Change In Format

There will be changes to this site in the coming year. I'm planning on taking this site to a mostly political bent. I will include things philosophical, logical, theological, and all things related to ideas.

My MSN site will be used to cover everything in my life and include a ton of pictures. The My Space site will change to a purely music related format. Instead of just having 3 mostly duplicate blogs, I thought it best to set them up differently since they tend to work better for these environments. Please continue to check out all 3 and feel free to comment on them all as well.

Have a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas 2006

I'm home alone this particular Christmas. It is kind of nice, actually. You see, I had a great Christmas weekend with my kids. I was able to get them several things this year. The big gifts were a KC Chiefs winter coat for my oldest and a Dallas Cowboys hoodie for my youngest. They were very grateful for their gifts. I also got them some games, books, clothes, and other goodies that girls would like.

I also cooked for my girls. I made a turkey dinner complete with mashed potatoes, corn, and dinner rolls. We had pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. I also made them a nice breakfast on Sunday. They seem to agree that I should be doing more cooking for them.

It was a great weekend. I got to call my folks and the girls were able to visit with them and my little brother and his wife. I also visited briefly with my kids today to wish them a Merry Christmas.

I've added some pictures for Christmas 2006 that are in the family section of my photo albums. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas today!

Birthday Weekend Recap

My birthday is December 4th. I celebrated a bit the weekend prior. As you can read below, the weekend was started off with the Guns N Roses concert, but some other things went down that day and the following couple of days.

The original plan was for my girlfriend to get off work at noon to make the trip to Des Moines and join me in getting to the concert early. I figured there would be quite a long line for the floor seats that night so leaving my house at 5pm, grabbing a quick bite to eat, and then hanging out at the Hilton Coliseum should have been a breeze to get us up front. There isn't any other reason to have floor tickets if you aren't going to be toward the front with a great view.

Thursday was a huge snow day in Missouri and my girlfriend wasn't sure she'd make it. I stayed positive and sent her a link with the road conditions. By noon that day, the roads were ok to travel and got better the further north she'd have traveled. Well, the day started with her getting stuck in her parking lot at home. Her boss got her to work and had some guys get her truck out. While the truck has turned out to be in the same running condition prior to getting stuck, she was told that there were problems with it and she shouldn't travel. That put her in a not so great mood as this concert may be a once in a lifetime thing depending on Axl's mood. It's not something you take chances with if it's important to you. Well, there was no way she could get out by noon and the later it got the more likely it was she'd be stranded in Missouri for the weekend. Well, that turned out to be the case. I called my roommate and he offered less than half of the ticket price if I couldn't sell it and mine for more. It was too late to sell so I took the rip off price and let him have the ticket that cheap. (I have other ways to get the rest out of him. He reads this blog on occasion, too!) You can read about the concert experience below.

At about 3AM, my roommate and I started heading south for a Missouri road trip. We stopped at Wally World for a case of water and some caffeinated drinks. I did all the driving and we only saw one deer along the way to Missouri. We arrived at our destination about 8AM to the smell of biscuits and gravy. We were welcomed by my girlfriend and her daughter and fed heartily before crashing for a few hours. My roommate got the couch and I got a fairly comfortable Queen Size bed. I say fairly comfortable because I have a King size pillow top mattress and I have to give my girlfriend a hard time for having the more comfortable sleeping area. I told her to not let me sleep past 1pm and just before time was up, she woke me up. It's always great waking up to someone you love.

We pretty much puttered around the house most of the day, but I had the pleasure of joining my girlfriend for some taxi excursions for her daughter. In doing so, I got a nice trip around the town I spent most of my youth growing up in. It was great to see the changes and the familiar. Memories came rushing back at every turn.

My roommate and I were fed a wonderful chicken dinner that evening and we all turned in early since we needed the sleep. Sunday morning we had the aroma of more sausage, bacon, and French toast made by her daughter. Breakfasts like this are awesome. We ate a lot and then spent the rest of the morning just visiting for a while. I told them that we had to make a trip in to Wal-Mart for some shopping before leaving town, though.

We finally got around and headed out for another tour around a couple other parts of town and I wanted to see if anyone was at my old church. Sure enough, there was a carry-in dinner occurring at the church so my roommate and I headed inside. While in there I ran into some friends from my youth. Adults who had helped teach me and people who were friends of the family were there to say hello to. It was also great admiring the addition onto the building. I will be back in June for a celebration of my parents' wedding anniversary.

We finally got around to heading to Wal-Mart. I had received some Christmas money from my parents and wanted to get some new work clothes. I had asked my girlfriend to pick out something she'd consider stylish that might look good on me. She has great taste and picked out two wonderful outfits. I've received compliments on them at work and sent a picture to my mom for her to see. Thank goodness people like this stuff! I've always gone the plain route, but this new set of clothes looks good. If someone doesn't like them, I can always just say my girlfriend dresses me funny.

My roommate and I took off for Des Moines and made it home before 7:30pm that night to get settled and rested after such a crammed in weekend. I figured that if my girlfriend couldn't come see me, I'd go see her and we had a great time. She was kind enough to get me a handheld Yahtzee game and a card that fit me to a T.

Yes, I'm another year older, but it was a good way to celebrate.

Thanksgiving Recap

I guess I forgot to put up any details about my Thanksgiving trip to Missouri. It was a great week. My entire family was there and we created some great memories for a few days. My parents, my brothers and their families, and even my dad's sister were there.

I picked up my daughters not long after school on Tuesday that week. We went through KC and on to Kingdom City. We stopped there to meet my girlfriend and have a bit of ice cream. We got to my folks before 10pm and soon got the kids off to bed.

Wednesday was a nice quiet day for me and the girls to spend with my parents and aunt. We had raisin bran muffins for breakfast, which are my favorite. The middle brother got into town about 5pm with his wife and 4 kids. We had some dinner and then went to a Thanksgiving church service. My daughters sang a special with my niece and my brother accompanied them on the piano. It was great seeing all the girls sing together. They sounded great. The 4 oldest grandkids stayed with my parents and the rest of us went and stayed where my mom works. It was like having my own hotel room with my brother, his wife, and the two youngest boys next door.

Thursday morning we all went to my parents and my youngest brother and his wife joined us. It was a nice warm day so we went out and played some catch in the backyard with my oldest daughter. It was great tossing a baseball around with my brothers and Brittany. I haven't done that for a long time. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner of turkey and ham. We played Farkle and other games.

My girls and I then headed off to see my girlfriend and spend Thanksgiving evening with her. She had some ham made and had some key lime pie for us. It was great to just spend the time with her. She even bought a Yahtzee game and we played that with her. Yea, I'm pretty crazy about her.

Friday was another one of those days to sleep in a bit. I took the girls and my aunt in for some shopping to the outlet malls. We looked around a bit for some Christmas ideas. My niece was given some money to do some shopping and bought a beautiful dress to wear. We got back in time to get ready for family photos. My parents had scheduled a professional photo session for the entire family. We also had a sitting for the kids. Both pictures turned out great and I can't wait to get the prints I ordered. We had another nice meal when we returned home. There is little like mom's cooking to make a holiday or any day.

We had said our goodbyes to my youngest brother and his wife on Friday evening and Saturday was the day to say goodbye to my other brother and his family. The kids had so much fun together and they only get to do it about once a year.

I left that afternoon to go see my girlfriend while my girls spent the evening with their grandparents and my aunt. The helped bake a cake and did some other fun things like watching a movie that evening that was finishing when I arrived. I had a great time that evening just spending some quiet time with my girlfriend. She even had another piece of pie for me. I got home in time to get my girls tucked in.

Sunday morning we all got up early for church. It was great to see some old friends while there. We had another nice dinner when we got home and left shortly after.

While at my folks on Sunday, we found out that my ex-brother-in-law had a mild heart attack that morning. Instead of taking my girls back to their mom's house, we took off for Des Moines. It was nice to have a shorter trip home, but would have been better under other circumstances. Turns out he was ok after surgery, though. I got home in time to spend a couple of hours relaxing and spent a part of the evening on the phone with my woman. It was great to be home with so many wonderful memories that had been made the previous week.

There is truly a lot to be thankful for.

Guns N Roses in Ames, IA

I have mixed feelings about this one. I've read a ton of comments to other reviews and it sounds like most people are griping about this show with a few of the "die-hards" defending Axl Rose for everything. This is only my opinion of the Ames show so here goes.

My girlfriend got snowed in and was unable to come up from Missouri to attend this concert with me. I sold my roommate my other floor ticket at just under half the price and we got to the Hilton Coliseum about 6:40pm. There wasn't a huge line at either entrance, so we knew we'd get a decent spot on the floor. The doors opened on time at 7pm and we walked in to get frisked and were let into the floor area. We looked at prices for the merchandise and almost died laughing that key chains were $10 and beanies were $30. They have a great baseball jersey at an outrageous price of $125. It's a shirt that wouldn't cost $50 elsewhere, but since it has a GNR design on it, it must command a higher dollar than sane people are willing to pay.

As we got to the front of the floor, the St. Louis band Modern Day Zero was starting a set long before the 8pm start time. They are a tight band that is still using the dated "nu-metal" sound, but considering that everything is considered dated at a GNR show, this wasn't entirely out of place. I actually enjoyed some of the rhythms of the band and they were very energetic. Everyone seemed to command the stage in that band with the only low point being the singer. The bass player and guitarist on the left hand side of the stage were great players with great presence.

When 8pm rolled around, the Suicide Girls came out with their entertaining and erotic burlesque show. Their whole thing is that they are natural girls with a bit of the gothic look and they look good without the harsh diets and fake parts. They were quite entertaining with their dance numbers on chairs, a ladder, with a flaming hula-hoop, dressed as cop and prisoner, and even as airline stewardesses. They came out again before GNR went on and even used chocolate syrup. It's not a concert type of production, but was entertaining.

Sebastian Bach came out with some great Skid Row tunes from their early days. He did Piece Of Me, I Remember You, Big Guns, and several from Slave To The Grind and Skid Row before closing with Youth Gone Wild. There were even a couple of tunes that I didn't recognize, but seemed to be new. Bas made some cheesy comments to go along with the titles of a few songs. He initially said he couldn't remember his last time in Ames, but before I Remember You he mentioned that he certainly remember us. That was one of the cheesier intros to a song. Bas does deliver, though. He has the vocal chops to hit everything and then some and he certainly gets the crowd into the show. He just has a natural enthusiasm for entertaining. Bas did brag about lying to Ted Nugent about his drinking, but I'm not sure how much of that is an act. The band did a great job playing the tunes, but it would be great for Bas to get a crack band that can keep up with him and look better doing it. Metal Mike looks like a Dimebag fan, but I'm not so sure that's a good thing. At least he has the chops.

Helmet followed Sebastian Bach and got booed loudly and angrily. I like Helmet. I liked their set, but it was out of place and out of pace with this concert. Helmet should have gone on at 8pm and then should have been followed by the Suicide Girls and Sebastian Bach. When you have to follow the crowd singing Youth Gone Wild and you are then put before Guns N Roses, you face the daunting task of keeping that energy up. It wasn't Helmet that had the fans angry, but the pacing of the show and the fact that many didn't even know Helmet was going to be at this show. The fans were expecting Bas and GNR, not Helmet and the Suicide Girls. Helmet got to the point of not even taking much of a break between songs in order to play their set. They were laughing off the crowd a bit, but thankful for the very few that were into them. I'm anxious to see how they perform the rest of the tour, but GNR would be better served to put Helmet on first.

The Suicide Girls came back out for another few dances, but the crowd was even more restless at this point in their anticipation for GNR. Many were unaware that Axl likes to go on after 11pm or even after midnight and that there was some trouble getting through the weather from Chicago to Des Moines. There were many that left at 12:30am angry that they spent their hard earned money on a show that they weren't aware would last over 7 hours.

Axl and his band finally came on about 12:40am. I'm not sure if it was worth the wait, but it was a great show. Axl did sound good and had a lot of energy. They started with Welcome To The Jungle and did the first three tunes from Appetite For Destruction before launching into their cover of Live And Let Die. There were a few new songs sprinkled into the set, but mostly the familiar. Sebastian Bach came out for his duet on My Michelle and both sounded great. There were fireworks, flames, and a great light show to go with the large backdrops and video screens used. The stage was split level with the drums in the center at the top flanked by keyboard setups on either side. Dizzy Reed, the only other member to record on a previous GNR disc was up on the left and he got a solo front and center on a grand piano. Axly used the piano on November Rain, too.

The band looked like they have been playing with Axl for quite some time as they were very tight. I just didn't get the feeling that this was truly a band, though, as it still came across like Axl and his backing band. That could just be my impression. The members have some originality and are very good players. The guitar players do play a little clean for my taste as I'm used to hearing Slash's tastefully sloppy play when hearing these songs.

Overall, there is no way to complain about how much you got for your ticket price. Four bands and a burlesque show for a top price of $77 plus TicketMaster charges isn't a bad value. The bad parts are the advertising for the show being that two bands would be there (some included The Suicide Girls.) and the late hour at which GNR goes on. If people were warned in advance, they could have just shown up later instead of thinking that they'd get a show and be home in time to get their babysitters home. The other bad part was the pacing of the show. As good as Helmet is, they aren't as popular as Sebastian Bach and certainly don't get the crowd going for the headliner when they are being booed.

Hopefully, this review will serve as a warning to some so that all will know what to expect in future shows. See it once, but don't bother a second time unless you have seats or the legs to stand it.

Black Label Society in Des Moines

Zakk Wylde is the leader of the Black Label Society and he has quite the army of followers. The ValAir Ballroom was rumbling with the strains of 3 heavy bands that worked their way up like a rally from one guy who introduces the next who introduces the main speaker.

Priestess led things off to set the mood. These 4 guys hail from Montreal so they are on quite the trip through free country. They brought their straight ahead metal sound to people awaiting their leader. They were good at starting off the heavy night, but some comments were made about their songwriting. These guys have a good sound, but a way to go. They are worth keeping an eye on.

Black Stone Cherry made a lot of new fans last night. They brought their brand of Kentucky hard rock and had existing fans along with them for the ride. They played their new single and other tunes from their debut CD. Each member brought a ton of energy to the performance. The singer, while usually the eye of the hurricane, got swept up into the energy the audience gave back to them. The two Les Paul guitar attack worked in their favor as the singer took most of the leads, but traded off with the other guitarist. It's good to see long hair coming back around and these guys all created a whirlwind with it while playing. The ending of their set was classic as the two guitar players put their heads together and played the guitars behind their heads. The bass player then stood in front of the drummer with his bass offered up as a sacrifice while the drummer played it with his sticks. The guitarists then went to opposite sides of the stage and knelt to make some noise. They suddenly got up with the last remaining chords of their set and thanked the crowd. Visually, this was brilliant and something I hadn't seen before. Nice guys and they met everyone they could at the merch table after the show.

The crowd had been chanting "Zakk" most of the night. The front of the stage was blocked by a BLS curtain as the crew set up the stage. Zakk and the boys hit the stage with some light sounds until the curtain dropped and the metal began. Zakk had the crowd in the palm of his hand while a pit was formed and the fists were raised. He kept the rhythm going for quite some time with new songs and old. Midway through the set, he sat at a keyboard and played several songs from there. It surprised me that this guitar hero was tickling the ivories like a pro and was willing to bring the beat down for a bit. He still retained the heavy while offering up a tribute to Dimebag while a roadie brought a Dimebag T-shirt out and set it on the far left amp. There were 8 double stacks of Marshalls across his backline and after several songs at the keyboard he turned them back up for a few more stomps in the Wylde. Zakk them went into a long guitar solo that culminated in the National Anthem. This guy almost had smoke coming from his finger tips as he played. Most long guitar solos tend to bore after a short bit for everyone except the hardcore fans. Zakk has such a command that he could have been playing any of his tunes as the crowd was just as much into the solo as his songs.

The Iowa Chapter was out for Zakk last night and it was declared good. Catch these bands and get there for all three!

Bret Michaels Rocks Des Moines

Bret's first club show in Des Moines was a sold out success. He probably could have sold out Val-Air Ballroom in Des Moines. The owner sold 300 tickets and maybe a few more for this show and mentioned that he could have sold a thousand if he'd had the room. The owner, John, was cool enough to let the first 50 ticket buyers into the club at 6pm for a meet and greet. This basically consisted of a soundcheck set and Bret finished it by signing about everything offered and taking pictures.

Before Bret came out to soundcheck, we were treated to his backing band, Evick. Pete Evick seemed to be in charge of making sure the stage sound was just right so that Bret would be pleased when he came out for soundcheck. While I was hoping we'd here an Evick original, we were treated to covers we all knew. They played tight versions of Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, Cold Gin, and Walk This Way. Pete handled both lead guitar and lead vocals while Ray and Chuck held down the bottom end groove. I hope that John was listening because Evick is a group that needs to be playing Keyster's with their own show.

Bret came out for a four song soundcheck and the sound was good. Your Mama Don't Dance got things rolling so he could here what the harmonica would sound like and he grabbed his acoustic to hear how things sounded on Every Rose Has Its Thorn. Bret brought out his electric guitar for Fallen Angel and then rocked us all with Nothin' But A Good Time. The sound system sounded great and he touched on a few things with the band before coming to the front of the stage for signatures and pictures. I was fortunate enough to get the newest CD signed as well as get a picture. I also asked when we would here something newer from him. Bret said that POISON ENTERS THE STUDIO AFTER THE FIRST OF THE YEAR! This was news to me as I hadn't heard for sure if Poison would be doing any new recording from any online source. Of course Poison is taking their show back on the road for the summer and Bret wants to come back to Keyster's next year.

During the break, I visited with Pete Evick a bit and he asked a favor. Bret has a video camera and he's just getting into the internet a bit more. He would like to take video from every night and put it on YouTube. They were having trouble getting what Pete described as a firewire cable to get the camera to hook up to the PC. Being a computer guy, I was able to grab a couple of cables from CompUSA for them and I'm sure the USB2 cable I found should be proved to be the right cable today. I had it looked up online, so that helped.

The Gibbs Brothers opened the show this night and they sounded great as they did last week. It seemed like a very similar set and they should be doing their own shows at Keyster's, too. While their cover or Kickstart My Heart seems a tad loose and Roll With The Changes picks up and slows down in spots for my taste, the originals sound great and the guys do a good job of getting the people in attendance into their stuff and ready for the headliner.

Evick came out after the house tape had played You Shook Me All Nite Long and Welcome To The Jungle. Evick started up with some noise and after the opening chords of Talk Dirty To Me were played, Bret came bounding out on stage ready to start the party. Bret got a feel for this sold out crowd and adjusted his expected set list in some major ways. He just had a feel for what we wanted and when it was time to deliver it, which meant he delivered all night. The set list that was supposed to happen is below what was actually played:

SETLIST

Talk Dirty To Me
Rock N Roll All Nite
Bittersweet
Sweet Home Alabama
Driven
I Won't Forget You
Your Mama Don't Dance
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Unskinny Bop
Raine
Something To Believe In
American Band
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Fallen Angel

ENCORE

Nothin' But A Good Time

WRITTEN SETLIST

Talk Dirty To Me
Rock N Roll All Nite
Look What The Cat Dragged In
Driven
I Won't Forget You
Party Rock Band
Your Mama Don't Dance
Raine
Sweet Home Alabama
Bittersweet
Something To Believe In
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Unskinny Bop
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Fallen Angel

ENCORE

Nothin' But A Good Time

As shown above we didn't get to hear Look What The Cat Dragged In or Party Rock Band, but we did get American Band. Chuck told me that he had played that song twice before and was shocked when Bret called it out, but he didn't miss a beat or a break in the song.

I've seen Bret 3 times with Evick as the Bret Michaels Band and they just keep getting better and tighter. The breaks, the breakdowns, the solos, the backing vocals, and the show were spot on. Chuck was singing along and adding backing vocals while holding down the beat. Ray was adding a few backing vocals and rocking out at the front of the stage while manhandling his bass. Pete was playing the solos spot on as we all grew up on them while providing backing vocals and a guitar foil to Bret for the show. The party was led by Bret Michaels calling the plays as any great quarterback. Bret and Evick make for a tighter combination than seeing Poison live. I'm not saying it's better as Poison is a classic and they play a pretty loose show that allows for each member to do something a bit different if they want. Bret's led Evick to be a very tight band playing the Poison classics tighter and cleaner than Poison while making this a Bret Michaels show.

One of the things I was really looking forward to for this particular show was taking Becky to the show. It's always fun to attend concerts, but when you go alone or with a group you tend to enjoy just about everything except the slow songs and when you get excited about something during or after the show, you don't have anyone to really enjoy and share it with. Concert buddies are great, but swaying with your loved one to a great ballad is a better way to experience things in my opinion. I can't wait to take her to Guns N Roses in Ames, IA.

Go see Bret on the nearest tour stop and enjoy the party he brings. Also, keep your ears peeled for some possible information about an upcoming show!

Bret Michaels Returns To Des Moines

I have tickets to 3 upcoming local concerts. Bret Michaels will be at Keyster's. Black Label Society and Black Stone Cherry are playing the ValAir Ballroom. Guns N Roses will be in Ames. Three great upcoming shows! That will put my yearly total at 18, which is one shy of last year's 19. I'm sure there may be another one or two to tie or put me over.

Out of the three, I'm most anxious for the one this Saturday. I get to take my woman to see Bret Michaels. He's being backed by Evick, a great band from back east. As a few previous posts will show, I was fortunate enough to meet Evick on two occasions while backing Bret Michaels. Evick performed with Bret at Waterstock Rock 2005 and I got to meet and hang with the guys at the dividing fence after the show. Pete, Ray, and Chuck were as cool as could be signing things and telling stories of the road. Pete Evick is a Metal Sludge fan and we talked about that website for a while. Later that year I caught the Bret Michaels show in Davenport, IA, and again Evick was backing Bret. I peeked into the window while Evick was soundchecking and Pete saw me and motioned me to come inside. After the show, we all hung out. My roommates, Steph, and I were just having a blast visiting with Evick, Big John, and even meeting Bret Michaels to get a picture and autograph. We took a group photo that night with everyone except Bret to publish on Metal Sludge to put some rumors about Big John's employment to rest. They were truly one big happy and fun family on the road. I tried earlier this year to get Pete Evick in touch with anyone and everyone about getting Evick on Waterstock 2006, but it fell through or didn't work out. I knew Bret would be there with Poison and it just seemed right that Evick should be on that bill this year, too. I hope they get on this next year.

I've been fortunate enough to meet Bret Michaels on two occasions. Steph was kind enough to help me get to meet Bret in Cedar Rapids in 2004 at 3rd Street Live. I was part of the first small group (all women except me) to get on Bret's bus for a short meet and greet after his show. He was very gracious and funny and even though he didn't have to, he asked me what my daughter's names were when I mentioned that they loved his song Raine and enjoyed the video. The second time I met Bret was in Davenport and it was just a brief spot in line for a picture on the steps of his bus. The really cool thing was that I mentioned I was anxious to hear Menace To Society from his CD Songs Of Life. He started into a verse and I joined him for a couple lines. He looked at me and said, "Yea, you got it." I actually sang with the guy I grew up seeing on MTV for about two lines of a song! Now that's cool!

With my ticket for Saturday night's show, I am supposed to be able to meet Bret and the guys from Evick before the show. I've e-mailed Pete to let him know I will be there. It will be great to see the guys again and welcome them to Des Moines for what could be the first of many times. It even looks like this show may have already sold out and they just announced it at the LA Guns show last Saturday.

I've heard stories and rumors posted online about Bret Michaels. Some are completely idiotic, but most have a very common theme. This is a guy who loves to play music live and he's always gracious to those he meets. I've seen this up close in two very small encounters and can see why this guy is still at it.

Poison was my rebellion as a kid and seems to be that as an adult. I was struck by the guitar and attitude of Talk Dirty To Me the first time I saw it on MTV and have followed the band ever since. Being a singer, my favorite of the 4 was always the guy who has the same name as me. Bret has a lifelong battle with diabetes and in spite of that has been rockin' and rollin' for over 20 years. To keep doing what you love at the level he does says something about what you love and what you are capable of. Bret is still drawing a crowd doing Poison tunes, solo CD tunes, and even a few covers.

Check out the bands I've listed in the Upcoming Shows area. Tell me what you thought. Most of all, support the artists who are doing this. They need us as much as we need them.

Naked Beggars In Des Moines

If songs, talent, and showmanship were what really mattered in the music industry, Naked Beggars would be ruling the rock n roll world. Songs that remind you of all the bands you listened to growing up from one genre to another with a sound all their own. The talent among these 5 musicians is incredible and everyone already knows the pedigree of Jeff Labar and Eric Brittingham from Cinderella. The lead and rhythm prowess of Kris Casamento is something to be seen as well. Kris has been part of the song backbone for this band since the inception. New drummer, Lisa Rev, is a very welcome addition to this band. She brings a steady backbeat that just grooves in the pocket with Eric's bass playing. Her dynamics bring a seductive feel to songs as the beat infects you and makes you move. Leading this band on stage is Inga who has a great sense of humor and a unique way of bringing you into the lyric with her showmanship. The whole is greater than the 5 members, which is what makes Naked Beggars such a wonderful band and live experience.

Last night was another great live show from this great band. The crowd was quite small so we had an intimate night with Naked Beggars. (Doesn't that sound like fun?) There was a lot of joking around as Inga picked on Jeff. Jeff had a recurring theme all night that he just learned the songs yesterday or learned to play the Mandolin yesterday. Inga led the humor, but the guys were right there with the jokes. When Inga told everyone that Eric was a farm boy, Jeff piped up that it was a pot farm. Jeff told a story about getting the finger from Inga and said it was the best finger he'd ever gotten. Eric then chimed in saying "except for the time in jail". Jeff having gone to jail was another running joke throughout. You could tell through all the banter that this is a group of friends who have become family and let it shine through all they do.

The songs are what Naked Beggars boil down to. It's the songs that move them and the songs that provide further insight into this family. The set list is as follows:

Ain't Your Mama
Lies (I love the rhythm of this song! Drums and a Les Paul through a Marshall stack make this song!)
Spit It Out
Bitch
Go Where You're Wanted (The first new song of the night! Tasty groove!)
I'm All Over It (Another new tune with some great rhythm.)
Creep
Naked N' Beggin' (Jeff has a very melodic guitar part that sets the tone from the outset on this new song.)

ACOUSTIC SET
What You Give (Tesla)
Discombobulated
Nobody's Fool (Cinderella)
Destiny (A new song Jeff really did learn the day before! There is a great vibe to this slower tune.)
Going To California (Led Zeppelin)
Lullaby

No More
Kind Of Girl
Too Late
Dream On (Aerosmith)
Never Runaway (My favorite of the new tunes because this rocker just makes you involuntarily! You have to!)
Nothin' But Trouble
Hole In The Wall
Get It On

Twenty-two songs. Most bands are content to do ten, twelve, or even 15 tunes, but these guys gave us a full evening and obviously enjoyed every minute of sharing their talent with us. They took us away from our day to day lives for a full evening of great rock n roll. They enjoyed smiling, sharing, and rocking out with us. Not to us or for us, but with us. They invited us into their music and we loved every moment.

I had a few personal highlights visiting with the band afterwards. When I arrived at Shooter's Hideaway, I saw Eric milling near the front door, but I went over to see some new friends first. I figured the band was gearing up to get ready and I wanted to take in the venue. When the band gathered up getting ready to leave to go eat dinner, I walked toward them and Inga said "You made it!". She remembered that I had mentioned that I may not make the Clear Lake date, but I assured her that in Des Moines, I'd be there. She and Eric shook my hand and genuinely seemed glad to see a familiar face of a fan. Lord knows I've pestered Inga enough about getting to Des Moines. Of course, I hadn't known about Shooter's having shows so it was a venue I hadn't even mentioned to her. I'm glad others have been instrumental in getting Naked Beggars to Des Moines. Now to just have them back often! Dave, the Waterstock webmaster, took pictures since I'd left my memory card at home. I will post the ones he took of me with the band and put a link here for his live shots if he allows me. JW was able to get some pictures he'd taken previously in Clear Lake signed by the band members. I got a set list signed and was able to go over my recollection of the originals with Inga. They were also impressed that I had a Spit It Out sampler that I brought in to get signed. (I have two of them.) I was able to ask Inga and Kris about the new CD they HOPE to have out in February. I know that Inga and Kris have done a major share of the writing in the past and there have been member changes with each CD. With the new CD they have 4 members that have toured and written together for quite some time now. Inga said that there is more of a collaborative effort this time around as they have lived with each other and the songs for a while now. They still have more songs to write and the titles of the new songs may change and the songs themselves alter as they grow into the tunes with time. Kris said they hope to be in the studio in the first part of December. They still have more to do, but as a fan I can hardly wait to hear the new CD and I'm hoping they are able to hit the February time frame with something they are proud to share.

I asked Inga about their missing member, Kristine. I was curious when she might return to touring with the band and that seems to be up in the air right now. Kristine is missed with her keyboards, violin, and wonderful harmonies. The band sounds very muscular without those instruments, but they do provide a great feel to the tunes. I hope Kristine is able to return. I know the band and fans miss her. She's a great addition. Of course, I have to stress, too, in all fairness that there is so much talent in the five that were there last night that while Kristine is a great addition, the band certainly isn't lacking without her. In fact, it does provide a more muscular sound with stipping it down to guitars, bass, and drums. Watching Kris and Jeff trade licks at one point was incredible!

I didn't know Shooter's Hideaway had any live music until I heard about this gig. I had the good fortune of meeting Paul who set up this room for live shows. He knows what he's doing with the sound and lights and he was absolutely correct about the acoustics at Shooter's. This is a great venue for smaller live shows and maybe over time bigger ones. They may need to raise the stage off the floor more as people will block people in a larger crowd and with a small drum riser, Lisa did hit the ceiling a couple of times. There is talk of having Naked Beggars back some day soon and I hope it works out to do so. Word of mouth will help this venue as they start bringing bands like Naked Beggars there on a regular basis.

Go see Naked Beggars. Support them by spreading the word about this wonderful band. They will laugh with you. They will rock you. They will move you.

LA Guns in Des Moines

You can always expect a great show from LA Guns. Steve Riley holds down the beat with Adam Hamilton. Stacey Blades cranks up the Les Paul through his Marshall stack with some tasty leads. Phil keeps the crowd entertained with a sense of humor and his plays to the crowd.

Keyster's hosted this event with Iowa's own Gibbs Brothers opening. The Gibbs Brothers were tight with a rock sound based in the blues. Their drummer is also the singer and he puts his kit front and center so that he can entertain while keeping time. His brother provides some soulful licks while their bass player keeps the groove going. They covered Cinderella's Last Train and Motley Crue's Wild Side in addition to some previously recorded originals and some from their upcoming CD being produced by Rikki Rockett. I was impressed. I'd heard about these guys, but this was the first I'd seen them. I can't wait to hear the new CD and see them live again.

LA Guns hit the stage with their brand of sleazy Hollywood rock firing on all cylinders. Phil was sans hat, but wore a new mustache that he said he's trying out. About halfway into the set, the owner came up and mentioned that it needed to be turned down as he'd received his second citation in two nights. The guys turned it down a tad, but being front and center it still sounded great. The set list was as follows:

No Mercy
Sex Action
Never Enough
Some Lie 4 Luv
Over The Edge
I Wanna Be Your Man
Rock N Roll Outlaw
Gypsy Soul (My personal favorite from their newest CD!)
It Don't Mean Nothing
Wheels Of Fire
Hellraisers Ball
Nothing Better To Do
One More Reason
Electric Gypsy
Ballad Of Jayne
Rip N Tear

There was no encore, but the set list had "Don't Look At Me That Way" listed at the end and it wasn't performed. There wasn't but a few of us calling for more tunes. We had an extra hour with the time change, but the band didn't return to the stage.

LA Guns came out with their remaining T-shirts and CD's and met with everyone and signed everything they were asked to sign. As always, a great show by my favorite sleazy Sunset Strip band.

TV Schedule Fall 2006

Thought I'd throw up my TV schedule here to give a detailed account of what I watch.

SUNDAY

Meet The Press (NBC) - The mostly liberal interpretation of politics for the week.
Fox News Sunday (FOX) - The mostly conservative interpretation of politics for the week.
Various Football Games (CBS, ESPN, & FOX) - Gotta see the Cowboys and Chiefs!
Cold Case (CBS) - A great procedural with heart.
Without A Trace (CBS) - A great procedural with great characters.
War At Home (FOX) - I've always loved Married With Children and this has a similar humor.

MONDAY

How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - Great comedy! Gotta love Barney!
The Class (CBS) - Fun new comedy with a payoff each episode so far.
Two And A Half Men (CBS) - This comedy gets away with so much for the hour it's in.
The New Adventures Of Old Christine (CBS) - This comedy is really finding its legs. Humor in divorce.
CSI: Miami (CBS) - Fun setting for a procedural. I hope they start getting into the characters better soon.
Heroes (NBC) - I love shows about superheroes. Brittany watches this one with me.
Justice (FOX) - I hope this show survives. Great procedural on the side of the defense. Always the truth at the end.
Studio 60 On Sunset Strip (NBC) - I've just caught the opener so far and have 3 shows to catch up on.
WWE: Monday Night RAW (USA) - Everyone needs to see someone kick some butt with hot women by their side.
Gene Simmons Family Jewels (A&E) - The Demon as father, husband, and business man. Much better than Ozzy's show.

TUESDAY

Friday Night Lights (NBC) - Very realistic look at a Texas football town. Similar in style and feel to the movie.
The Unit (CBS) - The men who serve and the women who love them. Great stories on both the battlefield and the homefront.
ECW (SCI-FI) - Owned by WWE, but with more "extreme" style.

WEDNESDAY

30 Rock (NBC) - Tina Fey is a good writer. I'm anxious to see if this is gonna be as fun as it sounds.
Twenty Good Years (NBC) - John Lithgow and Jeffrey
Bones (FOX) - Great prodedural with great characters. I love the banter and the search to understand each other.
Criminal Minds (CBS) - Reminds me of a short lived show called UnSub. Loved it and love this procedural about catching serial killers.
CSI: NY (CBS) - A tad more gritty take on the CSI procedural theme.

THURSDAY

Ugly Betty (ABC) - Selma Hayek produces this show about a Latino girl trying to make it in the fashion business.
Smallville (CW) - Superman! What more needs to be said?
Supernatural (CW) - A great horror TV show about brothers who hunt the supernatural.
My Name Is Earl (NBC) - Redneck trying to understand karma and getting laughs in the process.
The Office (NBC) - This is the best awkward comedy I've ever seen.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS) - The original CSI procedural. Great show with great characters.
Shark (CBS) - Great procedural on the side of the prosecution.
Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback (SPIKE) - Gladiators vying to get into the UFC. A new fight every week.

FRIDAY

Ghost Whisperer (CBS) - A horror show with heart? You may jump in the first half and tear up in the second.
Men In Trees (ABC) - Ok, I can't believe I'm watching a chick style show like this, but it's got so many truths.
Happy Hour (FOX) - Fun sitcom with potential.
Foxworthy's Big Night Out (CMT) - Jeff Foxworthy continuing the Blue Collar style.
Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders (CMT) - Cheerleaders from my favorite football team. What more needs to be said? I watch this with Paige.

Is there anything on Saturday nights now? That's currently my catch up day.

My Space, Blogger, and MSN

I've been having trouble all weekend with My Space. I can view my page, but I can't log in. I rarely get a login page. When I do get a login page it won't allow me to log in. It's been this way since late Friday night. I love the networking on My Space. If it was similarly done on MSN, I'd just do everything through my MSN site.

The Blogger site has been upgraded to the new beta version. I think I've lost all of my comments, but there hasn't been much action on Blogger for a while. I like it a lot better now since I don't know HTML. Blogger has always been reliable, but the new look adds some features that I like about the MSN site. My favorite upgrade is being able to rearrange all of the lists. Blogger is a great site for people who know HTML, but I'm a bit of a rookie so it's great to be able to have simple things like that.

I like the MSN site the best, but there are two major changes I'd make. MSN doesn't allow list rearrangement and I could really use that for my concert lists. The other major change would be the layout. I'd love to be able to add columns to fit higher resolutions so that you can put more at the top of the page to catch people's eye. The less clicking, the better. The less scrolling, the better. The only other change I'd make is a minor one and that would be to add a Calendar similar to My Space.

It's easy to keep up three blogs when I'm mostly copying and pasting posts to each one and updating the Calendar on My Space. The minor layout changes I make on occasion aren't a hassle, either. I believe it's good to be a part of a few environments for various reasons. Mainly, you will only meet some people in certain places. My Space has been a great area to meet rock bands and fans. I've even run into a couple of old classmates through it. Blogger is a great place for another network of friends that I've made through concerts. This site was my first and still the best and I link to it from every place I post about music. I've had great people from Metal Sludge and the Waterstock site come here to view the pictures and a few people have hit this site from the Des Moines Register blogs. Each blog is good in its own way. Now if only My Space will let me log in!

Softball Week 7

We won one and lost one Monday night and didn't even play the games. We had to forfeit the first game against Milo Methodist due to not having enough players to play. Heaven Help Us called earlier in the day and forfeited the second game for the same reason. We expected to lose against Milo and win against HHU, so it worked out the way we thought only without having to actually show up to play. That put us where we thought we'd be at 6-9 or 4th place for the fall season. Now we await tournament details.

Yankees Lose

Only 4 playoff games in, the Yankees are done. They won the first game against Detroit with heroics by Derek Jeter going 5-5 and finishing his at bats with a home run. The Yankees then lost the next 3 in a row to end the season. This wasn't supposed to happen. The Yankees were on their way their first World Series since 2000 and now that dream has ended. I'm shocked and saddened by this, but as they say every year...there's always next year.

Yankee Fan

I've been a Yankee fan since the 1977 World Series. It's the first baseball I can ever remember knowing about or understanding. The Yankees beat the Royals in the playoffs and then beat the Dodgers in the World Series. The same thing happened the following year. I wanted to know more about baseball and started playing on my small town team that my dad coached. I started collecting baseball cards and my mom got my brother and I each a half box of cards for Christmas. Since the Yankees were the big winners, I tried to collect mostly their cards and wanted to know more about the team. My dad encouraged this since he grew up a baseball fan and a fan of the New York Yankees. His favorite player was Mickey Mantle. I started reading about the players that contributed to the history of the Yankees and Mantle was my favorite, too. I read biographies about Ruth, Maris, Mantle, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and all the rest and wanted to know more about the players of the day like Reggie Jackson, Craig Nettles, Ron Guidry, Sparky Lyle, and Goose Gossage. I knew girls that thought Bucky Dent was the cutest thing and had his poster on their wall. I could mimic the pitching styles of Catfish Hunter, Tommy John, and Luis Tiant.

I've been a New York Yankee fan since those days and have followed them and all of baseball every year since to some degree. They are consistent winners. I've heard all the derision over the years about them paying large salaries and buying up the best players, but people don't seem to understand that you still have to play the games. Also, the Yankees have a huge history of being winners. They have had this history long before George Steinbrenner and his antics. There is a Yankee tradition of excellence that hasn't been matched in baseball. There have been 101 World Series' played since the first in 1903. The Yankees have been in 39 of them. They have won 26. The closest team to that kind of record is the St. Louis Cardinals. They have been in 16 World Series' and have won 9. The Oakland Athletics have won 9 out of the 14 they have been in. It's tradition and the fans expect to win every year. The Yankees have also had the highest run of World Series Championships with 5 in a row. Winning is expected. Isn't this what we teach our children when they learn about life? We expect excellence.

I've been fortunate enough to see a few Major League baseball games in my life. My first was at Busch Stadium watching the Cardinals and Dodgers. Roger Freed hit a 3 run homer to end the game and win it for the Cards. That night must have been his highlight that year because it was on the back of his baseball card the following year. I got autographs from Ron Cey, Boog Powell, Ted Simmons, and Roger Freed. I've seen the Astros play the Cardinals twice. One of those games I sat in the right field stands and watched Nolan Ryan win one for the Astros 4-3, I believe. I've also seen three Royals/Yankees games. I was fortunate enough to see them win two of the three. I got autographs from El Duque and David Cone. Cone signed his baseball card for me as we sat right behind the Yankee dugout and El Duque signed a baseball for me through his bus window.

I own a Yankees cap, a Yankees leather jacket, and over the years I have owned a T-shirt and those plastic hard hats you can get at fairs and such. I also have an autographed baseball from that 1977 team that was sold through Post Raisin Bran with a small plastic stand. I don't have all the baseball cards I had as a kid, but I have a few. I remember selling my Mickey Mantle card. It was tough to part with and I probably shouldn't have. I still have the book "And On The 8th Day God Created The Yankees".

There are bigger fans than me for sure. I'm just an average fan, not a bandwagon fan. I like rooting for winners and enjoying the history of this team as it unfolds. Just thought I'd post a few memories of days gone by with the hope of more to come.

Softball Week 6

We are staying solidly in 4th place out of 6 teams. We played a triple-header on Monday and won the first game easily, but lost the next two. We had hoped to win the second game against a team we'd beaten before, though. We have one week left. So far our season has looked like this:

WEEK 1
FDCC - 4
Fairview Christian - 5

FDCC - 2
TRYM - 8

WEEK 2
FDCC - 9
Indianola Church Of Christ - 11

FDCC - 8
Heaven Help Us - 4

WEEK 3
FDCC - 1
Fairview Christian - 2
(Not accurate, but we lost by one.)

FDCC - 3
Milo Methodist - 6

WEEK 4
FDCC - 9
Indianola Church Of Christ - 8

FDCC - 8
TRYM - 27

WEEK 5
FDCC - 10
Fairview Christian - 6

FDCC - Winner by Forfeit
Milo Methodist - Loser by Forfeit

WEEK 6
FDCC - 8
Heaven Help Us - 7

FDCC - 7
Indianola Church Of Christ - 24

FDCC - 11
TRYM - 15

WEEK 7 (Yet to be played.)
FDCC
Milo Methodist

FDCC
Heaven Help Us

This puts us at 5-8 for the season above Fairview Christian and Heaven Help Us. With next week's schedule we will likely finish the season 6-9 and be the 4th seed in the Fall Tournament. Not a bad finish, but a drop from last year's second place finish and first place tournament finish. Of course, you never know until you play the games.

Baseball Prediction

It's time to lay out my prediction for the Major League Baseball Playoffs. I've been predicting since about a month before Labor Day that we are going to have a Yankees vs. Mets Subway series. The Yankees are going to win the World Series this year and it won't go 7 games against Detroit or the Mets. Oh, and yes I can say I've been predicting this that long or longer as I've been giving a co-worker who is a Mets fan a hard time for quite a while. E-mails will back that up. :) Ok, I'm usually not very good at sports predictions, but you gotta admit that this is an easy one! Go Yankees!!

Now as for my own team tonight. Game one should be an easy win. Game two could be a good close game win like we did last time. Game three we will get creamed! It's going to get tougher as the night wears on, but you never know what happens until you play the games. One more week and then it's tournament time.

Irregular Blogging

There have been several things I've been wanting to blog about in recent weeks. Topics include the wacko Venezuelan president, the wacko former US President Clinton, weekends with my woman, and weekends with my girls. There have been political hot topics such as how to treat captured enemy combatants, racism and who is allowed to get away with it, and the campaign season. Also, TV season has started into high gear and there are many new shows I've been checking out. I'm going to try to consolidate this post a bit and cover as much as I can.

Wacko Presidents: Even some liberals call the Venezuelan president "nuts". This guy thinks it's ok to come on to our soil and call our president the devil. He thinks his little oil is a cause of concern for the US and that we will bow to his whims if he threatens cutting it off. My reaction is that after the elections, we just shut his country down financially. It's not hard to do and will show him who he should be falling in line with. Dictators rarely can run a country properly and this guy has to go. Our own wacko former president Clinton showed just how off his rocker he is by getting upset and defensive while retorting with lies to a guy who was just asking questions as a journalist. Clinton still thinks that people are out to get him when in fact we just want to hear the truth once out of this guy's mouth. You would think that a guy who was the leader of the free world for 8 years would know better how to respond to a simple Sunday morning interview. Just more proof that he and his family need to be put into private life and work to understand how real people live.

My woman is just fantastic! Yes, I can call her mine and she can call me hers. She's a great cook, homemaker, mother, friend, and just plain awesome. Our last visit consisted of a lazy weekend that was just the ultimate in comfortable and fun. She cooked 3 great meals. We watched a couple of movies. We even took a nap one afternoon! It was just proof that we can really have a great time doing nothing! I loved that weekend and so did she.

My girls are enjoying school and doing great. I'm already in Christmas gift mode, too. They are a joy to spend time with. They both tell me stories about what they and their friends are doing at school. The oldest is hoping to get involved with Volleyball again this year. The youngest missed a cheerleader camp, but is already looking ahead to being involved next year. They are both reading a lot and really excelling in their studies.

Political Events: Senator George Allen is not a racist. Ask anyone who has known him. In over 20 years of service to his fine state, this is the first time anyone has tried to make this claim. It's making his opposition look foolish. Has anyone questioned Senator Byrd to see if he was ever involved in any lynching or cross burning? Has anyone made him out to be a racist for his use of the N-word on Meet The Press a while back? Does it seem weird that Democrats can come out with programs designed to stigmatize race and not be called racist? Why does race matter to anyone after all this time? It's just simple skin color. It doesn't matter.

Enemies of our country have already been defined and our Supreme Court botched up a recent ruling. If you signed on to the Geneva Conventions, you have to abide by them in any conflict with someone else who has signed them. If your enemy has not signed them, such as our enemies in the war on terror, the Geneva Conventions do not apply. The Supreme Court disagrees but they are flatly wrong and this ruling will eventually change by a future Supreme Court. Your enemy, as stated in a previous post, sets the rules of engagement. Our enemy beheads civilians and soldiers on camera. Should we do the same? Not exactly, but they have shown that they want combat with no rules. We should take them out without tying the hands of our soldiers. We should not be afraid of striking first. We should do what it takes to take out the enemy quickly and easily. If we accidentally get someone else in the process, so be it. Quit being afraid of bad press and take this conflict to the terrorists.

It's almost election time for the midterms. There were so many articles about the Democrats taking control of both houses a while back, but that seems to have been grossly inaccurate as the recent findings point to a lot of exaggeration before. There is no way that the Democrats will be in control of either house and it's foolish to think so. The American people are much smarter than that and they know what it takes to make a country great. That formula is freedom for the people. Give us our money back, keep the enemy off our soil, and stay as far out of our lives as possible. This has been the goal of most Republicans and they will maintain control. The economy is rolling right along with low unemployment, falling gas prices, and people are keeping more of their money due to lower taxes. My prediction is that control of the houses stays the same and I hope you keep it that way now and in the future by voting conservative and voting for freedom.

TV Season: Familiar favorites are off and running with Smallville, Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds, the 3 CSI shows, Bones, and various sitcoms. New shows have shown promise in Heroes, Justice, and sitcoms like Til Death and The Class. I tried watching Vanished, but couldn't sit through the entire first episode without realizing this show would be vanishing soon, too. I've enjoyed Gene Simmons Family Jewels. Funny stuff without lowering his rock n roll status. Ultimate Fighter The Comeback has been fun to watch as well as the WWE/ECW and TNA wrestling shows. There are others I'm looking forward to like Friday Night Lights and 30 Rock. I hope to have more commentary on some of these shows within the week.

Softball Weeks 4 & 5

The last two weeks of softball have gotten our team back on track with winning, but we still have a ways to go. Week 4 consisted of a one run win in an extra inning against a tough team. We won 9-8. Sometimes it pays to be the home team! That was a tough and fun win. I like tough games like that and I like them better when we are the winner. The second game is one we knew we'd lose and we lost big 27-8. This week was a better story. We won the first game easily against a team we should always win against, but have lost the last several. It was nice to pull that win out. They are a good team, but we have most always been the better team. Great bunch, though. The second game was one we were sure we'd lose, but the game they played first caused a turn of events. The team we had just beaten played these guys between our games. The girl pitching for the team we were about to play took a line drive to the chin. She was rushed to the local hospital by another girl on the team which put them at 3 women. They were sure the two girls would be back in time for the next game against us, but they weren't so they had to forfeit. We played for fun and lost huge, but at least it counted as a win in the standings. That's 3 wins out of the last 4 games, which we can certainly use. Out of 6 teams, we have now moved from 5th to 4th. We have three games next Monday and two more to make up. It would be nice to move up at least one more notch.

I moved from number two batter to the number one spot and the team seemed to do better with that batting order this week. I tend to hit up the middle and with a runner on first, it's possible that I'm off a tad hitting to the shortstop or second baseman. This tends to get a lead runner out and doesn't advance anyone on base. The woman that was hitting first always gets on base with a hit to right field. We figured that switching that up would put me on first and get her to advance me while getting on herself. Instead of potentially one runner on, we get two runners on. It worked quite well last night and I'm sure we will continue that next week. My only other concern is having some strong male players next week. We had one of our best power hitters end his season early with a Monday night commitment, so I'm hoping we can get a player to pick up the slack. We shall see!

Buckcherry In Des Moines, IA

Buckcherry has got to be playing bigger places! These guys put on an awesome show. There are those of us who believe the world needs rock stars and these guys are it!

The openers, The Bangkok Five, were truly happy to be playing on this tour and made comments to such. They were rocking through a set that consisted of most of their new CD they have coming out on Halloween. The singer had a bit of the Iggy Pop thing going on and the rest of the band was like a whirlwind churning out their tunes. Check out their My Space site for more information.

http://www.myspace.com/thebangkokfive

The set list is as follows:
Karmakazi
Diary Of A Teenage Cutter
Dead
Damaged Goods
Tiara (Played for the first time live.)
Chapter 11
Too Much
Spread Eagle
Giana (Played live for the first time.)
Who's Gonna Take Is Alive? (Title of the CD.)

I got to hang with the lead guitarist after the show for a bit and he told me they were going to be on the Cult/New York Dolls tour coming up. That will be a great show to see!

If The Bangkok Five were a whirlwind, Buckcherry were the hurricane! These guys came out and blew the roof off the ValAir! The crowd pressed forward and I have the sore ribs as a result. I was up front against the barricade and there was quite a push that got worse during Crazy B!tch and Lit Up. Josh Todd was constantly moving as you can tell from a few of the slightly blurred pictures. The band was tight and yet the songs sounded loose like all good rock n roll should. I was fortunate enough to meet them after the show and express my gratitude that they have returned and I hope they take over the rock n roll world. There haven't been any true rock stars since Guns N Roses and these guys should be heir to the throne! The set list is as follows:

So Far
Broken Glass
Porno Star
Whiskey
Everything
Sorry
Crazy B!tch (Choruses from Billy Squier's The Stoke and Jimi Hendrix's Fire were used at the end.)
Next 2 You
Ridin'
Lace In The Sun
Dead Again
For The Movies
Slammin'
Lit Up

ENCORE
Crushed

I stood next to a woman who was at her 10th show on this tour and she had flown out from Philly. She was very small so I was a bit worried about her during the show, but there were several girls behind her that had her back as the crush rolled forward. This was her 28th show overall, so she helped me with the set list (I still procured one after the show.) and made me aware of a few things I didn't know about the band. She wasn't even expecting an encore, so it was nice to know that this was a surprise for Des Moines.

I also stood next to a guy who had been to our parties. We had each others back and even had to help move some people backwards to quell the crush and even throw a bunch of people over to security. The security guys were great and kept us taken care of. Some of us got a bottle of water since it was hot up there and they were nice enough to hand me a pick and set lists from both bands. It's good to know there are good people who have your back at shows like this. Too many roughnecks can really be a problem and it seemed that some of the girls were worse than the guys about trying to sneak holes at the barricade.

This show rocks and I hope they hook up with a big tour soon. It would be great to see them on the Motley Crue/Aerosmith tour, which doesn't seem to be making it to Des Moines, but will be in Kansas City. Go see Buckcherry and buy their new CD 15. It rocks from start to finish and I can't wait to hear what these guys have in store in the future!

Rules Of Engagement

I've been seeing pictures of the Taliban at a funeral and heard reports that we could have taken a large group of them out all at once. The reports tend to state that we opted not to take them out due to them being at a funeral in a cemetery. The reports go on to state that we have higher ethical and moral standards in the way we are waging war. My initials are BS, so I know it when I hear it.

Your enemy sets the rules of engagement in any conflict. Being the nice guy doesn't win a war. We can still be the good guy, but we don't always have to be the nice guy. When our enemy is filming the beheading of civilians and killing their own people to try to incite a civil war, they are throwing any rules of war out the window. When your enemy's goal is your destruction at all costs, including strapping bombs to kids and offering rewards to families for doing so, there are no rules in how to engage them.

Our goal is the destruction of our enemy. We must find, capture, and kill our enemy at every available opportunity. This means that if we catch them at a funeral, we take them out. If we catch them on the toilet, we take them out. That is the rule of engagement with this enemy. Anything less only costs us lives.

We may want to be seen around the world as the nice guy, but I'd rather be the good guy and rid the world of terrorism. The old saying is that nice guys finish last. I want to win this war as do most in our country. Peace follows victory. We must secure victory.

9/11 Remembered

On the morning of 9/11/01 I was getting ready for work when LKA came running in my room to tell me something huge was going on and being reported on TV. She said my roommate's girlfriend had the news on and that I should see it. I went to the living room and there was the video of the first WTC building smoking. They were showing as many angles as they could and speculating on what was going on. I went back into my room and tried to hurry in finishing my morning ritual so that I could see more. When I came back out to watch, it was just a couple of minutes later when we saw the second plane hit the second building. I was in shock. I asked out loud if I'd just seen what I thought I saw. We were definitely under attack. I was stunned! I hurried to get to the car and get to work because I knew that we'd have all the TV's at work tuned into this. LKA and I worked at the same place so we had the news on in the car, but didn't get many details. We drove in very little traffic and were horrified at what this could mean. Sure enough, when we got to work all TV's were on detailing the news of what we'd seen. We had hoped that the FDNY and NYPD would be able to save those inside and get the fires put out, but it didn't take long before we saw the smoke billow upward as the first building collapsed and then the second. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. We weren't open, yet, but all the employees just stood in a stunned silence. Within minutes, our manager was on the phone with our district office trying to figure out what to do that day. We had one employee of Middle Eastern descent who was asked if he wanted to go home for his safety and ours. He was fine with things as he's been an American all his life, but was worried about his family with the speculation of what could happen around our country.

It took some time before we saw an airplane other than a fighter jet in our sky. It took a few days for things to begin to return to normal at work as well.

I've written about heroes before and who mine are. There are everyday people who are heroes, whether it's those who were a part of 9/11 rescues or people who had to deal with the aftermath in some form. They deserve our respect and our support. Thank you to everyone involved in any way, whether grieving family member who has been able to go on and make a difference or soldier who has fought for our freedom or firefighter involved in the rescue or politician doing their best to work against terrorism. You are true heroes that make this country great. Thank you to our allies in this fight against terrorism around the world. You have shown us true friendship and heroism as well. Thank you to the parents of these heroes for providing them with the values they are living by.

We are a free people enjoying our freedom thanks to these heroes.

Journey And Def Leppard In Ames, IA

The Def Leppard/Journey show in Ames was AWESOME! They each played the hits and were really appreciative of the fans. It was great seeing it so close to the stage and I wish I'd have had a zoom on my camera to get better pictures. Both bands are made up of great musicians and songwriters and it seemed as if everyone knew almost every single song played.

Jeff Scott Soto is still singing for Journey on this tour as he replaced Steve Augeri not long into it. I had thought by now that Steve would be healed and back on the road, but he may still be taking care of personal business. Regardless, Jeff is probably the perfect frontman for this tour anyway. Jeff has the rock n roll moves and attitude for Journey to successfully share this stage with Def Leppard. Jeff has a phenomenal voice and none of the past Journey singers were missed by this appreciative crowd. My humble opinion is that Journey may do well to hang on to Jeff as he does bring some life to this band and brings out the rock side. Of course, that could be sharing the stage with Def Leppard, too. One of the friends I went with was just blown away by this version of Journey and the other now needs to get their Greatest Hits CD because he didn't realize how many of these songs belong to Journey.

The set list was mostly the same songs as the St. Louis show, but in a different order.

National Anthem (Neil's Solo)
Stone In Love
Ask The Lonely
Wheel In The Sky
Keep On Runnin'
Edge Of The Blade
Who's Crying Now (Dean on vocals)
Chain Reaction (Apparently Joe Elliot said this was his favorite Journey song and convinced them to do it on this tour.)
Lights (Ended with a progression of Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix.)
Jon's Keyboard Solo
Open Arms (Dean on vocals)
Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'
Escape
Dead Or Alive
Faithfully (Dean on vocals)
Don't Stop Believin'
Any Way You Want It

ENCORE
Separate Ways

Def Leppard came out and put on the full show. They had the ramp behind the drum kit, the stage riser with steps leading up to it, and made even better use of the video screen behind the band than Journey did. Journey had more of a psychedelic color thing going on with some video and still shots, but Def Leppard made use of some great graphics from their album artwork over the years. I wish my computer had some of that for a screen saver! The guys looked like they were having a great time and enjoyed bringing their hits and cover tunes to us. The set list is as follows:

Let's Get Rocked
Let It Go
Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)
Bringin' On The Heartbreak
Foolin'
Hysteria
20th Century Boy
Rock On
Rocket
Photograph
Armageddon It
Animal
Rock Of Ages

ENCORE
Love Bites
Pour Some Sugar On Me

As you can see in comparison with the St. Louis show, it's mostly the same set. They put Let It Go and Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) in place of Make Love Like A Man and Promises as well as substituting 20th Century Boy for No Matter What. It's all in the same order, though, with the same encore. I'm kind of wishing they'd drop Love Bites and do something different there, but it's not my show. It was great to hear some different songs at this show. Def Leppard never disappoints and always puts out the extra effort to give the fans what they crave.

Go see this tour. It's on the third leg and both bands have had nothing but positive reviews and results from this pairing.

Labor Day Weekend

So many things have been going on the last few weeks around here. More relationship leaps and bounds. More events. More of life happening in such great ways.

The relationship just keeps getting better. I met the teenage daughter. She's so full of energy and really has a great head on her shoulders. It was great watching her interact with my kids. They got along famously this last weekend. We took them to a couple of malls and all of the girls had a blast. Shoot, we didn't even buy anything and they just got along and had so much fun. We made pancakes for the kids, grilled out, and the kids made a spaghetti meal. We played Dodgeball, the girls had a pillow fight with a roommate, we did a little sightseeing, and just had the best Labor Day weekend. It was hard to have to leave on Monday for all of us. We can't wait to get together again.

I topped my Labor Day off with a Yankees game in Kansas City. The Yankees scored 10 runs in the 8th inning to win 12-5. How many times will you see that in your lifetime? It was Star Wars night and they were giving away the new DVD set and even had a fireworks display to the Star Wars theme. I love watching my Yankees and it's great to see them win, of course. In the fashion they did it, it was incredible to watch. My bold prediction is that the Yankees are going to be the 2006 World Series Champions. Even bolder? How about a NY Subway Series with the Mets? Ok, maybe those aren't bold predictions the way both teams are playing, but you heard it here first!

I have the Def Leppard/Journey concert coming up tonight so a big review will follow. I hope to have pictures, too!

Iowa State Fair 2006

It's been a while since I posted, but a lot has occurred. I will slowly get things up to date here.

I took the girls to the Iowa State Fair on the last day of the fair. I kept it cheap by just going to all the free stuff like the Ag building to show the girls the butter sculptures, the Varied Industries Building, and 3 different concerts. The first was Raven. I had no idea she was there and the girls watch That's So Raven, so I thought they'd enjoy going. The place was way too crowded two hours before the show and even during her soundcheck. I was able to get the girls in for about 3 songs and they were just disappointed that they couldn't see well and the crowd was just a nightmare. The second show was Vocal Trash. We had decent enough seats. I blogged about Vocal Trash last year. Very impressive and my girls really enjoyed seeing them play trash cans, empty water bottles, and brooms. Another great set this year and a band you have to see.

The finale of the day was the Joan Jett concert. She didn't refer to this band as Joan Jett and the Black Hearts, but said "we're the Black Hearts from New York". She breezed through all the hits and then some. The stage wasn't a tall one so it was hard to see her since she is also so petite, but she rocked the place like a giant. She has a tight band and hearing all the songs together in one show brought a realization about Joan Jett to me. I've heard the hits over the years, but have really never delved into her discography. She has a simple sound and a great sound that could be a revved up 50's band with an emphasis on songs. She loves the sound of the guitar and the tight rhythms that rock n roll was built on and she delivers it in a style all her own. The set list was as follows:

Victim Of Circumstance
Cherry Bomb
Light Of Day
Do You Wanna Touch Me?
Bad Reputation
Androgynous
Change The World
Five
Love Is Pain
AC/DC
Naked
You're Gonna Make It After All
Riddles
Fetish
I Love Rock N Roll
Crimson And Clover
I Hate Myself For Loving You

ENCORE

Real Wild Child
Everyday People

My kids were most impressed by Vocal Trash for the day, but enjoyed Joan Jett since they knew a few songs due to other artists recording them.

Well, there are more shows coming up. I have my Buckcherry ticket and I'm heading to the Def Leppard/Journey show in Ames next week. More to come!

Fall League Week 3

We lost both games again. The first was a heartbreaker against the team we started this season with. They beat us by one in the last inning then and did it to us again. The second game was against an upper level team and we really held up well defensively. We just weren't hitting. That's been the knock on the team this season. We are doing very well on defense, but not getting enough runs to get ahead of the opposing team. This puts us to 1-5 and in the next to last place of the league. It would be great if the team would actually practice, too. We haven't had a single practice that all the players have shown up to. Last Saturday one other person besides myself showed up. Too many excuses, it seems, when we said at the start of summer that this would be our competitive team. The disappointments continue into the fall. I'm hoping it picks up fast as the season is almost to the midpoint and we have a lot of ground to make up.

Fall League Week 2

So much in the last week... Let's see...

Last weekend was another great one in Kirksville. New levels of trust and always a lot of fun. We went to see The Descent. It was filmed to make you feel the claustrophobia of the characters in the movie. I'd recommend it.

Monday night was week 2 of the fall softball league. Now that was an interesting night. We lost the first game 11-9, but played some great defense and the bats were rattling. I hit a sharp grounder to the shortstop. As I was almost to first, I got whacked in the face. The shortstop is a great player who played for us during the summer league. He threw the ball hard and it glanced off the first baseman's glove and hit me in the left jaw. I tripped over first and had a skinned up right leg in addition to the huge lump on my face. I continued in the game, though, and still had a good night.

The second game was more interesting. We played against some other former teammates who put a second team related to our church in the league. They aren't very good and we expected to win, but it was fun seeing how we matched up in certain ways. They started out 3-0, but we soon tied it up and then ran away with the game. The odd part was the behavior of a couple of our former teammates. I pitch for my team. As the pitcher, I tend to pay a lot of attention to what goes on during the game. I keep track of outs, who tends to hit where, and sometimes even the score. There was one out and the batter up made the second out of the inning. My coach, playing third base called it three outs. I knew it wasn't, but both teams started to switch spots and I walked over to first base with the ball and hollered to the umpire that I was making the third out since the runner vacated the base. My coach felt bad for calling it three outs and offered to retake the field. As a player, not a coach or umpire, I have no control over these things, but I play by the rules and expect that from everyone else. Our former assistant coach made some derogatory comments and said to let my play stand. He even called my actions un-Christian, which was greatly offensive. I just did my job while I'm on the field and made the out since the other players hadn't been paying attention. I don't control the game and if my coach and he agreed, I'd have retaken the mound and continued pitching. It wasn't my call, but I played by the rules of the game. I thought that was the end of the conversation about that inning. Apparently, the old assistant coach's wife had words to say to me later. My coach had called out to her to watch for interfering as she tends to play aggressively at first base even when there is no play. She's been run over a couple of times in games because she is dangerous and can get in the way. My coach was looking out for his son at first base when she interfered. He was just offering a warning. She apparently thought I had made the comment and said that she wouldn't count this game as a win since it was tainted by the earlier play. I mouthed back that she may want to read up on the rules of the game and my coach then stood up and told everyone on both teams to cut out the mouthing back and forth. She had even previously made comments about them throwing the ball to my face, too, as did their pitcher. It was just too much. After the game, she couldn't even come out and shake hands with the team.

After the game, I approached our coach and pulled him aside to let him know what offended me. I told him that it doesn't offend me if they want to make stupid comments about me playing by the rules and my knowledge of them. They can sound as childish as they like. It's when they start calling the fact that I play by the rules un-Christian that it offends me. It also offends me when they make comments about personal injury. I'm one player on a team. I'm not the umpire. I'm not even a coach. Yet, the other team was acting as if I controlled the game. Turns out my coach was quite offended and taken back, too, by this behavior so he told me he'd talk to them and get things in order. I gained respect for our coach and lost a lot for the former teammates. Strange behavior indeed.

I spent Tuesday working from 9AM-11PM. That was a long day, but it afforded me time to relax and heal from the night before.

I have my girls this weekend. We've been having fun and will hit the Iowa State Fair tomorrow. Joan Jett and the Black Hearts are going to be in concert at the fair so that will be fun to see.

Monday night makes week 3 for the league. We are 1-3 so I hope we start picking up and winning.

Middle East Cease Fire

First of all, GO ISRAEL!! Secondly, how ridiculous is this stupid cease fire idea? How can you possibly agree to a cease fire with people who will stop at nothing to destroy you? Peace follows VICTORY, not a cease fire. I'm disgusted that our country would support such a thing instead of helping Israel wipe these terrorists from the face of the earth.

There is no cessation of hostilities in a holy war. That's what this is. We have Islamic Fascists trying to wipe out the Jews. It boils down to that. There is no peace as long as there is no victory.

We have declared a war on terrorists and those who support them, but now we are supporting a cease fire that is sure to lead to more deaths and more war in the future. I'm disappointed. We should be wiping the terrorists out without regard for what the rest of the world thinks. Terrorists must cease to exist and the only way to do that is through swift victory.

Fall Softball 2006

The fall Church League started last night. We are without two of our starters the first two weeks and did quite well without them defensively. We only allowed each team to score 5 runs and the second team we played is considered an upper level team. We still lost both games, but it wasn't a bad start to the season.

The first game we lost 5-4 against Fairview. We had never lost to Fairview until the last two times we played them in the summer league. They haven't really gotten better, but we just haven't hit against them like we should. My game last night was horrible against them. My pitching was off a bit and I walked in a run. I rarely do that and usually only have one walk per game if that. Last night I had two walks in that game and control problems throughout. At the plate, I walked the first time up, which is a double for guys in the church league. I actually struck out the second time up, which hasn't happened to me all summer. The third time up I popped out to shortstop, which rarely happens, too. It was not a good game for me at bat. The rest of the team was having the same problems and it showed that we were having a rusty time at the plate. It was a close game, but we just couldn't pull it out in the end.

The second game impressed me more than the first in that we didn't just get blown away by the team we played. They are a great group of young talented guys and a couple of really talented girls. They played in the upper division all summer and ended up in second place in that division. They have a really talented shortstop that can put the ball over the fence seemingly at will and did so only once last night. My control was a lot better pitching and the defense really stepped up and played as a unit. I was actually hitting the ball where I usually do, too. My first time up the shortstop got my grounder up the middle and turned a double play, though. After that, I put it up the middle, but stayed enough away from him that they were singles each time. I got stranded on base, though, the entire game. We have some really talented guys on the team, but they tend to hit line drives right to a good left fielder. If they can start putting the ball where they want to, it will get us a lot more runs. Thankfully, we are practicing every week for the fall season, so I'm excited about the potential for winning most of our games.

Our second church team, headed by one of our coaches (TR), pretty much faired the same. They lost both games and one was a washout. They played an upper level team that was up 12-0 after the first inning and TR's team didn't make a single error. We met up at DQ for a short while after the games were played and exchanged stories. It will be an interesting season and I'm anxious to get our other two starters in the lineup. Our normal leadoff hitter wasn't there and the guy who hits behind me in the lineup (third) wasn't there. This will certainly help our run production and help us have a winning season.

UPDATE: THE SCORE OF THE SECOND GAME WAS ACTUALLY 8-2. Still not a bad effort compared to what it could have been and still an impressive defense from my team.

Mediocre Week

The last week has been a non-interesting week. Work, extra work, and just biding time. I miss my woman and the highlight has been talking to her every day. She has a wonderful mind, so that has been very nice to get to know a bit of. We had a fun day last Sunday, so that was at least a good start to the week.

I put in my 40 hours and then some. I started Monday working 9AM-11PM. Overtime is always a good thing. I also had some side computer work that filled up two evenings.

The next highlight to the week was picking up my girls on Friday evening. We had a nice weekend planned. We went to a local diner for dinner that they loved. The desserts were huge and thankfully I split one with my youngest. Later on Saturday we went to Sleepy Hollow, a local fun area with go-karts, batting cages, miniature golf, and other fun activities. My youngest almost made it to the very top of the climbing wall, which was amazing to watch. My oldest drove a go-kart with the youngest by her side while I lapped them twice in the fastest kart on the track. It was fun racing around with co-workers at this work related outing. We left after 100 minutes and went to softball practice.

The fall softball season starts tomorrow night. Only 5 of us showed up at practice, but it was thrown together last minute and it looks like we will be practicing once a week in this more competitive season. There are only 6 teams and we have a solid lineup as we pared down our summer team to the best players only. I hope we do well like we did last fall.

I began this week on the wrong foot. I ticked off my woman a bit with a poor choice of words. I hope we make it threw the growing pains ok. The beginning of all relationships is tough things. In a state of bliss, you can tend to overlook things and make beginner mistakes. It's tougher as you get older, too, because your tolerance for some things is less. As you get older, you know more about yourself and what you want for the rest of your life. It's tough to bring someone into your life after the life experiences that can harden the heart. I think we will work through the small stuff just fine, though. There are so many great things about the way we interact and get along that something as small as this should pass quick as we look forward to seeing each other again. I try to be optimistic anyway.

The girls and I have a swim party this afternoon for the summer softball players. We will grill out a bit and just have fun interacting with the others. My girls are looking forward to it.

Now to go get some laundry done...

Kirksville Trip

You know it's true love when you can waste an entire day away and have a blast doing it. My female friend and I spent the weekend away from both of our towns in a small college community. We didn't go there for the things to do in that town, but just to spend time together. There isn't even much to do in that town, but we had a blast and found a couple of things we will do on the next trip out.

Saturday was such a great time just getting to know more about each other. We decided to drive around and see what this place had to offer and as soon as I saw a sign that said Used Books And Unicorns, I had to find a place to park. It would have been so cool to buy a unicorn and ride it around all day, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, the place was closed when we got to the front door. I was so disappointed! It was a funny thought, though. We decided to walk up to the square and see the small shops. From a block away, I could see the Hidden Treasures sign. I wasn't sure I wanted to go in if all the treasures were hidden. What would be the point of it? We made our way around and I purchased a few small things for my roommates and kids. When we got to Hidden Treasures, I was ready to see if I could find what was hidden. It would be a real treasure hunt, right? When we got inside, much to my dismay, I actually found hidden treasures!! I saw a remote that looked like my DVD remote and when I bent down to pick it up, I saw some plastic coming from under a throw pillow. Sure enough, I lifted it up and there were some comic books hidden under this pillow. I was truly amazed and said so loud enough for the people running the shop to hear. We continued looking around and found a cabinet that had black material that kept you from seeing inside it. I decided to open the doors to it and again I found more hidden treasures! There were some dishes inside it. I was on a roll finding these hidden treasures. I felt like a real treasure hunter! I just needed the Indiana Jones outfit and I'm sure I could have used a whip. Maybe not in the store... This was truly a fun time just going through this small town square. We found a couple of tattoo shops, a business called Sugar that had some great African chocolate, Pungo Jungo (a Spencer's style store where I got the gifts), and a used CD shop that was fly infested on this particular day.

We didn't do anything of importance, but seeing how each other reacted to our humor, the heat, the interesting things we spotted, and the things we both avoided was just a great way of getting to know more about each other.

We saw the movie Lady In The Water that night and it brought tears to my eyes. I'm an emotional creature as much as I hate to have emotions at all sometimes. That movie was just a great fairy tale that centered on a regular guy who seemed to have lost everything once you knew his story. It was great at drawing us in to the movie. There were people in front of us on the edge of their seats watching with interest. I was truly impressed by this movie and hope to share it with my daughters when it comes out on DVD.

We got to have real A&W root beer floats this weekend. I'm a sucker for a root beer float. My grandparents got me started on them. We also had some TCBY yogurt yesterday. I know those things are in Des Moines, but I haven't been to TCBY since living here and I've probably only been to the A&W in town 3 times since living here. They are truly a treat and fun to share with someone you care about. I've taken my daughters to A&W as a treat and will probably take them there before the summer is over this year.

This is probably the first of several trips to this community as it's a good half way point. In two weeks we are heading there and hitting the beach we found. I don't think I've ever felt this way before, so this has been quite the adventure finding love at my age.

Missouri Trip 2006

Lots of great stuff lately! I spent last week at my parents' home in Missouri with my kids. I picked up the girls about 10AM last Tuesday and hit the road. It's become a "thing" so we stopped in KC at a Steak & Shake for lunch. I love this restaurant and try to take my girls when I can. They have grown to love it, too, and with my love and my oldest daughter's love for KC, we try to combine those things. We also spent some time driving in downtown KC. My girls had only seen the skyline from a distance, so it was cool for them to see things up close. We also drove through Crown Center. I just wish I had more time to show them some of the places I frequented in KC and where I lived. In the future we will pick a different part of KC to go through each time.

We arrived at my folks' place just after 5pm. We ended up going to the Montgomery County Fair, which my dad was supposed to ride in for the American Red Cross. While they were getting the parade in order, Mom took us to El Rancharito. Very nice Mexican food and environment. We sat outside to watch the parade. We thought Dad was supposed to be at the front of it, but as more floats passed, we were beginning to wonder where he was. Paige was collecting candy with the occasional help from Brittany. After most of the parade had gone through, Dad came walking up the sidewalk. The van they used for the American Red Cross had made it about 2/3 of the way through the parade and then broke down. They had to push it off the route and start hoofing it the rest of the way. At least they made it through most of the parade. This little town has a huge fair and the parade can last a good 90 minutes or so. We were able to leave not long after Dad arrived.

Wednesday was spent at the St. Louis Zoo. It was very hot out, but we made a route that allowed us to see many of the animals and still stay cool for much of the day. We didn't see any large cats, hyenas, or giraffes, but those animals were probably staying cool, too. We did get quite the entertaining show from a certain puffin that was taking a bath and dancing on the water. He even got close to the edge a few times and splashed us. We got back home about 4:30pm which allowed us to hit most of the zoo while leaving a few places out to hit next time.

My mom made some great meals all week long. We had my favorite meal, meatloaf, on Wednesday evening. We had roast beef au ju for one dinner. We had biscuits and gravy the final morning we were there with other meals including breakfasts of pancakes and sausage and an eggs and bacon day. It's always great having home cooking.

We spent a lot of time swimming in their pool. The girls got a lot of time in doing that and even invited a neighbor girl over to swim with them. We also learned about Sudoku puzzles, which I had never heard of before. The girls made key chains and spent time doing other crafts with their grandma.

We got together for dinner with SB and Patti and her kids on Thursday evening at Denny's in Kingdom City. It's always great seeing friends that you don't see often. We had a corner booth and spent a lot of time visiting and laughing and letting the kids goof off.

Friday morning I took Brittany to Mexico, MO, with me. I used to work at a local grocery and the public library there so I was anxious to see if I knew anyone still working there. We initially stopped at this gorgeous woman's apartment. (Yes, I'm finally seeing someone.) We visited there for about 45 minutes and saw her new, but empty, apartment. She was pretty excited to get this move of hers over with. We then went to the grocery store and ran into two former co-workers there and had a great visit. One of them used to be my boss so we caught up on what a few other people were doing these days, too. I then headed to the library and was able to see three former co-workers there. That was probably my favorite stop as I used to have a lot of fun at that library. It was great catching up and seeing everyone that day.

When Brittany and I returned to my parents, we awaited the arrival of my youngest brother and his wife. When they arrived, we grilled out and then they took us in to the Def Leppard/Journey concert, which you can read about below. It was a great evening of great music.

We took off after breakfast on Saturday and stopped in KC for lunch again. The girls were anxious to get back and so was I. It was a long, exhausting drive, but after such a great trip, it is something we all hope to do again soon. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving where my other brother will join us with his family and it will be a great holiday with all three generations of my family together. It's amazing how much more important family becomes the older we get. I can't wait to see everyone again.