KP and the Boom Boom at the Blanton KP and the Boom Boom played a really bad ass show at the Blanton one night. Carly was singing backup for them and with both Nick and Doug having played in Kyloe Blue before (and Bryan having practiced with us), at least half of KP has played in our band. I always try to go and support them when and where I can. This was just one of those evenings. Unfortunately Devin was out babysitting her two favorite kiddos in the world and couldn't come with.

Red Rock Canyon National Park One of the many excursions we embarked upon for Dreux and Eric's 40th and 39th birthdays, respectively, was off-road jeeping out in the Red Rock Canyon National Park west of Las Vegas, Nevada. While it was a guided tour, this is definitely one of the best guides I've ever had. He was super helpful in actually teaching us methods for rock crawling and was as hands-off as he could be thereby giving us the freedom to freely drive around in the park. I think we all rated the experience a 10/10, which is surprising for an entire group that generally want nothing to do with a guide.

Lalla Takerkoust After Ben and I had driven across Morocco for a few weeks, we were staying in Marrakech (since that's where we ultimately had to be to drop off our car and fly out to Rome). We were getting a little tired of being in the inner Medina and so one afternoon we just decided to take a random drive across the area. We eventually saw Lalla Takerkoust on the map (a large inland lake) and decided that we would head that way. What we did NOT know was that there are a couple of amazing French resorts on the lake. The area was absolutely serene, they had amazing food, and the rooms were only about $30 USD per night (split in half was just $15 each). So even though we had a room in Marrakech for another 2 nights, we decided that we would just double up and rent a room on the lake. It was one of the better decisions we made. They had a beautiful outdoor bar and we could walk down to the lake and otherwise just hang out in the beautiful weather. Unfortunately, neither Ben nor I speak French and so we did have to figure that out a little bit, but like it always does, everything worked out just fine and a great time was had by the both of us.

Night Out in Belfast So Ben and I had come across this Chinese restaurant near our hotel the first night that we stayed in Belfast. It was SO delicious that we insisted upon going back the next day. They prepared us such an amazing meal and were tickled pink that we asked for every single spicy and chili oil combination that they had. Ben and I must have single-handedly eaten half of the chilis that they had in the restaurant for that day. Afterwards we decided we'd go out and check out a few bars. We found one that was supposed to be great, but it was deader than dead. In fact, it was so boring that Ben eventually fell asleep on the booth that we were sitting in. One of the bartenders walked over to us and asked me if something was wrong with him. I said, no, he's just tired and taking a quick nap. They proceeded to get angry and say, "Look, you can't sleep in our bar. That's not what the bar is for". I showed them how we both had drinks and were clearly ordering and everything so there was no reason to want to get angry with us. But they told us he either needed to stay upright or we needed to leave. So we left. Fuck any bar that doesn't see the value in a little shut-eye between rounds! We eventually found a much nicer bar and I wound up meeting a lovely Lebanese girl in there shortly after I had met the singer/songwriter who was performing for the evening. So I definitely made the best of it!

Christmas Trampoline Park Jordan and her siblings participate in one of the Big Brother / Big Sister programs and wanted to take their kids to a trampoline park for Christmas. There were many flips and acrobatics done into a foam pit from one of the high dive platforms.

Working on Stained Glass There is a small antique store in the neighborhood and the owner happens to collect various types of stained glass. I don't know much about stained glass, but Jordan said the prices were really good and so she bought a bunch of pieces. I spent a few weeks slowly filling in the gaps with silicone so that they would be properly restored. Unfortunately one of the pieces that I had more or less finished was knocked over by Jordan one afternoon. It shattered quite a bit of it. I did the best I could to repair the damage by purchasing glass filler and carefully filling in the cracks with it. It turned out pretty well under the circumstances.

Ben's Toastoff in Kitchener I don't have much to say about this album. As most of my friends know, my very dear friend Ben passed away in September. It was and remains a tragic loss. His family opted not to hold a traditional funeral and instead had what they call a Toast-Off. I wasn't sure exactly what it would entail, but it was actually a very enjoyable event where countless friends and family of Ben were able to show up and tell stories of him while we all drank silly amounts of alcohol. It would have been right up Ben's alley. One of the greatest surprises that I came upon was a sweater that belonged to Ben. It had been put in my Osprey backpack, something I hadn't used since Ben and I traveled together in 2019. I spent some time trying to figure out who it belonged to, but eventually reasoned that it must have been his. I'd imagine that he crammed it into my backpack when we were boarding one of the ferries that we took across the Irish Sea. Suffice it to say, it's a wonderful little remnant of him that I have.

Guitar Photo Shoot in STL I really have no idea why I have 40 photos of what is more or less the exact same thing. I'm guessing that I had the camera on one of those burst modes and then shot one or two photos in reality. Nevertheless, here they are.

Graham Cracker Pudding Dessert Idea I was trying to come up with a simple dessert for myself one night, checked on the ingredients that I had on hand, and this is what I came up with. Rachel had come over one night and after we had some dinner, asked if there was some kind of dessert we could get. I told her that I'd whip up something I'd recently made. It's a pretty simple recipe: Line 4 graham crackers on the bottom of a glass pan. Make some homemade whipped cream (2 cups heavy cream, 4 tbsp powdered sugar, 2 tsb vanilla), and create a hearty layer of the whipped cream above the graham crackers. Mix up some chocolate pudding and then line the pudding above the whipped cream. Place another layer of whipped cream above the chocolate pudding. Finally, crumple graham crackers on the top of the pie. It's amazing.

Birthday Pottery Class I'd recently started looking into pottery classes given some friends of mine who have been doing it for the past year or so. After having had a conversation or two with Rachel about this, she contacted an artist out in the west hills who has a beautiful studio out at his house and got me some private instruction for my recent birthday. The one-on-one instruction was especially useful for picking up the basics. I'd imagine a small pottery wheel will be in my near future.