Picture Day At Target

We took Shannon to Target the other day to get her picture taken. We had to wait an hour past out appointment to get in. The studio is tiny and all these people were packed into this small space waiting.

I took Shannon for a walk round the store twice and the second time she came back to mommy with a Dora cup and plate set that she picked out.

The pictures came out pretty good considering she wanted to get out of there as soon as we got in there.

We ordered copies of the first picture but the other ones came out cute as well.

She doesn't go anywhere without her puppy.

Laying on me. This was the first picture we took. She wouldn't sit up so we improvised.

That's me wearing the Santa sleeve and white gloves.

Nothing in the box.

Erin's hand guest stars in this one holding the book up.

Went To See Santa

Last week the family went to see Santa. Shannon doesn't quite get Santa yet so he is still a bit scary to her. This year was her 3rd picture with him. She was very curious about why we were waiting in line but as soon as we saw the big man she wanted nothing to do with him.

So we all had to get into the picture in order to get the picture taken. I wasn't expecting much cause you can't get a 2 year old to do anything you actually want them to do. So a series of pictures were taken and this was the only one of her not struggling to get the hell out of there.

We got our picture taken and paid the 26 bucks to get the file on a CD. That's right. 26 bucks and we didn't even get a printed picture. We did get a .jpg file and a copyright release. So we can print out as many as we want.

Maybe next year Shannon will be more excited to visit Santa and I won't have to get her in a leg lock to get her picture taken.

Potty Training

On November 23rd we started to potty train Shannon. It was very stressful at first but things are getting much, much better.

The first few days she would fight us and not sit down. She would arch her back and lock up her legs and scream. Not fun.

We would try to sit her on the toilet every 20 minutes and see if she went. We would usually get her to do it once or twice a day and have a few accidents in between.

Fast forward to this week and she is doing great. She knows when she has to go and lets us know ahead of time. We still have to take her into the bathroom and get her all set up. But as soon as she sits down we have success.

After she goes she yells out, "I Did It" and we all clap. We also sing a song that goes:

Pee pee on the pot tee

Pee pee on the pot tee

Pee pee on the pot tee

We also move our arms the way you would think you would to a song like that and she loves it.

As a reward she gets M and Ms which she really enjoys and doesn't get too often.

So going forward we are getting on the right track. The accidents are going down and the potty use is going up.

The Police

Finally I got to see The Police. Saturday November 17th was the date. My father and brother flew in from Buffalo to go to the show with Erin and I. My father was under feeling the weather

and almost didn't make it to the show. After a power nap he was ready to go.

Our seats were on the floor towards the back and stage left. Fiction Plane opened and sound pretty good from what we saw. We were late getting to the show so we only saw 3 or 4 songs.

The Police opened with Message In A Bottle and rocked the rest of the way. I'm really only familiar with the greatest hits stuff so I was shocked to experience how well Andy Summers plays guitar. He played really, really well.

I also enjoyed the wall of cymbals and other percussion tools that Andy Summers used. This was especially enjoyable during Wrapped Around Your Finger.

Sting was great as expected. His bass seemed to be out of tune the first two songs and the look of his face echoed it.

The sound was great. We all noticed that Fiction Plane sounded too loud, but The Police sounded great and very tight. I had heard a lot about how they changed the timing of some of the songs and what not but you really didn't notice it. Maybe during 1 or 2 songs but otherwise the songs sounded spot on.

The stage had 3 video screens above it and then another set piece that they used for putting different video elements in. The also had lights that raised up from the stage and lights that came down from the ceiling during different parts of the show. Picture below taken from my seat using my cell phone.

The set list:

Message in a Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don't Stand So Close To Me
Driven To Tears
Truth Hits Everybody
Hole In My Life
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne
King Of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Next To You

Smashing Pumpkins

Finally got to see Smashing Pumpkins on Thursday night. Show was good but not great. Instead of an opener Billy Corgan came out by himself and played 4 songs on the acoustic guitar. He did, "The Rose March", "That's The Way (My Love Is)", "Disarm", and "God & Country."

Apparently the first time on tour that he did "That's The Way (My Love Is)" acoustic. Disarm was awesome. I was hoping they would have done "Landslide" but they didn't.

Acoustically the sound was great. Once the band came out the reverb was so loud that you almost couldn't hear the actually notes. This was especially annoying during guitar solos.

The stage show was great. The had like 10 or so triangles (a few on the stage a few above it) that changed all different kinds of color. It really really added to the music.

At one point Billy tried to get everyone to sing the chorus to "I Love Rock and Roll" and the crowd did as told. Of course he didn't think we were loud enough. He saw a kid singing and asked for him to be brought up on stage. Then he called for all the kids to come on stage. There must have been 10 kids up there. One small baby was put on stage and went right over to Billy. Billy picked him up and held him.

After a few minutes he finally said "get off our stage" and all the kids left except for the one he was holding. "Who's baby is this?" He then said. This prompted a good laugh from the crowd.

The set list:

The Rose March (acoustic)
That's the Way (My Love Is) (acoustic)
Disarm (acoustic)
For God and Country (acoustic)
United States
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Drown
Bring the Light
Tonight, Tonight
Tarantula
Glass + The Ghost Children
Hummer
Pomp and Circumstances
Set the Ray to Jerry
Today
Superchrist
Heavy Metal Machine
Iron Man
I Love Rock N' Roll
Encore 1:
1979 (acoustic)
Perfect (acoustic)
Encore 2:
Cherub Rock

Weekend in NYC

Last weekend the family went up to New York City to visit with my family. We flew in on Saturday and flew out on Monday. The main reason for the trip was for my father, brother, and I to go to the Giants/Cowboys game.

Highlights from the trip:

• Shannon got her first doll an loves it. As soon as it was out of the box she was changing clothes and brushing her hair.
  


• We stayed at a really nice hotel called The Benjamin. The actually have a pillow menu. You can actually pick the style of pillow you'd like for the bed. We were lazy and just went with the ones on the bed.
  


• Got to meet up with Charley, Ezra, Pam, and a few others for a few beers after the family went to bed.


• Met Troy Aikman on an elevator at the hotel. I was on already and he walked on and was actually really nice. No autograph or picture. I didn't want to be one of those people. Plus he had just gotten back from a work out so he was all sweaty.
  


• A few hours later Erin and Shannon got on the elevator and who was on with them but no other than Troy Aikman. So she got to meet him as well. I think he just rides the elevators all day looking for people to talk to.
  


• Watched the Giants game from the 45 yard line about 25 rows up. Awesome seats. Giants didn't win but it was so cool being there. Only the 2nd time I've seen the Giants play at Giants Stadium.

Check out: http://community.webshots.com/album/561629709pMCVOG

For more pictures from the Giants game.

Gravity

Right now I'm not a very big fan of gravity.

I was putting some canned goods away in my pantry the other day. As I was staking the cans, one slipped and fell into some boxes. An avalanche of side dishes began falling my way and I did my best to catch/juggle them. As the boxes crashed to the floor the can of carrots rolled off the shelf and fell right onto my bare foot.

The lip of the can, not the flat slide, landed directly on my 2nd toe on my right foot. The nail got crunched and pushed back into my skin and blood was everywhere.

Went to the podiatrist the next day and the outlook is sunny. He said that x rays were negative and the nail bed was still in tack.

Now I have to wear this geriatric looking black sandal that is flat at the top. Basically an open toed brace so my lil toe has some room to heal.

The can of carrots was sentenced to death as its contents were removed and eaten for dinner and the can itself was banished to the recycle bin till its death sentence can be carried out by the garbage man.

Pumpkins Update

The Smashing Pumpkins announced the make up dates for their shows in Atlanta. Of course the make up date for my show (Friday) is the same day my family is coming into town to see The Police. The Police show is on Saturday.

So I tried to swap my tickets for their Thursday make up so at work and on Craigslist. Nothing solid came up so we had to go to plan C. Enough tickets were returned for the Thursday show that the sold out show was back on sale. So I bought a pair of tickets for the Thursday show and found someone at work to buy my Friday show.

So in the end everything worked out and we even moved up a few rows.

The show better be worth it.

Screwed By Smashing Pumpkins

I have tickets to see Smashing Pumpkins tonight. Turns out that the drummer was having some "chest discomfort" the other day and was admitted to the hospital. They cancelled the Atlanta show yesterday but said today's show would go on as planned.

Now comes word that that the show tonight is cancelled as well. No Smashing Pumpkins for me on Halloween. Their tour ends next week in South Carolina and they said "It is hoped that the two shows scheduled for Atlanta will be rescheduled and announced within the next week. "

Hoped? Sounds like I'm getting my money back and no show.

No official word on their website but was impressive was that Ticketmaster actually called Buck to tell him the show was cancelled.

Pumpkin Picking

Two Sundays ago the whole family went pumpkin picking. We went to Berry Patch Farms which was the same place we went to last year.

It is a small farm that has a few baby animals like pigs, cows, and chickens on display. Shannon got a kick out of seeing them since she is currently learning her farm animals. She seems to have cow down pretty well.

You get to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. All the pumpkins are picked already and laid out in a large field. As you walk through the patch they left a bunch of the tiny pumpkins laying around so kids could pick them up.

Shannon had a great time picking one up and then putting it down and picking up another. After a while she finally found one that was to her liking.

It took us a little while to find a good pumpking but we finally did. We took the hay ride back and paid for our new orange squash. On the ride home the pumpkin started rolling around the back and the stem broke off. This broke my heart cause I always love having a good stem on top.

We carve it up on Tuesday.

14 Years Ago Today

Today is the 14th anniversary of when Erin and I started dating.

Our first date was on October 23, 1993. I showed up at her house to pick her up with a dozen roses. After being greeted by her Grandfather and two dogs, I presented Erin with the roses which she promptly left on the kitchen counter. I still give her shit about that to this day. Her defense was that she had never been given roses so she didn't know what to do with them.

We went out for pizza at Little Vincents and then ice skating at The Rinx. I hadn't skated in a while and I found out through the grapevine that Erin enjoyed ice skating so that is where we went. Amazingly I stayed on my feet and Erin feel once. I laughed at her.

Purposely I left the card off of the roses cause I had written "will you go out with me" on it. I figured if the date went poorly I could just ditch the card and if it went well I'd give it to her.

So I took her back home at the end of the date and gave her the card. she took it and went back inside her house. She never opened it.

The next day I got a phone call from Erin saying she had opened the card and the answer was yes. So we counted the 24th as the first official day of our relationship. The rest is history.

Wisdom Teeth

On Thursday Erin had her top two wisdom teeth taken out. She actually doesn't have the bottom ones so only the top two needed to come out.

The operation went well. The whole thing took less than an hour from the time she went in to the time I was helping her back into the car. She was laid up for about 4 days. I took off from work on Thursday and Friday to help her out. I did a lot of up and down the stairs bringing soup and Jello and anything else my semi conscience wife needed. The pain killers pretty much ensured that she wasn't getting out of bed for any extended period of time.

With Erin being laid up it meant I was on my own with Shannon. I managed to survive without any tears or broken bones on either of us.

I even took Shannon over to the Perkins' house for a play date with Sophia. Courtney and Shawn went out to dinner and I was alone with 3 kids. I survived that as well. Everyone involved seemed to have a good time.

Guitar Gods

Within the last 7 days I've seen Eddie Van Halen as well as Jerry Cantrell and Slash live. Last night a group of us went to see Alice in Chains and Velvet Revolver at Hi Fi Buys Amphitheatre here in Atlanta.

At 60 bucks a ticket I guess the show didn't sell very well cause Ticketmaster ended up giving tickets away for free. We were the lucky ones to not have bought tickets before hand. I personally got 4 tickets and all I paid for was the $2.50 fee to print them and a $1.50 processing that they hit you with. So the 4 tickets cost me $4 total. Parking at Hi Fi Buys was free as well. You just can't beat that deal.

Alice in Chains went on first and they stole the show. The crowd really seemed to be more into them than VR. I was really excited to see them. The first time I saw them was around 1991/1992 when they opened for Van Halen. How funny is that?? Something that Buck pointed out at the show last night. That was the first show we saw together and we've seen both bands within 4 days of each other.

I saw Jerry Cantrell solo at Music Midtown but he hurt his hand a few days before the show and could only sing. So it was not the full expereince of seeing Jerry play.

AIC opened with Again and then tore through their set which ended with Rooster. William Duvall (who is actually from Atlanta) took over on vocals and sounded really good. Enough effect of his voice that he sounded pretty close to Layne. Jerry sings a lot of backup so that helped the sound out a lot.

Other stuff they played in no order:

Man In The Box

Rain When I Die

Them Bones

Would?

We Die Young

Nutshell

No Excuses

Angry Chair

Grind

Sludge Factory

Brother

Those are the ones I can remember. There might have been one of two more.

Stage set up was pretty basic with one screen behind them. The amps were white so they were used really well for the different lights. During Rooster they put up parts from the video as well as some images of Bush, Cheney, and Condi. One image said Bush Lied And People Died and at the end of the song NO WAR appeared in big letters as the drummer pointed to the screen.

This is the second time I've seen Velvet Revolver. I saw them on their first tour in 2005 at the same venue. Hoobastank was the opening act.

VR opened with Let It Roll and closed with Slither. Let It Roll started with Slash behind this black curtain and white lights on from behind him so you could see him. Once the band joined in off the opening riff the curtain came flying down towards the stage.

They had good energy throughout and even played a few of the slower songs sitting on stools. The crowd seemed to be just passively into the set. The mood really picked up when an Stone Temple Pilots or Guns n Roses song was played. The crowd would usually go nuts for those ones.

Songs again in no order:

She Mine

Get Out The Door

The Last Flight

Pills, Demons & Etc

Sucker Train Blues
Do It For The Kids

Big Machine

Superhuman

Vasoline (STP)

Patience (GNR)

Interstate Love Song (GNR)

Sex Type Thing (STP)

Mr. Brownstone (GNR)

It's So Easy (GNR)

She Builds Quick Machines

Fall To Pieces

Highlights were It's So Easy and Slither. I was really, really rocking to those two. Overall they were really good. I'm not a big fan of Scott Weiland's voice live. It sounds really ripped up. If you go back and listen to the first STP album and listen to him now it is almost a completely different voice. Especially after listening to something like Sex Type Thing.

Slash was awesome as expected. He even got in a guitar solo that was pretty good.

The stage show was good. They had two video screens on the side and a big one behind them. One song they had a montage of serial killers on the screens and another there were naked women so in S & M poses and others just naked.

Velvet Revolver just oozes what a rock and roll band should be like. I enjoyed their set but I have to say that Alice in Chains put on a better show.

Van Halen Crushed It!!!!

Road trip to Greensboro this weekend was a great time. Took us about 5 hours each way. Had my first 5 Guys burger.

We got to Greensboro and checked into the hotel. The Van Halen show must have been the only thing going on in that town cause everyone we talked to were asking us if we were in town for the show.

After driving around and finding out that the Greensboro Coliseum was on the same block as our hotel we hit Buffalo's Bar and Grill to kill 3 hours. We drained a few pitchers and had some pub food.

Since the hotel was close to the venue we decided to walk to the show. The guy in the room next to us was also going to the show so he asked to walk with us. Before we left he offered us a beer he had on ice in his room. This 45 year old Southerners beer of choice? Milwaukee's Best Light. It was cold so it went down smooth.

The walk over wasn't that bad at all. We got into the venue and discovered t shirts were 35 bucks so we decided to pass.

Van Halen was awesome. Eddie was the tightest I'd ever heard him before. This was my 3rd time seeing him. They opened with You Really Got Me and closed the show with Jump. The set list had been leaked on the internet a few weeks ago and they played every song off of it.

This is what they played:

1. You Really Got Me

2. I'm the One

3. Runnin' With the Devil

4. Romeo Delight

5. Somebody Get Me a Doctor

6. Beautiful Girls

7. Dance the Night Away

8. Atomic Punk

9. Everybody Wants Some

10. So This Is Love?

11. Mean Street
12. Pretty Woman

13. Drum Solo

14. Unchained

15. I'll Wait

16. And the Cradle Will Rock

17. Hot for Teacher

18. Little Dreamer

19. Little Guitars

20. Jamie's Cryin'

21. Ice Cream Man

22. Panama

23. Guitar Solo (incl. "Women in Love" intro, "Cathedral", "Eruption")

24. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love

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

25. 1984

26. Jump

At times the guitar was louder than Roth's vocals which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The tempo for Hot For Teacher was so fast that Roth was skipping words here and there to keep up. For the most part his timing was great.

Roth had a few leg kicks and during Jump did a whole baton twirling thing. On Everybody Wants Some he did a slight variation on the speaking parts. I liked the original. The strong first few lines of the song he just kind of talked them out. That was about the most disappointed I was.

Wolfgang was there. You kind of forgot about him cause you are looking at Eddie and Roth the whole time. He did mess up the "come on Dave, give me a break" part to Unchained. He sounded nervous and flubbed the first part of it. He did move around the stage a little. He definitely has his mom's genes cause he is a pudgy thing.

The stage was in the shape of a giant S and that snaked into the crowd. The whole time Buck and I were thinking that S stood for Sammy. There was a big video screen behind them and they used a lot of video feedback for effect.

Overall one of the best shows I've ever seen. They played song after song after song. Almost no talking in between songs at all. The only long talking part was the set up for Ice Cream Man which Roth played acoustic guitar on.

These pictures are from the Charlotte show:

Air Travel and Children

Shannon usually is a really, really good air traveler for her age. We keep her distracted with books and once the flight takes off we take out the portable DVD and she is locked in.

This past Sunday we flew from Buffalo to Atlanta and Shannon had a fit. She was kicking and screaming and nothing would settle her down. Not only did she have a fit, but the stewardess threatened to kick us off the plane.

That pissed me off to no end. Instead of having one ounce of sympathy or advice for us they just threatened us. All Shannon wanted to do at the time was be held by one of us but she wasn't allowed out of her seat. So she tried to get out of her seat, but Erin and I were holding her down.

I told them that she had just turned 2 but I guess being honest doesn't get you anywhere in life. If I had said she was 23 months they would have let her sit in my lap.

She eventually fell asleep during the flight, but when we had to get ready for landing it all started back up again.

There is a child seat harness that is called CARES that you can buy for 75 bucks that is pretty similar to the straps in a car seat. It pretty much straps a child under 44 pounds into the seat and won't allow them to wiggle out of a lap belt. Why don't the airlines provide you with it? I mean they don't ask you to bring your own seat belt onto a flight, do they? So if they are gonna charge me full price to fly my 2 year old, they why don't you provide the proper safety equipment for them? I mean to buy a few of these belts can't possibly cost more than it does when they have to return a plane to a hanger before it takes off.

Another thing that pissed me off: When there is a child losing his/her shit on a plane, don't look back at the parents. Trust me, we are aware the child is being loud, but there is nothing we can do about it. Especially when the flight crew limits your abilities to calm a child down. It is extremely stressful for the parents and your looks aren't gonna help the situation end any sooner.

Just turn up your iPod, go to your happy place, and don't look back. I so wanted to just blast this guy in the face. Nothing would have given me more satisfaction. He sat in front of us and all he could do was look back and make faces.

I sent a letter to Airtran letting them know about my feelings on the CARES issue and to state that the flight crew could have acted more professionally. You'd think they would have some training in these type situations instead of just threatening passengers. Airtran did kick a family off the plane in a similar situation a few months back and took quite a PR hit over it. They must encounter situations like this all the time. Everyone has a story about a crying baby on a plane.

This only tells me that either their policy or training for these situations isn't working and needs to be adjusted.

Diet? Not So Much

After 4 days of being on our diet, Erin and I decided to modify it back to our normal eating habits. Erin wasn't feeling well and began to feel ill because her body wasn't adjusting to the lack of peanut butter in her system I guess. That and we were getting sick of eating nothing but salad and brown rice.

I'm still doing parts of Phase 1 of the diet but we have reintroduced breads, meats, alcohol, and sugars back into the diet. We just couldn't live without the pizza.

I did lose about 3 pounds so far. Erin lost 2.

The Green Concert

Great show last night at Piedmont Park. Erin and I parked at Turner's Techwood campus and then walked 1.5 miles over to the park. When we got there Allman Brothers had already taken the stage. We found a spot near the middle of the lawn and towards the back. Put our blanket down and had a good location speaker and video screen wise amongst the 50,000 people.

The Allman Brothers sounded great and everyone seemed to be in a mellow mood. The reason could have been the 6 packs of Bud Light people were walking around with. How do you know you are seeing a concert in the South? When they sell people 6 packs of beer on one trip to the beer stand that's how.

Their set list:

Trouble No More, Ain't Wastin' Time No More, Hot 'lanta, Woman Across The River, Midnight Rider, Statesboro Blues, Hoochie Coochie Man, Come And Go Blues, One Way Out, Black Hearted Woman, In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
Encore: Whipping Post

I spent most of the time between bands waiting on line for Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. Erin's idea.

At 8:14 Dave Matthews Band took the stage and everyone seemed to come alive. They played a good mix of older and some newer songs that I wasn't too familiar with. The sound was perfect, the setting was perfect, and the weather was perfect.

Their set list:

One Sweet World, Two Step, Corn Bread, Don’t Drink the Water, You Might Die Trying, Grey Street, #27, What Would You Say, Melissa, Louisiana Bayou, Dreaming Tree, Eh Hee, So Much To Say, Anyone Seen The Bridge, Too Much, #40 [tease], Warehouse, Stay (Wasting Time)
Encore: All Along The Watchtower, Ants Marching

Highlights were having Warren Haynes play electric guitar on What Would You Say and Gregg Allman sharing vocals with Dave Matthews on Melissa with the band backing them up.

Best Dave quote: "We are gonna do kind of a newer song for you. If you like it great, if you don't like it, what can I do about it."

We left before the encore so that we could make the 1.5 mile journey back to our car. Susan was nice enough to watch Shannon for us so we didn't want to get caught up in the crowds getting back home. I left my Turner ID in my car so they stopped us at the gate. After running my drivers license thru their system we were allowed to get back to our car and go home.

Song stuck in my head today: Louisiana Bayou.

Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band is playing a "green" concert in Piedmont Park here in Atlanta on Saturday. The proceeds of the show are going to a planned 53 acre expansion of the park.

Turner is a corporate sponsor of the show and they had a ticket give away this week. There was a set of 5 true and false questions and you had to find the answers by looking around the Piedmont Park website.

From looking at the website I found out that not only is DMB playing but the Allman Brothers Band is opening for them and palying a 2 hour set. How cool is that?

So I filled it out and I actually won tickets to the show. It is general admisson and they are expecting 50,000 people to attend. So Erin and I will be bringing our blanket and hopefully pulling up a nice piece of grass to see the show from.

Fat Smash Diet

Erin and I are both doing the Fat Smash Diet right now. We are into day 3 of Phase 1 which lasts for 9 days.

I did this diet last year and lost 15 pounds over the course of a month. This time around seems to be a little harder. Erin has used the word starving a few times but has been good so far.

For the first 9 days we are in a "detox" phase where all we can eat are fruits, veggies, egg whites, yogurt and brown rice. You have to eat at least 5 meals a day. Phase 2 lasts for 3 weeks and we get to eat small portions of meat and cheese but no breads.

The breads don't come back till Phase 3 so no pizza for a month!!! That is huge in our house where Friday pizza night is an institution. Did I mention no alcohol this whole time either???

By the end of the diet you are eating all the stuff you used to eat but in smaller portions. So the goal for us to shed a few pounds and improve on our eating habits.

My first weigh in was 171.5 pounds. I don't get to weigh myself gain till day 9. We'll see how good I do.

A Big Step Forward

For the past few days Shannon has gone completly "nooch" less. She was still getting her pacifier for naps and bedtime. Since going back to daycare she wasn't getting it for naps, so last Wednesday we decided to not give it to her at night.

We were prepared for a long night of crying and general unpleasantness, but to our surprise it was fairly minimal. There was some protest complaints but she seemed to calm herself down enough to fall asleep.

Each night we take her to bed she complains a little but eventually falls asleep. This is huge for us cause the nooch was her most cherished belonging. Taking it away from her would be like taking the blanket away from Linus. This is something she fell in love with when she was only hours old, so you can imagaine the attachment to it.

So for now things look good. Up next, potty training.

Drunk Talk

When does drunk talk cost you a few hundred dollars?? When you decide to go on a road trip to see Van Halen after a few beers.

Living with the fear that Van Halen might not play Atlanta on this tour, Buck and I decided to road trip it to Greensboro, NC to see the 2nd night of the tour. I got tickets as soon as they went on sale Saturday and we ended up getting some good seats in the 200 level of the Greensboro Coliseum.

The date is Saturday September 29th and the plan is to take the 5 hour drive on Saturday morning and then come back on Sunday morning so Buck can get to the Falcons game by 1pm. Should be a fun trip and the first time I've road tripped it to see a show since college.

John From Cincinnati

Erin and I were both big fans of Deadwood. so we were sad to see that HBO cancelled it after last season. The good news was that David Milch was gonna do another show about a family of surfers called John From Cincinnati.

Being Deeadwood and NYPD Blue fans we gave John From Cincinnati a shot. Man does it suck. Not only does it suck, but is sucks so bad that HBO announced on Tuesday that the show will not be returning for a second season.

The show was loaded with good actors like Rebecca De Mornay, Willie Garson, Bruce Greenwood, Luis Guzmán, and Ed O'Neill. Even Luke Perry wasn't bad in it. There were also like 4 or 5 actors from Deadwood.

The problem was the story went nowhere and the dialog was dry, boring, and way over every ones head. It is Milch so I was expecting some of that but it was really unwatchable.

Every time we watched an episode all I could think of was, "they cancelled Deadwood for this?"

We have one more episode on the DVR left. The question is do I watch it or delete it into the DVR abyss??? I won't get any kind of conclusion out of it and it will only remind me why the show got cancelled.

Van Halen Tour Dates

Van Halen finally held their press conference yesterday to announce their upcoming tour. What was originally stated as a 50 date North American tour seems to have been slimmed down to 25 days.

They only released 25 dates and to my disappointment there was no Atlanta show. The strange thing is that there aren't any shows in Florida either so I'm thinking that there will be more dates to come.

The tour opens in Charlotte on September 27th and hits Boston on October 30th, New York on November 13th, and Los Angeles on November 20th.

Tickets for some of the shows go on sale this Saturday.

Look At Me

I did the CNN Passport program a few months back. I got to go to New York and see how things worked up there. So when I got back they asked me to talk about my experience for a corporate video they were making. I actually made the final cut and do I look awful. Look at all that grey!!!

The Chinese Are Trying To Kill My Daughter

The Chinese are trying to kill my daughter with lead paint. Fisher Price recently recalled a bunch of Dora The Explorer and Elmo toys after it was discovered some of them were made with lead paint.

After hearing the story I went right to their website and looked at the toys involved in the recall. Shannon has one of them. It's called the Dora Talking Vamanos Van.

We bought it for her as a birthday gift. She played with it often so I called Erin and had her remove the van from Shannon's play area. Thankfully after receiving the recall information from Fisher Price our toy isn't one of the ones that is affected.

So I put the van back into Shannon's play area when she was upstairs taking a bath. As soon as she came back down it was the first thing she went over and played with.

It's Official...Again

The reunion tour is back on again. According to Billboard magazine and Dawn (thanks for the heads up) Eddie Van Halen is sober enough for the band to finally do the 50 date North American tour that had been rumored for about a year now.

The Billboard report coincides with a news release issued Tuesday by touring company Live Nation and Van Halen saying the band will be making "an announcement of monumental proportions" during a news conference Monday in Los Angeles.

Fingers are crossed that the tour will come through Atlanta. I've seen Van Halen twice, first time with Alice In Chains opening. Never seen them with Roth but I have seen Roth solo during his Lil' Ain't Enough Tour. Trixter and Cinderella opened for that one.

$574.97

$574.97 is the vet bill we just had to pay for yet another operation for Daisy. Over our vacation she had developed some fluid in the inside of her ear. It looked like someone had shoved a water balloon between the flaps in her ear.

So Erin took her to the vet and they said she had an Ear Hematoma and it would have to be drained right away. Not only that but they would have to install a straw in the flap of her ear so fluid can continue to drain a week after the operation.

The operation went fine and Daisy is on the road to recovery. She is acting fine and back to her normal routine of sleeping and eating. This Tuesday the straw comes out and then the next Tuesday the stitches come out.

The biggest pain in the ass has been giving her the antibiotics. We have to hide the pills in food and sometimes she finds them before she eats it. So then we have to try to hide it in another piece of food and so on till she eats it. If she bites into one and shakes her head the powder gets all over the place and it reeks. Yuck!!!!

Back Home

The family and I got back from New York on Saturday. The trip went well with no surprises. While we were descending the plane hit an air pocket or something and dropped a few feet unexpectedly. Erin almost jumped out of her skin and everyone let out a surprised gasp as if we were free failing.

We sat in a row with 3 seats. Erin and I had the middle and aisle and a 20 something woman had the window seat. Once we were allowed to use our DVD player I put on a Dora DVD for Shannon. The 20 something was annoyed as soon as we took it out and asked "if we had headphones for that." I turned down the volume a bit but throughout the flight I'd turn it back up. I'd like to see her get a pair of headphones on a two year old. Not gonna happen.

The people behind us were talking louder than the DVD volume was. Would you rather hear a little bit of Dora or a kid scream and cry the whole flight???

So I was put off with her attitude and hated her the rest of the flight. When she tried to recline her chair and it didn't budge I openly laughed. She tried it two or three times before giving up. Karma is a bitch. I hope it was the most uncomfortable flight she has ever had.

A Small Scare

We are currently in New York visiting with friends and family. I went out last night to a local bar to meet up with a few friends and have a drink or two. Erin went to Port Jefferson to meet up with some friends of hers and have dinner.

Around 9:45pm I get a phone call from my brother in law. Erin fainted in the parking lot and was taken to the hospital by way of ambulance. Her sister, who was out with her, became very concerned and wanted to make sure everything was ok so she called 911.

Erin has had fainting spells in the past but they are few and far between. They have never been anything serious.

I rushed to the hospital to find Erin in the ER. The doctor ordered a bunch of tests and and IV bag. All tests came back fine and after Erin "drank" most of the bag we were discharged. She spent a total of 3 hours there. Must have been a slow night cause all the tests came back pretty quick.

The official prognosis was that she was dehydrated. So everything was fine but still a little scare none the less.

Springfield, Vermont

For years the mystery to many a Simpsons fan was in what state they live in. The creators teased us many times but never spilled the beans. We were left to wonder where is this magically Springfield with Moe's Tavern, the remains of the once hyped monorail, and the Kwik E Mart?

Well wonder no longer for Springfield Vermont was proclaimed the Simpsons' hometown after winning an online poll to host the movies' premiere.

Springfields in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and Tennessee were also in the running but failed to get as many votes as the small town in Vermont.

Vermont's Springfield -- which has a bowling alley, a pub, a prison and a nuclear power plant just down the road -- wasn't initially part of the contest, but a local Chamber of Commerce
executive appealed to movie producer 20th Century Fox and the race was on.

Springfield Vermont has a population of 9,300 and the movie theater showing the premiere only has 212 seats.

Home Improvements

It was a busy weekend for me. Saturday Buck came over and put in some recessed lighting in our bedroom. We had 6 lights put in. 2 on the left, 2 on the right, and then 2 above our bed. The ones above our bed are on a different fader from the others. So that is a nice feature.

I "helped out" which consisted of standing there and talking to him while he did all the work. I'd had him a random tool or light fixture from time to time.

Our ceiling fan in the bedroom had been making noise on and off for a while now. Sometimes you wouldn't hear anything and other times there would be this loud clanging noise. It was so annoying that the noise would wake us up or keep us up to the point that we would have to turn it off. So I picked up a new fan from Lowe's and put it up myself. It took me pretty much all day to do cause 1) it was the first time I've ever hung a fan and 2) I'm not handy at all. The down bar on the fan I took down was smaller than the one I was putting up so I had to go back to Lowe's and buy a bigger one. So that took me a little while to switch out.

I got everything up and power to the fan. Knowing myself I was almost certain that when I flipped the switch it wasn't gonna work. To my surprise it came right to life, but it wobbles a little bit. So Buck is gonna come over today and try to balance it out for me. I tried for like an hour to balance it but just couldn't get it to be wobble free. I was proud of myself that I got the old fan down, the new one up and working and I didn't kill myself doing it.

Happy Birthday Shannon

Today is Shannon's 2nd birthday.

Happy Birthday to my little angel.

Best gifts so far, her Dora chair, the Cozy Coupe car, and a basketball hoop.

14 Years Of Bad Luck???

I know you get 7 years of bad luck for breaking a mirror, but what about a window?? Does that tack on another 7 years???

On Saturday we had a BBQ to celebrate mine and Shannon's birthday. We ended the night with some fireworks in the front of the house. One of them misfired and shot at the house. I didn't even see it happen cause it hit behind me.

Apparently it directly hit my guest bedroom window broke through the first pane of glass and then bounced off the second pane and landed on the ground and exploded. If it had broken through the second pane it would have exploded inside the house.

The worst part is that a few of my friends got hurt when the firework exploded on the ground including a little girl. It rips me up inside that someone got injured because of something I participated in. It was completely an accident and there was nothing I could have done but this doesn't help me with the guilt I am feeling.

The guilt has almost brought me tears several times because of what that little girl and her family must now experience. There is nothing that I can do and there aren't enough ways for me to apologize to make me feel better. She is gonna be ok but it will still be something that is gonna haunt me for a while.

This is something that has really shaken me up over the past few days. You never think that things like this can happen to you but they do. So on this 4th of July if you are gonna set off fireworks and watch them be more careful. Take an extra step back and be prepared for anything that could happen.

Was Gonna Happen Sooner Or Later

Check out what happened to my side view mirror today. Erin was pulling out of the garage and got a little too close to the right wall.

I've had the Jeep for about 7 months now and this is the second time we have to get something fixed cause of our own stupidity.

First repair was getting the entire back gate re-painted when I accidentally opened the garage when it was open. Metal met metal and the gate lost. Got this nice big long scratch in it that almost broke the back windshield if I hadn't stopped the door in time.

An Exciting Day

Yesterday was an exciting day for us. Shannon had her last orthopedic check up on her feet. The doctor said that everything looked fine and that she is pretty much done with the rehab. He recommended that we come back in a year for another check up if we notice any changes.

Shannon was born with her feet turned in (otherwise known as club foot) and needed to have them corrected. Basically her heel cords formed too tightly while she was in the womb and this didn't allow her feet to straighten out as she grew. Ever since she was a month old the correction process has been ongoing and finally ended on Thursday.

First came two full leg casts that were on for months, then a heal cord lengthening operation, then more casting. After the casts came off the second time she had to wear the famous Dennis Brown bar. This is a pair of shoes with a bar between them to keep her feet straight.



She wore this device for over a year. She had to wear it all day for the first few months and then only when she slept. As she grew, the shoes would have to be replaced for bigger one. We actually kept the smaller shoes and one of them is a door stop for Shannon's room.

After she outgrew the last pair we decided that it was time to go without them. She was walking and running without a problem. Both of her feet remained flexible although one is tighter than the other.

Yesterday confirmed what we thought and this almost 2 year process in over. A happy day indeed.

Lots Going On

I'm sure Patry is pissed at me for my blog absence of late but I swear I have been really busy. Don't hate me Dave. :)

June 6th thru the 8th I spent in New York City. Went up to the Time Warner Center to see how the Vista software is run in New York compared to how I run it here in Atlanta. I also got a tour of the whole place including all the sets and control rooms. As part of my trip I also got to sit in while the night time shows were being produced. It was a nice way to spend 3 days and have the company pay for it.

Other things:

• Saw Ezra twice during my trip. The first night we went out for some drinks at one of his favorite bars and caught the Yankees, Mets, and saw the Ducks win the Stanley Cup. On my third day there we went to an Irish pub for lunch.
  
• Second day I met up with my dad and step mom for lunch. Had my first Whole Foods experience for dinner. Good, fresh food and the place was packed.
  
• I stayed at the Hudson Hotel. Second time I've stayed here. First was for Lof's bachelor party. Strange hotel with its modern look. The room was really small and the place was crawling with Europeans.

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Last week Erin, Shannon, and I spent in Buffalo. I flew home from New York on Saturday, took the train back to my car, drove home, dumped my dirty clothes and packed some clean ones, dropped Daisy off at Buck's house, and then flew to Buffalo. Very busy day. Luckily all the flights were on time and everything went like clockwork and just as planned.

Got to spend time with my dad, brother, and two step mothers. Shannon loved all the attention from the grandparents and all the gifts.

Most of the week was spent finding different things to entertain Shannon with. She had a play date that my step mom set up where she did her first finger painting, swam and splashed in a kiddie pool, and went to a place called Leaps N' Bounce. Leaps N' Bounce was basically this warehouse filled with these blow up moon bounce kind of things. Shannon had a great time running around and Erin and I even joined in on the bouncing. Shannon really liked the ones that had slides to them.

Played golf (for the first time in 9 years) with my dad and brother. We played best ball or else we would have been there all day. Only did 9 holes and I played as rusty as I should have been. I did have one nice shot on a hole we played twice. The first time I played it I hit two balls into the water. Second time we played it I drove the ball right onto the green with a 5 iron.

On Friday we went into Canada and spent the day at Niagara On The Lake. Really nice English style town with shops and restaurants. Kind of the place that Port Jeff should be like but they could never pull it off. They also had a park with a water fountain. Kids were playing in it so we stripped Shannon down to her diaper and she had a great time splashing and chasing the other kids around.

Erin and I even got to go out and see two movies. While Shannon slept the grandparents kept watched and we snuck out the the theater. We saw Knocked Up and Oceans 13. We liked Knocked Up, it was funny, but thought it could have been a little shorter. Oceans 13 was a little slow and just didn't seem to be as fun as the first one was.
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Finally.....Opie and Anthony are back on XM and all is right with the world again.

Feeling Empty Inside

I've been feeling empty inside for the past few weeks. Like something is missing from my life. Oh wait, something is. XM suspended Opie and Anthony for 30 days because they violated corporate policy. They weren't suspended for the Condi bit that is getting a lot of media attention, but because they talked about the situation when XM didn't want them to anymore.

A lot of loyal Opie and Anthony "pests" have voiced their displeasure by cancelling their accounts and smashing their radios. I e mailed my concerns to XM and called and complained.

Not only is the show not live till Jun 15th but XM also stopped playing all replays and Best Ofs. Since I don't get to listen to them live I rely on the replays to hear them. If you are gonna suspend them fine. But when I pay 13 bucks a month for XM, why are they punishing me by taking the show completely off their format. Opie and Anthony is pretty much the main reason I subscribed in the first place. Not only that but I signed up 3 more radios for my family to listen to XM as well.

So after voicing my opinion on how unfairly they are treating the paying XM customer, XM refunded a month of my service. Word from Opie and Anthony fan sites was that if I called to cancel they would have given me up to 3 months for free.

XM promises that they will be back on June 15th. Let's hope so for XM's sake or else they are gonna lose a lot more subscribers.

New TV

Erin told me to start thinking of something I would want for Father's Day and my birthday. Both are in June so she usually combines both days into one gift. I've wanted to upgrade the TV in our bedroom for a while.

Some nights I was forced to watch hockey up in the bedroom and I could barley see the puck from my bed. When the action would heat up I'd have to stand right in front of the TV to see the puck clearly. Very annoying. So I decided it was finally time to replace the TV.

Delivered to my door yesterday was a brand new 26 inch Panasonic LCD HDTV. I wanted to get the 32 inch but after measuring the cabinet it had to fit in, I was only .3 inches off from fitting it. Crushing. Erin chipped in for a third of the price and I'm paying off the rest. I ordered it using a special deal I get from work so we got a pretty good price on it.

It is our first LCD and HDTV in the house. We currently don't have HDTV service from Directv yet, so for now I'll just have to enjoy the LCD goodness of it. To enhance the signal that we are getting I hooked everything up with an S-Video connection.

The TV this one is replacing has to easily be almost 20 years old. The buttons on the front of it for power and volume are smashed into the unit.

The difference in clarity and quality of the picture between the two are amazing. Erin doesn't seem to be as excited as I am about it though. While I'm blown away by the picture and sound she just kind of shrugs her shoulders. Women.

Boys Weekend

This past weekend a few of my friends from high school came to Atlanta for a visit. This past fantasy football season there was a hefty bet made. Whatever team had the best finish, the others would have to buy him a steak dinner at his place of choice.

Charley, Lof, Lupo, and Nancy came down to celebrate me. Ezra and OP were also scheduled to come down but they couldn't make it. We dubbed the celebration "Boys Weekend."

Highlights from the weekend:

• Flights land Friday night, everyone arrives safely. I take Charley and Lof with me and we get out of the parking lot in no time. Buck drives Lupo and Nancy. He inserts ticket into the machine, it eats it, and the parking attendant won't let him out. What was gonna cost him 2 bucks will now cost him 28 for a lost ticket fee. They finally get the ticket out of the machine and then charge him 4 bucks to leave.


• My group makes it to Smith's Old Bar for some food and drinks. The second group shows up a half hour later because of the parking fiasco.


• BBQ at my house on Saturday afternoon. Everyone hangs out in the backyard drinking beers and eating dogs and burgers. Shannon plays with her new bubble machine. We broke out the photo albums and laughed at the outfits we used to wear to Steve Miller Band concerts.
  
• Dinner at The Palm Saturday night. 9 people total. I have the 28 oz Porterhouse. They have to pay for it. Food is good, not great. Appetizer platter of different seafood items was really good. Our waitress can't stop saying awesome. The bill comes out to over $1000 with tip.


• Out for drinks after dinner. We try to find a bar that has the fight on in Buckhead with no luck. So we go to an Irish bar named Fado for a few beers.


• Went to the Braves/Dodgers game on Sunday. Braves win. After the game we went to Centennial Olympic Park to walk around. There was a Hispanic festival going on so the park was packed with people.

Overall a great weekend for everyone involved. Lots of food, fun, and great friends.

Trip to Buffalo

This past weekend Erin, Shannon, and I went up to Buffalo to visit my family. The main reason we went up was to see the Rangers take on the Buffalo Sabers in game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

My dad won luxury box seats for the game and it was a very cool experience. I've never seen a sports event from a box so I was excited. Our seats were right at center ice. The suite was stocked with all kinds of food from chicken wings to jumbo shrimp to cookies. The beer was a plenty. Labatt Blue was my choice of drink as I relived some old college days.

The game was good. The Rangers scored first. Of course I was in the private bathroom and missed the goal. The Sabres came back and won the game in the end.

The most annoying thing was the walk back to the car. All the Sabre fans were beeping their horns to "lets go buffalo." The sound of the car horns echoed throughout the parking deck and seemed to get louder and louder.

iPod Habit

Is it wrong that I can't remember the last song I've heard on my iPod?? I listen to my iPod every day, but I can't remember the last song I listened to. I've been so fixated on podcasts that I almost don't listen to my music anymore.

I'm loving the free podcasts. I get to listen to New York sports radio like Mike and the Mad Dog and Michael Kay. Get my hockey fix from the Barry Melrose and my comedy from the Man Show.

I subscribe to most of these and when the update runs and a new episode doesn't pop up I get pissed off. Especially the daily ones. I feel like I'm getting robbed.

Podcasts currently on my iPod:

Barry Melrose
Mike and the Mad Dog
Michael Kay
Man Show
French Maid TV
Talking Metal
Opie and Anthony Experience

Good Job

A few words have been trickling out of Shannon's mouth from time to time. "No" seems to be one that she has the best handle on so far.

Just recently she started saying "good job." Usually when Shannon did something like shared a toy or stacked some blocks we would encourage her with a "good job" comment. Now when she does it herself she tells herself "good job." Very cute. It also reminds me that maybe she is paying a little more attention to the things that are being said around the house. Daddy is gonna have to start watching what he is saying.

Hockey

This the best time of the year for hockey. The playoffs bring out the fans and the intensity of the game. My biggest issue so far this playoff season is that the Rangers are playing the Thrashers.

The Rangers are by far my favorite team. the team of my childhood. The Thrashers are my hometown team, and because we live in Atlanta the team we get to see more often. I'd love to see the Thrashers do good, but not at the expense of my Rangers.

I went to both games 1 and 2. Games that the Rangers won. The building was electric. The fans were the loudest I'd heard for a hockey game ever. It is the Thrashers first time in the playoffs so people are excited. I didn't sit back in my seat once during the games.

I wore my Rangers jersey to both games and Erin and Shannon wore their Thrashers stuff. Since moving down here Erin seems to have more of a connection with the Thrashers now.

I don't see the Rangers sweeping but I do see them winning this series. Sean Avery is already under the skin of the Thrashers and it showed in Game 2. I love Avery. I didn't know much about him when the Rangers traded for him but he is awesome. He is the kind of guy you hate unless he is on your team. He pisses off the other teams so much that they get off their games and start going after him. If the Rangers had gotten him earlier I think they would have finished even higher in the standings. He really added something to the Rangers that they didn't have. An intensity that they had lacked for a long time.

So either way I can't lose in this round of the playoffs. I'd love to see the Rangers win it, but if the Thrashers win then I'll be happy to...and I'll get to go to more playoff games here in Atlanta.

2 Hours Of My Life

Yesterday I lost 2 hours of my life that I will never, ever, ever, get back. I actually got out of work a little bit early and had a few things I wanted to get done on my way home. I usually go right from work to daycare to pick up Shannon but I was hoping to squeeze in an oil change on the way.

So I hit the highway running and found out there was an accident up ahead. So I plugged in my navigator and started looking for alternate routes. I tried 3 different ways and each one was slammed with traffic. Apparently the accident had shut down the highway for hours and the backup had been building for a while. So the normally 30 minute drive took me 2 hours as I creeped along many different side streets in bumper to bumper traffic. I just wanted to shoot myself in the head so I wouldn't have to sit in it anymore.

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The drive back home this past weekend went smoothly. No problems at all. Shannon was pretty much tired of sitting in the car and let us know about it. We drove through snow flurries in both Virginia and Tennessee.

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Easter was good. Shannon hated having her dress on. As soon as Erin put it on her she started crying. She was pulling on the collar of it trying to get it off. We went to church but it was so packed we had to leave. It was so packed we ended up in a hallway where we couldn't even hear the service.

We then had some friends over for dinner. I got a Honeybaked mini ham and we made some side dishes. Overall it was a successful dinner considering we put it together in a few hours after spending a week away from the house.