I keep telling myself I need to get back to blogging. Then myself always reminds myself that video games are a much more entertaining way to spend myself’s time.

My little gaming addiction has reared its ugly head over the past few months and it has (as it always does) gotten a wee bit out of control lately. With that said, if any of you happen to play Quake Live my in-game name is “DrewJohnson” (I’m so creative) so look me up and I’ll be happy to apply a rocket to your face.

Here’s a quick rundown of what I should have been blogging about over the past month.

- Riley took swimming lessons. He still doesn’t know how to swim.

- We’re remodeling our bathroom. That means everyone in the house is angry all the time.

- We bought one of these for Riley off of Craigslist for a tiny fraction of what they cost new.

- The money for recording the album is all gone. Nothing is finished.

- I wrote and arranged horn parts to two songs for Javier Mendoza‘s upcoming album.

- This Saturday I’ll be playing my first live show in probably three years. It’s the Satisrocktion festival in Arkansas.

That’s it for now. The basball game is about the start. I’m really going to try and get back to blogging regularly. Sorry for my lack of discipline.

Yesterday was Riley’s seventh birthday. I can’t believe he’s made it this long.

My mom took us all to The Muny to see Godspell last night. It was really good. It had a rather messed up view of the biblical stories it was portraying but other than that it was rather entertaining.

Here’s a picture my mom took of Riley right outside The Muny.

Last Sunday was a pretty big milestone in my life. I was asked to be one of two worship leader’s at our church and last Sunday was my maiden voyage. Of course I was very excited to move into this position. Last Sunday and today both went pretty smooth so I’m very thankful for that.

Today after the service one of the boys in our church who I believe is about eight years old came up to me and handed me a picture he had drawn of me on the back of the bulletin. It’s awesome.

OK who’s ready for another barf story?

A couple of nights ago I went to bed a bit earlier than usual so Angel stayed up messing around on her computer. Lilly was laying in the bed when I got there so I let her stay. A few minutes after I turned off the light she started heaving like she was trying to throw up. So I jumped up, turned the light on and began violently coaxing her off the bed.

Removing a one hundred twenty pound dog from the bed is no walk in the park. Especially one who is currently kind of in the middle of something. So she heaved and I heaved and she heaved and I heaved until I finally got her onto the floor. As soon as her feet hit the carpet she birthed an alien right out of her mouth before my very eyes.

I stood there stunned at the sight of it. Then I ran to the top of the basement step and called down to Angel “Uhhhh, you’re gonna wanna come see this.”

Angel is the designated barf cleaner upper so she reluctantly came upstairs to see the new addition to our family.

She walked into the bedroom and instead of naming the little one like I had expected, she said “What is that?” I was hoping she could tell me.

So she grabbed a bunch of paper towels and picked up the thing to examine it and see if it would cry. Upon closer inspection she said “Well, let’s see, there’s a rubber-band, a tampon applicator, a pantiliner, a Pudding Pop wrapper, some hair and some of the grilled chicken we had for dinner.”

I’ll take the credit for the chicken but everything else came from the little trash can we keep in the bathroom.

We have a very smart dog.

Lilly feels much better now.

Did anybody know that people of earth still bowl? Yeah, me either. I haven’t been bowling since I was a wee little pup. We had fun. My legs are killing me and I can’t move my right wrist but other than that it was perfectly enjoyable. Here’s what bowling looks like in case you don’t remember.

Angel in her brand new glasses.

The totals.

I am particularly interested in this last picture because I never knew that I had lips on the back of my head.

We are very easily entertained around here.

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Notice anything strange about our tree? Like, how it’s half gone?

I got up this morning and let Lilly out to do her business while I was getting ready for work. Well, apparently Lilly’s business is now the tree trimming business. When I went to let her inside I noticed that she had been kind enough to do a little pruning of the new tree.

So we went to Wal Mart tonight and bought this little decorative fence to keep her out. How is a tiny little fence going to deter a giant dog? you ask. Here’s how. Before we installed the fence Angel suggested we use a technique she learned when she was an interrogator for the CIA. We all chased Lilly around the yard with pieces of the fence banging them together and scaring Lilly within an inch of her tree-trimming life. After she was convinced that the fence was thoroughly set on her demise we put the fence in. Dog traumatized. Problem solved.

We planted an apple tree tonight. So what? you say. Well this is not just any old apple tree. This is a Honey Crisp apple tree. If you’ve never had a Honey Crisp apple go out and buy two dozen right now. I’ll wait. They are far and away the most awesome apples ever to tempt a mortal.

You may consider asking if your local grocer offers any financing or same-as-cash deals before you pick up too many of these suckers because they are pricey to say the least. Thus the apple tree.

In only five to seven more years we’ll be able to remove the Honey Crip apple line from our monthly budget because we’ll be churning out these puppies for free. Jealous?

If you squint really hard you can find the tree in this next picture. It’s about two pixels wide.

See it? Well look again. Now do you see it?

You might notice that Lilly is eyeballing the thing trying to figure out a way to grab it and make her escape without Angel raking her to death.

When I was dumping the camera tonight it was obvious that Riley had gotten his hands on it because there were about 74 pictures of completely random objects around our house. Here is one that I liked.

This is such a great picture of Lilly’s eye boogers and runny nose that I just had to share.

Riley and I decided to collaborate once again on a sequel to The Loser Truck. It didn’t turn out so great. We had a few laughs but it’s not really ready for prime time. Maybe it was the sophomore slump.

The intro was awesome but it quickly took a dive after that. I thought I’d share the intro though because it cracks me up.

If any of you remember the skit comedy show The State from many years ago you’ll most certainly remember their commercial spoof called “Little Brown Dog Food.”  One of the lines was “I don’t eat dog food myself on a particular basis but I’ve heard from sources that it’s good for feeding dogs.” Ever since that skit, we’ve changed our pronunciation of the word dog. Riley demonstrates the new pronunciation in this intro.

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I’ve been working a lot lately trying to pull my sax chops back together and it’s starting to come back to me now. One of the main things I’ve been working on is Michael Brecker’s tune Itsbynne Reel. This has always been one of my favorite Brecker tunes. His writing blows my mind and his level of playing is completely unattainable by mere mortals.

I recorded myself playing along with the first minute and a half or so of this tune. It’s a long way from perfect but I thought I’d let everybody here what I’ve accomplished so far. Here is the sheet music if you’d like to follow along at home.

Click here to download the mp3.