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.