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.