My rainy day craft box

I posted a huge entry about my birthday and it disappeared. I posted a pissed off short version and it didn't cross post. So this is the last fucking try.

I turned 37.

My aunt died on the same day.

My wife and my friends threw me a great party in spite of the loss.

I am happy and think my life will be better this year.

Fuck blogging. No one cares anyway.

My parents finally have a sump pump installed in their basement, replacing the old gravity drain that was the source of so much trouble. I haven't been over there to look but apparently the plumber crews (who have been over there for days on end,) had to jackhammer up a bunch of the concrete. Hopefully the pump will help my folks rest easier and avoid any future floods until they can finally get out of there.

Last night I went with megiloth and thanis_bloodsto to see Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel at the Midland theatre. These are three of the royalty of thrash metal and believe it or not, I had never seen any of them live until tonight. They each did a hell of a job. I was expecting Anthrax to be fun but just okay since they had one album a absolutely loved and several that were just alright to me, and I haven't really gotten into their newer stuff. To my surprise they really put on an amazing show! This was in spite of their guitarist Scott Ian being out due to a sudden illness. Fortunately, all the guitarists from the other two bands took turns filling his spot, each one playing about 3 songs each. Joey Belladonna (Anthrax's singer) kept apologizing for the situation but it really created a fun atmosphere with all the bands helping out.

Of the three acts Testament was definitely the LOUDEST. They are one act where you know for sure you have just seen a METAL band. They were the one I most wanted to see and they did not disappoint.

Working backwards, that brings me to Death Angel. They are an extremely hard-working band, touring constantly, and been around just as long as the other two, yet they've never managed to work their way up to main event status. I cannot figure out why because they deliver tight, intricate songs that are as brutal as they are beautiful. They've been through KC several times this year and missed them each time until now and I am really regretting it.

The disappointing aspect of the concert for me was that each band had at least two songs I really wanted to hear live and NONE of them played ANY of them! They all somehow managed to play every other big song the had except the ones I most wanted. I expect that from a band every now and then. But three in a row? Come on.

Good show overall and also it was at the Midland Theatre which as I always love to point out was built at the end of the 19th century and as a result is filled with statues and gold paint and motherfucking carved gods and angels and shit. Perfect place to hold a metal show. Every metal show needs to be in a place like that.

Next concert will be Children of Bodom/Eluviete a week from Monday and it will be at the much more austere setting of the Granada in Lawrence KS. Not as pretty as the Midland but I'll manage.

I keep really wanting to post LJ entries but find myself without the energy to do so after a long day's work. Of course that is frustrating because busy days are when the most stuff worth blogging about happens.

M. and I are gradually getting moved into the new house. We still have an overwhelming amount of work to do there but I'm hoping this week to take a big bite out of it. We really don't have that much to move: there's a lot of big heavy stuff that it would just be cheaper and easier to replace than to move so we're leaving it here. But cleaning up the house really will be a chore. Part of me looks forward to the task but mostly I look forward to having it finished.

I had to replace my mp3 player because the one I had got crushed somehow. In hindsight, carrying it in my pocket at work was about the stupidest thing I could have done. I wound up buying a another Sansa Fuse, this time a used one off of Amazon. I was reluctant to buy a used mp3 player but all the new ones in my price range lacked a port for additional memory and the Fuse has really spoiled me with that. So I rolled the dice and took my chances. It got here in record time and while I've only had it since yesterday, I've got to say I think this Fuse works better than my old one did when it was new. I am very pleased and oh MAN does it feel good to be able to listen to music on my breaks at work again. I was getting pretty irritable not having that option. It has left me unable to do any writing at work. I find I really need to get between my headphones in order to be able to achieve the focus necessary for writing. It has been difficult to resist the urge to just put my headphones on and leave them there.

Having learned my lesson I ordered a carrying case for this player. It hasn't arrived yet but I am being extra careful in the meantime and not carrying it on my person at work. I don't normally get excited over Amazon sellers. Most of the time I barely even look at their name, I just order the product and forget about them, but I am really pleased with the fast service and getting such an (apparently) good deal. The control wheel is pretty scratched up but it the actual functionality of the player seems sound in all respects. My old player was blue, this one is red. So when it lights up it looks like a bad guy from TRON instead of a good guy from TRON but that is okay. Also, the red coloring is appropriate given that it is a Sansa :)

My mom won big at the casino yesterday so today my parents treated themselves to two new flat screen TV's. I feel they've earned it, especially since my mother recently lost about two thirds of the money in her work profit sharing. It was money she had been planning to put toward new TV's after the first of the year once she was sure it wouldn't be needed to pay taxes. But it all got taken away from her. I told her that she is the 99%. She wasn't aware of the Occupy Wall Street situation so I got to tell her about it and we had a nice little discussion on economics in this country. Anyway, I am glad some serendipity happened for my parents. She won almost exactly the amount of money as she lost out of her profit sharing and they were able to get what they've been wanting after all. Of course it makes me very wistful because I still want a second bass and a second six-string even though I no longer have a band to play with, but with moving money will be extremely tight for a while. Still, we need goals to work for and seeing other people get the things they want is good motivation to go after the things you want a little harder.

Speaking of, I have work to do. I hope everyone had a good weekend.