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!!

Short Post

Blogger Confusion or Another Sunday Comment

It is definitely difficult to navigate through the blogs.
I added a blog to Dad's Francisco site, I entered it under comments but i don't see that it appeared.
I am wondering if there are easier blog sites out there.

One thing you can do if you don't want to use your email addresses is go to hotmail or yahoo or somewhere else and create an email address there. You can then use that address for anything that you want as far as registration of something like a "blog" . All of the junk that you don't want will go to that address.
Just a thought. I have several but then I forget what they are after awhile so you would have to be more organized than myself.

The only way I can add a new blog is to go to www.blogspot.com, then it recognizes me and the blog that I created and then I can post a new blog such as this one.

I guess we could just continue emailing and then "reply to all" if you want everyone else to see your reply back.

That's it for now...
see you all soon

Andy