What to do....

The wife leaves the husband at home on a Saturday afternoon. She informs him that she is going to grab lunch on the run so he must fend for himself. The husband starts to panic but then decides to sit down and think about it.


Ah ha! He finds the answer!


SPAM!!! Tabasco Flavored no less!


It comes out of the can. He is amazed that it holds the same shape in the can as it does out of the can. 'Amazing!', he things. But that is a large piece of meat. the wife made a bounty of delicious pancakes this morning and he is surely not THAT hungry.


The answer is: Cut it in half. In his hunger-crazed eyes, his center cut is a bit off.


The husband finds his way to the fridge and pulls out his favorite beer: Shiner Bock. 'Mmmm, beer!', he thinks. With beer, meat and a spatula in hand, he heads outdoors to the mighty grill.


The husband fires up the grill and places the slabs of meat on the grill. The aroma makes his hunger grow. To take his mind off the pains, he walks around to inspect the new gutters that were installed that Friday. 'Boy! They sure do look good! Leaf Gutter rules!', he thinks.


Out front he spies a rabbit feasting on some grass. The eating rabbit reminds him of his food on the grill.


Luckily, the meat is cooking nicely. He flips the slabs o Spam and lets them cook til there are nice char marks on it.


After 15 minutes, he is satisfied and plates the larger piece of Spam (about a 1/2 lbs worth) on a bun. 'Mmmm... time to eat!', he thinks.


Mouthful after mouthful of wonderful Tabasco Spammy goodness enters the husbands mouth. Finally, he is full. He puts away his dishes and goes outdoors to do manly things like mowing the lawn and washing the car.


The End.

Yeah...

I'm a little bit better now. Nothing that a Double BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger from Rally's can't help set straight. Drove far from work to Rally's, then drove even farther south to the park(s) that line Riverside. Parked at a spot overlooking el Scioto River, listened to Kiss' first Alive! album and chowed down. I feel a little bit better now. Sometimes, I just need to spit some blood and fire (like Gene Simmons does on stage) about what's bugging me in order to swing the pendulum the other direction. And it appears to have worked for now.

Peace outside.

Not Happy

I'm having one of those 'not happy' moments. So if I'm mean to you, don't let it bother you 'cause I'm just frustrated about a multitude of things that I probably shouldn't be frustrated about. I'll eventually get over it. But, you have been warned. Today is not the day to test my patience or annoy me or be stupid.

This concludes my broadcast.

Thanks Tom! and other news (or lack thereof)

I know I've thanked him a million times over, but again, a big Thank You to Tom who helped me finish off digging and filling in the leech bed that I had to put in since I'm getting new gutters on the house soon.

Other than that, notta much going on. Work is getting better by the day simply because I'm learning more and more about the product.

I'm eating lemon jello pudding with a fork right now and it's pretty tasty. Thank you Odd.. er Big Lots for pricing it at 79c for 4 little tubby thingys. I also bought some Farley's Fruit Slices candy thee as well. Kinda like the orange slice candy except that is has lots of other flavors. I didn't need them, but I went during lunch, before I ate, which is like the worst thing that you can do. I put back at least 5 other things: Hunt's Speghetti sauce in a 28 oz can, a jar of Mt. Olive 'garlic-free' dill pickles, Zattaran's Brown Rice and Sausage Heat n Eat package, 1 liter of some off brand strawberry soda and some cheepo tortilla chips.

Um... Norah is thiiiiiiiiiis close to crawling at the moment. She can definitely motor around alot faster. I really need to kiddie-proof the concrete thingy in front of the fireplace.

And that's about all I got.

And how are you???

Notta Much other than a favorite chippy snack question

Notta much goin' on folks, but figured I'd drop a quick shout to say "SHIT YEAH!!!" and throw out some random thoughts that haven't warranted their own posts... or something. Words.

The new job is as good as can be excepted in its second week with my boss (and the rest of my colleagues' boss) gone to Vegas. I at least have seen the software that they build. That puts some tangibleness to the documents that I read all last week.

We're getting new gutters put on the house. The old ones are, well, just pissing me off. They are always clogging and I think that there are other things wrong that I don't know about. So, to remedy that, we're using our tax refund and getting Leaf Guard gutters. One piece, seamless stuff with that whole liquid adhesion thing going on so water goes in but twigs and shit, for the most part, stay out. Looks like I am gonna have to put in a new downspout myself though. Seems that it's not a good thing to make a 45 foot long gutter since once can't get the pitch correct for water to do it's thing. I'm hoping I can tie into one of the other downspouts that is about 10 feet away. If not, I guess I'm, as Beatle John (or was it Paul) said "digging a hole" and putting gravel in it.

Some of my favorite chip snacks, in no particular order:
1) Snyder's Of Berlin (not Hanover) Barbecue Potato Chips - I've likes this for a long while now. And the funny thing is, in my opinion, they really aren't that BBQy either. It must be the MSG goodness that makes them so tasty.
2) Munchos - I love these things. And you have to say 'things' cause they aren't really chips (aka sliced from a potato). I can eat a big bag of these in one sitting easy, though I need some significant beverage since they are salty as all hell.
3) TGI Fridays Potato Skins - Cheddar and Bacon flavor. These used to be called Tato Skins until someone got the bright idea of marketing them with TGIFs name. These things are awesome. I had nearly forgotten about them until I saw them in the vending machine here at work. I hope they keep them in stock, though, at 50c an ounce, I just need to find a store that has the big bags of them and then ration them out.
4) Andy Capp's Hot Fries. These things are tasty as well. I still remember having a bag of these when I was about 10 years old. Why do I remember this? Well, mainly cause it was an evening that my parents were out of town and we had a babysitter. My sister and I kept coloring them with red markers and shit and trying to get the babysitter to eat one of them. Of course, she wisely did not. In retrospect, it makes sense. If some kid walked up to you and handed you a single Andy Capp fry and said "Here, eat this" with a devilish grin on their face would you eat it? Me? I probably would, just to freak them out. Course, if it had like hand soap on it, I'd probably freak out and chase them down the street for good measure.
5) Mikesell's Good N Hot potato chips - These are very tasty and very hot. Not as hot as Blair's Death Rain habañero chips, but as far as typical run of the mill chips go, these are pretty hot. And I like them. I've also found that Jay's Hot Stuff chips are a good substitute should the Mikesells not be available. Spiciness is about the same. The main difference is that the Mikesells are thick n wavy while the Jay's are thin and flat. Honestly, I should technically like the Jay's better since I prefer flat over wavy. But, Mikesells was first and therefore wins the official vote.

What are your favorite chippy-like snacks? I'd like to know. Gimme a comment. Do it now. Otherwise you'll forget and I'll have to cut n paste this thing all over again. Thanks for playing. Come back soon, ya hear? So seriously, did you hear that? Ok, good. Over and out blog lurkers.

The Ultimate Dysfunctional Super Group

First off, if you don't know what I super group is, I feel sorry for you... but anyways, a super group is basically when a bunch of people from different 'big' bands get together and form a new group, which then becomes known as a super group. Some examples are:

Blind Faith - This band consisted of Eric Clapton (Yardbirds, Cream), Ginger Baker (Cream), Steve Winwood (Traffic) and Ric Grech (Family).
Temple of the Dog - This band consisted of members of Soundgarden and Mother Love Bone (whose members would later create Pearl Jam). Most notable song released was "Hunger Strike". Of note, Pearl Jam was formed AFTER Temple of the Dog. Eddie was actually in town to audition for the lead singer position in Pearl Jam when they invited him in to help sing on Hunger Strike.
and
Asia - This progressive rock supergroup consisted of former members of the bands Yes, King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer and The Buggles. Most known for a few charting singles such as "Only Time Will Tell" and "Heat of the Moment"

With the supergroup concept now fully explained with examples, I now present my idea for The Dysfunctional Supergroup! This group will consist of very, how should we say, unique individuals who are known for being moody and / or eccentric. One of the interesting ideas of my concept is that every position will have a backup since it's very well possible that someone might just throw a hissy fit and leave or come down with some medical emergency. Without further ado, I give you:

The Ultimate Dysfunctional Supergroup (aka TUDS)

Lead Singer / Keyboards - Axl Rose
Axl Rose is the lead singer for Guns N' Roses with a very distinctive voice. Axl's temperment and general aloofness is very well documented. G N' R's Chinese Democracy album has been in the works for something like 10 years, has cost some record company 10 million dollars and still has no release date.

Lead Singer (backup) - Sebastian Bach
Sebastian Bach is most known for his stint as the lead singer for Skid Row, but in his defense, I do believe that he had a solo career as well (including his reoccurring role on the sappy sitcom Gilmore Girls). Sebastian also has a unique voice and is a bit moody and I think he would make a great backup. Though, just the fact that he is playing second fiddle might make him just flat out not show up at all as well. He doesn't play keyboards as far as I know but I'm willing to overlook that in light of the existence of a SECOND lead singer (!!!).

Lead Singer / Keyboards / Disco Ball - Dennis DeYoung
Dennis DeYoung is most notable for being one of the lead singers in the band Styx. You know, the Mr. Roboto guy. Dennis ended up leaving Styx because of a disease where lights made him melt or something. He also steered the band in the direction of creating the Kilroy Was Here (Mr. Roboto) concept album which, other than the high selling singer 'Mr. Roboto' didn't do anything and the tour which tried to stage the entire album like an opera bewildered all their fans. But that's beside the fact. He's a fantastic singer. In order to protect him from his light illness, Dennis DeYoung will be performing on stage in a black tent. The tent will also have small mirrors on it and will be on a revolving platform, which will basically simulate a disco ball when the spotlight shines on the tent. How about that! Also note, that with the inclusion of another lead singer / keyboardist, I am putting together the best head-to-head concert since Billy Joel and Elton John toured together. Ohhhhh.... I am a GENIUS!!!

Lead Singer / Keyboards / Disco Ball (backup) - Perry Farrel
Perry Farrel was the lead singer for Jane's Addition and Porno for Pyros. He also the co-creator of the Lollapalooza festival. He is an interesting character to say the least. I'm not sure if he plays keyboards or not, but it doesn't matter because I'm sure he'd figure it out. If he doesn't, he can play bongos for all I care. Also, Perry will not be performing under a tent, but will have a black body suit with mirrors attached to it so he can fulfill his disco ball responsibilities.

Lead Guitar - Vinnie Vincent
Vinnie Vincent is a former of guitarist for Kiss and Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Vinnie was with Kiss when they took off the makeup. No denying that the guy has talent. However, he proved difficult to work with. He sued Kiss when he thought he was due more royalities and lost. Gene was willing to let bygones be bygones and asked Vinnie to help the write material for the Kiss Revenge album. Again, Vinnie got mad and sued Kiss. He has since led a very secluded life. Some have said that he has had a sex-change operation, but I'll believe that when I see it. Actually, I'd rather not see that. Maybe I'll put Vinnie in a tent as well. Or maybe in a giant translucent hamster ball. He'd be rolling around on stage. If Axl got mad at him, he could kick Vinnie (and his ball) into the crowd. Awesome!

Lead Guitar (backup) - David Lindley
I don't know anything about David really. I did a search on 'eccentric guitarist' and his name came up. No lie. He is usually know as a 'Lead Guitarist for Hire' kinda studio musician who has worked for Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart, et al. He is also a multi-instrumentalist playing such odd stringed intruments as oud, cittern, bouzouki, saz, and cümbüş. He also plays other more normal instruments such as lap steel guitar, banjo and violin. I just hope that Vinnie skips out on at least ONE show just so that David can start playing a bad ass cittern solo.

Lead Guitar - Dave Navarro
Dave was in Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The RHCP gig came his way, I believe, when John Frusciante went off into heroin never never land for a while (John has since cleaned up). Um... yeah. He was married to Carmen Electra and a couple other people. He just seems to be a bit... odd to me, so he's in the line up as a lead guitarist. BTW, I had to put both Dave and Vinnie as Lead Guitarist 'cause one of them probably would cry if not referred to as 'lead guitarist'.

Lead Guitar (backup) - Eddie Van Halen
Everyone knows Eddie. And if you don't, I feel sorry for you. His antics as of late are reason enough to include him, at the very least, in the backup lead guitarist spot. That whole thing about getting cancer because of his metal pick and not because of the 5 packs a day he smoked alone is enough for me. Maybe it was the picks, who am I to say. If Dave does decide to not to show up for a gig, I think I'm going to put a clause in Eddie's contract that says he has to shave his head. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I can.

Bass Guitar - William "Bootsy" Collins
Bootsy is the man. He's played as part of James Brown's backing band The JB's as well as Funkadelic, Parliament and Boosty's Rubber Band. Hailing from Cincinnati, it's nice to have a fellow Ohioan in the mix. Just the fact that he was booted from James Brown's group for basically tripping on acid while on stage should be enough reason to add Mr. Collins to the fold. Also, his clothing attire is truly a bit on the zany side. The perfect bassist for The Ultimate Dysfunctional Supergroup if you ask me.

Bass Guitar (backup) - Flea
Flea (born Michael Peter Balzary) is the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He just seems like a odd one to me. No doubt that he is talented. He played trumpet in the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic Orchestra and because a very good jazz trumpet player. Honestly, I picked Flea because I secretly hope that if he does get on stage, that he demands that he gets to play a trumpet solo in the middle of a song, or even better, insists on playing all his bass parts on the trumpet. That would just be cool... to me.

Drums - Tommy Lee
Tommy is most know for his long tenure in Motley Crue. Tommy seems to be a bit... something. I don't know the words for it. Sure of himself? Full of himself? Who knows. He was married to Pamela Anderson. He's had numerous weird drum rigs up on stage. One that spun around and one that hovered over the crowd. Maybe I could put him in a gyroscope, space shuttle training rig. And not for one song, but for the whole gig. His playing would get a bit loopy towards the end of the show.

Drums (backup) - Jizmak Da Gusha
I originally had this spot slated for Lars Ulrich, but in his later years, he's seemed to have mellowed out. So instead, I've given the backup drummer spot Jizmak Da Gusha of GWAR. I need no other reason to include him other than he plays in GWAR. That's reason enough for me.

Sorry that the bios of the players petered out at the end, but this really was more to put together a band based around Axl and Dennis DeYoung. If Frank Zappa or Sun Ra were still around, I would have found positions for them as well. In fact, anyone who has played for Zappa would probably be able to fill in any of the positions.

If you have any other people in mind that might be a better fit in the back (or at the very least, a secondary backup), let me know. I'd love to add to the lineup.

Others I considered for the band: Lars Ulrich - drummer for Metallica, John Frusciante - guitarist for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Carmine Appice - drummer for various bands, Hank Williams Jr. - vocalist for himself, David Coverdale - vocalist for Whitesnake, Chip Z'Nuff - bassist of Enuff Z'nuff (his bass only has two strings!), Van Morrison - vocalist, Eric McFadden - vocalist, guitarist, entertainer.

Woot!

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that I got a new job! Woot! I'll be working for a company called Endforce as a Señor Test Engineer. It'll be a challenge, but I'm sure that it'll be worth it.

Whee!!!

That is all. Over and out.

Sudoku

For some dumb reason, I started playing sudoku yesterday. I really didn't understand it but it didn't take long to figure out. I can only do the easy ones... well, actually, only the easy (1 star) ones on MSNBC. I seem to be having trouble with the easy ones on websudoku. Go figure. I also have to use the 'pencil marks'. I like hte ones on MSNBC because they have little 'lights' to tell you when you've "completed" a row, column or square. Not necessarily that you have the numbers right, but that you have all numbers (1-9) accounted for.

I think I can hear Tom and Amy laughing now.

Rebus Generator = neat-o

http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/rebus-generator.html

You figure it out! :)

Gamez

Maryann and I played some Scrabble tonight. We had lots of fun. I won both games, but to be fair, in the first game I was using the dictionary alot since I hadn't played in a while and neglected to read the 'dictionary should be used during a challenge only'. :) And Maryann was being nice and didn't say anything until the very end. So techincally I only won one game tonight. But, for the second game I played fair. I had a streak of good luck coming up with the following:

1) quartz on a double word and double letter on the Z.
2) The following in the bottom right of the board.
FEW
EYE
WED
The last letter played for that group was the Y which means I got two double words for a total of 24 points.

I have to say, it was all luck since I have trouble with any word that has more than 5 letters (including those that are plural).

Just noticed that the pic on the Wiki page has the word "preen". In the second game, Maryann played that word in, I swear, the same location. I found that amusing. But it's 11:30pm so things are much more amusing since I'm getting tired. And with that, I say, good night Dr. Watson.

Finished - War of the Worlds

Not bad. I first heard about War of the Worlds from a 2 volume cassette 'Old Time Radio' version of the original Orson Welles broadcast that freaked out the nation that I got from SuperX for 20 cents (10 cents per cassette) from a clearance bin. I was 9 or 10 I think when I got them. When I first listened to them, I realized that it was a radio show from a long time ago, but was still kinda freaked out a little bit because of the screaming and whatnot. Funnily enough, if you asked me right now what occurred in the radio broadcast, I wouldn't be able to tell you. If you want to know, go download War of the Worlds from archive.org.

Anyhow, just wanted to say I enjoyed the book quite a bit. There were some passages where I was going 'oh c'mon and move along already' but there were also sections that a steadily ripped through with a 'what in the hell is gonna happen next' anticipation. I'm easily amused, so other may read it and say 'feh!' but bollocks to you 'cause I enjoyed it.

This is just sad...

They are closing the original Wendy's in Downtown Columbus. Read an article about it here.

"I guarantee (Dave Thomas, Wendy's founder) would support this decision," says company spokesperson David Lynch "He recognized that a company needs to be profitable."

Whatever, dude.

The least you could do would be to keep it open as a museum or something. So you're not profitable on the weekends or in the late evening? Okay, fine, cut your hours on the weekends and late evening, dilhole. It's not fucking rocket science. I've seen that place on a weekday during the afternoon. It's a fucking madhouse. You can't tell me that this doesn't offset the evenings. I've seen the one just down the flipping street from the flipping company office in Dublin. That fucking place is NEVER crowded. You're telling me that this mediocre Wendy's (with the fancy copper roof) does better business than the downtown one? Puhleez.

All I have to say is "Sorry Dave. I'm sorry that the fuckin' incompetent morons you had underneath you couldn't manage to keep the boat afloat a mere one year after you died. I'm sure you had a business plan, and I'm sure those dumb ass focacia bread sandwiches weren't part of it.

Anyhoo... At least I can say I've eaten there. Maryann and I ate there a couple years ago when she was working downtown. They still had the tables with the old newprint on it. It reminded me of being 9 years old and going to 'that other burger place with the weird tables' but enjoying their burgers all the same. Then later on came the Super Salad Bar. Too bad that didn't work out for them.

I'm babbling now. All I have to say is that it is just sad how fast the Wendy's corp turned their back on the original store. As store that, at the very least, probably could have broken even.

Man, I am bitter, so I am gonna stop now. G'night.

Mmmmmm... crab legs

I've been craving the unlimited crab legs from Red Lobster for a LOOOONG time now. Turns out I might be waiting even longer. In wondering how much it cost the first time I went to the AYCECLs at Red Lobster, I found the following article which basically said they lost so much money from that promo that they fired their el presidente.

But luckily for me, relief may be in the horizon. Turns out that I got a little email from bd's since I joined their email spam farm. Sez here that you can add unlimited crab legs to your dinner for $6.99. Not sure if you can do that for lunch or not. If you could, then I'm there. I love BDs, but I know how much veggies cost and how much rice costs and how much tortillas cost, and it ain't much. But I also understand one has to run a profitable business. So, tacking on 7 bucks to the .. what is it now, 14 bucks, is still only 21 dollars. I'm pretty sure I paid at least 20 bucks back in 2003 at Red Lobster. So could go up, have a small bowl of stir fry made up and then order the crab legs. When I run out of legs, I can nibble at my stir fry. Mmmm.... unlimited crab legs.

*drOoL*

Daily Lit is cool.

Daily Lit was something suggested to me by a good ol' codger named Tom. Basically you pick a book and dailylit.com will send you pieces of the book everyday to your email address (or M-F, or M W F) . Small little snippets that take about 5 minutes (if that) to read. If you want to read further, there is a link in the email so you can have the next piece sent to you immediately. And if you're gonna be out of town, you can also temporarily suspend the emails until you get back. It's quite nice. You don't even have to register to use it, which is cool. But, if you do register, you can add a nice little thingy to your blog like I have in my sidebar.

I just finished reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I saw the movie with Christina Ricci (or as my wife likes to call her, Pumpkinhead). So I guess I was expecting a little bit more or something. It was only 13 parts. I'm a slow reader so I figured I'd better start out with a smaller book. I managed to rip through it in practically two sittings. I was on part 10 before anything I thought of any significance ever happened. I'll give Washington Irving this; the imagery was good. I like that. I could imagine what was going on and what things looked like and maybe even sounded like. But it was more of a tale to tell around a campfire with a really long personal history before it. I'm not saying that's good or bad. It's just my view on it. I enjoyed it, so it's more good than bad. But I'm just saying that it resembles little to the movie. This only proves that I am not very literate in the book reading sense. Other than this, and the Gift of the Magi (which is a mere two parts and is more short story than book), I have not read any of the classics as they are called.

In fact, it wasn't until after I had graduated college that I could say I had ever read more than a handful of books (and by handful, I mean, like no more than 10). Through college I can practically name the books I had read and hence I shall, approximately in the order of which they were read, since I am in a babbling mood:

• The Shining by Stephen King


• The Andromeda Strain by Michael Criton


• Looked it up at home.. .it was called Worlds Of Maybe with 7 stories by Robert Silverberg, Issac Asimov and others.


• The Fall of Colossus by D. F. Jones


• Survival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi


• Growing Up Brady: I Was A Teenage Greg by Barry Williams


• Bootleg: The Other Recording Industry by Clinton Heylin

Yeah... that's it. How is that possible? I have no idea. Since then I've read some books, but not that many in comparison to others. Most of them have been books about music or things of the sci-fi / horror genre.

But anyways, I think that DailyLit is a nice format. It doesn't overwhelm me since I am am a slow reader. I like that. Thank you DailyLit (and Tom).

2400 45 RPM Records --- SOLD!

The guy stopped by on Friday evening and picked 'em up. Woot! Now, one would think that I would have a ton of space from the vacated 45s, but alas, I have so much crap that... um... yeah, there's not that much more space then when I started. *sigh* Oh well.

Lot of 400 78s ... SOLD!!!

That was a much quicker turnaround that I had ever anticipated. Tonight, I sold my 78s. Woot! Sold them to a young fella who basically is in the mode that I was in 4 or 5 years ago. Young. Probably a new job. And lots of liquid cash just burning a hole in the pocket. How I miss those days. ;) He's buying a jukebox in the next couple of days and is contemplating buying my collection of 45s as well. Double woot! We'll see. But I'm very happy. Now we have some money and can go out to buy some much needed print cartridges for our computers, seeing as they are all out (or warning that they will go out).

Yay me!

I have alot of records

Here is approximately what 2300 45 RPM records looks like.


To give you an idea of how big the boxes are, the 'tiny' one at the top is a 7 inch by 7 inch by 7inch box. That box holds exactly 100 records.

How does one amass such a large and useless collection? The answer is simple. I am a collector by nature. I have stories that I wrote when I was in third grade about the collections I had then: stamps, rocks, bottle caps, and I forget what else. I am a collector by VOLUME. Not quality, VOLUME. Lots and lots of things is what I like. To a fault. So back in my bachelor days (in fact, in the months before I met Maryann), I went on an eBay rampage. One Saturday night around 3am I was on eBay and decided that I would put in bids on around 10 different lots of 45 RPMS, each of them numbering in the hundreds. My lucky before them was not so soon, so I figured that if I won 1 or 2 of them, then that would be cool. I ended up winning about 8 of them. So, there you go. At least I can say that I listened to the majority of them. I think there was probably only about 500 of them that I never listened to. The rest all saw the needle all the way through (unless is was so scratched that I had to pick up the needle to save it).

But, 2700 7 inch 45 records is TOO MANY when you live in a 1200 sq ft ranch with a wife and a kid and three cats.

So, today I spent nearly 8 hours going through the majority of my collection of 45s which I am eventually going to sell on eBay. It wasn't too painful of a process. I saved probably somewhere between 100 and 200 for me, mostly hits from the 80s that I can relate to (c'mon, who doesn't want to hear Hall and Oates since 'You Make My Dreams' a few more times.) So the picture above shows 2300 that are boxed up and ready to go. Not pictured are the 100-200 that I set aside while going through them today, another 100 that I already owned, another 50 or so that are 'special' that i will sell separately on eBay and another stack of 100 to 200 that are still in limbo, but will probably be used to pad out the boxes that people (hopefully) buy from me.

So... that's the tale for the 45s.

Yesterday I went through my collection of 78 RPM records. As an experiment, I put them up on craigslist. Up for grabs is 325+ 78 RPM records. I actually came across another 40 or so that I'll probably throw in as well. Hopefully someone wants them. There is no way I can shop them anywhere since they are so fragile. I'm (probably) asking too much, but hopefully there is someone out there like me who is looking to increase the size of their collection in one swoop.

As for LPs or CDs or cassettes. I have not guess at all as to how many I have. Again, the quick answer it too many. I sold off around 100 to 200 LPs (or 33s as you might know them by) at a garage sale last year. That was a big step for me. Against, as with the 45s except a little bit better, I have listened to each of them at least once. So, my collection is not for naught. I DO listen to the things I buy. But to attempt to sell it all off is a bit of a daunting task, but it's one I'm going to attempt. Wish me luck.

Everyone, Meet Dwight

This is our new cat, Dwight. We adopted him from my wife's mom who got him from my wife's niece who got it from my wife's sister. He looks pretty darn close to Stinky. However, instead of being 10 years old, he is 6 months old... and still has his claws and other parts. For now. :) We named him after our favorite character on The Office, Dwight Shrute. Other names that I was planning on calling the cat, but were quickly vetoed were: SFC, DFC and SOB. Stinky II and Junior were also at least considered, but since we named him on the run (ie... on the way to the vet, seeing how we arrived in Cinci to find him with an infected eye), we managed to agree on Dwight. He's already a fairly large kitten for his age. He's probably going to be another freakin' huge cat.

Norah's First 'words'

My 6 month old daughter Norah had her first 'typing lesson' today. I'm so proud of her! Here is what she had to say:

   B G U F DSL
   9PIMM,  JUI,.L089 PM  OP CCCC



--                            p
[[- b vgg'

Grubby Paws

I don't know what it is in people that think that just because you have 4 boxes of Hot Pockets in the freezer that it is okay for them to eat them. What the hell? I'm the one who paid $2.00 for that box and I can get 2 lunches out of it. It's bad enough that you put your grubby paws on my food to begin with, but you even bettered yourself by eating not one but BOTH hot pockets. WTF? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

DOH!

Just wanted to say "Oops" to the people who left comments that went 'unmoderated' for months. I figured y'all just thought I sucked. I've mod'ed my config so that y'all will see you comments right away. D'oh! indeed.

I had a whole bunch of settings that were all goofy. I was looking at Tom and Todd's blogs going 'Why do they have a header for their posts and I don't?' Well, dummy (me), there is a setting called 'Show Title'. Great googily moogily!

So I think I have everything set up better now. I also moved to the 'Google' platform. We'll see if that move comes back to bite me in the ass. *sigh*

Stinky (1996 - 2006)

Last night Maryann and I lost a good friend, our cat Stinky. Maryann got him when he was just a kitten. Someone had found him in the engine compartment of their car having driven to the movie theater where Maryann was working. At frist she thought he was a grey cat, until she took him home and realized he was black and white. He earned his name manily from the fact that when he farted, you knew it. He could stink it up with the best of the dogs.

Stinky, at least initially, was not much of a people cat. But in the past few years we would let you pet him and when people came over he would come out of a corner somewhere and greet the visitors with his infamous broken-squeeky-toy meow and a rattle-snake-like shake of his tail.

Last night we had to say goodbye to Stinky. He will be sorely missed by both Maryann and I, as well as his brother and sister Little Cat and Lisa.

Not felling well...

I woke up yesterday around 5am with my stomach not feeling quite right. For the next 7 hours, I was up every 1/2 to hour with dry heaves. Then the other fun stuff kicked in. I progressively got worse until every muscle in my body ached. Blech. This sucks. I'm a helluva lot better today, thank goodness, but I'm still a little sore and woozy. But I'll be fine. Here's to hoping a feel better tomorrow.

Foxtrot

FoxTrot, one of the comics I read everyday as part of my morning ritual, is going to a Sunday-only format. Makes me very sad. But I wish Bill Amend all the success and fun in the world. His comic has brought me happiness for quite a few years and I guess they all deserve a break after a while.

Mmmmm.... Turducken!

Today, I had a very delectable dish called Turducken. To be more exact, we had Tony Chachere's Cajun Stuffed Tur-Duc-Hen.

For those of you who don't feel like clicking on links, turducken is a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. Get it? Turkey + Duck + Chicken = Turducken.

Maryann's sister and husband picked us up a turducken after we all saw a Food Network special that featured it. We got it as a baby gift and since it needed to be made before it went bad, today was the day. So her sister, husband, their kid and Maryann's mom and dad came up to cook the feast.

The version we had was stuffed with rice based stuffing with shrimp and crawfish and it was.... TASTY! I mean TAAAAAASSSSSTTTTTY. Add to that some mashed potatoes, corn and a dessert of pumpkin layered cake with pumpkin/cool whip concoction with caramel drizzled on top that my wife made and ... mmmm mmm... it was a great meal. Man! Awesome!

The only misfire we had today was some exploding Achorware. Its glass bakeware and is freezer safe, oven safe, dishwasher safe, etc etc etc. The dish was a room temperature. We were making green bean casserole. The beans and cream of mushroom soup and crunchy onions... all room temp. We stuck it in the oven and though everything was fine. Then there was this clatter. We all though that Bart (the teenager) had run into the oven or something. He was all 'I didn't do anything'. Maryann's mom opened up the oven to find a glass all over the place and green bean casserole dripping all over the place. It had cracked and shattered into a quite a few pieces. So.... after getting all the glass cleaned up, it was corn, not green bean casserole for lunch. Needless to say, Anchorware will be getting a call from the wife tomorrow asking for an RMA so they can ship us some new, non-exploding stuff.

It was a wedding gift and we had already used one of the other dishes in the oven without a problem. I suspect that it was a manufacturing problem of some sort. As they say, glass is very strong... until it gives and then it just goes kablooey.

And again... turducken rules!

:09

Here's something that bugs me:

People who use the company microwave, but then leave the door open and the clock still sitting at :09.

If you're gonna use it, please, close the freakin' door and reset the timer. And if cheese from your sub sandwich spills inside the microwave (or butter from the microwave popcorn or soup that boiled over), please clean that up as well. Your mom doesn't work here (and if she does, she probably has better things to do than to go around to all the microwaves and clean them and close their doors and reset their timers for you.. and this shouldn't be the case even if she is part of the cleaning crew).

This also goes for you Mr. or Mrs. Missed Putting The Paper Towel Into The Garbage Can But I'll Just Leave It On The Floor For The Maintenance People To Pick Up.

Weird Dream - 11-18-2006

So, when I get really stressed, I tend to have really weird dreams. Here's the latestest installment which had 3 parts.

Part 1: Poor Kitty
The first part of my dream happened at 'my house' (ie, in my head it was my house, but it really wasn't my house). I remember looking as Lisa, our tabby cat who looks like this but a bit bigger, and was worreid because she was meowing weirdly. I told my wife this and she said we should probably have that looked at. Then I decided that I wanted to wash my hair, but i wanted to used a wash cloth, more specifically, a blue one. This was significant for some reason unknown to me. I went downstairs and found one in a pile clean laundry. I went upstairs and was happy that I found the wash cloth. And then that part ended.

Part 2: Trailer in the Woods
For some reason I was with my friend Brad at a trailer in the middle of the woods, but just off of a lake. We were yakking about somthing when he announced that he was going fishing. So he took out this cane fishing pole and just kinda threw the hook in the water, put the pole on the ground and then just walked away and started talking to me again. Wwe talked a while when i looked over and saw the bobber moving around so I said 'hey.. you have a bite I think'. So he picked up the pole and pulled out a huge bluegill that was about 2 feet in length. (Most of the ones I have ever caught were like 6 inches long.) He threw back then fish and put the hook back into the water and walked away again. And again, eventually the bobber would bounce around and I would tell him and he pulled out another large bluegill. At some point after this, I went into the trailer where Courtney Force was blabbing on and on about her boyfriend for whatever reason. I just sat there and looked at her funny for about 5 minutes wondering what she was talking about. And then that part ended.

Part 3: Bill Cosby is My Dad
The next part is pretty freakin' weird. I found myself in the middle of a warehouse, similar to a Sam's Club, with my daughter in two in her carrier. I was watching this big display of large plasma screen tvs when Bill Cosby approached me. In my dream, he was my dad. WTF? But it is what it is. So were watching these plasma screens which were showing what I would assume was one of those tv celeb gossip shows like Extra or Access Hollywood.

Two guys were next to the TVs and talking about a new moive that George Lucas had made. It was similar to the Star Wars franchise. Anyhoo, they were discussing how they were confused by Lucas' latest decision to release the movie on Super 8 film. They dicussed that there was no way that the nevel of detail that went into the movie could be seen in that format. They then discussed how Bill Cosby had 'supposedly' done the narration on the intro. The one looked at the other and said 'but you know he really didn't do it' meaning that he hadn't done the narration on the movie intro.

I looked at Bill and he seemed confused. I turned my attention to the stupid TV and there was a story about how Michael J. Fox had been part of this Lucas film, but he backed out when he found out that it wasn't going to premiere at a certain film festival. It then cut to him arriving at another film festival in a little red british polive car with the siren wailing. He was hanging out the the window holding a drawning he had done. On this drawing, was a picture of him hanging out of a british poilice car holding a B&W picture of a monster that looked simiar to the monster in the Bugs Bunny cartoon. He handed the drawing to a fan and then got out of the car and went somewhere.

At this point Bill Cosby got close to my ear and mumbled something "mmmmnn nu mmmmin n mm da mm", to which I said "What?". He then repeated it and this time, though still really muffled, he said, "Why don't you go ahead and get lunch. I don't know how long I'm gonna be. Go ahead and leave her here and I'll catch up with you at home". So I said, "Ok". So I handed him the carrier and walked away. As I was walking away, Bill said to make sure that I put the remote control on the stand when I left. At some point I had picked up a remote control of some sort. So I walked to the front of the building where, 30 feet back from the sliding door, there was a brown leather recliner and one of those round table / standing lamp combos right next to it. I carefully put the remote on the table and wondered for a second 'why the hell do I need to put the remote here' and then I left.

And then I woke up... obviously I was confused. I though that this was a decent dream so I quickly jotted down notes on a few post it notes before the haze of waking up had worn off.

The end.

Resurrection

I guess I am going to resurrect my blog here, for no particular reason other than a couple of my friends have blogs and they exist on the blogger.com farm.

Most of the time, my posts will be odd observations.

For example:
The other day I was driving to work when I saw a Dodge Neon. A plain-jane, off the lot, stock Neon. Why is this of any interest? Well, because this Dodge Neon had spinners. Just because you put spinners on your car, doesn't mean that it automatically makes your car cool. Actually, it just makes you look like a dork.

Yeah... ummm.. not much going on here.

But Devilcake still rocks!

Devilcake played Ruby Tuesday last night. Devilcake is still cool. Check out the gig diary here: http://devilcake.blogspot.com/

Devilcake is cool.

We had a show last night.

Read about it (and other gigs) here: http://devilcake.blogspot.com/

yeah... i'm still over at LJ. not sure why you're looking here. btw, i probably haven't posted on LJ either.

c ya!

------------:D

Okay... the reason for my long absense is that, well, I just happened to catch LiveJournal on a bad day when I made my comments on LiveJournal previously. Now, I like it alot. Most of da band is over there was well.

I'm here now. See ya on da other side.

------:D

Sorry it's been so long. I've just been busy and lazy.

First off, I have to say that I hate LiveJournal. I have never seen such a horrible site since the early days of GeoCities. I still have yet to see one of the four identical posts that I supposedly sent in. I would hit submit and it would say that it failed and I would hit it again. Four times I did this and it turns out that it took them all... I think. They never showed up on the main page, but if you went to the calendar view, it showed four. So with Blogger I will stay until they get their shit together.

Next,
We've been re-recording the album. We had about 5 songs done, but there were a few that none of us were happy with, so last weekend we re-recorded the drum tracks for those that failed and the remainder of the album. I think they cam out prett good. We will have to see how they hold up under a few layers of guitar, bass, keys and vox. Sometimes you discover late in the game that the snare wasn't miked heavily enough and it just doesn't sound right. But there's always some EQ work that can fix that.

We plan on recording another set of Gourley's solo album this weekend. The last set of songs we did came out pretty good. Now we only need 6 or 7 more.

We were hoping for a gig on Saturday with Stainless Mind, but they never responded to our email. Hmm. At least email back and tell us that we suck or whatever. And then we missed a cry for help from High 5 for a Thrusday gig. Dammit. We're not too good at the getting gigs thing. Boy do we need a manger who is less worried about how to package the box set and more interested in getting his (or her) band in front of people. *sigh*

I'm in a really pissy mood right now and I appologize for that. I think I am going to go kill some people in Carma 2 or GTA right now, while drinking beer, which should make it a little more interesting. I think I'll throw on some omre of the terrible tunes from the 80's that I've been listening to recently to really throw things outta whack.

------------:D

Woo! Well, we had practice tonight... however is was sans Gourley cause I forgot to call him and he made plans to clean up his house before the relatives showed up. But Todd, MCB and Ian showed up. And quite frankly, it was a good practice I think especially considering how few we have had in the past month or two. We rammed through all the new songs. I was a bit tired after that. Man, I really, really need to practice more. Then we went through the last set list from High Five minus a few songs. Ian's got a thing against Chicken Nuggets Of Sin. Not sure why, but don't count on hearing it at the next show... it prolly ain't gonna happen. Anyways, like I said, we went through the old set list and, darn it, it sounded pretty good. I screwed up on Cereal and Beer. It's a song I wrote and I still got totally lost. DOH!

I'm hoping now that I can convince my Dad not paint this weekend. I'm going to be out of town on Sunday so that would cut things a bit shorter than I think he would like. I know he wants to get it done and honestly so do I, but I really haven't had any down time with the band or by my lonesome for that matter. I usually require a couple days a week to just veg or do whatever I want to do and I really haven't had time to do that recently, which adds a bit to the little fits of depression you've been seeing. Work still stinks but I have a little better idea of what they want out of me. They've loosened the reins a little bit which is good. I still have a million things on the horizon there, but it's doesn't feel as pressing as it should... whatever that means. Basically, I realy do have a lot to do, but somehow I know that I'll get it done in time... as long as I get motivated, which recently has not been the case.

Well folks, I really need to get to sleep... so until next time... later! Hope to see you at the next show!!! (whenever that may be ;)

-------------------Darrin

I'm tired.

I'm really tired of being sick. I'm tired of my head throbbing when I bend over to tie my shoes.

I'm tired of politics. Both in the world and at work. I don't like the fact that some people can just whine a bunch, or on the opposite end, do nothing, and get their way. It's all bullshit. Just because they want things 'their' way or to make a point, regardless of how much it burdens those around them.

I'm tired of leaves. They fall off the trees and then I need to pick them up. Now, some my argue that Mother Nature made leaves to cover the ground and protect the grass and all the jazz. Tell that to all my neighbors. Tell that to my dad. I was informed just today by my dad that I still needed to weed the front of the house. I can counted them... there are five. I figure, they are going to perish in the cold most likely. Maybe I am ill informed, and I probably am. Grass doesn't die in the winter, it just goes dormant. I guess weeds would be the same way. But, jeez-o-weez, they aren't going anywhere. They don't bother me any.

I'm tired of laundry. I wish that they just magically stayed clean and wrinkle-free. I think I saw a shirt like that back in the 70's made by Ronco. I think it may have even come with the smokeless ashtray.

I'm tired of my stained gray carpet. I really need to borrow my friends steam cleaner.

I'm tired of only knowing a handful of guitar chords. Now, I might be a drummer, but I know my way around music, or at least I think I do, and nothing frustrates me more than not being able to figure out a song that I can hear in my head. The same goes with lead guitar. I just can't do it right now. I just don't think that my hands are wired for that. They only want to go 'bam bam bam' and not '1-3-4-2-1-3-4-2-1-3-4-2-5-2-3-4'

I'm tired.

---------------

I really shouldn't be allowed to write in my blog when on meds. I shouldn't be allowed to function at all in society for that matter. I get all pessimistic and shit and bring everything down around me. Down. Down. Down. Comma-comma-down-doobie-do-down-down.

Later 'Tater.

Someone please kill me now. I am sitting here at work and coughing every 20 seconds. I must be driving everybody else nuts... cause Lord knows I'm driving myself nuts.

Don't you hate impossibilities? I know I do. I am stuck here working on a problem that seems impossible. With that attitude I guess I am already defeated. But what I am working on is insane. Think of it this way: Take the music of Dokken, Fiona Apple and Snoop Doggy Dogg and break them down into their musical elements of instruments and the notes those instruments play. Now, write an application that looks at all those pieces and can successfully shuffle all the pieces from each one of those songs around and make the noise that comes out sound something like Dave Brubeck. That's what I am faced with. And the people where I work are convinced it can be done. And I am convinced this is something that is going to be far more difficult to do. There is no magical application that can do this. There is no silver bullet. There is no end to pi, you fuckin' morons.

-cough-
20 seconds
-cough-
20 seconds
-cough-

Now, I understand that the medication I am on is going to fuck with me, not that I need any help, my Id does quite well on its own of doing this. But I am feelin' under the weather, shitty, tired and all that jazz... and I am a bit on the sarcastic and pessimistic side as well. Where does that put me??? In the middle of hell.

---------Darrin

Did I mention that I hate being sick? I went to the doctor yesterday cause my throat was a little sore. I figured about anything could go wrong with me at this point. And I was right. Seems I have a sinus infection as well. Gotta love it.

I returned to work today, only to be referred to as 'Pinky'. In my head, I assume they are talking about the mouse and accept it. Narf! Maybe I'll take over the world someday.

And what the hell was Steve Bellisari thinking? Obviously he was thinking 'Hey! -hiccup- I can make it home before the cops catch me.' **Screeeeeech!!!** That's right buddy. Pull attention to yourself. And run that stop sign while you're at it. I'm getting blamed for this at work as well. Seems that for the the two Saturdays I was gone, the Buckeyes were showing a little glint of actually being a decent football team. Then I return from my cruise, sans luggage but with conjunctivitis and sinus infection and the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket. Somehow, this whole thing is my fault. Can't quite figure that one out, but I do have to admit that the coincidence of it all is damning evidence.

And other thing, I think Portishead (not PorpoiseHead) is pretty darn cool. I had a few MP3s from the 'Dummy' album playing the other day... and it's just good stuff. Another band that I like that is very similar to this is Comet 9. Now, as far as I know, they only put out one album called 'Like Mercury'. I got it out of the 99 cent bin at Singing Dog. It had all this weird aeronautical diagram stuff going on so I figured that the music would be decent... and it was.

I think the decongestants they had me on are making me a little bit loopy. Not happy loopy, just loopy. And my head still hurts. Oh well.

I was going to mention something else, but I can't think of that right now. Stream of conscious is a bitch sometimes.

And I hope Ian does write that cool-ass album he was talking about. I know the whole creative slump thing all too well. My creative output outside of DevilCake is almost non-existent. Only recently have I been picking up my guitar and noodling around. I contemplated doing a concept album called 'Peddletones' where that would be mainly what I was incorporating throughout the whole album. (If you don't know what a peddletone is, ask Ian) But then I thought, GOD that would probably be AWFUL.

Hmm... ambient. Ian sent me an example of ambient music. Something by Mr. Fripp. Honest too goodness, I don't know the difference between ambient and new age. Maybe there is no difference. Maybe they are one in the same or one of them is a sub-group of the other. All I know is after listening to that, that my ambient album is NOT ambient. I guess you can chalk it up as 'experimental' or something totally non-descriptive, but I guess that's what it is. You might see it coming out on Bizarre Depictions... then again maybe not. It's an awfully hard listen. Should only be taken in small doses. Two songs at a time at the max.

Well, I don't want to be late getting back to work. I can't stand having to work in that hole past 5 pm, especially when I am bored off my gourd.

L8r dudes!

----------------Darrin

Oh yeah... there was that whole bit about being excited about the King Crimson show and the fact that even though I am broke as shit, I am prolly gonna go see Ben Folds. Did you catch that Ian??? Todd, if you wanna go, me know. peas.

I fucking hate being sick. I get back from the cruise and what do I do??? I get sick. I got that pink eye shit. I stayed home from work today to spare the folks at work.

I originally had a whole shit load of stuff written, but then I read my mail (while doing my blog) and stupidly clicked on a fucking link. So instead of a cool ass blog, I now have a fucking Journey song stuck in my head. Thanks Ian, you punk-ass-mo-fo.

Anyways, in short, it basically said:
1) I hate being sick
2) I miss the band
3) I hope the DC boxset comes out soon
4) I wished we played more than one gig every three months
5) I need to be more proactive in the band as far as getting gigs and shit.

The original blog was better, but hey, it's just a bunch words.

I'm tired so I go rest a little bit. peas.

----------------Darrin

Well sonofabitch! Look who's back. Yup, it's me. Just to inform you ... the best part of this entry is the last half... so just shut up about how long this entry is and start reading. The sooner you stop your bitching, so sooner you can start reading and finally get to the good part.

So how are all of you doing? Me? I'm doing swell. I just got back from my cruise to the Caribbean. Now originally I was supposed to be going to the Eastern Caribbean, however Hurricane Michelle had plans to completely destroy San Juan, so the crew on the ship thought better and did a 90 degree turn and headed to Cozumel. The sea was a bit rough. Even though the ship weighs a 100,000 tons or something insane like that, it was still getting tossed about in the 18 to 20 foot waves. In fact, the only time the boat wasn't rocking back and forth was when we were docked at a port or when we arrived in Miami yesterday. Normally it is not like this, but Hurricane Michelle and another tropical storm that was flying around out there made it for rough seas. Only the first two days were really bad. I didn't do so well with that, but I bit my lip and said "Dammit, I am on this cruise to have and dammit I'm gonna" then took an Advil and sucked down another Coca Cola.

Cozumel was pretty cool. I took a tour to the Mayan ruins on the coast. This was one of the very few sunny days that we actually had. On the way back to the ship I got to drink some Mexican beer... and not that fucking Corona or Dos Equis bullshit. This was simply called "Sol" and it wasn't too bad. (As I am writing this, my body is still swaying a little bit. It's funny how the body adjusts itself to make you feel more comfortable. I just wish someone would tell my brain that I am on land now and there's no reason to try to compensate for the moving of the boat that isn't there.) After we got back from the tour, my friends and I went shopping. Yee-friggin'-haw. My friend's wife was set on finding a Tanzanite ring. I guess it's some rare purple stone that is supposedly only found in one place Africa and the mine they were using just collapsed and they are not sure how much more they will be able to mine... blah blah blah. So most of they day me and Brad sat in the chairs and looked at some of the decent looking scenery looking at jewelry and walking up and down the street.

Next was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I took a plantation tour which kinda sucked. They drove us around on a wagon with seats using a Ford tractor. We looked at banana trees, coconut trees and even saw this dude climb one without a ladder or anything else... just legs and arms. Well lah-dee frickin' dah. Then we went to Dunn's River Falls. That was fun. Basically you started at the bottom of the falls and climbed back up. Now it's not a big ol cliff or nothing. It's on a slope. Lots of water. I can't say much else 'cause that's all you really do. But trust me, it was fun.

Then we went to the Cayman Islands. I took a snorkeling tour. Now you need to understand that the last time I went snorkeling I almost drowned. I'm not a good swimmer and lord help me if you want me to float or tread water. I'm not doggie paddle only, but not far from. Anyways, I was really nervous about going. But this time I had a life vest (as did everyone else). The minute I jumped in I started to panic. Everything that went wrong was happening again. I got was in my snorkel, I started coughing, I was kicking my legs too much and was having trouble breathing only through my mouth. I was about 3 seconds from truing right around and getting on the ship and saying fuck it. But then I said "Dammit! I came here to friggin' snorkel and I am going to do just that. I have a life vest on (which I didn't have the first time) and I am not going to drown!" So I stuck my face into the water and there were all these fish swimming by. And I was calmed. I slowed my breathing down and everything was fine. At one point I was following this group of 100 or 200 bright blue fish. They would swim for a while, then stop at a section of coral and start eating something and then move on. It was alot of fun. The rest of the time was spent on the boat wandering around, going to on-board art auctions, karaoke bars, piano bars and the casino.

=== the good part ===

It was a good time... until we landed back in Miami yesterday. So we get off the boat in an 'orderly' fashion at 11:00. We were supposed to start getting off the boat at 9:00am. Keep reading, it gets MUCH better. We go into this warehouse where they took all of our luggage. I find one piece of my luggage at the front of the warehouse and the other at the very back. Note that I put them in the hall together and I assume they loaded them together. So how the fuck did they end up 200 fucking feet apart? I don't know either.

A little more background before I continue. I was travelling with 3 other people: one person who roomed with me and another couple who had a room 6 floors above us. One the ship, they let people off in sections based on where their room was in the ship... and they higher you go in the ship, the nicer the rooms, the more money involved, the sooner the rich motherfuckers want to get of. I was on the first floor. You figure out who got off the ship first. We (my roommate and I) figured on this and anticipated on meeting them at the airport.

So after I find all my luggage, I go outside and wait for a bus... for an hour and a half. Seems that 3 other Carnival cruise ships landed at exactly the same time. Take 4500 people and throw them in front of 20 buses (which aren't marked in any way and there isn't anyone from the cruise line or the bus line) and are supposed to be going to two different airports (Miami and Ft,. Lauderdale). Now image the chaos. My flight was leaving at 2:00pm. It was now 12:30. No problem I think. I still have an hour and a half to get my bags checked and board the plane.

I walk into the terminal and it is wall to wall people. The line for USAir counter is miles long. So I get in line and wait, fairly patiently. Fifteen minutes pass and I really haven't moved much. I'm getting a little bit anxious. One hour and fifteen minutes before my flight leaves and I'm standing in a line that's moving WAY to slow. And USAir knows it two. There were scores of other people that had already missed their flight and even more that weren't fortunate enough to get another flight out... they were all booked up, leaving by my guess-timate a couple-a-hundred people stranded in Miami for the day until they could get a flight out tomorrow. But I still had a chance.

Now the porters were coming in and asking if people wanted to check their bags with them... for a small fee of course, but at this point in the game, you really don't care. So we catch a porter, he takes our tickets to check them first. He comes back and says "Sorry. I can't take your luggage. You are marked for the random security check. You have to stay in line." Fuck. So we wait. We're finally just inside the ropes. Only 100 feet more to go... and that's quite a ways. As I am standing there, I hear this lightly spoken man asking people if they are on Pittsburgh Flight 270... my flight and starts pulling them off to the side to start processing them exclusively to get them on the plane. After checking out the situation (I asked a few people in the short line if they were going to Pittsburgh. They said yes.) So I yank all my luggage and get into the Pittsburgh line, losing my place in the long line. It is now 1:30pm. Again, I have a 2:00pm flight AND I know that I have to go through the whole security thing where they search my bags. The soft-spoken man, now slightly yelling says "If I did not pull you out exclusively, I will not acknowledge you." And then he repeats. This is the point where I lose it. I scream, "Listen, I am on the Pittsburgh flight, I need to get on that plane." And he says, "No, you listen, if did not pull you out exclusively, I will not acknowledge you."

I'm at a loss now. Frustrated, I go to the end of the long line, almost to the same spot I was 45 minute ago when I first showed up. It was at this point I asked my friend, "So, what do think of Miami. It looks like were staying here." (By the way, I wasn't the only one who was getting this. There were about 10 other people who were rejected as well. USAir is totally in panic mode and changes their mind. It is 1:45pm now. Remember, 2:00pm flight and I still have to go through the security search. I get to the security room (which USAir is sharing with Delta) and there are only two checkers, one for Delta and one for USAir. And there is a MOUND of luggage, all for Flight 270 to Pittsburgh. The USAir people are on their walkie-talkies telling other people to hold the plane because there are still 10 people and 30 bags that need to get checked. I of course am on the list and DEAD LAST. And it continues. It is now 2:15pm. Remember, this is a 2:00pm flight and many people (me included) have a connecting flight waiting for them in Pittsburgh to take them to their final destination.

"The captain is wondering if he is clear to take off"
"No! We still have 7 passengers and 20 bags to check."
2:30pm
"The captain is asking how much more time."
"We still have 4 passengers and 10 bags to check."
2:45pm
"We really need to be leaving. How much more time?"
"We have 2 passengers (me and my friend) and 3 bags."

They clear us to get the hell out of their and that they would make sure the luggage got to Pittsburgh. At 2:50pm, we get on the plane, which is now sweltering hot. Remember, the air conditioning does work well in a plane unless it is moving. Well, at least I'm on a plane for a 2 1/2 hour ride to Pittsburgh. Recall, that I have a connecting flight waiting in Pittsburgh. I originally had a 45 minute layover. However, by my calculations, my connecting flight will be taking off about the time that my current flight lands. I wasn't far off.

After landing in Pittsburgh, I took 4 steps off the plane and heard... "Final boarding call for Flight blah blah blah to Dayton." Shit. I am at gate A13 and I need to get to B41. Do the math... it's not close. So I walk very very very quickly. My shins and calves are burning. Ouch ouch ouch ouch. Each step hurts. FINALLY, I get to the gate just as my other friends are boarding. Thank goodness. And I jump on the plane and am on my way to Dayton. Now you would think that the story ends here... but it doesn't.

I'm going to speed the story up a bunch, skipping most of the details. It goes something like this.

We arrive in Dayton and go to the baggage claim. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Didn't I see that lime green suitcase already. I don't see my luggage. Off to the courtesy desk. "Your baggage didn't make it. But we will get it to you tonight... somehow, someway. Address please." We hop in the very empty minivan and stop at McDs. We're all a bit hungry since we haven't eaten since 8:00am and it is now 7:30pm. Driving home ... "Houston, we have a problem. My car keys... are with my luggage that is lost and not in my carry-on". I parked my car in my friend's driveway (back home in Anna, an hour and a half away from Columbus), blocking their good car. Hmm... Well, I could borrow my parents car, drive back to Columbus and get the spare car keys from out of the house, drive back to Anna and move my car. Wait, my house keys are with my car keys. DOH! Oh wait, my parents have a set of keys. But it's Sunday at 8pm and they go to the movies alot on Sundays. Are they even home? I call home. They're there. I explain my predicament. My dad, hearing the news from my mother, exclaims "You've got to be kidding me!" Thanks for caring, dad. (In his defense he has been under a tremendous amount of stress and had starting watching 'Saving Private Ryan' which hit a little to close to home for him since he was in the military)

So me and my friends get into the car with the hopes of transporting my frustrated ass back home to ma and pa where I can procure a car from them for the evening. In the car, turn key... Rrrr Rrr.... -click- My friend's wife had left the cell phone plugged into the cigarette lighter. Battery dead. The other car (the one I am blocking) in in the car as well. Will the cables reach? They do. The car starts. I am driven to my parents. My dad, now much calmer and understanding, drives me to Columbus. I run into the house, with my carry-on and grab my car keys. I also turn up the heat and feed the fish, then jump back in the car and head back to Anna. My dad drops me off at my friend's house, I get in my car and drive back to my parents house. With it being 11:30pm, I am tired so likely I am going to sleep there. Now you would think that the story ends here... but it doesn't.

As I enter into the house, I come to the realization that I left my carry-on bag in Columbus. In that bag was all the stuff I need for my contacts, my brush, my razor, my deodorant, my toothbrush and my toothpaste. Luckily, I have all those things at their house. What a day.

Now... the story is done.

Glad to be back and I hope the the gang can get back together and jam tomorrow or Wednesday!!! Peace outside!!!

-------------------Darrin

Buenos Dias! Como Estas? Beuno? Muy Bien. Yo? No muy bien. Mi cabesa es malo.
Translation: Good day. How are you? Good? That's good. Me? Not very good. My head hurts.

Why does my head hurt, you ask? Okay, you didn't ask, so shut the fuck up and I'm going to tell you anyways. Why does the world always have to revolve around you? Sheesh! Fuckin' introvert. Anyways, my head hurts 'cause I had leaves in my yard. LOTS of them. So, on Sunday, from 10am till 6:30pm, I was out there blowing and mulching leaves. Wee! So of course, I have to wake up today with a headache, and it never went away. And it still hasn't gone away either. The light in the den is making my head throb, but I need to get my bills paid and that requires me to be online. I took a half day off work which I really didn't want to do, but oh well (oh hell). I slept from noon till 4pm. Then I woke up, finished mulching the rest of the leaves and mowed the lawn for what I hope is the last time. I figure that once it's November, the lawnmower is left to hibernate until around April when things start coming back to life.

Saturday was the 'All-Day Devilcake Party'. Ok, not really. The doors opened up at 8am (for fear of MCBD leaving a pile o dung on my porch). I laid there an listened to Anthrax and Leatherwolf till Todd arrived at around 9am. I think Gourley showed up next, then Ian, then Mike Chuck Bill Douglas around 10:30ish if I recall correct. We then piled into the cars to head off to Media Play. MCBD had broken a string at the last practice and if I was going to play his guitar, it was going to need a new B string (I think that's the one that broke.) I bought a Nuclear Assault cassette for 99 cents and the CD remaster of King Diamond's "Them". I don't know why I love that album so much. I think because it was more extreme than anything I was listening to at the time and it was a concept album to boot. KD and Merciful Fate rule (though I only own one album, that being "Them". I had a copy of KD's Conspiracy, but I haven't listened to that in a long time. Maybe later.

Back to the 'All-Day Devilcake Party'... it was at Media Play that I learned both Mikes had to leave at 2pm. Wha??? Yeah, that's what I said. We needed to record Gourley's solo album and I knew it was almost noon. DOH! So we left there, got back to my place and went straight downstairs and did our thing. It was amusing to say the least, me playing guitar and all. The first song was done in three takes, which meant my arm was already half gone. I bitched. I'm a big whiner sometimes. I like bar chords, but I can't play them for long periods of time. My arm cramps up and it feels like I have shin-splints in my forearm after a while. Well, we got two more songs recorded. I am sure that the last one had to suck badly. I barely could hear myself so I am sure that it stunk pretty bad. But it's punk. It all stunk. Don't read to much into it. I love punk. But punk was never about being musically adept, not that some punkers aren't good musicians, I'm just saying that it wasn't a pre-requisite. There's a big difference between of musicianship between The Sex Pistols and King Crimson.

Speaking of King Crimson, DC is going to be in the third row. Where the hell are you? BTW, as I am writing this blog, I am listening to the gargantuan MP3 King Crimson CD that Ian put together to prime us all. I have 3 albums, but they are not in heavy rotation, so I need to get boned up on all the shit that I might get to hear... get the ears ready for sudden time changes and shit like that.

So after the Mikes left, all that was left was me, Ian and Todd. I can't remember what the hell we did after that. At some point we all were hungry since we skipped lunch to record Gourley's album, so we headed off to eat. But first we went to a place called Giant Book Sale. That's the name of the place. It's on Sawmill and 161 where HomePlace used to be. After we went there, then we went to Chipotle... pronounced Chee-pote-lay, not Chi-pot-l, dumbass. Next time don't say it like an American you schmuck. So I got this fuckin mondo burrito for like 5.25. Fuckin awesome. This is a good replacement for the LaBamba's on campus. Now, when I get that hankerin' for a fuckin' huge burrito, I don't have to fret... it's just a five minute drive away. It sounds really fucking good right now since my dinner was for shit, but it's 10pm and they are closed and if I ate it now, I would gain 10 pounds overnight and that would not be good. But to reiterate, the burritos at Chipotle's fuckin rule.

The we went back to my house and ate and watched this British DVD that Ian brought back from England on a TV series called Alan Partridge or something like that. I am not one for most British humor, but this was okay. The cute little cleaning-girl/ receptionist chick was cute enough to get me through the 3 episode we watch. Then Ian an Todd left and the rest of the day was a blur.

Well, I've babbled long enough to make my own self go brain dead (the headache is almost gone) and so I shall stop torturing you. Till next time...

Yo! Sorry it's been so long. I just get caught up in work and shit and I just don't get to my blogger every day. I've been reading "The Real Frank Zappa Book". Mike Chuck Bill Douglas let me borrow it. I have to say, it ain't too bad. While reading it, I've been listening to my collection of 78s. A weird combination, I know, but let's face it, I'm killing two birds with one stone and it works for me. I'm too the part where he's all music philosophy and how he thinks classical music and modern music is all crap because it never invents anything new (or that's at least how I read it). Now the funny thing to me is, that through out the book, he talks about how he takes the stupid elements of rock and puts them into his music. I guess he's doing it for the humor of it all, inside joke kinda thing. Well, that's Frank for ya. Quite frankly, I wish he'd get back to his life story... it's more interesting than hearing him bitch about shit when he's dead. Tell me about your life Fucker! I wanna hear how screwed up you really are from playing with those big globs of mercury that your Dad brought home for you.

So, we had practice tonight, and for the first time in a long while... we all were there. Todd is finally moved into his house, so he can now devote a little more time. Wee! And I have to admit, I think it was one of the better practices that we've had in quite a long while. We went through mostly new stuff. In fact I think it was all new stuff. Blody Red Steak? Check. Frankenstein's French Fries? Check. Shit Down Your Neck? Check. Flesh Feast? Check. I think that might be all we practiced. But damn, it was fun. I don't think I've had that much fun in a while. I've been stuck in a practice rut for a little while. We'd practice the same song 3 times and then we'd quit. "Well, we're done here." and that would be it. Today, before Gourley got to the house, Todd, Ian, MCB and all hung out and laughed at the magazines that Ian brought back and talked about getting together on Saturday for an all day kinda thing, putting together ideas for Gourley's solo album (oops... cat's out of the bag now!) Then we practiced and after we went through all the shite I talked about above, we all hung out a little and talked and shit. And it was cool.

After they left, I started watching Junkyard Wars. About 9:45pm, right when they were about to compete against each other... the power goes out. I had the TV up loud enough that I didn't hear what was going on outside. And there it was... the howling of the train. I've been through a couple of rough storms in my house, but this is the first time I was genuinely concerned. With the lights out, I fetched my little safety flashlight that blinks when the power goes out and headed for the basement. I've never heard a tornado, and I hope I never have to, but this sounded like one and I'd be damned if I was going to wait upstairs and be sucked out the front window. I went down stairs and checked the sump pump. Shit. Fuller than hell. I was at the point where it should have gone off, but needed just a little more water. Great. What the hell do I do if it floods? What the hell happens if a tornado does hit? Do I have enough pictures of the shit I own to claim it to the insurance company? What about all the shit I have from everyone else? Ian's Marshall amp? Todd's P.A. system? My drums? Then the lights came on. I first set off the sump pump. Bye bye water. I then ran upstairs, go the camera and took pitcures of all the shit I own. The computer, the CDs, the records, the appliances, all the shit in the practice room, the washer and dryer. The storm had calmed down considerably.

So, feeling good about practice, I plunked in the Devilcake BBQ night tape. This is the kinda thing that, if the band does become famous, you'll see this shit on Before The Were Stars on VH1. It's us just goofing off. We took the camera into the grocery store when we bought all the shit, we filmed ourselves cooking and planning for the DC movie (that has yet to occur). We filmed ourselves eating and goofing off, watching some hilarious Iron Maiden video. And then, the acoustic set... candles and all. It was the most fun all. And it was cool. We all were having a good time... such a good time that after we finished the 'set', we plugged in the camcorder and watched ourselves. Yeah, it's weird, but it was cool. All the guys, just hanging out and making fun of each other and shit.

Well, I have (another) long day waiting for me tomorrow, so I'll leave it on that note. The guys in Devilcake are cooler than shit and they're my buds. And that's all I have to say about that.

G'night! Peace!

:D

Well, well, well... three holes in the ground.

Nothing new today really. I just don't feel like sleeping right now.

Looking to refinance the house. When it comes to finances, I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing. I am all about instant gratification. If I want a car, I want a car NOW. And I want THAT car. Not something similar and maybe a little more practical, I want THAT car. If I want a house, I want a house NOW. I did shop for a little while for the house, and I was proud of that, but that's cause I really didn't know what was out there. But once I found the house I am living in, I wanted it NOW. Rates? Fuck'em. Just give me the bills and the paper that says I will be broke for the next 30 years. So I'm refinancing to try to do something about it. But here's the funny thing. I decided that it was a good time to get into a fixed rate load... but guess what... I want it NOW. No shopping. I found a person, he had a rate cheaper than what I am paying now, assures me that it's a fixed rate, that it's all in the bag and it's done. But do I owe more money to buy down points??? Will I encure fees for getting out of an FHA load early??? Will there be a floating period where I might be able to lock in at a lower percentage later??? How much will my new mortgage be for??? I have no idea what I am doing. But I want it NOW.

One day, I saw Liz Phair on Sessions @ West 54th (or something like that). And I heard a song of hers. But of course, I didn't catch the name of it. But I wanted it NOW. So I bought all of the albums that they had at Media Play... and guess what... it wasn't on ANY of them. So I went to CD Warehouse and found the only other one that I didn't get at Media Play, 'Exile In Guysville'. And it was on that. So now, I have all of Liz Phair's albums... and I still don't know if I totally like her music or not. There's a few that I can absolutely say I like... Chopsticks , 6'1'' (the song I was looking for) , and What Makes You Happy. Strange.

Oh well. I really need to get to bed. Getting into work late drives me nuts, cause heaven forbid I make myself work later than 5pm on a Friday (or any weekday for that matter).

Catch ya on the flip side. Go Bucks!

The thing I hate about being a musician is that you either have to be 1) fucking depressed, 2) on crack or other upper or downer narcotic or 3) both. Why can I only be creative when things in general suck? Work is slow. I haven't played with the band for two weeks. The leaves are falling and I have a big backyeard with a ton of big trees. I'm a lonely man. The rest of the world is out to get the country I live in. My 401k has earned -30% so far this year. The living room needs cleaned and painted.

So of course with all this shee-ot bearing down on the middle toe of my left foot, I had to write a new Devilcake song. It has a Halloween tinge to it which honestly was by coincidence. And I like it alot. And Todd likes it. And Ian likes it. And hopefully the Mikes like it. And hopefully if we get a gig before the end of the year, you too can hear it.

Other than that, I'm just glad that Ian-dude is back in town and that Todd is finally moved into his house. I miss the Mikes too. We're having practice tomorrow. Hopefully all of us haven't forgotten the songs we've spent the past 8 months learning, or even worse, have forgotten how to play our instruments. Aw shit!

Well, tis late and I have to go to that hell-hole that funds my nasty habit of musicology.

Later 'Gator!

Yo ho ho folks. Yep, I'm still alive. And now, a year older. Well lah-dy freakin' dah!

I don't understand why birthdays are such a big deal. Now here's the funny thing. I get all bent when someone doesn't remember mine. I don't know why. It's weird. I think in the back of my head 'Holy Shit! It's so easy to remember mine! 10-10. Fuckin' simple.' And then after spewing that fact from my mouth, I come to the realization that the friend I am talking to, I have no idea when their birthday is. None. Sometimes I get the right month, but not too often. Man, I hate being a dumbass like that. It took me YEARS to finally get my Mom's and my sister's birthdays right. They're both in the same month which almost makes it harder. My Dad's is easy, same month as mine. And one of my friends has his birthday a few days after mine, so I remember that one too. And the one person who has theirs on Groundhog Day. And my one friend in April. But the majority of the friends I see like 2 or 3 times a week??? Not a friggin' clue. It's totally bizarre. I don't understand it. I've been getting a little bit better, but still. Damn. It's one date that you have to associate with a friend and I can't seem to get it right so save my life. But I guess I suck like that sometimes. So be it.

Oh yeah, in case you're wondering, the bathroom is finished. Yeah. For the most part, it was done well. They didn't clean up after themselves, but you get what you pay for. I need to fix the vanity cause either 1) they dropped it or 2) it was broken and they installed it anyways. I don't know which it is cause I wasn't smart enough to look at it before they installed it. My fault. I think I have a way to fix it though, so, we'll see.

And why the hell do I get choked up over a stupid ass show like Dawson's Creek. I dunno. At first I connected with the dorkiness of Dawson. I was a big dork in high school myself and took every glance from a female WAY too seriously. I thought if she looked at me, she liked me and if she didn't, she hated me. Hmm... insecure.... well, maybe a little. But now they are in college. This is likely the last year. The plots last year were laughable, but it was almost guaranteed that I would get choked up at least once an episode. What the hell is my problem??? Quite frankly, I think I got some deeply buried shit... and I wish it would just stay there. Maybe if I try to clear my mind it would all go away. Courtney, I'm sorry. I was wrong. ... There. I said it. Lord knows we haven't talked in almost 10 years. And it's not cause I haven't seen her either. I'm not even sure if she even acknowledges my existence. And honestly, I don't blame her. I really don't. So Courtney, if you're reading this by the grace of some higher being... "I'm sorry."

=======================

In other news... well, you're going to be disappointed, but there is no other news. I have to leave it all on a sad, pathetic note. But guess what Charlie, life isn't always roses. You live which what you're dealt and how you play that hand. Some of it's good and some of it's bad and you have to learn to live with them both. Something that I am amazingly getting better at.


Take care of yourself! PEACE!!!

I'm not sure why I'm writing in my blogger right now. I have a pile of bills sitting next to me, all overdue, and then some. I need to renew my drivers license and tags. The bathroom is still not finished but coming very close. I am supposed to be project engineer for the project that has been sitting stagnant since May. I think the lawn needs mowed. Another summer has gone by and I still haven't stained the deck. Thw world is coming apart at the seams. I'm out of groceries. The laundry is still downstairs waiting to be folded.

And yet, I am writing in my blog instead. There's something very wrong here. So I will leave with a few small comments:

1) I got a splinter in my hand when moving a dresser into Todd's new place and it hurts like hell. I took a needle to it, but that didn't help.

2) Xanadu was a great movie. Olivia Newton-John in a tiger-print outfit is 'totally hot' (pun completely intended)

3) I have a cold and I am pissed off.

4) I still haven't figured out what exactly I need before going on my cruise.

5) What the hell am I doing going on a cruise.

6) I think I might be out of stamps.

7) I missed my friend's sister's wedding. The invite was misplaced for an entire month. I found it tonight when going through all the bills (that I haven't paid).

8) The new Ben Folds album is very good and I like it alot.

9) My one friend has YET to bring in the two DVDs I've asked for: The Gift and Body Shots. I have a thing for Katie Holmes and Tara Reid. Or something like that.

and finally...

10) There is no such thing as 'too many CDs' or 'too many albums'.

I guess I'll pay bills now considering it's past midnight.

yodel yodel yodel