“You can’t win ‘em all.” Yeah, there’s no “W” flag over at Jac’s house. Bummer. Cubs apparently lost. Jac’s flag is my barometer. ■ Gout update: I know you’re all interested . . . the foot is better – not gout-free yet, but better. Another dose of the gout meds and I should be fine for awhile. ■ I joined the Cary-Grove Chamber of Commerce today. My parents were members of the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce. Continuing in a tradition? ■ Time, yes, again for bed . . . . . .
Ok, where’s he going with this one? ■ Stereoscopic photographs are 2 photos taken of the same scene, but taken from slightly different angles. You’re probably familiar with the old stereographic viewers that had a circular card with photos on it that you inserted into the handheld viewer and voila – a photo that looked 3D. ■ To view my homemade 3D photo click on it to view it in a larger size – then you’ll have to sort of stare at it and cross your eyes until it forms a 3rd image between the two. That image will be in 3D. This could take some practice, but you’ll get it eventually. ■ When I was in college I was a geography major, geology minor. One of my courses was a class in air photography. In order to see things in 3D, two photos of each image were taken at the same time a few degrees apart. Put next to each other you could discern a 3 dimensional image of the area photographed. While we used special “glasses” to make the viewing easier, most of us in the class were able to view the photos in 3D without their aid. ■ So, go ahead and give it a shot. ■
This is my 2nd day with a gout attack. It started yesterday morning and finally got pretty bad around 6:00 pm or so yesterday. This morning when I got up it was bad so I made a trip to my rheumatologist. By the time I got there and got to see him the foot had improved enough that he didn’t think there was enough fluid to draw out of a joint in order to test it. Yes, they have to stick a needle in one of your affected bone joints and withdraw fluid. It sounds painful to me. At any rate here it is 5:00 pm and the bottom of my left foot is pounding – it feels like the foot is expanding and contracting. It’s difficult to walk. And certainly not without a cane, or two. ■ Time to feed the dogs.
Yup, it appears to be back. It started this morning – I could feel it in my left foot as I descended the stairs. Throughout the day it’s been getting worse. Tomorrow I’ll call my rheumatologist. He needs to stick a needle in the affected area, withdraw some fluid and check it for uric acid crystals. Sounds like a fun time. ■ I’ve got Wednesdays off – at least for right now. And I need them off in order to get some drawing done. ■
It was overcast today. Heck, it rained too. After the rain was over this is what the sky looked like. It actually looks worse than it was. ■ Took a frame inventory today. Need to inventory my mattes tomorrow. It’s always nice to know what one has in stock. ■
This week I need to join our local Chamber of Commerce. It’ll be nice to meet new people and become closer to the community that we’ve been in for the past 30+ years. ■ It is time for bed. I’m tired. ■■■ Oh and I almost forgot – question: should I try making bacon toffee this week?
Last night we went to the Willowbrook Holiday Inn to hear our good friend Terry speak. Terry belongs to Toastmasters and was 1 of 6 people in Toastmaster’s district competition. Terry spoke in front of some 450-500 people and did a fantastic job. His speech was entitled “Of All Things Great and Small.” He took 3rd place in the competition. Congratulations Terry! Afterwords a bunch of us went to an Irish pub and hoisted a few Smithwicks to Terry. Click on the picture for a larger version. And you can click on this link ( http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=952604731802312510 ) to see and hear a previous version of his speech. ■ Makes me think about joining Toastmasters . . . . . . hmmm . . . . . .
Yesterday (Friday) was warm – and so is/was today. The picture at the left was taken last night out on our patio. From left to right: Steve our neighbor, Mollie our dog, Holly my wife, and at the bottom, Zoe our dog – you can just see part of her – she’s the black thing on the bottom. ■ I worked today. May have sold a nice American 50th anniversary Strat. The customer took it home to try it out. I think it’s probably sold. ■ Tonight a bunch of us are going to see our friend and Bullfrog Band photographer, compete in a divisional Toastmaster speaking competition. I know he’s nervous, but he always does a great job at speaking. Maybe I’ll post from there tonight. ■
[iPhone] Dr Woods on 12seconds.tv
It was another good day at work. Enjoy my 12second video!
It was a beautiful day. Sunny and getting warmer. If I could just get rid of this cold I have – sneezing, coughing, sniffling, tired eyes, etc., I feel exhausted. ■ Jac, my across-the-street neighbor, found a “generic” oil filter for my John Deere. When we went out to get a filter for the tractor I got a John Deere brand - $12 for the thing. Jac – how much does the Fram filter cost? ■ Lots to get done in the next couple of days. Time for bed.
. . . and losing. There should be some sort of story with that title. But, no, no story tonight. ■ The picture at the left was taken out of our front living room window. It’s of Jac and Sue’s home and shows, if you look closely, the “W” flag for a Cub’s win. Hard to see, I know, but it is there! ■ Tomorrow – how do you repair a lamp?
The ol’ John Deere – ok, it’s not really old, but it sure makes life easier. This morning Jac and I went to Home Depot and picked up a filter and oil (and for me a new cordless drill. – My old one had been recalled as a fire hazard!) Jac performed the oil changing magic on the little beast and I think we’re about ready to go. All we’re waiting for is the grass to grow – and it looks like it’s starting. Hey, Jac, thanks so much for the help. I do appreciate it. ■ Back to work.
This was the scene out our kitchen window this morning around 6:00 am. A fire truck and an ambulance at a neighbor’s house. I couldn’t tell which neighbor it was, but the ambulance took someone away. ■ It’s a little past 9:00 am and I’ve already been to and back from the dentist’s office. Next visit is in June. ■ I need to get an oil filter and oil for my John Deere; need to finish the historical drawing and get that sent out. And I have to go to work at noon again. More money for me, but it sure does cut down on the amount of time I have to get other things done. ■
I’m working on a drawing of a historical building in Philadelphia. You can see the beginning of the drawing in this post. This building is from 1683 – pretty old. I hope I’m doing it justice. ■ I had to go in early to work today (noon instead of 3:00 pm) and I’ll have to go in early tomorrow too. Sure cuts down on my drawing time. ■ And I almost forgot – I’ve got a dentist appointment tomorrow morning. ■ I’m coming down with a cold, or something like that. I started getting stuffed-up yesterday and today it’s been getting worse by the hour. Time for bed. ■
work.” Yup, don’t eat this delicious 5-layer--old-recipe-from-the-farm--my-mouth-is-watering—desert. I’m upstairs smelling this wonderful smell and I can’t have any ‘cause it’s going to work. How many times has that happened? Lots! ■ It’s been an overcast rainy day today. Not the type of weather that I wanted for my day off. ■ Tomorrow I’d better get an oil filter and oil for my John Deere. The grass is turning green and before you know it I’ll have to start mowing again. 
Warmer days, indeed! The temps are definitely beginning to rise – we’re on our way towards summer. And the dogs like it too. That’s Zoe and Mollie on our neighbor’s deck looking in the back door in hopes that food will appear! ■ I worked today while Holly took the train down to Chicago to see Libby and Jay and watch Jay play in some squash games/matches? She called me from the train and she’s on her way home. ■ Got an email from one of my old Navy buddies – Colli – he found my website and blog. I’ll have to dig out an old picture of us from those days of yore and post it here. ■ I hear Mollie barking to get in. Gotta go.
I took a few quick pictures with my corporate camera today. “Corporate” only because my company bought it. I need it for taking pictures of homes to draw. Without it, it’s hard to do business. ■ I do too much “wandering around” on the net . . . Question: What famous actress (aren’t all actress’ famous?) in a Hitchcock film has a very famous actress daughter? Give me their names. Oh, and give me the famous film the mother was in. ■
Yup . . . another sure sign of spring – the Cubs “W” win flag on my across-the-street neighbor Jac’s garage. And no, they didn’t win today, but this was taken before today’s game had started and they had won their previous game. ■ As you can see from the picture, the sun came out today! We’ve had two overcast days and even this morning the sky was covered with clouds. Sun – sun – we need more sun! ■
As it turned out I didn’t have to work tonight. Our cribbage group had made plans to meet at a local watering hole where they have a 
I went back into the archives and pulled a photo of one of our lilac bushes from 2001. It's been dreary out for the past couple of days and I thought I'd brighten things up! At any rate, the our lilacs haven't' started to bloom yet. I'll post some pictures when they do. ■ Only worked an hour and a half yesterday. We've been losing/and/or rescheduling some lessons due to baseball and soccer starting up and they just didn't need me for the rest of the night. ■ I've been working on some drawings - one in particular I've been working on sketches of it for the past couple of weeks. This is the one that I'm trying to piece together from 5 photos - none of which show the whole house, and a description and "remembered" floor plan. It's quite an undertaking. ■ Off to work in a few minutes.
We had a quiet day. Even now the dogs are lying down - Mollie in the upstairs hallway and Zoe - curled up on top of my sweater that I had worn and spread out on the bed with intentions of folding it and putting it back in the dresser. That folding will have to wait awhile. ■ Had a great dinner at Cheryl and Bill's house. They cooked ham and asparagus while we brought mashed potatoes and some smoked salmon and steelhead trout. It was a good meal topped off with some delicious pudding for dessert. Mmmm . . . . . ■ Smoking fish: Holly mistakenly brought home some steelhead trout rather than salmon. They do look rather similar at the store and I do understand how she mistook one for the other. She went back and bought some salmon to smoke, but I thought why not try and smoke the trout also. I'm glad I did. It was good. Maybe I should try some other types of fish too. ■ And the week begins . . . . .
Hmmm . . . . . can you guess what TV show this was from? Come on . . . . . Ok, I'm not going to tell you - you should know. This one was parked in front of our house (you can see Holly in the picture - and if you look closely you can see Mollie just to the left of the lamp post.) This picture was taken 10/31/2000, just so you don't think it's still parked there. Lest you think that there was only one of these, there were somewhere between 256 and 321 used in filming the show. That's a lot of cars! Can you tell me the "name" of the car? How 'bout what engines were used in the car(s)? Alright, how 'bout just the make and model? Enough on the car . . . . . ■ Our gig for tomorrow night was canceled. There was a mixup with days and dates. Bummer - I was looking forward to using my new (it was built in the '80s) amp. ■ We're going to try and get out and see our son next month. That's still in the planning stage . . . . . ■
In reading the news I noticed that the US Navy's ship on station watching the pirates was the USS Bainbridge. There was a ship of the same name when I was in the navy. In fact the ship that currently carries the Bainbridge name is the 5th one to do so. The one I was familiar with was decommissioned in 1995. At any rate, I was going through my pc looking for pictures of my ship - the USS Long Beach (CGN-9) - when I stumbled across this picture. It's one of me and a college friend, Sunti, taken when I was in Bangkok in 1972. Sunti had moved back to Thailand and I think was working for IBM at the time. Memories . . . the old photos bring them back. And, boy, was I skinny then! The passing of time brings changes! ■ 
I'm back at work today. Took yesterday off as the pain med made me woozy and unable to drive a car safely. ■ Had to change the power tubes in an amp tonight. I'd never done it before, but it was pretty simple and straightforward. If I ever have to change tubes in any of my amps I'll know how to do it. And thinking about it I've got quite a few. I've never had to replace tubes in any of them -yet. One of the amps I purchased as it was not only very inexpensive, but some reviews had said that simply replacing the stock tubes with better quality tubes and replacing the stock speaker with a better speaker gave you a $3000 boutique amp. Now that I know how easy it is to replace the tubes . . . ■ And speaking of amps - I'm anxious to try out my "new" (actually built in the 1980's) Laney AOR 30 amp. I bought it used a couple of weeks ago and had a couple of things repaired on it. I've had another one of these up in my office for a few years, but it's too fragile to gig with. This "new" one is now gig-ready. I'll use it this Saturday night for our gig at Jimmy D's. ■ Oh, the picture in this post is the view from my office chair. ■ Time for bed.
It was 4 years ago at this time when we were in Ireland. That's Holly (middle), Terry and Ellyn having a cold brew at Sean's Bar in Athlone. Sean's is the oldest continuing public house in Ireland having been established in 900 AD. Sweet memories. ■ I saw the dentist today. He prescribed a med to get rid of the toothache and a painkiller. The pain med is strong and really makes you sort of woozy. ■ A few minutes ago Holly saw a racoon climbing up a pine tree just a few feet from the bay window in our living room. I think it's just waiting until it gets dark so it can proceed to it's destination without being seen. ■
Last week was busy and so is this one. This past week I worked all 7 days - 6 at the guitar store and Sunday afternoon was spent at the store's Rock U concert. ■ Pictures: The top left - taken from the back stairway of the Clearwater Theatre which abuts the Fox River; top right - backstage passes that I made for all the kids playing at the concert; middle 2 pictures - some of the kids performing; bottom left - Mollie all covered with snow; bottom right - yours truly grilling burgers during the snow fall. ■ And now I have a toothache. I'll have to see the dentist tomorrow. ■ Bullfrog has a gig this weekend. I'm looking forward to that. Gigs for the past couple of months have been few and far between. In fact gigs are getting harder to find. I think bar owners are feeling the effects of these rough economic times. I know I am. ■ Off to bed.
