After last weeks' festivities, I was anxious to hit the weekend. We played a show on Saturday night and had a fun crowd. Sonia and Heather came out. They've been extra supportive. I know they probably know our set list by heart now. HA! Tom and I try to add new songs as often as possible. Keep it fresh. And we switch the order around alot. We were asked to play a wedding which should be fun. We stopped on the way home to eat at the Cracker Barrel and I felt alittle tickle in the back of my throat. I knew it was coming. By that time, it's too late. I woke up at 2 in the morning with a sore throat, struggled to go back to sleep and woke again at around with a full blown sinus infection. Nasty. I spent sunday, monday and tuesday laying around.

Wednesday, I felt some better, but decided to work from home as the floor guy wanted to come over and get started. I figure hey why not kill 2 birds with one stone. They came in and got started on the living room and hall. Tomorrow they are coming in to finish the rest of the hall, the bedroom and the trim work. It looks good. I am glad we decided to go with it. It really updates the house. We have several more projects lined up for inside. Painting is the primary one. Then, we'd talked about putting a tile backsplash in the kitchen, changing out the light fixture in the kitchen and lastly, buying some furniture. When spring comes, we have an equally massive list of projects that we want to tackle. We plan to develop the back yard, ( Crystal wants a gazebo ) extend the concrete parking pad, screen in the carport and repaint the railing and deck. It's alot of work. But we can do it.

You would think with all this going on that I would be totally satisfied with my time management. I guess to an extent, I am. I just feel as if there is something else. I have my music and that is keeping me busy. I have the home improvements and that keeps me busy. And broke. But I think that there is something else and I have to figure it out. I am sure I will figure it out. It will haunt me until I do. That's usually how it works. I have been reading/researching about music publishing. Part of the duties of Sid Hippo Management. What a tricky business it is. And fascinating as well. I am probably just reaching for some type of meaning for my life as birthday number 39 comes rolling around the corner.

Well that's it. Check in later.

Last night, we were finishing up the dishes when a cup fell from the counter and cracked the top of my foot. It landed right on the bend of my big toe. WOW. Bright lights....stars.....little birdies and cuss words. It instantly turned red, then purple. I had to sit for a spell. Then, while eating our dinner, my tooth in the back chipped. I was beginning to think...hey maybe I should just go to bed. This poor tooth. I thought I had a cavity. I went to the dentist and he wanted to pull it. He said it was not worth saving because it was growing oddly and putting pressure on the other teeth. I wanted to save it. Now, it's broken and sharp. I have an appointment to have it extracted on Monday. With a different dentist. Hopefully I can make it that long. It's not hurting at the moment, but it's aggravating.

I am just about to have my trailer paper work complete. Whew, that will be great. When I purchased it, the last owner couldn't find the title, so I was given a duplicate title request. The trouble is that I also needed a lein release. I don't owe anything, but the Tag office wants to be sure that the guy I bought it from didn't owe anything before he sold it to me. So, I had to contact the company he bought it from originally. They said that their records were lost and they didn't go back that far. Lucky for me, the lady in charge of the office was willing to sign and noterize and letter stating that the title was free and clear. I hope to have it on the road by month end. I need to customize the inside alittle to hold my equpiment in place. I think i can build a rack to secure the guitar cases and then hang some hooks that I can tie things up on the walls like my speaker stands. I can fit all my gear in there and then, all I'll have to do is back up, hitch up and take off! No worries about rain or theft. Works for me.

The "reduction" is still looming around here. I had so wished it would either be over with or wait until after Christmas. But, unfortunatly, Christmas is just another day on the calendar in the business world. Though things have improved a good bit since the says of Bob Cratchett and Ebanezer Scrooge, somedays it still feels like I am begging for one more lump of coal for the fire. I guess the good thing is that I have had time to come to terms with the fact that it's out of my hands and try to plan my strategy should it happen. It will be fine. Everything happens as it should. I realize that when I force things into happening, I end up miserable. So....let it be.

Bean is tired. She told me that she is exhausted and doesn't know how much more running she can do. I kinda thought this would happen too. It's not that she needs more sleep. It's that she isn't used to this pace. She has actually gotten more sleep than I have. Just that she doesn't do as well without a certian amount of rest. Last night, we stayed up late watching the football game. WOW what a great game!! We won making it even better. But the game was a good one all the way to the end. There really wasn't a safe time to turn off the TV, so we were up until almost midnight. Friday night we got home at 3am, Saturday night at 3am and Sunday night at 11:30pm. We both need rest tonight!

ok...gotta run now.

I love the thanksgiving holiday. I love the food. Our work has slowed, but we have had some positive movement on our work load for next year. So hopefully, we will make it last. It's gonna be a tough one. So much of it revolves on one thing or another. We spent the day in Monroe visiting family. Friday, I had a gig at Puckett's in Charlotte. It was cool. We actually had some folks there. I really didn't expect a crowd after the Black Friday shopping and the early rising. The sound in there was awesome. I bet it would record well. On Saturday, we traveled up to West Jefferson to scope out a potiential camp site for the 2009 camping season. We found 2 of them. Nice, secluded and reasonably priced. Heather's parents are moving to a spot with a little over 70 acres. Theres a prime spot next to the creek for the pop ups! It was raining and chilly. There was ice on the trees as we drove down the mountin Sunday. Then today, they got a few inches of snow. NICE. We did see alittle snow left from a system earlier in the week. That was pretty and relaxing.

The next 4 weeks are going to be a blur. There are gigs to play, work to do on the house, the car needs to be serviced and we have only bought 2 gifts. But honestly, I can't complain. I am happy to do any of it. I feel so lucky to be at the point in my life. Reguardless of what happens, we both realize how much we love each other and how much we have to be thankful for. I guess that's the best thing about thanksgiving. That and Mom's sausage dressing.