Link: http://www.icehousebrass.org

We had a great season - although, it didn't seem as hectic as last year. Which oddly enough, only had 2 more dates than we did this season.

Tonight we played at The Historic Stables at Fort Concho. Usually, we play in the Officer's Quarters for the Sons of the Confederacy, but this year they decided to get all of the groups together and hold a combined event. I'm not entirely sure which groups were in attendance, but one of the groups brought their own entertainment to add to the show - a Scottish Bag-Piper in full regalia (yes, kilt and all - didn't ask about undergarments). The guy was awesome - plain and simple. Unfortunately, also a tough act to follow.

Donna kinda messed up and told us to be there at 5:30PM, which was about an hour too early - but we used that time to rehearse a little and goof off with a couple of other tunes we didn't work out this year.

There was a photographer on-site this year, so we actually got a decent group shot this time. I'm the tall guy in the back.

Click for the bigger picture

I think we need to be a little more proactive with our next gigs and have more music ready - there's too much dead-space between tunes, and we have nothing "ready" if anybody wants an encore. There are plenty of tunes in our library, and I honestly feel we should be ready to play just about all of them if asked - just my opinion though.

So my pal Dave hooked me up with an early Christmas present from iTunes - the Synergy Brass Christmas album... awesome!

I tried to redeem it using the link in the e-mail iTunes generated, but it insisted I needed iTunes to run and it couldn't find the installation of iTunes on my machine (version 6.05 - came with my free iPod Nano from my 20th High School Class Reunion). I ran iTunes independently of the iTunes website's griping, and it finally figured out that I did indeed have a working copy of iTunes - finally. Now it's asking for a 'redeem code'... and I got nuthin' (the iTunes e-mail didn't provide one - apparently they just assume that when you click the 'Redeem Now' button on their website, everything will work flawlessly - silly me... I was thinking the Mac-user video was just satire).

So, I figured I should maybe set up an iTunes account and attack it using my e-mail address as my 'Apple ID,' and no luck there. I tried to sign up for a new account about 5 times, and it got stuck on the Payment screen each time. I chose PayPal, and it sent me to PayPal's site so I could establish the payment agreement (which PayPal did each time - no worries... ), but everytime I followed the directions to go back to iTunes. I went back to iTunes to 'Continue', and it shot me right back to PayPal and tried to set up another payment agreement (a whole new one from the one I had just established). I'm just glad I could cancel them so I didn't have multiple agreements and get charged several times for the same thing.

So after twenty minutes of fighting with that, I figured it was a problem with the version that came with my iPod Nano (v 6.05) - but nope. I downloaded version 8 (the latest on their site), and it did the exact same thing.

I'm totally convinced that iTunes is one of the biggest POS's I've encountered - the only redeeming quality is that it allows me to update my iPod - when it feels like allowing me to do so, that is... and if that's all it would do, I'd be satisfied. I know that's all I ever use it for, and it sometimes can't even do that very well (can't find my iPod and doesn't recognize the iPod even when Windows Explorer can pull it up as a Flash Drive after iTunes bombs out). I hope the rest of life as a Mac user doesn't roll like that.

Sadly, I think this might become one of those things that's just going to sit out there that Dave paid for and I can't get to - and that would suck. If I can't get this resolved, I'm hoping maybe there's a way for him to redeem the gift and himself and get a copy or something.

I'm stumped - and I just set up my own SMTP/POP3 e-mail server yesterday. So I don't think it's because I'm stupid or computer-illiterate or anything.

Today was fun.

Got up for rehearsal with the the choir at The Heights church for tomorrow's service - that was pretty fun, but even with just the four of us (two trumpets and two euphoniums) we can severely over-power the choir.

At 6:00PM, the Ice House Brass was invited to play at a block party in a cul-de-sac just a few streets away. They had all their homes decorated to the nines with lights and yard art - one of the homes kept popping their breakers (no, they weren't related to Tim Taylor or Clark Griswold).

We had a great time and everyone seemed to enjoy our music. Stuck around afterward for way too many treats and good company.

Wow - what a messed up week this has been. A little background on what a CSA is: Client Support Administrator - which means I get to take first shot at troubleshooting and repairing issues that pop-up on the computers in the office.

Last weekend, the Regional SysAdmins pushed some patches that jacked up our smart card reader software, so I arrived back to work after a week of being TDY to all of our machines being down. Monday was a complete bust because the local SysAdmins really didn't know what was wrong or how to fix it. A friend of mine tried some stuff that made his machine even worse, but later found out what the fix was. He shared it with me, and we were able to get things squared away in the shop before lunch on Tuesday.

Of course, there were all sorts of other ankle-biter issues with the machines the rest of the week, in addition to the rest of the tasks I'm supposed to be doing. Needless to say, I'm a little behind on some things. Hopefully, things will behave a bit next week - I'm hoping to get in some study time so I can knock out my Security+ certification before I head to San Antonio in January for CISSP training (and hopefully a successful test).

The bright, shining part to this day was our office Christmas Party at lunchtime. Some of our old friends from the office that have moved on came by and enjoyed lunch and some fellowship with the rest of us - had a gift exchange, played some Christmas-time Bingo, and caught up with everybody. All-in-all, a nice time, as always.

Awesome! Ice House Brass played the gig at one of our favorite places: the Commissary at Fort Concho. We sound really good in there because of the near-concert hall quality acoustics.

As always, the Archaeological Society put on quite the spread and invited use to stay for dinner as well. I'm pretty sure I ate more than my fair share of great food - but, there was WAY more than plenty to go around.

I hope they'll keep up the tradition of having us play again next year.

I messed up. I'm supposed to be playing our Sunday Ice House Brass gig at Fort Concho right now... but I misread Donna's e-mail - I though it was for 3:00PM (like yesterday), but Nope - it was 2:00PM.

I was just stepping out of the shower when she called and asked if I was going to be there. Uhh - no... sorry - my bad.

OK - Today was way too crazy.

I got up early to head back from San Antonio, and things decided to work against me.

As I was driving out of the hotel's parking lot, I realized I still needed to pick up some Brisket Rub from Rudy's for my pal Mike (from work). The only Rudy's I remember the exact location was on 151 right down from the Radisson Hill Country (where the conference usually is held). So I hopped on I-37, then US-90, then 151 and got to Rudy's. They're also a convenience store with gas, so I grabbed a couple snacks and filled up the car before getting on the road down 1604 - things are good. Right up until I found an accident on 1604 and sat between on/off-ramps for about 45 minutes while the SAPD figured out how to get traffic moving again. No biggee though, I still had time to get home before the 2:30PM Brass Band gig at Fort Concho.

I rolled into town around 1:45PM, got home, unloaded my bags, changed clothes, and headed over to Fort Concho. Got there with about 5 minutes to spare, only to find out those annoying clog dancers that held us up for almost a half hour last year were running over their time again. Geez - it's not like they're that good or anything.

So we played for only a half hour - which kinda sucked because we didn't have to be at the Christmas Celebration downtown (more like 4 blocks away) until 5:00PM - and we were done by 3:45PM. We should've just kept playing. Oh well - I went home and changed out of my white shirt (I hate just plain white shirts... makes me feel like a Mormon Missionary or something).

Got to the Community Band gig at 5:00PM and helped unload the percussion instruments and music stands out of the truck. My mom showed up and we played our tunes. They lit the 'lights on a stick' and everybody was happy.

So then I helped load the stuff back into the truck, and had Mom follow me home (she got lost or something because I beat her by like 20 minutes). Once she got there, we took off for the airport so I could drop off the rental car (yeah, that's how close things were - didn't even have time for that).

Went to IHOP - had 'breakfast' and went back to the house. Watched Jeff Dunham's Christmas Special (again, so Mom could see it) and I think I'll be able to crash around midnight (not too long after I get done with this).

Gees - long-ass crazy day

No - not the magazine by the same name.

Had some fun today. My pal Dave and I hooked up with another friend (Jim) and decided to run the R/C Cars today. My boss brought his son by to check out the cars, and he wound up driving the Super NRS4 around for a bit.

I think just about everything short of flames and explosions happened today: spectacular 'endo' crashes, radio interference, blown engine, seized transmission, and most importantly - a good time was had by all.

I need to remember to take the cam-corder out one of these times... or at least the camera or something.

Just finished playing the first gig of the season with the Ice House Brass for a celebration feast at 'The Heights' church. Our French Horn player, Doug, asked if we might play as entertainment for the meal, and stay for food and fellowship afterwards.

We had fun, played rather well actually, and enjoyed way more than our fair share of good food.

Call us back anytime, Doug.

Here I am blogging from the Student Conference sponsored by the Concho Valley AITP branch. I just got tagged to make a sponsors powerpoint presentation for the awards ceremony backdrop and the backdrop for the evening social as well.

Big fun!

AWESOME!

I just got back from the 10th Annual Goodfellow AFB Car Show, and had a ball. There were something like 90 cars entered, along with 10 or so 'Hot Boats,' and about 20 cool motorcycles. All of the cars were either pristinely maintained originals, meticulously restored, or customized. With the exception of my ratty old Jeep, there was not a beater car to been seen.

My pals Mike Campbell, Rod Carter, and Jim Eimer won 'Best in Class' awards with their awesome entries. Mike brought his beautiful pearl-white Harley Davidson Road King and won the 'Best American Touring Bike' award. Rod won the 'Best Metric Touring Bike' award with his vintage Royal Enfield Bullet w/sidecar. Jim won '70-79 Modified' with his cool '74 Jeep CJ-5.

Something I learned this time out: there are two new classes, "80-89 Stock" and "80-89 Modified." I've been competing in the '70-79 Modified' class even though my Jeep is actually a 1980 model (technically, it was built in 1979), but the class the covered my Jeep covered all cars from 1980-present. I never had a shot at an award because of all the cool newer model 'Vettes, Camaros, Trans Ams, Mustangs, and other cool modern hot-rods. Based on what I saw of the '80s models that showed up, I need to 'represent' my real class... and should stand some good chances to win some awards as a result.

Regardless, it's all good. I was thrilled that Mike, Rod, and Jim won their classes - it would've been cool if my other pal Harry LaClair could've won as well with his awesome Ural w/sidecar, but he was competing with Rod - and someone had to win. (Personally, I think his daughter's pink plastic backpack kinda worked against him...)

But everybody had fun and it was good. I kept up my tradition of getting sunburned (so I now look like a raccoon), but I bought a new battery for the Jeep this year and didn't have any problems starting it up when it was time to leave this time. Kinda broke tradition there (since I normally need a jump-start after running Jim's cooler in my back seat all day).

Can't wait til next year - I should have a new front bumper, some nerf bars, and maybe even a new rear bumper (so I can maybe finally get the new rear corners installed that Jim gave me as a Christmas present something like 4 years ago). I've also taken some advice from some of my pals and have decided to name my Jeep 'Predator' (because they say it looks mean with the fenders open) so I'll be airbrushing some Predator hood art before then as well.

After that - I'll be looking to dump the AMC 360 in... and even further down the line - new paint. But that'll be another few years maybe. We'll see.

Whew! Finally!

I started today in my new position as a GG-12 'permanent' employee. Actually, I'm doing the same job as I was Friday, except that I'm no longer worried about getting let go for coming to the end of my 'term.'

Now I just need to keep my nose clean for the next year's 'probation' phase and keep running my program to keep the bosses happy.

I'm also on-hook to earn the industry-recognized certifications demanded of my position - can't hide behind 'being a Temp' any longer. Time to knuckle down for Security+ and CISSP.

Oh yeah - I've also received a pay-grade increase as well as eligibility for retirement benefits and insurance coverage... so it'll be nice to not have to worry about those things.

Been awhile since I've updated this.

Today is my last day as a 'Temporary status' GG-11 employee. It's been a year now since I was hired into my current position, so my time is up.

Fortunately, my boss has worked wonders and gotten me hired into my new 'permanent' position beginning Monday.

... was a huge hit!! I took it to Brass Band rehearsal this evening and everybody loved it.

It took me a bit of playing, but I actually started getting used to it tonight. I hadn't actually played it much since receiving it Friday afternoon, and tonight was the first real opportunity to play it. Everybody was impressed with how well-preserved the horn is, and even said the more I played it through the evening, the better I sounded. I guess that's mostly because of settling into playing it. It's a lot different experience than playing one of the Euphoniums or Baritones - it's a much smaller 'cylindrical' bore, whereas the Euphonium has a 'conical' bore - meaning the sound has more space to fill, making the sound 'darker' and more mellow. The smaller bore on the Trombone is consistent, so the sound fills in quickly and moves through the horn - producing a 'brighter,' brassier sound. As a result, my intonation was all over the place early on, but as I got use to the new sound and way I had to play it, the intonation settled down quite a bit. I actually started to get some decent sounds out of the horn.

I also have a bit of a sore back now, since I must actually sit up straight to play this horn. I didn't realize how much I 'lean' on my Euphonium (and Baritone) when I play them. I have some 'woodshed' work to do on several pieces we're going to play for the Butterfield Trail Days celebration in a few weekends in Grape Creek. So, hopefully, my sound with the 'new' horn will only get better.

Had to babysit the Art Club Gallery today. Pretty boring - helped out one of the ladies print labels for mailing (the files were all jacked up, so I fixed them).

Got some 'marching orders' for some changes to the website.

Pretty 'blah' day overall.

Still no word about the job situation. This is getting to be pretty irritating, since I have no idea if I've even filtered through the computer-aided review process. AFPC was supposed to provide the listing and resumes to my boss by COB Thursday - but he's got nada. Hopefully, Monday something will break loose.

Got my 'new' 1922 Conn Valve Trombone today - it's in awesome shape, considering it's an 86-year-old horn - I'll post pictures on the Music page soon. Plays fine, valves are smooth and fast, and all of the slides pull fine as well. The case is even in decent shape - even though I know it's not the original case, it'll work and has lots of room inside. The horn is pretty tarnished, but not nearly as beat-up as it could be - the biggest bad patch is on the bell right next to where the valve-body lives, so it probably isn't even that noticeable when played - and it's only some minor wrinkling... nothing too horrible. The rest has some minor scratches and tiny 'dings' here and there - again, not bad considering the age. This should be a nice fit into the Brass Band motif - I just hope I can play it as well as I do my Euphonium and Baritone (well... as 'well' as I play, anyway...)

Made it through having the bosses up from HQ AETC - good bunch of guys.

Mr. Murphy is retired now, so we won't have him as a viable resource anymore - he's a virtual wealth of historic information, not to mention an outstanding mentor and friend. But, the man's done his time (41+ years of service to the Air Force) and I wish him nothing but the best in his retirement.

Still no word on the job situation yet - even though I've been assured by those in power that I have nothing to worry about. Hopefully, it'll get squared away next week in time for the pay-period issue not to cause a gap in employment. No biggee if it does, but it would be nice not to lose leave or my time spent this past year towards retirement.

Hopefully, it'll quit raining long enough to dry out the ground so I can mow the lawn by Monday.

So I get home and my wife tells me it's the drain pan in the A/C unit overflowing. She put a pan under it and it's been collecting water all day. So I get out there and commence to taking the box enclosing the evaporator apart and discovered there's no way for me to actually fix anything with that panel off.

OK - so I took the drain system apart and water began running out of it once I 'rooted' out the fitting that goes into the drain pan. Ran the shop-vac and sucked out the rest of the pan water.

After more cleaning and reassembling of parts I removed, 2 hours later the A/C was back together and running fine. I emptied and put the pan back under the unit (just in case - I know my luck when water where it's not supposed to be is involved). So far, so good. Although, no drips means it's either working properly, or the pan hasn't filled up yet.

I take no chances.

What I'm listening to right now: "In the Mood" - Preston Lloyd Big Band (one of my Beginning Band teacher's current band efforts - makes me smile when I hear it.)

So I burned a day of leave trying to find a reason for there to be water on the floor in the hallway bathroom. There were no new plumbing issues that I could find, no leaks from recent rain storms, and the A/C evaporator seems to be draining just fine. Beats the crap out of me. Spent 2 hours trying to find a reason for the water to be there - Damned if I know.

Let it go... if it's a leak, it'll get worse. If it's a roof leak, it'll happen again with the next storm. Hopefully, it'll make itself known sooner than later. I hate mysteries.

What I'm listening to right now: En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor (Brass Band tune featuring a Flugelhorn solo from the movie "Brassed Off!"

I went out to the base to see how things are progressing along with the Arts & Crafts Center and more specifically, the Auto Hobby Shop.

The Arts & Crafts Center is really nice. It's roughly 4 times the size it was before - and very poorly designed. The entire building is supposed to be one complete facility, yet whomever was responsible for the layout unwittingly (or maybe intentionally) segregated the Auto Hobby Shop from the rest of the facility. The only way to get from one side of the building to the other, is to walk straight through the middle of the Wood Shop. Since the Wood Shop is also smack in the middle of the facility, ALL of the patrons of the Arts & Crafts Center now get to hear plenty of 'shop noises' as a result. As well, this critical flaw now cuts off the major lavatory facilities from the part of the building who will potentially be using (and needing) them the most. It's a nice facility... just not very well thought out with a single-minded, purpose-driven solution.

The Auto Hobby Shop itself is pretty nice - but there's some major things that should've been done differently in there as well. Not everything was doable, because the work done was basically an addition to the building using existing walls - some being structurally integral. Some of the other considerations seem to be, again, not well thought-out... almost like there was absolutely no input from the people who would be running this part of the facility.

But oh well - like always, the Auto Hobby Shop will function and get used to the 'newness.' Hopefully, it won't take TOO long, since I still need to replace the clutch on my Honda ASAP! (before it gives up on me)