Have your holiday preparations been as hectic as mine? Seems like everything converges to drive me crazy every year around this time. I think I'm done all my shopping now, though.

I've been practicing for my acoustic show on the 23rd. One of the reasons I hadn't touched my acoustic in a while is that it was a little out of whack. But, I got it adjusted/tweaked by Mark Burkert, who is the guitarist in a great band, Tapping The Vein, and has a guitar repair business, Precision Guitar Tek. He did an awesome job, and now it's fun and nice to play again.

I've also been trying to learn some kid-friendly cover songs for a great program called Musicians on Call. I'll be playing next Thursday night for some kids at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. If you have any good song suggestions, please post them or drop me a line from the contact page. I want to play some upbeat, fun stuff (obviously my stuff won't work too well!) but something a little more interesting than your average "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." Even if you don't get them to me before the 16th, I can use them in the future.

In other news, we have a band show in January at a new venue for us, Whiskey Dix, on 7th St. in Philly. I'm interested to check it out. I have another tentative acoustic show in February, and depending on what the venue decides, it might be a full band "unplugged" set. If not, it will just be me and my fine-tuned acoustic guit-box.

Hope you have a happy and stress-free holiday!