my wife and i.

my wife and i, only seconds after being pronounce man and wife.

crooked necktie

last night julie, stephanie, justin, jesse and i went to natalie kriefels twenty third birthday party. it was only minutes after we began our descent into the bowels of rockwall, when a woman in a chevrolet suburban full of kids flipped us off in a most unsavory way. i'm sure we added fuel to her unexplained fire when we simply laughed it off as we pulled into the chick-fil-a drive-through. one thing was certain about last night: it was going to take a lot more than one redneck to derail our good time.

once we got to the party we ran into several old friends and had a great time catching up. i quickly shuffled over to the drink station, where i decided to pour whisky into my sweet tea. the first sip was like an epiphany... the ramshackle cocktail nobody thought would make it to the second gulp was delicious. i knew it needed a name, so i gathered our small group together to form a think-tank. 

justin's contribution was "cock a doodle tea," i came up with "texas joose," and stephanie, whose contributions were mostly names that censorship laws will not allow me to publish, came up the the winner: "crooked necktie."

so next time you belly up to a bar and the bartender assumes you're going to ask for a sarsaparilla, tell him you want an ice cold crooked necktie...he will probably have no idea what you are talking about.

sometimes my wife calls me boo

i think it's pretty funny.

i feel like i may have been made for this domestic bliss lifestyle... but i'm not completely sure yet. after years of living in beer bottle and pizza box laden bachelor pads, it is a breath of fresh air to have a tidy, well decorated place of our own.

my wife is a very cool and interesting person. she's an artist. she makes me laugh and does things that are very unexpected. i love her. she lets me hang out with the guys...she lets me play the drums. she doesn't make me cut my hair or shave. she doesn't make me wear the latest styles from j crew, but is quick to let me browse around urban outfitters. she buys me beer, and is always sweet to me. she is my best friend.

marriage...i highly recommend it!

daniel

superbowling

last night i attended a superbowl party with loads of old friends. we were piled high and deep completely preoccupied by scott's brand new fifty-two inch tv, while hoards of kids (all under the age of 5) ran around trying to get away with as much bad behavior as possible. i spent most of my time sipping cowboy cold bottles of liberty ale, eating more tacos than any one human should, and teaching one particular two year old how to say "booya!"

we have all been a pretty tight knit group of friends since long before any children arrived on the scene, but last night there were so many of them we could barely hear the game. i guess i'm getting old, but in a few years i'll be teaching my own two year old how to say "booya!"

there is a fine line between green and jaded....

actually, the line is pretty thick, but somehow without realizing it i've managed to ford my way across to the dark side. in a certain light it looks like my band still has opportunities to hit that breakthrough we've worked and sacrificed so hard for these last eight years. but in many more lights any hope of making a living doing this seems futile. there was a time when a record label would express the smallest hint of interest, and we would flip our lids to do whatever we could to see it through. nowadays, those interests are met with laughter and yawns. you would need jumper cables to get our hopes up again.

despite all of this, i spend a lot of time thinking about where the band has taken me. we have been to four different continents, traveled across america several times over, met some weird and interesting people, seen some unbelievable stuff, and been on loads of adventures. much of it was a blur. and there are many more to come. possibly another few trips to europe...maybe a trip to brazil.

salim nourallah has this quote that i think is one of his best lyrics. he says "youth is a prank...." i look back at myself when radiant were at our peak, and i think "what an ungrateful idiot." we were being met all these amazing opportunities and i was never satisfied. we would take one big step and my focus would immediately shift to the next one.

i wonder if it's too late to get back to the other side of that line. in the meantime, i am working on that living in the moment thing.

sometimes i beat the weekend

...but this time the weekend beat me.

my band radiant had a concert on friday night at the granada theater, and i played drums in the support band as well. it was pretty tiring with no help from my friend johnny walker. the next day and night destroyed me. we drove to play a less than stellar show in stillwater, oklahoma. dragan and i left immediately and drove through the night to get back for our church gigs. 

i spent most of the day trying to come down from various caffeine rushes, but it was actually pretty fun because julie and i just sat around watching the bob dylan documentary "no direction home."

i am also beginning to try my hand at the culinary arts, which was more miss than hit today but more on this later.

don't judge my grammar mistakes too harshly. i'm on 1 hour of sleep.

zoom out

wii tennis champion

one of my favorite movie quotes comes from a scene in mr. deeds when the guy stands up and says that as a little boy he wanted to be a ping pong champion. well, that's how i feel right now. i've just spent the last 2 hours destroying the computer in wii tennis (including a short break to calmly but assertively confront a guy from sprint).

i am just realizing how boring my day has been so far.

adios