Aspiring Musicians

A very good friend of mine I grew up with, is an aspiring musician, and is brilliant when it comes to tweaking his voice to sound like absolute heaven. When I moved to this town when I about twelve years old, he was the first friend I made that lived right next door. Ever since we have been inseparable.

I even remember the first day we moved into our new home, I turned on the music in the garage and started doing cart wheels in the backyard, while he was jumping up and down on his trampoline in his backyard with a friend. Both of them were about 10 years old and had toy microphones in their hands, something I found later to be his sisters toy microphones. They were both singing and raping while jumping on that trampoline, it was too funny.

We noticed we all loved music, and we all started hanging out and playing together. I have watched him grow from that young boy into the talented man he is today. The last time I saw him was two months ago, before he moved about forty miles away to live with his girlfriend, whom is also a good friend of mine since forever ago. Before he left he invited me to a show his was performing at, and I was ecstatic to see him perform finally after all these years.

He expressed an interest in finding a microphone he could find for an affordable price, so he could practice at home before his show date. I remembered the night before coming across a site that offered just that, so I told him that there were microphones for sale as well as some sweet looking new and used mitchell guitars at M F’s, and to check their site out.

He called me a few days later and told me that not only did her order a microphone but he also ordered lehle amp that he found that he is absolutely thrilled to have now. I’m happy I could help him prepare for such a great event I can see him perform at, and see how he can change the world with his beautiful voice.

Dawn’s Special Day in April

My one sister is the type that has to have the best of everything for her kids. No hand me downs or seconds for her and her girls, must be nice, right? Most new mothers would love to receive anything that they can get their hands on for free. Babies and kids cost a good chunk of change and most of us are really hurting for money these days, but she and her husband are still fairing fairly well and so she just keeps on spending money like it was nothing.

Her middle daughter, Dawn, my favorite niece out of the bunch is having her 3th birthday party come the middle of April. The invitations have been sent out and the plans are being made to have a real nice party for her on her special day. We can only hope that the weather is much better then and we can enjoy the majority of the party outside. My sister is talking of having a clown and pony rides. You never know what to expect, weather wise, in the month of March and April, with all of the spring rain that comes each year, so we can only hope.

I have gone online to find some good gift ideas for Dawn’s birthday present. I have a few years experience buying clothing for her kids and one website I can always count on to have some of the most unique, stylish and trendy clothing available. They have brand names like jellycat, alex, haba, barefoot dreams, skip hop, appaman and wow toys that are just fabulous and affordable. They offer free shipping with orders over $65 and are currently having a sale with sales up to 75% off, so I should be able to find a few good deals in time to have them wrapped and ready to go by April.

Famous Birthday Quotes

I was looking around online for a free leap year birthday card to send to a friend who is celebrating his birthday this year on February 29th since there is actually a February 29th this year.

I couldn’t find any birthday leap year cards at the few stores that I’ve frequented in the past couple of weeks and now that the big day is here I’m reduced to send an ecard. There is nothing wrong with an ecard, but there is nothing like the real thing for some folks. I used to be able to find all kinds of good quality free ecards, years ago, but then so many places started charging and I’m not into that scene. So the free ones that are left aren’t all that good, funny, cute, etc….

Hallmark.com used to be my favorite, they used to have the best free ones. But I don’t even go there anymore, why walk into what you know will be a disappointment. Anyway while searching today I found these cool Famous Birthday Quotes and though I’d share it here.

Famous Birthday Quotes!

The best birthdays of all are those that haven’t arrived yet.
~ Robert Orben

May you live all the days of your life.
~ Jonathan Swift

Inside every older person is a younger person – wondering what the hell happened.
~ Cora Harvey Armstrong

To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
~ Bernard Baruch

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.
~ Robert Frost

If I’d known I was going to live this long (100 years), I’d have taken better care of myself.
~ Ubie Blake

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
~ Lucille Ball

Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
~ Jack Benny

Pleas’d look forward, pleas’d to look behind, And count each birthday with a grateful mind.
~ Alexander Pope

Whatever with the past has gone, The best is always yet to come.
%C

I love chocolate

Funny how our taste buds change as we grow older, as a kid I wasn’t all that crazy about chocolate. I loved candy as much as the next kid, just not so much the chocolate variety of candy. Halloween was always my favorite Holiday, besides Christmas of course, man we would come home with bags overflowing with all kinds of candies to keep us happy for months well after that wonderful night of trick or treating through out the entire whole neighborhood with my siblings and friends.

But now I love chocolate, not the dark kind, but milk chocolate, lately I can’t seem to get enough of it. I hear that chocolate is now on the list of healthy things to eat, so that makes me feel better and I’m glad that I haven’t put on any extra weight due to my latest cravings of these tasty morsels of these creamy delight called chocolate!

If a man wants to put a smile on my face, a box of chocolates is a great way to start! Valentines Day is now my favorite holiday to receive my fare share of chocolates & candies. Oh yeah, there is always Easter, and it’s only a few weeks away!

 

Finding The Perfect Boss Guitar Pedals

There was no way that I would have thought it to be such a challenge to find the right boss guitar pedal to give to my kid brother for his 19th birthday, which will eventually come this May 17th. I have  been looking online a bit here and there and I just felt that it was all over my head. I know that he really wants a boss guitar pedal, a tc electronic flashback delay toneprint  but there are just too many of them out there for me to choose from, so I am going to play it safe and give him a gift card for $100 and tell him to find the right one and put that money towards purchasing the correct one that he wants.

There is going to be a good sized birthday celebration dinner at our folk’s place. Not sure how many are expected to show up. But then we never know until it happens with this very large family that is know for last minutes circumstances. It’s such a drag that so many of us have moved so far away and we don’t get together much these past several years. So we will see who turns up to help celebrate Steve’s 19th birthday. This will be that last birthday that entitles him to be called and/or referred to as a teenager! It’s a pot luck dinner so I think that I’ll bring my well received meatballs to share this time around. I haven’t made them in a while and they are always a big hit.

Sound Great On Or Off Stage

It really thrills me to hear from my youngest nephew Todd that the amplifier for the acoustic guitar is totally appreciated. And that it is being used, along with the beyerdynamic headphone set, so I am told, almost on a daily basis as well as providing a sound great on stage when they manage to actually land a gig.  I managed to get a few of my sisters and brothers, his aunts and uncles, to contribute enough of their hard earned cash together to get him a good quality amp that I found online for a real sweet deal. It arrived in plenty of time and we didn’t have to pay any shipping or handling, so that was a major plus that helped me convince some of these relatives that aren’t known for wanting to spend any money on anyone other than their selves.

It’s pretty cool that over the past couple of years I have been doing more and more of my shopping online. Last Christmas holiday, I didn’t have to go to the local mall or any of the other numerous brick and mortar stores in the area. The only things that I had to go out and purchase were the food and of course the gas that it took to get there and back. There are places that will and do deliver food products but they come with a price. It’s hard to get anything for free around this part of the country, except for online purchases.

Turkey Day – a yearly hassle

Even though I have been divorced for some time now, the kids and I are still having to deal with the decision of which grandparents we going to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with. The kids adore my ex’s folks and I get along fairly well with them also, which makes for the holiday season a stressful situation even though my ex is well out of the picture and doesn’t attend any family functions in an effort to avoid any hassles that may arise during these celebration events.

It really sucks that each and every year we end up playing this game of who will win out with our attendance, and their is no way to please everyone, no matter what. It would be so much easier if they all lived a bit closer to each other, that way we could try and make both dinners, but a 4 hour drive between the two is just too much to deal with.

Time is running out, Thanksgiving is next week, a decision needs to be made soon, what to do, oh what to do!

My Mother’s Buying List

I have always wanted a nice set of Hartmann Luggage or the ever popular Vera Bradley Luggage that looks so good on the luggage carousel at the airports at the end of the trip. Or at least if you are lucky enough to have your luggage arrive along with your arrival. I’ve never had my luggage lost before but I’ve heard some horror stories from folks that have had to deal with all the hassles and inconvenience of an airline losing your precious belongings that were being stored in your Luggage.

As I stated before I’ve always wanted to own a nice set of luggage and my mother is trying to make that happen for me for my birthday that is fast approaching this winter. My mother is expecting a nice sized tax refund from Uncle Sam next year and wants to purchase a few things that she has had her heart on for the past year. I’m just lucky enough to be on her buying list this year!

Of course I’m sure that if she finds herself in need of some nice luggage she can always count on being able to borrow mine any time she needs it. That is a plus!

Anyone remember this commercial. It took less than 3 minutes to find it on YouTube! It still makes me laugh even after all these years of not seeing it at all.

Web Hosting Issues

My brother has been urging me to switch my web hosting to Web Hosting Hub. He says that they offer reliable web hosting and that he has been happy with them for some time now.

My brother is a total computer whiz and I’m grateful for all that he has done for me over the years with my various computer issues and needs. He hasn’t steered me wrong yet, so I guess I’ll consider switching over. I don’t think that making a major decision or move right now would be in my best interest, but after the hot and humid days and nights are over and done with I’ll be back on track with most things and I think it would be the best time to make a change such as this.

I’m hoping that I’ll be getting a new laptop for my birthday, that would be awesome. My mother has been picking my brain for a few weeks now trying to find out what the perfect gift would be for her to give me on that morning and I’ve told her time and time again that I have everything that I need other than a new laptop. I don’t want to get my hopes up but it really would be a great if she did do that for me.

Fund Me Please

Using Gift Certificates as gifts has become a life saver for me. There are so many people that I am obligated to purchase gifts for all throughout the year, not just at Christmas time that it becomes a real challenge to find the perfect gift while not spending an arm and a leg.

A good amount of these people are musical so Musician’s Friend has a go fund me way to purchase Gift Certificates online, with no shipping, no expiration date and can be purchased at any denomination that you please, I have used them before in the past and they seem to go over well so I do believe that I will continue doing so.

always the perfect gift
Gift Certificates