mrclay.rg

Adventures in Painting

Last night I dropped a whole gallon of white paint on the step on our front porch. I was carrying two cans and, needing one hand free to open the screen door, I slyly lodged one can on my knee against the outside wall. Don’t do this. Opening the screen the can tumbled off my

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Piano!

Dear friends, You might’ve received a frantic call from Kathleen or me regarding helping us move an incredibly heavy piano that I purchased at Salvation Army. The item has been successfully transplanted to its new home in our office where it will await repair and tuning for decades. What does this mean to you? You

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Camden Park

One of these days a West Virginia trip is in order and some of my favorite memories are from Camden Park. Originally opened in 1903, it still apparently has its original wooden coasters from the end of the 50′s. Check out the awesome train cars on the Big Dipper (1958). From the skyliner you can

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(sniff)

A few hours after I called in sick on Friday, Kathleen came home, too, with a problem with her tonsils. We were pretty useless all day; she slept, I mostly sneezed uncontrollably, but I managed to install the new CPU in my recording computer and find it defective. I took what I thought was 12-hr

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Increasing web dependence

I recently got a del.icio.us account and am quite happily moved in.

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What’s Hot? Pt. II

Our House Friday Kathleen and I noticed that our AC had stopped blowing cool air. Further investigation revealed that the compressor motor was just making a racket without actually turning the fan blades. We tried reseting the breakers with no luck, now the motor won’t even come on. Chief suspects include burned out motor, low

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New home

Kathleen lives here now and things couldn’t be better. All the great stuff she brought fits wonderfully…including eveydog! though she still sometimes gives me this “ok, this is fun, but when are we going home?” look, or the “I like you, but when does she get home?”. Maybe it’s just me; I haven’t had a

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Last night and thoughts lately

Last night was, at least instrumentally, one of our best..I think. As for vocals, I must apologize to the five people who bothered to stay in the room because the Soft Targets, who played before us, packed up their vocal monitor after they played. They let Josh borrow a drum throne so they had to

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Pics of mom’s 1930 Studebaker Commander

Dad writes, “We are spending our Children’s Inheritance!!”

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Credit and You

FL finally got free annual credit reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Thank Clark for the heads up. Maybe I should be a bass player. Last night I played along to Moose, Al Green, ABBA and 14 Iced Bears. Then I went to bed early. Loser!

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I forget

If I remember to do anything these days it’s thanks to gentle, but consistent, nagging. These help with that: Ta-da Lists Quick management of multiple to-do lists. I have my list page sitting in an Opera sidebar so there’s an ambient level of nagging at all times. It simply does one thing really well. I

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How to help iTunes destroy your mp3 folders

I know better than to use the defaults! I go into the advanced preferences and check “Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized” and change the iTunes folder to where all my neatly organized mp3s folders are. Still I don’t see any songs in the library… I’ll Import them! [Much churning] Ta Da! I now have a

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Get it together

Basically, 100 ways to get your s!@% together. It makes good sense. Unresolved issues (physical, mental, financial, emotional) take energy to live with. They provide distraction, limitations, stress, uncomfortable situations, the list goes on… Of course, they want to sell you a book, but the list spells out what you need to do pretty well.

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Comforting

My girlfriend writes, Awesome! We’ve been on lockdown this afternoon because of some nut outside with a gun… we’re apparently safe now, but who knows…

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A Warning

This came in a package at work a while back. Thankfully no one was injured by the apparently random contents. For our work’s white elephant party I added a stick of gum and a paper clip and repackaged it as a “MacGyver Tool Kit”, complete with infringing artwork.

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Let’s make this quick

November’s French Horns show was great. December’s was to about five people after sitting through endless amelodic saxophone freakouts. Before they started the guy assured us all that, “we won’t be playing any songs tonight.” I’ll save my rant against free jazz for another time. I think 2004′s was the first Christmas in while that

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I’m alive, I swear

Really great news on the way.

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The way home

I turn onto 16th Ave from 9th St, accelerating, all my weight is on the right pedal. In an instant, the chain pops off, the pedal gives way, dropping my foot to the pavement, and the rest of me quickly follows. Nothing is broken, but my clothes are ruined, and I’m generally scraped and cut

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Moving

Tonight is first night I spend in the creepy old Freeman house. Andrew bet me I couldn’t stay there a whole night. If I live through the night I get to keep the house, but if I’m dead in the morning, he gets the mp3 player in my van. In preparation for tonight I called

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More band road trips, please.

Someone go with me to see the Trash Can Sinatras in Atlanta on Sept 14th. They’ve been around for over a decade without coming anywhere near the Southeast and who knows if they will again. Yes, it’s a Tuesday and $15. Suck it up! I’m willing to leave early that evening and possibly drive back

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