Did auto manufacturers stop putting tunr signals on cars??

I was driving down the I-15, one of the major highways that gets you around the Las Vegas Valley, to pick Kelly up at the airport last night, and given the increased traffic due to the holiday weekend I was not suprised at how busy the roadway wass, I was blown away by something else: It seems like No one (except me) was using their turn signals. A four lane highway (plus on/offramps) loaded to the limit with cars that were just changing lanes and exiting/entering the highway with no indication of their intent. If there is one thing I make sure I do that was in the handbook, it's use my signals.. I want you to know that I am turning, so you won;t hit me.... THere was a bad accident at Sahara, no doubt the result of someone not using their signals.... I exited and saw a lot of flashing yellow arrows, road work at Las Vegas BLVD and Sahara on Memorial day, must have been emergency work, Yet another headache caused by non-signal users???? as the signs indicated, I got over two lanes to the left and the lane I was in was clear, except that now all of the people who had their heads up their arses were then coming over into this lane with no signal, so back to bumper-to-bumper for a bit. How hard is is to look ahead when you are driving, and to follow the instructions that are posted, a lot of our taxes go towards those fancy orange and yellow signs....As I was getting closer to the intersection, and the cones were closing off the other lanes completely, a guy in a white Jeep Grand Cherokee starts to come into my lane, nearly making contact, and not flashing a signal or anything. My window was open, his window was open, so I yelled " If you had your turn signal on I would have stopped for you, but if you think you can just come over, forget it" or somehting like that... blows me away, and the airport is no different. Let me set up the scenario for you, driving up to passenger pickup, there are a LOT of people on the right side of the road, and a few on the left, so how many times did I get cutt of by people suddenly realizing that they needed to pull over to my lane to pick up their family?? Three, one of which used his/her signal.. thank you sir/ma'am in the Lexus Why Bother SUV...

Just a rant.

That and I'm still waiting to hear when my upright bass will be delivered, arrrrrrghhhhh!

What can I say? Nasty Habits Rocks!!

So we had a bit of a lineup change in Nasty Habits, Steve Dixon, a good friend of all of us and our guitar player/singer has been very busy with work (he is an audio guy) and taking care of many different things in his life and we as a band wanted him to know that it's O.K. to handle his business, even if it meant he couldn't give 100% to the band. We didn't fire him and he didn't quit, it's a mutual feeling (I think) and we've made the split without harning our friendship (obviously some hurt is going to be felt).

We had a gig tonight at Indian Springs Casino and man, I really think we can pull this off as a four peice (although looking into another member is not totally out of the question, I think we need to hone our skills with the talented people we have so that we have a better product to sell). It means that I am singing about 2/3rds of the material and I don't think I did a bad job considering. we had 'Uncle' sean jamming too (it was actually his gig that he brought us on...long story) but even without a second guitar I think we will be a force to be wreckend with.

My upright bass is in the depot here in Vegas, but untill the shipping/receiving guy scans it into his system (right now it is there, just marked 'arrived' by the driver) I can't call and schedule to pick it up (and therefore I will have to wait until Tuesday thanks to the Holiday weekend...). I'm s excited about the bass, not only does it mean that I will have another schtick, the band is going to have a cool image peice on stage, it is really going to be memorable!!

Anywho, I just wanted to post about our gig, my voice lasted through the night (even with rehearsal last night) and I think it will be fine tomorrow with the church picnic/summer bash/jam and a nap tomorrow afternoon. We added a second subwoofer to our P.A. and tonight was the first time using it, it sounds awesome (the P.A>) and I can only look forward to the gigs that are coming in the future with great anticipation and a smile!! Good night, I'm going to try to get a few hours of zZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ's in while I can!!!

So, would you remember a band that had an upright bass with flames on it? Lets hope many other would too!

Tommy D, the guitar player in Nasty Habits, called me with an idea, as a way to make more of a show out of our sets, he was thinking that people would go nuts over a band that had an upright bass, so if he got one with flames on it, that would be a definite eye-catcher and thing to remember. He was interested to know if I would play one, to which I informed him that I had one for years, so it would not be something I was going into blindly, and he asked me to look into finding one that was not too expensive (King brand uprights go for around $4000). I was at the computer anyway and pulled one up on Ebay that was much less than a grand and already had a cool flame-over-black color scheme on it. He ordered it. Soon I will be back to having chops on the upright again, it's going to be soo much fun!!

The next step for our/my stage image is a kilt ( I already have mutliple pairs of plaid pants, so this would take that one step farther!! Imagine me with my porkpie hat, club shirt and a kilt, how cool would that be?! Definitely have to find a MacKenzie plaid (or stewart, because the clan MacKenzie was VERY loyal to the stewarts).......... More to come in the future!!

Beer can chicken!

My father in law makes one heck of a good chicken on the barbeque, so we thought we'd give it a try for ourselves, the process involves shoving a half-full can of beer up the unsuspecting fowl's rear end. If you plan to try this, I would advise that you buy a bird prepared at the store (the live ones tend to peck at you when you try to get the can near their tushes... Just kidding, they love it!....

I took the 'stuff' out of the birds cavity, rinsed the bird with cold water inside and out and applied some salt, pepper, poultry seasonng and rosemary to the outside of the bird (and a little inside) then I drank half of the beer . I put a few seasonings in with the beer just in case that might help ad flavour. Then I put the beer can into this rack and crammed the bird over the can, it was hard work... Most recipes call for a 3-4 pund bird, this one was 4.5 punds, and I can't imagine getting a can into a smaller bird... I fired up the grill, pre-heated it, and got the bird situated. 10 minutes later I went to scheck on it and there was no propane left (having only used the grill one other time before this I was confused, but the incompetant folks at the gas station or who fill up the tanks must have missed one....) So I fired up the oven and let er rip. THe bird was done right before I had to go to band practice, so I didn't get a chance to try it yet, but you can bet it'll be my lunch today!!

Ahhh, Summer......

Last week showed us that Vegas is going to be hotter than ever, and I don't meen more popular!
Wew had several days that were right under or jusr over 100 degrees, this is easily 15 degrees above the normal temps this time of year. We are going to get a nice break starting SUnday, it is only going to be in the 90's, and they've even shown some days to be in the 80's.
I sat out by th pool for a while on THursday, and man I am still red! I used SPF 50 on my head and face (there's nothing worse than the thought of skin cancer on your nugget) and did not use any sunblock on the rest of me. I learned my lesson, though, and will make sure that some kind of sunscreen is applied. I might actually get a tan this year, and not just on my arms/shoulders....

A couple of tunes

I've got a couple of tunes that are O.K. and I have put them on the internet. Keep in mind I recorded these with a microphone from a headset/earbud thing we have for the webcam and until I get more work coming in I won't be able to do much better (I need an interface to get the guitar/mic signal to digital so I can get better quality) THey are in Windows media format, I think, so if you can't hear them, sorry. They are available at:

Sincitywolskes.com/Jam

Sincitywolskes.com/goodluck

Much to my suprise.....

Last Night Kelly came home from work about 35 minutes later than I expected. Now I'm not one of those husbands who thinks that my wife needs to be at my very beck and call (which she usually is, because she's a great wife!) but anything over 25 minutes late constitutes worry... I was getting to the point that I was hurt by the lack of a phone call before she left if she new she was going to be running late, and almost to the point of wondering if she had been in an accident when she came home. I was outside when she was backing the Jeep into the parking space, odd, she usually doesn't bother to back in... She popped open the lift gate and asked me if I could help get this thing inside, it was a grill! a real grill! ( at our old apartment I had a little charcoal burning piece of you-know-what) We got the unit upstairs and then I had to go to band practise. Kelly put the grill together, it looks awesome! It is stainless steel on the outside (Insert Tim the Toolman noises here) and has a cast Iron grille, a side burner and everything! We don't have a tank for it yet, but you can bet that as soon as we do, I'm doin' some grillin'!

So I have to appaulogize to Kelly, I was not very enthusiastic about the grill last night, I was pressed for time before band practise and I was worried about her safety. Now I can breathe easy and tell her how much I love the new Grill!! Thanks, Babe!!

Just don't want to see a blog sitting...

So I've been kind of lazy in the last week. Let me tell you how much Kelly and I are enjoying our new place...

First off, there's a pool, a hot tub, cabanas, a fitness room, all within 50 yards of our unit. We throw on our suits and grab our towels and just outside our front door (and down the stairs) is the pool area, great!! It's in the high 90's and about to hit the 100's (actually today was 102 per the sensor in the Jeep....)

Secondly, there is a shopping center that is a 10 minute walk from our front door that has an Albertsons Grocery Store, a Pub, a chinese place, lots of options nice and close ( our old place it was a 10 minute drive to a dumpy older grocery store and no other shopping options)

Third, we have lakes, not huge lakes like the ones I'm used to in Canada, but lakes non-the-less... THere are 4 man-made lakes which are spring fed (so they are 'Real' water, not theme-park water. In these lakes there are Fish, I've seen a few big ones, and Turtles, aren't they cute?! THere is a Beach CLub that has a lagoon (a much smaller area that allows swimming and has a beach with palm trees and hammocks and beach volleyball court....) A tour on foot of the neighborhood is a nice 1 hour walk (with stops to look at fish and turtles) and on a nice day last week I did the walk and looked around.

Fourth, Band practice is a lot closer. I used to leave our place 45 minutes before rehearsal, now I leave 15 minutes before rehearsal.

Fifth, mmmmm, afifth would be good right now (we have no liquor in the house as of yet)

Sixth, the GYm is closer, RedRock Canyon is closer, haven't seen any shady charactors lurking around, walls seem to be thick (the neighbour appologized about his dog barking to which I had to respond "O.K., I haven't heard any barking..." they really are that quiet!

So anywho, there are a few of the things that we are enjoying about the new place! Rock On!!!!

Joe Cocker -- Artist of the Week

That's right, Faboulous Joe Cocker, check it out, you might learn something

Artist of the Week link is on right side of screen with other links.

Artist of the Week moved

Due to errors that windows was experiencing I have moved the AOTW page to a NEW HOME. I hope you enjoy it, if not, let me know that you don't go there and I will stop putting them up...

Wonder why we are overweight?

I was at the Las Vegas Athletic Club this morning, as I am every morning, and as I walked out to my car, I was nearly run over by a Blue Ford Explorer. Myself and two ladies all stopped before actually getting into the parking lot and made our comments like 'yeah, when driving in a parking lot you shouldn't pay any attention to the pedestrians at the zebra crossing.' The lady was rushing to get a parking spot that had just opened up in the first row of cars, at the gym....

I don't try too hard to park close to anything, it seems to be more headaches and hassles than it is worth, but at the gym, come on. At the hotels in town the parking is always congested in the 'easy' areas and it is really not worth having to deal with tourists in a parking garage, let me tell you... At the mall, everybody knows what kind of crap you go through at ANY mall, so I don't need to expand on that one.

The gym I go to has a Zebra crossing that goes through the middle of the parking, right to the entrance, so even parking 6 or 7 rows away, there is very easy access. My goal when I go to the gym is to sweat, not to just show up and hope my fat will get scared and run away, that just doesn't happen. I think the gym should make all of the first three rows Handicapped parking, to prove a point. Anybody who is spending $21 a month (great deal, eh!?) to have access to these facilities should understand why they bother to pay money to the gym, for fitness, not for a nice little card that looks good on the kitchen counter where everyone who may visit can see it....

So I think that this proves one thing, we are LAZY, Americans, apparently we are even less fit than the brits now, and that's saying something! PARK FARTHER AWAY, IT WILL DO YOU SOME GOOD!

As for me, I'm going to keep doing my hour+ every morning and make sure I eat right (Lots of protein and fiber, moderate carb and fat intake) in hopes of leaving the 'average'... BTW I am down from 202.5 (in December) to 188, slowly but surely wins the race my friends.

Moron Immigration, I mean more on....

Here is an interesting article about a town in Maryland that is having a debate over whether or not they should have a day labor center, interesting that governments want to get in on the action of assisting those without the proper paperwork to assist themselves. My suggestion would be this: Someone of questionable background should open a swap meet, there they can supply all of the real American Social Security Numbers to Illegals, and when he gets caught, someone else can take over in a different swap meet, that would at least be building a legacy, something for their people to be er, proud of..... How about finding them fair wages and then making sure they are properly paying taxes.... That would be novel, but I bet that part would slip between the dirty river, I mean cracks..... If you are here legally and need assistance there are more than enough job placement centers that can help you, if you are trying to get daywork because you have no paperwork, GET OUT OF THIS COUNTRY. As for those of you who like to point out that we are not a Police State, we should be, because soon enough you will be the one feeling the crunch from the mass border crossings we are seeing and will continue to see if we don't close our borders.

gRACEPOINT roCKS THE hOUSE OF gOD!!!

Man did we have a great day at church yesterday! THe band was kickin'! the chairs were full ( and I do mean full) 20+ peoiple were baptised! It couldn't have been a cooler morning!

The GP KIDS helped us lead worship with singing and motions to two of the songs, they were great! THe service was great!

Eric, the guitar player, (forgive me for not knowing his last name.....) was among those who commited themselves to Christ recently and took the plunge, in a 12 foot round pool that was about 3 feet deep! While some people came through a little wet, the rest of us came through it with a great feeling of God's love as the energy was just jumping off the stage! If I haven't said it yet to anyone at Gracepoint, THank You for letting me be a part of Gracepoint!!

Bit the bullet, went to union hall again...

Well, having a slump in gigs, I decided to look into working for the union guys again... This time I had my resume in hand and filled out their application, so we'll see... Part of me is really glad to have opened a door that may help me get work (and if it doesn't, I'll be very quick to demand that the contract/application is null and void, which it advised me to do in writing...) the other part of me is kind of scared about getting tied into an organization like this. I've never been a part of a union, never actually thought about it before, and now it is a real thing I've signed up for, I just don't know if it is good or bad. I guess that I can't make that assumption just yet, that it'll be either, really. I'll certainly enjoy working, anything within my field will be better than working in an office (which I did for two and a half years) and will certainly lead me to experience and contacts, at the very least.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the City of North Las Vegas about my background check, I can't believe that anything would slow that down, it's not like I've done anything except work and play gigs, no time in Sing-Sing for me....

I worked an event this past weekend!! It wasn't an audio gig, it was setup/work booth/tear down gog for Quilted Northern Ultra (Yes I did get some TP) and it was at the Race for the cure, so it was a fun day for a good cause. I went DOwntown to the Fremont Street Experience at 1:00 in the morning (after carefully planned naps the day before) and we set up a huge tent with a Plink styled game and a Team Photo station, then I spent the majority of the morning walking through the thousands of attendees taking pictures with a digital camera, we were giving participants a chance to have their pictures taken for free, they'll just have to go online to download their pictures, then we had to strile everything, load the truck and we were done, all in all a good day!! I found the gig on Craigslist, so I'll keep checking there everyday for more opportunities!!

So I was pretty beat the rest of the day Saturday and fighting off a headache because I didn't pay attention to the amount of sun my shaved nugget was getting.....

Who does it really hurt when you take a day off?

SO yesterday a bunch of immigrants walked the streets to prove how powerful they are as a segment of our population... TO reiterate my point from yesterday,:

SO WHAT? You are going to be short by 8 hours on your paycheck, and you're probably busting your ass today to make up for the work that didn't get done, who has the last laugh now, chico? Be happy if your employer brings you Gatorade in stead of making you get it yourself, because you've just slapped him in the face and he should only give you the required 10 minute break every 4 hours, shows you who has the power, keep digging. You want to see where the power is? What if all of the businesses decided to not open for a few days? then you'd complain because you (through some great power and overly kind government) have some rights and don't want to see the income you rely on going away. It's the same thing you just did to them, and they don't have questionable paperwork....

So a handful of Mexican restaurants didn't open yesterday (because the owner and all of the illegals that work there are Mexican) who did that hurt? Not me, I certainly didn't suffer from a lack of jalapeno's in my diet yesterday, and I bet there is other cost incured, such as food that can't sit for two days, so they shot themselves in the foot, that's really smart, shows me a lot about your people and your 'power'...

The casinos put out big petitions showing support for the 'needed reform' for their employees to sign, that's a smart way to keep everyone at work and piss on the fire if you ask me. THe immigrants feel that they are cared for and the casinos don't have a glitch in their customer service, I would have just told you flat out you were fired if you didn't show, that should be all the encouragement anyone needs to show up to work... I would have announced your name on the overhead P.A. too, so everyone would know that you got yourself fired for what? to prove a point that doesn't exhist?

The architectural precast place that my wife works at had no men to work in the yard, so the owners and other educated people who work there had to put in a little elbow greese, no big issue there. THe owner was even willing to give a little bonus to anybody who showed up, he was actually willing to pay you more than he needs to to show you he appreciates you, but you didn't cripple his business, and like I said, who's busting their asses today? not the owners, that's your job.

You want to come to my country, you wnat to have your peice of the american dream, you want me to hand you everything on a shiny silver platter, kiss my ass, learn my language, go to an immigration lawyer and do what YOU have to do to enter this country... I'd like to sneak in the back door of your home and sit on the couch watching TV and demand that YOU give me the keys to the front door and a cold beer, Ain't gonna happen, is it? Be lucky that there weren't large groups of violent americans looking to hook you up in a chain gang and walk your ass back across the border. LUCKY.

Employers should make themselves aware of INS documentation and should be allowed to doubt it's validity until it can be proved (social security cards have a three digit number that indicates the state that it was issued, and only one person has that SSN, take a look at credit reports or other info that can only be known to the true holder of that SSN.

Take a look at this story and tell me if you want this kind of lying sh*t in your country.

Obviously I speak to the illegals mostly, but to those of you who are here legitimately, Don't force anything on America. We've been here a long time, and we're not going anywhere. It's just sad when the people who live here legally and speak the english language are the ones who are being pushed around by those who have invaded and are trying to make it easier for more people like them to come and destroy our country. COme to America, Live like Americans, Leave your country's CRAP back home. Most lease agreements indicate no more than two or three adults can live in a home/apartment (depending on size) so just in the argument that living 10 to a house is not american, it's also illegal (a lease is a contract, a legally binding agreement, if you could read english you'd know that.)

I rather enjoyed the day without immigrants, and would like to request that we get a few of those days a month.

Protest Day?! THis is why I love ROck and Roll

Yeah, I'd rather not take a day off work (which I'm not going to get paid for) to drink cervesa and 'Protest' the government. I've been driving around Vegas to get a few last things done to finalize our move and I've seen countless cars full of Mexicans who aren't going to work. Wal mart (which I never go to because of the crowds and store policy) was very pleasant. I walked freely through the store and did not once have to ball my fist up and get ready to throw down, it was amazing! I breezed through the aisles and the checkout with no problems whatsoever... I went to The commy store to spend some money because if the immigrant population is trying to prove a point and hurt the business end of America, I'll do my little part to not make it hurt so much, but I do have a theory....

You lose a day of pay and you'll have to work twice as hard tomorrow, who's getting the raw end of the deal, Mane?! Certainly a lot of you will be looking for jobs tomorrow because Nevada is a Right to Work state and the company only needs to want to fire you, great, you really proved a lot by losing your job, now little juan pablo is going to have to really step up his junk peddling at the swap meet, nice guy. You bought extra beer and stuff yesterday so you wouldn't spend any money today, and that hurt who? Didn't have the tortillas that you needed in the fridge, you'll go and get them tomorrow. If you want to feel unappreciated, join the rest of us. I have my freedom and that is all I want (Publishers Clearing house people, that is not a withdrawal of my entry) from this country. I pay them what I need to as a Citizen, and I enjoy my country. If today was this great for me, imagine if we could heard you guys up and take you back to your country, I might like to shop at the mall again....

I also wondered, what if I went to the rally and pretended to be from Ireland, stowed away on a ship or something, would they hold me inte same position as themselves, or would they look at my white skin and hate me. I think a lot of this hatred and anger has to do with their own racism and my fix for that is REAL simple... If you don't like the American people and the way they think, don't invade their country.

Maybe we should mandate military service to imigrants, two years in the feild and then give them consideration.... Train them to overthrow the government they ran away from. Once we get enough of an army made up of gringo's we can just drop them from a C-5 and let them do what they should be doing. then charge the new government for all the training and equipment we put in, carry the two, add interest, we could make a killing, and we could even convinve Arnie to let them have the NAME California, we'd just come up with a new name for that state and change our maps....

All this typing is making me tired, I think I'll grab a Modelo Negra and take a Ciesta by the pool, which was cleaned this morning by a white guy, like always.

Quote of the week --- C. Frey on imigrant protest day --- We'll start to cut our own grass again, I don't see what the big deal is...