Best in the world!

Yeah, that's right, my Jenny's the best wife in the whole wide world!  She pretty much saved me from a life of barely scraping by, living in a little crappy apartment, driving a car in which you could literally see the road through the floor boards, not saving enough to even pay my monthly bills, etc. Now I've got a great house, a couple of nice cars, a little bit of savings, and the most important thing: chocolate chip cookies! 

Actually, hers are a million times better than those cookies.  Just ask my family.  Growing up, everyone loved my sister, Katie's chocolate chip cookies (or "schmookins" as they're called) were the best.  And for years, after Jenny and I got together, they kind of had a friendly rivalry going - and we all won, cuz we got to eat lots of cookies!  Now, even Katie and her husband admit that Jen's are the best!

I decided to pay tribute to these wonderful treats tonight with a nice little splotch of unbleached titanium and burnt umber.  Looks a little bit like cookie dough, if I do say so myself.  Took all I could not to lick the canvas!

Put the sun-shade down! Wait, on second thought...

Boy, is it ever sunny!  And I love it!  I've been going absolutely nuts with all the rain, and clouds, and grey, and just crap outside!  I think sometimes that the most important (non-human) thing in the world to me isn't water, but sunshine.  Of course I may think differently if I happened to be stuck in the desert, or something.  :-)

It's Tuesday, so that means painting class, which means it's a rush-rush job on the blog (I came thisclose to posting "Rush Rush" by Paula Abdul, but now that it's in your head, that's good enough - no need to actually post the video! :-)

Anyway, as time was nearing to go to class, and I was trying to get everything done, including getting a bite to eat, I looked outside at the sunshine and then at my paint tray.  The two colors that immediately popped out were the red and orange, and I thought that was perfect, since we were coming up quickly on what I assumed would be a beautiful sunset.  I was, of course, too busy to watch the sunset, but I'm sure it was awful purty!

Aaaaaaaaahhhh!

That's exactly what I was saying a couple of hours ago.  Well, that and some snoring.  I had a really, really nice, relaxing - yet somewhat firm - massage.  Jenny found out a while back that you can get a 50-minute massage at the Allied College for 25 clams!  Oh, yeah!  It's all students that are getting their final "hands-on" training - they're all about to graduate - it's not like it's their first day in class and they're all just pounding on you, not knowing what the hell they're doing!  :-)

Man, did that 50 minutes fly by!  I feel so much better than when I went in, though.  Jenny was out in the car waiting for me, and she had to ask if I was alright, cuz I guess I looked like I was half-dazed (which, I guess I was). 

We got home, grabbed a quick bite, and I wanted to keep the "soothing feeling" going, so I grabbed the most soothing color I could think of at the moment, and so here we have a nice little smooth swipe of cobalt blue.  Ain't that nice?  It starts breaking up a little, then stops dead at the glass beads - which ended up looking really cool, by the way!

Well, it's time to give Jenny a little soothing, then off to bed.  For some more snoring.  That would be Jen, of course. :-) JUST KIDDING, BABY!

Lazy, lazy evening!

Well, it's probably a good thing I didn't fill out a bracket this year in the NCAA tournament.  Well, maybe I could have picked them, but the teams I've been rooting for this weekend have all been losing!  I've got to find a better strategy - gotta find some way to make Duke lose!  :-)

This weekend has gone so quickly, though - seems like I just got home from work a minute ago, now I've gotta get ready to go back tomorrow morning.  Now it's just time to finish this up and watch some cartoons.  It's Simpsons time!

I was going to put down some bright orange for the Tennessee Volunteers, but they lost, so screw 'em!  They do have fun uniforms, though, and I love Coach Bruce Pearl's awesome orange suit!  I wanted to do something a little different today, so I threw down a little splotch of the glass beads.  I didn't want to do that alone, so I picked a color that I hadn't used in a while, and one that just kind of gave me a soothing feeling for some reason - the Brilliant Purple.  Aaaaaaahh, soothing!

Too much!

You know what I love?  I'll give you a hint:  I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!  Yep, I love me some Scooby Doo!  I have as far back as I can remember!  I've got most of them on DVD (the non-Scrappy Doo ones, at least!), but there are still quite a few more I need to get.  Just gotta save up some money!  If I get in the mood, and have some time, I can sit there and just watch hours and hours of episodes.  I love looking up new trivia on the series, too, such as the fact that originally Scooby's name was to be "Too Much", as in "that's just too much", which was a popular saying at the time. 

Jenny's little niece came over today for just a little while, so we did what we always do: watch Scooby Doo.  I got her hooked on it at a very young age - probably 2 or 3 years old, and that's just our thing.  I love the kid to death, so I'm glad we kind of have our own little thing that we always do together. 

Today's stroke was in honor of the coolest vehicle ever, the Mystery Machine.  I didn't have the exact colors, but these are pretty close.  Zoinks!

Koo-koo-ka-choo!

This whole day I've been as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.  This was the day of the big reception/preview/voting for the show that I entered my painting into.  All I could do is hope.  Hope is good. 

I went into the gallery tonight, and I was just overwhelmed by all the amazing artwork!  There are some seriously great artists in these classes!   And going to these shows - any art shows - always inspires me to do better things, and to try different things.  I'm going to be trying many different things now - you just wait, Buster! 

I was thinking about the whole "hope" thing today, and thinking about what color kind of represented hope.  I'm not sure why, but I always came back to white and yellow.  I really don't know why - maybe it goes back to the whole "new start" thing, and that's kind of what I equate the white with.  The yellow, I really don't know about at all - it just kinda came to me - just called to me.  Now that I look at it, it looks a bit like an egg!  Not necessarily an egg man, but just an over-easy egg, which is okay, cuz I like eggs. 

Boy, is it ever late!  I almost missed this day entirely, which would be bad, because I told you I wouldn't miss a day!  Hell, I don't know what I'm gonna do if I decide to go on vacation!  We need to get a new laptop or something if we wanna do that [looks at Jen].  :-)  Yeah, baby, you know what I mean! 

Spring Cleaning...

So I've been looking at this thing for the last few days, and I decided that it's just getting a bit cluttered.  There were just too many things going on that just didn't make a lot of sense to me, so I figured that I'd kind of "reset" it a little bit - Kinda like Starting Over.  And what better way than to throw some white down?  It's like a big ol' "White Out" streak over a word you misspelled!  Yeah, you young'uns won't know what that is, what with all yer computers and Microsoft Word, and all that new fangled stuff - have you ever even seen a typewriter in real life?  Now get offa my lawn, ya whippersnappers!  :-)

Now, where was I?  Sorry, I get off on these rants and I just completely lose my train of thought.  Bet that don't happen to you kids, either, huh?  It's hell getting old!  :-)  Oh, yeah.  The white streak!  I was going to do white only, but Jenny thought I should have some light blue in there, too, and ya know I can't just not listen to her!  She's always got good ideas, and every time I don't listen to her I end up regretting it!  Wait - that sounded bad - she doesn't beat me or anything!  :-)

I do like how the high ridges of the red swatch below it kind of poke through the white.   Apparently he didn't want to go quietly.  Good on him! 

Cloudy, with a chance of...part 2 (Electric Boogaloo?)

Boy, is it late!  Jenny and I ran all over town trying to find another frame for my entry for the art show at Grafica.  The other frame just wasn't working with it, and the one I wanted couldn't be found anywhere!  Finally at the fifth place we went to we found a completely different frame, and it looked fantastic with it!  Don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but if you happen to be in the St. Louis area Friday evening, there will be a reception at Grafica (7884 Big Bend, in Webster Groves) with a preview of all the submissions, and "People's Choice" voting, from 6-9 pm.  Come on out!  I'd love to see you!

I'm trying to concentrate on this, but my mind, much like tonight's stroke, is a little cloudy!  :-)  It's gettin' on time for bed, don'tcha know!  I decided that I wanted to try some other things with mediums - specifically, kind of "hiding" other parts a bit, so I could paint over them a little, but you could still see through a little, too.  Don't know how it'll work, but I figured I'd give it a try nonetheless.  We'll see how it looks tomorrow and go from there.  Right now, I think I'm gonna cart my butt off to bed.  G'night!

Gimme a bottle of anything...and a glazed donut...TO GO!

Well, it's another rushed day - gotta go to class!  It's so sunny and beautiful out, though, I had to throw a little white and yellow on the canvas.  That left me just enough time to share with you this video for the song that says "sunny weather" more than any other to me.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Diamond Dave!

Oh, and by the way, if you don't get the reference in my subject line, I'll explain it later.  Or, you could just watch more Dave.  Later!

What in the world ever happened to Alex Winter?

I mean really - nobody's seen hide nor hair from since Bill and Ted! If you don't remember, he was Bill S. Preston, Esq., otherwise known as the one who didn't go on to be a megastar.  I'll never understand that, either - how in the world does Keanu Reeves get to go on to a successful career with his utter lack of acting ability, and ol' Alex is left asking if you want fries with that?  I mean, not that Winter's acting ability was any better, mind you. 

Actually, I just checked his bio on IMDB and it looks like he does still work a little.  And he lived in St. Louis for a while when he was younger!  Wow!  Or should I say "Whoa, dude!"?  :-)

Well, on another note, I finished up another painting, and my wonderful neighbor, Debbie Weltman helped me frame it.  I'm submitting it tonight to be juried for an art show at Grafica Contemporary Fine Art in Webster Groves.  I can't wait to hear!  Hopefully it'll get in, and start a lucrative painting career!  Right.  Back down to earth, Dave - let's take one step at a time!  You ain't hob-knobbin' with Salvador Dali just yet!  Okay, so he's dead - bad example.  :-)

Midnight - not a sound on the pavement...

So is it gonna be spring anytime soon?  It's almost April now, and there's snow all over the place!  Actually, I'd take the snow over the nasty, cold, grey rain we've had here the last day or two! 

Jenny and I had a pretty lazy day.  Played at church this morning, and then we took a little field trip over to Shrewsbury (which is only about 15 minutes from our house) to see a realtor's open house.  It was a cute little house, and, actually, it already had a firm contract on it.  So why, you may ask, did we go see it?  It was a house very near and dear to Jenny - her grandma and grandpa's old house.  She practically grew up in that house!  I could see her face well up with emotion as soon as we walked in the door - you could just see all the memories flooding back.  I had to smile - she makes me do that a lot, really, ya know! :-)  

There were a lot of things that were virtually unchanged from 20 years ago - including their old barbecue pit, and an old stove in the basement.  Oh, and the awesome French doors.  That was her favorite part, actually - she still loves French doors!  We took a bunch of pictures so she could have a record for her genealogy project, and then came on home to watch Mizzou unfortunately lose to West Virginia.  Oh, well.  Still a great day, overall!

Ya gotta know when to hold 'em...

...and I really don't.  I'm really not that great a poker player - which really wouldn't matter, except that I'm going to my buddy Jeff's 5th annual poker party tonight.  It should be a lot of fun, though - I've been to every one now, and we always have a blast.  Even if I don't win (I average about 2 or 3 hands a night) it's still a great night, because we've got the NCAA tourney on his big ol' teevee, some tasty, frosty beverages, and a really great roast beef sammich that he makes every year.  Mmmmmm, drooooool!  Sorry. :-)

This year will be a little different, though, as half of the winnings will go to a charity to be decided upon tonight.  I told him I voted for the "Save The Dave Foundation", and that he could just make the check out to me - I'd find a good use for it. 

Every time this night comes around I think of the ultimate poker song - and no, I don't mean Lady Gaga.  It is, of course, The Gambler, by the only man I know that rivals Joan Rivers in the inability to blink due to the amount of facelifts they've had: Kenny Rogers.   Man, back in the day that guy could do no wrong!  I remember watching the movie "Six Pack", and thought it was awesome!  I wonder if it's held up at all - I'll have to look it up sometime and watch it. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's red stroke - in honor of the where I'll be financially at the end of the night. In the red :-D.  I'll give half my money to charity, and probably the other half to Walter.  He's a Kansas Jayhawks fan, too, so that makes it even harder to give it to him!   Oh, well - it's still a great time!

Whoooooops - Hoooooooops!

Yeah, so I let it slip to my supervisor today that the basketball games were online.  As soon as those words left my lips, I knew it was a mistake.  He had been telling me beforehand that the Mizzou-Clemson game started at 1:35 pm (which I knew, but whatever) and that I should keep him up to date on the latest scores.  I also knew that the games from the first couple of rounds of the tournament would be broadcast online, but I told myself I wasn't going to say anything about that. 

I'm not really sure what happens in the space between deciding I won't say anything and the part where my mouth starts saying crap I don't want it to say.  I heard a comedian just yesterday talking about how women think everything through before they say it and guys just say it, occasionally with the addendum that it seemed like a good idea at the time.  This was not a good idea. I didn't get into trouble or anything - I know my brain would have stopped me from saying anything if I thought there would be any problems there.  It's just that as soon as he heard that it was streaming online, I lost the use of my computer for the rest of the day.  Didn't get to get a damned thing done.  Oh well - at least it was just a lazy Friday afternoon.  Most everyone was already gone anyway, so we just kind of made it look like we were working occasionally (which I'm positive fooled everyone - right), and just watched Mizzou eventually beat Clemson to progress to the next round of the tournament!  Woo hoo!  Now they take on West Virginia (who struggled a bit in the first round against Morgan State.  You are correct in wondering who the hell Morgan St. is).  Maybe the Tigers can pull that one off, too.  That'd be great!

Anyway, I gotta get outta here - going over to Jason's to record some more drums.  Hopefully this recording process won't take too long, and I'll have something to post soon so you's guys can hear what we've been working on!  Rawk!

OH, BAYBEE!

I tell you what, this time of year is the only, ONLY good reason for being unemployed.  Back a few years ago when I was looking for work (long story - if ya wanna know, I'll tell you later) I got to watch every single game of the Men's NCAA basketball tournament. It was a beautiful thing - I had games going on TV and computer - sometimes multiple games on each!  I haven't gotten to do that since then (Thank God!), but that's something I can definitely live with - I'd much rather be working!  I totally forgot to fill out a bracket sheet this year, so I'm just pretty much rooting for the underdogs in each battle.  I know most of them aren't gonna win, but it sure is fun when they do (I'm looking at you, Murray State - where the hell are you, anyway?). 

I'm also in a more-than-giddy mood because it's so dad-gum sunny outside!  I love it!  Look at the picture I took today - it's natural sunlight!  I just laid it on the ground outside and snapped a few off!  That's how it should be every day, I tell ya!  If I didn't have so much to do at work, I just might contemplate having a bit of the flu tomorrow just so I could maybe move the TV outside to enjoy the sun and basketball, before Saturday hits and it's all cloudy and cold!  They're talking about friggin' snow here possibly!  What's that about?  You can't just have nice weather like that and then throw in freezing temperatures and white crap!  No, I prefer to believe that it will be just gorgeous out, and we'll just go with that. 

I haven't gotten any feedback lately as to what this piece is looking like, by the way - am I straying too far off the course?  Is it looking like anything at all?  Does it matter, with a whole 300 days left?  :-)  I'll leave that all up to you.  In the mean time, I'm gonna go get ready for band practice.  Yay! 

Oh, and GO MIZZOU!  Since my Sooners aren't anywhere near the tournament this year, you've gotta get something done!

Mardi Gras II: Electric Tura Luraloo

I'd like to thank my buddy Jeff Hess for giving me that title.  That's what he called the big St. Patrick's Day celebration, and I just thought that was hilarious.  For those of you who don't know the reference, it's a take on a pretty bad movie from the 80s (sorry, Jenny - I know it's a guilty pleasure of yours!).

I don't know about where you live (if you don't live in the St. Louis area) but St. Patty's Day is pretty huge around here, especially in Dogtown, which was where the Irish immigrants first settled.  We've got a parade downtown on the Saturday beforehand (if Saturday's not actually the 17th) and then there's another parade in Dogtown on the actual day.  Both are pretty well packed, but obviously the Dogtown one is just plain crazy!  They start at the crack of dawn partying, and I'm sure some of 'em don't stop until they realize they have to shower and get ready for work the next day!

Both going to work and coming home today I saw all sorts of people with all their green top hats and masks and beads, etc.  I don't really celebrate the day - I don't know that I've ever even been to the parade.  I remember one year Jenny and I forgot that the parade was going on and we were trying to get to Forest Park, and the way we went was down Hampton, which is right next to Dogtown.  It took us about an hour to get a mile.  As soon as we could, we cut down a side street and got the hell outta Dodge!  Ever since then I haven't even had the slightest desire to go down there!

Well, today, despite the fact that I don't celebrate, I decided to go ahead and grab every green I had in my box (plus a bit of white to break it up) and smear it on there.  It's only a couple different shades, but that's okay.  It actually reminds me a bit of a bar of Irish Spring. *insert happy-go-lucky Irish whistle here*

Doing the African Anteater Ritual...

Wow, what a hectic day!  We're really getting busy at work, so everyone's running around like chickens with their heads cut off (zombie chickens?), and my computer at work was all screwed up, so I couldn't really do my job very well.  Oh, well - not too bad overall, though!  Plus, since I was so busy it just flew by!

Now I'm just sitting here alone watching the Idol (Jenny watches "Lost", and I have no desire to watch that).  I'm thinking I've had enough of the off-pitch pretty people, though, so I may just turn on a comfort movie.  Probably "Can't Buy Me Love".  I've always loved that movie.  I've got a collection of about 50 movies I consider "Comfort Movies" - movies I can just put on in the background.  I know most of the lines to them, so I don't have to pay really close attention, and they just remind me of simpler times back in the 80s.  A couple of my favorite ones are "Fletch", "Airplane", "Cannonball Run II" (yes, really), the "Back To The Future" trilogy (I usually have to watch all of them in a row) and any of the John Hughes films - especially "Ferris Bueller".  Oh, and I can watch "Christmas Vacation", any time of year. 

In a completely unrelated note, did you know that Erik "Ponch" Estrada turns friggin' 61 today?  How did that happen?  Wow!  It's so weird to see that as I get older - the fact that people that I grew up listening to are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame now (the main requirement being that it has to be 25 years from your first recording) makes me feel old, too - Run-DMC, Metallica, Madonna, R.E.M., Prince, etc.  Man, that just ain't right!  Seeing the whole John Hughes tribute with all the old "Brat Packers" the other night on the Oscars was wild, too.  Most of them still looked pretty good, though (I said *most* - Judd Nelson, I'm looking at you, bub - try bathing once in a while, and shave that muskrat off yer piehole!).

Well, I've babbled enough - don't know if I've got time to watch much of anything now!  Oops!  Oh, well, I think I'll just maybe do a little more painting on something else!

Yeah, so...

...I'm literally writing to tell you that I reached into the basket o' paint tubes and grabbed whatever was on top, squirted it on the canvas in the first place I thought was appropriate, and that's about it.

I'm on my way out the door (after I shower- nobody likes a stinky drummer.  Well, almost nobody) to go over to Jason's to start recording!  WOO HOO!  I live for recording, man!  Maybe I'll be able to write more after I get back, but ya never know.  This may be the shortest blog I do in this project.  Later!

Another lazy Sunday...

Well, I had a great, relaxing day today!  I ended up playing at church, even though I wasn't originally going to - I had taken the weekend off, since I wasn't able to make it to practice Thursday because of the show I played.  I love playing, though, and I hadn't played drums in a couple of weeks, so nooooo problem!

After that, Jenny and I had a nice little lunch at the Applebee's, courtesy of her brother and sister-in-law's gift certificate.  Oh, how I love those little boneless buffalo wings!  Then we went down to the Wal-Mart in Gravois Bluffs to see if McLovin' was there.  There's a kid down there in the deli department (which happens to have really great meat, actually!) that looks just like McLovin' from the movie "Superbad".  Heh- just noticed from this picture that McLovin' has the same birthday as me!

McLovin' wasn't there, so we got our meat and cheese a lot quicker (he tends to talk quite a bit!) and came home.  We both just wanted to take it easy, so Jenny went upstairs and worked on more genealogy stuff (I swear she'll be back to Roman times soon!) and I worked on this painting. This is just a quick "sketch" I did trying to figure out what colors I wanted to do the real thing in.  I figured I'd do a few of these on paper to practice.  I'm really starting to enjoy this painting stuff!  Woo Hoo!

Can ya believe it, folks?

It's been 60 days already!  And I tell you what - it's a lazy day!  I got up this morning and played with my niece, Atala.  We played "hide and seek" and some other game that used our "happy face" coasters from the front room.  I'm not really sure what the point of the game was, because she was making up the rules as we went.  That's okay, though, because it made her happy.  If she's happy, I'm happy!  We really did have a great time, albeit a short time. 

After Atala, Katie and Ma left, I went over to my buddy Jason's house.  Jason's the worship leader at our church, and also the lead singer and a guitarist in my band, The Janson Gates.  We're getting ready to record some tracks for a demo, and subsequently an album.  I went over to get my drums tuned up and make sure they sounded okay for recording.  Drums are always the hardest part to get to sound good - there are just so many variables to deal with, from making sure the drums are tuned correctly to making sure there's an adequate amount (but not too much) padding to deaden the sound just a bit, so the drums don't ring too much, muddying up the sound. 

Well, enough tech-nerd talk.  It's getting late - after I got back from Jason's house Jenny and I ran a few errands, and then I just kind of drifted in and out of consciousness while watching basketball and she was working on some genealogy stuff.  I'm still kinda tired, though, and we're losing an hour tonight, so I'm gonna sign off now!  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

It's Shake and Bake, and I hay-elped!

Well, I looked all over for the video of that commercial, and I can not find it anywhere!  Apparently a bunch more people are looking for it, too - nobody has it, though! 

The reason it popped into my head, though, is that tonight I did  have some help on my painting here.  My sister came up yesterday from Grove, Oklahoma so she could take my niece, Atala (pronounced "At-uh-lay", after a painting in the Louvre) to see "Disney On Ice" downtown here.  Atala was so excited to see this - got all dressed up like a princess and everything!  Then the show started and she saw all of these life-size people in costumes skating around and it just freaked her out!  She had a similar experience at Chuck E. Cheese a couple of months ago - does not at all care for the six-foot mouse!  So she was pretty much terrified the entire time - except for the zamboni running around fixing the ice during the intermission - she loved that!  She'd wave to the zamboni driver and he'd wave back. 

Anyway, after that Jenny and I got together with her and we all went out to the Chinese Noodle Cafe so Atala could eat the best crab rangoons in the world.  The owner was making some more, so she showed Atala how she made them.  We had a great time and an even better dinner - it really is my favorite Chinese restaurant in the world!  Then we came back home (after a quick stop at Ted Drewes for mom, Katie and Atala, of course) and while we were playing with Jenny's old Strawberry Shortcake house and little characters (she's got one heck of an imagination!) I asked if she'd like to help me make a painting.  I explained that I was only doing one stroke a day, and asked her what color I should do today.  She picked pink and purple, her two favorite colors.  So I just put a little splotch of both on there (overlapping some of the black from my bad mood last week - she has the ability to wipe out those kinds of moods, so I thought that was appropriate!) and she helped me drag the knife across it, and I just love it!

Well, we've got the girl in bed, and we're all pretty worn out, too, so I think we may just hit the hay, too!  G'night!

Whoooooosh!

I don't know about you, but I tell you  what, time is just flat flying for me anymore!  It just seems like yesterday I was just getting out of college, and I'd just started playing with my first (original music playing) band, Free Dirt.  That was back in '95.  Here it is 15 years later, and we're doing it all over again (for one night, at least).  We had a pretty good run back in the day - played a lot of great music, drank a lot of beer.  A lot of beer.  I'll never forget the night I was leaving Riverport after some concert and I heard one of our songs on KSHE 95!  Holy cow, was that awesome!  It was on a "Smash or Trash" kind of contest, and we were going up against another local group (albeit a much more popular, world-touring local group) the Bottlerockets and I think we actually tied them for votes!  Woo Hoo!  Coincidentally, most of the BoRox will be playing at the show tonight.  Brian Henneman and Mark Ortmann will be there, and I think their other guitarist, John Horton will be there on bass, as well.  Brian is an amazing talent - played lead on the first couple of Wilco albums, as well as all of their own stuff.  I was even lucky enough to have him play on a couple of songs that I wrote with my band Rocket Park. 

Anyway, we practiced last night, and although it's been about 5 years since we've played together, it sounded like we'd never stopped practicing.  That's what I loved about this band - "The band that could always end it right", as one of the lyrics in our song "Rude Pets" stated.  We were always tight as a drum!  And that didn't change last night, even with a gimpy drummer!  Our drummer had surgery on his elbow just a few weeks ago to fix some nerve damage he had, and he doesn't get his cast off for another week or two!  I was so afraid that he'd be playing with one arm - I was trying to go through the songs in my head to see how he might be able to pull it off - what I might do in a similar situation.  But, he can actually grip the stick better now than he could before the surgery, so everything's just peachy!  He's gotta lay off a little bit, but mostly we're still as powerful as ever!

Well, it's getting late - time's a-flyin' again.  Gotta go get ready for the big rawk show!  Get ready to have your faces rocked off tonight, Tap Room!

It's a SNAFU, sir...

Well, folks, things have gone off the track here.  For some damn reason the blogspot powers-that-be aren't letting me upload a photo.  I took one, I promise.  It just won't work.  Unfortunately I've gotta get going to band practice for tomorrow night's show, for the "Return of the Byrne" benefit for a play called "Burn Your Bookes" that my buddy Richard Byrne is producing.  Should be a really smokin' show, so if you happen to be in the St. Louis area tomorrow night, come on down to the Schlafly Tap Room (I believe it's at 20th and Locust).  The special guests are Brian Henneman and Mark Ortmann from the Bottlerockets.  If you don't know them, they are a band from Festus, MO, just south of here, and they've toured around the world with people, playing with everyone form Lucinda Williams and John Fogerty to Pantera.  Yes, that Pantera.  It's a funny story, actually, but I'll have to tell you later - maybe when I get back, while I'm trying once again to upload the photo!  Anyway, gotta go rock!  Later!

Edit:  HEY!  Looky there- the picture came through!  Well, people, enjoy, and we'll hopefully talk to you tomorrow night!

Cheeeeeez...

I love cheese.  Colby, cheddar, good ol' fashioned American, gouda, havarti, manchego, mozzeralla - man, I kinda sound like Bubba from "Forrest Gump".  You get the point.

I guess I like just plain cheesy things, too, though - old 80s movies like "One Crazy Summer", or "Revenge Of The Nerds".  Cheesy music, though, is some of my favorite stuff in the world.  Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you I've got some of the cheesiest albums ever.  I've got hair metal out the wazoo - your garden variety, everyday stuff everyone's heard of, like Poison and Bon Jovi, but also the really obscure, off the charts stuff like Trixter, Tall Stories, Danger Danger, Vixen, XYZ and Hericane Alice.

I love all the 80s one-hit wonders, too.  I love to search for a song that I haven't heard in a decade or two, although that's getting harder to do, with the advent of teh intarnets and all.  You can just about find anything in the world!  One of my favorite cheeseballs is from someone people don't associate with music, really.

Back in the mid-80s I was a HUGE fan of the TV show "Moonlighting".  I watched it religiously.  I especially loved Bruce Willis's character David Addison.  He was just cooler than cool.  Then he started doing the commercials for Seagram's Golden Wine Coolers (which I don't think I ever tried) and I thought that was cooler, for some strange reason.  Then it happened.  He recorded an album. "The Return Of Bruno" (I believe that was his nickname when he was a bartender/aspiring musician/actor in the early 80s) came out in January of 1987.  Not to critical acclaim.  I didn't see any of the reviews - I just wasn't into that yet - but I'm sure it was probably universally panned.  The first (and, I think, only) single was a cover of an old Staples Singers song called "Respect Yourself".  Most likely due to his popularity on "Moonlighting" and "Die Hard, the song went all the way to #5 on the Billboard pop charts, which is exactly the same as Don Johnson's song "Heartbeat" did a few months prior.  Wow.  Now that's magically cheeze-tastic. 

Okay, I could probably go on and on about these kinds of things, but thankfully for my dignity, I have to go get ready for class.  So here's a little swipe of cheddar orange for you, Bruno.  Rock on.

C'mon, C'mon...

...every once in a while you just wanna take stuff back, don't ya?  I just wish some times you could go back and forth whenever you wanted, kind of like in the video for REM's "Imitation Of Life".  It's actually a brilliant video, seemingly done in one singular shot in which "life" goes backwards and forwards.  I think it would just be nice every once in a while to have a fast-forward and rewind button for life.  Kinda like "Click", but without the sad ending. 

This morning I was on my way to work, and I had a pretty bad tic-attack.  For those of you who don't know, I was diagnosed about 4 or 5 years ago with Tourette's Syndrome.  I didn't get the kind you always hear about on TV and movies - the kind where people are randomly shouting obscenities.  That particular kind of the syndrome only counts for about 3% of all TS patients, if that.  I guess it's just the "funniest" kind of it, so that's what Hollywood picked up on and portrays in movies, so that's what everyone thinks of.  I don't personally get offended by that - I get quite a kick out of it occasionally, because I know it's not accurate.  I guess I feel like since I've got it, I can make fun of it - kind of like someone that I know very well that makes jokes about Down's Syndrome, because his little brother has it - it's kind of a coping mechanism.   

The main tic I have is kind of an eye rolling thing - almost like I'm trying to "look at" a particular place in the back of my head.  That was the first thing that happened that made me aware that something weird was happening to my body.  After a year or so I started developing more tics - tongue clicking, and some other things, that would kind of take over so I wasn't rolling my eyes constantly - almost another kind of defense mechanism, ensuring that I wouldn't be closing my eyes so much that I would, oh, I don't know, wreck my car!

My tics have waxed and waned over time - usually on pretty much a monthly cycle.  I'll go through a couple of weeks of relative normalcy followed by a week or so of pretty bad tics.  I guess this week is my really bad tic week. On my way to work I started having a really bad tic-attack - something that's pretty rare, but does occasionally happen (it usually happens when I get stressed).  I looked around and made sure there were no other cars around me - otherwise I probably would have just gotten off of the road.  I never let it be a danger to either myself or anyone else!  Luckily I'm not as progressed as many others with TS - there are some who really do a lot of physical damage to themselves (if you're interested, please read Against Medical Advice - an extremely interesting, and occasionally disturbing and very sad true story).  My mind knows when to say when on many things that would be much more detrimental to other TS patients. 

Anyway, during this particular attack, things just got bad enough that I guess my mind said "enough's enough", and before I even knew what was going on, I had punched myself in the side of the head and was screaming at myself to stop this crap.  After that, I seemed to be okay, and I made my way onto work, where I had another normal day. 

Hopefully I haven't gotten too deep with all of this, nor have I put anyone off - I definitely don't mean to do that!  Like I said, though, I want to be completely honest with this blog, and, unfortunately, this is a part of my life that I deal with every day.  I've read in certain places that I may actually "outgrow" this.  It's actually kind of rare for someone my age to have Tourette's.  I hope and pray every day that I do get past this.  Until then, I do what I can to lessen my stress.  Painting is a huge part of this. Any time I can concentrate on something, usually I can get rid of the tics for a while. 

Wow.  That was deep.  Go on about your day now - and don't worry 'bout poor little me!  :-D  No, seriously!  I'll be fine, dude!  Hopefully there'll be no more black and blue in this painting!  W00T!

Wilde, de la Renta, de la Hoya, Madison, The Grouch...

Yes, folks, it's Oscar night.  I really do love watching them - everything but the red carpet interviews.  Man, are they horrible: "Hi, congratulations on being pretty and famous, you look fantastic - who are you wearing?  Okay, well thanks for talking to us - now get the hell outta the way so we can herd the rest of the pretty people through here and ask them the same inane questions KTHXBYE!" 

I enjoy the speeches, though - especially the ones by people who just really don't care - they let it all hang out, and they're actually somewhat down-to-earth, and funny!  I also love Steve Martin, who, along with Alec Baldwin, is hosting.  Hopefully they'll come up with something creative, and not just read the same crap. 

OH - almost forgot - I just did a quick "red carpet" stroke.  Well, it's starting, so I'm gonna watch it - hey, there's Neil Patrick Harris!  I love him, too!    Time to watch the plastic people!  Hopefully "Up In The Air" wins some stuff - they filmed that up here - in fact some stuff right around the corner from our house, and on the same block as I used to live right out of college!

Now all we need is lollipops and rainbows!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day today!  Jenny got up at the crack of dawn, as always, then I got up and went downstairs. Jenny had all of her genealogy stuff out on the dining room table looking at it, and started showing me all sorts of things, explaining who was who, and how they were related, etc.  She has really worked her butt off for over six years looking up both of our family trees.  She really does know more about my family than I do - probably more than my mom and grandpa do!  She hadn't worked on it in a little while, but last night we watched the premiere of "Who Do You Think You Are?", a show about different celebrities tracing their roots.  It was pretty interesting, to say the least, and it really started Jenny back on looking her own family tree up again. 

After running a few errands and washing both of our cars (I almost forgot my car was blue!), we decided to go to the park so I could do a little painting, and she could work on family tree stuff.  We were originally gonna go to Forest Park, but it was so nice out we figured it would be just absolutely packed, so we went to Francis Park, instead.  This is where I sat.

I got some sky done, and sketched a rough of the building, street, and a few trees, then it started getting chilly.  Shoulda gone earlier in the day!  :-)  We'll see how it turns out - spring is here and that means more beautiful days.  I'm sure I'll be sitting right there again soon!

Mama said there'd be days like this...

I tell you what, today started out just beautifully - had a pretty good night's sleep, did my stretches and a couple of crunches, had a nice breakfast, and went to work, all without a hitch.  It was even sunny as all get-out, and the temperature was actually going *up* for a change!  Despite all of this, and the fact that I had resolved to be in a great mood all day, there were all of these things happening that were just determined to put the kabosh on that at any cost!

I really hate to put all of this bad mood crap out here, but when I started this blog, one of the things I told myself I'd do was to write about what was happening on each day.  As you know, not every day is sunshine, lollipops, or even rainbows, and this was definitely one of "those days".  I was plenty cordial to everyone at work - actually, nobody really ticked me off at all today - they pretty much left me alone to do my job, which is pretty nice!  My computer, and more specifically XM's Liquid Metal Channel got quite a workout today. 

So, now that I've gotten that off my chest, and gotten a little black splotched on the canvas (don't worry, Annie, I mixed it instead of using the store-bought! :-D) I feel better.  It's always better to vent some, ya know?  Right now, though, I think I'll grab a bite to eat, and then it's movie time again - got a copy of John Carpenter's remake of "The Thing" in the mail from Blockbuster, so I think it's time for a little horror flick!  :-)

Talk to you guys tomorrow - it'll be another day, and it'll be a lot better!  Woo Hoo!

A Quick Smoke at Spot's

Actually, I'm not really sure why that particular phrase jumped into my mind.  It's the title of an album of early works by the band "The Church".  I didn't really even know any of their early stuff, before "Under The Milky Way" . I guess I remember seeing the album over at my buddy Dan's house and the name just always stuck with me. 

Anyway, the reason it popped in there was because I was telling myself it was going to be another quick posting this afternoon, because Jenny and I are on our way out the door to meet an old friend from college.  We haven't seen him in about 15 years!  He's been living in Germany, I guess, for about that long.  Don't really know, actually - guess we'll find out all of that tonight!

I did want to get back to the brush strokes, though, so I loaded up the brush with some black and red, to go next to some yellow that was already there, in honor of the German flag.  It kinda goes with something I might start toying with as far as a picture, too, so we'll see where that goes. 

Well, we're off to a great dinner - not German, though - I'm sure he's sick of that!  We're going to Blueberry Hill, y'all!  That's one of our favorite places in town - not just for the great food and ambiance, but also the nostalgia - that's where I proposed to Jenny!  Haben Sie einen großen Abend! Gute Nacht!

Now we're havin' fun!

Well, you all know this is a complete learning experience for me, and today's no exception!  I was looking at it, as I do every day, trying to figure out what in the peewodden I want to do, when I remembered I had a whole drawer full of fun little mediums to play with!  So I looked at all of them and picked the one I haven't played with yet - the Golden's Clear Tar Gel.  NOT to be confused with black tar heroin.  Completely different.  I saw it in a book called "Acrylic Revolution" and it just looked like you could do all sorts of really cool things with it, so I bought some with my gift certificate to Dick Blick's (thanks again, Jim and Kari!).

I may use it in a different manner later on, but today I just dripped a little onto the canvas into a puddle and then dripped a couple of drops of some fun colors onto it.  I figured I should do an actual "stroke", though, so I just dragged the knife through it.  Didn't really mean to make 'em into hearts (maybe I should have done this on Valentine's Day), but that's how it works.  As it's drying, though, it's spreading out a bit and doing some other cool stuff - check it out:

Well, now it's time for me to get on outta here - gonna spend some quality tv-and-foot-rubbin' time with my lovely wife.  Awwwwwww! :-)

Ol' Wilt The Stilt sure could play!

So today is Tuesday, and as I'm finding out, Tuesdays are hectic!  I get off work, then I have to come home and immediately start getting cleaned up for class at 6:30.  Doesn't leave me a whole lot of time to think about what I wanna say here, so today I turned to Wikipedia for some inspiration.  If you enter the date, with no year, it shows you all sorts of facts and trivia about what happened that day, including famous births and deaths.  Did you know that on this date in 1962 Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in one NBA game, setting the record still held today?   I didn't until just a little while ago.  Interesting, huh? 

Well, I'll let you peruse that while I get my stuff together and skedaddle!  Gotta finish up another painting tonight!  :-)

Happy Trout Day, everybody!

Yes, it's March 1st, Trout Day.  What is Trout Day, you ask?  It is, for you non-Southwest Missouri people, the first day of trout season.  This is a holiday where I grew up.  Area schools actually let the kids off that day.  That started back when I was in high school.  I remember going to school on March 1 and being almost the only one in class.  The banks of Roaring River are almost dangerously crowded.  If ever there was a day perfect for knocking over a convenience store in Cassville (Disclaimer: do not do this) March 1 is your day.   Here's an article written by a Cassville alum who wrote for The Harvard Crimson newspaper on the subject.  It's just nuts, folks!

There are a lot of outdoorsy-type guys where I work.  Maybe eventually I can get them to declare it a holiday there, too.  It could happen!

I decided to forego the paintbrush again - it's hard to do a one-stroke tribute to the fish that gives so many children the joy of a day off without using a knife.  Oh, and I also couldn't let today go without giving all of you a present.  You're welcome!  :-D