Two-fer

Because I'm at least 2 weeks behind.

Wash me please

Well, that explains that.

Piggy Back

This past Wednesday my friends MJ, Jake and I went out to see Bob Schneider at the Rams Head On Stage. MJ and I have seen him a number of times before but it was all new to Jake.  We got to the show early only to find that the show was going to be postponed because Bob was stuck on a plane at JFK in NYC.  Apparently he'd been stuck on the plane for a number of hours, much longer than the actual flight to BWI or even driving to Annapolis would have taken. We were told that we could go on in and watch the opening act for the night, Kat Parsons, and they would let us know when Bob's show would be re-scheduled.

Short and sweet

We were all in the mood for some live music and since we were already there, we got a table upfront and center. Kat turned out to be a real treat.  She was a small girl with a big voice and a good sense of humor. On top of that, it turns out that she was a Maryland native, now living in LA. When her set ended we were getting ready to leave and they announced that Bob had made it to the show after all and if we would just be a little patient, once his crew got the stage set up, the show would go on. I took the time between acts to go and chat up Ms Parsons and get something signed. I was even lucky enough to get my picture taken with her. She may look tall in the photo but keep in mind she is wearing 5 inch heels.

The best show picture I've ever taken

By the time Bob took to the stage it was a little after 10:00pm. I thought the show would be over by 11:00 which was bad enough with my new early morning rising but Bob put on a full show and didn't finish up until midnight. He was his usual funny, charming, dirty self and regaled us with stories of his flight from hell and how he feels that Delta Airlines is just trying to screw with him. He is an amazing performer and although it was a solo show, he created a much larger effect by playing a variety of instruments and using samples and a drum machine app on his iPad to great effect. For about half the show he was playing requests shouted out from the audience which added a sense of surprise and spontaneity to the performance.

I was finally home and in bed by 1:00 am and had the clock set for getting up at 5:00 but I don't regret it in the least. I highly recommend checking out Bob live to almost anyone. Another nice thing he does is record all his live performances so you can purchase them from his website for a nominal fee. I've bought more than one for myself and I think it's an excellent way to enjoy these one of a kind events over and over.

Who Me

With summer winding down I didn't expect a lot when I went out garage sale-ing today. There was one close to my house but it yielded very little. I told myself that it would be an early day and drove through the usual neighborhoods I visit for such adventures.

I was pleased to see a big sign for a flea market at the local Elks Club. Since the weather was nice, it was well attended and I picked up the only music CD I found today, The Band's-The Last Waltz, for a dollar. I also bought a whole house transmitter, new in the box, for $5. It's supposed to allow you to use an FM radio signal to broadcast whatever you want to any FM receiver in the house. It also is supposed to have "Easy Set Up", but they don't know me and my lack on mechanical knowledge.

After a few more sales where I did score some odds and ends (and who can ever have enough of them?) I was taking the long way home when I came across one last sale. The old guy (look who's talking) who was running the show was very chatty and had priced things to move. My kind of sale. He told me that most of the goods were from the home of a couple of older ladies who were surprisingly fond of science fiction. One of the ladies had died and he helped clean out the estate and was sharing in a portion of whatever proceeds the sale would bring.

As I said, these ladies had a fondness for science fiction (Kathy concludes that they must have been lesbians) and there were boxes and boxes of mostly new looking books covering a huge collection of authors in that genre. He said I could fill up a box for $3 or two boxes for $5. Once I started looking through titles I found a shitload of Dr. Who paperbacks.  I'm a big fan from way back so I figured I pick up a few.  The more I looked, the more I found. Before I knew it I had a box half full. I figured if I was going to spend three bucks I was going to fill it up all the way. I added some other odd titles that looked interesting as well as some comic book anthologies of The Tick, my favorite blue superhero.I also found a TARDIS coffee mug and a Return To Forever LP.

When I got home I sorted all the booty in the box and counted more than 60 Dr Who novels as well as at least a dozen other sci fi titles. Not a bad haul for 3 bucks. My niece Hannah was just here this past week for a visit and since she's is a new Dr. Who fan I will be sending her the mug.  If she's interested in any of the books, they're hers for the asking. Now, if anyone was planning on using this windfall of books to blackmail me with Kathy, you're out of luck.  I told her this evening of my good fortune. She wasn't thrilled, but I'm more than willing to give them all up once I read them, which I figure may take me just a few short lifetimes.

It sounded like such a good deal at the time

E-read between the lines

I never planned on getting an e reader of my own.  I do enjoy reading books (as well as listening to them) and Kathy has a Kindle of her own so we've pretty much got it covered.

When I went up to NY a few weeks ago for a concert I was in Big Lots picking up junk food and drinks for the trip I noticed that they had an Aluratek (whatever the hell that is) e-reader marked down from it's normal low price of $47.99 to just $9.99. Add to that price point the fact that it could use the 10,000 Kindle books we got from our neighbor and it was also an mp3 player, I was sold. I had a Big Lots reward coupon giving me an additional 20% off, so I ended up buying 2. One for me and one for my friend Nakie.

It turned out to be pretty easy to use and came in handy.  I've been taking it to work to read on my lunch hour and had started to add some music files to it. This weekend I brought it home to charge (20 hour battery life) and left it on our kitchen counter.

Now I know most dogs don't read books, but Sandy takes an interest in anything on the kitchen counter. When I came home from work last night Kathy told me she had heard him chewing on something. She ended up wrestling 10,000 books out of his mouth.  I can only imagine he was looking for some cook book or maybe Watership Down. He also ate the #3 key for some reason. No big surprise, it was ruined. I could have been upset, but thinking back to when Zappa was a puppy and he ate a couch (yes, a couch) and more than 2 dozen pillows I think I may have gotten off easy.  We're keeping Kathy's Kindle well out of reach from now on and I'm putting all my other mp3 players on the high shelves. It's a damn good thing he's cute.

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Drop ins' welcome

I feel like my niece Elexa giving an update like this, but today was a busy day. Friday is a big day in park maintenance. Four of the pavillions were to be rented out Saturday for parties and there was a wedding coming in Friday evening at the overlook. Everything had to be in shipshape, or at least as shipshape as a park on dry land can be.

On the way out of the shop in the morning my boss Mark pointed out that there was 2 racoons now living in one of our dumpsters.  The trash had been picked up Thursday and the dumpsters were empty. When they crawled in last night looking for food there was no way for them to get out.  Although the picture may look like we're torturing them with a big stick it was really just a branch we put in to give them a chance to climb out in their own good time.

Sit, Stay

After work, Santana had his/our first obedience class. The instructor believes he'll do fine with a little structure/reward environment. I'm not so sure. Luckily there is only one other dog in the class. Unfortunately, he's just been through puppy training, (he's 9 months) so our little slow pitch is behind on the curve. They like to teach clicker training which I'm not to crazy about but the price was right and for the next 5 weeks we should get something out of it. Class was supposed to run from 5:00 til 6:00 but the instructor had a crisis to deal with so we got pushed back to 5:45 til 6:45. This late start put a hitch into my evening plans but we went with it because the sooner we get Sandy under control the better.

The day finished off with a evening kayak trip up the Magothy Creek. This is the second Friday in a row that I've done this and like last week it was a treat. The water was like glass as the sun went down. My favorite time to be on the water. The company was good too. I went with Jeremy and a neighbor whom I went with last week, Jake. I can thank Santana for introducing us. He was one of the "I've got your dog" calls I got a couple weeks ago when he last escaped.  Jake is a little younger than me but as expected Jeremy paddled circles around us. When we got as far up river we were going to go we turned back. Jeremy asked if he'd be able to see the cars (where we put in) from the water.  I told him I thought so and if he wanted to leave us old guys in the dust he should go for it. It gave me more time to talk with my new friend Jake.

This may have been one of my best Friday's ever but since I've been up since 5:00 this morning and it's getting close to midnight, I think it's time to snuggle up to Kathy and the mutts and get some much needed sleep. If I'm lucky, they'll let me sleep in until 7:00 before they get me up for their walk.