adventures with f

June 14, 2010

2010-07-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

I quit smoking at approximately 1115 on June 14, 2010.

The train station at my work is a 1/2 mile around. I like to walk around it, planted some sunflowers, tad late but we'll see what happens, and take pictures of the trains and buses.

Pictures of MBTA Greenline Trolleys at the Lowell Train Station (don't know where they are going, the Greenline serves the greater Boston area, not Lowell).

Red Sox v. Twins 5/19/10

2010-05-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

I'd been sick this past weekend, as well as Monday and Tuesday. Maria called Wednesday morning at 0934 to ask if I wanted to attend a game that evening, Tom got tickets.

I had slept so soundly, finally, that I missed all my alarms, but hopped in the shower, gathered clothing, and headed off to work. When I was making my left turn, Tom was waiting to turn left the other way.

Me: Where is Tom going? Is he ok?

Maria: Oh yeah, he's fine. He's going to pick up the tickets.

The topic prior to the game was transportation. I had a dentist appt in Burlington at 1430, expected to end around 1515. Maria would transport herself to Burlington via Kevin, we'd drive to Sullivan Station, and then hop on the T.

Maria left work at 1330, I left at 1355, made the dentist appt, and Maria and Kevin showed up shortly after 1530. Everything worked fine, got the T (ran for the orange line), hopped on the green (any green but the e), and ended up at Game On. Wonderful burgers, were early enough to get a seat by the window, and got ponchos for $3 each, just in case.

Here are the pictures from the game:

when i have some more time, i'll put up pics from the 5/8/10 game

Geez, I haven't updated this in ages

2010-04-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

the old computer crashed completely

good to know i remember my password

"the apparently soon to be released Chinese Democracy" is actually released!!

2008-11-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

Spud, somewhat in disbelief, checks out the new Guns n' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, both CD and record/vinyl formats.

I headed up to Nashua this morning to pick up my preordered copy of the Chinese Democracy CD. On the way into the store, I also picked up a record of Chinese Democracy.

Now that Chinese Democracy is actually here, I'm not sure what to do with myself, except listen to it and enjoy it...kinda like people are supposed to do when a band releases an album. Honestly, I never thought this day would happen, it has been quite a long time.

Yep, I ordered my free Dr Pepper coupon before their website crashed. Don't know if I'll redeem it or keep it next to my Chinese Democracy record version (I have a habit of collecting various things).

Quite a circle from May 2006, when I started here, with a story of seeing GnR in NYC.

My Dad asked if it was worth the wait.

Seeing as no one knew what to expect until it began to hit the airwaves, final versions (not the leaks we've been hearing), yes, it was worth the wait. Now we have it, finally, and it is a good album. Besides, who knows what is next...

Disney and Football

2008-11-17T16:59:00.000-08:00

We went to Disney at the end of October and then the Redskins-Cowboys game in November.

Disney was quite a bit of fun because Michelle had more fun this year (she didn't try to hid from the characters like last year).

The game, well, we lost. But Liz and I did get to meet Mr. Green (#28) and Mr. Monk (#81) before the game. These guys were excellent Redskins but more importantly (or at least as importantly), they are still active in the Washington, D.C. community.

Before the game, the stadium handed out "Rally Rags" to people. HELLO, DAN, WE ARE NOT STEELERS FANS! (please give us seat cushions next time that we can frisbee-throw onto the field). Thanks

Chinese Democracy

2008-10-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

I'm going to keel over out of shock...Chinese Democracy is here

Maine

2008-10-13T17:51:00.001-07:00

Went to Maine this past weekend.

I decided to wear my McCain/Palin shirt. On the drive up, a vehicle passed mine sporting a McCain/Palin sticker, mentioned to my guide, "Look! See, I'm not alone!" Stopped at the Republican headquarters in Lincoln County, picked up a yard sign, and chatted with the lady running the shop that afternoon.

As we were walking down the sidewalk to the Republican store, I mentioned to my companion that, "Obama and the current dem party scare the crap out of me." We have George Soros, Bill Ayers ("I don't regret setting bombs," Bill Ayers said. "I feel we didn't do enough." New York Times, 9/11/01), Chicago Mob Politics, no information about who Obama actually is, the child Obama worshippers, the Obama Alpha and Omega, Obama Youth, recently renamed Youth 4 Obama (guess someone read a history book recently), etc.

During our conversation with the lady running the R shop, she also mentioned that she was afraid of what would happen to America if Obama won the election.

As to the election in MA, there are 3 other people I know of, besides myself, voting for McCain/Palin.

BTW I'm voting for McCain/Palin

2008-10-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

This guy is good, very good.

"Still water runs deep, so make some ripples..."

2008-10-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

The above was advice/insight from an operator in Iowa upon my departure several years ago.

I would like this former operator, Bill, to know (via Jim H. in Davenport) that several boulders have been pushed off the hilltop and into the river at my current location during the past several weeks. The result has been little tsunamis, here and there. No real negative effects on the overall operation, we're still here, providing quality service to the customers.

I am honest, to a fault, I respect those that are honest, you all know that. If you lie to me, then the trust is gone for quite a while. And everyone knows I hate games.

Let's see how many boulders I can find, because they are all being pushed downhill, en masse, after today's game. I am pissed.

Update 10/10/08: isn't there a saying about lights and roaches?

Cockroaches are mainly nocturnal and will run away when exposed to light. A peculiar exception is the Asian cockroach, which is attracted to light. Another study tested the hypothesis that cockroaches use just two pieces of information to decide where to go under those conditions: how dark it is and how many of their friends are there?,

My maglight is ready; let's lift up the rocks and watch them run. I will not back down, I will not give up, and I will not lose.

The skin just grew another coat (thanks goes out to some mentors in Iowa).

Game on.

Banish the thought, now.

2008-10-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

I still have the actual sticker via the WaPo from years ago. Reading Tony's columns became part of my breakfast routine before running off for the bus.

Our bandwagon won't ever happen again, just banish the thought.

Although, it is so tempting right now, we're 4-1...

Boston 10/4/08

2008-10-04T22:20:00.001-07:00

Went back to Boston Saturday, 10/4/08. It was a lovely day, although a tad bit chilly in the morning and in the shade. Went through Cambridge and saw Harvard and a couple of crew teams out on the Charles, along with the various colleges' boat houses.

First stop was The Church of the Advent. The pictures below are of the outside only. My digital camera has developed a mind of its own, zooming in when it is in the mood, refusing to turn off the flash, etc. Since my digital camera and I cannot communicate verbally yet and because flash photograhy was prohibited in the interior, there are no pictures of the interior of the church. But it is beautiful and I thank the Weldon family for directing me to visit. This was also the first free church established in the City of Boston.

They leave the gas lights on all the time because turning the gas off and then back on is more expensive than just leaving the gas running.

Walked over towards the Charles River, saw the Boston Pops band shell and the river itself.

After that, headed off to Fenway Park. The Red Sox were out of town, so it wouldn't be very crowded.

I sent a picture via cell phone to both Mark (Liz' husband) and my Dad. Grabbed some food and sent Mark another tm asking if he had received the pictures I sent. The message I received back indicated he was not pleased at my actions today, namely visiting Fenway without him. Since I had managed to stay in his good graces for quite a bit (think the last really bad time was when Liz and I went to Home Depot for 5 hours, and I'll conveniently forget the circumstances surrounding my return flight in August after the Poison concert...), I was a bit worried. I called Liz' cell, no answer. I call the house phone, no answer. I call Mark's cell, planning to ask if Liz was around since I couldn't get ahold of her. His phone was picked up, background noise was heard for a few seconds, then the phone was hung up.

Now, I'm thinking I must have really pissed him off, so I call Lynn, Liz' mom and Mark's mother-in-law. When I explained that I sent Mark a picture via the cell phone of Fenway and the resulting aftershocks, she replied, "Oh, he isn't going to be happy." She provided a good guestimation on the information I was trying to obtain: What size shirt does Mark wear?

Jumping ahead to when I arrived back home and called Liz, Mark now has the picture I sent set as the background on his cell phone, so maybe I'm partly forgiven.

After Fenway, headed back towards Quincy Market. Walked around the pier for a bit.

It was a very pleasant day, temperature-wise and sightseeing-wise.

My Subpoena

2008-09-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

About a month or so ago, picked up the mail one evening and was surprised to see an envelope with a return address of the "Office of the District Attorney, Victim Witness Services" in Clark County, NV.

I had encountered one of these envelopes before while living in Iowa, but that is a tale for a different time. This one, like the last, was filled out and returned. Since the IA one didn't result in me having to appear in court and I knew what the NV one was about, I figured the NV one would most likely go the same way.

Last night, I picked up the mail, saw an envelope from the Office of the District Attorney in Clark County. The envelope was opened in the elevator on the way up to my place.

I nearly dropped the rest of the mail, my dinner, and my bag in the elevator when I saw the word "SUBPOENA" and the line, "YOU ARE COMMANDED TO APPEAR BEFORE THE: LAS VEGAS JUSTICE CENTER, REGIONAL JUSTICE CENTER".

Called my Dad immediately after reaching the safety of my apartment (where the rest of the mail, my dinner, and bag could be safely dropped on the floor), seeking advice. My Dad told me to give the guy listed a call, explain I was now living X thousands of miles away from NV, was willing to come to NV to appear in court, couldn't afford the airfare, but was willing to make a sworn statement locally if it would help the NV court.

Called the guy listed, told him what my Dad had relayed to me. Because of the expenses, the guy told me I'd be excused but gave me the number of the Deputy D.A. handling the case to ask about the local sworn statement. Left a message with him, outlining the cost issue and if I could do something locally, let me know what I need to do to help them out.

Now, waiting to hear back from NV.

My first subpoena, I may have to frame it...

The past week

2008-09-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

This past week has had both high points (mostly in my personal life) and really low points (mostly work related).

Monday was a bad day.

Tuesday started off with me saying to myself, "WTF, can this get any more FUBAR'ed?" and ended with riding a bus for an hour to think.

Wednesday, mostly good with a cloud lingering.

Thursday was a great day; my car is now, finally, street-legal in MA (registered, plated, stickered), and my McCain-Palin shirt came in.

Thursday evening, I wasn't sure if I was going to survive Friday, predicting I had a 50-50 chance at being employed here by Friday afternoon. It went the total opposite of what I was expecting, completely calm, executed perfectly.

Saturday, didn't go to Boston (something came up), tried to switch to Verizon (Verizon still doesn't have a license for the 434 area code), but got a nice new phone from Sprint to replace my 5 year old guy.

This morning, while getting some stuff out of my car, an elderly neighbor called down from her balconey...

Her: Hello...Hello (excitedly waving her hand)

Me: Oh, Hi!

Her: I just had to let you know I love your shirt, absolutely love it.

Me: Thanks!

Her: We need more of them.

Me: I know.

The shirt that prompted this exchange between my 75 year-old neighbor and myself...

and this is in the People's Socialist Republic of MA.

Boston

2008-09-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

Today started out with crappy weather for an outdoor sightseeing trip to Boston. It was supposed to be sunny with a possible afternoon storm. It was raining at 6:30 a.m. when I woke up.

The rain stopped around noonish, went down to the Alewife T station, transferred once, and ended up at Back Bay Station in Boston. Here are some pictures:

A Public Pay Toilet

The Boston Public Library

The John Hancock Tower

Trinity Church

There is a church in Boston that I have been directed to visit courtesy of the Walker family. When I stumbled across this one, I called Liz and then Weldon to find out what the address was (Weldon sent it to me in an email, still kept as new, but I didn't look it up before leaving the house). This is not the Church, the Church I'm looking for is the Church of the Advent and is on Beacon Hill. I thought Beacon Hill would be miles from this one (like walking from RFK to Georgetown). No, Beacon Hill is definitely walkable. Didn't find the Church this weekend, but I'm going back down there next weekend and finding the Church is on the to-do list.

Statue of George Washington in the Public Gardens

Granary Burial Ground

John Hancock marker

Paul Revere marker. The small headstone to the right is the actual headstone

Boston Massacre marker

Samuel Adams marker

Faneuil Hall. I have to make a comment on this one: whenever someone up here says "Faneuil Hall" it sounds like Nathaniel to me, which I then reason away as, "Well Nathaniel Hawthorne was from this area, maybe they named it after him..."

Quincy Market

Custom House.

1. Knowing about this upcoming trip to Boston, I had been thinking about the Custom House during the course of this past week, racking my brain for the name of the book that begins in the Boston Custom House, refusing to google it up. iirc, the tone when the book was talking about the Custom House (1st paragraph) was dark.

2. Knowing the Custom House was right around the corner pedestrian-style today made me think even more. After thinking about it during the day, I was pretty sure it was a Hawthorne book, maybe the Scarlet Letter, because Dickens wrote about England and it was definitely not an Emerson or Thoreau work.

3. While standing in front of it, thought about calling my mom (another English major), but held off until I got home. She and I talked, she couldn't pull it out of the bitbucket either, so we googled it.

4. Looks like Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is due for another reading...I'm getting old.

Bell in Hand Tavern

Union Oyster House

New England Holocaust Memorial

Today ended up pretty o.k. Had dinner at the Cheers restaurant in Faneuil Hall and caught the T back to Alewife (lucked out and ended up on an Express train).

Next up on the docket: The Harbor Walk

Couple of Cartoons

2008-09-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

Dad sent a couple of cartoons my way.

American Thinker Article-Palin

2008-09-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

I'm still in shock from the Palin pick, not sure if I'll ever get over said shock. Hope my shirt gets here soon...

Great Article from the American Thinker:

The Tribe of Sarah: A Guide for the Perplexed Media
By Thomas Lifson

Our friends in the media just do not understand the popular following Sarah Palin has attracted. In an effort to help, I thought I should explain her popular appeal to them in terms even an Ivy League graduate could understand.

If you consider yourself a member of the intelligentsia, think of Sarah's unexpectedly numerous admirers as a kind of tribe. We are going to examine a few of the folkways of strange and foreign people. Think of them as exotic and it may help you stifle any revulsion you may feel at their differences from your own familiar accepted ways.

Many of you probably read excerpts from Colin Trumbull's description of the Mbuti tribe of the Congo (The Forest People) in one college course or another. In a similar mindset you can begin to understand the values and the ways of the Tribe of Sarah, and maybe begin understand how the world looks to them, even though it is a very different way of understanding reality than your own.

(Okay, I admit the respectful insistence that these are also a complex people, well adapted to their environment and possessed of a beautiful spirituality is probably going to be a stretch for many of you. But still, it is worth a try while you still have careers left.)

We haven't got an entire semester, so I will just hit a few important concepts.

The basic values

Unlike your own refined and infinitely more complex moral understanding, these people believe in abstract concepts known among them as "right" and "wrong" (alternatively "good" and "evil.") They regard those among them whom see as championing the cause of right and defeating wrong as role models to emulate, and frequently accord them honors and deep respect.

Perhaps misinterpreting media characterizations of big oil companies, they see Sarah Palin as someone who stood up to wrong, and thus revere her example. They harbor a belief that she will continue to support good and fight evil, and accordingly project a vision of her success when leaving their world for your own in Washington, DC.

A side note for future reading: a widely believed legend among them has it that a great leader they call Jesus championed good, fought evil, and suffered horribly for it. This martyrdom and its aftermath are a subject of considerable elaboration in their folkways and ritual, and this cultural detail may conceivably amplify their anger when another honored champion is made to suffer.

The role of "Mom"

The person who is assigned the gender role of carrying unterminated fetal tissue mass is the central figure of the family structure among the tribe of Sarah. Known familiarly as "mom" (never "mother"), these moms organize the foundational structures of their civilization. The behavioral norms learned from a mom determine the entire life course of the children. Accordingly, moms are also deeply honored, indeed revered to the point of abject love and devotion among them. Those who threaten harm to a mom occasion deep disgust within the tribe.

Sarah Palin, as the mother of five, including one child facing serious life challenges, is a person widely admired among them for her devotion, which they regard as exemplary. One of their folk celebrations, the "Special Olympics" celebrates the achievements of these children. Nearly all of you have heard of the Clan of the Kennedys in your own tribe; it has actually played a major role in this particular festival. Perhaps that will help you make the mental leap required to understand the feelings engendered by Baby Trig.

Many of the tribe's moms, seeing Sarah's love for her baby with challenges and empathizing, regard attacks on her as an attack on themselves. Jung's concept of the archetype may be helpful to you in understanding this admiration and empathy for Sarah and explain their hostile response to your recent work.

Moms closely communicate with one another, and these information flows work to determine where the children attend school and under what conditions, where the family will obtain its staple foods, and see to the enforcement of behavioral norms among all members of the comunity. Think of them as sensitivity trainers, if it helps, but remember that nobody gets to leave at the end of the work day.

The moms have a number of distinctive organizations which channel their social ties and lines of communication. We have no time or space to cover major topics ranging from "church" to "kaffe klatsch." More material for future reading.

The PTA

Sarah's followers know she first attained a formal leadership role in society within an organization called the "PTA," and a little context is helpful. Moms regard the shepherding of their offspring as their primary duty in life, aside from supporting the person assigned the male gender role, known among them as the "hubby." From the moment of the first child's birth until a phase decades later known among the tribe as the "empty nest," the development of children is regarded as the sacred duty of a mom and her hubby, as well as life's greatest and most rewarding experience.

PTA meetings are held at schools, with moms and a few hubbies gathering with teachers and discussing topics related to the education of the offspring. Because education is regarded as second only the mom's own influence on children, moms can have strong opinions on the content and processes of education. Frequently moms vie for honor among themselves, and seek to champion a change, or perhaps fight in opposition to one, resulting in very intense bursts of activity, communication and seeking of political support within the PTA community and beyond. Indeed, serious differences among moms can lead to feuds and vendettas, giving rise to colorful local legend that animate their communal folklore.

Members of the tribe regard someone who began a political rise within a PTA as evidence of adherence to the welfare of her children, and also as evidence of great political favor among members of her community, which subsequently elected her village head man, or mayor. But that term may confuse you, so a brief explanation.

Mayor

Unlike the figures familiar to you such as Mayor Daley, those who carry the title of "mayor" in places like Wasilla must be available to their citizenry at all hours, and are expected to have met them face to face if they hope to gain their vote. Constituents feel little compunction about complaining personally to the mayor. A small town mayoralty qualifies as a rite of passage for nascent tribal politicians, ensuring their responsiveness.

Sin

This is going to be a tough one, because there is no comparable concept in your culture. But associated with the abstract concepts of good and evil is one known as sin, defined as the commission of acts which partake of the quality of evil. Now what is really tricky about this admittedly complex cultural construct is that tribe members believe everyone sins. Even good people. They believe that sin is inborn. Rather than categorize someone as evil merely on the basis of sin, they have developed methods of driving away the unwanted effects of the sinful behavior. When one has successfully made the best of the situation, repented, and corrected the disapproved behavior, they speak of "redemption."

This has important consequences for the tribe's regard of your work on Sarah Palin. If you discover sin within her family, the tribe accepts that sin is inevitable. Instead, they judge how Sarah and the family deal with the consequences. And if they perceive that the "right" thing is being done, they admire her all the more.

In short, understanding the Tribe of Sarah is going to require you to stretch your minds and learn some new and unfamiliar concepts. Further reading will pay big dividends. But this sort of mental exercise can be both useful and fun, for it can enhance your understanding of yourself, too. That's the great benefit of cross-cultural studies.

Happy Learning!

Thomas Lifson is editor and publisher of American Thinker.

may have to change party affiliation...

2008-09-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my crusty old white guy party has the gall to choose a woman (!) with 5 kids (!!) as the VP. there is some quote from her about being a mom, going to work, raising a family, being pregnant, and being able to still think. the sexism coming from the D's and the media is disgusting, imo.

yesterday, i made my first donation to an actual campaign (not the national party) and picked up a shirt (yes, i will be sporting my shirt at disney in october). wonder how hillary! is feeling, her 18 million votes vs. biden's 10,000, and who is on the Dem ticket? i don't think obama and the current dem leadership can throw the clinton machine under the bus that easy.

At this point, I hope her family is holding up considering all the negative/smear attacks. If she drops out, we have nothing and will have nothing for quite a while, if ever again.

Poison Las Vegas 2008

2008-08-25T16:08:00.001-07:00

***DRAFT***

It is the summer, therefore it is time for our annual Poison commute. Annual Poison commute: a core group of us pick a location that Poison is playing that summer, coordinate flights/hotels/cleaning of a house/apartment, acquire the tickets, and go to the show. This year, our show was going to be the Vegas show again.

We got our tickets the day they went on sale, got my flight a little later on, finally asked my customer about 3 weeks prior to the show if I could have the day off. We have thinly staffed locations here without depth at my location (something I'm working on).

Anyhoo, Rob and Meredith snagged a room at the Palms. I kept looking around online, wanting to stay at the Flamingo (favorite casino on the strip), toyed with a few other hotels, then finally succumbed to my desire to stay at the Flamingo.

Trying to Leave Boston

My flight was already delayed earlier in the morning, but just 15 minutes or so. I left work, headed down 93, found the long-term lot, and it was full. The guy told me I had to go to another lot, which I was able to find. I don't like Logan's layout.

Had to prepay my parking, hopped on the bus, and hopped off at Terminal B. Checked in , headed over to the restaurant/bar, and ordered a grilled cheese from the kids' menu. Went through security around 6ish and found a seat at the gate.

Then, the pilot emerged...talking about a tire that needed to be changed. I began to panic, thinking of the last time there was an issue with a tire, my flight from orlando to the quad cities was rescheduled for the next morning...all I wanted to do was make it home for the weekend.

Deciding to keep the other tire issue to myself (so not to jinx our flight), I asked a couple of guys, who were talking about whether there was enough time, if they were thinking of going outbound through security and then back in. Turns out, they were just talking about going to the bar within security (one that i've walked passed numerous times and never realized it was there). They invited me to the bar with them , there were probably 30+ from our flight that went to the bar. After we got our drinks, we sat down at a table, the guys were going to Vegas for the 1st time, started asking me about clubs, at which point I had to rack my brain for club names and casinos, seeing as I'm not a club-going individual.

There was an older couple at the table next to us. The gentleman went to check the departure time once, came back and said "still 8", started to get up again, mentioned to me, "and I'm the old guy, checking on the flight..." I told him I'll run down and check, but he laughed and said, "i don't mind, not a problem."

While he was checking on the flight, one of the guys and I decided we were heading outbound through security to smoke. We left everything with the other guys, explained to TSA what we were doing, and sucked down 2 smokes. Near the end of the 2nd smoke, another one of the guys came running through the outbound lane of security, yelling, "we're boarding now!" and the three of us ran back through security. The two other guys carried our stuff to the gate, and we all hopped on the plane.

The old guy that kept checking the status of our flight was Jack Williams, a reporter from the NBC station in Boston.

Thursday Night

even though we left at 8pm, 2 hours delayed, we arrived in Vegas at 10pm. Liz and I found each other and my suitcase, zipped out of McCarran and made it to the Flamingo.

While waiting for my flight, I called the Flamingo and put Liz on my reservation, so she could check in without me. She and I dropped our suitcases off in the room, Michelle and Mark were sound-asleep.

Liz asked if I minded sleeping with Michelle, of course not. Looking at Michelle in the bed, she took up about 1/25th of the bed, but being a "kicker" and "cover-stealer" myself as a young child, I understood that 1/25th could quickly turn into 90% of the bed. I figured if Michelle tried an advance for more coverage of the bed and I lost the battle, I'd take the comforter, a pillow, and nap on the floor.

We met up with Rob and Meredith, hit some club (we got in free, Rob had to pay a cover), and ended up playing at Harrahs.

Friday
I woke up Friday morning around 0630 (0930 east coast time). Liz gave me a wave from her side of the room. Michelle started stirring shortly thereafter, rolled over, saw me, and exclaimed, "Hey Dad, Dad...It's a FeeFee!!" Michelle was up, so she and I tried to hide between the curtains and the window so Mark could continue sleeping (and Liz would have a shot of grabbing a few more z's). This plan didn't work out so well.

Went down to the buffet. Mark and Michelle left early for the pool, Liz and I joined up with them shortly thereafter, as well as Rob and Meredith. We spent Friday in the pool, the slides were pretty cool.

Show Notes Go Here

Sebastian Bach--include Bridget from GND and Vinnie Paul (GNR verse, Bach link)

Dokken--represented by a good number of fans in the audience, which made me happy. I wasn't sure how many Dokken fans would show up at a Poison show.

Poison

There were a couple of fights that occurred behind where Liz and I were standing during the set change, Liz kinda got run over by a 6', 300 lb. white chick during this shit. Honestly, I don't think it was the combination of music fans (Skid Row/Sebastian Bach, Dokken, and Poison), I think it may have been the groupies (and more likely their male companions) from the Rock of Love shows. We've never been to a Poison show where several fights broke out in a very short period of time in the same location...we're Poison fans, understand and accept what Poison is, and we're just there to have fun for a bit.

It was the normal Poison set-list. One highlight was CC DeVille added Amazing Grace to his solo, which was pretty good.

Musically, the show was very good. The bad vibes in the audience sucked; Mark left after 5 or so songs because following the 3+ fights behind us, he got separated from Liz, myself, Rob, and Meredith and couldn't get back up front.

Overall Show Notes

The Britneys--18 and life example

Rock of Love--During the set change btwn Bach and Dokken, I headed over to the ladies room. Someone held a door for another concert goer and they were discussing which band they were there to see. One said, and I quote, "Oh, I'm here to see Bret Michaels...I mean, Poison." If I could have seen into the future and the 3+ fights that would occur behind us and the sucky situation they caused, the ads for Bret Michaels new solo album that were displayed, and had about 2 more adult beverages in my system, I would have announced, "Well, I'm here to see CC DeVille from Samantha 7...I mean Poison." There is an excellent graphic posted somewhere at Sludge about Poison (still looking, will link to it if i can find it). I don't mind ads for Bret's new album BUT why did we see no ads for Rikki's Glitter Project and CC's Samantha 7 project when they came out at any Poison show? I don't have Glitter for Your Soul yet, but I did pick up a copy of Samantha 7, which is a decent pop-rock album, although a tad short in length.

Insert Commentary RE Moon, Playboy Club, and Ghostbar

Saturday

Sunday

Pictures from Various Trips

2008-08-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

When I went off to college, I didn't take any of my photo albums from trips overseas. My folks kept custody of them and are now attempting to locate the albums.

I'm trying to locate my pics from freshman year, when we went to Normandy and Mont St. Michel, as well as my old passport, which includes the Checkpoint Charlie stamp.

Meanwhile, as we are all hunting around through boxes, closets, and drawers, here is a teaser...

the above is an invitation to Pope John Paul II's Easter Vigil Mass in Rome. I went to the Mass. Our minders were under the impression Communion would take several hours, so they made us leave. It took us 10 minutes to return to our bus, our driver was watching the Mass on his T.V., we got back to the bus at the same time Mass was let out...Communion took 10 minutes for a crowd of thousands (it's the Vatican, they know how to handle a crowd). I was upset because we were forced to leave Mass early, I missed Communion with the Pope.

Newport, Rhode Island

2008-08-17T19:28:00.000-07:00

Went to Newport, RI today to look at the Mansions down there; went to two, The Breakers and The Marble House. Interior photography is prohibited, which is why there are no pictures of the inside the houses (the links have some interior pictures on the website). The interiors of these homes reminded me of what I've seen in European castles/palaces. I haven't spent this amount of time on my feet while looking at ceilings while analyzing/deciphering images since the last trip to Europe.

The Breakers

The Front Gate

Front of the House

Backyard

Cliff Walk and Backyard Gate

Flowers

The Marble House

Front of House

Back of House

The Tea House (imo, they should convert the Tea House to serve cocktails in the afternoon during the season. It is one of the last houses on Bellevue, the Tea House would work perfectly in terms of size and location, the house has a beautiful yard overlooking the ocean, and their visitors have just finished touring X amount of homes, give them a place to sit, relax, and discuss what they have seen during their day...the historical society would make a killing)

The Ocean

Trolley Bus (Route 67) picking up some folks outside The Marble House

Final Thoughts

I had fun on this trip, a very relaxing day. I was able to get out of town, away from work, and enjoy the day learning some history. It was also a beautiful day to be outdoors in the New England area, around 80-85, sunny (!?no rain today?!), and in Newport, there was the breeze off the ocean as well. Wrapped up the day at the Brick Alley Pub with a lamb dinner. I'd like to get down to Mystic and head over to see Boston's Freedom Trail before the weather turns.

Next up on the docket...Poison in Las Vegas!! yeah, we're going again, hope they either shake up the set-list on of these days or take a couple of years off. it is a fun show to see and we just have fun hanging out together (using poison as the excuse), but the show itself is beginning to get a little old.

Hall of Fame Weekend

2008-08-03T12:47:00.001-07:00

NFL Hall of Fame inductions took place this weekend in Canton, OH. Darrell Green and Art Monk (finally) were inducted into the HOF.

The following is the start of an article (linked below) reflecting on the Washington Redskins.

Art Monk and Darrell Green are going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame today. I think I can say with a fair amount of certainty that all of Redskins Nation is ecstatic over this.

We knew Darrell would get in on the first ballot. However, during this year’s election we again braced ourselves for the ritual snubbing of Art Monk. However—thankfully—the electors finally got it, and officially gave Art the designation he quietly earned throughout his career. We know the sound arguments for his election to the HOF, and they no longer need to be retread. On that point I will say this; skeptics ask where is Art’s signature catch? My answer: all of them! He made so many that counted more than any one Sports Center highlight could explain.

How fitting it is that Art goes into the hall with his teammate Darrell Green. For Redskins fans of a certain vintage, the names Art Monk and Darrell Green conjure up nostalgic reflections of our youth, the glory years. Watching the game with our families, turning the volume on the television down and the radio up to hear Sonny, Sam, and Frank call the game, when the playoffs were a given, and all that mattered in our lives was a win on Sunday. The Redskins provided moments, Art and Darrell’s among so many others, that transcend football.

http://www.examiner.com/x-450-DC-Redskins-Examiner~y2008m8d2-Thanks-for-the-Memories

Looks like most families turned the TV down and the radio up to hear Sonny, Sam, and Frank. We did. Listening to Sonny, Sam, and Frank on the radio was like watching the game live, even with no TV. 2nd year, Rob and I drove from DC to Charlottesville, listening to them call a Giants game (paraphrasing going on--"And now for another punt...the punter just kicked the ball into the ass of the holder...Can we say ass on the radio...I don't know, but you just did...Good thing all the kiddies are in bed by now). When we got to C'ville, Rob ran inside to find the game on TV, then ran outside to let me know, I shut the car off, and ran inside as well. We (Rob, Tommy, and I) got cable the next day.

Golden Nugget

2008-06-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

We headed down to Fremont St to our massive upgrade. had no luggage, one valet followed us in to watch us check-in. Found a dimebag that looked like it had coke/cocaine in a drawer with the phone book in the suite, Liz and I left it alone, Mark picked it up at which point Liz and I fussed at him, it now had his prints on it.

Didn't play at GN, hung out at a club called Gold Diggers, I keep calling it Golden Years. Met a guy staying in 10G (we were 6B), he pointed out a crowd of people leaving the elevator, said "see all those folks, they're all drunk, i met them at the pool, they're from NE, drank up all my liquor, they don't have anything like this there..." We call him 10G, ran into him again at the club, and Mark saw him during his adventure involving the stairwell. Mark went to bed early, had a headache. Liz and I danced and found a dunkin donuts at another casino. Woke up the next a.m., watched some t.v., Mark went upstairs to watch another channel. He then made a hilarious journey...

There were two entrances to the suite, the main one on the first floor, another one upstairs. Mark tried to be cute, planned to go out the upstairs door and surprise us by coming in the main door. Took the stairs, quicker and healthier than the elevator. The door to the stairs is a one-way door, you can only enter the stairwell from the hotel floors, they are not labeled as such. He did not have his cell phone on him. He made it down to the end of the stairwell (7 floors), and the door said, "alarm will sound if door is opened." Figured, "hell if the alarm sounds, i'm stuck in the stairwell." He opened the door and found himself on the ROOF of the casino. Started walking/running, apparently now sweating heavier b/c he figured at least one alarm had sounded in security, found another staircase, which deposited him back outside the hotel, at the valet. The valets looked at him with the expression, "where the hell did this guy come from..."

While this was going on, Liz went upstairs to check if he was feeling ok. When she couldn't find him, we figured he had left through the other door for some reason, and went back to watching t.v.

He returned with drinks, told us the next knock on the door could very well be security, and relayed his adventure, commenting "thank god i didn't have any bags on me while walking around on the roof." Someone did knock on the door shortly after his return to the room, but it was only housekeeping (or so they said). We did get a picture of his escape route on the way down to checkout.

Death Valley

2008-06-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

We went to Death Valley, did the tourist triangle (Sea Level sign, Badwater Basin sign, and Artist Drive). Also stopped by Devil's Golf Course. It was absolutely beautiful. Found the NV test site as well.

I stopped, everything...

2007-07-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

The merry-go-round of life goes on, I just want to take a time-out, step off the ride for a bit, and figure out what I want to do.

Mad

2007-05-23T21:41:00.000-07:00

I understand, to an extent, youtube vs. copyright complaints. However, I just want to see the Redskins' in their glory days, for a brief few minutes.

The NFL has an issue with this, thus no Doug Williams for me nor for our managers' meeting next week.

Vince Neil tickets acquired; Poison date announced

2007-04-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Liz and I have been hearing the radio ads on KOMP about Vince Neil at the Flamingo, tickets available at Vince Neil Ink at O'Sheas.

I made it down there this afternoon, got us a pair of tickets, and headed on back to work (the damn parking garage took forever). Stopped by the Sprint/Nextel store, they were as unhelpful as ever, forgot to pick up lunch, and landed on the curb/street at 2pm.

And now we have to come up with about $350 to stay at The Palms, in addition to the ticket prices for Poison. Not pleased whatsoever at hotel prices, we might as well reserve a room elsewhere and take a cab.

Virginia Tech

2007-04-21T17:49:00.000-07:00

Saw a bit of news before I left Monday morning for work out here, it was just "shots fired" then.

Didn't know what happened until I got a few TM's from friends out here:

12:15pm "See shit at Virginia Tech?"

2:27pm "Crap, didn't get to see Bush's comments."

2:30pm "A little this morning, just shots fired"

2:31pm "Gunman kills self and 32 others"

I read that last one and blurted out "Holy Shit" in front of everyone. Tech is just down the road from my alum, UVA.

My thoughts and prayers are with the Tech community as they deal with this crisis, accept those members of the community they lost, that they can recover, and continue on their way.

The joke has been "all paved roads lead to UVA, the dirt roads lead to Tech." If I hadn't been accepted to UVA, Tech was #2 on my list. There is a sibling rivalry that has been tossed out the window, what happened at Tech could have happened at any institute of higher education in VA.

Prayers for all Hokies.

The Tunnel

2007-04-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

We are done for when the tunnel is closed, for awhile at least.

The northbound tunnel was closed due to a fatality accident this afternoon. We had folks waiting at either end. There is nothing we can do but jump in line with the rest of the traffic.

The lines were minimal after 2.5 hours.

And for those that think bus driving is an easy job, think of the driver who has/is: 30 people on the bus, cutting their flights close due to the delay caused by an accident out of our control; trying to get folks to the airport as quickly as possible with the traffic involved; and also thinking of those still waiting at either end. Try bus driving out for a few days and let me know what your blood pressure reads at the end of 8 hours.

Personally, except for a few folks, I had fun this afternoon, although it was stressful.

Tired...

2007-04-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

very tired and reaching the end of my rope. I snapped over the radio today, which is not a good sign. I'm a calm individual, patience out the ying-yang; this is very difficult for me right now, controlling my temper given the circumstances. I admit, my temper-control is an area that needs work, everything gets bottled up until that one unfortunate individual (normally blameless) sets me off. When that happens, it is ugly.

I still love to drive a bus and interact with the customers, something I haven't really had the ability to do since UTS, which was 7 years ago. I had a ball Saturday for a bit, wished I could have driven longer.

And I need to get some fish in my tanks, they've been up and running for a week.

A/C and we're operational

2007-04-04T01:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I decided to turn the A/C on this evening, it was a tad too warm for me (although I was somewhat stressed). I was overcharged on my electric bill in January by about $100, so the past few months have been credits, I'll have to get used to paying an electric bill again.

We also began our operation this evening (the stress factor mentioned above); the road signage was changed prior to 8:30pm, airport signs beginning around 11:00pm. Our first bus went into service at 10:50pm. So far, so good. I left around 1:30am. The real test will be this upcoming weekend, the Grand Prix is in town, so we will be busy both with customers and working out the kinks that always show up. All the operators are wonderful, very professional, polite, and focused on customer service. The sups know there will be issues and have already begun offering suggestions on how to resolve them when we encounter them.

I'm happy we are up and running; this evening was quite a sight to see and it feels like a load has been taken off my shoulders.

This is going to be a lot of fun.

A very busy weekend

2007-04-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I'll get pics up after I pick up some more batteries for my camera, he devours them on a regular basis. Tommy, I mailed the check today.

Anyhoo, I had a busy weekend here.

Jay and Mark moved my couch and dresser upstairs last weekend, so this weekend, I moved one bookshelf to the top of the steps (across the length of my apartment, unloaded and then reloaded him with his books), pulled the dresser into my bedroom, and set-up my 20 gallon tank.

I stopped by Target Saturday afternoon to pick up some fish gravel and a fish-bucket. The Target off of Blue Diamond does not sell aquarium gravel, their buckets start at $5.69, and they have no "fish aisle", not even close. I then went to PetCo to get some gravel, and set my 20 gallon up yesterday afternoon.

The fish-bucket issue revolves around having 2 tanks in 2 different locations; one must have a dedicated "fish-bucket" for each location, I need a fish bucket for my work location. A "fish-bucket" means a bucket that has never been exposed to any chemical or soap, just plain water or salt water. Once you put a soap/chemical into a "fish-bucket", the bucket has been ruined. This is also why you never use soap/chemicals on the inside or outside of a tank, it ruins the tank forever (and yes, crap used on the outside of the tank can leach it's way up and into the tank).

Stopped by to see how things were going Sunday around noon, headed off to WalMart, picked up a fish bucket and 5 lbs. of gravel, and then set-up my 10 gallon at work. Not sure if my 10 gallon will be goldfish or some tetra mix, depends on how many catfish the goldfish need to clean up after them. We'll see, I have the heater for the 10 gallon if needed.

Bret Michaels at Rocks Lounge, Red Rock

2007-03-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

At 5:06pm, Tuesday, 3/20/07, I received a voicemail from Mark, informing me I had to call him as soon as possible. There was a bit of mirth in his voice, so I wasn't concerned, I would call him after I disengaged myself from work. At 5:30 pm, Liz left a voicemail, asking me to call her. When I got Liz' message, I was hoping it could possibly be information concerning the Marlboro contest we had participated in. My folks' also called and left a message during this time period.

Turns out, Bret Michaels was playing a free show at Rocks Lounge, located at Red Rock.

--------------------

This all began when Mark took Michelle to the park Tuesday evening...

The park Mark and Michelle went to was off of Charleston, west of the 215. As Mark was sitting at a red light, Red Rock's video sign started showing pictures of Bret Michaels of Poison in concert, thus raising his eyebrow. They drove by and he saw the lower sign, indicating Bret Michaels would be playing a free show at Rocks Lounge Wednesday, 3/21/07, doors at 8pm, show at 9pm. The synapses fired at once, "I better tell the girls about this."

Liz and I planned to be at their house around 5:30pm Wednesday. We tried to get ahold of Angie to babysit, thus allowing Mark to join us, but she was unavailable. Mark and Michelle went to get the mail and Liz got home at that same time. Liz didn't come inside to change because we weren't sure about the ticket/entry situation and we wanted to get to Red Rock as soon as we could. She primarily didn't want Michelle to be upset because "Mom" was home and then suddenly left.

We self-parked in the outside lot, not the garages, locked Liz' purse in the truck, stuffed our I.D.'s in my pocket, walked in, turned left, and found some folks working the show. We signed the release saying it was ok to use our images, got our wristbands, and sat down next to the fountain/waterfalls inside. We had to stay in line, we couldn't leave our spot at the same time, which at first made no sense, we had wristbands to get in. As I was sitting there, it started to...I don't think they were keeping track of the number of wristbands given out, people working the show kept coming by to count folks in line.

The guy to our right, in front of us in line, was pretty cool. Liz and I went across the pathway to smoke "on the casino floor" and he watched our drinks, "yeah, I'll keep an eye on them, why don't we just put them in you alls' "seats"?" The folks that were originally to my left were also pleasant. Apparently one of the guys had been calling the other three repeatedly to make sure they were also coming to the show that evening. There was also a group of four individuals that were trying to sneak up the line by standing instead of sitting like most everyone else. As soon as we figured this out, I stood up, protecting our position in line and the cool folks next to us. The folks originally to my left got bypassed by the "group of four", but they made it into the venue shortly after we did.

Liz and I ended up second row from the stage, left side of the audience. Liz went to use the facilities and inquire about the waitress wandering around (cash only inside the club). Before she left, she told me to keep her spot. Since we had been talking to the other folks around us, I asked a rather large (300+ lbs.) male if he'd be willing to step back from the stage about a foot. He told me that if he lost his spot, he'd lose his job, and then waved a camera around. If I were him, I'd lose the bad perm, a couple lbs, and the crappy attitude towards fellow concert attendees (the reason is below). Security had told the rest of us no photos would be allowed, so I figured if he was in the venue with a massive camera, perhaps he was with the band/working for them. Some chick with long hair that was really frizzy asked if she could move to my right while stepping on my flipflop protected foot with her high-heeled boot. Since she also had a massive camera, I figured the same about her. Liz was somewhat ticked when she saw our location had moved slightly to the left when she reappeared, but was ok because she could see better at our new location. The two "camera" kids were told by security they could not take photos.

I have now figured out how to get to the front of a show...somehow sneak a massive camera into the show, act like a bitch to get to the front, and wear high heel boots to stomp on people's feet.

The show started late, around 9:30 pm. It was pretty good, although somewhat like the current line-up of Guns and Roses, Bret Michaels was there with a backing band. They did play one of his songs, Driven. Don't get me wrong, it was a good show, but when I see Bret Michaels on stage singing "Talk Dirty to Me", I expect CC DeVille, Bobby Dall, and Rikki Rockett to be there as well.

At the end of the show, various chicks ran out on stage to kiss/dance/flirt/etc with Bret. That kinda confirmed our suspicions, this was for that VH1 show he is participating in. There were two chicks dancing on the right side of the stage during the entire show, Liz commented they would be more appropriate at a hip-hop concert. There was one with her hair all poofed out and another one that appeared to be trying to look like/mimic Paris Hilton, in our opinion.

Anyhoo, concert was over and we were out around 11:00pm, we headed to the circle bar (Lucky Bar) for adult beverages and call various people in my phone to let them know we had just seen Bret Michaels for free. Pretty good show, what we were expecting, and we made it home just before midnight.

Thanks for taking Michelle to that park, Mark!

84 degrees

2007-03-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

It is currently 84 degrees F in my house right now and it is not uncomfortable whatsoever. This is surprising for one that has grown up on the east coast. The line, "it isn't the heat, it is the humidity" rings true again. My Grandmother was celebrating her 100th birthday several years ago in North Dakota and we were at a park, playing volleyball. My sisters and I figured the temp was around 70-75, it was very pleasant outside...turns out the actually temperature was 95, we were not used to the lack of humidity.

The temperature of my apartment during the summer months is somewhat of a concern for me though, my place is on the second floor and gets sun from the west during the afternoon hours. I may look into the curtains that keep the sun/heat out.

I have a digital thermostat and I'm thinking about programming it to kick on the A/C at 90/95 during the day, then 80/85 at night. Two cats live in my apartment with me, sponging off the money I earn while at work during the day, and I don't want them to be uncomfortable. The cats should eventually learn that the entry into my apartment, located on the first floor, is at least 10 degrees cooler than our apartment (or at least Spud will, he is the smart one; Hash was not gifted with mental capabilities above those of a rock).

The Luxor

2007-03-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

Liz and I spent Friday evening at the Luxor, our room was a Christmas present from Mark, Liz' husband.

I met up with Liz and her mom around 1:30 p.m. at Liz and Mark's apartment. We figured it would be easier to just take one car to the Strip. We checked into the Luxor just after 3:00 p.m., headed up to our room (the inclinator was interesting and I did not enjoy the ride), changed for dinner, had a few drinks, and then headed off to The Steakhouse for dinner.

The food was good, better than the steak place at Sam's Town, and I enjoyed hanging out with Liz and her Mom, Lynn. Liz picked out a very good wine, the name I can't recall at the moment. Whenever we go someplace and there is a wine list, we just pass the wine list to Liz. She went to a wine festival in Virginia and picked out her favorite wine, whichever one it was won the best wine prize the next year.

After dinner, we headed upstairs around 8:30 p.m. to get Lynn's luggage and then placed her in a cab for her ride back to Bellagio, where she and Weldon (Liz's Dad) were staying.

Liz and I wandered around the Luxor, dropped some money into the penny slots, picked up the yard margaritas, and walked to the Excalibor (sp?). We went to the arcade and won a little Spongebob and two viking hats for Michelle. I was sooo close to winning a big Spongebob, but my horse was overtaken by that of a 5-year old. Liz decided we were going to see "Thunder from Down Under", she waited in line for tickets and I went to cash in 2 $20 bills (which involved cashing in the $20 for 4 $5's, and then cashing in the $5's for $1's). We cashed the $20's in for $1's, tips for the guys. The show was pretty good, Liz paid the extra $5 for VIP seats (so we were seated on the floor), but we weren't allowed to tip the dancers.

After the show, we made our way back to the Luxor, up to the room, talked to room service about pizza, ended up with McDonald's, and finally went to sleep.

My damn cell phone went off at 7:20 a.m. because I failed to turn off the alarm function. We checked out a tad before 11:00 a.m., picked up Lynn at the Bellagio, and headed back to Liz and Mark's place.

Liz wasn't feeling so good, so she and Michelle took a nap and Lynn played on the computer, while Mark and I headed off to the pub. We ran into a guy from North Carolina, advised him to check out Red Rock (both the casino and the nature area) and told him not to bother with the BBQ place at Red Rock Casino. If you are from anywhere southern, the BBQ place will disappoint. Also, don't consume cider at the pub without eating some sort of food, kinda surprised I'm not banned from the J.W. Marriott at this point.

Sunday was mellow, Liz went out to pick up her mom (we tried to get the girl scout cookies, but Marsha went to the 10:00 a.m. mass) and Mark went to get a haircut. Michelle and I hung out and things were going pretty well until she wanted all the cookies in the 6-pack. I told her no, then she started to fuss, then I was concerned she was going to suck the cookie in her mouth into her windpipe, so I gave her the 4 remaining cookies. She went into the master bedroom and shut the door, apparently I made her mad.

I tried an Indian sauce mix with chicken and rice for dinner, Pataks. It wasn't bad, not very spicy though, I'll have to try another few to see if I like them.

Tommy came to visit!

2007-02-25T22:38:00.000-08:00

Tommy came out this past weekend for a high-school reunion and we hung out together on Sunday (2/25/07).

We started the day with a trip to Red Rock Canyon and the 13 mile scenic drive. The rock formations were very interesting, apparently some of them were once sand dunes. There were climbers on some of the rock walls. We walked the Willow Springs Trail because it was ranked "easy", 1.5 miles long, and ended up running into a trio of women. The following was our conversation with them:

Lady #1: Are you guys are the Willow Springs Trail?

Tom: Yep

Lady #1: We didn't see any willows, any spring, or any pictographs!

Tom: Well, did you walk a mile and a half?

Lady #1: No

Tom: Well...the trail is a mile and a half long

Lady #1: (pause) oh

Tom and I: ok, see yah, good luck!

Tommy and I noticed some fences that were along the path and then finally ran into a sign explaining the fences. The pictographs were on the rock faces behind the fences. We managed to find one of them for sure (it was faded but you could still see most of it) and noticed a questionable one of a hand, then another hand, and then the initials "JC". We wrote the two hands off as vandalism.

We also stumbled across a spring during our walk that is one of the few places a certain type of snail lives. After we finished our walk, we took another path, hoping it would lead back to our vehicle...it didn't, so we ended up walking up the wash until we found the trail we started off on. I don't like leaving the designated trails, but since the wash was just gravel, it was o.k. this one time.

We still had about 6 miles to go on the scenic drive and about 3 miles from the end, there appeared to be a traffic jam of some sort. When we passed the trail/scenic overlook pull-offs, we would slow down to allow for cars pulling into our lane of traffic. This traffic jam was in the middle of the road, there were no pull-offs nearby. As we got closer, I noticed that there was a burro right next to a minivan and the minivan had their passenger side sliding door open. The burro was sticking his head into the passenger compartment of the minivan. Both that burro and the second one about 50 yards ahead were completed surrounded by people. I'm not an enviromental nut, but some animals are domestic, some are wild, and some (like dolphins in exhibits) are somewhat of a mix. Regardless of the level of domestication or mental function, people need to realize that they are dealing with an animal and animals can be unpredictable. Don't feed the wild ones, they will expect it from every car they see pass by. Weren't there some problems when the bears got used to getting food from people in National Parks?

I'm thinking of getting a year pass to Red Rock, iirc it is only $20. The area out there is very beautiful, with plenty of trails to explore.

After hiking around for about 2 hours, we headed over to Red Rock for lunch and met up with Liz. We figured this was the first time since 2nd year that Tommy and Liz have hung out/seen each other. Apparently, my god-kid, Michelle, has been asking about me because I haven't been up at their house in the past few weeks due to work-related activites. Michelle and I should be able to get together this upcoming weekend and hang out for a bit. Liz and I will be staying at the Luxor Friday night (thanks, Mark) and then hanging out with everyone Saturday and Sunday (Liz' folks will be in town starting this Wednesday). After we ate, we played the penny-slots for a bit and Tommy and I are happy to announce that after putting in $7, Tommy won $25 (Tom won the Pharaoh's Fortune!! total gain of $18) and after I put in a $20, I won $50 (total gain of $30...ah, the Luck Lionfish machine; he gave me $40 one time after I put in one of Liz' $1 bills). Liz played the gem penny-slot she likes and unfortunately, she did not win anything :( But we all got free drinks :)

Tommy and I had been discussing the Cirque de Soleil (sp?) shows they have out here and settled on seeing Love after we found out it would finish in time for Tommy to catch his red-eye home. We self-parked at TI (after missing the turn for self-park at The Mirage) and took the tram over. I DO NOT like driving around TI and The
Mirage, the speed bumps are wacky and no one pays attention to the stop signs.

The show was interesting, first one by the Cirque group that I've seen. The Beatles' music remixes were good and the acts that accompanied the tracks fit pretty well, imo. The blackbird skit was dumb. The opening was good, Octopus' Garden was neat, but lighting effects during Revolution made me kinda sick to my stomach. The guys on the roller blades with the furry leg-warmers kicked ass, as did the guy doing flips on the one-man Berserker (Berserker=pirate ship at Kings Dominion that swings back and forth, then finally takes you all the way around). It was neat to finally see one of their shows, but this one was kinda pricey (yes, Tommy, the check is in the mail when you send me your addy). Guess I'll have to check out some of the other ones to fully form an opinion.

After the show, we walked back to the car because the tram was broken (in reality, it was probably faster to walk), and headed west on Spring Mountain, 15 south, 215 east, through the tunnel, and arrived at the airport around 9:15 p.m. Somewhat of a roundabout way, but I wasn't sure what the traffic would be like on the Strip nor Trop.

As of 10:12 p.m., Tommy made it through security but was waiting to see if he would be on this flight. The lovely airline overbooked the flight.

Wouldn't airlines that serve Las Vegas take a look at what happened last Monday and Tuesday and scale back on their overbooking flights out of here? Last Monday, day after NBA All-Star game/Chinese New Year/President's Day weekend/MAGIC, the line for Southwest started at Southwest and extended 3/4-1 mile down the sidewalk to Terminal 2/International Terminal. It got worse during the afternoon and had yet to resolve itself by Tuesday morning. Overbooking makes sense to a certain extent, but what does the airline do if everyone booked shows up (see entry about Tommy and Jess' Wedding, our hotel overbooked and we were sent elsewhere, but we still had a room)?

Right now, 11:30 p.m. Sunday night, I'm not sure if Tommy is on his way back to D.C. or in a cab on his way to the Luxor to crash with some other friends from out of town. I called, his phone rang a few times and then went to voicemail. I'll learn in the morning what happened.

Monday 2/26/07: Whelp, turns out at 11:30 last night, Tommy was trying to get himself a seat on a flight out today. He left the airport at 3:00 a.m., arrived at some hotel/casino, stood in line with everyone else that was bumped from their flights, and arrived at his room at 4:30 a.m. This allowed him time for a quick shower and a one hour nap before heading back to the airport. When I spoke with him at 12:15 p.m. Las Vegas time, he was somewhere in Texas, about to board his next flight. Apparently, the airline gave him a free flight voucher. Tommy said this was the worst travel experience he has had. He finally made it back to Washington-Dulles around 8:00 p.m. east coast time.

Oh, and we took pictures, just on Tommy's camera because mine requested more batteries. They'll be up after he emails them to me.

P.S. Thanks for visiting, Tommy! I had a great time playing around Red Rock Canyon, hanging out at Red Rock, and seeing the show with you. Next time you visit, bring Jess and we can check out the Valley of Fire, Area 51, Death Valley, or Lake Mead/Hoover Dam.

Random Pictures, mostly north of Flamingo

2007-02-23T19:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!

Caesar's Palace, looking south

Bellagio

Harrah's, Casino Royale, The Venetian, Wynn

The Stardust

New Frontier

The Mirage

The Wynn

Circus Circus

Riviera

Flamingo

View of the back of the Strip from the self-park level of the Flamingo's garage

Drive Safe, Come Back Soon!

My Grandma passed away...

2007-01-27T20:55:00.000-08:00

last Sunday morning, 1/21/07, about 1:55 a.m. east coast time. Her service was today, 1/28/07.

Pecans

2007-01-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

Apparently, I have two more regular readers, Beefy and Liz. Hello, Beefy, from Fabulous Las Vegas! Hey Liz, hope the weather is good up there ;^)

Liz chewed me out on the phone, reminding me she makes her comments in person rather than over the internet.

Beefy left a couple of comments (Beefy: Avoid the eMac and MacBook laptop, those have issues. The manner in which Apple handled this situation completely surprised me, I've never had any issues with them. I'd suggest trying a mac and if you encounter similar issues that I experienced, raise holy hell. They are now replacing crappy eMacs, if they can't find the part within 10 days, with new iMacs...of course they didn't tell me this, so another nasty letter is in the mail). Oh, and if you tell me how, I'll add your blog to the side of my page, I don't know how to do that.

If anyone sent me a bag of pecans, please identify yourself. UPS delivered them, they were shipped from Tulsa, OK, and there is no note to let me know who sent them. I love pecans and would like to know who to thank.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2006-12-23T19:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I apparently have at least one regular reader, my friend, Jim, from Davenport (Hi, Jim!).

As a result of his email, we're doing a year-rewind in this entry and a brief Holiday update (which will be completed post-New Year's).

At the beginning of this year, I was located just south of Cincinnati, OH.

In July, I learned I was going to move to Las Vegas, NV.

My Dad and my friend, Liz, came to help drive the 2,000 miles west. That was a fun time, even though it was hectic. When we got to Las Vegas, Liz and I had tickets to see the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses at The Joint. I wish my Dad could have stuck around for a bit longer, I have fun hanging out with him.

Liz and I won tickets to Disney Live! Magic Show, Frightdome (can't find our tickets), and Pauly Shore at House of Blues.

Liz' Dad came to visit, as did her mom. Liz, Mark, and Michelle got a new couch when her Mom came out.

Rob came to visit right before Thanksgiving (all of our pictures from that weekend are on Liz and Mark's computer, so they'll be here later).

We went to San Diego for Thanksgiving to visit Aunt Ginger and Uncle Jeffrey. Liz' Mom and Dad met up with us out there. We also visited the zoo and LegoLand (we have to drop the film off to be developed, so pictures will be added later as well).

Jordan, from high school, popped in for a weekend just after Thanksgiving. None of us brought our cameras, but we all met up at the outdoor bar at Caesar's, had lunch at Margaritaville (thank you, Jordan), wandered around the Flamingo (do they feed the flamingos shrimps with food dye as well?), watched an old lady dance in an outfit she should not have been dancing in, and ended the evening driving Jordan back to Circus-Circus.

Things are mellow at work right now, we got delayed. Which is why I spent Christmas in Las Vegas instead of catching a flight to Florida (when we got notice, it was too late to get a good fare).

Christmas was fun, Michelle had a great time delivering and then helping everyone open the gifts. Michelle received several new outfits, three pairs of shoes (including some Crocs), her ornaments, a new suitcase, and a new chair equipped with a cupholder. Liz and Michelle received Santana Moss jerseys from Mark, Mark got Liz and I a room at the Luxor for January 27th, I hope Liz and Mark have a pleasant time at dinner at the Italian restaurant down the hall from the pub, and all of us will be enjoying the Red Rock spa deal we got. I was very proud of Michelle when we opened my gift and she exclaimed "Bob!" (LEGO's Adventures at Bikini Bottom set).

My folks sent me several things, including a book about the Rolling Stones, a new handbag, perfume from my younger sister, and two beautiful bookends (they are stones with various veins of blue color running through them). I feel bad, I had no idea what to get my older sister and her family and after talking to my folks, I was somewhat under the impression that Jamie was not going send a present this year, which is fine, she has 2 kids. My mistake...Jamie sent me steak knives and Weber Grill tools. I need to figure out something to send her, I just have no ideas (any suggestions are welcome).

For New Year's, Liz, Michelle, and I will be catching a flight back to Washington, D.C. Liz and I are attending the Redskins/Giants game, Michelle can chill out with her Grandma and PawPaw, and Mark can relax.

To be continued...

We left out of Las Vegas at 6:30 a.m., which meant we had to arrive at the airport around 4:30 a.m. Our flights were fine, we went through Chicago, not Denver, and arrived at Reagan-National around 2:00 p.m. Liz' Mom and Dad picked us up and we headed back to their house. We had a quiet evening, had fondue for dinner, and started to watch Cars again. I was the first person to fall asleep, followed quickly by Michelle and then Liz.

Saturday morning, we opened presents and then Liz' Mom and Dad headed down to the closest UKrops to pick up some sandwiches for Michelle's party on Monday. Traffic was absolutely horrendous and around 5:00 p.m., her folks called us and told us to give a neighbor a call to see if she could watch Michelle for a bit so Liz and I could start heading toward the football game. We dropped Michelle off, made it to the Franconia-Springfield Metro around 5:20 p.m., and hopped on the train.

If the fare card machine was actually working properly, we would have caught the earlier train. Liz and I transferred at King Street and it was somewhat amusing when we overheard one guy telling his buddy "no, we don't transfer here, they are going to be two minutes behind us all the way." Apparently, he didn't understand how the metro runs, so he and his buddy ended up on our train at the Pentagon. We switched back to the Blue Line at L'Enfant Plaza and found Rob in the process. So, the faulty fare card machine was actually a good thing, as Rob was able to catch the same Blue Line Liz and I were using, find us at L'Enfant Plaza, and ride with us to Morgan Boulevard. We decided to hike down the hill, up the hill, and then around the bend to FedEx instead of catching a $5 shuttle. For those transit folks interested in our trip on the metro, go to www.wmata.com and click on the metro train map.

We had fun at the game, even though we lost. Rob went with David, his brother-in-law, and our friend, Bartley, was there as well. We met up with Bartley after the game. Things were not as festive in the band area after the game this year, perhaps it is because our season ended and there are no play-offs for us. Last year, there was food all over the place and people partying in the band lot. I'm figuring that may be the reason that the FedEx sign is not on, like it was last year. We hiked back up to the metro, took the Blue Line all the way around (we were on the last train), left Rob at Van Dorn Street, and finally arrived at Franconia-Springfield. We made it home sometime after 3:00 a.m.

On Sunday, Liz and Michelle went to visit Sandy and Ned, Mark's folks, and her Dad went to church. Liz' Mom and I hung out, reading the paper, and trying to figure out if it would be better for me to go to DC today or tomorrow for Ford's Lying in State. We figured today would be better because dinner was going to be served after 7:00 p.m. because there was a church service that evening vs. Michelle's party at 1:00 p.m. the following day. I was dropped off at the Franconia-Springfield metro, took the same Blue/Yellow combination into the District, and deboarded at the Archives/Navy Memorial Station just before 3:00 p.m.

I walked along Pennsylvania Avenue, toward the Capitol, not knowing what to expect. Rob and I attended President Reagan's Lying in State in June 2004. He and I got in line at 6:00 p.m., after scoring a most excellent parking spot (I was able to see my car from all points, so I knew it hadn't been stolen), and walked down the steps of the Capitol at 11:30 p.m. When Rob and I walked back to my car, we were amazed that the line had grown by at least twice the size of that at 6:00 p.m.

This time, as I approached the Capitol, the line was disappointing, in my opinion. Admittedly, the Reagan administration coordinated the fall of the Soviet Union, along with Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. But Ford also served as President of the United States and that in itself deserves respect (note: friends will have to drag me to Clinton's and Carter's, but I will attend out of respect for the dead, as much as I disagree with their positions).

At Reagan's, the Capitol Police had a "check" area, where folks could check their cameras, bottles of water, sunscreen, etc, and pick them up afterwards. There was no check-point this time around, people were allowed to take such items into the Capitol. The Capitol Police were not as militant this time, perhaps because this was the second Lying in State in just a few years and they learned from Reagan's or perhaps because they were not expecting the massive turnout that Reagan's produced.

I was offended when people used digital cameras to record their journey around the casket, I don't record my friends' funerals, why would I record this? Yes, it is an event, but one has to remember the person inside the casket and their family. The chick recording her trip around the casket reminded me of the lady's cell phone that went off TWICE during The Changing of the Guard at Reagan's. I tell my family and friends about the experience and that is their memory, although my Dad watched C-Span for hours in order to see Rob and I walk through the chamber at Reagan's. Anyhow, I was in line at 3:15 p.m. and walking down the steps at 4:15 p.m. God Bless You, President Ford, and thank you for your service to our country.

Since paying respect to President Ford took quite a bit less time than we all expected, I headed on over to the Archives. Since I arrived about 4:50 p.m., right before closing, I decided to take the "American Triangle" tour (reference to the Louvre in Paris) and see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. There was time for me to actually read the information in the display cases, unlike my trip in elementary school, when there was no time whatsoever. In addition to the Triangle, there was Ford's first Oath of Office and excepts from his final State of the Union address as well as the 1297 version of the Magna Carta. The Archives closed at 5:30 p.m., at which point in time I headed off to catch the Red Line to Shady Grove to meet up with Liz and Michelle up at Ned and Sandy's.

Dinner was excellent. Duck is good, very good (damn, the lamb Liz' Mom made us out here was really good as well). I will now blame Liz and her family for my more expensive dining habits. Although, I do miss my Daddy's steaks. My Dad redeemed the Petty's gift card for New Year's dinner.

After dinner, Liz and I headed over to Rob's for a New Year's party. We got there later than expected, but had fun. It was nice to see everyone in one location and Liz and I liked our hats (although, Liz' didn't stay on very well). Rob was wearing a little hat inside a big hat, which was cute, imo.

Monday was Miss Michelle's third birthday party...and she is only two. God help us all when she hits 10, 16, then 18, and finally 21.

The party was somewhat delayed due to a 4 car pile-up on 95 South near the Lorton exit. And Michelle took a nap. Liz went upstairs to wake up Michelle so she could make an appearance at her own party. We had fun, it was nice to see folks from Liz' church again, and Michelle had fun opening her gifts. We were somewhat disappointed that more people didn't make it, Liz' folks planned for 60 and only 20 turned out.

Our flights home were fine, Michelle was a bit more fussy this time around. She calmed down a tad after we got the minimeal (Liz and I redeemed free drink coupons), and took a second nap after she and Liz returned from the restroom (Michelle got mad b/c she couldn't roam the plane/not get back into her seat, which reminded me of Anna being stuck in a car-seat for 3 days as my older sister and I drove from South Bend, IN to Bismarck, ND).

Overall, it was a very fun holiday. Michelle is a good plane traveler, she deals with the change in elevation/altitude very well.

I'll update the pictures as soon as I can, Liz' Dad has some saved on his machine.

And Happy New Year to All!

Snow!

2006-12-19T21:26:00.000-08:00

It snowed overnight.

Here is a picture of the apartment roofs across from my balconey.

Here is a picture from 3LEES out of Henderson, NV (link at http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=5835592) of their snowman. Parts of the valley got a bunch of different amounts, depending on elevation.

Rob came to visit

2006-11-26T20:57:00.000-08:00

Rob stopped by to visit for a long weekend. Here are some random pictures...

more will come shortly

Liz' Dad dropped in for the weekend....

2006-11-04T00:09:00.000-08:00

and we had a ball!!!

Saturday was relatively mellow, Liz and I won free tickets to Pauly Shore for that evening.

Sunday morning, we all headed down to the Strip for breakfast.

There are pictures of Miss Michelle and her new "eyes" (sun glasses from The Forum Shops), as well as pictures of the Stardust (we also won tickets to Frightdome @ CircusCircus, the roller coaster was cool).

Sorry for any crappy pics, I'm used to dealing with my mac and am now being forced to rely on other people's PC's.

:(

The emac I purchased 24 months ago has been useless since this past July...that is 1/4 of the time I've actually owned my new Apple machine...his new part, which is supposed to fix his issues, doesn't ship until 11/27/06!!??!!

WTF Apple!!!

:( :( :(

I don't want to throw in the towel, but this may be the last Apple product I purchase.

Should anyone doubt my family's history of boycots, I will present two examples:

1. I drove buses in college and one evening, a Papa John's delivery car cut me off while I was driving a bus, the car made a right hand turn from the left-hand lane directly in front of my bus, while I was traveling down the road at around 30-35 m.p.h. After that incident, I do not purchase Papa John's pizza, I only eat it if it is free. That car cut me off more than 9 years ago...nice job, Papa John's.

2. When StarTrek was cancelled by ABC, my mother swore she would never watch ABC again. This was recently revealed to me and explains the dominance NBC had in our household.

There is not much I can say at this point in time, except I will caution all on purchasing mac products...seeing as you can pay a fortune and get rewarded with a complete dud.

sorry mac/Apple, you've had time to resolve my problem (created by a faulty part mac used) and you failed miserably.

that is all.

Las Vegas and Red Rock Canyon

2006-10-15T00:09:00.000-07:00

The emac issue

2006-10-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I love my emac and my Power Mac, they are like one of the family. The following is an account of my most unfortunate experience with mac :(

I purchased an emac in August 2004 to replace my then 8-year old Power Mac 7200/120. My Power Mac was still functional, but he did not have USB ports and my parents had given me a digital camera as a present. In July 2006, my emac began to display lines on the screen. In August 2006, my emac began to suddenly freeze, with a distortion in the graphics. After researching on the apple.com message board, I discovered other emac users were also experiencing this problem and Apple had issued a Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues on certain emacs.

I called the Cincinnati Apple Store, located at

7875 Montgomery Rd.
Cincinnati, OH 45236
(513) 791-9866

I was directed through the voice prompts to technical support and ended up speaking to some employee of Apple. This individual asked if I had Applecare and since I wasn’t sure, he looked me up, informed me that I did not, and promptly hung up on me. As a consumer, what would compel me to spend more money for Applecare when my last mac was still working perfectly after 8 years? If I wanted to pay additional for technical support and deal with other technical headaches, I would have purchased a PC. Little did I realize, at that point in time, the massive headache I would shortly experience dealing with Apple.

I called the same number again, danced through the voice prompts, and found someone that provided me with the phone number for a local dealer in Northern Kentucky. I left a message at that store, explaining what I thought the issue was along with my phone number. The local dealer in Northern Kentucky never returned my phone call.

After about a week had passed, I again called the same number for the Cincinnati Apple Store, 9/5/06, ignored the “press X for technical support”, and spoke to a female at the Cincinnati location. After I had explained the problem my emac was having (freezing roughly ½ of the time I attempted to use it) and mentioned the emac video issue, she asked if I could make an online reservation for that evening. I again went over the fact my emac was freezing ½ of the time I attempted to use it, so online-reservation making could prove difficult. She suggested I make a reservation, again using the online method, the next morning. It felt like I was living a computer version of Joseph Heller’s Catch 22.

The next morning, 9/6/06, I attempted to make an online reservation and my emac froze. I again called the Cincinnati Apple Store number, ignoring the prompts that led to technical support, and ended up speaking to a male employee. I explained the problem and what I thought it was, seeing as Apple had issued the Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues and my emac fell within the range of serial numbers possibly affected. The male employee told me they could not take reservations over the phone. I mentioned the fact I had attempted to make an online reservation that morning but my emac froze, yet again. His condescending response, “Well, I’ll make an exception for you this one time.” I spent around $900 on a computer and this is the manner in which I am treated.

After the male employee made “this one exception”, I drove 20 miles and then lugged my 60 lb. emac through the mall to the Apple Store. While on the phone with the male employee that morning, I asked to speak to a technician, since I was relatively sure what the problem was and wanted to get an estimated time for repair. The male employee informed me I was not allowed to speak to a tech; I had to bring my emac in. I understand this policy to a certain extent, the techs want to look at the machine and provide a diagnosis.

What made me furious was after waiting 15 minutes to see a tech, he looked at the example “freeze screen” print-out I had found on the apple.com message board and the Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues, told me the repair would take about 7 days at their store, and then called a local dealer (3-5 business days). He apparently trusted my novice diagnosis, which I could have provided over the phone, thus saving 40 miles on my car (I asked them to just keep the emac that day and I would pick him up after I got off work, since I didn’t want to haul a 60 lb. computer back through the mall, up to my office, then down, and finally back into my apartment). The tech I dealt with was pleasant; I had no problem whatsoever with him, but perhaps that is because he did not treat me like an imbecile, unlike every other Apple-related employee I had dealt with prior to that. However, I spent roughly ½ of my day dealing with the Apple Store, while failing to resolve any issue.

The repair time in Cincinnati was going to take too long; I was about to relocate to Las Vegas. I investigated Apple Stores in Las Vegas and discovered the official Apple Store was located in the Fashion Show, right off Las Vegas Blvd., right on The Strip. I work off of Las Vegas Blvd., south of The Strip, and see the traffic backups on a regular basis. After my experience with the Cincinnati Apple Store, the fact I most likely would be sitting in traffic while trying to navigate to the Las Vegas Apple Store, and the idea of having to carrying the computer through yet another shopping mall, I decided to forgo the official Apple Store and find a local dealer.

I turned to the local Mac Clinic at 5405 W. Flamingo and called one Friday morning, 9/29/06. The answering machine message let me know they work at the Arizona store Friday-Sunday. I left a voicemail with hopes they would return the call at some point and was absolutely shocked when I received a voicemail later that day, apologizing for the delay in returning the call, instructing me to bring my emac in Monday, 10/2/06, at 9 a.m., and they were aware of the emac video issue. The couple of minutes via voicemails and my 10 minutes Monday morning at the Mac Clinic was the best customer service I have received thus far from anyone related to Apple. My emac is currently residing at the Mac Clinic while they wait for the parts to repair him. I stopped by this afternoon, 10/11/06, to see how the repair process was going, and the gentleman behind the counter actually remembered me from the week prior.

I will never go to an official Apple Store again unless it is a last resort. I received no customer service from any of the frontline employees, those that man the desk, answer the phones, and supposedly “greet” customers as they enter the store. Frontline employees do not listen to the customer with the problem (they kept telling me to make a reservation online, which was extremely difficult, actually impossible, when my emac kept freezing). Hauling a 60 lb. machine through a shopping mall is not a pleasant experience. And being treated like a serf after spending money on a faulty product is not what I expect nor deserve.

I purchased my emac based upon my experiences with Apple over the years. I have never owned any other type of computer for my personal use and my iPod works just fine. Based upon my experience resolving this issue, should I encounter another problem with my emac, I will seriously consider purchasing a PC at quite a lower cost, which is a sentence I never thought I would type. Friends and family often ask me about my experiences with Apple when they prepare to replace or upgrade their computers. Several friends have switched to mac and my father simply upgraded his mac OS instead of purchasing a PC based upon my review of the quality of the product, the integration of the different programs, the “user-friendly” style of OS, and the overall reliability. I honestly cannot describe my disgust and disappointment with Apple concerning this issue and the quality of customer service at official Apple Stores.

**UPDATE 10/12/06**

The Apple employee responsible for oversight of the mid-west Apple Stores contacted me this morning, approximately 12 hours after I had sent my email to Apple, to apologize for the manner in which I had been treated by various Apple employees. He also asked if there was anything he could do to assist me. At this point in time, there isn't much Apple can do, I've already been treated horrendously by Apple employees and my opinion of Apple has been greatly damaged as a result. Reflecting upon my overall experience, Apple presents themselves as a very glamorous, sleek, and modern company, which is fine. However, Apple Store employees must provide some level of customer service, not treat customers as a nuisance, and realize that without customers, they would not have jobs.

California

2006-09-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't expect to visit California so quickly after arriving in Las Vegas, but we went last Thursday, my first time out there.

Skyline

Truckin', like the do-dah man. Once told me "You've got to play your hand"

2006-08-31T17:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes your cards ain't worth a dime, if you don't lay'em down.
Sometimes the lights all shinin' on me, other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me...What a long, strange trip it's been.

alrightly folks, our path has been determined, south to Louisville, hang a right to St. Louis and Kansas City, continue on to Denver, then St. George, and head into the Las Vegas Valley the morning of the 16th. After this trip is complete and if my new atlas is correct, I will have driven on all sections of I-64 and almost all of I-70 (missing Indy to St. Louis), I-15 will be a new interstate to conquer.

**This will be fully updated post-trip. Uploading pictures now...**

Saturday, September 9, 2006

Woke up this morning around 9:00 a.m., my mom had called to let me know my dad was on his way to the airport in Orlando to catch the first of his flights here. Ran downtown to pick up the truck reservation info and print off directions to the Penske place. The Penske guy went through everything, although once I mentioned my experience with buses, the "how to drive a truck" explanation went much faster. I checked the age and mileage of the vehicle (2006, about 17,000 miles) to make sure we weren't getting an ancient vehicle to drive 2,000 miles, and made arrangements to actually retrieve the vehicle around 6:00 p.m., seeing as my dad would be here.

After packing up a little more of the house and cleaning up, picked up my dad from the airport around 6:10 p.m., and we took the back roads to the truck place. As a preface to this next little bit, I had performed a "walk-around" inspection of the truck that morning, checking for body damage, cracked mirrors, tread depth/tire damage, etc. My dad also performed one prior to us leaving the lot. We started driving and I debated heading back toward the airport, seeing as there would be only one traffic light for us to deal with, but decided to use the route I had that morning, as it was faster.

We hopped on I-75N and the trip was off to a bang, literally...the truck's driver's side front tire blew out. The only thing I saw from my rear-view mirror was my dad and the truck weaving toward the shoulder of 75, wasn't quite sure what he was doing, either trying to answer his cellphone (I was calling him to let him know to take the next exit and I would wait there for him) or attempting to avoid a crazy driver on the highway. About 2 minutes after I pulled onto the shoulder of the exit, I saw the Penske truck and my dad come limping up the shoulder, leaning a tad to one side.

We called the Penske folks, gave the guy our location and explained what the problem was, he called back and said it would be about an hour to an hour and a half before the mechanic would arrive. So we hung out on the grassy area next to the exit, sitting a little behind the vehicles so if a car hit them, we would not be in the path of the accident. While sitting there, observing the traffic flow on 75N and the exit, we noticed several things: cars don't slow down until they hit the curve, at which point they are forced to; there is almost as much traffic on the exit as on the interstate; only one vehicle, out of several hundred, stopped to see if we needed any assistance (at that point, it was getting dark, so I asked if she had any flares, unfortunately not); and a car almost did hit us, he was apparently attempting to spin-out his car, the tail end kept scooting left as his tires squealed. The below comment was made as we were both settling in on the side of the road and my dad found gum on the bottom of one of his sandals.

Dad: Well, my first hour in Kentucky has not gone as planned.

To understand why the gum was so upsetting, think of the T.V. character "Monk" and his idiosyncracies, Monk's are very similar to my dad's, and I'll admit, some of mine.

The mechanic showed up, switched the tires in about 15 minutes, and asked about what happened. My dad said he must have run over the piece of steel stuck in the tire, but the mechanic and I were wondering if the piece of metal had been in there for awhile and we were just unfortunately the ones operating the vehicle when the tire finally failed. I'm thinking it was a combination of the two, the piece of metal had been in the tire and there was either a bump or something in the road that finally prompted the tire to fail. To fully understand, the tire essentially shredded, it cannot be recapped, regrooved, or retreaded.

My dad and I dropped off the truck at the apartment (which was less than 1/4 mile from where the truck paused) and headed off to Outback for dinner around 9:00 p.m.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

We starting loading the contents of my apartment around noon. My neighbor came out of his as my dad and I were struggling with the large sofa, saw us moving, and decided to help out. He and my dad moved the large sofa, the loveseat, and the two 7' bookshelves my grandfather built in the 1960's. My neighbor is also moving soon, although he is figuring it will get pushed to December. He is thinking of moving himself, but owns a piano (which I hear him playing when I come home normally), which he does not want to damage, so will probably go with professional guys, at least to load the truck.

We finished up today around 4:30 p.m., locked up the truck, and I headed off to La Rosa's to get a carry-out pizza and pick up extra soda and snacks for the road from the grocery. In terms of stuff in the apartment still, the mattress (I can sleep on the floor, I don't want my dad to), the computer desk, the trunk (the one my dad, and then my older sister and myself, took to college), my two fishtanks (yes, they are empty), the dishes, and my old computer (powermac, still works, he justs prefers to display a sea-foam green hue on his monitor, which is fine, he is 10 years old. I had to get a new mac b/c my old mac didn't have USB ports).

Now, we're watching the ABC 9-11 movie in order to compare the amount of Clinton administration bashing to the amount of Bush administration bashing.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Not much to report today, ran into work, ended up being there longer than I hoped, got a few more boxes for the funny sized objects in my house (like the T.V., the powermac monitor and his hard drive, etc). Gayle from work bought my washer and dryer, so she and her pastor picked them up this evening. She helped me out by taking them off my hands and I helped her out by providing them to her (she just bought a house and needs a washer/dryer, one trip to the laundry mat was more than enough).

then we watched the Skins' game, they are there as a team, but not playing as one consistently. Potential exists, but they need some work. Oh, we also discovered we were able to listen to Sonny and Sam online (with about a ten second delay from the tv broadcast), so we muted the tv and turned up the computer/internet.

Talked to Liz, she's hoping her eye stuff makes it through the new security crap and we're both wondering about when to show up for the GnR show @ the Joint, it depends if they have an opening band. Judging by past history, 8pm means 10pm in 'Axl Land', but since I don't want her to miss anything, we'll prolly get there at 7pm-ish.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Well, today did not go as planned...

We woke up, packed up most remaining objects, and unplugged the cable and T.V.

Dad: No, don't plug the cable back in, we have to cut ourselves off at some point.

I took off for the cable place, to return the box and shut off my service (hope I finish this entry before my internet bits the dust). After chatting with the cable lady, I went back to the office because the DHL package and flashdrive I went to retrieve yesterday that did not arrive yesterday, so I was hoping they would be there today, and needed to pick up the 5+ year-old laptop I use (my Mac is crashing and we don't have computers yet in Vegas, actually, we don't have any office-related material yet).

The DHL package was not there, but the flashdrive was. My cool IT guy had just sat down to eat his Coney dogs (shredded cheese on a hot dog, I don't eat them, but alot of folks in Cincinnati do), when he dashed out of his space to resolve yet another computer issue. So, I hung out, waiting for him to finish up, reading various newspapers online, and making sure I had all my hardcopy files.

While I was going to the bank with Gayle to get the first installment for the washer/dryer, Liz left a message, TSA took away her contact solution. Due to my experience in Houston, we knew of the restrictions, but weren't sure if they had eased up on them. We tried to check online last night, but couldn't find anything. So, we mistakenly thought since the bottle was still completely sealed, it had a chance of making it. Liz also remarked that she was somewhat surprised she was not being escorted out of the airport by security, apparently she fussed at them, and she was now looking for a bar.

My cool IT guy didn't get finished with the task he dashed away to resolve during lunch until just before 5pm. He hooked up the flashdrive, made me two file folders (I only have 2 USB ports, so in order to connect an additional drive, I have to unplug the keyboard and then can't type), and I started copying one of my folders. Little did I know, that one folder would take 1.5 hours...

While my machine was copying the folder, Liz called again, her flight to Chicago was delayed 3 hours due to storms in Chicago and the airline wasn't sure if her connecting flight to Dayton would take-off or wait for her. I'm a little peeved at TSA/all airlines right now due to the new "No Liquids" rule and my recent experience involving mechanical difficulties. I'm almost expecting some announcement that passengers will be patted down after exiting the restroom on the plane, in case they decided to store their "liquids" in the form of urine and pee in a bottle. I told her to check with the folks to see if her flight would make it to Dayton, and if not, see if they could fly her into Cincinnati tomorrow morning, Louisville prior to 9am, or Kansas City at some point during the day.

At that point, my one folder was done, so I copied the other 3 I needed in about 20 minutes. Talked to my dad a few times during this entire deal, he sounded like he was just chilling at my place.

Liz called back, she had talked to her dad, who apparently has about 15 million frequent flyer miles saved up on United (ok, in reality, her dad and mom cashed a bunch out to take a cruise, but he managed to store up enough in about a month to coordinate for Liz, Miss Michelle, and myself to be on the same flights home, DC, and then back to Vegas, over the New Year's holiday. Liz and I will be attending the Giants game. We got an email from him shortly after our conference call to coordinate these flights, he wanted to let us know he was taking care of the taxes, all we have to do is show up and get on the plane). Liz was now flying to Denver and then to Kansas City, we're picking her up at some point tomorrow.

Dad: Well, I've seen some creative ways to avoid loading boxes, but this beats them all...

During the time I was at work, my dad packed up the T.V. and other remaining items that he could. The stuff he could not pack due to a lack of boxes, he organized. I stopped by Staples, picked up a few more boxes, so right now the house is packed all up. While talking to Liz while she was in Denver, my dad mentioned it may not be a good idea to drive the truck through the airport to pick up Liz, I remarked that she has no checked luggage and has already fussed at TSA, my dad mentioned the one-way flight, and Liz added the fact she had changed her flight rather suddenly.

11:30pm: Liz is now in Kansas City, getting on the shuttle to her hotel. We're thinking that when we get in the area, my dad can continue on the the hotel in Lawrence and I can detour to find Liz. Since Liz and I will be backtracking, if my dad has a problem, we'll run into the Penske truck pulled over. Since it is a metro area, our cell phones should work. Oh, the two-way radios purchased function.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Both of us got up around 7:30 a.m. since we had the last few objects to load into the truck and a 600 some-odd mile drive ahead of us. Finally got on 71/75 South around 12:30 p.m., quite a bit later than we had planned.

While my dad and I were driving to Lawrence, Kansas (about 30 miles outside Kansas City), Liz had rented a car and was visiting various places in Kansas City, including some art museum and Truman's Presidential Library. She headed over to Lawrence to check into the hotel around the time my dad and I were arriving in St. Louis. For those that had never driven into St. Louis from the east, you are cruising along when you turn a corner and suddenly the city and arch are there. I took a few pictures because I wasn't sure how close we would get to the arch. Turns out, we drove right by it. The arch produces an odd visual effect when it is viewed from the road, it was like it was almost one dimensional, very interesting. In addition, a warning for others: don't try to drive through St. Louis westbound when the sun is setting, you cannot see anything and for some reason, they sometimes use little black dots to separate the lines, sometimes actual white lines, and sometimes no lines at all.

When we were about 60 miles outside Kansas City, we stopped at a rest stop, my dad commented right before we pulled off that one could see the glow of lights from the city in the horizon, which you could. I was exhausted and had begun to experience the feeling I was sinking into the road. I took a picture of the handwashing machine (you don't have to touch anything), exited the restroom, and my dad told me, "You need a two hour nap...actually, maybe just 10 minutes. Go take a nap in your car, call me when you awake."

Well, my ten minute nap turned into about an hour, woke up, called Liz to let her know we were still 60 miles outside Kansas City, woke my dad up, and we continued on. Finally made it to the hotel sometime around 1:30 a.m. Central time. Unloaded the cats and went to bed.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Today was the shortest drive in terms of mileage, just over 500, from Lawrence to Denver. Liz and I had a minor detour to return her rental car in Topeka (note: when in Topeka, check to see if you are at a full-service pump, paying full-service price. Liz thought she was getting gas at a good price, but it turned out she was at a full-service pump, but since the bell didn't work, she didn't get full-service but yet still had to pay full-service price...).

My dad kept on going and we all met back up in Salina. It was there that I gave my dad a bottle of cold water. Shortly afterwards, my dad called on the two-way, letting us know he was stopping to "dewater". I asked if there was a road, he responded, "No, I'm stopping at this overpass."

We ended up stopping a little while later for gas and so we could all dewater. I had not experienced sustained winds of that strength since Iowa. IMO, it is because there is nothing to break the wind up, it just dashes across the plains.

Kansas is flat, but has sunflowers along side the highway.

Eastern Colorado is also flat. Unfortunately, there was about a 25 mile/hour sustained wind, with gusts up to 35 mph the entire trip. This wind did not affect the honda so much, but definitely affected my dad's ability to drive the truck. Since he was essentially driving a shoebox, he had to hold the wheel at an angle, imagine holding the wheel at 3 and 9, then turning the 3-9 position so it was at 1 and 7. Liz and I also noticed that the truck was also leaning to the right/north. When we first noticed this, we were concerned that there may be a mechanical problem, but after about a hundred miles concluded that the truck would have broken down by then, a tire would have shredded, several 18-wheelers past by with their tail-ends swinging into our lane b/c of light loads, and then we saw the U-haul truck go by, he was also leaning to the right/north. The wind was pushing the trucks.

The wind was also pushing the tumbleweeds, as we were attacked by a herd of them somewhere in Kansas.

As we drew closer to Denver, you could also see the glow in the horizon. We stopped briefly in Limon, CO and bought rock-hard oatmeal cookies from McDonalds (note: remember these rock hard cookies for future reference).

Made it into the metro Denver area and descended into chaos, there was still plenty of traffic, we (Liz and I) were trying to keep my dad behind us, which proved difficult because of the traffic, and our hotel directions were written by googlemaps in a complex manner.

Dad (while speaking to me on cell phones): I may need to put you in the cupholder!!

Me (imagining my voice coming out of my dad's little pimped-out heineken cell phone sitting in the cupholder): Daddy, can you still hear me?

Dad: Yes, I can hear you fine, why in god's name did you pick this hotel?!?

Me: I just picked a hotel somewhere on the west side of Denver, I didn't know we would have this much difficulty.

We made it to the hotel, unloaded the cats, and went to the restaurant across the street for drinks and some food.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Today we went from Denver to St. George, Utah. This was another 600+ mile day, but a very scenic one.

We stopped outside Denver for gas, I can't remember the name of the town right now, but the clerk was very nice and we drove through the town. The school has been modernized, but they have preserved the old school bell and tower. We also stopped in Eagle, CO and drove by No Name, CO. I have pictures, which will be uploaded when I either get over to Liz and Mark's again or pick up the CD from them.

Shortly after we left Eagle, I was chewing a piece of gum to help my ears with the altitude when I noticed there was something hard in my piece of gum. I plucked it out...part of a tooth. I figured it was probably part of my molar, which started having an issue about a month ago, after I found out I was moving here. At that point in time, I made a mental note to get to a dentist out here as soon as possible to fix that issue. But it was not from that tooth, so my tongue made the sweep and found where the bit of tooth was from, my right front tooth. For those that are unaware, my front teeth have short roots (my dentist when I had braces neglected to take any X-rays for 2 years, so one tooth sat on top of my front teeth, wearing down the roots), they are thinner than normal due to shaving to keep them from touching my bottom front teeth, and they are a little too loose for my comfort. The dentist outside Richmond, VA (best dentist I have ever had, he and his assistant came in on their day off to perform my root canal) told me that they would fall out, he just couldn't predict when. So I'm driving along, with a bit of tooth in my hand, figuring "great, just great, everything has been going fine, and now this. I have meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, I hope the rest of my tooth doesn't break off." It was at that point I lost my appetite.

Utah is beautiful, although provides an odd landscape for someone that has grown up on the east coast. At times, I felt like I was driving on the moon.

The pictures from this stretch will make up for the lack of commentary.

We made it to the hotel, unloaded the cats, and then snuck the beer in. Apparently, one has to be a member of a "club" to consume/purchase alcoholic beverages in Utah. We weren't quite sure how strictly this was enforced.

While drinking our beverages, Liz and I went over what had happened with my tooth. I had felt two shooting pains the Saturday my dad arrived just after brushing my teeth, hadn't eaten anything prior to that to make it crack, got so paranoid thought I saw a crack, and we finally figured that if the line on my tooth was really a crack, the only thing that could have cracked it was the oatmeal cookies from the McDonald's in Limon, CO.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Just over 100 miles to go...

Took off out of St. George, traveled through Arizona for about 30 miles, then hit Nevada. This was the smoothest of all days.

Made it to my new place and left dad to rest for a bit while Liz and I headed off to the airport to retrieve her personal vehicle (ok, I hit Liz with the honda at a very slow speed while dropping her off, I didn't realize she would be crossing in front of my vehicle to retrieve hers...). I can't remember why Liz got back to the house before me, but when she returned, my dad was chatting on his cell phone, eating his butterscotch candy we had picked up for him in Colorado. Liz was shocked when she saw my dad had unloaded about 1/2 of the truck during the period we were gone (less than one hour, we hit the grocery as well).

Liz went to pick up Mark and Michelle a little later, and when they arrived, Mark and I carried up almost all of the boxes. While waiting for them, my dad and I continued to work. I stopped upstairs for a tad to look for something and when I returned outside, my dad had somehow wrestled one of my bookshelves out of the truck by himself. I have two 7' tall bookshelves, all one piece, handmade by my Grandfather. It is interesting when people help move me, they always assume that the top piece is removable, because that is how furniture is made these days.

We were all finished for the day, everything was off the truck and into either the house or the garage. Liz, Mark, and Michelle headed home so they could eat and Liz could ready for the show she and I were to attend. My dad and I went across the street for dinner. I did feel bad Liz and I were going out that evening, my dad tried to switch his flight so he could leave Monday, but it wasn't working out logistically.

Liz called to let me know the water had just gone out at their place, so I would have to bathe at mine. When I called the utility companies, I didn't realize how much the gas company mattered, turns out my hot water heater is gas. Lucky for me, cold water in Las Vegas is equal to luke-warm water in Cincinnati, so my quick shower was not bad at all.

Liz and I made it to the Hard Rock sometime after 7:00 p.m. and hopped in line for The Joint. We called Rob to let him know we were there, I described it like New York all over again, only this time I was standing in an air-conditioned hallway instead of on a hot sidewalk and was actually attending the show with someone I knew this time around. We chatted with the guys around us, the guy behind us was pretty cool and one of the guys ahead of us had on a shirt from the Hammerstein shows. I mentioned that I had attended the Wednesday show in NYC and he commented, "So, you saw Kid Rock, that was the show he was at." My response, "Um, Izzy was at my show, yeah, Kid Rock showed up as well." I can't quite understand why everyone is so enthralled with Kid Rock's appearance. Like I typed in my May entry about the trip to NYC and the show up there, I really don't know how I would feel about the entire experience if Izzy had not shown up, I could care less about Kid Rock.

I went up to get adult beverages, and when those were done, Liz headed up for refills. At that point in time, I noticed there was somewhat of a to-do in the hallway, security folks were essentially shoving people against the wall, one of them yelled out something like "fire-line", and it was like watching a wave proceed down the hallway at me. I had no idea what was going on, only it was coming my way.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer...

Strike that...it was actually Axl Rose and his entourage heading down the hallway. He passed me less than two feet away and I will echo my remarks from seeing him in New York, he is not fat. Although he was shorter than I expected, just about two inches taller than myself, and rather pale. He looks ok, I guess, like his age.

Anyhoo, the show was a great deal of fun for the most part, Liz finally got to see a line-up of GnR. Athough we had a pesky Steelers fan and his girlfriend near us. The Steelers fan told Liz to "mellow out" after his girlfriend had shoved Liz several times for no apparent reason. The comforting thing about the "Steeler fan and his girlfriend" situation was that the folks around us were looking out for Liz and I. Security was called in on the Steelers fan and chick (not by us) and eventually when things got a tad rough/out of hand/beginnings of a fight btwn the Steelers fan and someone else, I was able to move Liz to my left. The guys to the left didn't mind, they moved out of Liz' way, seeing as both she and I are shorter than them, they recognized there was a potential problem, and we actually knew all the songs. The Steelers fan chick was clueless when a song came on that wasn't played on the radio, which is amusing to me, watching someone try to sing along/dance to a song they have never heard before.

Comments about the show:

1. They played the Jaws-type/seesaw music right before it started

2. It was a good show, since I had seen this line-up before, I consumed adult beverages this time around

3. Liz finally got to see a line-up of GnR (we were too little when they were huge and they cancelled the DC show the night before they were supposed to play)

4. Actually seeing the reclusive Axl scurrying (sp?) by me in person was kinda cool and the look on Liz' face was priceless

5. Something that I failed to include in my NYC entry, some folks, like the Steelers fan's girlfriend, only knew the radio hits, they were only there for those, which is ok, I suppose, but why pay that kind of money for a handful of songs by a lead singer with a backing band? I would not have paid this amount of money if Liz and I had seen a line-up of GnR previously

6. Piggybacking on the previous comment, when I was at the New York show, some folks were dressed in rather humourous apparel for a GnR show, strappy high-heel sandals, hand-bags, little capri pants to match the sandals...trust me on this one, a strappy high-heel landed on one of my Doc's and I was jabbed in the stomach a few times by one chick's plastic-like handbag (until I started shoving the hand-bag away each time she attempted to jab me with it, but then I was somewhat concerned she would hit me in the eye with the ever-present "devil-horns" she sported during the non-radio songs). Same situation here.

7. And for those that say they would rather see this line-up than the "original" (ok, "original" here = AFD or UYI line-up), you are idiots. At this point in time, one has to take what one can get, but I doubt we'll be attending another show if the ticket prices are as high as they were for us here or me in NYC.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

My dad and I went to Denny's for breakfast, hit Walmart, and then took the truck back.

After dropping off the truck, we drove on down The Strip. We hit traffic around the Bellagio (sp?), so I was hoping the fountains would go off while we were sitting there, it was almost time for them, but no such luck.

We tried to get the Skins game on the radio, but it didn't work. So I piddled around while my dad took a nap.

Dropped dad off at the airport for his flight, that was really tough. I always have fun with my dad and mom. I'm afraid my dad won't make it out to my new place again and I'm afraid my mom won't make it out here ever, I'm 2,500 miles away from them now, that is at least a 5-day drive. I've taken pictures of my house for her, which I will email shortly.

Final Thoughts

It was a tad hectic, but quite a bit of fun. I saw parts of the country I have never seen, which were absolutely amazing. The last time my dad was in Las Vegas was in 1968...there was a two lane road between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.

Davenport, IA: Welcome to CitiBus Trivia Time with F (rough draft, gotta work on my html-in' skilz)

2006-08-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

I’m moving to Las Vegas in about 3 weeks, so I was playing on a mapping program,virtually driving around Vegas, to get a feel for how to get around. After my goals were accomplished (find apartment, drive to work, drive to grocery, drive to friends’ house), I decided to look at Davenport’s map.

They didn’t have a good picture of my old apartment, so I decided to
drive on over to 16th/Main…I found buses!! Then found a few more scattered around the city and a light bulb went off over my head, illuminating my entire little grey cubicle.

Welcome to…

Trivia Time with feefee!!

1. There are 4 buses leaving 16th/Main.

2. There is one bus turning onto Harrison from 2nd.

3. There is one bus in the East Village, inbound.

4. There is one bus on 3rd approaching Main.
5. There is another one on 3rd approaching Ripley.

6. There appears to be another one on Rockingham, inbound.

7. There may be one at Walmart, I’m not sure (see lame excuse below).

8. There is possibly one turning into Americana (cut me some slack, it has been a few years, I’ve memorized several other cities’ bus routes since then, and as a result, the routing is kinda sketchy).

9. All school buses are in the lot, so either mid-day or summertime.

10. I can’t tell if this is a 30’ bus or a little truck because of the shadows, it is southbound on Eastern.

The Question is: What time of day is it?

Yep, I’m looking for the hour and the minute (the 16th/Main crunch obviously provides a vital clue), I already have an idea but would like to hear from others. Cue the Jeopardy music now.

It is warm (barge in the lock n’ dam), the HyVee on West Locust is open, and the approach to the Centennial Bridge from our side is torn up. These pictures may have been taken before I left, I can’t tell.

And now, in case anyone is interested…this is the website of the map: http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=41525865&x=-90571890&z=15&l=0&m=a (hope it works, if not, go to google, type in ‘Davenport Iowa Wiki’, click on the first link, and then scroll down to the bottom for the map section).

The Ultimate Road Trip...

2006-08-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

I'm a little nervous, James in Omaha and Rob in DC can't make it, so it is now Dad from Florida, Liz from Vegas, and perhaps Mark's pal Jay. Dad and Liz have flights here. Dad shows up Sat. night, Liz shows up on Tuesday, waiting to hear from Mark re Jay.

We're still debating cities, but we'll hit Kansas City/Topeka, Denver, and Cedar City or some St. George place in Utah.

Only 2,000 miles, and the opportunity of a lifetime.

for those that may be interested in playing along at their current locales, i have included a "virtual daisy chain" for you below, right-click and save or drag the image to the desktop. print him out (a color printer is preferable of course, but black and white works as well) and, using a pair of scissors, just snip each little circle as the days go by (weekends are represented by one ring only, so wait til Labor Day and Sunday night to snip those two). the ring at the very bottom represents today (8/28/06), so you can snip two tomorrow. if you go to microsoft word, open up a new document, go to "insert", then "picture" from file, and you can import your new virtual daisy chain into the word document. right click (double click for mac users) and select "format picture", go to "layout", select "on top of text", go to size, and you can format the picture to be the length of an 8.5"x11" piece of paper. make sure the box that says something like keep original proportions, or something that conveys that basic idea, is selected. otherwise, the image will be distorted.

not to worry, Dad and Liz, I came across a coloring book while packing...just need to find my crayons (i think they are in my "craft" box).

woohoo!

!!!!! Guns N' Roses @ The Joint

2006-08-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

Guns N' Roses, The Joint, Las Vegas, NV

Apparently, the current incarnation of GnR will be playing The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, over in Vegas, on September 16th and 17th (yeah, I'm using the old school logo b/c
it is a pain to find the new one and I'm not in the mood to scan my t-shirt).

Not sure how I feel about this show, tickets are $150.

My ticket for NYC was $63, prior to ticketmaster crap tacked on. I had a golden ticket to the NYC show...

"I never dreamed that I would climb
Over the moon in ecstasy
But nevertheless, it's there that I'm
Shortly about to be

'Cause I've got a golden ticket

I've got a golden chance to make my way
And with a golden ticket, it's a golden day"

When I picked up my ticket from Will-Call, I looked at it, realized what I was holding, looked up at the lady working the counter, and smiled at her while thinking, "Oh my god, I'm here by myself and I am currently in possession of one ticket to a Guns N' Roses show. I wonder what the venue is like..." as I was glancing over my shoulder at a doorway leading into the venue. She told me, "Have fun in there, kid." That show was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Right now, my primary concern is getting Liz to one of their shows. I called her shortly after discovering there were additional tickets available for the NYC shows, but she has these things known as "parental-unit responsibilities..." a.k.a. she has a kid and a husband. Liz also lives in Vegas and a last-minute flight for one evening was way out of price-range.

So, I was up in NYC, having fun at the show, hanging out with the folks near me, but there was something terribly wrong with the entire situation...Liz was not with me. When the show was over, as I was dashing down the street to the PATH train, I was attempting to process, "ok, the trash gets picked up after 2:00 a.m.; where in god's name is this intersection and the PATH station; oops, should have stayed up a few blocks, this street is completely dark, but if someone is following me, they will know I'm clueless if I double-back, thus I will march down a completely dark block in NYC in the middle of the night and if anyone touches me, I will kill them; and Liz is not with me."

This may sound odd to some, but I'm sure others have experienced the same feeling, you are some place you never thought you would be and the one friend you can see being with you is not present. It was like I was just waiting for Liz to come back from the bar, the restroom, or she turned the corner just in front of me. As I was parading down 32nd St., it would not have been a surprise if Liz suddenly appeared next to me and we had somehow just missed each other during the show. As corny as it may sound, she was the one element that was missing from the NYC experience.

The flippin' Vegas tickets cost $150 and are almost certain to sell-out during the presale (which, although I applied for a password, most likely won't get. I lurk almost all of the time on all the forums I'm a member of, I post like once a month, if that). These tickets are more than the Rolling Stones at the MGM.

Perhaps the gods o' luck will shine down upon us once again and we can get a few tickets through a ticket drop at the last minute.

**UPDATE 8/17/06**

I have presale info (don't ask for it, you are NOT getting it), we shall see what happens tomorrow.

**UPDATE 8/18/06**

We have two tickets for the show, purchased at approximately 1:05 p.m. east coast time today (just a quick comment, honestly, I resembled Charlie as he opened his chocolate bar, furrowed brow and all, and then went running down the street when I got the NYC ticket confirmation and made it up there...just switch him into a female, add about 12" of hair, and a pair of docs).

Liz and I will be attending the Saturday, September 16th, show. I hope this show is as good as the other one I went to.

If everything goes as planned (or as close as possible), we (myself, my motley band of movers composed of family and friends, the honda, and the Penske rental truck) should be descending into the Las Vegas Valley the morning of the 16th.

What a great way to have begun (May 17th) and now close out (September 16th) an absolutely fantastic summer.

Redskins @ the Bengals

2006-08-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

Kick off is about 1.5 hours away. This game is actually sold out here, surprising to me for a preseason game. Preseason games were the only ones my family was able to attend in DC. We attended a preseason game just to see Joe Montana (after he left the 49'ers, yeppers, 50-yard line) and got tickets to a Browns game prior to Joe's departure.

I thought about heading down to Willie's, but I have to train my replacement starting tomorrow and I've been hitting the hay around 9:30pm east coast time.

We shall see...

Let's go Washington!!

**Update**

Well crud, we lost 19-3 and I spent the day surrounded by Bengals fans...grrrr

Since I predicted a Redskins/Bengals superbowl last year (the night before Palmer was taken out), I'm still predicting one for this season (thus dooming the Redskins and Bengals since I have now announced my prediction), and there are plenty of Redskin-related videos on here, here is one for the Bengals fans, by Bootsy Collins (sorry, it is a wiki entry), who was walking around outside my building, all decked out in his Bengals gear, on the way to Paul Brown Stadium the day they filmed it.

Oh, and my replacement resigned last Friday, so I never got to meet her.

The Highly Explosive Lipton Ice Tea, Houston, TX

2006-08-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

I was in Houston last week for training in preparation for the Las Vegas operation we're going to start running soon. Some random thoughts and notes about Houston: this was my first time in Texas and pretty much everyone I encountered was pleasant; the traffic is horrendous; the food is excellent (I have never eaten that much food in one week before); the weather wasn't bad at all, hot and humid but not oppressive; and the Enron "E" has been replaced by a Dynergy (iirc) box outside the old Enron building.

Thursday morning rolls around and I'm awakened by the news of the UK bust of the terrorists who had been planning to blow up airplanes enroute to America from the UK. I didn't have time to watch the news all day, seeing as I had to go to work. When I returned to the hotel that evening, my mom called to make sure I was aware of what was going on with the airlines.

At that point, I was listening to the news talking about how all laptops, cell phones, Ipods, etc. had to be placed in checked baggage if you were in the UK and TSA wasn't really sure what they were going to do yet..."Sweet, my flight home leaves tomorrow and I have no idea what I can bring onboard in my carry-on, if I'm even allowed a carry-on."

Mom: "Now, where were you on 9-11? I know one of you guys was out of the country."
Me: "I was in Iowa, Amber was the one stuck in Jamaica for awhile until her dad bribed the Mexican airline to get them on the plane."

We discussed fedexing my electronic items back to me here, there was no way I was going to trust TSA with a $150 cell phone (ok, I got it for free, but it is still worth money), a $500 digital camera, and a laptop that isn't mine. We debated for a bit, but decided to check TSA in the morning. I had time before my flight to run to FedEx if needed.

After dinner (more food, I was so stuffed at that point, I couldn't finish my meal, although it was really good) we took a driving tour of Houston and made it back to the hotel. I tried to use the business center to check TSA's site, but some guy was in there playing on the internet. I went to bed.

Friday, we got to the airport early in an attempt to get me on an earlier flight and so our maintenance guy could catch his flight at noon. The earlier flight for me was sold-out, so I had some time to kill before the flight I was to take home. Turns out all liquids and liquid-like substances are now banned in carry-on items. You cannot buy something in the, and I quote, "sterile area" and bring it on board.

I went outside to hang out with the other smokers and met a guy from Wisconsin that had been working in New Orleans since right after Katrina hit last year, he was on his way home to visit his family. We talked about Las Vegas (he takes his mom at least once a year), New Orleans (he predicted it will take at least 10 years to get everything picked up; they run into snakes and alligators on a regular basis; they've been told to demolish houses but they can't demolish them until they get the O.K. from the owner, and most of the time, no one can find the owner; and he and his crew have seen dead people), and different concerts we've been to (he takes his kids to three shows a year, they get to pick 2 of the shows and he gets to pick one). He is the one that coined the title of this entry, "Now that I have finished my highly explosive Lipton Ice Tea, my newspapers better behave on this flight, and I should be fine." He left on the 10:30 flight.

After calling a bunch of friends to chat with, I headed on over to the smokers on the other side of the doorway. There was an airport employee over there on break, cracking jokes about the new liquids ban. I met a guy from Goshen, IN on his way home and we chatted until just before 1pm. We both decided it was time to head on through security.

Security was a breeze, I was wearing my "streamlined airport security" outfit, pants, shirt, and reef flipflops. I make sure to leave enough room in my carry-on so after I present my picture I.D., I can stash my purse in my bag for the X-ray machine. We lost each other for a bit, but then located one another again about 30 minutes prior to boarding. The flight was O.K., although it was really cold, especially near my feet; we hit some turbulance resulting in my coffee landing on the lady next to me (I apoligized profusely, but she told me not to worry about it, the coffee on her leg was the warmest thing she had felt on the flight); and we took a different approach to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport and it was like we were divebombing the runway.

Final Thoughts about the new liquids ban:

* how much more are we going to have to give up in order to board an airplane? The terrorists have won; bit by bit post 9-11, they are directly impacting our lives as Americans...no lighters, two books of matches, no shoes, no liquids, be prepared to be strip-searched. The most ironic situation at an airport for me was in Dayton, those selected for an "advanced search" of our carry-on luggage and persons were me (guess I look like a member of the IRA-quick comment, when I was flying btwn CVG, Moline, and DC, my bag was swept with that little piece of tissue paper everytime I boarded a flight, like 8 times in a month. I finally asked someone what it was for, "Oh, we're checking your bag for bomb residue."), an older black lady traveling with her 3 grandkids, and a Buddhist monk. Like the guy from Wisconsin said, "You know, I could put a piece of string in a twix bar, stand up, and announce, 'Nobody move, I have a twix bar'."

* if the FBI/CIA feels the need to track to my inane conversations between Cincy, NoVa, Omaha, and Vegas about how my spider-plants really like living outside during the summer, the fact my cat can jump from the floor to the top of the fridge in one bound, my grandma's health, etc., well, OK, but it is doing them no good, seeing as I'm not placing calls to questionable locales. However, at this point in time, what is a questionable locale, England?

* as a small comfort to my fellow inhalers of burning tobacco leaves, TSA is now so focused on finding liquids that lighters make it through without question. Ah, the federal government at work...

* and if you ever hear on the news about a girl waltzing through airport security wearing just a pair of board shorts, a bikini top, and carrying a beach towel, that will most likely be me (unless someone steals my idea first, I've been planning this for some time, I just need to get back down to Florida)

Chief Zee needs some help, Redskins related

2006-08-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

the following is yanked from the Washington Times.

His real name is Zema Williams, but Washington football fans know him as "Chief Zee," a big-hearted 65-year-old retired car salesman who has been a fixture at Redskins football games for nearly three decades.
In his colorful Indian headdress and elaborate costume, the affable Mr. Williams -- who bills himself as "The Man Who Put the Soul in the Burgundy and Gold" -- has entertained generations of Redskins fans with his whooping and hollering, and has charmed children by making balloon animals.
"It's been a wild ride," Mr. Williams said. "After 20 years, I said I'd give it 30 years. Hopefully, I can get a Super Bowl out of it. I get younger fans saying how much their parents and grandparents enjoyed me."
But Chief Zee will be sidelined this fall. Mr. Williams, an Army veteran, spent 12 days in a veterans hospital in May with an aneurysm in his stomach. A blood clot in his left leg has crippled him, and the big toe on his left foot will have to be amputated.
Living on Social Security, the Redskins' unofficial mascot is facing a pile of medical bills.
This is the first time Mr. Williams has been injured since a game at Philadelphia in 1983, when angry Eagles fans attacked him, breaking his leg, tearing off his original Indian costume and leaving him hospitalized. Fans donated money for his recovery. He never missed a game.
In 2000, Mr. Williams was inducted into the special fans section of the NFL Hall of Fame as the Redskins' No. 1 fan, rivaling the portly fellows who dress up as lady pigs and call themselves "the Hogettes."
Before every game, fans would beg Chief Zee to stop by their sections, especially if there was a birthday or anniversary to celebrate. He always made sure to walk the entire circumference of the stadium. One year, he took a live hog to the football stadium.
He says he has spent "uncountable" money of his own over the years: airline tickets for away games, tickets for home games, balloons, trinkets. He has also appeared at various Redskins charity events over the years, as well as at the Special Olympics.
But he doesn't know how he's going to get around FedEx Field in a wheelchair.
Wearing a Redskins cap, large glasses and gray mustache, Mr. Williams -- born in Georgia, the son of a sharecropper -- enjoys sharing his passion for the Redskins.
"I'd always say, 'Bring it to the Chief; bring it to the Chief," he says, recalling a time when Redskins wide receiver Santana Moss, after completing a touchdown, ran over to the stands and gave the football to Mr. Williams.
One wall of his Oxon Hill apartment is covered with photographs depicting Chief Zee with NFL players. Now, a wheelchair and a walker rest beneath a huge Redskins wall hanging.
"The season starts next month. But I can't walk. I'll have problems. The stadium is so hard to work," he says.
"I've enjoyed it, other than the beating," says Mr. Williams, who also recalls the time he got "roughed up" in Giants Stadium in 1979 by New York fans he calls "the stupos."
He lives on a fixed income of $1,039 a month. His rent is close to $800 a month. "All I can afford to do is keep a roof over my head."
A spokesman for the Washington Redskins said the team was unaware of Mr. Williams' hospitalization.

"We didn't know a thing," said spokesman Karl Swanson. "We obviously wish him the best. He means a lot to us and his fellow fans. We hope he stays a fixture for a long time."

And now for my comments, Chief Zee has been around forever, but Danny-boy just wants his money, imo. As a fan, watching from the outside during the JKC era and the DS era, it is completely different (telling us we're going have to use special "Redskins" credit cards to purchase season tickets so he gets a kickback!?!?!?). The only way Chief Zee will be at games is if folks donate the money for his tickets, I don't see Dan taking a hit.

If you are so inclined:

Chief Zee
P.O. Box 355
Oxon Hill, MD, 20750-0355

As another person wrote, the right thing would be for Dan to give him a "lifetime free pass" to the games and let him just park his chair somewhere on the sidelines, next to the team he has supported his entire life.

That lovely time of year...

2006-07-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

when I get my envelope containing my season tickets from Landover, Maryland.

Since I'm apparently moving 2,000 miles farther away from FedEx (New Jack City), I'm planning to attend the Cowboys and Giants games (haha, cowboys, nice try last year, rofl).

I signed up for the season ticket wait list at the age of 13, and 13 years later, I finally received my letter in the mail, "Congratulations, you have waited a long time..." My mom's reaction, "someone must have died, my father would have killed someone for those tickets." No, my grandpa didn't kill anyone, he was gone prior to my arrival. But my family, as a whole, has made it. We have General Admission tickets, the normal people tickets, a.k.a. 'the people that can't spend massive amounts of dough' tickets, to the Washington Redskins. I was so happy last year, got my ticket letter notification, then saw the little fedex-dealio on my door about 6pm one night, I floored it back home the next day during lunch (after sprinting over to the management office the night before, with my mom on the phone, finding they had just left, and peeking in the windows to see if I could see my package), and yes, it was my tickets. I was in awe, just holding them, after so many years. The ladies at the office thought it was pictures or something...I told them, "NO, these are my season tickets to the Redskins."

In terms of games left, the Titans and the Jaguars, and the 2 preseason (although I plan on donating one of those games to the less injured/more recovered soldiers at Walter Reed). Update: 7/28/06, all tickets available have gone to a new home and the soldiers' tickets will be sent shortly via slow FedEx, seeing DHL likes to send packages to visit random cities before they arrive at their destination, late of course.

Judging by what we accomplished last season, this may prove to be an interesting one...we had an awesome ride this past season.

I was part of the Free Taylor Fan Club, judging by what I had read, there were some definite questions about that case, the DA doubles as a DJ and was using the trial to promote himself, and some other stuff about the guys accusing Taylor was kinda troubling, apparently, they are well-known in that area.

My favorite Redskin ever is Darrell Green, my folks got me an actual real replica of his jersey, I wear it to the games I attend. I remember watching games when I was little and saying outloud, "we really need an interception"...when suddenly, Darrell would appear out of nowhere and nab the ball for us. And he is an overall really good guy.

Good Saint Joe came home, I earned an ulcer in 2004, but 2005 was great.

The Flamingo Pen is heading home...I'm moving to Las Vegas

2006-07-19T19:14:00.001-07:00

after a short visit to Cincinnati, and apparently is taking me with him.

Yep, that is correct, I was offered and accepted a job in Las Vegas, Nevada today. I am very excited about this opportunity and cannot wait, brand new facility, brand new buses, we get to start the operation from the ground-up.

It was a difficult decision somewhat, to move farther away from my Skins season tickets, but an opportunity like this does not knock on one's door everyday. It sounds like it will be quite the adventure, probably chaotic at times, which is fine, I enjoy being forced to think on my feet when a challenge is presented to me, and I get to work with new people. I'm going to be playing with buses again (I do love my buses) and working in operations, which is my background and what I enjoy because you never really know what will happen next. Besides, Liz, Mark, and Miss Michelle are currently located out there.

The first few months of my 28th year of existence in this dimension has been quite the wild ride....

Tommy's Wedding, July 15, 2006

2006-07-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

>>>we're working on it here now, cut us some slack, lol<<<

We all got the email, Tommy and Jess were getting married. This was months ago, and somewhat surprising because we had always figured Tommy would be the last of us to get hitched. Jess is a good match for him, she is on the absolute opposite side of everything from me when it comes to politics, but is a sweetheart, she is really cool.

The day after the Cincy Poison show, I left on my way to DC. The plan was to stay at Rob and Scotty's that night, then the four of us, Rob, Scotty, Rashmi, & Me, would commute down 95. Rob and I had made reservations at the "Duke of York" in March, right after we got our 'Save the Date' notices. Got to Rob and Scotty's around 10pm and started uploading our pictures from Vegas, which took longer than I thought it would.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

I woke up, due to Scotty and Rob talking, and moved into another room to continue sleeping. Rob popped in a bit before noon, "What the hell are you doing, you're still asleep, get in the shower now, we have Tommy's wedding to go to."

Rob: "How many UVA grads does it take to wrap a couple of wedding presents. Apparently more than 4, seeing as we have now run out of wrapping paper."

We left, around 12:45-1:00pm, and took the back roads to 95 South. Rob and I grew up in this area, so we knew where we were going, although I didn't see the "Prison-View Estates" sign when we passed Lorton. Made it onto 95 South near Woodbridge.

Rob and Scotty were sending text messages back and forth, when suddenly, Scotty had to go potty. Rashmi motioned wildly to me (she was behind me, I saw her in the rear view mirror), so we took the next exit. Rob and I were talking about stopping at a McDonald's or a WaWa (I wanted a fountain soda, they are so much better than cans or bottles), when suddenly, her car took on a life of it's own, appearing out of nowhere in front of us, jumping around corners and whatnot, kinda like a cartoon. I guess she hit the Go Go Gadget Wheels button on her SUV. She dropped him off at the door of some Panera Bread joint and he ran inside. We got lunch to-go at Panera.

After we picked up lunch, we quickly returned to 95 and I was instructed to "step it up a notch." I found a Marine (he was driving an SUV with a couple of Marine stickers on his back windshield), "yo, this Marine will serve as our pace car." The Marine was cool, he was going 80 mph, although we were a little concerned when he got on his cell phone and I never got to wave "goodbye" to him (we lost him in traffic). He got us all the way to Richmond.

Me: "I feel like we're playing a real-life game of Frogger."

Made it to 64 eastbound, a drop of rain hit my windshield, and traffic came to a complete halt. The last 5 miles took more than 45 minutes. So, we're sitting on 64, listening to Appetite for Destruction, My Michelle comes on and Rob makes the comment, "So, I guess this will be the Daddy-daughter dance at Michelle's wedding." And I comment back, "No, this will be the Auntie f/Miss Michelle party dance at her wedding."

After moving two car lengths, then sitting for 10 minutes, repeatedly, we made it to our exit. Rob was talking with Nadia and Ana, who had both just made it to the hotel. So, we made it to the Duke of York, Rob and Scotty go to check-in. They gave our room away. Read that sentence again, they gave our room away...Rob and I made our reservations in March, and they gave our room away. We called that morning to confirm our reservation and they gave our room away.

Read my entire blog and the following bit is the only instance you will find of any real profanity, they gave our fucking room away.

I went in to find out what was taking so long, Scotty told me,"They gave our room away, we have to go someplace else."

My reaction, directed at the girl behind the counter..."You have got to be fucking shitting me, we made these reservations in March, we goddamn called this morning to confirm. Listen chick, we have a wedding to go to, I'm getting my clothes and I'm changing in your goddamn bathroom. Got it, honey?" I think I may have scared her, but I was mad, really mad, so mad my hands were shaking. This was Tommy's wedding.

So, we ended up at the Yorktown Motor Lodge, after driving through a battlefield.

Rashmi: "I don't think my car has heard so many "Oh my god's" since I got him."

The folks at the Motor Lodge were pretty cool, the guy behind the desk was really helpful, although when Scotty and I got back from 7-11, some folks were giving the two of us some really odd looks. I felt like telling them off, "Yeah, I live in Cincy and I'm hauling around a New York Italian Jew, got a problem with that?" Scotty cautioned me not to, so we went back in to see how Rashmi's "getting ready" process was going. We had assured her that there would be plenty of time to get ready at the hotel, although Rob, Scotty, and I bathed prior to leaving NoVa. It was proceeding as planned and since there had been some rain, the wedding ceremony had yet to take place.

And then Ana called. Her car was apparently overheating and she wanted to know if they could catch a ride with us. We told her it would be fine, get yourselves over here, and we'll go. While we were waiting for them, Rashmi and I dolled ourselves up even more, I think that was the most amount of make-up I have worn since I went as Daphne in a Halloween parade. 20 minutes later, she called back...Could we pick them up at the Duke of York (the place that gave our rooms away)? We were ok with it, but starting to really panic, and told her to get directions from the front desk chick (the one I yelled at). I'm not being critical here at all, just commenting, Liz and I managed to get my overheating Chevy from South Carolina to DC in about 10 hours while we were in highschool (prior to any bus experience), you turn the heat on full-blast, open the windows, and stop every once in awhile to let the car cool off.

After driving back through the battlefield, we made it to the Duke of York, again. To be honest, I was expecting the two of them to be sitting on the curb waiting for us, Rob had to call them. I felt kinda bad when I made the comment, "So, are they showing up sometime today or what?" when they were right behind me. The directions Ana was given were faulty, we got lost, then drove through another battlefield, found out we missed the ceremony, drove through a swamp, and finally some cornfields.

Rob: "Christ, I feel like I'm out in Iowa again."

We finally made it to the place around 7:30pm (we knew we were on the right track when we saw Tommy and Jess signs indicating which way to turn).

***more coming soon***

Hit me, baby, one more time...Poison @ Cincy

2006-07-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

Poison, July 13, 2006, Cincinnati, OH

So, after Vegas, I figured, "that was a most excellent trip and show, no need to see Poison/Cinderella here or in DC." Well, I heard an ad for the show on my way home from work Wednesday (7/12/06) evening and decided I wanted to go see them again. First, in an attempt to refresh the bitbucket on the set-list, and secondly to see them in a larger venue. I checked riverbend.org and tickets were $15 (without ticketmaster fees added), and figured that even with parking and whatnot, the total cost would be less than a carton of smokes (total ticket cost was $21.50).

After an exhaustive search for someone to go with Thursday morning of my floor, the hiphop radio station's floor, and my friends' friends (everyone told me, "you know, I'd be interested in going, but some advance notice would have been nice"), one of our VP's introduced me to a girl in accounting (he didn't want me to go to the show alone). So, Allison from accounting and I went.

Quick Quotes/Notes/Comments (trying to make this one shorter than the last two entries):

* Allison: Ok, I know who Poison is, who is Cinderella?

* She called her boyfriend to let him know of her plans for the evening. His reaction, "Wait, what are you doing? You guys are going to a Disney movie?!?" Apparently, he didn't believe she was going to a concert until we called while they were playing Motley Crue's Shout at the Devil over the loudspeakers.

* there was more of a selection of merchandise at this show, they actually had the onesie on display

* somewhat surprised at the turnout, same number or more folks as the Motley show last August, way non-scientific, imo completely

* the folks we hung out with for a bit were cool. A lady and her husband were there for Cinderella mostly (her husband picked up a beer for me) and a guy and his kid (16-18) were there for Poison

* we went down to watch Endeverafter for a bit and I looked over to my left, "oh, there are the buses, hey, check it, there is Rikki, the only member of the band none of the 4 of us saw meandering around the hotel in Vegas."

* Allison had never been to a Poison concert before

* Tom (Cinderella) kept apologizing for his voice, he sounded like he was really trying but hurting

* the attempt to refresh the set-list bitbucket failed miserably, An American Band was still third though

* they used lasers but i don't remember seeing Rikki throw the drumsticks up during his solo (we were on the lawn, however)

* ended up back at her apartment, had a minor incident with a nightstand/endtable, then ate some turkey sandwiches before I headed home

* had a great time

* I'm pretty much Poisoned-out now. Ozzfest is next, sometime in August

* If you have not caught them this tour, are interested in seeing them/having fun at a random concert, and they are heading your way, GO. these have been the best two shows they have put on since I've been old enough to go (1999).

Sin City...Vegas, Baby, Vegas!!! Poison @ The Joint

2006-06-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

The Joint @ The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, July 4, 2006

Liz (my best friend), Mark (her husband), Rob (my buddy from the DC area), and I will be attending the show. And I get to hang out with my God kid, Miss Michelle...woohoo!

Friday, June 30, 2006

So, my plane left out of Dayton at 12:03pm. It was a very good thing my mother called that morning at 9:30am, as she woke me up. I stopped by my rental office to pay the rent and let the managers know that if the mailman came to them and told them he thought I was dead because my mail was piling up, "Could you let him know I'm not dead, I'm in Las Vegas." I didn't have time at that point to stop by the post office and have them hold the mail. After calling everyone I knew to ask for directions to the Dayton Airport as I was traveling 80 mph up 75, I arrived at the airport at 11:20am, stashed my car next to a curb (where two other vehicles were currently parked, so I'm really hoping it is still there upon my return), made it through security at 11:35am (good thing I travel in flipflops whenever the weather permits), and made it to my gate as they were announcing the "final boarding" call...

Made it to Chicago a wee bit early, so we got a tour of the airport, waiting for our gate to open up. While waiting for my next flight, I purchased The Devil Wears Prada, imo, everyone must read this book, it is hilarious, and has been placed upon my "book pimp" list. Flight from Chicago to Vegas was ok, with one odd happening...about 1/2 of the way to Vegas, a male passenger, roughly my age, yelled out "Hey!" in such a manner (tone, volume level, and inflection) that the entire plane went silent, he also called for the flight attendant. Several passengers in the front of the plane stood up and turned around to see what was happening and a lady in the row behind me asked, to no one in particular, "What the hell is going on?" The flight attendant appeared out of nowhere. To be honest, I'm not sure what happened, the male motioned to a lady behind him, perhaps she was having a medical problem (I was afraid she was perhaps having heart pains, I don't know what the S.O.P. is for that issue on a plane). We landed, but the plane was essentially silent following that incident. Oh, a tip for those that have never flown into Vegas, DO NOT CHECK YOUR BAG, it takes about an hour after you have arrived at baggage claim for the bags from your flight to actually begin to show up.

Liz and I stopped at her and Mark's pub (at some casino, don't know which, but the staff knows them) for dinner and drinks. There was a cover band, we asked them to play either Poison or Guns and then chatted with the singer and another guy from the band, as well as some random dude that approached us after we were identified as "the Poison fans". I think the problem was that the singer didn't know any of their songs well enough to perform them comfortably. We made it home at 12:30am, at which point in time, I decided the best place for me to sleep that evening was not the bed, it would be on the carpet in the middle of the doorway to Michelle's room/the guest room...

Saturday, June 1, 2006

After waking up at 6:00am (and realizing I had napped on the floor), we watched the England/Portugal soccer game. I was somewhat pulling for England, but was ok with whomever won (Portugal did-we lived in Spain when I was a wee lass). We also watched several other Disney movies before the France/Brazil game came on, was pulling for Brazil, pissed France won (Important Disclaimer: I don't follow soccer, I'm an NFL/Skins girl. Mark follows soccer, therefore Liz follows soccer...). Had dinner at Islands, good burger joint, recommended for those that travel here.

Rob arrives sometime around 11:00pm Vegas time tomorrow, Mark has already made plans for a "guys night out".

Sunday, July 2, 2006

Mark watched Michelle, so Liz and I headed over to the Red Rock Casino. We had lunch, some margaritas, and people-watched. While Liz and I were hanging out, Rob was attempting to get to Reagan-National for his flight (flew out of Reagan-National, flies into Washington Dulles). He forgot his swimsuit, but managed to make his flight with a couple of minutes to spare, after he stashed his personal vehicle in the Vienna Metro parking garage.

Mark and I went back to the pub for a bit, then Liz and I headed off to the airport to retrieve Rob around 11:00 p.m. After retrieving Rob, the three of us went to the Stratosphere. I am happy to announce after gambling $1.00, I won $1.50 playing Black Jack (iirc, it was a quarter machine, should have cashed out when I made it to $2.25...oh yeah, baby, I'm a high roller, lol. Honestly, I don't understand why people gamble away their money, a few bucks is ok I guess, but you're giving your money away and are guaranteed nothing in return, no little toy, no plastic ring, no bouncy ball. I get screwed enough paying taxes, I'm not tossing the rest of my income down the drain).

Monday, July 3, 2006

Mark had to work and Michelle went to day-care, so Rob, Liz, and I just hung out, killing time before we got Michelle. We picked her up around 4:00 p.m. en route to the Hard Rock. We used the valet and actually had them take our bags up to the room for us (yes, we had that much stuff, please keep in mind we were accompanied by a 1.5 year-old infant).

Checked in (woohoo, Room 777...talk about a lucky room) and started to attempt to find the correct elevator to take us up. Since we were confused, we stopped outside the Hard Rock gift shop and I went in to ask. After receiving clarification, I went back out and Michelle was getting fussy (she wanted to get out of her stroller). Liz was just about to lean over and get Michelle out of her seat, when CC DeVille came careening around the corner, right between Rob and Liz, and myself and Michelle. At the exact moment he whipped around the corner, Rob was also turning to the right and almost took him out with Michelle's diaper bag.

We were obviously somewhat in shock seeing as we were mere inches from a complete and total disaster in the middle of the Hard Rock Hotel and well, it was CC DeVille. Liz and I looked at one another, like "WTF just happened! Is Michelle still with us or did she get taken out?" and we both immediately looked down to make sure she was still in her stroller. I was busy thinking, "Holy Shit, that was CC DeVille." Liz was busy thinking, "Crap, was that the singer from the cover band we saw or CC?" Rob was busy thinking, "Dude, that guy looks really familiar, who the hell is he?" He looks pretty good, imo, kinda Keith Richardsy though, and a couple of inches taller than myself. We debated for a bit whether to attempt to meet him, but decided to continue on up to our room because Michelle was still fussing, he was talking to a couple of other folks, and we suddenly realized all three of us adults were just kinda looking at him like he was an animal in a zoo.

We went up to the room for a bit. Rob and I went down to the bar while Liz hung out with Michelle, waiting for our luggage. He won $35 playing Black Jack. Liz and Michelle came down and the four of us went to take a look at the pool. Really nice looking, although rather crowded at one of the pools. Some guys with black hair that looked rather familiar kept looking at Michelle, Liz, and I...not sure who they were, perhaps some of the guys from Cinderella and I'm not quite sure why they kept looking at us instead of the scantily clad females in the pool, perhaps because we had a 1.5 year old with us, perhaps because Michelle was sneaking a straw into Liz' Jack and Coke whenever she could (no, she is not drinking the beverage, she dips the straw in and then gums it to death), or perhaps because of my amazing fashion sense (a black t-shirt fits just fine with a pair of navy blue board shorts and light pink flipflops, especially while staying at the Hard Rock hotel in Las Vegas).

Mark arrived around 6:30 p.m., after somehow having locked his keys in the car while in the valet line ("I'm blocking a Bentley!!"). He straightened that up and met up with us in the room. We headed downstairs for dinner at Mr. Lucky's 24/7, pretty good food. Following dinner, Mark and Michelle went upstairs and we sent Rob up to get the valet ticket from Mark, as Rob, Liz, and I had decided to head out onto the Strip, primarily to sign up for the Flamingo's players card so we could get our flamingo pens (had to buy them, they weren't handing them out anymore) and stopped by Margaritaville as well.

We got back to the Hard Rock, went to the bar (Mark and Michelle were asleep, so no strip club for the boys), and began checking out some of the displays. It was cool, they had Rolling Stones stuff, Guns and Roses, Beatles, Elvis, Kiss, Sublime, Nirvana, Nikki Sixx' bike from the Girls, Girls, Girls video, a Britney Spears display (where I had reminded Michelle earlier in the day she would not be a Britney, so we set off in search of Janis), and the Chili Peppers' lightbulb suits in the sports bar we watched part of a World Cup game...so, you get the idea.

Liz and I were checking out the Beatles display when CC DeVille, Bobby Dall, and entourage passed by us. Bobby was wearing a white shirt with embroidery and looks like a Florida hippy, reminds me somewhat of my surfing instructor. Unfortunately, I was forced to send Liz to the room shortly after this occurrence (she had decided to take a nap on the couch in front of the Hard Rock bank/cage area). Mark and Michelle made another appearance downstairs around 2:00 a.m. for a walk, she had woken up and was all decked out in her Mini-Sludge gear.

Rob and I continued to hang out in the casino, consuming way too many gin and tonics/red bull and vodkas, when Rob decided enough was enough, and we were going to talk to CC DeVille. For those of you that don't know me, my favorite guitarists (in no particular order) are Keith (thank the lord he survived his recent plunge from the coconut tree), Izzy (I could not believe what I was seeing in NYC this past May), and CC DeVille (I actually have the Samantha 7 album, it was pretty good, imo). After Rob tells me this, I'm thinking, "Great, just freakin' great, I'm absolutely plastered and he wants me to manage to talk to one of my favorite guitarists."

Rob and I stumbled (essentially Rob was dragging me, kicking and screaming...he kinda picked me up, tucked me under his arm, and carried me over there. I was so against the idea of me attempting to meet/communicate with him seeing my present state) on over to Mr. Lucky's and CC was walking out, talking to some guy about jogging. Rob starts talking to him (after he finished talking with the one guy). This is the exchange we can remember:

Rob: "Sorry about the almost collision earlier today with the baby." Rob briefly went over the earlier incident.

CC: "Is she ok?"

Rob: "Yeah, she's fine."

CC: "Great. Enjoy the show." (note: this is when he shook Rob's hand, while I was about 5 feet away, simply watching the exchange, because I'm, um, cool like that and could not believe what Rob was about to do...)

Rob: "I came out from DC for the show. You know, you could make my friend's day if you would shake her hand."

I heard him say this, my jaw dropped to the floor and probably turned as white as a sheet due to shock. Rob looked up and was rather surprised to discover I was now about 10-15 feet away from them. Apparently, while the two of them had been talking, I had been slowing backing away from them (heh, demonstrating my coolness factor, yet again...).

So I got to shake his hand (he actually had to walk over to me, because I was just standing there, in a state of complete shock; I have no idea if I was hauling around the Flamingo Pen/clutching it in my left hand at that point; his eyes are really blue, I do remember that; and I felt kinda bad afterwards b/c both Rob and I were full of adult beverages and he is trying to remain sober). Whereas Rob managed to actually have a brief conversation with him, I have no idea what I said to him (iirc, it was something about him coming around the corner and almost taking out my god-kid), due to my level of intoxication and just because I couldn't believe I was finally meeting him. Jodie and I met Bret Michaels a few years ago at Nissan (ok, so we joined the "Bret Michaels Intergalatic Fan Society " and spent $15 in order to do so), and I asked Bret if I could wear his hat, he told me, "maybe next time, sweetheart."

I then headed upstairs and went to bed. Rob was left alone in the casino, ran into a bunch of hookers (one of them, Veronica, gave him her card), and the one chick he ran into that was not a hooker told him about the $5 Poison poker chips (so he picked up three for us).

Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Liz, Mark, and Michelle went to the pool while Rob and I attempted to recover from the previous evening. At some point in the afternoon, I woke up and headed on down to the pool as well (Mark and Liz had just dropped Michelle off at the sitter's). The pool was nice, I meandered down the lazy river, did a circle around the big pool, tossed in a few underwater summersaults, and then started swimming back. For some reason, they shut the pool earlier, so we all got kicked out.

Rob was still snoozing away, Mark and Liz were at the Pink Taco, so after a quick shower, I headed down there to eat something. Apparently they had been attempting to contact me for quite some time and then realized I could perhaps be in the pool, therefore my phone wouldn't be on me. Prior to realizing I was probably at the pool, Mark made some crack to Liz, "She's probably out trying to track down Bret, since she has already met CC and you guys have seen Bobby cruise by a few times...Hey, speak of the devil, there he is!" Yeah, Bret walked by Mark and Liz while they were sitting on the patio. They also saw one of the guys from Endeverafter, along with a table full of their roadies.

After I finished my tacos (the Mexican place at the Red Rock was better, imo), we went over to see if we could bring cameras into the show...yeppers, just not professional. We ran upstairs, picked up our cameras and the tickets, found Rob, then entered the venue shortly after Endeverafter had begun playing.

>>>>>The show section and following will be fully updated shortly, as soon as the 4 of us can manage to find some free time (hopefully this weekend)<<<<<

We made it into the venue and sent the guys to get us drinks...they were freakin' $10 each (I was figuring the casino/hotel would screw us since we were essentially trapped in the venue, and yeah, they did, the price kept going up...$10, then $11, then a lovely $12 per adult beverage). We started on the right side of the stage (from the audience's view) then moved over to the left side. Rob made the comment, "This isn't the Mississippi Valley Fair, that's for sure." He and I (along with Jodie and Julie) went to see Poison at the MVF when I was living out in Iowa, we got our "bags o' beer" for $10 (6 beers and ice) and it was a fair-type atmosphere, people were wearing jeans/cut-offs and t-shirts...at this particular show, some folks were decked out to the 9's.

Don't ask me for a set-list for either Cinderella or Poison, I have no idea what order the songs were played.

Liz and I meandered into the crowd during part of Cinderella, which was cool. They were pretty good and she was really thrilled to see them.

It was the normal Poison set-list, opening with Look What the Cat Dragged In and played An American Band third. They played part of Dylan's Knockin on Heaven's Door as the intro to one song and we got to hear I hate every bone in your body (that video isn't from the Vegas show, it is from Pittsburgh, but the video in the background is the same). The show was just fantastic, I'm in Vegas at some tiny-ass club, and seeing Poison play with my friends that know me the best and I'm most comfortable around: Liz (we've been friends since highschool), Mark (her husband I met sometime when we were in highschool), and Rob (the first person I met at UVA).

Pictures from the show, currently somewhat unorganized (all show pictures are up though) because I tried to create a sub-album within a sub-album. Rob's show pictures are pretty good, he has the ability to take really good pictures at concerts, whereas I possess the unique talent of taking a picture while forgetting my camera has a "zoom" function and managing to cut people's heads off, all at the same time.

The show ended with Talk Dirty to Me as the encore, with red, white, and blue streamers. I grabbed a bunch of them to send to my mom.

Background on why I collect confetti/streamers from concerts for my mom:

As a kid, riding along in the car with Mom behind the wheel, we listened to everything, from oldies, to country, to classical, to show tunes, to current songs. It was all good, it was music. My Mom can sing, so she would sing along to the music and it was fun. Mom also saw the Beatles a few times, the Rolling Stones, and some how managed to obtain a drumstick from a Doors show, many moons ago.

So, my second year in college, my Mom calls, all excited, Hey, the Stones are going on tour! Theyre coming to FedEx! Do you guys want to go?

Mom got tickets for 4 of us. It was a good show, what Stones show isn't?

So the next year, the Stones were playing the MCI Center, March 8. One of my housemates and I cooked up a plan, we'll go up to DC and see if we can get tickets from someone there. So we leave town and I tell another housemate, "Oh, yeah, if my Mom calls, tell her I went to the library."

To make this quick, we got up there, got tickets from a guy at face value ($150), sat a few rows up from the floor, and when the guys walked out to play mid-arena, Keith, Mick and the rest were directly in front of us, only a stones throw (haha) away.

During the finale, they released streamers and confetti. I collected what I could in my pockets. When we left, my friend asked, "So, back to Charlottesville?" But I insisted upon stopping by my folks house, I had to let Mom know what we had done and I wanted to give her the confetti I had collected.

So we got to the house and made it inside. Mom was pissed, she had called twice. Once my housemate used the line, "Um, f went to the library," she knew something was up. I never went to the library for any real length of time while in school. So she started fussing, which was understandable, seeing as I was obviously up to something and no one would tell her what I was up to. I then told her we had driven up to DC with the hope of getting tickets at the door, actually got them at a reasonable price, saw the Stones, could have tossed a softball to Keith and Mick, and gave her the confetti I had collected. While all was not forgiven (yeah, I should have told her my plan prior to enacting it), much was. The confetti from that show was carefully packed into a Tupperware container, which I believe she still has.

So it came as no surprise to her when I purchased tickets for the Rolling Stones show in Charlottesville, of all places, along with plane tickets from Cincinnati. No surprise when I called while in line to get into the stadium, no surprise when I called during Ruby Tuesday at 9:45pm so she could listen in, no surprise when I called during the bomb threat to let her know what was going on and that we would call after the show, and no surprise when my friend dialed the wrong number at 12:15am in an attempt to find our friend, Mike.

And thinking about it now, no surprise when we called her at 3am Florida time to let her know how the Poison show was (although I couldn't hear a damn thing she said and I'm pretty sure we-us in Vegas-were yelling into the phone).

After the show, we walked around the club for a bit, looking for anything on the floor from the bands, another guy was doing the same, he managed to find a copy of Cinderella's set-list.

We went over to the bar with the Chili Peppers' suits to have a few drinks (this is when we decided it would be a good idea to call my mom over in Florida). At some point, we retreated to the room. Since we had a bit of a walk down the hallway, we all had plenty of opportunities to flick the cymbals that were hanging on the wall. Liz and Mark went to bed, while Rob and I were looking at the view out the window. I went to bed and Rob headed back downstairs to the bar. I have no idea when he returned to the room, but he shared the elevator with one of Poison's roadies, who was carrying some shirts and a pair of cowboy boots.

Quote List from the hotel/show experience

Me: I just want to shake his hand.

-----

Rob: Listen, we have this chance, it would be ridiculous not to.
Me: You have a point, but I still don't want to go over there right now. I don't want to bother him and how long have we been drinking now? Who knows what will come out of my mouth.

------

Rob: So, I was observing the flamingo pen this morning and you know, it kinda looks like him. Didn't he dye his hair pink and poof it all out a long time ago?

Me: Oh good lord, Rob, I can't believe you just said that...but you're right, he did and it kinda does.

-----

Me: Crap!! The Flamingo Pen has just become a double-amputee, his foot fell off. It is somewhere below my seat I think, hopefully it didn't fall off while I was holding him out the window so he could enjoy the breeze (my mom has one leg, my family loves leg jokes...).

-----

Rob: Listen, you are going to have to change, like now. The black shirt and navy shorts combo is giving me a major headache.

-----

Rob: I woke up this morning and was trying to figure out how we all got home last night, when I realized, "oh yeah, the elevator took us home."

-----

Me: So, we have 8 items to carry out of the hotel but we only have three arms, I'm not sure if this is going to work.

-----

Rob: God, I feel like I'm married to the two of you, "Rob, get us a drink, Rob, take a picture, Rob, can you do this for us?"
Mark: Welcome to my world, pal.

-----
Liz: So, who is going to carry the cooler out?
Me: Rob, because it is heavy.
Rob: Great, just what I was hoping for. Thanks!

-----

Rob: If we ever have to get married, we're getting married in Vegas.

-----

Me: Dude, Liz, if I ever move out here, we're getting jet skis (comment made while looking at a boat from the window of our room).
Liz and Mark, simultaneously: "Sweet" "No"

-----

Mark: Just to let you guys know how old I'm getting, my ears are still ringing from that show. (comment made at approximately 8pm the day after the show)

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

We left the hotel around 10:45 a.m. (checkout was at 11:00 a.m.), Mark had gone to pick up Michelle earlier and they were back at home already, picked up a few more items from the hotel, and went down to check out "old Vegas".

Michelle is currently sporting her new Poison gear.

We dropped Rob off at the airport around 9pm, he was taking the red-eye back to DC, then headed back to Liz's house and went to bed.

Thursday, July 6, 2006

Liz dropped me off at the airport sometime between 7am-8am, my flight was at 9:50am. TSA managed to find another lighter, which had made the flight with me from Dayton.

** Rant On** I don't mind TSA at all, they can search my bag whenever they feel the need to, I would just like the entire process to be somewhat similar across the country...I can wear my Doc's going through Reagan-National, can't wear my flipflops leaving Orlando, Dayton spends 30 minutes trying to find a 2 inch pocket knife (which had been in my bag since prior to 9-11 and I had no idea it was even in there), Moline spends 20 minutes searching for lighters while I carried one in my pocket through Reagan-National (not on purpose, I forgot it was in there). **Rant Off**

Picked up a White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks (the only time I drink Starbucks is in airports) and went to the smokers' lounge to people-watch and wait. One lady lost money in a poker machine, a guy won a bunch playing the Wheel of Fortune slot machine, and an old, plump, white guy tried to pick up a cute Asian chick (she played dumb, like she didn't speak English, to escape the situation). I checked my voicemails, my mom had left one, "You guys have to be awake by now, give me a call and let me know what is up...but please don't call me again at 3 in the morning." Rob called to let me know he had made it back in one piece, his car was still at the Metro, and he was at work. Apparently, he had the red-eye from hell, a 73-year old guy was really drunk in the row in front of him (the flight attendants cut him off, at which point he started waving $50 bills in an attempt to get another drink) and the 73-year old guy's son (55ish) was in the row behind Rob, vomiting the entire way to DC.

My flights were fine (Vegas to Denver, Denver to Dayton), got my bag, my car was still where I had stashed him, and made it back home around 9:00pm.

Final Thoughts about the Trip

* I'm pretty sure I speak for all 4 of us when I say "we had a blast, it was great, an absolutely insane time."
* Next time I'm in Vegas, I'm spending a few nights at the Hard Rock (it was only $129/night for us, on a holiday weekend...of course we did reserve our room months in advance)
* This was the best Poison show I've seen and the most fun I've had at/because of a Poison show. My friends and I go see them whenever they go on tour (we use them as an excuse to go visit each other around the country..."Dude, f, Poison is playing, you coming out?" "I'll get the tickets, you get the beer, and we'll be there.")

I'll add this here now, seeing as I was contemplating the differences between this story and the GnR story during my flight home. The Guns story is so much more detailed because I was the only one out of my circle of friends and associates to attend the show, therefore I wanted to remember everything so I could share it with them. To be honest, the majority of the Guns story was written between 4am (when I arrived back at the hotel) and 5am (when I realized what time it was and the 12 hour drive facing me the next day). That, and our normal summertime activities include seeing Poison, whereas me going to a GnR concert by myself and then prancing around the streets of New York City at 2 in the morning is definitely not.

My Excellent Adventure: Guns N' Roses, NYC; the reason I started this entire site...

2006-05-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

Guns N’ Roses, New York City, May 17th, 2006

Friday evening, May 12, 2006, I returned home from work and was hanging out at my house. I decided to check a music forum I'm a member of to see how the Guns and Roses show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City was shaping up. On one of the pages, someone posted that Ticketmaster had just released more tickets for the Monday night show. I checked, and yes indeed, I could purchase tickets for the Monday night show. Problem was, I had a project due out on Monday at work and there was no way I was going to be able to pull it off over the weekend. I had to be at work Monday.

But then I thought about it, "Well, they released more tickets to the Monday show, I wonder if they've released more tickets for the Wednesday show? I don't have anything due until Friday of the following week." So I checked and there were tickets available for Wednesday. I called a few people and left messages informing them they had 2 minutes to call me back. I called my mom (who in her youth, attended various Beatles and Stones shows, and also somehow managed to acquire a drumstick at a Doors show she attended), asking her what I should do, she told me I didn't want to go to New York City and was against the idea. I called Liz, seeking advice. While on the phone with Liz, I decided that I was not going to wait for anyone to return a phone call because the tickets may be gone by the time they did. At 8:15pm, I purchased one ticket to Guns N' Roses with Bullet for My Valentine at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City for Wednesday, May 17, 2006.

After receiving the confirmation email from Ticketmaster, I was somewhat in shock. I actually had a ticket to a venue with a 3,000 capacity to finally (hopefully) see the current lineup of Guns and Roses...now I just had to get to New York City.

Quick Recap:
« I reserved a room at the Holiday Inn near Newark Airport. I didn't want to drive into the city and I remembered hearing some announcement about trains into New York City from when I flew through Newark en route to Vegas.
« I called Rob and left a voicemail after I got my ticket. He called Saturday, "Now, you know you can't wear your flipflops like you do for every concert. You don't know what will happen, this is a very small venue. If he doesn't show up, people will riot. You need to wear your Doc's. This is a closed-toed shoe show, regardless of how hot it will get in there."
« I checked the MTA and NJTransit websites but the trip planners were not working right. I tried to figure it out without the trip planners, but there are so many options in New York, I couldn't (even though I work in public transportation, which was somewhat embarrassing). I had never been on the train or the subway in New York. Actually, I had only been in NYC once before, on a school trip 12 years ago, for 2 days.
« I originally asked for just Wednesday and Thursday off from work, which was ok'ed. Then, while I was putting together my project I had some time to think. I was looking at a 650 mile drive, could I really make that drive and go to the show the same day? I asked if I could have Tuesday afternoon off since it didn't look busy. Tuesday afternoon off was ok'ed and I decided to split the drive to NYC into two days. I would drive to Breezewood, PA on Tuesday and finish the drive Wednesday morning.
« I sent an email to Pete (a former boss who lived in New Jersey and worked in lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center) asking for assistance navigating the trains/subways/etc. He called and told me about the NJTransit train and the monorail from the airport. He had a schedule at home for the train and gave me a call back Tuesday morning. We decided the best thing would be for me to park in long-term parking at the airport, catch the monorail, and then the train to Penn Station. Since the concerts had been ending at 1:15 a.m. for the past three shows, there would be time for me to catch the 1:41 train back to the airport, transfer to the monorail, recover my personal vehicle, and return to my hotel.

So, I left work Tuesday afternoon, after reserving a hotel room in Breezewood, around 2:00 pm. I called my mom at 2:45pm to inform her of what my physical location would be for the next several days.

The conversation went better than I thought it would:

Me: Mom, you may be very mad at me after I tell you this, but I need to inform you of what my physical location will be for the next several days. I am traveling to Breezewood this evening and then to Newark on Wednesday morning. I will then be traveling into New York City Wednesday afternoon/evening for the Guns and Roses show.

Mom: So, you went ahead and did it.

I left my house at 2:55 pm, had a nice drive for the most part (little bits of heavy rain here and there), and arrived at my hotel at 9:30 p.m. Now, for those that have traveled the PA Turnpike or through West Virginia know there is no cell phone reception for the most part, just at certain locations. I know this because I travel these roads to/from DC and Charlottesville. Whenever I get off at Breezewood to head to DC, my phone starts ringing with voicemails, same thing at one of the rest stops off 64 in West VA. I guess my mom called my sister to have her investigate the Guns and Roses shows in New York because I got a voicemail at 4:00pm letting me know that Axl was the only original member there, he was still fat, couldn't sing, etc, etc, etc. I'm not sure what review my sister read, it may have been the NY Times. Come on guys, like I didn't know Axl was the only original member of the current line-up. I also knew this may be my only chance in the U.S. to see any line-up of Guns and I had a ticket to the show.

Quick Recap:
« I stayed at the Ramada Inn in Breezewood. Apparently, you can smoke everywhere, except the non-smoking rooms, because there were ash trays all over the place. I wouldn't be surprised if they find a meth-lab in there one of these days.
« I drive a 2001 Honda Civic, we (me and my Honda) got 350 miles on 8 gallons
« New Jersey has a lot of trees.
« Stopped at a BP station to use the restroom just outside Newark. It was in the middle of a huge traffic circle/roundabout.
« Checked in at my next hotel around 2:30pm. When I got to my room, I opened the window shades and there was the Manhattan skyline, I could see the Empire State Building. I was there, I just had to get on the train and travel into New York City by myself. I spoke with Rob, asking for fashion advice (REM bunny shirt I wear to most concerts or We're Bus shirt-we went with We're Bus shirt). Speaking with Rob calmed my nerves quite a bit.
« While I was in the shower, my mom called and left a voicemail, "I'm glad you made it up there, now just be safe, and have fun."
« The elevator in the Newark hotel talked, "Going Down." Hey, it's Aerosmith! (the video cuts out for some reason and I can't get to a good code site for it, sorry). When the elevator talked to me, I thought, "Good Lord, what in the world am I about to do...well, no turning back now, I'm on the last leg of the journey to see the show," and then laughed. Actually, Steven Tyler's chuckle at the beginning of the video closely resembles what I did, and the elevator sounded just like the lady in the video, thus immediately prompting the thought of "Aerosmith!"
« Got on the 5:01pm NJTransit train to Penn Station and arrived at Penn Station at 5:25pm. I got off the train and entered Penn Station. My first thought was, "Geez, if it is this busy at 1:30 this morning, there is no way I'm going to be able to find train 3085 to Newark in 10 minutes" (Note: I decided to go ahead and use the hotel van to the airport because I was going to have to pay to get my car out of the hotel parking lot).

I climbed the stairs out of Penn Station and was suddenly in Manhattan. Holy shit, it was so surreal. I can't even really find the right words to string together to express what it was like, feeling like you're watching a movie but dealing with the realization that you are currently living the experience. I retreated out of everyone elses way in order to orient myself to my location, using Pete's directions and the several block map I had memorized in my head. I also heard very faint chants of Guns and Roses mixed into the city noise. Once mental orientation was finished (along with my cigarette), I walked up a block, looked to the left, saw the Manhattan Center and the Hammerstein Ballroom. I crossed the street and began wondering about my ticket, since it was will-call. I thought about trying one of the doors when I saw a guy, perhaps 18 years old with a mohawk, rather loudly explaining to an elderly lady that this was the last of 4 sold-out shows for Guns and Roses. I asked an older gentleman, who informed me that there is one line for right now, but they may separate the lines later. So, I walked to the end of the line and took my place at 5:30pm.

Between 5:30pm and 8:00pm, we moved three times, 30 feet, then 20 feet, then after the Hammerstein employee came out and told us the doors were open and we were going in, 5 feet. Part of the delay was that they were filming the line and some of the folks at the beginning of the line. I made it in at 8:10pm, redeemed my ticket from will-call, and entered the venue. The place was tiny. I bought a shirt, then headed down to the restroom, seeing as I had been without ready access for more than 3 hours. Picked up an adult beverage (beer special: Blue Moon, $4.00) and took my spot on the right side of the floor, about 15-20 feet from the stage.

There was a drum kit set up at the front of the stage. A guy came out and played with his hands, he had a bongo drum. It was pretty cool, kinda reminded me of Roni Size (drum and bass guy we went to see), like that type of music. I wish I could remember his website because I would direct everyone there. Yay! Just found it. GO HERE to see what I saw When you see the "Exit" sign on the left side of the stage, from the stage-viewpoint, that is where I was located for this show.

Bullet for My Valentine took the stage promptly at 9. They are from England and are more thrash metal. Not a bad band at all, I just haven't heard of them prior. I wish some of my fellow audience members weren't screaming for Axl or Guns. IMO, it was really disrespectful to the band and they didn't deserve it. They finished up around 9:40pm and set change commenced.

Quick Recap:
« During the set change, they played a variety of music, AC/DC, Metallica, Nirvana, Van Halen (not Van Hagar), Cypress Hill, Quiet Riot, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Ozzy, Nine Inch Nails, etc.
« Saw David Lee Roth from about 10 feet away.
« Saw Jimmy Fallon and some other guy. They came in the same entrance as Diamond Dave. Jimmy hung around and signed autographs for people.
« Around 10:15pm, another girl who came to the concert by herself showed up next to me. Both of us were checking our watches as 11pm drew closer. I was tired, my back was beginning to hurt, I had been on my feet since 5:30pm, I was getting mad, and trying to figure out how I was going to catch the last train to Jersey. At 11:10, she told me she was retreating to the back of the venue in case Axl didnt show up so she could get out before the rioting commenced. I wished her luck and told her I would either hide in the corner or join in the rioting.
« Saw Sebastian Bach (former singer of Skid Row) and entourage enter the venue at 11:15pm. Someone said Jon Bon Jovi and others were over there as well, I have no idea if they were, but whoever it was did look familiar.
« 11:20 pm, the show finally starts and it got really crowded in our little corner really fast.

The Setlist:

Disclaimer: This is pretty much the order I remember the songs being played, the memory got kinda hazy after Izzy made his first appearance. Near the end of the show, I was talking with an employee about how to get back to my hotel, so I wasn't paying attention to the band really. If you were at the show that evening and can help me straighten up end of the set list, I would appreciate it. I'm not sure which song was Chinese Democracy or Madagascar, I haven't heard those before.

Welcome To The Jungle: Axl was on stage before they dimmed the lights; they came on stage, began playing, and it was like getting hit by a train. We all know the song, seeing it live with pyro as the intro to what ended up being about a 2.5 hour set was nuts/crazy/blew me away...um, running out of descriptive words now. I realized at that point in time what I was about to finally experience...Axl showed up, and the show was off to one hell of a start. This video is not from my show and I was quite a bit closer to the stage, but serves as an example of the start, seeing as it is proving difficult to find videos from the 17th.
It's So Easy
Mr.Brownstone: one of my favorites
Live And Let Die
Think About You (with Izzy Stradlin): another favorite of mine. Intro..."We went through periods of truancy, early stages of substance abuse, skateboarding, some vandalism...ladies and gentlemen, my old friend, Mr. Izzy Stradlin." The crowd went nuts when Izzy took the stage. After the song was finished, people were chanting Izzy. This video was taken from the Mezz level, I was on the right side of the floor. When Axl darts that way in the beginning of the video, he was in our faces (I was busy paying attention to Izzy at the time, though). He also made a comment about how he could make millions (in reference to the reunion rumors of the original lineup).
Robin Finck Solo (guitarist)
Sweet Child O'Mine
Better: new song from the apparently soon to be released Chinese Democracy
Knockin' On Heaven's Door: made a comment about continuing to contribute to the Dylan retirement fund
Dizzy Reed Solo (keyboardist): he played the piano, pretty good
Blues: new song from the apparently soon to be released Chinese Democracy
Bumblefoot Solo (the newest new guitar player): pretty good
You Could Be Mine: featured in the Terminator 2 movie, they showed a montage of race car pictures on the video screens
November Rain: there was a wall of sparks that rained down during this one
Out Ta Get Me: talked about critics and others in respect to the apparently soon to be released album as the intro to the song
Richard Fortus & Robin Finck Solo (guitarists): they played Christina Aguilera's Beautiful. It was amazing. They were playing and I knew it sounded familiar. When I finally managed to recall which song it was from the bitbucket, I had been completely drawn into the performance...just somewhat odd at a Guns and Roses show.
My Michelle (with Sebastian Bach): (video obviously not from my show) a review said this was a horrible pairing and the performance was horrendous. I thought it was fine. It is rock and roll, not the opera. This video found recently is from my show
Rocket Queen: excellent
Patience (with Izzy Stradlin): Before this one started, Axl told someone to go get Izzy, who ever he told didn't hear it at first, so Axl told him again, "Go get Izzy". We got to hear Izzy sing some of the chorus. During the middle of the song, Izzy put his arms up and encouraged the audience to sway back and forth to the music, so some of us did.
Madagascar (?): new song from the apparently soon to be released Chinese Democracy
I.R.S.: new song from the apparently soon to be released Chinese Democracy and my personal favorite of the leaked tracks. Liz and I heard this twice on the radio when I was out in Vegas to see Aerosmith (once on the way to Area 51 and then on the way to the concert; when it first came on the radio, we were talking, then realized what we could perhaps be listening to, so the radio was turned up, we shut up, and then looked at one another. We lost the radio as soon as we got off the interstate, so when we heard it for the second time that day, she made the valet wait until the end of the song, in hopes that they would announce who it was and confirm our suspicions...yep, leaked track from Guns N' Roses). It was now 1:30am, I left my spot near the stage and made my way to the back of the venue, thinking, "They haven't even finished the show, there is no way Im going to be able to catch the train if I stay. Heck, I probably can't catch the train if I leave now."
Richard Fortus solo (guitarist)
Nightrain (with Izzy Stradlin and Kid Rock): another favorite
um, another Nightrain, pro shot this time around...

Chinese Democracy
: new song from the apparently soon to be released Chinese Democracy. I was talking to an employee about the PATH trains (whew, they run all night) at this point in time, didn't listen to the song; got my second adult beverage (no more beer special: Coors Light, $6.00) since I was now going to catch the PATH train back to New Jersey

Encores

Robin Finck Solo (guitarist)
Paradise City: (again, video not from my show and the confetti used at my show was yellow and red) Izzy didn't join them for this one, apparently he left because he had to wake up early the next day.

Random Show Notes and Thoughts
« Axl looks absolutely fine, like his age, less botoxy than 2002, and he is not fat. The problem is people remember the skinny kid from Appetite for Destruction, no one stays young forever. He wore jeans and a leather shirt. I wish he would drop the cornrows, though.
« The only audio issues I noticed happened when the earpieces fell out of Axl's ears, you could tell because when that happened, we couldnt really hear him. It only happened a couple of times and didn't really impact the overall quality of the show.
« As for his voice, since I have never seen him live before (except for random MTV performances), I have nothing to judge it on but CDs and videos, which have been remixed and whatnot. He sounded like I expected him to. He's not Pavarotti, he's Axl Rose.
« Richard Fortus (guitar) is really good (disclaimer: he was playing right in front of me for most of the night).
« They now have three guitarists (Stealing a quote from IggyPopWillEatItself Maybe he could round up a fiddle player, an accordion player, and a tuba player to fill the sound out a little more).
« Counter Point: all three of the guitarists are very good, they fit well, imo
« At one point, I thought Dizzy Reed (keyboards) had taken his pants off because I couldn't see them over the keyboards. He didn't, they were just real low
cut.
« Axl was in a good mood. People were taking pictures of him and he didn't say anything. Someone on the left side of the floor gave him a rose, which he carried around for a bit. He did yell at someone in the band who apparently messed up the beginning of Nightrain, "We played this twice in rehearsal," possibly the drummer (not sure exactly what happened b/c I had gone to the back by then).
« He also thanked a whole laundry list of people, including the NYPD, who he claimed "got him to the show." As a fan, who has been burned by him before, I muttered out loud, "Well, thank god someone got your a** here tonight...and you were late." There were folks around me discussing the last trains out of Penn Station before the show started, people left before the show was over (before I went to the back) so they could catch their trains.
« I don't know why they didn't use Dizzy's solo as the intro to/song before November Rain. It would have made sense, imo, the piano was already on the stage. Instead, we got to listen to "the piano coming on stage" and "the piano going off stage" music twice (seriously, that is what the guitarist-can't remember which one right now-called it).
« Being that close to the stage was really cool, but the view from the back of the venue was also good simply because the venue was that small.
«The fact Izzy showed up and played made my night. The only thing that would have made it better was if they played Used to Love Her (I love that song, favorite one actually, damn lucky folks in the UK...). I'm not quite sure how I would feel about the entire experience if seeing Izzy play had not been part of it. Lucky for me, I don't really have to contemplate that, I was one of the very fortunate folks at this show. Someone right in front of me did record all of Patience, but I haven't been able to locate that video online yet. Although, I will add this one here, a fan's recording from a show over in Poland. I have no Polish blood (although plenty of other blood), but Rob is polish and his Mom and Dad came over here sometime in the 70's. Rob once told me the meaning of life, the problem was he was speaking polish...I don't speak polish and he couldn't remember what he told me the next morning.

As soon as they finished Paradise City, I left (didn't see them come back and bow). It was after 2am. I asked a cop about how to get to the PATH station and if I would be safe walking there. He told me and said I would be fine, "It is actually quite a pleasant stroll." So I took off down 34th Street on my way to 32nd & 6th Avenue, making sure there were people in front of me and behind me. I did cut down 7th Avenue to get to 32nd St., whoops...should have stayed on 34th, as 32nd was dark and no one was on the street, except for a couple of construction guys. They looked at me like I was insane when I walked by them. I found the PATH station, got a ticket, asked someone how to get to Newark, and hopped on the train.

I ended up having a discussion with two guys about Ipods and then talking to one of them about why I was in New York City. When he asked what I was doing in New York City by myself, I told him I drove from Cincinnati to see a band. His response, "that's hardcore and quite courageous." I explained that I had never been able to see them prior and I wasn't quite sure if I would have the opportunity to see them again. Background: I was in elementary school when they first came out, Appetite for Destruction and Lies were some of the first tapes I somehow managed to acquire, can't remember if I bought them or if I asked friends to get me a copy b/c of the whole PMRC deal, I still have them and remember listening to them on my walkman while on the schoolbus; we had tickets in 2002, but they officially cancelled the tour the night before they were to play our show, Liz and I were so upset, I had flown home from Iowa to see them with her.

He and I talked about the DC area, Cincinnati, New York City, a guy that had died on a bus (ok, the entire car joined in for this discussion), relationships, and life in general. He recommended I return to visit New York again in the summer time. They did stop our train for a bit to haul off some drunk/druggie that had passed out (prompting the "guy that died on a bus" discussion). At first, he told me to transfer trains at Grove St., but when we got there, he told me to stay on the train until the next stop because there would be more people there and at least one police officer. We got to Journal Square, hopped off the train, and he walked me over to platform Number 4, where I needed to catch the Newark train. I made it back to Newark Penn Station around 3:30am and the next NJTransit train to Newark Airport wasnt until 4am. I was so tired at that point; I caught a cab back to the hotel. I arrived back at the hotel at 4 in the morning, approximately 12 hours after I had left to go to the concert.

The drive home was ok, I left at 11, had a minor mishap with the PA Turnpike (got on the turnpike too soon, resulting in an additional 80 miles added to my return trip), and the stretch from Columbus to Cincinnati was the worst, it was dark and I was exhausted. Made it home at 11:30pm, called my folks to let them know and called Rob to let him know I was home (last time I talked to him was right after I got into the venue before the show started), and crawled into bed with no alarm clocks set.

Final Thoughts about the Trip:
« Was it worth it? Yes, I had a great time, met some really nice people that I will probably never see again, and I finally got to see a line-up of Guns and Roses.
« Would I pay $63 again to see the current line-up of Guns and Roses? Perhaps, if it is guaranteed they would show up, they were great. I'm not sure if I would go out of my way like I did this time to see them, guess it depends on when they tour again next. This trip was a once in a lifetime experience for me.
« As a follow-up to my previous comment, this was one of the best concert experiences of my life. The show was fantastic, regardless of what the critics have to say. It blew my mind, I was walking on air when I left the Hammerstein...I finally saw Guns N' Roses, a band I've been chasing since my youth, who had put on one hell of a show. In my opinion, this show rivals that of The Rolling Stones in Charlottesville, VA (October 2005). I went into work Friday and a co-worker commented, "looks like you got blown away, guess it was a good show."
link to an old video of Keith, Mick, Izzy, Axl, and the rest of the Stones
« I'm busy trying to acquire the missing Izzy albums I don't have. If you want to listen to good, plain old rock and roll music, get an Izzy album or two. an Izzy site
« It is so surreal of an experience that if I didn't have the shirt, it could have been a dream.
« I traveled to New York City by myself and saw Guns and Roses. This is the most insane thing I have ever done.

photo credits: the two hotels shots I took myself; Stones picture (October 6, 2005, Scott Stadium, Charlottesville, VA) was taken by either myself or Rob; the Delta Mural and the PATH doors I found on google; pictures of Izzy, Axl, and the rest of the band were yanked from posters at the http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com forum, the pictures of Axl and the band are not from the show I went to b/c I'm pretty sure Axl was wearing white shoes, not red...lordy, I was close enough to see his shoes; without them and Sludge, I wouldn't have known about the ticket drop...and I am grateful for all the info they posted. (Note: if you get the blue box instead of a picture, click on the box and the picture should open). Additional thanks to the folks in the mIRC chatroom I'm in for providing lodging and travel advice, in addition to putting up with me talking about this show (we normally talk politics/current events).

Next up on the docket, Poison. woohoo, my favorite band, and yes, I'm serious. Liz and I are going (her husband and someone else yet to be determined are also attending). @ The Joint (yay! another small venue), Las Vegas, Nevada...Sin City, here I come. ;^)