4 quick topics

Barely holding the Stubbs economy together.

Oliver is growing well and looking great. As much as I like being Dad and or Daddy-O, it will be nice to be Daddy again.

SINGLE PAYER UNIVERSAL COVERAGE NOW!!!! Cigna can kiss my @$$.

The saxer needs distressed, vintage, US saxophones to refurbish and sell for badly needed profit. Everyone thinks their junk is a treasure.

Throw away set opener

Smilin' Bob's Herbal Enhancement Theme (audience surely whistles along) slowly morphing into "Feelin' Groovy" in countermelody. Hilarious, engaging, unforgettable and every band will be angry they didn't think of it first.

"Ban the Nickel" the band

Set 2*:
Super Sex (Morphine)
Democracy is Coming (L. Cohen)
Danny's All Star Joint (Ricky Lee Jones) (w/ guest female vocalist)
36-24-36 (Violent Femmes)
Foggy Notion (Velvet Underground)
Blue Rondo a la Turc (Brubeck)
Harlem Nocturne (a la The Viscounts)
Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Lloyd Price)
Roll With Me Henry (Etta James)
Bad Buisnessman (Sqirrel Nut Zippers) (possibly in medley with E Costello's "This Town")
Lucille / All Around the World (Little Richard)
*DW to redesign set 1 more selfishly and then we mix them up.

Given the average disposition of guitarists, I applaud the attempt to live without one. I wonder how long we can hold out. I wonder if 30- and 40- somethings can recruit a more malleable guitarist than I was able to recruit as a 20 year old. And who can paint a nickel with a red slash through it on a bass drum?

19th Nervous Breakdown

19 weeks until Oliver is due.
19 years until I am out ofthe child-rearing business.
19 years ago Sweet Pea was 19.
O, to be 19 again and to start all this great stuff much, much younger.

To those suddenly concerned about deficit spending...

Go suck an egg.

No, seriously, it's about damned time. Welcome to the side of reason. I hope you can eventually steer your party out of the Reagan/Bush/Bush rut. I may even come back to the party for the first time since Reagan made me insanely ashamed of my party and my vote.

Bow to Clinton!!!! If balanced budgets are so important, you know you want to.

Now that we are like minded, here are a couple of reasons this may not be so bad.

1. We are investing in things we will soon need, and that future generations will absolutely need. Not stupid, wasteful wars, expensive paramilitary contractors, and impractical, godawful expensive defense systems development that will need to be scrapped.

2. Overspending is a temporary measure. Hopefully the "temporary" part is a promise Obama will keep. Hopefully those who ignored 8 years of trends with the previous regime will give Obama longer than 3 months.

3. Clinton deficit spent in 1993 more than Bush the twit did in 1992. Obama 2009 will obviously out-deficit Bush the traitor on 2008. Clinton exceeded expectations of even his own 8 year plan to balance the budget.

Relax. The next eight years will be much more prosperous and peaceful than the previous eight years. Enjoy it. The new, improved, more mellow me will never make you admit it.

In the meantime, in case I am wrong, dear friends, go find for your party the first truly fiscally responsible Republican candidate for president since Nixon. Present him and I'll vote for him.

Why is my state income tax, in the reddest state in the union, more than my federal tax? Why is my student loan interest not deductable on my state return?

Happy tax day everybody. Feeling a little less liberal today, but I'll get over it. It's still a good deal.

We are doomed / Hey baby can I have some spare change?

The damage is done. We will all live in poverty because of the Bush years. It will take a wheelbarrow of dollars to buy a loaf of bread. Why? Because we deserve it. We ordered it and came back for seconds.

Obama is not up to the task. Nobody is. It is time to pay the piper, to suffer for our sins.

I just shot through my miniature paycheck, the first reflecting my 15% cut in pay. Ack!

It'll be a boy

Oliver Zachary Stubbs will be born approximately August 16. All indications are he will be healthy and without abnormalities. 3-D ultrasound is absolutely amazing, and I will post video when I figure out how to do it. He picks his nose, and flashes us a peace sign. Very cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV_d2owgsqE&eurl=http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=little+richard+keep-a-knockin&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=4Be7Sa-uIJb&feature=player_embedded

To illustrate my ridiculous career goal...

A happy Friday the 13th

A short day at work. A buffalo chicken sandwich at ND foods, Daniel's treat. (Sourdough bread piled very high with Boar's Head roasted chicken, buffalo sauce, and a slice [yes, a heart-foolish slice, more like a tombstone sized slab] of bleu cheese.) Thanks again, Daniel. A game of rummy with SweetPea. A healthy dinner. And a viewing of "It Only Takes a Second".

Keep a-Knockin, Lucille

My ultimate career goal is, and always has been, to be sucked back to 1955 and be asked to play saxophone for Little Richard. For some reason I last night devoted my heart and soul to the dilemma that I would face: To play first tenor or baritone sax. To make the best decision, I listened to all 33 Little Richard songs on my mp3 player. In my heart of hearts, I would choose to play the bari. With a day to reconsider, I am sticking to that decision.

More interesting is what that says about me, or at least what it might mean. I have always been something between willing and eager to forfeit the spotlight and the glory. Not that I fear the attention... I relish it when it is thrust upon me. I think what I really love about the bari isn't even the chance to be brilliant and conspicuous for a fraction of a second at the end of every 8 measures, nor the rare solo where the "buffoon on the bassoon" might surprise the listener with my mere competence. Rather, it is the workaday ethic required to be an effective bari player. Get lazy and you become a nuisance and occasional comic relief. Work it hard, attack and release with a sense of precision and somehow at the same time, reckless abandon; you become the vital heart and lungs of a vibrant saxophone section, framing the harmonies and tasty licks of the legit saxophones with sighs, grunts and growls. My tenor player would be aware of what I was doing for him, and isn't the praise of one's peers what we all really crave? The audience's oblivion to my gift would fuel me with a certain superiority. Sure, I'd only know the pleasure of occasionally getting laid from the tenor saxophonist's stories. But wasn't the prospect of casual sex always much better than the casual sex itself?

While we're on sex, isn't the extra curvature on the bari ultra ultra ultra sexy? What the tenor has over the alto, the bari has over them all, to the nth degree. I am sure this is universally observed to be true and incontrovertible.

So, instead of being sucked back 54 years to be non-star in Little Richard's band, why not opt for 20 years back and play for Morphine? Certainly, all the things I love about my Little Richard gig apply to this gig as well plus I'd get to be the man, too. Tempting. It's kind of like pitching and playing center field and shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals at the same time. Who says you can't have it all? Not me.

I just say be careful what you ask for. Dude works his ass off constantly. Hey, I've got a lazy streak. I'm sticking with my original plan, regardless of what anyone might think of me.

Another peer bites the dust and Fistbaby

My company is hemorrhaging money. Guys like me are getting canned every day. For the first time in my career, my numbers verge on stellar, so I feel a little more secure than I would have say any other time. Still... The boss is coming to town next week. I reminded him today I am leaving town next (the same) week and he said "have a nice trip." I am safe for a week.

I forgot to return the chess coach's call. I feel rotten about that. Dorry, Dude.

"Abort Obama" guy should do time. "Kill presidents, not fetuses" is not speech I think worthy of protection. He probably upgraded to a "lynch Obama" emblazoned on a rebel flag before the Secret Service returned his sign anyway. Perhaps I'm a bit hipocritical. My "Waterboard Bush and Cheney" sign isn't exactly Christian.

I do not really have a "Waterboard Bush and Cheney" sign.

Yes, I do.

No, I don't.

Not yet.

PJ ('Pea Junior) is the size of a fist. PJ seems to be very robust and SweetPea Sr. (mama) is frequently ill. I am a laundry / kitchen machine. I can't believe Geezer Saxer will be Geezer Saxer Daddy.

I put a new HDD in my IRiver Jukebox and restored my music library. I have done every repair conceiveable to that thing. If anybody needs technical help or things to avoid when using an IRiver H10 20GB, I'm your man. It's an amazing device. I still have around $100 invested all told and have a massive music storage device. You can pick them off eBay for unter $50. The HDD and the battery are available for $20 each. That's a steal. But do not use Rhapsody. I don't know how, but they don't like each other at all.

It's spring time. Time to refurbish the stunt kite and get ready for the warm, spring winds.

Blueberry is almost a Walnut

The size of my final child when I first saw his/her heartbeat was that of a blueberry. Blueberry is now almost a walnut, and apparently fit as a fiddle. Not smoking is going well. A little relapse for the OU-Florida game (the sound you hear is my heart crushed) and right back on the wagon. A happy, healthy new year for us all.