On December 30th, at 4:00pm, 16 years ago... 

I brought this little boy into the world...

And then he kinda grew up.

He started wearing big boy shoes. LOL

And driving around on a little car...

He started looking all "GQ"...

And somehow survived his "Barney the Dinosaur" phase...

He enjoyed simple things, like getting clothes for Christmas instead of a PS3...

He was small enough to climb on pumpkins without smushing them...

And even graduated from Kindergarten...

Made it through 2nd grade...

Actually dressed up to go trick-or-treating...

Liked pink cakes even at 10 years old... *snickers*

Remember the years with braces? Those were fun...

Then he even gave baseball a whirl...

And actually graduated 8th grade!

Had a good time on the DC field trip...

Dressed up for the 8th grade dance...

Bleached his hair and dyed it green...

And this is the thanks I get... haha

And today is his 16th birthday.

Happy Birthday Brandon! You're the best kid a mom could ever ask for. *hug*

Love,
Mom

At long last... the pictures from the Thanksgiving Eve show in Maplewood, MN. Flynn got some pretty decent shots, if I don't say so myself. And even those that were kinda crappy, I was able to clean them up real nice in Photo Impact. Enjoy!

Fun at Popeye's Chicken

During last night's sleet/snow storm, we went out to do some Christmas shopping and grab a bite to eat. Yeah, only I would go out in a snow storm to finish my Christmas shopping. Actually, you know what, it wasn't just me, there were a LOT of friggin' people out there! I guess we're all nutcases.

After shopping, while dining at Popeye's Chicken on some very bad-for-you, but delicious food, I remembered I had my digital camera in my purse. So of course we were obligated to take many embarassing pictures... I even did a video, but I dunno how to post it, so I can't share. And that's too bad really because it included Brandon's impression of an Angry Dinosaur.
First, we'll start off with a lovely picture of my mother...

hehehe... and then, Brandon eating a jalepeno chicken popper thing:

(note the festive holiday color borders on the pix)

Mom also had jalepeno chicken popper things. I did the sensible thing and just ate regular chicken

Careful consideration must be given to one's consumption of food:

Brandon swiped the camera from me...

Before:

After:

hmmmmmm....

OMG, I seriously ate all that?

sooner or later...

that moment arrives...

When Brandon is tired of having his picture taken.

See how much fun you can have when you go out to eat with us?

Whilst Christmas shopping yesterday, we happened upon a Willy Wonka Gingerbread House kit. So, tonight after decorating our own house for the holidays, Brandon and I sat down to build our very own gingerbread house. Here are some pictures of it:

First, we have the rear of the house:


And then, the side of the house:


And, the other side of the house:


And, finally, the front of the house:


And, the Creator of the house:


So then my mom comes in to see the final product. And Brandon was goofing around while building the house. I originally had 3 oranges on the front peak of the house. He exchanged one orange for a banana. Look closely at it. He kept pointing it out to my mom, who just wasn't getting it. Finally, she says "it looks like two balls" and we broke down into a fit of "OMG, I can't breathe, my eyes are watering, it hurts" laughter. She then says "What, did Santa get stuck in the house with his pants down?" LMFAO OMG. I said "Yeah, he fell in ass first." HAHAHAHA.... okay okay, maybe you had to be there, but it was friggin' hilarious at the time.

Here's a close-up of Santa falling into the house:



See how much fun you can have building a gingerbread house with us?

When Sherpas Attack...

(that phrase never gets old)

While my brother, Ken, and I were shopping for Thanksgiving dinner items last night at Woodmans, we happened across an aisle of winter hats, gloves and scarves. I found a hat that I kinda liked, but maybe not entirely... my brother called it a "Sherpa hat" He told me to try it on, so I did. And then decided it wasn't for me.


It really just wasn't me. I imagine it would keep your ears very warm though.

Here's Ken trying on the Sherpa hat:


He ultimately decided that... he wanted a different color. Yes, my brother bought a Sherpa hat.

Here are a few special poses that I wanted to share with you (keep in mind, I took these while I was driving...):


The Confident Sherpa


The Proud Sherpa


The Sly Sherpa - be weary, he's very shifty.


And lastly, the Sherpa in an uncontrollable fit of laughter. I was laughing too (and driving), thus the picture being out of focus.

Shopping with my brother is buckets of fun. You should have seen us trying to pick out a friggin' turkey. Seriously. We were both in tears from laughing so hard. He even almost knocked down a shelf above the turkeys. Actually, he did knock part of the shelf down... but we won't tell the fine folks at Woodmans about that. We got our two turkeys and made a run for it.

I have another fun blog coming up next. I think you'll enjoy it.

Gosh... It's HUGE!

I think this billboard in Antioch across from Menard's says it all:



 

Wrestling 101

I don't think I've mentioned it, but Brandon joined the Wrestling team this year at school. This is his first year. His friend, Jeremiah, is in his second year of wrestling. Anywho, today was my first experience with it. So I sat by like a good mom and watched my boys wrestle this morning. They also had team pictures, so it took a little longer than normal. We were at the school from 8am until 11:15am.

I took lots of pictures, but I'm only going to post a few because I'm sure as I go to more wrestling meets, there's going to be a ton more pictures to take and I don't want to overload my loyal blog readers.

Brandon wrestled second, so I didn't have to wait too long on him. And... HE WON!!! Go Brandon!!!! The kid he wrestled was entirely tall and skinny. Here's a couple pix:







Jeremiah was supposed to be 10th, but I think he ended up going much sooner than that. He won too! *happy dance* And here's a couple pix of Jeremiah wrestling:







It's so awesome that they both won their matches. I'm such a proud mom. Next time maybe I'll video tape the meet and then post a blog with videos. heh
 

A labor of love...

Because I happen to love and adore both of my Australian Cattle Dogs, and I've kept in close touch with the breeder I got them from (Susan at Circle W Ranch in Mize, MS), I've spent the past few weeks working with her to re-design the website for her ranch.

I think it turned out awesome! There's lots of pictures of ACDs, plenty of information about the ranch and the breed, and even a bunch of information on the dogs themselves. You can check it out at: http://www.circlewdogs.com

Let me know what you think! 

The Dangers of Marrow Bones!

OMG... Mason scared the living daylights out of me last night. I will never ever ever ever ever give my dog a marrow bone while unsupervised again. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, they look like this:



So anyway, Mason was in her house (which is her dog crate) and Caleb was out. I gave them each a marrow bone and kept them separated because most of the time (who am I kidding... ALL OF THE TIME) Mason likes to steal whatever Caleb has and they fight over it. So I gave it to her unsupervised. I gave her a big enough piece (like the one on the left in the picture) so that it wouldn't get caught in her throat, thinking that would be safe.

A little while later she starts whining and whimpering. I thought she just needed to go outside to potty. So I let her out of her crate. She bolts into the kitchen and Caleb tries to get into her crate to find her bone, but I locked him out. Mason is still whimpering in the kitchen. She got the bone completely stuck on her lower jaw, over her lower fangs, with her tongue trapped under it. I mean, that sucker was STUCK. I don't know how she did it. I panicked. I was freaking out because my dog was freaking out and she had a bone completely stuck on her jaw. OMG, I felt like a TERRIBLE dog-mommy. Poor Mason birdle!!!!

I am so thankful that Flynn was over. I pinned her down on the kitchen floor while Flynn worked to get the bone off her jaw. It wasn't budging. Her jaw was swelling up a little bit and there was blood (not alot, but enough to freak me out more). I was having a hard time holding her still, she is a strong little dog! Since the bone was not coming off, Flynn said he'd have to cut it off. So he retrieved a hacksaw blade.

And went to work cutting the bone off her jaw. It felt like it took forever. It actually probably took about 15 minutes I'd guess (which feels like forever when you're panicking and your dog is freaking out and bleeding and whimpering). He got through the bone, but it still wasn't coming off. So he put a butter knife into the cut part and twisted it. The bone snapped in two and came right off.

YAY!!!!!! Mason was grateful. I was grateful. She wasn't missing any teeth and her tongue wasn't cut or bleeding. The blood was just coming from her lips/gums where the bone was stuck. She went right to beating up Caleb, so I know she was okay. And she drank water and ate some dog food.

Long story short, never give your dog one of these marrow bones when you're not around to keep an eye on them. And lastly, here's a pic of Mason birdle to show that she is just fine and as nutty as ever:



In this next picture, see those big fangs on the bottom? Those are the teeth that the marrow bone was stuck over!



But as you can see, she's happy and just fine. *phew* I <3 my Mason birdle.

The Birthday Birdle Blog

It's that time again... yet another birthday birdle blog because Mason-birdle (a/k/a Lady Mason) has turned ONE YEAR OLD! yay!!!!!! She has spent the day fighting with Caleb for no apparent reason and torturing the cats. It must have been a good dog-day.

Here's some pix that I just took of my doggies... enjoy!


Mason the Birthday Birdle!


I haven't weighed her lately, but I'd guess she is right around 50lbs. She goes to the vet next Wednesday for a checkup.


Mason and her bestest buddy ever, Caleb. Yeah right.


Close up! :) She's as tall as Caleb and as long, but much more slender. Lady Mason.


Mason knows how to "sit pretty"
 

The Heroin Diaries (or Is It Sixx A.M. Already?!?)

 Courtesy of Amazon.com, I had my copy of The Heroin Diaries (A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star) by Monday, September 10th. So glad I didn't have to wait until it came out on the 18th! It does pay to pre-order. And I finished it by Wednesday, September 12th.

Everyone is going to have their own opinion of this book. Some of those opinions will be solely based on an individual's dislike for Nikki Sixx. But I don't give a flying ratt's patoot what those people think. I liked the way the book was written - with the diary entries and then input from various people who were affected by Nikki's behavior at the time. Overall I thought the book got a certain message across and therefore, I allowed my 15 1/2 year old son to read it. Hoping he'd get that same message. And he did.

So today was devoted to waiting in line to get our copies of the book (and CD) personally signed by Mr. Sixx himself.It went kinda like this:

Sixx A.M. (pun intended): Cuss at alarm clock that is going off way too early and hit snooze.

Two Minutes Later: Realize that if I hit snooze, I won't have time to straighten my hair this morning. Grumble and roll out of bed.

7:00am: Pick Teresa up at her house.

Approx. 7:45am: Arrive at Border's in Oakbrook. There's probably a good 100 people in line already. Meet up with our friends Jess and Kim who were kindly holding our place in line.

8:15am: The line continued to grow behind us and also fatten up ahead of us as people joined up with other people who were already in line. Border's employees came out with coffee for everyone and eventually started laying out the rules for how this signing was going to proceed. Pfft on rules. Here's a copy of them:



Sometime between 9 and 9:30am: Got our wristbands. Me, Brandon and Kim ended up with White. Teresa, Jess and Superjen ended up with Pink. So we were forced to co-mingle with the Pinks. Afterward, we went inside to scope out the place. Here's some more pix:


(Brandon trying to swipe a copy of The Dirt)


(Brandon filling out his entry for the guitar raffle. None of us won.)


(Brandon considering having Nikki sign his big copy of Little Toot.)

10:00am (or so): Sat down for breakfast at a lil family restaurant not far from the bookstore. We ordered enough food to feed an army and didn't even get charged for everything. SWEET.


(Waiting to be seated: Teresa, Superjen, Jess and Kim)


(Brandon had to sit on the floor while we waited.)

11:45am: Back at Border's, meandering around in the store. All sorts of people were there for this event. From your average joe to your washed-up groupie. It was a madhouse. And, the Rules had changed. Nikki was now personalizing autographs. Updated Rules:



The RULES didn't state anything about No Inappropriate Behavior. Or No Body Parts signed.

Shortly after Noon: Our colors had been called, so we staked out our place in line and sat around for a looooooooooong time. Border's employees came around to check wrist band color and put our name on post-it notes to put inside the book or on the CD since Nikki would now be personalizing autographs.


(Me and Brandon sitting in line. Waiting. and Waiting.)


(Nikki's grand entrance...)

They actually brought him in through the front of the store. He stopped for coffee and then walked through the crowd. MANY digital cameras and cell phones were in the air taking pictures. Good thing at that point he had sunglasses on. *grin*

Some time later: Stalker me tippy-toed over the CD racks and snapped a picture of Nikki signing autographs. Hey, everybody was doing it! LOL



3:20ish pm: FINALLY. After having hours to decide what to say to Nikki when we finally got up there, and actually not being nearly as nervous as I thought I'd be. (No matter how many times I meet this man, he still makes me nervous. Insane.) I traded cameras with Jess and it was our turn. YAY! They were being real picky about picture taking, so we had to be quick with the cameras.

First, Superjen asked Nikki if he would sign the tattoo on her back so she could have it inked. He agreed. So I helped out by holding her shirt out of the way (ahem, since Kim totally ditched her). He really took his time considering where and how to sign his name around her tattoo. He put Nikki underneath on the left side and then Sixx on the right. And as an afterthought, added a little heart underneath Nikki. It turned out really nice.

Then it was mine and Brandon's turn. It went something like this... We said hello to Nikki. And then I told him how I let my 15 1/2 year old son, Brandon, read the book. He said "Oh really..." like he wasn't sure that was a good idea. lol So I told him how the first thing Brandon said to me after he started reading it was that if anyone was considering using drugs and they read this book, they'd change their mind. And then Nikki said that's cool because that's the message he wanted to get out there. And I agreed with him and thanked him. I think at that point he shook my hand and then Brandon's and thanked us. And he said to Brandon something like "because it's not cool to end up in a coffin." It all went pretty quickly, but Nikki was REALLY nice and made a point to make eye contact when he was talking to you. I'm so glad he took off those crazy dark sunglasses before he started signing autographs. I hate talking to people while they're wearing sunglasses! He looked really good.

Here's the pic that Jess took of us:


Brandon thought Nikki had awesome hair. heh I tend to agree.

And then we had to step aside. I was going to turn around real quick and take a picture of Jess getting her stuff autographed, but a Border's employee grabbed my wrist and said she had to cut my wrist band off (earlier, some rednecks were selling their wristbands to people who didn't have them after they went through the line. WHATEVER) So I told her to HURRY UP and then I turned around real quick and was able to take a picture for Jess. Yay me!

For all the waiting we had to do, it sure was over in a flash. But we had a good time during the day hanging out with each other and it was nice to see Nikki again. *drools* We got home a little after 5pm. I had a fierce headache, so I took a nap before tackling this blog. I know the Nikki-haters are probably rolling their eyes. But I hope the Nikki-lovers at least enjoyed it.

Meramec Caverns

So on the way home from Rocklahoma, we stopped at the Meramec Caverns just outside of St. Louis, MO. Pictures simply do not do it justice, but some of them turned out cool enough to share.

























I don't even remember what time we got home... I want to say some time around 3 or 4am. Needless to say, I called in sick to work that day. LOL Jason managed to get pulled over on the way home that night and that delayed us a good hour or so. Fortunately the cop was feeling generous and let him go.

I now hear that Hair of the Dog is going to play Rocklahoma next year. I initially did not intend on going back out there, but if that's the only show that HOTD is playing, I AM THERE. Cuz you know, the party ain't over.
 

The Woes of Being a Homeowner.

I've known pretty much since the first six months of ownership that this house had plumbing issues. The drains tend to be slow and actually a few months ago we had to rent one of those rooter contraptions and clean out the main line which involved a whole lot of crap and tons of cussing on Flynn's part since he was the one in the crawl space cleaning it out. You'd think that would have held up for a while. But nope. Everything decided to stop working yesterday. And today I sit and wait for the plumbing contractors to arrive and tear up my front yard to install a new cleanout for the main line since they can't fit their equipment down into my crawl space to reach the existing cleanout. One day and $2,700 (in cash) later, the plumbing should be good as new around here. It's the cash part that hurts. *sigh* I'm gonna be hella broke for a while. But alas, I guess this is just one of those expenses of owning a house. I think I'll go get some coffee now. Thanks for reading my whining. 

The Long Awaited Rocklahoma Blog

Wow... where to begin. Rocklahoma wasn't all I had hoped it would be. Probably because we had issues from the get-go.

The intent was to leave home on Wednesday night (July 11th). That evening we were finishing up the final touches to the camper I bought. We were running pretty late, which really wasn't too big of a deal because the real shows didn't start until Friday. Must have been about 11pm by the time we headed out to Flynn's house to pick up a few items and then over to his mom's house to meet up with his brother and Deirdre and pick up a few more items. Of course, we forgot some stuff at my house and at Flynn's house, so we headed out to back track and then get on the tollway. Except, we never made it.

On the way back to Flynn's house, a leaf spring flew off the camper. Lots of cussing ensues. We limped it back to Flynn's, and while he and Jason worked to get the axle off the trailer at 2am, I called every 24 hour store I could think of to see if they sold single axle trailer leaf springs. No luck. Okay fine, we decide to call it a night and regroup in the morning. Went home, grabbed a couple hours sleep and were back out at 6:30am to pick up some new leaf springs. Had them installed by 9:30am and hit the road.


Who are those freaks following us?


My Acadia and camper. :)


Passing through St. Louis.

The drive down was pretty uneventful. We didn't get into the campgrounds until late Thursday night. It was dark and it had rained, like for three hours straight. We backed the camper into our spot, got out of the truck and immediately were ankle deep in grass and water. Both of our campsites were flooded and swampy. GROSS. More cussing. We set up our camper and truck tent, walked around a bit and settled in for the night.


Our campsites in the dark.


Look, Caleb has his very own car!

Friday morning, we woke up to a dead truck battery.

Jason's Truck. Dead Battery. Bleh.

So I pulled the Acadia around to give the truck a jump. Thought it felt a little funny, but figured it was just the wet grass I was driving on. Until Flynn pointed out that my right front tire was flat. More cussing.


Putting air into the tire... good little portable air compressor!

A tiny shard of metal was stuck in my tire. With our campsite being The Swamp and all, lots more cussing took place at the thought of taking off my spare from under the truck and putting it onto the truck... until, hey, I get a free year of OnStar and five years of GM Roadside Assistance. Let's make THEM come out and change this silly tire. They were there within the hour. YAY! However. Then we took the tire to Super Walmart in town to see if they could patch it. After waiting around an hour and being told we were next repeatedly when clearly we were not, I asked for my tire and truck back. As it turns out, their mechanic who is "certified" to work on tires with air pressure sensors on them was either on break or doing a brake job. I never did clear that up. Flynn plugged the tire in their parking lot and put it back on the truck. After lots more cussing, we returned to the campsite.



Here's Deirdre stockpiling the booze.

We were back in time to watch some of Slaughter's set, Quiet Riot and RATT. During RATT's set we bumped into Chip Z'Nuff and talked to him for a awhile. Saw Johnny Monaco as well. After RATT's set, we went backstage for a bit. Not actually much going on back there. Said hello to Corabi, Robbie and Bobby (this rhymes... LOL) and some friends of ours (Cher, Lee). Caught a couple Poison songs on our way out and then headed back to the campsite.


Here's a passion flower that Jason and Deirdre found while out walking about.


This is the main stage from a distance. We really couldn't get too close to it. But the two huge monitors on each side were really cool for seeing what was going on.


We put up an Illinois Flag and a US Flag. I was hoping more campsites would, but not very many did.

We slept most of Saturday away. The heat was ridiculous and it rained every morning for a little while. Thankfully Flynn rigged up an air conditioner inside the pop-up so we were somewhat comfortable.

I got up to the main stage early enough on Saturday to see some of Warrant and Skid Row and later caught a few songs from Vince Neil's show. We spent a lot of time meandering about and drinking and eating.


Deirdre, Flynn and myself after a day in the sun and a bit of alcohol.


Note the bottle of wine stuck in the ground in the background. Jason was marking our swampy territory.

We slept in again on Sunday. Jason and Deirdre had enough of the heat, so they packed up and headed to a nearby hotel. Of course, his truck battery was dead, AGAIN, so we had to jump it one more time. We spent most of the day packing and organizing stuff. I went down in the afternoon to watch L.A. Guns (Tracii's band that is) and actually only ended up watching maybe two songs at the most. I love Tracii and all. There's a lot of people in this industry I wouldn't know if it were not for him. However. If I had to hear one more time how this was the original band and blah blah blahbity blah, I woulda tossed my cookies. So I left. (I dunno. I saw them like a year ago in a bar near our house and I thought the show was decent. In fact, I had a lot of fun. Maybe I was drunk. Okay well I know I was drunk. But still. I was really disappointed this time around.)

We went back down to the main stage later that night for Twisted Sister. Granted, I've never been a TS fan. I don't own any of their CDs. I only know the few hits that the radio or MTV may have played. But they were awesome! What a great show. Lots of energy. A lot of fun. And wildly entertaining.


I cheated and used my super-duper zoom lens to take pictures of the video screens. LOL Not bad though, eh?




My favorite part was when they played Silver Bells off their Twisted Christmas album and it SNOWED everywhere. EVERYWHERE. There was SO MUCH snow. Insane. It was awesome.

Afterwards, we went back to our campsite and finished packing up the trailer and getting it hooked up to the truck, in our swamp of a campsite. I was soooo tired of my feet being all wet and swampy, it wasn't even remotely amusing anymore. I think we pulled outta dodge around 2am or so and hit the road with the goal of making it to just outside of St. Louis by morning so we could go to the Meramec Caverns the next day (Monday).

On the way back, I wasn't feeling real hot. Sun poisoning and all. We ended up stopping quite often and it took a lot longer to get to St. Louis than we'd hoped. We got checked into a hotel near the caverns and took ourselves a well-deserved nap. After we got up in the afternoon and tracked down a new battery for Jason's truck since it kept dying on him, we then headed to the caverns. That'll be another blog.

I need a t-shirt that says "I SURVIVED ROCKLAHOMA". Through the Swamp, the rain, the flat tire, the dead battery, the heat (106 degrees on the hottest day according to my Acadia), the sun poisoning and the chiggers or mosquitoes or whatever the hell bit the heck out of my ankles and feet. *sigh* Would I do it again? Eh. Not for the price they're charging. I didn't have THAT good of a time. It was more fun when we went to the very first Comstock Rock Festival.
 

An L.A. Guns Weekend in Review (w/pictures)

Friday, June 15, 2007

Finally. I felt like I'd been waiting for this weekend forever. I woke up early Friday morning and went to Jazzercise, which may or may not have been a good idea since I had a very late night ahead of me. After I found out from Phil which hotel the band was staying at and booking a room for ourselves online, I thought it best if I took a nap. I finished packing in the early afternoon and had everything ready to go. We got a later start than I'd wanted to, but no big deal. Reedsburg, WI was only 3 hours away. We left the house at 5pm-ish and arrived at the Super 8 around 7:30pm I think. And I didn't even speed! I'm so proud. Okay well I didn't speed *much*. ;)

So we're waiting to check into the hotel and it's taking FOREVER. There's one woman at the front desk and she's chatty with the biker guys in front of us. *sigh* After the biker guys, there was another couple, whom she was also chatty with. *urgh* She joked with them about a band being at the hotel and maybe they don't want to be on the same floor. I chimed in and said they aren't necessarily a rowdy bunch. The couple chose to be on a different floor. When our turn was up, I told her she could put us on the same floor as the band. She asked if I knew them, I said yes. She asked if I was Stacey by chance. Someone had called and left a message for a Stacey. I told her no, but the Stacey she's looking for could be a guy in the band. She said "Oh. Yeah, that explains a lot." She said that the guys are all so skinny, she just wanted to take them home and feed them. LOL I get that feeling a lot too. They're like my Pet Band.

After getting our room keys, we went outside to grab our things out of the truck and Stacey said hello to us from the second floor window of his room. Turns out two guitars didn't make the flight and they were still in-transit. (eek) We went upstairs and got settled into our room. We learned that the advertised free wireless internet access was not all it cracked up to be. I went down to the lobby to see if there was a password or something we needed to access it, and promptly ran into Phil and Scott who were gathering their guitars from the woman at the front desk. I gave Phil a big hug, got the info I needed from the front desk, and then Phil introduced me to Scott.

I dropped the internet info off in our room and headed to Subway for some food. I bumped into Stacey in the hall and learned that the venue for the Omaha show on Sunday had changed again. After I ate, I borrowed Flynn's laptop and used the wireless connection in Phil's room to update the website. Went back to my room and got ready for the show. I called Steve on his cell and learned that the band was meeting in the lobby at 10:30pm. We got down there a few minutes early and they were more than a few minutes late. The venue was right down the street though and parking was pretty limited. Fortunately, my mom left her handicap permit in my glove box. :innocent: So we pulled just around the corner from the venue and into the nearest handicap spot. After exiting the car, I realized we were right in front of City Hall. Ooops. hehe It was late at night and I didn't think we'd have a problem, so we left it there. Phil had told us to come in through the white door to the side of the box office. I approached the door and looking through it saw a Rottweiler. Hmmm. I backed off immediately. Not that it barked or growled, but you know, you just don't mess with dogs you don't know, especially Rottweilers. A guy behind us asked if we were with the band. I told him yes and he said to just go in. I told him about the dog and he said no problem, that was his dog and it wouldn't hurt anyone. In fact, there was another one at the top of the stairs. They were nice puppies. :)

The "dressing room" was no more than a studio apartment above the theatre. It barely had AC. We grabbed a beer and talked and what-not. Phil sat with his guitar plugged into a lil pignose amp. I thought to take pictures, but the studio apartment didn't lend itself to a very nice backdrop, so I didn't. We stayed up there while Mark ran around and got things ready on stage. I guess I didn't eat enough that day because the two beers I had, had me feeling pretty good. *heh* It was a while before we went downstairs into the venue. I planted myself on the set of stairs that went up the far left of the stage (Scott's side) so that I could take pictures. The venue was an oven. No AC whatsoever. *ack* I was dying from the heat, I could only imagine how the guys felt on stage under all the lights and in all that fog. Phil had told me earlier that I was welcome to come up on stage and take pictures after a few songs, but seriously, I'm not that brave. lol Besides, I actually got a lot of really great shots from where I was. Plus, I had my other zoom lens with me, and with the slant of the venue, I was able to get a lot of great shots from farther back as well.

They opened with Slap in the Face, which I think is a GREAT opener, and next played Wheels of Fire (I love this song live). I'm no critic, since I'm not musically inclined, but I thought they sounded awesome. The lights and the fog gave off a great effect and my camera just ate it up. Scott is very animated on stage (even if his hair is too long to stand up straight like Stacey's… *grin*). He was often difficult to capture in a picture because I refused to use my flash. The flash bleaches out everything and takes away from the reality of the show. So I am going to blame Scott for making me take 261 pictures just to make sure I got some great shots worthy of sharing. The lights that shown on the wall behind the drum kit made some cool effects as well. The band rolled through Sex Action, Never Enough, Some Lie 4 Luv (I really like this song) and Over The Edge. Not sure at what point, but this guy must have seen me on the stairs earlier taking pictures and thought he'd do the same. But he was standing straight up and practically on the stage. Phil stopped to shoo him away saying he didn't realize they had a fifth member of the band. DOH. Okay so maybe he was a *little* harsh on the guy, but the guy had no business being up there either. During the show, there was an incredibly drunk girl who singled me out (of course) and was asking questions about the band. "Which one is yours?" she asked. Hah… all of them, now leave me alone. LOL First she liked Phil, then she liked Scott. She couldn't make up her mind. I did my best to ignore her, so she turned her attention to Flynn. Poor Flynn. At one point, she wanted to take a picture of me and Flynn… with MY camera. You do not hand a drunk stranger a $1,200 camera. So I declined. It's bad enough I was drunk and using it. :)

They played Rock n' Roll Outlaw, Gypsy Soul and It Don't Mean Nothing. Hellraiser's Ball (one of my favs), Long Time Dead, One More Reason and Electric Gypsy followed. Electric Gypsy is one of those songs that just really gets you into it. I love it! They closed the show with Ballad of Jayne (I swear, the lyrics on this one change with every show I go to. LOL) and Rip N Tear. Rip is another one that just rocks live. No Mercy was on the set list, but for whatever reason, they didn't play it. I remember a time when No Mercy was the set opener. :)

After the show, Phil announced that they'd be by the merch table in the back. Miss Lottie was doing merch for the evening. I had bumped into her earlier when I was taking pix during the show. I learned that Phil had a CD for sale… Gypsy… and laid claim to my copy immediately. I considered grabbing an 8x10 of the new lineup, but I never have anywhere to store those pictures so they don't get mangled by the end of the night, so I passed. After the meet n greet, Lottie took a picture of me with Scott and then with Stacey. We ventured outside the venue and hung around talking for a while before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Here are the pix from Friday night's show:

Saturday, June 16, 2007

I slept like a rock and woke up at 9am. Good grief. Too early since we'd only gone to bed around 4am. I showered, messed around online and then tried to get a little more sleep. The band was meeting in the lobby at 10:30am for an 11am departure. We left the hotel on time and debated just taking our own way, instead of following the band, since I had GPS. My GPS told us to make a left out of the hotel and the band van turned right. Hmm. So I turned left and ran into an intersection that was closed off for some festival. Damn. I made a quick u-turn and hoped to catch up with the van. We spotted them at a gas station just down the road. *phew* I pulled in and ran inside to get us some drinks for the trip and let Steve know that we would follow them.

We followed the van down the road, ignoring Karen's urgent requests to turn left as she recalculated after every turn we missed. (Karen is the voice my GPS system uses… she's always eager to help.) We finally turn left and the road lead us to 90/94, which is probably where Karen wanted us to go, but she had another route in mind to get there. ;) Steve was driving. Phil was riding shotgun. Scott was in the 2^nd row of the van and Stacey was in the 3^rd row. I could tell because Stacey had the tallest hair. LOL Steve drives like my dad. I had to use my cruise control. I'm not a good follower to begin with, so it was painful to follow them. 70mph. Heading for Minnesota. It rained a bit. After a while, I pulled ahead of them and lead the way. But if I got anywhere over 74mph, Steve started to lose ground. *sigh* So I kept my cruise set at 74. I eventually let them get back in front of us.

In Minnesota, Steve signaled to exit, but it was an exit too soon. Huh. I *almost* didn't follow them. Something told me to though, so I did. Steve seemed hesitant about which way to turn at the light. We drove in circles a bit and came to another light at which he hesitated again. Karen insisted that we turn around and go the other way. So I called Steve and asked if he needed any help finding the venue. As it turns out, he did. So we made a u-turn and the van followed us. I think we were another 15-20 miles away from the venue. Yeesh. We checked in at Renegades a little after 3pm (we were supposed to be there AT 3pm). We would have been there earlier if it weren't for the slight detour. Then we turned around and headed for the hotel.

At the Days Inn, Steve got the band all checked in and inquired if they had any available rooms since I didn't have a reservation. All booked up we were told. You're kidding. *ugh* The woman at the counter said that at 4pm, if someone didn't show up, she could give us their room… as long as it wasn't under a credit card guarantee. Only one room didn't have a credit card on file. *sigh* We opted to wait it out.

At 4pm, I went back up to the desk and asked about the room. She said nobody had called to say they'd be late and they hadn't yet checked in, so she gave us their room. YAY! We got checked in, ordered some dinner, ate, and took a nap. Woke up around 7:30pm and showered. Called Steve to find out what time we were all leaving the hotel and then met in the lobby. We followed the van to the venue and into the parking lot. I heard Security ask Steve if the truck behind them was with them, he said yes. Thank you! I wasn't sure where to park otherwise. The band entered the venue just to the side of the stage, so a kind security guy (said his name was Batman) brought us to get our wristbands and let us into the venue.

Renegades seems like a pretty popular place. It had a pretty good crowd going already. The stage was SMALL. And low to the ground. Wow. And of course, since we arrived so late, the front of the stage was pretty much taken up. Except for that one little spot on Stacey's side that I managed to weasel myself into. It didn't feel like the AC functioned in this place either. WTF? I had brought my camera, but had second thoughts about taking pictures since I could pretty much just reach out and touch the band if I wanted to. But at some point into the show, Phil made a motion to me to take some pictures, so I did.

The set list was the same as the night before… still minus No Mercy even though it was on the set list. Phil was ON that night. Not that he's ever terrible, but I've seen enough shows to tell when he has an off night and to tell when he just sounds friggin' amazing. This was one of those amazing ones. In fact, the entire band sounded great. Scott has become part of L.A. Guns like he's always belonged in the band. Perfect. I hope he plans to stay too. :) The crowd was into the show. Especially the girls that shoved their way up front. *rolls eyes* I took pictures as best I could. Some of them turned out pretty good. Flynn pointed out to me that Stacey's hotel key was falling out of his back pocket. So I waited for the opportunity and then reached over to tuck it back in, because I'm a nice person like that. The security guy just behind me grabbed my arm and shook his head. Good grief. I tried to explain to him what I was doing, but the music was too loud. After a couple more songs, that damn card was about to fall out again. Stacey's pants are so friggin' tight, you wouldn't think this was possible. *grin* Since it was between songs, I got his attention and told him about the card, so he fixed it himself. I told him that I got in trouble with security for him. After the show, I explained to the kind security guy that I know and work for the band and that I was just fixing the hotel keycard. He said no problem. :)

After the show, the band gathered by the merch table to sign stuff. I met Jasonnin and csi girl (Emily) from the L.A. Guns message board (Hi!!!). Me and Emily made fun of Phil's saggy assed jeans. *grin* I guess Phil doesn't appreciate that we think he should wear tighter jeans. Maybe he should go shopping with Stacey… I'm trying to remember if we hung out long at the venue. I guess we did. Everyone kinda scattered and went about their own thing, at least until they were gathered back up and ushered out to the van. Back to the hotel…

I don't recall at what point I found out, but the Omaha, NE show for Sunday had been cancelled altogether. The band was invited back to Renegades on Sunday night to do a short acoustic set.< I was really, really tempted to feign sickness on Monday so that we could stay for Sunday night.

I've got a couple pix here from Saturday night's show. Not nearly as many given the smaller stage and crowd around me. But for what it's worth, here they are:

Sunday – June 17, 2007

My alarm was set for 10:30am on Sunday since checkout was at 11am, but I woke up before that. And then I decided that we were staying. So in my head I concocted a couple different stories I could call in to work with for the next day. I wasn't able to get back to sleep, so I messed around online a bit and posted some pictures from the show on the LAG board. I called Phil to bother him and see what the plan was for the day. No plans really. Later, me and Flynn went out in search of food and ended up at Boston Market. Back at the hotel, I called Phil again to see what time we were leaving for Renegades. 8:45pm in the lobby. So we ran up to Walgreen's and picked up some CD-Rs so that I could put all the pictures from both shows on a disc for Scott. I gave it to him before we got to the venue.

We went into Renegades and decided to sit outside on the deck. The weather was perfect. After drinks and food were ordered, Phil, Stacey and Scott went inside to do a couple acoustic songs. I was going to take pictures at first, but then remembered my lil Sony Cybershot will record video. So I set it up on a table and recorded all three songs. They played Sex Action and then Phil announced that he was going to bastardize Jayne. It wasn't *that* bad. Scott left the stage and then Phil and Stacey played Baby I Want. Hopefully I'll have the video up on the LAG site in another week.

Afterwards we sat around outside and talked. As it turns out, Scott is not only a musician, but dabbles in web design. And not only that, but he's familiar with the software I use to design the websites. So we're going to work together on re-vamping (pun intended) the L.A. Guns site in the near future. It seems we have similar ideas of what to do with it, so that's going to work out just fine. Steve wanted to leave early, so I agreed to drive everyone else back to the hotel in my truck. We didn't stay very long. I think we were on our way back to the hotel around midnight.

I hate the last night of a concert road trip and all the goodbyes. But I'll get to see Stacey and Phil again next month for the 3 day casino stint in Green Bay, WI… so it's not all bad. :)

We packed up our stuff and left the hotel around 1am. It was a LOOOONG drive home. The drive home is the second part of the end of a concert road trip that I hate. We pulled into my driveway shortly after 7am and went right to sleep.

I had an awesome weekend. I love L.A. Guns. The shows rocked. The guys were as sweet as ever. And I absolutely can't wait to see them again.

The Birthday Birdle Blog

Today is Caleb's 2nd Birthday. YAY for Caleb-birdle! I can't believe it's been two whole years already since I first picked him out. I took some new pictures. Pictures of Mason-birdle too. She's getting bigger all the time.

Caleb now weighs around 63lbs and Mason weighs about 45lbs.


Caleb sitting lazy.




Caleb sitting pretty! When Mason sits pretty, she looks like a prairie dog. lol











Mason will be one year old before I know it...
 

Curly or Straight?

So after the girls had a go at Brandon's hair with their flat iron, he's decided that he wanted to have permanently straight hair.

Here's a before picture of Brandon with his long, curly hair:


We checked Walmart and couldn't find any hair straightener. WTH man? So we stopped in ULTA where the kind hair stylist told us "Oh, we don't sell that stuff to use at home. You'd have to have it done at the salon." I wasn't buying that. So we looked around the store a little more and found our straightener. Then I purposely went back and showed her that they do actually sell it for home use. *hmph* Take that.

Back at home we nuked the mixture and pasted it onto Brandon's hair:


Now you'll notice, my first mistake was not combing his bangs straight forward. Instead I had all his hair to the side. I didn't think anything of it until later after it was completely dry.

Here's a picture of the end result:


Which was okay, but he had two little cow-licks right up front in his bangs and after it dried all the way, his hair started to develop goofy curls. ugh.

So today while out shopping at Jewel-Osco, we found a perm solution. Brought that home, doused his hair with it and combed it straight for 18 minutes (which was the max time suggested). This time, I think his hair is straighter and will probably stay this way even after it dries. I took a blow dryer to it a little bit. Here's the end result:



People with curly hair want straight hair and vice versa. People with short hair want long hair. Vice versa. LOL This stuff is supposed to last for 90 days. I guess we'll see.

Next week, he wants to dye his hair blue. Since school will be out, I'm going to let him. I'll be sure to take pictures...

It's The Bat Cycle!

Okay so not really. But it is Flynn's new 2007 Buell Firebolt XB12R. Despite being a very sharp looking bike, it is definitely not something you'd want to sit on for any extended period of time. Ow my ass. And my arms. LOL But anyway, check it out:


Here it is parked in front of his brother's tattoo shop.

And here it is again from a slightly more front end angle:


I've only been on it twice so far. We picked it up last Monday. And then it proceeded to rain for a few days. Saturday was very nice though and perfect for a ride! I'll take pictures from different angles next time I get a chance.

 

Utah and the Forager (a/k/a Francesca Fiore')
written and directed by Sacagawea the Armadillo Hunter

Starring:
Ken Kress as "the Forager"
Brandon Grimes as "Utah"
Charlene Kress as "Sacagawea the Armadillo Hunter"
and
The Purple Capsule as "Grimace"

Special Guests: Freakshow and Filipe


Our little excursion to El Dorado, Arkansas to visit our father (Brandon's grandfather) began late on a Friday night (the 23rd of March to be exact). Shortly after our departure, okay possibly a few hours after our departure, approximately 11:15pm, we stopped for nourishment at a fine Subway restaurant operated by two teenagers who, even though they looked rather incompetent, made some fine sandwiches. Here's Utah and the Forager at Subway (I'll explain the nicknames later):

Since there was no food or drink allowed in the fiero (see: How I Met Your Mother), we had to eat outside, in the mist, at 11:30am.

Utah contemplates his meal:

We continued on our journey, southbound on I-57, for many miles (367 miles to be exact) until our trusty Acadia binged and warned us of its Low Fuel Level. "Oh" Sacagawea said to the Forager "You still have 3 gallons of gas left. No big deal." However, it turned out to be quite a big deal since every gas station that we stopped at was CLOSED. How can truck stops be closed at 3am?!? Do truckers NOT need gas?? So we dialed up our trusty OnStar and asked for an open gas station. Unfortunately, I guess OnStar is not psychic as they were only able to tell us where the next truck stop was, not if it was open. So we exit I-57 and promptly run out of gas. The Acadia is dead. The Forager manages to coast it off the highway, make a right turn, then another right turn and coast into the dingy, run down truckstop that OnStar lead us to. It seriously looked deserted. I dialed up OnStar again, and just as they were about to call state police to come help us, the Forager discovered that the station was indeed open for business. YAY! Thank you OnStar. Totally worth every penny of that year of free service that came with my Acadia. Here's a picture of the Forager refueling the beast:

And of course, soon after we coasted in, a zillion other cars show up. I think they were all following us. Creepy.

As we left the truckstop, we saw the SIGN.

How appropriate that their DIESEL sign was missing the EL. I think it was trying to tell us something.

Onward we drove, through rain and lightning, through the night and into the morning. Taking turns driving (except obviously Utah since he doesn't have a license yet). Fortunately, we had Grimace to cuddle and keep us company in our slumber:

grimace... we love you.

Here's the TA that welcomed our next fill-up. The Forager was mesmerized by its Arch and had to have a picture:

Leaving I-57 and onto I-55, morning and daylight welcomed us. So did:

Yep, we're in the bible belt. I didn't get a picture of it, but we did pass a church with a sign that read: "WE ARE A CH . . CH, WHAT IS MISSING?" You tell me, what is missing?   I thought it was clever.

Utah quenches his thirst whilst Grimace keeps a sharp eye out for the rare armadillo:

Admit it, that Purple Capsule pillow looks like Grimace, doesn't it? That's how the purple capsule got it's nickname. I glanced in the rearview mirror at Utah and noticed it sitting upright behind him. GRIMACE!

Approaching Little Rock, AR - there's only a few hours to go!

The rest of the trip down was pretty uneventful... except for when our Low Fuel Level indicator came on again. I stopped at a gas station and ... couldn't find my debit card! AAHHHHHH!!!! Did I leave it at that last station? What was the name of it? OnStar, help!!!! Unfortunately, all I had was the address of the last station and not a name. OnStar could not get me a phone number without the name. *sigh* But wait, I remembered that I had my hoodie on at the last station and had taken it off and shoved it in the backseat! My debit card was safe & sound in the pocket. *woot* So we filled up, called dad and moved onward.

There's not much to look at in Arkansas, but the Forager took pictures of it anyway. In fact, throughout this blog, you'll see that he'll take a picture of just about anything. Here's some Arkansas scenery for you:

Finally, at 10:30am, we arrived at our Super 8 in El Dorado, AR. YAY! While the Acadia is actually much more comfortable to travel in than the Vue, spending 14 hours in it travelling is not recommended.

It was a balmy 80 degrees and sunny outside by the time we checked in. After scrubbing off the road grime, we headed over to dad's. He lives about 20 minutes outside of town, in the boonies.

Dad's house.

Dad's side yard.

Locust nest high up in a tree across the street (dad's yard also).

Since we were starving, we gathered up dad and Lisa (his girlfriend) and headed back into town to a place called Ryan's. mmmm... all you can eat buffet. hehe

Here's my dad on our way back from Ryan's:

After dinner, we made a pit-stop at Super Walmart and then dad took us to see the recording studio he set up with a friend, and stopped by his work to show it off. Here's the studio:

My dad works as a mechanic for the county. Keeps their trucks on the road. Here's a picture of where he works and the trucks he works on:

Afterwards, we dropped dad & Lisa off at home. Back at the ol' Super 8, we took advantage of the pool and hot tub, but not before a nice cuddle with Grimace and a phone home:

*sigh* grimace....

The Forager and Sacagawea in the hot tub:

Utah, timidly tests the temperature of the "heated" pool. HAH... heated my ass, that water was FREEZING cold. After we threatened to push him in, he eventually jumped.

Relaxed from the spa, before bed, a fight over who would sleep in who's bed ensued because Utah didn't wish to sleep with Steel Toe (later re-nicknamed the Forager). Utah made feeble attempts to shove a dirty sock in Sacagawea's face, while she fended him off by pressing her foot against his face until he fell out of bed in a fit of laughter...

We then ordered and enjoyed some Cheesy Bites pizza from Pizza Hut and settled in with Grimace for a good night's sleep. Utah wasn't giving up so easily on which bed he wanted to sleep in...

(note: the time/date stamp on the Forager's camera is incorrect)

It must have been a rough night for Utah and Grimace:

The next day it was decided that we would travel up to Hot Springs, AR for some sightseeing. So we picked up dad and Lisa, set up our GPS and hit the road. Lisa has been to Hot Springs before. Our GPS has not. We should have listened to Lisa's directions. We still got there, but I think we took the scenic route. Here are some sights along the way:

Well, I'll be... there really is a place called Arkadelphia in Arkansas!

Sonics are to Arkansas as McDonald's are to Illinois.

Oh yeah, we stopped for some tattoos too. NOT.

Alas, we arrived in Hot Springs where we saw this lookout tower and decided, we MUST go up the tower!

Unfortunately, said "tower" was way atop a very steep hill, mountain, whatever you want to call it, it was a long ass way up and quite steep!

Following are some pictures of our trek up the mountain. Utah and the Forager thought they would take a short cut from the trails and walk straight up a water drain, while dad, Lisa and I took followed the trail. The Forager lost his footing on some moss and tumbled down the mountain side, losing my bottle of diet coke in the process. CURSES! And Utah didn't even get any pictures of it. He said he was trying to help the Forager, didn't have time to take pictures. I told him, there was nothing you could do to save him! Take pictures and laugh! Man, my diet coke was gone for good. I wish I had been there at least to see it happen...

Our journey begins...

Utah and the Forager

Utah and the Forager head up the unbeaten trail...

Dad and Lisa

Success!

We hadn't yet reached the tower, but only an outlook post. *sigh* A nearby tourist took this picture for us.

But wait, just ahead of us was:

$6 each to go up the tower? WTF. Utah, the Forager and myself opted to go up and take pictures...

It's a loooooonnnnngggggg way down!

ACK! It's a close up of the Forager! (a/k/a Francesca Fiore')

The Forager and Sacagawea.

Say cheese! Not bad for taking it myself, eh?

Exhausted from our long journey up the mountain (okay, hill, whatever.), dad, Lisa and Utah sent us down for the car. We took the quick way down (that unbeaten trail) and ended up right at the only open hot spring left in Hot Springs. Go figure. Along the way, we stopped for several photo ops, here's a few:

We returned with the truck and brought everyone back down to the one and only hot spring...

Yes, they are really hot. I walked up to it and sticking my finger in the water said "is this really hot?" OUCH!!! Should've read the sign that said the water was 134 degrees farenheit prior to doing that.

The fountains are hot too since they run off the hot springs. Here's Utah getting a drink.

QUACK.

Peace dude.

Sitting outside the parking garage.

After Hot Springs, we were exhausted and decided to head up to Outback Steakhouse for nourishment. On the way there, it was decided that we would have to take a road trip out West next year. The Forager said we would have to visit Devil's Tower in Wyoming. This is where an argument began between The Forager and Utah. Utah insisted that Devil's Tower was in the state of Utah, NOT Wyoming. Argue, back and forth, blah blah blah. And so, the nickname "Utah" was born. Shut up Utah.

We let dad drive us back home, and he barely does the speed limit (meaning, he probably went 5mph under the speed limit the entire way), so we didn't get back to our Super 8 until very late. Utah watched a stupid movie called The Hamiltons and we went to bed.

Monday morning we packed up, checked out and decided to go to Shreveport, LA. At our first gas fill-up, Utah had some luck with a "claw machine" and brought us a travelling companion, whom we named Filipe. Here's Filipe:

On our way, we discovered Kim's Hair Salon in a deserted lot off the side of the highway and decided to get our hair done. NOT. Truthfully, we missed our turn due to the crappy Microsoft Strips and Treats on my laptop and had to make a U-Turn here:

In Shreveport, we picked up a trustworthy Garmin C340 GPS unit named Karen to assist us in our travels. Then we visited a nifty outdoor mall and enjoyed some Coldstone Creamery. Then the Forager realized he had left his ID and debit card in a pair of shorts he tried on at Super Walmart earlier... so we hurried back and luckily it was right where he'd left it. OY.

Shreveport, LA

Where "JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON"

Outdoor mall had its very own Trolley!

The Forager enjoys his Founder's Favorite at Coldstone.

We left Shreveport and headed back to my dad's house, guided by Karen. Arrived around 7pm and visited for a bit before heading back home. Dad treated us to some licks on his guitar and we luckily left with our ear drums in tact.

Dad painted this himself. This guitar has been through more colors than I can remember since my childhood.

This is dad's cat, Kitty. She's an outdoor cat. Catches all the mice.

"I am Iron Skillet" (sung to the tune of Iron Man)

On the way home, we stopped for more nourishment. (see photo above) And this is where The Forager got his nickname. I ran out of creamer for my coffee and the Forager asked our waitress for more. While grabbing more creamer off a nearby table, she said "What kind of forager are you?!? There's some right over here." and thus, The Forager was born. Though he prefers to be called Francesca Fiore'.

Since neither Utah, nor the Forager could come up with a creative nickname for me, they decided to call me Sacagawea (from the movie Night at the Museum) the Armadillo Hunter (because I was on a qwest for armadillos, which I never did find, so I bought a postcard of one for my fridge.). Shut up Utah.

Utah tried his hand at the claw machine again.

and out came a cute little yellow fluffy bunny rabbit. After turning it over to look at it, he immediately shrieked and threw it to the floor. Enter: FREAKSHOW:

HOLY CRAP I'VE NEVER SEEN SUCH AN UGLY ASS BUNNY!!!!

Utah stuck this thing in my face while I was driving and I said "AH!!!! Get that freakshow out of here." and so, Freakshow was born. He spent the remainder of the trip scaring the Forager while he was napping, and in the way way back of the truck.

Alas, the sun came up and we returned to good ol' Gurnee, IL around 10:30am.

What a trip! Hope you enjoyed the story. I certainly enjoyed telling it. I hope I didn't leave out anything unimportant. hehe

An L.A. Guns Weekend in Review...

FINALLY. I know. It's my LAG weekend blog.

As most of my friends know, I had two lovely visitors from Germany staying with me from Wednesday, March 14th thru Monday, March 19th. Stephanie and Silke were wonderful houseguests and even played fetch with Caleb. In fact, it's quite possible that 75% of their stay was spent playing fetch with Caleb. I warned them.

Picking them up from O'Hare's international terminal was a piece of cake. I got there a little too early, but still, piece of cake. We got home around 6:30pm and ordered a pizza for dinner. MMMMM pizza. Unfortunately, it is not ordinary to put tuna on pizza in the States, so alas, no tuna was to be had. (personally... BLEH... tuna on pizza. LOL) Caleb and Mason took to them immediately and insisted on a game of fetch. We stayed up talking for a bit, but I had to get up early for work the next day, so we didn't stay up too late.

Thursday night after work we all headed over to the Rainforest Cafe for an interesting dining experience. Here's a group pic of everyone at the restaurant:


L to R: Teresa, Kimmi, Lottie, Silke, Stephanie, Me, Flynn (Brandon took the picture)

And here is the night sky that kept thundering and lightning on us during dinner:


Causing a nearby rainbow:


And finally a picture of me and Flynn:


Afterwards we went up to Flynn's brother's tattoo shop (on an errand). I don't have any pix from that excursion however. We got back to my house pretty late and since I had to work the next morning, right to bed with us.

Friday was the BIG night! L.A. Guns at the Penny Road Pub in Barrington, IL. Before leaving my house I received a call from Phil asking if I would kindly do merch for them that evening... unless of course, I could find some other sucker, er, I mean friend, for the job. Knowing that most of my friends would rather enjoy the show they were going to see, I knew I would end up doing merch. But I don't mind helping out a band in need. Here I am, Merch Girl extraordinaire:



And then after a few beers... (FIVE DOLLAH!!) (and I really didn't think my top was THAT low... eek! haha) Good thing I don't have much to show off.

(Photos courtesy of Teresa's digital camera)

The band was ON. They sounded great! And played some songs I haven't heard live before too. Amazing considering the amount of times I've seen them play over the past 9 years. The set list included Slap in the Face, Wheels of Fire, Sex Action, Never Enough, Some Lie 4 Love, Rock n Roll Outlaw, Gypsy Soul, It Don't Mean Nothin', Hellraisers Ball, Long Time Dead, One More Reason, Electric Gypsy, Ballad of Jayne, Rip n Tear and No Mercy. Here are some pictures from the show:
one and only, Mr. Stacey Blades.




The amazing Mr. Phil Lewis.


Mr. Adam Hamilton on the bass geetar!

And... Mr. Steve Riley on drums. *woot*




This last one was taken by me from the merch area. The rest were taken with my camera by my lovely friend Kim. :)


All of us! L to R: Teresa, Kimmi, Stephanie, Lottie, Elle, Me and Silke


Um, this can still be considered selling merch, right?

After the show we visited with the band for a bit and then headed home. I *think* we were in bed by 4am (maybe 4:30am). Saturday morning was a bit rough on the getting going. A great reminder of why I shouldn't drink. heh Actually, dancing at the merch table is a great reminder of why I shouldn't drink too. haha

However, we had a big night ahead of us... L.A. Guns at the US Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington, IL!!! YAY! We hit the road around 2pm, a little later than we wanted to get going, but no big deal. After a 3 hour trip, we arrived. The weather was decent, but a little chilly. Phil called shortly after we pulled up and said there was no cellular reception in the building. Which we thought was quite funny since it is the US Cellular Coliseum. We got our tickets at Will Call with no problem, however, no passes were to be found. But Rob came to our rescue. He came out looking for us and said to find him after the show. *woot*

Now maybe I've just become biased over the years, but I prefer the smaller setting of a bar/club concert over a coliseum/arena type concert. However, the show was still great and I enjoyed it very much. Same set list as the night before. Here are some pictures:


(Not many people can pull off white, Phil can.)

After the show there was a meet n greet. We didn't wait in line because obviously we've met the band and I wanted to give other fans a chance to do the same. However, we were slightly off to the side waiting. Teresa had her camera ready to go and I called out to Stacey. I think he knew what was up... when he turned our way, we got this wink (PERFECT! hah):

It was so perfect. We laughed. He asked to see it and then said to take another because he looks "toothless" in the picture above, so here's TAKE TWO:


Adorable.

After the M-n-G, everyone hung out backstage and talked, and drank wine, and talked, and juggled, and ate pizza. Flynn was chosen to go out and film Warrant's set. *WOOT!* Here are some pix from backstage:


Teresa sticking her tongue out at me...


Phil talking Stephanie's ear off... not that she minded at all.




L to R: Lori, Elle, Stephanie, Teresa, Moi, Kimmi and Silke


GROUP HUG!!!

After the show we went to Denny's to eat... where they have very "American" benches. hehe


Another late, but awesome, night and a LOOOOONGGGGG drive home. Silke had to sing to keep me awake on the drive back. LOL The only bad thing about road trips is always the trek back home. But we had SO much fun.

After sleeping in on Sunday, we loaded up in our cars and drove down to the city for a day of sightseeing. You can't travel all the way from Germany and NOT see Chicago! (I live about 45 minutes Northwest of Chicago). Here's a picture of my butt that Teresa took on our way into the city (read: it's my Acadia's butt, not mine):


First on our plate was the Lincoln Park Zoo - for two reasons: 1) IT'S FREE and 2) they have Penguins!!! We lucked out and had a beautiful sunny day in downtown Chicago to enjoy sightseeing outdoors. Here are some pictures from the zoo:


Stephanie in front of the Penguin House.


I love this picture... check out Steph's reflecting in the glass. I call it "Reflecting on Penguins" hehe...


Brandon acting like it's sooooo cold outside.


Polar Bear!!!


I wanna be a Toys'R Us kid!


I want a Hippotamus for Christmas, only a Hippotamus will do...


This Emperor Penguin scoffs at humans.


It's the Lion King! He was enjoying his sunbathing and could not be bothered with us.

Next on the agenda was a visit to the Sears Tower. Here's what it look like from the ground up:



Here's Brandon and Jacob sitting outside the Sears Tower.


L to R: Brandon, Jacob, Moi, Teresa, Stephanie and Silke

That's the building I work in. It looks so tiny from the Sears Tower, though it's 45 stories high.

Afterwards we headed over to Ed Debevic's since our tummies would not have any more sightseeing otherwise... Below is our waitress, Mrs. Pants:

She was so quick, she was just a blur in my camera. lol

For those who have never been to Ed's, the waitstaff is supposed to be rude to you and it's fun to give it right back to them. This kid behind us who had a different waiter was yelling for our waitress to help them and I told him "She's ours, get your own waiter." and he just huffed and said "whatever." hehe

Here's Brandon and Jacob at dinner:


During dinner, our little joke was that we would all write some sort of "pants" phrase on our Ed's hats.


Mine was Sponge Bob Square Pants, obviously.


Al was Stone Cold Otay Buttwheat Pants.


Teresa was Happy Pants.


Silke had Grumpy Pants. hehe


Jacob was a Smarty Pants. lol


Appropriately Stephanie was Penguin Pants!

Didn't get a picture of Brandon's hat! His read "Los perros están usando los pantalones peludos." and Flynn didn't want his picture posted in my blog, but his read "My Dog Pants" Here's a picture of all of us at Ed's. We were in the Elvis Room!



And of course, no trip would be complete without a visit to Cold Stone Creamery:

mmmmmmm ice cream!!!!

I took Monday off work to have some repair work done on my Acadia. Then I took Stephanie and Silke to Pot Belly Sandwich Works for lunch. YUM. And alas, shortly after that we were on our way to O'Hare to say goodbye.

It was such a great weekend and so good to see Steph and Silke again. :) Rumor has it that they had just as much fun. And what blog would be complete without a picture of my "fetching" pups:



Stay tuned for a blog about my recent trip to Arkansas, complete with pictures!
 

Like... Oh My Dog!!!

Teresa was over yesterday and we played some fetch with Caleb. Well, Mason REALLY doesn't like for Caleb to play fetch. Here's what she does to stop him... heh


Demon dogs with their little beady demon eyeballs!

And here's where Mason likes to sleep in her free time... on top of my couch cushion.


Oh yeah, and here's why Teresa was actually over... she stopped by to check this bad boy out:

2007 GMC Acadia SLT. FWD. Traction Control. Seats 7.

I know. I just couldn't wait.

 

I know, I'm supposed to be posting my LA blog, but I have so many pictures to go through and resize still, that I just haven't gotten around to it. While in LA, I saw a commercial for this and fell in love... *sigh*

It's a GMC Acadia. Seats 7 or 8 (depending on options chosen). Beautiful! Unfortunately, it's a bit out of my price range. With the options I want (which includes a dual skyscape sunroof!), this truck runs about $35,000. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait until I make my first million for this one. Anywho, I promise to have the LA pix up by this weekend. At least they are now off my cameras and onto the PC! That's definitely a start. 

Oddly enough, we didn't actually go to Los Angeles itself. haha

I managed to catch a crappy cold the week before we were to leave. We left my house at 11:30am on Friday, February 23rd, dropped the car off at the parking garage and shuttled it over to the airport. Our plane was timely. Our plane was cramped. UGH. What a miserable flight. I felt terrible, my head was about to explode. I was so glad once our landing was over. We arrived in LA about 5:35pm (PST). Will never rent from Hertz again. Took an hour to get our rental car! Here it is:



There was a bit of a fiasco picking it up. They send you out to a numbered parking spot, the keys are in the vehicle. The vehicle in the spot we were sent to was a Ford Taurus with a navigation system. SWEET I thought, until we got to the gate and were told we had the wrong car. Had to go back and look for a particular license plate, fortunately it was just across the aisle. This Mazda 3 wasn't bad at all though. The entire weekend we only used a half tank of gas!

Here's our hotel... the Tradewinds in Inglewood. Just down the street from the airport and in an unsavory neighborhood.



Actually it wasn't all that bad. We had two rooms, one for TV and one for sleeping. It was clean and fairly quiet with the exception of airplanes overhead, which I didn't even hear when I was asleep anyway, so no big deal. Parking was a pain in the ass every night. That's the only downfall. Otherwise, I'd stay there again.




View from outside our room.


Funky "frenchfry guy" shaped trees down La Brea Blvd.

There was a party at Skid's house on Friday night. So after stopping at the "not as good as I've heard it was" IN-N-OUT Burger, we got to the party in San Pedro. Not a bad drive. :) Had a really good time. Met some new people from Jizzy's message board. All of Love/Hate were there. Here's some pictures:


Moji and Jizzy


Lee and me (hey that rhymes, LOL)


Moji and Amy (there were two cameras taking the pic, so they're looking in different directions. HEH)

I think we left around 12:30am. Things were starting to die down anyway. Many thanks to Skid and his wife, Karen, for opening up their beautiful house to all us crazy Love/Hate fans. :)

Woke up too early (9am) Sunday morning to a text from Bobby (Blotzer). I had texted him the night before when I found out he was in LA that weekend too. Turns out he was. But didn't come to the show. Not sure why not. *shrugs* I wanted to head up to Hollywood to get a picture of the infamous Hollywood sign, so we started getting ready around 11am. Got a call from Stacey (Blades) around that time and we made tentative plans to meet for lunch, but since it took us forever and a day to get into Hollywood and find the perfect spot to take my sign picture, we ended up skipping lunch.

After driving through an incredibly hilly neighborhood that I wish I had taken pictures of, we located Beachwood Dr. and Franklin. To get the perfect picture, I had to actually stand out in the middle of the road. LOL But here it is!



By the time we'd finished that, it was 2:30pm. Since traffic was crazy and we still wanted to get back to the hotel and change for the show, we skipped lunch and drove back to Inglewood. Our friendly GPS lady gave us a different way back which was much faster! YAY.

Because of the Oscars, traffic around Hollywood Blvd. was no fun. Parking was limited and difficult to find. We got back to Hollywood around 8pm and after much driving around, found a spot to park. Walked up & down Hollywood Blvd. a bit. Took pictures of the get-up for the Oscars, pictures of the stars and a picture of Pinhead. LOL


This is Club Vodka at the Knitting Factory hidden beneath LA Fitness. I never would have seen it if I didn't ask someone where it was.

This is all the hoopla for the Oscars. Sidewalks and street blocked off. Lights everywhere. Red carpet. Golden Oscar statues of all sizes.













*ack*




Awww... my favorite band! It was the first star I took a picture of. :)


The Simpsons have a star! haha


And so does Woody Woodpecker. How weird is that? Cartoons. LOL I didn't find Motley Crue's star. I think it might have been on a portion of sidewalk that was blocked off due to the Oscars.

After hours of wandering around, we made our way to the venue. The club was PACKED. And hot. We were standing around before the show and that's when Stacey and Lisa found us. We sat on the upper level a bit and watched a few of the opening bands. Then we went backstage to see what was going on. Lots of people crowded backstage, talking, catching up, drinking. Here's a few pix:


Bumped into Keff (Ratcliffe)!! :) I haven't seen him in forever, since his time in L.A. Guns.


Me and Mr. Robbie Crane. :)


Me and Mr. Stacey Blades

Also saw John Corabi, Muddy, Phil Lewis and probably some others that are skipping my mind right now. I heard Warren DeMartini was there, but didn't see him.

Love/Hate put on a great show to a packed venue. Lots of energy on stage and great songs! They played Blackout in its entirety, as well as Spinning Wheel and Wasted in America. Flynn was in charge of the camera, so all live pix are credited to him! Here ya go:




































And then Lee won the Love/Hate autographed guitar!!!! Go Lee! :)


I mean, seriously, how friggin' cool is that, that a fan from the message board who traveled in to see the show actually won this!? I love it. :)

We hung out a bit backstage. Received directions to a party at Muddy's house, which we did actually head out to, but my drunk ass was too drunk and tired, not to mention my feet were KILLING me from all the walking... so we didn't go in. We headed back to the hotel. I think we got there some time between 4 and 5am. I don't know for sure. Didn't even get going to the next day until probably 2pm. Unfortunately lost an entire day. *sigh* That'll teach me not to drink. LOL

We left the hotel to do some sightseeing around 4pm-ish. Got onto PCH and headed down to Redondo Beach. It was quite dark out by the time we got anywhere, so all my pictures needed to be adjusted a little on the PC to lighten them up. If the colors look a little off, that's probably why. :)


Waves crashing up against the boardwalk at Redondo Beach.






This little birdy had a boat all to himself. heh



Afterward, we headed down to Long Beach. Eons ago (okay I was 14), we lived in Long Beach and my brother was a tour guide on the Queen Mary. So I went back to get some pictures. It's nothing at all like I remember it being. Funny what almost 20 years will do.







I don't remember Long Beach actually having a skyline!



That's all the pix for this blog. We took so many, but there's no way I could post all of them. :) We got back to the hotel early, probably 10pm-ish. Actually found a place to park. Walked up to the casino to see if they had slots, but it was a bust. So we went back to the hotel and packed. The entire time we were in LA, Brandon would call me with snow updates. LOL Apparently there was a LOT of snow! Before going to bed, we checked our flight and found out it was leaving about 30 minutes late in the morning. No big deal.

Go going around 6:30am, returned our rental car and shuttled it back to the airport. Waited forever in line at Starbucks to spend too much money on breakfast and then waited for our plane. LAX is the most disorganized airport I've ever been to. Not that I've been to many. But still. They didn't even announce over the intercom that our plane was boarding until half the people were on it! Once on the plane, we learned we'd be delayed another 30 minutes. Found out the onboard video system was malfunctioning. :hmph: It was hot, cramped and ARGH. I'm flying first class from now on dammit.

Given that we left an hour late, it was amazing we landed only 30 minutes late at O'Hare. Snow coming down all around us. Took a while for the shuttle to pick us up and take us to my car. But we were home by 6:30pm. Barely any traffic. I was crashed by 9pm that night. Still haven't caught up entirely on my sleep. But I am nearly over this cold.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

SUNDAY... SUNDAY... SUNDAY!!!

Went to the Monster Jam at the Allstate Arena this afternoon.  AWESOME!  All the trucks did some incredible jumps and stunts.  The motocross bikes went all out on their freestyle.  Here's some pictures of the event...


Batman's entrance...


GRAVEDIGGER!!!!


Hotwheels clears the first row of cars.


Superman takes flight!


Hotwheels in action.


Blue Thunder's leap of faith.


Batman to the rescue...


WAAHOOOOO


Gravedigger's wheelie.


Wheelie across the row of cars!

And now onto the motocross part of the show!  I zoomed in on the riders and put their pictures in the corner of each to show the trick they were doing.
















This one was my favorite.  Brandon says it's a "no-handed superman".

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures!  We had a great time.  Though the exhaust has left me with a terrible sore throat.  We were totally close the trucks.  Gravedigger spit mud up at us when doing donuts.  LOL 

Yeah, okay, so maybe I went a little camera crazy.    Here's a blog of more pictures of my pets than you probably ever wanted to see.


Happy Caleb!


Such good friends...  :)


Mason asleep on the toy basket.


Mason destroying a chew toy.


Closeup!


Lady Mason on the couch.  (yup, that's her AKC registered name)


Buddies


This is MY toy.


I love this picture.  :)


Caleb's closeup.




OMG, look at her face.  Mason is eating my hair.  OW!


Caught in the act.


My happy doggie.




Mason, using the charcoal feature in PhotoImpact.


Whitey always looks SO serious.  Lighten up cat!


Pretty blue eyes.  :)


Mister P just always looks really pissed off.  He needs to lighten up too.  ;)


Mister P looks down his snout at us.  LOL

That's all I've got to share.  The dogs & cats are doing great.  Mason is a whopping 22lbs at just over 3 months of age.  She's lots of fun.  I just can't wait for her high pitched bark to go away.  heh 

Hope everyone enjoys the pictures.

These are pictures that have been on my camera since just before Christmas.  I just haven't had time to put them onto my PC and edit them.  But now, now it's done!  

Here's Mason in her favorite place to sleep.  It's the corner of the breakfast nook in my kitchen.  She won't fit in there much longer. 


Here we are on Christmas Eve attempting to get a picture of Caleb and Mason in front of the Christmas tree, but this is all we ended up with...


Here's Mason and Caleb on Christmas morning opening their stocking full of toys...




Here's the "holy crap" moment when Brandon opened his PS3 on Christmas morning...

First, he peeled the paper off the edge, looked at me, and if I remember correctly, said "are you kidding me?"  hehe


Then he peeled more paper off the top...


And this is pretty much the smile he had on his face all day...


This is Brandon's birthday cake (his 15th bday was 12/30)... no comments from the peanut gallery on the writing and I'll explain why it's pink (LOL).  Cherry frosting on a Red Velvet cake.  It's his favorite, he picked it out.  It's not our fault that cherry frosting is pink...




Brandon got Guitar Hero II and a Playstation II for his birthday... these were supposed to be Christmas gifts until I happened upon that PS3 two days before Christmas...


Here's Mason nice and mellow on New Years Eve...


Then Caleb walked into the room and she looked kind of worried... haha


Hope everyone had a good NYE and has their 2007 off to a good start.  Enjoy the pictures.  No doubt there will be more.  :)