Alright...I'm Back.

Yeah, I know...I hear your plaintive catcalls...it's been a couple of weeks. Sue me.

I wasn't back from Los Angeles 24 hours when I began to feel sick. I haven't had a cold in at least the last year and half, so it actually kind of surprised me. Then again, it didn't; planes and airports are probably just as bad as hospitals regarding germs per square-inch...fucking breeding grounds for the little bastards. And this one was a solid stay-in-the-house-for-seven-days affair. My brother said everyone at his place of work was sick, everyone at my girl's place of work was sick, yadda yadda yadda. Chalk another marker in the "Cons" section under the heading "Reasons To Stay Away From People You Don't Know".

And so my week of sickness bled into, invariably, my girl becoming sick for a week. Which (and the misery stops here) bled into my mother, sister, and brand-spanking-new niece Presley coming to visit. They were originally to stay with me for four days and then with my brother for four days, but since my girl was still sicked-out, they ended up taking root over at my bro's.

We did the (sarcasm alert) usual litany of things you do when someone visits you in Minneapolis; eat out every day and go to the Mall of America. And they got lucky. The weather gods took mercy on my Californian loved ones and we even got to barbecue a ridiculous amount of food and eat it out on the deck one night.

Anyway, it was great to see them again in such quick succession. It was the first time they have come to visit me in Minneapolis since I moved here in 1996. Long overdue, but I can't complain. I haven't always been in such great shape, mentally and chemically, over the years. Things happen when they should happen I suppose.

So there's my excuse for being incommunicado.

On other fronts, I am now teaching guitar at The School Of Rock, in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Daryll Hurst, the head engineer over at Winterland Studios where I'm working with the band Wrecking Day, sent me an email tipping me off that they needed a guitar teacher. Two days and one interview later I had the gig. I just had my first two students this past Monday. A precocious 6-year-old (!) named Chase, and a surly 16-year-old named Colin. I guess I did pretty well, because they called me later that evening, and asked if I could substitute for another teacher the next day, which I gladly did. They've got a really cool program over there; it definitely goes beyond just lessons and into creating a set list, rehearsing with your "band", and playing a show. The fall shows are at Trocaderos in downtown Minneapolis on January 17th and 18th. I'm really looking forward to seeing my students hard work put into practice.

A'ight. I'm 5000.