Is this thing on? Holy toast!

No, my friends, it isn't. As you can see, it is late at night on a Friday - prime posting time. No workout with Taxman (I'm recovering from round two of my battle with some form of influenza) but some time with my favourite lady and a good flick.

Have you tried the new Buffalo Wings & Blue Cheese potato chips from President's Choice? Damn. Those are good chips. You knuckleheads from America don't get these or ketchup chips (and I don't know where I can get 9/10 of these ones). Abundant thanks and appreciation to Katie for buying them for me. I'll be sure to bring some down to Nashville in May. Hip hip hooray for visiting Bill & Ronee!

Where have I been? I was here for a week in December to celebrate my mother-in-law's retirement from the rat race (though her's was a very noble race, given she's a nurse). Congratulations and thank you! Does that explain an eight month lay-off? No.

Maybe I'll be motivated to write something more humourous/inspiring/embarrassing later on. Maybe I'll tell you about how I lost approximate ten pounds on a 'diarrhea diet' (nothing goes in, brown water comes out) over Christmas. Maybe I'll keep that to myself.

The real motivation for this post is the Dude. No, not Lebowski. This Dude likes Rosie Thomas a lot. That immediately boosts his reliability in terms of someone who has good taste in music. Second, he likes Mindy Smith a lot. We're now instant friends. I had asked the Dude if he had any of Mindy's demo tunes. He did not. He asked if I would share what I had. I ignored his request until now. I'm only missing one track, from what I have been able to locate, which is the original version of 'Come To Jesus'. If you have that one song or know where I can get it, please let me know. It was the song that made me flip out for Mindy and I'd love to hear it. This demo is rad because there's only one track (aside from the one I don't have) that was released otherwise. And it's a very different recording. Download away, my friends...

Mindy Smith - Demos

And I must put in a quick plug for a man I expect to be on the top of my list for albums in 2008 - WAZ. Thanks for the fella that left the link in the comments to the post below for WAZ's EP, 'Home'. I'm stoked for his debut album, 'The Sweet Bye And Bye', which I have pre-ordered. Make sure you listen to his cover of U2's 'I Will Follow', which is incredibly beautiful (thanks to Heather for introducing me). I think you'll be sold too.