Gustav! . . . and gigs . . . . .

Gustav - that's the name of the category 4 hurricane you see pictured on the left. It's headed for the the Gulf coast and the New Orleans area. The weather forecasters, at this time, are saying that it could be as powerful/bad as Katrina. We have some good friends that live in Baton Rouge (far left red dot) and also have a home in Waveland, MS (red dot on the right). Their home in Waveland was completely destroyed in Katrina and they've just finished rebuilding. We also have some friends in New Orleans. I'm praying for all of them. And I'll be watching the progress of hurricane Gustav for the next few days. ■ The gig last night was good, but it was a long drive. Took us an hour. We got home around 3:00 am and I finally crawled in bed about 3:30. The gig today is a private party, but we don't start until 9:00 pm, so it'll be another late night. Maybe I'll be able to post from the party. We'll see. ■

Two sets down - one to go . . .

Yup, two sets down and one more to go. Then it's load-up time and
then an hours drive back home.

Gig # 1 finished . . .

(some of our Bullfrog family & friends)

. . . and 2 more to go this weekend! Saturday night we're up in Kansasville, WI, and Sunday we play at a private party. Monday Holly and I'll rest and do ribs on the grill. ■ I finished my 2nd week of work. I'm getting the hang of it. Still lots to learn. ■ Tomorrow, or rather today ('cause it's 2:00 am) I've got another brain scan. The doctors will compare this new scan to the old to see if the tumor is changing. ■ Time to crawl in bed. ■

Posting - man am I late!

No picture this time. I really like to post a picture with each post. I think it makes it a little more interesting. ■ I've been working - hurrah! I love the job. And it's nice to be needed again. ■ I received an order today! Another hurrah! ■ I've got to post the drawing of the home in Scotland that I just completed. I do hope the scan of it came out ok. I have a new printer/scanner, but I'm not sure of the quality of the scans yet. ■ Time for bed. I'm tired.

Work, guitars, weather . . . . .

I'm now beginning my 2nd week on the job. Still a lot to learn. The picture above is partially what I look at during my work day. Lots of guitars and amps. What a dream! ■ The weather - boy has it been getting cool. Here it is August and we're having rather cool days for August and very cool nights. This is more like September weather. I hope it doesn't get too cool for Chili Fest. ■

Ham, corn, asparagus . . .

Yup, it was ham on the grill, corn-on-the-cob, and fresh asparagus. Delicious. ■ I've pretty much finished the pen and ink of the home in Scotland. I scanned it, but I need to download Snagit, so I can capture a smaller version of it to post on my website - and on this blog! ■ We've booked yet another gig for October. We need to work on November and December. Always good to have a lot of gigs. ■ Cochlear implant - not for me, but for my mother. More on that tomorrow. ■

A beautiful wedding

One of the daughters of our next door neighbors had her wedding yesterday. It was held in Lake Genevea, WI, and it was great. She was a beautiful bride; he was a handsome groom. The wedding was a lot of fun. ■ I'm still in the process of transferring data from the old pc to this new one. What a PITA. But, it's gotta be done. ■ It's beautiful out today - about 77º, low humidity and sunshine. I've already mowed 3 yards today. I've got to work on a drawing. Ooops, I better get moving! ■

Still transferring . . . . .

I'm still transferring files from the old pc to this new one. I should finish that tomorrow, or Sunday and then be back up and ready to go 100%. ■ We had a little rain last night. That's the first rain in quite awhile. At least it's not like the 20 inches that they've received in Florida from hurricane Fay! ■ I finished one drawing earlier this week and am now working on drawing a home from Scotland. That'll be the first time I've drawn a home from outside of the USA. ■

Busy, busy, busy . . .

I've got my new pc up and running and at least connected to the net. I still have to move all of my old files over as well as install some programs. A long way to go. ■ I've got a drawing I need to finish and deliver by tomorrow - and I still need to connect a scanner to this pc before then! ■ Had my first day at the new job. Tonight I go to work from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. ■
Back to work! ■ 12:15 am - I'm tired. It took a couple of hours to install the printer software. What a time-consuming pain. I just downloaded Open Office and think I'll try using that instead of Microsoft Office. We'll see how it goes. ■ Time for some sleep.

Bullfrog family & friends party

Went to the annual Bullfrog band party today. I'm very tired and
sore. Two gigs this weekend and we played longer than normal because
the fans requested it. Fans - heck we need roadies! At the gig last
night we played for 6 hours - 2 hours longer than normal. Got to get
the new of set up tomorrow. Goodnight!

I'm here.

What's in the gig bag?

That's my backup guitar for this gig. Stay tuned for pics and gig
updates today/tonight.

New pc and gig tonight

I bought a new pc today. It's still in the box right now, but I'll begin setting it up tomorrow. ■ I've got some salmon in brine getting it ready to smoke tomorrow. Tomorrow's gig is at a pig roast and you're supposed to bring a dish to pass - so I'm bringing some salmon. ■ The gig tonight is at a nice restaurant. I'm all loaded up and ready to go - which will be in just a few minutes. ■ Maybe a posting, or two from the gig. ■

LCD screen is broken

My pc is down. The LCD screen doesn't work. It may be time for a new
pc.

Gettin' set up

We're here!

They have to set a tent up for us yet.

Olympics

Have you been watching the Olympics? I haven't watched any yet, but may do so in the future. ■ That's a screen shot of the 2nd level of the labyrinth game on my iPhone. I've yet to finish it successfully. ■ A beautiful day today. Relatively cool and sunny - at least this afternoon. I cut the front yards today and was going to cut my across the street neighbor's yard, but it didn't look as they were home. I looked out later in the afternoon and he'd cut it. ■ Afternoon gig tomorrow. We're playing at the bar where a poker run ends. I'm looking forward to it. Should be fun. I'll try and do some posts from there. ■

Smoked salmon . . . . . tried and true?

Yeah, it's smoked salmon. A little too salty this time. It's a mistake, but we learn from our mistakes - not our sucesses. But, it's still pretty good. And now I know (or at least I thinkI know) what I did wrong. ■ I have to say that our dogs like the smoked salmon. I gave them just a itty little bit. Now I think they're my friends forever. ■ Alanna wants the recipe. Ooo, The Recipe. Maybe that should be in quotes - "The Recipe." I'm not sure I have - in fact I'm sure I don't have a tried-and-true recipe. Let me think about it . . . . . . ■ I think I need to smoke salmon one more time before I release "The Recipe." ■ And Holly, my beautiful wife, is going up to Green Bay this weekend. This might be the time to try a toffee recipe I've been thinking about. Hmmm . . . . . maybe . . . . . . . . ■

Portrait of an aging rock star???

No star, but I am getting older. Which is good. When you think of the alternative. ■ My aging ears are plugged up again. I now have an appointment this Saturday morning with an ear, nose, throat doctor. Hopefully he/she will clean them up and I'll be able to hear again. It's rough being a musician and not be able to hear very well. ■ The salmon is still in the brine. It's been in the brine for 14 hours now. I think I'll give it another 4, or 5 hours and then I'll smoke it. This time I bought enough salmon that we'll have some left for us to nibble on. I wonder if the neighbors will want any . . . . . probably not. ■ Earlier I discovered that one of my recent posts had been reposted. I went and deleted one of them, but apparently deleted the wrong one as the one with the comments is now gone. Sorry about that folks. ■

It's late again . . . . .

11:15 pm - Late again - and no picture this time. I like posts with pictures. I think it adds interest. ■ Not a whole lot going on today. I did make a Sam's Club run for salmon. I've got the salmon in the brine now and I'll smoke it tomorrow night. Holly is going up to Green Bay to visit her mother and wanted to take some salmon to her. ■ Had a short band practice tonight. Worked on a couple of new songs - "Gimme 3 Steps" and "Rough Around The Edges." Both are in rough shape at the moment, but they'll get better as we play them. ■ Time for bed. Good night!

Rain, rain, go away . . . . . .

Blogger's been having a problem uploading images to the blog. Some kind of internal error. Well, at least one made it. ■ It's yet another PC Paint drawing of mine. This time it's a salmon swimming upstream. We had saved a small piece of salmon from the batch I smoked on Saturday. We devoured that piece tonight and I can see why people at the party were raving over it. It is good. Or was. ■ It rained heavily on and off today. And it was so dark almost all day here. The thunderstorms just kept moving in and out. And with all the heavy rain I can see that I've got to get back up and clean the gutters, yet again. ■ I've got a dental appointment tomorrow. A little more dental work to go. ■ My CD/DVD drive stopped writing disks on Saturday. I've got to remember to take the thing out and reseat it. Maybe that'll fix it. Hopefully that'll fix it. ■

Mmmm . . . . it was goooood!

10:20 pm - It's hard to believe that I drew this. Of course it was drawn using PC Paint - it one try - but I'm not sure I could have done better/or worse doing it with a pen. Not what I should say being and artist - but then I've never been good at drawing ???? - yeah, what is it? All I'm going to tell you is that we had it on the grill tonight and it was delicious. That and some corn-on-the-cob. Mmmm . . . . . mama, take me home! ■ A good day today. Warm, but not too hot - relatively low humidity - very pleasant. ■ Productive day too. Got gas for the John Deere; cut the front yards; did a quick cleaning of the garage and put toys that the kids want saved back up onto the "attic" of the garage. ■ My ears are still plugged up and it's hard to hear. I've tried the ear drops that you get at the drug store to see if those won't help, but they're pretty poor. My doc's on vacation right now, but I'll call tomorrow and make an appointment. I called the doc this past Thursday, but they said he was on vacation and his "backup" was only seeing emergencies and that my hearing problem wasn't an emergency. I had to agree, but being a musician it's hard to even hear my acoustic guitar. ■ Time for bed.

2:50 am - It was a fun gig. Lots of people danced and enjoyed the music. We're booked there again in September and I'm already looking forward to going back. ■ The going away party we went to this afternoon was good. We're going to miss Amy. She's moving to Albuquerque, which is a long way from here. I wish they could all stay close to us. ■ The salmon I smoked for the party was a big hit. We saved ourselves a little bit of it - yes, Cheryl, the party didn't get all of it - just about 90% of it. The food at the party was delicious. I was good and only had 1 brat - just don't tell my cardiologist! ■ Tomorrow we have a few minor things to do. Changing the oil in Holly's car; mowing the rest of the lawn; cooking something on the grill; unloading the car with the gig stuff - amps, speaker cabinets, guitars, etc. ■ Medical stuff: I think I've got another ingrown toenail. And my ears have filled with wax and I need the doc to clean 'em. It's hard to hear when your ears keep closing up on you. Oh, and I've been taken off one of my meds as my A1C count dropped to normal. ■ All for now. Goodnight all. ■

Playing' the music . . . . .

Lots of people dancing tonight. And lots of compliments.

Gettin' set up

We go on shortly.

The party started . . .

The women of the Kessler family. Amy (top right) is the daughter
that's moving to New Mexico.

Sunset

11:20 pm - I gotta quit this late night blogging. Time seems to slip away during the day. ■ The picture is from my iPhone taken when the sun was beginning to slide from the sky. The cloud was beautiful - much prettier than it appears in this picture. ■ Today was quiet. Holly was home. She did get out to get her hair done and to order an iPhone. It'll take a coule of weeks for the phone to come in. ■ We did chicken on the grill tonight. It was good. ■ Tomorrow I have to smoke the salmon - it's in brine right now. Should be delicious. ■ I cut our backyard and my next door neighbor's backyard this afternoon. I have to get more gas before I do the rest. I used to go through maybe 2 cans of gas in a summer of mowing. Now it's a lot more with the John Deere. Of course I'm mowing a lot more lawn this year too. ■ We've got a going away party to go to tomorrow. I think I mentioned it in an earlier post this week. One of my other daughters, Amy, is moving to Albuquerque, NM. (I think I said it was Arizona before!) Ok, she's not really my daughter, but the daughter of some of our best friends - so that kind of make her (and her sister) my daughter(s). That party begins in the late afternoon and from there I have to drive to a gig in Carol Stream, IL. ■ More tomorrow - from the party and from the gig. ■