Have been on self-imposed vacation the last few days. Holy crap did I need that.

My Virgo brain kept wanting to dash to my laptop real quick to work on small things here and there as time went on, but I always stopped myself remembering that it was also Thanksgiving Weekend and who the hell would be reading let alone responding to any of the emails I needed to send. So there ya go. Bliss.

But now like Revenge of the Nerds II, I'm back and I'm bad. Or something. Been at it all day doing internet shit: music biz stuff, social networking stuff, looking into things. Have been in touch with an upstart paranormal investigations TV show about using my music for the theme. Badass. May be a case of trading services for exposure, as they don't even have a budget yet. But exposure is exposure!

I have also posted a demo version of "House of Leaves", an instrumental concept EP inspired by the book of the same name by Mark Danielewski I did for RPM Challenge earlier this year, to my FB page. 20 minutes long in total and one of the most ambitious pieces of music I have attempted to date. Plan to leave it up for a bit to let people know about it, and eventually re-record it and release it as its own EP.

In other news ETB managed to again blow the doors off the Saxon Pub instead of leveling the whole block on Thursday for their Thanksgiving party. WC Clark as the early act, actually got to check him out this time. He was rocking a Peavey Bandit 65 amp. And it sounded great. Blues! Our crowd nothing to write home about, I mean it was Thanksgiving and all. But we had some of our fave friends/family/die-hards as well as some new faces too, so was still awesome.

Black Friday I stayed the fuck home. Crowded stores get to me. Really REALLY crowded stores really REALLY get to me. With Goldie Hawn still misfiring I had to call off the weekend trip to Corpus for belated T-giving. Instead got more time to relax here at house, and van is now fixed. Faulty wire. May still replace rest of them with Eric pretty soon. I did pay for them and the existing ones are starting to fail...

Long week last week.

Ouch. But good, busy.

Last week Monday had ETB rehearsal, Friends residency. Good to best of my recollection. Great crowd that dispersed during setbreak. Well shit. But Jim and Gian Ortiz of Amplified Heat stopped by, great to see them.

Tuesday I don't remember at this point.

Wednesday received Reiki from Triniti and Karen Slafter. It was awesome. Felt very focused and at peace. Which came in handy cause then tore apart my storage unit to retrieve Fender 4x10 bass cabinet, which was of course in the back under everything. I had thrown it in with sale of TB-600 bass amp to Heather Webb, and wanted to make sure working properly. Sure enough wired wrong (me popping speakers in/out and no slack from speaker wiring so shit got crossed). No wiring schem on Fender site. Improvised with an Ampeg 4x10 wiring diagram. Then noticed broken speaker wire and soldered back together.

What was supposed to take 30 mins was 2+ hours of me ripping the cabinet apart in their dining room. Worked but one speaker mount buzzing a bit and metal grill cover rattling too bad to use (takes 8 screws and 8 rubber feet, I had 4 screws and 3 rubber feet...). But she is pleased nonetheless.

Thursday drawing a blank other than Goldie Hawn started misfiring. Shit. Went to a car place for diagnostic computer thing, cylinder #8 misfiring. Nice. Believe I edited an ETB Mondays promo that day.

Friday early set at Friends, no break. Good crowd. Parked out front so could throw bass gear in van then catch Amplified Heat sporting their new Marshall Stacks at Dirty Dog few blocks down. It was effing awesome. And loud. I was beat and had to bail before Thunderosa took the stage. 

Saturday was ETB at BD Riley's. Another great show and great crowd. Good times.

Sunday ETB played Grace Sharington's birthday party at her place. Thunderosa also on the bill. Back patio doubled as the stage, used Thunderosa's gear to save time/energy. Short set (5 songs?). Good times! Caught up with Sumner Erickson afterwards. Really good guy.

Monday another marathon. ETB practice at St Elmo Music Lab in Southern Gun Culture's old room, 65. More songwriting, and another song in the works. Sweet. En route picked up an edit CD from Heather Webb for a photo shoot Triniti has been working on. Then met up with Eric at his place to replace faulty plug and wire for #8 cylinder. Did not solve the problem. Planned to reconvene to replace rest of plugs/wires at a later date. Monday residency set was awesome. Good crowd for first set, felt like we were on fire. Didn't get parking right outside for once, wonder what the hell was going on that night.

Tuesday awoke feeling completely wrecked. So tired I felt nauseous. What was to be a completely mental health day went out the window when I realized I needed to drive my van down to Corpus Christi for belated Thanksgiving on Friday. Fuck. Yeah even if Eric and I (well, mainly Eric...) replaced all wires and plugs on Wednesday, if that didn't solve the problem I couldn't take it in on Thursday. Damn. So called place where I had diagnostic check and they said $350 for labor on replaced wires and plugs. Fuck that, Lakeway prices. But Triniti remembered a mechanic a friend used out here in the Apache Shores neighborhood. Couldn't remember address, no phone number. But she recognized the house/driveway on Google satellite map. Awesome. Drove in, met Bruce, gave me an awesome etstimate and I left it there. Rest of Tuesday off. MUCH needed.

Today was supposed to be a mixed bag. Trinti had weekly reiki trade with Karen Slafter. But van not ready. Photo shoot with Amber Lucille Band later in afternoon. That meant her coming back to Lakeway so van can be picked up, then back into town at rush hour for shoot. Damn. So we took rain check on shoot. Rest of today off as well. Double bonus! Van was more than estimate, coil packs went bad. But then Bruce said he found parts for cheaper than estimate and passed the savings on to me. THAT is awesome. As well as having a full weekend (Tues/Wed is pretty much my Fri/Sat) off.

Bout time. But still allowing my Virgo brain to have an hour of necessary TCB before a quiet evening of pizza and beer.