Blank Slate Friday

OK - y'all know I'm a hard rocker that likes loud heavy base music and probebly blew his ears out many years ago. But dang. Am I getting old? Did you see the CMA's a few nights ago? Lots of music. Unlike the MTV Awards and other so called Rock Awards shows which seem to be 80% Hip Hop.

Sure, when I'm alone in the car I'll listen to Linkin Park, Disturbed, Slipknot, Korn Avenged Sevenfold and Papa Roach but I have no problems at all with Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum and many other NEW Country musicians. Taylor Swift won a ton of awards at the CMA's and what I find fascinating is that her first hit was produced when she was 17 years old AND she writes ALL of her music.

County Music is not what it use to be. It's normally not twangy (except for Sugarland which drives me up a wall) and when you have Kid Rock and Hootie (Darius Rucker) playing country you know it's changing.

BHack to Ms. Swift. She learned to play the guitar from a computer repairman who showed her how to play 3 chords. Then because she did not fit in in school she started to write songs about the kids that treated her badly. She has been trying to get into the music industry since she was 11 when she gave demo tapes to every company in Nashville (and was rejected by every company). So when she won Entertainer of the Year it was not something that just happened by chance.

If you did not see her opening monologue on Saturday Night Live, here it is!



She admits she has never been more nervous in her life (and it shows as she was a little pitchy) here is her opening of the CMA's. One funny thing is that in the award of Entertainer of the Year she opened concerts for ALL of her competition in the past year! Not bad for 19 years old. I like when she throws the chair! Our red chair is too heavy - she must be strong.

BTW - one of the few non-lip sync performances. Remember - this is a "Country Song".


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Survivor - I'm not going to say anything about last nights show because I know people DVR-it. However - I will say that this is going from being the worst Survivor ever to very very enjoyable and last night was SO MUCH FUN!! My opinion of evil Russel is changing.

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I don't really have much to comment on besides leaving my cell phone at home which is bugging me. Nobody ever calls me but just the fact I don't have it . . . . I remember 1999 when people were just getting cell phones and I laughed "WHY would you ever want a phone with you, what could be so important! COME ON PEOPLE!! GET A LIFE"

I have sunken so far in 10 years!
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I put 12 canvas prints up in West James Gallery last night. OH! West James Gallery is having a big Christmas thing this weekend. Check them (it?) out.

OH yea - this is interesting and has to do with Columbus . . a little. The Appleton Common Council voted and approved the new College Ave bridge aesthetics look which included the inset patterns on the inside wall adjacent to the sidewalk . This was also approved by the Bridge Design Committee.

I hope Columbus has input that the DOT will go along with and I hope we do as good of a job as they did. The bridge opened last week.

Here are the results.


OOPS!!!
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I have a new uninspired beer label for my Bavarian Hefeweizen.

I call it my Heidi-weizen and while It's not my most wonderful label - I HAVE TWO!! Collect them all!


It's a great beer BTW! I might have to work on these labels to make them more professional as I'll be brewing more of this style. I was in a hurry.
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from our leaders!
Open House and Ribbon Cutting
of the
New Columbus Community Center
and Senior Citizen Center Parking Lot
Tuesday, November 17

5:30pm-7:00pm

Ribbon Cutting at 6:30pm

Come see the new offices of the Columbus Recreation Department and the Office of Economic Development and Energy Sustainability serving Columbus!
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Testosterone? - I don't think so.

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FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN - LET ME EAT MY DONUT!

I sit down and have my big juicy donut whispering to me "eat me eat me, you know you want to" and a co worker opens the door to my office, and when I say office I mean cubicle and there is no door but there is a threshold of no return to step over, and he starts talking about a problem I had ignored yesterday because I only found out about it like at 3:00 and you know it takes a LEAST an hour to get ready to go home and I'm all like I can't even think about this now because if I do it'll be like stuck in my brain and I might have a aneurysm or a hemorrhage or a hemeurysm but he won't leave and starts talking about other things until finally I talk him into getting more coffee because he seems run down.

Then I look down and see I actually purchased YESTERDAYS paper from the box and after reading 5 pages I'm all like I know what is coming next and so I decide to read some TIME magazines that were left on my desk which has the headline "Jay Leno Is the Future of Television" from September 14th. AM I IN A DOCTORS OFFICE?

And earlier this morning I wake up and DJ wakes up and she is puking all over like there is no tomorrow and I'm all like wow where did that come from and she feels bad but didn't feel bad when she was sleeping so I decided I have to go out and by baby things for some reason but that is ridiculous.

I think this is all stemming from the Lovastatin incident (spelling checker thinks I really mean Molestation incident - let this be a lesson to not always agree with spelling checkers) from the night before.

This would normally not be a big deal but I was on my very last Lovastatin and as I was going to bed it dropped on the floor and as luck would have it rolled 10 feet and went under the stove. AWESOME - what great fantastic luck.

So I get on my hands and knees and don't see a thing. I get a flashlight and am laying on the floor and Milo see's me doing this and being a cat finds this whole thing amazingly interesting and he wants to help.

It's way under so I get a tape measure and lay down again and he lays down IN FRONT of me to get a better view which blocks MY view, and to top it off the tape measure looks like a REAL fun thing to play with as I try to get the little blue pill.

I shove him out of the way but then HE can't see so he gets in front of me again and while this is going on Sierra the playful cat has become interested in Milos tail. SIGH

I'm almost getting the pill and Milo is grabbing onto the tape measure to "help" and Sierra grabs Milos tail. Milo JERKS out grabbing the tape measure with a claw which then flings the little blue pill across the floor to under the dishwasher. DAMN IT!

And Blake who is outside starts to bark.

Luckily Milo is now chasing Sierra and they are out of my way and the pill is only a few inches under the dishwasher. I get the pill, take the other pills (1 for LDL, 2 for HDL) and give Blake a doggie cookie and go I to bed. Ten minutes later Milo, all 12 pounds falls on top of me, Sierra jumps up, circles the bed 4 times and curls up in a place where I can no longer move for the rest of the night, Blake enters, climbs into his bed, burps, groans and falls asleep. And the 5 of us are all snug as a bug.
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Note to Char. I tried to mail your piece yesterday but . . . . Post Office was closed. I should have it in the mail Friday (boxing it up today, mail tomorrow).

Kitty B'Gosh - Vendor and Craft Sale at the Columbus High School 9am to 3:30pm November 21st (1st day of hunting). First time for this event. Looking like 30-40 vendors! Not a clue what will be there. Probably all sorts of deer meat booths LOL

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And lastly - I think I have to start a new class at the UW. How to protest effectively. It seems if you work near the square you are always walking past someone protesting something. The problem is that lately I can't figure out WHAT they are protesting.

A few weeks ago there were a bunch of people all in black tee-shirts with signs and even after stopping to read the signs, I had NO idea not only what side to take but WHAT was being protested!! Then yesterday I walk out and see a bunch of testosterone with two legs and flannel mingling around with signs and after reading the signs I knew it was something to do with a building but . . . For it? Against it? MAKE IT CLEAR!

Speaking of testosterone. I see it is Chippendale season coming and seriously - when I see these guys I'm not sensing testosterone at all. I'm feeling more estrogen if anything.


Rod

NO - NOT THE KNIFE

I picked up a new book called "Licensing Photography" and was trying to stay awake while reading it but when I woke up I did come away with a few tidbits of information. MAN, did I screw myself during the filming of Public Enemies.

Here I am sitting on the very first photos IN THE WORLD of Johnny Depp filming a new movie on location and the biggest Japanese Movie Magazine contacts me and asked if they could purchase some photos for $25. DAAAA!!! Here I am writing a blog with 10,000 people on that day reading and sucking up my photos and I'm so caught up in the moment tell them to DOUBLE it and we have a deal. I get $50 and three magazines?

sigh! stupid stupid stupid

One last thing about photography. I had Christmas last night as I received a big box of canvas prints. I think I'll have to charge people more as I did not account for the time it takes to open the box. Seriously - from the time I started to when I finally got the last print out it was ONE HOUR! I had bubble wrap all over and freaking packing peanuts everywhere (Blake does not like the taste of packing peanuts, they are nothing at all like marshmellows

DJ made me sign a release form so I could use the knife (no running, no flipping it, no trying to stick it in the floor) but I don't think she knew I would be slashing with it for an hour. It did fall on the floor once, IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! No one was permanently injured.

Anyway - I was amazed that they actually look better in real life then they do on the computer. Canvas ROCKS!!!
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Sixty-nine years ago today was the largest storm ever to hit Wisconsin. My mom told me the story of this.

She was in country school, way up north in Wisconsin in 1940. The day started out in the mid 60's and sunny. Many of the children wore short sleeves and she had a dress on and it was almost like a party atmosphere the weather was so wonderful.

It was about noon when a farmer enter the one room school house and told the teacher to send the students home. The teacher refused but then the farmer showed his rifle and said "SEND THE CHILDREN HOME, NOW!"

So my mom was walking home in no special hurry but it did seem like it was getting colder and a little more windy. But she only had to walk like three miles so . . . .

The wind was getting stronger and it was getting colder, very cold and she had reached the woods and had decided to stop for a little while as it was getting REAL windy and she huddled near a clump of trees in shelter waiting for the storm to pass but it was getting real bad and she was frightened.

In the distance she her her brother Wayne "Evelyn. . . . Evelyne" and she yelled out. They made it home just as the snow started to come down.

In a matter of 8 hours the temperature went from the mid 60's to 20 degrees and was still dropping. There were 20 inches of snow and 80 mph winds that night. 154 people lost their lives, mostly hunters who were in short sleeves along with thousands of cattle and millions of turkeys that could not survive the 20 foot drifts.

eight hours earlier it was 62 degrees

The storm was called the Great Armistice Day Storm. It was a pan handle hooker and the barometric pressure is the lowest ever recorded in Wisconsin (28.66).

The farmer in the above story was a weather watcher and had noticed his barometer was dropping faster then he had ever seen. It was when he realize it was not broken he decided to put things into his own hands.

Because of this storm NOAA decided they needed to be a little more accurate with weather forecasts. What they did was instead of one BIG office in Chicago they created many smaller offices around the region.
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In 1964 the Rolling Stones played in Milwaukee to 1,200 fans. As a reporter wrote in the Milwaukee Journal after the show.

"Screams from a thousand throats drowned out all but the most insistent electronic cacaphony and the two-fisted smashes of drummer Charlie Watts. Unless someone teaches guitar chords to chimpanzees, the visual ultimate has been reached in the Rolling Stones. With shoulder length hair and high heeled boots, they seemed more feminine than their fans. The Stones make the Beatles look like clean cut kids. You would think it must be some kind of parody - but the little girls in front paid $5.50 a seat."

HEY - my mom would not let me have a Beatles haircut.

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DJ had a pet peeve moment. She says she is always answering the phone at work and I guess yesterday someone called asking for a number of another agency. DJ then starts to give the number and halts, the woman on the other end can't find a pen to write the number down. sigh!
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We went to the new Hy-Vee store on the way home last night. Nice place, wide aisles a TOM of food, HUGE deli. Good liqure department with a nice wall of craft beer (not as good as Woodmans though).

HOWEVER - we went there looking for our #1 Favorite Pizza Bellatoria Pepperoni Thin Crust. It's is a GREAT Pizza and even my buddy Elweed thought it was the best he has ever had. BUT, they did not have it so I found the Manager and told them to get it. She was very friendly and wrote it down and they will call me when they get it.

SO - what's for supper? hmmmm We purchased a Rotisserie Chicken but I think I picked up a Rotisserie Cornish Game Hen by accident. I was making the potatoes (again - I got to use a knife) and DJ was working on the chicken and I said- that's it??? Only one side? No no - that is the whole thing honey. Really? What will YOU eat, at which point my knife privileges were taken away.

That's it for today - I'll tell the exciting story of the rolling Lovastatin under the stove for another day.

Rod