A Good Reason To Love My Sister

I have two sisters, Veggin' Out & Witty Sissy who are very loving and patient with their harassing brother but after Veggin' Out's post today it sure makes it easy to love her!

note: names used are just blogger names, our parents are not really hippies
note on the note: even though our parents may have looked like hippies in their wedding photos they really were not hippies

http://veggin.blogspot.com/

On yet another note, people need goats. Look at that meter on the right. It seems to be stuck at halfway! There are only a couple of weeks left!

Give now!!

GL

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Baby Number Two is Getting Close

After checking out Normal Rockstar's blog today I thought I should pick up the cool widget he has that counts down the time to the baby's due date. So there it is on the side bar and here it is below too just for kicks! No we don't know what we're having in case you are wondering. We're just old fashioned I guess. It'll be a baby for sure!! Jonah is now hoping for a brother and I'm not even going to hazard a guess. It'll be a nice surprise.

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Birthday Present

Here it is! Here's what I picked out for myself for my birthday. I know I know, I'm a bass player but c'mon don't restrict me to that. After all my first instrument was a cornet (trumpet like instrument). Actually I learned guitar first when I was a kid so I could play along for campfires at camp! That never ended up happening much and now I play bass guitar in a rock band. Funny!

So if you're looking for a guitar check out some of the fine instruments that the Godin company has to offer. Godin has the Seagull, Richmond, Simon & Patrick, Norman, LaPatrie and Art & Lutherie brands under their banner plus they're a Canadian company which is a good thing! My Seagull guitar was handmade in Quebec so that also makes it cool. You can check it out here!

GL

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Training Update

The Missoula Marathon is less than 3 weeks away so I knew this past weekend had to be my last long run. Being on the road isn't too conducive to running for 3 hours so I waited till I got home and did the run yesterday. My previous long run a couple of weeks ago was 20 miles so I figured I needed to up that a couple and ran 22 miles yesterday with the plan of gradually speeding up throughout the run. The gradual speed up idea was based on an article I read in Runners World recently.

Anyway, I finished the run but it sure didn't feel great and I am feeling it today. I didn't even gradually speed up! I was pretty steady for the first 15-17 miles then I started to slow down. The gradual speed up thing may be a good idea but I think it's something I'll work on next time I'm training not start three weeks before a marathon. I kind of feel like my body is going to be tired after three hours of running either way so there's no point in holding back till the end! I don't think I put on enough miles each week for it to work.

My goal is to finish in 3:20 however after yesterday I fear that may be too lofty. I will be happy if I beat my 3:31 time from the last two marathons I've run but a 3:20 would be great!

If you haven't visited my Team World Vision page where I am trying to raise money through this marathon check it out. The plan is to raise enough to buy 13 goats for families that can use them. That's one goat for every 2 miles of running! Will you please help? We've already covered the the first 13.1 miles of the marathon, $75 pays for two miles and 1 goat. We're halfway there, only 13.1 more miles to go.

Click here to give.

GL

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New Favorite Email

As most of you are aware I play in a band named "downhere". By the way, we are giving our album away for free for just a few more days this month in case you were unawares. Anyway, we work with a company called Centricity Music. They are great to work with and they really do a good job at creating a family like atmosphere within the company, between artists and employees. So we sometimes like to have a little fun with each other.

Below is the first email all of the artists received from Steve Ford our VP of sales and marketing at Centricity. Below that you will find the response of Circleslide's very own Gabe Martinez. I love it!

GL

"All,

Greetings. I hope all of you are well as you are spread all around the
world.

We have manufactured a sampler CD that features a song from each of
you. We are giving this away for free with every purchase on the web
store. We have produced enough for each of you to have some on your
tables to give away with each purchase.

Would you be interested in carrying this with you? If so I would love
to give each of you a box of 150 (same size as your 30 CD box). Please
let me know how I can get these to you.

Thanks all.

Steve Ford"

Thanks steve,

I guess the best way to get this to me...do you know the barnes and noble in
cool springs? Inside in the 'sci-fi' fantasy section there is a book called
'elfsong' by elaine cunningham. If you open that book you'll find a detailed
map of the inside of the parthenon that I drew up. Go to the parthenon,
follow the map...and it will reveal a hidden passageway behind the men's
restroom. In there, you'll see a set of keys for a 1988 chrysler lebaron.
Grab those keys, and go get the car (it's parked in front of LP field)...and
at the stroke of midnight, in the back lot of 'the dog of nashville' there
will be three men of middle eastern descent. Get out of the car slowly ( I
can't stress this part enough) and walk backwards towards them speaking the
password that you found in the glove compartment underneath the tony robbins
signed 8X10's.
They will proceed to search you for any weapons...don't be alarmed...then,
after you give them the secret handshake...also in the glove
compartment...you can give them the CD's...and they, in turn, will give them
go me.

Or, if it's easier, I'll be at a meeting at the Centricity offices on Friday
afternoon...and I can pick them up there.

Whatever is more convenient for you.

Peace,

gabe

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A New Compost

If you check out my drummer Jeremy's blog (aka Normal Rockstar) you'll see some pics of a fine compost pile we started at his place. See how easy it is!! You don't even need a bin. A bin will speed things up and keep critters away if you are composting your kitchen scraps but for yard waste, the pile works just fine too. I should note one correction, we've been composting at home ever since we moved back to Canada so I have had space to do that but I am looking forward to upping my compost capabilities once in our own new house! (only a couple of weeks way!)

For those wondering, Jeremy mentioned that I thought the Fitz Root Beer was my 2nd favorite. He was right and for those of you who asked, first place definitely goes to Henry Weinhards Root Beer. That stuff is amazing! Best on the planet!

GL

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All Right, More Goats It Is!

Apparently I have underestimated my readers. I posted on Wednesday morning about trying to raise money to buy some goats through World Vision for those in need. I wanted to do this in conjunction with my next marathon which is the Missoula Marathon in Montana. I set a modest goal of $300 which equaled 4 goats. I had no idea how much could be raised. Anyway, at the end of the day I opened my computer to see that the goal had been met already!! Amazing!! Thank you Shawn and the Broach Family! I'm going to run that marathon with a little extra energy thinking about how happy these families will be to get their goats!

I think it is now time to raise the bar since that went so quickly and there seems to be much more potential to help out than I realized. So I’m going to raise my target to $1000 which is 13 goats! That's one goat for every two miles of running. It feels too ambitious to me but I think you guys will prove me wrong.

Help buy goats!

Why did I choose goats? As I said in my previous post, goats can provide people with fresh milk, cheese, yogurt, and potentially a much-needed income boost by providing offspring and extra dairy products for sale at the market. It even provides fertilizer that can dramatically increase crop yields. So they seem like a great option and it's something tangible we can aim for too!

Again if you are able to help out click on the new First Giving box on the right or you can just click on the link below.

Give now - www.firstgiving.com/glennlavender

GL

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Let's Buy Goats!

Well it's official, late, but official. I've just signed up to run the Missoula Montana Marathon on July 13th. Less than a month away. For the first time I'm going to be running for more than just a good time too. As part of Rockstar Runners I'm working on how we will be fulfilling the "Contribute" part of our 3 C's. This will be my first race running with Team World Vision. Those of you who know me know I've been associated with World Vision for a long time now (10 years I think). I believe in World Vision and what they do and want to do what I can to increase their ability to help others. So for this race I have set a modest goal of raising enough money to provide 4 goats to families in need. That's a measly $300 to raise to provide some people with fresh milk, cheese, yogurt, and potentially a much-needed income boost by providing offspring and extra dairy products for sale at the market. It even provides fertilizer that can dramatically increase crop yields.

Give now.

So I'm asking you to help me achieve this by giving $5, $10, $25, $50 or whatever you can give. My American friends, this is especially aimed at you as you are the only ones who can get a tax receipt for your gift. We're working on a Canadian option but we're not quite there yet. However, Canadians if you are willing to give that would be great too, there will just be no tax receipt.

Click here or on the new First Giving box on the right.

Help me out! Let's buy goats!!

GL

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Books & Composting

I figure it's time to get my blog caught up on my reading. In the last couple of weeks I've read three books on composting. Why so much about composting? I'm not sure really except that I find it to be really interesting. Basically you throw a bunch of what most people would call "waste" into a bin of sorts, wait a while, then you have some excellent nutrient rich soil! Isn't that the coolest thing? Well I think it is. I'll never forget the composting system my Grandpa Lavender had in his backyard. He passed away when I was 12 so I never got to the point of fully appreciating his garden and yard and compost but I think I'm starting to now and with the way things are going why not try to reduce and reuse more of our recyclable "waste".

The first book I read was called "Compost: The Natural Way To Make Food For Your Garden".
After completing "Compost" I found a link in the back to a site that looked interesting to me. It was a link to "The Humanure Handbook". I thought, humanure . . . ? you mean somebody has written about composting their poop? That sounds cool. So I promptly went to the site and downloaded the PDF for free of the entire book. Reading a book on the computer wasn't very appealing to me but the book was so interesting to me I couldn't stop. I think the other guys in the band were getting a little tired of my poopy talk. All I was thinking and talking about was compost. Anyway, it's a great read about compost even if you don't plan on composting your own Humanure. The last one I finished was "The Rodale Book Of Composting". Lots of details in this one. A good one to have as reference. Definitely not as fun of a read as the Humanure Handbook.

Then outside of compost I just finished Anne Rice's "Christ The Lord - The Road To Cana". It's the successor of Christ The Lord - Out Of Egypt which I read earlier. A great story of what Christ's life may have been like before His ministry got started.

More books coming. I'm in a reading mood these days!

GL

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Joel Auge

Here's a "new" artist to check out for those of you who haven't heard of him. Quick history lesson. About 9 years ago Joel's first band, Capstone, appeared on a compilation album along with Downhere and my first band Hot House. It was called the Warehouse Mix. Actually, Thousand Foot Krutch was also on that compilation. Capstone had a couple of great songs on there. I always thought they deserved way more recognition. It was actually the same World Vision artist retreat that I met the Downhere boys at where I also met Joel for the first time.

Anyway, he's got some great new songs and Integrity has picked him up and are helping him with this new release. Joel got a bit of a break this week. Check out the Christian & Gospel section of itunes for a free "Discovery Download" of one of Joel's songs (U.S. customers only). Go Joel!!

Or just go to his myspace page to listen. Tell him Glenn sent you!!!

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Downhere Free Album Download

Hopefully you've already heard about this but the latest release from my band, "downhere" is available as a free download for the month of June thanks to a partnership between our label Centricity Music and musicchristian.com. If you blog we would love it if you could take a few minutes and post about this giveaway as well. Since we're giving it away we might as well give away as much as possible so tell as many people as you can, this is free and legal and will only last for this month. I'd love to see what a little blog storm might do.

Enjoy the music!!

GL

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