I announced my retirement from Nerf Herder at the end of 2003, having spent a large portion of the year riding around in an RV that smelled like baloney. I had discovered that while you never outgrow feeling like a loser or being rejected by all sorts of women, you do outgrow the desire to sing about it over and over again every night.

Soon after, I received an e-mail from a friend, Lisa Klein, who had been licensing our music out to various movies, including one by the Olsen Twins. It was a very serious request from an advertising firm for a song to promote some kind of frozen waffles that came with their own dipping sauce.

My interest was peaked by the project's complete absurdity (and a mention of $20,000). I immediately rang up Zach Zeisler, my accountant, and asked if I could deduct any "research" I did at International House of Pancakes off my taxes. He said, "sure." As any middle-aged person can tell you, one of the great joys of later life is getting to deduct something, a thrill comparable to kissing a girl.

My first attempt was "Do You Like Waffles?" which I wrote in about five minutes. Bingo! I defy any red-blooded American to listen to this song and not want to cram their face full of waffle sticks and drink the syrup right out of the packet! I had a great time writing and recording the song in my little office, so over the next few days I came up with some more as backups, all, in my opinion, total classics. I felt I was at the top of my game, and for the first time in a while I was really enjoying writing music.

Lisa sent the tunes off to the waffle power elite, and for about a week it looked as though I might be in the business of helping to fatten up the youths of America. Sadly, in spite of what would have without a doubt been a great financial windfall to some giant corporation, they didn't use any of my numbers. In all honesty, I think they really blew it.

I'm not sure what happened next or why, but a year later I had all of these songs.

I just started watching Cowboy Bebop. I'd never seen it before, except for one episode, I think. I'm really liking the music. I think I'll have to pick up one of the box sets sometime, as they seem to be a better deal than the single-disc soundtracks. But yeah, fun music.