In case anyone was wondering, the mosquitoes in the Kettle Moraine State Forest are officially biblical.

I went hiking Tuesday and could only stand four miles of hitting myself constantly. I forgot the bug spray and that was a bad idea. Covered doesn't even begin to describe how many bites I got. So today I bathed myself in OFF! Deep Woods, and while I think I got out with only two fresh bites, the constant swatting while they circled me looking for a clear spot to hit, was still obnoxious enough to cause me to cut my original plan of eight miles to four. They are putting a serious hitch in my plan to lose 20 pounds in the next week. Damn.

Next time: A duffel bag.

Next show at Alpine I will be packing a duffel bag filled with cigarettes and Tums. If I had those two things, I would have been way popular not to mention rich. The only place cigs were being sold for Jack Johnson was in VIP. So there were some people DESPERATE to get upstairs. It was really pretty fun. Not to mention, that is an excellent place to be if you want to get hit on.... haha. This is how it goes:

Guy: So there's no way I can get up there now?
Me: Nope, sorry.
Guy: What if I do this *insert big wink/grin here*
Me: Excellent try, but still no.

I think the podium is a good place for me, lol. My other favorite was the guy who said he was a pro football player. I suppose it is possible. Actually, let me check the Cowboys website... Nevermind... can't remember what his name was. But we did see Landon from the Real World, who tried to blow by us and we had to stop him and check his band. Also Jack Johnson himself was walking around the Expo playing his guitar with another guy playing the accordion before the show. So that was pretty cool.

So there were parts of the night that were way fun, and parts that were way boring. Like, sitting at the top of the stairs to make sure no one but employees and VIPs got past security. One guy came and sat and talked to me for like 15 minutes. He was drunkity drunk drunk... apparently his friends bought him a VIP ticket even though he's not really into Jack Johnson. So they were all watching the show and he was wandering and drinking. He was pretty funny.... he kept wanting me to kick people's asses for coming up the stairs, but sadly no illegals came our way so he was out of luck. But that was about it for excitement.

Today the fam came over for a little cookout action. Jennifer brought the kids and they wear you out. We took them over to the carnival for a little bit and they had good times there. Although I'm not sure if my eardrums will ever be the same after that Tilt-a-Whirl. Eesh. So it was a fun weekend, but once again, I'm completely whipped. So yay for summer and on Thursday Summerfest starts and it's Jack's Mannequin next Sunday! I swear this month is just non stop.

I love summer.

This weekend was completely insane. I haven't had that much fun in ages. Out Friday, Brewer game and out Saturday, Brewer game again Sunday. However, I did have a 2-day hangover. Not sickness, thank God, but exhaustion/unpleasant feeling-ness. I love it when those boys come to town, but it's a good thing it's only a once a year occasion because I don't think I could handle any more than that. Court's all excited because she'll be home in 2 weeks and I think it's going to take me that long to get my strength (and wallet) back together. But really, that much fun should be illegal. And probably is in some countries. I saw some things I've never seen before.... that's for sure. And despite the fact that the Brew Crew went down on Saturday, that was the most fun baseball game I have ever been to. It was completely crazy. But yes, it's going to take 2 weeks before I'm ready for any of that again.

Saturday is my first show at Alpine. Not sure how that's going to go... it's supposed to storm, so I hope whatever I'm doing involves being under some sort of cover. And it better not storm too much, as the basement floor is still wet. We got all the drywall and stuff that needs to come out taken care of though. So hopefully the wet/mold smell starts to go away. That was not fun. And that kicked off my 3 nights of 4 hours of sleep or less, so that's always nice.

I got to go hiking again today finally. I hadn't been since that first week I went. Made it all 8 miles today so I'm feeling pretty good today.

Currently watching: The Brew Crew vs. the Blue Jays (3-2 in the 6th if you want to know)

We spent from 9:30-1:30 last night trying to prevent the basement from flooding. We lost. It's not terrible... we had about 4 inches this morning over the whole thing. But that'll be enough to have replace carpet, woodwork, drywall, all that fun stuff. I didn't go to bed til 5, got up at 7:30, and am going out tonight, Brewer game tomorrow, out tomorrow night, Brewer game Sunday. It's going to be a looooooooooooooong weekend. But should be good times.

Forgot to mention yesterday....

Marge brought in her scrapbook from the 3 weeks she and Larry spent in India this winter.... Oh my goodness.... I need to go there. Immediately.

Tornado Tram!

So I was in a near tornado on Saturday. It was kind of fun actually. We've had completely crazy weather lately... it's pretty much like winter is just continuing precipitation-wise. But I was driving out at work all weekend and I was pretty much wet from Friday until Monday.

Saturday was the worst day though. It started pouring at about 4:30 and every single person on site with access to a radio was apparently watching/listening to the weather reports, and ALL of them were listening to different stations so we had approximately 15 people coming over the radio with conflicting reports CONSTANTLY. But we were told to clear everyone out because there was tornadic (is that a word... I don't think so but anyway) activity in the area. That's all well and good for them to say from the comfort of their assorted offices and buildings but I was on a TRAM. So off Rich and I went to brave the torrential downpours in pursuit of the interpreters.

It was biblical, I swear. Driving up Main Street a bolt of lightning hit... and it was definitely somewhere on site... I thought the next one was coming straight for me. Then getting up German hill was a little hairy, since most of the hill was washing down to the bottom. So I get to the top in one piece, the windshield wipers are going as fast as they can, I've got to turn the lights on it's so dark, and you can watch the rain coming across the field in sheets... It was completely insane. But we all made it back in, and even as we were pulling back in, Bob was coming over the radio yelling for everyone to get under shelter NOW. Apparently someone had called and said there was a tornado in Palmyra (there wasn't), but everyone there is completely hyper-paranoid about weather.

So that was my excitement for the weekend. Not a good situation to be in when you've been hung-over and not exactly on top of your game all day. Eesh. But in retrospect, I think I'd rather go out in a tornadic blaze of whirling glory, then waste away from some unfortunate illness or something equally dragging and unpleasant. So bring it on Mother Nature. And start taking your bi-polar medication... it's been crazy.

Brewer games this weekend. It WILL be sunny and 75 Saturday and Sunday. It WILL.

Listening to: Fairytale of New York, The Pogues.

Well I guess I don't count as one of "everyone." Kind of disappointing, but what did I expect?