Oil, Sweat & Rigs

Believe it or not, I ended up watching four episodes of this yesterday. Yeah... I had better things to do... but the show just sucked me in.

Oil, Sweat & Rigs gives you a first hand look at what it is taking to repair damaged oil rigs 130 miles out in the Gulf following the devestation of Katrina and Rita. The men working on these rigs are in constant danger and away from their families for weeks / months on end. And the divers, they are amazing... they have to stay in diving chambers at 1600 pounds of pressure for two to four weeks at a time. It takes six days for them to decompress once their work is complete. And... if they're injured while repairing the rig (200 - 500 feet down), they can't be treated until they decopress. Intense.

If you get a chance to check it out, I definitely recommend it.
It's worth setting the TiVo to watch later.

Airport Celebrity Sighting

Saw Rodney Crowell and Will Kimbrough at the airport last week as I was making my way to DC for work. As a follower of Will Kimbrough's blog, I noticed this morning that he and Rodney were going to the same place. Go figure... I guess they do play together... duh... should have probably put two and two together. HA. Sometimes it takes me a while.

Anyway, you have to read down through this post to see that they were playing in Stephenville, TX Wednesday night... where John was playing on Saturday night with LRP.

Wild.
What a small world.

As I think about it, almost everytime I go to the airport I see a celebrity of some sort... it's so surreal. At the same time, for the most part anyway, everyone seems to leave them alone and just let's them be a human being who's getting on a flight to go to work. Just one more reason I love Nashville.

Any other cool airport celebrity sightings to report?

Flowers in my room

When I arrived to my hotel room yesterday afternoon, I walked in to find the room supplied with fresh cut flowers.

"How nice?!" I thought to myself, "Fresh flowers in the room... what a nice touch."

pause...
wait...
then...
the following thoughts began firing in rapid succession for about five seconds:

"Why are they in a vase box?"
"What is that little piece of paper stuck in them?"
"HEY... I think these are for ME!"
"Who could have sent them?"
"I already got a present from JTC."
"No one else knows where I'm staying."
"Could it be a friend?
"Who else knows where I am?!"
"Did I tell Denice when we talked on Saturday?"

As I read the card, I started to cry... tears of happiness, of course.
They WERE from Denice.
My best girlfriend in the whole world sent them to me as a surprise for my birthday.
They were beautiful.
She blew me away.

How lucky am I to have a friend who is so thoughtful?!
VERY.
Thank you Denice!
Your flowers were the highlight of my birthday.
I love you, sistah.

UPDATE 04.28.06:
To get the flowers home, I left the vase in the room, wrapped the bottom of the stems in a wet washcloth, put a shower cap over the washcloth, rolled the flowers up inside my free USA Today and then covered it all with two dry cleaning bags. After my bag was packed and the clothes secured by that mesh thingy, I placed the flower, paper, plastic bundle diagonally across the inside of my suitcase and zipped them up. This all happened at about 7 a.m. CT. By the time I arrived back in Nashvegas it was past 4 p.m. The first thing I did was unwrap them to see how they survived... and believe it or not... they looked fabulous. Only one red Gerber daisy was sacrificed. They're still beautiful and sitting in the dining room window.

Watch LRP online

Check it out...

LRP and the band (especially notice that hot drummer. **wink**) were on the Woodsong Old Time Radio Hour in KY last week.

Just noticed that they've posted links to video, streaming, and a downloadable MP3 on the site.

AND... keep your eyes peeled for a 330 Session that will soon appear on CMT.com. I'll try to let you know when it's live... but from what John said, it sounds like it was a great session. Can't wait to see it.

37 trips around the sun

Today is my birthday.
Wow.
Where has the time gone?

Nashville Zoo for lunch

JTC is home for two days... YAY!
So, we decided to make the best of our time together and met at the Nashville Zoo for lunch. It was a spectacular day to do it, too.

Since I had a limited amount of time, we grabbed a quick bite at the concessions and then made our way to the new elephant savannah area. Neither of us had seen the new giraffe exhibit and I hadn't seen the recently opened Lorkeet exhibit yet, either.



The giraffe are spectacular (next time I'll bring an actual camera so you don't have to put up with this crappy phone pic! HA.)






And the lorkeet are stunning. The colors seem painted on their feathers.

Tomorrow night JTC leaves with LRP for about five weeks. They'll be playing all over Texas and the West Coast... maybe even a little in the North West as well. Check out the tour schedule and catch them if you can. It's a great show.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to spend more time at the Nashville Zoo (as much as I can anyway) holdin' down the fort while John's gone, while also riding my bike, writing and working in the yard. I've got to make time to be outside more... It feels so good.

Toby Keith wants to curl

That's what I said... curl.
He's discovered the sport of curling and hopes to compete in the Olympics.

That's kinda wild... but if anyone can do it, Toby can. Seems like he's the kind of person who, once he puts his mind to something, makes it happen.

TONIGHT @ 8ish!

Hey friends!

Got a last minute invite to sing a few songs at the
Blue Bar tonight at 8-ish.

Steve C's gonna be there, too... playin' that guitar oh so fine.
Come on out if you can swing it!

Here's where you'll find it:
Rack Room Blue Bar
1911 Broadway (across from Noshville)
(615) 327-8001

Maybe we'll see you tonight!

The day after...

Here I come to save the day!

OK... maybe that post title is a little over the top... but, as someone who is about to go garden shopping, this story peaked my interest and I had to pass it along. My friend Summer (who lives in Austin) told me about it today and I must admit, it freaks me out a little bit.

Apparently, a woman was at a Home Depot in Austin, TX, shopping in the plant section. She moved a plant or something, startled the RATTLESNAKE hiding in the pot she had selected and it struck out. She was bitten in the thumb and has spent the past four days in the hostpital.

Yikes.

I'm sure my family in Nebraska / SD should watch out for the rattlesnakes as well... and my friends here in Tennessee... well... I'm guessing copperheads and rattlesnakes could be lurking behind the unsuspecting terra cotta pot, too.

So, just promise me you'll be careful as you prepare for your spring garden fun... cause it's only fun until someone gets bit by a viper.

heh heh.

And, if you're wondering what to do if you are bitten by a poisonous snake at your local garden store here's another story with helpful snake bite protocol at the end.

That's all folks.
My work is done here... it's up to you now.

Subdudes TONIGHT

Hey... the Subdudes are playing at the Mercy Lounge TONIGHT.
They are awesome.
You should go.
Seriously.
I mean it.
Go.

I don't have an accent...

I (along with millions of other Idol viewers) just witnessed the funniest exchange between Simon Cowell (judge) and Kelly Pickler (contestant).

It went something like this:

Kelly Pickler (spoken with a thick southern accent to Ryan Secrest as she pointed at Simon who has a British accent):
"I have a hard time understanding him because of his accent."

Simon Cowell (as he motions back and forth between he and Kelly):
"Likewise."

Kelly Pickler's response:
"But I don't have an accent."

Huh?!
LMAO.

Streph throat... blech.

Hey friends... sorry I haven't posted the past few days. I spent the weekend and the past two days sleeping and trying to swallow. Found out yesterday morning that I have streph throat.

When I woke up yesterday with a throat that was still sore after feeling funky for a week, I decided I'd better go to the doctor.

So, I called in late to work and said, "If I find out my sore throat is not contagious, I'll be in later this morning. If it is contagious, I'll let you know and I won't come in and spread the love."

Well, I went to the doctor. They did a quick streph test and the usual ear, nose, throat check for this type of visit. After a little time, the doctor came in and said she didn't think it was streph throat. It is probably allergies and post nasal drip. Of course, I thought, "cool... now I can get back to work and get something done."

So, I went to the pharmacy, got my allergy Rx filled and went into work. I'd been there about 45 minutes or so when I finally checked my voice mail messages. There was only one, and it was the doctor's office asking me to call them right away.

So, I did.

Well, they apparently didn't wait long enough for the "quick" streph test. The nurse informed me that I indeed did have streph, that they were calling in another Rx for me AND that I should not be at work for at least two days.

Great... the only reason I went to the doctor in the first place was to make sure I didn't go to work and spread something contagious around. Now... after being in the office for almost an hour, having a meeting with the marketing director and talking to several co-workers about various things, I find out that I AM contagious.

Aaaaarrrrgggggh.

My sister-in-law always warns me about the "quick" streph test. She's got three kids and has tons of experience with these things over the past eighteen years. Brenda's told me on several occasssions that she insists on the streph test that takes longer as well as the "quick" cause 50% of the time the "quick" test doesn't catch it... she's not sure if it doesn't have time to incubate and grow, or what... but she warned me. HA.

Anyway, so, I went home as fast as I could and have been trying to sleep it off. It is amazing how sleepy a person is with streph. Seems like I just can't get enough... but hopefully it just means my body is working at healing itself.

I'm hoping tomorrow I'll feel up-to going to work. I've tried to work from home as much as I can inbetween sleeping... there's just too much to do to be stuck at home right now, but I can only do so much via dial-up VPN. My boss is out on maternity leave, our product manager is out on bedrest because she's about a month from having a baby, and our managing editor adopted a baby and is out for a couple more weeks. While everything is going ... I'm feeling just a little bit frazzled and really don't have time to be sick. So... hopefully I'll be able to get something done tomorrow.

OK... end of pity party.
Thanks for reading.

Support live music this weekend!

FRIDAY, 4/7:

9 p.m. @ The 5 Spot
Blue Mother Tupelo

9:30 p.m. @ the Bluebird
Don Henry w/Michael Johnson, Tony Arata & Regie Hamm

SATURDAY, 4/8:

8:30 p.m. @ The Mercy Lounge
Poco w/Pinmonkey

9 p.m. @ the Family Wash
Bob Delvante Combo

9:30 p.m. @ the Bluebird
A Benefit for Peace Jam featuring Beth Nielsen Chapman w/special guests Kenny Malone & Annie Roboff

9:30 p.m. @ 3rd & Lindsley
Ken Johnson w/Southland & Remedy 15 featuring DTOX & the Red Neck Rock Stars & Caitlin Evanson

SUNDAY, 4/9:

Duh.... ME, silly.
8 p.m. @ the Bluebird

Mark your calendar

Hey friends...
I'm playing the Bluebird's Sunday Night Writer's Night (4/9) at 8 p.m.
Come out and enjoy!
I'd love to see your smiling face.

Monk-e-mail

My friend Ro sent me one of these today.
It's really cool... and very viral.
LOVE IT.
So... thought I'd pass it along.

**you're welcome**

JTC sails the high seas...

How cool is this?! On their day off in Florida, a friend of LRP's took the entire band out on their 180' boat for a cruise on the ocean. Just hung up the phone with John and he says this is one of those life experiences he'll never forget. He said they had this incredible lunch and that the chef is making their supper right now. (Thank you LR and friend!)




Here are some pics JTC has been sending me today via phone. This first photo is of them leaving the dock in West Palm... I think.







Here is a photo of "Captain Tom" as they drive away. There was also an "assistant" captain (not sure what the official title was) and a chef and staff on board to serve lunch and supper.






And this was taken out on the ocean in the boat. Apparently, they went out far enough that they couldn't see any land at all.
Wild.






The wake of the boat as they drive away. John said it got really wide and big when they were going faster out on the ocean... he thought it was at least 40' wide. Cool.






Here's a shot of what John says is a small portion of the boat's cabin. It's like a house on the water!






And here is one of the three staterooms on the boat... John will be sleeping in one of them tonight. Hope the cool ocean breezes rock him to sleep.

What a well deserved relaxation for everyone.
May the adventure continue!
Miss you JTC... rest well buddy.