Anywho, having said that, and withstanding the heat, Pretty Boy Floyd was pretty good. I have to be honest, I really don't know any of their songs, but they didn't send me screaming for the hills, so that has to be a plus. Right?

Still dying from the heat, Enuff Z'nuff hit the stage. They sounded really good too. Again, being honest, I don't know a lot of their songs, but I knew some and even knew the words to a couple of those! :) I probably should expand my CD collection in the near future...

Faster Pussycat seemed to take FOREVER to get on stage. They had their black curtain up across the front of the stage and when it finally did drop, I figured out what was taking them so long... they were waiting for the entire stage to fill up with such a thick fog that you really couldn't tell if anyone was on stage. While this made for a really cool effect with the lights behind them, it also made it incredibly difficult to see or breathe, couple that with the sweltering heat and I had to leave the room and go hang out in the bar for a while. But hey, I could still hear them and they sounded really good. :) We returned for the last few songs once most of the fog had dissipated. I'm not sure if it was the fog or the heat (and I am NOT going to say the band, because I love Faster Pussycat!) that made the crowd disappear, but it was slim-pickins by the end of their show.

We hung out on FP's bus until somewhere around 4am. Let me tell you, it was FREAKIN' COLD on that bus. I was certain to freeze to death. I made a new friend this weekend... Chip was hanging out on FP's bus too. You know, he's a REALLY nice guy. And very talkative. Good thing I'm more of a listener. :)~ And as if he is ever going to read this but I'll say it anyway... "Thanks again for the shirt! I appreciate it." Anywho, conversation was good, it was also fun laughing at Flynn being intoxicated
for a change. HEHEHE...

The sun was practically up by the time we got home. I slept until 12:30pm. Ran over to the salon for my tanning appointment, mistakenly had McDonald's for lunch and spent the remainder of the afternoon dying in bed. Death by McDonald's. Never again. I wanted to go see Enuff Z'nuff and Pretty Boy Floyd in Milwaukee last night since it's the closest they'll be playing for the rest of the tour, but Flynn was all hungover and didn't want to go. *sigh* We might be going to see FPC in Chicago tonight at the Elbo Room.

That's the story of my weekend, and I'm sticking to it.

We didn't really bother with Vince Neil. Went and mingled with friends a bit. Hung out. Watched a few songs at the end of his set. I'm just not really interested in seeing a Motley Crue cover band on stage. If he'd have done mostly his solo songs, I think I'd have been more interested in watching.

What can you say about Poison that hasn't been said before? They ALWAYS put on a good show. I think it was a little less dramatic this year than in year's past, but still… they rocked! They changed their set list around a bit and played some songs I haven't heard in a long time. I was a little disappointed that C.C. didn't play Emperor's New Clothes. I love that song. :)

We had aftershow passes, but it was cold and damp, and the gestapo security were taking forever to get people together, so we eventually just left. LOL I've met Poison before. So has my son. He hadn't met Bret though and that's the only reason we hung out for as long as we did. Maybe next time.

Other than that, this summer is shaping up to be a very slow summer indeed. Which is okay by me really. I'm not big on the spending money thing this year. LOL

L.A. Guns is going on tour with Great White and XYZ. I think it starts in early July. Haven't gotten any dates yet. I've heard rumor of a Faster Pussycat and L.A. Guns date on June 21st in Elgin. I think it's probably at Sammy K's. I'll definitely go to that if it's for real.

I think RATT is trying to put something together for this summer. I haven't received any dates yet. They went from not touring because Warren was in Dio, to now trying to put together a tour because Dio decided to get their other guitar player back. Personally, I hope they tour! I'd love to have some RATT shows to go to. :)

Things have been slow around here. I've already watched all of my Buffy season 1 through 3 DVD sets and am starting on Angel season 1 now. Buffy season 4 should be in the mail after June 10th. *grin* I'm an addict. I admit it.

On a musical front, Brides of Destruction are still plugging along at putting together some music. Or so they say. I can't say that it's been so long I'm not looking forward to music being released, because that wouldn't be true. We are talking about 2 of my favorite musicians here. I'd love to hear what they're putting together. And I'm certainly looking forward to it. But I think for a lot of people, the steam has run out unfortunately. Oh well, ya know, life goes on. :)

I haven't really had my ear open to much else music-ky lately, so I have no new news. If I should happen upon anything, I'll post it... some time this year. LOL Took me long enough to get these updates done!

Speaking of Buffy, I just applied for new plates for my Vue. They say GRR ARGH. At the end of every Buffy and Angel episode, a little cartoon Mutant Enemy creeps across the screen and says GRR ARGH.

Speaking of my new truck... have I mentioned how much I absolutely totally love my new Vue!? :) I do.

The best new news is that Angel City Outlaws is FINALLY going to play some Midwest dates. Those who are unaware, this band is Bobby Blotzer, John Corabi, Ryan Roxie and Stefan Adika. We're going to all three shows this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It's like a mini-tour!

It's nice to be back in Chicago where everybody isn't honking their fucking horn every 3 seconds at everybody else. You know it's bad when the city actually has to post signs at the intersections that say "No Horn Honking. $350 Fine." I mean seriously, who taught New Yorkers how to drive anyway? And they're just as bad in New Jersey. We may have alot of traffic in Chicago and rude drivers, but at least we know HOW to drive. LOL

First I would like to thank Jay and Brad because without them, we'd probably still be standing outside in the cold freezing our nosehairs off. THANK YOU GUYS!!!!!

Our flight into Newark was early. We arrived around 11:30am on Friday morning. The weather was sunny and pleasant. We sat around by the Enterprise terminal and waited for Stephanie and Silke. Nothing. So I called my mom and called my son, chatted with some locals. Still nothing. Okay so we decided to get back on the tram to the international terminal to look for them. Still nothing. The monitors shows their flight to be delayed until 2:37pm. So we sat and waited. Then a phone call from Stephanie saying they were re-routed to JFK. Ah! Well at least they made it. So we took the hellride on the Enterprise bus to their location and picked up our rental. Fought our way over to JFK in hellish traffic and over priced bridges. I walked into the terminal and was greeted by Stephanie and then introduced to Silke. (both very lovely people) We stepped back outside and our rental and Flynn were no where to be found!!!! Turns out the police kindly asked him to move his ass and he couldn't seem to get back to the terminal. After a short wait, he picked us up again and we got back into the hellish traffic and it took us for friggin' ever to get to the Ramada.

So we checked in at I think was around 6pm. The room was adequate for sleeping, but the bathroom sink pipes leaked and the ceiling didn't look too sturdy over the heater. And actually a good piece of it fell down a bit later too. When we left for the club, I asked at the counter for a different room the next day. No problem we're told. So we left. More overpriced bridges and tunnels on our way to Brooklyn. I had the stomach ache from hell and traffic sucked and we managed to misplace ourselves numeous times in Manhattan and then again in Brooklyn. GRRR ARGH!!!! We did finally arrive, on time, and I still felt terrible. I slept through most of the show on a couch backstage. I was out for Ballad of Jayne though and I think this was the first time Phil got all the words right. (hehehe) Silke took pictures and I think I have copies of them here. I will put them on the site in the next few days. We didn't hang around too long afterwards as it was late, we were tired, and I was still feeling pretty cruddy.

We arrive back at our hotel around 4:30am. There are hordes of people outside and in the lobby. We scurried past them to head for the elevators and were stopped immediately. The hotel was being evacuated due to water damage. We were allowed to go get our things and told to go over to the Howard Johnson down the street who would honor any reservations by Ramada Refugees. I guess the ceiling falling apart in our room should have clued us in eh? So we packed up and drove down the road, unpacked (again) and went to sleep.

Saturday morning we woke up around Noon I believe. I called the front desk to see what was to become of the Ramada Refugees and was told Ramada would cover us for another night. Good deal. We then went to IHOP next door for breakfast. It was pouring friggin' rain outside and we were already running late, so we decided there would be no sightseeing for us today. We went back to the hotel and lounged around watching CNN all day. Which brings me to this R.I. incident. We knew several people that were there and did not make it out. The band (LAG) knew people and they were also emotionally upset all weekend. My heart goes out to all involved. This tragedy affected many people everywhere and it will for some time to come.

Saturday night we drove up to the Chance in Poughkeepsie and... *drum roll please* we didn't get lost! We found the place easily. Of course, we were not on the list again... but thanks to Jay who came out looking for us and let us in (again) We were right up front for the show and the stage was one of those really tall ones that you had to crain your neck to look up, so we have some really great shots of Adam's nosehairs. After the set, we walked around a bit. Said HI to Adam, Keri and Brent. And then I bumped into someone I've chatted with online for years now (Alan). That was really very cool. He wasn't expecting to see me there. LOL I can't remember what time we left the club... but we got back to the hotel at 4am.

Silke (a/k/a Ms. Sunshine) woke our asses up bright and early Sunday morning so we could get in some sightseeing. I phoned the front desk again to check on our status and was told that the Ramada would not reopen until Friday. Fine. I didn't feel like packing up and moving again anyway! The rain had cleared up a little bit. Just kinda drizzly and foggy. We had breakfast at IHOP again and headed into Manhattan... without getting lost! We went up into the Empire State building and were warned numerous times that there was ZERO visibility. The elevator ride up was great! And I bought little gifts for our families. And zero visibility my ass, the pictures turned out great! I'm sure on a clear day, you could see a lot more, but I was happy with the view we had. It was quite windy on one side of the building and very calm on the other. We also walked around upper Manhattan afterwards and drove through Times Square. Even though New Yorkers cannot drive for shit (my opinion only, do not take offense) I do have to give them credit for having a beautiful city! We left for our hotel around 4:30 or so. Missed the tunnel entrance on the first try, but found it easily on the second. Didn't take too long to get back really.

The drive out to Centereach was a long and boring one. The club was right off the highway and fairly empty. And it remained fairly empty. But in my opinion, the guys put on the best show that night. Despite the conditions, they gave it their all and we had a great time. I've got more pictures from this show to share. I have to find out what Flynn did with the CDs first. We hung out for a while afterwards and chatted with everyone. And don't listen to Steph or Silke, there is a picture of them, with me and Phil and Adam around here somewhere.

Monday morning we were again woken up at the butt crack of dawn by Ms. Sunshine. The weather was still foggy, cloudy, rainy and cold (gotta love it). We drove out to Liberty State Park and took a ferry ride to Liberty Island and back. I just wanted to get some close up pictures. Afterwards, we headed back to the airport, said our goodbyes and waited for our flight. Originally, they were saying our flight would be delayed over an hour, but then it was back on schedule. The winds were bad, so we actually arrive at O'Hare a bit later than scheduled. We got back home around 8pm and I was so tired and sicker than ever (constant fever and stuffiness) so I went straight to bed. Woke up this morning at 7am, called in sick to work and went back to bed. Woke up again at 3pm. I feel a little bit better. I think just the lack of sleep and the crappy weather made me sick all over again. Oh well, back to real life tomorrow. LOL

With regard to my post title, it is an inside joke. On several of the maps I printed out off of Yahoo! the directions simply said "Turn Left on a Local Road." or even "Turn Right on a Local Road." UM... WHAT LOCAL ROAD?!?!?! hehehe

I've been doing MUCH planning for our NY trip. I put together an actual binder that has our daily schedules in it and maps, etc. :) I refuse to be unprepared for this trip!

We also went to go look at a new truck yesterday. 2003 Saturn Vue. We pick it up from the dealership on Monday. It's my first new vehicle. Can't wait!

We went to see Vince Neil play at Spike's in Crystal Lake last night. I was sorry to miss most of the opening band. They were kids called Twisting Roses and they were so cute, little rockers. I would have liked to have seen their show. We sat side stage for Vince Neil's set. It was the usual, every other word type show. Except that the power went out. And Vince threw a fit and stormed off stage. And all the road crew entourage chased after him to coax him back on stage. They were actually successful in doing so too. People seem to enjoy Vince's show. For the most part anyway. I never really have. Maybe I would if he did more of his solo stuff, because I really like that music, but he never does. It just ends up feeling like a Motley Crue cover show. *shrugs*

Nothing like a brand new page to start off a brand new year... :)

I thought I better get around to updating some websites. I just got through adding some dates and tour info to the L.A. Guns site and this one here was next on my list. I updated my own tour schedule ;) and reorganized the archived news and I have a few other things I want to mess around with before I'm done.

Our trip to New York is all set. Flights are purchased, hotel is reserved and rental car is secured. I've even printed out all of the maps and directions already! OMG, I am so excited for this trip! It's going to be very cool. I even just purchased a Sony MiniDV Digital Camcorder so I can be real touristy when I get there. *grin*

My tour schedule so far starts out as:

02/21/03 - L.A. Guns @ L'Amour in Brooklyn, NY
02/22/03 - L.A. Guns @ Peppers in Berwick, PA
02/23/03 - L.A. Guns @ King's Club in Centereach, NY

Let's hope that things pick up soon. My friend wanted me to come see Cat Fight and Danger Kitty tonight, but I'm not sure that I'm in the mood yet.

I haven't really heard any good tour rumors lately. So I guess we wait and see what's coming... until next time. *P*E*A*C*E*