The young'n

I was able to sit for the wee one tonight. In rare form I broke the camera out. She was good for about 5 shots then became very annoyed with my flash.
You choose which picture she lost it on...

A big goob in the Big Apple

I just got home from a 4 day trip to NYC to produce a show for the "the company". No not that "company" but I think these guys could have me killed or at least bored to death.
(a video locked up during a demo, wanted to offer my Mac so it would work. I didn't I behaved) Take the worst Chicago traffic and multiply that time 3. I can't believe how horrible Manhattan traffic is. A messenger bike guy darted in front of me and I almost hit him, he just smiled and yelled "MAYBE NEXT TIME!" I was hoping he would come back and give me another chance. We unload the truck and Scott takes the truck 6 blocks away to a lot that charges 160 per day to park there. The operator casually pointed to the tip can. Scott taking the hint, places a 20 in the can and magically the rate dropped to 90 dollars. Gotta love a deal? NYC is so busy, I'm convinced that all other cities are cow towns. Leaving yesterday I hit the Lincoln tunnel by 3:30pm. I was in bumper to bumper traffic for the next 1.5 hours and only moved 14 miles. Nuts I tell ya NUTS!
I decided to set my iPod to play alphabetically for my trip home. I let the songs just play. I had no idea how many songs I never have heard have been sitting patiently just waiting for me to listen to them. As I drove by Toledo I had to sit through 4 versions of "Blue Christmas" man that sucked, all 4 are now deleted. Need to go through and get rid of many more...

Whisky Vs. Whiskey

The history of spirits made from malted grain is long and varied. The pride and passion from different regional distilleries is amazing. Never get caught calling Scotch a whiskey, huh? It's a whisk(y) Only Scotch is spelled with just a "y". Irish, Canadian even American Bourbon is spelled with an (ey). Now. Bourbon is only allowed to be called Bourbon if it is distilled in Kentucky. Most people see the word Bourbon and they instantly think of Jack Daniels, not Bourbon. Jack is Tennessee Whiskey. Very good just not Bourbon. So where do I fall on all of this? I love and appreciate the passion of all the masters of the art. Now I am not going to get into the bad side of how liquor has ruined many lives. I have fortunately been able to escape the addictive side of "the drink" So my eh hem, "research" has been only to find the best of the best and comment on my findings so you don't have to risk becoming a lush in your own pursuit, yeah right. The following reviews are what I have gravitated towards (so far)
Bourbon:
If I am out and am in the mood for a drink, most of the time I will lean towards Bourbon. I have had everything from Basil Hayden's to Wild Turkey. My top choice is Woodford Reserve. I think the balance is just about as perfect as a Bourbon can get. Next would be Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve, Makers Mark, Knobb Creek. There are hundreds of Bourbons and more "micro-distilleries" on the horizon.
Whisky:
ahhh... the beloved smoked malt know as Scotch. Scotch Whisky is an acquired taste. As soon as the grain germinates, it is smoked over peat fires to dry before mashed up and fermented. If you have a Scotch from the Isles of Scotland the peat can take on a ocean flavor. Highland Scotches can be a little more pleasing to the pallet.
Good Scotch is spendy so my experience is limited but Linkwood has risen to the top of my list. Balvenie, Linkwood, Talisker, Lagavulin are all fine Scotches and the great thing is there hundreds more. I look forward to rich people letting me try more...ha.
Irish Whiskey:
Irish whiskey dries it's malt in hot air kilns so there is no smoky taste. Some feel it had a cleaner taste, others say if it's not Scottish..."It's CRAP" I think there's a place for all styles in this world depending on what you're in the mood for. Most people recognize either Jameson or Bushmills. Oddly enough they are both owned by the same company. I have a great 21 year old bottle of Bushmills aged in Port, Bourbon and Sherry Barrels. What a wonderful sweet aftertaste it has. Redbreast is an amazing everyday whiskey. Connemera is one Irish that smokes it's malt so it's a Whiskey that tastes like a Whisky...oy.
Man this was tiring, I need a beer.
(I'll finish the links later)

New Theater...

The church I go to has been busting at the seams to the tune of people sitting on the floor at some of our services. To help ease the overflow we decided to build a 250 seat theater. The cool thing is that we have a group of professionals that go to the church so we were able to save some money by taking care of the AV install ourselves.
Bill Terrilll (one of our best drummers) took on the task of designing and project managing the install. My buddy Steve and I were given the job of terminating the stage connectors and the front of house rack. Steve took the stage and I took the rack. There are 3 12K lumen projectors supporting the media in this room. This is going to be a very good room, very excited.

electricity...

Man do I take that stuff for granted!
We are part of the "no power" crowd for the 3rd day now. Remember in the movie "Batman" with Jack Nicholson where the entire city was afraid to take showers or use makeup? that's how everyone in my neighborhood looks like now with me as the head "eeewww"

On the plus side I bought my first chainsaw yesterday. I now now what it's really like to be a man(insert grunt). Our whole area is covered by downed trees. After making some order of our property we went over to Kim's retired priest's house where he has 10+ trees down. After that Kim and I went out to my church where I was terminating audio connections for our new theater. Kim took advantage of the showers we have there and felt human again.

So Saturday is here and they are expecting a few more days of outage. I hope they fix it soon, I'm running out of things to talk about with Kim! (kidding) no seriously.

Hope the people here a Panera don't get sick looking at my bed head while eating their muffins... sorry folks.

*Update as of 8am*
Kim just called and said 3 trucks from Toledo Edison pulled up in front of our house.
They are saying the grid we are on is really really bad. They will try and have it up by tomorrow.
God Bless Ohio!

Brought to you by the fine folks over at Panera Bread and their free internet...

*Update 6pm*
Toldeo Edison just pulled away leaving us with full power...Gotta love Ohio sparkies!

Church Media...

Kind of cool...
Our church's media team made it on to MSNBC via the story on GodTube.
We did about 6 or 7 versions of the Apple commercial.

Quite the evening...

I took a little trip over to St. Joseph MI to see my dad and Claudia Hommel play a show to benefit The Box Factory.
Once upon a time it was literally a box factory now turned into studio space for dozens of local artists. My sister and her husband Dennis live in St. Joe and I must say it's a great place and I need to spend more time exploring it more at some point. My other sister Donna and her friend Cecilia Drove over from IL. My mom was also there and she graciously paid for my ticket, how could I pass that up. Appetizers and local wine started off the event. Here's where I get owned. I have to say I am a snob. A wine snob to be more exact. IL,IN,MI,WI all produce wine but they are mostly known for fruit wines or late harvest (sweet) wines. I have tasted many Cabs and Merlots and none of them good. Well tonight I had a 05 Cab-Franc blend from Tabor Hill that was really quite good. I wonder if it goes good with crow cause that's what I'm eating...
Dinner was nice and Claudia did two 45 minute sets. The crowd loved the music. It was fantastic to know the event was sold out... right on. Here's the line of the evening. Claudia and the bass player did a wonderful soulful duet. Dad and the cellist sat that song out. At the end of the song Claudia says "wasn't that nice?" Dad's reply??? "Too much Bass" The crowd (including myself) was on the floor. Good one Pop!
Family, good wine, good food, good music...how can you beat that?

Check out a few pics (click to see a bigger version)

Dennis and Paula









A little maniacle?