Sunday, June 05, 2005

Graeme the guitar god?

Not bloody likely, but I did have my first guitar lesson last Thursday. Gail bought me a month of free guitar lessons at the school silent auction back in February (for which we paid full price, so it's not like we got a deal or anything, but the money went to the school, so that's fine), and I couldn't get a convenient time until now. So I get 5 Thursday-at-7:30 lessons before I have to start paying, which I probably will. I'm very glad to be getting back into playing guitar - I've picked the thing up probably once or twice a year since Gail and I got married, so it's kind of too bad. If I had been playing a couple of times a week during those ten years, I might be pretty darn good by now.

Anyway, I'll get some one-on-one instruction, plus it'll force me to play more often, so it's all good. My first couple of songs are "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day and the intro to "Sweet Home Alabama", both of which use the same chords (G5, C, and D, and Good Riddance has an Em in there too). I played for about a half-hour tonight, and also dug out a couple of other old books as well - I played Stairway to Heaven for the first time in ages. I used to know that one pretty well, but forgot most of it. I did get it back pretty quickly though. My instructor tells me that he's not a great guitar player, but a good teacher, though he seems like a pretty decent guitarist to my untrained ears.

Edmonton and Portland have already been added to the NLL for next season, but with the good comes the bad. It was announced this weekend that Anaheim has suspended operations for next season, so there will be a dispersal draft as well as an expansion draft. Don't know when for either one. Man, the GMs in this league must really be getting used to these drafts, with teams coming and going all the time. Most leagues have to deal with one draft per year -- the entry draft. NLL GMs have to deal with at least two and sometimes three drafts every year. It was also announced that there will be no more new teams next season, so the teams that will be playing are now set, unless someone pulls a Vancouver and pulls out at the last second.

John and Jackie (Gail's dad and stepmom) moved this past weekend, up to a house near Sundridge, about 3 1/2 hours north of here, and an hour north of my parents. Nice place - on Hwy 124 about 3km from Hwy 11, lots of land, right next to a farm (kids would probably love a tour - next visit), with a pond in the back, though John says he's going to have that filled. Not a bad idea - big time mosquito breeding ground. The house itself is a little bigger than their old place in Beachville, with a really nice sun room off the back. We went up on Friday to help move, though the moving part was way less work than the cleaning part - I must have cleaned about 12 windows, inside and out, including three huge picture windows (though Gail's brother did the outside of those). Plus cleaning light fixtures and other stuff, and occasionally making sure the boys weren't in the process of killing themselves or each other. Busy weekend - hopefully this coming week isn't as busy as last week.

With all the cleaning, referreeing, and not sleeping very well, not to mention driving 700 km on Friday and today, I'm bushed. Night all.

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