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December 31, 2007
New Years Eve
Ring out the old, ring in the new, 2008 is tomorrow, well, actually less than 12 hours from now. This year was lots of work, didn't get out to surf at all. Made one or two rock hound trips, but mostly worked on websites and advertising and copying. Got a new computer since the old one died, a few friends also died this year as did my uncle. I only have my dad and aunt left on one side of the family, the one I mostly spent time with. Hopefully, next year I get to spend a little time with them and old friends, people I haven't seen in 4 years since my mom died.
Hopefully 2008 will be better than 2007 all around.

December 24, 2007
Christmas Eve
Merry Christmas everyone! It's actually sunny in Seattle today, I was out having a beer and chatting with the locals today, did some christmas shopping, and getting some more beer and videos for tonight and tomorrow since there is nothing but christmas shows on TV.
Today was the first time I saw an obituary about Manuel, and it had Mani as his nickname in it, I was smiling about that, cause we use to call him that back in the day, and he kept insisting his name was Manuel, funny how things change over the years. Still thinking about Mani and what was left behind, his 4 month year old son and his wife, especially during the holidays that this happened. Makes me want to stay closer to all my friends more, since you never know when time here is up.

December 20, 2007
And So It Goes
Today at 3:30 they're having a memorial remembrance ceremony where Manuel worked. He actually quit his job for another one the day before he was killed. I thought about attending but I really don't know anyone where he worked, and Judy is out at a client's so I have no way of getting there.
I do find it amazing that the only reason I knew about Manuel was because the anchorperson said his name (once) ..nothing else has been reported anywhere. But what if you knew the person, and wanted to say goodbye, you really don't have a chance, if I wasn't watching, I guess I would've never known, since I rarely keep in touch with "everyone" I know.
I did have to work on Tuesday, when I found out about Manuel actually being the person involved in the accident, and I guess I wasn't paying too much attention at work, when I went out to put some recycled boxes in the bin, a gust of wind came through and I tried to save the boxes from flying away by letting go of the bin lid, and it came crashing down on my hand, so I had to stop work and go home and ice it. It seems to be a little better today, not bruised as I thought but pretty skinned up and sore, but I'm still going to work tonight....I'm such a trooper.

December 18, 2007
Sorrow Strikes
I heard about a jogger getting killed this weekend from a fluke accident but I had no idea that I would know him. Manuel, a former co-worker died, I heard his name on the newscast last night and was shocked to hear it. I tried to find more information after returning from work last night, but nothing was on the news sites or anywhere else. I did google Manuel's name and came up with a profile of his current work place and called the number, just by chance the name in the news was some other Manuel, but it turns out it wasn't. It was indeed Manuel that I knew and just saw in my neighborhood a couple of months ago. We chatted, got caught up on each others lives, and sorry to say that was the last time I'd see him...he was 36, you don't think of people that age dying, and so suddenly, but it does happen, it has happened in the past when I was younger, but when you get older you don't think that way anymore...but I guess I do, anyway, now I'm just babbling and dealing with it.

December 9, 2007
Robbed Again!
Well, let's see, Thanksgiving we were having an okay time, until Judy got a call from her credit card fraud people about some strange purchase she made which was out of the ordinary. We discovered that she either lost or had her wallet stolen, any case, who ever found it stole it, and used her card and stole her cash. We got the cops involved, still haven't heard much about it, but a week later she received her wallet in the mail with most of her cards and drivers license minus the card used at the 7-11 and money. Working on Christmas Ads for the Wallingford Center and 4 Your Eyes Only. Gearing up for the mass 2008 Website Updates, all have to be updated with at least the new year in the copyright, but working on updating my sites and 4 Your Eyes Only, so lots of work ahead.

November 9, 2007
Rest Period
Finally have some time to write some news, been busy with work the last week or so, but finished up most of it and now on to straightening up loose ends and start back into research and development.

October 31, 2007
Results of Colonoscopy
Just received in the mail my results from the polyp that was removed during my Colonoscopy last Wednesday, and the results are good, nothing cancerous found and I don't have to have another one until 5 years from now. That was a pretty nasty 2 days last week, but I'm glad it's over.

October 24, 2007
The Colonoscopy
8AM: Didn't sleep at all, well maybe a little bit, up all night and getting ready to go to the hospital in a half hour.
9AM: Arrived on time at the hospital, even though we had to park a block and a half away, it was pouring down raining, and I didn't bring a coat or an umbrella.
Signed in at the desk, waiting a few minutes, the prep-nurse came and took me into the prep-room, Judy wasn't allowed to wait with me, due to privcy issues. The room was curtained between chairs, which wasn't prepared yet, prepared meant a warm blanket to sit on and my little gown. Ran thru the instructions and signed off on the what if this happens document and waited for the "happy nurse" to visit me. Set me up with an IV and continued to wait.
Then it was time to go to the "procedure room" wearing nothing but the open back gown and my shoes and socks, with my clothes in a bag I walked to the room. The doctor came out said Hi, just as I was going into the cold room. I laid on the bed and they hooked up a pulse indicator to my middle finger, wired the electrodes to monitor my heart and strapped the blood pressure around my arm. Covered me up in warm blankets and asked me questions about this and that as they injected me with a couple of drugs for pain and stress. (Fentanyl and Midazolam). During the procedure, I think they may have up the dosage cause I could feel a lot going on, probably the part where they were extracting the 3mm flat polyp they found.
Woke up in the recovery room, on my side and thought about getting up, but went back to sleep, then a little later got up to try and relieve the gas buildup but that didn't work. Judy came in the doctor came in and gave me a four shot picture of the procedure and said I could go home, they'll contact me about the biopsy in a week.
Walked to the car really slow because of the pain from the gas and went home and watched TV, by midnight I guess the drugs finally wore off completely I had a major migraine headache to end such a pleasant day.

October 23, 2007
DDay for the start of the Colonoscopy
11 AM: Hey, so today I drink a gallon of colyte, and I've already mixed it and put it in the refridgerator to chill. 4pm is the start time, and it's almost noon..not much time left. Drinking or sipping some vegetable broth for brunch, and sipping on apple juice. I'm starving, even though, yesterday I ate meat and cheese all day, up until midnight, thought that would hold me over for the next 48 hours, but who am I kidding. I admit I'm a bit scared about it all. I did this 7 years ago, but 7 years ago was a long time and I don't remember much of it, and this time it's a different doctor, hospital, preparations and instructions, so basically starting over again. Well, the weather is nice, sunny and warm, clear blue skies, hopefully, I can enjoy at least some of it.
4 PM: So I drank my first 8oz glass of the chilled "stuff", sorta salty, but not snotty, or metallic, just salty...but I still have to drink 8oz every 10 minutes until the whole gallon is finished. We'll see if I can continue with this blog, but I doubt it, coz I'm already feeling something churning inside me.
6 PM: This isn't fun, the bloating, the filling of the salty drink, that never stops, you gotta keep drinking even though, you've had enough, and the clock keeps ticking, drink every 10 minutes. Man, it's hard to drink that stuff, and the clock is still ticking until it's time for another glass.
11 PM: 7 to 8 PM was the worst, I felt depleted of liquid, even though I was drinking every 10 minutes, it was also leaving me the same time. Still on occasion it continues to deplete, but not as much...now to take 2 bisacodyl at bedtime, we'll see how much I'll sleep. I have the alarm set at 5:45 AM for my last drink of water until after the procedure.

October 22, 2007
Not a Happy Camper!
I'm on my last day of solid foods, without grains, fruits, and veggies. Nothing but soups, canned vegs and fruits, meats, etc.
Tomorrow I start a clear liquid diet, of broth, tea, coffee, without milk, and juices. I then drink a gallon of colyte, (look it up), see not a happy camper, I don't even provide you with a link.
I start that around 4pm, and continue through the evening staying around the bathroom, how fun is that! The next day, Wednesday I go to the hospital for the "procedure" a colonoscopy, I'm suppose to get one every 5 years, but uh oh, this is 7, hopefully, I didn't grow any polyps or anything else that I might die from.

Hopefully, this will all be a thing of the past and I won't have to think about this for another 5 years.

Next month I have to have another test for glaucoma, and then on to fixing old filings by the dentist, isn't getting old fun?!

In older news not in the archives, My uncle died last month, I didn't find out except through the internet, and that was 2 days too late to get a plane home, but that's just the way we do things in my family... (see, not a happy camper)

In other older news, we did visit Vegas for a convention at the beginning of Oct. That was fun, a lot of work but we saw David Hasselhoff, Vanessa Hudgens, Anthony Anderson at the convention, they were signing autographs and having photos taken with conventioneers, thanks to Revolution Eyewear who brought them there. ( I just watched from the outer edges.)

The following week, we went to dinner and a show at Jazz Alley, featuring Kyle Eastwood, Clint's jazz bass playing son, I did meet and get a CD signed, of course again with famous people I had nothing really to say to them, so I muddled through the whole "hi, how ya doing" episode.

October 3, 2007, 12 PM
Vegas Baby!
That's right, we're going to Vegas for 3 days for an eyewear convention. The weather of course isn't going to be great, but it's not great in the NW either, so I guess we're stuck inside for the convention, oh well. Finished up a bunch of Ads and posters for the Wallingford Center and 4 Your Eyes Only, now I have to get back to updating my own websites. I still have to finish my "secret" website and doing a lot of research into finding the coolest layouts and seeing what's happening on the web for inspiration.

September 18, 2007, 5 PM
Next Step
Chutneys Bistro website is done. Bad Woman Yarn website is done. Got a new computer, it has it's moments, but getting use to all the new stuff. Going to start thinking about learning Lightwave with Dan my neighbor, who's an animator and webdesigner, remind you of anyone?! Got back from Labor Day vacation to Santa Barbara, had a great time as always. Looking forward to Vegas in a couple of weeks for the eyewear convention, then on to other things on my personal agenda, and on to the next step.

August 21, 2007, 2 PM
Whatever!
Well, things are what they are, and they are going to be whatever they will be, no matter how much I want something else, I just wish all this high tech stuff just worked like it's suppose to. Oh well, next week I'm in SoCal, so who cares!

August 18, 2007, 5 PM
New Upgrade
This week my computer finally died for good, by chance my new computer was finished being built, but I was 8 hours shy of receiving it to upload my files, so I lost a lot of stuff. I had to load all my programs, what I can find the disks for and redo all my perferences, which I'm still doing, but I have a new widescreen monitor, a beefy harddrive and processor and a wireless DSL connection, so everything is new. Meaning, there are still bugs to be worked out and changes in the future that I'm not aware of yet, so it's going to be fun!

August 10, 2007, 5 PM
I've Rebooted Myself!
Okay, working for a month is really stupid, and no fun, I finally had enuff and I'm taking a day off, and really liking it, the sun is out, and I'm just drinking some beer and chilling, now, this is summertime! Going to have my new computer sometime next week, and I've got two more CD's of Black Metal, Old Man's Child, and Ancient, which is probably my fav so far.

August 2, 2007, 4 PM
Been Working for a Month!
Donnneon Multimedia was going strong, Innercore Datatek finally has the first draft of Chutneys in the owners hands and he's going over the tweeking. Copying for Legal Copy at night and still doing it.. I did ride my bike a couple of times. Blue Angels are in town this weekend. Going to a party on Saturday, free food and beer, Seattle Sound new Editor party. (4 Your Eyes buys Ads in the mag, some show of appreciation from the zine I guess). About to upgrade my computer to a "workstation" already have the wide screen monitor, now just put all the components together with the builder and I'll be DSLing just like Judy, except, faster, bigger, brighter, newer!

July 11, 2007, 11 PM
I Am!
I just got my passport after waiting since April 3rd, it arrive today, I now can go to England, Norway, Germany, Spain, Italy, Mexico, and beyond..yea me!
Sunny and Hot this week, but actually it was pleasant, enjoyed sitting in the shade and enjoying the heat, made me feel like I was in California.
Just about to start designing Chutney's Bistro website. I did go to the surf shop yesterday and had a good time, hopefully next month I'll be hitting the waves.
We got hooked up to DSL, dude...what more can I say...

July 6, 2007, 4 PM
Summer's Back!
Hot and Sunny, but I can't really be out in it like I use to be. The doctor says I have to put on sunblock 30 and stay out of the midday sun. That really bums me out, coz I love the sun! Well, I guess if I want to keep my nose intact I should do as the doctors says. I did have a couple moles frozen off my forearms at the doctors office, so I am a fair-skinned dude after all...go figure!
Dr. Who is on again tonight - another season. Next week Sci-Fi starts up again with Eureka and USA has Monk and Psych back on, so, TV is back! I don't know if surfing is one the agenda this year, I hope to get out at least once, I hope. They've had me back to copying again the last couple of weeks, always in the summer, these doctor things and work things keep me from driving 5 hours to the ocean on the weekend and trying my hand at surfing again..funny how these things pop up in the summer time.
I have a couple of Ads to be published and still waiting for the new website of Chutney's to get off the ground. I have a new "secret" website of my own I'm working on; it's a really fun project, this one is totally freeform and all by itself out on the outer fringes of the internet. Most of my websites are on the grid of C, if you're looking at the web from A to Z. This one is located near W, it's like way out there, man... ASLOC22.
Speaking of the internet, rumor has it, we're actually going to go on DSL today, won't that be something...if it works...I may be on-line or I may not, only time will tell.

June 18, 2007, 1 PM
Summer Was Here!
Summer was here for a week, then came the same old clouds and cool weather. Fremont did have its annual naked bike parade and fair this weekend, even in the clouds and cold. Working on website updates for 4 Your Eyes Only and the Wallingford Center. Just about ready to start on Chutney's Bistro website, probably next week going to start that. I'm still listening to my black metal CDs, I have 2 now, Cradle of Filth, which I love and Dimmu Borgir, which is interesting, but not as interesting as Cradle. Getting ready to start the surf season, slowly getting into it, going to go out on the lake and paddle around sometime with Todd and then probably back to the ocean for one more try.

June 1, 2007, 11 AM
Summertime in the City!
Sunny and hot lately, getting out on the bicycle and cruising Burke-Gillman trail everyday this week. I hear Bo is getting better, hope all goes well for him. Playing my guitar a lot, love it...I sent off for an out of print CD which was stolen last year, it's in the mail, we'll see how that plays, it's used and hopefully it won't skip.
Finished up on graphics and Ads, now trying to get together with my friend Dan and learn Lightwave, a 3D program, it's about time I dive into that. Haven't been surfing, haven't even been to the surf shop, and I haven't really been doing much of anything lately. No plans for a vacation, I just got back from one, why would I need another. That's not true, always could use a vacation. Still waiting on my passport. I'm waiting on some new CDs which I'm now getting into Black Metal, along with my Death Metal, broadening the old horizons. Speaking of horizons, my upstairs neighbor Frank just turned me on to his home brew and a copy of his band's CD, Hell Promise, Aim for Hell, dude is an awesome drummer!

May 17, 2007, 11 AM
Bo Diddley Had a Stroke!
Today I got up and saw on the internet news that my friend Bo had a stroke in Iowa, and well, I never thought that it would happen this fast, he's only 78. Hope he's doing okay, he's a really nice guy and hopefully will entertain again. My former bandmate Jon recently wrote about the week we spent with Bo on his ranch in Florida back in '81. He had his version of what happened, and I have mine, and I'm sure Eddy has his version, someday I'm gonna write it down for all to read. Jon's is pretty good, it's on his MySpace page. The story goes that back in the day, Bo was looking for a back up band, and since his son was a member of our band, To (short for Tony) said we could go down to Florida and audition for the South American/Australian tour coming up, at least that's what I heard. That sounded good to us, so we hopped into To's Torino and headed to northern Florida to Bo's ranch. We got there after driving all night from the DC area and Bo wasn't home, so Eddy and I walked to the store down the road for our daily supply of 2 cases of malt liquor, when we got back, Bo was there, Eddy and I looked at each other and asked ourselves, 'is that him?', Bo was dressed in black jeans and t-shirt with a cap on his head, not the Bo Diddley we knew from the magazines and TV.
Anyway, Bo made us a great dinner of pit oven peppered fish and we had a great time, except for when Bo's youngest son, who tagged along with us tried to shoot me and drown me all in the same day, but I made it through that, and basically we had a good time. Finally after a few days, Bo had some time to jam with us, so that's my story, jamming with the "Father of Rock 'n Roll", he didn't need a backup band, since he gets the locals in the town to back him up. But it was great to meet the guy who met, Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones and others, guess he met us too, The Names.

Speaking of guitar legends, last weekend I finally got my Jackson V RR3, made in Japan, under 300 bucks and black and with a Floyd Rose Licensed whammy bar. I've been after this guitar for 5 years. It still has a few days left, if I decide to return it, but I'm playing more than usual since the time crunch, but it's so pretty, I'll probably keep it, it wasn't that much, and it makes a nice sister to my BC Rich Warlok. The sustain is amazing and it's a little complicated with the Floyd Rose with cutting the string and tightening it between a block and using allen wrenches and fine tuning, but I can't stay so timid about new things. The neck and head doesn't really fall to the floor, like I thought it would or have read. The adjusting the strap finally helped out with my middle back pain I got the first hour I played it. Keeping it in tune with using the whammy bar in a dive bomb method gets a little painful, but once the strings get older that should help.
But the look is what I wanted I love the top fin is longer than the bottom and the headstock is curved downward and the sharkfin fretboard is just so cool. Black and chrome, just like my Warlok. It's actually a bit easier to play since it's shorter than the BC Rich, I'm now a card carrying metalhead I have the guitars, and speaking of which I can make the dive bomb sound finally and the Eddy Van Halen leads are much more crisper then any other guitar I've had, like my Fender Squire Strat, now a guitar of my past.



May 8, 2007, 1 PM
Home Sweet Home!
Made it back to the Northwest into sunshine and warm temps, just like Arizona, except we don't have a pool to play in. The birthday vacation went nice and easy, just staying at the pool most of the day and having a few beers and watching the telly in the evening. We did go out to dinner one night at Tia Rosa, a really nice mexican restaurant, almost as good as Beso del Sol use to be. Put on a lot of sunscreen and never got burnt, even though the temps were in the 80's. The wind kicked up a bit in the middle of the week, but subsided by the day we left, of course. But we still managed to hang at the pool and lay in the sun even though the winds were 30mph one day.
Back to the grind once we landed, Seattle has taken on some of the bad habits of the east coast, a lot of rudeness in the airport, seems to have spread across America and now self-centered people are "all the rage".
Updating the Wallingford Center's events page and finally getting around to updating my newspage. I may have another website to either redo or completely revamp in my own image or a combination of my image and the owners image. So, just about to research out some ideas and start getting into the mode of calling on my Muse once again.

April 24, 2007, 11 AM
Getting Close!
Well it's almost time for another vacation, except this one is a birthday getaway, something special for Judy's birthday this year. We were thinking of Laguna Beach, and other fancy resorts, but that was way out of our league, so we're heading back to Mesa. We thought the 300 to 500 room resorts would be really loud and overwhelming and especially in SoCal, where everyday is just one loud party, so we went for quiet and homey. Back to Mesa, with our friends which hopefully will be hot and sunny, friendly and quiet.
Heard from an old friend this week, a fellow artist, Bob, who does great work, nice to hear from him. Still waiting for my passport, can't wait for that, heading to London sometime to visit another artist friend. Judy wants to go to Cabo, so we can do that too.
Working on advertising and still tweeking the Wallingford site. Spring is in Seattle, less rain, more sunburnt noses, especially mine. Haven't been to the surf shop much, too busy with graphics and webpages, but maybe today.

April 3, 2007, 6 PM
Vacation Time Again!
I finished the Wallingford Center website, it's up and running, take a look - Wallingford Center. Now looking forward to a vacation in May, SoCal with a pool and resort amenities, 4 star hopefully. I still have a few other things to finish up though, but we should be hitting the beach in a month. There are posters, WebAds, postcards and other things to do, like get a new passport. I have to get back to Research and Development in web designing, I've been too busy to keep up with new visual and code concepts, so back to the book for that. Spring has sprung, although, we're still cold at night, but the sun was out today and it was actually sorta warm. The season premiere of The Shield is on tonight, best show on TV. I just realized, today is the 25th Anniversary of one of my college friends murder, and I gotta tell ya, it still hurts thinking about it.

March 18, 2007, 6 PM
Work Work Work
Hey all you cats out there in cyberspace, it's been awhile since my last entry. Work, work, work, making Ads for the eyewear store, and now making another attempt at producing another website.
Still in the theme phase of designing, I think this one will be a complete committee deal, so hopefully, it won't be too long before it's up and functioning.
Spent St. Patty's day with Todd at the surf shop then out on the town for burgers and beer, and in search of the competitors new surf shop (supposely in the 'hood, ain't that a kick in the pants), but all in all, fun was had on St. Patty's day, I even walked in the rain, without a raincoat or umbrella...after 24 years I'm getting use to the rain in Seattle.
Todd's wife is coming back from Russia tonight with her mother in tow forever. That should be nice to have most of the family living in the States. No more flying back and forth to Russia every year.
Thinking about going to Arizona soon, the sun is out and it's really warm, (in AZ) so just have to make the time, find the money and make the plans.

February 24, 2007, 12 PM
Busy as a Bee
Just finished up reworking the Rock Club's web site. We had our annual show last weekend. Spent the whole weekend there setting up the show and tearing it down, plus shot lots of video to condense into a photo gallery.
The gallery is up as of yesterday, uploaded over 200 pix only to use under 50 for the page. Gallery , Click that for a quick link to the gallery, if you wish.
Now on to the next thing, redoing 4 Your Eyes Only web site. Last week, I spent a lot of time reworking Anything Fiberglass's new projects page, had to get the photos to look good, had a rough time getting a sharper image from a 30KB photo, but got it to work a little better than what it started out with.
I did get over to the surf shop last week, Nadia, is heading to Russia today to bring back her mother to live in the States, so now the main family is going to be here, that'll be nice. Todd will have to man the shop alone for a couple of weeks, but heck, he spent 12 days in San Diego last month surfing, did he ask me to tag along, no! oh well, I'll get there someday.
Lots of stuff to do this week, more like lots of partying to do, lots of birthdays coming up, including my own and lots of TV shows ending their run either for good or for the season.

January 18, 2007, 4 PM
Riff-Raff have Left the Building!
Today, finally after a year of WTF, they finally hit the bricks and scattered, although, they did forget a couple of things, but at least tweeker and family are no longer throwing themselves and other things off the balcony. Now maybe, except for the new rottweiler upstairs, they'll be peace and quiet. Well, at least a little bit more peace and quiet, running dogs still make a ruckus, but at least I won't fear someone stealing from me, well, at least someone I know; at least I hope they left, there's still a satdish on the rail.