Weekend Wrap Up

Joe Morello’s Left Hand

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In another installment of “Bill’s Youtube Videos He Watches Over and Over,” I bring you Joe Morello:

Joe was Dave Brubeck’s drummer for years and years. Here, Joe takes solo in the Brubeck classic “Take Five.” The original recording is fantastic; one might even say monumental. Like Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue,” Brubeck’s “Time Out” album is a Jazz album for people who aren’t into Jazz. You don’t have to be to dig this album. Anyway, here Joe offers a different solo than the original recording. Dig the one handed roll at about one minute in. Joe is a big proponent of what’s called the “Moeller Technique,” a way of snapping the drumstick and using the stick’s natural rebound to turn your arm into an engine, cranking out hit after hit after hit. Here Joe shows his tremendous finger technique, coupled with Moeller, to give us those super tasty one handed yummies. For non-drummers, it probably doesn’t look like much. No flash flailing, no rolling around tons of toms for days and days. But for those of us who know what he’s doing, well, we can tell you that little one handed drum roll is crazy hard to pull of.

One Awesome Weekend Wrap Up

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Not much happened Friday.

Saturday I was home with kids for the day. I played a gig on Saturday to a very responsive crowd. A very nice lady from Alabama told me twice I had beautiful eyes. I played a drum solo that was pretty decent and garnered applause. The end.

Now, let’s get to the magic!

Immediately after church, Susan and I and the kids packed up the van and headed to Somerville. You see, Susan’s parents live there, and they were going to be watching the kids for us. Why? So we could be alone for a romantic weekend! Oh yeah!

We left the kids, and headed for Freeport. I had booked us a room at a place called The James Place Inn. Freeport is a quick drive outside of Portland, and The James Place is one of the few places near Portland that offered an in-room two person hot tub! Oooh la-la!

Having settled into the room for a little while, we started on our way to Portland. The entire thrust of the outing was to see Casting Crowns and Kutless in concert at the Portland Civic Center. We were going to meet Jim and Jeanine for supper at some Mexicn place Jim likes. We weren’t too far away from Haddlock Field when I heard this really awful grinding/thumping  noise eminate from the front passenger side tire. It was a rhythmic sound that sped up and slowed down with the speed of the tire. It almost sounded like a flat, but the car was handling fine. I pulled over. No flat. I looked under the car. Nothing. I got back in, and started looking for a garage. Susan got Jim and Jeanine on the horn. Having stopped for directions, I was told of a Sullivan Tire not far from Haddlock Field. Jim and Jeanine would meet us there.

Not wanting to be detered on our romantic weekend, I threw the keys in a service envelope, and stuck them in the key drop. Jim and Jeanine offered to chauffer us for the remainder of the evening. The Mexican restaurant was closed/sold/out of business or otherwise not open. We opted for a Chinese restaurant with a buffet, as time was of the essence. It was ok. Then the concert…

We were told the concert started at 6:30pm. When we got there at about 6:20, Caleb was already on stage. Just him and his brother (I think), who was playing the cajon. They were pretty good. Kutless was next. I didn’t really know anything about them. I enjoyed them very much, and they know how to rock! The drummer was pounding! Big arm movements, way above his head. They played 1/2 dozen songs or so, maybe eight. I was really surprised their set was so short. Casting Crowns played two sets. They were good, as you would expect from the headliner. I would have preferred they played a little less, and let Kutless have some more stage time. The concert was done around 10:30pm. Jim and Jeanine dropped us off at the B&B. They took a quick tour of the place, and took their leave.

I was up Monday morning at 7am. Breakfast was from 8-9am, so I went, procured some coffee, said good morning to innkeeper Robin, and met his daughter Elise. Breakfast was innkeeper Tori’s delicious homemade granola and yogurt, raspberry oatmeal muffins, cinnamon French toast (homemade cinnamon bread!), bacon, and juice. While having breakfast, the garage called, and quoted repairs on the van. It wasn’t all outdoors expensive, though they did try to talk me into four new tires and an alignment. No thanks. The car was done around noon. Innkeeper Robin was gracious enough to give me a lift into Portland to pick up the van. Both Robin and Tori were wonderful hosts; I’d stay with them again in a hearbeat. I drove back to the inn and picked up Susan. (So not only did they give us a lift to Portland, the innkeepers also gave us a late checkout. Thanks!)

For the rest of the day, Susan and I drove north. We took Rt 1 to Brunswick, looking for antiques and shops. Not much going on on that stretch of road. We then took I-95 north to Gardiner. We walked up and down Mn St of Hallowell. Note: downtown Hallowell is mostly closed on Mondays. We drove into Augusta, and did some quick shopping at a couple of stores, nothing eventful. We had a nice “lunch” around 3pm at Longhorn. After that, we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond in Augusta, as Susan was looking for some new curtains. While there, I also found an “extra firm” pillow that seemed to suit me. There was a Christmas Tree Shop located right next door. Having never been into one myself, Susan talked me into going in and looking around.

We got back to Spruce Head around 7pm. It was nice to be home. I think we may have watched a little TV, but we didn’t stay up long. We went to bed, tired from what could have been a trying weekend, but instead we never let the little things get to us. We instead decided to have an awesome time.

Weekend Wrap-Up

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Friday. Left the office. Proceeded almost immediately to my gig in Bangor at The Whig and Courier.  We had a typical gig there. It’s a hard room to play in. The stage is small, and in one room. The bar is at the opposite side of the building in another room. So what ends up happening is the patrons sit in the other room, and listen through the opening. The downside is you, as a performer, can’t “feed” of their energy. Yes, they would clap and hoot at the end of songs, but it’s not the same. On the plus side, the people who run the place are very nice, and the food is really good. I stopped at Tim Horton’s on the way home for a sour cream donut and a milk. I think I was home about 2am. Susan was still up, and she was glad when I returned home.

Saturday AM, and Susan got up with the kids. Anyone who reads here knows I love my wife very much. She’s not a morning person, though. So usually I get up with the boys, even on those morning where I have a gig the night before. Saturday, though, Susan got up with them and let me sleep. And sleep I did! I think I slept until almost 10am! I can’t remember the last time I slept so late.  When I woke, Susan had made baked cinnamon donuts and coffee. They were really quite good. There was a work crew at the church in the morning putting in new carpet tiles at the church. I called down there to see if they needed more help. (I figured they would.) They said no, they had enough people, and were about 1/2 way done. I wasn’t needed. I hadn’t planned on that, so I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I ended up taking Julia for lunch, and running a few errands. I think most of the afternoon was spent in the kitchen. I cleaned the floors and washed dishes. I made a creme caramel for supper’s dessert. Supper was a turkey risotto that Susan made. I got an interesting phone call from Dave Clarke just before I left for my gig. It seems he was playing a gig in Rockport, and his drummer forgot his snare drum. He was wondering if he could perhaps borrow one from me. I told him I’d see if I could scrounge one up!

My gig Saturday night went very well. We played at The Myrtle Street Tavern here in town. It’s been around for years; you may know it as The Oasis, The Myrtle House, O’Brann’s, The Ale Yard, or who knows what other names it has been. Supposedly, back in the day, you could “rent” a room upstairs if you needed someplace to, well, take a new found “girlfriend” that could be located at the bar. That doesn’t happen there anymore, but the place is still what you might call a “road house.” Beer, pool tables and darts, and some clientele that wouldn’t mind “taking it outside” if need be. But the crowd really liked the music. The place isn’t that big on the inside, and it was pretty well packed. People danced all night long. This gig was originally conceived as a  jam session, but only about 1/2 a dozen other musicians showed up. So Blind Albert (the house band) finished up the show with about two hours of rock and blues. It was easy to feed off the energy of this crowd. They were having a good time. And, no fights, no falling down drunks. I got home around 1am, and once again, Susan was still up. It’s nice to feel wanted like that! (Not that I want you staying up late after every gig Susan! You need your sleep!)

Sunday morning came, and I got up first this time. We fired up the new eggamuffin toaster for its inaugural run. (Eggamuffin is what my late friend Tim called any breakfast sandwich. It enabled him to talk about such without copyright infringement!) Then it was off to church! Pastor Dave had a very moving and powerful service! God was in the house! We had people at the altar seeking renewal, people asking for healing, and nary a dry eye anywhere. It was great to be there. After several weeks of schedule mess-ups, we were back to the regular routine of lunch at Mom’s house, and Susan made a good lasagna, and an ever better banana cake! Susan wanted to stay at Mom’s house for the afternoon, so she kept the kids with her, and I went home and fixed all the wallpaper where the stupid cat sharpened her claws on the wall. I fell asleep on the couch for 1/2 hour until the phone rang. Then I watched some show on Discovery on how to translate motorcycle gang tattoos. Then back to church for evening service, then home.

Weekend Wrap Up

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Let’s see how much of this I can remember. After I rode my scooter into the lobby of the office on Friday afternoon, I went home. I don’t remember supper. I do remember that we put the kids to bed early, and Susan and I spent some quality alone time snuggling on the couch, watching the Barrett-Jackson car auction. She made the remark that I like my cars like I like my women: Curvy! I think she exclaimed that after a shot of a Corvette rear-end with which I was enamored!

Saturday morning. Omlettes for everyone. Washed dishes. Ran some errands. A basic “clean the house and get caught-up” kind of day. In the evening, Susan made a fantastic supper which was a high point of the weekend: beef tenderloin with a mushroom/bleu cheese gravy, baked potatoes with sour cream and green onions, and green beans with rosemary. For dessert I whipped up a little creme caramel. We went to bed early, as we needed to be up early.

My alarm went off at 5am. It’s the first time since Susan bought me my new alarm clock back in December that I haven’t woken before the alarm. (Apparently, my internal clock is pretty durn good!) We woke the kids up, and went to Easter sunrise service. It was cold and windy! After that, it was breakfast at the church, which was good. We came home for an hour or two, then back to church for Sunday School and the Easter Cantata. Then to my Mom’s house for an Easter egg hunt. Ma’s house for lunch. Susan wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed at my Mom’s and laid on the couch. We came home, and she went to bed. The children and I hung out, playing with Easter toys and watching some Electric Company and stuff. At 5:30pm, I woke Susan up so I could go to evening church. Then I came home, and had a delicious supper of, well, leftover tidbits in the fridge. I went to bed relatively early.

The Interesting Weekend Wrap-Up

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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

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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

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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

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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!

Weekend Wrap Up

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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

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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.