I’ve been wanting to learn to play the guitar for a long time. Music has been such a part of my life — as a listener — for as long as I can remember. I’ve played around with learning the piano (a small dose of classes), but that’s been about it during my adult life. My brother is quite the guitar player, and works for his favorite guitar company, Carvin. We’ve talked some about putting me in a guitar — and Carvin makes beautiful instruments — but as I looked at the pricing, I realized those are “big boy” guitars, and at this point in my playing experience, that’s probably a bit more of a commitment/investment than I’m willing to make right now. I bet there’ll be on in my future though!

Becky and I visited Mozingo Music in O’Fallon during lunch yesterday, and I found a guitar that sounded good, looked good, and was priced within my pre-set budget. It’s a nice Yamaha acoustic, and seems to be exactly what I was looking for. I still need to find a strap I like, but aside from that, I think I’m set.

Last night, I played with it for an hour or so (with my Guitar for Dummies book at my side). The tips of the fingers on my left hand are so tender! Guess it’ll take time before those tender tips get used to manhandling the strings on the neck. I’m having terrific problems getting my hamfist and fingers away from strings that I don’t intend to be touching. I’m sure I’m not the first one with that problem!

Watching Big Bang Theory tonight, it was pretty cool to see Wil Wheaton showing up in a Red Robot t-shirt from Diesel Sweeties.

Verra cool.

DS is the only webcomic I follow, and it is quite amazingly funny. A few over 2500 strips have been done, and they are well worth wading through if you have the time or the inclination.

Just enough warpage for the Deauxmayne.

Ever since President Obama had pizzas from Pi Pizzeria delivered to DC, we’ve been wanting to try it out. It was a dreary day yesterday, and a trip indoors made sense, so off to the newly opened restaurant in Kirkwood we went.

Now, I’m not a huge fan of deep-dish pizza. There’s usually just way too much cheese for my tastes, and after a slice or so, I’m usually full, and a little too sloshy from all the dairy squeezings running around. With some trepidation, I ordered a deep dish with pepperoni, sausage, basil and minced garlic… and it’s dang near the best pizza I’ve ever had! These guys are using some kind of cornmeal crust for it, and it’s just crazy good. The sauce was chunky and sweet, and amazing. If I had three thumbs, they’d all be up.

Sio and I split a piece of apple pie afterwards. She had vanilla ice cream with hers, while I had caramel apple ice cream (made locally by Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream). That ice cream had to be the most unique ice cream I’ve ever tried. It had a crazy salty finish to it with every bite, so much so that you would swear there were tons of peanuts in it. This was quite a compliment to the apple pie, which was delicious, too.

This is definitely a place I’ll be coming back to!

Today’s photo is of our cute little puppy, Bailey, this morning as she lounged in Becky’s lap. With that photo, I share this story from Becky from this Christmas:

Sitting with Santa

Two weeks before Christmas I found myself in a local pet store and had the puppy, Bailey –- 4 months old — in the car. Discovered that Santa was in the store, no line.

So I popped out and got the puppy so she could meet Santa.

The process: stand in line at the cashier, pay the man, take the receipt to Santa and smile for your photo.

We stood in line, got the receipt, and went to see The Man.

Bailey was behind an eight-month old Great Dane/Irish Wolfhound puppy girl –- needless to say our 35+ pound puppy shrunk next to this girl. We waited and when it was our turn she was not very excited to meet this man in a beard on a platform. She was untypically shy and I heard a very low quiet grrrowl. Wow, don’t growl at Santa girl, you’ll get coal.

After a few kibbles and coaxing I finally picked her up, told Santa to put out his arms, and plopped her in them. Transformation. She started licking him and chewing on the beard. The Jolly (old?) Elf was OK!

We snapped a couple of shots and after talking with Mrs. Claus, I was quickly convinced to bring in the Wright Canine Trio for the ultimate dog photo.

What a nice surprise for Colin!

I went home and waited for Colin and Siobhan to leave for the afternoon. Quickly, I loaded the trio of dogs up for their first outing together: Emma, 10 years old, 40 pounds, 85% deaf; Molly, 8 years old, 85 pounds, stiff w/ arthritis; and Bailey – all puppy!

I piled them all in the car, Bailey in her crate and Emma and Molly contortioned on the back deck of the Pacifica. Everything is great. What wonderful dogs we have!

As I drove I plotted my approach -– just walk in with determination and go see Santa. After the photos stand in line and pay. It might be pushing the envelope to stand in line with them all prior to the photos. Sound plan.

Pulled into the parking lot and who could believe it, the very first parking space two Saturdays before Christmas. Man this is awesome!

I pile them out of the car and the elder dogs are walking nicely on the left (they do this well) and Bailey is on the right, with all her strength and excitement to be out with the Girls… on my left, behind me, in front of me, under me, jumps over Emma to see Molly, leap, jump, flip, sniff, stop, oh there’s the door.

Whew! Chanting my new mantra, being Calm and in Determined:

Go in, straight to Santa, photos; stand in line, pay, and leave.
Go in, straight to Santa, photos; stand in line, pay, and leave.

Now it is not uncommon for our puppy and Molly to stop people in their tracks and have them look. They are quite striking, really. And sweet Emma is so engaging with her seal-like eyes and her loving approach — sweet as can be. So, although it is not too modest, I’m expecting some remarks with TWO Bernese, a puppy and such a beauty as Molly, and a sweetie like Emma. And that is what we were met with. Total attention. People just stopped, no breathing, words, only Muzak in the background and my determination.

Go in, straight to Santa, photos; stand in line, pay, and leave.

The stunning silence of the patrons -– gosh our dogs must be beautiful!

My head quickly came out of the clouds when I looked around and was met with a glare from a Grandmother. I snapped out of it and realized I was not met with the stares of adoration for our dogs, but a stunned response. Good lord, I was standing in Toys-R-Us two Saturdays before Christmas.

Followed by the vacuum sound of the automated doors closing behind us….. woosh.

Then there was a glare from the mother with the child who’s faced contorted and started to screech, “I want a ppuuuuuppppppyyyyy” and was running to us, at which the puppy jumped, the eight-year old startled back, and the deaf one just waggled and sniffed the ground. Grandmother just shook her head in disapproval.

Quick turn around, leave.

ENTRANCE ONLY read the sign on the door.

The associate in the Customer Service desk ten steps ahead pointed to the right …. we had to go AROUND all of the security and out the other door. Oh good night.
Jump, wiggle, lunge, sniff, snort, startled….hurry hurry. PUPPPPPYYYYY!!!!!!

Standing outside I quickly gather myself and check to see if the daggers I felt in my back for the icy glares of Mothers and Grandparents left a mark. No, good, head to the correct store, one parking lot down the complex.

Shake it off, determined; they’ll never know in this store what just happened.

Go in, straight to Santa, photos; stand in line, pay, and leave.

Looked up – pet store, yes? Pet Store, yes, go in, Santa’s waiting …wiggle, jump, yank, snap.

We go in and walked in to the right with determination and purpose, right by some families murmuring “ooohhh look, how pretty” (right response, right store!).

…straight to Santa

Decided they needed a little outfitting as I went by the Holiday Costumes. Had them all sit down and tried on hats, collars, and settled on pretty velvet collars with jingle bells. How precious they all looked. And they jingled to Santa -– how perfect.

Santa and Mrs. Clause were glad (?) to see we were back – and there was no waiting. Right on!

He decided to sit on the platform – the photo would be Santa on the ground, Bailey in his arms now that they are pals, Molly next to him, the Tree next to her, cascading to gifts and decorations on the floor and sweet Emma sitting in front.

Good plan. Things are looking up.

Santa moves his chair and sits down, calls Molly to him. Now the platform he is on is the end cap to a retail aisle in a pet sore – so it is a platform of very malleable aluminum – when one sits on it or a 85 pound dog stands on it, it makes the “whomp whomp” noise.

Santa sitting, Bailey in his arms, Emma in front, Molly …whomp whomp, gets very nervous and starts waggling and wiggling – and knocks the tree over. Thump…down to the presents…splat…hitting the nutcracker, when he hits the ground … crack … off comes his head and it goes rolling in front of Emma.

Now being a self-respecting English Springer Spaniel, Emma sees the ‘squirrel’ and decided she needs to retrieve it. Within two seconds: tree over; Molly waggling; Emma proudly prancing and vocalizing her catch Nutcracker Head; Bailey wiggling in his arms; me, in flight to get the tree back up and gifts alighted. I grab the decapitated nutcracker and shove it behind the props.

Now it is not uncommon for our dear 10 year old to get excited in public, and when she does, (parental advisory: alert for ickynesss) she does a crab crawl style and makes a line of doggie poop. I knew it the second she started to assume “the” position —

One, ummmmm, two, lady, three drops. LADY

I find something to clean it up with – my back is turned when Bailey, thinking Emma is making “Christmas Cookies” decides to jump out of Santa’s arms and swoop down and pick up a treat of doggie poop…and she realizes she’s free…and she starts running.

Chomp chomp.

Jingle jingle jingle.

Oh good – right into the Pet Adoption area.

Kittens in a crate totem pole on each other, hissing and scratching – Bailey has never seen kittens, and does this animated cartoon stop and back up…jingle jingle….and I can’t get her attention.

I grab some treats form the ‘scoop it yourself treat bar’ and Bailey smells the aroma of real Christmas Cookies and runs to me…jingle jin….a bell flies off and Bailey swoops down to grab in, in her mouth it goes.

Up until now I was going with the flow, now she is in danger and we are not messing around.

I grab the puppy in mid flight, and swift like a lion tamer I open her mouth and stick my hand completely down into her throat and pull out the bell. I hold my victory to the light, relief that she is safe, and look past me ….there was a kid, eyes bugged out completely pressed against her Mom, watching me shove my arm to my elbow into this wild beast. What a sight! Mom understands, and from one lion tamer to another, we exchange knowing glances, I smile and walk away.

Santa, now not all that excited to get a poop-eating puppy in his arms, somehow has the tree, gifts, and dogs set up ready to go. Put the pup in his arms, click click click click.

Mrs. Claus: “Which photo would you like?”

I’ll take them ALL I say, completely winded.

• Go in
• Wrong store
• Go In – again
• Straight to Santa
• Stop and try on costumes
• Knock over tree, packages, nutcracker
• Poop
• Swoop, eat poop, run
• Swoop, eat jingle bell
• Remove jingle bell
• Terrorize kid
• Photos
• Stand in line and pay

I tuck my wallet under my chin; shove the jingle bells in my back pocket, dogs loaded in each hand, car keys accessible, and pictures in my mouth, partial bag of dog poop in my hand.

…stand in line and pay

New plan – get them in the car, at all cost.

I walk right out with determination and fire in my eyes. Put the dogs in car, sit down, and breathe.

Back in the store, I give the jingle bell velvet collars back, dropping them on the counter. With a trickle of perspiration coming down my forehead, I ask, “What do I own you?”

Clerk says “Well, let’s see, photos, a scoop of dog treats, and collars”. No verbal recognition of the decapitated nut cracker, either gracious or didn’t see it. Let’s just say you owe us for the photos and chock the rest up to Entertainment.”

“Deal,” I say.

I left the bell-less collars on the counter, took my photos, and realized that was the longest 10 minutes of my life.

Merry Christmas to all!

I was listening to my iPod this morning, and Great Lake Swimmers’ “Palmistry” shuffled to the top of the playlist. Here’s the lyrics that made me think:

You see by the lines on my hands
I´ve been carrying a heavy load
You follow them across my palms
Where they run like roads

In September, there was mucho hoopla over the re-release of The Beatles music, remastered, and ready for 21st century ears. As much as I wanted to pick it up, I avoided it at the time, and bided my time. That was a good move.

A coupon from Borders (40% off) netted me a terrific price — over $100 off! — but I had to find one in town, and they were scarce. However, I found one in Sunset Hills, made the drive, and wound up with my box o’ Beatles.

I’m really impressed with the sound quality. I’m no audiophile, so I don’t know that I can quantify how the music sounded in any way meaningful to anyone else, but to my tired old ears, they sounded great. I’ve owned some of the collection on CD, and all of them on various vinyl pressings over the years… even to the extreme of Japanese virgin vinyl pressings. Lunacy, that was. But now, durable, transportable copies have given me The Beatles wherever my iPod Nano can go. It’s amazing to think about carrying that music with me, and is keeping pretty close to my headphones much of the time.

I still think it’s pretty crazy that 40+ year old music can create this kind of stir. What’s cooler is that it’s music that I like. That’s great!

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the introduction of Mountain Dew Throwback — a tip o’ the hat to the good ol’ days, when sugar was king, and HFCS was unheard of. Unfortunately, Throwback was a passing thing, a limited time deal.

This week, however, the clouds have parted, and the light of pure natural sugar goodness has once again beamed down upon me. The Shell station just outside the office somehow “found” a bunch of 12-packs of the stuff, and my dear Darla happened to be there at the right time. This photo is of the six boxes of Phydeaux Juice in the trunk of her Pacifica.

It’s gonna be a good weekend!

We recently changed our landline phone number, and have been getting a boatload of calls for the previous number possessor. Some have been obvious credit card calls, some are obviously calling from an outdated cold call list. Despite having registered with the federal Do Not Call list, we continue to get these. Not the end of the world.

Today, I received a call from the local paper, looking for the folks we aren’t. Once we were all squared away that we weren’t them, the person on the other end of the phone said she could talk with me, and began to give me a breathless spiel about the local paper, subscription rates, and left me an opening when she asked if I’d noticed how the cost of the paper at the newsstand had been increasing. I told we don’t get or read the paper.

To hear the disappointment in her voice, you woulda thought I had just killed a puppy.

Quietly, resigned to the fact that I was not likely to be a sales target, she slowly gave me the number for the paper’s customer service line, just in case I changed my mind. In reality, I’m not likely to. See, we get a local paper for our part of the metro. It comes for free in the mail, talks about things that are within five miles of my home, and is targeted to the world I spend more than half my time within. The city paper can’t do that — they need to appeal to a much broader regional area for their “local” news, as well as covering national events. If our little area gets part of a full page in all that, I’d be surprised.

The world is a changing, and printed newspapers are suffering for it, but that’s the way it goes. I think those that have blended their print and online options are probably the most likely to survive in a digital world. If not… well… it’ll be Attack of the Show and Gizmodo for me.

High-power analog television has but a week of life left in the States. And with analog on the ropes, and most of the locals already gone, I’ve been watching for some things I couldn’t have seen otherwise.

One thing that really surprises me is just how often there are openings going on. With casual checking, I’ve found stations coming in from somewhere almost every other day. And Tu Canal from Mexico is in about every third day on channel 2. With us having stations on channel 2, 4 and 5, I had no idea any of this was going on. It’s been fun to see, but come Friday, the domestic stations will be gone, leaving me with Canada, Mexico and Cuba as the likely analog stations I’ll still see from time to time.

I’m still not quite sure how I’ll figure out when there’s domestic E-skip taking place that I could leverage for DTV. An exercise for the writer, I guess.

Tonight, the airwaves held a surprise. Since the mass shutdown on June 12th, I’ve seen plenty of activity on channels 2, 3 and 4. Tonight though, I got a quick glimpse on channel 6 of KOCT-TV from Carlsbad NM. Tu Canal had been in for an hour or two, so I knew things were hopping down that direction, but to see the MUF climb up to channel 6 was pretty cool. I’ve only seen anything that high here once before. A few years ago, we had some kind of opening — probably Es — that allowed us to watch a bunch of stuff from up around Rapid City SD. This was nowhere near as long lived.

However, my huzzahs go to KOCT — they identified with a long duration slide that allowed me plenty of time to catch it at its peak. Many of nightlight stations seem to identify pretty rarely — probably like they did in real life at twice an hour. I’ve had a channel 2 from somewhere in New England in twice over the last week with Norm from This Old House talking about DTV and have yet to see an id on the station. That’ll make ya happy.

In any case, with one week of domestics left, I’ll be paying attention as I can, and seeing if I can get anything new in the log. Once Friday rolls by, I’ll put my list of stations up. Hopefully, our local channel 5 will go off the air, and I’ll find some station(s) still on before they shutdown too.

Last night, the transition from analog to all-digital television began. Becky and I watched it until the gory end. We watched our PBS station on channel 9 drop off, and within a couple of minutes, all the locals (except channel 5) disappear. Channel 5 appears to be acting as a “night light” station, broadcasting DTV transition information. I have no idea how long that’ll last.

However, there were still a lot of stations on the air. Some were broadcasting DTV transition info, and others were still transmitting regular programming. With the St. Louis stations out of the way, I was able to see some stations that I ordinarily couldn’t have because of the locals. It was nice to see some of those before they disappeared.

It’s been my theory that once the US analog stations were gone, it would clear the path to seeing analog stations from both Mexico and Canada with greater ease. I could have been more right. Within a few minutes of the local channel 2 switching their analog signal off, I started seeing XEPM out of Mexico (near Las Cruces). Cool.

I stayed up until about 2.15am, spinning the antenna, looking for fresh signals.

This morning, there were still quite a few analog stations up and running, much to my surprise. And this morning, I was treated to another opening, this time to the Atlantic coast — Charleston, Daytona Beach and Charlotte. Once again, if the locals had been on, I would never have seen any of it. For all I know, signals have always been like this, I just couldn’t see ‘em. I even saw some signals from Canada this morning.

Tonight — in theory, the last night of analog broadcasting — almost every station is gone. I’ve seen a few signals from Mexico, and a couple of locals, but most of the analog signals are gone. However, there’s still one stubborn station, WSIL, sitting on channel 3, running normal broadcasting. I’m a little surprised at that, and am wondering when they’ll turn out the lights.

Transition has been fun, and if the signals from Mexico and Canada have been any indication, there could some real fun to come!