Waterproof-ish

  • by Drew

It’s not quite Spring in the North East. April Fool’s has come and gone, but it was well below freezing this morning, so I’m in no rush to bust out the sun tan lotion and Tiki torches. Still, I was eyeing the back deck, and thinking about the championship job our little outdoor table has done. even though I don’t have round fitted table covers and I just let that poor thing gets piled on with feet of snow all winter long, it’s still standing there like a champ. There’s paint from numerous arts and crafts projects, two colors of splashed deck stain and one splash of house paint. There’s rust on the umbrella stand underneath because I never got around to drilling that drainage hole 6 years ago.

Good table. Very good table. I promise, you’ll be out of your misery soon.

Burning for it

  • by Drew

I’m playing in a couple weeks at the Whale Watch Fundraiser. It’s one of my first booked gigs now that I’m actively getting back out there and playing live. It’s a bit of a change from dingy late night clubs, but acoustic music in libraries and auditoriums and such… that’s cool too.

The thing is, I feel like I need some ambiance. I mean, I’m not going to go blacklights and pyrotechnics, but maybe a rose candle and a small ficus on wheels. Something tasteful.

Umbrellas

  • by Drew

Here’s the thing with free shipping on patio umbrellas… it makes you want one even if you don’t need one. It’s the psychology. Patio umbrellas are big. Really big. So shipping would naturally have to be rather expensive. So when the shipping is free, of COURSE you want to take advantage, right?

But is it really that simple? You have to ask yourself who benefits when shipping is free? Did they just jack up the price of the umbrella to effectively roll in the shipping and trick you into thinking it was free?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Recalling the Fire

  • by Drew

That’s a lyric. Totally irrelevant to this post except for the recalling part. As I rant about the large numbers of stay at home Mom cum Marketing Geniuses out there, I recall a couple years ago. At that point, it seemed that half of the underemployed Moms I knew bought $1000 digital cameras and were suddenly Professional Photographers. I’m not saying they couldn’t take a nice picture, and I’m not saying that some of them didn’t start a nice little business for themselves. But having a tool and being able to rock with it are two very different things. Just because I can buy a nice pair of Lowa Tibet boots, I’m not suddenly a qualified Sherpa.

Unless you’re willing to pay some big bucks for a guide, ‘cuz then I’m TOTALLY the Sherpa for you. I’ll get you a business card.

Mr. Not PC

  • by Drew

At the risk of sounding like a jerk, I need to point something out. This comes from exposure to a lot of volunteers in a lot of volunteer groups. In fact, a lot of parents we deal with on fundraising duties and the like. the reality is that most of these people are really wonderful. They are selfless and hardworking and giving a million and one for their kids. Truly. But there are always those few that just really drive me nuts. While they lack anything that could be called relevant real world experience, the fact that there are plenty of available print shop websites that can hook you up with business cards with any title they like, suddenly everybody is a marketing professional. Seriously. Does anyone out there have ANY respect for actual study, training, discipline, or experience? Just wondering.

Reading with my ears

  • by Drew

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I’m an audiobook junkie! I started out on Old Time Radio cassettes and Lake Wobegon tapes like 15 years ago when I was crossing the great state of Massachusetts in my ’87 Corolla to make it to band practice or late night gigs. These days when I hear books on audio free I go kabloomie-nuts ‘cuz there’s nothing better than having someone tell you stories while you do stuff you just gotta do. Like dirving. And mowing. And washing dishes. Love it.

Rockin’ Out

  • by Drew

Hey music lovers! If you’re going to be in the Hudson Valley on April 20th, I’ll be plying an acoustic set at the Whale of a Concert fundraiser for the Chancellor Livingston Elementary School 5th Grade whale watch trip. That’s a mouthful, right? But it should be fun. come dig the music, tickets are cheap, and I won’t blush if you wish me a happy birthday.

Cha cha cha.

Pinned

  • by Drew

Back when I got that futon in Boston, I had a visit from my Mom, Grandma and Aunt. They were the little trio of ladies that would come up from time to time. They were all 5 feet ad under, so they’d sleep sideways on the futon. All three of them on the mattress. It was kind of hilarious, but really pretty practical. I had another, much smaller and crappier futon I would usually have folded up as a chair that I’d use when they visited.

The first time they visited, when I wasn’t paying attention, my Grandma pinned a Sainte Anne de Beaupre medal to the mattress. Some people wear a St Christopher Necklace. Grandma went with the French Canadian hunk of wood from a cross that didn’t burn. And that was supposed to keep me safe. What with my dirty little rock and roll lifestyle and all…

Anywhere I lay my head

  • by Drew

I remember calling mattress stores Boston style back in the day when I got my first studio all those years ago. I ended up buying a queen sized futon, mostly because I already had a queen sized futon frame I’d pulled form an Amherst dumpster with a broken slat. It was an easy fix and gave me a great place to lay my head. I even got a deal on a thicker mattress than planned because it was the only one left on the truck by the time they got to me. It was like 2 inches thicker than I’d planned on but I only paid a teenie markup. It was like I got an inch and a half for free.

Is there a that’s what she said joke in there somewhere?

Hangin’ it old school

  • by Drew

A couple of months ago I had some trouble with the little flat screen that hangs in front of my elliptical when I exercise. I was thinking hard about buying a new TV and even started looking into TV mounts. See, the old TV was on this wood corner unit thing. The short term solution was to use a CRT 11″ I had in the kitchen, but then I got my old flat screen working and forgot all about buying new.

Then I realized that the old school flat screen actually has a built in stand AND the stand can be twisted to use as a wall mount. How cool is that? What was Philips thinking when they sold that thing? Didn’t they see the potential of selling separate televisions, stands, and wall mount units? Those wacky Dutch.

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