Roth Is Back

As rumored for a few months now multpile sources are reporting that David Lee Roth is back in Van Halen.

According to Billboard the band is close to signing on for a 40 date summer tour, their first with Roth in 20 years. Michael Anthony will not be touring. Eddie's son Wolfgang will be playing bass.

It will be interesting to see if Roth can pull it off. Also interesting will be the ticket prices. This will definately be a show I want to see, but my gut tells me the tickets are gonna almost be too expenisve to afford.

The summer tour season could be one of the better one is years. With the official announcement that the Police are going to reunite for the Grammys you can expect a summer tour from them as well.

Bill Burr

The boys went out on Thursday night to the Punchline to see Bill Burr. As expected he killed and it was a great night. Bill is most likely recognized as "the white guy" from Chappelles Show. He also does a lot of guest appearances on the Opie and Anthony show on XM radio.

Over the summer he made news with a 10 minute bitch slap on Philadelphia. He went on stage to do a set for the Opie and Anthony Traveling Virus and the fans began to boo him for no reason. So he ditched all his material and ripped Philadelphia to shreads. In comedy circles it was seen as the funniest moment of the year. The video of it has gone viral on You Tube. So check it out cause it is awesome. The audio quailty isn't great but remember that he did this whole thing off the top of his head. This was NOT the set he went out intending to do. Not only does he hammer these guys but he taunts them as well.

New Schedule

Since last May I have been working on weekends and had Thursday and Friday off. Beginning February 12th I go onto a new schedule which is 5a-2p with weekends off. I'm excited to finally get weekends off again, but no one is happier than Erin. Not only will I get to spend more time with her but I'll also we able to help her out more with Shannon. This includes picking Shannon up from daycare and making dinner.

Reel Big Fish

Reel Big Fish asks you NOT to buy or download their newly released Greatest Hits CD. Jive Records is releasing this album without approval from the band. Apparently Jive owns all of the masters and can do whatever they want with them. RBF doesn't see a single penny from any of these CDs sold and had no input into what went on them.

Not only is Jive screwing over the RBF by releasing this, they also did a horrible job of re-mastering the music. So they are screwing over your ears by not giving you the orginial mix.

RBF recently put out a live greatest hits on their own called "Our Live Album Is Better Than Your Live Album." Sales have been going well enough that Jive is now trying to cash in on it with their own release. Don't let Jive screw over the actual writers and creators of the music.

Buy the live CD. You won't regret it. It was probably my favorite CD of 2006. Download it off of iTunes and get over 30 songs from like 9 bucks. You can't lose and you are directly supporting a really good band.

How To Blow Up Your Career

A mother of 3 recently died after winning a contest for Sacramento radio station KDND. The contest was called "Hold Your Wee for a Wii." Contestants had to drinking water without going to the bathroom. The winner consumed about two gallons of water within about 3 hours and died later that day.

The cause of death is water intoxication, or water poisoning, which is a potentially fatal condition when a person consumes a large quantity of water and their bodily fluids become overly diluted, causing sodium levels to fall below normal. This can lead to brain swelling, seizures, coma and, in severe cases, death.

The fallout??? 10 people from KDND were fired. Of the 10, 5 of them were on air personalities.

All this for a 300 dollar gaming system. I just don't get it.

Ninetndo Wii: 300 dollars

10 people fired, 1 dead, and a lifetime of emotional distress for 3 kids: Priceless

Sleeping Habits

Over the past few months I've been attacking Erin in my sleep. I'll have a dream that Shannon is falling off the couch or something like that and in the dream I'm reaching out to catch her. In reality, I'm throwing my arm out and making contact with Erin while she sleeps. So far I've grabbed her a few times and even poked her in the eye once.

She told me that the other night she woke up to me stroking her hair and laughing. I have no recollection of many of these events happening. A few times I've woke up to Erin saying, "I'm ok" as I'm holding her.

Directv DVR

I recently upgraded the satellite box in our bedroom with a Directv DVR. This is now our second DVR in the house and once the 2nd cable line gets put in (there is a month wait to have an installer come out) we will be able to record up to 4 shows at a time. The upstairs box will be a flow over kind of thing especially on a very busy TV Tuesday. We watch way too much TV. :)

Anyway, the other DVR we have has the Tivo software on it and we love everything about it. The new DVR we got has Directv's own software. Apparently the contract that Directv had with Tivo ended and they moved on. Erin and I HATE everything about the Directv DVR.

• The guide and list are impossible to read from far away, the fonts are just way too small. This is a huge thing. You can barely read it without being close to the TV.

• The remote is awkward and top heavy. Considering that all the DVR options are at the top of the remote you have to hold it in the middle in order to use it and you almost have to use your other hand to press the buttons.

• They have options that mirror what Tivo does but they are a lot harder to figure out and the instruction manual is only a page front and back.

I shouldn't complain about it too much cause I got the box for free. It does store up to 100 hours of programming but we are a watch and delete kind of family. So we will never store up close to 100 hours worth of shows. I'd gladly take only 30 hours of storage to be able to actually read the guide.

Discovery/TLC

I find myself watching more and more shows on Discovery and TLC. I'm not really sure why. Must be Erin's influence rubbing off on me.

I've really enjoyed watching 4 shows. American Chopper is by far my favorite. I don't really care for motorcycles or mechanics but the show keeps my interest. The Teutuls are an interesting group and they are from Upstate New York which is cool. Their new season begins this Thursday at 9am.

I also enjoy watching Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe (it's cool to see some of the horrible things that people have to do to make a living in this country), Little People Big World (even though I'm not a midget and don't come from a family of midgets), and Mythbusters (not so much the science as the things they try to disprove. The Christmas episode was especially interesting).

Van Halen Controversy

It was announced this week that Van Halen will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. This has sparked a lot of buzz from VH fans as to which version of the group should be inducted. The Dave version or the Sammy version.

The official press release lists Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Alex Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen, and David Lee Roth. So it looks like both versions will get in. I myself like the Sammy years a little better. I still think that Roth's 1984 is the best VH album but Sammy did have more hits with the band. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge being the biggest album of the Sammy era.

So who is gonna play when they get inducted on March 12th??? The question is not only Roth or Sammy but will Michael Anthony be there. He was recently replaced in the band by Eddie's son Wolfgang. I'd like to see them do a few Roth and a few Sammy songs and have Michael Anthony play with them. He deserves to be there.

So expect this performance to make news. The buzz is that Roth will be there and this will kick off what will be a summer tour with Wolfgang on bass.

Drive Across Country -- 10 Year Anniversary

January 5th thru the 13th marks the 10 year anniversary of when I drove across country my first time. I was spending a semester out in Los Angeles and along with 11 of my friends we decided to take a week and drive across the south western part of the U.S. Later the next spring we would drive home the northern route.

We drove caravan style with the 12 of us broken up into pairs of two. The only way to communicate car to car was to write something like REST STOP on a piece of paper and then pass each car to communicate the message. This was 1997, we were college students, and none of us had a cell phone.

We met some of the group at a hotel in Pennsylvania and then met the rest of the group in Tennessee. This is where our journey began and also the first place I ever had a Krispy Kreme donut. The town was Jackson and it actually shared by both Virginia and Tennessee.
From there we got to see some really cool sights. Graceland, Sun Studios, The Memphis Belle, Mississippi River, Cadillac Ranch, Red Rocks, Grand Canyon, Hover Dam, Las Vegas, and finally Los Angeles.

While in Arkansas I experienced my first ever dry county. Basically a county where alcohol sale is prohibited 24/7. When we asked a girl behind a gas station counter what she does for fun when there is no alcohol she said, "we have dances."

The day after that we landed in Shamrock Texas and our second dry county. When we asked where the we could get beer the response from the person behind the counter.....Oklahoma. So we sent two of our friends on a drive, in a snow storm, to get 40s of the beast. Hey, we were in college and very poor. Shamrock was just a few miles into Texas.

The trip was great fun and so many good stories came out of it. My friend Brian has posted the journal from 10 years ago on his blog. If anyone cares to read it go to:
http://livefromrodneydrive.blogspot.com/index.html

He has posted pictures and everything. It is a really interesting read of 12 college students (7 guys and 5 girls) and how a 20 year old thinks. Like the fact that a tour of a Petrified Forest/Painted Desert that cost $5 was too much for us.

I Love This Picture!!!!!!

My little girl on Christmas Eve...

Bored At Work

So here I sit bored at work so I thought it would be a good time for my first official blog here.

My mouth hurts right now. I'm getting a crown put on my right side of my mouth. I went on Thursday for the first of 2 visits. The visited last an hour and a half and it wasn't fun. They drilled out some old fillings and shaved my tooth down a little bit. I'm wearing a temp crown now and on feb 1st I'l be the real one put in. Total out of pocket cost??? A little over 500 big ones. I'm really wishing I took care of my teeth when I was younger about now.

Shannon had an ortho appointment on Thursday as well. She outgrew the shoes and bar she wears at night. So usually they replace the shoes as she grows out of them, but this time they replaced both. This should hopefully be the last time we have to replace them. Shannon will be done wearing the shoes this coming July. Her feet are perfectly straight now.

I'm Here

After reading blogs from Patry and McCarthy I've decided to start my own blog. I've blogged before on Myspace but I wanted to do something a little different in 2007. I'm gonna try to keep it as up to daye as possible with all the crap that goes on in my life. Hope you enjoy it.