Brian's Blog

Lights, Boxes, and Fans

2012-02-08T22:50:00.001-06:00

Finished up enough behind the scenes stuff that insulation will come tomorrow.

Electrical and Tub

2012-02-07T20:33:00.001-06:00

Generally it is ill advised to mix electricity and water.

Concrete, HVAC and 1st inspection

2012-02-06T22:03:00.002-06:00

Got the hole in the floor filled and pile of ruble out today. HVAC was completed. Electrician was delayed a day.

Theater Wiring & Central Vac

2012-02-05T14:44:00.002-06:00

I did the guts portion of the theater wiring…we’ll see the glory of it later! Central vac plumbed and wired as well.

Plumbing and HVAC start

2012-02-03T21:49:00.001-06:00

Framing Day 3 & Poop Chute

2012-02-02T22:53:00.001-06:00

Finished framing today. Starting to look like something. Busted things up a bit too!

Poop Chute

Future home for projector

Framing day 2

2012-02-01T20:54:00.002-06:00

Future vanity

Enterance into bedroom

Linen closet and utility room

Bedroom closet

Shower

Bathroom

Framing day 1

2012-01-31T17:56:00.002-06:00

Jodi and I will not be building a house together. Not that I don't love her...just couldn't handle the constant questioning.

Future drum room

Theater Room

Bedroom/Exercise Room

Future potty

Day 2

2012-01-28T18:28:00.001-06:00

Cleared out. Moved central vac. Purchased projector.

Basement finish - drumstinance

2012-01-27T23:37:00.001-06:00

This will be the longest I have to go without being able to smack my babies. Watch out I may take it out on you!

2011 Christmas Letter

2011-12-04T22:12:00.001-06:00

Hi all and welcome to the 10^thannual edition of the Miller Christmas letter.

In June of this year we headed down to North Carolina and spent a week with Brian’s family in a beach house on the Outer Banks. We visited the lighthouses and spent time relaxing on the beach. Brian and his brother-in-law rode a century (100 miles in a day) bike ride. Halfway through the week Brian received a call with a job offer for a position at John Deere’s Des Moines Works. While we continued to have fun hanging out and even rode some jet skis, the latter half of the week found us beginning to look for a new home and preparing to relocate.

Upon our return, we spent an afternoon house hunting: 17 homes in about 6 hours. Jodi spied the perfect house for us as we drove through a neighborhood. We arranged a showing and by the next day had a signed purchase contract. We moved the first week of August and have been busy getting settled and enjoying the greater Des Moines area ever since!

In her role as Project Manager for John Deere’s SAP (business software) group, Jodi wrapped up an 18 month SAP implementation at John Deere Financial in November. She also traveled to Brazil and assumed the accounting lead on the implementation of a new warranty system while a colleague was out on an extended medical leave.

As a Manager of Supply Management for John Deere’s Des Moines Works, Brian focused most of the year on procuring materials for producing cotton pickers, sprayers, tillage tools, and grain drills.

Brian and his band, Driven Existence, released an album entitled Render in August. All songs on the album were written and recorded by the band. The album is available via the band’s website www.drivenexistence.com or on popular music sites like iTunes, Amazon, or Napster. Be sure to check it out!

We retreated to a cabin in the woods the week of Thanksgiving and spent time hiking in the state parks of Central Illinois. We finished the trip off by spending Thanksgiving with Brian’s family and visiting our 1^st nephew, Wesley James Mullins, born September 4^th.

We hope that this letter finds you in good health and good spirits. Remember to take some time to pause in this season of hectic schedules to reflect and celebrate His birth!

Happy 2012!

Brian and Jodi

Semi-Annualish Blog Update

2011-11-04T23:05:00.001-05:00

Howdy. So apparently it’s November already…just a few things going on since the last update.

In my last post I failed to mention that I had begun training for a century ride…maybe I was nervous it wouldn’t happen? Anyhow, I got most my miles in once the weather started to co-operate and me an my brother-in-law hammered out 100 miles in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. 100.5 miles at an average speed of 16 MPH.

Speaking of the Outer Banks, we were there for the first ever Miller family vacation…actually it was the Miller/Montgomery/Mullins vacation. We flew out to meet the family in Raleigh. We then headed out for a week at a beach house. Check it out here. We had a grand time hanging out on the beach, sight seeing, relaxing and generally having a good time. Besides the bike ride Jodi and I rented a jet ski and tore up the water for awhile. It was a great time and felt like it should be the start of an annual tradition.

While on vacation I got a call with the offer for a new job in Des Moines. I accepted and started about 3 days after we returned. Thus also began the relocation process. We must be getting this house hunting thing down. We viewed 17 homes in 6 hours and ended up with a great one that Jodi found (wasn’t even on the list to look at). We moved about the first week of August. I love my new job, the new area, and the new home.

On the band front, Driven Existence was ramping up for an album release when I got the news. We got the album out the first part of August. You can get yours here or iTunes, Amazon, Napster or a host of other music sights. Beware when listening, your face may just get rocked off! We played our annual show in August and have largely been on hiatus since then due to moving, school, work etc.

On top of moving, a few other things took place…out bassist got married, Jodi’s uncle passed away, and I had to testify in court. Interesting thing was it was in Metropolis home of Superman.

We’ve had great fun and lots of things to do in Des Moines. We hit the IA state fair and have done lots of home improvement projects like added a water softener, battery backup for the sump pump, found, learned about, and finished installing the irrigation system, added landscaping for the hot tub, built a fence, stained the fence, stained the deck, and about 100 smaller projects. Primus came to town in October and we headed to Chicago to see Dream Theater and da Bears!

In the beginning of September I became an uncle when my sister welcomed Wes into the world (a few weeks ahead of schedule).

With that, it’s now early November. The weather has been great. It’s just started to get cold but I still hope to get some biking in on the weekends. Cedar Falls did bless us with one last storm prior to moving away. This time God took his wrath out on the lions next door as opposed to our home.

Seriously it’s May Already

2011-05-10T23:11:00.001-05:00

And you thought I’d given up on blogging!!

Ok, let’s head back to Christmas.

For Christmas we headed down to visit my sister in NC. After already starting to suffer through another IA winter it was very welcome to feel a rush of non frigid air hit us as we left the airport. Before you get any ideas here I do want to note that we did have a white Christmas. NC got a ‘major’ snow storm…first white Christmas since 1947. Anyhow, like 6 inches of snow that was mostly melted by the afternoon. NC knows how to do snow!

One high point this winter…I hired our snow done. It was a beautiful thing!

In January the Bears blew their chance at getting to the Super Bowl. Maybe next year (automated Chicago sports fan response).

The highlight of February may have been getting 3G service at home and work. I know that sounds sad but seriously, I was pumped. Actually it may have been a warm snap that allowed me to get a quick (albeit snowy) bike ride in. At the end of the month Jodi and I headed over to Galena to a quick get away. Good times!

March saw lots of things picking up at work. There was a weekend where I did some serious work at home too…got my home inbox down to like 5 emails…again, mega lame but there were things in there for years that I got taken care of…i.e. 2 year old home theater seating is now repaired! By the end of the month the weather was looking up. I even got the patio furniture out. Jodi spent a week in Brazil so I got another week + as a bachelor. Park Lane wrapped up our recording and got our tracks off for mixing. I finally finished internally mounting the mics for my kick drums as well.

April saw Park Lane undergoing a re-name. We are now Driven Existence. Check out our Facebook, YouTube, and new website coming soon! In April I got out for a few bike rides and decided the bike I got last year is too big. I ordered up a new model in the right size. The day after it was delivered we got snow…and more snow…and hail…and several weeks of ‘seasonally cold’ weather. Right about the end of the month things warmed up. We headed to Chicago. We saw Peter Pan, did lost of shopping, and met up with Jodi’s parents.

April could be characterized as a “winning” month too…

I won a dozen cupcakes (however someone ate one before they got to me)
Jodi won tickets to a Lakers game from Magic Johnson!
After only 5 months of waiting I was able to secure a brass snare drum for myself…Yamaha kit complete

So far May has brought better weather…in fact today it was darn right hot (94 with lot of humidity). Again after only about 5 months of waiting I received my custom ‘Brian Miller’ drum sticks.

So, reading back though and old post I was hoping that I’d update this blog prior to the grass greening up…just missed that goal.

Christmas Letter 2010

2010-12-12T08:33:00.001-06:00

Hi all and welcome to the 2010 edition of the annual Miller Christmas letter.

We continue to reside in IA and work for John Deere. Jodi’s position as a Business Analyst for John Deere’s SAP (business software) group led her to be on the road for a few days most weeks this year. She regularly visits the Quad Cities where the rest of her group is located or Des Moines where she is implementing SAP for John Deere Financial.

As Manager of Supply Management for John Deere’s Waterloo works, Brian focused most of the year on procuring materials for producing large tractors. A re-organization in September re-focused his role on supporting Deere’s growth and improvement objectives.

The weather continued to give us issues this year. After near record snowfall and length of snow cover, a hail storm in April resulted in a new roofs, gutters and siding for most all of us in the neighborhood. The good news is that since April the weather has been quite enjoyable. Although as we write this, we are under a blizzard warning.

Our greatest adventure this year was a 2+ week trip to Africa. We visited Zimbabwe, Zambia for a few minutes, and South Africa. During our visit we saw Victoria Falls, Cape Town, several coastal cities, and the highlight of the trip, Safari! The trip taught us a new definition of the word 'wild' as we encountered sharks, lions, leopards, baboons, elephants, buffalo, whales, hippos, rhino, giraffe, dolphin, and even ate Mopani worms!

Brian and his band, Park Lane, only played a few shows this year as the primary focus was on recording a new album. Recording is scheduled to be wrapped up by year-end and the band hopes to deliver a new album in the spring with touring to follow. Check Park Lane out at www.parklanerocks.com or on Facebook.

In other news, we continue to attend church at Prairie Lakes where we began leading a small group this year. Jodi was quite the world traveler as she spent a week playing tour guide for her parents in New Zealand. We enjoyed a few quick trips to Omaha, Kansas City, and Chicago this year and continue to take advantage of the performances hosted at UNI.

We hope that this letter finds you in good health and good spirits. We hope you take some time to pause in this season of hectic schedules to reflect and celebrate His birth!

Happy 2011!

Brian and Jodi

Catch Up Photos

2010-11-27T22:35:00.003-06:00

Chicago for dinner with Dad for his Birthday.

The grown up version of a photo from our youth.

Canoeing....note how everyone in tis picture is dry.

My lawn rocked this year!

The Yamaha kit

In the studio...hammering out some bass parts.

Pro-Life Bike Ride

The Wall...blew my freakn' mind!

The Lions were my favorite animal.

Me and the love of my life a top Table Mountain.

August, September, October, and November

2010-11-27T22:10:00.008-06:00

This is going to be a tuff one....

I did lots of bike riding in August. I had one mishap where I blew a tire going over an edge of a road but other than that, lots of success! I love the bike and have really taken a liking to on-road biking. I'd generally ride about 15 miles most days and a few longer (25 or so) rides on the weekends. We spent some time packing and making the final arrangements for our trip to Africa as well. At work, we orchestrated a re-organization that gave me a more focused set of responsibilities, I welcome the change whole heatedly! One weekend we visited Omaha. I attended an Avenged Sevenfold concert there. Mike Portnoy killed it and made the rest of AX7 look like little boys!

One weekend in August we were able to take a canoe trip with my parents, my sister wasn't able to make it. Great fun...even when we almost hit a cow. The weather held too and this year, no one fell in! Another weekend, my sister flew in and we hit the Zoo in Chicago with the rest of my family. Good thing we saw those animals before our Safari...not quite the same experience.

September started with a day of working on a Habitat for Humanity house with a group from work. It was a great day, great team building, and a great way to kick off our African vacation! Overall, the trip to Africa was awesome. We had very few issues and feel very fortunate to be able to experience something like that and to have had such a successful trip. Vacation is good. It was relaxing, it was entertaining, educational, and restorative. It gave me and Jodi a time to really focus on us and gave me time to focus on my relationship with God.

A few highlights include:
- Seriously Delta, could you get seats with less padding? This was a 14 hour flight and I felt like I was sitting on a piece of plywood with about a half inch of foam on it. My rear end hurt for days after each flight. I'll probably have some sort of medical condition when I get older from the poor seat.
- In Zimbabwe we went on a private canoe trip. At one point we were standing on an island (in Zambia) and were surrounded by two elephants, a hippo, and a croc that was about 3.5 meters long....you realized very quickly that we were the visitors! Totally re-defined wild for me.
- We had an incredibly awesome day on Table mountain and Robin island...perfect weather
- We had an awesome evening in Camps Bay
- Hermanus had spectacular scenery and shark diving was incredible...actually very peaceful and relaxing...staring a great white in the eye and knowing that he was looking right back at you was awesome
- Got a great upgrade to a private cabin in Plectenberg Bay
- Safari was amazing...we saw all sorts of animal right up close, our room was awesome, the service was impeccable, and it was an experience like none other
- I found out that Mike Portnoy left Dream Theater...quite disappointing

Once we got back, my focus was again on bike riding, putting the new organization into place at work, and getting Park Lane tracks recorded. A few weeks back in the country and Jodi took off for New Zealand. While I missed her, the week she was gone was a retreat of sorts for me. It was again an awesome experience and very restorative. I'm planning on taking regular retreats moving forward! I got to see Skillet again when Jodi was gone. Again, concerts in Waterloo are a very different experience!

Another incredible life experience occured at the end of October. We traveled to Kansas City (I like that place) and saw Roger Waters perform The Wall live. It was a life long dream to see this show and it was worth it. Simply amazing. The pinacle of rock n' roll. We had a great time shopping in KC as well.

We've had a few great Park Lane rehearsals. We discovered that doing a day and a half sort of event is much better. We played what will likely be our second and final show of the year at Refuge Rock in November. I used the Yamaha kit. I've got it tweaked and have been building it up to be a full time second kit. It's got a different sound and feel from the Tama kit.

In small group, we wrapped up our world religion study and moved on to one about marriage. It's good, give Jodi and I something work on together to take our relationship to the next level.

Finally, we recently had Thanksgiving. Headed down to the in-laws. On Friday we headed out for a long day of shopping.

Hopefully I get around to updating this thing prior to the grass greening up again! BTW my grass was quite awesome....much greener and healthier this year. I'll chock it up as a W for Brian.

The rest of July 2010

2010-08-10T05:46:00.007-05:00

The rest of July was fairly laid back. I don't believe we went anywhere so it was nice to be at home for awhile. I decided to change out the resonant heads on the new kit. It helped out my tuning difficulties significantly. The kit isn't quite there yet but it's getting close. I got the hardware to complete the kit as well so we have 3 full fledged kits now.

I changed the oil in the truck for the first time. Not impressed with the oil filter location. It's far up in the engine, there is a coolant hose that blocks access to the filter, and the oil has to drip onto a diverter....what a mess. Good thing the oil change interval is longer!

I attempted to go mountain biking in a local park. Due to mud and generally poor condition of the trails that didn't go over so well. After that ride it confirmed my thought of getting a road bike to ride the trail system around here.

On a trip to the sporting goods store for an entirely different reason, I happened upon a used road bike in great shape. Seeing that I was thinking of getting a bike I took the plunge. It's been quite worth it. The bike took a bit of getting used to but I love it. I've been putting in quite a few miles. I did have one mishap...turns out off roading on a on road bike isn't good. Jodi had to come rescue me as I was about 10 miles from home when I blew the tire out!

Small group is going well. We are studying other religions and it seems like everyone is enjoying it.

The grass is benefiting from lots of rain. It's green and thick. There are several areas where crab grass has started to grow. I've been trying to kill it with herbicide but it doesn't seem to be working very well. I may need to switch to a manual treatment. There are an increasing amount of broad leaf weed throughout the yard as well. I'm not sure if weed-b-gone doesn't work later in the year or what but they seem to be quite resistant to death as well.

Hope you are enjoying all the Park Lane videos. I'm working on a few more produced videos as well. We'll see how they go.

Park Lane - Life Live Faith - Music on the Lawn 2010

2010-07-23T21:29:00.000-05:00

Park Lane - Companion - Music on the Lawn 2010`

2010-07-23T21:25:00.000-05:00

Park Lane - Broken - Music on the Lawn

2010-07-19T06:26:00.000-05:00

Park Lane - Rain - Music on the Lawn 2010

2010-07-18T19:52:00.000-05:00

Park Lane - Love Will Conquer All

2010-07-18T08:28:00.000-05:00

Park Lane - Time Will Tell - Music on the Lawn 2010

2010-07-17T07:09:00.001-05:00

Park Lane - Feel Like Before

2010-07-17T07:09:00.000-05:00

Park Lane - Power - Music on the Lawn

2010-07-17T07:08:00.001-05:00

Park Lane - Black and Gold - Music on the Lawn

2010-07-17T07:08:00.000-05:00

Park Lane - I'm Calling - Music on the Lawn 2010

2010-07-15T06:39:00.000-05:00

Park Lane - Always There - Music on the Lawn 2010

2010-07-14T22:33:00.000-05:00

With Everything - Heritage Weslyan Church 12-7-08

2010-07-13T22:04:00.000-05:00

Park Lane Behind the Scenes

2010-07-13T21:57:00.000-05:00

Park Lane - Fortune Falling - Music on the Lawn 2010

2010-07-13T21:55:00.000-05:00

7-5-10 Week in Review

2010-07-13T18:20:00.004-05:00

Ok...the cliff hanger from last time...Monday rained like crazy and the fireworks were cancelled. I feel like we got jipped!

Tues was small group. Good group. Afterwards had some great conversations with some neighbors about faith, religion, and evangelism. A really positive experience.

iphone 4 arrived on Tuesday. Very nice. It's much faster than the 3G ever was. The screen is awesome, the glass on both sides is great. The upgrade process went very smoothly as well. I haven't tried the others but I'm still quite happy with iphone. Only downside is that it's heavier and can be quite slippery...although it feels great in your hand!

The weekend was full of activity. Washed and waxed the car and truck, finished the landscaping, helped a neighbor build a deck, bike ride with Jodi (no rain this time) and lots of rest and relaxation.

I worked on the new kit. It's coming together. I got most of the placement worked out. Biggest issue right now seems to be micing and some more fine tuning the tuning.

I think God is teaching me a lesson about not always getting my way. Anyhow, he has a plan and that plan is awesome. I just need to go with it.

Grass update - it is rocking. I'm amazed at how far it could go in one year...I guess I owe thanks for all the rain.

Park Lane - Superstition - Music on the Lawn 2010

2010-07-08T22:26:00.000-05:00

Miniature Kit

2010-07-07T21:37:00.002-05:00

Sometime I wish by set was smaller but still offered all the sound options...now I just have to figure out how to get my butt on that throne.

Truck and Trailer Pictures

2010-07-07T21:26:00.003-05:00

Miller Percussion and big brother Miller Racing

6/28/10ish Week in Review

2010-07-07T18:59:00.005-05:00

Let's try getting the posting frequency back on track!

OK, so last weekend was Music on the Lawn. I got to admit I was not real excited to tear my drums apart, haul them up and pack them up. I was quite bummed actually. Anyhow Saturday was crazy sunny and hot but the chance or rain was low. Setup went very smoothly. The new cases worked great in their first outdoor gig. They came in very handy for putting equipment on. The gig was really good. While sweltering, we played good. The crowd was pretty decent. I'd say better than average. We got some video but I haven't quite got it sorted out yet on how to get it up on the web.

We crashed at my parents house since my sister was visiting, always good to see the fam.

The week was good. Jodi and I celebrated our 9th anniversary. We headed up north to a restruant that we wanted to try out. It wasn't the best place ever but it did seem to be quite a good value.

On Monday we had a really good group meeting. While the group is small, I'm very excited about it.

I received some confirmation at work. That is always reassuring! On the weekend we headed down to Jodi's parents. We spent lots of time traveling around. Jodi got a new bike and we found out about some possible corruption with the local telephone company....how intriguing!

We came back for what we thought was going to be fireworks. Turned out it rained like crazy on Sunday so they were postponed until Monday...but then Monday is actually next week so I can't really tell you how they came out until the next post!

Mobile office - rear view

Mobile office - front view

The stage is set

It's go time!

More June

2010-06-24T22:48:00.003-05:00

Not too much new to report. I've been keeping up with my exercise/practice routine for the most part...3x per week for both. This week was a bit rough with other commitment.

I took last Friday off to build some cables. Most of them went good. Last weekend we visited my parents for Father's day. Saturday was Park Lane rehearsal. Music on the Lawn is coming up in a few days.

We've been getting lots of rain so the rivers are flooded but the grass is nice and green! The weeds are well under control as well. I'll need to hit it with some fertilizer soon.

We had our second small group meeting. Small turnout. Rather disappointing.

No cavities! iPhone 4 is on order and will be here in a few weeks. Gave up on trying to sell the sound system. Work carries on. We had a team building event at our house. It was a good time and a nice break.

iphone...2 years later

2010-06-14T22:28:00.004-05:00

I thought it'd be great fun to go back to my 'first impressions' post and see what I thought now:

There is quite a bit to report here and I'll plan on posting several time.

* this may be the second post....sorry!

Let me start off by saying that this is one of those life changing sorts of technologies. I think nothing these days of making a phone call at home, jumping in the truck and finishing the call somewhere else. Remember when 'cordless' phones were all the rage...you could even go out on the front porch and use it. Now think about wi-fi...you could even use it on the front porch...now think about walking out of the local arena, chatting with a friend, deciding on a place to meet, looking it up on the internet (while walking to your car), having directions by the time you got there and then deciding what you were going to order on your way to meet up...welcome to iphone. Now imagine waiting for an appointment, getting a call to schedule another appointment, jumping on your calendar, and scheduling the appointment during the call. Welcome to life changing technology.

* yes yes yes...iphone makes your life better by allowing you to do what you want when you need to and where ever you happen to be!

Cool: everyone looks to see what you have and impressed that this is the 'new' iphone...I'm sure that effect will wear off in about 4 minutes

* yes, these days everyone has a smart phone...I still believe the coolest cats have ipones...they certainly get the Internet all abuzz...like when some dude gets hammered and loses his prototype in a bar!

Physical: The phone is surprisingly heavy. It makes the other phones I have feel like cheap plastic junk. The drawback to the weight (1 oz) heavier than my other phones is making a long call with no headset...amazing how buff I'll be in a few weeks holding that extra oz up to my ear! The thing is feaksihly thin. The switch to turn the ringer on and off is really nice.

* I've gotten used the the weight...biceps still not overly impressive. the back got all scratched up, probably good they are going away from the plastic...the black didn't help any. I have at least one crack that I caused but other than that it's held up well, particularly the screen.

Phone: The phone is adequate but not stellar. If you want the world's best cell phone get something else, if you want the best little techno-mate I've seen get an iphone. The volume of the ringer, the speaker phone and the handset could all be louder however they all seem to sound good (especially the ringers...to bad my phone is on vibrate 99% of the time). The bluetooth sync is easy and iphone is really smart when it comes to letting your select the source for a call. Integration with contact and websites is awesome and the visual voicemail is really nice...makes total sense.

* phone still not the best...voicemail is great although once in awhile it takes some time to come through...not sure why.

Ipod: still learning how to do that...any help on the best way to sync music? I can't seem to get manual mode to work. It was really neat to be at the gym jamming on some tunes and just have them fade away so I could take a call.

* I figured it out...although with so many great music services available I find myself using it less and less...great to make setlists for rehersal

Safari: WOW...sure it could support flash but seriously, find me something better. I was on a walk and could almost instantly find that we were under a thunderstorm warning when I saw the lightning in the distance. I can check mail, surf, and have all sorts of information at my fingertips almost instantly. We don't have 3G yet but edge isn't too bad. I still can't wait for 3G.

* still waiting for flash.....still waiting....more sites have a mobile version so that is very nice. I had 3G for a bit...it was great...then I moved...where the **** did my 3G go? Changed my mind about Edge.

Mail: really the only problem I have here is that I don't think my cable account will sync when not on the cable network...I was thinking about switching to a more portable email address already so I guess now is a good time to do it. Works great with our Yahoo junk mail account (just in case I want to keep up on the spam).

* got cable mail to work...then moved and changed to ymail...still waiting for my company to open up a port for me....still waiting.....

Calendar: I remember now how great it was to have a PDA...I love love love having an electronic calendar back. I'm having some sync issues (until I get it on the enterprise account) and Jodi's won't sync at all...I still need to do more work there

* sync works fine...of course I wouldn't need it if my work would open the port....still waiting....still

Camera: probably better that other phones I've had but disappointing seeing how nice everything else is

* still very handy...good things the new ones take movies and have a flash

Interface: mind blowing

* still is...some very creative ways of using multi touch and the accelerometer out there

virtual keyboard: I've not used a little bitty plastic keyboard much but this one seems just fine

* no issues what so ever...still the blue tooth keyboard support will be a nice addition...think traveling for work and being able to do email on a full sized keyboard at the hotel (or airport or what not)

Unlock: I still get a smirk on my face every time I slide that little bar

* OK, I got over that

Missing:
- tasks list (hello) * there's an app for that
- the absence of the ability to use a stylus and the ability to recognize handwriting really hold the iphone back as a computer replacement * yup...extra confusing now that I have a tablet PC....one uses your finger one uses a stylus....is it to much to ask for both devices to use both interfaces??
- GPS seems like it could work lots better * it has gotten much better with the updates...still not a replacement for on built into your car or our Garmin
- cut and paste functionality * got it!
- microsoft pocket word and excel * there could be an ap for that...I'll need to go look
- a cradle * got it
- a windshield wiper and fluid so that it can continually clean the screen as you put your greasy little fingers all over it * microfiber towels work great for cleaning iphone...I keep one in my desk!
- the sync software doesn't seem to be very configurable or let me really move files like I'd like * there's an app for that...downloaded it but have never used it

Issues:
- when trying to down load a high resolution picture the phone crashed...yes, it is ridiculous to try to download a high resolution picture to view on a little screen * can do....try not to use Edge
- smudges and smears front and back *add to that scratches and cracks
- I'm sure at some point (like when a larger model comes out) I'll wish I had more memory than 16 GB (I can still remember when the first gig hard drives hit the market about 1995) * I'll be getting the 32 GB soon

End of May, First Part of June

2010-06-14T21:57:00.005-05:00

Sorry to disappoint, but check out the snazzy new layout!

OK on to business.

Park Lane has finally gotten together again and started rehearsals. It was great to see the guys and play real songs with real people. We got a photo taken as well.

I worked a bit on the new drum set. Sounds great. Most people want to know if it's better than the Starclassics. I'd ask you...what's better chocolate chip cookies or brownies? I don't know either, all depends on your mood!

I started to exercise more regularly. I have a regimen of 3x per week, 3x per week practice, and one day off. It's been great. I've been eating better as well but Jodi is doing way better than me. Speaking of practice, I've been watching Jojo Mayer's video. It's great. I've been tuning up some of my technique. I also started to play with a metronome during Park Lane rehearsals. I don't have an opinion if it's better yet or not...I do think it helps to keep you focused.

On the technology front I got a Sonos system. It allows you to stream music wirelessly and control things from your iphone. It's amazing. I should have got something like that years ago. Speaking of iphone, the new model is coming out soon and I'm due for an upgrade.

You may remember me commenting on my iphone two years ago.

http://drummerm.blogspot.com/2008/07/iphone-first-impressions.html

I said something to the effect of 'this device changes life as I know it'. Two years later I still agree. We got rid of our laptop. It integrates with other devices (Sonos, SYNC, level when installing shelving in a new home) and services (Pandora, Sirius, ebay etc). It can replace other devices (metronome, mp3 player, GPS). It is continuing to evolve and change to my needs thanks to the app store...and mostly for free or very cheap. Jodi said that some other phones are more powerful...they don't have nearly as many apps so for now I plan on sicking with an iphone. Of course I read the other ones can do porn...it helped VHS trump Beta and got the internet started so who knows, maybe in a couple of years the droid will be the only surviving smart phone?

Our home has a new roof, siding, and the deck is stained. Our contractor did a great job. The mortgage company...actually the inspection company hired by the mortgage company has been a major pain in my rear. If I ever have something like this happen again there is no way in heck that I'm going to let the mortgage company take the money! I'm the customer and I will win!

The grass is doing well. Improvements over last year include 1. we actually have grass 2. the grass is green (often times a rich dark green color) and 3. there are virtually no weeks (including those of the 18" tall variety!). We've had lots of rain lately so things are good now. We'll see how it does as the summer progresses. We landscaped the side of the house that was the former weed garden. Things were going well until we got the rock to fill it in. Jodi is not a fan of the rock.

Finally we had our first small group meeting. It was pretty good. We had a good time and people seemed comfortable. I'm looking forward to the second one.

OK, that's about all the exciting stuff I can think about for now. I'll try to keep this more up to date but if not don't sweat it.

End of April and the first part of May

2010-05-19T06:37:00.003-05:00

Sorry for not doing a good job of keeping this up to date...sometimes my 'fans' remind me of this!

We headed to Des Monies one weekend. We saw the Trans Siberian Orchestra performing Bethoven's Last Night. Was is overtly pretentious? Absolutely. Were some of the tech aspects nearly ridiculous for how 'bad they were? You bet. Did the occasional 'dancing hot long haired girls' make you want to gag? Naturally (it was a hard rock show after all). Was it enormously enjoyable? Bingo. They did a great job of putting on an awesome show...it is hard rock/metal after all....we need those 80's big hair elements to be there.

The next weekend we headed to Chicago. Chicago was great however the traffic into the city at rush hour on Friday sucked! I saw Porcupine tree. Incredible. Their precision in everything from the music, to the timing of the show, to the guy who had to vacuum the entire stage before they came out was spectacular. We visited the Drum Pad while we were there. I heard a Yamaha kit (I know....Yamaha is the one brand of drums I didn't think I'd ever play) that was incredible. A couple of e-bay transactions later I was the owner of a Yamaha Absolute Birch custom. They tune up differently than the Starclassics. I figured I pretty much had hard rock/prog/metal thing covered with the Starclassics so the intent of this kit is to be more of a 'praise' kit...with hard rock/prog tendencies of course!

One of the best parts of Chicago was a visit to Willow Creek. To say that it was the largest church I have ever seen would be an understatement....it's un-like any church I'd ever seen. The worship was incredible...I was literally moved to tears.

We got the hail thing well under way. The guys should be here in a couple of weeks to replace the roof, siding, stain the deck etc. I'm checking to see if they can install some lights in the kitchen to since my plans were thwarted by a firewall!

Last weekend was awesome from a weather perspective. I spent most of it outside. I got the garage organized and cleaned (must take care of the man caves) cars washed etc. Jodi and I have a new 'tradition' we are taking Sabbath bike rides. I really like them...I think Jodi can stand them.

I took over leadership of our small group at church...just starting to get going there but I really think it's a good fit for me and my 'next step' on my personal journey.

I've had a couple of jam sessions with guys from work...quite fun and refreshing to be playing with humans!

Last item....the lawn. While I may have lost the battle last year, I'd say I have the upper hand this year. I've already put down nearly two gallons of Weed-b-gone. The over seeding or the aeration or something is working because just like last year, you can easily see a distinction between my yard and others...this year the grass is greener on my side...and I actually have grass, and the grass I do have is actually green/living, and the most prominent feature is not 12-18 inch tall weeds!

The first part of April

2010-04-22T23:09:00.008-05:00

A beautiful day for relaxing, learning, and having fun.

Clean batmobile

Ling Ling is clean too.

I took the first day of April off. We headed to my parents the night before. I helped out getting some things done at the new house. The weather was great. The first time you could really wear shorts. I took my truck in to get a bed liner sprayed on.

The next day was awesome. Sure I had to get up early to get my truck but after that I just chilled. First I spent sometime at a coffee shop. I just did my thing while enjoying some green tea. After that I headed over to Best Buy. I checked out a few things including 3D TV. I must say I was not impressed. Sure you got a bit of 3D stuff but the clarity and colors weren't what a nice plasma (or led or lcd) would give. My expectation...total flop. Next I visited a high end audio shop. Ok, wasn't much for high end but I did learn about home automation. Next stop Guitar Center to try out some active speakers. Very nice. I grabbed lunch a very unique 'flying weenie'. It was actually probably the first real Chicago style dog I had. Quite tasty.

The weather again was great. The next day we headed back through our old home town and then on down to my sisters. While the weather wasn't as nice, it was good to have the family together and be there for my brother in laws baptism. I also viewed the new ipad on it's release date. Not sure what I'd do with one of those.

Over the previous month or so our church small group had been studying a book on evangelism. It was a really great study. We had one session where we each gave a 90 second version of our testimony. What a great night it was.

More recently, I had a garage sale last weekend. I must say it was quite a success. I sold some extra ladders, my wife's bike that she hated and got a couple of leads on the sound system. During that time I washed and waxed the truck. It was looking great. Sunday I did Jodi's car. It looks even better thanks to what I'd like to consider superior paint. We bought a video camera last weekend as well. Jodi helped to get us an awesome deal on it. Maybe once I figure out how to use it, I can put some videos up here? If nothing else maybe some lions, sharks and elephants when we head out on our trip later this year.

Work is tedious as usual. My boss used the word monotonous. That is probably about right. Day in and day out...build build build. Anyhow, it should be worth it in the end. This week we got to deal with a volcano holding up parts. I guess everyday brings a new challenge however it all does seem the same.

We did get quite the hail storm one day. Fortunately both vehicles survived (would have made it much more difficult to polish all the hail dings). The house was less fortunate...need a new roof, some new siding, gutters, garage door trim etc. Hopefully it will be easier to get this done that the pain in the butt we had last summer getting someone to work on our siding!

Oh yea, I almost forgot. Tony came up one weekend and we hammered out some more drum tracks. Quite fun. Some really cool stuff going on. Probably one more session and we'll have it wrapped up. I can't wait to get out and get playing again.

The battle with the weeds has begun again. I think they probably won last year. I'll see if I can't improve on things this year. I did over seed tonight. Hopefully we get some rain to help with getting some new grass growing.

Crazy Ice Fog

2010-04-08T21:43:00.002-05:00

For about a week in January we had ice fog...it was nuts. It would freeze on your car as you drove. Some weird stuff.

March 2010 in Review

2010-04-08T21:35:00.005-05:00

The snow melted. The river flooded. Spring sprung. All good stuff.

I spent two days down in the QCA for work. It was really good.

The Braves got there butt beat by UNI in the MVC playoffs. UNI went on to defeat the number one team in the nation but they couldn't deliver in the sweet 16.

Spent a day at my parents to finish moving them and get some stuff installed in their new house.
Worked too much.

Our small group is doing a great study on evangelism. I'm really enjoying it and learning quite a bit.

Jodi and I won a free dinner at Famous Daves...we stopped in for a quick bite and they just came up and said we won a free dinner...I think they picked the lowest bill in the place b/c we just each had a sandwich with water.

We saw Cirque de' Solei (??)

Officially have finished 3 drum tracks for Park Lane. I'm really getting challenged not only to write decent drum parts but great drum parts. I don't mind but it's hard work and really pushing my playing forward. Tony is good at noting where something is just good and looks for great and asking me to deliver.

That's about all I can think of.

3/1/10 Week in Review

2010-03-12T21:09:00.002-06:00

Winter is finally coming to a close! We broke freezing everyday this week and the snow is starting to melt. I can hardly believe it. By the weekend it was around 40! I cleaned the hot tub, washed the truck and enjoyed spending some time outside! I started to feel quite a bit better as well. I think I might have had pick eye as well. Monday we headed out to dinner with the Edgerton's for some fun.

2/22/10 Week in Review

2010-03-12T20:58:00.003-06:00

I started not feeling well on Wednesday. I took Thursday off work and barely made it through on Friday. Basically did nothing on the weekend. Winter continues to drag on...may never end!

2/15/10 Week in Review

2010-03-12T20:54:00.003-06:00

Winter drug on this week...quite depressing. I guess I won't need to cut the grass until like May.

On the weekend we headed out to Des Monies. It was a nice break but the snow kinda put a damper on things. We met up with Tony and his family for lunch. We checked out the mall. Jodi and I each got new coats and I got a new hat and boots too. I picked up a new cymbal too....so much shopping to do in a town that actually had stores.

Speaking of stores, they had BP gas there too. It's pretty sad that I get excited when I see a freakn' gas station!

We had dinner at the Greenbriar and stayed at the Wildwood lodge. A good time.

When we got back into town I headed out for a concert on Sunday. My first Waterloo concert. Quite and interesting crowd...lots of red necks and some guys that look like they just came in from feeding the pigs! Any how, Chevelle and Janus rocked. Cabo, Puddle of Mudd, and Sick Puppies were ok as well.

2/8/10 Week in Review

2010-02-17T21:59:00.003-06:00

Another week that was basically boring. Thursday we headed out for date night to celebrate V-day. Saturday I spent a little time editing Park Lane songs. Got some nice stuff going on. I had a good drumming session as well. We headed out to a 40th b-day party and baby shower. Sunday we assisted my parents in moving to their new house. The new truck hauled and did real work for the first time. It seems to be handling more cohesively. Things must be breaking in.

2/1/10 Week in Review

2010-02-17T21:57:00.001-06:00

I do believe this week was basically boring. Winter continues. On the weekend we headed south to Jodi's parents to partake in her Dad's 75th birthday. That's about it.

2010-02-01T21:21:00.001-06:00

I edited together my solo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY5fENsqLp0

1-25-09 Week in Review

2010-02-01T21:08:00.003-06:00

Wednesday night I decided to head down to the Flyleaf, Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace show. I thought about not going since I had to work the next day and didn't think it'd be very responsible...whatever. Flyleaf was a bit disappointing. They had poor sound and seemed to lack energy. Breaking Benjamin wasn't too bad. TDG started off with one of my current favorite songs 'Break'. The were doing OK but then seemed to run out of steam. Their drummer played a keyboard/drum solo (one that it would have been perfectly acceptable to go to the can in) and then they did some other fairly lame rock show stuff...like have their singer come out in the rear.

The real fun at this show was the crowd. It was a general admission show. I was once again thinking...maybe I'm too old to go push and shove with the crowd, maybe I'll just sit down....well, I walked in saw some lamers sitting in the seats and lots of fun on the floor so that's where I was!

Nobody got too rowdy during Flyleaf. I made decent progress towards the front. During the break I got to see some loser chicks waiting to get high. I was able to stand behind some short girls during Breaking Benjamin. Some pits got started by me. At the set break things cleared out and I got nearly to the front. Things started to get a bit tight so me and some other dudes used out 'power' (fat) to clear some space. As I got near the front I realized there were far fewer teeny boppers and more old dudes like me...I realized that we had the 'power' it took to make it up front! Any how, some crazy pits and some seriously wasted people made for lots and lots of pushing. A few times I seemed to get caught up and become shields for other people...things were just going every which way. At one point some chick landed on me as she was body surfing but we got her back up and sent her on her way...good times. Anyhow after I got bored I decided to bust out a few minutes early so I could get to bed at a decent time...guess I'm an old guy after all!

This weekend I laid down lots of tracks for Park Lane's album.

1-18-10 Week in Review

2010-02-01T21:04:00.002-06:00

Started with Monday off...did pretty much nothing exciting. It was good. 4 day work weeks are always hell for some reason.

Saturday was the first above freezing day we had in some time. I took the opportunity to clean the hot tub, change oil, etc. It was nice to be outside even though it started to rain (pour at times). Made for a very wet and rather cool time cleaning the hot tub. That evening we headed out to your first local hockey game. The place was packed. The team wasn't very good but they had a super fan sitting right behind us. The seats around him were empty so I figured that he must have scared his friends off. He shout and encourage the team the whole time. If they scored a goal he'd go nuts and he'd surly dance to all the music. If I could only have figured out a discrete way to video him!

iTunes killed the hidden track

2010-01-26T21:17:00.003-06:00

Remember back in the day when flannel was all the rage and people bought music on CDs...yes, the 90's.

I just saw some old 'hidden tracks'...those tracks that after the 'last' track of the album played there'd be an extended period of silence followed by a surprise 'hidden track'...not listed in the liner. Ah yes, a perfect place to hide some crappy song that didn't deserve to make the album. Maybe the record company thought it sucked and wouldn't let it go on but it was a sneaky way to get it in.

Now with digital music you can easily see the track length...therefore a 10:40 track (on anything other than a Dream Theater album) most likely include the namesake and that special little nugget.

There was some weird stuff. I remember a Korn CD where the first 12 tracks were each one second long and contained only silence...how bad ass...the album 'started' on track 13. I tunes seems to have fixed that issue by eliminating the first 12 tracks (or maybe I did it) and still allows the first track to be numbered 13. Thanks for not ruining our fun apple.

Park Lane - The Rain in Cedar Falls

2010-01-17T22:47:00.003-06:00

go go double kicks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwFyJQqwh2M

1-11-10 Week in Reveiw

2010-01-17T22:41:00.003-06:00

Things finally started to warm up this week. We got into the 20's by the end of the week. Very grateful for that!

Work really sucked this week...made me extra ready for a three day weekend. Friday we went to our first Opera. While itnitially I figured it was going to be tearrible, I finally realized the words were being translated on a screen above the stage. Made it not too bad. I'm probably not going to go listen to the opera channel, but it wasn't awful. Speaking of channels, I'm loving satallite radio. I'm thinking of getting a lifetime subscription. Not that it warmed up it's easier to enjoy the new truck as well. Even got it washed when the temp neared 30.

Saturday we headed towards my parents. They bought a new house so we looked at that. We visited a Mississippi River museum as well...not impressed. Sunday was spent working on recording for Park Lane. Lots of technical issues really slowed down the progress.

1-4-10 Week in Reveiw

2010-01-17T22:38:00.002-06:00

Back at work this week. While it was ok to have more structure in my life, I still prefer to be off. It barely got above 0 this week...yup, that sucked. I'm sick and tired of the cold. On the weekend it did get to like 0 so I spent some time outside taking down a few Christmas decorations and getting some ice cleaned up. That's about it.

December in Review

2010-01-17T22:32:00.002-06:00

The biggest story was that my truck's tranny crapped out. It took most the month to get it replaced with a used one. In the meantime I went truck shopping and picked up up a new F-150. Other than than...it snowed like crazy, the wind blew like a mad and by the end of the month it was so cold that you didn't even want to think about heading outside.

Amongst all the crap weather, we did get the tile laid down in our bathroom. That project went well. It's into the details to get it finished out.

I did have two weeks off. We spent a few days at Jodi's parents. The break had Park Lane gigs as bookend...started out in Cedar Rapids where I had to borrow the house kit since I didn't have a truck to get my drums there. We finished off in Cedar Falls. It was like -20 that night but a good venue.

Other than that we took care of things at home. Got the living room wall painted, hung out with friends, and watched Blu-rays.

New Truck

2009-12-30T09:04:00.003-06:00

Here are a few pictures of the new ride!

Christmas Letter - Park Lane

2009-12-20T17:41:00.003-06:00

Brian spent a good deal of time this year jamming with Park Lane. Check us out here http://www.parklanerocks.com/ and check out these videos

Life Love Faith http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=707BlgeDI74

Black and Gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYCdBmX1ZB8

Close to You - Off our upcoming album http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVSsnaNgHSA or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq4xIFNvQeg

I am Calling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ6YS8Uc1iA

Time Will Tell - Off our upcoming album http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ-y7S2cMxA

Love Will Conquer All - See, we can mellow it out with a power ballad! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUf0rtiLITo

Power...with a portion of an impromptu drum solo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-xM76ak1HQ

Time Will Tell - Off our upcoming album http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeoGRcXXUAE

Take the High Road - another easy listening one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t9xPl3m7y4

Fortunes Falling - Our first attempt ever at playing this song...can you tell! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHXDWN0Zgb4 - this should probably be stricken from YouTube but since it's out there I figured we share it!

2009 Christmas Letter - Vacations

2009-12-20T09:37:00.008-06:00

San Antonio

For Christmas last year Brian surprised Jodi with a trip to San Antonio. We headed out in February just before Brian started his new job. We didn't have much plan other than enjoying some warm weather, seeing the Alamo, and hanging out on the river walk...after having lived next to the Mississippi River, the 'river' itself wasn't much to speak of but the area was really nice. We did spend far too much time on this trip trying to buy a new house. We had an excellent meal at The Saltlick on our way back from Austin. It was quite difficult to find however!

Yes, it is February and I am wearing shorts!! A shot with Jodi along the river walk...I just remembered the lady we met on our last day there who had just gotten married...very interesting!

The Saltlick...we drove by it a few times before finding it.

The Alamo

Jodi looks very at home on the Austin City Limits stage.

Ignite Chicago

Chicago has become a 5 hour drive so we only went there once this year for a Christian music festival. It was a great time. We have pictures but we'll let you check out the officials one

http://www.ignitechicago.com/

Southern California

Jodi's friend Allison got married at Disneyland in November. We made the trip out into a week long vacation. After the wedding we hit the park, same with Sunday and Monday morning. After that we headed down to San Diego for Seaworld. The next day was the Zoo, and Wednesday the beach. Afterwards we headed to LA and visited Warner Brothers Studios. Thursday we did Universal Studios and Friday we did some shopping and headed home.

Brian and one of his heroes...one a Drum Junkie, the other junking a drum.

Jodi got to meet Matt Damon...ooo la la!

The beach!

Shamu showing off

This tree is larger than the one we had to get.

2009 Christmas Letter

2009-12-20T09:34:00.002-06:00

Hi all and welcome to the 2009 edition of the annual Miller Christmas letter.

Our biggest news of the year occurred just prior to Christmas last year! Brian was offered a new position at John Deere as the Manager of Supply Management for Deere’s tractor factory. This spring, we packed up and headed North to our new home.

We're in a great neighborhood and are enjoying our new home that is spoiling us with extras like a 3 car garage along with dedicated home theater, drum, and exercise rooms. The only problem with the house is that there is over a foot of snow in the yard and drifts up to 4 feet tall! We also got to enjoy 100+ MPH winds in a summer storm as well…wonder how Chicago got the title ‘windy city’? We're just thankful that we came out with little damage and power was restored in less than 24 hours.

Jodi continued on in her role as a Business Analyst for John Deere’s SAP (business software) group. She was able to continue working in the same job but does it fromour new location. She works with people from all over the world everyday so her comrades in India, Brazil, China, France, and North Carolina probably haven't even realized she moved!

Between moving and working we did manage to sneak in a few trips. In February, we headed down to San Antonio. This summer we attended Ignite Chicago, a two day Christian music festival and traveled to the Twin Cities. We just recently returned from a trip to Southern California where we attended the wedding of one of Jodi’s college friends and ended the party at Disneyland. We then headed down to San Diego and wrapped things up in LA.

Brian and his positive influence hard rock band, Park Lane, had a busy schedule this summer playing shows and festivals in Iowa and Illinois. Currently Park Lane is in the final stages of writing their second album and soon will begin recording. With any luck the new album will be available in spring!

After moving, we found a new church home at Prairie Lakes Church. Brian is playing with the worship team and both Brian and Jodi are involved in a small group.

We hope that this letter finds you in good health and good spirits. Remember that among all the sales, gifts, and decorations lies the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of the savior, Jesus Christ. We hope you take some time to pause in this season of hectic schedules to reflect and celebrate His birth!

Happy 2010! Brian and Jodi

See additional blog posts for pictures and more stories!

2009 Christmas Letter

2009-12-12T18:40:00.007-06:00

While we loved our old home, we think our new house is swell too. Jodi wishes the kitchen could have more storage but other than that all is good!

Takin Brothers did a great job moving our 22,000 pounds of stuff! Soon thereafter we initiated our 10% Stuff Reduction Initiative.

We documented our time in the old house...

Before moving in we took time to paint the master bedroom...we learned how difficult it is to paint textured walls.

While the Takin Brothers packed and moved our stuff, unpacking was our chore!

We installed new countertops this summer

Nearly finished home for the hot tub

Fianally we put a new floor in the guest bath

See additional blog posts for more info!

2000-2010 How things have changed in technology

2009-12-12T07:31:00.006-06:00

I figured I'd take a moment to reflect back about the decade that's about to end...let's look at how a few things have changed:

Music Distribution: In 2000 we had two things going on 1. a move towards higher definition media made possible by better lasers (SACD and DVD Audio) and mp3 audio (Napster was in full swing). I think we know the story here, high def lost out (so did Napster) and we are not in the age of iTunes and iPods (or in my case iPhone). This is a somewhat unfortunate situation. I have a DVD player that can play the now dead formats and I even have a few high def format discs for 'critical listening' and showing off to people who have no idea what they are listening to. The compressed formats for digital files were necessary due to restrictions on storage and bandwidth. Hopefully these formats will improve in definition as those restrictions continue to be eased. Personally, I converted in 2008 when I got an iPhone. While I had put all my CD on computer around the end of 2005, it wasn't until I got an all in one device (phone, pda, camera, gps, mini computer, and oh yea, digital music player) that I stopped using CDs in the truck and started to use my MP3 jack (which I had fortunately added).

Computers: At the beginning of the decade I built a computer...cheaper than buying one. It had a Pentium chip in it. At the end of the decade I just bought two computers. I'm only vaguely familiar with the specs. They seem to do everything I want then to. Back then I bought a 20" CRT...it took up half my desk. Today I use two 22" wide screen LCDs. Together they take up 1/3 of my desk.

Memory: Early in the decade I was amazed at how a little CF card could hold so much (.5 gig) of data. Early in the decade I paid $65 for a 256K jump drive. Recently I saw an 8 gig mini SD card for $15 and just bought an 8 gig jump drive for the same price. I threw the 256K drive away.

Wi-FI - Early on it was non-existent, then we got it, we had to use cards and antennas. Today, I expect it everywhere I go (hotels, restaurants, down towns, other people's houses, etc.) and I still really really like it when it's free. It revolutionized the way we work and live. Everything can be done 'real time'. Information is shared instantaneously wherever we are.

Cell - at the beginning of the decade I had a plan where I paid $25 a month for like 20 minutes of calls...basically enough in case of an emergency. Today I no longer have a land line. My wife and I share a plan for $70 and get 550 minutes. We pay an additional $60 for unlimited data. We use the data more than we use the minutes. At the turn of the decade I had a flip phone. It could make calls and it had an internal phonebook. Today I have a device that does just about everything...it can even make a call although not all that well.

Email or should we say electronic communication - sure everyone had email in 2000. I think it was almost like a joke for adults. Today business is conducted via email, instant messages, and texts. People are far more accessible and things happen at a much quicker pace. When buying a house at the beginning of the decade there was very little emailing going on. At the end of the decade, everyone freaked out when I suggested we might actually fax something.

Movie distribution: The beginning of the decade saw DVDs coming of age. They were way way better than VHS. We endured the Bluray HD-DVD format war (Bluray one that one) but now are still waiting to see if Bluray will take off. My fear is that it will go the way of SACD and DVD-Audio....higher quality will loose out to instantaneous and readily available distribution through digital downloads. Again, until the bandwidth catches up, we'll be forced to compress the heck out of the media....and again, most people don't know, don't care, or don't have the equipment to tell the difference between ok and awesome.

Lighting - LEDs are now everywhere, Christmas lights, flashlights, and all over pro-audio. They are different than halogen or incandescent but are still quite useful.

Pro-audio - lots more digital effects and boxes...I'm still waiting for a move to more wireless and digital signal transfer...still way too many wires!

Cars - sure they are safer and have lots more features....big new hear is that one spike in oil prices and all of a sudden everything is green....hybrids were a college student project at the turn of the century and now are a must have for every manufacturer

TVs - in 2000, a plasma (an amazingly thin and flat TV) ran like $20,000...today you can pickup a TV of the same size and probably better resolution for about $1,000...less if you'll take LCD or LED...I purchased 3 TVs this decade...CRT projection, DLP projection, then plasma...I know the first format is dead, I think the second one either is or is close to death. The CRT had wicked new component video connectors, the DLP the new DVI connector and the Plasma HDMI...hopefully that technology will stick around for awhile

Ok....you want my thoughts on any other tech trends leave a comment! I can't wait to see what we'll be chatting about in 2020.

11-23-09 Week in Review

2009-12-03T00:34:00.003-06:00

The week started with my Russian buddies visiting. Good to see what they were working on. Wednesday night we headed down to Bloomington. Right before that my truck started to make some noise.

We stopped for Leonardo's pizza. Got to see my sister's new house (very nice). Thrusday was Thanksgiving. A general good time with the family and of course turkey. We jammed on some rock band that evening and I convinced nearly everyone to get out there on black firday.

Friday started early. We split into two team. I believe my team got named the A-team. We started about 4:40 at Walmart. My sister waited in line and my mom found out where to grab up a Playstation. We got that mission accomplished and were out the door by 5:10. Next stop was Office Max. We spent about 45 minutes in line. They were very organized and handed out cards. We got a memory stick and SD card. I believe we were done there before 6:10. By 6:30 both teams were enjoying breakfast at Hardees. A quick nap and then more family fun on Friday.

Saturday we headed back towards home. We stopped to meet up with Park Lane for a band meeting. That afternoon ran some errands and that night was Skillet! Awesome. We had sweet second row seats. I even caught a drumstick! They so totally rocked.

Sunday we headed back home to prepare for the week ahead.

11-16-09 Week in Review

2009-12-03T00:31:00.004-06:00

Nothing too exciting this week. The biggest event was spending a day back at the old job. It was fun, great to see the people and actually work on somthing I'm good at for once! I went to the dentist as well...no cavities!

Friday we saw our first (and potentially last) ballet...the nutcracker...not only was the play about a nutcracker, between the tights and cod pieces, I'd imagine some other nuts were getting cracked! Not sure how good it was, one of the dancers did a faceplant at one point in time.

Saturday was a nice day. We put up most the Christmas lights and finally fixed our siding from the storm back in June! Woot!

11-9-09 Week in Review

2009-12-03T00:15:00.003-06:00

So this is breaking from the normal format just a bit - we'll start with the Friday before.

Friday was the first day of vacation. It was a lovely day here. I headed out for a walk and for a soak. Afterwards we headed out to the airport...a new experience. One plane at a time. I guess the good news is we got the first parking spot! Anyhow, the flight on a prop plane (long time since I was on one of those) was ok. We were able to get an earlier flight out to CA. Once there we got to experience Friday evening rush hour in LA! We checked into the hotel and headed out for a local dinner in Anahem.

Saturday was the wedding. I'm not supposed to reveal anything about the wedding but I'll say this much, it was one of Jodi's friends and it was at Disneyland. A great reception and lunch followed. Afterwards we headed out to the park with the wedding party. My first experience with the tower of terror (not bad) and a swigning ferris wheel. I hate ferris wheels enough...not sure why I ever thought I'd be ok with a swinging one. Ferris is a sick sick individual.

Sunday was Disneyland again. We hit it early and we hit it hard. I think somehwere in the neighborhood of 12 hours. We did it all. By the end of the night I was so tired I could hardley keep the cars in future land on the little track (thankfully there was the rail to keep you going the right way).

Monday we did a few of our favorite rides again, California Adventure, Toy Story, and Crash (the turtle). Afterwards we headed down to San Diego and hit Seaworld. We did the whole thing (Shamu and all) that day. We finished up with some awesome Mexican in Old Town and a soak in the hot tub at the hotel.

Tuesday was the zoo. Best zoo I've seen. We did almost the whole thing but not quite. We again headed to Old Town for Meixan.

Wednesday we hit the beach. Very nice. Too bad the locals were freezing! They were all wearing jackets and hats like it was winter or something...I stuck with shorts and T-shirt! We headed back upto LA after that. We tried and In and Out burger...not bad. We then hit the Warner Brothers studio tour and then went out to hunt for a cymbal. I tried a Z3 and fell in love. I thought I'd have the guy ship it but he convinced me it fit in my luggage...wrong! We checked into the ultra-luxury hotel Jodi got with her points and tired to find some local pizza for dinner...not much luck. We got to experience LA/Hollywood/Beverly Hills traffic....sucks!

Thursday we headed to Universal. Did the whole park and studio tour. That night we headed out for a Brazilian dinner in Beverly Hills....probably the single most expensive dinner I've ever eaten! Chilled in the hot tub with some firemen from Alerta that night.

Friday we visited a local mall, cruised down Rodeo Drive, and then headed home where there was the lovely scent of manure in the cold cold air...at least the parking meter at the airport was broke so we got free parking.

The weekend was spent catching up at home.

Park Lane - I'm Calling 10/30/09

2009-11-19T23:43:00.001-06:00

Close to You - Park Lane 10/30/09

2009-11-19T23:32:00.001-06:00

11/2/09 Week in Review

2009-11-19T23:24:00.002-06:00

This was pretty much a hell week trying to get stuff done in preparation for vacation! Can't think of much else that happened.

Park Lane - Black and Gold - 7/29/09

2009-11-03T22:28:00.002-06:00

10-26-09 Week in Review

2009-11-02T21:09:00.004-06:00

Last week of the year at work...things get extra nuts. It was a tough week at work as well. A couple people really flipped out for no good reason.

Monday was small group. I got the cases wrapped up on Tuesday. Wed was practice as well as Thursday. I then tore the drums down but couldn't pack and load since it was pouring rain. Friday I packed and loaded. The new cases need a few more handles and I need some ramps. The gig was good. We played very well and as usual, Refuge Rock dug us (you guys rock!). Had some whoppers afterwards and hung out a bit with the band.

This weekend we took it easy. Got some stuff done around the house like changing oil, changing light bulbs, etc. It was quite nice on Sunday. Saturday was Halloween. We setup some par cans and a fog machine. It freaked some kids out...my scream costume did if for others. All in all, a good time!

10-19-09 Week in Review

2009-11-02T21:07:00.001-06:00

Crazy week at work. On the weekend my parents visited. Made significant progress on the cases. I honestly can't remember much more...everything seems like a blur.

Impromptu Drum Solo

2009-10-31T12:20:00.001-05:00

Refuge Rock 10-30-09

10-12-09 Week in review

2009-10-19T23:22:00.003-05:00

Shutdown at work...very nice to get caught up.

Tuesday was the worship team meeting and then my first rehearsal. The rehearsal was terrible. I was completely micromanaged without ever being given any real direction. I was ready to call it quits b/c I just couldn't handle the abuse. I went in trying to serve and just got beat up.

The weekend was much more productive. I can't say that I'm happy with my playing. The kit and me are not friends and they want me to play a bit differently than my normal style...I also got in trouble for stick twirling...sorry, that's just me.

I'll give it at least one more try to see how things work out then. I had a conversation with the powers that be. They seemed generally pleased...and at one point on Saturday even seemed generally positive about the experience.

Sunday was Park Lane rehearsal. Got a second case build this week and the interior to the first case complete except for foam.

10-5-09 week in review

2009-10-19T23:15:00.003-05:00

Monday was our first small group meeting. Good people in the group. We are studying spiritual discipline as a way to deepen our relationships with Christ.

I took the presentation and image refresher this week. It was really good. I also attended a mentoring workshop where I learned I was a dominance type team player that could be defined as a 'developer'. Basically:

Dominance – relating to control, power and assertiveness

Dominance: People who score high in the intensity of the "D" styles factor are very active in dealing with problems and challenges, while low "D" scores are people who want to do more research before committing to a decision. High "D" people are described as demanding, forceful, egocentric, strong willed, driving, determined, ambitious, aggressive, and pioneering. Low D scores describe those who are conservative, low keyed, cooperative, calculating, undemanding, cautious, mild, agreeable, modest and peaceful.

Results, Control, Get Results
Decisive, Direct, Accept Challenges
Impatient, Strong willed
Quick, take action

DEVELOPER Pattern:
Motivated by basically one drive,
the DOMINANCE need.
“Full steam ahead!”

makes me sound awfully ruthless. I agree with some of it but I just think there are more sides to be than that.

Saturday dad visited and we hammered out most of one case. I was a fun time. Sunday I had to get other things done.

9-28-09 week in review

2009-10-19T23:12:00.004-05:00

I got wood this week for the cases? On the weekend I laminated all the wood and cut all the pieces for the cases. Saturday was quite cool. We headed to the UNI game for some tailgating with the people I work with. UNI was up like 48 nothing at the half so we left.

Friday night we headed over to the Wilks' for dinner. It was a great time. We stayed up too late!

9-21-09 Week in Review

2009-10-19T23:10:00.002-05:00

not really sure what went on here...I think some case materials showed up. On Sunday we had the intro to our small groups at chruch. Two of the three new couples dropped out after that meeting...I guess me and Jodi are the only ones sticking it out.

SNL vs. Obama

2009-10-06T05:53:00.003-05:00

I was shocked to see SNL actually slam Obama. The media has switched from singing his praises to defending him.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl942

Kinda funny that someone felt compelled to write an article after a spoof on a comedy show!! It's not even real!

9-14-09 Week in Review

2009-09-23T22:46:00.003-05:00

The week really went to crap at work. Other than that, we spent another weekend in Cedar Falls. Sunday Park Lane came up for rehearsal. I built as much of the split snake as I could with out getting the tool to fix the connectors I messed up. I finished designing the road cases and started to order parts. We worked on picking out tile for our bathroom.

I finally got back in the drum groove with the Park Lane rehearsal.

Still contemplating what I'm supposed to be doing or learning from the audition experience. My two theories are:

1. not supposed to play at all...need to find other ways to serve (the more I pray about this the less I think this is correct)
2. not supposed to be on the regular 3 week rotation because there are other things I need to do...this actually seems right the more I pray about it

9-7-09 Week in Review

2009-09-23T22:37:00.003-05:00

Yes, my audition was as bad as it seemed. They said I looked great but couldn't really play worth a darn. Based on that experience I'd have to say I agree with the playing bad part but I don't really recall looking all that great either. They asked why I stunk it up so bad...my list of excuses is below. I'm really thinking that God is teaching me a lesson here. It's not logical I didn't do well. I don't know what I'm supposed to learn here but every other time I've miserably failed at something in my life that I should have done well at, I've always found a very good reason for it later on. Right now I'm just going with the flow. They said they were putting me in as an alternate and that I'd get a call in the next 6-8 weeks.

On Sunday I headed out and explored the bike paths of Cedar Falls and Waterloo. They aren't too bad...the best on road trails I've had since living in Aurora. I got neck deep in designing road cases and started to build the split snake...I really screwed a few things up.

1. Click sound was strange to me, never played live with a backing track
2. Didn’t really know what the outcome was supposed to be on new songs since I was hearing them/learning them in real time during the performance
3. Didn’t speak the same language (‘regular beat’, 'and 'vs. 'ah' when counting)
4. Not used to taking orders…particularly on the go
5. Drums not comfortable...not only an itty bitty kit but they and hardware was of poor quality
6. I was rushed (tough day at work, on way out of town)
7. Papa Roach song was a poor selection for a Church that is fairly conservative in it's music selection

8-31-09 Week in Review

2009-09-23T22:34:00.002-05:00

I remember this week being fairly busy. I auditioned for the Church band...it was less than good. Friday I took off to help my Dad put a new floor in his kitchen. Between my Jodi, my sister, brother in law and Dad we got it taken care of by Sunday.

I bought parts to convert my audio snake into a split snake. I started to think about designing road cases.

8-24-09 Week in Review

2009-09-23T22:29:00.004-05:00

Ummm.....I like did stuff....and stuff....oh yea, then we headed down to the QC. We met some people at Azteca, headed to a 21st b-day party and then rocked out on a bus...a moving bus.

I took a look at a new truck too...quite expensive.

Park Lane - Life Love Faith 7/30/09 @ Refuge Rock

2009-09-09T22:39:00.004-05:00

The embedded image isn't right...go here to see it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=707BlgeDI74

Progressive Nation 2009

2009-08-23T22:25:00.001-05:00

8-17-09 Week in Review

2009-08-23T22:13:00.003-05:00

A real crazy one. I can't quite remember but we had stuff going on every night last week. I do know I had my spiritual interview for acceptance on the praise team at our new Church (pass). My audition is in a couple of weeks. Too bad I'll hardly be playing the drums until that time. Thursday I headed back to the QC for work. Kind of strange to be a visitor.

Friday we headed up to Minneapolis. We did a bit of shopping on Friday and was then off to see Dream Theater. Progressive Nation was great. All the bands did a great job. I really enjoyed Zappa plays Zappa. Dream Theater was great too. I wish they'd play longer sets...they can only fit like 6 songs in 90 minutes. Afterwards we tried to get dinner. Apparently 11:00 is too late for dinner in Minneapolis. We eventually got some nachos at Bent River Brewery and saw some of the guys (and gal) from Bigelf and Zappa there.

Saturday we checked out the science museum and the uptown. We had a great dinner at an out of the way french place. Sunday we had breakfast and then headed home. I was able to complete the circles and hang the knife rack. In combination with the stuff we hung up this week, we were able to scratch more off the to do list!

Tonight we watched Grand Torino. Great movie. Not 100% my thing but a great movie none the less. Go watch it.

8-10-09 Week in Review

2009-08-17T23:04:00.004-05:00

Hi all.

Last week was rather hectic at work. Other than that we visited Church two nights, one to hear about some mission trips and the other to learn about opportunities to serve. I got an interview setup to join the praise team. It'll be nice to play in that situation again. They suggested that Jodi join on the tech team so that we could serve together. I thought it was a great idea and there seems to be some spots that Jodi is interested in. I think they are shooting low and don't realize that she could do many of the more advanced jobs already!

Friday I packed up the kit and Saturday we headed down to Music on the Lawn 2009 take 2. Oddly enough it was exactly one year after the outdoor concert last year, when the guys from Park Lane and I first met. Anyhow, we got set up, got Butch setup, and were ready to got in plenty of time. The other band did their thing and then we took the stage. I'm told it sounded great, we had quite a few people and the kids were going nuts. Leo let the kids up on the stage during my drum solo which I thought was a great addition. I kept the kids engaged all night by occasionally throwing out a drumstick. Good thing I chew through those things quickly!

Sunday we visited my parents. Apparently they are refinishing half their house. Jodi helped picked colors and I hung out with my Dad. That evening we headed to their Church an I helped a local band out and ran sound for them. It wasn't too bad but I wasn't really happy with the sound. I think I was at the extent of the equipment, especially the monitors were mucking things up.

8-3-09 Week in Review

2009-08-09T20:53:00.004-05:00

Tues and Thurs were BBQs down the street. I met a guy who not only knew who Dream Theater was but also had some Cds. I showed him a picture of my kit and we immediately had to return to view it in person. I got most the patio sealed as well. Saturday Jodi and I went to the Lost Island water park. I was much more crowded this year, perhaps this is because it was the first hot day in over a month! It was funny but between Jodi wussing out on some of the rides and then giving up early, it could have been more fun. I did learn how to race better. My best time was 11.15 which was the best Jodi had seen that day. I was able to beat three frat guys too who knew the lifeguard and was getting tips from him. Sunday I headed down for rehearsal. It was fairly productive.

Check out this picture we took tonight...unfortunately we were not able to capture the actual colors/effect.

Music on the Lawn - Rescheduled

2009-08-08T07:41:00.001-05:00

13^th Annual

Music on the Lawn

Saturday, August 15^th, 2009

5 – 8 pm

Park View Lutheran Church

14 Grove Road Park View, IA

Live music by

Legacy

Fulton, IL

www.legacymusicministry.com

Dave Paris Group

Cedar Rapids, IA

www.daveparis.com

Park Lane

Eldridge, IA

www.parklanerocks.com

Come out for this great outdoor event.

Music, food, Bounce jumping balloon – all FREE!

Bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating.

Concessions provided by the LYTES youth group.

For more info call (563)285-9035.

Rain or shine event - will move indoors if necessary.

July - Month in Review

2009-08-04T23:34:00.004-05:00

Sorry for not keeping this up...I guess we've been buys.

Let's see what happened...got a new boss (4th one this fiscal year).

Visited Mo.

Sat in hot tub and enjoyed fireworks.

Decided to join Prairie Lakes Church.

Had a major storm that blew siding off our house and destroyed our hot tub cover.

Moved hot tub.

Built fence around hot tub.

Did landscaping around hot tub.

Got granite counter tops.

Visited Chicago and spent two days at Ignite 2009.

Had two weeks of shutdown at work.

Rocked my face off with Park Lane at Refuge Rock.

I guess that's the big stuff. I'll try to keep this more up to date.

Here are a few pictures from Refuge Rock.

Happy 1 year anniversary blog

2009-07-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

They say the first year is the hardest.

6-29-09 Week in Review

2009-07-06T20:37:00.004-05:00

Let's see...I spent two nights this week helping a friend build a play set for his kids...it was quite fun and I couldn't believe how intense it was...I probably still have a night left to wrap things up.

Other than that, we had our 8 year anniversary. Time does fly. We headed out to CU for dinner.

Friday we had the day off. We visited some fabricators and chose one to make our granite counter tops. We were then down to Jodi's parents. Friday we saw a play at the local college and Saturday we visited Heartland...the people who make our milk. Saturday we headed home in time for the fireworks which we had the best seat in town for...right from our hot tub! I had gotten the outdoor speakers installed a few weeks back so we were able to listen and 'soak' it all in!

Sunday I tried to fix my truck window...turns out the problem is my truck is old and worn out! Oh well, I think it just keeps getting better and better. We bought a faucet for our kitchen remodel...same one we got 3 years ago at the old house...at least we know how to install it!

6-22-09 Week in Review

2009-06-28T21:21:00.003-05:00

I packed the drums up Friday and headed down for practice/gig on Saturday. I had this bad feeling the whole time but I just had to go with it. Anyhow, we got down there, setup, rehearsed, all was good. The sound guy showed up and we helped him setup and then went on to set our stuff up. Still, good. The other bands started to show up...checked the radar, storms to the north...less good but still OK. We get done with a crappy sound check....storms forming to the west...not too good but still a slight possibility we'd be OK. The other bands finish equally bad sound checks...severe thunderstorm warning and solid line of red colored storms heading at us.

Even though everyone wanted the show to go on, at this point I change from 'preparing to play' to 'preparing to save my stuff' mode. I made a plan with Jodi on what to do, got ready to get wet, and got the truck and trailer as near as I could to my stuff. About 1 song into the concert by the opening band I see lightning. Now I knew it was reasonable to ask for the show to be shut down. No worry, enter arrival of huge rain drops. Immediate panic and rush by everyone. Got most electronics and drums and cymbals under cover. Rain stops. Continue to pack up (even though some think show can go one now) As packing...arrival of severe thunderstorm, pelting rain, high winds, etc. etc.

Dry equipment, load up, drive 2 hours home. Eat at McDonald's...new tradition after crappy shows. (crappy service BTW)

Update on damage to equipment next week.

6-15-09 Week in Review

2009-06-28T21:15:00.003-05:00

Really the most exciting event of the week was rehabbing our patio. My Dad came down and helped out. Apparently the people who built it used the wrong sand. We put in some of the right stuff, leveled everything out, and then used some polymeric sand to lock ever thing together. Looks ready for the hot tub now!

I got the iPhone 3.0 OS as well. Seems like it may have slowed my phone down a bit...of course not nearly as much as the wicked fast Edge network does as compared the the 3G I had before moving.

Wako Jako

2009-06-26T22:15:00.003-05:00

OK, I told myself I wouldn't do it but I just can't contain myself anymore...yes, it's tragic every time a human dies, especially one deemed to be 'before their time'...just seriously!! Consider the facts!

He was very talented as a child and young adult, he was very successful and on top of his gave (almost 30 years ago) BUT
- the guy hasn't had a hit in 15+ years!
- he was spending 20-30 million more (some say 2X his income) than he was making...if the government, a corporation or individual did that we'd want them thrown in jail
- he was repeatedly accused of abusing children
- his erratic behavior seems to indicate drug abuse
- he was probably very influential to some people but not all musicians...and probably none that have influenced me
- he chose to alter his actual appearance so much, his own mother probably couldn't recognize him...nor did he really retain an 'I'm human' image

Please, can we get over it! Hopefully the sudden spike in his album sales can cover some of the money he owes to his creditors (if not, Obama will probably bail him out and send me the bill on April 15th).

I just can't take it anymore

6/8/09 Week in Review

2009-06-18T01:31:00.004-05:00

Another 4 day week! Sweet. Got a few things marked off the list...like disposing of some concrete and the old grill. Received Avenged Sevenfold DVD...quite a show, those guys know how to rock.

Friday night the guys from Park Lane arrived....and just as they did so did the rain. We grilled out any how but ate inside. We had a great rehearsal and packed up for Bash. Bash was great. We had a good crowd and sounded good. There were a few mistakes here and there but nothing too major. Great weather for Bash too (the rain went away and it wasn't too hot). We had pizza with Dave Paris and his band afterwards. Good discussion.

I installed the outdoor speakers on my day off. Now, just to move the hot tub.

Internet update: received and installed bridge. Things work but I seem to need to reboot the router on occasion...I'm not complaining too much.

6/1/09 Week in Review

2009-06-10T23:03:00.004-05:00

Another normal week at work, nothing too exciting...other than I had Friday off! I used the time to take photos of my kits. It was a nice sunny day. I changed the heads and polished things up for the shoot. I think I got some decent shots to submit for the kit of the month. Saturday was rainy. We got some stuff done around the house. Sunday we headed down for rehearsal and for Jodi to go to a shower. We visited our old Church. Everyone seems to be doing well. I fertilized the grass with some gypsum...hope fully that improves the soil so I can reseed this Fall.

In other news, sounds like the 'big 3' are no longer...not a realy suprise. iPhone 3GS will be avaliable soon, nice but I think I'll wait to upgrade.

Internet: ordered new ethernet bridge...hope that will fix issues

5-25-09 Week in Review

2009-06-02T23:22:00.003-05:00

The week started with a day off...yea! We spent it getting things around the house done. I moved on to a 3 day work week because I took Friday off. The weather was great. I exercised, cleaned the trailer, and worked on my 'mini me' drum set. Quite a productive day. It wrapped up with us getting materials for our first landscaping project at the new house....much like at the last house, putting landscaping around the trees. Saturday we headed down to Park Lane rehearsal and performance. We played a battle of the bands of sorts. Again, we were a bit too old for the clientele to be a viable winner but we rocked and got decent response from the audience. Sunday we hit church and headed home.

We did try a decent restaurant, Ferrari's. It was rather tasty.

The Internet continues to be a struggle. Not sure what is wrong yet.

5/18/09 Week in Review

2009-05-25T18:09:00.008-05:00

Another fairly normal week at work. I did have my performance review, seems I'm doing good but I could be a bit nicer...point taken. I'd been in a fairly grumpy mood. We went to the water park this week for mini golf and go-karting. Perhaps that put me in a less grumpy mood?

Work continued on 'mini me'. I decided that rather than trying to scale back my drums I'd create another set that would be smaller. With only changing a few components over, I'd have either my primary set with all the bells and whistles (actually there is no whistle) or a stripped down functional kit that I can use on all these gigs where we get 10 minutes to setup and sound check.

We headed up to Jodi's cousin's for a grad party. The rest of the weekend was spent at home

enjoying perfect weather. I got both the truck and the car washed and in showroom condition and took care of a few other things around the house.

Internet updated: I'm singling in on the issue. Seems to either be by Ethernet bridge for some reason causes the entire network to crash or the security settings are screwing everything up. In any case, things are looking up right now.

5-11-09 Week in Review

2009-05-17T21:39:00.008-05:00

Quite a hectic week...I'm still in the need of an 8 day week to try to get caught up.

We'll this week the m*!#@r f&%@#$g internet stopped working again. I can't believe that thing. I'm starting to think something is not set right somewhere. Any computer geeks out there want to give me a hand?

I did some running. It was good. I found chasing girls helps motivate me. I also like our home gym. It's very convenient and provides a good work out. Only issues is the frequency of use. (is that called user error?)

Friday I loaded the drums up in the new trailer. We took off bright and early Saturday for the cities. We hooked the trailer up to Tony's van and were off to our gig. We got there at noon like we were supposed to however nothing got going until like 3:30...what a waste of time. Besides that we were the oldest band there by like 15 years. The sound was poor, there was about 0 organization and the concert probably didn't raise hardly any funds for the emergency pregnancy center. On top of that we had no sound check so we sounded bad, couldn't hear and played poorly but that wasn't such a big deal since there were like 10 people there. Anyway, total waste but the good thing was it was great fun hanging out with the guys in the band and Jodi. We crashed at Tony's and it was good.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Park-Lane/81910201587?ref=nf#/album.php?aid=80149&id=81910201587&ref=mf

Sunday we were back at Heritage and it was good to. Amazing to see how much they'd grown since we were there last in late Feb! Made me miss it and wonder what the heck I'm supposed to be doing now. I tried to tame our weeds when we got back and met a few neighbors. Kinda interesting, they all were trying to show me how cool they were (probably because they inadequate standing next to me :)). Anyhow...looks like I need to get a jack hammer to get the rest of the cement from around the old basketball post out. That should be fun...hopefully I don't decide the 900 sq. ft. patio is too big! Maybe I can borrow one of my neighbor's tractor/trailer combos to haul the debris away!

WTF?

2009-05-13T22:27:00.002-05:00

Courtesy of http://www.akwardfamilyphotos.com/

Is this Eminem? Not sure...this goes to show that there is a fine line between artistic genius and total stupidity. Can you imagine this hanging in a mall somewhere to try to trump up business?

There's so much wrong with this picture I can't even begin...let's hope that no innocent by-standers got hurt and that the photographer called the department of family services soon after this picture was taken.

Dream Theater's New Video

2009-05-11T22:09:00.001-05:00