristi some when she got home from getting coffee with her cousin, and then we both got into bed.

Tomorrow will be a full, fun day. I have some things I need to get accomplished tomorrow morning, and then I am eating lunch with my friend Robbie. After that I have class, and then I will go to work. I am going to "audition" with the band tomorrow night. Matt has on 1 or 2 occasions considered having me sing something, but I always say he should probably at least listen to me before he does that. Since they are having auditions this week, I figured it would be a good time for him to just hear what I sound like. I've never sang without an instrument in front of me though, and I kind of don't want to, so I hope they don't ask me to do that. I forgot to bring the chords home for the song they want me to play, but I can probably run through it a little when I get to work. Let's hope I remember how to sing...it's been a while!

I will now recall each of the last 10 days in order...just kidding.

Well I'm back. I know some of you were concerned that I would never blog again, but you can breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe it was post-school starting back blues, or maybe realizing I won't be done until at least May of 2011, but I just was kinda down last week and didn't feel like blogging. After a nice, relaxing weekend with my wife I'm back into the swing of things though, and am ready to be a great blogger again.

I don't even really know where to start. I don't want to try to summarize what's been going on, so I'll just touch on a few highlights. First of all, running sound for the men's retreat went pretty well. I recorded the sessions off of the board for fun, and then also took a short video to post. I mixed the two together before uploading...however Premiere Elements didn't have fine enough controls for me to align everything exactly, so it is a little off...still kind of fun though:

Speaking of music, I have been loving this song from Bethel in California:


I think that video is from one of their "Jesus Culture" conferences...is the song not incredible? Makes me wish I was still in charge somewhere just so we could do that song. My friend Ryan plays drums for Marathon's Greenville campus, and he showed it to me. I have pretty much been listening to it non-stop since then. I am playing drums for him at NHCC youth this week, and I think we are doing the song, so I am especially excited about that. I am going to buy the Jesus Culture CD/DVD, because I like some of the other songs too, but I want to wait for next month's allowance.

Along the same lines, I have been enjoying my new EP from Public Radio. There are a band that opened for our band when I was playing for Hannah Miller in Columbia, and they were so good. I was excited to have some of their stuff on a CD, but my favorite one isn't on there. Oh well. Taylor Swift is another artist I have been loving. People tell me that I'm kind of dorky because of that, but her songs are great!

I also have been learning about linear beats/fills on drums. It is a completely different way of thinking about drums for me, and it has really opened up my thought process. I'll admit it's difficult for me to think so precisely with beat subdivisions and hand/foot patterns, but the stuff you can do is so cool. I think it is used a good bit in gospel/r&b. These two videos helped me the most in learning how to do some of the stuff, but you can see tons of amazing linear grooves on YouTube:



I started running the subs a few dB's louder at Southside. James was saying he wished the kick hit him in the chest more. I already run the kick pretty much as hot as I can, so I figured maybe just running the subs hotter would fill everything out. We run pretty quiet (92ish dB C-weighted slow....ok, that is really quiet), so I think that is partly why the kick doesn't knock you out, but I figured it was worth a try. I have been very pleased with the results, maybe more so with the bass guitar. I made sure I wasn't overloading the amp at rehearsal, and everything has been great. Sometimes something in the stage floor rattles with certain notes on the bass guitar, but it isn't very noticeable.

So those are all my musical updates. Other than that my furnace wasn't working correctly. Our gas bill was ridiculous last month, and I noticed that our furnace was having a really hard time keeping up when the temperature dropped this past week. More accurately, it wasn't keeping up at all. Our realtor put a home warranty paid by the seller in the contract, and since we were dealing with a relocation company, I don't even think they read the contract when they accepted it. Sooo...I called the warranty place and someone came and checked out the furnace for free. Turns out there was some important screw missing and it couldn't pull the air it needed to. I need to remember to call our realtor and thank him for putting that warranty in there.

I think those are all the things worth mentioning from the past week. Kristi and I have just been hanging out and eating at Oriental House mostly. Oh, and I'm still running. Today was the first day I was able to push the whole time without my lungs hurting. Two weeks of misery isn't too bad for getting back into the swing of things.

I guess that's all I really want to write for now. I'm pretty excited about the inauguration tomorrow. It's a big day for America on alot of levels. Also, tomorrow a guy is coming to tune the piano, although I wonder if he will cancel if it snows. I know Kristi is hoping for snow...I'm going to go outside after 12 to see if it has started. If it has I'll have to get the pets up to experience it!

I waited a long time for this video to upload, so you'd better watch it with a smile on your face.

Oliver and Lucy crack me up. I know I talk about them alot on here, but I can't help it, they are just too entertaining. This morning Oliver would lick Lucy's ears while she slept and then suddenly grab Lucy's head in a bear hug and bite her ears. Lucy would cry and struggle to get free, finally succeed, and then Oliver would wait until Lucy went back to sleep and then repeat the process. I told Oliver he was going to regret it later when Lucy chewed on his head, but he didn't really seem to be concerned.

So I woke up a little before 9, but wasn't sure if I felt good enough to run, so I watched Sportscenter until about ten. I got up and decided to take Lucy for a walk first thing, and on the walk decided I felt good enough to run. My strategy with running is to make sure I go slow enough to not feel like my lungs are about to give out. During wrestling season in high school it was all about pushing myself until I couldn't possibly go faster, but now I figure I don't need to be intense. Plus without Coach intimidating me it's hard to push myself that much anyways. Today was pretty rough. I hadn't run in a long time, and I didn't feel too great. It's days like today that I miss running with Graham, he was a great running buddy. I made it all three miles though, and it will get easier every time.

After running I showered and ate lunch. I forgot about how not hungry I am after running. It seems like it would be the opposite, but it's not. Swim practice on the other hand always made me very hungry. I practiced Sunday's songs on the drums after that only to find out later that Ryan isn't going to be using me after all. Thanks alot Ryan.

I left for work a little early today because I wanted to tune the youth group's drum set before I started my normal stuff. The biggest flaw I noticed in their sound last night was the drums. The snare sounded kind of like a fart because it was tuned so low. Perhaps this should be a page in my calendar. I can see it now..."SNART: A snare tuned so low it sounds like a fart."

Anyways, the kit had it's good and bad. The snare is an older Slingerland brass snare, which after I tuned it sounded fantastic:

Their cymbals were also decent as well. I don't know much about the hi-hat brand, but the A Custom 18" crash is one that is on my list to buy eventually.
The rest of the kit was Ben's PDP kit, which wasn't terrible, but had heads that were very old and beat up. The only thing harder than tuning toms on a cheaper kit is tuning toms with terrible heads on a cheaper kit. They didn't have any moon gels or O-rings, which are kind of a necessity in this situation, so instead I taped some folded paper to the heads. You can faintly hear the paper flap, but it is exponentially better than no muffling, plus it kind of fits with the whole SNART idea:
After I was done the kit sounded pretty decent. Later on in the evening I had Joe take a quick video of me playing it for fun. Later I thought I should have taken a video before also so you could hear the amazing difference tuning makes, but I didn't think of it. I was going to cut the video down to just me playing for a few seconds, but the whole thing is kind of funny what with my preemptive thumbs up and Joe saying, "You can edit this out later, right?"

After I tuned the drums Joe told me that the youth group used to have toms and a kick also that Dave bought back in the day. I found them in the closet, and they were some decent maple Taye's. I asked Nate why they weren't using them and he said, "they didn't sound good." Weird.

All this drum talk reminds me, I've been listening to this new band I found called "The Summer Set." They are extremely pop, but I really like them. I found them watching this kid play his Zildjian Sweet Ride on YouTube. Seems like a pretty solid drummer.

So anyways, after the drum thing and working some Joe and I left for dinner, stopping to browse at GameStop on the way. I like video games, but for one reason or another have never really gotten into them that much. If there was one game I would play non-stop, it would definitely be rock band, but I can think of alot of musical equipment I would want for how much it would cost me to get a gaming system and the game.

We ate dinner at Moe's because I had a $5 off coupon, and it was delicious as always. I wish Moe's would give you free queso though, that would be nice.

After dinner we came back and went to the pre-rehearsal meeting. It was really interesting tonight. We spent some time encouraging one another by speaking things we enjoyed about the team, and then Brian talked a little about disconnecting our worship of God from how good or bad our life is. There is alot of crazy stuff going on the the world, like Iraq, fighting in the Gaza strip, our economy, etc. If you don't keep up with the news, you should. Anyways, I wonder how our quality of life in America will change in the future and how that will affect the church. Also, am I satisfied in God alone despite any circumstances that might come my way? Serious stuff to think about.

Rehearsal was fine. I got it sounding pretty good, but the chairs were up which means there was no point in fine tuning because it will sound so different on Sunday. I did the parallel compression thing with the bass, and I kind of like it. It's a very subtle difference, but it helps the riffs on the higher strings punch through more. Joe and I took a break for him to film me in the aforementioned video, but other than that I just kind of hung out until rehearsal was over. Since Matt wasn't there I wanted to make sure everything was off before I left.

I got home late and Kristi was already in bed. Lucy must have cried for 2-3 minutes when I came inside, I don't know why. I guess she just misses me that much. Kristi woke up and we talked a little bit about our day, and then I got in bed. It's kind of a bummer not really seeing Kristi on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Tomorrow I might eat lunch with a friend and then maybe go into work since I won't be able to work Friday due to the men's retreat. I hope I get to play some basketball or football or something on the men's retreat. We'll see....I've never been on one with Southside before.

The only thing better than Oriental House? Oriental House two nights in a row...

So, I've been kind of sick the past few days. I felt really crummy on Sunday, and was really thankful that I wasn't running sound. Things didn't get better as the day went on, but I went to sleep by 11 with plans to start running the next morning. When my alarm went off Monday morning, there was no way I was going running, much less getting out of bed. I don't know what I had, but it was miserable. My head hurt, my body ached, I was all stuffy, and I had a fever. I dozed in and out until about 10, when I woke up very sweaty and felt a little better. I got up and got ready, and with the help of Advil was able to get alot accomplished all day.

Today was much better. I'm still a little stuffy, but I feel great otherwise. I slept until 9:30 to let my body rest some, and then got ready and took Lucy on a walk. She seems to enjoy walks in the rain more so than non-raining walks. She gets very excited about splashing through big puddles and sticking her face in fast flowing drainage water. I didn't let her off the leash today because I didn't want to give her a bath. Maybe next time Lucy.

After we got back I ate some lunch and then played drums for a little bit. I am playing at NHCC for their youth this Sunday, so I am trying to get the songs down before hand. Ryan usually picks one or two that are pretty difficult, so it is alot of fun learning them. I am excited about using my new snare and hi-hats...now I just need somewhere to use my new amp too.

I left for work at the usual time and did stage setup for a while once I got there. Around 3:15 I went upstairs to help with the youth group sound stuff. I have been helping Nate learn how to improve things up there, which I love doing. I had told him that I would come up today and help a little before and during soundcheck. I was able to do a few helpful things, the first of which is change the speaker EQ's. I made them a more natural crossover with no notches or boosts. A common mistake people make is to use the speaker EQ to change the room sound. This isn't really ideal unless you have a way of measuring which frequencies are exaggerated in the room. A better thing to do is leave them flat, set up all your mics, turn them all on and then turn them up, notching out frequencies creating feedback issues while you do so. There weren't really any feedback issues, so we didn't end up notching anything. Another mistake people often make is to keep notching week after week until they have a crazy looking EQ. So if you have this issue, it's better to start over every few weeks....ideally every week really.

Anyways, I also set up their sub so it was fed off of Aux 1. Since they had 3 Aux's they weren't using, I figured this would be much better than having the sub fed off of a main. This way not everything goes to the sub, which is nice because there aren't many things that needs to, and it just makes it really muddy otherwise. For instance, once we set it up like that all we put into the sub was the kick, bass, a little floor tom, and I think a tiny bit of keys. We also hooked up their monitor through an unused EQ so that if they have feedback issues with a vocal mic they can EQ the monitor first and hopefully not affect the room EQ. All in all I thought the system sounded really nice when we were done. They could change a few source things like drum tuning to better the sound, and they would also really benefit from some compression/limiting, but it sounded pretty decent.

After that I went back downstairs and worked on the stage some more. I am excited about this Sunday for some reason. I think it's that I like the stage setup, and I am excited about micing Chad's new/old amp. It's a Fender Princeton something...maybe a Reverb? I can't remember, but it sounds nice, and I think it will sound really good miced. I am also thinking about doubling the bass signal and doing the parallel compression thing this week. It's gonna be a good time.

Joe, Tim, and I all left for dinner around 6. Joe asked if we could go to Oriental House, and even though I was there last night, I can't ever pass it up. It is just so delicious I can't stand it. One thing I like as much of the food is how friendly the people are. Where else do you order at the front, yet still have people getting refills for you non-stop? I've starting tipping because it's pretty much like having your own waiter/waitress.

After dinner we came back to church and finished setting up, and then I went upstairs to listen to the band before leaving. Things sounded pretty good, sometimes I kind of miss being involved with youth. There is just an energy there that you don't get with adults.

I came home and talked with Kristi for a while and then got into bed. I have been watching Clemson play Alabama since Kristi went to sleep. Our basketball team is still looking great, so I am feeling pretty good about going to the big dance again this year.

Tomorrow I think I am going to start running as long as I feel healthy when I wake up. I haven't really found a good route yet, but I'm only running 3 miles. When I get up to 6 I'll have to find a more exciting one. The first few days are always the worst, but hopefully I won't feel too bad!

Just a nice, relaxing Saturday...

Today was a pretty non-eventful day. I woke up at about 8:45 and decided to get up. Kristi was still asleep though, and since she has to get up for teaching on Monday again I didn't want to wake her before she was ready, so instead I worked on the laptop and watched SportsCenter in bed. At about 10 she was ready to start the day so I went ahead and got ready.

I spent much of the day today playing around with my new musical equipment. I have spent so much time listening to samples of snares and other equipment on YouTube and audio forums, that I really wanted to do a comparison of my 3 snares that I have now. Kind of giving back in a way. So, that's what I did. I recorded some narration so that it would be helpful and put it on some of the audio forums for people to listen to. You can here the recording here. I guess it kind of makes me a nerd spending all that time on that, but hey, I enjoy it. I would like to put it on YouTube too eventually. Even though it doesn't have any video, I figure I can just put it with a picture of the snare drums or something and people would probably find it useful.

I also recorded a quick song with my guitar amp to test it out. This wasn't really for anything other than my own enjoyment, but it was very enjoyable. I used the Ludwig snare on the drums, and then recorded two guitar parts followed by a bass part. The guitar in the right channel (assuming your stereo image is set up correctly) is my Nashville Telecaster, while the thicker one in the left channel is my Thinline Telecaster. I didn't use any effects or anything, just straight through the amp with different settings for the two. For micing, I just put my SM57 6 inches or so in front of the speaker. I didn't use any EQ or anything on the guitars, but there is some on the drums and bass. The test song is just some random quick chord progressions, and you can listen to it here. Also, for those interested, here is a picture of my amp in my amp closet...which is a closet where I keep my amps:

I also wanted to mention another one of my Christmas presents which I have been enjoying. I am notorious for discussing everything going on with my body with my family, so in honor of that my dad gave me a daily calendar entitled "What's Your Poo Telling You?:"Not only did I think this was hilarious, I think it's going to be very interesting as well. Perhaps I will feature some of my favorite days on this blog...if only you could be so lucky.

Other than recording today, I took Lucy for her walk and spent some time watching Lifetime with Kristi. Later on we left for dinner at her family's house because her sister was bringing home her friend Zach for us all to meet. I'm not sure if they are officially dating, but you get the idea. Dinner was fun, and the conversation was interesting. Zach enjoys hunting and gave everyone some venison he had in his car because he was bringing it back to Clemson with him. Kristi and I passed since we haven't been cooking much, but I am secretly hoping to taste some of someone else's.

And I guess that was pretty much it for the day. By the time we got home I was ready to get into bed because Sunday is an early day for me. Come to think of it, I am not sure what I am doing tomorrow morning, because I'm not running sound. Maybe I'll get to be shader or something...should be relaxing!

The reason I didn't post yesterday was because I didn't want to talk about the Clemson game...

I woke up feeling a little sick this morning. I'm not sure if it was because of watching the Clemson game yesterday, or the unhealthy amount of wings I ate yesterday. I'm pretty sure it was the Clemson game. At least having a group of friends over for a Gator Bowl party was fun, even it the outcome of the game wasn't great. It is just football after all.

I was meeting Joe at his apartment at 9 to ride up to the camp the men's retreat will be at with him. He told me last night to bring my camera because he had an idea, which had me wondering. Did he want me to take pictures of his fabulous hair? Was I going to show him a thing or two about ISO and aperture? The suspense was killing me.

I thought I remembered how to get to Joe's apartment, so I didn't bother asking for directions...silly me. For some reason I was thinking it was near Wendy's on Woodruff road, but turns out it's on Roper Mountain Extension. Once we got that squared away, I got headed in the right direction. I remember where his apartment was specifically once I got to his complex...weird.

The ride up to Bonclarken was an enjoyable one. Joe talked through some camera settings with me (the earlier comment was a joke), and took some pictures of his own:

By the way, if you want more pictures, and a different account of our trip, you can check out Joe's blog, which is called "Resurfaced." I think us both taking pictures was his real idea, and I of course I had to oblige since he is my muse after all.

Once we got there we walked around the chapel and checked out the video and audio equipment that would be available to us. The mixer was in a wooden cabinet with a sign that said not to open, so of course we opened it. How else would we know what to bring? It also had a sign saying not to adjust levels, so we had to talk about that with an employee. Apparently they don't want anyone adjusting levels...but since it would be impossible to run sound that way we talked about it a little and I think it's going to be OK. I'm thinking we can probably take a picture of the board and then make sure each knob is exactly where it was when we started. Anyways, after all that we left, making sure to take a picture at the sign on the way out:

We stopped at Ruby Tuesday's on the way back for lunch, which was delicious. The past two times I have been there I have gotten the "Thai Phoon Shrimp," which are kind of like buffalo shrimp, except a little tangier. They are wonderful. Our waitress was extra talkative and cheerful. I thought she was just bored and friendly, but I think Joe suspected she was looking for a big tip. When you're so bling-bling like Joe and I, it's pretty understandable that people would be looking for some free cash. And Joe wasn't even wearing his cowboy hat...

After lunch Joe dropped me off at my car and we both went back to the church to work for a while. I set some things up on stage, moved a bunch of lights, set up a camera, etc. Just the usual. I ended up leaving a little after 3, which I think is a little later than usual, but it's OK because I've worked less than usual the past two weeks with the holidays and all.

When I got home I played with Lucy, played drums for a bit, and then got started on cooking dinner. We invited my parents over for dinner tonight, and I was in charge of the main dishes. Kristi and I picked out this lime chicken dish which looked delicious. Anything involving honey, lime, olive oil, thyme, and garlic must be good. I wear a sweet apron to cook, so I thought I'd take a picture of it for the blog. Kristi wasn't home, so I used a mirror to my advantage:

Unfortunately things didn't go that well with the food. I put tin foil under the chicken, which turned out to be a mistake. I kept wondering why the mixture wasn't getting brown and sticky like it was supposed to, and when we took it out we discovered that most of it had leaked through a hole in the foil and was beneath the chicken. It turned out to be pretty bland, but it wasn't a disaster or anything. The roasted potatoes and corn on the cob were great at least. Since my chicken wasn't exciting, I took some pictures of a candle instead, practicing my new photography knowledge:

I played my new amp for my parents, showed them my snare, and then we all played Yahtzee. Somehow Kristi ended killing us all. We also ate some peach cobbler that Kristi made, and oh man was it great. I really like hot desserts with vanilla ice cream, and this was one of the best I have had. I look forward to heating up some tomorrow, although nothing is as good as right out of the oven.

We enjoyed watching the pets play together tonight. My parents' dachshund/beagle mix, Molly, is really interested in Oliver, but doesn't know what to think of him. It's funny to watch her follow him around. They were all playing together by the end of the night, although Lucy was extremely grumpy today. I think she is just very tired from the past two days, as she has been snoring away loudly for the past 3 hours. My parents left a little before 10, and Kristi and I decided to get into bed. She wanted to watch "27 Dresses," which she got for $5 today at Target, so I had to set up our stereo system in our bedroom. I hadn't set it up in the new entertainment center yet, and we don't have a DVD player in our bedroom, so we thought it would be fun to do that. The only thing is that our CD/DVD player is powered by the sub, so you have to connect pretty much everything...it didn't take too long though. I kind of drifted in and out of the movie while I read about pro audio stuff online. It seemed OK, but I couldn't get into that much. That's not to say I don't like chic-flics. For instance, one similar style chic-flic I do enjoy is "Return to Me." If you haven't seen that, it's a great story.

After that Kristi went straight to sleep, and I have just been watching Leno. Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day because there is not much planned. I am hoping to do some recording, especially of my new amp. Once I get some recordings of it, I'll post them and some pictures of it on here for all my loyal readers to hear and see. I've been wanting to record a comparison of my snares also, so we'll see if I have time for that. For now, I'll leave you with this picture I took of the pets sleeping the other night: