Is it Gyro or Guyro?

In the last week we've gone to this Greek Cafe 3 times in the last week for lunch, and 2 times in the last 2 days, (yesterday and today for lunch) I've acquired a taste for Greek food, over the last couple years, as a kid I loved going to fairs and festivals and getting Gyro's from the vender's.

Before I was married I lived behind a big Greek Orthodox church, this church is pretty cool looking, its huge! They have a Greek festival every year, and my roommate and I would go over and pretend we were Greek for a day, he looked the part more than I did, he at least had black hair, and me being red headed just didn't fit in, but the people were always nice, and they would let us dance with them, and make fools of our selves, and eat Gyro's! So when Patti and I saw the little Greek Cafe both of us were like cool, even tho Patti's never had Greek food, she wanted to try it, so we tried it and we both loved it!

Today we go in and get a couple Gyro's or like Patti likes to call it, a "Guyro" platter, but today we had a few minutes while the lamb was cooking, I noticed a few things about this place, its in a store front, and I looked around the room, the people working there are some of the nicest people, they all talk to each other in Greek, and whoever is taking the order at the counter, yells the order to the guy standing 3 feet behind them, followed by smiles, to the left of the counter is a painting/woodcarving of a Italian chief, holding bread in a kitchen with his big chief hat, the dinning room, has the little yellow pepper lights that you would see in a Mexican restaurant, and hanging from the ceiling is 2 things, 1-these plant things that hang down far enough that you have to walk around them to get any where, and 2- a beed portrait thing thats a picture of Mother Mary. The place is, to say the least a little weird looking, but man do they have some good food!

Positive Tuesday

I have minutes left for Tuesday, so I thought I would share my positive post and mine goes to the person that came up (invented) with the Root beer float! Thank You! (Frank J. Wisner) The Wife and I went out to dinner tonight, it had been a while since we'd gone out to eat, so we went to one of the few places that we don't get take out from. (j. alexanders - and it was awesome like always) so when we were done we were talking about our weeks, and I mentioned that I had a Root Beer Float the other day, and it sounded good, so we were off to the grocery store, and what happen!!.....

Thats what happen some sweet yummy delicious foamy goodness! In a frosted mug that I've had frosting... (mmmm)

My Laser Shoots Straight!!

So I thought today I would share with you one of the challenges that we encounter what seems like more than we should. And that's the stage being in the wrong spot, see how's it works, our PM (Farns) knows how many points (motors to hang in the air) we have, where they go etc. etc. so he emails a plot (a little map) to the building person or whoever is there local, then he calls them and they talk about it, where the beams are in the ceiling, how much they can hold weight wise, and all that jazz, so then the night before or early in the morning I'm not really sure (don't really care) cause when I come inside its all up and ready for us to set up.

So when Farns calls and they talk about things, he asks where ever the main beam that can hold the weight is, the stage needs to be 18 inches away from the beam, (really just get it close to 18 inches, it can be 20 inches you know which ever I'm not picky) but more often than not, the stage is put either directly in line with the beam, or its just not close enough, or theres nothing there period, and my favorite, is when the building people blame us (me) that our lasers are not right, and when they lasered it, it was right on! So somebody either came in and moved the stage while there was nobody there, or my laser doesn't shoot straight! Either way its not there fault which I think is funny, (some days, and then some days pissy Jeff shows up) And it really makes Farns mad, sometimes thats pretty funny!

Let me explain why I need the stage in a certain spot, at 18 inches from the back of the stage,the front of the LED wall will hang about 8 inches from the back of the stage, now the front of my LED wall is really fragile, and when we're working on it, or building it, the wall goes up and swings forwards, so thats why we need at least 18 inches from the back of the stage, if closer than 18 inches the wall will swing into the stage and break LED's, and that makes me mad! To far away and we have site line problems (people won't be able to see the whole wall)

(SIGH) after saying all that!!

Today I come in and our TM says "hey Culmer you might want to check the beam your hanging off of, it doesn't look like its in the right spot!"

So I put my laser (that shoots straight) on the floor where my wall should hang and nope! It wasn't in the right in spot, as you can see the beam is on the pink line, and 18 inches is where the blue line is, but theres no beam above the blue line theres an air conditioning duck so yea....

So heres what the beam looks like, the air duct, and theres the laser dot, at that moment it was 8 inches behind the stage which is to close, so what do we do?

Yup they have to redo the stage!

Here's what it looks like after they move the stage, (today its ok if its too far away) I put a blue line where the stage was before they moved the stage! And now you know, (and knowing is half the battle, "G.I. JOE")

My Feet Hurt....

So the last few days my feet have been hurting, its pretty normal, when your the feet of a crew guy you pretty much don't get a break, your always walking, your always stepping on things (cables, walking on truss', bolts, ice, jumping up and down off of cases, or the stage) kicking stuff (to make it work usually) and a lot of the time we're walking threw the rain, or snow, so our feet take a beating, and our shoes are worse. I thought today I would share with you some of the shoes that are on our tour, starting with mine.

I caught my shoe the first week I had these on bolt under a case, and ripped a hole in the top, and needless to say, my left big toe has been rained on for over a year now.

I only took a pic of the left shoe, but both shoes are the same, I no long have any padding left in the soles of both of the shoes I own, they are rotting so now if I walk anywhere thats wet, my socks get wet, I'm pretty sure I need new shoes..... Nah I think I can get a few more weeks out of 'em

These shoes work for the openers, and I'm pretty sure they stink (pee u) I don't think he's wearing any socks! Thats gross.

Backline, they spend most of their time sitting here, wondering what its like to be in a real department, like video! (haha..)

Busy...Busy...stepping on cables then searching for glasses, these shoes spending a lot of time back tracking there steps looking for things!

The utility shoes, they have so many different things to do, usually they stand in one spot for a hour or two, then they walk around for a bit, then they sit for about 3 & half hours.

ah yes Shaq's shoe's, they walk in circles most of the day running cables.

They busiest shoes on the tour, these shoes never stop, they cover almost every inch of the venue we're in.

These look pretty new, but then again for the most part they stand in spot the whole day, which can be tiring, (there day dreaming of being in video too)

For the most part, these shoes spend more time climbing stairs the entire day, walking threw the nasty seats, the sticky stuff left by the sports game the night before. Yea Gross!

These shoes got a nike endorsement for pull up socks.

I'm sorry but my feet hurt even more just looking at these shoes! You can see there wear on the soles, from the constant walking.

YAY! The patriotic shoes, jumping up here and there all day I think they look pretty good for as much walking around they do!

HEEYYYY!!! Constant Going is what these do,

Kicking things again are some of the things, we do, and some of us deal with some pretty heavy things, and we're suppose wear steal toed boots, (especially since I broke two toes last year, when I had a 1800 pound stacked case roll up on 'em)

when he's not wearing the steal toed boots he's quick like a puma, (Greg quick...hahah the thought of Greg running is pretty funny to me, he's the one in the blog about "whats in the crew room" thats doing Pi)

The Game Plan...

Todays offensive plan for the LED crew, there are import things to remember, 1-its a "2 man game" I'm putting Greg on defense for the wall, 2-"Protect against the fast break" that one is important if your not careful the union will pull a fast one on ya, and next thing you know your getting your rigging points last, or you hands are taking a 20min break instead of 15! And you have to beware of backline guys, thats the reason for "Movement" and "Move your feet" you have to be quick like a bunny on 15 redbulls! (or crack) With backline guys you always have to be moving, making sure your team is on offense, otherwise you'll get infested with backline gear everywhere! And lastly "you should have zigged when you zagged!" that's a biggie, cause its important to the zig the openers, if you zag and get caught, well I'm not sure what will happen, cause I've always "zigged".

I don't know if you've realized the point of this blog, its mainly that I haven't had a whole lot to blog about recently, that doesn't have to do with the normal work stuff!

Really... Really Good Milk Shake!!

I found something to blog about!.. (I'm reachin' for anything to blog about) My Wife took this picture of me drinking a strawberry milk shake, I just wanted to share just how how good that milk shake was! It was awesome!!

Nothing to Blog...

I have nothing to blog about today, but... I did read a pretty funny blog, you should go check it out!

Don't Get Me Wrong...

After a busy couple days (suppose to be my days off from touring) the last thing I wanted to do yesterday was get on a bus in the middle of the afternoon and go to Iowa! Don't get me wrong about Iowa I love Iowa, I grew up here but... Iowa is the first of 5 shows this week, so that added to my distaste for wanting to be out this week. But it should be a good week for the most part its going to be good venues so I have that.

We've been on the road since last September I think, and last night was the first night that we stopped for dinner! It was nice, not a big fan of eating and then getting on a bus again, I usually get something to eat before we get on the bus, but I went inside anyway to hang out the locals.
(Get it the "locals"?... Thats me and Farns on the security monitor)

Kicked to the Curb!

Yesterday I worked one of the many GMA shows of the week (I know I've mentioned this already) and I was dreading it beyond belief, cause all I wanted to do was sit in my PJ's and play video games, and blog at some point during the day, (when I get tired of dieing in the game) so to say the least I was bummed about doing the show, so it started out like normal early in the morning, heading downtown, I parked in a parking lot, and only paying a couple bucks with the thought that I would be able to get a parking pass, or just take my car back to the shop at some point during the day, so I didn't have to pay to park my car all day, well I didn't get the parking pass, but I did get a parking ticket!! And thats how my day started!

It was followed by, a day of color matching, and staring at LED's, and go up and down stairs, for those of you who don't know, I'm a big guy so when you put stairs and me together, it creates friction, for my legs, (more so for the thighs) I felt pretty good about it most of the day, (till I tried to get out of bed this morning!!)

But like most of the time when I don't want to do a show, or don't feel like working something, well....when I just don't feel like hanging out sometimes, I always find myself having a lot of fun, there was a lot of friends there, some I haven't seen in a while, some I've seen last week, starting with this Guy, he worked the show, and it had been a long time since we've just sat and talked it, was nice. It was also great to see the Wes and Ryan, they came to hang for the show, Brody was there, course he was everywhere yesterday! And well there was a lot of people there, it was lot of fun seeing and catching up with everybody!

But once it was over, we loaded out, and unfortunately there was only one elevator, and a ton of band gear under my LED walls, so I was the last thing to load out, and by the time we got the truck loaded, we didn't have enough room for everything, so a couple of the our guys drove the truck over to the shop to unload, and then come back, but while they were doing that, the building people of the saloon were like "we're ready to go" so they kicked us to the curb! Literally, we moved our cases out on to the side walk, and in the middle of the street, so there we waited in the middle of downtown, at 2am waiting for a truck to show up!

Yea it was still a fun day even tho I'm in my chair and hurtin!

Still Sittin In Front Of The TV

Here's what I got for my birthday, yup today the wife had to work, course so did I but I got done early, so I came home and watched the Cubs Woop the Pirates, yea thats right WOOPED 'em (13 - 6). And when that was done I thought "now what?", I looked over and there it was sitting on the tv stand, so I thought "Nice!!" SO........ I thought "mmmhmm hhhmmmmm" and its worth it! This game is AWESOME!

Thanks again Farns.

Tomorrow I have to work one of the many GMA shows going on this week, so that makes me sad, that I won't be able to play my new game.

Yesterday...

So my Birthday was yesterday, and I thought by dinner time with nobody acting weird I had made it the whole day without a big hoo-ha deal that we always do for birthdays out here, so I thought cool I made it the whole day with just some mild "hey happy birthdays!", and I was fine with that, I'm not the type to go around and tell people its my birthday, that seems silly to me, I love spreading around other peoples birthdays, if its there birthday or not.

So there I sat hanging out with Brody and Blue, they drove down to hang and talk about some blogs, always fun! Then all of sudden here comes Christy and Farns with a big o' cake singing.

I loved the cake, it was Chicago Cubs cake, with little baseball players on top!

Thanks Brody for getting some pic's

And Farns got me a present that I'll be blogging about at some point this week, cause its what I wanted, Thanks Farns. And thanks to the plotters of the cake were, I have a guess - who it was, but not sure? But Thanks!!

My Mom...

My Mom has written a blog about me. Go check it out!

I probably should go look at it before I tell everybody to go look at it huh?

Since 5:50am...

Here I sit at what is apparently 6:30am, and 63.4 F˚, and a quarter moon, I've been up since 5:50am for reasons that I think are pretty good, my wife had to get up at 6am and I thought I would get up as well, and call her to make sure she was up, she doesn't usually have to get up in the morning and I do so I thought I would call her, even tho I don't usually get up this early I thought well I'll be able to go back to sleep, (yea that didn't work now did it hot shot) you know whats the worst is when you have a cold, and it hurts to breathe cold air when your laying there trying to go to sleep, you finally find that one spot that the air isn't killing your throat, so you fall asleep, and then like a couple hours later you wake up sweaty, man does thats the worst.

Anyway the only blogs that I read that are from this early are these two - guys, and I think their crazy! This is way to early!

Since I've been Married...

I've been married for 2 years now, and since I've been married I've been to the doctor more in these two years then in my entire life, I can only remember a hand full of times when growing up that I got sick, and fewer even when I was on my own, living as a bachelor, I'm not sure if it was because I lived in FL. and I just didn't get sick cause it was hot out all the time, I'm trying to figure out what the difference is then to now, other than the the living arrangements, and being married. I once did a string of dates in December in nothing bit flip flops, (not even clothes) walking around in the snow! Stupid I know but I didn't get sick, so whats so different now? (I'm way fatter now, that might have a little to do with it) And by the way I'm not trying to say that my marriage is making me sick, I'm just trying to use that as a time line helper. Course it does look like I was blaming my wife for being sick and thats just not true! (help me!)

Well I've thought about it, and I've got nothing, other than that I have a whole new sympathy for people that get sick all the time or allergies it stinks, I have to go take some pills.

Listening to lawn mowers..

This isn't my positive post tuesday, I do appreciate my psp tho!

Still trying to knock this stupid cold, so here I lay in bed watching King of the Hill, listening to lawn mowers, trying to remember how much grass there is out there, cause it seems like their spending a lot of time on a little lawn,

I don't have much to do other than blogging and playing my psp.
Unlike my fantasy baseball league I'm actually winning on this baseball game, sort of... I'm not in first but I'm getting there, ok so I'm in second and it doesn't look like I'm going to catch up either.

For the Moment...

So I'm trying to kick what I think is a cold, (soar throat, slight cough, feeling of laziness) so I thought what better way to help a soar throat than ice cream, and for the moment it did help.

Cooking for One

So the wife is at work, which means I'm left on my own to find some dinner for myself, so I went thru the pantry and the fridge hoping to find something, and oh did I, some patato chips, mac & cheese, (I wasn't hungry for mac & cheese till I read this blog) and a frozen cheese pizza, I thought I did pretty good, the pizza tasted good, but for some reason the mac & cheese tasted funny, I'm not sure how you can screw up mac & cheese but I did some how.

Just FYI

Thought I would share this with you!
Its counting down on my computer...so image it counting!! Its Counting!!

Snooch Day

Today I was thinking I would do a blog on the many faces of Snooch, (Chris) Snooch recently started his own blog and helps out on this blog, he's the lighting crew chief and has more to do sometimes than any of us production guys on the tour, (Has more than me to do)

This morning due to circumstances that are way out of my control, I didn't have to set up my LED wall, so I had time this morning to just take some pictures something that I've been neglecting, (I'm just lazy) So here it is the Snooch.

Today is kind of a weird day, for everybody so I love this pic of Snooch after he just woke up discussing layouts and what not for the day.

On a normal day we come in to the building and mark our points, with chalk draw big X with circles, Snooch is the only one that uses wet chalk. Just thought I would share that for no real reason.Except today like I said is a weird day and we are using a festival rig since theres no steal to hang from in the air, so his world gets shaken a little so (and I'm guessing) he's doing a quick measurement of stuff for a reason that I'm sure is good.

Then He waits for the trucks to start to unload...
Still waiting....

Discusses with his guys what they need to do on this day of craziness.... Or he's explaining why his shoe's are orange. YAY the trucks are unloading, or he's singing Opera?

Good Job Snooch... (Is he going to take a drink? Or is he singing into his coffee mug?)

Ooch!!

This is Adam, he helps me set up the LED wall and runs a camera during the show, well last night we were finishing up our truck pack, and he went to jump up on top of the cases to double check and make sure we don't forget anything, and well if you can't tell by the picture, he hit his noggin!

Head wounds always bleed excessively, and well Adam's head was bleeder!
I love this pic Farns is holding up his laminate that has blood all over it!

Here it is... It looks like it hurt he says it doesn't, but I'm a wimp!