Random Ramblings

OMG!

2010-03-25T12:54:00.000-04:00

It has been forever since i posted something on here!

I am alive, the doctor tells me so

2009-09-29T09:35:00.003-04:00

So the yearly office visits from the doctor came in today and did the 'ole checkup. Had no idea what to expect due to current events but i was wanting one anyways. i got a flu shot. For some reason my are is sore as all get out. thats okay. it will pass. stepped on the scale. 210.2 fully clothed with shoes (keep in mind i wear a size 15, thats like 13 pounds on its own) (and last night Jeff and I split a Barnaby's pizza and pitcher of beer)(man it was good) so at 210.2 i was actually pleased with that. last year i tipped the scale at....wait for it....231!!!! i am an amazing specimine. so most stats are a good improvement.

I will break down the numbers this way

Item / what it should be / 2008 / today

TOTAL CHOLESTEROL /<200 / 161 / 150...good
HDL (GOOD) CHOLESTEROL />40 / 28 / 29..hmmmm, better!
LDL (BAD) CHOLESTEROL / <130 / 117 / 111...nice
TRIGLYCERIDES / <150 / 81 / <50..amazing
RATIO /<4.1 / 5.8 / 5.1..much better
GLUCOSE (SUGAR) / <110 / 102 / 97....wonderful
BLOOD PRESSURE / 120/80 OR LESS / 112/64 / 140/80..current events
BODY MASS INDEX /18.5-24.9 / 28.6 / 26.3..good
BODY FAT / 20% OR LESS / 22% / 19.1%...jackpot!

She told me to excersise more. i let her know that i have run 2 half marathons, and 4 other road races since i saw her last. i asked about Fish Oil because she did say something about that last year. she reminded me what it was..."Take it!" oh yeahhhhh. that will help the good cholesterol and get the ratio back. i told her i did....then stopped. so i walked into my office, pulled the bottle from behind a picture frame and popped a couple. so considering everything...doin' good....in the health dept. see ya next year!

Chicago Rock N Roll Half Marathon

2009-08-06T09:15:00.002-04:00

Hey kids. it's been a loooong time but i thought i would get this in writing. Lat weekend (Aug. 1 and 2, 2009) Elizabeth and i got hopped on the South Shore train and headed up to the windy city of Chicago, IL. the intention was to try to run the inaugural Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon. A good friend of mine and main running buddy Jon had entered himself into this half marathon and after getting entered found out that he would be out of town that weekend on a family trip / work trip in PA. so offered me the spot to run it. i said "heck yeah" and i would pay the transfer fee and just go in his spot. well as i was browsing the website i find on the homepage NO TRANSFERS / NO REFUNDS. well that doesn't look good now does it?!! the plan was Elizabeth and i would go up Saturday, try to register, if it worked great, if not we still got to hang out in Chicago, kid free for a night. so again, we hopped on the South Shore and made it to the McCormick Place stop and found the expo hall for packet pickup. i had with me his email confirmation that had his bib number and a bunch of other papers including a last ditch effort of ours. He had sent me a photo copy of his drivers license with a hand written portion saying that he was at a family event and that if i could go in his place that would be great. so i walk up to the area to get the packets and see the first 3 tables on my right all the people are showing ID. there is no way this is happening. but i figure i might as well try. i was hoping that the tables would be so busy that they would just be trying to get people out of there but my table that i had to go to, not a soul. so i go up and just as politely as possible start asking this lady how her day is and everything nice i can think of (going for the "kill her with kindness" routine) so i hand her my paper and she turns around to get the packet and then stalls and turns back. she asks "do you have any ID?" and i say so disappointingly, "noooo" and she says "well, i trust you". WHAT!?! YOU DO!?! WHY!?! WHO COMES FROM INDIANA AND DOESN'T HAVE ID!?!? ARE YOU NUTS!?!?! okay, thanks. all i have to do is sign the back of the confirmation page (medical release) i could barely hold the pen i was so nervous. you would have thought i was stealing gold out of Fort Knox. i got the "J" and then forgot his name, my name, my children's names and just wiggled my pen around until i had writers block. i grabbed my packet, got a shirt and headed for the expo quick.

About 3 minutes after all this i had 2 realizations. (1.) i need to get in the mindset that tomorrow i have to run 13.1 miles and (2.) all the excitement is over. i was more nervous about that than anything in a long time

so we strolled through McCormick back and forth for a while with bad directions from a slue of people until we finally ran into the Hyatt regency McCormick Place. Since we were taking Jon's room and this was to be a family vacation, we got up to our room to look at our 2 double beds. hmm. i tried calling but the customer service line was busy and i was kind of glad because to get the room price we had to be in the race so Jon's name was still on the bill and i would have had to request that a room for Jon and I be switched from 2 doubles to a queen..... and i would have had a tough time doing that.

We went down and signed up for the free drive to Watertower place at 3 and went and ate at the hotel restaurant, Shor. it was not bad but the waiter, Arnold, wasn't very good and it was pricey for a cob salad and a English Club Sandwich. we went back to the room and waited. it was 2. it seemed dumb to be in Chicago sitting in a room waiting so we went down, scratched or name off the list and grabbed a cab. once we got downtown we headed for the boat tours. it was 2:15 and the next and only tour open for the rest of the day was 2:30 so we got our tickets and went for a ride.

we might not have gotten the best boat, seats, weather (it had been raining while we were eating but had since just been an overcast) but it was still a good time. it was a 90 minute tour that went out into Lake Michigan and then back into the Chicago river and returned us back. we headed for watertower to find some jeans for Elizabeth. we also went up to the 7th floor to get some pretzels to snack on.

After roaming the city for a good couple hours and picking up some Garrett's popcorn....okay, a lot of Garrett's popcorn, we headed to maggiano's for dinner. we were informed it was a 2 hour wait for the main room or an hour wait for the first available. we took them up on first available and 15 minutes later, we had a table. then it was a HOUR before we got our food. Elizabeth had the pesto and i had the lasagna. the wait knew something wasn't right and appologized and offered free dessert but we were both stuffed so as we were leaving he still brought us some free cookies to take with us home. yeah they were good.

Sunday morning i woke at 5, got on my gear and headed out the door. i managed to catch a cab with another couple down to Grant Park for the start of the 13.1 miler. they paid. i offered to split it but the guy said he didn't have pockets and didn't want any change.

this was 100 more organized and enjoyable than the Indy Mini in May. first off, with Jon's entry i was in the 2:00 coral (#7) rather than the 2:30 corral at Indy (N). at Indy there was construction so when your group finally got to go construction took you down to a land and a half and Chicago you started on 4 lanes that opened to 6.

At Indy i wanted to run a 2:11:00 which would translate into a 10:00 mile. i ended up getting in traffic and comfortable going slow and did a 2:18 (10:30/mile) i ran every step and i think in my head that was my biggest goal. at Chicago i noticed after my first mile i was an 8:48 mile and knew i may be in trouble. i had 12.1 to go. i got in a rhythm and you are busy watching out for other people and the bands (some rather good ones) and pot holes. you really never pay attention to the tall buildings, you are normally watching your step so they are in the wrong direction. the only thing that was odd at one point a guy FLEW buy me and had a bib on his back saying 2:00 PACER. i knew i would never get a good time if 2:00 was already passing me but i never took the time to figure out how that related to me. so i kept running. miles 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10 all showed up. then nothing. no 11, 12, 13 or the count down to the finish. at Indy you had the last mile broken down by 1/4 mile to the finish. so knowing that the race was closing i saw another person with a 2:00 bib on her back and i asked her how we were doing. she said we were 30 seconds under our goal. i passed her and never saw her again. the last (guessing) .7 miles to go i was absolutely dying. at Indy i never pushed myself and had plenty of gas in teh tank to sprint the last mile. i was ready to cry. literally. i wanted to walk so bad. when you can see the line it makes it no better. when you want to push and can't it kinda sucks. i crossed the line and checked my watch. 2:01:51. i NEVER would have guessed. i knew i could beat 2:18 but i figured 2:08 maybe, but never 2:01. needless to say i got a good P.R. now and a new P.R. to beat.

Updating the ole P.R.'s

2009-06-08T06:28:00.002-04:00

Saturday was my 10k at the Sunburst Races in South Bend. you race from the College Football Hall of Fame to the 50 yard line in Notre Dame Stadium. this was the 3rd year that i have done this run, but it was the first time i have done the 10k. the first 2 years i just did the 5k. i kind of think of this as my running anniversary so you could say that i have been running 3 years now. when i started i was an 11:34 minute miler. now i officially qualify as a 8 minute miler. now mind you that is high 8's, but 8's non the less.

i ran a 55:32, which is a 8:57 mile for 6.2 miles. a new 10k PR.

2 races done so far this year.

2009-05-18T10:33:00.004-04:00

Geist went well. a little crazy but not to bad. Elizabeth and i did switch our timing chips so she logged my time and i logged hers but thats okay. i still got my time. i am fairly impressed with how i have improved.

5k (3.1 miles)
34.52 Sunburst 6/2/07
31.56 Sunburst 5/31/08
27.21 Geist Res. 5/16/09 - PR 8:49/mile

10k (6.2)
1:10:45 Steve's Run 7/26/08
1:06:59 Nike Human Race 8/31/08
1:02:16 River City Rat Race 6/26/08
55:32 Sunburst 6/6/09 -PR 8:57/mile

Half Marathon (13.1)
2:18:51 Indy Mini 5/2/09 - 10:35/mile
2:01:51 Chicago Rock and Roll 8/2/09 - PR 9:18/mile

I finished!!!!

2009-05-04T07:12:00.003-04:00

well this last weekend i got to do a couple great things. Friday Elizabeth and i ditched the girls at Grandma Peg's and headed down to Indianapolis. we got downtown and went straight to the packet pickup. flawless. we walked around the expo for a bit. it was good. nothing you had never seen before, yet good. we left there and decided to go eat at the Ram. as we were walking and for a lot for the drive, there was definite concerns about rain on Saturday. Not that i had any control over so i tried to not worry about it. we got done eating and headed straight to the hospital to go see Lexy. It was great. very nice place, super nice nurses and obviously this little girl has an insanely larger rooting section. i couldn't believe how many nurses stopped in to say bye for the weekend or just dropped by to see her or just thought they would come in to see if she needed anything. Elizabeth and i played fair and shared the baby, but she did seem happier when with me, just an observation. eventually we had to pack up and head to aunt Paula's for the carbfest of '09. Rob and Stacy joined us also which was great to see them. We all loaded up and pizza and pasta and cheesecake. yeah yeah yeah. but cheesecake is so gooood. so we got our plan together for the next morning and around 10:30 i hit the hey.

4:30 i was up, not showering, but getting all ready. at 5:15 Uncle Ron, Aunt Paula, Elizabeth and I piled into the Infinity FX35 and headed to go get my cousin Heather. Heather works for IUPUI so we had sweet parking. so we got to where we needed to be. did a little stretching, found my running buddy, Jon. took a couple pictures. and waited. got in the corral (S by the way) and waited. and waited. GUN WENT OFF.....and we waited. a little more. around 45 minutes after the gun went off, Corral S finally launched. Now it's not that it matters, since your own time doesn't start until you cross the start line, but it sucked either way. any stretching was worthless. then you pass all these walkers that lock arms and stretch all the way across the road. you hear "walkers to the right" but they don't. so that was really frustrating. first mile was in the 11 minute range which i was fine with i didn't want to go out and have nothing left at mile 4 so i just kept where i felt comfortable. every mile was almost exactly 10:30. 10:32, 10:31, 10:29. i did have a 12:45 (bathroom break) but i kept thinking that at some point i would step it up and push the high 9's. nope. 10:30's kept on rolling along. Mile 11 was the first time i rally thought, "boy, this could be over now and i wouldn't be to upset." when mile 12 came up i thought, alright, strong finish, lets go out big. i stepped it up. REALLY WENT AFTER IT! i think that i was at a 9:09 pace. they start counting down your distance left. 3/4 mile...whew!.... 1/2 mile.....wow, this is close...... 1/4 mile, CRAP I THINK I STARTED PUSHING TO SOON!!!! AND THE FINISH! my official time was 2:18:51. the splits...

5 mile, 53:12, which is 10:38 mile
10 mile, 1:48:16, which is 10:49 mile
13.1, 2:18:51, 10 10:36 mile
15,252 place of 35,000 half marathoners

very happy. i really wanted to be at or under 10 minute miles but really my best 10k (6.2 miles) was a 10:02 last year so this is very much on pace. if nothing else, now i have a half under my belt and i can work on it. i have a feeling that i will do at least 3 more this year, along with 5k and 10k's. i have a 5k in two weeks and i am getting excited about that already.

so my PR's are..
5k (Sunburst 2008, 31:56, 10:18 mile)
10k (River City Rat Race 2008, 1:02:16, 10:02 mile)
Half Marathon (Indy Mini 2009, 2:18:51, 10:36 mile)

what i've observed running....

2009-04-02T06:57:00.002-04:00

Good day all. well it was a good April. i logged 53 miles and that was with a week off in the middle. i really wanted to hit 60 but I'm sure that will happen this month. we are now at a 1 month countdown to the Indy Mini today. i went out yesterday in the crazy wind and had a couple observations.

-the more people in the car, the less they move over. one person in a car, and they fly to the other side of the road. 6 people in a car, you better move.

-way to many people talk on cell phones. i bet at least 65% of the people that go past are talking on cell phones.

-Men wave more than women. now let it be said, i am 6' 3", 210 lbs (down from 237 by the way...thank you very much) with a buzzed head and full goatee so i guess that i am a little spooky to make eye contact with.

-when a car pulls up to you and someone talks, it scares the crap out of you....Rob and Stacy

-wind is NOT cool

-Commercial trucks and Heavy Duty trucks almost always move over. The drivers almost always wave.

-Old people (sorry to group them, I'll say 70+) do NOT move over. i presume they don't see me.

-Kids frequently slide to the side. the high school girls rarely wave but the thug gangsta guys normally do.

-15 passenger vans want to kill all runners. in the land of the Amish, and living down the road from Target, Kohl's, Meier and Walmart, this is NOT GOOD

-when a passenger waves, it is a motherly looking figure in her late 40's in an SUV with her husband driving. he normally waves too.

-if 10 people drive by and i wave big first, 4 will wave back (single hand lifted off the steering wheel) 2 will give me the "suuup" nod (think "two guys in the mall walking past each other during the holidays" nod) and the others won't make eye contact

-the bigger the guy and the smaller the car, the less likely they are to move over.

i think that's all i have for now. i may add some later when i come up with them and can test them. later

Layla in the paper...

2009-03-25T10:29:00.002-04:00

http://www.etruth.com/Know/News/Story.aspx?ID=478478

sometimes the Elkhart Truth won't open so here is the picture. Layla's preschool was collecting food for the needy. this was the picture.

catching up.

2009-03-11T09:24:00.002-04:00

Well it has been a while since i have posted. honestly not much to add. Kendra has more exciting info than me now that we have a date for her to be induced (April 14).

as far as running, things are going well. i picked the 16 week program on Runners World thinking that with 2 kids and a wife, add sickness, work and anything else, i might want a longer program in case i miss some time i can make it up and not be behind compared to a short schedule. well the last week or so i got kind of bored with it. Weather took a turn for the worse and so i hopped off the running wagon and took a little time off. in February i only logged 42 miles (down from 49 in Jan, although a few less days to do it in. 16 weeks is is good for making up and bad for getting bored. i got back into it late last week and now i will try to push til the end. the Indy Mini is 51 days from today, then 2 weeks after i am doing a 5 k with Elizabeth and Grant and then 2 weeks after that Elizabeth does her walk and i am trying to get into the Sunburst Race in south bend. maybe do the 10k or so. so between the 2 of us we have 5 races in 6 weeks.

This Monday i did my 2 mile run (which i did 2.25) and ran a 8:34 mile. i wasn't really pushing but i was staying up on my tempo. i know i can't keep it, but i was glad i did it. tonight i am to do 7, 2 Thursday and 9 Sunday. We'll see about that.

Later!

Just a note....

2009-02-20T13:18:00.002-05:00

Jeff Kamp made me a new header (thanks Jeff). He used a picture that i found on www.flickr.com from a photographer going by Jem G. I don't know how this legal stuff works real well so i thought that i would post this and a link to the pic that she took.

http://flickr.com/photos/11359082@N05/2189877107/

Thank you Jem!

New day, new shoes and a little AVON

2009-02-06T07:34:00.004-05:00

Suuuuup! well after taking a couple days off to recover after too much running and too many days including 2 speed runs, i am feeling ready to get back out. body feels good. legs still work. and now i have happy feet with the addition of my new shoes. Layla stayed at the Nana's last night so Elizabeth, Marley and i ran over to Mishawaka and swapped out my Nimbus 10's for my new GT-2140's. Metro slid them on my feet and i instantly felt better about them. Again i think Metro but i think they are behind the curve that the Running Company has created. Of course i ended up with a small $10 credit that i chose to hang on to rather then spend it and use it later. i hopped on the treadmill at Metro and ran a short distance in the new kicks and felt very roomy in the toe box. heel was nice and snug. i wish that a size 15 was a lighter shoe but like i said....it's a 15. it's like asking for hot ice. not happening.

we then went over to the new Macri's and had dinner. We got there and we were a little concerned because we were the only people there but then we realized that it was 5:00 so that made a little more sense. by the time we left, there was 6 or 7 tables full. the best part was we were going to get bread sticks and cheese ($4) but instead decided to go with the recommendation of our waitress and had the pretzels ans cheese. that was good. Marley however gave quite the face and did not return to the pretzel and stuck with gold fish or "go feesh" as she calls them. It was nice just the three of us. it reminded me of starting our family with Layla. it's nice to be able to give a kid 100% of your attention when you are normally splitting it and trying to do something all at the same time. Food came out quickly and we settled in to eat. Elizabeth got her favorite, the Gyro and i got my Chicken Cordon Blue. it appeared the Gyro ($8) stayed the same but my CCB ($8) had been put on a crusty bun rather than in the bread form that was at the old location, i just don't remember what it was. it seemed larger than what i remember it being before. So we ate and then headed off to Target to get some essentials and headed home. We talked about Cold Stone Creamery but held strong and went home and had water. good stuff.

I did hop on the treadmill at home and logged a quick 2.2 miles which was a mix of running and walking in the new shoes. it wasn't my finest run but i just wanted to get a little into them and see if i discovered any trouble spot. with no trouble spots i tacked that run/walk more to a crosstrain than a run but i intend on getting out a couple times this weekend. this was a low training week and i have kind of goofed it up anyways so i might as well keep goofing it up. in my head i would like to do 3.25 Saturday, 4 Sunday and then 2 Monday would get me back on my schedule. Last month i logged 49.83 miles running, another 4 walking and 2 more cycling. i am kind of impressed with my mileage considering the weather we have had. i think that i am still sitting at that 20 lbs. weight drop which is again, fine. Elizabeth on the other hand is looking amazing. Everyday i feel very lucky to have her with me

Elizabeth is training for a 2 day, 39.3 mile walk with her sister in Chicago. the first day is a 26.2 (thats a full marathon) on the first day, then they get shoved into a tent to sleep that night and then another 13.1 (thats a half marathon) the second day. i am really proud of her. This is a charity fof Breat Cancer research through Avon. Everyone in the walk has to raise $1800 or more. I will give a link and feel free to sponser her with whatever you can.

http://www.avonwalk.org

or to make a donation and go right to her page.....

http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR/Walk2009/Chicago?px=4471666&pg=personal&fr_id=1780

thanks again.

2140-113-4.96-216-21-157= Cold Stone Creamery

2009-01-30T08:32:00.006-05:00

Hello all. i called Metro and placed my order for my Asics GT-2140. the guy on the phone remembered me quickly and that was nice because i didn't get his name last time so i was worried that i was going to have to try to convince a second person about swapping out shoes. he asked me questions and seemed a little ashamed for misdiagnosing my running style. i should hear from them next week and then i will run over there and hopefully be done with this round of shoe buying. Last night was a training night. I took off out of work a bit early and started off through the subdivision. the first 60 yards was plowed very well, then the fluffy snow came closer and then i was running on it. well, call it running. it really takes it out of you. every push off is twice as hard and when you land, you have a make sure you don't slide away. once i got through the neighborhood and on to 113 it was clear. i ran up and down that and then did a half run and back through the nasty stuff one last time. i was to do 5 but all in all i did 4.96. i hopped on the scale after my shower and clothed was 217.5 lbs which is where i was before the holidays. this morning, in the buck, i was 216 lbs. at my heaviest, i think that i was 237, which at the time didn't seem bad but now i think about that being almost 240 and it amazes me. so i am considering myself at a 21 lbs. weight loss. i kind of remember liking being at 200 best, but i really have no intention of getting there. i am not so much looking at this running thing as a weight loss, but i will not say never. if i get there, i am fine with it. i just remember high school graduating at 157 lbs and looking sick so i still worry about being undersized. i miss Cold Stone Creamery. i think i just needed to hear myself say that.

Update 2

2009-01-24T22:26:00.002-05:00

Stopped at The Running Company with my uncle Ron. I am much more impressed with this company. its not that i don't like Metro, but i don't think they are set up for big feet and now that i have been to another store, i feel like i got better attention. RunCo. had me put on a 15 Pegasus (very neutral) and run on a treadmill and videotaped me. then after a minute of running, i got to watch my steps in slow motion. i got a very different analysis rather than looking at the bottom of my old shoes. so he brought out 2 more pairs of shoes and i ran in those and i really like the Asics GT-2140. didn't like the color but there are options. so i really knew that i wasn't buying but told the guy helping me that i was just starting to look and he got it that i wasn't buying but i still asked him a couple questions and he still brought out 2 more pairs for me to try. i wished that i didn't have this in store credit to use at Metro because i am much happier with how in depth they were at the Running Company, but it is what it is. Maybe the next time i will buy from them. Sometime next week i will call and ask them to order my new shoes and when they are in, i will go swap shoes. that's all for now.

Update............

2009-01-22T07:35:00.001-05:00

i called Metro and i can come back in and they will get me what i want. i will be headed south this weekend so i hope maybe my uncle can take me to some running stores and i will see if i can find something i like better and then go back to Metro and they can order it for me.

hmmmmmm............

2009-01-21T14:43:00.003-05:00

Well i ran (on the treadmill) for the first time in my new shoes. Didn't like them. the spot of concern above the pinky toe is still my spot of concern. i don't feel like this is something that is going to "break in". i did 2.5 miles on the treadmill and it doesn't rub, it just feels like with all that extra stitching right there it holds my toes and won't let me move around like i prefer. the rest of the shoe i really like. a lot. but i think that i will be making a phone call to see what my options are. Today is 100 days from the Indy mini. still very excited. i will need to do a little research to figure out a running course for the week after next when i am at Rob's. last time i was there i just ran around the circle that is like .9 miles 3 times. i was bored out of my mind. i felt like Clark W. Griswold stuck in Europe. Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament! But i have time. The run last night felt fairly good for being on the treadmill. maybe i am getting used to it. Who knows. Maybe it was because i was so focused on my toes. i know the ugly pair of Brooks will still be at the store. i am wondering if i wouldn't be better going to Indy one of the next 2 weekends and trying on stuff down there and then when i come back up, have Metro bring something in for me. First i will call. then i will figure something wonderful out. nice thing is, that worst case scenario, i still like my Nimbus 8's and could always use them should i not find something in time to get them broken in. i will spellcheck real quick and be on my way. Later.

first long run in training....

2009-01-19T08:09:00.002-05:00

Hello all, Elizabeth was out of town this weekend but i managed to ditch the kids for a bit and run over to Metro to try out the new shoes and buy something. the lady that was helping me last week was not there but a young girl helped me out and i tried on the Asics. not to shabby. i have the Nimbus 8 and these were the Nimbus 10. it was different. not in a bad way, just different. it's hard to not compare to an already broken in shoe especially when it has the same name. the other shoe was the Brooks Dyad 5. my only problem with the shoe, and i know I'm not supposed to say it, was how ugly it was. seriously ugly. i guess it is built up for heavier runners and yes, that would be me but for today, i just couldn't do it so i bought the Asics. i figure that i will do a little walking in them but i guess my only complaint is that i wish i could have tried more pairs out. i know that if i didn't wear a 15, there would be more options but i know that they know what they are doing so i have to trust them.

Sunday was my long training day. on Wednesday i did manage to get 3 miles in on the treadmill. it was long and miserable but i got it in the log book. fun or no fun, it's entered either way. Sunday i went out and got 6.4 miles in. OUTSIDE!!! it was a little brisk but you warm up and get in a groove and forget about everything. i left myself an out in my route so if i felt crappy or cold after 3 i could head home and just do 4 total but i felt really good so i got a full 6 running and the .4 was from the walking warm up and cool down. Tonight i have to get 2 miles in and i think that i might do that on the treadmill in the new shoes. as much as i don't like it, at least i can run in squeaky new shoes.

i am looking forward to the next couple weekends. this weekend the my household is heading south to Nobletucky for my nephews birthday party. Layla loves those cousins. Marley loves destroying any kind of railroad track or anything that you took 6.7 hours setting up. it will be fun to talk with my uncle too, because he is running the mini marathon also and plus they have a treadmill with.......HEADROOM!!!!!!! then the next weekend i am heading down again for a solo weekend with the boys. Rob and hopefully Grant too. not sure of the details yet but I'm working on cooking up something fun.

I keep thinking that soon i will be saying, "hey good news! i am in a band again" but at this point not much is cooking. Jeff has put up a Craigslist ad and we have gotten responses. i wish it was from closer people. Valpo to Michigan and down to Plymouth. some good sounding prospects. i guess the drive is on them, it just makes it that much harder though. oh well. maybe soon. we'll see.

Well, that should be it for now. Ta ta

i am so Metro!

2009-01-12T07:04:00.004-05:00

On Saturday since my parents watched Marley for a while, i rode along with Elizabeth and Layla and dropped them off at the Fancy Nancy party at Barnes and Noble and drove over to Metro Run Walk south of U.P. mall. this is one on those places that breathes running and walking. i walked in and a lady rushed right over to me. i wore my running shoes that i wear when it snows and took my good running shoes along. i normally take care of my shoe needs by my self, after all, i worked at FOOT LOCKER. i know what i am doing here people! any ways the lady flipped over my shoes and said "okay, you have about 400 miles on these" what size and went to the bat cave. the 400 miles was right on. i have logged 350 running and i don't know when i have worn them to Vegas and just around. it's funny. they don't ask you what shoe are you looking at, they just bring you what you need. well being a size 15, choices are limited to say the least, but she brought out 2 14's and would just order what i was going to get. i was happy with one of them, a Brooks Dyad 5 but definatley needed the 15 so they ordered that and the newer version of what i already have, the Asics Nimbus 10. Now i must wait for Aciscs to ship the shoes. i guess Brooks is pretty quick to ship so i should see them in a week or so to compare.

today i start my training officially for the Indy Mini that i am very excited about. i got the e-mail saying that all 35,000 spots are sold out now, 4 months prior to the May 2 run. 13.1 miles will be the longest run i have done so far. i am trying to get through this before i pick a full marathon to do. as i pound my morning coffee i am thinking about all the food things i will be changing. try to eliminate all the bad foods, or at least cut down. i am going to try to log this training not only in my calander like i always do but by blogging my progress. it starts today. 16 weeks of training brought to you by me from runnersworld.com. they have ways to get started and free training programs for any stage of running. i really got into running after Elizabeth had Marley. having a second kid was the first time i felt kind of ..... OLD!!!! 2 KIDS!!!!! MY DAD HAS 2 KIDS!!!!! i was weighing in at a hefty 235 and one of the guys i work with has done 4 full marathons so i knew i had a guy to bounce thoughts/feelings/faith/concerns off of. i also have an uncle that has done big marathons including Boston and i always thought that seemed so cool. so after 2 5k's (3.1 miles) and 3 10 k's (6.2 miles) i am on a mission to start racking up the real miles and now down to 217 lbs and soon to have a new pair of shoes, off we go.........................

BUMMER!!!!!

2009-01-08T11:23:00.004-05:00

Georgia's quarterback AND RB are both leaving early for the NFL. we all guessed they would be hoped they would stay. Joe Cox is still a great QB and there is always talent coming in. Trevor and i saw Joe save the day at the Colorado game. HE CAN DOOO IT!

http://bkattau.blogspot.com/2006/10/my-life-past-few-weeksfor.html

THEE list of stave snares....

2008-12-30T10:58:00.005-05:00

The drums are all in different stages from finished to glued. But the list as follows is....

Alowood Ebony

2- 5.5 x 13

Bamboo

2- 5.5 x 14

1- 5 x 14

1- 7x13

Ash

1- 8.25 x 14

1- 5.5 x 13
1- 7 x 13
2- 5.5 x 14
1- 4 x 14

Black Walnut

1- 7 x 13

1- 5.5 x 14

1- 6 x 13

1- 6.5 x 14

Red Oak

1- 7 x 13

1- 6 x 14 (Blue Stain)

Canary Wood

2- 5 x 14

Leopardwood

1- 6 x 14

Paduak

1- 5.5 x 14

Cherry

1- 5.5 x 13

1- 5.5 x 14

1- 6.5 x 14

1- 6.5 x 14 (Horizontal and Vertical Alt Grain)

Ziricote

1- 5.5 x 14

Misc.

1- 6 x 14 Black Walnut / Cherry

1- 5.5 x 14 Black Walnut / Padauk / Ash

1- 7 x 13 Bubinga / Padauk

Photography by Stacy Lastinger

to many projects in one room....

2008-10-13T15:32:00.007-04:00

okay...let me explain. so the wall has no drywall. after the big storm, we had a large amount of water come in through a couple of places. long story short i had to remove the paneling and do some work. i just need to get some old paneling or ideally some drywall and get it hung. sounds easy enough. right...... the silver snare drum is one acquired from a trade. the shop vac is just an all round cleaning (not that you can tell) mostly from the wall project.) the bare shell on the left side also has another smaller shell in it. that was a project that started oh....6 years ago. never wanted to spend the money to get it where it needed to be. there they will sit. i still hope some day. the three red drums are the new kit that replaced the old kit. the new kit is from Jan 1966 replacing the old kit from Feb 1993. the cymbal on the ground is from a sale that fell through so it was on the rack on the left but i had to get a chair out so i had to move it. yeah it looks bad. i need a warehouse. thank goodness the Gretsch kit is at Jeff's!!!!

Some pics of the new kit....

Still running. i ran 3.25 Friday and 6.0 on Saturday. 10k in 2 weeks in Ft. Wayne and i am really looking forward to that. obviously i want to improve my time from Chicago. we'll see how that goes. this race was described as "scenic" which to me means "hilly". i have these next 2 weeks to get all ready.

Gotta run.

August miles ran.....

2008-09-18T07:50:00.003-04:00

52.2 miles run in August!!!!!!!! I am starting to prep for my next race. October 26 in Ft. Wayne. the River City Rat Race. 10k. might need to finally break down and buy some new shoes. i like my asics but i really have a thing for theses

I'm sure there are other things that i should be writing but i can't think of much. i sold (well it's in the process) of getting of my first drum set. my parents bought it for me for my 16th birthday. i used that kit so much. i gigged on it. stripped it down to then wrap it in velvet (oh yes) and made tons of improvements to it. i sold it to a friend who's son is learning to play so i feel that it will get another life. still eyeing a second kit to have. Vintage stuff is so cool but addictive.

Thats all i got for now. off to check Facebook

have i fallen for a new girl????

2008-09-03T08:43:00.000-04:00

i think so.... DAMN YOU FACEBOOK!!!!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1332740150

Wow....it has been a REALLY long time since i've posted!!!

2008-08-14T16:01:00.004-04:00

...and yet, i don't have much to say. hmmm. well i guess the big thing that i have coming up is the Human Race 10k in Chicago. Pretty excited about it really. They have a realy cool video. still can't quite tell if this is the first year. i keep seeing stuff saying that it is but the video looks as if it isn't. Not that it matters. 6.2 miles in Chicago is pretty cool either way.

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/

I did finally get the John Mayer DVD. Very Good. okay, thats covered. next topic...

Georgia football is getting close. Most polls have them in that horrible #1 position. your pretty much doomed to start #1. thats okay. should be a good year.

The new house is going well. Mom has painted like crazy and we are getting settled in well.

i think thats all i have in me today. Later all

My first 10k!!!

2008-07-28T07:42:00.007-04:00

Here are some overdue pictures that Stacy Lastinger took at our Forth of July party down at my sister and Aunt's house's.

I also finished my first 10k. it's no record breaker but i didn't care. 6.2 miles part road, part trail with hills that i never imagined! i had a good time. Four of us guy's went togoether. we are in the process of looking for another one in September.

Things have changed

2008-07-11T08:35:00.008-04:00

Everything. okay, it's been a while since i posted so i must back up. We sold our house. it sold in 31 days. then i took a while to get to closing but we sold. we made more on it than we expected. either way we closed. we Bought a house. we closed the day after we closed on the house we sold. We painted. EVERYTHING. My mother painted. EVERYTHING ELSE. so yeah, lots of paint was involved in the buying of this house. we have more to come. Layla has done fairly well with the switch but Marley has struggled a bit. Thursday then the family went down for our annual Forth of July visit to Noblesville. Layla was a fish. the girl that doesn't normally like to be wet / cold / splashed and all the stuff that goes with it, we couldn't keep her out of the pool or at least asking all the time. the only other thing that held her over was going on boat rides. she had fun. I got away on Friday for a bit and ran (drove) over to Rob's and I got to work on some snare shells. we cut edges on 4 Bamboo shells and glued up 2 of them. then we had the big party at my Aunt Paula's. Saturday Elizabeth and I went back to Rob and Stacy's house and the four of us went to the John Mayer concert that evening. Good show. i am guessing that i liked it better than the others but i think everyone had a good time. i will not say that it was the most impressive concert that i have ever been to but i still really enjoyed it. Once again i am listening to the Raconteurs live shows again. i found one that i was able to download (podcast) through NPR. sounds like another slick show. i would really like to see them sometime. they have pics posted of this show at the 9:30 Club in D.C. the guy that took the pics is pretty friggin good. he goes by Kingpinphoto.

Then to top it all off, on Thursday morning Elizabeth fell down the new steps carring to much laundry and has a second degree sprain of the left ankle. AND she didn't finish the laundry. GEEZ! So mom and dad to the rescue again. THANK YOU (AGAIN)

Happy Birthday Peetie!!!!

2008-06-13T09:21:00.007-04:00

If you want to know how old she is, YOU ask her. I love you honey. (and no, none of these cakes are her's. sad isn't it!)

JUst an F.Y.I.

2008-06-09T15:48:00.002-04:00

i just got on the Brian Ficher MySpace page and saw that he has uploaded 2 songs that we did in the studio. i see that on the 13th of June he will be adding more. That's all i got for now. His link is over on the side or here

First post in a while.

2008-06-09T12:21:00.002-04:00

Sorry for not posting more. things have been busy with all the housing stuff going on. We have finally started packing. that is a pain in the butt. i see why we were avoiding it. the garage is fairly well packed. I spent about 6 hours aver at the house on 15 getting paint stripped and mom stopped by and started painting. amazing how much better it looks so quickly and easily. it has been nice to meet the guy selling (Jason). seems like a good fellow. he seemed okay with us getting into the house the week after he gets moved out and right before we close to let us paint a couple rooms. that would be sweet. we'll see. so at this point we are moving on the 28th!!!!

my new musical drug is the Raconteurs. Jack White of the White Stripes is the lead guy but shares a lot of duties with another guy in the band. Good stuff.

okay. that's it for now.

It all seems to happening at once.

2008-05-29T12:32:00.003-04:00

I really don't have time for a post right now. Marley and her cousin Cade turned 1 on the same day that cousin Evan turned 5. Layla turned four 5 days later. We are in the final stages of getting our house sold and the new house bought. just waiting on the appraisal of ours and a final okay for the counters on the new. Closings should be June 27. Moving should be mostly on the 29th (yes i know that's a Sunday) Work had been crazy busy. Kendra and the boys were up this last weekend for all the kids parties so Layla was in heaven to finally have "her Nicky" around. It was good to see every one and i look forward to getting to go south for the July 4th weekend. We need a vacation because this house stuff is ridiculous and drawn out. Well i think that's all i have on short notice. this weekend is the Sunburst race. i am again doing the 5k. last year i strolled in at a lengthy 34 minutes. i think that i can beat that but who knows. i don't feel that i am running as long but i am running faster. i think that makes sense. we'll see. Elizabeth is doing the 5k walk with her sister. Go team. Okay, back to work.

Happy Anniversary to us!!!

2008-05-19T10:22:00.003-04:00

Hello all. Today is my lovely bride, Elizabeth's and my 7 year anniversary. 7 years. 7 years with no itch. i like her pretty well. i think that i will take the 7 year contract extension. Our little family seems to be growing up to fast. Marley turns 1 on Thursday and then our baby Layla turns a whopping 4 next Tuesday. how is this all possible. that means that i will have been in my job purchasing for 4 years now. unbelievable how fast time comes and goes after you have kids.

Friday night we awoke to Layla screaming because she had just gotten sick in bed. it is scary for a kid but she did well with it. it must have been a fluke bug because she had no signs the next day. she took it easy on Saturday but nothing ever came of it again. Marley held strong.

Sunday i went up to St. Charles, Illinois with my friend Doug to the Chicago Drum Show. met a lot of people, saw a ton of amazing kits and snares and cymbals. Played some really nice stuff. it is disturbing the prices some of the stuff goes for. My favorite thing that i saw up there was a company by the name of Joyful Noise Drum Company. Classy people, and amazing product. something like this 4x14 brass snare goes in the neighborhood of $1,300. Gulp. But it is amazing. Doug made some purchases. He bought hardware to sell Robbie competition snare drum. Robbie stripped it down to sell off the shell and Doug had offers if it was complete so Doug finished that up and he also stole a Drum Foundry snare. 5.5x14, 8 ply, die cast, puresounds. it had a tag on it for $299 and Doug offered it for $210. they took the deal so he will take that home, pull off the good hoops and sell it for $350 or so. All in all, it was a good day.

Today our house on Maple Row gets its home inspection and then on Thursday, the new house on 15 gets its home inspection. after that the sold signs should go up. We close on both houses on or before June 27.

I think that is all i have for now. see ya later.

The girls

2008-05-13T12:41:00.009-04:00

SOLD!!!!!

2008-05-12T10:51:00.002-04:00

On Saturday we found out that we sold our house. These are the people that looked at the house for the first time on Tuesday and bid on Thursday night. we got the bid Friday and by Saturday we finalized the counter offers. we ended up getting it for $1,600 MORE than we were asking for it due to them wanting help in down payments. Tonight we go for our second showing at the house that E and i both like the best. wish us luck. Congrats to Lisa and Jesse Jones on their new son, Miles and good luck to Craig and Stacy McDowell who are at the hospital and Stacy (i don't think Craig) is in labor. More to come. Bye.

Maestro............

2008-05-01T07:18:00.007-04:00

Well I'm sure that their are garage saler's out there that live for "the hunt" it's a pretty rare day when i go garage sailing yet i suppose if it was the right time, and the girls were going to tolerate it and blah blah blah i would go more. Elizabeth always comes home with great deals. i bet you could raise a kid and never buy 1 piece of clothing or one toy from a department store, but strictly from garage sales. the prices are normally a mere percent of what you pay and if you know the right people you can get things that you aren't sure if they have even been used yet for next to nothing. However still, i just typically don't go to them. this last weekend we HAD a garage sale at E.'s dad's. very profitable for every one. i had borrowed saw horses and some monster doors from work and drove them over. so then on Tuesday, Trevor comes and asks me if i know where they are at. Hmmm, oops. yep. at E's dad's. well of course his family is having a garage sale and needs the tables. so i told him that i would take him over to pick it all up after our Order Reading Meeting. so at 3 i tell Curt that i am going with Trevor to get all the stuff and i get a "WELL DON'T LET IT TAKE ALL DAY!!!!" which in "Curt" means... "oh that would be just fine, do you need gas money or a hug before you go. have a great day!" so we go get everything and Trevor hops out of the truck. well he forgot to grab the key out of the truck so i snag it and wait for him to say "oops, i forgot the key!" well he does as i am walking into the breeze way. I laugh and enter the room of crap. Wowza!!! they got stuff to sell. Coasters, books, clothes, guitar amp.....................................GUITAR AMP!?!?!?! i am intrigued! so i go over to it and on the front it says "Maestro". no idea. never heard of it. i take a look at its back and see it is a Vintage Jensen original speaker 4 x 8" combo. no idea. tube amp, cool. then on the top of it i see "Gibson Products" well when we get done i talk to Sheri to see if she knows if that is for sale. it is! sweet. So Dorothy comes in Wednesday and says she has no idea if it works but thinks that it did when Bob stopped using it. she says "Would you pay $25?" i told her yeah, probably. later in the day, Trevor brings it into my office. and says he was instructed to drop it off. GREAT. on the top i find the small text saying the model number. GA-45 RV. so i Google it. what i find is that in 2006, the low end price on this is $950 and the high end price is $1,200. i payed $25. I am the coolest kid i know. i took it home last night and plugged it in. it works. the pots are dirty so when you dial a knob it sounds real crusty. still, it is cool as can be. not a bad sound but it really could use some money to be put into it if you were going to actually use it on a regular basis. i have know idea what i will be doing with it.

i got my pricing from this site here

Very exciting....

2008-04-29T09:58:00.003-04:00

John Mayer is putting out a CD / DVD on July 1. this looks good. i really like Danny Clinch also. he did the Foo Fighters acoustic DVD and the Pearl Jam DVD. these are my 3 favorites. the Killers need to sign him for a movie and i would officially begin to stalk him. i also see that JM is doing a summer tour and will be in Noblesville on July 5 (Saturday) THIS is intriguing. Oh, honey!!!!!!

To catch everyone up...

2008-04-29T08:18:00.004-04:00

Over the weekend, E and i went to a few more open houses. we got to go in a house that was on our list of "we kind of want to see it but not a HAVE TO SEE it house". it was NOT good. it is on the main drag in Pinecrest. we will not be buying it. we did have another showing on Friday. i picked up the girls and we met for dinner at Between the Buns. we happened to run into E.'s dad and sister and her family. it was cute. big happy family. then Saturday was the big Garage Sale. we got rid of a ton of stuff and made pretty good money. that night we met at E's sisters again and did pizza from Antonio's. good times. As far as the results of the showing. we are told that it went very well but that the couple is just starting to look. that same realtor said that she has another client that has been on vacation that she thinks would really like the place so that i a plus. also a guy that Elizabeth works with has a friend who he thinks would be interested. it would be great if he didn't have a realtor and we sent him to Micki. that would cut our commision to her even more. so it feels like things are still moving well. Yahoo....

Last night E and i went up (finally) to see Jami Kamp. she has been in the hospital for 19 days now. all for a tummy ache, which led to gall bladder removal leading to pancreitis. she has a feeding tube and got to eat yesterday for the first time.......DIET JELLO. blah. pass. no thanks. She seems to be hanging in there. it is a little absurd that it took us 18 days to get up there but with home showings and all the other stuff going on, i was glad that we at least finally made it up. Jeff's parents and Jami's mom were all up there. Jeff arrived a bit later because he had a final to take.

Today was our in office health checks. you get to do it for free. just a rough evaluation of your health. i, being a normal male, need these since i don't see a doctor regularly. last year wasn't horrid but they had to take my blood pressure twice and it was still bad. shortly after that i had to go in for a cold or something and it was fine so it must have been that day. well the results are in....

TOTAL CHOLESTEROL (<200...161

HDL (GOOD) CHOLESTEROL (>40...28

LDL (BAD) CHOLESTEROL (<130...117

TRIGLYCERIDES (<150...81

RATIO (<4.1...5.8

GLUCOSE (SUGAR) (<110...102

BLOOD PRESSURE (120/80 OR LESS...112/64

BODY MASS INDEX (18.5-24.9...28.6

BODY FAT (19% OR LESS...22%

So the verdict is in. I'm not dying, but I'm chubby. I tipped the scales at a hefty 231 clothed and reached 6'-3" on the height meter. Her only recommendation was that i should take 1,000 to 2,000 of fish oil a day. Fish oil. Crazy. If i am alergic to shell fish, is this going to kill me? i don't know...i forgot to ask. hmmmm......

HERE WE GO ST. JOE!!! HERE WE GO!!!

2008-04-25T07:49:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we got word that on Friday evening we had another showing at our house. it is tonight at 6. Elizabeth happened to run into our neighbors and he mentioned St. Joesph. when i got home, i ate and then went out to mow. when i got to the front yard, Mark stopped me and handed me a small 3" tall St. Joseph. so we did our research. rumor has it that you are to bury him in the backyard, upside down, facing the house and this will bring you a buyer to your residence. then upon selling the home, you are to dig him up (try to remember where you buried him) and place him in a very visible location. THIS IS ALL CRAZY, however, what do we have to lose. So upon finishing my lawn, i went to the back yard, i put him in a zip lock bag (snack size) which was recommended to me by our neighbor, and dug up a spot where i stuck him in the ground upside down, facing the house. Mark said that his mother had luck with it and did ceramics and porcelain's and said that she started making them. she gave one to Mark's sister and it was successful for her and he had luck with one also. he seems to have taken the lot of St. Josephs so he gave us a porcelain one. Why the heck not. Today the house will be in the Homes and Land book so lets hope it works.

we did find out the our "safety net" house on Southfield went off the market. the people that were selling it got moved to Texas mid February have now decided to rent it out. i don't see this is a bad thing because unless they have someone in mind, i think that we could still contact them and maybe make an offer. renting isn't all it's cracked up to be. Bronson used to rent and it was nightmare-ish. who knows. can't get to attached to these properties until we sell ours.

this Saturday we have the big garage sale in E.'s dads subdivision. let make some bucks! we got plenty to choose from. we hope that goes well.

Also i talked to Jeff this morning. Jamie is still in the hospital. sounds like she may be in for a bit longer. she has good days but then she will drop down a notch. the feeding tube is causing problems, but they are saying that she can go home when they see 2 or so good days and she wants to go home because she's ready, not because shes tired of the hospital.

Have a good weekend. lets hope St. Joe does the trick.

B.

Oh my has it been a while.......

2008-04-21T10:25:00.005-04:00

Welcome back for your newest installment the thing's going's on. Well since our house went up for sale on the market we had 2 showings right off the bat.it went up Thursday, made it to the Internet Friday and then had a showing Monday and Tuesday. Monday's showing we never heard a thing about. not that we are looking for feed back, not that it hurts, but we never heard ANYTHING. our neighbors said that it was a younger couple and we did find out that they have been looking in our area. who knows. the second showing, it was just the husband of the family and i guess he really liked it. GREAT so he was bringing his wife back out because she was gone or something. we then we heard later the she liked a house that is about better (even though she never stepped foot in ours) you start taking things personally and you shouldn't but it's hard not to. so you turn bitter. Sunday our house was in the paper and this Friday, in the homes and land magazines, we'll be listed.

Last Tuesday, the same day we had our second showing, Marley got tubes put in. aside from being a little upset when she woke up and a couple rough nights, things seem to be fine. not much to report there. She's stinkin' cute. i guess i can report that. Consider this report done.

Bands....geez! i need to fire my whole band but everyone is in the hospital. i think it was about a week ago Jeff sent out a e-mail saying that Jamie (his wife) was having stomach issues...long story short, She is still in the hospital and at least the length of this week. it is a series of one thing seems to lead to another. this is from Jeff

Last night my wife had severe stomach pains and we went to the E.R. at Elkhart. They gave her meds and it seemed to help. Most likely it was a Gall Bladder attack. Today around noon she ended up having the same pains. Again we went to the E.R. Tonight she had surgery to remove her Gall Bladder and it seems things have gone well. Thanks for the prayers from the people who knew what was going on. For the others please pray for continued healing. Big thanks to all who helped out with Jacob and just were there for support.

It is Saturday night and Jami is not any better. We are still at Elkhart General Hospital. They are going to run some more test tonight to see why she is not recovering. Please keep her in your prayers.

Jami has been diagnosed with pancreitis and has been transferred to critical care. This is mostly so they can monitor her better. Tomorrow they will do a CT Scan to see the severity of the problem.

Sunday Night Update:

Jami has improved very little today. She had a CT Scan this morning. They haven't told is much about that, except for it did show a little fluid that they wanted to keep an eye on. Late afternoon today they put in a PIC Line. Some of you may remember she had one of these when she was so sick with being pregnant with Jacob. This basically is like a direct IV line. This will allow them to draw blood labs without them having to "poke" her every time. She is still not allowed to eat or drink.....actually not even allowed to smell food, as this could cause interruption of the healing process of her pancreatitis. She is supposed to have more lab work done tomorrow morning, hopefully this will show that her critical numbers are going down. As for me I did go to my sisters for lunch today, so I could hang out with Jacob a little bit. Him and I took about an hour and a half nap. I am again staying at the hospital tonight, I am working on homework for school, they have given Jami some sleeping meds tonight as she has been very restless. I will be going to work tomorrow (although I don't know for how long). Jami's mom will be with her for most of the day. Again thanks for the prayers!!!

- Jeff

The result are in:

Jami has the better of the two types of pancreatitis. There is good blood flow in the pancreas. There is a large amount of fluid around the pancrease called a pseudo cyst. This cyst may be pushing on the stomach causing her nausea. For the next 6 weeks Dr. Karageantis wants to watch the cyst and see how much of the cyst the body will absorb itself. After 6 six weeks there are two ways to try and drain the remaining fluid. One choice would be laparoscopic and the other is endoscope. At this time I do not know the differences in the two procedures. Jami’s blood work is improving. She is still not allowed to eat, drink, or smell food allowing the panaceas to completely rest. This may be for the next 5 days. Possibly tomorrow she will be able to have ice chips to help with her thirst. Jami will not be moving out of the critical care area of the hospital yet because she is still classified as critically ill.

Thank-you for your continued prayer support through her illness, we appreciate your strength for which we have needed to rely on. Our God has provided peace for the family as we strive to help Jami with her needs.

And last e-mail...

Wednesday Night Update:

Jami is slowly showing signs of improvement. Her heart rate has come back to almost normal. Her enzymes are returning to normal. She might be moving off of critical care tonight. She still has a long way to go. She has finally started to get some much needed sleep and less pain meds. There is no time frame yet as to when she might be able to come home. I have went home the last two nights to get some sleep. They are still watching the cyst area to see if it has gone down any. We also do not know whether any follow up surgeries will be necessary. It may be six weeks before we know if any surgery will be needed. It still may be two or three days before she can have food or drink. Again thanks for the prayers.

So then after all this ruckus, he sees Andre getting wheeling around in a gown on a wheel chair. Jeff said that he had gone in for a physical and that he had some heart rhythms that were off tempo (i have no idea) So i think that i can plan on taking a little time off band stuff for a while. i have seen the next drum product that i have interest in. i know that i have a lot of drum stuff but this is the kind of thing that i could eliminate some stands and product. it is an ingenious idea by Gibraltar Hardware. there are 2 versions, with all the hardware or complete and add nothing. the wise decision is to get the full piece and then sell the 3 stands that it would replace.

Thanks for reading. Tonight i think that we look at 2 more houses. we have 3 on the "Like List" and plenty that you could turn around just about as soon as you step foot in them. If nothing else, it has been a good experience to figure out what all is involved in selling a home. it's also nice that we are cleaning out like crazy for a garage sale this coming weekend. COME ON BIG BUCKS!!!! see ya, B.

All the newest stuff going on.

2008-04-08T10:10:00.008-04:00

Well we have decided to try to sell the house. We have officially grown bigger than what the house can hold. we also know that this is the most we will ever have. Every month Marley grows out of something that we can now get rid of in a garage sale. We have over a year before Layla would enter kindergarten but we figure we might as well start now. Micki Olson will be selling our house for us. She came over to the house last Wednesday but we wanted to figure some things out first so she comes over again tomorrow. We figure now is the time to buy, so if it's good for us, it's good for someone else. if nothing happens we won't be disappointed. we would like to get back into the Concord district but again, if nothing happens, so be it, the girls will be in Memorials district. we have been looking for houses now for a couple weeks. we aren't' asking for anything major. just something small and quaint like the house above. i bet that's 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. probably not over 1400 sq. ft. it must have a 2 car garage and a little area for the girls to play outside. well see what comes up. Micki brought over 4 houses that sold in the same Bungalow style as ours in the our neighborhood in that last 6 months. the longest one was 161 days. others were 31 days and like 62. one was 0 so that must have been predetermined or just plain wrong. it's kind of fun but we'll see what happens.

Robbie has finished our first snare drum stave shell. Robbie has done all the work really. He has really impressed me with this jig. i know that he was given the idea by another guy but to finish it out can be very challenging.

Above is in the jig to get its outside turned smooth. the router sits on top and you spin the shell to smooth it out.

This above is after the outside is smoothed and preparing for the inside to get turned

This is the shell after the inside has been turned also. We would still need to put on bearing edges and a snare bed but you get the idea. this was again our (his) first one that we did in Red Oak. We already have a stash of Black Walnut, Ash, Red Oak, Ebony, Leopardwood, Cherry and a couple others. we hope to make millions.

Jazzy goodness

2008-04-03T09:06:00.002-04:00

What up! i called Jeff yesterday to try to figure out what is happening with the new band. Andre, Jeff and i got together once about a month ago now i guess and had a very good first practice. we were heading in the direction of doing a Blue's band and things clicked very well for a first time meeting. i think that everyone was a little nervous. Jeff and I hoping not to scare away Andre because he is so good and we are.....well anyways, i was also a little hesitant because i have young kids and i knew that Jacob was upstairs at Jeff's sleeping so i was a little gun shy just to go crazy drumming. either way he woke up but i guess it was expected. so the reason for my call yesterday was to see if we could all get together Sunday and have a jam. Turns out that Andre had other things going so we are hoping for the weekend after that. i am good so we just need to get confirmation from the other 2. Jeff and i saw that jazz band a week ago and we got talking about our struggles with finding a lead man, so when i called Andre after work, to find out his schedule, he was all for doing a jazz trio until something came up. nice thing is that we won't need a singer to count on. Andre is a disturbingly good bass man. Jeff has crazy good Jazz sax skills and i have really big feet. i know that doesn't have anything to do with anything, but i wanted to fit in. so our intention is.......Not forget the blues. i still think that it is more marketable, however, in the meantime, try to get out playing doing a jazz trio. what better way to network yourself than someone else come up to you and want to join in with you. Jeff and i were talking and it sounds like Andre has a ton of great recording equipment so that is another nice advantage that we could get a press kit or at least demo CD together at no cost. Jeff also has a bundle of items for recording so we are covered in many situations there. Gotta run. see ya later.

My evening with the Grand Master

2008-04-01T10:23:00.004-04:00

Hello. happy Tuesday. as previously posted, last night i had my first real studio experience. it is a project that is funded and created by Brian Fisher. Brian was the guitarist transformed into bass player in my last functioning band, known for a short time as (man i hate this name....)Fourplay (yes i know there was a Grammy award winning contemporary jazz band with this same name. Seriously i tried telling them this but no one cared. oh well) so shortly after that broke up Brian and i continued talking randomly to keep touch and hope another band opportunity came along. well talking with Brian one day he said that he had written some material and wanted to record it and wanted to have me play drums on it. it was a paying session so i was thrilled. my first paying musical performance in a while. when Jeff and i were in More Than Song we had one that we never got paid for but before that is was a long dry spell. Blank Slate was the real cash cow. sad but true. so after 2 reschedules, we met last night at Grand Master Studios in South Bend on Miami to "lay down" some tracks (that's cool lingo)

i got there about 5:30 and in the pouring rain started to unload in this dark decrepit alley. it took a good 8 trips to get it all inside this dim lit studio but i got it. no help. drummers. why would anyone want to play these. you never get help and you always have a ton of crap. and it heavy. i should also tell you that i had to park at the bottom of a hill and i had a broken leg but i think that you would figure me out so never mind.

i met Chris, the owner, engineer, musician himself. very nice guy. he was very easy to work with. Brian has dealt with him before so it was not like nobody knew anyone. i got my gear all opened up and started setting up. Chris came around and hooked up mics and we talked gear while we were all getting ready. this again was not my first experience recording, but my first in a real studio and with an engineer who knew how he wanted to hook up mics.

Kick drum, AKG D112

Tom 1, AKG C418

Tom 2, Sennheiser 421

Snares, 2 Shure SM 57's

Overheads, 2 Shure SM 81's

While i did that Brian set up in the same room his amp and a mic stand for a "scratch vocal" that is a guide for what he is singing but they will then rerecord his singing which is good because it was shaky after practicing the night before. After spending 20 minutes working on problem with Brian's Fender amp and some seriously wicked buzzing we got it to a reasonable level and kenw that the sound would get covered in the ambient noise of the drums so we moved on to "dialing in" the drums. this is a LONG and BORING process. Long. Boring. End of story. Chris says okay. start with the kick drum. so you start hitting it. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM............ about 7 or 8 minutes later he says okay, "tom 1" so you start that. BOOM, BOOM, Boom........ and you go around the kit to Tom 2, snare, cymbals. then to do patterns just the 2 toms back and forth and then drums all together. then it happens....FULL KIT. after all that, then we went back and dampened stuff and took out the overtones, but after a good 45 minutes, we were ready to go. So i look and it's 8:30. Three hours and not one note has been recorded. I knew then that we were going to be there a while.

Honestly, during the recordings there isn't much to tell. Most of the songs went pretty well. we had six total. 4 that we had done a fair amount of work on in practices and 2 that he sprung on me the night before. i had 2 snare that i was using so we did 3 of the original songs and 1 new one, then i switched snares and did the last 2. we did most of the songs in 2 takes and then went back and re did a couple sections and "punchedethem in" in place of other sections. each song Brian and i would play the song first time just getting familiar with each song and then Chris would set the click track as we were playing so when we were done, then we would take our first cut at the song. sometimes we would have to start up again to get the click fixed up again. One song we had to retake the whole thing cause it seemed slow after we listened back. Brian has one song that has some 3/4 measures in a 4/4 song so that was fun listening to a click that didn't match up with your mental counting. it wa probably the best one we did.

Pro Tools is a very neat program. after every song when we thought that we were fairly well finished we would go back into the booth and listen. We were really only worried about drums last night, not vocals or guitar so that was nice so i could focus on what Brian wanted. We would listen and Brian would want something or and extra hit or beat somewhere and Chris would just copy and paste a note in that spot. Chris was very good with the program. i was surprised to see he was using a Windows machine and not an Apple PowerBook or something. Apple is the more popular option but either way, it worked and worked well. He had a very nice Soundcraft mixing console and plenty of other fancy rack processors. i think that the board was a TS12.

So at about 11:30 i started tearing down and got paid. i headed home and crawled into bed at 12:27. Up at 5:50 and here i am at work. all in all, i had a good time great experience and i really would like to do it more on someone else's dollar. i look forward to hearing the final outcome. Later.

Weekend Lookback

2008-03-31T08:00:00.005-04:00

Hello all. i have been bad about updating my blog. i have no excuses. so Friday Jeff and i went up to good ole Chicago to go see the Joshua Redman Trio featuring Brandford Marsalis. We saw Brandford and his quartet last year and it was amazing. Jeff "Tain" Watts is one of my favorite jazz drummers. Thunderous power. we had no idea of who was going to be there this year. Turn out it was Greg Hutchinson. he is a very good talent. the thing that amazed me the most is how little he moves. great finger and wrist control. honestly it was not as good as last years show but i still really enjoyed it. we dined at Bennigans which isn't my favorite but i always think that i am going to like it. i got the Monte Cristo. it's good. then you eat a little more and it's okay. by the time you are 6 bites in you are ready to be done with it. i did have a Newcastle Brown Ale. That is always nice. So i was wast thrilled when the show was over we got to validate our parking so is only cost us $13.00 instead if $28.00 for 2 hours.

As Jeff and i are on the way out the door, Brian calls me saying that once again, we are needing to reschedule the recording date. we practiced last night and we are going to the studio tonight now. i am really excited. we are up to 6 songs from 4. i must say, some of Brian's material is very good i will be taking some pictures but i think that he is having someone there to do that for us. i went to Doug's Saturday night to get things dialed in and decide on what configuration i wanted to take. i will be taking.....

Gretsch Round Badge 14x20 Kick
GMS GM Series 10x10 Tom
Gretsch Round Badge 16x16 Floor Tom
Penny (my custom built 6.5x14" Maple 10 ply Snare)
Bloodshot (Rob's custom built 7x13" Maple 8 ply Snare)
and a slew of Zildjian cymbals

well off to get a couple things finished. later

Memories of a Mustang.....

2008-03-20T09:40:00.003-04:00

After getting a comment from Grant about the Mustang i thought i would recreate some memories or thoughts i had about the Mustang.

First i remember it was always a work in progress. Random speakers, light covers, tires, brakes, security systems that only kind of worked, fluids, rims, fans, CB's, misc. bolts and washers, foam seal and caulk but audio components were the majority. If Grant was done with it, i bought or traded something for it. When i was finished, Brad bought or traded for it. Head units, speakers, EQ's, changers, more speakers. it never ended. You never asked where things came from. that's just how it worked. you didn't want to know. Sony 6.5" 4 ways, Jensen 3.5" in the dash, don't' worry about it. It is weird that Montgomery Ward went out of business though. Oh well. Anyways... thought #2

We seemed to always be being chased or in the process of needing to chase someone, and yet, we were never caught OR caught anyone. it was the fastest 4 cylinder dressed to look like a GT this side of the Mississippi. Grant was the only friend that i had that owned a vehicle with a manual so i think that gave him a little extra "cool factor" Robbie could drive one, but had no access to one and i think that if anyone else tried to drive the Mustang, it would have blown up. SERIOUSLY.

i remember Grant taking the Mustang to a local brake place to get a new set installed and of course we KNEW they screwing with us so we had to take my Grand Prix and steal back the old brakes. sure enough they could have turned the rotors instead of putting on new ones. i don't remember what the outcome was but it was in favor of the honorable Mr. Grant Z Price.

CB's. Rob came back from Ball State with a trucker style CB and so EVERYBODY went out and bought them. we chased each other around the town with those dumb things for weeks. Nothing happened but we did get into a yelling match with some old fart in the DeCamp subdivision. STAY OFF CHANNEL 9 MAN!!!!

Another great memory was the installation of a Kenwood (always use Kenwood products gentlemen) CD Changer. well it didn't fit where G wanted it to. so we (he) came up with the idea of cutting out the arm rest in the back seat for the passenger that was made of plastic. i was hesitant, but not Mr. Cut First, Worry Second. we (he) hacked that thing off in a heartbeat and then the thing didn't fit right so we added a dab of foam seal to hold it steady. Low and behold, a masterpiece.

i remember it getting broke into at the restaurant on 33 while it rained. i think we are still chasing those people. the best story is that it was sold to some Mexicans. amen.

Grant, if you have any pics, i think the community deserves them. later all

Very odd.

2008-03-19T13:49:00.007-04:00

So yesterday i posted about a concept car that is 4 years old that i wish GM would build. No reason. i liked the car, wished they would build it. no biggie. no reason. then turn around and Jeff sends me this. now they definatley changed it a bit to work with their already working chassis but that is kind of spooky.

i realy like this. NOW, it's not like i am going to be able to buy one compared to the Nomad but still. Me, i like. i will say that it looks a lot like another car that i like. the BMW Z4. I'm just saying that because i want one bad (yeah yeah yeah, i know i'm not getting one of those either) but i get that good ole GM discount so this would be my avenue (but won't be)

Next topic: HEALTH. we need some. Last night poor Marley May who has been struck with double ear infections, colds, teething, doctors visits, medications and other fun stuff was up at 3 AM throwing up. i had to bath her at 3. she LOVES baths. needless to say, she did NOT enjoy this one. she did get back to sleep so we hope the whole family gets cleared up soon. Summers coming so at least we are getting this out of our systems now. thats my positive spin if there is one. there needs to be.

Next Topic: RECORDING. i got a voice mail yesterday saying that he thinks that it has been called off. i havn't gotten back to him yet but i guess that P.S. Dump Your Boyfriend is "touring" again and he is their sound guy so there he goes. that is what i got from the v-mail. i dont' know when it will be rescheduled or anything but hopefully soon. the material is fresh now and this would mean more practices and i really didn't want to do that. i may ask for more $$$ per song now if this is going to drag on. we'll see. lets not kid ourselves, i'm no pro but i love doing it. it would be nice to get this over so i can focus on Jeff's and my new band.

Last Topic: UNBURIED MUSIC. i have been on a real John Mayer kick but it has me a little burned out. i looked to the collection to get out some new old stuff. Here's what i found....

Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. it reminds me of Grant Price and driving in the Mustang or even the Cavalier.

Next is a band by the name of Cave In. i picked this up after reading an interview with Dave Grohl (Nirvana / Foo Fighters) about his thoughts for the best up and coming bands. i did like this. since this album they have had i think 2 more come out. those i have not heard but have intrest in.

Last but not least...the best of David Bowie 1969-1974. i think that i bought this after Adam Sandler came out with the movie Mr. Deeds when they are singing in the private chopper. it's all i can think of. it's definatley a change of pace. i have no complaints. Makes me wonder what else i can dig up. i'll get back to ya.

Why won't Chevy build this!?!?!?!

2008-03-18T16:13:00.008-04:00

This is an old concept car, from the 2004/2005 year. it is the Chevy Nomad redone. love it, yet it was a concept when the Pontiac Solstice was a concept and that happened so i assume that we won't ever see this. To bad.

Begin your brackets!!!!!!!

2008-03-17T08:08:00.002-04:00

Seriously...is there any question as to who i picked?!?! GO HEELS! and way to go Georgia. who knew? i have a feeling they will get beat down hard in the first round, but hey, they made it. obviously it's March Madness. the 2 girls and i have all had colds this weekend and E hasn't quite shaken her flu symptoms so i hope that we are all back on track soon. this Saturday is my recording session so i am really looking forward to that. have a good week. B.

interesting.....

2008-03-11T07:55:00.002-04:00

i don't know what "it" is? odd post. must have touched something inappropriately. my apologies.

it has been some time, but i am back!!!!

2008-03-10T12:38:00.003-04:00

Hello all. it has been quite a while since i have blogged. Elizabeth has bounced back very well from her little spill. she was out for a couple days but it didn't slow her down much. I had a birthday. yeah me. 31. i had 43 birthday parties, just ask Elizabeth. on the Saturday after my birthday we got a group of people together at Micheal's downtown. I love it there. the best ribs in the area. so we had 10 of us get together and then most of us returned back to Casa Del Kattau for beverages and year book reminiscing. it was fun. also very surprising that we didn't whip out any boys vs. girls games to end in a heated argument where the boys are all wankers and the girls are just plain wrong. we turn into such a happy bunch when we are together. Earlier that Saturday, Rob came over and made Marley cry. then we headed over to Craig's and cut down blanks of wood for our stave snare drum project. we didn't really do anything crazy, just cut wood into smaller sections. but we got to work on it together. he didn't do all the work and then tell me about it the next day. nice to be able to contribute a bit.

i have been working on the new Brian Fisher CD. we have been practicing and he booked our studio time for March 22. i am very excited. i have recorded before but it has always been on Jeff's equipment. this time PRO TOOLS. the copy and paste of the music industry. we are doing 4 songs for now, maybe five and then i guess he has some other stuff but i have no idea when he is wanting to do that. he has a myspace page i will link and also you can find it by clicking here. it has been fun doing these songs. i was definitely worried when we started but as time has progressed, i think that he has some good material. i am also very happy to have booked Doug Lim as my drum tech. he is the best in the area and i am fortunate to have him on my friend list. i am also enjoying getting in touch with an old chum from years back. Ed Mullin's became a good friend of mine and Jeff's when i was a Hi Tech through Phil Jones. they were both in the Groovie Goolies. Ed was an amazing showman with guitar and vocal skills that backed it up. Blank Slate spent many hours figuring how he did what he did. we never figured it out. Ed was the hands down biggest fan of the Thicktoez, Jeff's and my first adventure in professional practicing bands. i have been trying to get Ed into Jeff's and my new blue's band with Andre Randle. if it doesn't work out, i am glad to talk to him again. we killed a LOT of time while i was at Hi Tech. i can't say A LOT enough. it was seriously...a LOT (bunches even)

it

2008-03-10T12:37:00.000-04:00

Weekend revisited

2008-02-25T08:55:00.006-05:00

Welcome blog readers. again, i hope your weekend was nice. our had a rough start but turned out okay. Elizabeth had to work Friday so being a responsible mother and employee, she was preparing for the next day and taking out all the things she had to take for the girls and work. then, she fell. badly. by the time i had gotten to her she was half way in the door and half out on her right side. she had done something to her ankle. I had dad come over (the girls were asleep) and i took her to the ER. after 3 X-rays and some chipper nurse conversations and 1 fat baby sighting (seriously, this was one LARGE baby) she was sent home with a bad sprained ankle. She did score 2 Vicatin and a pair of perscriptions along with a trendy Aircast. She has been up and around and doing better. Friday she did go to work and has gotten some other cool things to help her around.

Saturday we went over to my parents and saw my sister and her family. HERE IS THE HIGH LIGHT....Geo Trax. my nephews have these and i couldn't stop playing with them. i was glad when they went off playing other things so they could leave me be. Sad but true. they were in my way. Geo Trax. simply amazing. Anyways we went to dine at Heinnie's that evening and returned for some pinnapple cake with Cream Cheese frosting. you just can't go wrong with it. it is great how well the kids get along. Layla adores her cousin Nicky, but they all do well together.

Sunday Layla and i went back over to mom and dads and the kids went off to play while i brainstormed on a bigger and better track. i was successful and then i had to go play with those darn kids. so i went into the basement and went fishing with the official CARS fishing pole. i have pretty good aim. anyways, after a while we needed to return home for lunch and to relieve E from Marley. or maybe it's the other way around? so at home we watched a movie, took some naps, had some luch, read Fancy Nancy books (their phenominal, thats a fancy word for great)

We then headed to E's sisters to meet the rest of the family. the men all have birthdays Jeff the 14th, Mike the 16th and i the 28th. so that knocks out a bunch of parties at once. it went well. the kids again did well even though this group can get a LOT wilder. i'm not sure if any kid even made any other kid shed a tear. thats a pretty good outing with them. i received some cash, gift certificates and a movie, I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry. i can't wait to watch that. looks hi-Larry-ous (see what i did there).

we returned home and get everyone to bed and then i snuck out for my first meeting with Brian, my old bass player who is doing a recording of his material. i went over last night. we worked on it for about 3 hours. it's not bad stuff. i think that it needs plenty of tweaking but it can be played. it is not my style of music that i would pop in the CD player and just listen to but i am really looking forward to being in a real studio. Brian says that the studio would like me in there in 2 weeks. i am thinking that seems a little soon but i have always been apart of band s that practice 1,220,045,446,532 times and then disband. i have 3 hours into it. oh well, he's paying. if my schedules open, then okay. he has 5 songs that he wants me to do and he has a price that he will pay me per song. it's kind of exciting. last night i just took the minimal stuff. i snapped this shot last night. kick, Rob's snare, hi hats and my Christmas ride. man that thing is nice. buttery soft. Wonderful. even better than in the store. It crashes, it rides, it warms the heart.

I have not decided what to do with my birthday money. i would love to get another crash cymbal but i think that there are other things that i need more. i could really use anotherdrum throne. mine is one that i put together after buying parts on ebay. it's good, it works, but it squeaks like something really squeaky. we'll see. i might have a better idea of what i want after Wednesday night when Jeff and my new band gets together. we will have our first meeting with Andre. we still arn't sure what we are doing to a singer or guitar so we'll see what happens. thats it for now, Tah Tah!!!

Weekend Recap

2008-02-19T07:41:00.004-05:00

I trust everyone had a good weekend. the McD's and E and I had our annual trip to Chicago. the men go to the car show and the chick's go downtown and shop. Rob and Curt have typically gone along but this year both were busy, so it was just the 4 of us. We took the Vue. it traveled very well. Plenty of room for all. i took my Garmin Nuvi 260 GPS along. it's not that we needed it as much as it's just fun to have. i think this was our 5th trip to the car show. i think that the last 3 years have been good but not very original. the Jeep / Dodge booth is impressive, but now 3 years old. if it is your first time, it's quite cool. i know we waited in line for over an hour one year. the first year. now you watch hoping to see someone get stuck or break something or throw someone out of the Jeep but it never happens. Oh well. i think the company that impressed me the most was Audi this year. i know it's a fancy VW but i like those too. this visit i knew that i was going to be shopping until my G6 GT comes due in November, but it didn't make my choices any easier. i think that i nixed the Pontiac G8 because the way i would want it, i couldn't afford. i love V8's and rear wheel drive. i still consider the Dodge Charger a contender. the SXT has a 250hp V6 and rear wheel drive. nice big car for the family. still like the Jeep 4 doors. i would get a 4 wheel drive and a convertible in the summer. nice a tough. again good room for the family. great for indiana weather. both of those i would get discounts. i still want a VW GTI. i know, i know, but they are so cool. i can get a 4 door. i could toss my drums for any gigs or whatever i would need. they have 1 less inch on the interior than the G6. with my size, it will be hard to find any car that fits the family perfect. i like the Jetta's too. soooo, we have a while before we need to worry. after the show we went and picked up our lady friends on the streets of Chicago. they came running at us with shopping bags. i think that Craig and i both paniced. all you can do is hope for the best. then we went to dine at the Weber Grill. the McD's had been thier before but it was E. and my first time there. it was quite good. i went with a Chef's recommendation of a rubbed spare rib and i should have stuck with my good old baby back ribs but they were still good. after that we returned home in the Vue. mom and dad were handleing our girls for the day so by the time we got home at 11 or so the girls were long sleep. we thanked them and were asleep quick. lots of walking, big dinner, and a long ride home. rough day. Sunday morning we got up and E made cinnamon rolls. Layla loves them. so it was a good weekend.

Next weekend should also be good. my sister comes up with the boys. we will be celebrating our birthdays. K is on the 13th and i am on the 28th. we will party it up on Saturday. then Sunday i have band practice at 2 and then another birthday party for the men on E's side of the family at 5. Jeff is on the 14th, Mike the 16th and i on the 28th. so it should be quite busy.

Band.....okay. this is another joint venture for Jeff and I. we have a bass player. Andre is a bass player from our church, Granger Community. i have met him a couple times. Jeff knows him better from being on stage band with him. this will be just a gathering to see how things go. i will be drumming and Jeff will be where ever he is needed.our ultimate goal is to lock down a guitar / singer. right now Jeff will do sax / rythm geetar or some keyboard if needed. we are wanting to do a Blues / Blues Rock band. John Mayer, John Lee Hooker, type thing. at this point Andre and i will be splitting the singing until we find some one. Brain from my last band is a possibility for lead guitar but we will meet just the 3 of us to talk it out and play.

Speaking of Brian, he is recording a CD and is going to pay me to do the drums for it. i called him yesterday and he said he was "walking into the studio". if nothing else, it sounds cool. he recorded 3 tracks at Grandmaster Studio's yesterday. he wants me to swing by his place so he can play me the stuff and get me a CD and then pay me to come to this studio and i will play for it. if nothing else, it sounds fun. i guess he is doing the guitar parts and vocals. i remember him singing in our previous band. If nothing else, it should be scarey.

i think that does it for now. PEACE I'M OUTTA HERE!

Ever compliment someone to soon....

2008-02-14T09:04:00.000-05:00

Our production manager just came into my office asking about linoleum. he wanted to know how long it was. i told him it is typically 96'. he responds, "oh good then he can get at least 3 floors out of it. He can cut 3 at least 32'." i very jokingly said, "hey, nice job" and then it happened... he said "yeah, but we'll still have 6 feet left over."

i had nothing to say. i fear he was serious.

Everybody wish Marley to get better quick!

2008-02-12T07:30:00.000-05:00

LOOK AT HER! How can't you want her to feel better. She's so cute! She sounds horrid and is miserable. Wish her better. Heck, the whole family needs it!

Keith Richards playing the part of Snow White...

2008-02-11T09:44:00.000-05:00

Great head band, nice rock stance, slightly woozy from Cold Medicine. LETS GET ROCKING!

Stuff of newness....

2008-02-08T11:15:00.000-05:00

Hello all, today, i will start with topic pertaining to my wife, who i inadvertanly seem to put last in my topics. Hello loving wife. i hope you are having a nice day away from the children. Her new Vue is really quite nice. I am surprised for some reason. I am not even embarresed to drive this one. the specs, it's a 2008 Saturn Vue XE. front wheel drive, 4 cylinder, but it's got 26 more horsepower and 9 more foot pounds (not pound feet) of torque. inside it has a much nicer feel. one cool thing is that the back seats recline. not to say that will get much use, but i suppose if i were in back and trying to catch a snooze, that would be handy to have. we tried to get a sunroof, but the new curvey roof won't allow them to put them in, so that kinda sucks. the color is Fusion Pewter, not the silver shown. the intierior is a light grey, not the sand color shown, but you get the idea. same.....but different. the best part is a REAL 4 speed trnny, not the rubberband surprise that was on the previous model. i will say the vehicle gave us no problems for the most part, but this one is built and constructed so much better. it also has 3 free months of XM radio which will be addictive when that 3 months runs out.

This weekend we have a bit of things to do. Saturday i am going Ride cymbal testing with Jeff. i have a gift certificate that has been burning a hole in my wallet since Christmas so i need to make an executive descision as to what to get. then sunday is the Preschool day at church where Layla goes to church. last year her class came out and sang 2 songs. Layla stood there and looked like she was picking her nose. that was fun. this year, maybe we can tug on underwear or something. gotta step it up. i'll let you know the good news next week. well, have a good weekend. next weekend, Chicago Auto Show. MOM: REMEMBER YOU GET THE GIRLS.

see ya.

great, now the spell chec dosne't work at alll. CRAPPE!

Dear sweet lil' baby Jesus....

2008-02-05T15:22:00.000-05:00

Please "heel" North Carolina star Ty Lawson. He is good, and we need him badly. Tiny lil Jesus, you know Duke is the Blue DEVILS and that is a bad bad thing. Young infant baby Jesus, make him better so i don't have to get a call from Kami Wait Thursday, and rather i can call her. Thank you baby Jesus.

Oh, also E. got a new AUTOMOBILE. the newly redesigned 2008 Saturn Vue. HORRAY FOR TRANSMISSIONS WITH GEARS!!!!!! Thats Techno Gray for those that care.

Okay, so I cheated. Big deal.

2008-01-31T15:11:00.000-05:00

I Scored a 724%!

i may have gotten a 73% on my real quiz but i think this say's "hey, i may be a cheater, but i'm an honest cheater!"

i do realize that i should make my "i" 's capital, but Word always does it for me. Blame Blogger.

101st post, 101 wasted moments at work!

2008-01-30T09:12:00.000-05:00

new day, new quizes.

344 WATTS

79%LUSH

I SCORED A 71%

I am 35% Addicted to Coffee

54%

2,202,060

wow. this is a lot of posts in one day!

2008-01-28T15:41:00.000-05:00

FOR SALE!!!! GREAT PRICING ON A NEWER GMC ENVOY! ONE OWNER! POWER EVERYTHING! JUST NEEDS A SLIGHT BUFFING! MUST GO! $28,000 TAKES IT! HAS 8 LIVES LEFT!

in all seriousness, Stacy, we are glad that you are okay, but we'll drive to Chicago. seriously

OKAY, LAST ONE, I PROMISE!

2008-01-28T11:56:00.000-05:00

27% Geek

ALSO, for fun check this out. i, being only 27% geek can still not figure out how to get a video to post. sad, i know, but Corey Mann posted this so i will give him the credit. oh man is this funny.... HERE

MORE GREAT NEWS!

2008-01-28T11:41:00.000-05:00

64%

THIS IS RAD!

2008-01-28T11:35:00.000-05:00

$3890.00

MORE GOOD NEWS!

2008-01-28T11:22:00.000-05:00

Weekend ends, work week begins....

2008-01-28T10:10:00.000-05:00

39% Hey, whats shakin'? hope everyone had a phenomenal weekend. i think that i misspelled that but i refuse to use the spell check because the last time i did that, it zapped my big long post and i had to type it again. FORGET IT BLOGGER! YOU CAN'T SUCKER ME AGAIN. I WILL JUST LOOK A LITTLE UNEJIKATED INSTAEAD. NOW WHO'S THE DUMMY! any ways, i was on Stacy Lastinger blog and saw her post about eating people and a link so i am proud to say that i am safer to be with than she is. either way, kudos to her for finding such a valuable website. okay, i have something to admit. i couldn't remember how to spell "valuable" so i spell checked. it worked and it turns out i spelled "phenomenal" correctly, so disregard most of the early bloggage. where was I.... dad was out of town so we saw my lovely shrinking mother this weekend. she has lost over 50 lbs. YEAH MOM. well done. lose weight AND get mentioned in my blog. wow. big day for you. keep it up. Elizabeth and Layla got hairs cuts this weekend and mom went to pick up Layla after she was done. i went over to Doug's with Marley for a bit who is in the middle of a double ear infection and slicing through 3 teeth, so she's a ball of joy to be around. yet...she is still darn cute. we didn't stay at Doug's long but long enough for him to send me home with a ride cymbal that 2 months ago he loved. i love the guy but he cracks me up because he turns product SO fast. he loves it BOOM it's out the door. cymbals, kits, snares, doesn't matter. i still have the same kit my parents bought me for my 16th birthday. i do have birthday coming in a month from today, number 31. that means 15 years of drumming experience. and dad thought that i wouldn't stick to it. so after i left Doug's i rejoined the ladies at moms house. ate Wendy's (not mom) and ended up putting up the easiest window covering of all time. 2 screws out, 2 screws in and i was done. no new holes, just dreamy. then the next day i ended up putting up one of those fancy curved shower curtain rods. i got it free as a demo here at work and it sat on my floor for about 2 months (or more) so i finally just took it. Moen, probably a $35 value, priceless. installed that. 6 screws and you should feel the spaciousness. it's delightful. we have a very small bathroom upstairs and you just couldn't do anything to move it around and make it better. this was a good cheap addition. highly recommended. also this weekend, we got word that our very good friends the McDowell's, well Stacy had an experience rolling her Envoy in Hammond. it was the fault of a semi that urged her off the road and sent her upside down in a ditch. the semi just took off. Stacy is pregnant so we were overly concerned but doing fine. Apparently the state trooper showed no interest in trying to hunt down the semi. thank you Mr. Trooper. luckily everyone is doing fine. i just hope that someday the semi driver gets his justice. then i got to work toady to hear that Casey of the owners son's who has been driving for a month now rolled his Blazer. my understanding is that he is also fine. Come on summer. we need safer roads. one last thing, man, this spell check works really well. AWESMOE!!!!

BACK TO WORK!!!!

2008-01-23T09:34:00.000-05:00

Well, Jeff and i have returned from Las Vegas. it was a good trip. a slight delay getting out there via Cincinatti but just by a couple hours. we landed to 41 degrees. as the days progressed it got warmer but still maxed our at about 58. it was still better than the single digit temps that greeted us upon our arrival home. that sucked! we saw the Hoover dam while we were out there. i can assure you, it is a big cement wall that holds a lot of water. impressive, yes. i don't know that i need to see it again, but i am glad that i saw it. cement...check. water...check. surrounded by lots of rocks and mountains...check, check. we also saw Mamma Mia, the show with all the ABBA music. It was actually pretty good. it wasn't my choice but it was free and we got 4th row tickets. i have no complaints. no, i am not a dancing queen, thank you very much! This was my second trip and Jeff's 10th. we went to a couple of casinos that we didn't see last time. we went to the Hard Rock casino were i left with 1 dollar more than i arrived with. I TOTALLY TOOK THAT PLACE!!!! any whoo, it is a small casino but they do have a lot of great displays. the highlight was a guitar signed by Pearl Jam and a Craviotto drumset signed and used by The Killers drummer, Ronnie Vannucci. Red Sparkle, beautiful. we also managed to pick a good week to go because it was the official openning of the Palazzo, which is super nice. BIG BUCKS we both got limited edition chips for the openning. kinda cool. not everyday you get to walk into a casino the day it opens. there was a "soft opening" a little before so you could walk in but not do a whole lot. there were still guys painting the day before it opened. we took a ton of pictures on the trip (apparently over 300) but we used Jeff's fancy camera's so at this point i have no pics. Jeff site has a couple here. we stayed out late about every night, 5am, 5 am, 2 am and midnight before getting up at 4 to get to the airport. all in all, great trip. i only lost maybe $20 of my own money so that was another bonus. i am not a real gambler, but i did find a couple games that i really liked but it was to rich for my blood to put down $25 a hand so i'll stick to free online practice. that it for now, Curt is gone for the week so it's like a free vacation. i did return to work to find that i had recieved a bonus (one that i was going to ask for but then had a major "opps!" and decided not to ask for) and so i tweaked my 401k and re-allocated some moneys. that was kind of fun. i don't see how people can play around in the stock market. 401k is pretty small stuff. i'm not a gambler, but the stock market scares the crap out of me. Later all!

My current set up

2008-01-04T13:04:00.000-05:00

I know this isn't a very exciting post and also a nice shot of a mattress and furnace, but hey, it's Friday

The sounds of the holiday's

2008-01-03T07:46:00.000-05:00

No not Christmas songs! i recieved a good amount of tunes for Christmas. I got the new Killer's CD "Sawdust". No mom, this is not devil music. this is a cd of "B-sides". B-sides are song written during a regular cd's production and recording but then for some reason they decided to pull the song for some resaon. these CD's are frequently bad for the obvious reason that the band obviously didn't like it either so it can be a cd with a collection of horrid songs. this happens to be a rather good CD. The Killer's are becoming one of my most listened to bands. I also got the RE-release of the Foo Fighters "The Colour and the Shape" i have the original but they rereleased the album with an extra 5 songs. i like the new songs. i don't know what it really added to the original album but i would have ended up buying it anyways. either way it is a great album. i also recieved the Fray's album. i have heard 2 of their songs on the radio that were played over and over. i do like the album. it is one that all the songs have a very similar feel, tempo and most everything about each song could have been from the song before, YET i still like it. they use a piano as a main instrument so it's not your run of the mill band. they still have a unique sound and that is thier biggest benifit.

As far as movie's i recieved Ray. great movie, especially when it comes with the disc. i look forward to viewing that again. i also got Blow starring Johnny Depp and Pee Wee Herman. it is a movie based on a true story about Pablo Escabar and the people that brought his cocaine into the united states in the late 70's - early 80's. very good movie with lots of extra info. i also got "Catch Me if you can" starring the dreamy Leonardo with Tom Hanks. Another movie based on a true story about a guy with a check fraud problem and a little fibbing issue. it is interesting to watch Blow and Catch Me and see the similarities between the two movies and how they grew up and got there start. my one complaint about this last movie (now get ready, this is a dumb complaint) is the name! to me the cover art and the name seem very soft and the name seems very much like a bad high school movie about a girl who loved a guy. it's not a action flick and the movie is great, but if i saw this cover and heard the name, i never would have gone to the theater to see it. this is a minor point, because it is a great movie, but if i wouldn't have caught it long ago on a free movie weekend, i never would have looked at it. i can recommend any of these items. enjoy

Happy New Year and stuff!

2008-01-02T09:50:00.000-05:00

Welcome back to work folks. Today (wednesday) is the first day back to work but due to a dumping of snow, we are shut down today, HOWEVER, since the company would have lost money, we make salary people come in. If they die, well at least we can take them off pay roll. we had a record 9 out of 11 days off with holidays and weekends we had 5 days off and then worked 2 for inventory and then another 4 days off. it was quite nice. it was also tricky. i am not used to being home for that much time. it sounds horrible to say but those stinking kids never go anywhere. i give credit to my wife and any mother that stays at home. wow. thats worth a lot more than my little job. i love those kids but everyday i go to work i get a vacation from them. speaking of those kids, last night the Bulldog's of Georgia (#5) went to battle for the last time this season against the only undefeated team in the nation, the Warriors of Hawai'i (#10). we rocked them in the Sugar Bowl. 41-10. wow. we made them look bad. BAD! it was fun for us, but i will say that even down by that much Hawai'i never looked to give up. as i was getting ready to turn in early in the forth quarter (around midnight) i heard Marley start messing around in her crib. sure enough, she is WIDE awake. then Layla starts waking. Needless to say that at 2:44 i went into bed with Layla and Elizabeth and Marley were out in the family room eventually to turn in in our bed. BLASTED KIDS! good thing they are cute. i am home for 11 days, nothing, the night before i have to go to work, TA DA!!! so i made into work and ended up running the plow truck for about an hour and change. i have never done that. it was a blast. we have one of those cool moving V blades on our 2500HD. it really was fun. i don't thinkt hat i have ever had a REAL reason to use 4 Low but today, i did. proud moment. tearing up as we speak.

i did make a couple treks out this past week. Layla and i went out to South Bend. for Christmas i got the DVD Ray. as i opened it, there was no disc. so we went to Barnes and Noble and swapped that, i ordered 2 books, Gretsch Drums and Guide to Vintage drums. calm down people, you will have to get in line to read these. i will let you know when i am done with them. so when we were done there we went cymbal shopping. we went to Guitar Center. let me tell you, GUITAR center is well named. it is NOT CYMBAL center. piss poor showing for cymbals. i got no research done. i will have to go to woodwind and wait for a couple hours for them to bring me something wrong. oh well. one evening getting ready for my new cymbal, i tore down everything i had a set up an all new kit. 10 cymbals plus room for my new ride, 3 snares, 3 toms, 1 kick. last night Marley and i were playing working on our Bossa Nova. it was about all i could do one handed while holding her. when i was a rocker i wanted the cymbals as high as i could get them. now as a more mature (barf) drummer i like them low so it is like 2 tiers of cymbals. the spalshes are all above the crashes. very exciting i know. i will take a pic calm down. i think that is all that i have for this moment. i will speak more later. Enjoy your new years, B.

I am alive.

2007-12-20T15:29:00.000-05:00

Still here, just getting ready for inventory. i hope everyone has a good holiday. hope i see everyone that comes into town. thats about all i have to say today. later

Ann Pedler

2007-12-04T11:10:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, we lost a family member. Elizabeth's step mother, Ann died Friday night. she had had a long fight with heart problems since childhood. Wednesday night she decided that she was tired and doctors made her aware that drugs were the only thing keeping her alive. she decided that she was ready to be taken off the meds. that was a hard step for everyone. the doctors also said that they couldn't tell us how long it was take before she would be gone. it was a whirlwind of emotions. for so long you are doing everything that you can to cure her, months before she was at Mayo clinic thinking that she will get a heart and kidney transplant and then the next thing you know the doctors decide not to. now at the end the family and Ann decided to shut off her pace maker to help her go away. it had been a long fight. in the hospitol for a couple weeks at a time and then out for a month or 2. this summer we had a lot of great things happen. we added 2 new grand kids on the same day and her son got married, so she got through the stuff that really mattered. this time we all thought that it might end a little different, but then again, everytime she seemed to pull off another miracle. my parents have been awsome and helped out so much with the girls and never say they can't do something. mom drove all the way back from Kendra's just so she could help out. well Friday night came and we were trying to stay home for one night to get the girls back on a schedule of living at home but E's dad called and said that we should probably come up. So about 8 ish we steped off the elevator and we passed E's dad. he was clearly upset and said that she had just taken a dose of meds and she was getting pretty calm so it would be a good time to get down there quick. Elizabeth and i got in there and she sounded horrible. every breathe was a gurgle filled gasp for air. that was hard for me. this was clearly the end coming soon. we both got on either side of her and i know i said a handful of prayers while holding her hand. the lights were dim and it was a very relaxing time for such a stressful occasion. minutes later Jeff and his wife came into the room, followed by Elizabeth's sister and husband a bit later. Ann's breathing was getting very slow and we were not sure if when Elizabeth's dad passed us he wanted to be there or not. we decided he might want to be there so i scurried down the hall and told him that i felt we were getting close to the end. He said that he wanted to go down there so we walked together. i had my arm around him the whole way. it felt like "the Green Mile" in my head. that was a hard thing to say and walk with. we got into the room and he sat right at her side and she took one last breathe. i was so glad that i was there. for being death, it was a very wonderful moment. we said some prayers. a couple other friends that were there came down and said good byes. it really was a wonderful time for such an awful loss. you always think that you want to go in your sleep, but i think that Ann came up with a better idea. Resting peacfully, with your family at your side, not watching you suffer and going on to a better place. i will be out of the office Thursday and Friday for the funeral and to be with family. Thanks for all the prayers.

Layla's Thanksgiving function

2007-11-21T15:36:00.001-05:00

.
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Layla and her BFF Hannah at Layla's school function. I didn't catch the official title. i will call it a Thanksgiving Ceebration. just her class. they sang us 2 songs (well, Layla kept her hands in front of her face and would giggle at E and I every now and then). all in all, it's always great to see them doing stuff like this. i have a great family. that is what i am thankful for. Ignore the dots. it was to make it fit. not thanksful for annoying internet features.

Good Day. i post again

2007-11-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

Top O' the day to ya. just reporting my fine Saturday. On Saturday, my good buddy Joe (Jo Jo) and i drove over to Notre Dame to take in a football game. it was 1-9 Duke against the sad sad 1-9 Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. I had the luxury of driving over to the university in Jo Jo's wonderful new 2007 silver (yes this pic is Black) Chevrolet Trailblazer SS AWD. this is a Corvette with a bench seat. it was really nice. so we fine dined at our normal hang, Macri's deli. it was a bit disapointing. my normaal sandwich, the Turkey Bacon club, had been removed from the menu. now they do most of there sandwiches on a build-your-own basis. so be it, we aren't dealing with any tricky ingredients. TURKEY. BACON. okay, build a way. i had water (with lemon) to drink. my bill came. a sandwich that was $5.75 was $8.95. i did add the fries for $0.99 but i was a little upset about that. note to self, watch very carefully as to what you order. i never looked at the menu, i just ordered. when i told him what i wanted, he just said that it was now a build your own. okay, thats fine. only to find out, no it's not. so a little lighter in the potch potch, we head over to the university. we park at the general parking and again, we loose money. $20 to park. Ouch, that hurts. So we walk with the intent of finding 2 different talegates. One we never found so we had to resort to my definate second choice. Older guy that i don't really care for his company. we will call him the "Duckman". so the "duckman" finds me and waves me over (like i can go anywhere). He offers myself and my fellow man a drink. we accept. he opens his whole table up to our feasting flavor. we start with a simple cookie. Chocolate chip. lovely. we move on to a trickier item, the brownie. nice. good texture. even an outside edge and it is still soft and chewy. we move on to a item in a still working hot plate. appears to be a mini burrito chicken type thing. ICE COLD. we stuck to beer and cookies. so we grabbed a traveler and headed to the game. we arrive about 5 minutes before kick off. beign Senior Day, it was held up a bit. Balmy 43 degrees with a breeze at 6 mph. slight crap falling from the sky. nothing major. i would love to say that the heaven's opened, it turned 72 with a non sun burn sun but it just kept crapping on us. the game was fairly uneventful. i did purchase the $5.00 hot cocoa with traveler mug and a nacho's and cheese (it's a must). so about 2 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter Jo Jo and i headed out. at that point ND was winning 7-0. as we were walking out we heard a large cheer and the game went to 14-0. we ended up meeting my family at Hacienda after a quick run through at Best Buy (no purchases) all in all, it was a fun Saturday.

did i mention that Georgia won? Go Dawgs!!!!

Back in Black

2007-11-12T10:19:00.000-05:00

GO DAWGS! WE BEAT AUBURN 20-45. TEAM MARCHED OUT ONTO THE FEILD TO AC/DC'S BACK IN BLACK. GOOD TIMES. GOOD WIN. WE MOVE TO 9TH IN THE BCS

After a lovely weekend, i am back at work

2007-11-12T07:44:00.000-05:00

Hello all. it has been a while. long enough that i havn't blogged about my weekends for a couple weekends. over the weekend of November 3/4 the family took Friday off and we made our first trip with Marley to my sisters/aunts house. this "/" does not mean that we are hill billies and that is the same person, that "/" means that it is 2 people. THERE ARE NO CIRCLES IN OUR FAMILY TREE. anyways, it was my nephews birthday and so we went to celebrate that. Layla went down with my parents and stayed at Aunt Kendra's. she thought that was the greatest thing under the sun. E. and i took Marley down. she, like Layla was, is no fan of the car. she did a great job. Slept from South Bend to Kokomo and when she woke up, she was a very happy baby. the weekend went great and it was ice to be out of the house and Elkhart. it had been before Marley was born since we had gone on a trip. Marley didn't do as well on the way home but oh well, whatcha gonna do. it's over now.

This weekend, Rob came into town. the goal was to work on the stave drum project. Stave drums are no different from regular drums but the shell is a bunch of vertical chunks of wood instead of plies going around each other. this is something that we have been talking about for a while. Rob has done a lot of research on the jig assembly and i am working on the woods and pricing. it is a small venture but something that i think we could have fun with and maybe sell them on eBay for some okay money. once you buy the tools to make the shells, your only money going into these is for the wood, which can be very cheap and the selling price is normally about $140 a shell. you should always make $100 on a shell. if it doesn't work you really arn't out very much. Friday night i picked up Rob at Stacy's and we went over to get the wood that Doug had bought for Rob to get it to my house. Well, first thing i see is a beautiful Sonor kit. i love Sonor's. i didn't love the finish, but the kit was SO nice. it was one of very few that i thought i would be willing to trade my beloved Round Badge Gretsch for. to find out, Doug traded HIS Gretsch for it. i thik that will come back to bite him later. So we went out to load the wood, only to find out that there is NO WAY this is all fitting in the Vue. So we left empty handed. Rob and Craig would come back the next day to get it. Rob came over in the morning and we did some research together and then Rob spilled my coffee only to find out that Layla ratted us out to my wife later. She's going to be a problem, i can see it now. so at 2 we met at Craig's to start the jig building. we didn't get very far into it but i think that it was a good start and that this will make us want to work on it more.

After working on that for a couple hours we all went our ways and then regrouped at "the Vine" in Elkhart. It was very good. we split a bottle of wine, we split an appentizer, everyone had their own food and then we got 4 different deserts and just kept passing them around the table. It was a lot of fun. it seems like it has been a while since we had doen that with the 2 other couples. It was kind of surprising how good the food was. we had been to thte Vine in South Bend and i don't remember thinking that the food there was taht great. it was also neat sitting with Craig becasue his firm did the designing of this building so we talked architecure a lot. after stuffing ourselves, we went back to the McD's and played guy's vs. girls Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture. BURT REYNOLDS!!!!

Tonight we have Layla's first parent / teacher confrence. Yes, she's 3.

The definition of "Class"

2007-11-05T16:03:00.000-05:00

And then there's Bili"cheat". He should take a lesson from a winner, reguardless of the score

Georgia on my mind.

2007-10-29T12:27:00.000-04:00

This is Georgia after scoring it's first touchdown. the WHOLE team stormed onto the field. it was very bizzare but it got them into the game and gave them the "W"

yes we got 2 penalties for it and ended up kicking off from the 15 yard line but it was worth it

Go Dawgs!

The Milky White Disaster Part II: The Return of Wood

2007-10-29T11:09:00.000-04:00

Well, this has been a horrible project. as many will recall from the Milky White Disaster story we had a bunch of expensive panels come in quite frankly looking like crap. absolutly terrible. so they picked up the panels to respray them. great. problem solved. oh, i wish. so they arrive at 2 on Friday......LOOKING WORSE THAN THEY STARTED! of course i really don't have time to wait so i tell them to send 6 sheets to the cabinet shop and everyone just get to work on this stuff. as they start i sprint (picture Tom Kattau in a stiff legged jog, after all, i do have a beard right now) to the door room to get a sample and meet everyone in the cabvinet shop. just as i suspected, the panels were worse than they were to begin with. just then i see Curt "Captain Happy" Yoder walking in the plant. i have kept him out of this the whole time and figure now is the time to get him involved. he comes to see the panels and explodes. i think it went something like "#$*&@# %@# @%#$@ @%#$@#%$@#% the world $ @ ## @#your @%$@&*@#&@#. And by the way !@(#$*&@#(#@#(@ @$ Tabasco @ #*(&# $(*# $!@# Larry Bird!" that is MAD! so i call my guy and tell him that he needs to be out and we need a fix STAT.

Jon came out Friday and they pick the panels up then. i got a call from Jon at 8:30 friday night saying that he just left the plant. things were being sprayed and colors looks great. MY PROBLEMS ARE OVER!!!!

we had a very good weekend. had a halloween party for a bunch of kids over at E.'s sister. that went very very well. Georgia beat Florida. Red Sox win the World Series. what could go wrong. then, i went to work

Monday i skip into work waiting for hugs and butt pats. ooooorrrrrrrr i could find out that no panels have arrived. at all. anywhere. at all. zero. (none) i call Jon. call a second number. 3, 4, and 5 more numbers to various people, plants nothing. i wait 3.4658765821 seconds and call the plant again. i get a guy telling me that he will look into it a call me back.

...
...
...

nobody is calling. i call again to hear a girl tell me that they are waiting on paint. huh? well heres the skinny.

Jon said that they decided Friday night that they would just go get all new bad board panels rather than adding more and more paint to these that were really quite crappy to begin with. well no that they had already sprayed these panels so many times and now a new plant was spraying them in a totally different machine that they never expected to use on these panels that takes a tottally different kind of paint from what you just go get at Lowe's. well it also takes 3 coats and what Jon had seen was coat 1 and they compared color. so they finished 4 panels that i have here. they look great. i am supposed to see the remanding 31 by 2:00. we'll see.

not much to report

2007-10-25T09:45:00.000-04:00

Hey there. well the good news on the paint is that i was right. they picked up material today, i will get it back tomorrow.

Game 1 of the World Series was great. a 13-1 schallaking of Colorado. Go BoSox. Georgia plays this weekend against Florida. should be a tricky game. this game is always at a neutral site in Jacksonville, FL. it is known as the "Worlds Largest Cocktail Pary". this was one of the games that Trevor and i wanted to go to this year. Maybe next year we will get a road trip in. i know Elizabeth is reading this now shaking her head no. Daddy loves you.

No real news to report after that. these pics are a couple that i found on the ever dangerous Ebay. it really is best if i never look on there. to many things to find. i found this snare. i like the paint job. not a big fan of Pearl snares. have yet to find one that i thought made a great sound. Also found this old kit. 1968 Rogers. i love Champagne Sparkle kits. they just look so nice for a jazz band.

The Milky White Disaster

2007-10-24T08:23:00.000-04:00

The big RV show is coming so I have been very involved in that, more so than any other year. our engineer is not what i would consider the top engineer in the indudstry, let alone the best engineer we have every had, not that i was either but i think that i can hold my own. i did it for 3 years here, 3 years and Hi Tech and have been involved with CAD work since my frosh. year of high school. overall, thats 16 years total. it's hard to think of anything that i have done that long when you are only 30. heck, i've only been drumming for 15 years. so this year i designed both of the units we are taking, i obviously purchased everything for them. i have also been the one dealing with the owners (and the wife / secratary) that makes the final desicion as to what she want (which can (and does) change (often)). i have had few problems but the one that i am fighting right now is HUGE. the main unit that we are taking is being refered to as a "Cottage" decor. First i don't like that title but thats just me. the main thing with this unit is that it has a tall wainscoat running through it using a white bead board. it looks very nice (or at least WILL). the other thing is we are adding a new cabinet package that is a plain square edge but still has the bead board in the middle for the panel. it will be very nice. the problem that i am having is that everything keeps coming in in a shade of white that we didn't agree on. I have the "master door" yet the 35 $70 panels are one color and the $2300 in doors are another. this is what i get for taking on the color "White". it has defeated us here before. we used to carry a very plain white but i always complained that it was ugly having 1 color white doors, 1 color white cabinets, 1 color white putty, 1 color white wood railings, and so on. we dropped it shortly after i started. that was a good day. well now it is coming back but we out sourced all the white to match, and now i am going through this. the good thing is that this is a company that is owned by i guy that i consider a friend so i now that i am being heard about my complaints. i think that the biggest problem is that all these things are being done at different plants and i have / had the master door that they now have but didn't originally. i hope this ends soon. i really am excited about my 2 new units. they should be very nice. All new windows, glass blocks, decors, and getting to use my brain for something that i haven't had to do in a long time. after these are all done and Louisville is over, then i will ask for a raise. i am well overdue.

i post again

2007-10-19T09:10:00.000-04:00

hello all. it's been a while (Staind song reference). it has been a busy week taking off Tuesday for the feild trip for Layla. well that was a bust due to rain. the field trip was to a corn maize. they did give us rain checks so the plan is to get back out there this weekend.

last night we had a pretty good storm. Elkhart didn't really get much of anything but good wind and rain but Nappannee got a tornado that did some flattening. that has been all the news today. last night while it was happening every channel was covering it so i was getting annoyed because CSI was on and i was missing the ball game. For some unknown reason i have been obsessed with this Cleveland and Boston series. i dispise the Yankee's. i do like one or two of there players but that started while they were with other teams. i was happy that Cleveland bumped them out. i also dislike Cleveland so i am pulling for the BoSox. Growing up i was big into the A's and the White Sox for the American League and a Houston guy for the National League. i do like the see the Cubs do well but i am not a die hard guy by any means. White Sox always had troubles with the Indians so that never made me like them any better. this is NOT flowing very well. i am sorry you are having to read this.

other news...i got a call on my way home last night from Brian, my old bass player. he was just kind of calling to find out what i was up to. i think that he was feeling out band options. seeing Shawn and now talking to Brian i have a feeling that they are going to try again. i would be fine with that, i just want everyone to be serious about it. i don't want to be a professional practicing band, i just want to play. i don't want to play every weekend. every third would be nice, in smoke free bars, that get done playing at 11, and pay $1200 per member. i don't think that is to much to ask.

Here's some random thoughts of intrest going on

Latest music that i can't stop listening to: Big Head Todd and the Monsters

Latest website that i can't stop going to: http://www.wikipedia.com/

Latest food craving: Chinesse

Events coming up: going south in 2 weeks to see my sister and nephews and aunt; Vegas in January with Jeff

thing that i can't get over: that Marley will be 5 months on Monday

Weekend review

2007-10-15T11:03:00.000-04:00

Welcome back. hope the weekend was good to all. it was a mixed weekend at the Kattau household. Friday after the girls were asleep, i ventured over to Middlebury to Bella Luna. Cute little bar across from the Northridge. i went to see Trevor who has been harrassing me to join him out there but i went to do a little Dateline investigative reporting, well, watching..err listening, nay..... snooping. soo i arrive out there at about 10:30. only kind of know where i am going i drive around the building twice to ensure i don't walk around 6 times looking for a door or anything. other than Trev, the main reason that i went, the Jason Sapen Band was playing there. as many of you can recall, i have band "issue's". it was Jason, very nice. got recongnition instantly from him, Scotty who i have played with many time whilst sitting in with other bands, and Shawn, my long lost guita player from (gulp) Foreplay (man did i hate that name!) i got there as a sit had ended. chatted for a minute with Shawn and Jami, the plant manager from work came up to me. i think that he was only staying to see if i showed up or not. he left fairly soon after that. i retrieved a Guiness and grabbeda seat with Trevor. College Football was on the tube. i love College Football. Go Dawgs!

so i chatted with Shawn, showed pics of the kids. it was his birthday and yet he seemed to be sober. i was thrilled. i told him that i havn't talked to anybody in quite a while. he said that Brian the old bass player and he had talked yesterday about starting things up again. i will try to not get to excited because thier track record SUCKS! still bummed that Jeff and my jazz thing never got to far, but i am not giving up on that either. i can't say this time that we havn't tried to find a bass player. it just has come up empty.

so JSB played one more set and then packed up. really great for a bar band. 3 guys, all acoustic, no stinkin' drummer (hey wait!!!) so after the show, i wait to pounce till the 3 guys are all together. like a S.E.A.L. wiggle my way over to them (i was not waering a wet suit) i told them they sounded great, because they did. i mentioned to Jason that i had e-mailed him a couple times about being thier weekend drummer, but it never went anywhere. but at least he gave me a good solid answer and told me that if he changed his mind he would let me know first. honestly, they didn't NEED a drummer, i just wanted to be the drummer. either way it was good to be out. i was home in bed by 12:30 knowing the E. had to work the next day and i would have the girls.

SATURDAY started with lots of fussing and crying, the baby was going to be a challenge today. i could feel it. so could E. so she said she would call the Nana's to see if they were going to be around. Marley has been fighting with teeth so you can't blame her but it is so draining. you can't put her down. the best break from it all is Layla. Marley can be crying her eyes out and Layla will get started baby talking to her and she just grins like nothing is wrong. i got a call from my mom saying that she was going to be int eh area and so needed to kill some time so she brought McDonals breakfast. oh. you talk abotu delightful. yes oh yes. thank you sir may i have another. nice work mom! so mom goes and i rally the troops. i dump Marley off at Nana's and head over to the library with Bean (Layla) we do the normal head up top the video's and i wasn't going to help her find Peter Pan becasue i really didn't want to see it again, but it didn't matter. i swear she can read. she walks right over, picks it up and said she was ready. CRAP! oh well, i guess if she's happy, i'm happy. i grabbed a couple CD's for listening enjoyment including a Hootie and the Blowfish CD (and i don't feel bad about it) when i think of Hootie, it reminds me of when E. and i first started dating. we went to a concert together and just random reminders of young love (awwww). so E got home after work by way of picking up Marley. Dad stopped by Wendy's and picked up dinner and then after we got the girls down, E and I went to meet the McDowell's. it has been quite the while since we all got together, let alone with out kids. we got home about 12:30. Marley was up soon after.

SUNDAY was going to be along day. Marley was up way to much and it was just kind of a bummer day. the highlight was getting the whole family out side for about an hour. Marly does love to be out. the was the best she had been for an hour straight in a long time. E and Bean swung, Marley and i raked. well, the exersaucered and i raked. then we had a great chicken from off the grill. E can cook. i can eat. it work's. so after the girls were down E felt that we both deserved bowls of ice cream after that day was over. she was right. then she knew just what to do. Peanut butter in the microwave. oh, this i a good time. 45 seconds on 50% power. this is worth blogging about.

TODAY E took Marley to the doctor to see what they had to say. it's all teeth so there not much more you can do that we are. i don't know HOW you can stay home all day at times like these (song reference, Foo Fighters) how stay at home mom's don't make 6 figures is beyond me. she works a lot more than i do in a day. i get a vacation 5 days a week compared to what she goes through.

Here's to stay at home mom's and mom's in general

Funny thing Jeff just sent to me. listen to it here

Come on Gran Turismo 5!!!

2007-10-10T11:17:00.001-04:00

Sure when this game finally comes out it will require a Play Station 3 but it all seems like a good idea. this game won't be out for quite a while, but it's cheaper than buying real cars and the storage is a lot better. never have to wash them. cheap insurance. i can buy another car and not have to ask my wife. don't need to worry about if i have a baby seat in the Audi R8. Don't have to be concerned with the Aston Martin DBS being in the shop. Click this photo to see how clean the image is going to be. Oh this is exciting!

my latest internet obssesion

2007-10-09T13:50:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago i went running. it was a good outing. i got down to Strong Avenue. there are some fairly nice houses on that stretch. as i was running past one house a man was arriving home. he politely waited for me to get past his drive and he pulled in. he was driving a 1970's Porsche 911. there was something about this car. something that was cool because it wasn't new, but not in the muscle car attitude. i love my muscle cars. i would love to have a Jay Leno style garage with a crew on hand at all times. i also understand that i don't get paid millions to be the second best late night guy out there (Yea Dave!) so as i slowed to a jog watching, listening this cool cat rollin' in his Porsche (yes, you must end with an "a" sound at the end. Porschaaaaa) i think, these can't be an overly expensive car. i don't need the top of the line model and we are talking from 1974-1977's that i really like. don't need a turbo. don't want a automatic (if you can even get them) well i was kind of right. as with all things, it's how much you WANT to spend. you can also find Ferrari's in this price range. i have always liked the 400i and the Magnum-mobile, the 328-GTS. Acura NSX would probably fall into this group also, but there is something about a Porsche. so anyways, i have now seen 3 or 4 of these older 911's and to top it off, this weekend the bass player at church just got a new 2008 911 convertible. this is not something that i see happening by the end of the week or year or 5 years even, but it my be a goal, to one day get a play car. i think that something like this would be cheaper than a muscle car because your first thought isn't "i'll drive to Craig's and we'll gank the motor and tranny and drop in a 502 and powerglide and go racing!" i think that most people keep these fairly stock. so, with that said, if anyone is looking to donate, say, $15,000 and get to see me happy and receive absolutly not one penny back, dial me up. i accept any funds. Let's make dreams happen.

Playin' for the kiddies. Eating waffles.

2007-10-08T09:52:00.000-04:00

Well this weekend, Jeff and i played at GCC inthe Heir Force room. this is the 4th and 5th graders and they bring down another room that is all 2nd and 3rd graders. this is always a long weekend because you only play 2 songs and it is about 10 minutes into each service but for 5 services. normally you practice the weekend before but we had a good crew and so we met at 3 on Saturday. practice went well. Jeff had an "on the spot surprise" that he had to learn a new guitar part right then and there. as always he pulled it off quite well. now he just need to buy a mandolin and all problems will be solved. we always do 2 songs. sometimes it is stuff that they play upstairs in big people church, maybe just a different arrangment, but 9 times out of 10, it is a pretty good song selection. we were doing 1 song that we have done a million times that is actually a pretty good little ditty. the new one was a song that most people would have at least heard, a song by Bethany Dillion called "All I Need". it's one of those songs that sounds nice to listen to, but to play, it's a little pokey and dull.

first service (Sat, 5:30) went very well. good crowd. kids get into the music and there is a group of youth, the Outloud Team (which i all to frequently refer to as the "Dancing Girls") adds to the kids involvment. they have all sorts of fancy dance moves that the kids already typically know. after we get done playing you have some options, you could leave, or there is a room that you can go hang out in. kind of a cool place to be. the hub of hip. other musicians that play on the main stage or other musicians that might be off that week but there offices are right in this area. nice kitchette. plenty of dated Rolling Stones to pass the time. the 5:30 service is the one that i have always attended so i headed up stairs for some enlighting. Dr. Bob is one of those cool guys that you enjoy listening to because he gets so excited about Christ. Very good service.

second service (Sat, 7:30) we switched the order of the songs to finish on a more energetic song, not the new one. i did botch the ending of the new one by finishing a measure early but as always, we give each other a couple of odd stares and it ends. most people don't know a thing happend. it was better to finish with the faster song. leave the kids on a high not lingering cause you just simmered them down with a dull song. 7:30 can be a little tough. not as many kids and it's getting late so they are a little sleepier after dinner is settling in.

Sunday we start practice at 8 (8:15 for Rosy the singer who can knock your socks off vocally but can't seem to get to practice any where NEAR on time) then service starts at 8:30. this is always a tough one because all these kids and musicians are still waking up. this service is always tough and it the smallest crowd also of all five.

todays surprise was after the 8:30, Jeff and i worked our way into the Artist Lounge and while we were sitting, reading or what ever, this lady that is performing on the main stage starts whipping up waffles. WAFFLES MAN!!!!! now these were not a so so frozen waffle. this was thng that required INGREDIENTS!!! ohh. and delightful. mmm. good. fluffy. cinamminy. mmm.

so then the 10:30 service kicked off badly. i don't start the song but i do give the count off. somewhere along the line "1" was not good. there was about a 6 beat period that NO ONE knew where "1" was. LeRoy, the band leader, had to stop us. this one was obvious but as always, you get back on the horse and things went fine after that. this is the service that you get real excited about. there has to be well over 100 kids in this service and they have had their coffee and Cap'n Crunch so everyone is feeling alive.

after the 10:30 service Jeff and i went into Dan's office to watch a DVD of Branford Marsalis doing John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. it's a lot more swingin' than the original and really takes a minute to get used to, but over all, on a 14" laptop moniter, quite good.

the last service, 12:00, is always tough because you know it's coming to and end and you have to stay focused. it was probably our best service overall. so after it was all said and done, we served a couple hundred kids for a good reason.

i then left church and headed over to pick up my new tires. the old Conti's on the G6 had met there match. the road. the original drive tires were balding like Rob's head and needed to be replaced badly. Elizabeth's cousin's husband works at Tirerack so i was able to swing out and pick up my new tires. NOT THE ONE'S SHOWN. it's sad how cool tire tread patterns can look. it makes you want to buy tires. really. it does. so i think that is about all i have to say about the weekend. yep.

Global Greatness

2007-10-05T13:31:00.001-04:00

i really need to stop wondering / commenting / complaining about my "Global Greatness" but i look at Stacy's Lastinger's site and i see her Earth starring at me. It brag's about how she is viewed by the whole WORLD. i just wonder why i am viewed by myself more than any one. am i to involved with myself. it's very odd. if Pete had a globe i think that he would have a CRAZY following. it's not that i don't like my audience, it's just very odd. i need to get over this. i am sorry for my post. i hope everyone has a good weekend. i am playing at church this weekend (5 services) for the kid's. Jeff and i have been doing this for a while. it really is a lot of fun and since i am not in any other bands, it's nice to have a reason to play. it is on a Roland electronic kit which is really NOT enjoyable, however it serves its purpose and i can't complain about that (except for what i just did).

work has been quite nice since one of the bosses has been away. nice guy, but hard to work for. he comes back next week so that shall be a treat. we get to make up for lost time yelling.

on the 13th (a Tuesday) i am taking a day off to go to a corn maize (maze) with Layla and Elizabeth. it is a "field trip" for Layla's preschool.

early November the Kattau's as a whole are making there first road trip with Marley (and Layla of course) to my sisters and Aunt's in Noble(tucky)ville.

still trying to get a couple tickets to a horrid Notre Dame football game. i haven't really gone looking for any this year. i got 2 and gave them away to another guy here. Jeff offered to take me to a Colt's game this weekend but i felt i should stay home to help with the kids. when i play at Granger Community Church for the 5 services, it really takes the whole weekend. Practice Saturday starts at 3. services are at 5:30 and 7:30 and then we have to be back at the church sunday to start at 8 and the last service is at noon. again, it makes for a long weekend, but for a great reason. the kids seem to really enjoy it. anyways going to the Colts game would not get me back home until late Sunday night so i opted out but it has got me intrigued to get some ND tickets. in a Purchasing job, they arn't overly tricky to get. i would like to get about 8 tickets so i could take the Elizabeth and I, and a handful of friends so i can just have a little tailgate, but we'll see. again, i'll have to actually start looking and calling.

well again, have a good weekend. go Dawgs! we play Tennessee this weekend. good memories of trevor and my first road trip to Knoxville to see our first Georgia game. good win.

P.S. artwork Layla drew in my office yesterday. i see it as a million dollar piece.

while i was looking for that i stumbled across this picture. it is a 32" LCD TV that i was demoing and hooked up for a month to use as my moniter. that was sweet.

See ya.

My day in court

2007-10-04T09:53:00.000-04:00

well, not really. i am tardy in my report of jury duty yet still wanted to share my uneventful day with the world. it started with a call on Monday night to see if i had to report for jury duty. indeed i did. So i had the liberty of sleeping in an extra dreamy 30 minutes (but the girls got up so i don't think that i really got much extra). i was able to take the girls to Grandma Peg's for her to watch them the rest of the day. the Jury Duty report said that you should bring magazines and snacks because NOTHING would be provided. ahh. tax dollars at work. so i arrive at the parking lot and walk completely around this building. the main doors, well they had arrows pointing to the next group of doors. get to those doors, more arrows. Now i'm not going to bore anyone with how many sets of arrows there were but to make a good story, i will say 37 (probably 4) BUT i ended up right next to my parking lot if i wouldn't have followed the pack and just gone the other way. no no, instead we looked like a herd of cattle. mind you i grabbed 2 magazines, my paperwork, i large Fuji water a granola bar and a bag of trail mix. you would think that i was going to be gone for a while. nope, just didn't want to go on a hunger strike (song reference to Temple of the Dog)

so as i am walking a fumbling all thses things, i start chatting with this guy. we finally get around to the metal detector/check in/disrobing area and i start putting all my things down. walk through.... i made it (mental "YES" goes off in my head) same time a BEEEEEEP goes off. i turn around and no one is there. what the!?!?!?! i look at the guy, he says, "huh, well you can try again" like if i didn't want to i could stroll on in, so i back up and go again. this time the BEEEEEEEP is very prompt. BLAST! so i back up, remove my fine Levi belt and mosey through unalarmingly. now as i am tring to get out of the way / collect my things / dress again and keep up with this guy (don't ask why, i just had already talked to him and i didn't have to go meet someone else. he seemed normal, just work with me) so i felt like i was kicking things into the elevator and when it opened, i had this image of me just chucking everything into the back of the elevator and doing this dramatic leap into the box while falling to the ground as is i could barely make it in the nick of time, while taking this hard fall and then waiting another 58 long drawn out seconds before the doors close. so now i have this little giggle in my head. pleased to anounce that i was able to control it and not burst out into laughter that no one would understand.

so all put together now i get upstairs, follow the herd into another room and begin standing in line. i redress. i situate. i am now comfy again, just holding to much crap. debate just doing a 37 second pig out to rid myself of all this extra clutter, but i restrain. so the guy that i am now stalking starts talking to one of the ladies that is checking people in she tells him just to go on in. well crap lady, you just took my lab partner. so i stand in line oh so lonley. sitting, waiting, wishing (again, song reference) finally she gets to me and asks me my mileage. 3 miles round trip, i concur. she tells me to go on in so i instantly hunt this strange man that i feel so comfortable with out. not a big task, but i must admit, i did it. you will be pleased to know that i did give us the "ONE CHAIR BUFFER" so we don't talk, i just sit there trying to figure out where i can stick all this crap. i hold it.

finally about 75 people are in this room. now this is the second time i have been on jury duty. the first was for federal court and i got to serve on the jury so i am liking my chances. yes, thats right, i kind of WANT to do this. soooo, as this lady tells us all about the crap that we are about to sit through she says "Every one on this side of the room is here for Court Room 2 and this side is for Court Room 1, right?" so i glance at my paper work. guess which dope is on the wrong side of the room. THIS GUY!!!! i am pleased to announce that i wasn't alone. sure it was only about 4 of us but this was not my fault. so i gather my 30 pounds of crap and get to the other side. now you realize that i am leaving my long lost companion at the other side of the room. He will be missed. i head over to the front row of the other side of the room and sit between a man and a woman that i get my ONE SEAT BUFFER on either side. whew!

turns out that this is the woman that fitted me for many a tux at Gentleman's Den. Her name was Kim. we talked about a couple of the weddings she did for us. she was very nice. i drank some water. so one of the ladies came in and took out the people that were heading into Court room 2.

so peopel there for Court Room 1 wait. and wait. and wait. i eat my granola. delightful. and we wait. finally this well dressed man come into the room holding his robe. he declares himself "the Judge" he tells us that we were going to be involved in a 6 man jury for a case against a man for a count of Strangulation. NOW THAT IS JUICY!!!!! well at the last minute the convict, i mean defendant, pled guilty and so the trial was off. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!! so they had a rape case that would have required a 12 man jury but the attorney's weren't ready so after 3 hours af waiting, we got to go home.

All in all it was a fairly uneventful morning. i went home, enjoyed a lunch of leisure and then like a good company man, still went to work. so thats for reading this. is was long and windy with no real great story, but that is how the day was. Have a good one of your own.

The girlie's

2007-10-03T07:24:00.000-04:00

Here are some nice new pictures of the girls as promised. enjoy. you can click on the pictures to enlarge them. i see a vendor has arrived so i will have to get back to you all later.

welcome back to work.

2007-10-01T08:32:00.000-04:00

Good October to ya! hope that everyone had a good weekend. the Kattau's did. Friday night my parents took the girls so Elizabeth and i went on a date and, get this, ate a meal at the SAME TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i know. we live it up. we went to Hollihans in Mishawaka. it was lovely even though Elizabeth was annoyed by me sitting next to her and not across from her. she worked through it. when we got done, we debated a movie, we called my buddy Bronson to see if he and his fiancee wanted to join us for anything, ice cream or a movie. but they are losers and didn't join us. so, we were feeling fat from Hollihan's so we went to Babies-R-Us (oh yeah WE'RE LIVIN' NOW!) and then to good old Target. Whilst (new word) at Target, i picked up the new Pearl Jam DVD Immagine in Cornice. Very good. it is a cool mix of documentary and concert footage. it is directed by Danny Clinch. he is a guy who's name has just started appearing everywhere. the Foo Fighters acoustic DVD. he even plays harmonica on one of the songs. Now i see him on the DVD for Pearl Jam. what could go wrong. the DVD has a nice mix of songs. some of my fav's are Evenflow, Alive, Come Back and the always popular Yellow Ledbetter. delightful. i need to get a REAL home theater to enjoy these morsals of goodness, but alas, another day, another pay check. well i will say that my mystery news is no longer. had a thing. fell through. no biggie. NEXT TOPIC. yesterday we dumped Marley off at my parents again and E. and i took Layla with E's sister and her family to the Apple Orchard / Pumpkin Patch to pick out pumpkins. everyone had fun. Layla picked out her own pumpkin. well, i think that concludes the weekend. tongith i have to call to see if i have Jury Duty tomorrow or not. if i do, this will be my second time. i did serve my first time, it was for Federal Court in South Bend. it was interesting to see how retarded our court system is. well i think thats it for now. Oh, by the way, Georgia won again. 4-1. ranked 12th. go Dawg's. Also, everyone has to feel bad for Marley today. she had shots. 3 of them. poor kid. i will get some new pics up soon.

Ahhh. new Foo. Refreshing

2007-09-27T08:55:00.000-04:00

You need to make a purchase., You need Foo. Foo is a good thing. Slow internet connections are not. Today, i have said slow internet connection. But, i also have new Foo. That makes me happy. So, buy it. it will be the best decision you made today. That's about all i have to say about that.

Just a post to post with

2007-09-24T13:09:00.000-04:00

Hey all. just wanted to say that Georgia won again in a thriller in overtime against Alabama. thanks for the prayers. they are ranked 15th now. i have some huge things working, but they remain hush right now. i will let you know something soon. probably. who knows. maybe i got nothing.

Okay, real post this time. Bands, what a pain!!!!!

2007-09-18T09:55:00.000-04:00

First off, non band related, i do need to remind everyone that the Bulldogs have a big game coming up. the No. 22 Dawgs are playing the No. 16 Crimson Tide of 'Bama. lets all take a moment to pray for victory against these horrible people. Thank you.

Now, on to my real issue. why is it so stinking tricky to get a band together that works. i have realized that i have been in bands now for 11 years. now, to say that these were up and functioning, gigging bands, NO. however, i have been involved in very good professional PRACTICING bands for 11 years. My most successful band was the joint venture of myself and Jeff Kamp. we brought in our long lost friend Brad Olson, to on the spot learn bass. when it all started, i was the lead singer also. we later added another friend Ryan Hall. we played out one time at our friend (do you see a pattern here) Joe Wagoner's bus barn. this was (at the time) considered a huge thing by our standards. we might have had 20 people there. including 2 future members of the band. Ryan left us and we started rocking with a friend of a friend named Brandon.

By this time we had grown out of my parents basement and moved to Jeff's parents often flooded basement. Brandon moved on after sitting in at one gig even though he was already one foot out the door in Bristol. Brandond brought a freedom to the band. not quite so stiff like in our playing. things got a little looser. He left permanatly because of his parents family business needing him and we somehow met another guy (and i have no idea how) named Tom, who kind of altered the way we rocked again. Brad had left a while before that so we were lacking in the members category badly. we needed anyone. Tom made us a mutch more steady rocking band. by now we had started practicing at KampCo Steel Products (they are your supplier, not your competitor) so as we were starting to make headway with Tom, he up and split for another band. that one hurt. he left us fairly quickly but i thought that he was going to be big part of us. oh well. the only problem we had now was no bass player and no singer.

well Jeff and Rob worked it out and Rob joined us 30 days before we played our first house party. things went great and we rocked together for quite a while with Jesse at the helm singing for us. things worked and we played a good amount of gigs. Harrison Landing probably 8 times, Daisey Mea's 3 times, Gubi's, Big Daddy's, the Road Runner and multiple sit in's with the Groovy Goulies at Mr. G's, Sports Page and Hacienda. Our final outting was at Maple City bowl, which was probably the most fun i ever had at a gig.

After Layla was born i didn't do much and then through Doug Lim, i was introduced to the last round of bands. i think that i have been blogging enough that you all know how well that has gone. We did open for Blammo at Gubi's and then fired the singer and that ended up killing the whole band.

NOW, here is where i am at. Why is it that you can't just get a couple guy's together, say "hey man" (you have to say things like this to be cool) "lets just be serious about this and play in a band. i'm not expecting to move to LA or anything, i just want t play in a band that every now and then can make a little coin. i can do whatever. Jazz, Blues, Rock, Country (please don't be country) but lets just cut the crap and play.

At this point, i am still looking for that. applicants please apply below.

Pleased to announce....

2007-09-18T09:43:00.000-04:00

July 30, 2007 Gretsch Welcomes Taylor Hawkins Gretsch is proud to welcome Taylor Hawkins to the roster! For more information on Taylor and the Foo Fighters, please go to http://www.foofighters.com/.

i know this is life changing. man i am happy. and you would think, hey who gives a rip. some doppy drummer plays some stinkin drums. big whoop. well, this is the dumbest thing that has ever brightened my day. my favorite drummer, my favorite drums. hand in hand. dreamy. i realize that i am risking losing subscribers because of this crappy blog entry, but it is a risk i am willing to take. i need to go take a cold shower. BRB

By the way, this is a high school picture of him. i don't know why i posted it, it just was the first pic i found when i googled his name and so reap the benifits of my Googling. i will have a better entry later. sorry again. i am a stalker.

Running and Rocking

2007-09-13T08:21:00.000-04:00

i have good news. LED ZEPPELIN IS GETTING BACK TOGETHER!!!!! (for one show). i find this to be just delightful news. i do wish that they wouldn't have chosen Jason Bonham to do the drumming. Instead i wish they woyuld have gone with Zac Starkey. both guys have famous dads.Jason is the son of Drum God John "Bonzo" Bonham. Jason made a name for himself by using, well, his name. He understands, like all drummers, that his dad was the king of Rock and Roll drumming. not to say that hJason can't do just fine for himself, i just think more of Zac Starkey because he didn't advertise it. Zac is the son of Richard Starkey Jr., aka Ringo Starr. now i enjoy the Beatles. i worship Led Zeppelin. Love John, don't really care for Jason. Dispise Ringo, really impressed by Zac. see what i did there? went the opposite way you would think i would go. Zac has been playing with the Who, taking over Keith Moon's chair after he died and a handful of others didn't make the cut. he seems to understand how to play the song that the original member played, but make it his own more modern interpretation, yet keep the form. i know it sounds dumb, but you'll just have to trust me. Jason just seems to bash through everything. well i think that is about all i have to say about that.

Now, running. last night i went out again. i think that just buying shoes that i don't have in my hands yet has sparked me to get out again. i went 2.3 miles last night doing a 3 minute walk and a 4 minute run back and forth. one thing that i have noticed and wanted to do at the same time is pick up my pace. i was really jogging when i had been out my previous months before Marley. i had been hoping not to be quite so slow and the last 2 nights that i had been out, i have been happy with my pace. after 2.3 miles, 26.2 seems like, well, a lot. and yet, i look forward to it. i also look forward to my shoes arriving. finally Dick's Sporting Goods has posted that they are shipped out. i hope to have them for the weekend. we'll see how it goes. Now these are the not the shoes that i ordered, but i must say that i have a fasination with hideous looking shoes. should i have been so lucky to locate these monsters. maybe next time.

September 11.

2007-09-11T10:36:00.000-04:00

this is my generations JFK or Pearl Harbor. so i am curious...where were you? what were you doing? I had just been handed my 3 day suspension from Hi-Tech Housing. to this day, i don't think that i ever told my parents about that. Eventually it made me decide to leave there and end up here at Kropf. i had writtten something on a print. nothing naughty just a joke and the Print Checker and my Engineering Manager told me to leave it because it was funny so i did. we assumed that the salesman would see it. well.....he never looked at the print and it got to the dealer and luckly he caught it. i was the only one that got in any trouble and there was a lot of drama about it. Either way, i got to sit home for 3 days and watch the news. i will always remember it happening.

I ran tonight

2007-09-10T22:36:00.000-04:00

holy crap, i feel like Britney Spears looked. i think that i made it to the mailbox and i almost passed out. i celebrated with a mug of ice cream. yeah for me!!!!! good night.

Happy Monday!

2007-09-10T15:02:00.000-04:00

good day. hope everyone had a pleasant weekend. let's get started. the Bulldog's of Georgia were defeated by the Cock's of South Carolina. Tragic. the game was a little flat looking. a couple big plays but other than a great 50 yard run by the freshmen wonder, nada! so, that was sad. last night was the MTV VMA's. now i havn't watched these in the last couple years. i can't say that even as a seasoned rocker, i even watch MTV anymore because no, i don't want to watch the Hills, or Real World 734 Middlebury, IN or Pimp by Bike or Making the Band 47. i knew the the Foo's were going to be on and if Elizabeth wouldn't have had it on, i never would have thought of it. however, there it was. a couple note. Kudo's to Justin Timberlake to "challenge MTV to play more video's". enough said. Kanye West, don't cry because you didn't win anything again this year (i guess he was shutout last year also) in a world with thousands of crappy bands, there are thosands that are really good. you may be great, but there is apparently someone greater. i bet your mother plays all your records. isn't family more important than your work. Rihanna, i like your little "umbrella" song. sure i feel weird saying it outloud, but so be it. daddy like. next, Britney, wow, sorry. that was bad. it appeared to be a sweatin' to the oldie's work out video. not pretty. at all. seriously. add a caption to that picture i put up and have her screaming "AHHHH! MY KNEE!!!" it makes it a lot funnier. but anyways, it was bad. wow, sorry. wow. witch is a direct link to next being Sarah Silverman, you are terrible. in a wow, you are as bad as Britney was but all you had to do was talk. this is MTV, not Disney, but have some class. there are plenty of kids that watch this. to crude for regular old cable. ohward...Tommy Lee and Kid Rock, your funny. Kid Rock you actually have talent, do something with it. Tommy Lee, well, umm... next! all the little sub parties, that is very odd. so you pay money to go to the VMA's, and you don't see a live band (sure there was a DJ and 2 or 3 live songs, but come on) the Foo's didn't play at the big show, they had a little sub party. the one good thing of said "subparty" is that today, you could watch the whole show they did. fairly cool. next topic, September 25. clear your calendars. NEW PEARL JAM DVD AND NEW FOO FIGHTERS CD. can you ask for anything more (do not say Toyota) next, i purchased new running shoe's today. grand total, 79.98, and i had a gift card from last X-mas from work with 80.29 still on it. yaaaa whoooo! it NEVER work's out that well. big day for me. New Asics Nimbus VIII. now, i need to start running again. after Marley was born, i didn't do anything and now it has been what seems like forever. Next September Roger and Rick (2 guy's i work with) are wanting the 3 of us to do a marathon together. i think that it would be so cool to do and to know others going is probably the only way i could do it. so, in conclusion, Georgia losing, bad. MTV, terrible, Pearl Jam and Foo, great, running, soon. oh and by the way, i really should talk more about them, the family is great. Marley is growing like it is going out of style. i think that the thing that i like the most is how much Layla loves her little sister and how Marley just watches her. she is smiles all the time and really a very good baby. Elizabeth is good too, she is back to work which is really like she never left, just a couple new faces.

incase i forgot to mention....

2007-09-05T12:00:00.000-04:00

The Bulldogs of the University of Georgia were victorious against the Cowboys of OK State. 35-14. it was good to see the team looking fairly together. 1-0 and we moved up 2 spots on the ranking to #11. Next week, on the road against South Carolina. should be a tougher game. GO DAWGS!!!!!

Did i mention this was a defensive play that we are tackling the white team. HE PUT SOME STANK ON THAT ONE!!!!!

After a nice long weekend, hello

2007-09-04T15:27:00.000-04:00

Hello all. hope everyone had a great long vacation / weekend. once again want to state how jealous i am of Stacy's worldly following. if you havn't click on my sitemeter and see where my people are coming from. thwn click on hers. INSANE. oh to have such the fan base. we know it's not all family cause they are all amish. she even has an electric cripple and she is globally great. you keep going with your bad self. i need more global topics. speaking of, this is a picture of Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters. Globally, great band. this is actually an old pic from when he and Dave Grohl were on the Craig Kilborn Show. Craig Kilborn, globally great. it is a shame that he left. i don't like his replacement. i really don't like Conan O'Brian. Letterman is globally great. other news, i feel that the tendonitis is slowly creeping back into my wrist. last time the tedonitis hampered me it was resolved by a wicked good dose of Cortizone. that was in mid June (thank you to blogger for being my diary so i can tell the global public when my wrist was ouchy) i know that the next option is probably another shot unless he feels this is long term problem again and i might as well get the surgery but i will ice this and do the brace again on my own and that might help slow it down. that was a big help last time. on the drums front, i reheaded my Gretsch (thats not dirty if your wondering) i have been looking at my snare collection noticing that i wish i had a great metal snare. i have a couple snares that i would love to trade in on one good snare, but as with most things (and what my dad does and it drives me crazy, i have to look around for 6 years and then do something) so i will probably end up doing nothing soon. it would be easier to do somethin if i was playing out. hopefully the Jazz thing will get together soon. it would be small commitment and low in the line of gigs but at least i would be doing something. i think that the gig's would be more weekdays than ends. more global topics, i am getting excited about my Vegas trip with Jeff again in January. this will be his 10th trip and my second. i have no real gambling fetishes, but the town is so neat to see. they live in a totally different style. nothing can be compared to our living style. here at 4 am, it feels like........4 am. in Vegas, at 4 am you are wondering when lunch is. i look forward to taking Elizabeth some time. for some reason i would like to say that i hope that Owen Wilson gets healthy. not just due to his global greatness and fine acting skills. Yes Wedding Crashers is a wonderful movie. i can not dispute this. he just seems like one of those cool guys that would be fun to hang out with. i'm sure he will be calling anytime now. that was nice of me to say. i think that globally, people will see how nice i am. well, off for now to get the girlies. bye all.

I can only think of one thing to make next year's party better.

2007-08-28T09:40:00.000-04:00

Just an idea. thanks to the Lastinger's for a fine party. well hosted. good food. fine times.

GO DAWGS!!!

2007-08-23T15:33:00.000-04:00

GEORGIA FOOTBALL!!!! COMING SOON!!! PRESEASON RANKING...#13!!!!

pics i found and never posted about.

2007-08-21T11:52:00.000-04:00

here it is. many a pic that i never got to comment on. first, the finger drums. if i had these, nothing would get done at work. well, more of nothing. To the right, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam. maybe i posted this. Still a great shot of a great guitar player.

Okay. Yes, the Spice Girls are back. How much happier could i be. I just don't know. Below this is the bell of a Pedler and Sons trumpet. Pedler is Elizabeth's maiden name. I have always found this interesting. this must be her Great, great great grandfather. eventually they sold out to Conn.

Next is a drummer Brian Blade. Love what this guy does on as little as he uses. Check the size of the kick drum. 15" dia. by 12" deep. that is TINY. Far right is the same cymbal that i have out from Doug's on trial. after playing on it, it is great for Jazz. it has 2 rivets. MOVING ON!

Next are 3 great shots. One is the racing version of an Aston Martin. this is what i will buy when Rob wins the lottery and Jeff is a Floor Boss at the Bellagio in Vegas. Thanks again guy's. the Far pic is a painting i found on Flickr of John Bonham, the drummer for Led Zeppelin. The next is the crazy odd creation of Paris Hilton and her dog. I don't get it but hey, this was a big attraction, so it must be "art".

Well i think that is all that i have to show for now. Other updates, E and I were invited by another couple to join at the grand opening at Ruth's Chris Steak House that opening in Mishawaka. It was great. Let me say this one thing. 4 people, $358 with tip. thank you Dexter Corp. Not a penny out of my pocket. That is living. We had a great time and i think that it would have been just as fun if we went to Taco Bell. Man i love Taco Bell.

Peace, I'm outta here!!!!!