Well, last night a pretty decent sized group of us went to Mandola's to celebrate Mandy's birthday. Because I have the free time, I will now try to name the attendees from memory. Kate, Judy, Dan, Vicki, Hannah, Chris, Corrinne, Donna Rene, Ellie, Rami, Andy, Susan, Melissa, Gretchen, Stephanie, Shane, Kim, and Sigmund (and also John- Stephanie and Shane's extremely well-behaved little boy). Anyway, it was a nice dinner (that little Italian place is really growing on me). After dinner Susan, Andy, Rami, and I hung out at Mandy's place for a beer or two. All things considered, I thought it was a really nice evening.

In an unrelated note, here's a picture of Cassidy (far left) lounging with her cousins, Lucy and Mel. This photo is from last Sunday when I was hanging out in the backyard and playing guitar for the dogs.

What else...? Check out the March 14th tab on this Austinist interactive SXSW guide to see both Crack and The Mono Ensemble listed (along with Kosmodrome) as part of the Garage Band Showcase during SXSF (South by South First- the South 1st Street events scheduled during SXSW). Anyway, come check us out, starting at 3:00 p.m. sharp on March 14th at Bella Blue (next to End of an Ear Records on South 1st)!!

Happy Birthday!!

Hey, guys! S'up? Hope everyone's doing ok today. It's Mandy's birthday today, so everyone send her some happy birthday thoughts!
Last night I ran a couple of errands and had dinner with Mandy. We watched Supernanny and part of The Black Donnellys. That Donnellys show was pretty good. It wasn't superawesome, but they laid out a good, solid foundation for an interesting drama about an organized crime family (albeit on a small scale- we're not talking international mafioso here). Anyway, I only watched about half of the show because we were playing with Mandy's dogs the whole time.
Well, that wasn't much, but I gotta run.

Happy birthday, Mandy!

Hey. Quick post. The weekend was pretty good. The weather was beautiful, although my allergies were bugging me quite a bit. Friday night I just went out to eat with Roundball and McSteans. Saturday I did some rockin with Ryan and Andy and Jamie (Ryan has some interesting ideas for songs, although the rest of our little musical group decided that they might still need some work before they're ready for popular consumption). Saturday Alicia had come into town to visit Mandy, and Saturday night the two of them cooked a nice spaghetti dinner for me and Rami and Andy. We ate outside and had some wine with cupcakes for desert. It was a very nice evening.
Sunday I did some dog sitting while Ryan helped a friend move, and I sat outside and played guitar while the dogs wrestled and played with each other. Later in the afternoon we had a fairly successful Mono E practice (everyone actually made it), and after practice I had dinner with Weedo at Maudie's and we watched a movie I had rented earlier called Babel. I liked Babel a lot more than I thought I would. I just found it kind of interesting how the author managed to tie together the very different life stories of a variety of people from all across the globe.
Anyway, back to work today. Hope all's well.

Friday. This week has been surprisingly busy at work. And no end in sight.
Last night Mandy and I watched TV and ate dinner. We watched The Office and Scrubs. The shows were funny.
I also went to Kelsey McKay's going away happy hour after work. Kelsey is going to the D.A.'s office to prosecute even more depressing crimes than the ones that we have in the county courts. Good luck, Kelsey!
I wanted to go see Barack Obama when he spoke at auditorium shores today, but I had to work. I got to see a few minutes of his speech on TV, though, and he sounded pretty good. I don't really have a great feel for the man, but he seems pretty charismatic and his campaign seems like it's building a lot of energy and momentum. Kind of exciting- sort of reminds me of the first Clinton campaign during my tenure at Trinity (mostly because the country is hungry for change in the same sort of way, and Obama seems to have enough charisma to rally the different political camps that make up the political left in America). Anyway, I was glad to see that Austin turned out well for Obama and did him proud.
That's it for now. Have a good weekend!

Hey there. Thursday. Things are going... pretty well. The sun is out, the weather is beautiful, and the birds are singing. It's starting to feel pretty spring-like, but I have a feeling that old man winter may still have or two more sucker punches left in store for us. Nonetheless, I'm starting to hear the Barton Springs siren song.
Last night I had dinner with Mandy and we watched another episode of Boston Legal. Which brings me to my point. Has anyone else ever had this experience? You think you've stumbled across some kind of profound, personal philosophical insight that kind of defines you as a person (some sentiment which you might have even conviced yourself, in your arrogance, that most other people wouldn't understand), and then you hear some character on some fairly run of the mill sitcom or primetime drama spouting a version of that same sentiment in words which sound fairly similar to the thoughts that you had recently had echoing around in your own head. You must not be so profound, after all. The television execs have decided that your thoughts are appropriate for consumption by middle America. And who knows middle America better than television execs?
Well, such was my experience this week while watching James Spader on Boston Legal. Spader's character, an attorney, gives a closing argument where he talks about values and salvation in a world without religion. The main thrust of his argument was that in the absence of religion, people are left with nothing other than humanity to put their faith in. And it's hard to put your faith in humanity in a world filled with genocide, war, weapons of mass destruction, child abuse, and the million other evils that people inflict on each other on a daily basis. In making his speech, this brought Spader to the same conclusion that I've been pondering lately- the idea that faith in your fellow man (meaning faith that people are innately good and that ultimately, on the whole, mentally healthy people would really rather help than hurt each other) is every bit as irrational and rooted in desire (as opposed to logic) as religious faith. It may not be rational to believe in God, but it also doesn't seem logical to believe in mankind's essential humanity and fundamental goodwill (which may be buried way deep down in some people), either. And yet I do believe in people. It's a choice, and it's every bit as faith-based as religion, and now James Spader has beat me to the punch in talking about it.

So here I am, desperately trying to expound on this idea before some writer on Desperate Housewives gets ahold of it next week. I think I have some kind of version of faith that is based in the fact that I think the human race is still evolving and trying to improve itself toward some end where everyone is more enlightened and everyone treats each other well. But I'm aware that there are people out there who just think that there will always be lots of evil people in the world and that this fact will never change. These people are the heretics, pagans, and atheists in the humanistic religion of Steanso, and I don't really argue with them, because I know that there's just as much evidence out there to support their point of view as is out there to support mine. Instead, I just kind of quietly bide my time, hoping for leaps forward in the evolution of human compassion and understanding (and knowing that having some faith in humanity makes me a little happier and allows for some sort of hope- even if it's buried under a bunch of dysfunction and bad behavior).

Man. This is some rambling armchair philosophizing b.s.. Still, it filled up my post for today so that at least I wasn't just posting about the fact that I didn't have anything to post about.

Peace.

S'up, guys? I hate to sound like a broken record, but once again I don't have a heck of a lot to report on. Last night I just hung out and watched TV and played with Cassidy, mostly. I watched some Law and Order and did some reading. Quiet evening.
It looks like a bill has been proposed in the Texas House that would change probation rules for drug offenses so that treatment programs are emphasized and probation terms are shortened. I think it's probably a good idea to emphasize treatment for drug offenders. My general feeling after working around and for drug addicts over the years is that people need to have the tools in place to get off drugs if they're ever going to stand a chance at overcoming addiction. It's true that treatment programs don't do people any good if they don't have a personal desire to quit, but even if they want to quit they probably won't be able to without going through some kind of counselling (without being taught how to quit, they fall right back into the same old habits as soon as they get out of jail). Anyway, it's probably facing an uphill battle, but I hope this bill gains some traction.
Well, I got nothing else, so I'm gonna go. Hope all's well out there.

Fat Tuesday

By the way, I just remembered that it's Fat Tuesday. All of you Adventurers should give something up until Easter. Steanso is going to try to give up on drinking Cokes. If you're religious, give something up for Jesus. If you're not religious, just give something up to show yourself that you still have some measure of control over your impulses and appetites. A little deprivation, appropriately placed, can be good for the soul.

Howdy. Not much time to post today. Yesterday I had lunch and saw a movie with Ryan and Jamie (I had President's Day off). We saw Ghostrider. It was awful. And yet, it was funny. I don't know- it was stupid, but I guess I enjoyed it on some level. If you wanna know a little more about Ghostrider, you can check out Ryan's site over at The League. It's right over there to the right. Go ahead. Click on it. You know you want to.
Anyway, other from that, I mostly just took it easy last night. I watched 24 and an episode of Battlestar Galactica. They were both pretty good. I briefly talked to Mandy on the phone. She's back in town from Beaumont, and apparently had a pretty good trip.
Reed stopped by and we listened to a little bit of music. Mostly he was just dropping off videotapes (the aforementioned Battlestar Galactica).
Anyway, it was a pretty good weekend. I needed a big break from work, and I got a decent one, so that was good.

Later!

My weekend has been a blur. Friday night I went to go eat Thai food with Ryan, Jamie, Mandy, and Ellie. We went to the newish Madame Ma'am's by my house, and it was really good. I had Pad Thai. I also went to see Bridge to Terabithia with Jamie (Roundball could not be persuaded to go). As it turns out, Bridge to Terabithia is not the fun-loving, whimsical fantasy movie that the commercials had promised me. Instead, it's a two hour meditation on death and its impact on friendships and the lives of children. The movie wasn't really bad, but it definitely wasn't what I signed on for.
Saturday Mandy headed for Beaumont to visit Lucas and the family, and I had Crack practice. We rocked fairly fiercely. I'm not exactly sure what Crack is putting together for our Bella Blue gig, but Sigmund and Andy have assured me that it's going to be Cracktastic. I also did some tentative rocking with Ryan and Jamie, and I think we discovered that we had a song or two hidden in us somewhere. The next step may be to procure a bass guitar for Roundball. Saturday night I had a shrimp dinner with Roundball and McSteans. Then they went over to Jeff Shoemaker's place while I returned to The Hop-A-Long Lounge for a late night visit from Weedo, who dropped off some episodes of 24 and Battlestar Galactica.
Sunday I ate lunch with Ryan and Jamie and we toook the dogs to the dog park (which was especially exciting for Mel and Lucy, this being their first time). We had Mono E practice, but it was just the ol' power trio of Eric, Reed, and myself since Frank and Jim were unavailable (many happy returns, Nancy!!!). Anyway, we kept things pretty tight and sounded pretty good, given there were just the three of us.
Then last night I finally got around to watching those 24 episodes and the BSG that Reed had brought over the night before.
And now it's president's day!!! Everyone go out and wildly celebrate a day commemorating all of our presidents. Of course, given the goober we've currently got in office, it's kind of hard to get excited.
Nonetheless, have a good day!!!! Woo hoo!!!!

Well, Dog Chapman, America's favorite bounty hunter (and certainly the favorite bounty hunter of Tejas Trail), has lost round one of his extradition hearings, which means that he's one step closer to being sent to a Mexican prison. The whole thing is still under appeal, but it's not a good sign that a second federal judge has said that Mexico is within their rights to get him back. I'm not sure what Dog and his family are thinking at this point, but I wouldn't be surprised if it involved funnelling some money into offshore accounts and buying some plane tickets to a nonextradition country. (sort of ironic, isn't it?)

Roundball's unemployed again, and no, he wasn't fired (and no, I'm not really capable of explaining it). Maybe you guys better check out his blog site if you want some kind of an explanation (although you're not going to get much of one over there, either).

I don't know if it's because I didn't do anything last night worth reporting or because I've been so busy today, but I almost forgot to post anything on the ol' blog today. I hope everyone is doing alright. I really don't have anything to post about. I finished up Season 3 of The Wire (which was very good) and I've started watching old DVDs of Homocide (the old TV series). They're pretty good (although the pilot's a little stiff- but that's true of the pilot episodes of most shows). Some of the same people are involved who made The Wire, and you can definitely get a sort of proto-Wire feel while watching Homocide (i.e., the characters are interesting and well-written, the show really does a good job of depicting Baltimore, and the police procedure seems to be pretty accurately portrayed).

Anyway, I got nothing today. I'll try to do better tomorrow.
Ciao.

Hola! Hope everyone is enjoying their V.D.!!! Gentlemen, if you're holiday is somewhat lacking, you can at least take comfort in the fact that Sports Illustrated has selected Beyonce as their cover model for their new swimsuit edition.
Last night I had dinner with Mandy and watched Boston Legal, and then I went home and watched most of the end of Season 3 of The Wire. I also spent some time hanging out with Cassidy, who has been a little grumpy lately because of having to spend so much time in the house (when it's cold out, I leave her inside during the day).
In other interesting news, Al Franken is running for the U.S. Senate. I sort of like the guy (I agree with a lot of his political positions), but he's a pretty hard nosed liberal who seems to be pretty intolerant of points of view other than his own (a trait which I'm not such a huge fan of, whether it be in terms of a conservative or liberal standpoint). I enjoyed listening to Al Franken as a liberal talkshow host on Air America, and I think that he was well suited for that job because it tended to lend itself to strongly held opinions and a "no holds barred" mentality, but for legislators I think we need people who are capable of empathizing with contrary positions and compromise through negotiation (although, of course, we need people with enough backbone to stick to their guns on some critical issues). I hope Al Franken can adapt his mindset enough to play nice with the competition. Anyway, his heart's in the right place, I think.

So that's it. The Police are going on tour. Supposedly they're going to go through Dallas on this tour. I would love to see them. I want to get tickets if I can.

Talk to you guys later.
Via con dios.

Bonjour. Hope all's well out there with you guys.
No real news to report. Sounds like Roundball's first day on the job went pretty well, so that's good. I went over to Mandy's house to watch a little TV last night, but other than that I just sat at home and read a little and goofed around on the computer. I wasn't feeling very well (either allergies or a little cold), so I went to bed early and slept really hard (you know when you have one of those nights when it feels like you just fell asleep when you wake up the next morning? It was like that.)

Keeping on eye on the government, Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday that he is aware of no evidence that directly links Iran's government to weapons being supplied to insurgents (specifically Shiites) in Iraq. This is mostly interesting because our military leaders in Iraq have been claiming recently that the Iranians are supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents and instructing them to use the weapons against American forces. So once again we have highly questionable claims regarding the posession and distribution of weapons by a foreign government that is at odds with U.S. foreign policy. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? The only way to be sure that Iran doesn't have a program that supplies weapons to Iraqis is to invade Iran, right? Right?

Well, gotta run. Mayhaps more later.

This is a picture of Mandy, Andy, and the back of little Alicia's head out back at The Draught House last Friday. We were crowded around the heaters, but it was still a little chilly.

Hey. The weekend was pretty good, all in all. Friday night I went out and had dinner and drinks with Mandy, Alicia (special guest star- in town visiting Mandy from Houston), Andy, and Rami. We went to Waterloo Icehouse to eat burgers and see one of Rami's work friends do a singer/songwriter thing with her boyfriend (which was pretty good), and afterward we went to the Draught House where we drank a few beers and ran into Stephanie and Shane McFarland (Andy ran into many Apple people as well, but they are fungible and nameless so they will receive no further mention here). After I got home from that, Reed came over (yes it was late- we were definitely on a Reed Shaw timetable) to drop off his drums so that they would be available for the weekend band practices. After he set up the drums we drank a beer and listened to some music.
Saturday I had band practice with Crack (meaning Sig and Andy), and it was good. We rocked hard for about an hour and a half and talked about ideas for our SXS1st gig in mid March (more details to come, Adventurers). Also on Saturday I went to dinner with Roundball and McSteans at Threadgill's before heading back to my house with them to watch Ghost Ship. I had watched Ghost ship awhile back with Andy and Jeff, and somehow it wasn't quite as exciting this time around, although it remained fun on some kind of cheesey horror movie level.
Sunday I got up and went to lunch with Mandy and Alicia. We joined Andy and Rami at Maudie's and consumed copious amounts of tex-mex. After lunch Ryan and Jamie stopped by so Ryan could show me his new cowboy hat. I'll be honest, Adventurers- that hat scared me then, and it continues to scare me now, but other than that I will remain mute on the topic so that readers can make their own decisions about it upon seeing it (although it may be hard to think clearly enough to make a decision while gazing upon the hat through tears of laughter). After the hat visit we had an Ericless Mono E practice (Eric being swamped with the Valentine's Day rush at the flower shop that he works at), which was fun, but mostly resulted in a lot of jamming and improvising b/c we had no singer. After dinner I went out and had Chinese food with Ryan and Jamie.
Today is Ryan's first day on the job with St. Jude's. From what I understand, he is, in essence, helping to set up online education programs which are designed to teach their sales staff about their products (and given the fact that their sales staff are expected to talk knowledgeably to medical personnel about the workings of St. Jude's artificial organs, this is no small task).
Anyway, everyone wish Ryan good luck as he starts his new job. I know he's both excited and nervous going into it.
Well, that's it for now. I gotta run, but I hope everyone is doing ok.

Links Section

I just added a links section. Check it out. It's over there to the right. Right over there. No, seriously, check it out. Please? Aww, c'mon....

For centuries now the people of our country have fought the hatred and fear of prejudice as it reared it's head in a thousand different forms. Austin is a fairly progressive city, but it has known its own share of biggotry and prejudice, though its better, more enlightened citizens have struggled against the prevalence of these sentiments whenever possible. Now, however, as snow and ice have shut down significant portions of Austin this winter, a new and ugly prejudice has reared its head on the streets of our fair city, and I think you all know what I'm talking about. Anti-snowmanitism.

Anti-snowmanitism is a phenomenon which is, fortunately, rarely exhibited here in Austin, but this good fortune is, sadly, more a result of a geographical location and climate (which is typically a little too warm here in Austin for many snowmen to feel comfortable making our city their home) rather than due to any kind of true understanding or tolerance of snowpeople and their culture.

While it's true that Austinites rarely encounter snowmen and have little chance or opportunity to get to know or befriend people who come from a climate or temperature different than their own, I don't think that this can excuse the sort of blatant, inexcusable prejudice that has recently appeared in anti-snowmanite graffitti and slogans around town. We are a city that has always embraced diversity and welcomed newcomers as friends. I see no reason now why Austinites cannot open their hearts and their freezers to these friendly, frozen visitors.

More troubling yet are the reports of snowman on snowman violence and intolerance. It's difficult to wrap one's mind around the kind of biggotry and prejudice that some of these snowpeople must have experienced as young snowballs- experiences which have warped their worldviews to such an extant that they have grow into fully self-loathing snowmen as adults (see photo).

Austin has long been a place where people of all races, religions, sexual orientations, and political beliefs have strived to live side by side in harmony. Please, please, don't let me down now, Austin. Don't turn your back on people just because they may have a temperature which is greatly different than your own. Next time you see a snowman, engage him in conversation. Let him know that you consider him a neighbor and a valued part of our diverse community. Just because his heart is frozen doesn't mean that it's made out of stone (though his eyes may very well be).

Peace.

Hello. Last night I received visits at the Hop-a-Long Lounge from both Jennifer "Killer" Kraber and Reed "Weedo" Shaw. The conversation took a number of interesting turns, covering topics including, but not limited to, advances in human cybernetic technology and the metaphysical ramifications thereof (i.e., what does it mean to say we have a soul if part of our neural network is made up of a machine that performs computations for us), teleportation technology and the importance of continuity as an essential element of human nature, babies and having babies and the ways babies change your life and societal norms regarding having babies, and the self perpetuating nature of technological advances. We also played with Cassidy, ate frozen pizza, and listened to a song or two by The Clash.

So it's Friday. Anna Nicole Smith has passed away, which doesn't really surprise me all that much given the fact that she always seemed to be wacked out of her gourd on some kind of drugs every time I saw her appear in public. Still, I hope her new baby (which is now worth a whole ton of money, I guess) manages to grow up ok. Needless to say, that kid started out fighting an uphill battle in its life right out of the gate.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Hope everyone is doing ok, and that you guys have a good weekend. Maybe more later if I have the time and the inclination.

Peace.

Quick post.

Hey. Hope everyone is doing ok.
Last night I joined Jackbart, Stephanie, and Mandy at Mandy's house for dinner. We had meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn, and some cake that Jackbart brought, and the food was really good. It was nice to have a chance to hang out with everyone.

Kudos to Roundball! He's landed a job with some kind of company that makes robot parts for humans (or artifical organs or something). Anyway, I'm happy for Ryan and Jamie. It feels like the final step in their move to Austin in terms of getting them truly settled in.

That's it for now. I'm just really busy. Take care.

Hump Day. Everyone do the Humpty Dance!
Well, yesterday was Bob Marley's birthday and it was Reggae Day, but I found out about it too late to blog on it. Nonetheless, in the spirit of Bob Marley's forgiving nature, Steanso gives you permission to celebrate Reggae Day a day late! Go out there and listen to some songs that are anchored in the upbeat and try to enjoy life. Every little thing is gonna be alright.
Last night I went over to Ryan and Jamie's. We ate some lasagna and watched some weird TV. First we watched a good chunk of The American Experience on KLRU, but it was a documentary about the history of America's biological weapons program, and then we watched a show called (I think) 2054 on The Discovery Channel about the future of medical technology (apparently they're going to be growing new organs with the help of technology which looks astonishingly similar to an ink jet computer printer and our surgeons are going to be robots... or at least have robot arms... or something like that).
Anyway, Cassidy got to play with the cousin dogs and I got to watch programming about biological warfare and robot surgery while eating my dinner.

And in America's continuing effort to prove its jackassiness to the rest of the world, the U.S. refused to sign a 57 nation treaty on Tuesday which prohibits governments from secretly kidnapping or holding individuals or from denying knowledge of their whereabouts when they are in a nation's custody. The U.S. claimed that their refusal to sign the treaty was mostly because we didn't like the way that the treaty was worded, but I think that most of us know that, in truth, our federal government just loves a good rendition.
Rendition sucks, Adventurers. We wouldn't put up with it if some other country were snatching people off of American soil. I'm not sure why we think it's ok when we do it in other countries. It's only a matter of time before one of The Adventurers disappears. Or until this blog is having to be written on toilet paper and smuggled out of some cell in Afghanistan (do they even give you toilet paper in Afghanistan?).

Ok. Well, that's it for now. Enjoy your belated Reggae Day!

How come no women love me enough to drive 900 miles in a diaper and then mace some other woman in order to win my affections? (wait. stop. rhetorical question, Adventurers. rhetorical!)

Hey. Tuesday. Blah dee blah blah blah. Last night what did I do? Nothing. Nothing at all. Got a turkey sub and watched 24. In the ongoing battle of trying to find new ways to shock us on 24, they now have our hero, Jack Bauer, torturing his own family members in order to save the world. I gotta say I'm not loving the "evil family" subplot. Jack Bauer is a character who already stretches the boundaries of willing suspension of disbelief (one of his favorite tricks is surviving vicious amounts of torture only to spring free and kill a small army of mercenaries with his bare hands), and now we're going to take this guy and give him a supervillain family? I don't know- it just strikes me as increasingly cheesey.

Monday. Uggh. Post-Superbowl Monday. Arrrggggghhh!
Hey, guys. The weekend was pretty slow. The Karebear and The Admiral were in town, but I saw them only on a limited basis due to their scheduled engagements with realtors and old friends.
Friday night I just ate a little pizza with Mandy and watched a movie. Saturday I had lunch with Roundball and McSteans before hooking up with the folks to look at a condominium they were considering (no, they haven't made any kind of final decision on it). Saturday night I hung out for a little while with Mandy and Rami, and I watched a bunch of Episodes of The Wire (I'm now into season 3, which, so far, I'm liking better than season 2). Sunday I had brunch with the folks and Cousin Sue, played some guitar out in the sunshine with Cassidy, and went over to Ryan and Jamie's to watch the Superbowl (of which I watched 3/4 , mostly out of an interest in the commercials and a reluctance to drag Cassidy away from playtime with Mel and Lucy).
Anyway, it was a slow weekend. I read and played guitar and watched DVDs. I tried to spend some time outside with the dog since the weather was beautiful.
That's about it.
Have a pleasant day, you Adventurers, you.

Here are a few pics taken (I think) by Stephanie Gottula from the Mono E's First Thursday gig last week at Ben White Florist. I had a good time. Hope everyone else did as well. By the way, there were a few people watching us, but you can't see them in the pics. You're just gonna have to trust me on that.

Hey! I usually don't post on Saturdays, but I somehow slept in super late this morning (I slept for more than 12 hours- went to bed at midnight and didn't wake up until after noon) and I had one of the longest, craziest, most involved dreams that I've had in my entire life last night/this morning. The whole dream was about zombies and people becoming zombies and zombies taking over. The dream had many different parts, including parts where zombies first attacked my house (my house had kind of a wierd 70's flair, decor wise, in my dream), arguments with Chris Griego about how to best deal with the zombie situation, the use of decoys by my brother and I so we could lure zombies out into the open and then shoot them, and right before I woke up I was dreaming about how Charlie Roadman was putting on a multi-act talent/music show so that all of the post-zombie-apocalypse survivors could take their minds off of the zombie situation (the zombies were outside the theater trying to get in during the performance, so that was freaky).
Anyway, I know that oftentimes people aren't interested in hearing about the dreams of other people, but I nevertheless feel compelled to tell everyone about this dream because it was so vivid and because it went on for so long.
The end.

It's Friday!!!! Last night the rain stopped and the skies cleared up just in time for The Mono E to play a set at The Ben White Florist for First Thursday. It was sort of cold out there, so we cut the set a little short, but we still had a good time, and I wanna thank the people who came out to see us. It was fun having quite a few kids in attendance. It's kind of entertaining when you can watch kids cartwheeling down the hill while you play. Hopefully the shop will ask us to come back and play again sometime this spring when the weather is a little more hospitable (despite the fact that it's a flower shop, it's actually a really nice place to play- we usually play on the front porch, and there's a nice lawn out there for people to sit on, provided it's not wet and muddy like it was last night).
After dinner I went to Outback for a burger with Mandy, Ryan, and Jamie. We talked about Roundball's job hunt, the silly things that people do with their MySpace accounts, and a host of other topics. It was nice to just sit in a warm place and have a meal after our kind of chilly gig at the flower shop, and, of course, the company was nice as well.
Then I went home and watched some documentary on KLRU that had a lot of color film reels that had been shot during WWII. I fell asleep on the couch and eventually wandered off to bed.

Mom and Dad are going to be in town this weekend, looking for some retirement property. It'll be good to see them.

Dat's it for now. Peace.

Howdy. Hope everyone's doing ok.
Last night I went and ate dinner with Mandy and Susan at some Italian place that's in the condo/shopping center development in the old triangle near Hyde Park (I can't remember the name of the place, you see). Anyway, it was pretty good, and it was nice to see Susan.
Also last night (right after work, actually) I went to go see Liz and DK over at the Christopher House. The Christopher House provides pain management and hospice care, and Liz is currently staying there while her doctor gets her pain medication fine tuned. Hopefully she'll be going home within a few days. Liz and DK both seemed to be in pretty good spirits, all things considered, and they seemed pretty happy to have some visitors. All of you Adventurers (especially the ones who know DK or Liz) need to keep them in your thoughts and stop by to lend your support at Carepages.com. To log onto Liz's page, type in "LizPieper" as one word.

In the area of less important but still timely news, The Mono E will be playing a First Thursday gig at Ben White Florist at 3200 South Congress (it's pretty much right across from St. Ed's University on South Congress). We're supposed to play at 5:00 p.m. so long as the weather is above 50 degrees and not raining. Come out and check out some tunes on your way home if you've got the time and the inclination. Rock and roll is good for the soul.

OK, that's it for right now. Maybe more later. Just wanted to mention these things while I had a chance.