The Corner Piece

April 15, 2012

So.... other than the usual craziness with work and fitting in a whirlwind vacation, we've managed to sneak in some fun....gotta make time for this stuff!!!!

A few weeks back I decided last minute to go to The House of Blues for the annual Hannah's Buddies charity concert:

http://www.hannahsbuddies.org/

The concert is held every year by John Bell of Widespread Panic. This year The Warren Haynes band played as well. It was totally freakin' awesome!

Here's JB's set list:

Coconut, Blue Indian, Tickle The Truth, Gradle, Mercy, Tail Dragger, Chilly Water, Yeh Yeh, Me And The Devil Blues*, This Old Guitar*, Whiskey River* - * with Warren Haynes

Here's the Warren Haynes Band set list:

Tear me Down, Rivers Gonna Rise, Sick of My Shadow, Change is Gonna Come, Dreaming the Same Dream, Real Lonely Night, Invisible, You Don’t Know Nothing About Love, Soulshine (with Tupelo Honey rap),Man in Motion

Encore: Can’t Find My Way Home (w/ JB), Use Me (w/ Roosevelt Collier and JB)

Concert pics here:

http://playindead.org/blog/jb-and-friends-2012-featuring-warren-haynes-band/

 

Then the other night we went to see Van Halen at The Amway Center. Total bucket list show for me. Kool and the Gang opened, we skipped that.....Van Halen just totally rocked despite DLR not having the voice he used to. It was tough at times, but Eddie, Alex and the kid Wolfie, more than picked up the slack. And let's face it, voice or no, he's a total Rock Star!!!

Here's some local coverage:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/music/os-van-halen-at-amway-center-pictures-20120412,0,6325766.photogallery

Here's the set list:

Unchained, Runnin' With The Devil, She's the Woman, Full Bug, Tattoo, Everybody Wants Some, Somebody Get Me A Doctor, China Town, Hear About it Later, Pretty Woman, Drum Solo, You Really Got Me, Trouble with Never, Dance the Night Away, I'll Wait, Hot For Teacher, Women in Love, Girl Gone Bad, Beautiful Girls, Ice Cream Man, Panama, Guitar Solo/Eruption, Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, Jump

The way they open the show with Alex all of a sudden on stage just whaling away quickly followed by the rest of the band leading up to the opening riff of Unchained, capped of by a scrolled  image of the band on a HUGE background screen.......total goose flesh moment. They follow that with Runnin' With The Devil, just awesome.

Other highlights for me were Everybody Wants Some and I'll Wait, they totally killed it and oh yeah - Eddie's solo. He was spot on, smiling and just tremendous all night. That solo was one of the greatest concert moments EVER for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwDG85QCVPU&feature=related

 

 

 

 

 

Disney Fantasy March 2012

Hey There!

Here are a shot or two of our trip on the Disney Fantasy. Awesome ship, awesome time!

Below is a shot of us returning from the beach in St Martin. You get an idea of how big the ship is...

We've been to St Thomas a few time. We took a ferry to St John for a tour this time. It poured rain on the ferry ride back. A good full shot of the ship in port.

Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. We grab the same spot on the beach every time we go there. It didn't disappoint, the water was freezing!

Awesome week, went by way too fast.

March 11, 2012

Hey there.

So what's new.......?

Last week marked Wifey's birthday, 29 again! The day just zipped by so we'll take time later to celebrate properly.

Went to see Elton John last night. What a terrific show. He played for about three hours to a packed arena. There were only a few songs I didn't know but I was amazed at all the material I did know but forgot about. Wifey and I have made a pact to check out all these kinds of acts when they come around, Elton turns 65 this year. How many more opportunities to see a legend? That's why, no matter what, if The Stones tour again, we're there. They're not the only ones......

Here's the Elton review from the Sentinel:http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_music_blog/2012/03/concert-review-elton-john-at-amway-center.html

This coming Friday we head out on Disney's newest ship, The Fantasy. It'll be a 7 day preview cruise for folks that were somehow involved in the ships' overall production. No doubt I'll have pics and a review when we get back.

This coming break comes at a needed time. Both of us are just slammed at work with no let-up in sight. It ought to be an interesting week getting prepared to be away, oh well...

February 2012

A lot going on.

Let's start with the Super Bowl....I'm still not over it. Gisele was right, Tommy can't win the game by himself. Am I the only one who thinks they should have won about 7 Super Bowls by now? They won three, should have beat the Giants two more times if not for ridiculous bad luck on impossible catches by the opponent. Should have beat the Colts in the AFC Championship in 2006 and would have crushed the Bears in that Super Bowl.....How about the 15-1 regular season a couple of years ago? What about the year Brady lost to a knee injury? I guess that's why they play the game. And, oh yeah, the national media can kiss my ass. Bunch of Patriot hating, biased reporting, champion wannabes who couldn't carry Belichick's jock. Bitter, bitter.....when's Spring Training start?

So...the night before the big game, Wifey and I went and saw Jimmy Buffett in concert. What an awesome time! The place was packed with partying, dancing folks having a blast. You don't realize how many songs you know.... really tight band too. We're going to see Sir Elton soon and I scored Van Halen tickets for April, WooooHooooo!!!! Jimmy Buffett, Elton John, Van Halen....what is it like 1982 or something?!

Yesterday, we spent the day in St. Pete checking out the local Arts scene. We really like it down there. You can walk to a lot of stuff, good crowds, good energy.

We saw the Chihuly Collection which was just stunning. Saw a glass blowing demo, went to the Florida Craftsman's gallery and visited the Morean Arts Center. I really think the highlight had to be the Clay co-op that was a part of that network. A huge facility in an old train station just packed full of artists and their work.

Last week I finished a couple of small shop projects. Here are a few shots of the drawers for my tool cabinet. Pretty down and dirty but functional.

I still need to get knobs and figure out what'll go in them. I sure needed the hand tool practice these afforded!

Later...

 

Winter Shop Time

Here's a look at a couple of things I've got cooking.

The first is a bookcase for our living room. It' similar to other stacked bookcases I did a couple of years back. I actually had a couple of pieces of leftover cherry plywood, edgebanding, and hard maple from that project. This needed to fit large scrapbooks that didn't have a home; we'd long since ran out of shelf space for these.

The mitered corners of the plywood are strengthened by these maple splines. I applied an oil/varnish finish followed by wax. I think it's the absolute best way to go on cherry, below.

I made room between these two chairs. Not sure where the small table that was here will go....

The other thing I've been meaning to get to is finishing the lower area of my tool cabinet. I had cut a couple of grooves in the shelves in anticipation of adding some small drawers and just never got around to it - until now.

I cut some scrap pine to fit the grooves. The grain in the uprights runs the same way as all the wood in the cabinet to account for any wood movement, below.

A central divider was added between the uprights. I'll end up with space for two long narrow drawers in the center and deeper ones on either side, below.

A spot or two of glue on these pieces will hold them in there. I milled up some scrap pine and red oak for the drawer parts. I'll use it as an opportunity to practice some dovetailing.

 

 

 

Winter 2012 New Beginnings

I've been away from this for quite a while.

As time goes on, my focus has shifted much more on my career and has left little time for other pursuits.

One of my goals for 2012 is to find a better balance; to re-establish links with the things I really love to do.

Let's catch up a little....

Wifey and I took a Carribean cruise last fall aboard the Carnival Freedom. This was our first time together on this line. We were very impressed with the overall experience. Over a span of 8 days it took us to Antigua, Tortola, St. Thomas and Nassau. We had never been to Antigua and to Tortola only once. We ferried to Virgin Gorda and had a great time there swimming in the caves and soaking up the sun.

These tidal caves were a lot of fun...

We are scheduled for another cruise in March, stay tuned....

I have managed a little hobby time out in the shop over the past few months. I built some display cabinets out of some locally sawn Florida Sand Pine. It is a lot like Southern Yellow Pine with a lot more sap!The wood and overall feel of these cabinets blended well with their surroundings.

Above, the empty cabinets are more recent than the opposite side from earlier in the year. This is a front side view.

 

Above, this is a back side view. I think overall these fit in really well here.

One thing that this project incorporated was a full set of drawings I did with Google Sketchup. This is a free, 3D drawing program available online. There are great tutorials on how to use it, very intuitive. I think learning to design this way will have many benefits down the line. It certainly made the process easier once I got into the shop.

Several times I went to the computer and printed a new view of the cabinets with a new dimension that I discovered I needed during the build process. It made it so easy to pull up the view, add dimensions, and print a shop copy. This is something I'll add to how I do things at work as well.

The Holiday season came and went, ho-hum and Bah Humbug. No need to delve into all the reasons associated with my feelings on the subject, just read these archives for all you need to know. Wifey and I managed to be crazy busy during this time anyway which is just as well. I'd much rather celebrate what's important, together on a beach without all the other distractions and stress of the time. We'll have our time together soon....

So , that's all for now. Hopefully I'll try to update this more often, we'll see. I've got lots of ideas for this year that I plan on sharing. More adventures to come as well!!

Peace out.

 

 

 

 

Milestones

Last Saturday marked our 17th wedding anniversary. Where does the time go! It was also my brother's birthday; we were married on his 30th birthday.

We have a November cruise coming, can't wait!

I should be back in the shop in the next couple of weeks, weather is just starting to cool off (a little).....stay tuned!

Check this out - hilarious!!!

 

Labor Day Weekend 2011

Where did the summer go?

It occurs to me ,when I stop for a minute, that we spend way too much time looking forward to the next thing. The whole work to live not live to work thing.....anyway.......

I have a lot more responsibility with my job than in the past and it weighs on me. It's been a year in this role (already) and just when I think I've got it down I realize all that I still don't know. It's not a complaint, I really like what I do. I just never could have imagined the level of concentration and commitment it would take to do it. I'm beat..... 

I have a 3 day weekend. Yesterday was spent doing nothing but crashing on the couch and making some food with Wifey working a closing shift. We'll actually have two days off together this weekend so that's a plus. Our Sunday's (our only reg. day off together) over the summer have been great. We usually relax by the pool, today I'm not sure the weather will cooperate. 

We've started talking about time off for the upcoming year. It'll pretty much run the same way as before, a week off in March and a week off in November. We both get more time than in past years so we should have long weekends peppered in as well. I'll probably need a break around my birthday.

We're thinking of taking a Carnival cruise, something we haven't done. We've been reluctant to go on that line only because they appear at times to be a little low end. I guess that's not really true especially on longer itineraries. We'll see. They are heading to some places we haven't been so that's a plus - stay tuned.

Yard work and side projects have taken a long hiatus......a few months of upcoming cooler weather seem to somewhat coincide with a slower work schedule. We'll see what that brings.

 

 

Dominic Iandolo November 19,1954 - July 30,2011

Sad news that's taken me a little while to write about.... My brother in law died a few weeks ago due to a sudden rupture of an aortic aneurysm. He went to the hospital in the morning suffering stomach pain and never made it out. A shock for everyone in the family.

He was married to my oldest sister for 28 years. They had 3 beautiful children together; two grown daughters and a son who just turned 16. Really tough on them......

I probably hadn't turned 10 years old when he first entered our lives. I hardly remember a time when he wasn't around. It was like having another big brother for sure. I remember him taking me to see the Red Sox play at Fenway in 1986; an incredible year for Boston sports. We saw Phil Niekro pitch against Roger Clemens - I'll never forget it. We always talked sports. Didn't matter what the family occasion was we talked Sox, Celts, Bruins and Pats..... 

I spent that first week in August in NH going through all the stuff that you go through when something like this happens. My family has been through it all too often over the last couple of years. It never makes any sense so I stopped trying. You just got to live for today and spend time doing the best you can with those that mean the most to you.

Gonna miss ya Dom....