The weather outside is frightful.

I guess it could be worse. It's not like we're stranded in a blizzard or anything, but it is a lot cooler than I like it to be. Ask me in July and I'll tell you it's too hot. I'm just difficult that way. I can't believe Christmas is only two days away. I have never been less prepared than I am this year. We finally finished our Christmas shopping this weekend. If I bought something for you, I hope you enjoy it. I'd like to tell you that I put a lot of thought into it, but my mind seems to be other places these days. We also managed very little in the way of decorating this year. I'm OK with it. My friend Christina had a baby last week. It was a healthy baby girl. She was seven pounds and probably some ounces and some other numbers that don't mean anything to me. Maybe next year they will. Anyway, we got to visit with them in the hospital and hold the new baby. I am quite sure that I'm going to be an expert at this baby thing. Already I have gotten more advice than we ever did while building a house. I'm just glad I know so many smart people. My parents (the smartest people of all) will be here tomorrow night, as well as my sister. I am looking forward to seeing everyone and having a house full. Happy Holidays, blog readers! I will be back in a few days to tell you about all of the great stuff that I got.

Aliens!

I meant to post this a week ago, but this time of year there just isn't enough hours in the day. Tiffany's first appointment with the doctor went fine. Apparently everything is normal and healthy so far. Personally I think these sonogram pictures are scary. Tiffany is starting to get over the nausea (mostly), but she is still pretty tired. This morning we got out and ran a few errands. I think we may hit the mall this afternoon for a few last minute gifts. I can't believe December is halfway over. We are going to a Christmas party tonight. Don't worry--I will keep Tiffany away from the bar.

The Secret

OK, now that my mom knows, I guess it is safe to post on here. Tiffany is pregnant. Take a deep breath and read that again. Of course, some of you have known this for weeks and some of you have known for just hours. I figured the blog was a little stale, so this was the best thing we could think of to make life more exciting. Maybe we did it for German engineering. Whatever the reason, next summer we are going to have a baby. Life is always interesting around here, and we are looking forward to all new adventures. I attended my first rock concert when I was about 14. My baby isn't even born yet, and already he/she has been to two Metallica shows. At the very least, our child will have good taste in music. I'm actually hoping it's twins. We broke the news to my parents at their house on Thanksgiving. Why not? Tiffany's mom was there as well. In other turkey day news, my sister and her friend Ben made the trip from Colorado to be with us. This was also a surprise to my mom. I was beginning to think she might not be able to handle the excitement. We had a good time visiting with everyone, even though it was a quick trip. I probably should have taken some pictures, but I didn't. I am currently looking at new cameras though. I figure with a baby coming, we might need one. I would love to hear any suggestions on a good digital SLR.

The Day That Never Comes

We had a great time in Houston at the Metallica show. I will try to write more about that later. This is just a reminder post for a couple of things of interest. At least they are of interest to me. The first is the TV movie 24: Redemption on FOX tonight. This movie bridges the gap between last season which was a long time ago and the new season which starts in January. Seriously, everyone should watch this. The other thing everyone needs to know is that the long awaited Guns N' Roses album is out today. It's only available at Best Buy, so get yourself down there and buy one. This album is about 14 years in the making. I'm sure it will be excellent. Finally, Dr Pepper is giving away a free one to everyone in the United States. You have to get the coupon from their website (www.drpepper.com) and it has to be done today. That's all I've got for today. Have a great Sunday. If for some reason nothing in this blog appeals to you, you may want to look at the priorities in your life.

Quantum of Solace

Tiffany had to work today. I took the opportunity to catch the latest Bond film. I don't really have to convince you. You either like these movies (you're a guy) or you don't. Anyway, I thought it was another great effort from Daniel Craig. He is definitely the best Bond since Connery. I don't think it was quite as good as Casino Royale, but I feel like I got my six dollars worth. There isn't too much I have to write about this week. Not much happened at all. I did realize that there were a couple of things I forgot to mention last time. In addition to Election Day and the Metallica show, Tuesday the 4th was also our 8th wedding anniversary. Most of you already knew that, and this is not the first time we have spent such a romantic occasion at a rock concert. On a much sadder note, Michael Crichton died that day. If you haven't read anything by him, you are missing out. As is almost always the case, the movies do not do the books justice. I'm talking to you Jurassic Park. Seriously, READ it. I am sorry for the lack of pictures this week. I guess maybe I need to hire a photographer to follow me around--other than the paparazzi I mean. I'm in a weird mood. I actually do have one or two pictures to put up, but they are presently not on this computer. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you probably won't see those until after Thanksgiving. By that time I will probably have others to post anyway. Coming up this week is Metallica in Houston! Yes this is our fourth show this year. No we are not tired of them yet. As much fun as the Denver show was, I am really looking forward to this one. By the way, for anyone keeping score this is my 14th Metallica show and Tiffany's 13th. I will do my best to think of something interesting to say the next time I post. One final note: Congratulations to the members of my family who ran the marathon today in San Antonio. The only way I am running that far is if someone is chasing me. Even then I would probably give up. Either way, I admire all of you for doing it. I can't wait to hear all about it.

lost somewhere at Red Rocks

Last weekend we flew out to Denver for a couple of days. Callie picked us up at the airport and after eating some lunch we headed up to Morrison to visit the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater. The weather was gorgeous, and we had a great time walking around up there. One of these days I hope we can make it back for a show. We spent a couple of hours there before driving up to Evergreen to see Travis and Andrea. Kristi and Ian were there, and we had a great time visiting with everyone. After a game of Scrabble in which the girls were clearly cheating, we went back downtown to Callie's place. Monday while Callie was at work, Tiffany and I walked around Cherry Creek and caught a movie that afternoon. I may have been duped into going to a quilt shop as well. We had dinner with a group of people at a place called Spicy Basil. We all ate way too much, but it was delicious. Tuesday, in addition to the election, was another exciting day. Tiffany and I spent the afternoon downtown at the 16th Street Mall area. My friend Brad and his wife met us for dinner before the Metallica show at the Pepsi Center. We haven't seen Brad in about 5 years, so it was great to catch up. As always, the Metallica show was fantastic. I think everyone had a good time, but I know that at least two of us did. Wednesday was a long day of travel, and we were glad to be home.

a case of the Mondays

I always hate to go back to work on Monday morning. We spent the weekend in Dallas. Saturday was Edgefest 18. I haven't missed one of these in several years, and I wasn't about to start with this one. Apparently plenty of people decided not to attend, as this was by far the smallest crowd I have seen at Edgefest in a long time. For those unfamiliar, Edgefest is an all day concert event held annually (usually in April). For some reason this year they did it twice. Despite the small crowd, and maybe because of it, we had a terrific time. The bands we saw this year were Seether, Papa Roach, Rise Against, Toadies, Staind, Offspring, and Stone Temple Pilots. I've seen almost all of these bands before, and they were all good. Here is a little blog factoid: the first and last time I saw Stone Temple Pilots was November 16, 1996. I know because I still have the ticket stub. Back then the Superpages.com Center (which used to be the Smirnoff Music Center) was still called the Coca-Cola Starplex. I wouldn't bet money on it, but I think it may have been the first rock concert that Tiffany and I ever went to together. She will probably correct me after she reads this. Women remember everything. She did drag me to see George Strait and Brooks & Dunn before good taste prevailed. After the show on Saturday, we spent the night in Frisco with Sarah and Josh. Sunday morning they made us waffles and we watched the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I thought it was hilarious. Mom, don't rent it. We left around noon to run a few errands before heading home. Coming back around to Monday, it was a pretty boring day until about 4:00 this afternoon. I got a call from our realtor with an offer on our old house. At 5:30 I was signing contracts. They still have to do an inspection and all of that mess, but barring any major tragedy our house is sold! It it s huge relief to be out from under that mess. I do not recommend making two house payments if you can avoid it. Anyway, it's getting late and Tiffany will be home soon. I'll ask her about the concert.

I Am...I Said

"Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." --Samuel Langhorne Clemens

October has nearly come and gone. It has been fairly relaxing for us. Up until this past weekend we have done very little of note. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the next few weeks will be quite a bit busier. I will do my best to keep everyone informed. Starting off, we just got back from Oklahoma. We bought my Dad tickets for his birthday to see Neil Diamond in Oklahoma City. Neil is 67 years old and showing no signs of stopping. We all had a fantastic time, even though Tiffany and I were amongst the youngest people there. Actually there were people of all ages there, but a lot more gray hair than the shows that we usually attend. The show was a little over two hours and a great mix of old and new songs. If given the chance, I would see him again.

Earlier in the day, we made a stop at the Oklahoma City Memorial site. The memorial was quite impressive, and there was a nice museum with tons of information about the bombing and the building itself. I just don't understand how anyone could kill innocent people like that. I have included a few pictures which will probably not do it justice. There is a reflecting pool between two walls. One wall has 9:01, which signifies the time before the bombing. The other wall reads 9:03, and represents the time afterwards in which the world would be forever changed. The chairs outside represent the 168 people who died in the blast. The shorter ones represent children. I would definitely recommend seeing this to anyone who makes it to Oklahoma City. It really gives you a lot to think about.

My cousin, the car

I would like to start this post with birthday wishes to my cousin Morgan. She was not able to make the cruise with us this year, and she was greatly missed by all of us. There was, however, a car on the ship with her name on it. It's one of the first things we noticed, and we thought about her every time we walked by it. Here are a few more pictures from our trip, including one of Morgan the car. Morgan the person is (I think) 25 years old today. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. However old she is, I hope she is able to take future cruises with us. We had a lot of fun the last time. I guess we'll start with dinner tonight. Happy Birthday, Morgan!

Heroes and Villains

I am going to attempt to get this all in one post. It's been about three weeks since my last confession. The second week of September was spent in the Caribbean aboard the Freedom of the Seas. Along with two others of the same size, it is the largest cruise ship in the world. That's right, while everyone was dodging hurricanes and evacuating their homes, we were on vacation. In all fairness, we did have to miss our stop in Puerto Rico. Fortunately, there was plenty of things on the ship to keep us occupied. Of the two stops we did make, the first was St. Thomas. It is one of the US Virgin Islands. Callie spent the morning scuba diving. Tiffany, Jane, and I took a little tour of the island. We got some great photos from one of the highest peaks on the island. We stopped at a place that claims to have invented the banana daquiri. Now it was 9:30 in the morning, but there was no way we were leaving without trying one of those. We met up with Callie for lunch at a local burger place that was recommended to us. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Magens Bay Beach which was gorgeous.

Our second and final port of call was St. Maarten, which is part of the Dutch West Indies. This island is actually split into a French side and a Dutch side. Again we took a short tour which visited both sides of the island. They dropped us off downtown Phillipsburg where we were able to wander around in the shops on the way to the beach. We ate some seafood and took it easy the rest of the afternoon. I did manage to get a wicked sunburn on the back of my neck and shoulders. We had two days at sea before the end of the cruise. The last night on the ship was Tiffany's birthday. They brought her a special dessert at dinner. Despite the weather and itinerary changes, we all had a great time on this trip. Even though the trip was relaxing, we spent most of the next week recovering and learning to eat like normal people.

Over the weekend, we had some family in town. Emily was here with the twins, and Brad and Mindy came for a couple of days. Saturday night Granny took everyone to Perini's for dinner. The mosquitoes were bad, but the food was awesome. Monday night we had some people over to watch the season premiere of Heroes. Apparently there is a small group of people that do this every week. We invited ourselves into the group by letting them come to our house. It was fun to meet some new people. We ate pizza and discussed the show a little. We are really hoping that the show is going to be better than it was last year. At least it will tide us over until Lost comes back on.

Before I went to bed on Monday night, I noticed the back of my neck was itching. I had been outside quite a bit over the weekend, so I chalked it up to allergies or a bug bite. It was still there on Tuesday, so I started wondering. With the help of the internet and the opinions of some hard working people, I decided it might be something that needed attention. I was at the doctor's office for about 30 seconds before they determined that it was shingles. I have never heard of anyone my age getting shingles, but apparently it happens. Basically, anyone who has ever had the chicken pox is a candidate. The actual rash is only about the size of a quarter, but I can feel it all the way up my neck and across my left shoulder. There are several different things that can trigger an outbreak, but in my case we think it was the sunburn on my neck. Remember when I mentioned that a couple of paragraphs up? I got some drugs, and at this point the pain is more irritating than debilitating. The upside to this is that people rarely have shingles more than once in a lifetime. I like to think I'm getting it out of the way early.

Labor Day, and other days I have to work

So I actually had to work yesterday. It wasn't too bad I guess. I get paid extra, and I get a paid day off. It's been a couple of weeks since I last checked in with all you people. I say that like I have legions of readers. I'm guessing it's more like five. Anyway, here's the news thus far. Last week we took a trip to the big city of Dallas for yet another concert. I promise I do have a few other interests. We went to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at American Airlines Center. This was my fourth time, and although I had a good time, I think it was the weakest show that I have seen. Our friends Matt and Lisa went with us, and we did enjoy getting to visit with them. I think we decided it has been two years since we saw them last--entirely too long. They just recently moved back to the Dallas area, so I hope we will get to spend more time with them in the future. We did a little shopping while we were in the city as well. I bought Tiffany a new Coach purse, which is actually an early birthday present. We also needed a couple of things before the cruise next week. We are patiently watching the weather to make sure the Caribbean is not devastated by a hurricane. It wouldn't be the first time a hurricane ruined my vacation. Anyway, our plan is to leave on Sunday. I promise to take some pictures next week. I know all of this "reading" is killing you.




So, I did a bad thing. Sort of. As I have done many times in the past, I offered to get concert tickets for anyone interested in going with us. I have never had more than a couple of people ever take me up on this. We plan to make two Metallica shows this fall. As nerdy as this sounds, Tiffany and I are both fan club members. One of the perks is that we can get the best seats before they go on sale to the public. The catch is that we can only get four each. That seems reasonable right? We came out just right on the Denver show with eight. As for the Houston show, I got way more responses than I expected. Some of you people are on your own. Everyone that has tickets knows it already. I apologize to everyone else. Tickets go on sale on 9/13, which is one day after the new album drops. For anyone interested, iTunes and other various sites have three songs from the album already and they are fantastic. I love modern technology!

The Flood

Well it has basically been raining all day long. I think if it continues, I may need a boat to get to work tomorrow. I guess we need it though. I can't even remember the last time it rained around here. I was off this weekend. Since the weather was bad, I used this "opportunity" to get caught up on a few things around here. I built the computer desk that I bought last weekend. I did a little bit of reading. I finally got my closet somewhat organized. We've only been living here for three months. I intended to take a few pictures of the house so that you can see how it is all coming together. Alas, my camera seems to be doing strange things. I'm not sure yet if it will be worth it to get it fixed or just replace it. Maybe it isn't something major, but I doubt it. I do have a backup camera, so as soon as I charge the batteries I will take some pictures. I love electronics when they are working. I also had to buy a new DVD drive for my PC today. If things happen in threes, I look forward to seeing what else doesn't work around here. I checked the TV; we're safe there. Have a fantastic evening.

The Metal

Disclaimer: If you are not a fan of hard rock or heavy metal music, most of this post will mean nothing to you. You might want to skip to the second paragraph. If you aren't interested in furniture, skip that one too.


Well, I don't have any pictures of this weekend. I guess what happens at Ozzfest stays at Ozzfest. Also, I didn't take a camera. We drove to Frisco late Friday night and stayed with Matt and Stephanie. Brad got there about 15 minutes after we did. We stayed up too late talking, so we were already tired on Saturday before we even got to the concert. The gates opened at 10:30, but there wasn't really any bands we wanted to see until about 2:30. Ten hours in 100 degree weather is plenty. When we got there, Apocalyptica was playing. This is a band who plays rock music on four cellos. Honestly, I have never seen anything quite like it. I will be picking up one their CDs as soon as humanly possible. We watched a little bit of Shadows Fall before heading up to the Texas stage for Drowing Pool. By that time we were already hot and ready for a small break. We watched Cavalera Conspiracy and Johnathan Davis from the stands before heading back to the field for Hellyeah. They closed their set with an all-star tribute to Darrell Abbott who was killed in 2004. They played three Pantera songs (all from Vulgar) before finishing with a cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. Up next was Serj Tankian (from System of a Down). He was quite entertaining just to watch. Tiffany had a really good time during his set. Finally it started getting dark, and maybe a little cooler before the great Ozzy Osbourne took the stage. This is the third time I have seen him, and although he wasn't as good as he was in 1996, this show was 100 times better than it was at Ozzfest last year. The guy will be 60 this year, so you have to cut him a little slack. He is after all a rock legend. He played for nearly two hours, which is longer than he has played in years. It took about 30 minutes to clear the stage after Ozzy before Metallica came out. They never disappoint, and they basically played non-stop for almost two and a half hours. The setlist was heavy on older, faster material which is fine by me. We were treated to one new song from the forthcoming album, as well as a medley of Mercyful Fate songs featuring King Diamond on vocals. They finished around 12:30. We detoured by Wendy's on the way home for some much needed grub.


Sunday we spent most of the morning lounging around. It was nice to not do anything, but with money in our pockets, we couldn't visit all day. We left around 1 pm to head over to IKEA. After about 3 hours, including a lunch of Swedish meatballs, we ended up with a new computer desk and two new bookcases. I guess that will give me something to do this week. The house is starting to look like a house instead of a pile of boxes. My mother came last week to help us hang pictures and decide where everything needs to go. I will try to get some new pictures up by the end of the week.


By the way, Metallica has announced tour dates through January of next year. If anyone wants tickets to any of the shows, let me know. I can hook you up. We are specifically looking at Denver on 11/4 and Houston on 11/20 if you want to go with us.

You say tomato...

It's been almost a week, and I'm happy to report that the spider situation is under control. I would also like to mention that Jeremy, the spider expert (weirdo), has pointed out that the spider in the pictures is not actually a black widow. I'm not saying I was wrong, but I will admit that I didn't examine that one too closely before I took the picture. I needed a picture for the blog, and the spider in question was the only one posing for the camera. I am quite sure however that there were black widows on my porch. If another one shows up, I will get a picture and right all wrongs I have done to the spider community. Now that all of the spiders are dead, I will have to dig a little deeper for something interesting. Tonight I went to the fridge. Last week in New Mexico, we stopped at a roadside fruit stand to pick up a couple of things. I am food adventurous, so I am always looking to try new things. On this particular day, I discovered tomato preserves. It's good on biscuits; it's good on a turkey sandwich. I'm sure it's good on a ton of other things. I will let you know. If you are wondering where you can pick up a jar of this wonderful concoction, you can click here. Amazon has a few different brands as well, but wouldn't you rather support a small business? We have bought other things from there as well, and everything has been good.

Arachnophobia

Life is never dull. Tiffany's grandfather passed away this week, so we made a trip to New Mexico for the funeral. I wish the circumstances had been better, but we did enjoy spending some time with her family. We got home late on Friday night, and have spent most of the weekend around the house. We did get out yesterday for a little while to run a few errands and to go to the movies. Of course I'm talking about the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. We both liked it. I would rank it right up there with two of the greatest sequels of all time: The Empire Strikes Back and The Godfather Part II. It is much darker than the last one, but the acting is superb throughout. With the money it has already made this weekend, I am sure there will be another one. Personally, I can't wait. In other exciting news, I think we are being invaded by spiders. Before last month I had only seen about two black widows in my entire life. I have probably killed about six since last week. It's not that I'm afraid of spiders; I just don't want them on my porch. Other than pest extermination, we don't have any big plans for the next couple of weeks. Unless plans change, I will have to make something up to put on the blog. Something will probably come up. If not, there will probably still be spiders.

The Ides of July

Some weeks I have a lot to write about. Some weeks I don't. Some weeks I have a lot to write about, but I don't get to it until about two weeks later. Currently I am blaming Guitar Hero. Tiffany spent two weeks in Midland training for her new job. While she was gone, I made a quick trip to Colorado for a wedding. My friend Travis Uhlenhopp got married over the holiday weekend. It was wonderful to see the entire Uhlenhopp family. The last time I had seen any of them was at our wedding in 2000. There were a couple of the groomsmen who I hadn't seen since 1992. It's always good to see old friends, as well as my favorite (only) sister who was in the wedding. By the way, the guy in the picture with me (not the one with my dad) is Callie's date Ben. In another chance encounter with old friends, this Friday we had lunch with another friend of ours. I met Jerry when Tiffany was living in Midland, and we have kept up via email ever since. He has been living in Louisiana for the last several years, but they stopped here on their way to visit family in Midland. I'm not sure how long it has been since we have seen them, but I'm sure it's been a long time. Things are starting to get back to normal around here. Tiffany is settling in as the cosmetics manager. It seems like she's home a lot more, so I guess it's good that we still like each other. Since she is working normal hours now, we are going to try and drive to work together a couple of times a week. Mostly this is in the interest of saving gas. I don't know what we were thinking moving further away. I don't think anything else is going on this week. I think it might rain tonight, which is what constitutes big news in West Texas.

last Monday

I still have a few pictures from our trip to Tennessee. You might as well enjoy these, because I haven't taken any pictures this week. I guess I could get some of me at work if that would be interesting. Tiffany is in Midland this week doing some training for her new job. The cat and I are taking care of ourselves.

Monday morning after Bonnaroo, we took a small side trip to Lynchburg to visit the Jack Daniel Distillery. We both thought it was really interesting. For a little less than $10000 you can actually buy your own barrel of whiskey. It seemed like a bargain to me, but Tiffany wasn't going for it. After we left there, we made a stop at a civil war battlefield outside of Murfreesboro. Generally I like this kind of stuff, but there wasn't much to see at this one. Also, it was hot and we were tired after the long weekend. By the time we got to the hotel in Nashville, we were exhausted.

As I was sitting here typing this, a bird just slammed into the living room windows. It is now laying dead on the back porch. Hopefully I won't get bird flu or anything when I remove it. To be honest it almost scared me to death. I really thought somebody had thrown something at the window. Life gets more interesting everyday.

One more thing: I was really sad to hear about the death of George Carlin on Sunday. He was an amazing comedian who managed to stay relevant and funny for his entire life. He will be missed.

The Last Waltz

Remember that we are pretending these updates are current and not something that happened four days ago. In actual time I had to go back to work today, but in my mind I am still on vacation. As long as my mind is there, my blog readers might as well be too.

Sunday was a lot more relaxing than the previous two days. Due to the "Kanye Incident" the night before, we didn't even get out of bed until around 11. When we got to the festival grounds, we took a couple of hours to get some food and try to catch up on anything we had missed. The first performance we watched was by Jakob Dylan. For all you non music fans (why are you reading this), he is Bob Dylan's son. I guess if you aren't a music fan, you may not know Bob either. Whatever. After leaving "This Tent" we headed to "The Other Tent" to catch Aimee Mann. She has an amazing voice that I probably could have listened to all day. At the end of her set, we took the time to ride the ferris wheel. This thing looked a lot less safe than most of the rides at the fair, but I figured if everyone else was doing it why not me. I don't even know what's fun about ferris wheels. It did allow us to get some cool aerial photos of the whole place. After that, we went and scoped out a good spot for Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. This was easily my favorite show of the day, and I liked all of them. Finally around 9 pm Widespread Panic hit the stage. Although not my personal taste in music, I can definitely see why people like it. They played about 3 hours and that ended Bonnaroo for 2008. Tiffany and I will be accepting applications for anyone who wants to go with us next year.

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (Day 3)

The third day of Bonnaroo was another long day, but probably one of the best. We had some cloud cover, and it was a little cooler thanks to the rain the night before. I am noticing from these pictures that we are starting to look tired, but honestly I didn't notice it at the time. We caught some of Little Feat before heading over to Mastodon. After that we headed to the main stage for B. B. King. This guy is 82 years old and still amazing. We also caught partial sets from Ben Folds and Jack Johnson before settling in for Pearl Jam. They played nearly three hours with a few rarities and a couple of great covers. They finished around 1 AM and we made quick stops to see some of Phil Lesh as well as Sigur Ros. Around 2:30 we went back to see Kanye, who was supposed to go on at 2:45. After a couple of delays and an increasingly restless crowd, he actually hit the stage at 4:30. We made it through about two songs before heading back to catch the shuttle. By the time we made it to the hotel, the sun was up.

As a sidenote, I had planned to eat alligator for dinner that night. When I went to the booth, I was told they were out of gator. I ordered chicken on a stick and was told they were out of sticks. I ended up with chicken on a plate with a fork--not nearly as interesting as the alligator plate would have been.

Day 2: Metalliroo

I actually started writing this post Saturday morning, but I didn't manage to get it finished. I am trying to sqeeze in a few hours of sleep. Just pretend you're getting these updates in real time. I will try to remember what happened two days ago. It will work out fine for everyone.

Friday was a tough day at Bonnaroo. Unfortunately, several bands that we wanted to see were on different stages at the same time. We made an effort to catch at least part of the sets of several bands. We started out with Umphrey's McGee, followed by the great Les Claypool. After that we headed to the main stage for The Raconteurs, then back to the Which Stage for some Willie Nelson. We made a final trip to the main stage (which is actually called the What Stage) for comedian Chris Rock and Metallica. Rock was hilarious, and Metallica sounded better than they have in years. I think it was probably the first Metallica show for most of the people here (it's #11 for me), but everyone around us seemed to be having a good time. The place was packed. Afterwards, we went to get some food and settle in for some late night jams from My Morning Jacket. No sooner had we sat down than it started pouring rain. We found some shelter and were able to enjoy the band for a little while before heading back to the hotel. Saturday was another crazy day. We didn't get in until after the sun was up. I will probably try to post again later. In case I don't make it, Happy Father's Day, dad.

Bonnaroo report: Day 1

After a long day of travel, we managed to make it here in one piece. We are staying in a hotel offsite, but there is a shuttle that picks us up here and takes us onto the grounds. It is nice to have a real bed and a shower, but if we do this again I wouldn't mind camping. Last night we spent most of the time just walking around and checking the place out. There are tons of booths selling clothing and jewelry. All kinds of food is available, including steak kabob pitas (see picture). I am going to assume those tomatoes are salmonella free. If this is my last blog, that was probably a bad assumption--I feel fine today though. The only band we paid a lot of attention to last night was The Sword. They are a new metal band from Austin who we were curious about. Overall I thought they were pretty good. Also, we watched some of the Lez Zeppelin set. Yes, that's Lez not Led. They are an all female Zeppelin tribute band from NYC. There is one more band from Austin that is playing tomorrow night called Ghostland Observatory. I think they play at 2 AM, so maybe we will still be up. Tonight's agenda involves Les Claypool, The Raconteurs, Willie Nelson, Chris Rock, and Metallica. I'm sure there are thousands of other people whose plans involve totally different bands. There are three stages and various other tents where things are going on 24 hours a day. I think there is something for everyone. They even have a movie tent where last night they were showing the NBA Finals among other things. For a festival of this magnitude, everything seems pretty well organized and surprisingly clean. We'll see what it looks like when the weekend is over.