The Interesting Weekend Wrap-Up

The weekend started Friday night at the Black Bull. Blind Albert and I had a duo gig there, 9:30-12:30. A new guy who’s moved into the area sat in with us. Frank Sambiase moved up here from CT, I think. He’s been jamming with the local cats, paying his dues, looking to make in-roads with the locals, trying to get gigs. He did a great job with us, and I really like his playing. And, it was a treat playing with two guitar players. Rarely do I play in a band that has two guitar players; the local clubs don’t pay enough money to have bands with lots of members. Usually, I play in trios, or quartets with a horn. It was nice to have that extra voice, and it added a lot to the sound.

I got home from the gig around 1pm, maybe a little later. As I was getting ready for bed, I noticed I didn’t have my watch on. (Pay attention, this will mean more later.) At my gigs, I take my watch off, and put it in my stick bag. I don’t like to wear a watch when I play. I also take my wallet, keys, and phone out of my pants pocket, and put them in the bag. Anyway, I had left my watch in the stick bag. Since I knew I’d want to wear my watch in the morning, I went out to the car, got my bag, brought it inside, got my watch, and put it on the table.

Saturday morning, I “slept late,” and got up at 8:15. I made blueberry muffins for the family. I washed some dishes, took a shower, did the usuall Saturday AM things. It was pretty warm out, and thoughts of my scooter danced in my head. With my plastic snow shovel, I was able to get enough snow away from the garage door to get it open a crack. Once inside the garage, I was able to get a metal flat shovel. And with that, I was able to chip enough ice away to get the door open! Scoot, here I come! But first, I had to make a trip to the dump. OK, I did that, back to the scoot… I put the battery in, which had been in my garage on the battery tender. I siphoned out the stale gas that was in the tank, and replaced it with fresh gas. I jumped on the kick start a few times, with the key off, just to get some oil into the cylinder. Then I touched the electric start. She roared right to life! I let it warm for a little bit. Susan was running errands with Julia, so as soon as she got home, I went for a ride. I went down to the Keag Store, down Dublin Rd, a left onto Ash Point, South Shore Dr, downtown Owls Head, North Shore Dr, then Rt 73 to home. It  was a nice ride, but the roads in Owls Head are tore up! That was a bone shaker of a ride.

After my ride, I took a quick nap. Then I headed out to Winterport for my gig that started at 8pm. I had the mushroom/swiss burger, which was delish. I brought my gear inside, and started to set up. Then, it hit me: where’s my stick bag? Yup, you guessed it. I left my sitck bag at home from the night before! Panic started to set in. No sticks! But wait! Didn’t I stash a pair of sticks in the spare tire compartment? If I did, they weren’t there. God’s provedence was with me, though. The week before last, we played a gig and had a hand percussionist sit in. I have a big bag of hand percussion items, so I brought that bag for him to borrow. I hadn’t taken it out of the car yet. Inside was a pair of sticks! They weren’t my regular size, and they were pretty beat up, but at least I had some sticks! The gig was well attended, and people danced all night long. I broke one of the sticks, but it was just the tip, so I was able to complete the gig. The sitcks went into my cymbal bag, so now I’ll have a back-up pair! When factoring in the time change, I got home a little after 3am.

Sunday was pretty typical. Church in the morning. Lunch at Mom’s. In the afternoon, I was able to take another quick scooter ride. It wasn’t as long as Saturday, as it was a little cooler. I was able to fit a 1/2 hour nap into the afternoon, too. In the evening, it was back to church. After that, I went to McDonalds for the boys supper, and to Subway for me and the girls. Chicken bacon ranch, of course! The kids went to bed, and then Susan and I had a little snuggle time on the couch before we went to bed.

Long Weekend Wrap-Up

Oh, it’s an exciting one!

Grandma(Susan’s mom) picked the kids up on Wednesday. They were going to be gone until noontime on Friday. I was supposed to have President’s Day off, but, because it was the day before billing, I needed to be in the office. I was going to take Thursday off, because the kids were going to be gone all day. Instead, I decided to take Friday off too, and parlay the whole thing into a mini vacation.

So Wednesday, after work, I came home and picked Susan up. We ended up going to Cafe Miranda. I had the “Pitch A Tent,” and Susan had something called Jim’s Beef. It was all very good. You should click on the link, and check out their menu. It’s huge. There’s so much stuff from which to choose!  Then off to the grocery store to pick up a few things.We came home, and watched a Jeff Dunham comedy show.

Thursday morning was Eggs Benedict morning. We had had some snow, so we decided it would be a “stick around home” day. Around noon, Susan was feeling sleepy, so she went to take a nap. I stayed up and worked on a web site. With four or five uninterrupted hours, I was able to get it mostly done. I thought perhaps I’d use the leftover Hollandaise to make a Bearnaise to eat over a fillet of beef. At $15/pound for fillet, though, I couldn’t bring myself to buy it. Instead, I bought some less expensive stuff, some broccoli, and a Pepperidge Farm lemon cake. I think we watched some uneventful movie before bed.

Friday morning, and Susan was going to treat me to breakfast at the Brass Compass. Instead, though, we got a phone call: Julia wasn’t feeling well, and wanted to be picked up immediately (instead of noon). So we picked up a few items at Wal-Mart, and had a delicious breakfast in the car provided by, um, McDonalds. In the afternoon, I remember I made some biscuits, and we had them under hamburger and brown gravy for supper: sort of a take on SOS. At one point, while getting the boys ready for bed, I lost my temper, and put myself to bed.

Saturday morning was mostly the same as all my Saturday mornings. Blueberry pancakes for the family. Wash dishes. I stayed home with Julia while Susan and the boys went to nephew Caleb’s birthday party. A nap in the afternoon before my gig. It was during this nap that my gut started to churn. I played my gig, but I wasn’t feeling great. The guys noticed. I wasn’t myself.

Sunday morning, and I noted on Facebook that I wasn’t feeling 100%, but I was still going to church. And I did. And I still had lunch at my Mom’s. I come home, though, and take a nap. When I got up from my nap, I felt worse than before. The boys hadn’t had a nap, and they were starting to falter, so Susan asked that I stay home, and put them to bed. So I didn’t go to evening church. At one point, my stomach was churning so much I went into the bathroom. I was able to fight it off, though. The snow was starting to come down when Susan got back from church, and she reported the roads were quite greasy.

My sleep last night was fitful. I woke up at 3am, stomach in knots. Then, I couldn’t get back to sleep. My mind kept whirling. I wanted to stay home, but I knew I would have work to do at the office from two days off. And I knew, with the snow, other staff members would be running late. What should I do? I would drift in and out, but never really fall back to sleep. So I got up at my usual 5:30.

And, everything was as I expected at the office. All kinds of people couldn’t make it in due to the snow. On the good side of things, Gina, the bookkeeper, kept most of the customers at bay while I enjoyed my time off. So there wasn’t a huge pile on my desk this morning. I got the fires put out around 11am, and then came home. I put my jammies on, and took a nap. I think I’m starting to feel better: I ate supper, and it’s the first time I’ve felt hungry in days.

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday night was the Groove Machine gig at Gilberts. For those of you who are on Facebook, there are a <a href=”http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo_search.php?oid=48638556377&view=all”>couple of photos posted</a>. The crowd was warm, and really seemed to like us. The air, though, was cold.

On Saturday, I headed into the office a little after 9am, and got situated for billing day. I left the office a little after noon, and headed home. I took a little nap, and then headed to my gig in Bangor. It was very cold at that gig, as the stage is set up in front of some huge–and drafty–windows. I was able to get a WIFI connection from the hotel next door to the club, so I spent my breaks chatting with Susan via the Facebook chat program. I got pulled over twice on the drive home (stupid headlight), and stopped by the office to refill the printer with paper. I was home and in bed a little after 2am.

Sunday came, and so did the snow. Church was cancelled, and Susan let me sleep late. When I got up a little before 9am, I made breakfast for everyone. Then, I went to the office to refill the paper in the printer yet again. This time, with the snow and all, I just decided to stay at the office until the printing was done. I got home around noon. I had a bowl of Grapenuts for lunch, and perused Facebook for a while while running a virus scan on my home machine. Susan made twice-baked potatoes for supper. I went to bed at like 7:30pm, and spent a little time watching drum videos on YouTube. Then, lights out!

The Weekend Wrap Up

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!

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday. Work all day. Head to gig in Brunswick. Play ’til 12:30. Head home. Arrive home between 2:30 – 3am.

Saturday. Get up at 7:30. Shower. Pick Paddy up at 8:30. Head to gig. Play the Windward Gardens craft fair until 1pm. Get rave reviews. Make quick trip to grocery store. Quick nap. Get pizza at Pizza Hut for supper. (Just like at the office, everyone at home likes those $5 Pizza Hut pizzas.) Head to Chestnut St. Baptist for their “Walk Through Bethelehem.” Head home to bed.

Sunday. Awake at 6:30. Make coffee. Wake family at 7:30. Get more coffee at Dunkin Donuts on the way to church. Birthday lunch (mac and cheese and homemade chicken “nuggets”) at Mom’s, with some wonderful gifts. Head home for two hours. Make ice cream for evening church supper. Spill ice cream mix on blue blazer. Head back to church at 4pm. Have Christmas program practice and Venezuelan missionary supper. Accept rave reviews on ice cream–even though Susan did all the hard work! Head home. Fall asleep to “Car Talk” playing on my new iPod alarm clock Susan and the kids got me for aforementioned b-day.

The end!

Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap Up

Thursday

Breakfast at home (bacon and eggs–Susan’s pick). To Mom’s in the AM so Julia and I could get a hair cut. Home. To Ma’s house for lunch at 2pm. Fun with 20 people. Home. I don’t remember what happened in the evening.

Friday

Dropped eggs on hash (my pick). Organize the garage a little. Put Sta-Bil in the scooter and lawn mower. Take the scooter for a quick ride. Hey, it was warm. (Well, warm-ish.) I went out to the Owls Head General Store, drank a cup of coffee, and beat feet for home just ahead of the rain. Head to Wal-Mart just to see the madness. I did some dish washing and cleaning in the afternoon. In the evening, my gig was at My Fork.

Saturday

French toast and bacon (Julia and Susan’s pick). We all went to the Farnsworth for their kid’s Christmas festivities. After that, the boys and I came home and watched The Incredibles (again!) while Susan and Julia went to the Samoset Craft Fair. In the evening, we went to the Festival of Lights parade down town.

Sunday

Cheese filled crumb coffee cake (Nathaniel’s pick). Church in the AM. Susan’s lasagna soup for lunch. In the afternoon, I went to Keith Wass’s bachelor party. (Pot luck. Some beers–for the others, not me. No strippers!) Back to church for the Christmas program practice. Home and bed. The end.