The open mic went way better than I could have hoped. We had enough performers to more than fill the allotted time without me having to step up to fill extra time, a great crowd who bought lots of beer and sandwiches, leading to very appreciative brewery management (Wednesdays are usually very low, especially when […]

So, after all the teasing and talking and whatnot, tonight I am hosting my first open mic night at Castleburg Brewery and Taproom in the city. I really hope it goes well. It seems like people are coming. I’ve got what I think is a decent opening set to kick things off. The brewery manager […]

Gonna do this today, because I’m taking tomorrow off, to stretch the long weekend a bit, and so my lovely wife and I can celebrate Discount Candy Day tomorrow for lunch. Valentine’s day is troublesome, because dance class; Friday evening is also booked because of the (totally non creepy) elementary school Father-Daughter dance the youngest […]

It’s Friday. As usual, it’s been a long week. Spent most of the work week on the phone; Wednesday involved the same meeting twice (which was a nice break over the usual three times); I got volun-told I’m managing a big procurement action that’s not mine because of my “program management experience.” Yay. Also, I […]

it’s Friday. Thank $diety. I’ve been struggling with work all week; swinging from angry to frustrated to despondent and then back again. So many conference calls full of people who can’t be bothered to listen to reason, logic, or, frankly, anything. I’ve also felt like hell physically. This cold snap is playing hell with my […]

Marscon was pretty damned great. I worked hard, made a bunch of great music (full five-piece band!), got to play some of my own stuff and it got some pretty decent acclaim, made some new friends, played some games, and shared the stage (and drinks, and fun and all kinds of things) with some amazing […]

Overall, this week, in spite of it’s perceived length, hasn’t been awful, at least for me. Yes, huge swaths the federal government is still shut down over temper tantrums, I spent most of Thursday bundled up in my coat and scarf in my office because the heat is really wonky, and the mid-atlantic is panicking […]

It’s Sunday evening, December 30, as I write this. After spending a nice afternoon out catching a pretty decent jazz trio at Castleburg and maybe stumbling into another open mic/performance/emcee opportunity at another venue in Scott’s Addition (we’ll see where that goes in the coming weeks…), I’m sitting at my kitchen table drinking a Jameson […]

Today is the last official* day of my work year, and I’m counting the minutes, as the watermarked stock photo image above suggests. I haven’t taken that much time off in 2018, and given my level of seniority and the kind of leave I earn, the concept of “use-or-lose” comes into play, so I have […]

So, I ended up getting two days off of work thanks to the twelve-to-fourteen(!) inches of snow Mother Nature saw fit to dump on my section of the mid-Atlantic starting early Sunday morning; so early, in fact that they cancelled the 5k the youngest and I were going to run that afternoon. Oh well, I […]