Christmas Day...

After playing the 11pm service on Christmas eve, I got into my car at 12:20am Christmas day. A very surreal 20 minute drive back home, deserted streets with no commerce establishments open, always a special time for me. Since our Minnesota plans crumbled like a house of cards because of the weather, we had no plans for Christmas morning. We did presents with the kids a few days ago thinking we weren't going to be here.
Kim made her way too rich and way too good cream cheese coffee cake so after sleeping in a bit Kim and myself shared a nice slice. My Mom and Dad were having all the kids over to their retirement home around 2, so we cleaned up a bit and crashed that party on the South side. Some nice food and family catch up time...very nice.







Seven of the Eight Grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa, Missed you Jen!




John explaining that the present this year from he and Donna was a donation in all our names to a foundation that fixes cleft pallets for kids, enough for a surgery, ones of the coolest gifts I have ever seen...




Donna on post knee surgery Vicodine pretty much says it all...


After leaving, Kim, Evan and myself caught the Christmas day release of Sherlock Holmes. A well done flick.

Christmas 09 didn't quite go how we planned, we terribly missed having Christmas with Kim's folks but were thankful my family was doing something so close.

Merry Christmas!

Bitter sweet...

Seems like this has been an odd year for us, why should Christmas be any different?
We were supposed to leave today to spend Christmas with Kim's folks and Sibs.
Why does the the worst storm in years have to hit Minnesota/Wisconsin/Iowa on Christmas Eve?
Kim's folks and Kim made the call to postpone our trip over to see them.
We are pretty bummed, Kim's family is fun to hang with AND Kim's Dad, Paul makes the best ham on BOTH sides of the Mississippi! One thing that can make a sad situation better is a wee one. Kim gathered her cookie making supplies and grabbed Amelia for an afternoon of baking.









A good way to spend an afternoon...

Eve...eve

Tonight was our Christmas Eve, eve service at our potential new venue Wentz concert hall at North Central College. I didn't have to do anything but show up and take a few pictures...a very nice evening, nice job Carson on producing.

The Dark Side...

Wow, that a night I had last night. If all my bar nights were like last night, I'd have to find another job.
My bar partner Mary and myself had more than our fair share of drunks and nut jobs stop in and stay too long. I can't describe how uncomfortable our shift was. Not a great night at all.

Bar Tending - Helping the socially challenged become more challenging...

Le' Poop...

Pardon my French...

It seems I have been thrown into the deep end of a shit pool with the new PART TIME Church gig.

What a mess...

Meema's tree...

Kim has been the holder of the tree decorating for a long time.
Feeling it time to involve the girls more, last year Amelia joined her. This year Olive came over to lend a hand to her big sister. You've got to love seeing dozens of ornaments all on the bottom branch...

A new venture...

Out at Community Christian Church we have multiple sites. I believe we are up to around 11 now with around 6000 people attending the various campuses. The downtown Naperville campus meets at Naperville North High School and is working on a deal to take over Wentz hall at North Central College. Wentz is a state of the art brand new concert facility right in downtown Naperville. Our music guy there is leaving in a few weeks and I've been asked to fill in as actual staff for four months while they figure out what in which direction they want to go. The money isn't great but I guess it's better than a poke in the eye.

We'll see where this goes!

Not many people can say they are both a music minister AND a bar tender. Might make rehearsals more fun?

Thanksgiving 09...

What a long long day. It started with me at the bar, yes that's right, the bar. Along comes five minutes before last call and the decision is made to stay open an extra hour, wonderful. I get home and make it to bed around 2:30 only to have to be up by 7 to make it to my sisters house by 8:30 for our annual breakfast, so I start the day off tired. My first "thanks" was for Kim. She prepared all the sides while I was flinging suds, great job Kim!
Seeing the family for a great breakfast is something I always look forward to. This year was the introduction of our youngest addition Elle. Jim and Laura got all the girls up and over to join us so Laura saw it fitting to let her try the famed tradition known as Aunt Donna's pumpkin mush.



So then a pass the baby session ensued







Olive and Mealz were in wonderful moods...





After breakfast, Kim and myself raced back home to get a couple of turkeys on the grill.


I get off easy every year. I get to play with fire and Kim takes care of the details.
That girl sets one heck of a table.


This year Steve & Barb Bailey joined us along with our good friend Jim Goodrich.
Evan and the kids rounded out a perfect attendance list!
Steve and Barb provided us with a couple of home made pies, a pumpkin and a killer pecan pie...I sure hope they didn't take those with them when they left...ha!


Jim is quite the vocalist so Kim demanded he sing for his supper...he did, heck he sang good enough that we gave him dessert too.


One thing Kim and myself are very thankful for is that Jim and Laura are such wonderful parents. We sure love that family!


The guests are gone...
Our appetites are satisfied...
The dishes are clean...
We are exhausted...
Trade this day for anything?

No way.

From my friend Denise...
"This may not be the best of times, but here we are, blessed with the gift of life, surrounded still by beauty, and capable, still, of love. Reason enough to be grateful."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well how cool is this...?

Last night at the pub, Steve Dresler made a two hour appearance. Who is Steve Dresler you might ask? Steve is the Brewmaster at Sierra Nevada brewing out in Chico CA and he was tapping this years Celebration ale. Celebration is a little more "hoppy" than their pale ale with mild oak nuances and a little spice.
Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is my benchmark IPA that I judge all IPA's against so to have him there was really very cool. My boss then gave me the nod to receive the second pint of the new offering. The first Steve D sipped himself, the second he poured and gave to me for a toast and taste. A good night for me...

CD Shoot...

Chicago actor/musician Rick Pickren gave me the nod to shoot stills for an upcoming CD jacket. A great day...

Another Tri-Marq show

What can I say, Jim and the Tri-Marq boys do a great show.
The location? The Wisconsin Expo center in Milwaukee. The client? Aurora Health Care. A big hospital group 20,000 employees of which 1900 "brass" were at this show.
There is so much going on backstage that the client never sees to pull off a blended image background. The thousands of dollars in just fiber optic DVI cables is mind boggling. Jim has all the lead areas covered with regular guys so all I do is float around and assist who ever needs an extra set of hands at the time and then run a camera for the show. Odd but it's better than standing behind the bar.
On to the social side, Jim treats his crew very well at every show, simply amazing.
The first night, dinner at Crazy Water, a wonderful dinner cooked by two chefs in a bay window smaller than my bathroom, amazing. Our flop house? The Iron Horse Hotel oh my, what a place, check out the pics on the site.

Back home after a whirlwind 2 days...

All this...


to get you this...

Silos or facets?

An event company in TX hired me to be a concierge at a Microsoft event in Oak Brook.
They actually needed two of us so I brought Kim with. Heck let's double dip if we can right?
So on to the title of this post. Remember when I had to put a sticker over my glowing Apple so as not to offend all the people I worked for?
Well dig this, the show was a 7 launch but for the AMD chip set. All laptops that had an Intel processor had to have a piece of tape over the name Intel.

COME ON!

I then had a guy complain that I didn't have his size in a t-shirt. My reply?
"So, how much did you pay for this show?"
He had nuthin...

NEXT!

The Banner

Kind of cool...

I had a Taylor 555 guitar. I sold it to Mikey Heaton. He was playing in Batvia.
A Batavia rep took a picture of the guitar and made it into a lamp post banner.

Halloween...

The kids stopped by before I had to leave for work...really nice of them.
Olive was her favorite thing in the whole world...a bag of jelly beans, cute.

TriJangle

The Greats...

Laura wrangled the kids together for a little trip to the South side to visit the Great Grandparents. I'm not sure who giggled more, Mom or baby Elle...





Olive took a liking to Great Grandpa Don.

uhhhh.....

I really don't have anything...odd.
I could rant how I got the job I applied for but they diverted the funds for said job to an IT director job that I am not up for. Ranting here won't really get me anywhere.

next...

September kiddies...

French toast, bacon, OJ and a quick run to Willowbrook makes for my favorite way to spend a Saturday morning...













Elle stayed home and doesn't look happy about it.

Work status...

I'm still at the pub. I really do love the social aspect of meeting people, chatting it up and facilitating a nice experience for them.
I don't like the time away from home or being on my feet for 8 to 9 hours at a time. I have pulled a few doubles...13 hours no sitting.
I dig the concept and the tastes achieved in mixology. I don't like seeing people tasting too much. Steve B forwarded a job posting from my church of all places. I read it over and it seems like a good fit for me, Technical Arts Director...
I had a 2 hour interview yesterday and I think it went well but you never know.
I'm not holding my breath on this one. Things just don't seem to be going my way as of late. A project based tech job....perfect.

Well? I'll be in touch.

That thing she does...

Kim has many talents but one of the areas that she shines in is teaching.
I guess I will rant a little to say shame on Brookfield Zoo for making things so
miserable with their policies and "new style" teaching methods that good teachers like Kim just give up. The zoo has lost many talented people.

So here's Kim doing what she does best, teaching little kids about critters.
Today's critters? Her Chickens of course.