afraid of dogs

My daughter is afraid of dogs.

She has been for about as long as I’ve known her.

About a year ago, the church we were attending had a summer picnic in a local park. One of the newer families in the church—I can’t even remember who it was—brought their dog. Ava was more than a little concerned to see the dog walking around unleashed, especially when it sauntered her way. In fact, when the dog came within about 20 feet of her—that's right, twenty—Ava became visibly tense. Then she shuddered and started to cry.

I knelt to comfort her—and to address her overreaction.

“Hey, calm down; it’s okay. The dog is over there and it’s not bothering anyone. It is not even close to you. And if it does come any closer, I am right here and I won’t let it get you.”

But she wasn’t listening. Instead, she was constantly looking over her shoulder to see where the dog was. I added a few degrees of gentle sternness to my voice.

“Ava, look at me. Don’t look at the dog; look at me. Do you trust me? I am right next to you. You have to trust me. I will protect you.”

Do you trust me?

As the adult in the situation, I know that my daughter’s fear is irrational. I can see the big picture. The dog is all the way over there minding its own business while my daughter melts down. She is unable to take her eyes off her own situation as she perceives it. Even though she knows that I am near and will protect her, and even though she says she trusts me, in the moment, all she can think about is the dog and how it’s going to get her, or suddenly bark loudly, or step on her feet, or whatever else she is concerned about. What she knows is trumped by what she sees.

Boy, do I know what that’s like. I’m encouraged to know I am not the only one.

And in the fourth watch of the night [Jesus] came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

As I instruct Ava and try to help her overcome her irrational fear, I catch a glimpse of what is must be like for my Father who gently but firmly reminds to take my eyes off of what distresses me and just trust Him. I also gain a little insight into what it must have been like for the disciples and the Messiah. The disciples were with Jesus constantly. They heard the teaching. They saw the miracles. They shared three years living with the Son of Almighty God. And yet, time and again, the Teacher admonished them with, “Don’t be afraid” and “Why did you doubt?” It's no different for me. I have multiple copies of the only 66 books full of absolute truth. I cannot see my Lord, but I can know Him. And still, I fail to remember what I already know. I let my imagination get the best of me and I take my eyes of faith off of Jesus. I resemble the unnamed father of old as I cry out, “Lord, I do trust You; help my distrust.”

I have every confidence that He will.

~

I wrote the bulk of this entry within weeks of the picnic I described, but never ended up posting it. I just rediscovered the rough draft version today as I was cleaning out my Google drive. Dogs still make Ava nervous until she gets to know them, but she is learning to have self control. I still have teo remind myself of what I already know. God is sovereign; God is good; God loves me. The biggest trial that was facing our family at the time of this writing has been overcome, and as James 1:2-4 promised, we are the better for it.

still here

Music Set Recaps... where are they?
Well, I haven't been keeping up with the music set recaps... I've been able to put together quite a few sets over the past few months, and have had a great time doing it. I have been forcing myself out of my normal patterns, which, though not always easy, is usually positive in the end. I have learned a lot about myself and about my previous church experiences. I have come to realize that for all the great teaching I've enjoyed, there are some startling deficiencies... things I don't remember being taught at all. I am starting to realize how I have been shaped by both the things taught and the things not taught. That's not to throw stones at my old church from a distance; it's an honest assessment of the holes in my own thinking that's long overdue.


Learning about worship
I've also been taking in a lot of information from the likes of Bob Kauflin, Kevin Twit, Harold Best, and Keith Getty. If you know anything about any of those guys, you know that they're all pretty different and come at things from very different angles. That's a good thing. I'd love to distill some of their wisdom, but if you've had at least one conversation with me sometime in the past six months, I have most likely referenced something they said (even if I just paraphrased it incognito-like.) The enormous amount of learning I've done from these men has raised a huge question in my mind: Why is this the first time I'm hearing this stuff?! That's obviously related to the above paragraph as well. It's silly to point fingers and blame other people. I'm just happy that I'm starting to learn some of these things now.


New acoustic guitar
Hey, I got a new guitar. That's probably old news to many, but it's worth mentioning just the same. I've been a Taylor 712 player for just about 10 years now. For the past few months, though, something wasn't cutting it anymore. I'm not sure exactly what it was... I think changing churches did have something to do with it... getting into more roots-oriented music (i.e. bluegrass, alt.country, singer/songwriter, etc.) probably had something to do with it as well. Something about the Taylor just wasn't happening. It was too mellow, had too little low end, and could be a little thin. Granted, some of those traits are what make a Taylor a Taylor; I think those things were exacerbated by the smaller body of the X12 series, particularly in models as old as mine. I know there are a lot (a lot!) of diehard fans of the Taylor X12 series out there on the internet. I still think it's a great guitar... it just wasn't what I was looking for anymore.

Two guitars "got away" before I found my way to a message board posting advertising a 1992 Santa Cruz OM for sale. It sounds shallow, but the cosmetics were what drew me in at first. Everything was exactly what I was looking for, from the blank headstock to the lack of fretboard markers, to the naturally aged finish, to the pickguard, to the company logo inlay at the 12th fret, and to the fact that it was a smaller company. And that was all based on a pretty poor picture. When I saw it in person, it was even better. And it literally took a single strum for me to realize that this is was "the one." That was back in mid-October, and it's only gotten better. I've been fortunate to have a lot of "best gear decision ever" moments over the past year or two, but this has to be near the top.

Two weeks ago I was playing the guitar on Sunday morning. We introducing a song called "Jesus, I Come." The song starts with just an acoustic guitar, and has a really cool Fmaj7 chord shape that my friend Clyde taught me... it's really sweet sounding voicing. As I was playing the first Fmaj7 in the song, I tried to suppress a grin on my face. I simply could not believe how good the guitar sounded. Right then and there, I offered up a quick Thanks so much for letting me enjoy something this nice prayer to God, the giver of all good gifts. We all need reminders to thank God more for things like undeserved salvation from eternal hell. Just as often, I think we need to remember to thank the Lord for the little things... finding a close parking spot when we're late, eating an amazing hot pastrami sandwich (I like sandwiches), laughing yourself silly in the company of friends... we just need to be more thankful period.

The Taylor went on to live with a good friend of my friend Daniel, who plays bass at my church. He seems to like it a lot, so happy endings all around.


New guitar amp
I don't know if I've ever talked about my newest guitar amp on here. The story of how I came by the amp is pretty entertaining, and probably warrants a telling in the near future. One of the other recent "best gear decision ever" was the purchase of a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Classic. This is Mesa's take on a fairly straightforward American classic guitar amp... Fender in heritage, so it's got that huge clean sound that a 6L6 amp can give you. It's got beautiful cleans, amazing reverb, and stupendous... pardon me for waxing hyperbolic. It's pretty much the best amp I've ever had, it really is. And now I'm trying to sell it. As much as I love it, it's simply too big and heavy for my current needs. It's gotten to the point where I loathe having to take it anywhere, even though I'm always 100% satisfied when I use it.

But after about 5 years of serious tone-chasing, I'm starting to realize that there's really no such thing as "the one" when it comes to gear, at least not for me. Once you reach a certain caliber of gear--price having nothing to do with it--you may start to realize that there's not really a single right "one," but rather a certain combination of things that make something "work" for you. Sometimes more than one piece of gear possesses that same potion of qualities that speak to you. To stretch the analogy, it's kind of like looking for a spouse. There's not so much the right "one" to be looking for as much as there is right type of "one" to be looking for. Whoever you choose becomes "the one," by default, and then it's up to you to stick with your choice until the end. I guess that's where the analogy falls apart. I guess to boil it down, if the Lonestar were smaller and lighter, I would keep it and would probably never look back. But since those things are becoming a problem, I'm taking the opportunity to look elsewhere, hopefully for something equally beautiful, amazing, and stupendous.


Wrapping it up
Boy, that's a lot of writing about "stuff." I've been fighting materialism a lot lately, and hopefully these words convey the balance I've sought to pursue: enjoying blessings without becoming attached to them. Even the apparent contradiction between calling the Santa Cruz OM "the one" and talking about how there's really no such thing... at the end of the day it's just stuff, and it's not that important.

"Renounce material captivity; proclaim the kingdom of Jesus Christ." - Crashdog, from the song "Proclamation"

ventura county fair 2009

A couple weeks ago I took a day off work so our family (and Lisa R.) could enjoy dollar day at the Ventura County fair. It's become something of a tradition, as we've done this for the past three years now. Every year has been better than the one before, probably due in large part to the kids' increasing age. Additionally, the weather was pretty cool this year, even cold at times. That is a very nice switch from the usual August heat wave, let me tell you. Also, this was the first year we didn't have to bring a stroller. Hopefully we will again bring a stroller someday, but that's another story.

This year we decided to walk around the entire fair before deciding what to do. I had no idea the fair was so large. In fact, about a month ago, I was telling my friend Ryan that though nice, I didn't think the Ventura County Fair was that big. Certainly it is nothing like the LA County Fair, but it is about twice as large as I previously thought. You care, right?

Anyway, the first stop after a preemptive bathroom break and the Sheriff & CHP meet and greet--our kids love seeing cop cars driving around, but have never wanted to talk to any of them at the fair--was one of the arts & crafts buildings. I'm not surprised we never went in that building before, seeing as the arts & craft buildings were my absolute least favorite parts of the fair when I was a kid. The theme of these exhibits was collections. People had displays of their various collections... erasers, New York paraphernalia, shot glasses, dolls, super heroes, and so on. The kids loved it.

After that, we walked around all the game booths (which I never knew were at this fair), and the "big kid/adult" rides. Our kids ran from one to the next, pointing and yelling, "I WANT TO GO ON THAT!!!" After telling our kids they were chickens had no effect (which would make more sense if I actually posted about our Disneyland trip back in May), I pointed out the height requirement that prevented them from riding any of the big rides.

"Do the people that work at these shops in the airport fair have any idea what the prices are EVERY PLACE IN THE WORLD?!?! 'Yeah, $14 for a tuna sandwich; we think that's fair.'" - J. Seinfeld, "I'm Telling You For the Last Time"

The biggest expense of us going to the fair is of course the food. Even this year, with only me being able to eat fair food (food allergies, etc.), it still constituted the bulk of our expenditures. So it was in this section that I partook of my first "fair food" of the day - deep fried Oreos. At $4 for four cookies, they weren't exactly cheap, but weren't that expensive either. But still, I wish I had my $4 back. In theory, anything fried surpasses a minimum level of "goodness" right? I'm also particular about my food, however. Not as particular as a certain friend of mine, but particular nonetheless. And I say if it's fried, it should be crispy. The fried Oreos were not crispy, as you may imagine. Furthermore, the whipped cream that was sprayed all over the piping hot oreos proceeded to melt immediately, leaving a not particularly appetizing river of grease & sugar soup in the bottom of the tray.

We decided to get rides out of the way first so that we could have a leisurely rest of the day at the fair. We got one sheet of tickets and let the kids pick what they wanted to ride. The T chose to go on a race car ride with me. About three-quarters of the way through the ride, some kid's grandmother started yelling to the attendant that their grandchild wanted to get off (or something like that). The ride stopped and the kid was like what are you talking about? The grandmother herself was a piece of work. How can I say this nicely... no, I'll just leave it at that. And even though the attendant told everyone to say seated because the ride wasn't over yet, the girl in the car in front of us unbuckled herself and proceeded to walk around the track, looking for the exit. Some people...

I then rode the helicopter ride with T and Ave. I posted about this ride last year, and was a little surprised to see that Mr. AAA was the attendant this year too. See last year's post if that makes no sense.

This year, we weren't going to miss the pig races like we had the previous two years. That meant staking out our seats early. Andrea and the kids had lunch from home, and I had some more fair food - polish sausage sandwich w/ onions & peppers. One of my peculiarities with food is that I trick myself into thinking whatever I choose has to be the best thing ever. This usually means I have a horrible time deciding on anything. One time, Andrea stated the obvious - "It's not like you can never eat here again..." and that has actually stuck with me, making such decisions easier. (I know, it's such an elementary problem to have. I can't help it.) The lunch was pretty good. Not amazing, but not bad, and not too expensive, relatively speaking. Adjacent to the pig racing track was a track for the "turkey stampede." I'm not really sure what that was because a crowd of people stood around that track, blocking our view. I had to keep reminding the kids that it was okay because seeing the pigs would be much more rewarding, and we had great seats for that. A HUGE plus of the crowd blocking our view was that I had a chance to take this incognito photo of a couple wearing matching Dragonforce apparel. Dragonforce is a classical metal band that reminds me of something like Iron Maiden on fast forward. Maybe? I dunno. I don't listen to that kind stuff at all. I listen to plenty of metal of course, but I've never really gotten into the modern symphonic metal stuff. The talent is there for sure, but I can't really take it seriously. I know, that's coming from me, who listens to a lot of music other people wouldn't take seriously.

I know I'm right in the middle of the pig race story, but this is a perfect time to talk about something else. You see, I was wearing my Crucified t-shirt at the fair. For those who may not know, they were a Christian punk and hardcore band that started back in the 80s. They then changed into a crossover band, finally settling into a thrash metal style. They were easily one of the most influential bands in the harder end of Christian music. The music was great and the lyrics were too. They broke up in 1993, did a final show in 1995, and then reunited for a few (or more?) shows earlier this year. A lot of younger hard music fans may not know who they were, but their influence and notoriety was pretty big, both in the secular and Christian scenes.

So we were walking and this old metalhead guy in his fifties says, "Hey man, I like your Crucified shirt." I would have returned the compliment, except I didn't find his Cannibal Corpse shirt that cool. Come to think of it... nah, it couldn't be. But maybe, just maybe, it was "Biker James," a guy who played in a Christian punk band called Godsent Humans, and then went on to play in a band called Modus Operandi. I know he did stuff before then, and is one of the big names in the So Cal Christian Punk scene, but I only know him for those last two gigs. Man, now I hope it wasn't him, because if it was, I totally missed out. Afterward, Andrea asked me if that made my day, and it kind of did.

Until, that is, we walked into one of the vendor buildings. The display right in front of us was for some kind of ceramic garlic grater. We were walking away, when I heard a voice coming out of the speakers. "Hey you... in the Crucified shirt..." I looked over at the garlic grater booth, incredulously. Ok, this guy's good at working the crowd, I thought. But then he said, "Is that the same as the old Christian speed metal band?" I walked over with half a smile on my face, still bewildered. I answered affirmatively. He then asked if they were still together. When I said they had reunited for a few shows, it was his turn to be bewildered. So in between his demonstrations, he'd turn to me and talk about how growing up, his dad was a pastor and he hated the music, but couldn't criticize the lyrics. He also mentioned another band he liked back then--Believer--who were another pretty big name in the Christian metal scene of old. We ended up buying one of the garlic grater dishes, not really because of the above events, but because they were kind of cool. It reminded me of my Grandfather, who used to come home from the LA fair with a ton of stuff/junk from the live infomercials.

Anyway, back to the pigs. It was worth the wait, and the kids loved it too.





I had half a mind to write thought bubbles for members of the crowd in this picture, but I don't know how to do that, and I ran out of good ideas. I like how excited the little kid in the bottom right is. I think the adult in the striped shirt looks really angry, like his pig is losing the race. And the kid on the left... I blurred his face to preserve his dignity, which just makes him look strange... but he looks hungry to me. Sorry.


After the pig races were done and the emcee was yakking on about buying merchandise and thanks for coming and all that, two of the pigs were busy raiding the food barrel. Classic.


Finally, Ave got to ride a pony. At $7 bucks a pop, it sure isn't cheap. Especially since my friend said we should try Griffith Park, where it is cheaper and the track is much larger. She loved it, though. It was a nice contrast to the three kids behind her (one of which tried to cut in front of Ava in line!). The older boy was fine, seemingly oblivious to the chaos happening behind him. So picture Ava, riding happily. Then Older Blond Boy, riding contentedly. Then you have pale pasty sister, whimpering quietly. Then you have Mom, who is trying to simultaneously comfort the whimpering girl and the brother behind her, who was screaming bloody murder. Perhaps the best part was when the Screamer was being put on the pony, Mom walked directly in front of it, causing it to start off at a healthy trot. One of the attendants jogged after the pony and got it under control. Then, Mom had the gall to chide the Screamer for scaring the horse, when she was the one who startled it. Gah!

This picture doesn't capture Ave's sheer joy, but it is a pretty cute one.


I think that about does it.

Oh, I also got chocolate covered bacon. It was pretty good, and really good the next day after being refrigerated overnight.

long time, no posting

Happy inauguration day (I guess). It's interesting... I didn't vote for Obama, but I kind of wanted to see the ceremony. And I don't want to keep picking on the guy, but I certainly would have no interest in watching it if "that other guy" had won the election... unless "that other guy" was the guy I actually wanted to vote for. But not to get off on that tangent. Suffice to say that I'm curious and hopeful to see how the next four years go. Oddly enough, I've been praying for Obama more than I ever did for Bush. Not sure why that is...

Speaking of that, I don't consider myself a huge fan of our previous president. Some things were good, but some things left me thinking, "Um, I don't know about that." And then there were those, "What were you thinking?" moments. But I've gotta say that the way he has handled his exit and the transition of power has really endeared me to him in a way I haven't been since 9/11. And his commuting of the sentences of former Border Patrol agents Ramos & Compean was just icing on the cake. I applaud you, sir.

Other than that not much else is new. The weather outside is warmer, but my office is still freezing.

I've started using V-Picks. There's been a lot of talk about them on various message boards, a lot of it overblown hype, but I decided to give them a try. It's a little early to tell, but I'm liking them so far.

I also decided to ring in the new year with a smaller pedalboard. (yes, that's right.) Since I don't play that much anymore, I decided to downsize to my old pedalboard. I liked being able to have all my pedals in one place (on the gigantic PedalTrain) but it was just so big. I narrowed it down to essentials and extra flavors, if you will. The blessing and curse of my pedal choices are that most of them are some form of dirt (overdrive/fuzz/etc.). This means that I can swap those in and out at will and still maintain a similar sound... sonic differences but functional sameness. I will readily admit that I spent a lot more time last year buying gear and fooling with it than actually playing. So this year, it's time to simplify and actually play guitar.

Speaking of which, I used some money received towards the end of last year to buy a new guitar. It's crazy, isn't it? I barely have time to play one guitar, and I keep getting more. What a strange sickness music gear is. I think I will devote an entire post to the subject of guitars, especially since the way this came about is kind of interesting (to me at least). But to tide you over (since I am certain you all like looking at guitar pictures and/or pictures I have taken as much as I do), here it is:



I'm still playing drums in Mainstream w/ Brian, Dave, and Clyde. Sunday was probably our most fun set to date. I don't know what it was, but something just seemed to click. The creative juices were flowing like crazy. I did make a few bloopers, but actually kept enough wits about me to cover them up and make it seem like I did things on purpose. I had a blast sitting behind the kit and worshiping at full volume.

I cancelled my emusic.com membership because I decided I didn't need to spend the money. I've been listening to a lot of old Jesus Music from the 70s. Kind of random.

And on the odd chance there's someone reading this who likes music on the slow and dreamy side of the spectrum, check out Au Revior Borealis. I've been spinning Dark Enough for Stars a lot lately and enjoy it more with each listen. Moody, ambient instrumentals are mixed in with more traditional slo-core/post-rock songs that feature just about everything I like about that genre—lazy vocals, solid but subdued drums, and dreamy guitar soundscapes full of atmosphere. Good stuff.

"ryan started the fire"

In all seriousness, looks like fires are back again. This morning we took a long walk to watch the helicopters and look at smoke from the Sylmar fire. There's a golf course a couple streets over and helicopters were picking up water all morning. Every now and then I still hear them.

Sounds like at least one friend's house may be gone. I've got a friend/co-worker who lives in that area as well and I haven't heard anything from him. So who knows? I know God is sovereign and in control and we can take comfort in that.

Here's the smoke we could see from streets around our neighborhood.




Here are some helicopter shots.




Everyone was getting into the picture taking. It was a little eerie to see people camped out in their pickup trucks watching the helicopters. People kept streaming out of the neighborhood to watch the happenings.

I hope that this guy is some sort of freelance photographer. Otherwise, he is way too serious about his hobby (note accessory belt).


And here's scooter guy, who couldn't be bothered with taking off his helmet. After all, wouldn't want everyone to see his helmet hair.

you say goodbye, I say hello

Some of these may not actually happen; some have happened already.

Goodbye: $30 and front window tint (that was there when I bought the car)
Hello: No longer having constantly check my mirrors for the CHP

Goodbye: Fulltone Full-Drive 2
Hello: Barber LTD

Goodbye: Fender Mustang
Hello: Hagstrom Viking

Goodbye: Los Angeles County
Hello: Ventura County

Goodbye: The last vestige of my nonconformity
Hello: That face website that Andrea convinced me to join

Halloween 08

birthday bash, part 2

My actual birthday started out with us at church. Normally we attend both morning services, spending the first service in the cry room with our kids and the second service in our Sunday School class (sometimes with the kids, sometimes without).

We've chosen the cry room option rather than sending the kids off to the nursery & Sunday School because we want to establish the tradition of worshiping as a family. It's not that church-going should only be a tradition. The world is full of people who attend church because they've always done so, or because it's just tradition, or because they feel guilty if they don't.

My wife and I, like most of those reading this blog, attend church because we love our Savior and His people. But one way we can establish the fact that Christ is the head of our home is by openly prizing Him before the kids. And church is a great opportunity to do this. Some people have suggested that our children may be too young to sit through a church service. I disagree. We have been working on training the kids to sit still and quietly listen to what is said, and we have seen great progress. We try to keep a level head about it because after all, 3 hours is a long time for toddlers to sit still. That said, we believe that what we are doing is important and worthwhile so we try to sit together for at least one service every week.

Anyway, because of our exhausting day on Saturday, we were not able to go to both services. Let me tell you—the cry room during second service is a whole 'nother ballgame. Wow... just, wow. When the service started, we were the only ones in the room. The TV was blasting so I turned down the volume just a bit. As the morning went on, I started to regret that decision more and more. It was so noisy in there. Granted, it is a cry room and you can't expect it to be like a library. But wow. What a circus.

Later that afternoon, Andrea's parents came to our place and watched the kids so we could go out for my birthday. Andrea kept the details a secret, directing my driving in vague generalities. All she told me was take the 210E and exit at Lake Ave. We drove past the area that less than 24 hours later would be full of flames. Interesting timing in that regard.

When Andrea said turn left off the freeway, my first thought was The Hat. I've mentioned on more than one occasion that we should go to The Hat some day.

I happened to guess correctly. But what I was not expecting was that this was just the first stop of many.

Andrea's plan involved picking items of food that I liked and then researching to find out the area's best offerings. We were at The Hat to get onion rings, and they were really good. I don't know if they were the best I've ever had, but they were really good. They were really yeasty, which I liked and Andrea didn't. There sure were a lot of them, too. I'd estimate about 3 onions worth of rings inside that brown paper bag. I knew we had more stops to make so I paced myself accordingly. We ate about a third of the rings and then headed out with the leftovers in tow.

The next stop was Fredo's Phillys for Philly Cheesesteaks. Fredo's was a little hole in the wall place, which is usually a good sign. Andrea got a regular Philly (meat, onions, cheese) and I got a Philly Hoagie. I know it's kind of "wrong" to mess up a Philly by adding the cold lettuce and tomatoes, but I happen to like the variety. I topped it off with a Hank's Root Beer, which was excellent.

The sandwiches were really interesting because the meat was sliced a little thicker than every other cheesesteak I've had. This imparted more of a meaty flavor than I'm used to. On just about every other example I've had, the cheese flavor tends to overpower the meat flavor. Make no mistake—Fredo's Phillys still oozed cheese all over the place, but the meat flavor was still quite distinct. About a third of the way into the sandwich, I really started to hit a wall. I managed to eat three-fourths of the sandwich before calling it quits. I could have continued if I really wanted to, but I knew that dessert was coming.

And come it did. We headed to Old Town Pasadena to a place called 21 Choices. It is pretty much the frozen yogurt equivalent of places like Maggie Moo's, Marble Slab, and Cold Stone. Except it's much, much more. They mix their own yogurt flavors daily and have a ridiculous amount of mix ins available, everything from fresh fruit to candy to cereal to cookies... you name it and they've probably got it. And to top it all off (no pun intended), the service was excellent. Our server was very helpful and friendly. After much deliberation, Andrea decided on Snickers yogurt with Twix. I settled on Mayan Chocolate with Circus Animal Cookies. Meanwhile the guy in line behind us was having trouble deciding what flavor of yogurt to get. The server said, "Let me get you some samples!" She came back with a spoonful of every single flavor. Overkill, yes, but the manner in which it was done exuded warmth and friendliness. I would definitely go back to 21 choices again. Somehow I managed to eat the whole thing despite my full stomach. Then again, it was really good, and I do like frozen yogurt.

It was nice to spend a few hours with my bride and not have the kids along. We ended up talking about them quite a bit, though. It was nice to be able to walk and hold my wife's hand instead of my children's hands.

Random side note: on Sunday morning as we walked across the church campus, Ava was holding Andrea's hand. Andrea was holding my hand. I was holding Trevor's hand. And I felt really goofy.

But yeah, it was nice to get away for a few hours and just relax together.

We drove back home and talked with Andrea's parents for a little while. Then they went home and we watched the prior week's episode of The Office.

Then on Monday night, we went out for dessert again. Andrea's original plan was to have Monday night's dessert after 21 Choices on Sunday night, but I'm glad she decided not to do that. So Monday night we went to Dippin' Dots. Once Trevor figured out that the dots were indeed ice cream, he enjoyed it. He got a Watermelon Ice; Andrea split a Strawberry Ice with Ava; I got Caramel Brownie Sundae. Tasty, but nothing compared to the previous night. Still fun, though.

That just about wraps up my birthday happenings. On Tuesday night, I bought something with some birthday money I received, and last night I came home to find that my new (to me) iPod had arrived safe and sound. The Live dot com cashback deal was at 30%. Birthday money plus a refurbished & recently discontinued model plus 30% cashback (in 60 days) meant that I got a new iPod with plenty of storage and I still have a couple bucks leftover. And all for less than my old 4th generation iPod color cost (see below)*.

Win!

Getting it set up was kind of a nightmare: the iTunes update kept freezing, and then I discovered that the iPod was originally formatted for a Mac, and then the restorer kept freezing. But finally I got it working. The music files on my computer are kind of a mess right now. Actually, the files are more organized than ever, but iTunes can't find most of them because I've moved them all around. So I've only got about 2GB on the iPod at the moment, but what a good 2GB they are!

And let me tell you... gapless album playback makes it all worth it... every single penny. The flashy menus and new features are just "nifty gifties" but eliminating that split-second pause between tracks that are supposed to be linked together makes me smile.

* As far as I know, that is. My old 4th gen. iPod was a gift from my parents, but I think I remember them asking me if the price they were going to pay was fair.

birthday bash

"Sunken.anchor - Dude, it's your birthday!"

So read a thread I read Monday morning on a certain message board I frequent. I certainly appreciated the well-wishing, and it was a nice way to cap off the weekend.

On Saturday, Andrea organized a bridal shower for her sister at her parents' house. That meant I had the kids for the afternoon. It was suggested that I find food in the kitchen, but since the kitchen was occupied by five or six stressed out women, I figured eating out was a much better option. I gave the choice to Trevor and he picked "the Donald's." We drove to the golden arches and proceeded inside. My future brother-in-law Mike planned to meet us there.

I don't understand why McDonald's is so popular. You know, with locations in most countries worldwide and the signs they used to have boasting of how many burgers they'd served...

J. Seinfeld said it best:

And why is McDonald's still counting? How insecure is this company? 40 gillion, 80 million, zillion, billion, killion, tillion... What is this? Does it mean anything to anyone? "89 billion sold." Okay, I'll have one. What is their ultimate goal? To have cows just surrendering voluntarily? Showing up at the door—"We'd like to turn ourselves in. We see the sign... we realize we have very little chance out there. We'd like to be a Happy Meal if that's at all possible."

But really, I don't know why or how people prefer McDonald's food to just about every other fast food joint out there. Burger King? Carl's Jr.? Wendy's? Certainly none of these are high class establishments, but I'd eat at any of them before eating at McDonald's.

But I digress.

Trevor likes McDonald's, mostly because of the kiddie playgrounds. Sadly, the location I picked did not have said playground and he was not too happy about that. I ordered them each a cheeseburger—"cheesyburgers" as Ava says—and ordered myself a Big Mac. We split an order of fries.

I used to think McDonald's fries were pretty good; now I think they are pretty much not good at all.

T ate all of his fries, his whole cheeseburger, a couple bites of my Big Mac, and about a third of Ave's cheeseburger. She ate all her fries and the remaining two-thirds of her cheeseburger. T was still hungry and kept asking for something else to eat. Mike had still not arrived; I did my best to deflect T's persistent cries of "I'm still hungry" while reminding him that he only needs to ask for things one time. Mike arrived and ordered his food. I ordered T a "Snack Wrap" or whatever they call it. Chicken strip, cheese, lettuce, and sauce in a tortilla. White Trash Burrito is more like it, I think. The sauce options were honey mustard, barbecue, or ranch. I thought ranch would be most pleasing to the T.

We went outside and I unwrapped the W.T.B. for T, who took literally two small bites before pronouncing that he was no longer hungry. I wasn't hungry but I wasn't about to waste the food/money, so I ate the thing. It was okay but I wasn't a fan of the ranch flavor. I would have preferred the honey mustard, but I thought T wouldn't like it... and as I write this, I'm kicking myself and remembering that Trevor does like mustard. Grr.

Later that night, T was telling Andrea that he didn't like the burrito very much. I said, "That's because you didn't even get to the chicken part; you only ate the lettuce." His astonished look was priceless. There was chicken?

We went across the street to Camarillo High where they were having some sort of Michael Scott Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run for the Cure deal. At the gates was an Emergency Response vehicle. Trevor looked inside but didn't want to go inside. We walked around the track and looked around while listening to really bad karaoke versions of "Love Shack," and "Come Together," among others. On our way out, Trevor said, "An ambulance!!!" Guess he forgot about it already.

We spent the next few hours at the park. Lots of swinging. Lots of slides. Lots of running around. The weather was so nice and the park was busy but not overcrowded and suddenly, Camarillo was looking VERY appealing. We'd like to move out in that general direction someday but are thinking that for now, we'll probably stay in our current geographic area. Days like Saturday make that decision a lot tougher.

The next few hours were filled with swings, slides, roughhousing, sand pyramid making, kite-watching, and general fun. Eventually I got the "all clear" call informing me that the bridal shower was wrapping up. We headed back to the house and then headed home.

By the time we got there, we were all pretty exhausted. The kids had leftovers and Andrea and I had Popeye's. (Those of you who are following Andrea's blogs about eating healthy don't need to be told that Popeye's was not her first choice.)

Whew. What a busy day. And that wasn't even the birthday-related part. It turned out that Andrea's parents weren't able to watch the kids on Saturday night so my birthday dinner was postponed until the next day...

little reminders

Today I overslept. I woke up at pretty much the time I needed to leave to go to work. So I skipped showering, washed my face and my hair in the kitchen sink (since the shower was occupied), and then got ready as quickly as I could. On the way to work, I passed a pretty big accident on the freeway. The radio said about eight cars were involved; I counted about that many, but a couple of them were fused together so it was kind of hard to tell, plus I am really annoyed by people who rubberneck on the freeway, so I try not to do it myself.

It got me thinking... If I had woken up on time, I might have been in the accident. Maybe. It would have been possible, anyway. If I had taken a shower and gone to work later, I could have been stuck in a whole lot of traffic. Maybe. It had already cleared off to the shoulder, so it may not have been that bad, but probably worse than I experienced.

As it was, I had just a little bit of extra traffic and no accident.

Demonstration of grace? I believe God is sovereign, even concerning small details, so you tell me. I certainly have no problem thanking God for minor circumstances like not hitting too much traffic. I just wish I did it more often.

weekend and then some

Friday - Our Bible Study has been studying Romans. We most recently discussed the doctrine of original sin. It was a great time and a very clear presentation by Ryan D., our shepherd. To prepare during the week, I pulled out one of my old textbooks from college (A. Hoekema's Created in God's Image). As such, lots of the material was familiar by Friday. Additionally, it corresponded very nicely with some of the music I've been listening to (which is a discussion for another time). Suffice to say that God is amazing in His grace and love and holiness.

Saturday - I grilled burgers and corn and we had a picnic on our front lawn. It was pretty warm, but it was really fun. The burgers looked a little iffy but they turned out great. The corn was not as good as last time I made it, but it was still pretty tasty. I was going inside to get silverware when I felt something hit my hair. I heard a loud buzzing so I instinctively whipped my hand over my head to clear away whatever was there. Turns out it was a wasp. Thankfully, it was already gone by the time I flailed at it. I was happy to preserve my lifelong streak of never being stung by an insect. I did see it flying away, which prompted me to look around. There under the eaves of the roof was a nest about the size of a golf-ball. Some half a dozen wasps were on the surface; a couple others were flitting about. I laughed to myself since I had recently been discussing the fact that I had never even seen a hornet in real life with some message board friends who were asking how to get rid of them.

Sunday - I was privileged to help with music at my friend Ryan P.'s church. It was a blast. The body of Christ is by no means limited to our church, and times like Sunday remind me of that. The church is quite a bit smaller than our church, which was really nice. Everyone seemed really friendly too. I ended up seeing and briefly talking to Brian A. It was kind of a what are you doing here? moment, although I figured Ryan invited him.

Last week I was telling my co-worker Byron G. about the arrangements for the weekend but didn't tell him where it was going down. On Monday, he came into my office and asked if I was at such and such church on Sunday. I confirmed and wondered how he knew that. It turns out the maintenance guy for the building where I work goes to the church with his family. He saw me on stage and was like, "Hey, I seen that guy at (name of my work)."

It was a special treat to help out since Ryan plays guitar for my favorite band. In all honesty, I was a little intimidated by that at first. After all, it's not every day that one gets to play music with one of their musical idols. But I had a wonderful time worshiping with the musicians with whom I shared the stage, and I trust, with the rest of the congregation.

We had lunch @ Stonefire Grill with Ryan and his family, and also with the guest speaker and his family. It was a lot of fun. I saw one of my favorite college professors there with his family, but I always feel weird about talking to old professors. "You probably don't remember me... and that's okay because you shouldn't really remember me because I was pretty quiet in class... etc." And of all the things I learned from Dr. C.W. Smith, one thing that always jumps to the front of my mind is him telling our class, "You should never ask someone, 'Do you remember me?' Why should they remember you? That's kind of an arrogant thing to ask, don't you think? Instead, you should just introduce yourself as if you haven't met them, and then let them remember you on their own." (paraphrase)

Later, Ryan saw him and chatted for a bit. And it turns out that Dr. Morley was also the mentor for the guest speaker who was eating with us, so I ended up being the only one not to talk to him. Oh well; should'a, could'a, would'a.

During lunch, Ryan told me that a member of one of my other favorite bands was also in attendance. I guess he was friends with the guest speaker or something like that. So there I was... in the same room as two guys who play guitar for two of the bands that have influenced me more than any other... and they're listening to me play instead of the other way around! Humbling for sure. It's funny because after the service I saw him and thought you know, that guy looks kind of like F____ K_______, but it's probably not him.

Speaking of guitar, I would not be myself if I didn't talk about the gear I used. That serves as a warning to those of you who are bored to tears by this stuff. You can stop reading now... the rest of the post is just gearhead nonsense.

My new guitar made its live debut on Sunday. I also changed around my pedalboard (yes, again) because there was just too much on there that I wouldn't be using in a church setting. I'll probably still wire up the big board again, if for no other reason than that it's really, really (really, really) nice to be able to put power strips under my Pedaltrain and leave everything connected. Because of size limitations, I had to unplug a handful of cables before putting my board away.

My revised rig was as follows:

Agile Harm 3 - This is my new one. I've not yet divulged a whole lot of info about it, so here it is. It's sort of a semi-hollow guitar. I say sort of because the only hollow section is the upper chamber. The center is solid, as is the section featuring the controls. Because of this, it has a bit more openness than a solid-body guitar, but it's definitely not a ringy as a "full" semi-hollow (like a Gibson 335 or Epiphone Sheraton or Epiphone Dot). It has a short-scale neck so it plays more like a Gibson than a Fender. It has no fretmarkers except for two dots at the twelfth fret, which I think lends it a sleekness not often seen. Indeed, it looked, well, amazing sitting on stage under the lights. It has three mini-humbuckers that actually sound great. The five-way selector switch puts them in different combinations just like a Fender Strat, and every position is very usable. Furthermore, the body shape is an original, designed by a few individuals from the Harmony Central message boards (hence the name "Harm 3"). And best of all, it was cheap. I think it cost $350. It's certainly not up to par with a guitar that costs two or three times more, but without a doubt you get more guitar than you pay for (that comment is what drew me to this guitar in the first place).

and

USA Fender Strat Deluxe - This is still my #1 guitar. It's really versatile and can cover all the ground I need it to. If I'm ever not sure what will be asked of me (happens quite often playing church music), this is the guitar I bring. In addition to the standard 5-way switching of Strats, the Deluxe model has an additional 5 settings available. Honestly, I don't even remember about the alternate settings unless I'm just messing around.

into

Ernie Ball VPJR (volume pedal) - Normally I have my volume pedal after all the drive pedals so that I can control the gain with my guitar volume knob and raise or lower the overall volume with the pedal. I couldn't fit this pedal on the board, though, so I just put it first. Not a big deal. It was crucial for all the swelly atmosphere I needed to play.

Barber Tone Press (compressor) - I really only used this one to smooth out the U2-style delay parts that are oh so prevalent in modern worship music.

Tone Factor Huckleberry (fuzz) - I didn't use it. I'm still not sold on using fuzz pedals through my small amp. Maybe there's not enough headroom. Not sure. They usually end up sounding to... boxy?

Skreddy Top Fuel (distortion) - This is my go-to pedal for solos, but since I didn't have any... it didn't get used either.

Fulltone Full-Drive 2 (overdrive) - This was my main drive sound for the two "big" songs we did ("Let Your Kingdom Come" and "Beautiful One"). I also kicked it on for a lot of the atmospheric volume swells to give them a little more character.

Tone Factor Sugar Baby (tremolo) - We did the Anathallo version of "Before the Throne of God Above" which meant I needed less space and more roots. I know that this is the favorite guitar effect of a certain sound scientist who reads this once in a while. Too bad he wasn't able to hear it.

Red Witch Moon Phaser (phaser... duh) - I also used this one for "Before the Throne." I had the rate set pretty high, and the depth backed off a bit. If that doesn't make sense, think of a fast tremolo with some warble and that'll get you pretty close.

Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man (delay) - This was on for a lot of the atmospheric stuff. Feedback turned up quite a bit, long delay time, decent amount of vibrato. Very atmospheric.

Line 6 Verbzilla (reverb) - I used a long plate reverb for all the atmospheric parts. I really like this pedal... it sounds great and can pull off normal and "out there" sounds.

Line 6 DL-4 (delay) - I used this one for all the U2 parts as well as some of the atmospheric sections. Some people like them and some people hate them. I like it but don't love it. Still, it's very intuitive and works for me.

into

Crate V1512 - Class A tube amp made by St. Louis Music, the same company that owns Ampeg and Crate. It has 3 12AX7s and 2 EL84s stock; I recently switched out the first 12AX7 for a 12AT7, which lowers the overall gain. Since the amp is only 15 watts, it would start to distort pretty early. Swapping in the 12AT7 means I can turn the gain knob up about halfway before it gets noticeably distorted. Previously, I could only go about 1/3 to 1/4 of the way up which meant I'd have to run the master volume that much higher. Mine came with a Tone Tubby hemp cone 12" speaker, the same configuration as the one I tried in my local shop. I was really surprised about this amp. I agreed to try it out to humor the sales guy who was trying to offer a modern alternative to the Fender Champ I asked about. I was surprised that it actually sounded really good. Crate/St. Louis Music has since changed the amp significantly and has moved production to Vietnam. Mine was made right here in the USA.

Monday - I don't remember much about Monday except that I was introduced to the music of Matthew Perryman Jones and Blake Aaron Guthrie. Some of you are no doubt familiar with their music but I wasn't until Monday. I'm a bigger fan of the first than the second, but both are pretty good. All right... I'll amend that. M.P.J. is quite good and B.A.G. is pretty good. Oh, and I was thinking a lot about the sermon from Sunday (at the church we were at), which deserves its own post.

Tuesday - This was free hot dog or ice cream day at Wienerschnitzel. Unfortunately the closest location is in Canyon Country. After driving there, we found that (by all appearances) they were only offering hot dogs, not ice cream. And the line was long. So we ended up going to Foster's to get not-free-but-not-expensive ice cream. The kids each had a jr. cone and Andrea and I split a Nutter Butter twister. I liked it but Andrea said she'd have picked a different flavor. Andrea also made falafel for dinner, which was great. I had fun getting crazy with the kids too. A couple of clowns are what we have.

Which brings me to today, Wednesday - Today was a good music day. I listened to these albums:

Andrew Peterson - "The Far Country"
Matthew Perryman Jones - "Throwing Punches in the Dark"
Exeter Flud - "Exeter Flud"
Jeremy Enigk - "World Waits"
Midsummer - "Inside the Trees"
Midsummer - "Driftwood" film score
Yo-Yo Ma - "Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone"
Surrounded - "Safety in Numbers"

More could be said, no doubt, but I'm tired and ready for bed.

2nd annual post-tax season mammoth trip

In April (yes, last April... of last year... I'm a bit behind with the updates), we embarked on our second annual trip to Mammoth Lakes, CA. This has become our way to celebrate the end of tax season.

Our Jeep is pretty old so we opted to take the car instead. The seats weren't as comfortable, but the road noise was probably at least 50% quieter. My car also has an AUX in jack so I was able to use my iPod. The car doesn't have as much cargo room, however, so we were a little cramped. I had to load and unload the trunk a few times before I could get everything to fit. In my younger, band days (the Persecuted/die Verfolgten and 2 Many Daves/the Spectaculars), I was given the nickname of "the Pack Master" on account of the way I squeezed our gear into small spaces. I'm obviously way out of practice.

Ava did fairly well on the trip up, though we did have to stop a few times so Andrea could nurse her. If my memory serves me correctly, we were about 15 minutes north of Lone Pine when Ava decided she needed to eat.

Immediately.

I pulled the car around and headed south towards civilization. After a few minutes of screaming, I pulled over to the shoulder and then onto a gravel service road. As Andrea took care of Ava, I walked around to stretch my legs. I couldn't resist snapping a couple promo-style shots of the car.

We stopped somewhere for a snack on the way up. (McDonald's? We sat inside... I had a chicken sandwich... there were lots of high school kids inside because it was the only place to hang out)

That night we went to Berger's Restaurant (used to be "Berger's" but it was sold and rebranded "Burgers" which is really lame.). Apparently Thursday night is not a popular night to dine out, because we were one of three filled tables. I remember going to Berger's when I was younger, and this occasion did not disappoint. I ordered a Buffalo Burger (as in bison meat, not buffalo wing flavor) and fries. It was delicious.

On Friday, there wasn't that much snow on the ground, but we went out to play anyway.

We went to Schat's Bakery for lunch and had what we believe to be the best sandwiches we've ever eaten. I had hot pastrami with smoked Gouda and the works. The bread was incredible (no surprise). We also spent a little time at the outlets. Andrea got a snow jacket. I was really excited that the sporting goods store where she got the jacket was playing a satellite radio show of 90s alternative. I recognized Hearing Soundgarden's "Spoonman," Stone Temple Pilots' "Unglued," Oasis' "Supersonic," and Veruca Salt's "Seether" definitely brought back memories.

It snowed a little on Friday night; on Saturday, we got a chance to play in the snow. There still wasn't as much as last year (no sledding), but there was enough to enjoy.

That afternoon, the clouds kept rolling in. Could it be that lots more snow was coming?

We woke up to this:

We should have spent more time outside; we played for a few final minutes on that day right before we left. Trevor started crying when it was time to go because he was enjoying it so much.

Overall, a great trip.

mimi's cafe = denny's?

Last night we went to dinner at Mimi's Cafe. Although Mimi's is nowhere on the top of my list of favorite restaurants, the food has always been pretty good.

We walked in and were greeted by a host who couldn't have been older than sixteen. The table was a little dirty, but not too bad. Trevor was kind of disappointed that the kids menu only came with two crayons. He was fine after I explained that he was only supposed to get two; he thought the rest were missing. A couple weeks earlier we went to Elephant Bar and I ordered an E-Bar Half and Half only to be told they were out of lemonade. To make up for it, I ordered an Arnold Palmer at Mimi's. In the past, I've been known to drink three or four of them at Elephant Bar. I have to say that the Mimi's version was gross. I had one just to empty my cup and then requested a Coke instead.

I couldn't decide what to order so I settled on a Crispy Chicken Salad. According to Mimi's, it is "Diced chicken tenders, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, egg, green onions & corn with buffalo sauce & ranch." I got a Honey Oat Bran muffin on the side. Andrea ordered the chopped Cobb salad with a muffin (I don't remember what kind). The muffins arrived along with a basket of carrot walnut bread and sourdough. I am not a big honey fan and my muffin was drenched with it. Still, it was pretty good. I'd even consider getting it again. The sourdough loaf was excellent.

Soon, our food arrived. It was probably soon but it seemed like forever because the kids were really hyper and didn't really want to sit still. I was a little surprised that the chicken in my salad was flavorless. Also, there were quite a few chunks of the bitter base part of a head of lettuce. But the clincher was that there was no buffalo sauce. I ate most of the salad but then stopped because I just wasn't enjoying it. It was okay, but not that great. It was comparable to a fast-food salad. Actually, I take that back. I have really enjoyed the occasional salad at places like McDonald's (like when the McShaker was brand new). I didn't really enjoy what I had last night.

Andrea had a similar reaction. Her salad was okay but nothing special. Her French Onion Soup (which Mimi's has always excelled at) was okay but not as good as it used to be. Trevor liked his chicken strips & fries, though. And he really like the Ranch dressing. He finished it off with a spoon after his food was gone (gross). Ava, on the other hand, ate some of her food and then stuck the rest of the chicken pieces and fries into her cup of Ranch dressing.

The Mimi's we had last night was not at all like the Mimi's we'd been to the year before (or was it two?) the morning of Independence Day. And it wasn't like the Mimi's I went to after CSUN Bible Study many years ago, or even like the Mimi's I went to with the Swansons a few years before that. It was kind of like Denny's. The bathroom was dirty... the table was kind of dirty... the food was okay but not satisfying... yeah. We should have gone somewhere else... somewhere like Coco's/Marie Callender's/Carrows would have been better, and we never go to those places. Live and learn.

Man, I really miss Pasta Grill (used to be where Final Score is now near the corner of Lyons and Orchard Village).

In summary,

Arnold Palmer = gross
Honey Oat Muffin = heavy on the honey, but pretty tasty
Sourdough Loaf = excellent
Crispy Chicken Salad = disappointing but edible
Mimi's = two thumbs down

I know it's ridiculous that I've come out of blog hibernation with a gripe about a random chain restaurant. Posts are brewing... really.

randomness

This morning on the way to work, I was "cut off" by someone who looked suspiciously like a certain pastor at our church... a pastor with three sons... three grown sons (so it wasn't the guy with the same last name as a European country). In his defense, I wasn't really cut off... I just had to apply the brakes a little firmly to avoid hitting him. And I don't think he used the turn signal either. Tsk tsk. It was more amusing than anything else. Hey, watch what you're do- ... hey... that looks like ____ _______! :)

I wonder if it was really him...

Yesterday I pulled my first true 12 hour workday (longer if you count the hour-long breakfast seminar on OCBOA financial statements that I went to). It was kind of weird leaving the office that late (after 10PM), but it was kind of nice to have the place to myself. I was reminded of what a good album the Autumns' "Angel Pool" is as I listened very loudly. I don't really remember what else I listened to, but it was probably equally as cool because I don't listen to anything lame, right? Ha.

Sunday afternoon, Clyde came over and fixed our noisy computer. The culprit was 4 years of dust inside the tower. Who knew? Not us, obviously. Thanks, dude!

A couple weeks ago, I took a trip to Guitar Center with Sound Guy and Keyboard Guy. I arrived about a half hour or more before the other guys, and the employee I was supposed to meet was on lunch break. It was the longest half hour of my life. I didn't want to be "that guy" who comes in and plays the gear without any intention of buying it, and honestly, there's not a lot at Guitar Center that interests me anyway. So I just walked around and looked around. The vintage room was really cool, though. I've never really been that smitten with the Gibson ES335 (I remember years ago Kyle Bryant mentioned wanting one some day and I thought Yeah, I guess. They're cool but not for me. Dude. They're pretty slick. The body was thinner than I expected too. I think someday... we'll see. A nice touch was the live DVD of the Who that was playing in the vintage room. I realized what a musician nerd I've become when I immediately recognized the Chris Adler drum solo that was playing on the TV in the stairwell on the way to the drum room.

After an eternity of sales guys asking if they could help me, the other guys showed up. Keyboard Guy bought some recording software that is way out of my league. I got a keyboard stand, keyboard cover, volume pedal, expression pedal, and reverb pedal. Sound Guy's old coworker hooked us up with some good deals. Guitar Center Guy also recommended a place we could go for dinner. I was happy because I'm a big fan of Wing Stop (not Wing Street!!! Wing Stop = awesome. Wing Street = garbage), but I probably wouldn't have suggested it. I had boneless strips with half original hot and half garlic parmesan. Delicious! It was fun to hang out with Sound Guy and Keyboard Guy, especially since I don't get to see them that often.

Some of my order had to be special ordered from Guitar Center; when it came in, Guitar Center Guy called me to let me know, and then told me about an in-store event that evening that would make parking difficult. Then after arranging to give my pedals to Sound Guy to give to me so I wouldn't have to wait until the next week to come to the store, he threw in an extended warranty on the already purchased reverb pedal for free. Good guy.

These new additions mean that except for new cables, I'm pretty much done with my pedalboard. Of course there are still pedals that I'd like to have (especially the Subdecay Noise Box), but I'm really happy with what I have now and feeling closer to completion than ever before. Now if I could just find time to play the things!


Signal chain goes like this:

Barber Tone Press (parallel compressor)
Tone Factor (now Mojo Hand) Huckleberry (hybrid germanium/silicon fuzz)
Sinister Analog Ultra-Lord (chaotic silicon fuzz)
Devi Ever USA Hyperion (high gain gated silicon fuzz)
Skreddy Top Fuel (distortion good for David Gilmour-type soaring leads )
Tone Factor 75 Special (dirty boost)
Effector 13 (now Devi Ever USA) Never Drive Plus (high gain octave-up fuzz w/ optional self-oscillation)
Fulltone Fulldrive 2 (overdrive with boost)
Ernie Ball VPJR (volume pedal)
Red Witch Moon Phaser (phaser and tremolo)
Tone Factor (now Mojo Hand) Sugar Baby (tremolo)
Loooper 3 (true bypass box x 3)
*loop 1: Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man (analog delay w/ modulation)
*loop 2: Line 6 DL4 (delay modeler and phrase sampler)
*loop 3: Line 6 Verbzilla (reverb modeler)

Random Irony: Everyone is complaining about the economy, but the one candidate who was making the economy a big deal (the guy I did vote for) dropped out because he wasn't getting enough votes. Weird.

wrapping up december

We went to UCLA the first weekend of December to take family pictures. We asked our friend James to do the taking, and he agreed. The pictures looked great; with a campus as beautiful as UCLA, kids as cute as ours, and talent as great as James', how could they not?

Here's a sampling:






While we were there, I took a few pictures of my own.




The next weekend we celebrated Trevor's third birthday. It was the first major event we've had at our new place since moving here. The place was pretty packed, but it was great to hang out with friends and catch up. Trevor seemed to enjoy himself. He certainly enjoyed getting a lot of new toys.

The next weekend Lauren came over. The weather outside was great, the closest we get to real autumn. The blue sky and orange leaves made for some really nice pictures. It's really nice to not be in an apartment complex, and ease of picture taking is just one of many benefits.

In mid-December I went to see Future of Forestry play a Christmas show at Cornerstone in Simi Valley. I was supposed to meet up with them before the show and hang out, but I was running a little late. I called Spencer only to find out that I was actually early—their website had the wrong time listed.

Because I had time to kill, I made a quick stop to do some Christmas shopping. It wasn't as quick as I hoped, and I didn't find what I was looking for. After shopping, I headed over to a nearby Starbucks to kill some time. After getting my drink, I glanced across the room and saw Eric Owyoung (Future of Forestry's lead singer). I started to walk over to him, but he was headed for the bathroom, so I walked out the door instead. I called Spencer to see if he was there too, but I guess he stayed back at the church. After killing time for a minute (pretending I was waiting for someone), I walked back into Starbucks and over to where Eric and Tamara were talking to who I later found out were Dave Matsumura and Ben Wurzell, part of the Future of Forestry Christmas Tour band. Eric didn't know I was coming, so he was pretty surprised to see me. We headed back to the church and sat around until show time. I ended up giving Eric and Tam (and Eric's sister) a ride there.

As far as music goes, I knew that things were going to be different. After all, it was essentially a different band from the one that recorded the self-titled EP and "Twilight" album. I knew that Eric had bought a vibraphone. I knew the instrumentation was going to be further augmented by things like trombones—"yeah, ska Christmas," Eric joked—and that the new sound shared some common ground with Sufjan Stevens. I wasn't sure exactly what that all meant, but I was a little bit skeptical. I was afraid that my favorite thing about Something Like Silas & Future of Forestry—the atmospheric sound—was changing. Needless to say, I was really curious to see what they had in mind.

Before long, it was time for the show to start. Travis Oberg and Dave Matsumura each did solo opening sets before joining Eric, Spencer, and Ben for the Future of Forestry set. Eric started out with a solo version of a Christmas carol—O Come, O Come Emmanuel, if I remember correctly—on the vibraphone. From the first few moments, I could tell that little had changed with their sound. It was different, but just as atmospheric as before. I really enjoyed Dave's guitar playing, too. It wouldn't be fair to compare his playing to Nick's (former guitar player); I think both are great players. Dave's playing reminded me a little more of how Nick used to play back in the early Something Like Silas days, which I must admit to liking slightly more than the playing with Future of Forestry. The overall sound was very full, consisting of guitars, drums, trombones, glockenspiel, organ, and the aforementioned vibraphone. The band members rotated instruments throughout the set, and ended with a percussion-heavy rhythmic jam. All too soon, the concert came to a close. It far exceeded my expectations, and made me really want to start playing music again.

After the show, I enjoyed some really good conversation with Spencer and a brief one with Eric.

The weekend before Christmas we began what will be a seasonal tradition of family movie night. We watched Ratatouille. I rather enjoyed it. I was kind of at the point where every Pixar film was seeming too much of the same thing: always enjoyable, clever dialogue, good animation, and nothing new. This film changed my opinion of Pixar. It was fresh, clever, and captivating. We sat on the couch with only the TV and the lights on the Christmas tree providing light, sipping our hot chocolate and eating fresh popcorn. It's fun to be able to think of something we like to do, and then turn it into a family tradition.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, our family celebrated Christmas, our family meaning me, Andrea, and the kids. Andrea made pumpkin pancakes to start us out. After breakfast, we let Trevor open boxes 19 through 24 of our advent calendar (we haven't been keeping on schedule, obviously). I gave a quick version of the Christmas story, acting out the parts with the kids' play nativity set. I began with only Mary and Joseph on the coffee table, except Joseph was either missing or not included in the nativity set. A preppy-looking father from Ava's play dollhouse was Joseph's stand-in. Instead of tracking with my super exciting narrative, Trevor pointed to the other characters that were not quite hidden behind the coffee table. "What's that?" After pushing the other characters completely out of view, I finished with the story. It was a little silly trying to turn the one play angel into a multitude of heavenly host, but the whole thing was pretty fun. Either before or after the story we were going to sing some carols together but since it was almost Ava's naptime, we skipped it.

We then did gifts. We gave Ava a set of moving, stackable blocks and Trevor a train from the Thomas the Tank Engine series. I gave Andrea the new Eisley CD and two IOU gifts that I couldn't find in the stores. Andrea got me a book on Church history, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, and a pair of tickets to see Jeremy Enigk. We spent the rest of the day in Long Beach with Andrea's dad's relatives. It was fun, but by the end, both kids were really tired. Ava kept pointing to the door, indicating she was ready to go home. In particular, she was not happy about the very large dog that Andrea's relatives had. Trevor got a stuffed bear named Sam (according to the book that came with the bear). Sam has been his new best friend for the past few days, forcing Tigger to join Kickball the cat, the green frog, and countless other animals in the "former favorite" pile. Yesterday when Trevor went down for a nap, he wanted Sam to sit across the room and watch him sleep.

Being a parent is fun.

On Christmas morning, we went to my parents' house. We had breakfast and did the Christmas thing again. The highlight (at least for the kids) was the kitchen playset my parents got them. Getting them to share will be interesting, but they both enjoyed it. Around lunchtime, we headed off to Andrea's parents' house to celebrate with her mom's relatives.

A little while ago, someone showed up at Andrea's parents' church. He has a shady past and is estranged from his family. He was invited to our Christmas gathering; he seemed a little taken aback by everything, especially when he received gifts, and when Trevor wanted to hug him goodbye when we left. I think my in-laws' kindness and generosity were a great testimony to him (and a good example to me).

The kids got even more junk toys and we got some pretty nifty gifts as well ("nifty gifties").

Good month.

pasadena 2007, part II

After the mall and hotel checkout (see last entry), we drove over to the Huntington Library. By this time, I was starting to show symptoms of a cold/allergies. These pictures were taken while I was still feeling okay. A few hours into our visit, I was feeling pretty miserable. Overall, it was a neat place. I don't think I really got my $15 admission worth, but a big part of that was feeling the way I did, and having a wife who moves through museums rather quickly.