Missing Murdok

There has been a lot going on since my last blog, but that goes without saying since the last one was a couple months ago. Sorry for the hiatus. I’m sure the 3 of you that read this have really been lacking during this time. I must confess that I have attempted to write one, but every time I do, I just write about Harvard. I figured that not everyone is as much of a dog person as I am and you probably don’t want to hear about him all the time, so I just haven’t written anything. I will give you this update on him though:

He’s growing and his baby teeth are falling out. He also graduated from puppy class.

There. That was quick. So instead of boring you with all the little stories about Harvard, I have decided to talk about a different dog. The one and only…

Murdok

We had to say goodbye to our good buddy this morning, and it was tough. My parents think he had a stroke, and he hasn’t been able to get up from his pillow for the last few days. It was time, but it was still really sad. However, instead of making this blog a downer, I have decided to share some pictures and stories about the little guy that always make me smile.

Story #1: When Murd lived down at Andy’s house on 23^rd, he would occasionally dig his way out of the back yard and go exploring. On one particular day, he followed a guy all the way down to Home Depot AND BACK! That’s around 40 blocks of walking round trip.

Story #2: After Andy added Buster to the family, the boys would get out much more frequently. One night Andy received a call from the principal of R.A. Long saying that the dogs had wandered into the school dance (another long walk). The principal said they weren’t causing any trouble and asked if Andy would wait a little bit before coming to get them. Apparently some students would walk up to the entrance, see the dogs, and turn around and leave. They thought the boys were drug-sniffing dogs! Buster and Murdok were causing students to leave that the administration didn’t want there anyway. What good dogs.

Story #3 (Mom told me this story today): On Murdok’s first 4^th of July, he stayed up at his grandparents house. My dad was out of town and Andy thought Murd would freak out because of all the fireworks, so my mom said she would take him for the night. Mom prepared a little bed for Murd on the floor of her room, and they went to bed. Around 3 in the morning, my mom woke up and found a little spooning buddy cuddled up against her back in bed with her (a big no-no), and when she rolled over, he lifted his head up and looked at her with a look of, “What’s the big deal, Grandma?”

Story #4: This story still cracks me up to think about. I was still living at my parent’s place and Matt Tallbut came up to hang out. When anyone would drive in to the driveway, the boys would come to the driver’s door to see who it is, and this day was no exception. Matt got out, bent down to give them a scratch, and one of the dogs immediately jumped up and whacked him right in the sweets. Matt then shut his door and made his getaway. Attempting to get away from the boys, Matt went running for our garage and the other dog took out his legs, sending him tumbling to the gravel. This was easily one of the funniest things I had ever seen, and probably still is. Imagine the whole scene…

These are just a few stories that come to mind, but I’m sure Andy and my parents could add a lot more. Considering Murdok was a white boxer, he outlasted all expectations and overcame the odds. It’s amazing that he lived to almost be 10 years old when you think about all that he lived through. He jumped out of the back of Andy’s truck while he was driving down Mt. Brynion AND got run over by the back tire, he took down a pit bull with the help of his brother Buster, he had a softball-sized tumor removed from his side that was cancerous, and he sniffed a little too close to the rear end of a porcupine and he lived through it all. He had the heart of a champion. Murdok was an awesome dog, and he will surely be missed.

Haystack Harvard

This last weekend, Amber and I went down to Cannon Beach for the marriage retreat that our church puts on every year. Since Cannon Beach is so pet-friendly, we decided we would take Harvard with us to see how he liked vacations, the beach, etc. The trip definitely had its ups and downs, but overall it was a lot of fun.

After taking Harvard over to meet his great-grandmother Florence on Thursday, we headed down to the beach. He was perfect in the back seat of our car, and even did the normal dog thing and stuck his head out the window.

When we reached Warrenton, the three of us were all getting pretty hungry so we stopped at a Dairy Queen. As I took the little guy into the grass to do his business, I found a wad of cash. A whole eight dollars! Almost free dinner! Not a bad way to start the trip.

When we got to the hotel, they were very excited to accommodate Harvard. They brought him a treat, which he loved, and showed us the pet area where he was to do his thing. After he did his business in the grass, I grabbed a plastic bag and began the cleanup. As I threw the bag into the trash, the ring on my right hand slipped off and fell to its demise into the pet poo can. I opened the lid, looked in, and decided it wasn’t worth it. It was a $5 ring, had no sentimental value, and didn’t warrant the dirty recovery job. Now if it had been my wedding ring… yuck.

Harv loved our hotel room. Long and carpeted, he was able to do his sprint exercises. I have to say, the first night was a little difficult with him. He was super hyper (maybe from the puppy crack treat) and was just not being a very good dog. I even said to Amber that I was worried he would be a bad dog when he got big… really big. Well, apparently he heard me, because he was a saint the rest of the weekend. I think he found Jesus. Naturally, I baptized him with the hose when we got home (he loves the hose).

We took Harvard onto the beach for about 15 minutes, and he was a little unsure of it. Wind, sand, and waves were all somewhat troubling to him, but he did okay. I took my camera to take some pictures of him, but alas, the battery was dead. All I got was this picture with my phone:

When Amber and I adopted our Great Dane puppy, we knew he would be a topic of conversation; what we didn’t realize was how many people would want to meet him. As stated before, Cannon Beach is very pet friendly, so we took him down to the main street for some lunch. As we ate outside of Pizza a Feta, everyone who walked by wanted to meet him and know what kind of dog he was. Upon finding out he was a Dane, they were tickled to pieces. Apparently the blue color is puzzling to people, and they often think he is a Weimaraner or an oddly colored chocolate Lab.

It was a fun little work vacation with our little family, and we of course are very proud of our little buddy. He even learned a new game at the beach: hide and seek. When he finds us, he gives us big hugs. It’s very cute. By the way, he has officially doubled in size since we got him. Harvard is now 12 weeks old and just over 30 pounds.

I leave you with a picture of Harvard laughing hysterically in the back of our car...

I missed you...

As I was out on tour, I realized there are a few things that I missed from home that I don’t always consider. Of course, I missed my wife, family, friends, and things like that, but the following list is not so predictable.

My Bed – When Amber and I got married, we slept in her full size bed with a mattress that sunk to the middle like a hammock. We are not the largest people in the world, but the full size was still pretty small for us. Early on in our marriage, we decided to fork out some money on a nice mattress, so we bought ourselves a Sleep Number bed and it has certainly been worth it. I often forget how nice it is until I sleep in a different bed and wake up with a sore back. Needless to say, the bus bunk and hotel beds were not what I was used to sleeping on, so when I was reunited with my mattress after 7 weeks, I sunk right in.

Water – I’ve always said the northwest has the best water (which is why the coffee is best here), and I was again reminded of this very convenient truth out on the road. There were numerous times when I would turn on the shower and smell sulfur, or I wouldn’t be able to rinse the soap off. Our water is good.

Toilet Paper – Most hotels and music venues buy pretty cheap toilet paper. This one doesn’t need any explanation. Just imagine notebook paper… but thinner… and without the lines.

Weather – I love the feeling of cold rain, so when it is hot and rainy, I get upset. I also don’t like feeling sweaty as soon as I dry off from a shower. That’s why I enjoy the northwest.

Towels – Our towels are nothing special, but when you compare them to the hotel towels or the venue towels, they are a dream. Again, hotels and venues want to save money, so they buy cheap towels. These towels are almost as thin as the toilet paper and only slightly more absorbent.

So that is my list of the little things I missed about home. Don’t take what you have for granted. Your towels and toilet paper are a luxury.

Ups and Downs

When my brother, Andy, did his best man toast at my wedding, he said a bunch of nice things. His closing line of the toast was something to the effect of:

“May all of your ups and downs be in private.”

This has certainly been a week of ups and downs, but most of them have been quite public. For starters, I got home from the tour. I quite enjoyed the whole thing, but also missed Amber and home terribly, so I’ve had mixed emotions upon re-entering normal life. I must say, however, that there has been nothing normal about this week.

Like I said, the tour was a lot of fun. I met a lot of great people and had many a fun time. It has been a number of years since I played guitar on a stage like that, so it was a good reminder of what I love. Thankfully, this tour rekindled some of the once glowing embers in my musical mind and has me excited about music again. Some of you may be aware that I used to be in a band that didn’t end well, and that whole experience really took the wind out of my sails for a long time. Now, though, I am reminded of my love for hunting for guitar pedals, and I am excited to make some of my own music again. I’ve been on an extended recording hiatus for different reasons, but mostly because I was simply burnt out. Not anymore. Now my only enemy is time and money.

Back to the rollercoaster week… On Monday night, Amber’s brother Josh and his wife Becky welcomed a little 6lbs 10oz nugget of joy into the world. Becky gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Jaxyn, on Labor Day. Labor Day! Ha! Apparently Jaxyn got the memo. She’s a good-looking, healthy little girl, and maybe, just maybe, Josh will start his own blog someday.

As soon as they were sent home from the hospital though, littlest brother Jordan decided he wanted to have his turn. Early Thursday morning, him and a couple friends decided to take a break from their World of Warcraft and head to the gas station for some energy drinks. On their way home, one of those terrorist deer jumped in the road forcing the driver to swerve, and the boys went off-roading in a Honda Civic. The car rolled down an embankment and somehow landed on top of Jordan, who was thrown from the vehicle. Miraculously, after being pinned under the car for about an hour and being life-flighted to the hospital in Vancouver, it appears that Jordan escaped with only a big gash in his head (which has been stapled shut) and a pretty nasty concussion. His body is pretty darn sore too. The other boys are fine; one of them getting some stitches in his arm. I’d say, all in all, they were all extremely lucky. Feel free to thank the Lord for His hand in it.

Our friends Judah and Becca Kirkwood also added a baby to the world this week. His name is Noah and he is destined to be a great ship builder someday… if he chooses. Amber and I also added to our family, which can be read about in the blog below. Harvard is growing up very fast and we can see the changes in his body and mind. He is learning the house rules and getting bigger every day. We just realized that when he is a mere four months old, he will be as big or bigger than my parents’ boxers. Wow.

Harvard meets his cousin Zoe:

Sleeping Harvard:

Harvard:

It's A Boy!!!

That’s right. Amber and I have finally added to our little family. We just adopted a Great Dane yesterday, and he is awesome. His name is Harvard, but you can call him Harvey. Now, I know what some of you are probably thinking. You are thinking, “Why a Great Dane?” Well, Amber and I love big dogs, and we wanted something with a really good temperament, so all signs pointed to the “gentle giant” that is snoring at my feet at this very moment. We have been looking for a puppy for a while now, but we wanted a specific color and we wanted to do it right, so we waited until we found the right breeder. We actually went to see a different puppy a while back, but the breeder was sketchy and the puppy was not Harvey.

We actually came across this breeder while we were at the hospital for Jordan (Amber’s little brother). He was in a car accident (more on that in a blog to come) and his ICU nurse happened to have a blue Dane, and also happened to know that the breeder she got hers from had one male puppy left. It was fate. We contacted the breeder that day, and the next day we had Harvey. I would just like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Jordan for getting in a car accident, taking a helicopter ride to a hospital in Vancouver, suffering a major concussion, getting staples in his head, and freaking the entire family out all for the sake of Harvey joining the Lemiere family. What a great little brother. (he is doing well, by the way)

One concern we had about the puppy was that he was the last one picked, but that concern quickly dissipated like a dog fart in a windstorm. Most people choose their Danes from pictures over the Internet without meeting the puppy until it is delivered to their house, and they usually pick by the dogs markings. Even though Harvey was the last one to find a home, he is still the one we would have picked out of the litter. We got to see him with 3 of the other puppies who were shipping out on Tuesday, and he was our favorite. He is almost completely solid blue, he was the biggest of the litter, and he has the mildest temperament. In fact, as I was crouching down to meet the dogs, the other 3 puppies were biting at my jeans and my shoe laces and Harvey was sitting between my legs with his head resting on my thigh. Temperament was our biggest concern, so his physical qualities are just icing on the cake.

On our way home, we stopped at the hospital so the Evald family could meet their new grandson/nephew. The hospital allowed us to bring him into Jordan’s room, but as we were waiting outside, we were given a glimpse as to what our lives will be like when we take Harvey into public. Everyone that walked by commented on him and couldn’t resist petting him. Many asked if he was a Weimaraner because of his blue coat, and everyone was thrilled to find out he was a Great Dane. “I’ve never seen one so small,” was the typical comment. Don’t worry folks, he will get bigger. Much bigger. Here is a picture of Amber with Harvey’s 170 lbs dad, Apoc:

After one night of having our new son in the house, I still like him. As soon as we took him home, I instantly felt that love that only a parent can feel and finally knew what Amber’s mom is always talking about (that was for you, Sheri). So feel free to come visit our son and us. My brother, Nick, recently had a son and I know that lots of people brought him and Tiff meals since they are new parents, so feel free to do the same for us. :) Just let us know when you want to meet Harvard!!!

Wife Week

As I write this blog, I sit at a picnic table just outside our bus behind the venue at Virginia Beach. It is approaching noon, and the weather is perfect. Sipping my cup of catering coffee, I reflect on the last 7 days. This has been one of the best weeks ever. Amber got to come out here on the road with me and it was a blaster. We got to hang out in New York City for a couple days, catch a few concerts, go shopping, and spend a lot of much needed time together. When we first saw each other, there was this initial feeling of, “Oh yeah… you ARE a real person and not just a voice on my phone,” but it didn’t take long to wear off. Amber amazed and surprised me with a few things: she got her hair done and got her nose re-pierced. Even after flying a red-eye, she still looked smokin’ hot.

The first day was pretty uneventful. We attempted to walk around, but after getting about ¼ of a mile from our hotel we got dumped on by the New York clouds. At that point we decided to go back to our room and order a pizza. Enjoy a picture of us here:

The second day in New York was much more successful. We decided to take the subway everywhere instead of a cab, so we saved quite a bit of money. For the whole day, we only spent $13.50 to get around the city. It was a good thing too, because we needed all the money we could get to keep the muggers from taking our phones and bags. We only got mugged twice, but we managed to talk our way out of giving all of our stuff to them by telling them we had connections to the Chicago mob and that… ok, I’m joking. We didn’t get mugged at all. All we did was walk around, go shopping, share a couple meals together, drink coffee, and go to a concert. A friend of mine sings in a super-duo called The Civil Wars (see video at end of this blog) and they just happened to be playing in the city on our day off. Most of you know that I’m a critical perfectionist so this next statement may come as a shock to you, but The Civil Wars were flawless. Amazing. It was a great day and night with the wife of my youth.

Day three was a show day, and we played at the Jones Beach Amphitheatre. Pretty cool venue, but poorly designed. As you can see in the picture below, it is right on the water. The bad part about it is that the lower level floods all the time, and this night was no exception. Everyone in front of the stage was standing in water. You can imagine how load-in and load-out were. Good thing there is a crew that takes care of that. :)

The weather was still cool and wet, so I had a little hot cocoa date with this hot girl I found backstage.

After the show, Amber did her first overnight bus ride with us. Since neither of us are huge individuals, we decided to try to share a bunk. It was tight, but after being apart for so many nights, we were willing to make sacrifices to make it work. Sacrifices like being able to bend my knees at all while trying to sleep. By the 3^rd night drive, we had the bunk sharing down. I should add here that a bunk is smaller than a twin bed, and there is only about 2-2.5 feet of clearance from top to bottom; basically, it’s like sleeping in a coffin. If I had to be stuck in a coffin with someone though, I would definitely choose Amber as my coffin-mate.

All in all, Amber saw 7 concerts while out with us: The Civil Wars, Madi Diaz, Skillet, Creed, and Theft (3 times). I’m not sure which concert was her favorite, but I’m pretty sure I know which guitar player was her favorite. Hopefully Amber will write her own blog on here about her week with us, but I have a hard time getting her to. All of you that have either her phone number or email address, you should bug her about it repeatedly until she does.

To wrap this blog up, I would like to share a something I’ve learned over the years of my travelling: names of places are funny. Every morning when I wake up, I reach for my phone, open the weather channel app and see what the day has in store. The app uses gps to locate where you are to give you the most accurate info, and when I located myself the other day I was in Coxsackie, NY. It’s just down the road from Climax, NY. This reminded me of other humorous towns such as Blue Ball and Intercourse, which are both in PA. Lastly, and possibly the strangest, is a state park in Kentucky: Big Bone Lick State Park. It can be found where Big Bone Road intersects with Beaver Road. I kid you not.

Lovely Lady Lands

The waiting game. Lets be honest, I have been playing the waiting game for the past 26 days; but as the hour draws near, I grow restless. I have been home a total of around 80 hours in the last 936, and in that 80 you have to account for all the time spent sleeping, building the shed, and all the other little things that use up our time and cause Amber and I to be away from each other. What I’m trying to say is that I haven’t seen my beautiful wife much lately. What has been keeping me sane is a lot of time spent on the phone and iChat, making sure that Amber’s picture is the last thing I see before closing my eyes every night, and the far off thought that I will be reunited with her again in the future. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that future is in a few long, arduous hours.

Here I am, riding on the bus while she is flying through the air, and I can’t sleep. I attempted to go to bed early, but Bo seems to be lacking when it comes to graceful driving (more on that later). Mixing a rough road with the anticipation of a hug from my not-so-rough wife makes for a very unrestful night. It’s funny to think that she could be getting better sleep sitting in her airplane seat than I am laying down in a cushy tour bus. I did get her a window seat, though. Enough about that. I need to change the subject before I go crazy with excitement.

Please allow me now the opportunity to tell you a little bit about our new driver, Bo. He has been with us for about a week now, and the verdict is in: I miss Lem. Bo seems to be a nice guy, but he is like an unstoppable rebel force when he is driving. I don’t know if the roads are really that bumpy or if he is actually running over people that get in his way. Either way, he somehow managed to shave two hours off of a 13-hour trip a few nights ago.

Our first encounter with him was interesting. He started driving and immediately lit up a cig. Sorry Bo… not on this bus. Suddenly the smoky hotel room smell that hit us the first time we entered the bus made sense. This was Bo’s bus. He complied with our “no smoking on the bus” rule and kept on trucking… or bussing. The second encounter was no better. He got on the bus and Matt asked him how his hotel was, and Bo responded with a string of colorful words to describe how he felt about said hotel room. Lem? Are you there? We have since found out that Bo is ex-military, he was in Vietnam, and in the winter he transports convicts on the bus. No wonder is a little “rough around the edges.” I wasn’t aware that translated into the roads though. I swear he took the bus through a skate park the other night… half-pipe and all.

The show at Lake Winnipesauke was great the other night. It was the smallest crowd of the tour so far (somewhere in the 3000s) but we managed to sell 55 CDs… a record for Theft. After the show, the venue lit two fire pits backstage and put out all kinds of s’mores stuff. They had the traditional stuff—grams, mallows, and milk chocolate—as well as some new things, such as strawberry mallows, dark chocolate, peanut butter cups, and York peppermint patties. I tried a s’more with a peppermint patty, and I’ll tell you what… pretty darn good (excuse my language). I suggest you try it next time.

I suppose I should try to get some rest before my lovely lady lands. Enjoy your week and don’t ever take your spouse for granted!

Baby Steps

Yesterday was a very relaxing day off. We are in the lovely New Hampshire, staying just off of Lake Winnipesauke. The weather here is perfect, so we took advantage of it. Here is how the day unfolded:

-Got off the bus around noon and went for a little run.

-Took a dip in the pool and read poolside for about an hour.

-Austen and I went to the pub across the street and got some lunch.

-I walked around the shops for a bit.

-Matt, Ryan and I went into the little town and played mini golf, rode go-carts, and played a few video games.

-The three of us went back to the hotel and I ate my leftovers from lunch.

-Ryan and I went in the hot tub, which had way too much chlorine in it, so when he turned on the bubbles there was about 3 inches of foam on top of the water.

-I went back to the hotel room, cleaned up, watched TV and finished the night with talking on the phone to—you guessed it—Amber.

Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? It was like having a day of vacation. If you’ve been following our tour schedule, you may have realized we went from Scranton, PA to Lake Winnipesauke; or, maybe more appropriately, from The Office to What About Bob. Some of you will understand that…

I leave you with a few memorable quotes from What About Bob:

“What if I'm looking for a bathroom, I can't find one, and my bladder explodes?”

"Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic... and so am I."

“Isn't this a breakthrough, that I'm a sailor? I sail? I sail now?”

“Good morning, Gil. I said, good morning, Gil.”

“I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful...”

Theft Tour: Episode II

Road Ramblings

It’s been a little while since I last posted a blog, and for that I apologize. It’s just that I haven’t felt like there is anything that has been really noteworthy in the last few days. It’s all kind of the same old thing: play a show, ride on the bus, miss Amber, etc.

The shows have been getting better since that lighting incident. In fact, our show last Saturday in Indiana was our best one yet. We didn’t have any technical difficulties, we all played well, and the crowd was great. The only negative thing I can say about it was the weather: extremely hot and humid. Very wet.

The bus travel has been getting better and worse at the same time. At first, I was having a lot of trouble sleeping while the bus was moving. At every bump, I would jolt awake in fear of the bus rolling… it must have something to do with that van wreck I was in. Anyway, I no longer do that. I still wake up with each bump, but it is no longer out of fear; it is simply because a bump interrupts my slumber. I have been sleeping pretty well the last two nights though. I’ll bet it’s because the humidity has been sucking the very life out of me.

The bus has gotten worse, however, in that we had to say goodbye to our bus driver, Lem, the other day. He was apparently only filling in for the guy who usually drives the bus we are in, so we now have Bo. By the way, if you ever want to drive a tour bus, you are going to have to shorten your name down to one syllable. We were sad to see Lem go. He was a super nice, southern guy with his gray hair combed back and a black mustache who wanted nothing more than to be an Oakridge Boy. He’s actually going to be driving their bus next week. Go get em’ Lem.

In other news, I was in Cincinnati last week and had dinner with Joel, Kristy, Nevaeh, and Jesslyn Matthews. It was fun seeing some familiar faces out on the road, and I even got a free pair of Toms out of it. Actually, I haven’t tried the coupon yet, so we still have to wait and see if I will really get another pair of Toms. Since Joel manages a Trader Joe’s, he brought me 3 bags of vegetable chips for the bus. Not a bad deal. I should hang out with them more often. :)

That’s about all I have for you in this update. I guess there were a few things for me to talk about. Normally I wouldn’t be able to elaborate on such weak topics, but I have been living with Amber for 3 years now. Maybe she is starting to rub off on me. By the way, I get to see her in 5 days. Oh, what a reunion it shall be…

A Poor Performance and Personalities

Sioux City, Iowa. Hot. Humid. Stormy. Sunny. Windy. Calm. Birthplace of our worst show yet. This was a show I was looking forward to because we would be playing indoor, as opposed to the outdoor arenas we have been playing. Being that we are the opening band, the sun is still out for our set so it’s not as cool as playing in only stage lighting (in my opinion). Maybe if I just change my perspective a little and take into consideration that the sun doesn’t hang around for the other bands, it would make me feel better. The sun likes the band I’m in better. Back to the show…

Please allow me to tell you why our show was so bad. The lights. I know I’m starting to sound picky—I want stage lighting, but the lights made our show bad—but it’s a little more complicated than that. The front of the stage is lined with lights that shine up into your face, and the lighting guy decided that those were the only lights we were going to get on this night. The only problem is that they were so bright, we couldn’t see our pedal boards, our fret boards, or even the audience. There were times that I missed pedal changes and came in on wrong notes because I was literally momentarily blinded. Between songs, Matt (singer) tried to talk to the crowd, but it was useless because we couldn’t even see them. Another contributing factor to our terrible performance was at one point during one of the songs, one of the band members (I’m granting him anonymity) messed up, which caused me to get lost, so I screwed up royally and we had a momentary train wreck. We were able to salvage that, luckily.

To top off this amazing show, those lights that I mentioned at the front of the stage started falling off. The light crew was really angry and blamed us, but fortunately I set up the flip camera behind me during the show and managed to capture the whole event happening. Watch:

As you can see, Matt simply stomped his foot and the lights started to go. I was able to show the video to the tour manager and crew, and our bacon was saved, so to speak.

Speaking of saving bacon, this next paragraph will have nothing to do with it. I took a personality test yesterday for fun, and the results are in. I am an ISTJ. Reading the description of an ISTJ is like reading the blueprint that God had when he made me, according to Amber. It is pretty funny how accurate it is though. I had Amber take the test too, but hers is not as spot on. It’s still fun to read if you have some time. She is an ENFP.

Eric: http://personalitypage.com/ISTJ.html

Amber: http://personalitypage.com/ENFP.html

My Latin Translation

Since today is a day off for the band, I figured it would be a good time for a day on in the blog world. This will be brief as I don’t have much to update you on, but at least it’s something. Last night, we had a show at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. It was pretty cool hanging out with some Army and Air Force troops, and we even got to share the stage with the Red Rocker himself: Sammy Hagar. Josh (brother-in-law) asked me if I could get his autograph, but, in all honesty, the only time I saw him was when he was on stage. Sorry Josh. There was no mingling. But it was cool nonetheless.

I would also like to take a moment to recognize my amazing wife for all that she does. She has now officially completed her Bachelor’s degree from WSU, and will be graduating Suma Cum Laude… that is Latin for “Smarter than the almost all of the other graduates.” I’m very proud of her, as you should be, for all of her hard work and dedication. In fact, that is the way Amber does things. When she cares about something, she will put her whole effort into it and it will turn out great. Whether it is doing an art project or an essay, singing, dancing, coaching, tutoring, wedding planning, shower planning, being a wife, being a sister, being a daughter, being a friend… whatever she does, she’ll do it with all of her heart. Many of the things she does tend to be more “behind the scenes,” which is why I’m using this blog to give her credit where credit is due. She’s an amazing person, and she’s even learning to take care of the house stuff while I’m away.

If you know Amber, you probably already know all this stuff, but again, I want to give her the credit she deserves. I can’t wait to see her. She’s my favorite.

Sorry to those of you who are getting sick of all this sappy stuff. I’ll try to be funny again soon.

Week One

Here is a video that Austen put together from our first week of tour...

Missing the Mrs.

Right now is officially the longest period of time that Amber and I have been apart since we've been married. So what do you get when you have two days off, a computer, an amazing wife, and an incredible yearning to see said wife? You get a video that looks something like the one below.

WARNING: this is sappy and silly.

08.02.2010 Clips

Two new videos for your viewing enjoyment:

Gleaning from Grandparents

The venue last night had the best catering of the tour so far. It was great. They even had a bunch of fruit pizzas for dessert, and Ryan managed to snag a whole one for the bus. I had a piece for breakfast. My love for dessert has been passed down from many generations on both sides of my family.

Speaking of my family, I had a serious revelation yesterday: I am becoming more and more like my grandparents. I think it is awesome, but it also means I’m getting old in my old age. I mentioned in a blog a little over three months ago that I was becoming this way, but I have some hard evidence to back this claim up now. As I mentioned, we played at a casino last night. This particular casino had a Starbucks in it, but I never even saw it. A year ago, I would have gone right to it and got myself a nice beverage, but yesterday I chose to stick with the drip coffee in catering… black. Grandma Doris would take this opportunity to proclaim that she likes her coffee like she likes her men, and I am beginning to agree with her… on the coffee part.

So there is your proof. I have now chosen normal black coffee over a drink from Starbucks, built a shed, quoted my Grandma Doris, and had dessert for breakfast. I am becoming like my grandparents, and these are just a few examples…

Day Off

Today was an eventful day off. It included a walk to a Storebucks (Starbucks in a grocery store), a swim in the hotel pool, lunch at Chili’s, and a movie. Allow me to give you the highlights of each event:

Storebucks: they had samples of their Vanilla Chai Frappuccino and they taste just like pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top.

Pool: no highlight. Just refreshing.

Chili’s: the hotel we are staying at is close to a casino (which we are playing at tomorrow night) and they have a limo shuttle to take a person to and fro. Our tour manager convinced the driver to shuttle us to the restaurant instead of the casino, so we showed up in style… sort of. Here is a video of all of us being technology nerds in the limo:

Movie: we saw Inception. How does anybody write or direct a movie like that? Crazy. I liked the movie. The only downside to the movie was that the theatre had apparently not been updated since it was built, so the sound was terrible. One mono speaker behind the screen just doesn’t cut it when a movie is supposed to be heard in surround sound. The theatre must have run out of coal to shovel into the heating system too, because it was freezing in there. When I got back to the hotel, I made a cup of coffee just to try and warm up. Still a good movie though.

After the movie, a cab came to pick us up. I know… a far cry from our previous limo ride. The driver of this cab was hilarious though! He was a sexagenarian (60 year old) man who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. Immediately after we got in his Crown Vic, his cell phone started ringing so he answered. Upon hanging up, he said, “That guy is an a#+hole.” We all laughed at his openness, and then he asked us where we were from. Austen told him Los Angeles, to which he replied, “So what do you think of this sh*#hole?” Again, we laughed. I told him they had a really nice theatre complex, of course. He proceeded to tell us that the people here are rude, they suck, and… you get the idea. It was an entertaining cab ride to say the least.

I leave you with this little video of us waiting for the cab after the movie. Enjoy:

Horseplay

This blog is from yesterday, but I’m just now getting around to posting it…

It’s been a couple days since my last blog, but I have my reasons. We have now spent two nights on the bus, and the first night was a little rough. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is one of the worst and most expensive roads to drive on, and it makes for a bumpy sleep. With each bump, I would jerk awake because I was having memories of the van wreck that I was in. I didn’t sleep to well that first night.

As I mentioned in the last blog, our bus is a little worn out. Another reason for the bad sleep was all of the rattling happening throughout the bus. However, with a Phillips screwdriver and some strategically placed gaff tape, rattles can be eliminated. Sleep on the second night was much better.

Our show last night was at a Casino. Still no sound check. It went a little better, but still not the best. Not to worry though. Tonight’s show went really well… probably because we ACTUALLY GOT A SOUND CHECK!!! Amazing how those things help.

The tour has been pretty fun thus far. Austen and I went on a little run today and then he and Matt played some horseshoes.

I feel it is important to add here that the Creed guys, as well as their wives and the crew, are all pretty cool. We had dinner with the band and the wives (minus the Stapps) and then quite a few went out and hit the tables. Scott Stapp (singer) keeps to himself, and I actually haven’t even met him yet—he even has his own bus.

So there is my update. Hope you enjoyed my lame video. For those of you wondering where this tour will take us, the link for all of the show dates is below. Goodnight to you all…

http://www.theftspace.com/shows/

Tour Bus Tour

Well we got on our bus today. It is a little older than we expected… a little worn out… a little out-dated… but it is certainly better than touring in a van. We’ve got wireless internet, satellite tv, a toilet (only number 1 in there), bunks, and even… (drum roll)… a VCR!!! Nice. I put together a little video so you can all see my home for the next 6 weeks.

I hope you enjoyed that. The other guy (besides Lem) in the video is Austen, the drummer. Yes, he’s single. Anyway, I am currently sitting in our green room listening to the thundering low end of Creed’s kick drum. I watched their first two songs, and man was it hot! I mean that literally. They have lots of pyrotechnics. I hear they even set a Guinness World Record for most pyro on a music tour. That should be some incentive for you west-coasters to fly out to a show and see us!

So our first show has come and gone, and it was a rough one. I played like garbage (not the band), and our monitors were… not even there. Because we are the first of the three bands to go on, we get the last sound check… if there’s time. Needless to say, we didn’t get to do a proper sound check, so they were really screwed up. Apparently that wasn’t needless to say, considering I said it. But yes, it was a bumpy set. I suppose it can only get better from here.

The other band that played tonight was Skillet, who I have crossed paths with several times with another band I used to play in. It’s kind of fun seeing them again.

So that’s it. Another blog. That is 2 in 2 days. Watch out.

Air Error

Most of my previous blogs have been about something, but this one is more of an update blog. First I must confess that I made an egregious error this morning: I wore a hooded sweatshirt for my flight. If you read the blog that preceded the previous, you will know what I’m talking about. Don’t worry though. I have my pillow, and once my airline coffee and cran-apple juice goes through me, I can see about relieving some pimple pressure.

As I sit in my airplane seat, I am left with a tough decision: watch a Miley Cyrus movie, or write a blog. The sentences to follow should be a good indicator as to which option I chose. As I sit on this plane for the next 4.5 hours, I am left to my thoughts and some music. Before the approved electronics could be turned on, many thoughts were whirling through my mind. Thoughts like: I haven’t had hot tea in a long time; my eyes feel dry; I wonder if my eyes feel dry because of the airplane air or because I only got about 3.5 hours of sleep last night; I’m going to miss my wife; my wife is amazing; my family is awesome; I wonder if I packed everything; yep, I packed everything; I’m tired; I wonder if people are reading this over my shoulder; etc…

The main thoughts though are about my family (but now I’m thinking about how the words “thoughts” and “though” look next to each other in a sentence). My family was a huge help and blessing to me over the weekend. I was only home for 3 days, but much was accomplished. A shed was built in my back yard making it possible to park both cars in the garage. That kind of thing becomes exciting when you get to be my age. All in nick-o-time too.

For those of you that actually follow my blog—and I use the term “follow” loosely—you are probably already aware that I am about to embark on the largest-scale tour that I’ve ever done; a tour that I had no idea I would be doing a month ago. I was out mowing the lawn at the end of June when I received a text message from one Daley Hake, and he had a proposition for me: to play guitar on a tour coming up in a few weeks. It seemed like a stretch, but everything fell into place and here I am on a plane, on my way to meet up with the band in Virginia. Pretty wild. I feel it is necessary to point something out here: swinging a hammer at a nail while gripping it with your fingers is not the best idea under the sun when you are leaving the next day to play guitar on tour. I managed to only strike my digits a few times and I came out virtually unscathed.

My intent with this blog for this season is to keep you guys updated on the tour happenings as best I can. I even borrowed Jordan’s flip camera to better document said tour. I realized that I did a horrible job documenting all my travels before, so hopefully I will do better this time around. Feel free to call or text me to let me know it’s been too long since the last update, but I think I’ll do okay since our bus will have wireless internet.

The hardest part about this tour will undoubtedly be the time spent away from Amber. Luckily she will come out on the road with us for about a week, but that isn’t enough time for two people that still love each other after all these years. J Feel free to have her over for dinner sometime while I’m gone. I know you all will take good care of her in my absence.

To close this blog down, I would like to give a list of thank yous for our little party yesterday. This part could be pretty boring, so I suggest you either stop reading now or you imagine that I just received an award of some kind and this is my acceptance speech.

Thank you to:

-Dad for all your hours helping me build the shed.

-Mom for helping a bit with the shed, but mostly mowing, edging, weed-eating, and weeding our yard. Also for the potato salad.

-Tim for helping hold the shed door in place while I drilled it in.

-Brad for doing the same as Tim, as well as being the photojournalist for the day.

-Allan for your hours put into the shed as well, and for staying after most everyone else left so you could move stuff from the garage to the shed.

-Dash for pounding a few nails and for carrying a few pieces of wood. Also for giving me a big hug and telling me you love me even with a mouth full of peanut butter cracker.

-Andy for bringing Dash, especially since he helped more than you. Just kidding. Thanks for manning the grill as well.

-Kaeden for head butting me with your football helmet.

-Tiffanie for the watermelon.

-Nick for your wife bringing watermelon.

-Grandma and Grandpa for the beans and anything else you brought.

-Sheri for bringing the drinks and the workers.

-Jordan for stopping by long enough to drink one of my Snapple Peach Iced Teas.

-Josh for giving me the latest on the Blazers.

-Becky for making time in your busy schedule to come to our barbeque/work party.

I think I got everybody. If not, I’m sure I’ll hear about it eventually. For those of you that weren’t there, it sounds like a party you wish you were at, doesn’t it?

Quick recommendation for those of you who like ambient music: get the soundtrack from The Book of Eli.