I had a relaxing Christmas. Having gone home a few days early, I got into one of the legendary poker games held in Sharon. Playing amongst the hardened hard-asses, I lost $40 the first night. Captain Rob Spectre happened to be home from Providence, RI, so I drew upon his reinforcement the next evening, when I won back my squandered funds.

My Christmas list was short but was everything I wanted: a new pearl snap, a $20 bill, and a can opener. My mom didn’t rest at merely the requested can opener; no, she gave me some cans of chili to go with it. I’ll eat like a king, albeit a chilliphilic potentate, for the next three days.

I was invited to Rob’s family’s place in Sawyer, KS, on Christmas day for one of those jam sessions I swore off long ago. This one, however, proved quite enjoyable and it was very fulfilling to play with Rob again, if even for a short time. He gave me a prerelease copy of his new Fireflies CD and you can be sure I’ll be listening to that for the next indefinate period of time.

I went to Lenora, KS, last weekend to catch a Blaine Younger show. They’re getting pretty good and I would definately recommend seeing them sometime if they’re playing in your area.

If anyone has any ideas for good places to play, I ask that you email them to me at [email protected]; that is, unless, you’re a blood sucking, spidering, web-crawler looking for email addresses. Then don’t.

I had an absolutely wonderful time in Colorado. I wasn’t aware that Grand Junction was 20 miles from Utah, but I found out quickly — or slowly, rather, as our drive lasted late into the night on Tuesday. We arrived at 4:00am MST, which, of course, felt like 5:00am to us. Sleeping in the next day left me ready to go Wednesday night. After setting up what was in the end a rather pud auction, we went to a place called the Rock Slide (or Mud Slide, or some kind of slide). There was a cute Columbian waitress there and the other three auctioneers with me, knowing my marital status, decided it was their job to “hook us up”. I, believing it was a frivolous endeavor, was able to thwart their plans with my usual, and somewhat disturbing, ease. Apparently, towards the end of the night, on my way to the restroom I reportedly impacted the side of a door. The bar, in a quite justifiable act of threshold preservation, cut me off from having any more drinks. I am to this day unable to remember my impact, but I became quite coherent after finding out my drinking privileges had been revoked. Against the complaints of the innocent Columbian, I demanded she bring over the bar manager who had allegedly witnessed my collision and ordered the truncation of my evening. As my fellow auctioneers were rolling on the floor, I convinced the extremely nice fellow that I was indeed capable of consuming another of his delicious microbrews, that I was staying in the hotel across the street, and that he had nothing about which to be concerned except how he was going to pay for the raise that his Columbian waitress was surely due. He brought me another beer.

As we were leaving, after having talked to the owner one final time and leaving on quite amiable terms, I reached the main door to the bar where I found my friends, again, doubled over laughing. The waitress had labeled both sides of the door with crayon-scribed notes reading “This is the door frame” and “Do not hit this”.

Deines told me I have to update my log, so here we go.

The biggest news for me is that I’ve been recruited to a rather elite Counter Strike: Source clan called s4h. There are currently 5200+ users on a server called 9TN and I’m ranked 15th and the rest of the clan is in the top 20. I’m a geek, I know.

Leaving for CO right now…you’ll hear from me.

Rollercoaster week
Great show at the Page on the 20th
Thanks to all in attendance.
Pearl Grey was great.
Like we never took a break
Played several originals with the band for the first time
Got to play “Capture Love” for Tyler and Stacie Strong
That meant a lot to me.

Played with Rob Hildreth at PJ’s last Wednesday
Dead for the first half
Got to meet Honeybrowne’s ex-drummer Brad
He came in with his friend from the military.
Shot some pool while we played
About 11:00pm Shawn Leeth came in.
Brought a big, partying crowd
Congratulations to Stacey and him on their engagement.
Happy to be there

Played Buster’s last Saturday
Couldn’t have been better
All my old friends
More like ghosts from the past
In any case, the place was packed.
I had the best time out of all of them.
Thanks to everyone for coming out

Playing tomorrow and Wednesday with Rob Hildreth
The Wamego to Lawrence world tour

You’ll hear from me.

I bought my first CD on the Internet last night
Enjoy Every Sandwich:
The Songs of Warren Zevon
As per Dad’s instructions
It was amazingly simple, and cheaper than Wal*Mart

Dusty and I started our weekend properly last night
I did what I always do and started nodding off about 2:00am
Finally made it back to my place by 4:00am
Going to Wichita tonight to watch a show
Then we road to Hays

I booked a show at PJ’s for this Wednesday
Something to do before Thanksgiving
Looking forward to hearing the Supernauts

Got to see the Blaine Younger routeside attraction last Saturday. Good stuff, as always. We wound up at after hours and I wound up asleep…somewhere. I’m hoping to have my guitar fixed by the band show Saturday. I have to remember to buy Dusty some Skittles.

Going to pick up a guitar before noon today
Hasn’t happened since Last Valentine’s day
Ron Clark and I played at the retirement center.
We scared some old guy.
Hid under a desk
Paramedics had to come and extract him.
Said he didn’t like loud music
Not that we were playing loud music, mind you
I’d hardly call my folk and bluegrass set loud.
Anyway, I’ll always remember that Valentine’s day.