Davies Family Picture 

Truz's 30th Birthday Party 

Jared and Erin with the Sausages. 

The General teaching them young. 

Nate's O Face 

My God Son Josh, Happy as ever. 

Will's first Keg Stand 

Borky's Girlfriends at Rusted Root 

Fire Marshall Melon 

Intelligent Quote

In the past I have been about personal gain and praise. I thought I would direct you to a bit of public humliation as I am quoted in a rather unintelligent way on jsonline.com
See paragraph 3. Like really. I sound like an idiot.

I came off a little better in this one. Article
Please pay particular attention to quote from Mr. Tom Zignego, President of Zignego Co. in the 11th paragraph. What a joke.

Public Apology

Last night I went to the Neil Diamond concert. Just a fabulous show. Thank you Neil. I was suppose to go to the concert with my friend, Shauntelle. Originally Shauntelle attempted to buy 2 tickets online when tickets went on sale, but she accidentally got 3 and I gladly took the extra ticket off of her hands. Before the show last night, I had my Fantasy Football League draft, which incidentally I pretty much clean up on, and I don't see any possible way that I can lose the league. Nonetheless I told Shauntelle that I either meet her at Buck Bradley's across the street from the Bradley Center before the show or I would meet her in the seats. Well one thing led to another and I ended up getting downtown a little bit later than I had anticipated. As I was walking into the Bradley Center, and the concert was just about to start, I struck up a conversation with one of the scalpers. For some reason I just can't resist. I inquired to see if he had any floor seats and how much they were going for. Since the show was just about to start, and their weren't too many people milling around outside looking for tickets, I had this guy right were I wanted him. And this is how our conversation pretty much went.
I said "So how much for a floor seat?"
He replied "Your ticket and $40."
"I will give you $10."
"No way. $30."
"See you later." And I started walking away.
"Alright alright $20."
"I only got $10 on me."
"Fine. $10."
I opened my wallet to give him the money and he could see that I had more than $10 and he said, "Come on man at least give me a couple singles." I don't think so.
I upgraded from Section 210 Row U in the back corner to Section 1 on the floor Row UUU, 20 rows back from the stage right on one of the center aisles. I walked onto the Bradley Center floor to head to my seat at the very same time that Neil set foot out on to the stage. I quickly found my seat and as I was sitting there in the great seats between Karen and Joan, who had an average age of 62, I realized what I horrible person I am with whom to go to a concert. I still had a smile on my face, because I was absolutely loving my seats, and I quickly became friends with both Karen and Joan. I am quite sure that they are going to remember me from the concert. So this is where my apology comes in. To anyone who I have gone to a concert with and I have ditched or didn't meet because I wanted to get better seats, I am sorry. I don't know what it is about me, but at concerts I just want a great experience and for me the closer I get to the stage is one of the main ingredients for a great concert. And the sad part is that I will continue to strive for better seats when I go to a concert. Apparently I need some sort of help. Now don't feel too bad for Shauntelle, she did have a friend with her, and I did go up a visit and sit with them for a couple songs. Well if you are interested here is the set list from last night:
Crunchy Granola Suite
Desiree
Remember Me
Beautiful Noise
Cherry Cherry
Play Me
Love on the Rocks
America
Forever in Blue Jeans
You Don't Bring Me flowers
September Morn
Band intros - new song made up with names
Signs
J.L. Seagull Trilogy:
Be
Lonely Looking Sky
Skybird
Holly Holy
Sweet Caroline
I'm a Believer
Glory Road
And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind
Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow
Shilo
Red Red Wine
Soolamon
I am I said

Encore:
Cracklin' Rosie
Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show

Tie Up Party

This past Saturday. Before I went to one of the worst concerts of the year. Thank you Bon Jovi for being so horrible and Miller brewing for screwing up so badly. I will get back to Bon Jovi at a later date. I went to the annual Tie Up Party on Lake Beulah. I went with Chris and Rebecca and Rebecca's three younger sisters. The Triplets (Angela, Vanessa and Trinity). And let me not forget Adam, Angela's fiance. Apparently this little party has been an annual event for years. And normally the group that organizes the party pulls the proper permits and everyone has a good time. Unfortunately this year they were not allowed to get the permits. It is just too bad that sometimes people want to ruin a good time. When we arrived in the morning, we were greeted by a police boat and patrol men on short. Soon more and more boats arrived, and the organizer of the tie up started up the generator for the equipment that took up the entire barge and made an announcement. Due to circumstances that were out of his control, they would not be able to put on the music as they had in past years. But that didn't mean that we couldn't have a good time, and that we were allowed to play any of stereos on our boats as loud as we wanted. Shortly after that announcement the cops left. And shortly after the cops left, this guy went back to his pontoon boat, pulled out this huge speaker and began to crank out the music just as he had every other year. A good time was had by all, or at least me, despite the fact that the triplets cheat at Marco Polo and my neck is killing me this morning from a little too much chicken fighting. Trinity you are a great partner. But I thought I would post some pictures of what was such a good time. The top picture is just one of the random participants of the tie up. The middle picture is of Rebecca and the triplets. And the bottom picture is Chris and Rebecca. On the left side of the picture you can see the barge with the DJ equipment that got shut down.

Happy Birthday Miller

On Saturday I was lucky enough to get a ticket to see The Big Brew Ha, for Miller Brewing Company's 150 birthday party bash. Thank you Nate. I had some prior obligations, so I wasn't able to get to all of the festivities. I met up with Mrs. Hardwick at my house around 6:00 p.m. Since there was a shuttle leaving from State Fair Park. We decided to just grab a shuttle. I had heard that shuttles would be leaving every 7 minutes. Well Michel and I were waiting at least 20 minutes and still no shuttle. We called an audible and just drove down to Miller Park. Once inside Miller Park we called Nate and met up with him and Borky and Doug. At this time the Goo Goo Dolls were on stage. We were just sort of standing around and talking in the concourse, but the band was sounding pretty good. This only got me more excited for the show. We all grabbed a beer and we were headed to our seats when I ran into my friend Stacy, who I met through Lid. I talked to Stacy for a couple minutes when I realized that my friends had left me. Not a big deal since I could just meet them in the seats. Or so I thought. I finished talking to Stacy and went to the seats. I was a bit shocked to see no one else from my group in the seats. But I was tired for running around all day and just sat down figuring that my friends were out in one of the smoking sections. Shortly before Bon Jovi got on stage, I noticed a group of girls as they walked down the row to their seats directly behind me. All of whom were rather easy on the eyes. However just as quickly as I noticed their beauty, I also noticed that every stinking one of them had a ring on her finger. What difference does it make, I would have cock blocked myself anyhow. Bon Jovi hits the stage right around 9:00 at night. The came out of the gate hard with "Living on a Prayer" and "You Give Love a Bad Name" Then they start into some new garbage. I really wasn't in the mood to hear any new songs, and I don't think anyone else was either. Since I had 6 hot wives sitting behind me, I decided to go looking for my friends. But first I thought I would get another beer. I go to the concession area and order up a large $7.00 Miller Lite, because what would be better that to have a Miller product at the birthday party for Miller Brewing. "I am sorry sir, but we aren't selling anymore beer." What? To my astonishment and I am sure to just about everyone who was at the show, they cut off beer sales at 9:00. I don't think I have heard of any quite so idiotic. It just doesn't make sense. The best annology that I can come up with, is if at the Harley Davidson 100 anniversary celebration at 9:00 at night they announced that everyone had to take their bikes back home. I am still a bit dismayed. So I got a Super Rope and a large Lemonade, still $7.00. Stocked up but not with alcohol, I went looking for the rest of my group. They must be in the smoking section on the 100 level. I go down there, no sign of anyone. I watched one song from the concourse and then I figured that they must be at the other smoking section on the 400 level. It took me 2 or 3 songs to get up there and you know what, no sign of them up there either. So now I am about halfway into the concert and I have been solo the entire time. And I am sobering up. The plan now was to go back to the original seats that I was in and see if they came back. As I was treking back to my seats, I figured that somehow Nate had pulled some strings and got them down on the floor. It would serve me justice for all of the times I have ditched everyone else to take it upon myself to upgrade my seats. But as I was walking to my section I ran into Nate. As it turns out Nate had a tickets for us in two separate sections. Michel and I had the tickets in Section 223 and everyone else was in 217. I went back with them to Section 217. So far this had been a less than positive concert experience. For the rest of the concert Borky and I sat and complained to each other about the show. It was an OK encore with Wanted Dead or Alive, followed by Bad Medicine. But to save the show they needed to add Lay Your Hands on Me, but they didn't. I have to give the show a thumbs down. The fireworks afterwards helped, but I realized just how short the show was, when we got into Michel's car at it was only 11:00 p.m.

Upstaging Stegall

Dave Stegall and I go back a ways. And with most of the friends, I always seem to have a bit of a competition going on with them. Dave has been getting rave reviews of the blog that he has created. I have decided to take a shot or two at the upstaging one young Dave Stegall. Look for future stories. Unfortunately those of you who know me may have heard many of these stories. But I look forward to more. And look forward to more pictures. Here is one of the enemy. One Dave Stegall. This picture is from the morning after the Antonio Freeman party. Dave was going to help me clean the house and the yard after the party. As you can see he was a big help. And as I will continue to do from time to time. I will ramble and one thing will lead to another. And in speaking of the Freeman party. This is a picture of the aftermath of the musical chair contest.