Where am I?

Hi, who are you? Who am I?

OK, OK. I know it is a long time in between my blogs. But I have motivation today! I will say I did want to blog earlier this week, but the forces of nature would not allow it. So we will start there after we acknowledge the fact that a great American author has passed on. and my Favorite author.

J.D. Salinger passed at the age of 91 on Wednesday. He was a recluse for the past 50 years, but a brilliant author. PTFO J.D.

January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010

Now on to the show. Last week Amy got sick. She felt terrible and we thought it was food poisoning from a little lunch counter two blocks from out place. Turns out it wasn't. How do we know, I got it earlier this week. We then found out that a girl Amy works with and her friend were also sick with the same symptoms.

If you are getting sick the symptoms of this "bug" included all those found with the flue. Yup, achy joints, upset stomach (that makes things come out both ends) and the chills. So if you are experiencing this, good thing is, the worst will only last two days. Bad thing is, you are sick.

This sickness made me lose two whole days this week. Yesterday I asked Amy what day it was and she replied "Thursday." I replied, "No what day is it really." It really was Thursday. I expected it to be Wednesday. I knew I lost one day being sick, but to have another one totally be absent from memory... that was interesting. And I didn't even have and medicine in me.

Why no medicine you ask? Because it would not stay down. I took it and it came back out in about a half an hour. So take care and look out the W2S0 is out there looking for you!

We will now move on to two things that happened today.... now that I am feeling almost back to normal.

Amy and I woke up and went to the grocery store. OK, nothing out of the ordinary in that, and that is not our story. Well it is not much of a story, but a picture with a set up. Here is the set up.

After groceries, it was about 12:30 p.m. and Amy asked if I wanted to make something for lunch or just grab something. I said "We are out, lets just grab something." Now there is a McDonald's in the same plaza as the grocery store. We keep seeing commercials for the new McD's Big Mac Wrap. now here is what they look like in the commercial:

OK, I know they are not going to look like that when you actually buy one. But you would think that the shape should be similar. Here is what the two we bought looked like:

Come on now. They were not altered by me, hell I didn't even brighten up the picture so you could see just how they looked when we opened them. The one on the right was totally mashed together. What the hell is that all about. Really. At least the one on the left was the right shape. Now this made Amy and I laugh, but the more I think about it the more I get pissed off. This is screwed up.

They tasted fine though.

Now to the next part of my day. I decided to go find a guitar store today. About 2 weeks ago I did some looking for guitar stores and found a few in the area. So today I went to Strike a Chord Music, which looked like one of the bigger one in in the area........ it is not big at all.

If you click on that blue text above you will be at their web site. It boast a recreation on Abby Road and a lounge area. Well first off that painting is terrible. It is suppose to be a caricature...OK. But it is not good at all. I'll leave it there instead of getting mean.

Now this place was much smaller than I thought. Much smaller. It also boasts having a lounge area. When I read this on the web site I thought cool, a place for kids to chill while they are waiting for their lessons. I am sure this is what they were going for, but man, they used up 1/4 of the store. This is a lot of wasted space. There are two or three couches and some chairs. This could be a nice selling area. One couch and two chairs would have been more than enough.

Moving on to their stock. There wasn't much of it. A few guitars, nothing that I would buy. There was something interesting. At first look, it looked like a vintage archtop electric guitar. But reading the headstock, I now believe it to be a cheap re-creation. And it was priced at $400. To little for a vintage instrument, and to much for a cheap knock off.

If you are looking for a student acoustic guitar that you think will almost never get played. This is you place to go. They had a bunch (more than 5) $65 acoustic guitars. A few different colors.

So I was disappointed with this store. Next week I will search out another store and see if I could find something better. If not, Wades Worlds and Gallucci's are where I will do my shopping. I will also have Amy show me some places in Philly.

That is all, carry on.

At the Bethlehem Brew Works right now. First impression, they seem to want to cater to the high brow. Mostly people dressed buisness casual. But then again it is about 6 p.m. so they probably just got out of work.

Half a beer in and it is taisty. Drinking The Roof is on Fire RAUCHBOCK.

As the Time Passes

Now I know it has been some time sense my last blog post. I will make up no excuses as to why. I will be blunt. I have laked motivation. Not just in blogging, but in damn near everything.

I have been applying for jobs and that is about it. When Amy is here in the morning/afternoon, I have the life and energy of 10000 half men, but when she leaves for the day, I just mope. But my friends, last night I seem to have seen the light of day! In the darkness of the night!

I have been spending many a night on my ass watching TV/movies/TV series with my guitar in one hand and a beer in another. Well last night I began to turn one out of two new riffs into an actual new song! It still needs work, and another verse and half, but I will record it soon and try to mix it to the best of my abilities.

So music has taken me out of my miserable mind set. That and today Amy and I went exploring in Palmerton. We found an old store, much like an old Woolworth of yesteryear.

Said Woolworth looking store was called Spillanes Variety Store. And a variety store it was. Filled with all sorts of things. But a lot of arts and crafts supplies. That is where I found this little awesome guy below.

And assembled....

This is flippin' cool!

So now that I am feeling a little better and writing some new music, we are headed out to visit the C.F. Martin & Co. guitar factory tomorrow! This was something I had hoped to do last week, but I had scheduled some Civil Service exams in Scranton on the same day. I was Amy's only day off last week and I inadvertently ruined it.

In my defense I did schedule the exams months ago, right after I was being told of my involuntary dismissal from the company I use to work for. No I was not fired, I was laid off. Getting back on topic.

Tomorrow we are headed to Nazareth PA to do the FREE C. F. Martin & Co. factory tour! This is something I am very stoked about. I use to own one of these glorious instruments. a D15 Mahogany to be exact. Great guitar. I choose the mahogany for it's rich deep tones. But I had purchased a Taylor not to long after and that having electronics in it, I ended up playing that more. So I did what I do with most of my great guitars..... I sold it to Mr. Risk.

So Mr. Risk now owns not only a great instorment, but a piece of American history. The D15 is made using pre-WW II X bracing. Mr. Risk got a good set up on said D15 and added some electronics. I have had the opportunity to gig next to Mr. Risk, he playing his Martin and I playing my Taylor, and the two made a great sounding pair.

So tomorrow we are off to take a tour and explore our new surroundings some more. And with that I leave you, to do my manly duties. They being the dishes and cook some dinner. My belly tells me it is almost time.

That is all, carry on.

My X-Mas Present....

From Amy. We took a trip to the Electric City Tattoo Gallery this past Saturday. This is the result of that trip.

It is a mix of a Japanese Zoomer commercial, Amy's take on said robot, and Elijah's take on Amy's take. Here is the Zoomer commercial, don't worry you'll love it. It is awesome!

I have been asking Amy to draw me a robot for a tattoo for years. I finally bugged her enough to work on one for me. I love the results. I can't wait to get it finished. Elijah worked on me for about 3 hours, and damn was my arm sore. I heard it hurts more the older you get, and I can honestly say.... it really does. But I wanted it and I am glad I am getting it.

I didn't say got it, because it is not done yet. I still need one more sitting to finish it. Well I hope just one more sitting.

Moving on. As you can see we now have the interweb back! I got woken up this morning by a call from the cable guy at 8 a.m. He wanted to come over early and install my cable and Internet! EARLY!

So 6 hours before I was suppose to start waiting around, he was here, and 5 hours before I was suppose to be waiting around, he was done! Then I went to grab my wireless router, and guess what? The box was empty! Now we didn't need it at the old apartment because the Verizon modem was also a wireless router. So I was a bit peeved when the box was empty.

So we took a spin to Walmart and picked up a new router. We needed another power strip anyway, so we got that while we were there. 15 minutes after we got home, I was wireless and secure!

Now I am sitting here in this cold apartment typing a blog for you great people of the world. But I am also getting hungry, so I am going to go cook dinner now.

That is all, carry on.

VESPA!

Went grocery shopping in Lehighton today. Saw this in the coffee isle. You may have seen this in the world befor. Or you may have seen this on this blog before. They have this poster in the Allentown rest plaza on I476. I took a picture of the picture and posted it before.