Christmas Letter 2010

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

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

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

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

Park Lane - Companion - Music on the Lawn 2010`

Park Lane - Broken - Music on the Lawn

Park Lane - Rain - Music on the Lawn 2010

Park Lane - Love Will Conquer All

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

Park Lane - Feel Like Before

Park Lane - Power - Music on the Lawn

Park Lane - Black and Gold - Music on the Lawn

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

Park Lane - Always There - Music on the Lawn 2010

With Everything - Heritage Weslyan Church 12-7-08

Park Lane Behind the Scenes

Park Lane - Fortune Falling - Music on the Lawn 2010

7-5-10 Week in Review

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

Miniature Kit

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

Miller Percussion and big brother Miller Racing

6/28/10ish Week in Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

I edited together my solo...

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

1-25-09 Week in Review

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

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

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

go go double kicks!

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

1-11-10 Week in Reveiw

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

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

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.