Plans to Match

I guess we are back

2008-11-25T18:58:00.000-08:00

I have decided not to post about household stuff here. Just my projects. So far there are more than I care to count.

Universal Audio LN1176 rev f ....two of them
Calrec passive EQ ---only one for now
2 - Five Fish Audio SC-1 preamps
2 - SLL Bus Compressors

I will be posting pictures of the builds also.

Later gator.

No good deed goes unpunished

2008-07-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

The people who built a house for free for an Atlanta family got kicked in the teeth this week. Their work is in foreclosure. The Extreme home makeover Clayton house went on the block because the folks who received it took out a crazy loan that they could not pay back.

Not only did they lose their first crappy house they are now on the street because of money mismanagement. It's now an "Extreme Home Foreclosure". If someone would give us a house and $250,000 in scholarships I promise that we won't lose them.

Hard Times Tavern

2008-07-24T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hard Times Tavern were drinkin ain't for sissies and cousins ain't just for kissin.

I made up the first line but this is from their website:

“We Are NOT A Restaurant, Just A Tavern With Occasional Good Pub Food!”

My translation "Occasionally we have good food if you have been drinking enough"

The photo on the website just about says it all.

No new posts until now...

2008-07-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

I have not posted in a while, I have been busy. Today my dad stopped by with a clipping from the town newspaper where I grew up. It's called the Time Herald Record dated July 7, 2008.

The clipping talks about all the new businesses in town and how business is booming.

A short list of new businesses from the article:
C&D's Old World Bagels
Mother Earth Nail Spa and Zero Gravity Zone
Racheal's Backdoor Bargins
Pro Automotive
Pine Island Peddler
Pine Island Herb and Spice
Keef's Kiddie Exchange
Get in Gear
Oops I forgot Gift Shop
Jack's Plaza with baker, salon, and design studio

I don't even want to know what backdoor bargins are.

This is the list that makes the paper as a boom. All that is missing from each of the names is "and Tanning Salon". You know the signs you see as you drive through east Jesus and you are so lost that the GPS doesn't even have the road. Well that is where I grew up.

The quote I like best from the article was "It's just such a community. There are no yuppies." That's because we all moved away in the early 80s when we couldn't wait for the "Mother Earth Nail Spa, Zero Gravity Zone, Bagel Shoppe, and Tanning Salon" to open in 2008. "It's a terrific, fast growing area" was another quote from the article. People, I have seen people in walkers move faster than this community. It was crap in the 80s and it looks like nothing has changed.

What I found even more interesting was what was on the back page of this article. Headline: "Windows Vista program lives up to all the hype", it was written by Edison Guzman. Where is this guy from? Is he fresh out of MSE night school? One of the bullets was "Less reliance on IT support." That is because your IT department won't touch it. I personally removed it from two machines that I had purchased. One became a Ubuntu Linux box and the other a Windows XP box. In fact the computer I am using now is Ubuntu Linux. It works great and guess how much the operating system was? Zero, zip, nada.

Edison touts Vista security. How more secure is it than Linux? He doesn't say. I din't find anything he said in the article to be true from my own personal experience. According to the guy in the Times Herald Record, I am wrong. My next plan is to speak with Edison about my terabytes of genomic data that I need to analyze. I am sure there is a Vista program that I can purchase. Maybe Excel 2007? Edison is the chair for the local SCORE.

I scorn and mock them. That was fun. Today has been a great day. Shamoopie and I had an anniversary today and the I received this article from my dad. Awesome! Next I mock Steven Segal..............................again.

Those who don't fear me should!

2008-07-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

I am 78% evil at least according to Bubblewench.

You Are 78% Evil

You are very evil. And you're too evil to care.

Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot.

How Evil Are You?

and a hopeless romantic according to the Shamoopie!

Trying to kill me

2008-06-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

I believe that Shamoopie is trying to kill me. She had a great idea about buying a gazebo from Target. They were on sale so we went down there last night and bought one. All I had to do was set it up this morning.

Three hours later and with the help of everyone, it was completed. I was extremely tired. So for the rest of the day I am doing nothing.

So now I am going to take a nap while watching some Japanese Animation.

That was rough and I had my own plans for today.

Vista world

2008-06-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

It's a Vista world now.

And this world sucks.

Vista has to be the worst operating system ever to be sold. Worse that Windows 98 and Millennium combined. Dos and Windows 3.1 seem like heaven compared to this POS that is now the only Microsoft game in town as of Monday. Be prepared to buy Linux. Either Redhat or OpenSUSE. It really doesn't matter. At least they both work without random system crashes.

I have removed Vista from every computer it came on because it would crash. YES....it CRASHED EVERY CHANCE IT GOT and it had plenty of chances.

Cheap Hotels

2008-06-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

If you think that you are getting a deal because they have reduced the price of the hotel room on-line. You are not. Shamoopie and I went to Nashville for the Gibson Summer Jam 2008 and the NAMM show. Since we left on a Wednesday night we decided to stop halfway there and stay in a hotel. Not wanting to leave anything to chance I booked a hotel room from Travelocity. The hotel was supposed to be $80 a night and I got it for $50. A deal.

Well it was not worth $30. When we got there the hotel clerk asked to see my drivers license, so I gave it to her. She them proceeded to photocopy it right in front of me. I can honestly say that has never happened to me before. When I got back in the car after getting our room key, I mentioned this to Shamoopie and she thought that it was because I had never stayed in a fleabag motel before. Fleas would be hard pressed to stay in this place.

I rather like all the cigarette butts on the ground outside our room and the loud mufflers on the pickup trucks as we tried to go to sleep. Then there was the deal with the television. We don't have one here so getting to stay in a hotel means that we can watch all kinds of garbage on tv and catch up on the crap on tv. Well this tv would not even turn on. So I called the fron desk and asked if the tv was extra. She said no and that she would send the mechanic to come and fix it. The mechanic came to our room and she was a 50 something short round woman with tatoos and missing teeth. She took the remote and pressed it then said "yep it's broken". She then tried to reprogram the remote for twenty minutes and when she finally gave up she walked out and said that she would be right back. Twenty minutes later she showed up with another remote. This one worked. Shamoopie thought at that point that the mechanic was going to sit down and ask us what we planned on watching tonight. You get free HBO you know!

Instead she just left.

Breakfast was included. There were some jelly packs. A couple of biscuits and a large crockpot of old looking gravy. If you felt ambitious you could make your own white toast from the open bags of bread and the small toaster. Awesome.

So we got in the car and went to the McDonalds just down the road.

Gibson Summer Jam 2008 and NAMM show

2008-06-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

Shamoopie and I just got back from the Gibson Summer Jam 2008 and NAMM show held in Nashville, TN. Gibson used to have a great show and now it seems like a feeble excuse to keep people away from the NAMM show downtown. They didn't need to try very hard.

The NAMM show was a bust. Usually there are lots of great new things to see. Not so this year. Usually there are lots of things to make fun of. Like a keytar is was just a great thing to mock. Did we have a keytar like instrument at NAMM. NO! Nothing that unusual. Did we have any cool SWAG this year. NO! Wheat guitar picks, that was the SWAG. No tshirts or cables or software or bumper stickers. Just Wheat Guitar PICKS. Then Gibson wanted me to buy a special NAMM guitar for $3800. Not if I am paying $20 for a tshirt buddy and $50 for a golf shirt. Sell that shit to Dr. Katz, he can't play guitar anyway.

So my conclusion is that the industry is hurting. Hurting from the economy and food prices and gas prices and the internet bubble burst and the Canadians running hollywood. Truthfully, look at how many of todays stars are from Canada. I blame the Canadians for their dollars being worth so much. It obviously has screwed up the NAMM show and the Gibson party. It's has a ripple affect across the globe. Next thing you know there will only be Wheat Guitar Picks and Keytars. No more NAMM show and no more Gibson. Let's stop the madness now and go back to the way it was before. First thing we do is deport all the Canadians and give each one a Keytar and a Wheat guitar pick as they leave. Then we bring back the SWAG and limit who can go to these shows. Druckin grandmas in faux leopard prints should not be going to these shows. Drunkin grandma didn't even clean up her speed taco mess. She just piled it up in front of the blad dude and left. He wasn't even with her or her party.

That should solve the problem. Remember this is coming from the guy who's dog is NAMED Gibson.

I will be at the Jean Larrivee booth, he is a cool dude. The Eastman guys were also very nice to us. :)

Gibson Summer Jam 2008

2008-06-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

We went to Gibson's Summer Jam 2008 and it has been a complete bust. I have been going to Gibson events since the 90s. They have usually been great at least until this year. Maybe it's the economy or maybe it was just me. Johnny Winter was ok. Not exactly what I had expected. At first I thought that he was blind until he looked at his watch to see if he should quit yet or not.

The events used to have a lot less people at them. Now there are tons of drunk smokers. Tonight they were so bad we left right after the Corporate Battle of the Bands was over. The bands we heard were bad, I mean really bad. It rained while they were playing and that didn't help the situation.

Golf

2008-06-17T17:16:00.000-07:00

So I have not played golf in a while. Last time I played was two years ago and it was only nine holes. I got five pars and four others. Today was the first time back since then. I played a much harder course. It was long an narrow. Only one par for 15 holes it was a par five and I was very tired. Ridiculously so. It was onl 89 degrees outside. For around here that is great weather.

Bubblewench and her husband are coming to visit us and he wants to play golf. Right now, I stink. I could not putt to save my life. The greens were fast, very fast. It used to be that this was not a problem. My driving was as always. Not very far but always straight. Irons were horrible and pitching was even worse.

I told Shamoopie that I need to play some. Problem is that Kicky pants is not allowed on any of the courses that I know about. Babies are not covered under insurance.

Oh boy, my back still hurts. Were is the Alltel Wizard when you need him? I mean really.

15 Years in a nutshell

2008-06-15T06:14:00.000-07:00

1) I have been a musician for as long as I can remember. This year I will have been playing guitar for three years longer than shamoopie has been alive. FYI, I am only 29 and holding. :)

2) Had a little girl named Lovely. Who has been and is very lovely. We have a great time together. I mock her profusley. :) She has started mocking me back.

3) Played in many rock bands, a country band, a blues band. The blues band one the local competition and ending up playing with Buddy Guy and others at local concerts.

4) Studied Jazz guitar with Howard Morgen for a year and a half until one day I told him that I could work on the rest of this by myself. He responded that "yes I could but I wouldn't see his smiling face every week." My response was that I won't have to pay him either and he said, "Well yes, there is that you know".

5) Still working on classical guitar. This has been a ten year work in progress. I can't seem to use my right hand properly but I am working on it. My goal is to play the Heitor Villa-Lobos pieces properly. It is a lofty goal right now.

6) Got divorced. I highly recommend it if you are unhappy with your current relationship. It's painful but well worth it and better than staying in a bad relationship and being miserable.

7) Worked for Big Pharma in drug research until they recently laid me off when they said that Genetics was not important to drug research. I have a much better job now and I am having fun working again. The last three years there were not much fun at all.

8) Started a non-profit with a friend of mine for global heath. It is more work than I care to mention. I didn't realize that BEFORE I started it. Starting it I hope is worse than running it.

9) Met and married the Shamoopie. She is the best person I know and is sweet to me and lovely and everyone she meets. That was a great day.

10) Had Mr. Kicky Pants with my Shamoopie. It was the longest 33 hours of labor and I was only wacthing and trying to give support. The boy has been trying to kill us both ever since. He had WAY too much energy for a four month old.

Tag I am it

2008-06-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

I am not sure what tagging is. Shamoopie says that I have to write about something besides the Alltel Wizard and the cool van with the Wizard on the side, or the guy with the yellow shirt from sprint...

Bubblewench has me laughing so hard I can't think right now. Her comment on Shamoopie's blog had me in tears.

I will have to do this later.

two can play this game

2008-06-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...
Mommy blogger

blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...
Baby

blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...
Diaper change

blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...
Boobs hurt

blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...blah...
Blogher

Two can play the game Shamoopie...Leave the Wizard alone. :)

Shamoopie and the Wizard

2008-06-12T17:52:00.000-07:00

I am starting to believe that Shamoopie is jealous of my relationship with the Alltel Wizard. You Google Alltel Wizard and I am now the number one return. She says that she is going to start blogging about him just to steal my thunder.

I say, Long Live the Wizard!

Shamoopie....I love you.

Shamoopie's brother can smoke some meat

2008-06-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

So far this week we have had two meals that Shamoopie's brother made. He smoked the meat. He sure is a great meat smoker. They were delicious. That man can smoke some meat. Did I mention that he is a meat smoker?

He smokes it himself. :)

Honestly it was very good and I am through now. Meat smoker. Ok maybe not.

It's good to be a Foo

2008-06-10T04:59:00.000-07:00

It was good to be a Foo, a Foo Fighter that is.

The Foo Fighters recently played with Zepplin's Page and Jones at their show in London. That had to be a good day for all the members of the band that were allowed to play.

Lucky Bastards.

The wife is crazy

2008-06-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

We haven't even moved yet not to mention put an offer on a house and the wife is counting the number of xmas trees that she could setup in our new house for this coming christmas.

Seriously. She is going to cart them in herself and set them up. I told her that I will not help her with that many trees. The woman is xmas crazy. She needs to be stopped.

I love her.

Our new house

2008-06-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

Shamoopie and I love pink. We want a pink house and everything in the house to be pink and cheap brass. Just like things were in the 80s. :) Just kidding.

Our dream home.

This hous eis the strangest thing you will ever see. I always wondered who bought pink carpet that you see on the sample racks. Apparently it was these people. They bought all of it ever made.

The Scheicks actually built this house. I wish them luck selling it. They built it for 2 million and they should have consulted HGTV before they did.

Ed McMahon

2008-06-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Special Ed is losing his house. He hasn't worked in a while, Remember he is 85. Most people are lucky to live that long and Ed is wonder why he can't find work. He wants to work so he can pay off his debt.

His house is on the market for 6.5 million. He only paid 4 million for it and then got a 7.5 million settlement from his insurance company when he had a little mold issue. That's right he is still in debt for the house. Instead of paying the thing off and retiring he borrowed money against it and now can't work to pay it back. HE'S 85 YEARS OLD and a veteran of WWII. World War II, the big one, the one that happened 60 years ago.

Ed's current wife is 32 years his junior. Apparently she wants more children or why else would Ed be working. Maybe she is a little too old for that but how would Ed know, he's 85. Probably not as sharp as he was on the tonight show. He was drunk on star search. Some friends of mine were on the show and said that they filmed multiple episodes at once and that you could tell which ones were shot later in the day because Ed was always sitting on a stool to do the anouncing for the later shows. Because he was too drunk to stand up anymore!

And now here is little Bittney Sears, Biteme Dears, ......I mean Britney Spears to sing and dance for us.

I guess he is off to a trailer park in Florida. Wait, I believe that there might be a condo for sale in Florida.

Unbelievable!

Verizon is buying Alltel ...death to the Wizard

2008-06-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Verizon is buying Alltel. So I guess that this is the end for the Wizard. Long live the Wizard. What would be cool is if they took the Alltel commercials and made the Verizon guy the new friend of the Wizard. Chad could be banished and chased buy dogs, tortured by athletes, yada, yada, and yada.

That my friends would be cool. I should get paid for writing this shit. :) Yeah.

Shania Twain is going through a rough time ...

2008-06-05T17:27:00.001-07:00

In case you didn't know...

Shania Twain is going through a rough time right now. She and Mutt are getting a divorce. Divorce is bad, I should know. I went through one myself. It's difficult but you get through it and you usually come out better on the other side like I did. You find yourself a Shamoopie and you move on with your life. I hope that Shania can find herself a Shamoopie.

Shamoopie also had a rough day today. We went to the pool and the guy with the pony tail stared at her boobs until his wife smacked him on the head. You see we all have it rough sometimes. Shamoopie had it rough cause of the staring and he had it rough cause his wife smacked him in the head. Of course he will probably have to sleep on the couch tonight because of it. Which is rough. So you see pony tail man also has it rough. Not as rough as Shania Twain. Poor Shania, she probably needs a neck massage.

It all evens out in the end.

Shamoopie was wondering if I noticed pony tail man. Of course I did it was difficult not to. She didn't notice him get smacked on the head, I did. :)

It's not wasy being me.

Sad news...

2008-06-03T16:21:00.001-07:00

Bo Diddley is dead.

I loved the Bo. Got the chance to play with him in back in the 90s.

The worst news is that Yoko Ono is still alive!

Proof again that there is no justice in this life.

My blog is down

2008-05-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

Somehow I am still able to post even though I can't see my own blog. How is this possible? The wonders of modern technology.

This stinks.

Tawny Kitaen in Alltel commercial?

2008-05-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

Is that Tawny Kitaen in the new Wizard Alltel commercial? I think that she is playing the wizard's wife. Her legs used to be as almost as good looking as Shamoopies. Shamoopie still has the best legs....ever.

Back from the beach

2008-05-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

Shamoopie and I are back from the beach. The North Carolina beach was lovely as usual. But you people won't like it so don't go to it. :) There were the usual tourists there. We even saw some Jersey Girls. We met them in the grocery store. One of them put their purchases on the counter and then walked off while the cashier rang up her purchase. When it was half way down the belt I started to put our few things on it with the divider between their things and ours and the one who had left came back and said.."That's my stuff there on the belt".

You know the thought had not occurred to me that you intended to purchase those items. :) I thought that you were just there to admire them. Then she huffed passed me and started to argue with the clerk about the price of the wine she buying. "It's twelve niiiiiiinety niiiiine" she said very rudely to the clerk. The manager came over and she was cool about it. She just grabbed it and rang it up again. What do you know it rang up $12.99. She shut up but did not apologize for her mistake.

We knew they were from New Jersey from their accents and their clothing. No one wears velvet sweat suits here. I repeat, NO ONE WEARS VELVET SWEAT SUITS HERE who is from here. It's a dead give away that you are from up north. That the manicured nails and the gold jewelery. Sure enough when we went outside their tags said NEW JERSEY. What were the odds. :) They were driving a Nissan Sentra and staying in a very nice area of the beach. Curious. The small houses are 1.3 million but you just never know about people. They could have at least been a little nicer to us and the cashier instead of acting like they were better that everybody else around them.

That was just one of the many events that happened on the trip. When we got back the disaster struck. The kid we hired to watch the dogs did not show up as often as he was supposed to so when we got home the house stank of urine and dog shit. It was every where. The poor things were not let out of fed as much as they were supposed to be. He was supposed to come four times a day and was getting paid for each visit. It took me an hour just to clean up the first layer, then Shamoopie came behind me and cleaned again and then I went behind her with a bucket of bleach water. Our dining room floor is ruined. I worked hard on it. Half the boards will need to be replaced if I can't figure out a way to get the pee stains off of them. I can't sand and refinish because of the baby. So far I have been avoiding it and just trying to find where the latest smell is coming from.

Shamoopie feels bad about it because she scheduled him to come and I didn't want to leave in the first place and then on our way back I got a ticket. Not for Speeding because I try not to speed. I got one because the tag on the Jeep had expired. Shamoopie's Jeep. I didn't notice it and she had forgotten about it but for some reason the State Trooper would not just give me a warning. Thanks Officer Blizzard. The ticket is for $145. Apparently the poorer counties use this as a way to generate revenue. It is a good thing that we got it before we left for Tennessee next month. No one has stopped her around here for it. Only when I am driving is there a need for a ticket to be given. Awesome.

Name that musician...

2008-05-20T16:47:00.001-07:00

It's time to play name that musician. This past week Shamoopie had a gig with the symphony, they used a drummer for the James Bond medley that they played. It makes sense when you think about songs like "Live and Let Die" . They needed a drummer. The best part was what his name was...wait for it.......wait for it......

His name was Jon Wacker! It gets no better than that baby. I told my friend the drummer that he would get more gigs if his name was Bob Thunderfoot. It's all in the name.

Happy Birthday

2008-05-17T05:54:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday. So far it's pretty good. One issue. The ex-wife. Even though we take Lovely shopping for her mother on Mother's day, Christmas, her mother's birthday. Her mother has yet to take her shopping for me. That duty seems to always fall to Shamoopie the step mom.

Shamoopie has to pick up the pieces that her "real mom" always seems to drop. Yet Lovely id told by her mother that she is not supposed to like her step mom or for that matter even like her at all. Yet Shamoopie continues to do do it because she knows that Lovely would like to even though she does get any thanks for doing it.

I don't know what it is that I will get for my birthday but i am sure that it will be wonderful because Shamoopie took the time to make sure that I get something from everyone.

Thank you Shamoopie!

You voted?

2008-05-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

I hope that most of you voted today. For your information I did not, I did this...

It pretty much sums up what I think of the whole mess.

Little ole granny

2008-04-30T19:32:00.000-07:00

Just when you think that the older generation didn't have a sense of humor and never would swear or drink, you come across something like this....

Korean hotdogs

2008-04-23T18:38:00.000-07:00

Up and down the beach in Busan there were people selling things. Not unlike something that you would see in any city in America. The difference was what they were selling. Some were selling fireworks. Others were selling food.

I believe that this is the Korean version of hotdogs or pretzels sold from a cart.

This is what they were selling. Steamed shells and what looked like bugs. I would like to say that I tried them but I was already having issues from the meals that I did try to eat.

I REALLY didn't need anymore ISSUES.

Korean trip

2008-04-23T18:03:00.001-07:00

As you may have read the Shamoopie posts, I went to Korea two weeks ago. The trip was long. Twenty six hours there and twenty two hours back. I was only there for three full days. All in all the trip went well. I gave my talk and then headed right back.

I stayed in Busan in a hotel overlooking the beach. The Paradise Hotel and Casino. Heavy on the casino part. The rooms were large and the service was excellent. They were all very customer friendly. My hotel is the one in the background. It's the best picture that I could get with the name on the hotel. There were many of them up and down the beach. Mine was the only casino.

Looking from my room you could see the workers busily building something on beach down below my room. The building did not look like a permanent structure but it was difficult to tell what it was. They worked on it all week. Even during the large rain storms.

You really couldn't tell what they were building until they finished it,

THE LAST DAY I WAS THERE!
You will never be able to guess what it was.

It was a Dunkin Donuts for a commercial that they were filming the last day that I was there. Apparently Koreans love Dunkin Donuts, KFC, and Baskin-Robbins because there seems to one of each on every street corner. A fake Dunkin Donuts on the beach. I watched them film people in bathing suits carrying surf boards to the water and them put their big coats back on went filming was done. They were dancing on the deck of the shop and yelling. It was very different and quite surreal. I felt like Bill Murray in the movie "Lost in Translation".

Who needs a crazy ex-wife

2008-04-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

Apparently you-tube does.

Trica Walsh-Smith has gone a rant about her soon to be ex-husband. She was a former Benny Hill girl and now soon to be ex-wife. She is a little angry about the pre-nup she signed and what it is going to cost her. NPR had a segment on this yesterday. The video speaks for itself.

Unbelievable!

So crappy to see u

2008-04-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

As some of you may or may not know I have been on South Korea for the last week. Tomorrow I get to come home. The weather just turned nice and sunny. I am at the beach in Busan. My room overlooks the ocean and they are filming a Duncan Donuts commercial on the beach as I type this.

Korea is awesome. The people all speak English to some extent and seem to genuinely like visitors. Today I blew off the conference after my talk and went walking downtown. I found a fish market and oh my what a sensation of the old nostrils. Live els and fish in tanks waiting for people to buy them. My stomach has not been right since I was served my first authentic Korean meal. The only thing I have been able to eat is breakfast. Which luckily they make a traditional American breakfast. Up until today it has been my only meal. While walking I found a KFC. Then I continued walking after scarfing down "a number run combo prease"(sorry I couldn't resist) and soon realized that there is a KFC on almost every street.

Every street seems to have a KFC and a Duncan Donuts. Hence the need for the commercials. Why not. On TV, I have watched a lot since I can't seem to sleep more than three hours a night, they have full coverage of the Masters and American baseball. The hotel that I am in has a driving range, no golf course just an indoor driving range.

I like these people and I wish I could have brought Shamoopie and the whole family. When the weather is beautiful this place is beautiful. When the weather is bad, not so much. Cloudy and rainy this seaside town is depressing. As soon as the sun came out wow...what a difference.

Can't wait to get home to the wife and CC.

Cum som ni da----mo fo

Little guy's happy table

2008-04-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

The little guy has a happy table. His changing table for some reason makes him happy. Even if he is not getting changed. He just starts to coo and sing as soon as you place him on it.

Since next week I will be in Korea at a conference Shamoopie can just keept the little guy tied to his changing table. Just kidding. She is really worried about me being gone. I promised I would go and give this talk for my boss, so it must be done. Anyone know any Korean phrases? Like how to say "no thank you dog gives me gas". Again, just kidding.

New house hunting

2008-03-30T17:48:00.000-07:00

We started house hunting today. We are trying to move closer to my work so I can cut my drive down. The drive is terrible. It's only a matter of time before I am in a wreck. So Shamoopie has agreed to "Look".

Today we looked at one that was near a major freeway. They never mention that on the listings. For some reason they only try to bring out the good points. There were many good points that were brought out. We did not notice that there were only two bathrooms in a 3500 sq ft house. How is that possible? One small bedroom downstairs with a small bathroom and then there was one large bathroom that was shared by all the others upstairs.

It was huge but there was only one bathroom. It had three sinks, one on three of the walls. Strange. One shell sink with four feet of counter on each wall. One pink shell sink. I miss the 80s.

NCAA Men's Basketball

2008-03-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

All we watch on TV these days is NCAA Men's Basketball. That is all that there should be on TV.

Awesome.

Crappy Hilton Garden Inn

2008-03-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Shamoop and I stay at the worst Hilton Garden Inn ever. We usually like them and I have a Hilton Honors card.

This time it was crap.

We went to the one in Savannah and booked the room in advance because we needed the extra space since we took Lovely and the baby. Our logic was that Lovely could have the front room and we would be in the back with the baby.

No such luck. They didn't have a non-smoking suite when we arrived. Did we reserve one, yes. Did they save us one. Well....no. She sends me upstairs to look at the smoking suite and a regular room. The regular room is the size of our closet and she offered to give us a roll away bed for free. Great....were was it going to go? On top of the baby? They only place it would fit in the room is right next to the main bed. Talk about co-sleeping. The suite is also not two rooms. It's only one long one and does not have a kitchen, large sofa, sink, bar, and full size fridge. It does have a small microwave and an even smaller fridge. Where are we supposed to wash the baby bottles? In the bathroom right next to the toilet of course.

By the time I get back downstairs Shamoopie has talked her into finding us a non-smoking suite. I am not sure where it came from but someone pulled it out of their ass. We checked in and went to our room only to find that the sink is clogged and the floor is wet. Too late, we are tired and by now my socks are wet from discovering that the floor was wet. The baby needed to eat and have a bath and then Shamoopie and I could finally try and get some sleep. We settle in and go to sleep.

The next morning we tell the desk clerk about the we floor and the sink. He says that they will send someone up and fix it.

When we get back that evening the sink is fixed but the floor is still wet. When we called downstairs they said that they don't have a shop vac so they didn't do anything to the floor. Shamoopie told them that Sears had them and they should buy one since they were a large hotel. I don't think he liked that.

Next morning we complained again and we were offered another room. We would need to pack up all the babies things and move ourselves to another room. Never mind.

Did I mention that breakfast wasn't free in this hotel. Every other Hilton Garden Inn I have stayed in breakfast is free. Here it's $50. You don't even get to seat yourself, they place you. You stall have to get your own food and make your waffles but they show you were you can sit. Nice. I have to get my own drinks and food and you then want to charge me $50. I can get waffles and eggs at the Waffle house for much less and they act like they want me there and I can pick my own seat.

That's what I didn't like the most, they acted like they didn't want us there, that we were there for their amusement only. If I want crappy service from people who don't like me I will stay with relatives.

The sad part is we have liked the other HGIs we stayed in, I like the layout and the cost was fine. The one in Savannah is just bad, really bad.

Inlaws and Outlaws

2008-03-24T20:14:00.001-07:00

We went to see Shamoopies Georgia relatives this past weekend. They were interesting and almost exactly what I expected.

They live just outside of Savannah and I like Savannah so the trip worked for me. Lovely had a good time. She like listening to Shamoopie's 90 year old Aunt talk about everybody. It's funny when old people do it. Her Aunt still likes her "Stories" and "The Wheel of Fortune". She used to like "The Price is Right" until that "damn Drew Carey got on there and ruined it. He trys to be a little too funny and that show is serious.". That's was her opinion on the subject.

Lovely liked her because she told it like it is. :) I just thought she was cool, man.

I just want to thank Drew Carey for taking the heat off me while I was meeting Shamoopie's relatives by pissing off her 90 year old Aunt.

Nice work Drew. Keep up the good work.

Rebuilding the studio

2008-03-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

Since we don't have an infinite source of money and I need to rebuild the recording studio, I am beginning to build the parts we need.

Shamoopie needs to start recoding her new cd. Yes there is a reason why her page is called don't take the repeats. She is a musician. I myself also play, I just don't play for a living. But I can engineer. We need somethings to help with the recording.

So....

I have begun collecting parts to build two of these:

Usually they look more like this and cost $2000 each.

So instead I am going to build them. I already have the PC boards and I am ordering the rest of the parts over the next few weeks. Some will be coming from Russia, some are coming from Australia.

The rest are coming from the US. There is only about $200 of parts in each unit. The rest is labor and marketing. The units are modified and I am using different transformers but they will work the same for what I am going to use them for which is limiting. They are limiting amplifiers anyway.

It will be fun to try anyway.

First step is to get the Man Shed ready. Right now it is full of all the things that we didn't want in the house. It must be redone and everything put into it's own place. Lovely has been informed that she will be helping. She is going to learn how to solder and what an electrical circuit is.

Baby poop Lexus

2008-03-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Lexus make a hybrid and one of the color options is Desert Sage Metallic. It's a metal looking green. After Bird was born we have seen this color on something besides a Lexus.

Bird's poop was this color right after he was born. I now have a new name for it. Lexus Bird Poop.

I guess they decided to offer this because Bird poop is natural and biodegradable except for the fact that it was made in diapers that will never degrade.

Who drives a poop colored Lexus. Take a look the next time you see one.

Jabba the Pup

2008-03-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

Shamoopie has a dog that is twelve years old. The other day I came downstairs to find her dog laying in front of the Gibson's food container. This the container that holds his twenty pound bag of food.

Every couple of weeks I have to get e new twenty pound bag for the big guy and this week it was down to half full. Unti it got knocked over by someone. The lid was off and her dog was laying in front of the container. It was now down well below the half way point. Shamoopie's dog only weighs about 15 pounds. She now weighed about 25 pounds and she couldn't move.

She was now Jabba the Pup. She growled at me. We both knew that she couldn't bite me even if she wanted to. She couldn't move but she was determined to defend her new found booty. I only know how much she now weighed because I had to pick her up to move her away from the food.

All she could do was stare at me with this look of "how dare you take me away from heaven sir".

The food door now remains closed and the tops are locked on the food containers to prevent Jabba from returning. Na noogie nabba do do jabba.

Spitzer steps down for gettin down, Shamoopie arranges symphony

2008-03-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

New York State Governor Spitzer is stepping down.

How did he get caught. Someone noticed the young girls in the corner room of the governor's mansion and asked who they were. The Governor's response, "well them's my bitches". 22 year old bitches. So Spitzer now must step down for gettin down. Bow chicka bow bow.

Didn't Mel Brooks say "it's good to be the king" in History of the World? I am one for younger women. But you are supposed to marry them and not just pay them for sex. Beside Shamoopie says no young women. That's her rule. They can't be any younger than her.

Speaking of the Shamoop she is reading this over my shoulder and asking me questions about recording and mixer her new symphony arrangement. So I must go and help her. It does sound really good. She is so talented. My one request from her last symphony arrangement was that she add more double bass. She actually listened to me and did it.

Marry Ann busted for Maryjane

2008-03-11T20:49:00.001-07:00

Dawn Wells the woman who played Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island is serving time for dope possession.

Yep. Sweet Mary Ann a pot head.

And what did she tell the officer who found it in her car. "Hey man, that's not mine man. My stuff is better, man".

Well maybe not so much but she is serving time for some butts. I doobielieve it's true.

66 ain't her age either, she 69 man!

Material girl maybe but definitly not Rock and Roll

2008-03-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

Madonna.

Pop yes.

Rock and Roll.....never.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is inducting Madonna. The queen of pop is being added to a long list of people who have been inducted. Apparently they have run out of people who rock and are taking people whole roll, in the hay that is.

I think that she is talented. Do I have any of her music? No. My point is that she is not Rock and Roll. Madonna is not the first person or even the one thousandth person to come to mind when you mention Rock and Roll.

Shlock and Roll Hall of Fame. If they induct Madonna I dub it the Shlock and Roll Hall of Fame because that is what it is.

I have two words for the induction committee:

Bite me...

There now I can be inducted because that was way more Rock and Roll than Madonna has been.

New Seven Deadly Sins

2008-03-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

The Pope has mad a new list of seven deadly sins. The new things on the list include Drug pushers, the obscenely rich, environmental polluters and “manipulative” genetic scientists. Nothing was mentioned about child molesters. Any reason for that?

The new list did come from the Pope, who is the head of the Catholic church. Isn't that the church that has settled many lawsuits concerning priests who were accused of child molesting?

So let me get this straight,
-----people doing genetics research....going to hell.
-----people selling drugs....................going to hell.
-----rich people.................................going to hell.
-----polluters....................................going to hell.

Child molesting priests.....................going to play golf.

Are rich organizations going to hell? If they are then the whole Catholic church must headed for damnation. They have more money than most corporations. Estimates for their wealth is in the billions. It's difficult to tell, unlike a nonprofit the church's books are not open for public review.

So let's recap this....Genetic researchers going to hell, child molesters not.

Awesome.

What ever happen to Pope John Paul II? When did the dark lord from Star wars take over the church? Can you tell that this has pissed me off? I will calm down in a few minutes, or days, or weeks, maybe.

Alltel Wizard ad comments

2008-03-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

Since I have been getting a ton of traffic because of my Alltel post I decided to add Google ads. After all I am the google authority on Alltel Sprint guy Wizard ad.

They don't read anything else. Just those two posts and then they leave. Posting no comments. Never reading my O-Ugly_O post (one of my personal best, I think). Hey, I am just speaking the truth here, at least as I see it.

As Cartman said, "You will respect my a thor ri tie".

Fat Boy Down

2008-03-04T17:19:00.000-08:00

The fat man behind the boy bands he Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync is going to prison. For fraud. Wow, who didn't see that coming.

Apparently it's illegal to setup a fake business and receive funds from unsuspecting investors. Who knew?

The boys said that Lou was a fraud and sewed him. I guess that they were right.

Bye bye bye.

Do you think Justin Timberlake will come and see him in the pokey?

Two boys

2008-03-02T19:50:00.000-08:00

Gibson the big chocolate lab is sleeping on the floor right next to my side of the bed and the Little bird is sleeping on a pillow right next to me in the middle of the bed.

I know this won't last long so I hate to move the bird but right here seems to be a great place to be for the moment. So my two boys are sleeping with me right now. One is snoring very loudly and th other is having gas.

It's awesome. :)

A Series of Unfortunate Events

2008-03-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

A series of unfortunate events have occurred recently. All around technology. I have my own webpage, well I should say had my own webpage. It seems that the site management company Total Choice Hosting forgot to renew my web address or what some people call the site name.

Yes I said forgot to renew my web address. That means that my name is now out in the pool for anyone to pickup. My website still exists but you can't get to it unless you know the server name.

I have been paying them for years to run this site and have had only minor problems, nothing major. They actually had been pretty good until now. This however is really really bad. It's their job to manage this. I was actually considering them to host a major site that I have been building for a non-profit. It would see a lot more traffic than my simple couple of pages. But I can't recommend them now as even an option without looking stupid. Forgot to renew the site. That's like a parent forgetting to feed the kid.

Idiots, I can't believe they did that. Then I look at what else is going on.

They are not alone in the idiot department. It seems that quite a few companies are being run by idiots. At least the ones handling my accounts. It gets funny when they try to charge me for their errors. I like that one the best.

Yoeeeehhhhaaaaaeeeeee

2008-02-29T17:33:00.000-08:00

I have found nirvana and here it is:

All I can say is Yoeeeehhhhaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Shamoopie is upset

2008-02-28T18:49:00.000-08:00

The shamoop is a little upset tonight. It seems we accidentally sold her old car. She had a '92 Volvo 940 Turbo and the turbo had gone out on it so it made it impossible to drive. I wanted to salvage it but she would not let me. So she listed it on Craig's List and low and behold it sold in 2 hours.

You would think that she would be happy it wasn't going to the junk yard. :)

Now I can get my Porsche! Just kidding.

can't type with baby in arm

2008-02-26T19:30:00.000-08:00

I am finding it really difficult to type and for that matter do anything with a baby in my arm.

He is so dare cute. It's too easy not to want to put him down.

It is also hard to believe that he is one month old.

my arm is now a.....sleep.........

Dave Grohl and Will Ferrell

2008-02-23T08:01:00.000-08:00

One of the funniest things I have seen in a while. There is adult language so keep the speakers low.
I think Dave said it best "Your F*&%$*@ me up Will!".

Trashman

2008-02-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

Webster define them as: a worker who collects and hauls away trash.

Waste Management makes it look like an exciting career. Words are used like "Environmental Stewardship" and "Social Responsibility Report".

How about we call it what it is and you just start doing what you are paid to do. Pick up the trash! Here i town they have gone to automated pickup. One driver and one guy on the back of the truck. They no longer "pickup" the trash. The truck does all the work. Anything not in the can is left right where it sits. They don't get off the truck.

Just a reminder that they are trashmen. Collecting is the first part. It wasn't that long ago that they used to come twice a week and go behind your house and bring the cans to the truck. Now not only do I have to bring the can to the street, pickup is only once a week. Since most things are recycled, there usually isn't much in the can anyway.

Which makes me think. When do you decide to become a trashman? I remember as a child saying when I was asked what I wanted to do when I grew up "I want to collect the trash".

I have decided that I am quitting my current job in genetics research to become a trashman.....or puppet master. :)

Food prices - olive oil

2008-02-19T16:53:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie sent me to the store for some olive oil. I got it and was shocked that one small bottle cost me $13. I noticed that food prices were up but ....

Yes I wrote $13. This was at least four times the price of the same amount of gasoline.

It may be oil but it grows on trees the last time I checked.

Me thinks that the recession is here and inflation has started. Oil is now $100 a barrel and olive oil is $400 a barrel.

This is just wrong people. Diet Coke is only $2 a case. Maybe I can cook with that?

End of the Alltel wizard commercials

2008-02-18T20:48:00.000-08:00

I believe that the latest "Wizard" commercial will be the last. They stink. I don't know who came up with them but they should be fired.

Next the commercials will have fire breathing dragons. There were so many ways to take those commercials that they didn't try.

Wizard...this is why I switched from Alltel to Sprint, and then switched from Sprint to ATT. Or maybe it was because of the free phones that don't seem to work. You would think that I would learn. I have a new phone from ATT that has been recalled by the manufacture because of a broken antenna and ATT says that they have never heard anything about it. Each time thinking that this will fix my phone issue. Sprint had the best service. ATT maybe all around the world but it just ain't here.

Alltel should do a commercial about how there is no customer service after the sale at any of the phone stores, even Alltel. If they are not getting you to upgrade and sign another two year contract they don't want to talk to you and just play dumb about any issues.

WIZARD.................Please fix my phone.

His reply..... I can't! Unless you sign a new contract.

That would put an end to the commercials.

Sleeping babies attack

2008-02-17T19:25:00.000-08:00

We have a new little guy here at the house. He is three weeks old and I swear that he is plotting his next attack when he is pretending to sleep. I think that it goes something like this:

Step 1: Poop
Step 2: Poop
Step 3: Cry then poop
Step 4: Eat and reload
Step 5: Pee on somebody
Step 6: Poop
Step 7: Look as cute as possible so they don't get rid of me

You can see his eyebrow moving as he is thinking of his next attack. The attacking order varies each time but the kinds of attacks don't.

Once in a while it's a pee on people and as many things as possible attack. Most attacks are of the poop kind. Dirty and lethal. The attacks can occur at any time day or night and he shows no mercy for the weak and tired.

Send reinforcements soon, please, we can't hold out much longer. :)

Is it alright...

2008-02-07T20:50:00.000-08:00

Is it alright if I go wee?

That's is what I asked the girl who ran the tall water slide at the local water park. She of course said no. I told her that I was going to do it anyway. Lovely was 10 at the time and was horrified that I even asked the question. You see she and I were riding together in the same rubber raft.

As we left the gate, I went "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee" all the way down the slide.

Tonight I went wee again. Except this time it was spelled wii.

Yep. We got a wii.

I am as happy as a little girl. Shamoopie was laughing at me as we left the store.

It was our first spontaneous outing as a family. Bird was put into a sling and dragged to two stores. He did great. We didn't go far and we didn't stay out long. He also never left the sling.

and we got a wii!

New Sprint guy in Alltel Commercial

2008-02-05T19:25:00.000-08:00

Has anyone else noticed that the Sprint guy has changed in the new Alltel "Wizard" commercial?

The short fat guy in the yellow shirt was replaced. Maybe he was outsourced!

Michael Busch played the original Sprint character. Not sure who the new guy is. He looks like he is wearing a really bad rug made of shag.

Jealousy

2008-02-04T18:37:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie spent her first day home alone with the little guy. She had a friend stop by just to check on her but other than that she was home alone.

There was one little problem, the little Smelse was also home. She watched all day as her doggy mama took care of the little Bird. At one point while Shamoopie was changing a dirty diaper, Smelse climbed into the Birds Moses Basket and waited for her mama to come back. Then she wouldn't get out of the basket. When she finally did get out of the basket she just crawled away and didn't really like not having her mama's attention.

The poor puppy is just a little jealous of the little Bird. Poor, poor little puppy.

Mother and Baby

2008-01-31T18:02:00.000-08:00

Just to let you all know that mother and baby are doing fine.

Sleep is a luxury that poor little Shamoopie is not getting right now.

Other than that we think that Bird is a keeper.

He's here

2008-01-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

Today (January 26, 2008) we welcomed Christopher (aka Bird) into the world.

He was born at 3:56 am.

Mother and baby are doing fine. Mother is too busy to blog right now. Shamoopie is thinking that maybe by Sunday or Monday she will be ready to blog. It was a bit rough but I will let Shamoopie fill you in on it.

Weight: 7lbs 13 oz

Length: 21.25 inches

Photos to follow as soon as I can find the card reader!

No baby yet

2008-01-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

Many of you know that Shamoopie is going to have a little bird.

Her water broke last night at 6:30 pm and she stared to have contractions. They were 5 minutes apart by 6 am this morning. Then at 7:30 am the contractions stopped and we went to the doctor.

At 6:30 pm tonight she had been awake for 24 hours. She had not had any rest since her water broke yesterday. She dealt with a natural birth until 10:30 pm tonight without anything to eat since this morning at 6am. 28 hours into childbirth I pulled the plug. She was exhausted and feels that she failed little bird. Don't blame her, I did it. Shamoopie is now on pain meds and sleeping. Bird is fine and he should be here sometime tomorrow.

That's the update. We are still waiting.

Tomorrow

2008-01-21T19:16:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow is the day you get to look back on the things you did today.

You go girl!

Fatso Pig

2008-01-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

The pig is gone. He lived a pretty good life for a pig. He had all the food he could eat and a warm place to sleep. He had a dog to play with him. Yes a dog.

He would squeak for food and water. Sometimes he would demand to be let out.

Goodbye little pig.

Robben Ford

2008-01-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

I got the latest cd from Robben Ford. He is still one of my all time favorite guitar players. I also got his "Best of" music book.

Looked through it and when the baby gets here I will sit down and try to play through all of it. When I got it I sat down and did a quick read through of Start It Up, Misdirected Blues, and He don't play nothing but the blues. Shamoopie said that she blogged about this. I need to go and read it.

Glen Campbell

2008-01-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie and I saw Glen Campbell on an infomercial today.

He looks really, really bad. Not anything like his old self. He looks like a homeless man.

It made me sad.

No more Randy Parton Theatre

2008-01-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

It's a sad day. They changed the name of the Randy Parton Theatre to the Roanoke Rapids Theatre. So I have missed my chance to see Randy and his show.

From the website here is the latest schedule:

Momma Says I’m A Star Talent Contest
**Tickets on sale Now!** January 10, 11 & 12

Gospel Festival
**Call 252-536-4656 for Tickets!** January 13

Ronnie McDowell ( Artist Bio )
**Tickets on sale Now!** Jan 20, Sunday Matinee 3pm

Mountain Heart (Bluegrass Show)
**Tickets on sale Now!** January 25

Blood, Sweat, & Tears with Chuck Negron from Three Dog Night
**Tickets on sale Now!** Jan 26

Who are these people? And by the way, momma already thinks that I am a star!

The good news is that there is still time to see Ronnie McDowell. Yeah.

Baby guess

2008-01-08T18:06:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie has put together a baby pool. No it's not the kind you swim in. My guess has already been posted.

I am guessing that it will be a boy. :)

My next guess is that Shamoopie is in fact the mother.

Call me Nostradamus.

Shamoopie party

2008-01-06T15:57:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie had a surprise baby shower today. It was given by her friend HairDiva.

Her friends all showed up and boy was she surprised. She didn't want to get out of the car.

My excuse for getting her out of the house was to take pictures of my new little buddy, Gibson.

The party was coed as you can see. We had cake. I like cake. All the food was great. Best of all Shamoopie liked it.

Gibson had a great time.

He made some new friends and got invited to stay at a few houses when we go out of town. He was a little stinky. A few people complained about it. He can't help it. His food was recently changed and there is a minor issue. :) Smelly but minor.

That should be the last party. Next stop baby, baby.

John Madden - Genius

2008-01-05T18:13:00.001-08:00

I love John Madden but sometimes I can't stand what he says during his commentary. Tonight he said "Sometimes in this game there are interceptions".

Dah.

He says things like this all the time. I am not sure why this one bothered me so much. Pat Summerall might have needed a drink after listen to John ramble on and on and on during every game they broadcast together.

I think that I shall join him and toast John Madden. :)

Little tents and fishy soup

2008-01-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie wanted some sushi. She knows she can't have the raw stuff for now. She ordered the cooked stuff but it was at least wrapped and served with wasabi. I ordered Nabeyaki udon tonight for dinner. I asked her if she ever tried it. She said no but that she wanted to since I love it.

Shamoopie got an awful look on her face and said "IT'S FISHY". Well yes, yes it is. It's seafood cooked in a metal pot and served with large noodles. I was laughing pretty hard. Not as hard as the time that we were in Target and she asked me "What do people do with those little tents?". At first I thought that she was joking. But no she was serious and really , really cute. You see we were in the camping isle and she was referring to the tent displays above the racks of camping tents. She thought the boxes actually contained the little tents.

Damn she is cute. Every once in a while I think that I married Lucille Ball. She did have red hair until yesterday. Now she is a dark brunette. It looks great. At least I think it does.

Xmas is over

2008-01-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

Xmas is over. New Years is done. The writers strike has killed television.

We have watched all the movies we own, even the bad ones.

What else is there?

Thank you for noticing. :)

Andy Summers vs Michael Greenfield

2007-12-26T17:33:00.000-08:00

Fender has made an Andy Summers tribute telecaster guitar. It comes complete with all the scars, dings, and dents of Andy's regular guitar. Except the price is a little different. Andy paid one of his students a few hundred dollars for his guitar.

Fender is only asking $10,500 for a copy of it.

Sounds good to me. I will take two. Since Andy and I are such good friends. I could buy a few other Fender guitars for the price of one Andy Summers.

I own two Fender guitars at the moment. One Custom Shop Stratocaster and a Reissue Telecaster. I bought the Strat because it sounded and played well. The Tele I bought because very light weight ash is hard to find. The lighter the ash the better the sounding the telecaster. That is just my opinion. A heavy telecaster is easy to find. A light one is near to impossible. I only strummed one chord on it and I bought it from a friend of mine who works in a music store. He had set it aside for me when it arrived in the store and he had a chance to pick it up. He immediately called me.

They are the only two fenders that I have not sold a few months after i purchased them. And I have owned at least twenty or thirty Fender guitars.

$10,000 for something that you can make in your shed. People this is not and archtop or acoustic guitar that take months to build and large amounts of skill. It's a slab of ash or alder and some maple for the neck. The necks are bolted on for christ sake. Bolted, not even glued.

Michael Greenfield is an artist and you can buy one of his guitars for about the same money as the Andy Summers guitar. Please, buy one of Michaels before you buy anything like the AS guitar. Please. At least you will have something that was made by a craftsman.

Xmas gift crap

2007-12-26T15:54:00.000-08:00

I got a game called "20 Q Music - Rock and Pop" by Radica. It should be from Crapica!

We have found it to be complete and utter crap.

Almost every time we think of a band name it answers Styx.

It has only gotten one right after asking 25 questions. The Eagles was the answer. Such an obscure band.

I didn't think that it was going to get that one at first. It has missed everything else.

So we have taken to asking each other the questions and guess what. We are able to guess the answer in less than 20 most of the time.

Other than that....it's perfect.

My little Martha Stewart

2007-12-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

We made our annual trip to Kmart this morning to get the jump on the 50% off sale on the Christmas Martha Stewart stuff.

It's better that buying her a present. Just watching her go through the piles of stuff is worth the trip. She finds all kinds of things and makes her plans for next years Christmas.

She won't buy anything unless it is on sale for at leas 30% off. 50% off----bonus.
70% off--------double bonus!

This year she scored and I save over $150 bucks baby.

Simple Trip

2007-12-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie didn't want much for Christmas.

- New Kitchenaid 6 quart mixer -------------------------Check

- Under the counter player for her IPOD ----------------Check
- Trip to Target to use the bloodpressure machine-------No

Seriously---a trip to Target to use the blood pressure machine.

She is a funny one.

Disappointment

2007-12-25T21:08:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie is pregnant and since she is pregnant she has invented many new, well Shamoopyisms.

One of my new favorites is her new feelings toward fruit. We got a case of oranges and grapefruit for Christmas. Shamoopie has only eaten two pieces because "she can't handle the disappointment".

The disappointment if you bite into it and it's bad. Bad fruit has been linked to depression. Not. She knows it's not logical but there will be no convincing her for a little while at least.

Not being alone

2007-12-22T05:50:00.000-08:00

My new buddy does not like being alone. At all. Last night we left him alone for four hours to go to a Christmas party. He had his own party in his crate.

It was not a pretty site. He pulled Shamoopie's favorite comforter into his crate. It was not pretty. He also got my sweatshirt, a pair of pants, and his own blanket. He was mad, frightened, and crazy.

He bent the crate. pretty badly. Good thing we bought the strong one. Once we were home he was fine. He tried to act like nothing had happened. Looking at us like it was burglars that broke in and did it.

Black Dirt

2007-12-19T15:13:00.000-08:00

Growing up my grandfather had a farm. I worked on it from the time I was eight years old. The dirt was black. He grew onions. Lots and lots of onions. On the farm we also had animals. We had dogs. Mostly retrievers like Gibson.

On the farm I almost lost my left middle finger in a belt on some farm equipment. Luckily I still have it. All you can see now is my split finger nail. I almost lost my life while driving a dump truck and the brakes went out. Mostly I weeded until I was old enough to go into the packing house. Then I drove a forklift or any other vehicle that I had to to get the job done. That was by far the best job. Driving. Until I was old enough there was no driving.. just moving onions.

In the winter we would get railroad cars of onions from Texas and Arizona. My job was to dig down to the bottom of the cars and pull one bag from the front of the car, the middle, and the rear. The FDA inspector would then open the bag and slice open a few onions to check for rotten onions or mold. If everything was fine I got to unload the whole car, one bag at a time. Remember that these are 100 pound bags. If I worked late my mother would bring my dinner to the packing house so I didn't starve to death. My grandfather acted like he didn't care if you lived or died. It took me a while to figure out that that was just an act.

I didn't figure out that it was an act until he had a really bad third heart attack. That's when they replaced his heart valves with parts of the veins in his legs. He was back on the farm in one month. He wasn't allowed to lift anything so my uncle sent me my grandfather. I was instructed to make sure that he didn't get into any trouble. Some job. He decided that we should take over the peeled onion deliveries. He would drive and I would .....well...move all the onions. The year before he had purchased a couple of onion peeling machines and wanted them to be used. They peeled the onions and put them into large fifty pound plastic bags. Again...my job was to move all the fifty pound bags. I was twelve. And I was told not to kill Pop. Everyone knew him as Pop.

My dad...Papa

2007-12-19T14:58:00.000-08:00

My dad is not a difficult man to understand. Shamoopie and I took him out for his 74th birthday this past Sunday night. Papa likes him some food. If you put a plate of good food in front of him he can't talk or listen to a word that you say. All he can think about is the food. Until it is gone, you get nothing. He doesn't like fancy. We tried that last year and all we got from him was "what is that again?". He wanted Outback Steakhouse. Regular vegetables and meat. Big slabs of meat.

Shamoopie knows this and loves my dad. She is able to work around the not talking and not listening during good food time.

The man remembers every good meal that he has ever had. He can tell you about the Lobster Bisque that he had in Maryland and the Bloody Mary that he had in Maine. He also can tell you in excruciating detail, the best steak, best prime rib, best chicken, potatoes, green beans, yadda, yadda, yadda...

The best onion soup comes from ye Jolly Onion Inn. He loves the place. Hasn't been there in 20 years but according to him it's still the best.

That's my dad and you are not going to change him but who wants to?

Birth Center visit

2007-12-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie and I went to the birth center. She informed you about the re-spite and my error in just looking at the pictures and not reading the captions. I was board anyway. She also talked about the teamster who kept asking food questions.

He was all over how he was going to eat. He did ask how long this usually takes and if they allowed smoking. The answer was "It's depends" and "No". Shamoopie and I both were happy about the smoking answer. I think she asked when they were due? Luckily it was soon. It's their third child. Thankfully they are reproducing because we need more people like that.

The teamster also spent the whole movie filling out a union complaint form. (They sat next to us)

The rooms are new and the whole experience really depends upon your nurse. The nurses were all too busy to give the tours so we had a Papa clone give ours. He mumbled and told us stories about how bad all his other tour groups were.

Pee present

2007-12-19T14:32:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie told you about the tree pee. She failed to mention that Gibson also whizzed on something else.

He whizzed on the Smelse. Twice. She didn't move while he was doing it either. I guess he has claimed her also! :)

This does not make for a happy Shamoopie.

Now I have to admit that trying to house train a dog while you are praising him to pee on trees outside and scolding him when he goes on the trees inside might be a little confusing to the poor dog. Peeing on the Smelse is not being tolerated by the Shamoopie at all.

I had to clean the tree skirt and look for any missed pee. It was difficult not to laugh while I was doing that. He didn't pee on all the presents. He missed mine and Lovelys. What an awesome dog!

Chocolate Lab

2007-12-18T14:22:00.000-08:00

Gibson is a great dog. He is catching on quickly. I have been walking him every morning and so far I have been able to stop him from just hunkering down and pulling on the lease until he chocks himself.

He is walking like a normal happy dog.

Today there was a first. He pooped on the walk. I did not have any bags. Not that anything other than a Hefty trash bag could have been used to pick this thing up. He did it in the road and it looked like a horse left it.

There is one small problem. We changed his food and he is a little stinky right now and when I say a little, I mean that he can drive a pig from the room. Guess who's chair he likes to sit buy? Mine. He is so sweet and just wants to be my little buddy but there is no warning, no sound. He just fires a deadly missile and it's coming straight for you.

Wow! He just fired another SCUD. He has is own weapons of mass destruction. I shall go walk him again. This time I shall grab a few Hefty bags.

My new buddy

2007-12-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

I have a new buddy. We picked him up today at the local Petsmart. I usually don't like to pick up animals of any kind there but the local shelter had brought them out. When he looked at me I could not resist.

We named him Gibson after the guitar company. They had named him Baldwin after the piano company. Gibson owns Baldwin pianos. Which are not very good pianos. But that is a whole other story.

He is a chocolate lab and it looks like he ran away from a hunter. We think that he is four years old and he loves the couch as you can see.

He is big, 90 lbs at least. He is a sweet as he can be. The girls seem to like him. The Princess thinks that he is fantastic . The Smelse is not so sure about him. She has informed him who is boss and so far he has complied. We will have to keep an eye on that relationship. The Smelse has been giving me looks like "I can't believe you did this" and "How could you?".

Smelse is the old lady of the house and has seen her share of dogs come and go. I named her Smelse because of her butt and breath.
You see Smelse is a poo eater. Sweet delicious poo. And the poo eatin affects her butt. It's silent butt deadly and will curl your nose hair. Other than that she is the perfect dog.

Lovely has the Princess. She sleeps with her on her bed and has been a great dog for her. Shamoopie has the Smelse. I now have Gibson. Awesome!

I feel bad about the fact that Smelse has issue with him but he follows me everywhere and I finally have a dog. Lovely has not seen him yet. She will go crazy when she gets back and sees him.

He has a crate and we are going to keep him in there since they were not sure if he is house broken. We will need to keep an eye on him. So far so good. Crate training it is.

He is such a pretty dog.

Holiday Santa

2007-12-14T19:31:00.001-08:00

It that time of year when the world falls in love...

Wait that's a different post.

It's holiday santa time. Creepy holiday santa time. Take a look at this picture on the left. That little girl just looks worried and Santa looks creepy. Why would you want to be a holiday santa? I mean really. The pay is not great and you must deal with children. Other peoples children.

The guy on the right has learned how to deal with it. Drink. Drink until your drunk and then let the kid poop his pants on you.

You can't tell me that this guy doesn't look drunker that Randy Parton before one of his shows. Randy should work as a Santa this christmas. He looks the part in his news paper photos.

Guitar Center

2007-12-13T05:22:00.000-08:00

Pretty soon Guitar Center will own all the internet music stores.

Musicians Friend = Guitar Center
American Musical = Guitar Center
Music 123 = Guitar Center
Guitar Trader = Guitar Center
Instrument Pro = Guitar Center
Guitar Tree = Guitar Center

How many stores do you need? I mean really. Where is the competition?

You should read what Mixerman has to say about Banjo Center. The story is quite entertaining.

Puppies on display

2007-12-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

You have to love a woman who, while pregnant, points out another womens boobs. While the Shamoopie and I were out eating tonight she says "Hey, look over you left shoulder, check those puppies out".

Was she ever right, those puppies were on display. They looked like a small boy carrying two giant water balloons in his hands to a water fight. All smooshed, funny shaped, and looking like the boy might drop them at any moment.

What a woman my Shamoopie is and to think I almost missed that.

The Man Store

2007-12-10T18:28:00.001-08:00

Many of you know that Shamoopie and I have been working on the house. Well most of the tools came from the Man Store. It's real name is Harbor Freight Tools but Lovely our eleven year old calls it Daddy's toy store or the man store.

It is truly heaven on earth for manly men who like tools and know how to use them. Now granted if I were doing home repair or construction for a living I would buy better tools. The nail gun that I have purchased for the floor is showing it's ge after only five floors. Is it dead yet....no. It was having a little trouble with the last two floors but we are done now. Five floors complete and we didn't pay $500 for a flooring nail gun.

The finishing nail gun is another story. It might not make it. We have had to replace all the molding in this house and only the downstairs is even close to being done. The gun is jamming and leaking air. It's not doing so good. But for $40 I can buy a new one and have it last at least through the work in this house. I bought my finishing nailor with a 25% off coupon that came in the mail from Harbor Freight. Even with coupons and discounts from Home Depot their nailer prices don't even come close.

You decide Home Depot vs Harbor Freight.

The one thing that I didn't skimp on was my air compressor, Porter Cable contractor grade. Awesome.

I have my eye on this crown molding stapler, Shamoopie.

Shamoopie will tell you that I have big tools in the Man Shed.

To quote her "I am surprised how many tools it takes to do this." .

She's cute.

Got skills

2007-12-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

I have blogging skills. Two people have given me an award --MadSkillz

Thanks Bubbllewench.

PBR. A shamoopie favorite.

I also finished the floor in the babies room. It looks awesome. Also got the changing table put together. The baby is due in January.

Kicked out

2007-12-06T20:04:00.001-08:00

Randy got kicked out of his own theater today. There was no Randy Parto show at the Randy Parton Theater (RPT). The RPT has lost it's name sake.

Don't know who Randy Parton is? He's Dolly's brother. Thaht's who. He had one 45RPM record in the 70s. Don't you remember?

He's a star!

In 1981 he had another 45 called "Don't cry baby".

Not to be confused wih a cry baby. Which is something completely different and much more popular than Randy Parton.

Punjab and Lahore

2007-12-05T20:31:00.001-08:00

This is a term for something that shall remain nameless. I thought that it was just a reference to something that someone made up. Apparently I am wrong again. It is also a town in Pakistan called Lahore Punjab. The city is named Lahore and is part of Punjab speaking province. Yes it is pronounced "La whore Poon jab" or maybe "Poon jab la whore". I get confused from laughing so hard.

I can hear the conversations now "where are you going?" "I am headed to see what is going on with Lahore and maybe talk some Punjab."

"Punjab" by the way is the name that Shamoopie gave to a a woman that thought that I was cute.

Stocking Stuffers

2007-12-01T19:37:00.000-08:00

For Shamoopie xmas is all about the stocking stuffers. Last year she complained that all is did was buy some stuff and literally stuff them into the stocking. I need new ideas for this year. Stocking are small. Where can you get stuff?

Thirty nine dollars

2007-12-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

If you use the white pages online to look up phone numbers and they can't find a listing for the name you typed in the will send you to a search page.

I was looking for Shamoopie in the white pages and I informed her that is was only $39 for me to find her. She looked at me and proceeded to inform that that for $39 she would wave her hands and shout at me that she was right here. :)

She is one funny Shamoopie.

Old friends

2007-12-01T18:40:00.001-08:00

So...this weekend stated weird. Sort of. Friday night Shamoopie and I ran into my old college roomate "Pain in the Bass". I said " Hi, Pain in the Bass" and he said " and you are?". Well that was a shocker. He figured out who I was after a few moments but it was a shock to me. I introduced the Shamoopie and asked if he still lived with his mother. He did not live with her anymore, she was dead. He now lives alone in the house and is fixing it up. That's why he was in the store.

Shamoopie could not believe that he and I were the same age. That's when I told her that I was older than Pain. Shamoop enjoyed the stories that Pain told about me.

So the next day we went to a high school bazaar and who do we see there? Hoss. He is an old guitar playing buddy of mine. When Hoss got off the road with BJ Thomas we formed a country band. Shamoopie said you played "Country". Shocking I know. Hoss asked if I was still playing, I told him yes. The last time Hoss saw me was at a record company party where he and I played with some Nashville producers and others. Hoss used to play in a band called Heartwood before he played with the "Beege" as he called him. Hoss would say that he played with him during the limp wristed years.

I enjoyed playing with the Hoss man and his brother B the bass player. It gave me some funny stories. Now Hoss has a new band. We got to hear all about it. I am glad to hear that he is still playing.

Shamoopie quickly figured out that Hoss is a character. Since he told the story to her about the time he had a vasectomy and asked me to come over and mow his lawn because he was laid up, in pain, and had lost his manhood. The funny part is, I did it. I mowed his lawn because he had a vasectomy.

Hoss kept asking me why I haven't called. Maybe I will now as long as he doesn't need his lawn mowed. Come to think of it, my mower is broken, I wonder what Hoss is up to. He also informed Shamoopie about his addiction to Reeses Cups and how they are just like crack.

So far it has been an interesting weekend. I can't wait to see who we see tomorrow. :0

Another rip off...maybe

2007-11-27T19:48:00.000-08:00

Once again it's time for Will Smith to rip off or shall we say 'remake' an old movie or TV series. This time it's remake of 'The Omega Man' that starred Charlton Heston. Charlton played Robert Neville from the book of the same name. This is the fourth time the movie was made.

I am waiting to see if it will be any good. I will wait until it's released on DVD. My prediction it will have a short run in the theater and then straight to DVD. Just an educated guess formed from viewing Will's previous efforts.

Xmas dog

2007-11-25T18:05:00.000-08:00

The setter had a good day today while we were working hard setting up the xmas trees. Yes I ment to make that plural. We had to buy two real trees for xmas. That's a whole other post.

While Nat King Cole was singing the setter looked like this.

While Harry Connick Jr. was singing the setter looked like this.

Then we put on Sarah Mclachlan and the setter really got stressed.

I hope the police don't arrest us for dog abuse. :) What a life. My pillow, my blanket, xmas music, and the couch.

my new dog

2007-11-19T18:53:00.000-08:00

Shamoopie's dog has been laying by me all night. She says that Pupstar loves me. She may be right. Pupstar has been laying at my feet and passing gas. It's been awesome. :) Smelly but awesome.

His sisters is bigger...

2007-11-16T20:39:00.000-08:00

Did you know that Randy Parton has his own theater. Yes it's true Who is Randy Parton you ask? Well doesn't everyone know? He's Dolly's younger brother. That's why he is famous. His sister has Dollywood and he has the Randy Theater. Awesome but Dollywood is a little bigger.

Here is the story. The town of Roanoke Rapids North Carolina put up $15 million or so to build him a theater so he can perform and draw large crowds. It's hard to figure out how much really went into this theater from the press releases. But the story is making news and Randy is trying to get some publicity.

The plan was flawless except for some unknown reason the theater is not selling out everyday and the ticket prices are only $25 to $34 each. Imagine that! So little to see a country legend like Randy Parton. Now some people in the town are upset because Randy is making somewhere between $750,000 and $1.5 Million a year, depending upon who reports it.

I want a theater. Not for me for Shamoopie and all we need is $10 million. I will only make $500,000 a year. That's all. A bargain. So I am starting the Shamoopie Theater fund and we are accepting donations or if you know of any towns that would like to build her a theater, just let me know.