Girl in a Coma: Exits & All The Rest

I’m a huge Girl in a Coma fan. This is evident to those who know me, but probably not as easy to discern to the readers of Burnerblog who have been bereft of any information from me in the past few years. Yes, I’ve been absent, so there’s lots to fill in.

Girl in a Coma is an all-girl band from San Antonio, and they are FANTASTIC. They are often compared to Morrissey and The Smiths, and they even opened for Morrissey on his European Tour a few years back. I have seen them live three times now, and each time they bring the awesome! I have lots of great photos I’ve taken of them as well as an autographed set of pictures that I took, an autographed CD, and even an autographed Les Paul guitar!

Their latest CD is called Exits & The Rest, and I have to admit that it took me two listens before I really got it. With their last CD (and their first), I loved every song right out the gate. Exits was quite a departure in some ways from their earlier efforts, but as I listened a second time, I realized that it wasn’t as much a departure as I first thought, and I also realized how much the girls have grown musically. The songs seem to be more layered, with more depth and range. The lyrics are well composed, and the three-piece band sounds more full with some masterful playing.

As a fan, I know my judgment is clouded a bit, but I honestly didn’t give them a “pass.” This CD earned my respect, and a spot on my playlist. Spotify doesn’t have Exits available, but I bought it from Amazon as an instant download mp3 album, and I have been listening to it non-stop.

5 stars out of 5

Friday Nights

For the past few months, we’ve been having Dr. Who Friday nights with Kenny and Elaine. It started as a conversation one night about Torchwood: Miracle Day. I think we were all together for a birthday party or something, and I mentioned to Kenny that I was looking forward to watching the premiere episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day. He said that he had forgotten to TiVo it, but I had it on mine. We decided to watch it, and thus was born a conversation which turned into an idea for watching episodes of Torchwood: Miracle Day together followed by two episodes of Dr. Who starting with Season One of the New Era Doctors.

I’m glad we did it. I really love Dr. Who, and the more we get into it, the better it seems to get. I really like Rose, although from what I’m told, I’ll like some of the other companions even more. I find that hard to believe, but then again, I guess I’ll find out.

I’m glad to have this event on Friday evenings with them. Sherry and I really enjoy having a regular even on Friday nights, and we switch-off with them to have it one week at our home and the following at theirs and so-on. Tonight was at our home and we went out for a nice dinner at Pavarotti’s prior to sitting down for the two episodes of The Doctor. I was quite bushed and was fading into the second episode so we cut tonight’s watching down to only two episodes, but that sets us up nicely for the two-part season 2 ending followed by the season 3 Christmas episode. I can’t wait!

No Flying Today

I have 8 planes sitting on the floor in the dining room wanting to fly and 28mph winds outside that say, “No!”

Boo.

Back?

The blog is back… FB is nice, but I feel the need for something a bit “more” sometimes. I’ve been updating a few other blogs over the past year or so, but I guess I miss my old home.

Time for Burnerblog v6.0

I still own Burnerblog.com…

But I’m just too cheap to pay $45 a year to have the domain link to a blog I rarely update anymore. If I ever come back to this place to make regular updates, I may pony up the cash, but for now, it’s just not worth it to me.

Big Bang Theory (and other musings)

The 2009 Fall Season of TV began yesterday!

While Sherry and I are not the biggest network TV viewers, we do enjoy a few shows that we watch regularly: Eureka, Warehouse 13, 30 Rock, Big Bang Theory, Hung*, Californication*, Gary Unmarried*, Deadliest Catch, Mythbusters, Dollhouse, and sometimes we watch How I Met Your Mother (*mostly me, but Sherry keeps up with ‘em). Of our favorites, Eureka, Warehouse 13 and Hung are summer-season shows, but the rest are regular season which is why we are so happy that we get new episodes of our favorite shows.

We are still sad that Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Life on Mars, and Boston Legal are gone, but we have found a new friend in Castle. Sherry and I watched the episode last night and decided that we were going to play catch-up on Hulu and get a TiVo Season Pass to watch Castle regularly.

The only other things we regularly watch on TV is car racing (mostly NASCAR), football (mostly Sherry), Discovery channel, A&E, and History channel. Add to that the occasional movie and there you have our TV habits. Nothing exciting, but enough to fill a few hours for us to sit on the couch together.

Edge in the backyard with his new glasses.

Otherwise, the biggest news around here is that I got glasses. For those who know me, you know that I have had glasses for the past three years, but now due to changing (read=getting older) eyes and a serious bout of eye strain, I have to wear them permanently (as in all-day, every day). I finally received the new glasses yesterday, and while it’s taking a bit of getting used to, they seem to be working out well. I have a boat-load of work to do (another tight deadline), but I’m looking forward to getting back in the saddle after sitting on the sidelines for the past two weeks.

I installed Linux onto an old box I had sitting in a closet, and I’m back to playing with that stuff again. Now if I could just remember that stuff better…

We’ve been working hard on getting our current home ready to be put on the market to sell, and the new house hasn’t yet broken ground. We’re supposed to meet with the builder sometime soon, but we’ve yet to hear from them. We think the house won’t be done before January 1st which is fine with us. I do, however, look forward to being able to put all this house selling and moving stuff behind us.

Edge's ZuneHD

Finally, I got a new ZuneHD. It’s an amazing device and I’ve been enjoying the capacitive OLED screen and the new UI. It’s gorgeous! The new Zune 4.0 software is pretty nice too, but the real star here is the device. I use the Zune for music, videos and podcasts, and it excels at these tasks. I wouldn’t trade it for any other PMP out there! In the background of the image, you can see the old Zune 30. I will use that as my CarZune and leave it in there since it can wirelessly sync whenever I pull into the garage. Who needs a docking cradle when you can just wirelessly sync from the car! I’ll use the ZuneHD as my go-to for any music or video needs when I travel away from my desk (lol) or when I want to sit down somewhere and cuddle up with my Kindle.

Results of the Design Center and Plans

Sherry and I visited the design center to pick the options for the new house, and we made a lot of nice choices and very few compromises (fortunately). The only area in which we were both underwhelmed was the choice of faucets: two. Basic or “upgraded” for $2700 more. Umm, no thank you. The “upgraded” faucets are similar to what we currently have in our home, but a bit larger and more exaggerated (which means they are not nearly as attractive, in our opinion). The standard faucets are just fine and if they present any problems ergonomically or stylistically once we move in, I can replace them.

Otherwise, everything we picked is pretty darned nice, and we’re super-excited about going back tomorrow and making the decisions final. Tomorrow is the point of no return; the money that gets put down tomorrow is non-refundable. They start building the house next week (well, digging the hole for the slab, at least).

I didn’t take any photos during our first appointment, but I will take some photos tomorrow and post our choices. The railings are one of my favorite features and will remind me of my dad.

On a somewhat related note, I found out that I can get PVC ceiling tiles that look like stamped tin for a fraction of what the tin costs (and if you’re going to paint it anyway, why not save the money?). I’m going to do my office in the same color it is now (a sort of sage green) with the white ceiling tiles, wood floor, dark crown molding at the ceiling, and perhaps a light chair rail around the room. Of course, this won’t all hap

pen at once, but it’s the “plan” for the room. We may initially put in the wood/laminate floor in the family room prior to moving in, but we haven’t made a firm decision on that yet.

On the list for me after we close on the house (in December) is put up 18 sets of blinds and 4 ceiling fans. That alone will be a day’s worth of work. Then, there’s painting Brendon’s bedroom, Gelli’s bedroom, Jamie’s bedroom, the master bedroom, the master bath, and my office. We plan on doing all the painting prior to moving in so that we have as much room as possible to move around, etc. Also, we’re pretty efficient and fast at painting now, so it really should only take us a couple of days to get that all done.

Also related is that I found a decent set of plans to our new house that give me measurements for the rooms. This is useful because Sherry and I can start planning where furniture will go, etc. The rooms are all larger (some by quite a bit), so we’re having to try to decide where we will put things, and what areas will need to be filled in with future furniture, decorations, etc. While we like things to be a little spread out and sparse (something we couldn’t do in our current home), we need more sitting surfaces in the family room (for example).

Freshman Football Season Starts Tonight

For us, at least. Tonight is Brendon’s school’s opening night for the 2009 High School Freshman Football Season. His school has four home games this year, and they got a bargain-basement announcer: me.

Laugh it up.

I did announcing for every football team Brendon has played on since he started five years ago. I’ve learned a lot about football in that time, and I hope I don’t embarrass myself or my son tonight. I’m pegged to do all four home games, and both games for the Freshmen (that’s about 4 hours of announcing each night). Brendon is on the “A Team” which plays later between the two teams, but I have to announce for both B and A teams, so I will have an entire game to warm-up before my son is out on the field.

I am most definitely looking forward to watching the game, but the only bad part about announcing is that I don’t get to watch my son play when I am up there. I have to watch the ball and the action and comment on it. That doesn’t stop me from watching him from time to time and just staying quiet for the previous play with the exception of possibly stating the obvious: how much yardage was gained or lost on the last play.

Burt Reynolds Museum in Danger!

Or, as a former local resident of Jupiter, Florida called it, the “Turd Ferguson Museum,” likely a reference to the Saturday Night Live Jeopardy skit in which Burt Reynolds (played by Norm McDonald) answers “Turd Ferguson” to one of the questions in the game. Or is it he gives the question to the answer? It is Jeopardy, afterall.

Anyway, the news is that the Burt Reynolds Museum is in danger of closing down. Burt Reynolds was an icon in the 80′s, and every kid I knew loved him and his black Firebird from “Smokey and the Bandit.” The funny part is that while I didn’t know there was a Burt Reynolds Museum, somehow, in the back of my mind, I knew there would be. What’s more shocking than finding out it actually DOES exist is that it’s in danger of being closed down due to development in Jupiter.

I drove through Jupiter a few years ago while taking a short-cut across the center of Florida on my way to visit my grandparents (we were almost involved in an accident there with an 18-wheeler that hit a car right in front of us), I remember remarking to the family in the car with me that we were passing through the hometown of Burt Reynolds. Sherry laughed a little and the kids had no idea who I was talking about.

From reading the linked article, I learned there was also a Liberace museum (I’m sure it’s fabulous!) and even a Shania Twain museum (time flies… I didn’t realize she was fossilized already), but neither of those museums are in danger of losing their lease or location. The Burt Reynolds museum is in danger of losing both to “progress.”

I guess it’s time for Burt to put on the cowboy hat, grab Sally Fields, and do some of that Bandit shit, otherwise the Turd Ferguson Museum may be history for good.

Today’s Project…

Aside from working, during my lunch break, I’m going to make butter. But before I go any further, let me explain something.

I do projects.

They are not projects that are needed to be done, per se; they are not on Sherry’s “Honey do” list. These are projects that I read about and decide I have to try for myself. Some of my former projects include making my own Jobu (from the movie Major League; if you know who he is, then you know what I made), making my own vanilla extract, and making (and using) a compost pile. While some of these projects of mine are actually useful, others are just plain frivolous (Jobu?).

So, back to butter.

I read THIS and decided that I HAVE to try it. I made my own vanilla extract (quite successfully, I might add), and this one looks to be as easy (if not a bit messier) to do.

I will let you all know how it goes after lunch. I am looking forward to this one!

UPDATE: I did it! It took less then five minutes! 1 quart of heavy cream and 1 tbsp of salt in the food processor set on the first (slowest) setting and less than five minutes later, I had this:

After taking it out of the food processor, I had to squeeze the butter to get the remaining buttermilk out of it (also usable if you’re so inclined) after which I put it into a bowl and put it into the refrigerator (but not after sampling it with Brendon and Jamie on some bread).

The flavor is amazing! I’ve read many reviews on making this simple recipe for butter, and everyone said that this is better than any butter you can buy in the store, and they’re right! I had some on Jewish Rye and on French Bread, and it was amazing on both! It’s a little expensive to cook with, but from what I understand, anything made with this butter is also quite phenomenal.

Go ahead and make some butter! You won’t be disappointed!