Somebody Wants A Hamster. . .

Braids. . .

Me, A Drunk Driver??

Obviously not, but I was a suspect for about 20 minutes!!

About an hour ago, I dropped Steph off at her house after watching the Superbowl together at my in-law's. As I was innocently driving home down Ustick Road, I crossed Five Mile and noticed a white car with only one headlight following right on my tail. I thought about pulling over to let him pass me but there really wasn't a safe place to do that. I was going the speed limit so I just tried to ignore him.

When I turned onto Eagle Road, he stayed right behind me. I changed lanes to let him pass and slowed to about 40 mph (55 mph speed limit) but he changed lanes right behind me! I changed lanes again just as I got to Fairview to make a right turn and, sure enough, he stayed right on my tail. I stayed in the right lane up to Locust Grove and then (legally) crossed over into the turn lane to make a left turn. The white car was still on my tail.

I wasn't overly worried since I had a cell phone with me and I could get help at any time so I decided to try a few things to see if he would follow. I sped up and changed lanes a couple more times and the one-headlight car just wouldn't go away. As I turned onto Franklin, I saw a police car going in the other direction and when I looked in my rearview mirror to check on my stalker, I saw another police car right on my tail!

I turned into the nearest parking lot hoping he would follow me, thinking it was suspicious and, sure enough, not one but TWO officers turned on their lights and pulled in behind me! (I decided that would be a good time to wake up Gloria who had so far slept through the whole thing.)

The officer approached my truck very slowly and very carefully and I quickly began to explain that I was glad to see him since I was being followed. He easily believed my story because the guy in the white car had reported me as a DRUNK DRIVER!!!! He had been following me so he could keep the police informed as to my location!!!!

The officer said I was "obviously not intoxicated" but he needed to see my information anyway. He came back pretty quickly and told me that everything was fine and my record was clean (good to know) and wished me a good evening.

So I'm left wondering if the one-headlight driver was really a concerned citizen worried about the welfare of the community or if he was just working out his road rage at a "slow" driver??? I guess I'll never know. . .

What Now????

Looks like we'll be taking ANOTHER trip to the vet on Monday. This time it's the cat. The cat who owns US, not vice versa. She has a big ole raw flesh wound on her behind from who-knows-what. . .

I feel horrible for her, I really do, but these constant vet bills are killin' me!

Looking For The Silver Lining. . .

So, I've been asking myself all week why it is that six years of "successful" events have been wiped away in my mind by one bad show?? I'm feeling very reluctant about getting back on the horse, as they say. I've replayed the events of that evening over and over in my mind and I've even been plagued with "what-if" questions such as "what if this had happened during the Jane Goodall event at the Qwest Arena?" and "what if this had happened during the Aimee Mann concert after we had convinced a reluctant sound engineer to use our digital board?" I've also searched the Internet to find out if anyone has had something similar happen. I Google things like, "mixer goes out at concert" or "concert disasters" or even "worst concerts EVER". It goes on and on and on so I've been trying to remind myself of the good things that came out of that event and of all of the good things that have happened in the years we've been running sound. It still feels like I'm grasping at straws but this is what I've come up with:

This is a video of Steve Eaton. Although I had heard of him and we may have even worked with him a long time ago, before Sunday night I had no idea what a great man he is. Great musician, great under pressure and one of my hero's on Sunday evening. He's been playing music longer than I've been around and he's played with, and written songs for, the likes of The Carpenters, Art Garfunkel and Lee Greenwood. I'm sure he has seen it all in the music industry and our little mixer ordeal on Sunday night didn't seem to phase him in the least. He was kind and encouraging and played his heart out in spite of the sound issues that made his voice and guitar cut in and out during his short time on the stage. I hope we have the opportunity to work with him again:

Gayle Chapman is another artist that has probably seen it all in the music industry. She toured with Prince in the 80's as a keyboard player and has since become a solo artist in her own right. We've worked with Gayle many, many, many times during the last 7 or 8 years. She felt our pain on Sunday night and lifted our spirits with her kind words and mother-bear hugs.



This is Justin Gause. He was one of the employees at the restaurant that the concert was raising money for and hasn't had too many opportunities to be on stage. He was excited and fresh (and the first one onstage while the mixer was still fully operational) and is really very talented. He sent us an e-mail after the show telling us it "was a great show and dream come true" he also said, "It's the rocks in the stream that make the brook sing". Wise beyond his years:

The musicians that probably have the most right to be upset about the evening are Kevin Kirk and the guys from Onomatopoeia. Thankfully this isn't the first time we've worked with them but I think they would have been professional about it even if it had been. Last January we spent an amazing 5 days working with them on their PBS HD event at The Egyptian which they recently won an award for. (The links to that event are here, here, here, here, especially here and here.) It was one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of and the entire thing went off without a hitch. Way more stressful circumstances, way more money involved, way bigger crowd and HD television cameras!! No problem. We even pulled a prank on Kevin that made it onto the DVD:


This is one of the segments from that amazing event. (Did I mention it went off without a hitch??????)

Time is marching on and I know that this doesn't have to scar me for life. We recieved several appreciative and encouraging e-mails from the musicians but this one is my favorite:

". . . I didn't hear one single person blame it on you because, as we all know, MANURE happens! I would gladly work with you any day of the week and certainly hope to have another opportunity one of these days. I will personally pound on anyone who says different. I feel really proud to have had the opportunity to work with such classy professionals."

Her name is Wendi and she's about 5' 2" and 105 lbs. and she totally has my back!

I'm starting to feel better already. . .

To Each His (Or Her) Own . . .

Just Another Day In Paradise. . .

Shop Class. . .