Calvin's Weblog

Wassup?

Well, another busy-busy week has passed, and a new one has started.
I bottled beer a week ago, and have two bottles left, without so much as a hangover to show for it - next time I'll brew stronger beer. Nobody should consume 23 litres of beer in 8 days without getting one good drunk out of it... must've been defective.
Oh yeah, I can drink again, by the way... it turns out, consuming alcohol doesn't seem to cause my gallbladder any grief. Cool!
I've also been eating really well the past couple of weeks. This last week alone, I made Tandoori Chicken on Basmati rice, Cochinita Pibil (slow roasted pork) on long grain rice, Broiled Halibut and olives a la Calvin, and last night, I made an amazing Ceasar Tomatto Basil roasted Chicken on Fusilli that totally rocked. Yeah, I'm still eating healthy (no fast food or pop, or deap fried or fatty foods), but I've certainly added a lot more veriety to the diet. I'm up to 200lbs again too...

My brother and Dad have been over for a week too, renovating my basement and adding lots of nifty new features to my workshop and studio. Job well done, guys! Thinks are looking so cool down there. When we first moved in, the first thing I said I'd do was finish the basement, and I made a lot of progress in the first 3 months, building two rooms - but then there it sat for three years, incomplete... Thanks again guys for all the help. Amazing work! When I get the wet-bar and pool table in there, everyone's invited over for a big party ;-)

The band had also been plugging along at recording, though no real progress was made last week. We've hit a few snags, and progress has been slow, but it's nothing we can't overcome, and hopefully tonight we'll make some headway.
I also have rented (and returned and re-rented) a couple of bass rigs over the past week, with the expectation of purchasing a new amp setup soon. I had my heart set on a SWR 750x rig, as that's what Godsmack and Static-X use, but no dealer in Canada could get one in in less than 8 weeks - plus,nobody would bring one in unless I put a deposit down... I want to TRY one before I buy one, but they say they won't bring one in unless I promise to buy it. Lame... So I decided to rent an SWR 350x to see if the technology sounded good, even though I'd be ordering the more powerful version. The only one available was at the Surrey Long & McQuade, so I had to trek into no man's land. I got the amp back to the studio, tried it out, and IT SUCKED! It buzzed like a mo-fo, had absolutely NO guts, made terrible discharge squeals when it was powered off, and didn't even have good tone dispite all the flaws, so I trekked back into no man's land the next day to return it and try something else. What I finally walked out of there with was a Gallien-Krueger 700RB. And Whoah, I love it. It's half the price of the SWR, but had about triple the power (it's rating is similar, but has WAY more balls) plus it's got so many extra features that I think I've found a winner. I've only played it for about 1/2 an hour, but I'm sure I want to buy it. Now I've gotta try-and-buy speakers... that's gonna be fun...

Anyway, like I said, it was a busy week... the weather has been nice, even though we woke up to a surprise snowfall yesterday morning, it's back to blue skies and green grass today. The days are getting noticeably longer already, and I'm starting to yearn for the beach. Ski season didn't even begin this year, and though I kinda regret not even getting up the slopes once, it's not too bad - I want spring to come now anyway.

Gotta run, more work to do...