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Next week will be a complicated one.

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:45:19 GMT

...Cold snap and rain headed for North Texas late this weekend and early next week...

"A strong cold front will move into North Texas on Sunday. Showers and thunderstorms will precede and accompany the front...with prolonged chances of cold rain after its passage."

"There is a chance of freezing rain Tuesday morning along and northwest of a line from Cisco to Sherman/Denison. At this time...it appears temperatures will only briefly dip to or below freezing. As such...little ice accumulation is expected. However...there is still some uncertainty about surfacetemperatures and how the rain may affect morning lows Tuesday."

Two finals Monday, one Tuesday, one Wednesday, one Thursday. Essay due Monday, freezing rain Tuesday, rehearsals for this year's annual choir christmas production Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. All of these are going forcefully down the toilet once I find out when services are for my grandfather. I thankfully have a good rapport with all of my professors. So I imagine they'll be accomidating in allowing me to reschedule a final here and there for later in the week. And if they aren't? Well then Kung Fu Docta will most definitery come find them, because I'm quite apathetic about these exams as it stands.

I should seriously make a Kung Fu Docta video game. That would be amazing! Revel one: ribrary. All of the ribrarians have come down with a book worm. You must help Kung Fu Docta rerieve them of their plight, with kung fu! Wah-tah!

I need to stop posting in such random bursts, or starbursts as a Raynbo might say. Instead I think I shall leave you all to what is turning out to be a beautiful texas Friday, and be on my merry way.

A brief note

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:03:38 GMT

As promised, here is last year's Reverend BigDawg Christmas CD. I also wanted to thank everyone for their words of encouragement. I can't begin to tell you all how much that means to me.

Henry Warren Patterson passed away last night around 11:00 Central Standard Time. from what our family in Louisiana has told us, he went peacefully and was in no pain. None of us expected this would come so soon, but we knew it was only a matter of time. And we'd much rather he not have to spend his last hours on this Earth in discomfort and agony. If nothing else, we can take solace in knowing that his suffering is finally at an end and that he is now in a much better place.

Class-is-a-calling, so I must be off. But I wanted to post that brief update (if Steve hasn't done so already.)

A belated update

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:59:05 GMT

Bah! It has been too long since I've updated you guys on the happenings of John. To redeem myself for my lack of writing, I should be force-fed pounds upon pounds of creamy wonderful chocolate-like things! For the most part though much of what has befallen this Clower has been school-related anyway, and I don't want to bore you guys with that. Suffice it to say sixty pages of papers, an exam, and a presentation all compressed into an eight-day period make for some very stressful Johns. Anyhow, I quite literally have two hours of downtime and no compelling reason to work on anything of consequence, so an update is what you all are stuck with now! M'woo ha ha ha ha ha.

Work on this year's Reverend BigDawg CD has finally begun as of last weekend. completion of the opening track is taking a bit longer than I would like, but the expositioning tracks are always the most difficult to nail down. The mid to later tracks have in part been recorded, and those that haven't usually feed off one another anyway, which makes them very easy to put together. For those who missed last year's CD, I'll post a link to it later this evening. Well ok, I could post one now, but it wouldn't go anywhere really until the necessary file is uploaded.

On a much more serious note: For those who are the praying type, Paw-Paw (AKA our grandfather on our mom's side of the family) has taken a turn for the worse. Our mom is flying down this weekend, and the doctors have said that it could be a matter of months or weeks or...less at this point. Right now he is sedated and will be in the hospital for a good long while. And hopefully we can make it down there before things get even worse.

Of course I want my grandfather to magicly come out of this ordeal the man he was several years ago. I want to know that every morning I'm down there, he'll be up at 4:00 with a pot of coffee and a good anecdote. I want him to feel as if he still has a purpose in this world, because it's been very hard for him since he retired a couple of years ago. I think that for all of us, the thought of losing our independence to the point where we have to be looked after and cared for on a nearly round-the-clock basis is perhaps one of the most frightening prospects we can imagine. Couple that with cancer, heart problems, blood clots, among other things, and it's the nightmare my grandfather has had to deal with off and on for the last two or three years.

I want this to miraculously go away and for the past to be the future, but that's looking very unlikely right now, and at this point I'm just glad to know he isn't in any pain. Several times this and last week he has been up for fifty hours straight, my aunts and uncle and grandmother have been watching him round the clock, and it's just been a very hard time for everyone. Because of classes and projects, Steve and myself have not really dealt with any of this aside from emotional updates from our mom. But we both know this will all change very very soon as we are planning to head down to Lafayette on the twenty-first. So if you guys could keep him in your thoughts and prayers, Steve and I would greatly appreciate it.

I also wanted to thank everyone who directly or indirectly has contributed to my show over the past few weeks. I promise I'm not writing this as a cheap plug. To prove it, I'm not giving any dates, times, or links. But the feedback I get from you guys and the interaction that goes on has been a God-send to me. Scholastically and emotionally this has been a trying time, and, while the scholastic bit will be over in a week or so, unfortunately the emotional aspect has only just begun. But when I'm doing my stupid little show, for three magical hours, all of that drama and stress melts away. I can't thank you all enough for that. And if there is ever anything I can do for any of you, regardless if you tune in or what not, I am always more than happy to be of service.

Wow. I honestly didn't intend for this to be a serious heart-felt entry, but sometimes when you start writing you just have to let the words take over. And due to a lack of food since last night, a slight headache is trying to set in. With luck I can beat it senseless with a pointed stick until 9 or so when I can get some food in my system. This week has most certainly been a long one. I had made a vow to try and drop to eleven stones and ten before the end of next week, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to resist making a stiff drink or two tomorrow.

With that I think it's time for me to post this motha motha and start packing up this laptop. have a safe and splendid weekend, everyone.

Monday spelled backwards is Yadnom!

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:44:17 GMT

Over the course of the last few months, it's become quite clear to the Clower that Mondays through Wednesdays seem to be my only real productive days of the week. Logically this results in me taking a break from cramming dozens of Supreme Court cases in my brain to write an entry for all you's guys. Isn't that swell? Well?

This past weekend was spent doing nothing productive whatsoever. On Saturday I filled in for both Derek and Andre and hosted what I like to call KJMCFM and the Louis CoverBox. Combined with my co-host duties on Blart Radio, I was live for eight hours or so, which, when compared to some of my marathon broadcasts, pales in comparison (as far as length goes.) But I enjoyed myself immensely, and if only I could get paid for online broadcasting, I'd have my career set. There's just something about being able to pass on your experiences to a given multitude all at once. I know that musicians feel something similar when they create music and convert the little melodies in their head to tangible notes and chords. But broadcasting can provide all of that in realtime, and it's much much easier to do, which is wonderful for me, as my musical skills are somewhat limited.

Speaking of musicianism, The Big Chill Second Generation is playing next Saturday night at 7:00 in Cedar Hill. I'm really not sure exactly what we're playing for, but it's at some rather swanky complex. We're doing this as a favor to a friend of our drummer's. We won't get paid or anything, but it's exposure, and I've been needing to brush up on my vocal work for some time now anyway. For any local people reading this, either Steve or myself will post an address at some point. But with this weekend being Homecoming for the University of North Texas, somehow I doubt anyone will be making any kind of concerted effort to drive down for the show.

Lately Steve and i have been proverbially poked on multiple fronts regarding this years' Reverend BigDawg Christmas CD. Now I must confess that there haven't been any tracks laid down as of yet, but we literally have a dozen ideas all nicely mapped out. Unfortunately the formula for the production involves a bit of procrastination. I tried writing out a script one year, and it just didn't work. Luckily we have so many random recordings already on-hand that I know they could serve as puzzle pieces to some of the key tracks this year. But regardless of the finished product, the "I just found twenty cents on the floor" clip from one of my shows last month will find its way onto the CD one way or another. And since the Kung Fu Docta character has really taken off, he'll probably have a bigger role this year, too, also. As far as spoilers go, that is all you will hear from Steve or myself until we debut a track or two next month once Thanksgiving has passed.

Tonight at 7:00 I've been asked to speak at a sorority on behalf of the ODA, which I'm hoping could qualify as an excused absence from the first half of my night class. Somehow I doubt it will, but I'll probably let the professor know in advance just so I don't get on her bad side. That would be a scary scary place. Kung Fu Docta no rike!

I suppose I should get back to work, but before I do, I have to plug tomorrow's edition of The John Zone. For those who don't remember there was an old children's oriented station here in the states in the mid 1990's called Radio AAHS. It was quite literally the precursor to radio Disney. But unlike Disney, there was a real variety of music and personality on the network. It was probably the most diverse terrestrial radio station I've ever come across. But anyhows, in their prime, they released a ten-track compilation every month in a subscription which included their short-lived magazine, and I just happened to track down a few of these discs last week. So far only one has arrived, but there are several gems on it which I shall play. Hopefully at least one more can flop into my mailbox either today or tomorrow so there can be even more randomness. I owe Radio AAHS for a lot of things. They introduced me to Scatman John. They played tracks off of the Ren and Stimpy and Animaniacs CD's I didn't know existed back then, and for inspiring me to make stupid home recordings of myself as a DJ which led to my interest in webcasting when I growed up.

Since this was a kids' oriented station, the format involved many different contests all over the place. It was very enticing and promoted a lot of interaction with its listeners, myself included. I don't know if I'll have enough time, but Steve and I have three or four tapes that we made between 1994 and 1996 of this station in all its random glory, and there are many recordings of us calling in to various shows. The quality is probably disgustingly bad, but if I can find a good isolation, I'll try to line it in and play it tomorrow night. failing that, I still have another bit of incrimination I know I can have ready in time for the broadcast. I'm sure one day I'll look back and regret playing these little clips from my days of yor, but for now I have no problem with archived humiliation. So tune in to this link with your media player of choice and laugh at my shamelessness. You can hear my bizarre ramblings every Tuesday from 6 to 9PM Eastern Daylight Time, 5 to 8PM Central daylight Time, 2 to 5PM Alaska Standard Time, 11AM to 2PM Samoa Standard Time, and on Wednesdays from 11AM to 2PM New Zealand daylight Time and noon to 3PM Line Island Time. Ah the joys of the Internet!!!

Dah, just as I think I've reached a stopping point I've thought of something else to write about! Why can't I have this problem when I write term papers? But the weather this week has been nothing short of amazing. At 9:00 this morning I left the house in fifty-degree weather with a light rain falling and a northerly breeze of fifteen miles per hour. I haven't felt temperatures this cool in at least seven months. Knowing Texas weather patterns, I'm sure we'll be back in the eighties soon enough, but for once it's looking like fall is here to stay. Yes yes yes! Cold cold cold!

Ok this has by far been one of my longest entries ever, and I apologize for that. but in my defense, I haven't written a real entry in some time now, so I think I've earned this. What? You disagree? Well then, uhmm, hmm. Good for you.

Only sixteen weeks left to go!

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:35:08 GMT

All in all the first day back has been alright. I was in store for one Reverend BigDawg of a shock when RJ walked up to me in my 10:00 French class. Aside from a few chance encounters at his sister's wedding and perhaps one more at our church, I hadn't really seen the guy on any kind of regular basis since before he and Genevieve were married some, dah!, nearly two years ago! Has it really been that long? John feels old now! Where'sh my falsh teefth?

My classes with Doctors Ditslear and Sahliyeh on the American legal system and Middle Eastern politics respectively seem as if they'll be alright. Nothing I can't handle as long as I don't fall too far behind. of course I've been known to do this very thing, so we'll see how that goes.

Last night I had my constitutional law class with Kimi King, whom Michele recommended. Well, she recommended her a few years back, but I imagine said recommendation still stands. Anyhow, it was apparent very very quickly that hers will be my most trying class this semester. I could technically drop if it got too intense, but then, in order to graduate in May, I would have to take four poli-sci courses in the spring as opposed to three. And there are two grad history courses offered by Dr. Fuhrmann and Dr. Stern next semester which I already kind of have my eye on taking. So I'll be a man and stick it out. (Rips off shirt in stereotypical action star fashion in Bluebottle voice).

Speaking of Stern, I have her Renaissance class later today, along with Stockdale's Modern Middle East history class with Shawn and Molly. It's so wonderful to have classes with people you know, you know? Who knows. Then I have a doctors' appointment at 2:30 and of course my weekly John Zone at 5:00. Then I shall pass out and all will be right with the world.

Ok that's enough from John for a little while. Au revoir, mes moutons.

Sunday will never be the saaaaaaame.

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:11:58 GMT

I like that song, dag nab it! I probably play that one a bit often, but Elaine McFarlane's vocal on that track is just stellar. Therefore it warrants repeated playings. Anyhows, I am once again up at the crack of early. But for the first time in a week I managed not to crash for three hours during the day on Saturday, hence my stupid goal of sleeptitude has finally been reached. Going to bed between 8 and 9 and being up before 4 may be strange, but in years past I've found I'm the most productive when my day begins and ends that early. Yes yes, it's bizarre, but alas it's the truth.

I still haven't gotten around to checking the recording I made Saturday morning of my nephew just yet. But at one point I was sitting on the living room floor holding him upright while he stood on my left leg, less than a foot from the mics which were clipped to my collar. SO even if I didn't get much else, mastering the recording will be well worth it for that portion alone. He'll definitely be crawling before too much longer. It's so hard to believe he's already nearly five months old. Maybe by this time next year I can teach him how to do the Reverend BigDawg voice. I would be one proud uncle, I can assure you!

Yesterday after Nanna and Paw-Paw left for the airport with my parents, I spent the better part of four hours just listening to Goons episodes. Whereas Just William helped to get me through the spring semester, I think the Goons will be my big stress reliever for the fall. After back to back to back classes, particularly on Thursdays, there was nothing like sitting in the late afternoon sun in front of the Union drinking an ice cold Diet Coke and breaking out the Iriver for some Just William wonderment. Wow, that's almost as sad as my ritual chicken wing run coupled with a Friday afternoon of old time radio. Alright. For those who ever have wondered why this Clower is single, I think the preceding paragraph says it all.

This morning I woke up with some rather interesting pains of an undisclosed nature. Luckily I was so exhausted from this weekend that they didn't hinder my old man sleep schedule, but I could be in store for an interesting night tonight if they don't go away today. I have a pretty good idea what's going on. But either way I'll be calling up our family physician today to schedule an appointment. I figure if he can prescribe some magical pills that will help, there's no harm in checking this out to make sure it's nothing serious.

You know, these posts of mine are far too structured. I'll have to work on that. Incidentally temperatures in the Lower 48 states Sunday ranged from a low of 33 degrees at Embarrass, Minnesota to a high of 118 degrees at Death Valley, California. There's a town called Embarrass? I sure would be embarrassed to live there. Oh yes, I said it, and I'm not taking it back either! Instead I'm going to find some breakfast, as I will be up at UNT until 9:30 tonight. Oh yes. Monday night classes. You know you want them!

Look look look! I'm still around!

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 11:48:24 GMT

I've been a very very very very bad Clower about updating, but in all honesty there hasn't been much to write about. Since the vacation in Florida some six weeks ago, things have been fairly quiet here in Johnsylvania. I've bought many a book for this upcoming semester and of course did many a show on The Beyond Radio Network. One such show was a seventeen-hour broadcast which began at 5:00 August 14 and continued until 10:00 the following morning. I still haven't encoded the archive just yet, since it's a scary 10.7 gig wav file at present. But I've recently purchased a legitimate copy of Sound Forge 9 from CampusTech.com. which should be here within a couple of days. You's guys have no idea how much I've missed that Wave Hammer, unless of course you've never heard of the program, in which case you really have no idea what the glaven I'm even talking about.

In other news, this weekend Nanna and Paw-Paw (grandparents on my mom's side of the family) are in town for my nephew's christening. Writing of which, he should be over in a few minutes. I haven't made any recordings of him since he was about four days old. And since I'm up and about anyways, I should probably break out the mics and see if I can get some isolated baby bits. Maybe I'll slow them down and play them at random during my show this Tuesday. Hmm, that could be quite fun actually.

Many of you already know that Steve had his wisdom teeth out yesterday. He'd mentioned in his blog that he recorded the operation, as well as a pre-opp and post-opp recording which demonstrated the affect of the anaesthesia on his diction. While he was recording the pre-opp portion of the file, he was attempting a tongue twister that Lynn had sent in. It went as follows: "The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick." For twenty minutes Steve and I tried saying that stupid tongue twister and couldn't do it! But anyhows, I had to go up to campus to take care of a few things and therefore was in the car, recording away, with Steve on the way home after the operation. I continued recording for the next hour or so, so there will be a clip or two of this recording as well featured on the next edition of Blart Radio which may or may not be tonight. Steve's coherent of course. But with family in town, we may hold off until tomorrow to do a show in case we have familial obligations tonight.

Speaking of family, everyone seems to be stirring a bit, so John is outa here. Have a splendid Saturday, everyone!

A Run-down of days 3, 4, and 5 (on day 6)

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:07:37 GMT

Wow this week needs to slow down. It's already Thursday! I suppose by Saturday I will be ready to head back to Denton, but for now I don't wanna! Anyhows, the last few days have been wonderful, and I'll just give a quick synopsis to minimize the boredom of those who might find elaborate minute by minute accounts of my existence to be somewhat unfulfilling.

Monday and Tuesday were sort of duplicates of one another. Both days I headed down to the first floor condo between 6:30 and a quarter to 7 to find that only Dad was up. The family usually made it down to the water around 9:00, and between 10 and 12 I was in the water trying to ride some waves with Dad, Uncle Mike, and John (my youngest cousin.) Despite the almost absolute lack of a breeze, particularly on Tuesday, the occasionally-ridable wave did surface. You know you've done well when you get sand...EVERYWHERE!!! Oh that was some fun!

Ryan (Uncle Mike's son) and his girl friend Allison stayed with us from Monday night through last night. The only real down time I spent with them was Tuesday afternoon watching old HBO specials. I would've liked to talked to them more, but that's what happens when you sleep till noon in this family. Allison made a specific request for some embarrasing clips of Ryan from the library of tapes I have lying around. As luck would have it, or misfortune, depending on your perspective, I had four tapes on-hand, one of which dated back to 1995. I was never able to play any such clips for her, but I did get her E-Mail address last night as they were heading out. I figure I can line-in the tapes and isolate the desired clips and zip them up for her. I liked this arrangement better, because to cue up embarrasing clips of her boy friend manually would no doubt result in one or two of me coming through as well. And we just can't have that, now can we? I mean not without twenty people being able to hear it simultaneously.

Much of yesterday was spent driving to and from Destin to have lunch with Rick, an old friend of my parents', and his wife. We ate lunch at this placed called the Lucky Snapper which overlooked the ocean. It was really nice. Every few minutes Rick would suddenly drop a fragment of the 'global warming' shpeal, but if I had to sit by and witness high-rises raping the coastline of its beauty first hand, I guess I might get on an environmentalist kick as well. Other than that I really enjoyed myself. I think Steve kinda got isolated at the end of the table; but once we got on the subject of music, he and I were able to chime in a bit more in the conversation. All in all, a very good outing if i do say so myself.

Last night we gorged on pizza and key lime pie, which we bought at a small shop in Destin on our way back to the condos. (The pie, not the pizza.) That was some wonderful wonderful pie I must say! As if that weren't enough, yesterday morning I had three doughnuts and a muffin for breakfast. Oh John will be doing some dieting when he returns. But eating anything and everything in sight is what being on vacation is all about. And anyone who has ever spent any extended period of time on the beach will agree that the salty air just makes you hungrier. I hope that the waves are somewhat decent today. I'll have to be out in the water for a good four hours to try and offset the splurging.

While playing liverpool rummy with Steve, Mom, Dad, Nanna, Uncle Mike, Nikki, and John, the county in which we are staying was apparently put under a tornado warning between 8:30 and 9:30. There was one Reverend BigDawg of a storm coming through, but none of us suspected that it might be tornadic. However the strongest part of the storm was moving offshore on the adjacent side of the county, so we weren't in any sort of jeopardy. Incidentally I lost every hand. But tonight, oh tonight John will have his revenge! Or we'll bring the guitars out to the pool and have a grand ole time, with some beverages of an adult nature included of course.

One of the real bright sides to getting up so ridiculously early is that when you do decide to call it a night, you do not have to worry about there being any difficulties whatsoever in falling asleep. So far the only sleeplessness I had was Tuesday night when it took me *gasp* around half an hour to fall asleep. I love it! Of course I'm not so big a fan of waking up at 2AM perspiring because of the lack of circulation in the room. fortunately though I've been too exhausted to care so far. And if that ever becomes a problem, I can always kip (as the Brits say) out on the couch in the living room.

Alrighty. That shower is beckoning me once again, so I'll blog at you all later. Happy Orangemen's Day!

Florida: Day II (on Day III)

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:07:41 GMT

Hello all. As I start this wonderful entry it is just before 4:30 in the morning on this glorious Monday. A few light storms came through about an hour ago and woke me to the point where I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. I have already been recording the ocean ambiance from our balcony's point of view for about twenty minutes now. I'm too lazy to check and see if it came out alright, but I'll take care of that later. I clipped the squids to some cheap plastic table-like object, which is probably the best place for the mics on a sixth-story veranda.

Yesterday was our first full day here in Florida, and overall it was a good one. I had showered and lathered up in some sun screen that was likely SPF 3 million and was essentially ready for the beach by 7:00. I knew the rest of the family wouldn't be ready at that point, but I wanted to be able to just lie around like a bum for awhile.

While I was waiting for everyone else to get ready for the day's laziness, I came up with two quite promising parody ideas. I mention them now for the sole purpose of getting some feedback. I think regardless of what you guys think, I'll definitely be recording these when I get home. But any suggestions are welcome. Alright, well the first idea I actually came up with back on Saturday on the trip down here from Louisiana. Typically when my family does the Patterson-Clower convoy, we always use walkie-talkies to communicate back and forth since driving and cell phoning doesn't work so well, particularly when you have to do so over and over again. So it suddenly occured to me to write a song about the experience put to the tune of D4L's Laffy Taffy. "John, get that walkie-talkie, that walkie-talkie, hurry get that walkie-talkie, that walkie-talkie."

The second idea I came up with while sitting on the patio around 8:00 or so yesterday. We were talking about how difficult it might be to keep these large yellow umbrellas up, what with the strong breeze and all. Those who are somewhat familiar with contemporary pop can no doubt guess what song I was suddenly inspired to butcher. I obviously wouldn't have to change the name of the Rihanna tune. But my version would be a story of sorts about a guy who came out to the beach, sat down under an umbrella, went to catch a few waves, and came back after awhile to find someone was sitting under his umberrella, ella, ella, ay! AY! Get out from under my umberrella, ella, ella, ay! AY! AY!!!

Nothing like that happened of course when we finally did get down to the water just after 9:00. But because the breeze was so strong and because the shoreline hadn't quite recovered from the impact of Ivan and Katrina, I got quite the workout. I rode in plenty of waves, but the task of getting enough leverage was harder than peeling yourself off the beach before another wave could come to strike you down like da Lawd. One thing's for sure though. I have no reservations about sticking to any sort of diet while we're down here. An hour of riding waves in that water will burn off just about anything you could possibly eat.

Dad and I got out only after about half an hour or so. We were both exhausted, and Dad had sun screen or salt water in his eyes, which he said impeded his vision. Feh. I think he was just wiped out and didn't want to admit it. But by this point most everyone else was down at the umberrellas anyhow. After a few moments of lounging I went walking with Steve, Uncle Mike, and Nikki for a nice change of pace. We were so caught up in our collective conversation that we probably walked close to a mile both ways by the time we returned around 10:30. The rest of the morning was spent under the umberrellas until we headed up to the first floor condo to snag some food.

The afternoon was pretty quiet. Dad and Steve disappeared pretty early on to go search for a harmonica. Mom and Nanna were down at the beach reading. Paw-Paw was on the patio on the first floor condo reading the paper. Mike and Nikki were napping. This left John as the lone defender against the evil accountant, Rodrigo del Pato. I must say it was a long and hard-fought fight, fraught with strife, but I eventually moved on after my narrow defeat. I basically stayed up on the sixth-floor balcony with the laptop, occasionally going from condo to condo, condo to beach, and beach to condo until around 5:30 when there was yet more food of which to partake.

For dinner we had some excellent brisket with French bread, rice, and a loverly salad. I tell ya, That was some of the best brisket I've had in a long time. Later this morning I just may have to put some of that leftover brisket on a bisket for breakfast. While we ate, some blue angels flew by, no doubt returning to the air field in pensacola. Mike and Nikki went on a bit of a grocery run and picked up some key lime pie ice cream which we all gorged on after dinner had been inhaled. I don't think it's possible for Bluebell to make a flavor that I didn't like.

Dad and Mike went up to our condo to do a bit of guitaring while I went with Nanna and Nikki down to the beach for a bit. We probably didn't walk more than 500 yards, but it was a nice walk just the same. Paw-Paw and Steve were talking about dentistry when I returned, so I just had to sit down and throw in my two cents, well, one cent. I'm saving that other penny for fudge.

Once everyone had settled back into the condo, we held a bit of a jam session beginning around 8:30 with Dad and Mike on acoustic and yours untruly on bass. After about an hour of that I was beat. This whole getting up at unReverend BigDawgly hours of the morning might make for a better sleep schedule all around, but my body wasn't quite used to it just yet. However, I did stay downstairs long enough to see my aunt and two cousins arrive. By the time pleasantries had been exchanged, it was about 10:15 and I was ready to call it a night. In another few minutes I was lugging bass and amp back upstairs. Mike and Nikki wanted to use the laptop to do some sort of online poll for which one could only vote from one IP address per day. Once they had checked mail and done their other various things online, I plugged in ye old laptop to ye old power supply, flopped down on the bed, and was out in ten minutes at most.

All in all I would have to say it was a very good day indeed. But now I think it's time for more showering, more coffee, and some of that brisket on a bisket! have a wonderful day everyone.

Day one in Florida

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 10:19:50 GMT

Oh how I love it when we come down here! After over seven hours in the car, we arrived at our condo around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. After getting everything settled, Steve and I headed upstairs to begin scoping out wireless networks and outlets and the like. Since there were so many of us, we rented two condos, one on the first floor and a second on the sixth. My parents and grandparents would be in the ground-floor condo, while Uncle Mike, Nikki (Mike's girl friend), Steve, and myself would be in the upstairs condo. My aunt and two cousins will be coming down tomorrow night and still another cousin and his girl friend will be coming down the day after that. Not sure exactly where they all will be crashing, but Steve and I don't have to sleep on the floor for once, which is all that matters here.

Oh yes, the technology issues. As had been the case last summer, we mooched off a Linksys unsecured wireless network for the laptops. As for our lovely PDA's, Steve discovered an Evdo connection should we need that as well. Of course to test out every connection we tuned into the Louis Combobox, making sure to call in almost simultaneously just to be annoying. Once all of the electronics were in order, I headed downstairs whilst Steve remained to check mail and such. Before too much longer, everyone but Nanna, Paw-paw, Steve, and myself went to fetch groceries. By the time they returned, it was apparent that noone in this family would go hungry this week.

Anyhows, because noone was in any sort of mood to cook after having been in the car off and on since 8:00 that morning, we ordered mass amounts of seafood from a place a few miles down the road. Uncle Mike and Nikki headed out on the beach for a few minutes while Steve and I sat and chatted with Nanna and Paw-Paw for awhile. After Mom and Dad had left and subsequently returned from said place down the road with the aforementioned food, Uncle Mike made up a few margaritas, and we all sat out on the patio just enjoying ourselves for the next ninety minutes. Mike and Nikki said that the winds were particularly brisk down at the waters' edge, so much so that Nikki had fallen down in the sand, drink and all. Because I wanted to see that happen again, I was more than ready to head down for a walk along the shore after we had finished eating.

Noone else fell down, but the first afternoon/evening in Florida was quite an enjoyable one. After the walk we lounged on the patio at the parents' condo until about 9:00 when Mike, Steve, and myself headed up to ours to begin getting ready for bed. I know this is ridiculously early, but very few people in my family sleep in past 7:00, especially when we're in Florida. As I write this it is 5:37 in the morning, and it is already very light out. Besides, you can't waste days like this. There is little to do late at night, but there is so much to enjoy at the break of dawn. One such thing is coffee, and I believe it is time to go track some down! Oo and maybe a shower, too? yes. Showers are fun.