Just got in from sit-down jam with Heather Webb for the Ocean of Stars set, but will get to that in a minute.

Began my evening last night squeezing a sliver of aluminum from my palm shortly before the ETB set at Friends last night. My pedalboard's aluminum trim is pretty banged up from 5+ years of hard use. Picked up the lid and OW. Quickly realized whatever poked me was still in my hand, and we were on in five minutes. Managed to squeezed it out manually as Tessmer was fishing me out a pair of needle nose pliers. Very good show last night, great crowd and we felt tight as hell. Mondays like that are always awesome.

The weekend of ETB CD release shows in Houston and Corpus was great. Was already feeling burned out and used up Wednesday morning as I headed down a few days early for my mom's retirement party. Got to see a lot of close and extended family whom I haven't seen in awhile due to either time constraints or geography.

Felt better for the drive Friday to meet up with ETB in Humble (NE of Houston). Weird little town in the middle of nowhere and pines. Rock, Wine and Blues was a great venue. Good sized venue, nice system, good stage, friendly staff. Had a really good crowd and a really great show. Def the best show I believe I've ever had in Houston. Lots of nice people and hungry fans, lots of shots as well, heh! Mariah the Merch Girl Extraordinaire sold $600 in shwag. Holy shit! Very profitable weekend so far! Stayed with friends as rest of band went to provided hotel rooms.

Saturday in Corpus was also pretty good. Dr. Rockit's downtown, believe I saw a band there recently. Small little stage, had to rearrange some drum mics so they wouldn't be knocked over. Had family there for the first set, which makes me a little shy for some reason, heh. Had fun tho. While Tessmer was doing his crowd walk this weird drunk/meth'ed out older lady sauntered up to him and rocked out like any other drunk fan. But then she put her arms around him and grabbed him from behind. Tried not to laugh my ass off when Tessmer freaked out and threw his arms up and shuffled away like a chimp trying to avoid a net. I joined him at the bar for a drink (mid song still) when guess who comes up? Tessmer made himself scarce, leaving her with me. Dick, heh! As I made a quick exit she grabbed my ass. Would have been funny if it had not been so sad. She was soon escorted out of the bar. Heard she peed herself as well, but that has not been substantiated.

That was the first set. Onstage about to start the second set Tessmer downed a shot of Crown, then got a weird look on his face and shuffled over to me: "Dude, I am shitfaced!" Nice! Other than forgetting the occasional lyric you wouldn't have heard it in his playing. But load out was great, with Tessmer jokingly lobbing insults in all directions. Believe he told me he hated my face, among other things. Rare to see him that shit hammered, but at least he's a funny drunk. After load out I went home while he rode the 60's Schwinn bike he got at a roadside flea market downtown until 5am, Mariah in tow to keep him from falling over. Good times.

Sunday was slated for double duty for me: ETB doing an early set at Antone's for the Austin Blues Society, then a Sahm Cover Sahm set with Shandon at Saxon Pub later that evening. So that meant waking up early (got home at 3:30am) and hauling ass back to Austin ASAP to be at Antone's by 4pm. This was gonna be close, and three separate vehicles to make it that much more logistically tricky. So an hour from Austin with an hour to get there Tessmer finally hears from Richard (taking separate vehicle): "Just woke up. I am sorry".

On the plus side I was able to take my time getting home and settled in taking a quick nap before heading to Saxon. But on the negative side canceling an important show like that an hour before set time and the fans that paid $15 to see just US and then not seeing us, not so much. But it's all good and won't be happening again.

ANYWAY

The jam with Heather went great, showed her everything she needed to know before full band rehearsal in 3 hours... She filmed some of it so she could review the tape and get the part. I joked "Is this going to make it into a video blog?!?" heh. Adrian and the Sickness have been doing a series of Video Blogs that are great. Would post links if had time.

Had to scramble to find a room last minute, St Elmo Music Lab booked solid. Shit. Asked JRAB about using RAZR13's room, but would take him a few hours to know if was available. Texted Deanna about Velvet Brick's room, but not surprisingly they were practicing tonight instead of usual Wednesday. Shit. Could reserve room at Oltorf Music Lab but would still owe if I backed out last minute. But the RAZR13 room came through, which will also save me some money on it. (Would have been about $50 to rent an hourly, but RAZR's room is half that as a bro deal. Thanks, Big Mike).