5/18/09 Week in Review

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

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?

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

5-4-09 Week in Review

Maybe one of these weeks it will get warm here...just maybe. I did try cutting part of the grass today (a few of the high spots)...are yard is a freakn' disaster. We have at least 1.66 dead trees as well.

Any how, work kept me bust this week. I need something like an 8 day week to try to get caught back up. I visited a few tire supplier on Monday...what an interesting industry.

My sister stopped by Tuesday night and saw the new house. Always good to see family.

The good: conclusion to the garage door opener saga...it finally works now that we have the frequency changed out...too bad it costs $80 to get it done

The bad: Internet no longer working, replaced router...I'm pretty sure it's possessed

The ugly: I'm thinking of downsizing my kit a bit....move if from the praise prog monster it is to more of a hard rock (with progressive tendencies) kit to support Park Lane better. Before I did that I wanted to take picture to submit for Modern Drummer's 'kit of the month' contest. I just didn't get a decent picture but I'll share a few that I think were the best

The repeat: last year in May our server crashed and we lost all sorts of data...it was really really bad. This May our DVR crashed and we lost all our recored shows (like my Dream Theater and Rush concernts in HD)...at least the data we lost this time wasn't so important

4-27-09 Week In Review

We finally got Jodi's oil changed...I couldn't get the right tool but one of the ones that was close in size got jammed on the filter thingy and I was able to get if off. Not sure what the dealership used to put it on with during the free oil change but I think it took about 140 ft-lb to get it off! The oil filler cap probably took 50 ft-lb...I guess the didn't want it leaking out!

I was able to order parts for our garage door opener...what a saga...you'll have to keep reading to see if the problem got resolved.

Jodi and I went out to eat for my Birthday. Like most resturants here, it was ok but nothing to write home about. I attended by frist 'guys night' and the new local. They were in to playing poker. I gave it a shot. It would have been more fun had I had even the slightest idea about what I was doing (or had won).

Over the weekend we headed down to the QC again. I had my first Park Lane rehersal in months...and it was good! It took a few songs but I remembered what it was like to be a drummer. I think everyone felt really good. We sounded great although a few songs could have been a bit tighter. I'm really looking forward to the touring we'll be doing this summer.

Saturday I also picked up a trailer for hauling the drums around. It's a nice little 5x8. It's much more convienent than trying to rent or relying on others!

4/20/09 Week in Review

Another crazy one at work. Over the weekend we headed down to see Jodi's parents. I'm getting tired of driving everywhere. We did hang out with the accountants one evening. It was a generally good time and nice to meet some new people in the new location.

Worst thing is that the garage door opener still doesn't work and now Jodi's car is up on ramps in the garage with the oil out but I don't have the special service tool to take the oil filter like thing off.