Had a great day running around with the kids.  Started in Naperville where North Central College was celebrating Homecoming.  That mean no parking.  Well, we did finally find a garage with spaces.  After that, over to Five Guys.  Yes, the burgers and fires are great but the space aged "every flavor you can think of and then some" pop dispenser is out of this world.

We then made our way to Barnes & Noble for some book shopping.  Turns out they had a 50% off Criterion Blu-Ray and DVD sale.  Picked up Island of Lost Souls with an ultra creepy performance by Charles Laughton. 

We then made our way to Remember When Records and CDs in Westmont only to find out it had closed when Hank the proprietor retired.  It was a great record store and sadly one of the few in the area.  It is not completely gone, however.  The store will now be a 2nd hand store with the front part continuing to be a record store.

We then went to visit a family friend followed by the drive home and a nice chicken and veggie dinner.

It all brings us to the evenings viewing of Dr. Cyclops on Svengoolie.  All in all, a truly great day.

The first storm of the season is bearing down on us as I type.  The forecast is calling for 4-6 inches but it has been revised as the storm got closer to the area.  They say that if you don't like the weather here just wait ten minutes and it will change.

The impending storm did cause a change to our plans for Christmas Tree hunting.  A few years ago, an ice storm hit as we were cutting down our tree.  We ended up in a ditch on the way home.  We also saw at least 12 other vehicles with similar fates.  We never want a repeat of that day so we decided to stay close to home and got our tree from a lot tonight.  The kids were sad and so were we but better to place it safe rather than go through that again.

The smell of a fresh tree in the house is great.  Tomorrow the lights and ornaments go on.  Tis the season and it is great.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.

As I put the finishing touches on Year, my first album in 16 years, I have cover art.  It is a photo I took of an especially eerie moon with Jupiter visible below it.  The album was a real family affair as Mary and Lille made their recording debuts on two tracks.  The lead off track, See Me Now, was completed with input from my friend and G family friend Archie Waugh.  He has an ongoing gag in Facebook that I had to include on the cover.

One more song to go.  In the mean time, here is the cover.

I am a weekend warrior, a do it yourselfer and have never met a project I didn't like.  My last big project, building a titled shower out of our bath only master bath kept me off major projects for a few years.  This latest project may keep me off them for a decade.

My detached garage has been leaking for some time.  I recently found that it was leaking much worse that I thought and some of the wood was terribly warped.  I thought it was be a good weekend project.  How hard could it be?  Tear off the old stuff, replace the bad plywood, roll out tar paper and put down new shingles.

Unfortunately, it's horrible bad.  My neighbor and I both thought it would be a fun, learning project and we both now know we definitely learned one valuable lesson.  That lesson is that we never want to roof again.  For starters, a very mild week ended in the 90s.  That's much hotter on a roof. 

Day one was tear off day.  That was a lot of work.  The roof was put on in the days when felt paper was held in place with roofing nails.  That made tear off a lot tougher.

Yesterday was re-wood, tar paper and first two rows of shingles.  It went okay but the heat was worse than the previous day.

I took today off and continued.  It was not as hot when the clouds rolled in but when it was out, the heat was unbearable.  Storms were in the forecast.  After several rows of shingles, I decided to move the shingle bundles to the roof to hold a tarp in place.  I got the tools off the roof just before the rain started. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the tarp up fast enough so the rain hit the ceiling.  My research says that tar paper can get wet and will flatten out when it dries off.  I will be placing the tarp down tomorrow before more forcasted storms on Wednesday and Thursday. 

So my Labor Day weekend will now consist of a lot of labor and hopefully the completion of the biggest home improvement project of my life.

It's been about a month since I updated the blog.  Sorry for the lack of updates but it has been a busy, busy Summer.   

G-FEST was great.  Akira Takarada was a great guest.  Everyone had a great time.  Preparations are already under way for G-FEST XVIII.

After that it was off to the Wisconsin Dells for the annual sabbatical to the water park capital of the world.  We stayed at the Skyline Hotel across the street from Mount Olympus.  It was a great time and the hotel was very nice and reasonably priced.  With our stay, each member of the family receives a pass for Mount Olympus for the duration of the stay.

The rest of the Summer has been filled with more activity. We hit Raging Waves and had a great time at Six Flags.

So the week that saw several strong, damaging storms, a 10+ game win streak for the left for dead White Sox, wonderful Lillie's 11th birthday and the start of dismantling the Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks because of the salary cap winds up with The Crossroads Guitar Festival.  As June has been, there are storms forecasted for this afternoon and tonight.  Argh. 

Guitars and Lightning don't mix.  We have the sunscreen and emergency ponchos so we're prepared for any weather event.

The Year project continues with the slightly delayed release of May's song Waterslide.  The backing tracks were completed in May but we just recorded the vocals tonight.  In continued "The family that plays together, stays together" fashion, another member of the family shines on this track. 

Lillie takes the lead vocal on this tribute to one of our favorite summertime traditions, the waterslide.  It's an upbeat little rocker with plenty of pogo-osity. 

Enjoy.

Waterslide

Mary and I finally accomplished what we have been attempting to do for 22 years.  We wrote and recorded a song together.  It is a simple acoustic guitar song that we've called On The Moon.  When I hear it it sounds to me like a good end of the album track.  I can hear it being sung around the campfire. 

The song starts out with a didgeridoo to set the mood that this is going to be something to bring a smile and not taken too seriously.  It is basically two lovers singing together as the lay together on a blanket on a Summer's night while looking up at the Moon above.

I'm not completely happy with my vocal, yet.  I'm still learning the ins and outs of Mixcraft and it sometimes stutters and throws off the timing of said track.  I will get the hang of it, I promise.

Mary sounds wonderful.  It was her first recorded lead vocal and understandably she was very nervous.  As all of us who have been in her shoes know, it gets easier and with repetition, second nature.

On The Moon

What a wonderful weekend.  My brother is getting set to celebrate his 40th birthday this week so his wife planned a surprise party for him this past weekend.  My Mom, Sister and Niece came in for the party.  Since it was a surprise, none of us were to announce they were coming or that they were here.

We had an amazing weekend.  After picking them up on Friday, we all played a long round of Beatles: Rock Band.  They had never played and fell in love with it.  On Saturday we did a bit of shopping and a bit more Beatles.  Finally at the party, all went without a hitch.  The surprise was great and upon seeing out of town family, the happiness was even bigger.

On Sunday, we decided to set out on a whirlwind tour of our home growing up, schools while there and the downtown area.  A visit to the hometown candy shop, still open, brought the biggest excitement of the day. 

It was a great weekend with the family.