The weekend Thread

[Tig***]

It was a wonderful weekend! Just being at home with my family is priceless enough. I played guitar off and on as the mood hit.

Saturday morning, I got in another road ride. It was just over 1 hour, but it kicked my butt. The rest of the day was with family.

Sunday, we enjoyed being lazy, watching football. Mrs. Tig loves NFL.
Glorious rain all day! We got at least 4 inches, which our trees and foundation desperately need.

[sunvalleylaw]

Friday: Took my oldest son to Boise for his junior blackbelt test on Saturday morning. Got there with time to go to a book store as he wanted, and had planned to head over to GC so he could try some guitars to see what he likes. He is playing a borrowed Ibanez ARC300 now, and has a cheap "Fullerton" strat copy, but will need to upgrade to that Ibby or something else.

GC is having an excellent October sale, and is really blowing some stuff out. We are not buying just now, but some good deals are out there. I selected some guitars I thought he might like and the guy set us up with cables and etc. I picked a Squire Vintage Modified Jaguar, an Epiphone "Traditional Pro" LP model with two coil taps, Fender Blacktop series both Tele and Jaguar. ( missed finding a jazzmaster), and for grins, a Fender '72 thinline HH tele. I also threw the blacktop strat at him later too.

Bottom line, he wants an offset shape, with tappable buckers, and a tremelo bridge. The Squire VM came close, but we would need to mod the pickups to tap them. Plus it is a squire. He liked the Blacktop Jag, but wanted the tremelo, so maybe the jazzmaster would be a good bet, and then we could tap the bridge if he wanted. I think the combo of bridge bucker and p90 in the neck could be really cool for what he wants. May require another trip. A build up from scratch would be cool, but I think we gain a lot of ground starting from one of these existing guitars.

He was not that impressed with the Epiphone. He liked the tappable buckers, and control layout, but just didn't bond with the guitar. Between the teles, he liked the thinline since it was semihollow. I was surprised he didn't like the blacktop more than he did but there you have it. The Ibby remains what he is playing for now, so we shall see. He has to keep playing if we are going to invest anyway.


On Saturday, though very nervous, he worked into the test, responded and self corrected to the examiner's demands, and passed very well!! I am very proud of him. He is a quiet, shy kid at this point, and the examiner wanted big "YES SIR" type responses and loud yells with each punch and kick. He is not wired that way, but he went ahead and gave the guy what he needed after a couple reminders. He sparred well with an advanced adult black belt, and then a kid who outweighed him by 20 or 30 pounds and is a shover. In a tournament earlier this summer, the kid kept shoving my son back and my son did not know how to react. This time, he moved well, made space with his kicks, and outscored the guy hugely. No contest. It was testing and not a tournament anyway, but good to see. His forms were really good too, particularly his upper body. Like I said, very proud of him.


Then on our way out of town, I stopped at a homebrew shop, and got supplies to add to some that I have to make a black "double" or higher alcohol, IPA. I have not brewed in a long time, and am excited to do a batch again! I posted in the homebrew thread about that. I got an early evening MTB ride in to close out the day. Had kids over last night for a cookout and marshmallow gun war, concluded with a viewing of MP and the Holy Grail.

Sunday, Need to help with the Scouts color guard for a sheep festival parade today in Ketchum, then hope to get a MTB bike ride in. How 'bout you guys?

[Tig***]

On Saturday, though very nervous, he worked into the test, responded and self corrected to the examiner's demands, and passed very well!! I am very proud of him.

Like I said, very proud of him.

You have every right to be proud. He certainly earned it! Congratulations.
He sounds like a great kid with a good head, well on his way.

[deeaa*]

Paul's 2nd birthday was over the weekend...dressed him up as a li'l devil. Wouldn't hold on to the pitchfork for picture no matter what, though :-)

[Brian Krashpad]

Steve: congrats to yer shortie! And good luck w/the guitar hunt. My daughter got whatever was handy and cheap (a Peavey USA Foundation) for her first bass when she turned 16. But now she's got GAS for a Jazz. I should just give her mine, but it's the bass I played with Bo Diddley and I don't know if I can manage that. Sigh.

Dee: Pablo es un diablito! Too cute.

Tig: got the same rain you did from that stalled tropical depression or whatever it was.

Rained all weekend. Band director at church had lost his voice a bit from a cold or something, so we got the week off, and I played hooky on Sunday, took one of the cars in for an oil change during the time I'd usually have been getting ready for church. Did a lot of indoor stuff Saturday, tons of laundry and house picking-up, and watched the Gators get mauled by LSU. Tough to win on the road against a Top 5 team when both your starter and backup QB are out.

Had a good Crash Pad practice on Sunday night, after taking several weeks off after our show on 9/4. Our former bassist Ronnie came by with our rhythm guitarist Mitch (they were high school buds, and in fact were still in high school when Ronnie was playing with us) and just hung out for the practice listening. He really likes one of our "new" songs (the 9/4 show was the first time we played it; though it'd been in the setlist for our preceding show I think it was scratched at the last second), "Laura, Pale and White." It's not really a "new" song but rather a very old one that was on the very first Crash Pad DIY "release" (meaning you could buy it at shows and a couple record stores in town, ha!) cassette album, c. '97 or so. Even back in the 90's when it was in the setlist it did not get performed very often, mainly because back then I could get Mrs. K to go to all our shows, and she didn't like hearing that particular song because I nicked the subject matter from a story from her childhood. (Which just goes to show you to be careful what you say to a songwriter, I suppose.) Our bassist/backing vocalist is still working out his harmony part on the choruses so it will mesh well with the melody. I'm letting him do that on his own as I have zero knowledge of how harmony works, and know he'll get it eventually. It'll be worth the wait, as it's one of my better "serious" lyrics.

[deeaa*]

Well, Sunday evening...luckily next week is holiday!!! Gonna do my best to do much music stuff.

Wife's parents visited for 2 nights so we got to go out to town for a change...but before that, my father-in-law persuaded us to go see a game of hockey. I have never watched a game before, not live or on TV. First hour or so was pure hell, there were thousands of people there and noisier than a rock concert...I was thinking along the lines of wtf is the idea here, watch grown men play with a piece of rubber and it's supposed to be interesting? But when I kept staring I did get a sort of idea what it is all about...I don't think I'll be attending any sports events any time soon in the future either, but still, I have some appreciation for the stuff. By the end it was kind of interesting to watch how some situations developed actually. I decided watching sports may after all be a little more sensible a hobby than I had originally thought.

Also been toying all weekend with my phone, as some may have noticed on my Android post...changed the win mobile 6.5 to 7 on my HTC and it didn't work very well, so I installed Android and now the phone really rocks hard! I was already starting to eye new phones, as this is two years old already, but hell, now it's back in the game better than ever, and even the specs are quite on par with the new phones still :-)

[Eric***]

It's true that most hobbies that seem pointless can have some merit if you get sufficiently invested in them. I guess it's just a matter of picking the ones that seem natural to you, but nobody really has a problem doing that.

Yesterday I did some work on our boiler, draining it and replacing the relief valve and fixing the pressure gauge. We had bought a new gauge, but it was a tiny bit too big for the threaded port, so I managed to resurrect the old one. Today has been church and football. If the person who lives upstairs ever gets back, I can bleed those radiators and be done with it.

[Tig***]

Another great weekend with the family.
Watched the annual airshow today from a park below some of the banking action.

B-17 "Thunderbird"



B-25



P-40 in AVG (Flying Tigers) paint scheme


P-51


Zero's (converted AT-6's)

[Tig***]

More...
B-24



The Japanese invasion


Kate torpedo bombers



Heavy Metal Jet Team formation (MiG-17 in the middle)


MiG-17

[Katastrophe]

Cool, Tig!

Do you know what kind of jets the Heavy Metal Jet folks were flying, besides the MiG?

[Tig***]

Their website says L-39's, which I'm not familiar with.
http://www.heavymetaljetteam.com/



Also, we've seen all kinds of aircraft leaving today, including A-10 Warthogs, F-15's, etc...

[R_of_G]

We took our daughter to a Fall Festival at a local nonprofit horse farm. She got to see and/or pet horses, pigs, sheep, llamas, snakes, lizards, and many other animals. There were hayrides and a hay maze she enjoyed quite a bit. The best part was that she got to take her first pony ride. We weren't sure how she'd do. She loved it.





Also got to play a good deal of guitar this weekend. Went to my best friend's to play some acoustic Friday night, the usual "Dead Flowers" and such. I got home around 1:00, just in time for my neighbor to come out and tell me he and my other neighbor just started jamming. His nephew was also there. The guy is a very good vocalist.

[marnold***]

Busy weekend! Left early on Friday morning to drive home for my grandfather's funeral. We got to the Mackinac bridge moments after it was closed because of an accident. We were initially told it would be 4-5 hours before the bridge would reopen. From that point, there is no other way to get to the lower peninsula. Had it been five hours, we would have returned home instead. It turned out to be about 2.5 hours for us. We stopped and ate and had an unguided tour of St. Ignace. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, we made it across. We got to the funeral home with only 1/2 hour left in the visitation. Got to spend some time with family on Friday night. The service lasted until 2:30 on Saturday. At which point we immediately left and got back here at about 10 P.M. local time. Then of course I had the usual Sunday work while enjoying an oncoming cold.

My grandfather was a major influence on me. He was my pastor. He was 94 and hadn't been in the best health recently. Hard to be too sad when I know where he is now and that I'll see him again. I'm glad that I got to have a good conversation with him when I was home this summer. I only broke down at one point and that is with a hymn that makes me cry when we sing it on a random Sunday, much less at my grandfather's funeral. I'm getting to be an old softy in my advancing age.

[Eric***]

I only broke down at one point and that is with a hymn that makes me cry when we sing it on a random Sunday, much less at my grandfather's funeral. I'm getting to be an old softy in my advancing age.

Which hymn would that be?

[marnold***]

Which hymn would that be?

The last verse of this one: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/t/i/ltilwamh.htm

They sang it at my grandma's funeral too. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go home at that time because the funeral was on Christmas Eve (or the day before, I can't remember anymore). I just couldn't leave.

[Eric***]

The last verse of this one: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/t/i/ltilwamh.htm

They sang it at my grandma's funeral too. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go home at that time because the funeral was on Christmas Eve (or the day before, I can't remember anymore). I just couldn't leave.

Huh. Don't know that one. Sounds mega-old-school from the wonderful midi backing. There are some ridiculously powerful hymns out there, but as could be expected, my personal faves are the ones I always find to be most affecting.

[marnold***]

Huh. Don't know that one. Sounds mega-old-school from the wonderful midi backing. There are some ridiculously powerful hymns out there, but as could be expected, my personal faves are the ones I always find to be most affecting.

It is. But then I'm a seriously old skool pastor (my metal leanings notwithstanding). It's always been a family favorite.

[Katastrophe]

My grandfather was a major influence on me. He was my pastor. He was 94 and hadn't been in the best health recently. Hard to be too sad when I know where he is now and that I'll see him again. I'm glad that I got to have a good conversation with him when I was home this summer. I only broke down at one point and that is with a hymn that makes me cry when we sing it on a random Sunday, much less at my grandfather's funeral. I'm getting to be an old softy in my advancing age.

Nope... not a softy at all. I still tear up a bit when I hear "Amazing Grace," much less play the melody on the guitar. It was one of my grandmother's favorites, and it brings back fond memories of her and the congregation singing a capella (with different harmony parts) in church (her particular church didn't believe in music during services).

Had a good weekend. My sister in law and nephew came in to spend time with the fam this weekend. She's dropped about 100 pounds in weight, and looked great. We're all really proud of her, and her discipline in keeping with eating right, and exercise. Got to see Mrs. Kat, too (of course). Usually, she goes out of town on my work weekends.

[Brian Krashpad]

Lots of cool reports kids. Thanks for the pics Tig and R of G!

Friday: side band practice for Pedagogy gig after work

Saturday: skipped church band practice, did laundry, gig that night, see thread here:
http://www.thefret.net/showthread.ph...t?goto=newpost

Sunday: 2 songs in late service, unloaded everything at the office on the way home. "Mowed" some of front yard w/grass whip in afternoon.