john’s got some new photos up on his blog.

kids… they’re the best. here’s my sister’s kids and my kids at the beach this past summer.

warms my heart.

we are deep into the 2010 pinecone contest. see, look at this:

i’m designing a school t-shirt. my design may get chosen by kids.
check me:

i may do a coloring book (bottom image)

collectible hand fans and new sculpture whirligig coming soon (not pictured.)

if you were to look back on my posts to june 3rd, you would see a picture of a bocce ball holder that i was going to “build tomorrow.” well, i did build it but i was over 3 months behind schedule. i built it august 25th. here’s proof:

bocce ball holder from satchel on Vimeo.

tonight, our stereo receiver blew. there wasn’t like a fire or anything but a bad electrical smell which prevented us from playing the live music through the speakers and the ipod. the pawn shops were all closed at that time and i really did not want to drive across town to best buy and plop down too much money for a receiver that had more bells and whistles than we would ever need. danny said, let’s post on facebook for a free pizza if someone brings in a receiver. i said, “they can have 3 free pizzas and a beer.” 2 hours later we got our receiver. i think i like facebook.

well, this isn’t really a video so much as a snapshot. my camera messed up and i missed most of what i recorded. jimmy and machel were engaged at satchel’s 2 years ago and last sunday they were married at lightnin’ salvage. it was awesome and they are super sweet.

wedding from satchel on Vimeo.

well. my computer had a labotomy and i just got a new version of my movie program in case the old one was corrupted. the movie program was causing me all sorts of troubles which led down the road to the crash of 2010 as now refer to it. i uploaded a couple quick things and as i was editing one of them i noticed some troubles…. the frames freezing as they were before i got the computer wiped clean and re-loaded. oh noooo…. yet it is still too soon to say that my video making days are over. it was only a brief issue a couple times and i don’t yet have enough new footage to see if it will be a problem from here out. the universe is telling me something, my wife says to me as i was commenting about the recent hiccup… yes, the universe is most likely telling me to stop making videos OR to throw my computer in the lake, which i always talk about but never actually follow up with.

so, i have 2 new very short flicks for you now. i’ve got to get warmed back up you know…. the following is a stencil i was making for my son

scorpion stencil from satchel on Vimeo.

officially there’s another month of summer but i don’t know. i mean, it’s still hot and stuff but school is back in session and that means getting up early, doing stuff without the kids, working on homework the whole rest of the day, and then staying up too late and getting mad when the alarm goes off… i will miss the summer. it seemed to go by faster than any i can remember. i guess i’m getting old now. anyway – we had a packed house all night at satchel’s. even a few tables after closing time got to order… i made lots of pies and worked on lots of projects… i have revamped the employee locker room. the lockers are easier to access. i am hoping i can just get the employees to use the lockers instead of have their stuff all around the office. i’ve started the new display in LSE that will be a rotating display… broken toys, junk for free, sale items…. i’ve got BIG plans for the fall, but i don’t want to give it all away, you’ll have to come see. i’ll say this: i plan to finish the walk-o-junk and a whirligig sculpture that i started 3 months ago, and collaborate on a new large mobile and feral, the woman who did the junk door in LSE that everyone just goes crazy about, is returning to do a mosaic in the kids playground. i think she said it would be a bird. anyway – that’s just the stuff i CAN reveal, the big list is the stuff i can’t reveal – yet.

what else? pizzas are looking good of course. i happened upon some reviews the other day although i tell myself i won’t read them but then once or twice a year i do… the main complaints were the same- the pizza is too expensive, the parking lot is too small, the wait is too long, the place is too crowded. our food costs are actually higher than most places so that shows the prices are in line. and of course, i don’t have control over the wait… but whatever, i don’t need to defend my business but i was a little bummed that our 4 star rating on yelp had dropped to 3 1/2 and by all counts i think our service and food have gotten better. i saw this documentary on some young basketball players, “more than a game”, and lebron james at one point says something to the effect “the more popular you get the more people want to knock you down off your pedestal.” there are folks who love to hate us but i am not going to let it bother me except for the small detail that they knock my rating down. whatever. people who love us love us a lot.

the photo above is from my summer trip to st. augustine. what a place!

them gators are about to crank up again, so that’s always fun to follow. and the chil’rens do need to learn to read and write, right?

later.

i finally got a group photo mailed to me from the family reunion. these are folks from my mom’s side of the family tree.

it was a good weekend at work. tonight, saturday, was rainy and stormy but somehow we stayed steady through it all. had a full house all night, and some crazy people too. crazy in a good way.
i’m happy. yes indeed.

hey. i’m back on my main computer. it’s been a long time since it was working, over 2 months. now it’s back, with a new hard drive. i lost about 4 months worth of data. i lost the video of my truck getting re-painted. i lost the video of my family re-union. i lost hundreds of great photos – and kristen, if you’re reading, yes – the talk is lost. kristen wanted me to film a talk i gave to her class so some folks who weren’t there could see it, and it could have been a good tool for sending people to the talk so i wouldn’t have to give it again. i spoke about the restaurant and our benefits and vision. anyway – that’s gone… no big deal really. i wish i had my family reunion videos more than anything. we only have those events so infrequently and i could have posted a 5 minute video of the weekend that would have been awesome for the family to watch…

business was brisk tonight. we made some great pies. i saw some happy people. my ankles are shot and swollen but that’s just par for the course. i got bad ankles.

i’m glad to have my computer back. i can watch videos again. i can’t edit video again yet as my computer guru is afraid my movie program is corrupted and so he is looking into the fix. my guess is that it will be september before you see any new video. did i ever tell you i hate computers? i have a love/ hate relationship with them. this stupid mac has been through 2 hard drives in 2 years. why do i bother with this thing? i should be painting my truck. which do you like better? the old truck:

or the new version (see post below)

later