What Time Am I?

You’re the time of day right around sunrise, when the sky is still a pale bluish gray. The streets are empty, and the grass and leaves are a little bit sparkly with dew. You are the sound of a few chirpy birds outside the window. You are quiet, peaceful, and contemplative. If you move slowly, it’s not because you’re lazy – it’s because you know there’s no reason to rush. You move like a relaxed cat, pausing for deep stretches that make your muscles feel alive. You are long sips of tea or coffee (out of a mug that’s held with both hands) that slowly warm your insides just as the sun is brightening the sky.

The carnage continues

Our dogs are either:

1) The unluckiest canines ever
2) The biggest clutzes ever
3) Have a death-wish (or at least have some sort of sado-masochistic streak)
4) All of the above.

We had to take Marie to the emergency vet last night because she ripped the dew claw on one of her front legs. Blood. Nasty. Limping, whining. And she NEVER whines. EVER.

Greyhounds have a tremendously high pain tolerance and almost NEVER show pain unless it's pretty severe. They are so "ho-hum, la-de-da" about medical procedures -- so much that they are the donor of choice when blood is needed for another animals.

Just last month (on my birthday) we had to take Donny in because he stepped on something outside and punctured his front paw between the toes. Now Marie. And these animals have had a history... Donny's had shoulder and leg problems before, plus had some teeth extracted -- greyhounds have notoriously bad teeth. And a few years ago Marie had some surgery and stitches and stuff to repair a gash in her chest. Maybe some of you remember... ugh.

Well, we got lucky cause the vet tech was able to fix her all up by trimming up the nail and getting the bleeding to stop, and it wasn't as bad as originally thought... although still quite painful. We are going to have to do something about our backyard. I don't know if this is all happening because they're tearing around like crazy back there, or because of all the exposed tree roots, frozen ground and lanscaping rocks... who knows. Anyone know a good landscaper?

My kid is cute

Maybe some of you have seen this, but I thought I'd bump it again...

Two days in a row?

Yes, it's true. The child is in bed for his afternoon nap, Sarah's on the couch reading, and I'm just hanging out. Sure, there's tons to do... but why do it all when there's blogging to be done?

I'm going to be moving the old Rezer pic gallery from rezer.com over to my Picasa Gallery cause I'm running outta space on my server. Seems like my host decided to change their hosting plan, so I'm unfortunately going to have to downsize in order to stay within their storage limits. This means removing files, pix, music, etc... Not horrible, but still a pain in the butt. The main issue, however will be that it will also affect my clients, and I'm starting to look for a new host... which means eventually changing all the DNS, moving sites and files, setting up Email addresses, etc... and, oh yeah, paying more. Ugh.

Anyone know of a good VPS hosting company? Don't care if it's Linux or Windows... but I think Linux is preferred since I have a few clients using PHPList and PHPForms. Lemme know... and the cheaper, the better...

Got a new webcam, too, courtesy of GeGwe and Pop (the Logitech Fusion). Quite nice. We got hooked up over Windows Live and have already made 2 or 3 video calls to them. The quality is not bad at all, and audio is pretty clear. It's not like "being there", but it's probably the next best thing. If anyone's out there with a similar setup, lemme know... we'll chat. Windows Live ID is jrezer at live.com.

PS: My buddy Erik is launching his second new product, Pizza Box Baseball, on Feb 17. Check out the site for Pizza Box Football (designed by me, of course) and look for the Pizza Box Baseball site soon!

And we have our first post of 2008...

Yes. I am lame. I say it often. So does Sarah. But that's OK...

Some notable items worth a mention...

#1 -- We had a major plumbing leak. Still trying to put the kitchen back together, but basically we needed to rip out the sink, garbage disposal, countertop and a cabinet so the plumbers could replace some old rotted-out copper pipe. It took me the better part of 4 evenings, doing a little at a time. Unfortunately the previous owners made it almost impossible to just remove the little piece of countertop I needed to without pulling out the stuff it was attached to. And to make matters worse, they used screws that were way too skinny for the job... so when trying to take them out, all the heads snapped off. Nice. This basically meant that I needed to do use a combination of a 2x4, hacksaw, hammer and tire-iron to pull out the cabinet. All while trying NOT to wake up Ethan. Let me tell you, it was QUITE the undertaking.

Anyway, it all got completed, they fixed the pipe, and luckily it was all covered under our Homeowner's Warranty, so we paid a grand total of $100. Not bad.

#2 -- Our TABLE is here! For those of who who remember the saga of the missing table, you'll recall that we needed to order a new one and it was taking 12 weeks to build and then ship. Well, it;'s here. The delivery company didn't bring it inside like they were SUPPOSED to, so Sarah and I had to muscle it off the pallate in the driveway and bring it up the stairs and inside, where we assembled it. And man... let me tell you... that table is SOLID. Freaking heavy. It's actually deceptively heavy. At least we know it's real wood... or mabe concrete. :-)

Ethan "helped" us put it together, and now it's positioned nicely in our dining room. We "retired" the highchair, and now Ethan has taken his place at "the big people table". Sarah has him sitting on pillows to eat... I haven't witnessed it yet, but I'm sure it's cute!

#3 -- We found our video camera bag, old tapes and charger! In the middle of a cleaning/purging frenzy upstairs, there it was... nestled right inside a box of old shoes. Why? I don't know... but there it was. It had been missing since we left MD in May... SO glad it's back. Now we can start filming again... although our digital camera did quite a nice job in its absence.

That's all for now... more later...

Tree roots and skin staples

Ah... an intriguing title... no? Well, read on...

Donny and Marie were out for their afternoon chase the other day and Donny apparently cut his foot on something. No biggee, we thought... just cleaned it up a little and put him in his crate for the evening at about 5:30 since we were going out for my birthday dinner at Red Robin. By the time we came back, his foot had swollen up and he was limping pretty badly. After taking a look at it, it seemed like he had a small hole up underneath the toe on his front paw.

Now if you know anything about greyhounds, they do not show pain AT ALL. For him to be limping the way he was, we knew he must have really been in pain. So... off to the emergency vet we go. Sarah and I are old pros at this by now, what with Marie's frequent trips back when she needed her chest sown up multiple times after having the skin ripped open during a Christmas stay at a border... but that's a story for another time...

I called the place the vet recommended, and luckily they were open 24 hours. No appt necessary, and it's the largest facility in the tri-county area. We decided that Sarah would stay with Ethan while I took The Dons with me, so Sarah grabbed Donny's pillow, while I grabbed the Donster -- man is he heavy! -- in a cradle-carry and we went out to the car. He didn't squirm or anything, so I know he was really hurting. It was 10:30pm on my birthday. Happy Birthday, Jeff... so much for that Chimay chillin' in the fridge.

After an examination by the vet, he told me there was a puncture wound about 1/4" wide under the toe (which I had seen earlier), and they would need to sedate Donny, clean out the wound, and then staple it shut. He also recommended an X-ray, which I agreed with... just to make sure nothing was broken. It was now 12:15a...

Luckily there was nothing broken -- which would have been a whole 'nutha ball-o-wax. Donny came through with flying colors, and although he was a bit disoriented from the drugs, he limped out to the car and we headed home 1:40a...

2:15a... back home. Carried the dog inside. He didn't want to eat... just wanted to lay down somewhere. I obliged. And then went to bed myself. Whoopie... and now it's no longer my birthday. Oh well.

So we think that we're gonna have to do something in the backyard. Marie cut herslef the other day while outside, and my guess is Donny did something similar by stepping on an exposed tree root or stick or rock or something. The ground is really uneven out there, and we might have to resort to having a landscapre come in and even everything out, re-sod, etc. -- most likely a $1000+ proposition. It's either that or keep spending hundreds of dollars on doggie foot therapy. Yuk. There's no good option...

Happy New Year Everyone. For all my "animal lover" friends out there...

May your furry friends be in perfect health
And may every day in 2008 and forward
Be a reminder of what joy they bring to our lives.
Despite the hardships, vet bills, messy feet and accidents on the floor,
Despite the late night walks in the cold and incessant barking,
Despite their curious nature that often causes more harm than good...
We wouldn't trade it for anything,
Our lives are better for having them here with us.

Christmas update 2007

Returned yesterday from Tuscola IL where we spent Christmas with Benji, Liz & Mimi. It was a nice visit, and we had ample time to hang out, eat, and just chill. Ethan was really pretty good, all things considered, and the doggies got along with Sampson (again). All is right with the world. We ended up not leaving until Sat AM (actually, it was more like "Noon-M") since both Sarah and I were asked to play for the big Christmas drama "A Cat Named Bruce" at VCC. Sarah also got to sing "Here With Us" (Joy Williams) with Benji on Christmas Eve and I accompanied... only after finding out that Sarah had mistakenly sent the ORIGINAL song instead of the track. DOH! Benj learned some bg strings and sang harmony while Sarah did the lead, and I pianoed. It was loverly. Sarah even had a request to sing at someone's funeral... and they weren't even dead yet. That was one of the all-time weird moments in my history as a musician... seriously.

Sarah and Liz cooked up a scrumptious Christmas feast complete with Honeybaked Ham, mashed taters, Sarah's baked apples, Cauliflower gratin (an Ina Garten recipe we saw on Food Network), rolls and a yummy salad. And dessert... whoa. Sarah made the Chocolate Hazlenut Mousse Torte again and it was freaking awesome. I'm stuffed just thinking about it.

Packed everyone up and hit the road for Decatur to visit with Sarah's aunt and uncle and cousins. Donny & Marie got to spend most of the evening in the upstairs room -- where we were going to be sleepnig -- and actually got to go crateless for the whole vacation. They did really well... perhaps that's a sign of things to come? Are they settling down perhaps? Either way, I sure am glad I broke down their crates and bungeed them to the car and then got to set them back up again after I got back... :-)

I left early Wed AM for a 5 hour drive back to Cincy with the dogs, took a shower and headed off for work. Sarah actually stayed on for another night and returns later today with Mimi & Ethan. It was nice to be a bachelor for a night (which happens rarely) and I thought I'd take advantage of it and set up the PlayStation, watch some TV or something... but what did I end up doing? Cleaning. Yep. Did the dishes, straightened up a bunch and before I knew it, it was 12:15 and time to go to bed. I invited the puppies to sleep in the bed with me sort of as a reward for their good behavior over the vacation, and I think they were kinda happy... wish I coulda taken a picture. It was a sight to behold I'm sure... :-)

Christmas pix to be posted as soon as Sarah gets abck to town. Love to all of you this Christmas season!

Now that they have Santa, all they need is a vowel

Kyrgyzstan touted as ideal delivery hub for Santa

Oh, THAT's where he lives. Silly me, I thought he lived at the NORTH POLE!

It's that time of year again...

Christmas music. Crazy malls. This year, however, I am actually DONE shopping! Gotta love Amazon.com!

There are still one or two things I would LIKE to have completed if possible, but for the most part I am done. Since Sarah took care of most of the family shopping already, I only really had to concentrate on getting some things for her. I LOVE BEING MARRIED!

Sarah's really good at the whole "present thing" -- perhaps that's because she loves Christmas so much and loves getting gifts and little "special somethings" for people. I'm truly grateful for that... and I wish I were better at it, honestly. But I'm trying...

Went to go see "Christmas in Lights" up in Mason... perhaps you've seen a video of it from past years online. It was actually featured in a Millier Lite commercial a few years ago (or was it Bud Light?), and for all you doubters, let me tell you it is 100% REAL. Check it out online here... http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/xmaslights.asp

The display had gotten so popular that they had to move it out of this guy's neighboorhood and now it's in a local park. There are actually 4 songs that are choreographed complete with a live broadcast of the music that you tune your car radio to in order to watch the show. It was really quite cool -- and they take cars in groups, and everyone turns off their headlights... so it's really a nice viewing experience. It was definitely a fun thing to do..

We're also involved in the original Christmas play they're putting on at church -- check it out here: ACatNamedBruce.com. We'll be playing in the band Thu and Fri nigths, and then it's off to Illinois Sat AM with Mimi and the doggies to spend Christmas with Benji and Liz (and Sampson!)... we're looking forward to it. Because Monday the 24th is technically a holiday for our company, I'm taking the morning of the 26th off and will be returning to work that afternoon. It will be a nice break and a good visit, I'm sure.

Cool Stuff: 30 Years of LucasFilm Christmas Cards | /Film

Cool Stuff: 30 Years of LucasFilm Christmas Cards /Film

This is WAY cool. Yoda ROCKS.

Christmas in LAME-son (... I mean "Mason")

I thought it would be fun to go and do something as a family... and there's this event called "Christmas in Mason" that's about 45 minutes north of us. There were supposed to be carolers and a parade and Santa Claus and all kinds of fun events... even a parade where the doggies dressed up in Christmas outfits. I thought it would be fun.

"Thought" is the key word.

Can you say "Over Promise and Under-Deliver?"

It. Was. ROTTEN.

And I do not use the caps unsparingly. If there was a "Caps-Cap" I would use it here. Maybe this will give you an idea of how I feel about it...

HORRIBLE.ROTTEN.STUPID.POINTLESS (.com)

They should get that as their web address next year --
http://www.horrible.rotten.stupid.pointless.com

(I actually think I'll suggest that.)

It was raining a little, so I'm sure that took away from the festivities.... but it was really just a whole bunch of stores that stayed open later and a lot of teenagers walking up and down the street (4 blocks or so) throwing snowballs at each other. When the highlight of the evening is a 5-minute shuttle rider on a school bus, that's saying something.

Yeah, something ROTTEN. :-0

Slashdot | MP3 Format Still Gathering Momentum

Slashdot | MP3 Format Still Gathering Momentum

Quote of the Day...

"I'm just gonna go ahead and wait for MP48's, so I can play them on my HHDDVVDDBVD player."

Chris Farley lives?

Who said there's no such thing as reincarnation?
 

I think this baby was born in a van... DOWN BY THE RIVER!
 

My pet peeves, Volume 1

Here is a list of my pet peeves, in no particular order. I'm sure I'll post more later, but here is what I've come up with so far...

1. People who make their smiley faces upside-down (:
2. The fact that there's no official playoff system for NCAAF. Division II schools have one... so why can't Division 1? Could it be... oh I don't know... GREED?
3. People who pull into the left-hand lane before making a right-hand turn (except for Trucks -- they're allowed).
4. Christmas decorations going up before Thanksgiving.
5. People who don't throw their trash away when in public places (like sports arenas, movie theaters, etc).
6. Stereos (and subwoofers) turned up so loud that you can't hear your OWN stereo inside your car when your windows are CLOSED.
7. People who say they can "probably come" or something like that when they already know darn well they're not going to attend and just don't want to say No.
8. The NFL blackout rule.
9. People that won't try new types of cuisine... at least once. (Weird stuff that you'd only see on Fear Factor or Bizarre Foods doesn't count here...)
10. Rude patrons.
11. Form letters that don't answer the original question.
12. Newspapers and other circulars that you never asked for which are delivered in little plastic baggies and that sit on your front steps until YOU have to pick them up. I wonder if we could fine their distributors for littering?
13. PEOPLE WRITING IN ALL CAPS FOR NO GOOD REASON.
14. People using the "Reply To All" when I don't care what they have to say, especially when I'm on a mass distribution list.
15. People that let their dogs roam the neighboorhood, pooping on anything they darn well want to.

That's all for now... more to come.

I'm with Stupid...

Man arrested after trying to pass $1M bill

Contrary to popular opinion, there are WAY MORE IDIOTS in the world than first believed.

There are"Yes, Virginia... there is a Santa Claus."

And he pays for his sleigh-fuel with counterfeit bills...

When cows fly...

This is rather unfortunate. Especially for the cow...

Cow plunges off cliff onto moving minivan

The Green Monster is gone!

And before all you in the Red Sox Nation start worrying about what those enraged Rockies fans did to your beloved Fenway... don't call the cops. Call off the search party. Everything is cool. I'm not talking about THAT Green Monster...

Nope -- we sold our couches last night! Major kudos to my wife who is becoming quite the internet shopper now turned internet seller! Sarah found some old pictures we had from the house in MD and posted them on CraigsList. Then after a weekend and a day, we had a guy come over last night and just like that - bing bang boom - we were $400 richer and 2 couches lighter. SUPERB! It stinks that we're still paying on them, but you might remember from an earlier post that the monster couch was never able to make it down into the basement, no matter how hard we pushed, pried, prodded and perthwuddled (OK, I made that last one up... there was no perthwuddling). With all the other furniture, not to mention the color of the monster, it just wouldn't work in the living room.

Now we have the sleeper sofa with slipcover in the front room, all the boxes have been temporarily moved from the living room to the guest room, the rug has been put down and we are waiting to see if the sleeper sofa is gonna sell. I kinda like this CraigsList thing. Much more immediate than eBay, and a much better option for larger items. I'm sure a lot of you have heard of it, but for those who haven't, CraigsList is a free consumer-focused garage sale basically. Since it's all locally-based, people look things up by area and then negotiate with the seller. It's strictly a cash deal, and unlike eBay, CraigsList assumes no responsibility for financial transactions. The reason I like it is cause it's immediate, it gets searched a ton, and offers some quality USED stuff. As long as you heed the old "caviat emptor", everything's hunky dory. So anyway, I think I might be putting some more stuff up there for people. If they want them -- great. If not, oh well.

Oh yeah -- and we got a piano! We were visiting friends in Indianapolis over the weekend and they offered us their spinet Wurlitzer. We actually took the legs off and got it to fit in the back of the van, and now it's sitting in our living room awaiting its final resting place. Luckily our awesome neighbor and his brother in law (who just so happens to be the previous owner of our house) came over to help Sarah and I get it into the house. I was stupid and tried to do it with Sarah by ourselves on Sunday evening, but wasn't thinking clearly -- since it took SIX of us to get it INTO the van. Gravity is cool and all, but seriously Rezer... what were you thinking?

After all of the movin' and shakin', we put together the old trusty futon in the basement (since we were now couchless (loveseat, actually) and it's just like old-times. Man we got a lot accomplished yesterday. Sarah did a lot of work on her own, and she deserves some serious rest today... but unfortunately she's not going to get much. Now we have to start packing for our big trip east for my cousin's wedding. Hurray! Looking forward to visits to both Philly and MD, and it will be nice to see everyone. It's been too long...

It's official!

Nothing like a holiday weekend to open up spots on a team and offer a chance to serve! Sarah and I are scheduled to play Nov 24-25!

We're psyched to be part of the VCC worship family! Now all we gotta do is write a bio... :-)

Treasure in the Attic

Sarah and I enjoy watching shows from time to time like Anyiques Roadshow and Treasure in the Attic. My guess is that they've never experienced a motherlode like this one!

Piles of old coins found in Pa. home - USATODAY.com

They like us... they REALLY REALLY like us!

Sarah and I got a chance to sit in on a rehearsal for the Vineyard Cincy band last night with Charlie Hines and the crew and had a blast! It was so great to be back in that environment again, and playing with GREAT players to boot! It was also nice to be able to roll into a rehearsal and not set up any GEAR since the church provides everything, including the tech crew, house sound, lights, etc for REHEARSAL. Whoa. Very nice. They also use the Aviom monitor system which we were looking into getting for JC, and I must say it's quite cool. Being able to set individual levels for all the players in the band in my mix, and even have them even pan L-R if I want, was WAY cool. We jammed on 3 of the 4 songs with the team (including another drummer who was auditioning), Sarah go a chance to sing lead and harmony on a bunch of songs, and then we turned it over to the full team so they could finish their rehearsal for the weekend.

Afterwards a bunch of us (including some of the tech staff) went over to Chili's for some "Mango Tea." Side note: It was kinda funny cause I thought he said we were going for "Mango Time", referring to everyone's favorite SNL character -- although I didn't quite get the reference or understand WHAT we were actually going to be doing there if we were indeed going for "Mango Time"... but I digress...

We socialized for a while and then Charlie said -- "Well, congratulations! We'd love to welcome you to the team!" WAHOOO! So it looks like Sarah and I will probably serve the same week (once per month) so we can continue serving on the tech team as well -- we're actually running cameras tonight at Cincinnati Worships which should be quite coolio. Love it!

It's going to be so nice to serve this way again. I'm really looking forward to playing, experimenting with new keyboards and sounds, and getting to know the different team members and meeting some new friends. REALLY looking forward to it.