Expect a Lot of These

Getting ready to go to the Bruins game.

8-Trackin'

My 8-Track and my mixing board are all put together. I've got track 1 from last year's unfinished RPM challenge all queued up for a vocal take. Now I just need lyrics... and melodies... and to remember how all of those 1 year old unfinished songs that I haven't listened to since last February actually go.

On an up note, I found a bag full of guitar strings that I ordered from musician's friend a few months before my last band broke up in 2005. I thought I had used them all, but there were like 8 packages. Bonus!

The dryer is running and it's making a strange whistling sound. I wonder if that will sound good on my vocal track. Muahahahahaha!

I've still got 90 minutes left to get something done... I am doubtful, but at least I am set up for next month.

Day Off!

I'm off work today. It's nice. I'm feeling uber lazy. That feels nice, but at the same time it sucks because I've got shit to do... so I am going to do it.

Dishes, laundry, and MUSIC! I think I'm gonna go play some guitar while the dishwasher runs.

Rock on.

Oh yeah, and the Bruins won dramatically last night. It's awesome and all, but a last minute win against Pittsburgh does not erase a last minute loss to Montreal.

We're going to the game tonight. I hate Ottawa and I hope Tim Thomas blanks them thoroughly.

Go Bruins

Monday, Monday

My condolences go out to my brother in law Ken's family. He lost his grandfather last night. By all accounts he was a remarkable man. I think about my nephew and how, although he won't remember it, he can always know how lucky he was to meet his great grandfather.

Please forgive the abruptness in which I change the subject, but it's Monday and I hate Mondays. The worst Mondays are, of course, those that are followed by a day off on Tuesday. I took a vacation day tomorrow. Jen and I are going to the Bruins game and I used that as an excuse. Turns out that my brother and his wife are going too so we can hopefully meet before the game.

Basically what it amounts to is me wanting to go home and go to bed right now. My three day weekend has a work day stuck in the middle of it.

Also... those damn Bruins had best not roll over and die the way they have done in two recent games. Protect that lead, you losers!

The TD Garden has a no-cameras-with-detachable-lenses policy. That means if I take a camera tomorrow it'll be my point and shoot. That's probably a good thing. Otherwise I'd be stressing about the damn camera instead of enjoying the damn game.

Did I mention we have club seats? My wife got me the best Christmas presents.

Love ya Jen!

Quiet Sunday at Home

Just a quiet Sunday at home, with me taking bad pictures of my beloved wife and our cat.

Let's Go Fireplace

Busy

Today has been a busy one. I went to my parents house to steal some furniture. They got a new dining room table and we took the old one for the cellar. Now we have to figure out where it goes, and where the air hockey table goes in relation to it... and there is always the spectre of a drum set off on the horizon.

While at my parents I got to see my sister's family. They were dropping of my nephew (who calls me Uncie Rob, which I love tremendously) to be babysat while they went to Maine to visit my brother in law's grandfather who is very ill. My best to Ken and his entire family. I hope things go as peacefully as possible for Ken's grandfather.

I just got off the phone with my brother and we are going to have a brief visit from him and my niece. This is turning into toddler day!

I still need to clean out the fireplace before we can start a new fire today, and oh yes we will be starting another fire today. Also, Jen... you know Jen, right? She's the love of my life... is going to make a big Sunday dinner.

This is a good day.

Saturday Night Distractions

My step son got an air hockey table for Christmas. We put it together today. It was actually broken in the box. Each leg needs to screw onto the table in two places. One leg was missing the board that one of the screws connects to. He was devastated when I told him. You'd have thought I just kicked his dog in the head. He was convinced that the item was returned to the store in that condition and then resold. I'm not sure what prompted that response, but he was right. (I didn't tell him that because I didn't find the definite proof until later, but the instructions said the paddles needed to have a felt base attached to them, and both paddles already had the pads.) It doesn't matter, the leg in question still had a place to connect to the table, and it seems to be pretty steady. I played once game against him and beat him 10-8. I had been up 4-0 to start, but he came back and made a fight of it. Next he played a game against my step daughter and he beat her 10-9. Last I played against my step daughter and she was up 9-8 when mom called us up for supper so I conceded the game to her.

The Bruins just blew their 2-0 lead against Montreal. 41 seconds left in the game and the Canadiens tie it. I hate the effing Canadiens. I hate them.

We lit a fire in the fireplace today. Two of them actually. We had been 0-1 on attempts to start a fire, but we lacked kindling and we couldn't get it to catch. Today we used a slow burning something or other that is a kindling substitute and it worked better than our previous attempt, but after about 30 minutes it was dead. Jen also bought a thing called enviro-log today. They are artificial logs made out of recycled cardboard. We started our third fire with a couple of those and it worked perfectly. After about two hours or roaring fire I put a real log on it and we had a brief happy time of burning, crackling wood in our fireplace. We're letting the ashes cool now, but I want to start another one. I think I am officially a fireplace fan now.

Basically, I am spending the day trying not to think about the events in Arizona today. My best to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her family, and to the families and victims of the shooting. I expect to be beyond furious over this, but I want to get more information before I start losing my shit, politically speaking.

Fire

The fire place is lit. It only took three tries.

Vet

Jen took the cat to the vet. It was her first cat-carrier experience since she came to us.

She pretty much hates us right now.

Patches and Me

Car Clock

Hey car clock, what time is it?

It's weekend time!

Nobody Tried to Stop Me

Which is better?

The original:


The edited-in-photoshop.com:

Somebody Stop Me, Please?

I have to stop playing with photoshop.com.

Which is better?

The original:


The edited-in-photoshop.com

Slow

I'm feeling slow today. Mentally, physically, chronologically.

Just slow.

There are plenty of things to do today, but the ambition is already fading. Could it be that I have a bad case of the Fridays?

Cat took a poke at me last night. I was cleaning up the dinner table and she thought I was supposed to be feeding her. As I was walking past her she took a swipe at my leg. All she got was pants, but oooh was Robbie pissed.

I can breath today, which is nice. In place of the completely blocked up nose is a partially blocked up nose and a constant need to sneeze. Fair trade?

The Bruins lost to the Wild last night. Fail. Epic Fail.

Happy Friday.

Obsession Isn't Necessarily Healthy

I've been a Star Wars fan since 1977 when I was 6 years old. I'm a little obsessed.
I've been a Rush fan since 1981 when I was 10 years old. I'm a lot obsessed.

I've got nothing on this guy:


I've got nothing on him and I feel really good about it.

Miss Meowie Pants

She's meowing like a kitty who is desperate for attention. She's come to the right red head!

Penguin Mosh

If the penguin in question crashed into a few of the other penguins at random moments this would be the exact equivalent of every show I went to between 1995 and 1999.



There was always that one guy. I could never understand what it was about Letters to Cleo that made people want to do this.

Apples and Oranges

So... this is one of the TV appearances that Pink Floyd made on their first trip to the United States. This was one of those times when Syd Barrett supposedly just went blank and stood there looking lost and vapid.

Funny how he doesn't look any different than the other three guys.

Hey Dick Clark... nice interview there skippy. Nice. They crossed the Atlantic and all of North America so that you could ask them what they've had to eat. Urgh. No wonder Syd went crazy. Good thing we have Twitter to take care of that now.

Nothing Nada

I have nothing to say.

I'm really tired. So is Jen. I have lingering head cold. She has a stomach bug today. Kitty barfed again this morning. I think it was the beef flavored cat food.

Suffice to say, we're not terribly sprightly tonight.

We're just checking email and stuff, sitting on the couch. The Wild vs Devils game is on the tube, but it's background noise. We will probably have ourselves a reading date tonight. That's when we go to bed early and read ourselves to sleep... early. It's a way to act like we're old and go to bed before 9:00pm without feeling like we're going to bed before 9:00pm.

So what sights in Methuen should I take my camera to now? I think I've run out of places I know about. Apart from the castle walls and the court yard behind city hall. I guess those are two options, huh?

The lottery drawing took place a few minutes ago. I seriously hope that we are now millionaires 300 times over. I bought two tickets (sucker) and I really want to retire before I turn 40 in May.

I need to get playing the guitar again. I need to finish my 2010 RPM and do a 2011 RPM. And my 2008 and 2007 RPMs. I have a ton of unfinished songs that need to be finished so that they can be fully realized crappy songs.

Jen is reading Eagle Tribune stories... our Greater Lawrence neighbors are a tad nuts at times.

Versus is doing a (brief) sob story interview with Brian Rolston. Never shoulda left the Bruins, you twit. By twit, of course, I am referring to the Bruins GM who let him go. Twit.

When the reading date commences I will be continuing with a biography of Syd Barrett called (I think?) An Irregular Head. The research for the book included interviews with Syd's family. I'm hoping it won't end in 1975 with Syd showing up uninvited and unannounced at the recording sessions for Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here... the way most Barrett biographies do. I want to hear about what happened after that. I want to hear his family say that he did all right for himself over the last 31 years of his life. I want to hear that, while he wasn't the same guy he was prior to stardom with Pink Floyd, he wasn't a crazy nut job lunatic who drooled at the mouth while staring at the television the way the main character did in the movie version of The Wall. I want to hear that things were all right with him. I want to hear that he stayed at his mom's home and painted and quietly had a happy life. I am such a fan of his extremely brief music career that I want to hear that fans like me didn't literally drive him out of his mind. His career was effectively over before I was born, but I don't want to feel guilty by association.

If I get through the 2011 RPM challenge I want to record "Lucifer Sam" as a bonus track.

Now I think I can go to bed. G'night all.