Good Morning Jet Lag

After walking around and then napping till 6:00 pm, Evan and I had a bite to eat in the hotel and then off to bed again and falling asleep probably around 11:00 pm.

About 3:30 am I woke up and was wide awake until just after 6:00 am when I finally fell asleep again and now it is 9:30 am and I have to get out of bed... weird jet lag... usually I sleep like a baby the first night. and the second night keeps me awake.

I was able to process some photos yesterday of our little walk around Madrid. I hope to get more today.

Madrid

It is 2:15 am in the morning in California and that translates to 11:15 am on Sunday. I am checked in and have taken a nice hot shower... the rooms here are really nice except for that european bed thing... you get two twin beds pushed up against each other
I don't get that. Evan met me at baggage claim, so that was nice... it took a little bit of pressure off having to get a taxi to take us to the hotel. We are relaxing for a little bit and then we are going to head out and do a little exploring.
It is colder here than I had thought it was going to be, a bit windy too. Currently 40 degrees. I was pretty sure it was supposed to be in the 60's

Hanging in the ATL

My flight from LA To Atlanta was uneventful. On time which is always a good thing... although usually not my luck.
I am just waiting for my next flight to Madrid.

LAX To Madrid

We arrived at the hotel in LA to find that the loading area into the hotel was about 20 feet from the entrance to the ballroom that we were setting up in. That was a pleasant surprise! As my equipment was unloaded off the trailer, I realized that I forgot to pack the speaker stands. Speaker stands cost about $99 to purchase, and there had to be a guitar center around pretty close, so I wasn't too worried. I also knew that the AV company in the hotel, PSAV would have 4 that I could rent. So, although I was not happy with myself, I wasn't worried.

I talked to the hotel and sure enough, they had four available. They want $35 each for them. I was pretty surprised. I expected them to be about $15 each. No choice.. no problem.
They delivered them and while I was setting up, I came across 2 speaker stands that Eric had trucked up, so I was able to send two back to the hotel. I went to talk to the AV Manager and ask for a better price, but he was too busy. Great PSAV service right there huh? His AV technician came back and told me point blank, that he was too busy, but that he said if I wanted I could pay $25 each.
Of course I took the deal, but everyone should be aware that when you use Hotel AV companies, customer service is severely in short supply.


Allen was a huge help and set up all the Microphones and cabling while I setup the console and speakers. we didn't have any equipment problems at all, so after everything was checked, we had a nice family dinner at a mexican restaurant with everyone and then called it a night.

This morning Allen took me to LAX to catch a flight to Madrid. We planned for a full hour to get to the airport, and it ended up taking about 15 minutes. You can never really figure out LA traffic though. The other night going through Pasadena, it took 50 minutes to go 8 miles.

So, all is well, I am excited to get this trip over with and just be in Madrid. Tomorrow should be a lot of fun wandering around the city with Evan.

Landed Safely in LA

Well, not really LA but Allen and I landed at Rob and Joy's house in Monrovia. All is well and we are about to BBQ some Steak!

Rolling to Los Angeles

We got a call from the Jeep dealer that the Grand Cherokee was fixed with a brand new radiator and we went and picked it up. We got the trailer from the rental place and are now currently loaded up and heading out of Folsom on the way to Los Angeles.

I have to believe that we dodged a major bullet. If the Radiator had blown up today on the way down to LA, we could have gotten stranded on the side of I-5 somewhere and not only would it have cost a lot more, it would have been much more difficult to get fixed.

All in All we are probably an hour and a half behind schedule which is not too bad.
All's well that ends well!

On the road again

Today is the first day of my little adventure. Yesterday Allen walked by the front of his Jeep, and noticed that it was leaking. His Jeep is what we tow the trailer with, so this is a major concern. We took it to the Jeep dealer and got it in for service, only to find out that the radiator seam was splitting. So, this morning instead of loading up the trailer first thing, we are casually waiting around for a call from the Jeep guys.

Better that we found out yesterday than to be broken down on the side of the road with a trailer full of gear and a deadline approaching.

Now I must go pack.

Getting ready for Los Angeles

Today I spent the day in the garage, going through all the cases that hold my audio equipment and making sure that everything was ready for the setup on Friday in LA.
It was relaxing, the weather was beautiful. I really enjoyed it.

Allen and I went for a little pizza... ok... a lot of pizza.
Then on the way home we stopped at a football field and I took my photo of the day.

Business Card Survey

Todays Project is to create a business card for Old Europe. Since I am not a graphic designer.. this is all very much trial and error.
That being said, I would like an opinion from you all.
So, please drop a comment and vote for which card you like the best. Any opinions are also welcome.


Card #1


Card #2


Card #3

Saturday

Today I spent the entire morning watching movies, doing laundry and just hanging out at home. I went down to Old Europe and brought Allen some pizza cuz there is only so much German food you can eat day after day. A little Italian was a nice change.
I hung out at the bar and Tomas the owner came out and asked me to make some business cards for the restaurant.
Yea! free food and drink for a lot longer now.

I went to the Cellar at about 8:15 or so to meet some friends who were having a private party and I met some new people all of who were very nice.
I shot a couple of photos of them to complete todays Project 365 entry and then said good night.

Friday

I am trying to keep posting mostly because some anonymous commenter said that if I didn't I was letting my readership down.
While that really wouldn't keep me up at night.... I really don't have a great excuse to not blog.
I also really think pretty highly of that anonymous commenter.... So, if writing little stories about my life as slow as it is right now is interesting to anyone... then I will try and write.

Today I went down to Old Europe and was going to update the website www.oldeuropeonline.com with some new info about events that are coming up, but they really weren't very clear about what they wanted up there. So, I took off and drove downtown to Sacramento and looked around for a photo.
Not very inspired, or should I say, not feeling any inspiration, I drove up to the airport and with no top on the Jeep, I thought I would hang out at the end of the runway and shoot some airplanes coming in for a landing. When I found the perfect place, it was 10 feet from a sign that said "No Stopping At Any Time" So, I stopped... took a couple of shots of a plane landing, and then decided to obey the rules before the cops decided to enforce them.



Then I went to Old Sacramento, and hung out there for a little while, or at least till the change in the meter ran out, and headed back towards Folsom in rush hour traffic.
I stopped in at Old Europe to say hi to Allen, and a friend of mine showed up to talk to Allen about working as a bartender here.
He put my friend right to work, and she seemed very happy about that.

Now the biggest decision of the evening is what will I have for dinner?

Hmmm... Last night I had Swiss Schnitzel which is a favorite. Tonight I am going to have to try something different.

Thursday

Great title for todays blog eh? I got up and went for breakfast at Mimi's with Allen, I had corn beef hash and eggs. I didn't like the hash too much cuz it was full of onions.
The day has been so beautiful today. It is about 75 degrees and totally sunny. So Allen and I took a ride up to Georgetown with the top off the jeep and looked for some photos to shoot. When we pulled into Georgetown, there was a cool old Chevy sitting in front of the Napa Auto Parts store, so that is the photo of the day today.
It was pretty relaxing and I even got a little sunburn.




We stopped at a couple of cool old trucks that I have seen before and shot a few pictures there.



I got a call from Old Europe to help them get the website I built on the internet. There is a company here in Folsom that does internet marketing, and they purchased the Domain Name www.oldeuropefolsom.com
Then they put an ugly website up and charged the restaurant for their services. Well, the owner of the restaurant doesn't like the website that they built, and now Folsom Living owns the domain name. So, we are going to purchase www.oldeuropeonline.com and put up a website of our own.

I am getting a lot of free meals out of this relationship, so I can't complain!

Slow Times Indeed

So, I haven't done any AV work in a while. Next week I am heading to Los Angeles for a day or two where my equipment will be working for me for the first time in a while. I reserved the U-haul today for the trip, and Allen will be driving there and after he takes me to the airport, he will strike the equipment and then drive it back to Sacramento. I will be flying to Madrid for the week and doing a small show for Aegis Insurance. I have never been to Spain, so I am quite excited about this trip.

Today I actually got out of the house and took a couple of photos. The first is the rainbow bridge in Folsom. I met a couple at the Bar in Old Europe and they told me that they want a photo of the bridge for their fireplace mantel. So, I am going to have to shoot a whole bunch of shots in the next couple of weeks, looking for the perfect combination of sun, blue sky, and clouds.


View on Black

After that I went to World Famous Barber Johns for a hair cut.


View on Black

If you are going to get a hair cut... this is the place!

I know these are not the most interesting blogs in the world, however, this is really what life is like in the corporate theater these days.

Drop me a comment if you are still reading.

S.

yyyaaawwnnnn!

Life in the Corporate Theater has been so very slowwwwwwwww.
I have been focusing a lot on photography, sleeping, and eating junk food... well not really, just photography and junk food.

I have been working on doing a little graphic design for the restaurants that I have photographed. This is something that I never would have thought I would be doing, but it is fun and seems like there is a little bit of business to be had there.

Tomorrow evening is the grand opening party for the restaurant "Old Europe" I am putting my sound system in there for the event to jazz up the music a little. It will be fun to do a little audio gig for the evening.

Here are some of the photos and postcards that I have been working on as of late.

These were taken in Old Sacramento on a photo walk with the Flickr group, Sacramento Photographers on Sunday




A couple of post cards I made for Old Europe to hand out.




Tonight the moon was so bright, I thought I would use it to take a shot of the plants in the back yard

Project 365 day off

Today is just one of those days where it is really coming down, and project 365 takes a back seat to staying inside and keeping warm and dry!



ok.. Hours later... the rain stopped.. sun came out and I shot a picture of Allen overlooking Folsom Lake... the lake is coming up quite nicely. The Dock at the boat launch is now floating which it hasn't been even close to floating since I got out here in July.

Sunday Drive

I took a drive to the Mount Aukum Winery to see if they were interested in having some photos taken of their winery. I met the owners while shooting the Ravine Restaurant, and they implied that they were interested.
So after an hours drive which was really lovely, I took a couple of test pictures to let them see what could be created.
On the way home, I pulled over and took this picture of a river flowing into the mountains. It was very photogenic!