Friday came and went, work was suprisingly slow. While I accomplished a few things, for the moment all fires were put out. Big kudos to Bill who sucessfully coordinated a site turn-up pretty much by himself. Nice to know that there’s at least one other person that can help me out in a pinch. On another note though, some power tools got stolen out of his garage. That sucks. It was unexpected because he lives in what I would consider a “nice” neighborhood.

Got word from Jack that most of my new drumheads came in. He was dropping them off on the way to the volleyball game. After work I did some shopping around HSV before heading homeward. Stopped at church and Jack was there dropping my stuff off. The other team forfeited which gave our team the win. Woo hoo! Anyway, got right to work on changing out the heads. 90 minutes later I was done (lot of drums… 5 toms and kick) changing out both heads on each. It was getting late so I left but planned to finish up the following day.

Saturday morning I got a bit done around the house then headed to my storage building. Jack met me there to pick up some wheels he had left there. We broke down boxes and threw away a lot of stuff to vacate my space. As usual, Jack went beyond the call of duty in helping out. He could have just picked up his wheels and said “See ya!” and I would have thought nothing of it. Instead he stuck around till the job was done. That’s pretty dang cool. Kevin showed up a little later to transport some items to my place that were too big for me to tote. His SARS was acting up again and… oh wait, I mean his throat was bothering him making him sound a little froggy. Hopefully he’ll be well enough to croon tomorrow during worship. We shall see.

Had to run into HSV in the afternoon for a group picture. Evidently, we’re going to be featured in some industry magazine as a result of a Help Desk Institute (HDI) certification we recently received. We actually went through a lot of hoops to get this cert so it’s not just some bogus thing we received. That’s pretty cool though. Anyway, they wanted my camera to be used as they needed it in the highest resolution possible. Took a few shots and it was over. While I was there anyway, I cruised all the way into town to hit the mall on S. Parkway. Haven’t been there since the fall. I found a couple of things I liked but changed my mind on picking them up so I left empty handed. Came home and had supper then went back over to the church to finish with the drums. I got everything organized and sounding good. Also re-ran my mic wiring to clean that up a bit. Sheesh, that’s a lot of work. Looks like my reverb unit has a software update available for it. I’ll have to get a MIDI interface set up on my PC so I can send the new software to it. Might do that later tonight.

Congrats to my buddy Kyle for getting a DVD player finally. Good job holding out 14 years to get one. Oh wait, HE didn’t get one… the BUSINESS did. LOL!

At any rate, the SuperBowl party is tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it for sure. I’m not a huge fan of the sport, but I am a fan of hanging out with friends and having a good time. Formula 1 is another story though… can’t wait till that gets cranked up. I’ve already got my tix for Indy this year (4th year in a row baby!!!) and I’ve upgraded along the way so I’ve got some PRIME seats now - right at the first turn at the end of the straightway and also the exit from the pits. Lots of drama there.

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I’m still at the homestead polishing this turd I’ve been assigned. I’ve pretty much given up on polishing it, a couple coats of primer and some sanding will give it a nice finish… seriously though, this spreadsheet work is a drag to do.

On the bright side, it’s a nice albeit cold day outside. Got a buddy of mine from work swinging by later to check out some drum gear and maybe chat about work and stuff. He’s a drummer as well so we’ll have a loud time for sure.

Band practice went well last night. All my drum parts were simple and straightforward so there were no issues with that. I do want to try more challenging arrangements though as a lot of the music we do now have simple 4/4 beats. If I mix it up too much it could make the song sound weird. At any rate, I know my place in the band is to try and keep solid time and not really draw attention to myself. I’m cool with that.

Had a BIG dinner at Logan’s with the Burns clan (as usual). Saw my friend April there whe asked if (Kailyn) was my baby. “Um, look at her - does she look the LEAST bit Asian?”. Heh.

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All has been relatively quiet today. My director was in the office today doing what she could to stem the river of crap usually flowing in my direction. Actually, I get continually interrupted at the office making it hard to concentrate on things. A lot of what I do would be easier if I could have peace and quiet to think through things and develop solutions instead of simply reacting to everything that comes down the pike.

With that said, I’ve completed some procedural documentation to off-load some of my more mundane tasks to the 1st level tech-support people. That should free me up a bit from a predominantly repetitive time consuming ordeal. Now I’m putting together a spreadsheet enableing me to keep a closer eye on my profit margins. In the past, I usually had to rely on quarterly reports to see where things stood. Soon though, I’ll be able to look on a week to week basis and hopefully be able to take corrective measures sooner.

In other news, I met up with Kevin and his larvae at KFC for some bird. I also passed a CD along to him with the majority of the Crosspoint related pictures I had for a project he’s working on. Then I headed next door to the storage place to meet the dudes from the rescue mission to donate old furniture to them. I gave them my crap, they gave me a receipt and now I have a virtually empty storage area. I’ve still got a few boxes in there that I may want to keep but for the most part I can throw a lot of that stuff away.

Going to continue working up until time to head to band practice this evening.

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Wow. Midweek already.

I ended up having a very busy day yesterday. Got side-tracked by a myriad of small but time-consuming issues that kept me from working on what I stayed home to do! Very frustrating. Took a break from it to meet Kyle for lunch at Logan’s. Once again I ate too much. Ran in to Brian Baer up there as well. He was getting ready to leave just as we arrived. Kyle and I talked about the past weekends events as well as made plans to attend the WPBA tournament late next month.

Once I was back home, I spun my wheels for the rest of the afternoon and was unable to finish what I intended to. Felt like a wasted day to me.

My sis stopped by to pick up some things to help me make room for my folks when they visit in March. I ended up picking up a steamer so I could steam some crab for us for dinner. It was quite tasty but truthfully, I am getting a little burnt out on it. I’ll take a break from that for a while I think.

Ended the evening playing drums and a little Call of Duty.

At lunch today, I plan to meet up with some people to pick up old furniture at my storage building. After the furniture’s gone, I’ll just have a few boxes to break down and some miscellaneous items to dispose of or trash. One less bill to worry about though!

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Working from home today to try and get my hands around project duties that I can’t finish at the office from all the interruptions there. I hope to make plenty of progress over the next 2 days or so to get things in order. Even so, my management STILL put some other stuff on me to do even though avoiding that sort of thing was the reason for me even working from home. Sigh. Got a conference call in a few minutes then I’ll be back at it again. I’m all hooked up though here at the house - got a window with my corporate email in it and another with our work ticket system in it. Most of my important contacts use instant messenger so we’re in contact just the same as we would be if I was in the office. It’s just quieter and more peaceful here.

Monday really picked up after lunch - stayed busy all afternoon making it go by quickly. On the way home, chatted with a friend of mine that just got back from a weekend trip to NYC. She had a great time even though is was very cold. She got to visit some nice places as well as seeing some of the changes in the last 10 years - the last time she visited.

Played drums for a little while then headed to the mall to meet with the Guad Squad. Saw Dave and Dana there but they had arrived earlier because they were unaware of our meeting time. It changes depending on Stacey’s work schedule. When we were in full swing, Kev & Co, Eli & Co, Brian & Co, and Me & well, just me were in attendance. That was about it. Came home and wound down for the night.

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There is no mistaking that it’s Monday in the work world. Email, phone calls, critical issues, ice storms… I’ve had quit a gamut of activities to handle so far this morning.

Oh, Ferrari unveiled their 2004 F1 contender today. I’m a big Formula 1 fan so this is probably more important to me than other non-F1 people. Car looks similar to last years but with some upgrades in key areas. By the way, the race car only weights 605Kg. That’s about 1300 lbs. WITH driver and wet (wet includes fuel and other engine fluids). Add to that close to 1000 horsepower. It’s no slouch.

Looks like lunch will be at Atlanta Bread Co. with a side trip to CompUSA. Me, Bernie and Bill are the scheduled participants.

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Action packed day today! It rained all night and some into th morning but by the time I was walking out the door to load the car, the rain miraculously stopped! Wattabargain. Anyway, hoofed it to the church building a few minutes behind schedule but went straight to setting up so I really didn’t delay anyone too much. Church went great! Super crowd today, plenty of first time and return visitors. That’s VERY encouraging! Everything clicked and we made it through with only one minor battery related glitch. Afterwards, headed to Sub Zone for some grub. Had a front row view of how two teenage sisters interact. **YIKES**.

Daniel (Joel’s brother, not my Bro In Law), a new drummer, was in need of some hardware. I had received a cheap cymbal stand for free with a recent music purchase so I hooked him up with that to be a blessing to him. I wasn’t going to use it so I might as well let someone who will get some benefit from it.

Did a little bit of shopping after he took off. Headed to Staples and found nothing then went to Pier One. Found some cobalt blue glasses there and picked a few up. Went over to Michael’s next and looked around. Didn’t find anything but they do have a good selection of picture frames. I have several 8×10’s that I’d like to hang in a group. I may end up picking up a few identical frames to make a nice display. On to Winn Dixie where I stocked up on some drinks as well as picked up a few pounds of crab legs. Been putting a dent in the crab population of late.

Back at the house I set my cymbals up and practiced for a bit then surfed the net for awhile. Dave called for some assistance putting together a piece of furniture for one of our aquaintences. On the way home I got a ring from Kev with the evening plans. Looks like the usual get-together at his place for food and fun. FUN being the key word. I steamed up a heap o’ crabs and munched down. Brian made some pizza. Sat down and watched part of a Sheryl Crowe concert on DVD at which point there was more fun than can be documented here. Nuff said.
Kevin’s blog should have some interesting quotes from tonight I’m sure so I won’t steal his thunder by posting them here. Well, maybe one… “Um, that’s NOT the remote control”.

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I spent Friday afternoon heading up to Nashville for a drum lesson. On the way up, I stopped in Franklin, TN for a bit to eat at the Atlanta Bread Co. there. After that, I went on into town and hit Fork’s to pick up a few needed items. While I was there, I also checked out some new heads for my kit at church as it’s time to re-head that kit. Got to attend to that soon. Chatted with Gary for a bit and caught up on some NAMM stuff. Tried out some cymbals with Jennie’s help but didn’t find what I though I wanted. Johnnie Rabb passed through and saw me and asked how my single-handed drum roll was going. He showed me how to do that a few months back. He was late for a lesson so we didn’t get to talk much. Went next door to Corner Music to look and see what they had in the way of new stuff was. I found some REALLY NICE mic stands there. I forgot the name of one brand but the other one was by K&M. Very heavy bases and great build quality as well. A little on the expensive side though, $50 and $80 respectively. Kevin may end up getting one as when he’s on the keys the boom on his stand is extended pretty far making the whole thing a bit unstable. Along the lines of music gear, I’ve just recently realized how the band members (in particular) have really been blessed to be able to get the majority of our music gear on our own. If the church had to buy us everything we used, that’s some serious $$$. We got a good starting point by picking up the PA used at a good price. Included with that was a Mackie board, STRONG amp, some effects, case, and two JBL loudspeakers. Also, the church picked up a drumkit exactly the same as the one I had been hauling back and forth as well as an acrylic shield. That was a HUGE blessing as moving drums is no small logistical feat. Putting mics on the drums was no small expense either and now there’s a first class complement of them surrounding my kit. Along the way came the concern of me going deaf - so picked up some in-ear monitors from a friend in another band that sold me his. Eric also picked up some basses along the way. First an Ibanez which was later replace by a Lakland - he’s sporting some top of the line gear here. He also picked up an amp although I sneaky feeling that it’s going to be replace with something else soon with more power/flexibility. Kevin had a lot of stuff already in the way of equipment although now he’s in the market for a new electric guitar. He really needs one anyway so that he’ll have a backup in case he breaks a string. He’s coverd on the acoustic side of things with his Taylor. Recently, he threw down some serious coinage on his new Roland keyboard. That is da BOMB-DIGGITY (not bomb-diggy Kev…). Heh. Kyle also had a lot of gear already from his Mesa Boogie amp and effects to his many guitars, one being an Ibanez Jem. Suprisingly, he choses to play out using his hooptie Peavey amp that needs a swift kick every so often when it’s output goes haywire. Everyone has their quirks I guess. I’m just waiting for him to put the new Honda in the garage and start driving the 200SX as his everyday car LOL.

But I digress. The worship band as a whole was no small feat to assemble. 3 years ago I had no drums. Eric had no bass. Kyle had no DVD player (and still doesn’t). Pam was uncomforatable singing in front of crowds. She’s WAY over that now. We’ve got STUFF now. All we need is a tour bus. Seriously though, what a long way we have come in what seems like such a short time. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

I was reading Dave’s blog. Looks like he’s going through a realization of his limitations. One thing he forgot on his suck list was clapping. He’s like a Sears shop-vac when it comes to that. But there’s a lot he doesn’t suck at - being funny, preaching, UNIX, movie reviews, dealing with a concentration of estrogen at the homestead, and being a good listener just to name a few. So with all the negative air pressure, there are a few sources of positive airflow. Plus, you have a pool. That outweighs a lot of deficiencies.

Now where was I? Oh, I had my drum lesson then stuck around for some pizza before the drive home. It was a nice evening out and the drive back was uneventful. Talked to Kevin on the way home and found he was awaiting the arrival of his love muffin coming back from a business trip. I think the whole time she was away he accomplished two things, progress in computer games and stripping 1 (one) chair. Oh, he did manage to keep his daughter alive as well. You da man!

So far today I’ve raked the front yard and cleaned leaves off my patio. I’m going to need to rake the back yard AGAIN because of all the frickin trees in mine and the surrounding yards. I loathe raking leaves. Gonna take a shower then run some errands. Got a toilet to repair.

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It’s been a while since I complained about traffic, but this morning there was a boob in the left lane on 565 that was matched to the speed of the cars in the right lane. Grrrr… It wasn’t like it was only for a minute or two, it was 10 minutes - almost the whole time on 565.

Tying up loose ends at the office this morning as I’m out this afternoon. TGIF.

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Got that report I was working on DONE and SENT OUT. Woo hoo! Only one month to go before I do it all over again.

Met up with Kev and Kailyn at New China for lunch. Ivey was decked out in some traditional Chinese clothing in celebration of the Chinese new year. Some dude in front of me was trying to put the moves on her and mentioned “It’s the year of the Monkey isn’t it?”. Quit macking fatso, there’s a skinny guy behind you and you’re the only thing between me and my food.

Not sure what’s going on tonight, but it’s definitely nice to have had a break from the office and be able to work on something without interruption. If I ever get to do project management full-time, this is the way to go.

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