Christmas and stuff

Had a pretty good Christmas. Got a bunch of cool stuff... Mars Volta shirt, DVD's, gift cards... The kids liked everything Santa got them. Still need to go through the old stuff to make room for the new in their rooms.

I got a movie called Serenity on DVD. Awesome flick! I highly recommend it to any one who is a fan of science fiction or the show Firefly (it's based on this show) Kind of a more mature version of Star Wars... No goofy creatures... I also got 40 year old virgin and Fire in the Sky. Tracy got a bunch also so we have a lot of movie watching to do.

I ended up having the entire week off with the kids which was good. They behaved for the most part. The usual issues with them fighting and not listening... Just have to keep telling myself patience and consistency!!! Easier to yell and give them what they want so they'll shut up. But we're pretty good about it most of the time. As far as our kids go, I've seen worse.

Almost pulled it off

The Magic actually played a very close game against the 3rd best in the league, the Dallas Mavs. Went into overtime and got killed by Dirk... Good game though.

Going to a Christmas party at my sisters tonight. The kids will get their first gifts of the season. Yes, they end up having Christmas 3 times with all the different family we have to see. The big one of course is on Christmas here at the house. I fell we did pretty good this year. We didn't spoil them too much... Almost done with shopping. I still have to take the kids shopping for Mom, and I'm done.

Magic losing streak - Recording the band

Magic lose their fifth consecutive game. This time is was to the Bulls. A better team than the Magic without Grant Hill. SteveO was back but didn't do much... Howard had 17 points and 17 rebounds!! This guy is going to be good... We went to the Spurs Magic game on Monday, and they another loss as I predicted, but we did have a good time. The kids really enjoyed it. It was a pretty close game for the first three quarters, but Tim Duncan killed us in the 4th.

Last night we were able to finish the latest song we've been working on, and do a little recording. I setup mics around the room, and at the snare and bass drum. I really need to go direct from my amp and hook Eric up with a 57 directional. Other than that, the recordings came out decent. We were able to get through 2 of 3 songs without any major mistakes. One really good thing that came out of this is that I figured out why the PA was sounding like shit for the past few weeks. A few weeks ago we connected a CD player to the PA so we can listen to music after practice while we BS and drink a few beers... The CD player sounds great going through the PA, but the vocals were muddy and low volume. Last night I disconnected the CD player while we were recording. The vocals were loud and clear. The CD player must have been drawing power from the amp. Nice to know... So I finally have a good recording with vocals that we can hear.

This is really cool: Pandora

You can create your own radio station. Just type in a band or song you like, based on this it will start playing songs that are similar to what you typed in. It works great... I've discovered tons of new music this way. If it plays a song you don't like, just click on it and select "I don't like it" it's pretty amazing...

Free Saturday

The kids ended up spending the night at their Grandparents house on Saturday night, so Tracy and I had a night off. We went to Mimis for dinner, and caught a movie, the Ice Harvest afterward. Mimis is a really good place for dinner or breakfast. It's always pretty crowded. I got the Pasta Jambalaya, and Tracy got the Chicken Pot Pie. Both were very good... Made the movie just in time for the previews. The movie was pretty funny. You have to enjoy dark comedy's to like this one. I'd give it 3 out of 5.

Tonight we're taking the kids to the Magic game. They're playing the Spurs (lat years champs) and the Magic may be missing a few key players due to injuries, so it will more than likely be a loss. Should still be fun...

B-day

Cant believe I'm 38! We had a pretty good night last night. Went to the Outback for dinner, then just hung out at the house and drank Beer... Eric bought me a 6 of Shipyards Pumkinhead which was very good as expected. Got a decent steak at the Outback along with a couple of Fosters. I'm convinced that the Outback in Altamonte is WAY better than the one in Sanford that cant even cook at med rare steak properly. Everytime we've gone there they've screwed up my steak, and you don't want them taking it back because you'll have to wait another half hour to get your dinner. Anyway, it was a good experience this time. Tracy got me Orlando Magic tix for the game on Monday against the Spurs. The whole family's going. We're sitting in the lower section of the area which is really cool. And she got tickets for the Magic vs the Nuggets of our anniversary... My Wife is awesome!!!