In zee stood-yo again, and I have written of it here in my studio diary for those who like that sort of story. HOT one today. HOT-tah! Psssst! Watch out! You gon' get BURNED!

I wish I was in LA tonight, so I could see the Mike Keneally Band play the Baked Potato. Alas, no.

So, a dozen years. I feel like a native. I wonder if I could ever get used to east coast living again. The climate here is so mild, and there's no bugs in the summertime - no humidity. I miss the big east coast blizzards sometimes in winter; local kids 'round here don't get too many snow days, which is sort of a shame. Snow days should be on that list of inalienable rights, I think. Bestowed upon Man by his Creator, and all that. Snowball fights!

It's Chris G's birthday tomorrow. He's got very long Viking hair at the moment, the longest I've ever seen on him; actually it's longer than my hair is right now - though he's got bangs, and I don't.

I had a good day at work today, one of those rare focused days where I was working on code and didn't exactly know how to do what I ended up doing - ending the day with a triumph as I found a solution. It feels good to have days like that, even at the day job. And we had a nice time at rehearsal tonight, though it gets REALLY hot in that room after we've been playing in it for a couple of hours. We dusted off "Lois" and "Sublimeinal" after not having played them in months - we did "Lois" with the new Rush ending we've worked up for it; you may recall that past editions of the band have ended "Lois" with the endings of "The Spirit Of Radio" and "La Villa Strangiato" (and then there was the one-off Van Halen ending, "Hot For Teacher"). Well, we've got us a new Rush ending, and it sounds good.

I'm hoping to be in the studio for the new album sessions this Saturday - and I've got two Storm games to go to this weekend, tomorrow and Sunday night. We just put our deposits in for playoff tickets, should the Storm hang in there and earn a spot. They've won four in a row, and are either second or third in their conference - the top four teams go. They'll make it, I feel good about them right now.

Two weeks at the new job means I get to submit my first invoice Monday. They get Net 30 to pay, so I won't see any income for this job until September. At that point it will have been six weeks working there without getting paid. Sort of a drag, but there is an upside: after the assignment ends, I'll be getting paychecks for a month to follow. I'd love it if this assignment goes the full four months, as that would have me finished with it right before Thanksgiving, and I'd be done working for the year. Fingers crossed.

This new contract is actually a challenge for once. The project I'm working on is loaded with dev techniques I'd never even heard of before I started here, so for the last few days I've really felt under the gun. It's the usual beginning-of-contract-boy-am-I-desperate-to-justify-my-salary-ASAP jones that I've been going through, you know how it is. It seems that for the most part, I'm going to actually have to think and work hard everyday at work - is this what everybody else does? I thought a normal workday was mostly spent aimlessly searching the Web for something interesting, without looking like that's what you're doing.

Well, if nothing else, the days sure go by faster this way. I finally started to feel a little comfortable today, getting my "development legs" back. That's a good sign. The stuff I'm learning to do will probably never serve me again in any other capacity, and I have to wonder whether for the project at hand it's not 1) overkill; and 2) really not the best way to go about it - but then, this ain't MY project, so what do I care? I get paid to show up and do what I'm told, right? I can do that.

Also adjusting to suddenly having no time to do things like keep my part of the house clean - I've been trying to get up early to get to work, and then most nights I've got somewhere to go and do that keeps me up until I've got no time to do anything when I get home other than drop into bed exhausted, so I can do it all again the next day. Shocking, I know - what I've just described is pretty much the daily life of just about every American I know.

And we think this is a good way to live... why, exactly?

Ah, well. I'd ponder this for another hour or two, but I've got to get across the bridge for the band rehearsal I haven't had any time to prepare for. You know how it is.

Over the last week the only stuff I'd practiced was what I needed to know for the 11 HOUR SESSION that I participated in on Sunday - I recorded guitars on a song called "Peasant Under Class" from a project drummer Chris G is working on. Yep, I was "doing a session," man. Like, TOTALLY. I almost NEVER do that, but at least this one was recorded at Darin's, where I am very comfortable. I laid down an awful lot of guitar to Chris G's drums and Bryan Beller's bass - later the keyboard guy from Spock's Beard will be laying down the big 'ol B3 action on the track. It's gonna end up sounding like Signals-era Rush meets Rick Wakeman, or something. Very prog. I had to count a lot. Oh, I did a Brian May solo in the middle of it - don't get to do that sort of thing much. Thanks to Chris for involving me in the project. I have no idea when it will be finished, but I'll let you readers know when I hear something.

Very gratifying response to our newly-finished Half Zaftig EP, Retrograde. Wait, you haven't downloaded it yet? Go ahead and do so right now, I'll wait for you to get back.

Got it? Good. Anyway. Reports and reviews have been very favorable, which is really great. THANK YOU to all who have preordered the CD version (which contains a bonus track). Those will be back from the manufacturer and in the mail to you in a few weeks. I'm diving back into sessions for the new HZ full-length as soon as possible - now I'm working again, that means more album budget.

Time for sleeping is now. Good night.

Sorry to my LA peeps for not announcing the trip or making any attempts to say howdy. It being a brief weekend family visit (my Mom was there too), there just wasn't any time to cram any side trips in (and I didn't have my own transpo, something pretty essential in Cali).

For the first time ever, I wasn't on edge the whole time I was in LA. Maybe I've been there enough times now that it doesn't feel as foreign to me? I dunno - but usually on past visits I've had trouble sleeping and there was always this indefinable "something" in the air that gave me the heebies; I think it would be a lot of fun to live there - if you have a lot of money. Always one spectacle after another, it seems. Just missed the parade of STAHS at Mann's Chinese Sunday, where they had the premiere of the new Charlie And The Chocolate Factory flick. We went to the Arclight Cinerama Dome to see the Fantastic Four (thumbs down from this old Marvel fan), and you really cannot beat the presentation of movies in Los Angeles theaters - nowhere else is the picture so clear and the sound so good. I still love Seattle's 'Rama, but it still doesn't hold a candle to LA's better theaters.

Less than a week of freedom left - I get back to dayjobbing on Monday. Tonight, I hope (if I can track Darin down), we're going to assemble the FINAL master of Retrograde. Assuming we do that, I'll have the four downloadable tracks from it posted sometime tonight. After catching a mid-day loss from our Seattle Storm (who are now two games under .500 and struggling), I've been working today on the song I'm recording guitars on for Chris G on Sunday. Beller played extremely aggressive bass on the track, and I spent a good part of yesterday trying to figure out what he did in spots so I can dupe his lines on guitar. Lucky that when we get to the studio I can solo out his tracks to see if I guessed right.

In coming weeks I'm gearing up to dive headlong back into the tracking for our new album - it's so awesome that it's now the only recording project on my plate. I'm hoping to work out some sort of regular schedule with Darin tonight when I see him.

This year, we decided at the last minute to participate in the exploding tomfoolery - that is, we were out driving and happened to see a fireworks stand and we pulled over. Our display was pretty underwhelming when you compare it to our bombastic neighbors, but hey, it was ours.

The rocket's red glare.

The bombs bursting in air.

These two are very much NOT digging living in what sounds like a war zone (note I said sounds like). Poor guys. It's only once a year.