mastering with the macbook

Last night Johnny came over after work. We got the macbook working as a mastering machine and it seemed to work well. We got audio to record into the ‘mac’ side of the macbook onto a program called ‘Audacity’.
We got the windows side to work using adobe audition and it worked well. It took a while to get it all set up but it seems to work well. We finished up at around 8pm and I went to the library and then to get milk at 7-11.
I talked to Sara for a long time from the library to the store to home. She is happy and her retainer is working out ok for her. She seems happy and is not complaining about it. She deserves a good reward for handling it so well.
I have been listening to a lot of Akiko Yano. At the moment the CD ‘Oui Oui’ is playing in my headphones. I find great inspiration in her work.

duck at the watershed

Yesterday (Monday April 23) was a pretty good day. At work I had a different assignment and I got to work up in a radar shelter. It was high off the ground and It was a nice day to be up on the big platform.
After work, it was really really nice out! I got home and opened up the back room and it was great. I started doing a lot of stuff around the house. I was downloading videos from youtube also (Yuki, Clammbon, Hikki, Akiko, etc..).
I called Johnny and he came over at about 7pm or so. We hung out and played some pinball and we tried to get the stereo mix into the macbook. I tried garageband and also audition (on the windows side of the macbook). After trying for about a half hour I gave up. I need to do some research on it which I am doing today.
I am not sure if garageband can do what I need it to do but if not there seems to be some freeware that may work perfectly. We also started setting up drum mics. The drums are in the main room and I am close to having the studio functioning nicely for the time being. Major updates for all my stuff are in order but I can’t afford it right away.
I talked to Sara and she was getting things for her field trip. She is going today to the Watershed in Hopewell. Generally, the weather is great and that really makes a huge difference in attitude. I have some much good energy. Getting outside and moving around and feeling the fresh air makes a big, big difference.

return of the claw

I am sitting at Panera. It’s been a while since I have been here. I had a bear claw. The claw did not stand a chance. It was mighty good. It is Sunday morning/early afternoon at 12:20pm. I am going to blog on the last couple of days. Metheny-like jazz fusion plays above me, but I tune it in and out of my mind.

First of all. The weather. It is spring in a big way and it feels great. The weather finally broke and it broke in a big way.  It was cold, rainy and cloudy until two days ago. Friday the 20th it was really nice, and then yesterday it was flat out warm spring. Temps soared into the 70’s and it was t-shirt time. Today is even nicer, temps will soar.. outdoor time. Full spring in bloom. Just when it felt like it would never get here, it just came suddenly and it is very welcome!

Friday I left work and went right to the Quakerbridge mall to meet Sara and Genie. At 2pm Friday Sara got her dental brace. I was surprised at what it looked like. It was not what I expected. it is a large metal plate/gizmo thing in the roof of her mouth. It does not come out. At first they said it would come out during school hours but now it seems like a permanent fixture. Sara handled it well. It must feel very funny for her in her mouth. It seems like it would bother her. She was happy when I met her at the store and Genie had to take care of some things so I took Sara out into the mall. She was happy that she got to shop. The first stop was the dollar store and Sara got a few pieces of jewelry and a ring and a Sponge Bob balloon. It was cute. She still loves ole’ Spongey. Then we got a hello kitty necklace at Claires and a “Blue” patch from Fosters at Hot Topic. At first Sara did not want to go into Hot Topic but I told her ‘trust me’. She liked it.  We had to find soft food for Sara so we went to Red Moon pizza. Sara got baked ziti and we got slices. When the food stuck to the top of Sara’s brace she got upset. She also bit her cheek while trying to chew on the side. The melted cheese really got stuck to her and she started to cry a little. She said ‘I am having a really bad day’ and she was really upset. I tried to patiently explain to her that sometimes life can bring these inconveniences and that she was handling it well and that it was temporary and it would feel better once she got a bit more used to it. She calmed down and we went to get ‘cold stone’ ice cream and she got really happy. We were listening to J.A.M and eating ice cream in the car and it was nice. Sara was laughing and happy until I said goodnight about a half hour later and she drove away.

The next day I was worried about Sara but when I finally talked to Genie she said that Sara was happy and that she had a good night. ‘She is downstairs making muffins’ Genie told me. It was a busy day around the house. With doors and windows open it ws a great time to get all kinds of suff done aroudn the house so i did. I was very busy all day with music playing and me doing all sorts of cool stuff around the house. I decided to take over the whole house so I told Tom that I will not be renting him the room on the weekend. He was not too pleased about it. It was good for him. It will be nice to have the entire space to setup the way I need to use it. The studio will be in full swing and I can work on some music and really play and write more. Plus, I want to use the kitchen upstairs. I will be hanging upstairs again! I like it, it brings back memories. I lived up there for so long before.

So last night Genie and Sara came over and Sara was great! She was in a great mood, she never complained once about her brace. She played pinball and we went to the Chinese place. She got wonton soup and we also got lo mein and cho fun so she tried a little bit of that on side. We watched two Simpsons episodes while we ate. We went to shop rite also and we got cream sickles and ice cream sandwhiches for dessert. We had our ice cream and watched ‘Bart Star’ from episode three. Sara and all of us were very, very happy. I felt great. We also watched a little bit the of the Utada United DVD and Sara watched intently. She drove away a very happy duck. She never complained one single time about the brace. I told her in the van before she left that she was handling it better than anyone and that she would be rewarded. She is amazing.

After she was upset on Friday I had a lump of worry in my throat all day Saturday while wondering how she was doing and now I feel fine because I think she will handle this brace OK.

Sara has some ’songs’ that she wants to record. So I showed her the space where the board is setup she told Genie: ‘I saw where I am going to record my songs and I saw where the flower guy sleeps’.

setting up the studio

Sunday Johnny stopped by and helped me moved my stuff upstairs. I moved the studio stuff back into the old studio room upstairs. It is comfortable up there and it should be getting warm next week so I can work up there.
It was raining very hard all day Sunday. John and I also played pinball and astroids. It was a good hang. We went to dunkin doughnuts and each got breakfast sandwiches for lunch. Yummy, indeed.
In the news there is a lot happening. Imus got fired for saying ‘Nappy headed ho’s’. A Chinese college student opened fire in Virgina at V-tech and killed 30 people. The weather is a big issue this year. Our weather has been all over the place.
It stayed warm an extra month, now it is staying cold for an extra month.
sunday Sara called me and said she wanted a fish. Genie did not want to get it because she had taxes to finish. But Sara cried and we felt bad. She said ‘I am always at home when my friends are playing and I have no brothers and sisters’ while she was crying. Boy, that did hurt, hearing her say that.

Monday and Tuesday – quiet.
Wednesday – quiet – watched ‘The Departed’.
Thursday – Johnny came over and we set up the studio upstairs (part 2). I got the monitors working and the mic inputs going. Everything is more or less set up. I just need to mike the drums again and I am fully setup for everything including drums. I will probably be working in the studio this weekend. I am going to start using the kitchen upstairs also. It will be good to get exercise on the stairs because I will be going up and down a lot.

Watched some of ‘Farce of the Penquins’ last night. It had some funny moments.

the bunny came

The Bunny came. It is the next day and I am still so happy that I want to cry with joy.
Sara was great yesterday. She had a happy Easter. I woke up around 9am and I was calling Sara all morning but they did not answer. Finally I got a hold of Genie at around 1pm.
She said that Sara was happy. Then I talked to Sara and she said she was waiting for me to come so she could go outside and collect her eggs. The night before she told me that the Easter bunny brought ‘Eggs’. The way she said ‘Eggs’ in a whisper was really cute.
I asked her what was in the eggs, ‘Money’ she whispered again. So I asked Sara if the bunny came and she got excited ‘The bunny came! The bunny came!’. I gave Tom Peterson a ride to the train station and he gave me some flowers to give to Sara and Genie. After that I arrived at Sara’s house at around 4:30pm.
Sara was all ready to go outside and collect her eggs so we did. It was really cold outside (it is cold again today also). So we did not spend much time outside but Sara went around the whole yard picking up her eggs and I was taking pictures. It was great and she was happy. She used her ‘Hello Kitty’ basket to pick up the eggs.
When we got inside she was anxious to count all the change that was in her eggs. She counted around $15. Not bad for some plastic eggs. She was happy with everything. I was very, very happy. There is nothing like being with Sara on the holidays. It is the greatest feeling in the world.
So we hung out and ate some candy and we were watching ‘Robots’ in the background but not really watching. Then it was dinner time and the food was really good. Chicken, potatoes, blueberry muffins, some Mexican stuff and the brown rice, plus more. It was a feast and I ate a lot. We had ‘peeps’ at the table so we were playing with them (biting the heads off, etc..). Sara ate two peeps but she said that she only eats them on Easter. I am glad about that, they are all sugar. Eventually after dinner we played with some of her Xbox games (Star Wars, Cars). It was fun. I wanted her to try her new Star Wars Xbox game but she did not want to try it. We spent time on the steps saying goodnight and I went home and did some computer stuff and wash before crashing.

It was a perfect day with Sara as usual. I love her so much. I am so happy that I can’t express it. I just keep thinking of her all day and how lucky I am to have Sara and Genie. Today they are supposed to come over after work. I am leaving work soon. Out.

Monday night (4/9). Sara came over after work and we hung out for a while. She was wearing earings and sunglasses when she came. We basically just hung out for a couple of hours but it was really nice.
She played on the computer for a while and then we went to grab a pizza at Nino’s. When we went for the pizza, I asked Sara if she wanted to hear Kirsty and she said ‘yeah’. So we listened to a few songs from Titanic days in the car while we drove around the back neighborhood behind Nino’s and Ewing High.

It was a bit cold but the sun was shining very brightly. So it was nice to be driving around. Sara was singing loudly at times and that made me happy. I was in a good mood. I was happy to be with Sara. When we got home we watched some Simpsons but Sara wanted to watch ‘Hoodwinked’ instead, so we watched about half of that before she had to leave.
I like ‘Hoodwinked’, it’s pretty funny. At one point we got Sara to cuddle with us on the couch while watching the movie. It seems strange to me sometimes that she will grow up and we won’t be able to cuddle like that anymore. It breaks my heart to think like that, but it’s a natural feeling. I was trying to take pictures of Sara but she was not in the mood.
The trees are not really blooming yet except for the white/red blossoms. Those trees bloom first, weeks before the others. I will keep an eye out for the blooming trees now and I also need to find some cherry blossoms (Sakura).

Right now it’s Wednesday night and I am at home. ‘Man of the Year’ is on in the background as I catch up on computer stuff. Working with slideshow pro. Thinking of the best way to get the studio updated also.

here comes the bunny

The bunny is coming. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. Wow,Easter is early this year. It just kind of happened. It still feels like winter. Especially today and yesterday. It got cold again. Today was really cold. It felt like February. It was in the low 40’s. Not much sun, mostly cloudy. I did not even realize that it was Easter until Thursday. I saw it on the calender.

Tonight I went to the mall area around dinner time. I first went to the dollar store on Olden ave. I got Sara some grass for her Easter basket, some bunny ears, a lighted bunny face, plastic eggs. At target I got Sara some playdough eggs, some empty eggs, some candy kit kats and orange hershey kisses. I had already gotten her some things like a Hello Kitty easter basket and some stuff animals. I got her a Hello Kitty bag at Claires and I got her a stuffed bunny at American Greetings. She told me about a big bunny there but it was not there when I checked so I got the smaller one. Anyway, after shopping I went to meet Sara at the birthday party that she went to. It was on Rt.33 in Hamilton. It was at a baseball place. ‘Diamond Baseball’ or something. It was ok, Sara had fun playing indoor baseball and she was really cute and happy. They played wiffle ball and Sara got up to the plate twice. She hit the ball on the first pitch. Genie and I were really having a great time watching her. After the party we were in the paking lot and Sara and I decided to go to the Mall. Sara wanted to go to the dollar store because she had three dollars. We rode to the mall down Quakerbridge road. We were listening to Kirsty ‘Soho Square’ and ‘Titanic Days’. Sara found some easter stickers at the dollar store. We then were walking around and Sara went to ‘Build a Bear’. She was looking at ‘Mumbles’ the penguin in the window and I told her that she could have her Easter present if she wanted it. She said ‘But they will be closed tomorrow so we have to do it now’ I said ‘Yes, let’s do it’.

We went into the Build A Bear and Sara picked out her Mumbles bear. Recently Sara did good at school and I told her that I owed her something. Plus, it was her Easter present.. so I told her to get whatever she wanted for the bear. She went for it and I let her do it. She got the bear, a stroller, three shirts, a pin set, a flag, pants, and probably something else. Grand total $83. She was really, really happy. On the way home we listened to Kirsty again, Soho Square twice and the opening song from the Titanic Days CD. Sara was singing ‘Soho Square’, she knows it pretty well.

One expensive bear, one bunny coming tonight, one really happy duck.

I just talked to Sara, she is home now. She says the bear is great and she is strolling him around the house.

good friday

It was good Friday. A lot of people left work early or took off. I left at 2pm. I came home and did stuff around here until around dinner time. At first Sara did not want to leave the house, but then she decided that she wanted to visit me. We got some Chinese food and we went to Hollywood video. Sara could not find anything to rent at Hollywood video, so (to her credit) she left without a video. So we watched  ‘The Birth Of Studio Ghibli’ documentary from the ‘Nausicaa’ DVD. I wanted to watch ‘Nausicaa’ but Sara wanted the documentary. Sara went home happy.

towtrucks and ihop

Thursday night I went to Dave’s brothers house out in Hopewell. I was leaving at around 10pm and my car would not start. I tried it a few times and it became obvious that it was not going to start. I figured it was the starter. Luckily Johnny was coming over to the house and I got a ride home with him. I got home late and I was tired. Friday I had to arrange to get my car to the repair shop.

Genie had off from work Friday and she has a AAA membership. We went to Hopewell and eventually the AAA tow came. It was not easy to get the car out of the driveway but eventually it got towed to Flemington Nissan on Rt. 202.
I brought it to Flemington because it was the closest to tow to by far. I brought my camera and took some pictures while waiting for my car (Genie and I took pictures of each other against the red shed with the Chickens in it. It took a big chunk of Friday to deal with all that. Sara came home from school Friday and Genie brought her over to my house. I actually can’t remember too well what we did. We played some pinball (it was really warm on Friday). I can’t remember if we got food or not.

Saturday I stayed in Ewing with no car. Genie worked late so I did not see her and Sara.

Sunday Genie had off and her and Sara came over in the early afternoon. I had been thinking about IHOP for a while. I had not gone to IHOP since I was a teenager (to the best of my memory). When I was sixteen years old I worked as a busboy/dishwasher at IHOP. It was my first job. I sometimes worked the midnight shift on weekends. I don’t think it stays open all night anymore. Back in the day it did and I met all kinds of interesting people (many people came in drunk after bar closing) at IHOP in the middle of the night. Not to mention the cooks and waitresses who worked there who were older than us (Kevin worked there also).

I used to go into IHOP with my parents also, when I was a kid. My memories of IHOP are from those two things. I grew up with an IHOP on my block. I have seen that IHOP everyday for many years. I don’t know why I stopped going in there, but probably because I had other options and I never really wanted to spend the money on pancakes. For some reason, I just never go in there. Maybe I was avoiding the memories of my childhood. Maybe I saw too much gross stuff when I worked there. Whatever the reason, I did not go in there for years and years. Something made me want to go to IHOP.
So Sunday I took Genie and Sara to IHOP. We went in the afternoon. It was wild to be in there again. The layout is basically the same. The register is on the other side. It brought back many memories for sure.
I had pigs in the blanket, Genie had a ‘cinnabon’ pancake meal and Sara had the ‘Silver Five’ (five silver dollar pancakes). We had fun and it was really special to me. It was special because now I am grown with my own family eating at IHOP like I did when I was a kid with my parents. I can remember when I used to be a kid and I used to get the smiley face pancake meal (happy face?). So we left IHOP and went to Hollywood Video (Sara got ‘Honey I blew up the kid’). We went to the supermarket and got some snacks, etc.. and then went home and watched the movie. Later on we got a pizza but we were still kind of full from IHOP so we did not eat half of it.

Monday not much happened. It was really nice outside and Genie and Sara stayed home. At about 5pm I was hanging out around the house and thinking that I wanted them to come over, it was so nice outside. But it was too late for them to come. I just hung out for the most part. Johnny came over at night for a while to hang out. We went to 7-11 and got some junk food.

Tuesday Genie took Sara to the eye doctor in the afternoon. Then around diner time we went to Flemington and got my car. I brought my Nikon camera in the car with me and Sara used it on the way to the car to take pictures out the window.
We stopped at ‘Chengs’ Chinese restaurant on the way home in Pennington on rt. 31. We had fun, it was nice. Sara gave me a nice hug in the restaurant because we were saying goodbye. We each went home from there.

Today was Wednesday and I went back to work. It was colder today and raining. The colors on the trees are beginning to happen. I can see some of the pink bushes blooming also. I did not do much today after work. But I am setting up ’slideshow pro’ which I just purchased on Friday.