Month: November 2008

Friday Fill In #100

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1. My stomach is empty right now, and I’d like to put something in it.
2. Ma’s sausage stuffing is what I ate the most of on Thursday.
3. The yard is in rough shape, needs another raking, and needs the toys put away (again!).
4. Snuggling with Susan is where I’d rather be at any given time.
5. The smell of Grey Flannel reminds me of a Shawn Colvin concert I attended with Susan.
6. Lunch is what I need right now!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to an early gig (done at 12am), tomorrow my plans include going to the Festival of Lights parade and Sunday, I want to attend a bachelor party!

Heather Armstrong Has Been Found!

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For years, I’ve been trying to find Heather Armstrong. All through middle and high school, we were in home room together. (Her last name starts with A, mine with B. Melissa Baker fell in between us!) On graduation day, Susan, Heather, Chris Clayton, and I drove to Perry’s Nut House and hung out for the day. And then, after graduation, she fell off the face of the earth. No one could find her. When the time came ’round for the 10th class reunion, no one could figure out how to find her. And so, I kept posting about Heather hoping that she would some day find me–since I couldn’t seem to find her.

Fast forward eighteen years. Allison has been trying to get Susan to join Facebook.  So Susan joined up. And guess who she found?! Seems Heather DID go to Johnson and Wales, got married, had a few kids (one quite recently), and joined Facebook. So Susan asked to be her “friend” or whatever on Facebook, and they messaged each other like three times yesterday! It was nice to know she’s doing well, and is somewhat close by. Heck, she mentioned the irony of me gigging down in Boston (where Heather lives now) last weekend. She invited me to stop in the next time I play down that way.

She also wanted to know what happened to Scott Ballard. And as I thought about that, I realized “I haven’t heard anything about Scott since graduation!”

Paging Scott Ballard, where are you Scott? 🙂

Four gigs, three days, too tired, one oyster

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The weekend started for me on Thursday this week. Three Button Deluxe was booked to play a gig in Boston. I still had (still have, actually) some vacation time to use up, so I decided to take Thursday and Friday off from the office. Paddy and I tooled down to Boston, and had a relatively easy trip. On the way down, there was one slight lane issue (I was trying to get into the same lane that someone else also wanted), and on the way out of town, I missed my on-ramp, which forced me to double back a block or three. The gig went well, no major issues, and I took some time to eat a raw oyster. I was home at 2:30am Friday–which in reality isn’t that late.

The boys were spending the weekend at Grandma’s and Granddaddy’s, so that meant–luxury of luxuries–I could sleep late! I slept until 9am, something I haven’t done since I don’t know when. It was nice! I ran a few errands for Susan, and took a little nap in the afternoon. Then, I drove to Bar Harbor for a gig at The Blues Authority. Again, I was home about 2:30am.

Saturday morning was an 8am wake up–a little more my norm. The boys were still away, so Susan, Julia, and I went to The Brass Compass for breakfast. My bacon/mushroom/swiss omellette was pretty good, and Susan’s “Granny Apple” pancakes looked really yummy. Then I think I just hung out at home until I needed to leave to play the matinee of Annie Get Your Gun at Medomak High School. That lasted ’til about 4:30pm. A bunch of us from the pit (all rhythm section players and the music director) went to Waldoboro to have supper. And then it was back to school for the 7:30pm show.I was home by 11, in bed by midnight.

Sunday, and everything was back to normal. The boys were back home, and ready to go with the sun. Church in the AM, then lunch at Mom’s. I took a one hour nap Sunday afternoon, then got up and washed some dishes before heading back to church. After church, it was straight home. Susan was very tired, and wanted to go straight to bed. I nuked some Spaghetti-Os for supper, and watched a documentary on Noah’s Ark. Then I went to bed, and the weekend came to its conclusion.

No Ghostesess!

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A couple days ago, Susan was working with the boys on writing their names. She wrote their given names on one side of the paper, then their nicknames (Matt & Nat) on the other side. She then had them practice writing their letters on top of hers. At some point, Matthew decided to make a sign with his paper. He scribbled some stuff on the paper, and Susan asked him what it said. He said “It says ‘No ghostesess allowed in my room!'”

Watching Movies MI-5

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This Five is not so much concerned with what kind of movies you like, but how you watch them!

1) When you’re at the theater, how do you want your atmosphere? Do you prefer old theaters or megaplexes? Full houses or intimate seatings? Lots of kids, or none at all?

I really prefer old theaters to new. They have so much more character. Today’s multiplexes are like concrete bunkers. They’re so, blah. And, since I’m in a theater, I’d like to have some people there. In my opinion, the only thing you get in a theater that you don’t get at home is the crowd interaction. And, like my sister, if I’m watching a kid movie, I’d like to have lots of kids running around. Their laughter is contagious!

2) What’s your “home theater” like? High tech? VCR and TV? What?

My home theater is pretty decent. I really haven’t added much to it since my children have been born. I’ve got Dolby Digital 5.1, 32″ RCA Cinema Series TV, nice speakers, subwoofer, DVD and Laserdisc. The only thing I’d like to have is a 16 X 9 widescreen display. But since my current TV is working fine, I see no need to go out and spend $700 or more just to change the ratio of my screen size.

3) We’ve probably all got DVD and VCR players, but how about alternative movie watching gadgets? Have you got an Apple TV? Ever watch a movie over the Internet?

I’ve got a TiVo. Sometimes we’ll get a movie off that to watch. Not too much, though. I don’t watch movies on my computer. My iPod Touch can play movies, and I’ve ripped a few I own to watch on it. I don’t forsee myself watching them, though, until I’m on a plane or something. (I don’t normally carry the earphones with me.)

4) Do you belong to a subscription movie rental service, like NetFlix? If so, how many movies are you renting a month? Are you happy with the service?

I don’t have anything like that. We watch so few movies, it wouldn’t really be worth it to us. We’ll usually just watch the same movies over and over. Madagascar and Cars are perrenial favorites in my house.

5) Share with us your ratio of buying movies to renting them. Do you rent more, or just outright buy your movies? Do you get DVDs, tapes, or movie downloads for your computer most frequently?

I would say we buy and rent at about an equal ratio. We usually rent things we’ve never seen. If we see it, and like it enough to watch it again, we’d probably by it. With that said, though, I’ve got some movies from last Christmas I still haven’t watched yet.