Tag: things to do

Projects for the Weekend

Given that Jen and I have both had a couple of possible covid exposures over the last few days, I doubt we’re going to be going out on the town at all. What should I do to keep my locked down self occupied?

Music. The plan is to redo the four songs worth of guitar parts that were recorded with an amplifier simulator the other day. Yeah, I am a tube amp snob. I want to do that after dinner tonight. I want to use the same rig I used last night, but swap the Blooze Maker pedal with the Rat clone I got for the one heavy-ish song. Then I want to start writing lyrics so that I can have something do sing tomorrow morning when Car Music (2023 edition) kicks off. I probably won’t be able to finish 10 songs over two car music sessions this weekend, but I will do my best. That means I have to write a lot of lyrics in a short amount of time. I can do it. They are all going to suck, but I can get them done. Something is better than nothing, right?

Clean. The house is a mess after being neglected for a few weeks. I started cleaning a little yesterday. The big goal is the kitchen. It’s not good right now. I want to make it presentable again.

Television? I finished The Book of Boba Fett before work this morning so I can get back to Poker Face and Extraordinary (which I have been watching with Jen) and rewatching The Last of Us over and over again.

What else? I haven’t watched a hockey game in ages. The Bruins play on Saturday at 5:00pm. Does UMass Lowell play this weekend? I feel like I’ve been following along with both teams (not a lot with UMass Lowell, but some) but I haven’t been watching and I want to. The Bruins are having an absolutely legendary, epic season and I am missing it.

What else? You know what I need to not do this weekend? I need to not go on Facebook. Ever since my mother went back into the hospital I have been visiting Facebook a couple of times a day again. Mostly because I was sitting in the hospital just waiting for something to happen and I would go there to distract myself for a while. I’ve been spending a lot of time on Nikon Mirrorless groups, and a couple of bariatric surgery groups, and guitar gear groups… and I feel like a junky who fell off the wagon. I need to stop using Facebook again. Enough already.

What else? I don’t know. Spend time with the love of my life. Pet the two new kitties. Maybe watch Wakanda Forever as I haven’t seen it yet and as of today there are now two Marvel flicks I haven’t seen (Ant Man 3 is out today). That needs to stop. Maybe start rewatching Andor? I don’t know. Maybe just veg in front of youtube some more. I don’t know. Also, how about we cut down on the between meal snacking a little?

Okay. That’s a lot to think about. I am five hours and six minutes away from the start of the weekend. I’ll figure it all out as I go.

Plans for Tomorrow

I was thinking of getting up with the sun and doing some photo’ing tomorrow but nope. Not going to do it.

Jen wants to redesign the living room so we are getting up early to tackle the task. After that’s done I’m going to visit mom for the first time in a week.

No clue what’s happening after that. Maybe some house cleaning, maybe dinner on the grill, maybe some freakin’ guitar.

I would like to play cameras one morning this weekend. It is a three day’r after all. Lots of opportunities. I haven’t checked the weather forecast though. I should probably do that.

Oh yeah! There’s Rings of Power too! Gotta watch that puppy!

Happy long weekend, folks!

ADDENDUM: Someone just suggested IKEA… oh, we might be in trouble. Heh heh

It’s Friday

This has felt like a long week, and today is going to feel like a long day.

I want to do something this weekend. Something that involves going somewhere without spending money on anything other than gas and travel snacks. You know what I mean?

Let’s go back to Boston again. Let’s go on a road trip looking for New Englandy things like light houses. Let’s go visit the ocean without going to an insanely busy beach. Let’s go find waterfalls. Let’s go do any of the back-to-nature things I’ve been wanting us to do for over a decade now. Let’s go on a scenic drive. Let’s listen to a Harry Potter book on tape while we drive to some destination that is significantly less important than the trip to said destination. Lets go someplace where we can see stars (this one can’t happen this weekend because Harry works at night).

Let’s do something different. The friggin’ pandemic has locked us in for 2.5 years. Going to Boston last weekend scratched an itch that I had forgotten I had. Now I want to do everything and go everywhere. I still want to stay away from people and I still don’t want to spend any money on anything, but I want to do something. I want to go somewhere. I want to see stuff.

I also want to see my mother a few times, and I want to watch the last (2.5 hour long!) episode of Stranger Things with Jen, and I want to spend time with Harry while we still can before he goes back to school.

I guess I am just being greedy. I want everything and I want it now.

Tomorrow’s To-Do List

Tomorrow’s to-do list is pretty simple.

  • Car music. The first of 2022
  • Help Jen make breakfast
  • Help Bellana with any pre-Europe tasks that she may need help with.
  • Laundry, I think. I ripped a pair of jeans on Friday. I’m down to two. I had to order more. I ordered some new shirts too. Hmm, does rush.com’s store have anything in my size?
  • Jen and Bellana are planning on cooking dinner together. Help them if they need help.
  • Play the guitar.

That’s a pretty attainable set of goals for a Sunday, right?

One Down, Two to Go

What do I have to accomplish this week?

I need to cook dinner tonight. I’ve got one or two gifts to wrap. We need to figure out a Covid safe way to see Spider-Man. I need to bring the Christmas gifts we got for my niece and nephews to them. Not sure how/when that can happen. We never cleared the snow off the cars on Saturday and now they are covered in blocks of ice. We need to figure out what we are going to eat on Christmas Eve. We need to get Bellana home (though really she’s taking care of that one), I still have some tunes to finish, we have to make sure the kids are all set with their Christmas shopping, we have to not catch covid (omicron persei 8).

Yeah, that’s a start on a to do list.

Damn.

To Do Tomorrow

  • Car music before work!
  • Put out the trash barrels (probably before the car music)
  • Empty the wetvac and clean up whatever the dehumidifier doesn’t get tonight
  • Empty the dehumidifier
  • Go to work
  • Meetings most of the day but still need to work on the huge division-wide nightmare of an issue (that we totally have in hand at the moment… barring any unforeseen problems)
  • Show the plumber where I think the source of Lake Asshole is
  • Make dinner with my love
  • Have dinner with my love
  • Maybe pay a quick visit to my parents’ new place (I still need to post that huge thing I wrote back on September 3rd, explaining all that went on, but posting that is not on this to do list)
  • Maybe, if time allows, track a few guitar parts or maybe mix another song. I mixed two songs tonight. I shared the one that sucked least.
  • Try to decide if entries in a bulleted list should end in a period or not. What do the grammar nazis say? I think it should be punctuated, but when I do it just feels wrong.
    • See what I mean?
  • Go to sleep and then do it all again on Wednesday

Saturday To-Do List

I have a few things I was hoping to do today, but now that I know the NHL is coming back on 8/1, all I want to do is play EA NHL20 on our PS4.

I need to do the laundry. It’s bed sheets day.

I’m on the hook for quinoa for dinner tonight.

I’m about 90 seconds away from being caught up on Agents of Shield, so that’s good news.

It occurred to me this morning that I have somehow tricked myself into trying to do three music projects at once. 50/90 is underway. I haven’t been ignoring it, but I’ve only been getting a little bit of work done. The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project is two lead guitar parts and two mix downs away from having the first batch of songs complete. The second batch of eight is lined up and ready to go. Then along with 50/90 I am still trying to do an album in a month each month. I need to write 50 songs in 90 days, but 30 of those 50 songs need to be written and recorded entirely within a single month. 10 each for July, August, and September.

First though, the 335 needs new strings, and I am going to re-watch some maintenance vids on youtube and see if I need to make any neck adjustments. Color me terrified.

But first, first! Laundry!

Oh yeah, and I have to take out the trash too. Consider it done. Oh, and the bird feeders are empty. Okay, add that to the list. Oh and NHL20 too… Yeah.

Friday

It is Friday.  That is good.  Tomorrow is Saturday.  That is better.

My wife seemed a little better last night, but she said she felt just as lousy.  She’s wondering if the antibiotics are causing an allergic reaction.  I hope not.  She’s working from home today.  The kids are going to an arcade with their father and then coming back to our house.  My worries about the reaction to Santa’s gifts is a little less today than it was a couple of days ago.  They are both using things that didn’t seem to go over all that well when they were opened.  That makes me happy.

We don’t have much planned for the weekend.  We had a get together scheduled with Larry and family and Mike and family, but pneumonia has postponed that for a couple of weeks.  It will be good to see everyone all at once again.  It’s been much too long.

All that’s left is a trip to the Apple store.  The kids and I all got iPads for Christmas (yes, we are all spoiled rotten.  Mostly me!) and the kids want to get cases for theirs.  I thought that maybe if Jen is feeling better by Sunday afternoon we might take a shot at seeing The Hobbit, but that’s probably not the smartest idea on my part.  Mostly we should just stay home and take care of Mom.  I think that is the best plan.  I’ll take care of any errands that need to be run, and the kids can stay in their pajamas, which they both love to do.

It’s the last weekend of 2012.  Let’s hope 2013 gets off to a healthier start for all of us.