I stayed at work a little later on Friday, then went to the local Panera, had dinner, then had a very frustrating trip to The Pageant through some very wet stretches of interstate including the single worst case of hydroplaning I’ve ever experienced. Your operator stays cool as I’ve had the most memorable and slickest drive back home from Michigan this February and nothing much can ever phase me in the way of driving ever again after that experience. Then the past two concerts I’ve been to about half of the parking behind TP (The Pageant) is taken up by some kind of construction going on, so I had to park about 2-blocks away and walk in the rain the TP. There was a bit of line (they search everyone coming in) but someone must have been monitoring the whole situation (there was a tall blonde just inside that I would have hit-on in a major fashion if time wasn’t of the essence) because I stepped into the line right at the show’s starting time of 20:00. Now that I think of it, I had several encounters will tall blondes over the weekend, this must have been some foreshadowing of what was to come.
I had a reserved seat for the first time and sat in the balcony, which I vastly preferred, for the first time as well. I sat down and some younger people behind me (including 2 very pretty girls) started talking, asked me if I had been to this show before (no) then asked me if I was going to the El Monstero show (yes, for the first time) in December. Both this show (Celebration Day) and El Monstero are performed several times each season, with the former doing a tribute to Led Zeppelin and the latter do a tribute to Pink Floyd. I could go into a very long discourse about the history of rock and roll in this area, but suffice it to say that St. Louis is a very experienced and sophisticated audience when to comes to rock and roll and you will scarcely find another market like ours that is so rabid for a variety of music. Rush and Sammy Hagar, just to name two, made their names here.

So I have a couple of long-haired guys sit next to me and had a concert-long interaction with the one seated immediately next to me. He’s going to the same date of El Monstero that I am, so I told him to find me there. The band started about 2-minutes after I sat down and continued for the next 3-hours performing a very diverse selection from all albums and all eras of LZ. They mainly played as a 4-piece, had a keyboard player sit in on the songs that required keyboards, had an extra guitarist for several songs, and had 3 extra guitarists for a couple of songs, including one of my favorites that has a very unique guitar arrangement, “Ten Years Gone”.

I rocked and either the left or right foot was tapping continuously the whole concert. I should add that for a man of the Caucasian persuasion, I have very good rhythm. It was a very good show and I can pay it my highest compliment is saying that I will go back next year. About the third song into the first encore, they started “Stairway To Heaven” and I split quick having heard that song enough times in my life. I headed straight to The Dog and made it there about midnight. There were boatloads of cars outside and I thought it was going to be crowded but once inside it was not crowded, which prompted me to ask Jo about it and started a discussion over who amongst the neighbors should be parking where. Jo was pretty hot about it and said she would be having words with the neighbors. There was a nice little crowd of friends including Paul and I settled in for a long and amusing discussion with Dave who was sitting at the bar rather than tending it. There was still the occasional karaoke and we all had such fun in discussion that we all stayed until about 01:45.

I got up at about 10:30 on Saturday and did the usual housework and read the paper, etc., then got cleaned up and headed to O’Fallon for a new location of one of my favorite local chains, Pasta House. A general note on Italian food in this market, there were a couple of major waves of immigration historically in this area and only two of them had any significant impact on the cuisine scene in general, the first of course is Italian, which alone begs the question why German cuisine is not popular here as probably more Germans settled here than any other nationality, and second and late in the picture, Mexican. There are of course other more minor genres, sushi being one of them. Anyway, Italian food in prevalent here and the local chain, Pasta House, which I would consider mid-line, is better than the best in a lot of other markets that I’ve been to. It is the predominant cuisine in this area. I should add that I love most things Italian and especially the food! I had a very nice lunch of spaghetti and a single large meatball, along with their signature salad. I had a mousy little thing as a waitress and she was chatty and I made an early mistake of not watching her walk away as she had championship quality hindquarters. I enjoyed my lunch and rolled by Chris’s on the way back and we had some interesting discussion about T2 coming over to visit him for the evening. He’s so funny, so tight-vested; I find it very amusing because after the fact he’ll want to tell me everything. T2 is not the usually hottie that he’s after and I told him that he might be improving in his choices.

I rolled home and have been in a Coen Brothers mood lately and threw on “The Big Lebowski” and LMAO several times at this very funny and entertaining films. The Dude abides. In between the film it was frozen pizza time and then I threw together an all-back outfit and rolled to The Dog, arriving about 20:30, to find the band already setup and ready to start uncharacteristically early. A lot of the usuals were there and Paul was sitting at the bar with a mutual acquaintance and there was no seats left at the bar with a good sightline, so I grabbed a beer from Jo and sat at a table right in front of the band with a great view and this worked out pretty well as the night went on, affording a pretty good view of everything. It started out slow with not too many people, the usuals and some that I did not know, figured that they might follow the band, as some people do. There wasn’t much dancing toe being with but about 22:00 a bunch of the Muellers (pronounced Miller) rolled in from a euchre tournament at the KofC Hall, and the night picked up from there considerably. The band started to rock and so did the dance floor and I finally saw some things on the dance floor that actually caught my interest for once. I did quite a bit of greeting and socializing as I was between the bar and the door and people kept coming in. I met my friend Jerome’s sister Trish and we had a very interesting conversation and found that we knew quite a few people in common. I either really get around or there are a boatload of connections, or both. At one point I headed to the bathroom (not my only trip there in the course of an evening of drinking beer!) and when I got back to the table there’s some blonde at the bar next to Paul talking up a storm to Jo and Dave. I eventually mosey over there on the pretence of talking to Paul and let’s just say that I had a fill rear view of the blonde, I must have lingered because Paul and out mutual friend, can’t remember his name, maybe Josh, well they are both sitting there snickering and my prolonged view of the blonde leaning over the bar. In between gasps of laughter, Paul says “That’s Kelly’s sister!”. Kelly-baby has a boatload of sisters, all blonde, all in various phases of hotness, so I say hello when she turns around and head back to the table. She (I don’t recall her name) proceeded to hit on me the rest of the night, which was an interesting change of pace. I would guess that she’s near my age, had a nice figure, and kept looking over and smiling and eventually after watching her dance, I asked her. She did not like the song much and we ended early, although I stayed on the dance floor and danced with another woman. The blonde came and asked me to dance on a slow song and we had a slow dance, something I had not down in quite a while and something that I enjoyed. I returned to the table and another Dave that I know joined me and we compared notes on the women on and near the dance floor. Later my friend and fellow alderman Nick came in with his stunning girlfriend Marina, I later had a nice chat with them and a friend and she was surprised that I recalled her name, having only met her once at the picnic, and of course I replied “I never forget the name of a pretty girl.” and she smiled and thanked me. She had a different style than any other woman there and had an absolutely smashing hairstyle. Nick is a fortunate dude.

I was making the rounds and Kelly-baby and Eric arrived about midnight, she tossed her bag to Eric, grabbed my hands, hugged me, and we danced. More fun and shenanigans were had until closing time, where I gave the blonde a hug, said my goodbyes, and Janet’s brother Tony hit me up for a stogie on the way out. I tend to give a lot away and am known for doing so. I always decline anything in return.

So I spun home, decided I wasn’t ready for beddy, so I threw on “1941” on the TV, poured myself a bourbon, rued the fact that I didn’t have any decent snacks, and clocked out a bit after 02:00. I was up at 10:00, read papers, did some housework, got cleaned up, came to work, swapped out two servers, changed a bunch of programs, left at about 17:00, had a light dinner while watching the Coen’s “Fargo” and headed to bed at about 20:30, tired from a long and fun weekend of live music.

I had some follow-up with Chris and he’s acting like a coy teenager and won’t spill his guts about anything that happened Saturday night. My best guess is that T2 took the bed and Chris the couch as I know that T2 has strong Catholic propensities and is quote “a good girl”.

Late Saturday at The Dog, another tall blonde came in, absolutely stunning, too young for me, probably my height with the outrageous shoes she had on. I’ll say one thing for Saturday night, there were several times my blood got flowing over an attractive woman, which really hasn’t happened in a while, the rate of puffs on my cigar would have given me away at what I was watching, and I actually had some very lewd thoughts. There was one chick in particular that really had it going on. Not to mention Marina, who was one of the prettiest girls there. Another gorgeous one sat across from me at the table, I’ve seen her before, and we were highly amused by some of the dancing action that was going on. She has excellent taste in footwear. It’s nice to be in the company of gorgeous chicks.

Some thoughts on Kelly-baby’s sister, at the end of the night, I had my share of fun, and thought it was best to go home alone. It might be very awkward to be involved with Kelly-baby’s sister for some very obvious reasons. This is a small town and I don’t want a reputation of picking up chicks at The Dog and taking them home. I feel I need to tread carefully and as you might imagine there are many issues at hand.

My best guess about Kelly-baby’s sister is that she probably has someone and that someone was out deer-hunting and that explains the presence of Kelly-baby’s sister. So there’s that to consider. I could tell that she would be trouble and not a LTR prospect, call it intuition on my part. If she’s there this upcoming weekend we’ll gather a bit more information before making any leap. There should be plenty of chatter going around as it is and I’d be curious what information Kelly-baby would have to offer at this point.

It was a very interesting evening, Saturday night, more interesting than most.

Dawn, I hope that you're on the road to full recovery from your procedures and I am sending healing thoughts your way.

GG, I feel for you, life seems like it's not fair to us at times and that we don't always deserve what we receive, but I tend to think that everything happens for a reason and that the reason is not always apparent to us. It's part of a process. You will survive, you will remember, and you will be stronger. I have long and strong arms and offer you the best hug of comfort that you'll ever receive. We'll just have to do it virtually.

((((((((((GG))))))))))

Dutch

GG I am glad that you like the mitten idea, I was thinking that it would give you a project to work on and some place to put your energy. I am also glad that you have family that is helping to care for you, I think that that is cool that you spent last week with your mother in law. Don't let the family members tell you how to grieve or what you need to do, those are your decisions to make!

booka, have shown care and concern for Kevin, hasn't come to visit me, I asked got nothing and hinted and got nothing. Will see what tomorrow brings, it is his day off. I have some electrical that I need to have moved before I take on a bathroom project and so will ask him to come and look.

Any other thoughts?

Dawn

Dawn,

I'll require more information to provide other thoughts. You can always email me if you're uncomfortable posting details here.

One thought occurs to me, have you asked Kevin what he wants?

The ENT thinks I have a mild to moderate hearing loss and may need hearing 'devices'. It's not real severe yet....I just lose words in paragraphs especially if you aren't speaking very distinctly and if there is a whole lot of noise. He thinks it's hereditary because my mom can't hear doodly or squat. She waited too long for hearing aids.....forgot how to pick out the sounds she wanted from the sounds she didn't. I don't want to wait too long. But, this is a $3,000 thing and most insurance won't pay anything to speak of.

Dawn....glad you are doing well.

Soooooo, THIS just happened at my twin brother's house.

You just can't make this stuff up!

Paco is lucky to be alive.

You're kidding! That's crazy.

It's snowing here.

BUSY weekend planned. The GF has volunteered (through a program sanctioned by the state and organized through the American Institute of Architects) to act as a public adjuster for people whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Ike. Basically, it's for home owners who feel that their insurance adjusters aren't valuing their damage accurately. The governor has given the licensed architects in the state the power to do site assessments that will have the same authority as a state licensed public adjuster. She has asked me to go along with her to assist in taking pictures while she fills out the technical forms. Plus, she just wants me around for moral support and maybe a little protection in the areas that aren't so good. Our first appointment is at 9:30 am, and our last is at 4pm.

Then when we're done, we're going to an "artcrawl" where her sister has some work on display. Should be interesting...

On Sunday, we're going to try and attend church together. This will be her first time coming with me. We agreed that with all the bad news going on around the world, we could both stand go and hear something uplifting.

My work computer won't let me look! Can someone give me a hint?

I have writting about my weekends these days. All I'm doing is packing. I have my big move next weekend (move everything to storage) and then the following week I gather whatever odds and ends are left and clean up the remainder of the house. Closing day is Dec 5 but I'll be officially "moved" by next weekend.

Tabby, a drunk illegal alien got arrested - was drinking rubbing alcohol,


Today, I stayed home from work: scratchy nose, itchy throat, developing cough. Was awake most of the night. Woke up at 2:30 and went back to sleep about 7:30. Just woke up a few minutes ago. Time to head back.

I have no idea what I'm doing this weekend.

WOW!!! Just when you think you've heard it all...

Cinderella, take some antihistamines, make yourself some chicken soup and curl up on a blanket and watch some old movies. You'll feel better by Monday!

Cindy failed to mention the punch line on the vid.

The cop reached in the guy's pocket and discovered he had urinated on himself.

His reaction was comedy gold!

They guy was intoxicated and disoriented and was beating on his door to get in. My brother was armed and had to wrestle him out of the house when he cracked the door open to tell him to leave.

He had him dead to rights to send him back to Guatemala in a plastic bag, but chose to detain him until the officer arrived....11 minutes later.

The ADT alarm was WORTHLESS, but the .45 was 100% reliable.

Just as I curled up to go back to sleep, daughter called. Her dad had picked her up at school and was bringing her home. He had remembered that he had said he would do some plumbing for me. So, I had to get dressed at 3:15 so I could be a presence. Not a goddessy presence either - just decent.

So, the teenagers are gone for the evening. I've had a can of chicken noodle soup, some white cranberry juice with club soda, and a cup of coffee. I'm not energized. I know the worst of this crud is yet to come.

Daughter's birthday party is Sunday evening in the youth group room at church. Don't know how many teenagers but we will have popcorn, pizza, drinks, movies, and games. Just give them a chance to hang out and relax. That's my speed of party for teen agers. I can afford to feed them well if I don't have to entertain them.





Pariah - - I didn't want to spoil the video by telling everything.

Sorry if I sounded short. I was merely filling her in cause I thought she couldn't view it and it is just toooooo funny!

Two feet of snow.....who wants to make snow angels???

I was ok w/ what you said.....I just didn't want to spill all the beans. Being up is too much work. I wish we had some chips to go w/ the salsa.

I wish I could conjure up a birthday cake.....maybe, if I go to bed early, I'll feel like baking tomorrow. Haven't baked in forever. LOL!!! Daughter has asked for a light blue cake with white (cream cheese) frosting. Cracked me up....

Oh, I have to get perkier by tomorrow. Getting hair cut at 1:30.

I drove 600 miles today and I'm tired. Snow flurries through 1/2 of it.

Pariah after watching the video, I now have an idea of how you sound. Do you have a beard? Just picture that voice (like your brothers) with a beard.

OMG Pariah, I got to check it out over the weekend.

Speaking of which, I am in extreme pain now - loading up on my vitamin I (ibuprophen). DS moved out yesterday morning and I was foolish enough to help. Then my neighbour's truck was available so I moved my sofa and love seat out (among the few furnature items not going to storage). This isn't even the big part of the job and I am ACHING!!!!