I have an intern

So a couple weeks ago I asked this guy, Brandon, who I had recorded for the Mayes guitar project, and who is a student at a nearby college, if he was still in need of an internship, as he had mentioned a long while earlier. He said he was. He is now my intern. This is funny to me. I don't really even have a JOB, but I do have an INTERN. I bought this old, weird pedal on ebay a few weeks ago, and it doesn't work right, so I sent it with Brandon down to Tim, aka PedalDoctor.com, to fix it. Tim is WAY south of Franklin, about 35 minutes away, sans traffic. It's almost rush hour. Poor Brandon. He said his roommate's internship consists of him doing some dude's laundry and picking up cigarette butts in the yard, so I guess he doesn't have it that bad.

I found a decently-priced MM4 pedal on ebay last night, too, and I'm excited to get that. Now I'll be putting a few pedals up on Ebay because their place has been taken. But if anybody wants a Boss Tremolo, or a Visual Sound H2O, both in mint condition, let me know tonight, and I'll cut you a big deal. I just can't afford to have them hanging around if I'm not actively using them. And it kills me, because I love pedals. Especially that H2O, but I have another one for my flight board, so I'll be all right. Send me an e-mail if you want to know anything about these pedals.

Last night was a lot of fun. Andy and Ben's wives had a dinner thing, and they dropped all of their kids off over here to hang out for about two hours. So we had Andy, his three kids, Ben, his two, Alison, Ella and I all hanging out. It was a blast. Those kids are so funny, and it was just crazy to look at our little Ella, who pretty much slept through the whole party, and know that soon she'll be a little KID, just like Andy's KIDS. So weird. I can't believe I'm a parent.

Ella just keeps getting more fun. She's sleeping in four hour chunks at night now, up from three, and I can't believe the difference that is making. She really moves her little head around now, and she's such a cuddler, so when you put her over your shoulder she brings her head as close to yours as she can. It's unreal. I'm just amazed by her.

God continues to provide in crazy and miraculous ways these days. The band's cancelling their last two tours early has not been all that easy on the finances, but He continues to see us through, and we are so thankful. My life is such a testament to God's provision. When I was a kid I had such a picture in my head of what it would be like to be a professional musician. In that picture I was not broke. The picture was wrong, but I'm ok with that. It would be nice to not have to worry, but the truth is: I don't have to. I do because I'm a sinner. God has ALWAYS provided, and I've given him quite a challenge sometimes. I'm learning to rest in that. It's harder now with a daughter, but it's ok.

Dean and Jason are over today, and while Andy and Ben are working they have been playing ping-pong and now basketball. Dean is SUCH a good ping-pong player. Like CHINESE good. Other than that, I have a rehearsal tonight with Michelle Avery, so I'll have to tape The Office. Weigel is playing this show, too, though, so that will be fun. Also, Billy sent me this today, and I just can't believe it...

And with that, I bid you adieu...

Monday afternoon

Well, it's Monday. Andy and Ben got back from their show this weekend, and are getting started down in the Eagle. My brother, Rob, and his wife Candice were here this weekend, and that was a lot of fun. They got to meet Ella, and they completely re-landscaped our front yard. Rob is a landscape designer, and when he saw what we had going on in our yard he about puked. We woke up one day to find Candice mowing the lawn and Rob pulling up plants. It looks great now, and we're really excited. I don't think I've planted anything since like second grade, so that was fun. Both my brother and my brother-in-law are great with tools and building stuff and all that home repair junk. I feel good about myself when I change a couple light bulbs. If I didn't have them, I swear our house would fall over.

This week is going to be nuts, work-wise. We just found out we have one less week to do Andy's record than we thought, and Todd and Garett are doing a day of Caedmon's drums here, this week as well. I'm also playing a show with my friend Michelle Avery here in town on Thursday night, and we have a couple rehearsals for that. So, I'm just bracing myself for that to all get started. We did get some decent sleep last night, though, and that helps a ton.

The other night I decided that I wanted to pick up trombone again, and spent too long this weekend looking for one really, really cheap on ebay. I think I'll wait for the garage sales. Ebay, man, love it and hate it. You finally find a trombone for under a dollar, but it costs $35 to ship it! Anyway, I'm going to play with Ella for a little bit until I have to go back to work.

Friday Afternoon

Just a quick post before my battery runs out. We're finishing our day on Andy P's record right now. He's been playing acoustic guitar all day, and doing some mighty fancy stuff, I might add. I'm honestly impressed by his playing and the parts he's written for this album. Way more intricate than anything we've done in a while, and he's getting a workout today. Good stuff.

In other news, my brother and his wife are coming down to visit us this weekend, which will be a lot of fun. They haven't met Ella yet, and we're excited for that to happen. Also, Jeff and Mel went to the hospital today to have their baby, so we've been praying for them and waiting for a phone call... Ella's first little friend!

I only got about four hours of sleep last night, so I'm hoping tonight will be better. I think Jason may come over, and maybe Clay and Sarah, so hopefully we'll have some beer and ping-pong, which may sound lame, but is a lot of fun. Also, (very random right now, I know) we have officially named my McPherson guitar "Steve", and my Avalon guitar "Cmdr. Will Riker, as played by Jonathan Frakes." If you get that, you're as nerdy as we are.

A Little Late Night Ebay - Dishes Party

So I'm trying to stay awake until 2am, cause that's when Ella needs to eat again, and I think I can make it, but man, I am TIRED. So I went around and found some things to put on ebay besides the guitar stuff I was planning on selling. There's some old computer stuff, and some random guitar accessories as well as a guitar each from Cason and I.

I was going to try and put a couple baby pictures on here, cause we have some new really cute ones, but I can't figure out how to do it. If anyone knows, please lend me a hand. And I doubt I made that ebay thing an actual link, but I know you can make it do that, too....

[Ed. This is why you keep me around and answer all my silly emails. Thanks, though, for not calling me in the middle of the night to ask me how to do this. ;)]

In other news, the rest of our Andy P session went well today. Andy Gullahorn was over playing acoustic guitar, and he was phenomenal, I spelled that wrong, I'm sure, and we got great acoustic sounds. I've never been this excited about acoustic sounds in my life. Using a stereo pair of Rode NT5's through API pre's, then a stereo RNC Compressor, to a Focusrite 428 converter. Man, they just sound great.

We've also been recording a little bit of each of the seven or eight acoustic guitars laying around, and then "blind taste-testing" them. This means the guys listen to a snippet of each and they just get a number to attach to each guitar. Once we've picked the one we like I let them know which one was chosen. We've been surprised a number of times. The McPherson has won out more than we thought, and the Avalon is actually darker sounding than the Lowden, which we didn't expect. Also, Charley is always awesome, but Andy doesn't like the way he plays, so the guitars won't be as good as they could be on this record. But they'll be ALMOST as good as they can be, and I guess we'll all just have to settle for that.

Now, I must do dishes, and ever more dishes, in hopes of being awake at 2, AND having clean dishes in the morning. (We have a dishwasher, but it's on the wrong side of the kitchen, so it can't possibly work, and is where we keep our chips and crackers and cereal and such. High class.) Good night.

and now you find out just how gear crazy I really am

Man, thanks everybody for reading this and saying hello. It's nice to be welcomed here. As I said before, I'm very new to this type of thing, and I appreciate the gesture.

And now, so you all find out that I really am gear crazy...

I'm building a new pedal-board starting next week. (It may take a few days.) Today working on Andy's record, Ben and I were wanting a sound that I didn't have. I realize I already have a pedal board as large as certain Papal cities, but I'm curious about the Line6 MM4 Modulation Modeler. Do any of you have one? If so, what do you think? And do you want to sell it? :) I think it could probably replace a couple smaller boxes, or just add some classy touches, and I have the real estate available. Anyway, that's all for now. I'm putting some more gear, and a guitar of Cason's, on Ebay tonight, so I'm sure I'll be posting a little more later. Thanks.