It's been a while since I did one of these...
Right, so it's been too long since I've really written anything. Let me do a quick catchup here.
All last week I was being trained at work for Java/STRUTS development. I have to say that I really enjoyed it, but it stressed me out at the same time. I was doing that all day every morning, then was trying to get everything else done in the afternoons that I'd normally have all day to do.
Wednesday last week I got to sit in with Will Webber, a jazz/blues organist down at the old Maple Point. Fun times were had, but the audience was really small. Actually, that was a bonus in 1 way. Around 10:30, Will was like "You know, I haven't played this old James Brown song in about 25 years, but I'm gonna do it now." We played It's a Man's Man's Man's World, then did a 20 or 25 minute version of Whipping Post. Those were both really fun, and we'd never have done it if there was a big crowd.
Friday I went to see Le Freak, which was a surprisingly fun show. They're really tight, nailed every cover, and got the crowd really moving. Also there was a fairly amusing costume malfunction... they were pulling attractive young women out of the crowd to dance on stage with them, and 1 of them was wearing a tube-top. When she got on stage, it got caught on the mic stand and she flashed 3/4 of the band. (I couldn't see anything... her back was to the audience.) The guitar player didn't get flashed though, and he was like "Oh, man, show me a little love too. You're being all like racist against guitar heros." Funny stuff... and she eventually flashed him too. So he won.
Saturday was the big Full of Eels show, which seemed to be a real success. We had 35 people come to see us specifically, and there were several people who stayed from watching Klopek, the band in front of us. Plus a few other people just wandered in, so we were playing for around 60 people. To top it all off, the audience actually was dancing by the time we played Bitter and kept on going for the last 4 songs.
Sunday I got to get together with jennyp5309 and MusicalAsh to go buy my chandelier finally. When I had gone to Lowe's last time, it was evident that we hadn't taken into account how large the different fixtures actually were. The modern one (Lowe's #3) was really small, and the brushed nickel 5-light (Lowe's #1) was really huge. But there was one that wasn't advertized online that seemed just right. We all 3 agreed that was the one to go with, so I bought it. I'm installing this weekend.
Monday, being last night, I went out with the Mensan Biergarden guys to help Larry's "fact-finding" mission. He's trying to recreate a specific brew at home (making his own beer). He's very fond of 1554 Brussels Style Black Ale made by New Belgium, and he's trying to figure that one out. Since he can't find that actual recipe, he's trying a lot of other beers to see if he could find something else close that he could get a recipe for then modify. We tried as a group about 15 beers or so (3 a piece), and didn't get much closer, but still was a fun way to spend an evening. MaestroKevin happened into the Flying Saucer as well, and joined my group. So that was pretty cool. After that the 2 of us wandered over to Vernon's and hung out for a bit longer. Which made me socially jet-lagged this morning, but was still fun.
And now we're all caught back up. Now I need to get back to work. I'm still not caught up from last week.
All last week I was being trained at work for Java/STRUTS development. I have to say that I really enjoyed it, but it stressed me out at the same time. I was doing that all day every morning, then was trying to get everything else done in the afternoons that I'd normally have all day to do.
Wednesday last week I got to sit in with Will Webber, a jazz/blues organist down at the old Maple Point. Fun times were had, but the audience was really small. Actually, that was a bonus in 1 way. Around 10:30, Will was like "You know, I haven't played this old James Brown song in about 25 years, but I'm gonna do it now." We played It's a Man's Man's Man's World, then did a 20 or 25 minute version of Whipping Post. Those were both really fun, and we'd never have done it if there was a big crowd.
Friday I went to see Le Freak, which was a surprisingly fun show. They're really tight, nailed every cover, and got the crowd really moving. Also there was a fairly amusing costume malfunction... they were pulling attractive young women out of the crowd to dance on stage with them, and 1 of them was wearing a tube-top. When she got on stage, it got caught on the mic stand and she flashed 3/4 of the band. (I couldn't see anything... her back was to the audience.) The guitar player didn't get flashed though, and he was like "Oh, man, show me a little love too. You're being all like racist against guitar heros." Funny stuff... and she eventually flashed him too. So he won.
Saturday was the big Full of Eels show, which seemed to be a real success. We had 35 people come to see us specifically, and there were several people who stayed from watching Klopek, the band in front of us. Plus a few other people just wandered in, so we were playing for around 60 people. To top it all off, the audience actually was dancing by the time we played Bitter and kept on going for the last 4 songs.
Sunday I got to get together with jennyp5309 and MusicalAsh to go buy my chandelier finally. When I had gone to Lowe's last time, it was evident that we hadn't taken into account how large the different fixtures actually were. The modern one (Lowe's #3) was really small, and the brushed nickel 5-light (Lowe's #1) was really huge. But there was one that wasn't advertized online that seemed just right. We all 3 agreed that was the one to go with, so I bought it. I'm installing this weekend.
Monday, being last night, I went out with the Mensan Biergarden guys to help Larry's "fact-finding" mission. He's trying to recreate a specific brew at home (making his own beer). He's very fond of 1554 Brussels Style Black Ale made by New Belgium, and he's trying to figure that one out. Since he can't find that actual recipe, he's trying a lot of other beers to see if he could find something else close that he could get a recipe for then modify. We tried as a group about 15 beers or so (3 a piece), and didn't get much closer, but still was a fun way to spend an evening. MaestroKevin happened into the Flying Saucer as well, and joined my group. So that was pretty cool. After that the 2 of us wandered over to Vernon's and hung out for a bit longer. Which made me socially jet-lagged this morning, but was still fun.
And now we're all caught back up. Now I need to get back to work. I'm still not caught up from last week.