Yes, I actually like some of this stuff. Superchick is on their This Is Your Anthem Tour with Eleventy Seven and Seventh Day Slumber. This is an interesting mix of bands and a little something for all ages. I took my daughters and we went with several in our church.
Eleventy Seven went on first and they are a pop punk trio that would be compared to Good Charlotte or any other pop punk band on the radio these days. They were fun, but nothing out of the ordinary. They did get all the teens, tweens, and kids singing along with I Want It That Way, a Backstreet Boys cover.
Superchick actually went on second due to SDS being broken down on the highway and trying to make it to the church on time to get a set in. It wasn't a bad thing having Superchick on next since there were so many young kids dying to see this group. Superchick went on in full pink and black mode and took this small crowd by storm. They did a lot of their popular songs such as One Girl Revolution, Princes And Frogs, and Bowling Ball. My youngest daughter was jumping, clapping, and singing along in front of me just a few feet from the stage. The band was tight and they had such catchy choruses that you couldn't help but cheer them on. I will make sure my daughters have any CD by this group that they want.
Barely making it in time was Seventh Day Slumber. They played only 3-4 songs and then the singer rambled on about himself and Compassion International for quite some time. The songs had a couple of good riffs, but these types of bands that basically play their songs like they would on an acoustic guitar only louder are a dime a dozen. There is no originality in the music under the melody. They don't stand out musically. Once they played the few songs they did it became such a gab fest that the band was tearing down their equipment while the singer kept talking. When he finally wrapped up there were several asking for one more tune and he had to apologize since so much equipment was already put away. This was very stupid on the band's part to allow that to happen. At least they were last and my girls were able to get some rest.
Superchick is fantastic and well worth the time. Check them out if you can.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Nine Inch Nails In Des Moines, IA
I think I finally got it. I've never been a big fan and really wondered why the band got as big as it did, but I think I finally get the appeal of Nine Inch Nails. Brutal is a word I would use to describe the beginning of this show. They came out ready to destroy the world, it seemed. The lights were spot on. The rhythms as tight as can be. The energy was non-stop. The musicianship first class. Everything about this show was well done, until the lull in the middle. They started the show behind a curtain and the lull started when they brought the curtain back down and ran video on it. It was entertaining still, but not as full of energy as the beginning of the show. Thankfully, as they pulled up the curtain the pace started to pick back up and finally reached the high energy for the last three songs.
The set list was as follows:
Mr. Self Destruct
Sin
Terrible Lie
The Line Begins To Blur
March Of The Pigs
The Frail/The Wretched
Closer
The Big Come Down
Burn
Gave Up
Eraser
Right Where It Belongs
Beside You In Time
With Teeth
Wish
Only
Everyday Is Exactly The Same
Even Deeper
Suck
Hurt
The Hand That Feeds
Starfu(k3rs, Inc.
Head Like A Hole
I didn't know many of these songs to begin with and couldn't wait to hear The Hand That Feeds live, but the others were well worth it. I will be getting more of Trent Reznor's music and have become a bit of a fan now.
The set list was as follows:
Mr. Self Destruct
Sin
Terrible Lie
The Line Begins To Blur
March Of The Pigs
The Frail/The Wretched
Closer
The Big Come Down
Burn
Gave Up
Eraser
Right Where It Belongs
Beside You In Time
With Teeth
Wish
Only
Everyday Is Exactly The Same
Even Deeper
Suck
Hurt
The Hand That Feeds
Starfu(k3rs, Inc.
Head Like A Hole
I didn't know many of these songs to begin with and couldn't wait to hear The Hand That Feeds live, but the others were well worth it. I will be getting more of Trent Reznor's music and have become a bit of a fan now.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Recommended Listening
Check out these CD's!! I can't get them off the stereo. They are kicking my musical backside!
Crashdiet - Rest In Sleaze
Hardcore Superstar - Hardcore Superstar
Both are 2005 releases and rock from beginning to end.
Also grab some CD's from Bang Tango and Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd is working on a reunion and Bang Tango has a new CD called From The Hip that will be released in May.
Crashdiet - Rest In Sleaze
Hardcore Superstar - Hardcore Superstar
Both are 2005 releases and rock from beginning to end.
Also grab some CD's from Bang Tango and Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd is working on a reunion and Bang Tango has a new CD called From The Hip that will be released in May.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Metal In America 2006
I had the time of my life in Cedar Rapids last night for the Metal In America 2006 tour. I returned at 8AM this morning! It was so good!
I picked up J-Dub at 5:30pm to hit the road. We arrived at Muddy Waters about 8PM or so. Muddy Waters is an unusually shaped bar and is above their restaurant. We only went through the restaurant on the way in. The stage didn't have a lot of room in front of it, but there was room for the hardcore. The sound board wasn't far from the stage. We hung out in front of the stage and left about 3 feet of room for the bands to tear down after opener All But Screaming.
ABS has a frontman who plays rhythm guitar without the use of his right hand. He straps on a pick and uses it to play. They are a good band that had one song that really stood out for me called Build It Up. I talked to a guy from Muddy's who really liked this band and he told me that they are a Christian rock band that plays there frequently. Not a bad band, but I was there for the main three bands, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bang Tango, and Stephen Pearcy.
Bang Tango and Pretty Boy Floyd shared the same backing band. Only the singers were different. The band is the current lineup of Bang Tango and two of the guys also are in Beautiful Creatures. Steve Summers was on first as Pretty Boy Floyd and he rocked the house! Everyone was singing along and we were louder than he thought so the parts where he'd get a sing-along going didn't go as long as he'd planned since we were totally into the show. It surprised him and the band as to how many were singing along. He opened with Rock N Roll Outlaws and Leather Boys With Electric Toyz and then proceeded to play Good Girls Gone Bad from their 5 song EP. I'd been singing along with that song earlier in the day while listening to their music. He did the first Motley Crue cover of the night, Toast Of The Town next. On his set list he has Your Momma as the next tune, but skipped that to do I Wanna Be With You. He asked for and received some Jager shots and asked for and received a couple pairs of breasts so this felt like a rock n roll show. He did another Motley cover of Live Wire and then had us singing Shut Up. He closed with 48 Hours and Rock N Roll Is Gonna Set The Night On Fire and then told us he'd be back at the merch table.
This is where the night took an interesting twist. I was one of the first back to the merch table and I'd been anxious to see how much the PBF DVD was going for as I'd love to have it. While chatting with Steve at the table, I volunteered to help him out with things to keep his line moving so he could chat with the fans more. He actually took me up on it!! I was stunned, but went behind the table and learned where everything was and what it was going for. He took in some good cash for the night and sold quite a few shirts, CD's, DVD's, and photos. I helped make sure he knew what needed to be signed and who it was going to. I also had to keep track of my sharpies! He met a lot of the people there and then asked who I had come with to the show. I introduced him to J-Dub and they briefly talked about the last time we saw PBF on the Sludge tour. J-Dub had a picture of him and Steve and got it signed.
When the line had dwindled and it was getting time for Bang Tango to go on, Steve invited me and J-Dub out to the bus. We made sure the merch table was fine and then headed out. The bus was locked! Steve was feeling pretty good and asked what we wanted to do. I told him it would be hilarious to go to the front of the stage during Bang Tango and rock out for a bit. I was sure the guys in the band would get a kick out of seeing Steve down front like a fan. We made our way through the crowd with me leading the way and holding Steve's beer. He jumped up over the front of the stage to the side area and the security guy had me follow. Steve let the crew know I was with him and was ok. We stood back there and rocked out for a few tunes. Steve even jumped up on stage while Joe Leste (Bang Tango/Beautiful Creatures singer) was talking. Joe got a laugh from that and then Steve came back over to the side. Unbeknownst to me, Steve had procured the key to the bus while we were back there. He had me help keep an eye on his jacket since the merch cash had been taped inside it. We hopped the bar, instead of going back through the crowd, and headed out to the bus while BT played the rest of their set. J-Dub joined us and we sat in the back of the bus chatting and J-Dub and Steve had large shots of Jack Daniels. Steve called them Hollywood Shots.
Steve was very gracious to us and shared some stories, some laughs, and made sure we "were all on the same page" for the evening. This meant that we needed to make more cash and pick up girls for after the show. Steve had me take care of the bus key and the change needed for the next round at the merch table. When we got back in the club, BT had finished and was back at the merch table, too. There were jokes about which band was selling which merch and they were teasing about giving away free PBF shirts. I think Steve did very well merch-wise since he had more baby doll shirts and CD's. Bang Tango wasn't selling any BT CD's, but did have the import version of Beautiful Creatures' Deuce. I had to pick one up myself and get them to sign it. I introduced myself to the band and Joe even leaned over later asking who I was since I was asking him to sign some of their stuff. I told him I was just glad to help out both bands with what I could, but of course, I was really trying to help Steve out the most since he seemed to be doing quite well with a couple of ladies as the night wore on.
Stephen Pearcy and the Rat Bastards took the stage while we were at the merch table. I got to see most of their set on the big screens that Muddy's had around the bar. I could only see heads from the back of the bar. I heard some great Ratt tunes, a new song, and Nothing To Lose, an Arcade tune. I could see Chuck Wright having a great time and I think he has become my favorite bass player. That guy has so much class and I got to say hello to him twice. He has played with so many people and when I told him that I'd miss hearing him with Quiet Riot on the new CD as they had planned last summer, he said to "tell them that".
We were behind the merch table throughout the entire Pearcy set and the guys from BT and Steve wandered around at the back of the club meeting people. Pearcy's band had no merch to sell and didn't stick around to meet people. Chuck Wright was the only one I noticed that came back in and visited with people.
After the club started clearing out, I packed up the merch bin for PBF and then carried it out to the bus. The crew guys were great and invited me onto the bus. (HUGE THANK YOU TO MARK ROJAS FOR GRABBING MY DVD'S THAT I'D LEFT BY THE STAGE!! Mark, you are the man!) We hung out for a while and heard that there were a lot of people heading out to The Lumberyard II. I grabbed the car, found J-Dub sleeping in it since the JD had gotten to him early in Pearcy's set, and followed the band out to this club. I fully was prepared to pay to get in and be responsible for myself, but the crew made sure that me and a few other fans were brought in with the band and taken to the VIP section. It was a blast hanging out with the band and crew there. We were telling jokes, talking to and about the girls, and stayed until the place closed. We went back to the bus and Joe disappeared into Steve's back of the bus area with a married couple. We have NO IDEA what they were up to, but had plenty of laughs speculating. I hung out with those guys until 4:45AM and then said my thanks and goodbyes.
I wish I could remember everyone's name, but huge thanks to Mark again for grabbing my things, the other crew guy (geez, I wish I could remember his name because he was a real bro) for including me, Tim and Mark and their bass player (this guy was just cool and had a straight face when trying to get me in trouble by suggesting I go knock on the back door to say bye to Joe...which I did...) for the laughs and stories and for treating me like one of the guys, Joe Leste for being cool and letting me help hawk a few of their things for them, and most of all, the awesome, laid-back, most cool front man I've ever met, Steve Summers! Steve, you are a true brother and I hope you guys have a blast on the rest of the tour. Thanks for trusting and I hope I came through good for you at the merch table. It was an honor, a treat, and a real blast getting to meet a true rock star in the best sense of all that implies. You guys deserve the best!
Please go support these bands. It was only $10 for the concert at this venue and you'll have a great time checking out a very tight band and some great rock n roll! AND BUY THEIR STUFF!!
I picked up J-Dub at 5:30pm to hit the road. We arrived at Muddy Waters about 8PM or so. Muddy Waters is an unusually shaped bar and is above their restaurant. We only went through the restaurant on the way in. The stage didn't have a lot of room in front of it, but there was room for the hardcore. The sound board wasn't far from the stage. We hung out in front of the stage and left about 3 feet of room for the bands to tear down after opener All But Screaming.
ABS has a frontman who plays rhythm guitar without the use of his right hand. He straps on a pick and uses it to play. They are a good band that had one song that really stood out for me called Build It Up. I talked to a guy from Muddy's who really liked this band and he told me that they are a Christian rock band that plays there frequently. Not a bad band, but I was there for the main three bands, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bang Tango, and Stephen Pearcy.
Bang Tango and Pretty Boy Floyd shared the same backing band. Only the singers were different. The band is the current lineup of Bang Tango and two of the guys also are in Beautiful Creatures. Steve Summers was on first as Pretty Boy Floyd and he rocked the house! Everyone was singing along and we were louder than he thought so the parts where he'd get a sing-along going didn't go as long as he'd planned since we were totally into the show. It surprised him and the band as to how many were singing along. He opened with Rock N Roll Outlaws and Leather Boys With Electric Toyz and then proceeded to play Good Girls Gone Bad from their 5 song EP. I'd been singing along with that song earlier in the day while listening to their music. He did the first Motley Crue cover of the night, Toast Of The Town next. On his set list he has Your Momma as the next tune, but skipped that to do I Wanna Be With You. He asked for and received some Jager shots and asked for and received a couple pairs of breasts so this felt like a rock n roll show. He did another Motley cover of Live Wire and then had us singing Shut Up. He closed with 48 Hours and Rock N Roll Is Gonna Set The Night On Fire and then told us he'd be back at the merch table.
This is where the night took an interesting twist. I was one of the first back to the merch table and I'd been anxious to see how much the PBF DVD was going for as I'd love to have it. While chatting with Steve at the table, I volunteered to help him out with things to keep his line moving so he could chat with the fans more. He actually took me up on it!! I was stunned, but went behind the table and learned where everything was and what it was going for. He took in some good cash for the night and sold quite a few shirts, CD's, DVD's, and photos. I helped make sure he knew what needed to be signed and who it was going to. I also had to keep track of my sharpies! He met a lot of the people there and then asked who I had come with to the show. I introduced him to J-Dub and they briefly talked about the last time we saw PBF on the Sludge tour. J-Dub had a picture of him and Steve and got it signed.
When the line had dwindled and it was getting time for Bang Tango to go on, Steve invited me and J-Dub out to the bus. We made sure the merch table was fine and then headed out. The bus was locked! Steve was feeling pretty good and asked what we wanted to do. I told him it would be hilarious to go to the front of the stage during Bang Tango and rock out for a bit. I was sure the guys in the band would get a kick out of seeing Steve down front like a fan. We made our way through the crowd with me leading the way and holding Steve's beer. He jumped up over the front of the stage to the side area and the security guy had me follow. Steve let the crew know I was with him and was ok. We stood back there and rocked out for a few tunes. Steve even jumped up on stage while Joe Leste (Bang Tango/Beautiful Creatures singer) was talking. Joe got a laugh from that and then Steve came back over to the side. Unbeknownst to me, Steve had procured the key to the bus while we were back there. He had me help keep an eye on his jacket since the merch cash had been taped inside it. We hopped the bar, instead of going back through the crowd, and headed out to the bus while BT played the rest of their set. J-Dub joined us and we sat in the back of the bus chatting and J-Dub and Steve had large shots of Jack Daniels. Steve called them Hollywood Shots.
Steve was very gracious to us and shared some stories, some laughs, and made sure we "were all on the same page" for the evening. This meant that we needed to make more cash and pick up girls for after the show. Steve had me take care of the bus key and the change needed for the next round at the merch table. When we got back in the club, BT had finished and was back at the merch table, too. There were jokes about which band was selling which merch and they were teasing about giving away free PBF shirts. I think Steve did very well merch-wise since he had more baby doll shirts and CD's. Bang Tango wasn't selling any BT CD's, but did have the import version of Beautiful Creatures' Deuce. I had to pick one up myself and get them to sign it. I introduced myself to the band and Joe even leaned over later asking who I was since I was asking him to sign some of their stuff. I told him I was just glad to help out both bands with what I could, but of course, I was really trying to help Steve out the most since he seemed to be doing quite well with a couple of ladies as the night wore on.
Stephen Pearcy and the Rat Bastards took the stage while we were at the merch table. I got to see most of their set on the big screens that Muddy's had around the bar. I could only see heads from the back of the bar. I heard some great Ratt tunes, a new song, and Nothing To Lose, an Arcade tune. I could see Chuck Wright having a great time and I think he has become my favorite bass player. That guy has so much class and I got to say hello to him twice. He has played with so many people and when I told him that I'd miss hearing him with Quiet Riot on the new CD as they had planned last summer, he said to "tell them that".
We were behind the merch table throughout the entire Pearcy set and the guys from BT and Steve wandered around at the back of the club meeting people. Pearcy's band had no merch to sell and didn't stick around to meet people. Chuck Wright was the only one I noticed that came back in and visited with people.
After the club started clearing out, I packed up the merch bin for PBF and then carried it out to the bus. The crew guys were great and invited me onto the bus. (HUGE THANK YOU TO MARK ROJAS FOR GRABBING MY DVD'S THAT I'D LEFT BY THE STAGE!! Mark, you are the man!) We hung out for a while and heard that there were a lot of people heading out to The Lumberyard II. I grabbed the car, found J-Dub sleeping in it since the JD had gotten to him early in Pearcy's set, and followed the band out to this club. I fully was prepared to pay to get in and be responsible for myself, but the crew made sure that me and a few other fans were brought in with the band and taken to the VIP section. It was a blast hanging out with the band and crew there. We were telling jokes, talking to and about the girls, and stayed until the place closed. We went back to the bus and Joe disappeared into Steve's back of the bus area with a married couple. We have NO IDEA what they were up to, but had plenty of laughs speculating. I hung out with those guys until 4:45AM and then said my thanks and goodbyes.
I wish I could remember everyone's name, but huge thanks to Mark again for grabbing my things, the other crew guy (geez, I wish I could remember his name because he was a real bro) for including me, Tim and Mark and their bass player (this guy was just cool and had a straight face when trying to get me in trouble by suggesting I go knock on the back door to say bye to Joe...which I did...) for the laughs and stories and for treating me like one of the guys, Joe Leste for being cool and letting me help hawk a few of their things for them, and most of all, the awesome, laid-back, most cool front man I've ever met, Steve Summers! Steve, you are a true brother and I hope you guys have a blast on the rest of the tour. Thanks for trusting and I hope I came through good for you at the merch table. It was an honor, a treat, and a real blast getting to meet a true rock star in the best sense of all that implies. You guys deserve the best!
Please go support these bands. It was only $10 for the concert at this venue and you'll have a great time checking out a very tight band and some great rock n roll! AND BUY THEIR STUFF!!
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
We Are Moving!
We got the house!! As I previously posted, we have to move due to our landlord selling the house we are currently renting. We had looked at a few houses and found one we liked last week, but it was rented out the very next day It would have been awesome since it had so much room. The house we found is more expensive, but about the same size as where we are and in a kind of hidden away area. It's closer to downtown, too. I'm pretty excited and the landlord will let us start moving in about a week before the end of the month. Moving is always a hard thing to do, but this should be a good move. I just hope it's a place we can be for a few years.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Struggles
I have a friend of mine who brought up an interesting dilemma that I'm sure many people face.
She has recently become single again after a few years of marriage. She has been reluctant to get back into the church due to the issue of sex outside of marriage. It's not that she knows she won't be accepted into a church flaws and all, but it's her overriding guilt keeping her from going.
Having been married myself, I know what a struggle this can be, which is probably why we aren't supposed to be getting divorced in the first place. Well, part of the reason... This is a difficult issue. You get married and enjoy the benefits of it and then it's taken from you while at a young age. The Scriptures tell us that we aren't to remarry, either. In today's day and age the marriage partner doesn't have to have a reason for the divorce other than "irreconcilable differences". I know my marriage was taken from me this way and I didn't have one thing I could do about it. The decision was not mine as I don't believe in that option.
How do you go back to being celibate again after enjoying the benefits of marriage? If you aren't allowed to remarry and you're still young, what are you to do? I know God loves us anyway, but He hates the sin and who wants to be in that position to live in sin whether you remarry or not? If you remarry, you are committing adultery and the same for having sex outside of marriage.
What a conundrum, eh?
Now, I wasn't a virgin when I got married and I haven't been exactly faithful to my marriage vows since the divorce. It's hard to put that genie back in the bottle. It's probably the only regret I have in life that I didn't wait until I was married. It has been over a year, though, and it's been a difficult year.
You can't explain things away or justify actions. You have to be honest with yourself and do your best. God loves us in spite of our flaws. Knowing that doesn't make anything easier, but knowing God does make it harder since you are aware of right and wrong. Is this how Adam and Eve felt once they knew the difference?
She has recently become single again after a few years of marriage. She has been reluctant to get back into the church due to the issue of sex outside of marriage. It's not that she knows she won't be accepted into a church flaws and all, but it's her overriding guilt keeping her from going.
Having been married myself, I know what a struggle this can be, which is probably why we aren't supposed to be getting divorced in the first place. Well, part of the reason... This is a difficult issue. You get married and enjoy the benefits of it and then it's taken from you while at a young age. The Scriptures tell us that we aren't to remarry, either. In today's day and age the marriage partner doesn't have to have a reason for the divorce other than "irreconcilable differences". I know my marriage was taken from me this way and I didn't have one thing I could do about it. The decision was not mine as I don't believe in that option.
How do you go back to being celibate again after enjoying the benefits of marriage? If you aren't allowed to remarry and you're still young, what are you to do? I know God loves us anyway, but He hates the sin and who wants to be in that position to live in sin whether you remarry or not? If you remarry, you are committing adultery and the same for having sex outside of marriage.
What a conundrum, eh?
Now, I wasn't a virgin when I got married and I haven't been exactly faithful to my marriage vows since the divorce. It's hard to put that genie back in the bottle. It's probably the only regret I have in life that I didn't wait until I was married. It has been over a year, though, and it's been a difficult year.
You can't explain things away or justify actions. You have to be honest with yourself and do your best. God loves us in spite of our flaws. Knowing that doesn't make anything easier, but knowing God does make it harder since you are aware of right and wrong. Is this how Adam and Eve felt once they knew the difference?
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Mixing Current And Old Friends
Last weekend was interesting in another way. I had two old friends visit and they met some of my current friends. It seems that I still have the same tendency to either attract the same friends or I'm some how drawn to similar types of people. It puts me in the reflective mood that makes me wonder if I have even changed at all over the years. It also makes me wonder if anyone truly changes over time or if it's just me.
I don't feel like I've changed much since about 8th grade, except for physically and in knowledge. I also know I've become more cynical in many ways and at the same time more positive in my reactions to events. Of course, having kids assists you in gaining patience and a better understanding of priorities. Have there been any major changes, though? Am I a better person overall or the same? I know that I still have the same weaknesses and that I'm really not any better in those areas. I still have the same likes and dislikes, too. Wouldn't true growth and change make me better?
Of course, thinking about this too much can make my head hurt so maybe it's best that I don't. :) I'm just glad to have good friends.
I don't feel like I've changed much since about 8th grade, except for physically and in knowledge. I also know I've become more cynical in many ways and at the same time more positive in my reactions to events. Of course, having kids assists you in gaining patience and a better understanding of priorities. Have there been any major changes, though? Am I a better person overall or the same? I know that I still have the same weaknesses and that I'm really not any better in those areas. I still have the same likes and dislikes, too. Wouldn't true growth and change make me better?
Of course, thinking about this too much can make my head hurt so maybe it's best that I don't. :) I'm just glad to have good friends.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Ever Have One Of Those Days?
Well, it was supposed to be a great weekend with friends, but...
I thought the original plan was for two friends to come up Friday night and be in Des Moines by about 11pm. That meant we'd have the entire day Saturday to do some fun things and then they could head back after dinner on Sunday. That was the original plan. Oh, how things change...
During the course of the week, one friend was keeping in touch and trying to get that plan to work out while the other has some outrageous work hours and hasn't quite figured out how to have a life outside of work for a full weekend. That friend really needs the work and money so you can't blame her, but I firmly believe that if you have a month or more worth of time to plan things correctly then work shouldn't be an excuse. Just my humble opinion and I don't live in their shoes.
The plan did shift a bit so that they would arrive late Friday, but have to leave late Saturday night. That was better, but still made it feel like it would be a short weekend. At least a full day is better than a half day which is better than nothing. Still not as good as a day and a half, though.
I got a call about 11pm Friday, which was their previously scheduled arrival time, that they were finally leaving home. This would put them here about 3-4AM. When I awoke at 6AM, I saw there was a message on my phone. The message said they had hit a deer around Knoxville, IA. I was a bit panicked, but there was no implication of injury. I called them right away and they were sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot awaiting a local mechanic to arrive at work. They were safe, but the car had overheated. I received another call about 8:30AM stating that the car could not be repaired sufficiently to make it to Des Moines and asking for a ride. I took off and picked them up and we went and had a pretty good breakfast in that town. We made the decision to head back to Des Moines, make some calls, and see what they could do to get home.
When we arrived back in Des Moines, I offered some suggestions to get the insurance company handled for a rental and learned how one insurance company tries to avoid helping their customer. I don't mind mentioning Shelter Insurance and stating that their customer service and assistance for their customers who are paying for full coverage on their vehicle is abhorrent. I could not believe what poor service and lack of answers they had for my friend and I even talked to them on her behalf. It was disgusting. Imagine paying full coverage for a nice full size sedan, hitting a deer on the weekend, the most traveled time period, and being told that your insurance company can't help you out until business opens on Monday at the earliest. Imagine paying for rental assistance and being told that you can't get a rental car to get back in time for you to work on Monday. This is what Shelter Insurance's customer service employee Jennifer told my friend. The actual statement was that they could not do anything for their customers until an adjustor is able to see the vehicle and confirm the damage, which could be Monday or Tuesday. My friend had a job to return for on Sunday, which helped shorten the weekend even if they didn't have an accident, and had no way of returning in which her insurance would help her out. Many insurance companies have deals with rental agencies to facilitate the service of their customers, but not Shelter Insurance. Shelter Insurance said they would reimburse my friend if she held on to her receipts and provided them after the adjustor had a chance to look at the car. That means my friend would have had to pay for a rental for several days before she could get her money back. That's also assuming my friend had enough cash on her to plan for a rental. Any insurance company that makes that assumption and doesn't go out of their way to take care of their customers ought to be fired since the customer is the boss. My friend will be dealing with her local agent to see if she wants to continue to do business with them or take it elsewhere. We tried contacting her local agent, but he doesn't work on Saturdays probably assuming that the 800 number for Shelter Insurance customer service would be sufficient. I will never do business with that company and don't recommend anyone else doing business with Shelter Insurance. They have no plan in place to help their customers out who have been in accidents on weekends that is sufficient for their customers. My advice is to take your business elsewhere.
Anyway, back to the rest of the story... My friend had to make some business calls, which also seemed a bit nuts when you take time to visit friends. This took up our entire afternoon until we could actually play some darts and have some steaks on the grill. That took us up until 4:30pm. Both friends were able to shower as they had very little sleep, if any, by this time. So far we'd had a nice breakfast with lots of laughs, a shortened dart game with lots of laughs, and dinner, which was quiet, but delicious. We did visit a lot and did laugh a lot because the friend who was driving really needed it and we are just that good of friends that we do a lot of joking and laughing.. It's just our nature. My roommates even got in on some of it since they were around for dinner, too. No, we didn't get to do anything except dinner and darts that was planned, but we were having some fun in spite of it being a short day and the accident.
At 5pm, the three of us went to a local friend's home for SCARY MOVIE NIGHT! My local friend and I had planned this for the last several weeks and we were going to start it off with the movie SAW. There were about 8-10 people that were interested in our SMN and my local friend really went all out to throw a party with snacks and drinks. The nachos were delicious! My friends that had travelled weren't really into scary movies, but did enjoy this one since it had some thought behind it and wasn't as gory as they had thought. SAW is a great movie and so is the sequel. We did have some laughs there, but we had to leave not long after the movie to be able to meet the ride that was coming to Des Moines to get my friends. I was really hoping for a better movie night, but only one friend came over that was on our planned list. We really had 6 of us there, but there should have been twice that since I had brought two guests and the couple that lives there made up 5 of us. Hopefully, it will get bigger. My local friends are just as fun so we did have some laughs and no stories about me came up, so it was all good.
When we arrived back at my home, we watched one of my favorite comedies, The Sweetest Thing. My visiting friends are women so I knew they would enjoy that movie and I highly recommend the unrated version since there are some huge laughs that weren't in the theatrical version. It was a good time to just sit and relax some more without the intensity of a scary movie and we had some more laughs. Their ride arrived just after the movie ended.
Even with the intense fog and late time, they still decided to leave on Saturday night instead of getting up early after some sleep. Thankfuly, they made it back safely, but they did see a lot of deer on the road and dead deer off the road.
I'm thankful for their safety and hopeful that the next time we plan a weekend that it is planned with more time for the fun stuff we did and more and that there are no accidents in the travelling portion. We tried planning this weekend about two months in advance so maybe I should get them started even earlier to plan the next one. Maybe they will use the time WISELY to maximize the full weekend WITHOUT WORK, WITHOUT INTERRUPTING PHONE CALLS, and hopefully during times of safe travel. I have great friends. They are fun, funny, and glad to live life positively as best as they can. In spite of the accident and in spite of the lack of time, we still had some great fun and that is the most important thing with friends.
Oh, and even with our abbreviated Cricket game of darts, I won by a VERY LARGE score.
I thought the original plan was for two friends to come up Friday night and be in Des Moines by about 11pm. That meant we'd have the entire day Saturday to do some fun things and then they could head back after dinner on Sunday. That was the original plan. Oh, how things change...
During the course of the week, one friend was keeping in touch and trying to get that plan to work out while the other has some outrageous work hours and hasn't quite figured out how to have a life outside of work for a full weekend. That friend really needs the work and money so you can't blame her, but I firmly believe that if you have a month or more worth of time to plan things correctly then work shouldn't be an excuse. Just my humble opinion and I don't live in their shoes.
The plan did shift a bit so that they would arrive late Friday, but have to leave late Saturday night. That was better, but still made it feel like it would be a short weekend. At least a full day is better than a half day which is better than nothing. Still not as good as a day and a half, though.
I got a call about 11pm Friday, which was their previously scheduled arrival time, that they were finally leaving home. This would put them here about 3-4AM. When I awoke at 6AM, I saw there was a message on my phone. The message said they had hit a deer around Knoxville, IA. I was a bit panicked, but there was no implication of injury. I called them right away and they were sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot awaiting a local mechanic to arrive at work. They were safe, but the car had overheated. I received another call about 8:30AM stating that the car could not be repaired sufficiently to make it to Des Moines and asking for a ride. I took off and picked them up and we went and had a pretty good breakfast in that town. We made the decision to head back to Des Moines, make some calls, and see what they could do to get home.
When we arrived back in Des Moines, I offered some suggestions to get the insurance company handled for a rental and learned how one insurance company tries to avoid helping their customer. I don't mind mentioning Shelter Insurance and stating that their customer service and assistance for their customers who are paying for full coverage on their vehicle is abhorrent. I could not believe what poor service and lack of answers they had for my friend and I even talked to them on her behalf. It was disgusting. Imagine paying full coverage for a nice full size sedan, hitting a deer on the weekend, the most traveled time period, and being told that your insurance company can't help you out until business opens on Monday at the earliest. Imagine paying for rental assistance and being told that you can't get a rental car to get back in time for you to work on Monday. This is what Shelter Insurance's customer service employee Jennifer told my friend. The actual statement was that they could not do anything for their customers until an adjustor is able to see the vehicle and confirm the damage, which could be Monday or Tuesday. My friend had a job to return for on Sunday, which helped shorten the weekend even if they didn't have an accident, and had no way of returning in which her insurance would help her out. Many insurance companies have deals with rental agencies to facilitate the service of their customers, but not Shelter Insurance. Shelter Insurance said they would reimburse my friend if she held on to her receipts and provided them after the adjustor had a chance to look at the car. That means my friend would have had to pay for a rental for several days before she could get her money back. That's also assuming my friend had enough cash on her to plan for a rental. Any insurance company that makes that assumption and doesn't go out of their way to take care of their customers ought to be fired since the customer is the boss. My friend will be dealing with her local agent to see if she wants to continue to do business with them or take it elsewhere. We tried contacting her local agent, but he doesn't work on Saturdays probably assuming that the 800 number for Shelter Insurance customer service would be sufficient. I will never do business with that company and don't recommend anyone else doing business with Shelter Insurance. They have no plan in place to help their customers out who have been in accidents on weekends that is sufficient for their customers. My advice is to take your business elsewhere.
Anyway, back to the rest of the story... My friend had to make some business calls, which also seemed a bit nuts when you take time to visit friends. This took up our entire afternoon until we could actually play some darts and have some steaks on the grill. That took us up until 4:30pm. Both friends were able to shower as they had very little sleep, if any, by this time. So far we'd had a nice breakfast with lots of laughs, a shortened dart game with lots of laughs, and dinner, which was quiet, but delicious. We did visit a lot and did laugh a lot because the friend who was driving really needed it and we are just that good of friends that we do a lot of joking and laughing.. It's just our nature. My roommates even got in on some of it since they were around for dinner, too. No, we didn't get to do anything except dinner and darts that was planned, but we were having some fun in spite of it being a short day and the accident.
At 5pm, the three of us went to a local friend's home for SCARY MOVIE NIGHT! My local friend and I had planned this for the last several weeks and we were going to start it off with the movie SAW. There were about 8-10 people that were interested in our SMN and my local friend really went all out to throw a party with snacks and drinks. The nachos were delicious! My friends that had travelled weren't really into scary movies, but did enjoy this one since it had some thought behind it and wasn't as gory as they had thought. SAW is a great movie and so is the sequel. We did have some laughs there, but we had to leave not long after the movie to be able to meet the ride that was coming to Des Moines to get my friends. I was really hoping for a better movie night, but only one friend came over that was on our planned list. We really had 6 of us there, but there should have been twice that since I had brought two guests and the couple that lives there made up 5 of us. Hopefully, it will get bigger. My local friends are just as fun so we did have some laughs and no stories about me came up, so it was all good.
When we arrived back at my home, we watched one of my favorite comedies, The Sweetest Thing. My visiting friends are women so I knew they would enjoy that movie and I highly recommend the unrated version since there are some huge laughs that weren't in the theatrical version. It was a good time to just sit and relax some more without the intensity of a scary movie and we had some more laughs. Their ride arrived just after the movie ended.
Even with the intense fog and late time, they still decided to leave on Saturday night instead of getting up early after some sleep. Thankfuly, they made it back safely, but they did see a lot of deer on the road and dead deer off the road.
I'm thankful for their safety and hopeful that the next time we plan a weekend that it is planned with more time for the fun stuff we did and more and that there are no accidents in the travelling portion. We tried planning this weekend about two months in advance so maybe I should get them started even earlier to plan the next one. Maybe they will use the time WISELY to maximize the full weekend WITHOUT WORK, WITHOUT INTERRUPTING PHONE CALLS, and hopefully during times of safe travel. I have great friends. They are fun, funny, and glad to live life positively as best as they can. In spite of the accident and in spite of the lack of time, we still had some great fun and that is the most important thing with friends.
Oh, and even with our abbreviated Cricket game of darts, I won by a VERY LARGE score.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Weekend Update
My youngest daughter really liked watching King Kong! I knew the oldest would enjoy it, but so did the youngest! That's great! They are also quite excited about going to see Superchick in a few weeks. I'm taking them to that show and helped them realize who Superchick is. They recognized the songs One Girl Revolution and Perfect Day from movies they've seen. Maybe they'll enjoy being on the front row and rocking out like I do at concerts...when I can.
Has anyone else noticed the trend in the NFL this year to have playoff games at the normal second and third game times? In Central time the norm is noon and 3:30pm during the season with a Sunday and Monday night game. It used to be in the playoffs that they would use those normal Sunday times, which I prefer, to run their games on Saturday and Sunday. Now they are using the second game time with an evening game. It's a dumb idea, in my opinion, and I hope they change it back next year.
Speaking of football, does everyone else see it coming down to Denver and Seattle in the Super Bowl? I'm not a Pittsburgh fan by far since I'm both a Chiefs and Cowboys fan. Denver is the lesser of two evils in that game. I'm not a fan of Seattle, but of Coach Holmgren, so I'm rooting for them over the expansion team, Panthers. I just don't like expansion teams as it keeps watering down the professional level of competition in any major sport. Since there isn't a team really worth rooting for like I normally would, I guess I'm going to put my cheers behind Seattle to win it all, but it will be with a lack of enthusiasm. I'm also not sure how much football I'll actually get to watch, either, since I have my kids this weekend. They are more fun than watching any of these teams! :)
I've been trying to exercise a bit lately. I have a Gazelle and hope to have a Health Rider soon. Low impact on the knees is a good thing. I also think there is something more wrong with my right shin. I'm not sure if my knee area has produced enough water that it has swelled my right shin or if I have shin splints, but it will need to be looked at soon. Is it a bad thing to rest your feet up and then when you put your leg down there is a dent that takes a while to fill out so it won't feel like your leg will buckle under you? It feels weird...
My girls are so awesome!! We had a small snowball fight last night, played at the McDonald's indoor play area, watched movies, and still have most of today to go!
Has anyone else noticed the trend in the NFL this year to have playoff games at the normal second and third game times? In Central time the norm is noon and 3:30pm during the season with a Sunday and Monday night game. It used to be in the playoffs that they would use those normal Sunday times, which I prefer, to run their games on Saturday and Sunday. Now they are using the second game time with an evening game. It's a dumb idea, in my opinion, and I hope they change it back next year.
Speaking of football, does everyone else see it coming down to Denver and Seattle in the Super Bowl? I'm not a Pittsburgh fan by far since I'm both a Chiefs and Cowboys fan. Denver is the lesser of two evils in that game. I'm not a fan of Seattle, but of Coach Holmgren, so I'm rooting for them over the expansion team, Panthers. I just don't like expansion teams as it keeps watering down the professional level of competition in any major sport. Since there isn't a team really worth rooting for like I normally would, I guess I'm going to put my cheers behind Seattle to win it all, but it will be with a lack of enthusiasm. I'm also not sure how much football I'll actually get to watch, either, since I have my kids this weekend. They are more fun than watching any of these teams! :)
I've been trying to exercise a bit lately. I have a Gazelle and hope to have a Health Rider soon. Low impact on the knees is a good thing. I also think there is something more wrong with my right shin. I'm not sure if my knee area has produced enough water that it has swelled my right shin or if I have shin splints, but it will need to be looked at soon. Is it a bad thing to rest your feet up and then when you put your leg down there is a dent that takes a while to fill out so it won't feel like your leg will buckle under you? It feels weird...
My girls are so awesome!! We had a small snowball fight last night, played at the McDonald's indoor play area, watched movies, and still have most of today to go!
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Time To Move Again
When Derek arrived home last night, he found a note in our door from our landlord. It looks like they are selling the house we rent. We do have an option to buy it, but I'm doubtful of that happening. We are looking around for another house the size of this one now. If we don't have a buyer for them by the 16th, we have to be out at the end of February. This stinks, but we could find something better. We've had enough electrical problems and plumbing problems here that we are anxious for better, but it stinks because we all hate moving. I just hope we find something not far away since we have such a nice location.
It's been a nice year and a half having a house instead of an apartment. I'm looking forward, though, so this will hopefully be a good thing.
It's been a nice year and a half having a house instead of an apartment. I'm looking forward, though, so this will hopefully be a good thing.
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