Aside from the usual asian+camera+tourist stereotypical jokes, I make it a point to have a camera with me most of the time. My current phone, a Blackberry, doesn’t have a camera so I rely on a small, 5 megapixel Sony camera for quick shots and other times when I either don’t have or don’t want to haul out one of my “big” cameras.

A few years ago, Kevin saw a car in a local Wal-Mart parking lot that instead of a front bumper, it had a board attached to the front, with the grille and headlights screwed into it. It was probably the most redneck thing he had seen in addition to being insanely funny. The sad thing is that he didn’t get a chance to take a picture to share…

I had to pick up something at my local Office Depot this afternoon. When I parked, I noticed something unusual about the car parked across from me. This isn’t quite the same caliber of the wood bumper but it’s definitely a contender. And the good thing is - I have a picture. Heh.

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I really think that 3 days is the PERFECT length for a weekend - at least for me. On a typical weekend, I’ll spend Saturday mowing the lawn, doing laundry and cleaning up the house. I might even squeeze in a carwash. If I’ve worked on any photo projects, I’ll try to get some work done on those as well. All in all, Saturday is really a work day for me, just not at the office. Sunday starts early - 6:00am. That’s the same time I get up during the week so it’s not something that I struggle with. Why so early? On the Sunday’s I’m playing (which is every one for the last several weeks) I need to be at the theater to start setting up my drums at 7:30. By the time I make breakfast, shower, find something to wear then load the car with what I’m bringing, the 90 mins between 6:00-7:30 is all used up. After church is over, I usually eat with friends then make it home around 1:30 or 2. It’s either nap time or time to watch a race on the tube (and THEN take a nap). Probably dinner again with friends before wrapping up the day and hitting the sack. That’s how I burn up a normal weekend. Having that additional day on a 3-day weekend lets me spread Saturday’s stuff out over 2 days or just completely doing NOTHING for one day. The latter won out this weekend. Friday was my total do-nothing day. I grilled out with friends that evening, but that definitely doesn’t fall into any kind of “work” classification.

As a side note from Friday, I started mariniating the steaks I would be grilling around noon Thursday with some honey terriyaki marinade. By the time I put them on the grill, they had been soaking for more than 24 hours. They tasted GREAT.

I think I’m just gonna sit here and think about how good those were.

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!

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While I was flying around last Thursday, I actually heard air traffic control in Huntsville talking with some of the Blue Angel pilots as they practiced for the upcoming airshow that weekend. I was on the far western edge of the Huntsville airspace so I wasn’t near enough to see them flying around. It was pretty neat to hear the chatter though.

After making it through some hellacious traffic, I finally made it to our tent at the show Saturday. My company was a sponsor of the event and as such, we had a prime spot to view the show from along with clients. It was a beautiful day for the show and conditions were great. This in stark contrast to Sunday. Luckily, I wasn’t there Sunday. None of my co-workers or clients were involved in the weather event that day (if you heard about it in the news).

I brought my camera along of course and got some photos of the performers.

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Thanks to all of my friends and readers who have commented publicly and privately encouraging me to keep blogging - I will. I have learned however, to keep a little more things to myself - not only online but in conversation too because some people just like to talk. I’ll leave it at that.

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You know, having a blog has been fun. It’s sort of like getting a front row seat into someone else’s life - seeing both the good and maybe not so good. It’s fun to share things with friends (and family too) so they can stay caught up with the happenings in one’s life and vice versa. I don’t necessarily “clean it up” when it comes to my posts, just making an entry like it’s in a personal journal or diary. It’s also a choice, I obviously don’t HAVE to do this. With that in mind, I’m considering discontinuing my blog in it’s current form. I haven’t made a final decision yet, but I feel that the trust I have in my visitors has been broken and information in my blog used in a way that wasn’t intended. I’ve seen it happen to others and should have known my time was coming. Sigh…

Oh well - it’s been a fun almost 5 years though with close to 1200+ posts and more than a thousand comments.

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Sunday before last, we covered a song by the band Demon Hunter - One Thousand Apologies. Brent, our bassist, is a big fan of the band and I’m sure was a influence in getting the song on the set list. I like playing heavier stuff… lots of fun and energy to put into it. A big thanks to Chris Wilhelm for the “screaming” vocals 2/3rd’s through the song. That was the icing on the cake!

From left, it’s Jack on bass (so Brent could play leads) dancing around like it’s a bluegrass tune, Kevin on lead vocals, me drumming and Brent with leads and harmonies. In the video he kinda gets shafted as his head is obscured by the video projector.

Audio quality still leaves much to be desired - until we can run a separate audio mix for the video, it’s going to be hit or miss. I believe the audio here was from the on-camera mic.

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What an eventful weekend! Friday kicked things off as Megan and I had dinner with another couple that were meeting each other for the first time. I don’t normally get involved with matchmaking, but this one time I did. They met and seemed to like each other so my job is done - whatever happens now is their business. Afterwards, we headed over to the Relay for Life event where Megan’s employer had a tent. She manned the cotton candy and snow cone stations like a pro.

Morning came early Saturday as it was Megan’s graduation day over at UNA. We picked up Jessica along the way and made it to the ceremony in the nick of time. Megan’s folks and Livvie met up with us there. Somehow, I found 5 seats for all of us in the crowded gym. Graduation went off without a hitch although there was an extremely funny moment when this one student’s name was announced followed with someone yelling “IT’S A MIRACLE!”… LOL! Everything paused while all involved regained their composure. Afterward, we  all enjoyed a much needed meal at Rigatoni’s.

Sunday I had a bumpy time on the drums. I made it through okay but I wasn’t particularly satisfied with how I played. That happens sometimes. Amber didn’t make it through warm-up before falling ill. She’s okay but thankfully Pam was able to step in and sing in her place (Pam sang with us regularly in the past). Thankfully, the rest of the service went off without a hitch.

Ended the evening with a big meal of steamed crabs at Kevin and Stacey’s. Afterward, we played several rounds of Mario Kart on the Wii before calling it a night.

Monday morning was off to a good start… until my pest control guy left my gate open and my dog got out. Nothing like running 1/4 mile in your dress clothes to make you kind of grumpy. Finally caught up with Kelsey and dragged her back home. I was livid. Thank goodness for yesterdays message on forgiveness. Both my dog AND the pest control guy benfitted from me hearing that so recently.

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Livvie and Kelsey played around with each other while Megan and I worked in the yard. I took a break and hauled a camera out in case something worth shooting ensued. I was in luck. Got plenty done in the yard today. There’s still more to go, but things are shaping up. Ended the day grilling some steaks and asparagus to go along with some baked potatoes. Mmmm good.

Off to bed now. Playing in the morning so gotta get some rest.

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By all accounts, this weekend had been predicted by the local meteorologists to be a total washout. With that in mind, I went ahead and mowed my lawn Thursday night. It’s Sunday night now and all we’ve gotten is a sprinkling so far. So much for that.

LOST got cranked up again this week with a new episode and BOY was it a doozy! It was an action-packed one to say the least. For me it was one jaw-dropping event after another. Any of you guys LOST fans?

Since the rain held off, I finally went to battle against the holly bush hedges in front of my porch. Those beasties get a little out of hand if left alone too long. Luckily, I think it was last year I picked up an electric hedge trimmer that made the job of manicuring them less of an ordeal than with hand clippers. I got done with one set but need to turn my attention to the shrubs beside my house before I can check that off my list as “done”.

I took a short break in the afternoon before going to dinner with Megan, Livvie, Jessica and Mark. We met up at Macaroni Grill and had a delicious dinner. I tried a different wine this go around as they no longer carried the Kendall-Jackson chardonnay that I’m so fond of. Instead, they had the brand “Toasted Head” that turned out to be pretty good so I really had no complaints. After dinner, we headed to a local bowling alley for a game. That was a nice way to end the evening.

Today was Mario Kart for the Wii day! I picked up my copy after church as well as 2 extra steering wheels (for total of 3). For some reason I thought I had 3 Wii-motes. I went back and got a third when I discovered my mistake. Played that most of the afternoon. In my downtime, I watched the F1 race - they were in Spain this weekend. Ferrari is starting to look pretty strong after a bumpy start to the season. BMW is looking good too.

That wraps up the last few days… Oh, I mentioned I shot a wedding a week or so ago. Here’s one shot from that event:

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I’ve been eating rather high off the hog this week. Sunday night, Megan and I had dinner at Outback. It wasn’t anything we planned, we just decided that we wanted something different than was available in town. I had filet medallions and sea scallops… my favorite thing though was the seared ahi tuna appetizer. It was great. Megan even perked up when she tried it. Fast forward to Monday night - the plan is to go grocery shopping then pick up something quick to eat on the way home. While strolling through the meat department, I thought I would pick up a steak or two to grill out later in the week. As luck would have it, a friend of mine that’s a butcher there cut two THICK filets for me. It was already 7:00pm but I was gonna fire up the grill. I also got some new seasoning to try as well (which turned out to be fantastic). I skimped on the baked potato though and got one of the microwaveable ones. I’ve had good luck with those in the past. By the time I got the charcoal ready, it was around 8. By 8:30 I was feeding my face. I could probably go about 2 or 3 minutes less on the filet though. It was closer to medium than the medium-rare I prefer. It was still good.

Tuesday night was a dinner at Simp’s with Megan’s co-workers. I had several stuffed mushroom caps, wings and breaded fried asparagus along with my main course of prime rib. Another good meal. After work today, I hit the grocery store again and picked up some sea scallops - 5 BIG ones as well as some stuff to make pan seared scallops with. I had one filet left over from Monday so I seasoned and tossed that on the grill while I prepared the scallops. Everything turned out very nicely. I made the adjustments on the cooking time for the filet to get that just right only now I could have used about 2 minutes less oven time with the scallops. It was my first time to try that and the results were pretty good despite the slight overcook.

I probably should ease off the red meat just a little with all I’ve already consumed over the past few days. Before you think all I eat is steak - I had Taco Bell for lunch today.

Bon apetit’

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