andrew dodson

Pickle. Predicament. Between a rock and hard place.

These words describe my current living situation and a new opportunity. My friend Justin can relate.

My current apartment is the best deal in Frankfort. I’m convinced. For me, it’s adequate, very affordable and convenient to several areas I frequent - work, church, gym, grocery store. My landlords are great. Sounds like a pretty good situation, huh?

I’ve told myself for the past couple of years that I’d live in an apartment on the St. Clair Mall someday. After seeing Justin’s new apartment on Friday night, it hastened my desire to live there. After a call to the landlord this weekend (who seemed very friendly), I’ve learned three units will be available in the next few weeks.

Pros: It’s my dream apartment (as far as Frankfort is concerned). Coffee shop and bookstore around the corner. As “big city” style as apartments get in Frankfort. Utility room with washer/dryer hookups. It has a bedroom (as opposed to my current studio apartment). Recessed lighting and black & white tile floor in the kitchen - very modern. Living room is spacious and would be great for hosting company.

Cons: I’ll pay approximately $125 more per month (a big, big con). Slightly longer drive to work and church.

In betweens: Gym membership - initally, I’ll want to cancel my gym membership. Going into summer, I’ll be able to take jogs to stay in shape for the time being. Once I see if I can afford the extra money for a membership, the YMCA is just around the corner (almost as close as my current gym is to my current apartment). Cable TV - if I stay in my current apartment, I plan on getting cable. If I move, for the time being, I’ll stick with just local TV.

Any and all input is appreciated.

The next Vertex will be this coming Friday - June 3rd. Yes, this is during Expo. However, Expo lasts all weekend, so I’m sure you can spare a couple of hours on Friday for Vertex. The Josh Martin Band (sans keyboard) will lead worship. “Some Guy” (sorry, I forget his name) will be speaking. We’ve heard he’s great. You should come. Bring friends. 8 p.m.. Crestwood Baptist Church.

I’ve slowly transitioned to Wordpress 1.5. Along with it, I decided to change my template. Let me know what you think!

In order to catch up from my lack of blogging in the past week, I submit for your enjoyment a very random week-in-review:

1. For the past two days, I’ve left my apartment as early as 7 a.m. and not returned until as late as 12 a.m. I’ve missed my humble abode.

2. I’ve rearranged my apartment in a way that’s similar to when I first moved in. I feel it’s a definite improvement.

3. Work is going very well right now (a few of you know why - for the rest, I’ll leave it to your imagination). My goals now include living up to and exceeding expectations. I believe there are very big things on the horizon for CLS and God has put me there for a reason.

4. I saw Justin’s new St. Clair Mall apartment tonight. It’s way-cool. Although my apartment is a steal, it would be extremely tempting to make the move should one a unit in his building become available.

5. Saw The Longest Yard tonight. Meh. Too much profanity. Stick with the original and pass on this all-for-the-money remake.

6. Bought some new albums in the past week or so - Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s Funeral for a Friend (hymns done dixieland jazz). Not too shabby. Doug Wamble’s newest - Bluestate. I wonder why he’s not my favorite artist - Christian, psuedo-bluegrass, and jazz rolled up into one package. Chris Tomlin’s The Noise We Make. Probably the best contemporary Christian songwriter, as far as “praise & worship” songs go. Andy Hunter’s Life. A solid sophomore effort from the Christian techno specialist.

There you have it.

My new CD duplicator arrived yesterday, so I spent last night testing it out. Holy cow. I was able to burn 7 CDs in about five minutes (at 16X speed - it can burn as fast as 52X). With a few breaks here and there, I managed to burn close to 40 CDs in about two hours. I still have several to burn, but I’ll be able to ship all of my CD orders on Monday. It will be very nice to get that off my plate of things to do.

Heading into the start of baseball season, I was fairly optimistic about the Cincinnati Reds making a run at the postseason this year. They’d revamped their pitching staff (finally spending money on “quality” starting pitching), and they have the same dangerous lineup they’ve had the past few years - Griffey (when healthy), Casey, Dunn, Kearns. Add quality players like Joe Randa and Wily Mo Pena to the mix and this looks like a quality ballclub.

With the season now in swing, I’ve learned to expect the expected - the Reds stink. Sean Casey sums it up quite nicely after their latest blunder - a 10-6 loss to the Mets, finishing a sweep by New York’s “other” professional baseball team:

“It was pretty much an embarrassing game, an embarrassing series,” said Casey, who matched his career best for hits. “It’s getting old, losing like this. It’s not only one facet of the game, we’re really scuffling in all the phases right now.”

Remember how I was optimistic about their pitching? It stinks. Awful. Remember that “dangerous” lineup? While Griffey has stayed healthy and seems to be heading in a good direction, and while Adam Dunn has cranked out 11 homeruns, the offense has yet to get in gear. Players are slumping, striking out left and right, and not getting the job done. Let’s not forget fielding. They commited four errors in tonight’s loss.

Oh well. How ’bout those Yankees?

Slowly but surely, the new DMB album is growing on me. In particular, “Steady As We Go” is a beautiful song. Even if you’re not a fan, I highly recommend (at the least) heading over to iTunes and purchasing the song for a whopping $1 (ok, it’s 99 cents).

Others that are gaining my interest:
“Stand Up” - title track; very funky; will be a great live song
“American Baby” - not a great song lyrically, but it’s a good tune overall. I’ve heard a live version already, and as far as radio singles go, this will definitely be a crowd favorite. They’re already starting to rock it out live.
“Everbody Wake Up” - a semi-Bush-bashing song, but musically, it’s a good song.
“You Might Die Trying” - I love the opening lines of this song; “To change the world, start with one step. However small, the first step is hardest of all.” Another song that will be great live.

Shortly after I moved into my apartment, my landlord revamped the shower in my bathroom. For several months, it did the job. In the last couple of months, I’ve noticed the water pressure slowly become quite depressing. Only in the shower though. I took the head off and checked for gunk that might be clogging it up. No dice. Clean as a whistle - seemingly.

I notified my landlord and he stopped by yesterday. Upon further examination of my current shower head (as in - taking it completely apart), we noticed it was indeed gunked up in a part that I didn’t get to during my evaluation of the situation.

He brought with him a new head - “The Incredible Head” or something cheesy like that. I quickly found out there’s nothing cheesy about The Incredible Head (although it didn’t look like much upon first glance). The thing works like a dream. You know how hotels usually have the perfect showers? The kind where the water pressure is so powerful that it would almost knock over a small child? This is pretty close to that. My landlord rocks.

I just got done reading random people’s blogs via Blogspot. I have no clue who they are, but it was interesting reading about their lives.

It made me wonder - who all reads this blog? I’d like to formally say hello to all of you out there in the Blogosphere. If you’re reading this right now, leave a comment below. Don’t be scared. It’s quick and easy, and quite painless. If you leave a comment and your blog address (if you have one of your own), I’ll be glad to drop by your blog and say hi.

I just purchased a CD duplicator. By “purchase,” I mean I bought it. Not with a credit card. Cash. It’s mine. Dave Ramsey would be proud.

It was a business expense, so the money came from my business account. Due to tax returns and two concerts I’ve recorded lately, I was able to fund the expense fairly easily (a good deal on eBay). This will make burning CDs to fill orders much quicker (I currently have over 40 CDs that I need to burn to fill orders). The unit can stand alone from a computer and will burn seven CDs at once. Ahh, technology.