An Out of Church Experience

Yesterday, 7/12/2009, I played my first "real" (i.e. non-church) gig. It was part of the Come Together Concert Series in Clinton, NJ. This is a summer series that has musicians on the streets of town on every Friday and select Sundays. Yesterday was also the annual Ducky Race so it got to be one of the Sunday events. I played with Jeanne Resua (vocals) and Wayne Dubansky (guitar). They have been playing together for about a year. They both are in the church choir I play in and asked me to play with them to add a little depth. As my faithful readers will know, I started playing drums at church about 18 months ago, first on djembe then on set. I never figured to play anywhere but Mass, but figured Why Not?

For yesterday's gig, we were told we would be playing at the corner of Leigh and Center Street, Nate and I went down on Friday night to scope out the location and it seemed pretty nice. When I arrived on Sunday, after parking in the Community Center about a 1/2 mile away (thank you Ducky Race!), another band was setting up. They said they were playing at that location. We straighten things out with Annie at Rock The World Cafe, who runs the event and ended up in a great location - across the street from Hallmark, right on Main Street. They provided a tent and extension cords and we got setup in time to start at 2:30.

I don't think I realized how nervous I was - it took me a while to relax and get comfortable. Once I relaxed, I had a great time - I just played. It's certainly different than playing at church - rarely have I not been able to hear the choir due to a motorcycle passing by. The crowd was pretty good, especially early, right after the Ducky Race. We did about 40 minutes and then let the kids from Don't Fret and Take to the Sky do a set. By the time they finished, the crowd was pretty thin. We played until 4:30 and at times we were playing to the cars on Main Street. It was a great day weather-wise and, as I told Nate when I got home, "Nobody died". All in all, I had a great time and would love to do it again.

Sissy's Song

My sister Steph posted this over on Facebook because she said it reminded her of Mom. She's right - so here it is for the non-FB part of my family and those of you who aren't Steph's friends on Facebook.

This is for Mom and all those who left us too soon.




If the embedded video doesn't play - here is the original YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8sWwFIFlK8

Car Emergency Bag

I just cleaned out and refreshed the Emergency Bag I keep in the Element for the first time in well over a year. It got me thinking that a) I should do it more often, b) whether anyone else keeps a bag in their car and c) what they have in theirs. So here's what's in mine:

• 2 bottles of water
• toothbrush
• toothpaste
• sweat socks and dress socks
• underwear
• t-shirt
• collared shirt
• sweat pants
• fleece sweat jacket
• fleece blanket

I also have the following items which some might consider non-essential:

• shorts (you never know when you might get asked to golf)
• baseball glove
• baseball hat (for golf or softball)
• knee brace (obvious in my case)
• rag to dry off ice skates

I should probably put some food in there, but need something that can take the heat/cold.

If you don't have a bag like this, you should - especially in the winter for those of us in the NorthEast. If you have one, I'm curious if I'm missing anything.

Ken Shilay, Sr. - R.I.P.

Ken Shilay, Sr. passed away today after a two year fight with lung cancer. Senior, as he was known, was my former landlord's (Ken Shilay, Jr.) dad. I got to know Senior at family parties and working with him on Junior's dream house, aka Shilay's Tara, aka The Property. Senior and I didn't see eye-to-eye on politics or some of his ideas, but he was one of the hardest working people I've ever met. He has probably been described as cranky or irascible or worse, but underneath that gruff exterior, he had a soft soft both for Monica and his grand-daughter Amanda. Until Senior got sick, he gave up almost every weekend to help Junior with the new house. It was almost comical to watch Senior and Junior argue about the house - they both wanted it to be right and, of course, both believed they alone were right.

I think the two things I will remember most about Senior are his hard work and desire for things to be done the right way. For any of his other faults, the world could use more people with those two. Here are a couple pictures of him working at the Property.

Element Sticker Update

(I know, I know - it's about time I posted)

In keeping with the tradition of posting a picture of the back the Element whenever there is a major update, here you go. Some fell off, some got removed, others that I collected over the winter were added. Big thanks to Alex P. for the RC sticker. That's about all the shade I get at the new apartment, btw.

A New Apartment

I wasn't really looking for a new apartment but I seem to have found one. I knew Kenny & Monica would be moving to their new house sometime this year and figured I would probably move at that point. Even though I love my current apartment, I always thought it would be nice to be closer to Nate and to Church and cut down on my commute, if possible. I found the add for the new apartment at Clinton Bagel - it was in my price range, was near Clinton and the picture showed a big, renovated kitchen. I looked at it last Saturday and signed the Lease yesterday. I am the only tenant which was a big selling point. Here is a picture of the outside (yes, my phone has a camera so I should have taken inside pics, too, but I'll post them when I get them).


Leaving my current place in Bethlehem Township will be sad since Kenny & Monica are good friends. I'll miss the stream, too, but I think this is the right move. I'll be moving at the end of March - I have both places for about 10 days. More details as I get them.

Computer Cabling

Earlier this week, we had a maintenance window at work which included re-running about 9 cables in a computer rack. As often happens with cleanups, once I looked at the rack, I decided to cleanup all the cables - network, fiber (disk) and power. This was once of the worst racks, but we have many more to do. I'm going to be beating in to my guys to keep it neat so we don't get this bad again, but we'll see. In theory, the cables are bound together by type, but still loose enough that new cables can be run without taking it all apart. Ahh, the joys of Velcro.

Below are before and after pictures. In the spirit of full disclosure, the before picture is actually another rack - I didn't think of taking pictures until I was done. The pictures were taking with my new Blackberry Storm (which I have promised to blog about soon) - I'm still getting used to the camera, so that explains the lack of focus.

Before	After

Most & Least Affordable Cities to Live In

From Lifehacker.....

http://lifehacker.com/5157266/the-10-most-and-least-affordable-cities-in-the-us

Amazingly, neither Boston or San Diego is on the least affordable. If they did it by county, I suspect Hunterdon County, NJ, where Nate & I live, would be on the least affordable :( Interesting that Ocean City, NJ is on the least affordable with less than 500,000. Guess everyone wants to live at "America's Greatest Family Resort".

Birthday Dinner 45

Last night Nate & I went out to dinner for my birthday. Nate didn't really know what to get me so when I suggested he take me to dinner he jumped at the chance. We went to the Warrenside Tavern, out favorite local restaurant. It's an old (like 1700's old) tavern with a simple, tasty menu. It lives up to it's Tavern name in that the beer is plentiful and inexpensive. As I said to Nate, it's good it is not closer to my apartment or I'd be there way to often. Oddly, they don't have a website nor could I find pictures online. I'll try to get some and update this post.

Wednesday is Prime Rib night at the Warrenside, another reason I chose it for my birthday dinner. Every Wednesday, Prime Rib dinner is $12.97 - not 12.99 or 12.95, 12.97. We both got it medium (which was more like medium rare), french fries and bleu cheese dressing on our salads. We split an appetizer of fried calamari. I, of course, had a Sam Adams to start and then a glass of Cabernet with my steak - Nate stuck with the Coke. Not sure what got into me but I cleaned my plate, including sopping up the juices with a couple pieces of bread. We both had dessert - me, Kentucky Bourbon Pecan Pie and Nate, Confused Chocolate Cake.

I should work for the Warrenside - I recommend it to everyone I know. If you come visit, I'll take you there.

Einstein is Trademarked!

I was cleaning up some Little Einsteins videos I had downloaded for my neighbor Monica from her Tivo, when I noticed this image at the end of the video. Apparently, the commercial use of "Einstein" or "Albert Einstein" is trademarked. The trademark is held by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. According to various sources, "Einstein’s Last Will and Testament of 1950 stipulated that the Hebrew University would eventually become the final repository of his personal papers and the heir of all of his intellectual property." This included his "personality rights", including his image and name.

Christmas Lights 2008 - Update

It's been a while since my last post and there are reasons (work, a cold since Jan 4th, etc.) but no excuses. The blame may lay with Facebook, which is great for quick little posts. I only got an account since Nate did and that was the agreement, but it is an interesting, if odd, community.

Anyway, Nate and I finally took the Christmas Lights, that I posted so much about, down yesterday. Valentines Day is a long time to leave the lights up, but January was cold and/or rainy. For much of the month the decorations were buried in snow. As an aside, my Dad on occasion left the Christmas lights on until my birthday (Feb. 19th) as a birthday present.

As for the Nativity scene that was the focus of my photo lighting experiment - it did not fare so well. While Nate and I were in San Diego, there was a bad wind storm and Joseph's legs broke and baby Jesus almost ended in the stream. I was able to rebuild Joseph's legs but the ground was frozen so I couldn't get him back in the scene. I took the whole thing down in early January but many of the stakes broke so more repair will be needed before it goes back up.

The rest of the decorations survived fairly well. The luminaries got a little beat up in a wind storm, which is what motivated me to take all the decorations down. All in all, it was a fun year for lights. I can't wait until next year - whether it be here or somewhere new.

Happy New Year!

Greetings from San Diego, where Nate and I and visiting Nancy and Vince on our annual New Year's trip. A Happy, Safe and Blessed New Year to all! I think this will be a year of change, hopefully for the good.