Anything happen in the world?

I've been in my usual weekend whirlwind, and I'm finally sitting home with a moment to work on all the stuff I should have been doing all weekend if I weren't a rabid musician. I have no idea -- did anything exciting happen in the world? I guess I should go actually read some blogs and foxnews.com and Drudge and all the places I get my news from, huh?

The Sunday morning & Sunday night music went well, I think. I didn't detect any anomalies, although Cindy said there was some kind of disturbance in the Force because the person who was in charge of the Powerpoint slides was really slow on the uptake and didn't always get the right one to show up. The guys project the slides onto the front, which is behind me. They do also project it onto the back wall so the musicians can see what everyone else is seeing, but I rarely look up there because it distracts me. Normally I'm not singing, so it doesn't matter. Today I was actually singing while playing because the guy who was supposed to do the tenor line was sick... Jeff came in early and told me that the tenor was staying home sick -- could I find a tenor note somewhere? Yeah, sure, no problem man. I didn't have too much trouble with it, actually, because the songs were all songs I was fairly familiar with: "Trading My Sorrows," "Forever," "Not To Us," "You Are My King," and then"Purify Me," which is one of Jeff's originals. The song set was a little shortened because some people were going to share faith stories during Pastor Rob's talk.

Musicians this morning were Stratman on lead guitar, Jeff on acoustic (as always -- and this morning Taylor did her first gig and she sounded great), Frank on bass guitar, and Neal on drums.

I've already introduced you to Stratman, so I will just say that he came in this morning wearing very cool sunglasses. The weather here was unbelievable today -- summery, even.

Frank is fun to watch when he plays bass because he's very, um, enthusiastic. He jumps up and down, moves around, etc... a total trip. He's just been part of the team for a couple of months, so I'm still getting to know him. His wife Leslie is helping out in the coffee-shop bookstore place in the church lobby and she's nice. They have a very cool house that's not far from mine; it's kind-of an adobe-style place (very unusual for Iowa) and it's painted bright blue.

Neal is one kickin' drummer, I have to say. He actually gigs with a country band called Red Rock, and I've never heard anyone quite like him. He keeps a metronome beat going in his earpiece at all times, so he is ALWAYS on beat and you can set your watch by him. He can reproduce just about any style you can imagine. He doesn't always have a lot to say, but when he does, it's dry and funny. I know he's got a bit of a flair that he doesn't always let on, because he'll be in the middle of some cool riff and he'll twirl his drumstick. I got to meet his wife this morning; they normally attend a different church, but he comes once or twice a month to play in the rotation for us. I'm incredibly grateful that God brought him our way; a drummer as talented as he is doesn't come along just every day.

The afternoon practice was a tiny bit annoying because we didn't start playing for an hour. Sunday afternoon is prime napping time, and although I did have a nap, I could've used a little longer one!

Okay, Rick just rained on my personal parade by informing me that the summer-like weather was disappearing tomorrow and in its place would be rain, turning to ice, then turning to snow for the ENTIRE WEEK. Welcome to Iowa, Kris. Come visit us in August when it's sweltering and the humidity from all the cornfields hangs like a woollen blanket over the entire state.

On that cheery note, I'll sign off on this post and get back to work on my homework.