post superbowl monday morning.

yea. i didn't watch any of the superbowl - and i'm ok with it. i just zoned out to hulu until i couldn't bear being awake anymore and went to bed. after two not-so-great nights of sleep, my body kicked into comatose mode. apparently, the baby got up about half an hour after we went to bed and i was not waking up for anything - woops!

i'm sitting in one of the pods in the hub, drinking my coffee and feeling good. it was a good ride into work today. i do have a short commute, but it still helps me have a good day if all goes smooth and i'm able to rock some good tunes in the car. today's spin was ZZ Top's Fandango. a buddy of mine from the overnight crew has been making some CDR copies of some old albums.  he's got some pretty good taste in music, so they are usually pretty good and there's a wide range of stuff.

i'm really looking forward to getting together with the band this week. @KaraKharmah, (she sings backup, plays some percussion and helps me out with some marketing ideas) - she came up with an idea to put together a party for her birthday and have the band jam during it, maybe do some of our live band karaoke too. that got me thinking that the band should do that for all our stuff. we all have a circle of friends that have missed the boat on our shows, but WILL make an appearance for an event like a party. might need to work on the idea of doing the live band karaoke unplugged, for some places where volume might be an issue - maybe we could even do this at our place! Anyway - great idea!

so, when Chloe got home yesterday we got all the info about the weekend. they ended up going bowling and had a great time! i'm happy she had so much fun. next weekend she has a 'spa' themed birthday party to go to next weekend, good thing Holly and i were on the ball enough to plan ahead and pick up a gift. i have got to say - i had such a nice weekend hanging out with Holly. i love spending time with her. She's such a great gal. i'm so glad i have her and my two little gals too.

I ordered her birthday gift last night too. just need to figure out what to get her for valentines day. this month is a tough one for gifts for her. only a 7 day turnaround from vday to bday. it totally requires me to get ideas from her or get REALLY creative. this year i have some really good ideas bouncing around, it helps that she has a new hobby which she is very into.

ok - time to get this day rolling. gotta figure out rehearsals this week. lots to do!

drumming.

i really have to work on my rudiments. when i look back over the last decade alone and see where my playing has grown the most and then gotten into a lull, it just blows me away. i mean for a self taught non-traditional drummer i can certainly hold it together. i just feel that i need to step it up. maybe start watching some good drum videos as a source of inspiration. working with a musician as talented as Damon is on the guitar and seeing how it all just comes so naturally to him is both inspiring and frustrating. that's where i think it gets me most - we're going to begin writing some newer material as a band eventually - not just learning tunes out of his back catalog and getting them down. it's gonna be a different game at some point where i'm going to need to be writing drums parts and these songs need to have it together. not something i just want to mail in, gotta do it some justice.


if i could actually swing it financially - i'd love to book a few sessions with an instructor to hone my technique a bit too. if i could get some rudimentary playing tightened up - i feel that my abilities would just sort of take off. two things i need to do - drop a little weight (this will also help behind the kit) and get my head in the drumming game for real.

i get so damned distracted though. gotta work on that.

i have a copy of stick control floating around here somewhere - gotta track it down and work on some old school rudiments.

yea - let's get working on that.

i'm easy - easy like sunday morning....

wow- did i ever have a rough nights sleep! Holly was nodding off right after we put Delaney down to bed - so we probably hit the hay around ten. I have to admit, seeing my wife passed out on the couch snoring like a chainsaw did bring some amusement to my night. After watching a few episodes of "it's always sunny in Philadelphia" and "Beer nuts" on HULU, i decided it was time to wake sleeping beauty up and head for the boudoir.

i ended up waking up about 2am . got up when i decided sleep wasn't on the table. ended up watching American Meth and then heading back to bed before the sun came up. Delaney woke up just after 6am, and that was it - start of my day. it's going to be a busy one too. need to take out the trash from the porch, and get this place back in order. the wife's sewing projects have turned out dining room into what looks like Kathy Lee Gifford's Filipino sweat shops! OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a little - regardless, it needs to be put back together.

I'm thinking of cancelling Netflix and signing up for hulu plus. like it's half the cost!!! if i do that, i want to buy an interface or a device so i can watch on my tv. while i like snuggling in bed with the wife and the laptop watching SVU - it'd be nice to chill in the living room with the family or some friends. i should mention that my family watches a lot of PBS and only a little network TV mainly for some news. we have an antennae and refuse to pay for television.

the house hunt continues - have to put a meeting together this week concerning mortgage details. really hoping to be in our own place in the next year! After my chores today, i might take a gander at some available properties online.

so that's it. Chloe will be home this afternoon sometime, and we'll have dinner together. i think Holly is gonna make Chirico and Lentil stew for lunch. *nomz*


yea, life's good.

Weekend is here!

So nice that it's Saturday morning - despite the baby waking my up earlier than any other day this week! Go figure... still, it's nice to just get up with her and know that the day is mine today.

Got a little bad news last night. Turns out the Mass Mutual Center had cancelled ALL the shows lined up for this weekends Disney Princesses on Ice. They had cancelled last night due to fears about the amount of snow on the roof of the building. Something about a roof collapsing on thousands of people probably makes them a little nervous, huh?! Chloe was not happy at all when we told her the show was off, she was REALLY excited to go with my parents tomorrow. I'm kind of impressed at how well she handled the bad news though - not what i expected.

Last night was nice and relaxed. played with the girls till about 7pm - then put Delaney to bed. After that i ran out to move the cars so we wouldn't get towed because of the updated parking ban. Holly had put Chloe to bed by the time i got finished and headed back upstairs. My new issue of "DRUM!" arrived too - so i read that for a bit. There was an article on Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann I was looking forward to checking out. After that, Holly and I half watched "The Kids Are Alright" - then called it a night.

I picked up some beer on my way home last night too. Lagunitas Brown Shugga - which I thoroughly enjoyed! I also grabbed a bomber of Cappuccino Stout also from Lagunitas, which is for later today!

I've noticed some of the spring brews have been making their way onto shelves and i have got to say - even with the ample amount of winter weather we have had in the last month and how much i am longing for spring and baseball season - it's too damn early for spring beers! I felt the same way about the fall brews too - I feel like the season got into full swing and i barely got into the groove of the new seasonal then BAM - I'm drinking Magic Hat's Vinyl before Valentines day! Phew - enough of that nonsense.

i have to cut this short - I'm getting way too much entertainment out of watching Holly sew and swear! HILARIOUS!!!!!

peace!

TGIF

i have always felt that the best blog entries have always come on two days of the week. Mondays, because of the obvious updates of all the weekend's events - and on Fridays! Friday has this awesome magical kind of energy behind it. there's just something that you cannot get from any other day, than the feeling you get right before the weekend kicks off. there are some comparable feelings that i should mention - like your last day of work before a much needed vacation for instance. that is also a very special event - but it's the regularity of a Friday that makes it so great. once a week you get to have that 'eve of the weekend' and even if your weekend is less than relaxing, you still love that it's at least FRIDAY!

This Friday comes before a weekend that i am very much looking forward to. for starters - my wife and i have half a babysitter this weekend! what i mean is that my mother is taking my oldest daughter on Saturday for an overnight. my wife and i will still have the baby at home with us, but that is as close to a "kid-less" weekend as you could hope for. it's a win-win for all of us. My daughter Chloe, who loves spending time with her "Nonie" gets to hang at their place and go see Disney Princesses on ICE. Where as Holly (my Wife) and i get to hang out together and get caught up on things around the house. believe it or not, getting the house in order and making an extra special dinner together is quite nice. Delaney, my youngest daughter is perfectly content to hang with mom and dad for the most part. plus, she goes to bed early enough that we get to at least have the night together for ourselves.

no gigs or rehearsals lined up for this weekend either - it's been a long week for the band. we just played a big show last Sunday at the Iron Horse in Northampton MA. we got to open for Ernie & the Automatics, featuring members of Boston, The Beaver Brown Band and Peter Wolfe's Band. Met some very cool people - and had a fantastic time, but it was a last minute gig and I busted my ass to schedule a second rehearsal and to promote effectively. The rest of the week for the band was dealing with a situation that ended up costing us a couple gigs. short version of the story goes like this, a colleague of the group had his ego bruised when he had an exchange with Damon, which was not professional - on either parts end. He decided that he should drop us from a gig we had coming up this month with a group he sessions for - no sweat. what got ridiculous was when he had pressured a booking agent to take us off of a bill in June,  FOR A CHARITY EVENT! Anyway, we decided to just allow the situation be what it was - retarded. what's worse is that he's maintained nothing but lies to his actions, as if his beef with Damon has nothing to do with me, even though I'm Damon's Manager. Hopefully the childish actions of this guy will catch up to him eventually. I know we have a lot better things we could be doing than getting involved in some junk like this!

that about does it for now - time to refill this coffee cup!

First entry - new blog!

Well, this is it - I'm a blogger. with a legitimate blog.


I'll have much more up here soon.


Thanks for checking it out!!!