time flies

I guess I'll go in reverse order since I may never get to that stuff that happened clear back around Sept. 12, the day after my last post, as I can't remember things. I should take more notes.

So I was off the week of Sept. 10 but I didn't do anything recognizable. It was just nice to be off, not to go in every day. I looked at cabinets at Home Depot. Made an appointment to have them come measure, which I blew off. Then I left for NYC on Sunday, the 16th. Had dinner with Anne that night and hung out. Monday, we went to see Regis and Kelly and then went shopping. Just went to regular stores we could have gone to here, except majorly larger versions of them-- Payless, H&M, Old Navy, Macy's. Also went to Filene's Basement on Broadway where I bought a pant suit to wear the first day of my meetings. Bought a bikini for Mexico at H&M, some underwear.

The meetings were good, they feed us continuously. Went to the Red Eye Grill Tuesday night and Del Frisco's Wednesday. The bill at Del Frisco's for 25 people was $4,000. Of course, Disney picked up the tab. Went out drinking after both nights although I was pretty pooped Wednesday. Rooftop terrace bars at fancy hotels, the Hudson and the Peninsula. One round of drinks at the Hudson was $250. Of course, Disney paid. Did a lot of walking but not enough to offset the massive food intake. Got home late Friday night.

Did a radio show Saturday. Mowed. Spent an hour Sunday ripping recipes out of Bon Appetit magazines. Went to see Fred Eaglesmith at the Ark Sunday night. Last night. Sheesh, it's tiring. In bed last night around 11:30 and my old boyfriend Barker calls to say he's in town and I thought we would have some cocktails tonight but alas I am blown off so now it's maybe Wednesday.

Click here for a picture of my daughter and her boyfriend.

I was going to go see Tom in New Orleans the weekend of Oct. 13 but he called me while I was shopping at Macy's in New York and said his good bicycle had been stolen after his beater bike was destroyed when he got hit by a car. No details on that hit by a car thing. Plus his girlfriend's Vespa was stolen. They're going to Austin the weekend of the Harvest party. But all reports are that the crime is so bad down there and I would have so little time to hang out with him, I think I will not go.

Now I'm not going to Put-in-Bay this weekend, opting to do my only radio show from now til Oct. 27 and go see my mom on Sunday. Also Sunday is Rod's Collision at Mickey Finn's in the second half of the first round of the Blues Battle for Memphis.

Listening to Shake Hands with Shorty by the North Mississippi Allstars.

OK on to the photos. They are in no particular order because it takes me a long time to put them in the photo software and sort through them and put them in Photoshop to resize them and post them and then to sort them by name, well, that ain't happening because I'm drinking Scotch. Bear with me. Remember, click on a photo to see a larger version.

At St. Mary's, they had this big stage and off to the side this ginormous Jumbotron on which they were showing the OSU game. I had never seen so much Buckeye paraphernalia in my life, shirts, chairs, etc. And when Michigan lost to Appalachian State on the TV in the vendor tent, the screaming was unbelievable. Doug and I were over looking at the canal at the time, and thought maybe something bad had happened.


OK, skip ahead. Here's Regis and Kelly.


Here's Anne and Kelly. She asked me not to put this photo on the internet because she has a goofy look on her face, but I did anyway.


Another picture of Kelly to show you how close we were. Like 4 feet away.


Here's Miss Annie warbling with Joe at the Huntington Courtyard at the Swamp.


Now, she has retired to the audience.


Here's what Anne and I ate at Cafe Matin in NYC. Crab remoulade and croque monsieur, which is basically an open face ham and grilled cheese. Had a bottle of Loire wine, white, crisp, delicious.


At the Swamp I got this shot of Esther.


Again, the Elderly Brothers with Miss Annie.


How's it goin'? Dave Scott, caught in a rare public appearance.


This is a funny picture, because when we were in L.A., we all put out our Disney corporate cards so the server would have to split up the bill 12 ways. Even though, in the end, they were all being paid out of the same budget and not ours. Hope you can't read the expiration dates on those.

Doug searches fruitlessly for his wife in the crowd at the Swamp.


Are these guys happy or what???


Blondes. Sheesh.


Two thirds of the Barker children. The other one is visiting BG this week and maybe we'll have some cocktails sometime. We were supposed to tonight but he called, jammed up, the usual. Oh, I remember now. Maybe Wednesday. Anne comes that day to stay until Saturday.


Thursday, Rod's practices at Fred's garage so maybe some women will have to have some beverages elsewhere.

Here a couple of pictures from music. This one is Fred at the Ark last night. Short show. Started at 7:30 and at 8:58, they're saying Good night but Fred comes back out for 15 minutes.


And here's a shot of Todd and Will in Tennessee. Cell phone.


And when does this craziness stop? No time soon. Because the holiday season is just around the corner.

well, damn

The Swamp was fabulous. Listening now to the Deadstring Brothers who played Friday before Bernard Allison, who was also fabulous. Millish was good. Alejandro Escovedo was pretty good. The Infamous Stringdusters were real good. The Silverbacks were outstanding. The Elderly Brothers with Miss Annie were fantabulous.

Bought almost nothing at the Swamp. One picture and some mittens. Some CDs. Saw many people. The weather could have been better as the audience cleared out right before Bernard because of impending bad stormishness which didn't occur. And Saturday night it rained all during the Sierra Leone's Allstar Refugees but many folks braved the elephants to see them. All in all, a delightful time that just capped my week off. I did a lot of brain relaxation.

Last night, went to see The Subdudes at the Ark. Man, those guys can play. They came into the audience and did Morning Glory about one inch from us a capella. They rocked out. Their harmonies and playing are so tight. When we left, the guitar player in the background was out back having a smoke and we said You were great and he said Come see us again.

GNO tomorrow. There's a fall food fest at the Farmer's Market on Pearl St. Saturday. Cooking Demonstrations: Sushi (Bg style!), sauerkraut balls, squash dishes. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I'll be there.

Then off to NYC. Could go see Robben Ford and Parliament Funkadelic. M. Ward, Eartha Kitt, Eric Bibb. We'll see. It costs $85 to see Eartha Kitt. I'll be in the audience of Regis and Kelly Live on Monday and I'll wave. As Sal would ask, What will I wear??

what i did on my summer vacation

The last day I actually worked was Aug. 24. I went to see my mom on Sunday the 26h. Don't want to get into that at this time.

Went to LA the next day and was sequestered in a conference room all day Tues., Weds., Thurs. morning. Went out all 3 nights, although the first one was just for dinner at Marie Callender's where we sat on the patio under the full moon and palm trees. Breakfast was outside in the hotel's courtyard Monday morning (but not the subsequent days), omelette station, women with pitchers of juice and carafes of coffee. Then we'd go into a room where there were snacks, yogurt, muffins, juice, granola bars. Like we'd not just eaten. And then there was lunch, also outside on the first day, some Chinese stuff, pretty good. After lunch, there were afternoon snacks. And on to dinner. I had some really good ahi tuna. Couple glasses of Seven Deadly Zins. Then we went back to the Elephant Bar next door to the hotel and drank and talked about the new web redesign.

Tuesday night was more of the same but we just started right out at the Elephant Bar. Dinner, drinks, cigarettes on the patio, even for people who said they didn't smoke. Much later, we are still drinking on the patio, the restaurant has closed, and a guy comes out to tell us that the hotel next door was complaining about us. I told him we were all guests of the hotel. He laughed. So we meander over to the hotel courtyard where a beefy security guy tells us we must all go IMMEDIATELY TO OUR INDIVIDUAL ROOMS. Four of us go into my room to finish our opened cans of Budweiser and the big guy lingers in the hallway until the other people leave. Plus I have to mention this so-called bar closed at 11:30! What were we to do?

The next morning, some of my colleagues looked a little rough. Not me, but then, they were up against a professional. So we do Day Three of Search Engine Optimization training and people get their individual rides to airports and I get home at 2 a.m. Friday morning. So I went into work around noon, intending to work til 8 but I had to do the football scores, so I was up til 2 a.m. AGAIN making football highlight video and posting scores. Also this day, Dewalt's put new gutters on my house. You know how long I've been angsting about those gutters.

Saturday (the next day) Amy and I leave for St. Marys about 10 a.m. for the Riverside Blues Festival. The Evening Leader has a big story about it. Scotty Bratcher, Doghouse Daddies, Cleveland Fats, Lonnie Brooks and Joe Bonamassa. Who Fred thought was a little "too heavy metal." I bought the Doghouse Daddies CD and one that's a compilation of 2004 Ohio blues entrants in the Memphis blues competition.

It was damn hot. We sat out in the sun in a crowd overflowing with Buckeyes chairs and shirts and tote bags. There was a jumbotron showing the OSU game. Under a tent, there was a TV showing the Michigan game where they got beat by Appalachian State. The crowd went wild. Doug, Kim, Jim, Amy, Fred, Sherry and me. It was Sherry's birthday. All the bands were very good in their own ways. I hope it was successful enough they can have it next year because it's only an hour away.

(Aside: Fat Fish Blue is opening in Levis Commons in March.)

Amy and I drove to her brother Denny's apartment in New Bremen afterward where he served us burgers and Natural Light in a can. I fell asleep on the sofa bed around 2 a.m. AGAIN, watching a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert tape. Earlier that night, Fred had told me a story about a woman he knew who dated SRV and had the photos to prove it, but she died and the photos are history. And then Denny tells us a story about snorting coke off a bar in Chicago with SRV. Pretty kosmik.

Denny's promise to make us scrambled eggs Sunday morning notwithstanding, Amy and I leave before he gets up and have breakfast at a truck stop in Beaverdam. We get home about 12:30 and it's time to get ready for party Monday. I mow, trim, edge, rake, tote, trim, water and drink some beers at Annie's. During the night, I flip over in bed and the BIG DIZZINESS comes over me which I am still feeling today although not so bad as I have been doing the Epley maneuvers. I called Dr. Wojo to see if he could do the professional version on me but the nurse said he would probably try to prescribe meds. But this is a mechanical problem, I tell her to no avail. So I call the Wood Co. ER to see if the Dr. Taylor is on duty who did it to me last time but he's not and they can't tell me his schedule. So tomorrow I have a physical scheduled with Dr. Wojo's son Dr. Ed but I doubt he will do it either. I shoulda had him look this up on the internet in advance.

Monday, Labor day party, to which I apparently forgot to invite a lot of people who fortunately heard about it through other people so there was a good turnout including Dr. Sue, and Jimmy Kiernan, and Mark Trout and Ginger and Bob. Way too much food, plenty o beverages, although I am dizzy and just flit about with a vague grin until the last person leaves around 10:30. Dr. Sue commandeered the grill, much to my delight. Donna sent a lovely plate of barbecued shrimp stuffed with hot peppers and wrapped in bacon. She couldn't make it. Thanks, Donna. Remember, GNO is at your house Sept. 12.

(Aside: Listening to Pressure Chief by Cake. The 6-8 DJ on Saturdays gave it to me.)

So Tuesday, I tidy up from the party and be dizzy and lounge around and watch Good Night and Good Luck. People stopped by to retrieve their stuff. I still have two insect repellants and a round blue nylon cooler thingy. Then Annie came over and we drank a couple beers and then I had a radio meeting after which I made an arrangement to make some promos Thursday at 4 p.m.

Today, I went to Meijer at 8 a.m. because I have had no food for about 3 or 4 weeks. At one point, I had eaten breakfast at the Corner Grill three days in a row. Then I took some leftover cookout food to Annie's and Russell was there so he gave me half a papaya which we ate on the porch. I came home and made an omelette and went back over and biked on the trail with him for 6 miles. Then I went to Ace Hardware to get some lawn treatment and some Miracle Gro and my storm window which they were supposed to be repairing but they can't find it. Then I went to the yard waste and to Home Depot to look at cabinets and countertops in a very preliminary way. I made a strawberry banana smoothie which took about one minute. I should make these more often.

I have pictures of various stuff above. Coming soon.

Tomorrow, I have a doctor's appointment and am making promos for my show, which I wrote today and picked out the music for. Friday, Brad Doyle is coming at noon to move my thermostat and take out the gas heater in the front room and fix my leaking kitchen sink. And I have an appointment with someone at Home Depot about cabinet pricing. Just in a very preliminary way. And then I will be down at the Swamp about 3 until who knows. Saturday, I will show up at the radio station when the BGSU game is over so we can do live remotes. Plus I have been invited to a Silverbacks after-party at the Peslikis's. And Rod's plays at Nate and Wally's Saturday night. And Annie sings with The Elderly Brothers on Saturday at 1 in the Huntington Bank courtyard.

Sunday, we have to switch to our new content management software for 13abc.com so I will have to pay close attention on Sunday afternoon after being all swamped out.

Then it's the Subdudes in Ann Arbor, GNO and I leave for NYC on Sept. 16. I don't have a radio show until Oct. 27. The only one I COULD have is Sept. 29 and I'm thinking about going to Put-in-Bay that day.

There is a blues concert benefit for the Findlay flooding people Sept. 22. More about that soon.

Doug and Connie's Halloween party is now scheduled for Oct. 20. NOTE DATE CHANGE. October looks a little calmer.

Eddie Shaw Dec. 5 at Grounds is what I hear.