Vacation Time!!!

It's been a long haul since Jan. 4th, but today marks the start of a much needed 10 day break. It actually started yesterday at noon. I took the afternoon off and drove down to Ogdensburg NY to pick up an amp that I had shipped to the UPS Store there.

The amp is an original Tone King Meteor, a 40W 1x12 combo with reverb and tremolo. It has two footswitchable channels, one based on a Fender Deluxe Reverb and the other on tones that range from Fender Tweed Duluxe into early Marshall territory. A half power switch allows you to run the second channel at 20W. Very handy! I haven't played much at all since returning to work in July, but the itch is coming back in a big way. There's nothing like a new amp to fuel that urge, and I have a killer Slacker Radio mix set up and ready to roll for backing tracks. Yee-Haw!!!

Tonight we're off to the Sens game courtesy of tickets I won in a raffle about a month ago. Our seats are 12 rows behind the Senators net, so it might be a good night for some photo opps. Looking forward to the game and hitting our favorite arena restaurant for beer and burgers beforehand.

My main "project" for the week is to get our taxes done. Up until now it's been a very straightforward affair, but that's all changed since I became self-employed last year. Lots of receipts to compile and expenses to calculate. I'm not looking forward to it, nor am I looking forward to the trip I need to make to the licence bureau to cancel the registration on my old car sometime next week.

I'm not sure how much time I'll have for gaming, but whatever there is will probably put towards a second play through Heavy Rain. Joyce was actually asking about it last night (gotta love that!). She'd like to see how differently it might play out the second time through. So would I?

Joyce is working through Wed., then on Thurs. AM we hit the road for a few days in Ithaca NY. Why Ithaca, you ask? Well, it came highly recommended by a server at our favorite eatery in NH. It's primarily a college town (Cornell U, Ithaca College) with lots of pubs, restaurants, live music, etc. Were booked into an historic inn on the edge of Ithaca Commons - the hub of activity downtown. It's apparently a lovely town and area, and also wine country. Neither of us have ever been to a winery and, though it's no doubt out of season, we'll definitely be seeking one out. We're also planning a day trip up to Waterloo about an hour to the north. There's a huge oulet mall there that we're anxious to check out. In the meantime, I've been busy compiling tuneage for the tour (fighting iTunes every step of the way). Really looking forward to the trip and getting the Mazda on the road for it's first serious run (notwithstanding my round-tripper to Ogdensburg yesterday).