Author: brhythm

The Meeting MI-5

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This MI-5 is inspired by the five meetings I had yesterday.

Meeting 1, the pastor: Tell us an interesting story about you and a playground.
We used to play this game on the playground called “Red Butt.” It was a game we invented. You take a tennis ball, and bounce it off a wall. The other kids try and catch the ball. If they catch it, they throw it back against the wall, and continue. The game really gets fun when someone drops the ball. When they drop the ball, they start running to tag the wall. The other players run to grab the ball, and try to throw it against the wall before the drop-er touches the wall. If the person who dropped the ball get to the wall first, they’re safe. If another person snags the ball, and throws it against the wall before the drop-er gets there, well, here’s what happens. The person who dropped the ball bends over, butt out, head touching the wall. The person who grabbed the ball and hit the wall with it gets a free throw at the persons bum! And since the drop-er is bent over, they can’t see when the ball is going to arrive! It’s really quite fun, and I think I need to put a game together!

Meeting 2, the insurance lady: What typical workplace benefit do you not have currently that you wish you did have?
I currently have life insurance personally, but I’d like to have more. A voluntary group life plan would be nice. (The benefits we do get are very generous.)

Meeting 3, the real estate agent: Relate to us something about an experience buying/selling/renting a home.
Susan and I are in the very beginning stages of selling our current home, and buying something “new.” I’ve only purchased one home before, and never sold one. It’s quite a new experience for me.

Meeting 4, the radio sales rep: What’s your favorite radio station? What’s the genre? Why do you like it?
Since purchasing my XM radio, I really only listen to NPR on FM. There are many stations I like on XM: ’80s on 8, alternative country on 12, bluegrass on 14, clean comedy on 151, and the talk stations 158 and 165. And I like “America Right” on 166. Oh, and I’ve also been listening to “The Catholic Channel” on 117. I like their question and answer shows. I think Protestant talk radio could really use more Q/A shows.

Meeting 5, the dessert loving banker: What’s your favorite dessert? Why?
Oh, that’s tough. Susan’s cheesecake is good, as are her cookies. Mom’s chocolate pie with cooked pudding (not instant) is high on the list. And I really like Pepperidge Farm’s chocolate cake too. Prism Glass’s Italian lemon creme cake has been in my thoughts recently, too.

Friday Fill In #106

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1. It’s January; just a few more weeks, and I can get the scooter back out.

2. More sleep is what I crave most right now.

3. Cork and wine go together like Mickey Mouse and fish sticks.

4. Cocoa butter and body yogurt is so nourishing (to my skin).

5. Let us dare to run naked in the streets. (Not really, but it’s the first thing I thought of.)

6. It’s only a matter of time before I sell my home.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to an evening home with my family, tomorrow my plans include a recording session, and Sunday, I want to just kick back and chill a little!

Meetings

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Tomorrow is “meeting day” for me. I’ve got a 7am, a 9am, a 10am, and a 12:30 lunch meeting. Anyone available in the afternoon? 🙂

I Have No #9

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I mentioned a few posts ago about how much I love my new Harmony 880 remote. And I still really like it. But Susan mentioned something, almost off hand, tonight: She could never make the #9 work. So I tried it. She was right–no #9. I tried it on the TV, the radio, and the TIVO. No #9. So I reprogrammed the remote. I made the #8 send the code for #9, and I made the #9 button send the #8 command. And, #8 made #9, and #9 didn’t do anything. So I knew it was the button itself, and not the commands the remote was sending. The remote came with 60 days of phone support, so I got them on the horn. Well, after about 20 minutes on hold. The tech listened to what I tried, and agreed there was a problem with the hardware. He had me upgrade the firmware. No luck. Then he said “Push the button real hard.” I did. It worked. Still, that’s not how it should work, so he said he’d refer me to warranty service. He said I should hear from them in three to five business days. Let’s see what happens.

Poor Man’s Supper

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We were going to have hot turkey sandwiches for supper tonight. Susan was even going to make some homemade herb bread for the sandwiches. Well, she forgot about the bread, so she threw the ingredients into the bread machine for a “rapid rise” white loaf. When that was done, it turned out the turkey wasn’t thawed! So we had hot, homemade bread for supper! We broke out the jam, butter, and peanut butter, as well as some sugar and cinnamon. Add to that a couple o’ hunks of cheddar cheese, and you had a quick, simple supper we all loved!

Friday Fill In #105

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Janet hosts the Friday Fill. She’s been reporting for several weeks that her father has been in ill health. She reported this morning that he passed away last night. How about sending up a prayer for Janet and her family?

1. The world is often a cold and hard place.

2. “It does not fix the underlying problem” was the last thing I said.

3. I wonder about my future home buying adventure.

4. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” is at the end of all things.

5. There’s something to be said for living in a country as great as the USA.

6. On a tropical beach with Susan (and without kids) is where I want to be.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to getting home relatively early from my gig, tomorrow my plans include not gigging (yeah!) and Sunday, I want to have an awesome Sunday School lesson planned!

The Weekend Wrap Up

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The sum up? I was so busy,  it was almost like I didn’t have a weekend. Want more? Continue…

Friday, and we were open at the office. Peter normally works until close, but he had the day off. So I ended up working the closing shift. I ran home and saw the family for all too brief a moment, then headed out to my gig at the Black Bull.  It was a short money gig, but it was close to home, and they included supper. (I had the chicken and sundried tomato alfredo.) While at the gig, as mentioned in the post below, I saw Maura, and we had a nice little talk while I was on a break. Any trace of her Maine accent is gone; she’s all Aussie now. And, like my Aussie friend Jim Gilbert when he first arrived, it’s thick enough that I couldn’t always catch what she was saying. Especially in a loud club with a drummer’s ears! I was home and in bed by 1:05am.

Saturday came, and I was at the office until noon. I made a trip to the dump to get rid of the trappings of Christmas. Many others had the same idea; the line was enormous! While at the dump, I noticed one of the tires in Susan’s van was low, so I went to a gas station and topped them all off. Then I went home and watched the boys so Susan could spend some alone time at the library. (The girls in my life are addicted to books!) When Susan got home, I took a nap for about an hour and a half, and then drove to my next gig in Bar Harbor. Though it’s a long drive, and a long gig (a full four hours), the people at this particular club are always very receptive, and really come out to hear music. Bar Harbor is a veritable ghost town this time of year, yet we were still able to make some tip money. After a long drive home, I got to bed at 3am.

Sunday morning, 7:30, up with the boys. Not enough coffee. Church. Lunch at Mom’s house. Home. The weather was warm, so I did a few chores. I took the battery out of my scooter. I did two loads of laundry. I took a 1/2 hour nap. I played my bass guitar for a 1/2 hour or so. Then I went back to evening church where my uncle put on a concert. When I got home, the girls in my life told me they were craving Taco Supremes. So I headed back out and got them some supper. I was fully prepared to go to bed early, when Susan said “How do we turn on the close captioning with the new remote?”

Some background info. For many years, I’ve used a Marants RC2000 remote to control my somewhat sophisticated home theater. And when the babies were little, we had a need to use close captioning. So I programmed the remote with a “macro”; one button would cycle through all the menus of the TV, and turn the close captioning on. Now, Susan has purchased me a new remote, which I love. (Ignore the list price on the site; a refurb unit can be had for way less.) But until last night, I hadn’t programmed a button to make the close captioning turn on and off easily. So, I decided to do that before bed. Though I love the remote, and though it does have  very handy computer based programming, you have to upload changes to the web (your settings are backed-up online with this remote), and then download the changes to your remote. Factor in to that that this is the first time I’ve ever programed a macro on this remote, and you end up with about a one hour project. And, once I get started on something like that, I can’t finish until it’s done.

So, at about 10:30 last night, I crawled into bed–my regular bedtime!

More Snow Stuff

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I mentioned in an earlier post about the blizzard we got not even a week ago. Strangely, all the snow is almost gone now due to the warm temperatures and rain. But it wasn’t but four or five days ago we had snow on the ground like this, and that was all from one storm!

Oh, I also saw Maura Manning at my gig last night. Maura and I went to high school together, and she moved to Australia, became a high school English teacher,  and got married. She’s here visiting, and her folks were telling her Aussie husband that we get snow like that all the time! While it’s not unusual for us to have that much snow on the ground, it is unusual to get it all at once. And, the howling wind made it quite a storm. It truly has been years since we had a storm like that.

Photo credit: Jason Philbrook from f64.nu.