Night Watch

It's Wednesday night: Always look forward to this day off. Just finished a Guinness, folded some laundry and I've got my dog portrait to the right of me. The portrait is slowly but surely coming along nicely. It's a tough one. Not easy drawing anything for someone when they give you a picture that's 3x5. But, I'm making it work.

Today, we learned that Mia can climb the STAIRS. No, really, she was sitting ground level and started ascending the stair case. We had our hands behind her but she didn't pay attention to that. She slowly ascended up the stairs. Time to get the gates up! The other day, she did something that totally made my day, if not MONTH. I pulled out my bass guitar like I do once or twice a week with her. Was playing a few songs (The Hives-Hate To Say I Told You So) and Alkaline Trio's cover of "The Metro" when Mia grabbed my knees and looked me straight in the eyes and started singing and dancing. She was TOTALLY rocking out and I could barely contain my laughter. This little kid of mine is such a bundle of fun. She says "hi" to just about everyone and gives out way more hugs and even kisses Jill and I. At my little brother's place tonight, she buried her little face in their cat's fur and tried to kiss him. It was quite adorable. She loved the furry-ness. They baby sat her tonight and had a lot of fun, of course. Got to watch the first period of the Pens/Stars game. Was nice chilling with my bro as Jill and his wifey chatted up.

March is here. Can't believe she's almost ONE. The time REALLY does fly. Looking at old pictures and videos of Mia, it's just so surreal how fast the time goes. She's practically walking on her own, then she'll be in school, then voting, THEN college...GOOD GRIEF. Thankfully, she's this little girl right now, who loves to explore, play with her dog and love being with her mom and dad. That's all I need right now :)

Jaked On Green Beers

Tonight, let's talk about BEER :). I love the taste of a good flavorful beer. After a long day at work, a good beer can be a great beverage to end the day. When I was playing a lot of live shows, I always enjoyed a delicious beer before going on. It kept my hands from anxiously tapping on tables and bars. Yes, beer is a wonderful thing friends. But not just any beer friends. First of all, drinking beer shouldn't be about how much you can drink. That type of drinking should really be left for the frat boys who have nothing better to do with their parent's money. "YEAHHH LETS POUND A CASE OF KEYSTONE AND PLAY BEEEEER PONGGG" No thanks. I enjoy the finer beers rather then that swill.

Here are some of my all-time favourite beers. Guinness ranks number one favourite beer of all time. Ireland's greatest import EVER. If I ever make it to Ireland some day, you bet I'll go to the Guinness plant! :) I don't drink it all the time, but when I do, it's a taste of what heaven would be for me. Newcastle comes in second. Another wonderful import that has a real great taste. Very delicious. Red Stripe comes in third. It's a real tasty import from Jamaica that I don't always get to drink, but is absolutely delicious. If you're ever in the Bay View area, I suggest going to Cafe Centraal. HUGE list of beers (and wine) from Belgium.

You can't really go wrong with Leinenkugel's when you want a beer that has some tasty flavor to it. Leinies (as some like to call them for short) always has made quality beer. Leinies Creamy Dark is a tasty one, as well as the Berry Weisse. If you want something with a more fruitier tasty, the Berry Weisse is a nice change from some of their other selections. My lil brother's favourite was the Apple Spice which is long-gone. The summer months always call for their popular Summer Shandy which is a pretty good lemon-y beer.

Mexico has some of the tastiest imports. Negra Modelo is my favourite from south the border. Hell, it even comes in a champagne-like bottle. Talk about presentation. The taste just compliments any Mexican meal. When I visited Cancun back in 2004 with some friends, the only beers you could get anywhere were Corona and Dos Equis. Dos Equis easily dominates Corona. I do enjoy Corona at times (best served with the lime) , but Dos Equis Amber is far better. The rich taste is muy bueno.

Other noteworthy beers I enjoy are Lakefront Brewery beers, the classic Pabst Blue Ribbon, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Amstel, Heineken, Killian's Red...I could literally go on forever on some of my fav beers, but need to stop so I can get some sleep. Remember the next time you're thinking about having a cold one, try something different. Miller Lite isn't the only beer to drink despite it being the "official" beverage of the Cheese State. Hopefully this blog post makes you thirsty for some beer. Ha! Art-update in the next blog. Stay tuned folks!

Songs of Love

FANTASTIC day/night people! First of all, like most couples, we didn't celebrate Valentines Day yesterday okay? It's sort of a silly holiday. I prefer showing how much I love my wife all year round. Second, today was one of the best days off. The weather was perfect (especially for February) We got to have a nice family walk at the park down the street, and Mia played on the swings for the first time. Boy, did she LOVE it. Later, Jill & I went out to dinner at this place called ZIN in Delafield. My boss gave us a gift card for this place last year because "it's strange and different just like us". While the comment was a bit weird, we defiantly appreciated the gift card. Especially since the place was a bit pricey for us. The food was absolutely awesome and if you've got some extra cash and like Italian food, I'd recommend checking the place out. We even enjoyed some ice cream afterwards over at Cold Stone. Haven't been there since we started dating back in 2004. All in all, a delightful and rare evening for my wonderful wife.

Woah, wait...what about Mia? Well thankfully my little brother and his wife baby sat Mia tonight. How awesome right? They had a great time watching her. We were slightly concerned since on the drive to their house, she was pretty cranky. STOKED that when we got back to their house after our little "date" she was happy and had a great time. Sadly on the drive back to New Berlin, she was cranky. Gave her a little snack to keep her happy or at least content.

Slowly making progress on this dog drawing. Taking....quite....a..longgg....time. Thankfully, no rush. We've got a round of visitors coming in this weekend. Hopefully the weather stays somewhat decent. Later kids.

Pints of Guinness Makes You Strong

" Pints of Guinness Makes You Strong" by Against Me! has been stuck in my head all day. Might be something to do with my attempt to keep positive. Or, that the dark stuff is fueling my late night drawing session before bed. Whatever the case my be, I finally kicked myself hard in the butt to start a complicated, yet neat dog portrait for a customer of KT. It's tricky because the picture is small, but I think I can make it work. That's the thing about being an artist-You never know how the end result will be when you start a project. All you can hope for is something to be content with.

Enjoyed another Wednesday off. Visited my Dad today with Mia. He always loves it when we come over. Mia was less interested in sitting around, and more intrigued by wandering around the house. After a delicious dinner and bath time, she passed out in Jill's arms as we watched Modern Family. It was so cute and it blew me away how big she's gotten. Reminded me of those tiresome nights of us taking turns trying to get her to sleep. Rocking and "shhhhing" her. Don't miss those nights at ALL. Other then that, nothing else exciting to talk about. Hoping to put in at the most 17-18 hours on this dog portrait. That is, if Mia allows it. Later peeps

Stove By a Whale

Holy Batman, it's February already! Lots & lots to do. First of all, a year ago I completed my 28 days of Art project and for the most part, was pretty happy with how everything turned out. Today, thankfully Jill & I were off and had a pretty great day. Put my vacation in for our Florida trip this morning. I'm pretty stoked about it. It's been almost 10 years since I've been to Florida (ironically, Jill was there too in the marching band in 2002) and this time, I'm not surrounded by large cartoon animals. Not that Disney World isn't a fun place to be, but I'm sure I'd enjoy it more when Mia gets older. No, this trip is all about visiting Jill's Grandpa in Sebastian. Yeah, I'm not too familiar where it is either, but from the map I recently looked it, it's on the Atlantic side of the state. Sadly, this is Mia's only great Grandfather. So I'm pretty happy she'll get to meet him. Hell, it's been almost 4 years since I've seen him, at our wedding. It's kinda weird that we're going down during Spring Break. Hopefully Mia's good on the airplane.

So earlier in the week, I was feeling pretty depressed. Work of course bringing me down. I don't know why. Makes it hard to even go in sometimes. "Why am I here? What difference do I make at this place? What would I rather be doing" Do people even get excited about work anymore? All that college preparation for the working world, and you don't get the "dream job"? Why? Will I ever get a better job, or am I doomed to be at this place for all eternity??! Sorta going on a rant here, but these are questions I've been asking myself lately. But as I read photographer and overall cool buddy of mine Andy Stenz's question of the week on his Facebook page, It made me feel slightly better. The question was "what makes you most happy?" And it couldn't be a person. So with that, I found three things that make me happy, and now, I'll add to it. Here's the list in no particular order :

My daughter's laughter/Smile

A Tall Guinness

Playing my drum set

Playing music live

The sound of a paint brush going across the canvas

"Biomusicology" by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

Photographing on a sunny day (Hawaii, New York, Milwaukee..it doesn't matter!"

Wisconsin's Fall

Oahu, Hawaii

New drawing pencils

The feeling of completing an art project

Playing hockey outside (even though it's been quite a while)

Getting tattooed

I could go on & on. Making this list got me through the day and hopefully the rest of the week. Thinking of the positives help keep away the negative feelings. If you ever feel stressed or depressed, I suggest doing the same thing :) Later