Susan’s MI-5

1. Would you rather have one great friend or 5 pals?

One great friend.

2. Are you better at remembering names or faces?

Faces, but there’s a funny story here. Yesterday, I was coming into the office. A customer was coming out. He said “Hi Bill.” I didn’t recognize him. I said “I’m really sorry–do we know each other?” He said “It’s me, Jim K.” Well, I’ve made changes to Jim’s website for the last couple of years! The difference? “You don’t have a hat on!” I said. “I didn’t recognize you without it!” He admitted it was very rare for him to be without a hat.

3. What books on your shelf are begging to be read?

My Bible is on my desk. I read through it, then start again at the beginning. I’ve decided that every time I do it, I’ll pick a new translation.  I’m currently in Proverbs of the NIV. I’m also 2/3 of the way through a cookbook my sister gave me almost two years ago, and a non-fiction account of the “Paul is Dead” scandal Susan bought me for Christmas last year.

4. Will the world be better or worse in 100 years?

Doesn’t thermodynamics declare that it will be worse?

5. Is your best friend now anything like your best friend from childhood?

No. My best friend now is a 36 year old mother of three. My best friend then was a 10 year old boy!

Friday Fill-Ins #89

1. I enjoy breakfast.

2. The housing market is something I wonder about often lately.

3. In your heart, you knew I was the one for you, even as I passed you quickly, you kneeling at the milk cooler.

4. Take cheap chicken fingers, add a little Frank’s hot sauce and you end up with a kicked up kids meal you can actually (almost) enjoy.

5. Life has gifted me with a wonderful family.

6. Having the kids go to Grandma’s house is an instant vacation.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to possibly watching a movie with Susan, tomorrow my plans include house cleaning and a trip to Bar Harbor (a gig) and Sunday, I want to see what happens, as I have no real plans!

Weekend Wrapping

Well, I rather enjoyed my weekend. I can’t really remember what happened Friday evening. I know I ended up working a little late helping a web customer, but I don’t remember what happened after that. I remember being really excited, though, as I had the whole weekend off: no work, no gigs. I may have done some web work.

Saturday came ’round, and Susan wanted blueberry pancakes. Duly made, I then proceeded to get things ready for a dump run. After that, we did some furniture shopping, and stopped at the farm market again. By the time we got home, it was after 2pm, so we had a late lunch of pizza. By suppertime, we still weren’t very hungry, so we put the pork chops and corn on the “back burner” for another day. Then it was lazy time in the evening.

Sunday. Breakfast. Church. A brief outing to set up someone’s WIFI router. Ma’s birthday party. A trip to the cemetary to “remember” Dad. (Incidentally, I’ve been “remembering” him a lot these last few days.)  Just a short time at home, and it was time to head back to church for the monthly supper. Evening services, then home.

Hmm. Although it’s only three short paragraphs, this weekend seemed abundantly filled with things to do. Maybe my memory two days later isn’t so hot.

Amy’s “Life List” MI-5

Amy says: I was inspired by an article in SELF magazine for this week’s MI-5.  The article was called “Create Your Happy-Life List” and this list is derived from the little workbook box in the article.  That box gave room for four answers in each of six boxes. I only used four of the boxes and added my own question to the list.  Feel free to give as many or as few answers to each question as you like.

1. Every day I would like to: (examples given were: get my heart rate up, sleep for 15 more minutes, be loving to my partner)

~I would like to spend more time in prayer. I try to have prayer time every morning, and I say grace before every meal. On and off through out the day, though, I fall short. In my job, working with customers (and frequently angry customers), I should take time to shoot up those “bullet” prayers before talking with someone. I should take a moment to get myself ready before talking to someone who’s mad, or before I need to offer words of correction to a staff person.

2. Every week, I would like to: (examples given were: cook a meal from scratch, pamper myself, spend time alone)

~Spend some really quality time with the family. By the time I get home from work, I really only have maybe three hours to spend with the kids before they need to go to bed. Factor in the nights that I leave work a little late, and the weeks that I’m gigging on the weekend, and quality time to go do something fun is really hard to come by. I should schedule family time into my week.

3. Before next year, I would like to: (examples given were: clean out my closets, take a class, track my spending, plant an herb garden)

~Own an impractical car, like a fire engine, hearse, ambulance, or convertible. Or maybe just a scooter.

4. Before I die, I would like to: (examples given were: start a business, try skydiving, go skinny-dipping, make a difference in the world)

~Visit the Holy Land, UK, and Italy. Get a Masters or Doctorate. Figure out how to get someone else to pay for aforementioned education. 🙂 Learn the basics of Hebrew and Greek. Maybe start my own drum fabrication business.

5: How likely do you think you will be to complete any of these goals? Which will be the easiest? Which will be the hardest?

~Traveling will be the easiest. There’s not much to it: get on the plane and go. Learning Hebrew and Greek has already proved a little tough, since I can’t find anyplace that teaches them locally. (The one place that teaches Hebrew–the local Synagogue, didn’t return my calls.) Starting my own business would be easy. Keeping it alive would be hard–very hard. I think the toughest one would be my Masters degree. I don’t really need it for anything. I can’t afford it. I don’t have the time to pursue it. I don’t see it happening.

Friday Fill-Ins #88

This week I’m going to use rather obscure song lyrics; you can fill them in with the correct words if you know ’em…but wouldn’t it be more fun to do it a bit differently?And…here we go!

1. If I was to walk into your life, would you recognize me, since we’ve never met?

2. Catch a bright star and place it in your living room. (You’ll save on your light and your heat bill!)

3. And you can send me that $50 bucks you owe me.

4. I’d like to forgive you for that time you smashed up my kitchen cabinets with a baseball bat, but I’m dealing with a memory that never forgets.

5. I’m the innocent bystander / Somehow I got stuck in traffic behind the bait truck.

6. What’s keeping us apart isn’t selfishness, it’s the fact you’re in Thailand and don’t have a driver’s license.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to an evening at home, tomorrow my plans include going to the farm market, and Sunday, I want to listen to the wind and the rain!

Labor Day Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday night, and I didn’t have a gig. That felt really strange!I don’t thing anything spectacular went on; I just spent an evening home with the family! Susan didn’t feel like cooking, so we had Chinese. I think after that, it was some “Spiderman and his Amazing Friends.”

Saturday morning, and I was up at about 6:30. Susan implored me to sleep later, but I couldn’t. I left the house at 9am to get some errands done, then I was off to my 11am gig. That gig got over at 2pm, and afterwards, I headed to Blind Al’s house to pick him up for my second gig. Gig one was in Waldoboro, and gig two was in Portland. It didn’t really make sense to head home, only to leave again in three hours time, so I picked up the Blind Man. We went to P-Town, hit The Drum Shop, Buckdancer’s Choice, and Guitar Center. The Drum Shop had all kinds of stuff I wanted. Guitar Center had nothing but teens beating on the electric drums, making noise just to hear themselves make noise, I guess. I bought nothing at either place. Buckdancer’s is a guitar shop, so there wasn’t much for me there. My gig that night was at Brian Boru. It was hot and humid, even in the evening, and I played like dog meat during the first set. By the time the third set rolled around, there was a breeze, and I was plenty hydrated, so my playing improved. I think I had four pints of water! On the drive home, we complied with the sheriff’s road block “safety check,” and I crawled into bed at 3:15 Sunday morning.

It seemed like only moments until I opened my eyes at 7:30 Sunday morning. Coffee! Church had a really light turnout, as many people were out of town. Pastor Dave and I provided music for Sunday School on guitar and bass respectively. Having had so little sleep, I had a little trouble putting together cohesive sentences. We all had a good laugh about it. After morning services, we had leftover Chinese for lunch. My Mom was away on vacation (thus the need for me to provide church music instead of her usual piano), so we didn’t have lunch at her house.  Then, NAPS! Yeah! Church in the evening, then home again.

This morning, I slept late: 7:30. I made some raspberry/chocolate chip pancakes for everyone. I worked on a website for a little bit in the AM, and made lunch for the kids. In the afternoon, we went to Beth’s and went crazy! We picked up a flat of blueberries, some strawberries, leeks, corn, and beet greens. Oh, and cider. And beans. They had so much good stuff, we’re planning on going back again this Saturday! On the way back to the house, we stopped in a local antique shop I like to frequent. Once back in Rockland, we walked to the grocery store for a few more things. Supper was steak, grilled/braised leeks, corn on the cob (super sweet and yummy!), and mashed taters. The boys, dutifully washed and teeth brushed, are up in bed now. Julia and Susan are bagging blueberries for the freezer. I just finished some more web work, and took some time to post.