Breath of LIFE

WELL WELL folks it's time! yes the holidays are here and good news arrives with it!!
i got a new job!! yepper, finally, JMB is headed in the right direction (i think) so far so good.

I'll have more for ya' later, mean time, Jennie and i are still searching for a new computer for the house, thus, limited posts as of late. So keep up with us in the new year, look for more then. Until then, happy holidays and take care,

The Management

Get a leg up!

Speaking of legs, what are your plans this Thanksgiving?? Are you going to eat a turkey leg and pass out on the couch watching football? It's tradition right? WRONG - break the tradition this year and go camping!! Camping you say? - it's 50 degrees out. Well, when it's been over 100 degrees F this year more than you care to say, I'll take camping at fifty all day long!!

We are spending our wondrous holiday at Lake Travis - Grelle Park (near a prime-time Texas BBQ spot in case we run into problems with raccoons or other vermin) right around the corner from ol' Uncle Willie (Nelson, that is) .

All of you readers are cordially invited to attend. We'll have nice campfire, tunes, wheel-chair olympics, 'smores, football/frisbee toss. No slouch-ass falling asleep on the couch here; especially because we won't have a couch.

almost forgot = The most important part: The Turkey Dinner.

Dinner will be provided courtesy the folks at the Hills' Cafe check out what we get for 55$ !!
Not bad for a camping trip eh?

Let me know if I'm forgetting anything here people, remember it's still me we're talking about. Although, they say the goalie is the guy who remembers to bring the TP on the camping trip.
Hope you all have a good one, whether you fall asleep on the couch drooling on yourself or if you plan on drinking the holiday away. I suppose it's possible to do both. Just don't drink & drive.

Halloween Haiku

Trick or treat smell my
feet in your pillowcases
and wrappers of gold


- On the previous post, my wife didn't think I talked about how much fun I had on my birthday, so here i am saying how much fun i had.
Thanks to Tim for the book, C & E also for the book, and the tasty beer! (beer always qualifies as a great gift) Seth - thank you for the video, it's great. Mom, thanks for the yummy cake, and the golf $$. I didn't know that was the same cake that my Dad loved to eat. Jennie, thank you for all the wonderful things you do. It was a great birthday. A 29 I'll never forget.

Happy Haloween all.

outcomes

Well the 29th birthday came, and went, without anyone getting hurt; or drunk for that matter. I can remember a day when birthdays meant getting shit-faced and trying to remember what you did the night of...or trying to forget sometimes as well...ahhh. good times. But I don't miss them.

This time around though - Us old folks hung out at the house, had dinner with my Mom, and that was about it!! So exciting I know.

I did make a nice purchase over the weekend though, I now own a portable router and router table. I used it a little bit and coated the entire garage with sawdust. Probably should get a shop-vac hooked up to that thing, or use it outside. Anyway, should come in hand for making some nice picture frames and my current work: luggage stand. Yep, still workin' on it.

Working on getting pics of Jennie's new fiddle posted too, maybe sometime this year.

Went golfing yesterday, man am I horrible. Not even going to mention the scorecard, my score barely fit on there.

HOCKEY: News
- Meadville Bulldog Hockey (Pennsylvania) has kicked off their season and are so far, unbeaten. This is where I played H.S. hockey. They are top-notch, check them out if you live in the Mid-Atlantic (PA,NY, OH area) and enjoy highschool sports.

- Austin Ice Bats (CHL) are beginning their season this weekend here in Austin. I sat on the bench for them for a few games in the past, would have been nice to play. A word from some insiders say the team doesn't stand to win many games unless they beat the shit out of most of the other teams' players. Folks around here should love it then...I've gotta' get pics of the mullets once can find in the stands around here; they're better than the players' hair-don'ts (as opposed to "hair-do's").

- Private Lessons - I still haven't found out what is up with the operations folks that run the rink here in town, they told me it was going to be $150/hr for ice time. I must have walked right past those money trees in my yard, either that or missed the harvest season. Not gonna' happen. So those goalies will have to wait for something else to come along. I will try to get to their practices to help them, but there is only so much you can do in 5 minute sections. But it's better than nothing. Goalies; will always be 3rd class citizens.

Mond-ane

It's another monday here, rain and cool weather invades the former central Texas hot-house. It was a gorgeous weekend however. We enjoyed some great food and music in downtown Austin. We took my Mom to the Famous Blues joint - Antone's - ; to see Seth Walker and his band perform. They were awesome, opening up for the heralded Fabulous Thunderbirds. Those guys have been around for a long time! But the T-birds could have been a no-show for all I care. Seth and his fella's should have played the rest of the time. CD's and merch available at his site.

I can't believe we trapsed my Mom all over some night life in Austin - it was hilarious and totally unexptected behavior for her!! We also took her to our old hang out at Mother Egan's Irish Pub. We watched a hockey game and had dinner there, nothing like some pub-grub to start off a healthy weekend!

Hockey is back in action and the game has changed quite a bit. Some things are good, some are bad, but all in all, it seems more exciting to watch. But the number of penalties per game right now is so annoying. Every point is a powerplay point. I don't agree with these rule changes.

We don't have this problem in men's league!! Check out our stats HERE !! We are walking away already, and we've only played three games. I think some trades are in order to keep the league (4 teams, a league?) more competitive.

No word yet as to whether I'll be leading some kids around the ice in the goalie dance or not. If you are not familiar with this work-out; let me know i'll send you a copy. It's not quite world famous.

Tuesday is my B-day; I'll be another year closer to 30. ouch. Still not sure about the 30 thing, it seems like today's 30 is yesterdays twenties. Hopefully so.

First look - Again?

Wednesday will mark the first day of NHL games in over a year. Good luck to the NHL teams as they vie for the Stanley Cup once again...thank god. I missed seeing those greedy bastards play all last season, I had to get by on men's league and coaching little tikes all year.
Hopefully my buddy Chase and I will be hanging in the pub watching the Bo-Sox let it loose' on the stinky-sox and then the hockey begins!!

Anyway...I'm back at coaching little tikes again, and doing the mens' league thing, which is always fun; always most of the time.

Lots of items in the mix now-a-days...seems just last week, I was complaining of nothing to do....hmmm. Interesting how that works.
- Momm's is on her way out here this week, should be interesting. 1 week.
- Still trying to get Hockey lessons off the ice so to speak, not sure of ice-time.
- Still trying to make more connections in the world of instrument making (luthiery)...we'll see how that goes.

My next project - you know when you go to a hotel and they have those luggage stands that you can set your stuff on? Well, i'm making one of those, hopefully i'll be done so that when Mom gets here she can use it.

fun, fun, I know.

Watch-0ut

I am now taking friendly-fire, I think I need to change.

here's an interesting quote I overheard today "...life sucks because you suck. Stop whining about it and change something!" - Larry Winget, speaker.
(www.larrywinget.com) turn down your speakers if you access this site, cause he's got a terrible greeting of "who let the dogs out" {he's the pitbull of public speakers, so he says}

which actually is really good for a lot of people, including myself. I whine (as I like to call it bitching) alot. So what are some things that I could change...hmmm. Don't think there's enough room on this page or time to address it now.

New Look

How do you like the new look? I was getting tired of the dark background. Need something brighter - anywho - more things to come, soon.

- Pics of Jennie's new (old) fiddle and our trip to Cali

- More stories of some sort, who knows

- A new job? we'll see.

Hot Daze

Well it's about a hunded freakin' degrees here today, and i'm nowhere near any kind of cool refreshing water. What's the problem with this picture? I need to remedy that situation.

I have been thinking lately about friends and family. I need to do a better job of keeping in touch with folks. So if you are one of those few who read this and you are one of my friends, which typically will go hand in hand because I don't really tell too many folks about this, then you need to respond and send me an email. Or, better yet, leave a comment here and let me know something, anything. But I will be calling you soon, cause I don't want to be one of those folks who gets married and falls of the face of the planet. It just isn't going to happen.

Can you tell i'm bored? Reaching for anything to jump out at me so I can write about it. I have not been a model employee lately. Yesterday, for example, I worked a total of about 30 minutes; yes that's for the whole day. I hope no one that I work with or for reads this. Maybe I had better at least take my picture off of the blog anyway.

Some of that time though, was devoted totally to work, and the problems/issues I have with it. Being in the corporate jungle is not the most inspiring or satisfying job. At least not for me. Here's an idea, someone come up with some good ideas of jobs for me, and leave them posted here and i'll check them out!! How about that? This is a great networking asset!!

I did apply for a new job yesterday, it's still in the corporate world, but it's a bit different than what i've been doing, so hopefully that will at least result in an interview or two. Who knows, I could be inspecting pipelines across the US before you know it! Also, I just interviewed for a job in the bio-tech/pharm. industry. Not my ideal candidate for a job, but, the pay is good and the people seemed nice. What more can you ask for to start with?

And if anyone knows of a quality instrument maker in the Austin or even central Texas area, please let me know. That is really what I am pinin' (no pun) to do.

why

Why is an interesting question. This sounds like it's going nowhere, but there are plenty of places to ask this question. For starters:

1. Why would you steal a TV in the middle of a natural disaster? You can't eat it, it doesn't contain water, and it will drown you if you try and carry it; more over, it won't even work when you get it home. For one, because it's gotten wet, and there is not going to be electric power for 2 months. Put the TV's down you retards!

2. Why would you shoot people during this horrendous time? I heard one story of a man who shot and killed his own sister; it said it was an argument over a bag of ice. Sad. Just plain Sad.
What is the world coming to? Even worse, there are reports of folks firing at helicopters that are coming to get these folks out of the area. Now that is wrong.

I do understand that some of these folks do not want to leave, or dont' want to be told they have to leave. But they need to understand also, that there is no way for them to live there. Surprisingly the authorities do seem to have plenty of knowledge in this case; and you gotta' go. There is no food, no water, much disease, and death. Do you wanna' die? If so, try and steal that last bag of doritos from your brother, he'll probably shoot you for it.

Now I know, I'm not there. I do not pretend to know the first thing about surviving in that type of an atmosphere. I've never had to do that. But I can 99.9% guarantee that I wouldn't be waving guns around stealing TV's and vacuum cleaners. I would be working to get my ass, and anyone else's asses that wanted out, the hell out of that place.

Take some food, water, clothes, a tent, a boat, what you need. Not what you "have never been able to have". I feel sorry for those who have no soul and can't seem to see where help is needed and that they are not helping but hurting others. They in the end only hurt themselves.

For those out there helping and aiding in the rescue, evacuation, and re-construction of lives and cities; I can only offer you this:

As the Dhali himself said to the Carl Spackler "There will be no exchange of money. oh-no. But on your death-bed, you will receive, total conscience-ness" ...so at least you've got that going for you.

Our thoughts are with the folks involved in the areas of the hurricane. Robin - if you are out there call us. Let us know if there is anything we can do for you or your family. We hope you are all safe.

A Western-Swing

A recent trip to California for Jennie and I has created some exiciting news

- Jennie received a "new" fiddle from my Grand-dad; it's actually over 100 yrs. old!!

- we played music all day and night, right up until we had to leave for the airport

- stranded in the Vegas airport for 4 hrs before finally get the go-ahead to get aboard and take off

- Re-connected with my Dad's Dad. "Shorty" for short and found out nuggets of interesting family past. It had been over 24 yrs. since I last saw/spoke with my grand-dad ( I was 4 yrs old)
I really didn't know anything about Shorty besides the fact that we shared the same last name and he was a musician back in the day. I had heard some short stories about how he was a "cowboy" and he rode bulls and all that. But, I really learned a lot about his life and some of the good and the bad that he has endured in his 77 years.
We did walk away with more than just words and stories: again he gave Jennie a fiddle that was in his re-married wife's family for more than 100 years. After I picked her jaw up off of the floor and closed her mouth she was able to whimper an "are you serious? I can keep this?" to Shorty. To which he replied in his own sincerity "Well, I sure as hell can't play the thing, so you might as well have it". He gifted me with a gold and silver belt-buckle with and eagle on it (true cowboy style) and two rings; one of which was my great Grandfathers. He had also given me a ball glove, that was the last I had seen/heard of him until now.

Shorty played with the country star Faron Young - back in the Sixties I believe. He played guitar and sang with him for about 31/2 years. Upon arriving at his house outside of Reno, NV, we were promply offered a beverage and some food, then about 10 mins. after that he was already inquiring as to what type of guitar I had brought with me and about Jennie's own fiddle. So here we were, travelling from TX to CA and points in between and already hitting it off. The rest of the weekend went pretty much like that as well. We met some of his friends, which are hard to come by out in that neck of the woods, as you only have a neighbor about every 10 miles or so...

more down memory lane later, with pics hopefully.

JB

Roadtrip box score - Austin to Burlington 6-21-05

The roadtrip boxscore series is back -

This segment: Austin, TX to Burlington, NC for the wedding

travel partners: Chris M. and Elspeth S. (aka El-spizzle)

CD's: lots - but we now need some new ones

car- The trusty Golden Egg - Subaru Forester
great gas mileage and comfort all in one - who would have thought.

Only brought the guitar, chris didn't bring his banjo. (why?)

Day one:
We made it to Birmingham, AL. We stopped in Shreveport,LA for a visit with Chris's mom. We ate at a place that I highly recommend (Strahan's), if not just for their famous 'icebox pies' which were un-equaled by anything else. Not highly recommended - the drive through east Texas. boring.

Day two:
From Birmingham to Burlington; via Atlanta with a stop off in Greenville, SC. Chris's brother lives in Traveler's Rest (T-R for short) which is just outside Greenville, so we stopped there and had lunch with the brother and his wife. Not highly recommeded - the drive through/around Atlanta - there's nothing fun about that commute at any time of day.

Total miles: 1320
Total CD's: 4 This american life - w/Ira Glass shows, 2 Danny Barnes live shows - 3 Tony Rice albums, 3 Wilco Albums - several others that I may have missed while I napped.
1 broken guitar string
1 bag of Bugles
1 bag of corn chips
0 Flat tires or car problems (thank you!)

Driving: Unfortunately (for El-spizzle and myself); Chris was catapulted unto the reigns each day after the lunch meal. Man, he was drowsy too! So his stint at the helm was limited, but that's okay, he made up for it in DJ rotation and bugles.

NOTES: I did realize how lucky I am to have the type of friends that will take an adventure like that and roll with the punches. There actually weren't too many punches to take; for our sake.

MEALS: Maybe the meals...were a punch we stomached. We ate a lot of meat - sometimes when you drive you just can't accomodate that much meat - when you are in a car with others on a long journey that could be a bad combination.
Not to say we had issues with that, but I know I had some personal issues with the diet. Anyone who knows me can attest to some personal dietary issues at times.

A Team

No, Not "The A-Team" as most of you were probably psyched about some crazy news of Murdock or Mr. T; but our team. Jennie and I make the best team, and as we should, we are married now.

Married life is wonderful, just wanted to put that out there, it will be 1 month this saturday. We are attending a wedding for our friends Joe and Beth out in New Mexico, should be a lot of fun.

Also looking forward to Jennie and I going to California to see my Grandfather that I haven't seen in over 20 years. That's right, that's a long time. He wasn't around during my younger days and so now I've decided to let by-gones bite big-0nes and go out and see him. Family is family, you can't choose them, so you might as well get to know them.

On the other front: work is going again - - that's all I can say about that. Travel is picking up again and with that comes less time at home. But I think we can stand a day or two at most away from each other. If not were in real trouble.

Road trip box-score(s) - I'm behind on my favorite installment: the road trip box-score. I've got lots to shout about too, the trip to NC, the HONEYMOON, I'm sure there's more there than that. Anyway...

Big Gig: I had my first real gig - well sort of "real" gig. I played with Jennie at the Old folks home where our friend Carrie K. lives. So it's a tough crowd but they mostly turn their hearing aids down, in that case I can play as loud as I want. And they are a captive audience too (most are in wheelchairs and can't escape that well) so double bonus for me...

more later --


This is Seth Walker and Ephraim Owens performing at our wedding reception. Look for them in a town near you soon - if you like Jazz, Blues/Soul, Live authentic music - you'll love this combo. Check them out at www.sethwalker.com and www.ephraimowens.com

see you soon.?

The old-time string band - rockin' it out...on the lawn 

one of our first dances...we had a couple 

The road-trip crew on the way out to NC - A big "bow-down" to you two!! 

The dynamic duo - the haps couldn't have happened without these two (the "best woman and man") 

The happy couple 

The party is over!

The wedding was a complete success! Folks from all over came to NC and had a great time (at least that's what I've heard anyway...) and we are happily married and have started our lives together. Now what.?!? What do we do now that the honeymoon is over and "real" life starts back up? I really don't know, it's back to the grind for me at work. Jennie is starting to get some lessons going again (violin students) and that's about it right now.

Not many things have changed since the wedding. We are still just as broke as before. Although we have all the utensils and pans you would need to host your own Emeril episode.

Anyway - things are great still. I love being married and all I know right now is that we don't need any kids for the time-being.

Enjoy some pics as I post them.

cya's

JB

What a night