Vacation!

I finally made it!

I finished all of my work by about 12:45 yesterday, we got our marriage license, and now we have nothing but a week of vacation between us and our wedding. Suffice it to say, I was ready.

And someone else is ready, too:


"Seriously, Mom, get the fuck off me!"

To me, this picture looks like a teenage boy getting ready for prom, and being mortified as his mother fawns over him in his penguin suit. Fitting.

However, Riley has calmed down a bit now that his hair has been cut, and he actually looks very dapper:




So, who says your dog can't be your ring-bearer?


This will probably be my last post for awhile, as we will be gone after Tuesday. With the honeymoon to Jamaica following, I won't be back until around August 15th. I'm sure all two of you that read this will be crushed.

Cranking up the Bob Marley,
--Master P

A Day and A Half...

That's all that I have left of work before vacation, marriage, and honeymoon. Suffice it to say that, with the inevitable time crunch of getting ready for a 2-week vacation from work (the rush) and the last-minute needs of planning a wedding, I'll be ready for a little R&R with the lady.

Riley got "shorn" yesterday, and is back to "I'm 9 But I Look Like a Puppy" form. His new bow-tie fits perfectly and makes him look quite dapper, in fact. Hopefully some pictures will be up soon...

As for me, between dieting, burning the candle at both ends, and working out harder than ever essentially every night, the electronic scale at the gym says that I'm down to 180.8 pounds (at 6'3" tall, mind you), which is a number this hombre hasn't sniffed since probably the summer after college, which is incidentally when I had moved to a new city, had no friends, decided that binge drinking five nights a week wasn't a good idea, and found out that when you have to pay to go to the gym (and said gym is two blocks from your office, and that going keeps you from having to sit in rush hour traffic), you're about 10 times more likely to go. I keep doing those crunches in the hopes that I'll miraculously have a 6-pack before the trip to Jamaica, but I think we all know that ain't happenin'.

House of Cards has one last show before I shove off on vacation, as we're again playing this Sunday night at Victory's. Assuming I don't play like a 9-year-old with Parkinson's again this week, it should be a good show. We're opening for a band called Kobra Khai, which has great implications both in name and in their sound (as heard on their website). I'm looking forward to unwinding, as my vacation will have technically already started.

Finally, in other news, the debate over the existence of Sasquatch, a k a Bigfoot, an ape-like creature said to haunt the wilderness of western Canada, among other places, has entered the world of modern DNA testing. Apparently, they found some fur, and are having its DNA tested, to see if it matches with other indigenous animals. If not, it *could* be Bigfoot...?

Personally, I'm hoping the tests simply confirm that Rip Taylor was out for a late night stroll in northwest Canada.

Prove me wrong, scientists.

Tired. Meh.

So, I didn't get into bed until 3:00 last night, as the show went late. I had a good time, despite probably playing the worst drums since 8th grade "stage band" back in junior high school. I guess we all have off nights.

Melissa took me to an Indians game on Saturday for my birthday, and they came through with a victory for me. We spent the night in Cleveland, and then drove home yesterday in time for my softball playoffs: the redux (apparently, the league decided we should play again, because the other teams complained). It mattered not; we won the first game 13-9, and the second game 20-13. Vindication!

The gig was alright; we had a great sound guy, but the club was about 100 degrees and there were no fans on the stage. As I mentioned, I played like a 9-year-old, but we had a good time all told. They asked us to play there again this coming Sunday, so I guess we couldn't have been that bad.

I lack the energy to type anymore.

Meh.

"I did nothing, and it was everything that I thought it could be."

Finally, a weekend in which neither Melissa nor I had anything to do, save a small party Saturday night at a couple-friend of ours' house (Is that correct grammar? I have no idea! Not good.). I had some friends over earlier on Saturday, and I think we played a grand total of about 25 collective hours of Playstation 2. God bless the 4-player multi-tap! 4-player video hockey has to be the coolest thing ever. Body checks were abundant.

I also discovered (read: was shown) a game called God of War (which I know a great many people have been raving about, but you have to remember: I'm at my busiest time of the work-year and we're planning a wedding), which may have shaken my faith that Grand Theft Auto was the most addictive game I've ever played. Needless to say, after 15 minutes of this game, I was like Homer Simpson eating a Rib-wich.

In other weekend-that-wasn't news, my team won our league's softball tournament, because neither of the two teams we were supposed to play showed up. Good times. No, wait. Bad times. I don't know. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

At any rate, the countdown is on: 18 days until the wedding! I can't wait! There are still a few loose ends (ha!) that need to be tied up before the wedding, but things are on course. I think we'll both be glad when it's over, just from the planning standpoint.

I recently revisted my office bookshelf and picked up and began re-reading After Henry, which was once used for a class I took in college. The first two pieces in the book are about politics, and focus on a) the Reagan administration, and b) the Dukakis/Bush election of 1988. Dated, yes. But, I'm finding them fairly poignant when compared with today's landscape. In the campaign piece, she talks about being on Dukakis's plane as he lands and tosses a baseball on the tarmac, to show that he's a regular guy in touch with regular people, and that he's tough (as he does it in Arizona in 115-degree heat). She reports on how so many things are done just for the excuse of being covered by the traveling press corps, and of reporters willing to shill for the campaign in return for special privileges (i.e., cover things how we like them, or you get no access to the candidate). Sound like a recent election to anyone else?

The other was also interesting, in that it was largely a comment about how out-of-touch the Reagans were with everyday Americans. I find it very disheartening considering how many close ties there are in terms of Bush's out-of-touchedness in the current state of affairs. It's like hearing Pearl Jam's cover of "Masters of War" by Dylan with regard to the current Iraq war: you know it was written in a different time with a different context, but it fits so well right now.

In summation, they should fire Karl Rove already.


In other news, we have a show this Sunday night at Victory's, and it looks like we *might* have one next Friday (7/29) at Little Brother's. Moving up in the world!


And now, back to the wall.

Work Getting You Down?

Sometimes I find that "working" tends to get in the way of some of the fun things I like to do.

Sometimes I also find that the sequencer on my laptop computer can be used to do many fun things, which often alleviate feelings of boredom.

I submit to you: Metallurgy.

Have fun.


Hooray, Boredom!

What a weekend

So, the show went well on Friday night. We had a guest appearance from Don V., who I'm told is a Columbus institution. Apparently, he hangs out every night in either Bernie's or Larry's (bars) and demands to sing the theme from "Batman" on stage with whatever band happens to be playing. In our case, there were three bands, and I believe there were three renditions of "Batman". I don't think I can accurately put this experience to words. One has to see it to believe it.

In other news, we have another show coming up on July 24th at Victory's down in the brewery district area, opening for Undivided. We sound nothing like them. Should be great.

And, finally....

After a hard weekend, we finally got the deck essentially done. I apologize that the following pictures look like shit, but we have a crappy digital camera (hello, wedding registry!) and they were taken after 9:00 at night last night. I had to get tricky with the PhotoShop to get them to look normal in terms of contrast. Unfortunatly, that means grainy-ness. Sorry about that.

I wish I had some pictures of what our backyard looked like when we bought the house (for a realistic portrait, visit your local junkyard). To see the transformation (especially from old deck to new) has been a treat. We sat on our new deck last night and realized that this was what we'd been dreaming of when we started working on the yard: a nice, quiet, junk-free place to enjoy our evenings together.

I give you...





Not too shabby. However, due to light reflections and his outright coolness, apparently our dog always shows up on film looking like the Hound of Satan.




Finally, one more view:




I can barely move this morning, but sitting there last night sipping a cocktail with my wife-to-be and our lovable dog was all that I needed.

From where the sun now stands, I will write no more about the Cleveland Baseball Team forever.

That's right. Breaking out some Chief Joseph on ya. Mildly ironic, considering the name of the "Cleveland Baseball Team" worked into the title.

So, I've written about the Cleveland Indians three times in this blog. Three times they were on a hot streak, and three times I wrote about said hot streak. And, not surprisingly, three times they've gone on to lose 4 games in row right after I wrote about them (well, currently, they've only lost three in a row, but they've looked bad doing it, so one can only assume they're going for the quad-fecta tonight in Yankee Stadium).

So, I've decided not to write about them anymore. I'm killing this team!


Big show tonight at Bernies. Should be fun.

Hopefully, by this time Monday morning, our backyard will have a finished deck in it.

Type 1

I've uploaded a backing-track MP3 of my band's newest song. There aren't guitars, vox, or live drums, but it's a pretty bad ass song even with just the backing parts.

Just imagine this with two guitars over it, some vocals, and some live drums in the middle, and that's our sound.

Oh yeah, and a bullhorn.

Type 1

Of Long Weekends and Short Work Weeks

There's just something magical about coming to work for the first time in a given week, and having it be Wednesday already. While I don't always advocate working for a large corporate giant, sometimes it does have its perks. For example, we get every Friday afternoon between Memorial Day and Labor Day off. We work an extra hour each day Monday-Thursday, but it's worth it. Plus, they gave us both Monday and Tuesday off.

So, to sum up: this work week consists of 2.5 actual work days. Nevermind that I brought work home over the weekend and did some of it on July 4th. 2.5 work days. Can't beat that.


What's on my radar this week? Well, we picked out our wedding bands yesterday. That's a cool experience; trying on and deciding what rings will be on our fingers for the rest of our lives (assuming, that is, that I don't balloon up to 350+ or something). I went with the white gold motif, and the ring has shiny edges and a braided pattern in the middle. She went with two bands: one on each side of her engagement ring, each with small diamonds set in. She's going to look like a gangsta rapper, and I couldn't be more excited.

The Indians have been on an absolute tear lately. I believe the last time I wrote about them they were 37-30, and they then proceeded to lose 4 straight games. They have since, however, won 9 out of 12 to run their record to 46-37, with five more games before the All-Star break. When one considers that this team was atrocious in April and for a large chunk of May, the fact that they're still on pace to win 90 games (and I think even more than that, when all is said and done), one finds that to be pretty amazing. If they can make a move for one more bat in the lineup (preferably a right-handed hitter with some pop) before the trading deadline, look out.

House of Cards has a show this coming Friday night at Bernie's down on campus. We're opening for two other local bands, which means that (for a change) my friends might actually be able to show up, seeing as how it's a Friday night and it won't be too late. Word on the street is that my parents (who will be in town so that my step-father and I can finish the deck) might even make it out. We've got a new song that we're putting the finishing touches on this evening, and it's a little more rockin' than some of the other stuff. Plus, don't forget the bullhorn (see previous entry, below).

Finally, I'll leave you with this. Check this site out: apparently, Yellowstone Park is just a huge super-volcano. He writes:

The last eruption of a super volcano was in Toba, Sumatra, 75,000 years ago. It had 10,000 times the explosive force of Mount St. Helens and changed life on Earth forever. Thousands of cubic kilometres of ash was[sic] thrown into the atmosphere - so much that it blocked out light from the sun all over the world. 2,500 miles away 35 centimetres of ash coated the ground. Global temperatures plummeted by 21 degrees. The rain would have been so poisoned by the gasses that it would have turned black and strongly acidic. Man was pushed to the edge of extinction, the population forced down to just a couple of thousand. Three quarters of all plants in the northern hemisphere were killed.

Scientist[sic] have discovered that the ground in Yellowstone if[sic] 74cm higher than in[sic] was in 1923 - indicating a massive swelling underneath the park. The reservoir is filling with magma at an alarming rate. The volcano erupts with a near-clockwork cycle of every 600,000 years. The last eruption was more than 640,000 years ago - we are overdue for annihilation.

To quote Kent Brockman, Channel 6 News: "Hmm. Alright. A grim portrait of things to come."

The point? The site on which I found this link included some friends of mine discussing the relevence of a prophecy that, according to the Mayan calendar, the world will end on December 12, 2012 (Mitch's assertion: due to an eruption of said volcano). My response? Well, first, a little background.

You know that guy that we all know? The guy who has to be right about everything? The guy who, no matter what the argument, pitches his $.02 in and calls everyone else bitches if they disagree with him? Well, this sports forum has one of "those guys" in daily attendance. We'll call him (actually, he calls himself) "jdawg". So, back to the question of annihilation due to Yellowstone Super Volcanic eruption. My response?

This is the kind of argument jdawg would get into:

The world would end, but as we're all laying there dying, he'd be sure to remind us all that he was right and we were all wrong, and that even though the world is ending, Pac Man Jones is still a great cornerback: best in the 2005 draft.

What's the point? If it happens, we're fucked. If it doesn't happen, we still have plenty of things in this country/world that can fuck us. Worrying about a volcano that can't be stopped seems pretty pointless to me. Bush would somehow find a way to blame the terrorists. Or, the volcano would be erupting because it "hates our freedom."

Probably only one person will find that funny, but if I can reach one person, I've done my job.

Hopefully, our neighbors have a Flanders-like streak in them, and are prepared with bomb "shelter-inis" in their backyards that we can mooch into. Godspeed, little doodle.