While this post is about a month late, I don’t think it’s quite reached the point where it’s not worth bothering. Thanks to Sarah’s birthday/anniversary gift, we had the wonderful opportunity to go to Spirit West Coast this year and it was a blast! We were able to see the Newsboys, TobyMac, Needtobreathe, Relient K and MercyMe and spend two sun filled days on the beach (I was worried about this because this time of the year in San Diego is aptly called “May gray / June gloom”).

One thing that was interesting to see was Michael Tait as the new lead singer for the Newsboys. At first I was disappointed that Peter Furler (the former lead singer / the bald guy) wasn’t there but I think Tait did a fantastic job and I ended up really enjoying the concert. Also, as far as I know, Furler is still part of the band as part time vocals / songwriter. Another thing that really made this trip special was the fact that two former dc Talk members were there. Because of this, dc Talk songs were played two nights in a row, once by the Newsboys and once by TobyMac and his band.

This time was also interesting because of a little adventure we had on our way out. We got on I-5 and then 805 to get down to I-8 and be on our merry way. Well, we had been on 805 for a bit too long for my liking so I asked Sarah if she had seen any exit signs and she said she had been paying attention and hadn’t. I didn’t think I had seen any for awhile and certainly wasn’t seeing any at this point so I just kept going thinking I was being paranoid. Well after awhile, the landscape in the distance seemed different…the buildings didn’t look the same or anything. Then we saw a sign that said “Last U.S. Exit” and at that point we figured out what I did wrong…lol. Anyway, I hastily took that exit, turned around and thanked God we didn’t somehow get stuck at the Mexico port of entry. Guess we should have been paying more attention to the signs.

Also worth mentioning, the following weekend Sarah and I celebrated our one year anniversary! One down, many to go!

Okay…maybe not “of justice” but it sounds good. But yeah…there were a couple things I actually meant to post about but never ended up doing so. Hence, winter update.

Anyway, I’ll start from the beginning. Back around Thanksgiving we got a dog (see picture to the left). His name is Chester. Now, you could be wondering how on earth Andrew ended up getting a dog…and sometimes I still wonder the same thing haha. Afterall, I think apartments are a terrible place to raise a dog, I get annoyed with them easily and I think they cost too much money (especially if you live in an apartment). But, when we were walking through PetsMart that one day in November and happened to see the animals from the humane society, I had a moment of weakness. And knowing Sarah really wanted a dog (despite my continuously saying we need to wait until we get a house) I said I’d consider the possibility if he could stay at her parents house (until we got a house). And that’s how it all started. My mom ended up giving him to us as a Christmas present and we decided not to keep him at Sarah’s parents house because we wanted to be able to train him and raise him ourselves. And, for the most part, he’s turned out to be a really good dog. Yes, we’ve had our share of “puppy troubles” that most people likely encounter in a similar situation but he’s a fast learner and pretty well behaved most of the time as long as he doesn’t get too bored. And while it was possibly too soon to get a dog…I think we’ll learn valuable lessons through training him…like patience!

Also, we had plans to go to California right after Christmas for a wedding in which Sarah was a bridesmaid. Well, for Christmas we ended up getting two tickets to Disneyland so we did that as well while in California. And it was my first time! We got to go on Star Tours, Big Thunder Mountain, a handful of Fantasyland rides, Innoventions (which happened to have ASIMO at the time…really cool stuff), Tower of Terror, California Screamin’, Mulholland Madness, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Indiana Jones and Buzz Lightyear. Unfortunately, we never made it on to Space Mountain due to misplaced fast passes but I’m sure we’ll be back again seeing as you probably need at least two days to do everything.

I also got a handful of cds for Christmas…all of which I thoroughly enjoyed (and still enjoy). But one is by a new band I’ve never mentioned before. This cd is The Heat by NeedToBreathe which was an instant hit for me. I’d highly recommend this album to anyone who enjoys alternative rock.

Finally, you may have noticed that I got around to importing my posts from the old website. Unfortunately, none of the comments made it though as it would have been much too time consuming to add those to the old RSS feed. So if you happened to have a comment on one of those posts that you thought was really important…feel free to go back and re-add it. Ha.

For those of you that bring your laptop to work and use it alongside your work computer or have multiple computers at your desk for whatever reason, this may be your dream come true. At least it wast for me, sort of. For the longest time I wished there was some way I could control my laptop with the keyboard and mouse of my work computer but other than remoting in, nothing came to mind. I played around with remote assistance but, like remote desktop, a window comes up on the assisting computer which makes the whole process more cumbersome than it’s worth. So, after a little searching I came across this wonderful program called Synergy which was exactly what I needed. It’s actually designed for people who have multiple computers at their desk but don’t want to continuously switch between the two. It actually works like a dual monitor set up on one computer, allowing you to move the mouse to the edge of the screen on one computer to jump to the other. And it’s even platform independent so it doesn’t matter if you use Windows, Linux or Mac…you can still jump between the two as if it’s all one workstation.

On the music front, I’d like to mention that I recently purchased the much anticipated (at least by some) latest album by Coldplay, “Viva la Vida”. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t an instant hit for me. My first impression was this is noticeably different than the Coldplay I’m used to…a bit toned town…even a bit…weird lol. However, I still liked it and the more I’ve listened to it the more I’ve enjoyed it. I’d also like to mention an album that I meant to bring up awhile back…like sometime after Christmas. It seems most people have never heard of this band, Moses Mayfield, whose album “The Inside” was an instant hit for me. Unfortunately, we won’t be hearing anymore albums from this band as they broke up early this year, however the lead singer is still working solo. I’d also like to make note of one more album: “Dreaming Out Loud” by OneRepublic which is a nice blend of hip hop and alternative rock. At any rate, I’d highly recommend each album previously mentioned.

Well, it’s been a bit since I last posted eh? Hmm…to be completely honest not a huge amount has happened since I last posted save in the past two weeks. See, two weeks ago today, one of my best friends Danny came down to visit from CO. He’s pretty much my brother so, when we’re together we have a blast. Some of the things we did while he was here was paintballing (a must), bowling, swimming (also a must), scorpion hunting (yes, I did say scorpion hunting), gaming, having the police called on “us” (note the quotations around ‘us’ – don’t let your thoughts wander too far on that one), etc… as well as plenty o’ general chillin. We also saw Batman Begins last (Friday) night which was actually really good. At least 4 out of 5 stars and by far the best batman movie ever made. This (Saturday) morning, I dropped him off at TIA (Tucson International Airport) to head back. But he will most likely be back in a year, and quite possibly more permanently .
In addition to Danny being here, I had the wonderful opportunity to get to know better a few members of my college group on multiple occasions. Danny was also able to get plugged in to the group pretty fast which was very cool.
On the music front, I am inclined to introduce the latest Coldplay cd: X&Y. They’re back and I would have to say that this cd is at least as good as their last one (which is pretty darn good). Another instant hit I’d like to mention is The Everglow by Mae. A friend in my group told me about them and then I heard another guy mention how they’re his favorite band so I decided to check them out. Definitely some good Christian pop rock worth checking out.

Well, now I am going to post. Though this isn’t the “real” post I was referring to last time it is a real post lol. The “real” post will come when and if the time is right. Anyway, if you don’t know already, the main things I’ve been working on lately are the Exineon website and my latest song, Aurora. I should be coming out with another song very soon here as well. I’m also thinking of looking into selling my music. The cd of the post is The Beauty of Simplicity by Telecast. Another instant hit…fairly similar to they style of Coldplay. I totally recommend checking them out. Anyway, that’s about it for now as I’ve let this post sit while I do other stuff for a good hour. Talk to “y’all” later.