This Yellow Taxi Cab In Which I Ride

This is my favorite holiday (Halloween), not because of the candy, mind you -- I'm not a "chocoholic" nor do I have a "sweet tooth" -- I just love dressing up. Costumes are awesome, though I'm not going trick or treating. I'm too old, and -- like I mentioned before -- I could really care less about the candy. But, I was preparing candy to hand out to trick or treaters later and I noticed something about the "fun size" candy bars. They're a little smaller than they were last year. Actually, they are more than a little smaller... they are at least 1/3rd smaller. That's a lot, really. That's a trick... not a treat. And, it's really not a "fun" size anymore, if you want my opinion.

I cleaned out my camera phone today. I had been up to a lot since my last post and had taken various pictures of this and that along the way. On Sunday, Stephanie and I went hiking in the Adirondacks. The trail was to take us to Stewart Lake... Neither of us had hiked the trail before and so we didn't know what to expect. It was hilly at times, but not too strenuous. At one point I heard a water fall and so we left the trail to investigate. Stephanie fell in trying to cross to the other side. It was a cool little waterfall, though. We, eventually, reached the lake. I don't know what I especting with the it, but it wasn't this. Still, it was a pretty view. ------- Lena's on Thursday. I played updated versions of Breaking Free and Crayons and receieved a couple of nice compliments on them. (Willie the Moak) (Emily Smith) (Julia? something... I think -- whom I've not seen/heard before and was quite good) ---------- Halloween Party on Friday. I went with a sword-weild

Jitters has an open mic on Wednesdays and the most wonderful cafe food ever. I went to the open mic to play and to eat... but mostly to eat. I had a quesadilla, which was quite tasty. I took a picture of Ryan Jenson singing his heart out; he always sings his heart out. I played Jessie by Joshua Kadison, Road to Nowhere , and Passenger On Thursday, I went to Lena's. I worked the door because Stephanie was in NYC for a conference. Gary Moon hosted (as he did at Jitters as well). He played Galileo by the Indigo Girls and did an excellent job of it. I sang along. Phil Drum was awesome and handed out some CDs of home recordings (which I am listening to now and sounds really good). Dave Scheffel had some... erm, fun with Gail Sparlin's piano flashlight... thingy... I took a picture of the list of names and a random cookie, which I later learned belonged to someone and, yet, disappeared before that someone was able to eat it. Bummer. I played Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash and Behold

The Great Escape... I used to go quite a bit when I was little. It's only a little over an hour away from my house, after all. But, the price of admission has increased rapidly over the past twelve years or so -- pretty much since Six Flags acquired it. I vaguely remember admission being twenty dollars -- what I consider to be a fair price even now. I don't think it's worth forty plus dollars per person with a ten dollar parking fee. But, if you win tickets, you go. Stephanie and I won tickets. We used them on Saturday. It was cold, very cold; but, it wasn't crowded. In October, Great Escape is only open on weekends and the park is decorated with Halloween-esque stuff. They call it "Fright Fest." I have been to the Great Escape often enough to not need to ride any of the rides ever again. They are old, the rides. And quite harsh. We started with the Comet (a long wooden roller coaster -- I think it came from Coney Island...). As we were jerked around each turn

I am the part-time, unofficial, sometimes unavailable, always unpaid sound man for a blue grass cover band called Durrey (Durey? Durry?) Creek. The banjo player is Stephanie's dad, so I some times play with his band and occasionally help them out with their sound at various gigs. Last night, they played at a library in Gloversville. It was a free show, and the library was packed to beyond capacity. The auditorium upstairs that fit 90 people comfortably was unused because there is no elevator in the library and some of the attendees could not walk up the stairs. This was unfortunate because they packed the crowd of 75+ into a small side room downstairs. Because the room was smaller, they decided not to plug in leaving me with nothing to do. Still, it was great to see the band attract such a decently sized crowd. I ended up standing outside of the room in which they played, because there was no room for me. In fact, as more people came and needed a place to stand, I continually inche

The other day, I was alone for a few hours and quite bored; though, I was uncharacteristically energetic and in need of doing something. So, I picked up my guitar and set up my mic stand and put on a full out concert of about 10 songs. There was an imaginary back up band (playing in my head), as well as, other imaginary things such as stage lights. The audience was numerous posters and pictures and some stuffed animals. They didn't really clap or cheer, but I could see in their plastic eyes that they were truly happy; some were excited, even. I'm not going to post a set list, because -- hell, let's face it -- it wasn't a real concert. In the future, however, you should consider attending... -------- I have been doing some training for my new job and having a blast with some of the other trainees (actually, it was orientation; does that make us orintatees?), but the training ended, and we parted ways, and we may never see each other again (we all work in different depart