Another Day Another Age...

So another 12/25 went by and now I am 46, been here for 46 years, Mom and I were talking about how fast it goes by, and I said "no it goes by just at the right speed" I think we start forgetting more as we get older so those cherished times of our youth are forgotten and it's like waking up and "poof" it's gone. Well I am refusing to let that be true, everything has happened and gone by just at the right pace. After all, I lived this life already, I am just remembering it now...
Being born on Christmas means nothing really. Mom was great in that she would celebrate my Christmas birthday on Dec. 24th eve. that way I could open up birthday presents that night, and then wake up and open up Christmas presents on the 25th.
That was very good for me. It doesn't work that way now as I am older but La Resa is good at making sure I am recognized on my Birthday, she contacts the local press and it's usually front page of the "Oregonian" after all it is really big news!

Work is work, we have to clean up all of our messes, and get on with business. That is all i am going to say about that!

Thanks for the cards, and well wishes, the phone calls and the "text" messages. Thanks for taking a moment to make contact with me on the 25th of yet another December.

13 days of Christmas..

Was the 13th day of Christmas and My True Love Gave to Me.. another day at work and a Customer that won't let me be...
I think only my fellow Managers can know what I am going through right now, I think it's called apothy, or I don't give a sh__.
I am so tired of stacking appliances, walking through my store looking at at the super structures, walking through the stockroom looking for a Bissell Sweeper in the hopes that some wayward husband might think it's the perfect gift for the love of his life, unlocking the key to the valuable room/cage hoping that that walgreens 9 volt battery holds enough voltage to inspire some lonely housewife to "buy me" cause I am on sale 3/$1.00 and like it really would last long enough to power up the Radio Controlled Battery Operated Remote Control High Speed Blender that will mix all the Chaos of my holiday cheer into a Swhirling Bottomless box of emotional bliss that when I check out, finally, I find the key to life and an elixir worth mixing and sharing with a gathering of well conceived bossom buddies and a tabernacle of emotionally deficient high schoolers attending a pre-prom gathering hosted by not only all of the people who attended the first day of kindergarten with but also the last day of boy scouts and the first day of college. Now if you don't understand that then you haven't had enough coffee and haven't answered enough "customer service calls line one" or code 30 in the pharmacy, or IC3's, and you have absolutely no idea what I am talking about. Tomorrow is another day and I love my Job!!! Only 2 days left. Can I possibly show up and know what the heck I am talking about. We'll see, oh and by the way, enjoy your Christmas day, it's the only day off you will have in the month of December, but be there bright and early on the 26th it's an important day of doing absolutely nothing but cleaning up the mess of all the people that were there on the 25th who absolutely had no foresight to plan on buying everything that they might have needed for that all important 25th of December. Who's birthday is it really anyway.. oh yeah MINE!!!

All I want to do is dance...

Okay, I don't really have a reason to title this Blog "all I want to do is dance" but I seem to have that song in my head, it's an "Eagles" song I think or at least Don Henley sings it..
All of us Managers at work are going on day 7 out of 13 in a row before Christmas day, but the other way that we look at it is we only have 1 day off in 21 days. It used to be worse, it used to be that we had Thanksgiving day off then that was it till Christmas day, sooooo it is much better, but it still is tough, we are losing patience, are a bit testy, and may I say slightly "pissy".
I am working on the new CD but I am at a standstill right now because of work, I have been playing my guitar but I haven't had much energy to actually record.
On Tues. I drove down to perform at "Haven" coffee house but when I drove by, they didn't have anyone there playing and they didn't have the sound system set up, so I think they aren't doing open mic night for the winter season. I am going to call and see what's going on. I was really kind of looking forward to playing, oh well. I am thinking about the "Green Room" for Monday night but that takes a little more preparation, mentally, for me.

Oh the weather, well "Baby it's Cold Outside", it's been very chilly in the Pacific Northwest this week. Speaking of that song, if you haven't heard James Taylor and Natalie Cole singing "Ooohh Baby it's cold outside" you are missing a great rendition of that song. If you like I can send you an MP3 of it, just drop me an email ... I think that may be illegal sharing a song like that, oh well sue me!

My Life is settling down a bit, I have written a few good songs lately and am hoping to get 4 more new ones so I can release the new CD. "It's lovely when it Rains" so far I have 6 new ones. I am also due to send out a new podcast. I will try to do that before the end of the week, even though this is the biggest weeks of the year. Oh and did I say, I am ready to retire...

Nuffa Dat,

talk to you soon,

Andy

The Christmas Season...

Does anyone really know why we do this thing we call "The Holiday Season"? It seems so pointless.. I don't really want to rant about this and I know what I say isn't going to be all that creative or funny. I can also so that this is one of the calmer Christmas seasons that I have had, it is in a new work location, and I have a lot more space to work with where I am this year, which initially is tougher to set up, but once it's set up it's easier to maintain, less time stocking the shelves, you can set certain time periods earlier than most other locations so you can stay ahead of the game, also you have more space for your customers so there is less stress for them in their shopping experience, with all that said, I guess I don't have a lot to complain about other than the fact that people are so negative this time of year, they are struggling so hard to buy something that is going to make themselves happy, you know, that particular ornament that reminds them of their child hood, or a particular "Lamp" that they just have to have, "I have to have that" why?? One thing I can't figure out is why do the masses of people all decide to shop on a particular day at a particular time. People shop in clusters, if you watch all of the stores in a "District" or "Market" we are all busy exactly on the same day.. or we all are slow on a particular day. How is the state of consciousness of the human race all linked in that they would all shop exactly at the same day same time in all retail locations? It's amazing to observe this, and I think that most people aren't aware of this. It's most notable when people shop your pharmacy on the same day at the same peak time and they want their prescription at that same time, "right now!" Leaving no room for the understanding that there is someone in front of them which a much more serious need, nope! it's all about me!!! I can't change this I just wish more people could observe this and take a deep breath, calm down, it's not like you are in Iraq! It's 5 o'clock on a Monday in Downtown USA, relax, you have it better than anyone else in the world right now, yeah I am sorry we are out of the 39 cent scotch tape you are looking for, I know.. we did it to you on purpose, we knew you were coming so we purposely sold out before you got here because it was you, oh did you hear, 10 marines got killed today??? how many of the scotch tapes did you want? 3? okay, I am so sorry...

my email...

Sorry if you receive several copies of this email.

I am not going to be using the afrost59@comcast.net email address anymore,
I am only going to be using this, afrost59@gmail.com and my cold cut
recording email address andyfrost@coldcutrecordings.com

I am getting a huge amount of spam on comcast, and they aren't doing
anything about that so I am not going to use that account anymore.

Thanks,

Andy Frost

I'm Back...

Boy it's been a while since I have been here, hope you all didn't forget about me. I think I have forgotton about me also. I have not been myself lately, it's been a rough month. I haven't played out in public in a bit, and I am missing that, I am thinking that my nerves are going to be back in full swing when I finally get back out there.
I have been on a roller coaster of emotions for some reason, maybe it's because I am 45 and 46 is just days away. Nothing really happens when you turn 45, it seems quite harmless but then that year goes by fast and all of a sudden you say, "Is this it? is this all there is?" What you do with the answer to that question can go either way. I guess my resolution of that conflict isn't quite over, I wish it were, and I wish I didn't just go through that, think I would have been better off not going through that questioning, but I guess in the grand scheme of things, "everything happens for a reason" whatever!! Unfortunately those that you love have to suffer through this also, let's not forget about that one.
Sorry this is gloomy, wish I had something fun to talk about.
Well I can say this, for all the times that people have come to me with a heartache and I didn't understand and I didn't help you out, I appologize, my feelings are now wide open for you, I will be there for you next time for certain, and I will know exactly what you are going through and feeling.

Interesting week

I try to keep my work out of this, for 2 reasons, I am sure it's boring to everyone and also I don't want people to figure out where I am, you know people who don't really know me, not that I am paranoid or anything.
Let's see, what's new, mostly unfortunately it's all work related, the economy is tight so work is tightening up on expenses which means payroll, so we are cutting back and the stress level is very high.

On the music front, I took a week off and didn't appear (play) anywhere, but I am working on the latest CD, actually working on two CD's at the same time, a new one, which is currently called "It's Lovely when it Rains" and the other one is kind of a "Remakes and Remixes II", I haven't really figured out what I am going to call it, but I will keep you posted. I wrote a new song this week that I think is really haunting, even though haunting is probably not the most accurate description, I sent it to those who have high speed internet access, and I will probably put it on a "podcast" sometime this week.

I am glad you are reading my blogs, and I know this isn't as personal as a personal email, but for some reasaon it's more fun because I can put in some pics and select an interesting background etc.

I have a new friend, that I have been having some good email conversations with, it's acutally someone that I would probably call my new "biggest" fan, I won't mention their name here, to protect the privacy etc. Of course Mom is probably my biggest fan but that goes without saving. Some nice doors have been opened up for me since I have been playing in public lately, have met some really nice people.

Nuffa Dat',

Andy

GregoryLygon.com :: Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter, Teacher, Performing Artist, Recording Engineer, and Voice-Work Artist based in Culpeper, VA

I belong to a "Breedlove" guitar users group on Yahoo, and one of the posts I put on recently included a link to my blog. In response to this post I got the email, shown below, from Gregory Lygon. Very nice compliment concerning my Podcast 4 "She brings that to me"
I responded to this email, very casually and didn't think too much about it but then I went to Gregory's website and was floored when I listened to his music..
what a great compliment from a great musician! I will have to thank him a with a little more compasion.

Andy,

Concerning . . .

****************************************
Check out my latest blog!!

http://frostfamily.blogspot.com/

****************************************

Very pretty tune! I was listening to "Cold Cut Recordings PodCast 4 (Sep 19, 2005)" (She
Brings That To Me).

Can you tell us about the guitar and small-condenser mic you used?

Of soul, spirit and song,

Gregory Lygon
Ravenwood Music Services, LLC
http://www.gregorylygon.com

AAA/Contemporary Folk Singer Songwriter
Nominated "Best Instrumentalist" Contemporary Folk by WAMA, 2003

Played a lot this week!

This week in update, well it was pretty busy at work, we had a "big wig" in town so we all were scrambling to get it all "right", I am sure you know how that goes.

On the personal side, Tues night I went back to "Haven" coffee house and performed. There were a lot of great performers that night, it seems like when I first go to a place to check out the talent, there is a slow start to it, but then within a couple of weeks the place is just crawling with great musicians. I think everyone must be doing the same thing I am doing, out there searching for places to go, once they find it the word spreads and the place just grows and grows.

This week went much better than the first time. I am still having a bit of stage freight, can't quite loosen up to the full extent that I am at when I am playing at home... this is my ultimate goal.
By the time I got up to perform there were so many people there and the line behind me to perform was pretty long, so the host asked me to speed it up just a bit, so I chose to do only two songs. I did "She brings that to me" and "Solace from the Pain".

I don't think I was imagining things but as soon as I started to play the place got very quiet, I noticed everyone was listening, even the people in line to get coffee and the person who owns the place also. This was probably the best compliment that I could get. Finished the first song, got a big round of applause, then I did Solace, and the reaction to that song was tremendous. I think my mellow stuff is more appropriate for coffee houses, I think that is what people like to hear there.

There was a guy who played cello with another guitarist there who really wants to do a string arrangement for solace, so he gave me his email address.
There was a person who talked to me and when we were done he said to his buddy, "were meeting a lot of great musicians in Portland" nice compliment.
Then there was a lady who was sitting down where I was sitting who thanked me for my performance (always one of the nicest compliments to get) I made eye contact with her during "solace" I could sense her reactions to that song.

and finally when I was leaving the owner of the coffee house thanked me for coming down to play. She is very nice and went out of her way to call me over to her before I could sneak out the back. Didn't want to be rude by not staying to watch the final acts. I had to stop in at work for preparation to the "Visit"

The week was topped off by my performing at Kim's house for a select group of friends and their families.
That was an absolutely wonderful way to finish the week. I played for over an hour to a really great audience of friends, the response was great. I pretty much stayed mellow, mixing it up with a few "bluesy" type songs , just to break up the mellowness of it.

I made a mistake of telling the story behind the song "Sometimes" which made it very tough to play.. I almost lost it during the song.

anyway, the food and atmosphere was great, I liked doing that and it was great of Kim to host that event, again. I hope she realizes how much I really appreciate her doing that for me.
I would go into a lot more detail on what transpired at Kim's house but I already have written the longest blog that I have ever done at this point.
Let's just say, it was great to be so appreciated by people I really can call my friends.

One last thing, I can't tell you about the new guitar I got, I am already in hot water over that.

Andy

Another Open Mic Night

I went out and played this evening at another open mic night. It was much more difficult than playing at the green room. I think it was because of the small room and people right there in front of you. At the "Green Room" they have the lights shining in your eyes, you are up and away from the audience, it's a little less personal.
I don't think I did all that well this evening, I did okay but I wasn't loose and relax, and I made more mistakes. I seemed to be more focused on my distractions and my nerves rather than letting it flow smoothly etc.
I think it went over well, I believe that the people who were still there by the time I played enjoyed what I was doing.

There was a very good group of musicians playing tonight. It seems to be that way every time I decide to play.
The evening started out with this 10 year old girl who was absolutely impressive. She was playing a full sized guitar and playing bar chords. She played 3 songs that she wrote, she wasn't even nervous, here writing was great. She was about where I was when I was 20 years old.

The second person was extremely deep and very good, can't remember her name. I won't go on with all of the details.
I think I will go back next week for the practice of playing in front of people again, it was good, even though my hand was shaking, and I forgot the words to one of my songs that I have been singing for 20 years... geeshhh! I think it may have been humbling karma.. which I think I needed, I was getting a little cockey! and had no right to be.

See you soon,

Andy

Not much activity on the home front....

...and not many emails coming around. I am not sure about anywhere else but here in the Pacific Northwest, it was almost instantaneous the change of weather when it actually turned Autumn/Fall. We in the Portland area have gotten a heck of a lot of rain in the past 3 days. It seems so gloomy and it definitely affects people, but, I still kind of like it when it goes into rainy mode.
I am sitting in the nook looking out into the back yard and off into the distance, it's dark because of the clouds but the greens are shimmering from the dampness and some of the colors that are starting to turn to their harvest oranges and browns, are quite pronounced, the contrasts and blendings are quite nice to see.
Some of the differences in looking out in to the distance now are the amount of houses that have gone up around our location in the last year. The changes are staggering, anyone who has visited would be amazed. In one spot relatively close to us thy have literally "moved a mountain", and quite honestly it doesn't look safe.
They have changed the beautiful natural face of many of the areas around here.
We knew it would happen eventually and luckily we are in a neighborhood that is pretty much set. The houses behind our house and in our main view have been there for quite some time, I am supposing that nothing will change there until the people there know leave the earth and their houses to their children who will then sell them to some land developers.. and then hopefully by that time, we will be ready to move or do something.

Nuffa Dat!

see you all soon,

Andy

Well I did it!!

Well, I did it!

I went to the open Mic night at the "Green Room" Monday night and performed in public for the first time in years, and really long years because I really only played one song at a time at a major seminar.

I will try to recap the evening but keep it short...

Let me start out by saying every week that I have gone there have been mostly okay performers and a few that are a bit rough around the edges, so, the night I choose to give it a go, everyone was very good to great! I was so laughing about that... figures huh?

In the line up I was number 6. The first guy was Brandt something, he was awesome, had a great sound and wrote some great stuff, great voice, wow!
The second guy I can't remember his name, but he was weird but extremely talented, I think his name was DJ, that's all I have for a name . I don't know if he had original stuff or not, but if he was singing his own stuff, he was and extremely great song writer.
There was a guy/gal combo that did well.
The person before me was kind of esoteric, which doesn't always bode well in a "Bar" environment, soooooooo

When I got up there I was a bit nervous but it took a while to get set up, which is good for a distraction of my nerves. The first song I played was Michael Greenberg's "I'll Tell You Goodbye". I really stretched out the intro, to get my fingers time to loosen up. I then played "To Be with You Tonight", and then "The Other Guy".
I only played the 3 songs.

It's kind of a tough crowd because most of the people there are the other musicians and I think they feel like you are the competition, but the people who I considered real good, seem to be listening to me, in fact the first guy, Brandt, came up as he was leaving a gave me a "great job" comment, which I wish I had been able to give to him.

I was noticing that I had some people's attention, I think playing my "Bluesy" upbeat stuff paid off because it wasn't being played by others. 3 older guys, probably a few years older than me, occupied the seats in front of me and to my left, they seemed to really appreciate the music, they alone made my night worth while.

All and all I was really relaxed, I made a lot of eye contact, I didn't stare at my hands. It was good and I feel pretty good about it. I called Tina a couple of minutes before I was leaving to let her know I was going to play, I felt like I needed a little bit of moral support, she was very excited and didn't hesitate to come along. I really appreciated her coming. Tina is always a good supporter, I think it was great that she was available to come at a moments notice, I really appreciated her being there.
I think I would like to do the coffee house thing next, a little mellower.
But also, Stephanie and I are going to work up a set so that we can go to the Green Room and perform.

That's basically it!

Thanks for reading.

Talk to you all soon.

Saturday off

This is the first saturday I have had off in a long time, it seems, and therefore I have the weekend off. This blog won't be very interesting. I am sitting on the love seat right now and La Resa is in the chair talking about how bored she is right now. It's about 7pm and we don't have any plans for the evening. Today I slept in then got up and went to Selea's soccer game. Her team was badly beaten, which doesn't really matter since they don't keep score, however Selea scored a goal! It was quite exciting, she is so little but she really does a good job at soccer, unlike last year.

I got my guitar back from the dealer and it's all wired up to be plugged in. I ended up spending more money than I should have and bought a Fishman "Aura", if there are any guitar players reading this, I think it's highly worth it to get this if you are plugging in your acoustic guitar and wanting it to sound like an acoustic guitar, it gets rid of that terrible sound of the pickup under the saddle of your guitar. If you are interested, go to http://www.fishmanaura.com/
and check out the sound samples they have there.
Nuffa Dat!

Was supposed to have visitor's this weekend, the Miller's from Salt Lake City were supposed to be in town but their young one got sick. I had a big chunk of time set aside for them. Highly dissapointed they were unable to make it.

Okay, boring this time, will try to make it up to you next time

More stuff about stuff

Hi ya'll,
Okay so Stephanie and I went to the open Mic night at the Green Room, it went about the same as the previous week, a few different people about the same caliber.
The first girl leading off had a very nice voice but it was difficult hearing the words that she wrote, I could tell it was nice stuff, she was a new writer I believe, but if she keeps up with it she will turn out to be pretty good, can't remember her name.

There were a few people that seem to be regulars, that people knew and/or went to see.
I have to say that I had a really good time.
To make this a short blog, the last guy that played, and I don't have his name, was amazing. Going there for 2 weeks was worth the wait.
I could tell by the way he was holding his guitar, and plugging it in that he was going to be good.
I have a new theory, if you play the guitar and are right handed, if you tilt your head to the right when you are playing you most likely a "so so", if you tilt your head to the left or keep it straight up, you are more experienced. I tested this theory on Monday night with Steph's help and it was pretty much true.

Anyway, if the last guy has a website or anything I will post it here, because he was worth watching, he played a jazz chord style, had great writing and great lyrics and a great voice!! Wow!!!

That's it for now.

Talk to you all soon,

Andy

Podcast.net - The Podcast Directory

Podcast.net - The Podcast Directory

Trying to blog this link..
if you click on the above link it should take you to my podcast.

Thanks to Dad for all of the hard work.

Podcast.net - The Podcast Directory

Podcast.net - The Podcast Directory

This is where to go for my latest podcast...
hopefully this works for you.

Andy

The Green Room Pub

The Green Room Pub

this is where I am, confidence willing, going to try to play at an open Mike night
in case you want to check it out.

Okay, I just spent a good 20 mins with a new blog, and I hit preview, then the back button and it was gone!! talk about frustrating, I had some good stuff there, and it was my longest blog ever... who cares?? MEEEEEEE!!!!
I am so pissed!

Nuffa Dat!

I am totally going to type something that I didn't type, if you want to read the other it's on the ASTRAL plane it's called "The Blog that Got Away"
Goggle now has a blog search engine, it's pretty cool, if you go there and search "Andy Frost" it actually has my 2 blogs as the first hits. That's neat, there are many Andy Frost's out there but I guess they don't blog like I do.

Well today I wanted to tell everyone that I am pretty close to going out into public and playing my guitar, I obviously can't do it until I get my guitar back from the guitar store (read earlier blog if you want to know what happened)

I went to a local portland place called "The Green Room" last monday to check it out.
Tina and I went. We had a pretty good time. I went there mostly to see if it's the kind of place that my stuff would fit in. There was an eclectic mix of performers there. I actually enjoyed the evening, there was some good and some bad. I won't go into detail, suffice it to say. I think I am a bit above the average there, so my confidence was raised a bit. It's been a long time since I have done any public stuff, and I really remember not liking it too much, it's very unrewarding quite honestly. But now since I am not trying to gain anything out of it at all, even in my wildest dreams, I may actually have a good time doing it.

Stephanie and I are going to go check it out tomorrow night (the 19th of Sept) mostly for something to do, and also for me to gain maybe a little more confidence. I think when I do it finally I am not going to announce to anyone that I am doing it, I will go by myself and that way I won't have as many nerves twitching my belly..

This blog was a lot shorter than the previous lost blog..

see you all soon,

Andy

Spam Blam what a sham!!

Spam sucks, I am getting so much crap in my emails now. I think we should bring back the old days when horse thieves were hanged!! "Hang the spammer!! Hang em' high!!"
I now will never buy a rolex, take any online rx's , try to "enhance" my size, try to win over hundreds of babes!, or even try to make over $5,000 a month without leaving my home. If anyone ever falls for this shit, I think they should take away their driver's licenses and their right to vote. It's like when I am behind a car on a freeway exit/entrance and I see them handing a $ over to the person who is standing there for a handout!! It's like OH MY GOD, "don't feed the pigeons"!! Why would you want to see that same person everyday, over and over and over. If you give him bucks he will stay there forever. It's a scam, don't shave, don't shower, don't wash your clothes, we will pick you up at 3pm and you can go to this exit, I will go to this exit, we will form a beggars union and make hundreds of tax free dollars, and never have to work, and the very least someone will give us some food, let's never work again, better yet, you do the exit thing I will pick you up around 6:30pm and I will be home spamming, tomorrow you can spam and I will stand out there!!

I am more pissed about spam than I am about my car stereo being stolen, okay well maybe at least as much.
I was just spammed on this blog also.
It was then brought to my attention that I can prevent that so I made the necessary changes.
By the way y'all! you can leave comments on my blog site, no.. really you can, I want you to. I know it's not fascinatin' stuff but it is there for you to add on to, and don't feel like you have to just lettin' you know it's okay.

Sorry about the rant! but you know I had fun venting.

Andy

My Day, My Guitar, My Car

I wanted a pickup installed on my breedlove guitar so after the research I did, and after your email I decided not to install myself so yesterday
I went to my local breedlove store, and dropped off my sc20r, to get
a fishman installed, I was told I would get it back today so I was
expecting a call from them. They called me at noon.
"ahhhhh well I kind of ran into a problem..."
"yes what was it"
"well let me just say, that I am sending your guitar to Breedlove and
they will be able to get it fixed"
"Okay....what happened"
"let's just say I am not able to install the pickup but they will
take care of it and it will come back good as new"
"well, what happened"
"let's just say that I wasn't able to install it.........
and.......uh..........

I was acting very calm and I didn't even act like I wanted to kill the guy, I just asked him to be honest with me, and that I am a very calm person and I would understand, he still wouldn't really tell me much.
to shorten this up a bit, the whole reason I didn't do my
installation was because of having to drill out the end pin hole, and
I might not be able to do it right and I was worried... and let's
just say AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I trust this dealer and I trust that breedlove will repair my guitar.
I won't go into the whole conversation but I had to call back my
salesperson and speak directly to him to get the full scoop.

So my day ended by me walking out to my car to find it broken into
with my stereo being ripped off.
Interesting Karma day

Andy

At home..

Hi everyone,
I have been home for the last two days attached to the holiday weekend that gives me 5 days off. Not counting that I have to go in on Saturday and do payroll (for Work).
I have been doing quite a few podcasts and am hoping everyone is having the chance to check them out. I think they get better as I go. If you don't have an RSS feed then you can go to www.podcast.net, search Andy Frost, then you can click on coldcutrecordings and have a listen. If your version of quicktime isn't up to snuff it will have you upload the newest version and then you are set.
La Resa is in California attending her friend's wedding I am playing Mr. Mom, which isn't that tough now that Taylor and Donovan are older.
I am attending Kat's Graduation today, Friday the 2nd of Sept. I talked to Kat yesterday, this is a big day for her and she is really excited, she is graduating from the "College of Oriental Medicine" which was a very difficult curiculum, I believe her specialty is Accupuncture and Herbal Medicine. This would be great to have a person around who could take care of you when you're sick, but alas she and Drew are moving to Arizona, already have a house and everything. La Resa and I will have a great void in our lives not that they are leaving.

Andy

So Vegas...

So in Vegas, it was a pretty typical meeting. I had more fun this time but the way it started it was pretty difficult to feel good about things.
We landed Sunday evening around 8pm 1/2 hour late, we didn't get to our rooms till about 10pm. and since we had left at 5pm we were all very hungry. We arrived too late to pick up our agendas so we only heard a rumor that our first meeting was at 7:10 am. We got to bed around 12:15am couldn't sleep, of course, on the horrifically hard beds. Go up around 5:15am to get up and get our schedules, and sure enough we had to eat breakfast and get off to our meetings. I think after dinner and all we got out around 8pm. I won't go into all of the details about the meetings, some were very good and some were head bobbers, it depended on weather the presenters were reading off their sheets or if they knew it well enough to speak to us like they were talking to us.

I was trying to avoid big wigs because of my long hair/ pony tail, but everytime I turned a corner I would bump into someone way up in the company. I actually had to go up on stage one time and receive a customer service award. I received this on behalf of my new store and the previous store manager who did a fine job of taking care of the customers while she was there.

The rest of the story, let's just say (cliche) "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"

Going to Vegas...

Well I am off to Vegas. Walgreens Managers go to this meeting every 2 years. Although you would think of Vegas as fun, it is very taxing to go for a business trip. From the moment you wake up to the time you go to bed you are doing something business related. There is not a lot of time for getting out and having "fun". If you don't go to bed at your normal bed time, you are yawning and fighting sleep the whole next day, not a good thing. I am taking the camera so if I get any good shots I will post them or send them out. Mostly Walgreens events so I won't bore you with that. The pic above is where I stayed last year and where a lot of the managers are staying this year. I will be at "Baleys". My cell is on if you need me for anything.

Andy

New CD

Well it's here,
the new CD is done and probably on it's way to you sometime in August.
Dad did the update to the web page so if you go here: http://www.coldcutrecordings.com/music/cd.html
you will get a short description of each of the new songs.

Talk at y'all later,

Andy

Portland Saturday Market

This Saturday, the 23rd of July, we went down town to Portland's Saturday Market. If you have visited us and were here on a weekend we may have taken you down there. This week it was La Resa, Selea, and myself, and we actually had Donovan along with us. We are slowly building up the interest of all of the Kids. If Taylor ends up going I will probably pass out.
The saturday market is not a flea market, it's more of a craft market, with all sorts of cool things that you would probably never buy. We actually saw some neat little things that we may end up getting to redecorate the house, you know, things to hang on the walls.
It seems that as soon as I arrive there I get hungry, even if I just ate, the food smells really good but of course that is the smell of the deep fried really bad stuff. Typically I get a "Brat" or sausage of some sort. The kids of course get the elephant ears, very nutritious.. hmmm.
The best part of the day is the people watching, you will see everyone that you would not normally see on the planet there, as well as the people that you feel are like yourself, just down there to see the unusual. It is very engrossing, it kind of makes me forget to talk while I am there. I also like the live music, even if it's bad I like to hear it. They have a live band or performer playing at the food court, center stage. Actually some good bands play there. The locals that will never end up going anywhere but they just love what they do, and you can tell.
I was tempted to buy a couple of things but I held off. I found my favorite soap there http://www.oregonsoap.com/
this is a natural soap that I have been using lately, a little expensive but it works well for my body's rejection of some of the chemicals used in commercial products... oops going off on a rant... sorry, sounds like I have been in Oregon too long.
We spent about 3 hours + there then we went for a little walk down to waterfront park and then came home.
Later in the day we met Kat and Drew at "Widmer" Gasthaus, a restaruant, if you would like to see it click here http://www.widmer.com/_movies/gasthaus1.mov
had some pork schnitzel and garlic mashed potatos, that was great! Finished the night off at Kat and Drews..
was a great Saturday!
Thanks for reading this blog

Saturday on NW 23rd

La Resa and I are going on little jaunts every Saturday, not necessarily intentional at first but consistant as of late.
We have been picking little areas of Portland that we aren't all that familiar with and just walking around.
Yesterday we picked NW 23rd ave. The first time we ever visited Portland we went there, back then it was really more of a "'Hippy" type place, but it changed quite quickly over the years and has become more "trendy". It feels somewhat European but more New Yorkish, which is probably why I like it.
It is a street mostly of little shops of interest, a lot of what I wouldn't buy, for example, trendy shoes that probably cost $200.00 or more something that isn't seen at your typical Mall (which is good). There are also some cute little stores that sell cards and little novelties that I haven't seen since child hood, like those eyeglasses with the eyeballs that are on springs.. you know what I am talking about.. wouldn't have bought them back then and still wouldn't buy them but they are like running into an old friend... "hey haven't seen you in awhile, wow! great to see you, we'll have to do lunch.. I really mean it let's really do it.."
and then you never see them again.
We typically leave the kids at home but this week I piqued Selea interest and she went. She actually said, toward the end of our stay there.."wow, coming downtown is really fun" It was fun having her along, made us go into little toy stores and such that we don't typically go to. We ate a "Roses" Cafe, had a Hot Pastrami (La Resa) and I had an "Oyster" sandwhich.. hmmm.
We ended the day by buying some chopped liver at "Kornblatt's" a New York Style Delicatessen (haven't had chopped liver since I spent a weekend in Philly at a friend's Jewish Family's reunion) and picked up a dozen bagels at "Noah's" bagel shop. I have had 5 bagels in the last 18 hours and that's pretty much all I have eaten...
talk at you sooon,
Andy

for those of you who...

For those of you who didn't see this is my new recording equipment. I have scaled down quite a bit but I am getting a much better sound. Not counting the cost of the laptop because I would have that anyway, it wasn't all that expensive. Software of course is the most expensive.

Andy

New Addition to Family

We have had several new additions to the family, this is the one that I could get to sit still long enough to get a picture.
Okay, I really clipped this off the web site.
I am hoping that someone in the family will turn out to be musical. Taylor is the only one playing on it right now but we bought some books for Selea to work on, and actually La Resa is plugging through the book also.
Just a quick update.

Andy

Taylor is getting as big as me!

Also decided I would share some pics here!
Taylor is getting big, she is going to be getting her permit sometime this year!!! OMG!
am I ready for that, I just don't know...

Selling my Akai

I am sure that no one at home (family) will be wanting to buy this but I am posting it and sending my blog link to people who are interested in seeing it from the user groups that I belong to. I would be willing however to trade this 16 track digital hard disk recorder for say a "Scott Mcneill" original hand luthiered guitar...

Testing my emailing blog

sorry about this little blog I am just testing a new blog email
address that I set up to see if it works

andy

Another Weekend off...

I worked on Sat. last weekend even though it was a holiday, so I get this saturday off (and Sunday), so it worked out nicely.
Nothing planned, I am still in the recording process since my ambitious recording efforts last weekend didn't work out. I only got one song recorded as opposed to 3 songs.
My Ribs didn't come out perfect either because in the last 45mins. of the 8 hour experience I fell asleep at the wheel, actually on the lounger in the back yard and consequently over slept. Ribs a little too done but no one seemed to mind too much, they were still real good.
Job is going well, a lot to do, have a real good crew. I have more of a administrative position in that I have so many people working that I have to be looking for areas of improvement and keeping people productive.
I have been reading other people's blogs lately and have determined that my are extremely boring, so I will try in the future to lighten things up a bit a get more political or something.

Later

July 4th Weekend

It's the holiday weekend.
The weather in the Portland, Oregon area is very beautiful on this fine Sunday morning. I worked yesterday morning but left around 11:15am. I left to go down to the "Blues Fest" http://www.waterfrontbluesfest.com/ in case you want to check it out.
I spent about 6 hours down there, really enjoyed myself. I was supposed to have a partner with me but they flaked at the last minute. I took advantage of the time alone. I brought a towel and was very mobile. It's in very huge area so I mosied from place to place. I ended up in front of the smaller stage but they had some good artists there and it was very enjoyable. Of course I took a snooze at some point. It was very shoulder to shoulder so I was able to talk to some interesting people. Most of the people I could see were very into the music, I was too but not quite as expressive as they are. As a consequence to this I am sure I will be writing a few new blues tunes. On my new CD I have a few, even though they have been covered up with a bit of country licks and phrases, they are still based in the blues. You will be hearing that by the end of the month I would say.
I just have to rerecord 4 more songs. I am hoping to get at least 2 done today and maybe one tomorrow but that is pretty ambitious.
I will be smoking ribs all day tomorrow.

Oh Geesh! before I forget we have a new member of the family... a little Kitty originally named "Patches" but the kids are working on a new name, "Missy" seems to be the front runner right now.
That's it for now!

Talk to you all soon,

andy

Home for the rest of my vacation

Okay, so we came home what turned out to be a day early... we didn't know, but it was about time to get back. 12 hours after leaving we arrived home, turns out it was a good thing. I started getting some interesting dreams mostly hearing songs... if I could get my lazy butt out of bed I would have had 3 new songs.. only was able to remember 1 line for one of the songs, so one song came of it. Interestingly enough Sheryl Crow was singing the line to me over and over and that is the only one I could remember. What came of it was no where near what I heard in my dream but it still came out to be one of the best songs I have written so far. Oh, by the way the line was "we'll be touring till Christmas" so when you hear the song "The Only Road to Real" in my new CD you will know where that line came. I really like the song by the way. As a side note, I was able to record the whole song that day, I am just waiting for Stephanie to come over and fill in some of the harmonies...

More to come...

Andy

In California

Hi everyone,
we are in california for the week, well Thurs. through Tues. Big Barbecue at Angi's house today so that we can see everyone.
The drive to get here was 12 hours straight but we had a few stops here and there. Kids were great, we have chancey with us but had to kennell Dontay because of his huge size. Haven't done much here, took a day to recover from the drive..
That's about it, if I think to take some pics I will send them out..

Talk to you all soon,

Andy

Sunday the 12th of June

Updating this so it will go to my Web page:
New store is going just fine, I have had a difficult time coming up with enough work to keep everyone busy, that way at first, but then I have found it's difficult because the more people that you have the more people call in sick. The store is huge, and I have so much promtional space I dont' know what to do with it all... but I am sure that I will figure it out.

I have some new recording equipment so the next CD that I am working on is going to be of much better quality. Everything I do now is being recorded on my laptop, and the sound quality is so much better, hopefully you will hear the difference. I am pretty pleased.

Okay, enough for now..

yap at y'all later.

Andy

Sunday is a lazy Day!

I am so spuratic on these blogs, and in place of them I have been emailing the family, but to keep up the page I am adding this blog...

What's new?

Selea turned 6 years old on the 10th. We had a big party of 6 girls or so, I lost count. The party lasted 2 hours. Next year it's going to be 1 and 1/2 hours max! She had a good time, but we forgot to tell everyone not to buy "Barbie" merchandise, Selea for some reason absolutely hates Barbie.
When she got a barbie she gritted her teeth sqwunched up her face and said "TTTTHHHHAAAANNNNKKKK YYYYOOOUUU",
she was trying so hard not to show her disdain.

I was on vacation the week before last, came back this week, back to the battle ground, it's so hard going back to it. It really only takes a day to readjust but that day is always very painful.
I had to fire one of my cashiers of 4 years for stealing, we finally caught her on video tape. She admitted to stealing $3,200 in cash and some cigarettes. They only end up normally admitting to about 1/4 of what they steal so you can do the math on that one. The cops came and took her to jail, it's a felony theft case.
I still felt bad for her because her life was screwed up enough to begin with, she just made it much worse.

There are rumors at work that I am being moved, I don't know where to but I think it's a step up for me.

My thumb is doing better, it's still healing. My guess is that it won't need surgery, it seems to be getting some resistance back, it still hurts when I don't wear the splint and I hit it on something... that makes me put the splint back on rather quickly.

okay, that's it for now...

talk at you later.

Haven't blogged in awhile

Well it's been awhile since I have added anything, not much going on except for working the holidays in retail, not much time off, even after holidays because there is always the time required to put it all back together.

Dad and I had a nice video conference on Sunday January 23rd. Would be nice to be able to video conference with others but that will come with time I am sure..

Dad's Birthday coming this week!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

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