The end of last week was very typical, all work and no play. We did join the Kansas City Ski Club though. I think we are going to be heading to Winter Park, CO in very early December. It’s a weekend trip that will allow us to go and not take any work off. Sounds good to me!

On Friday Kim, Mike, and I headed down the American Royal. Stepping off of the bus and into one of the lots the smell of smoked meat was everywhere. It was as if all the lots surrounding Kemper Arena were one giant smoker. We pay the admission price, and immediately get a map of the place. I was amazed at how big this event really was. After walking for what seemed like miles and miles we find Phil & Todd’s space. They’ve got a few kegs, although I think they were on the last one by the time we arrived, and they even rented a port-o-potty for the weekend. Everyone was hanging around the fires to keep warm, and trying not to spill beer on their hands. :) Eventually we wandered around the whole complex in some sort of hippie parade, taking in the sights and smells. I’m not sure I would eat most of the stuff that was cooking, but it did smell good…

Saturday we watched Men In Black on the TV, I was shocked to find out that Kim had never seen it, so I made her watch it. Afterwards we ordered some pizzas and went down to Mike’s apartment to watch the Ohio State game. It was kind of an early night for us since I had to drop Kim off at the airport the next morning. After dropping her off, I spent most of the day at the Brooksider watching all of the football games. Then later on I had my own hockey game in a new league. A guy I play with on Wednesdays asked me to join his A league team. I think I might like playing all of this good hockey all the time!

Kim is gone all week in Cincy, so I’ll be bacherloring it up again. The Chiefs are on Monday Night Football tonight, so I’ll likely be entertained watching them become 0-4. :b

I get home from work on Friday and Kim instantly has great news. The insurance check came for the break-in, something like $700. Take the $180 we paid for the window out of that, and we still have a bunch of extra money. I’m searching eBay for a new stereo, I’m not really sure what I should get. I’ve been thinking about getting one that is satellite radio ready, just incase we decide to go that route in the future. Problem is those are all the newer ones, and therefore more expensive. Oh well, no rush…

We decided to head down to the Oktoberfest that night. Kim’s friend Amanda that we met up with a month ago or so decided to come along as well. This was more like a carnival than any other Oktoberfest I had gone to before. There were tons of kids rides there. The lines for the bratwurst were longer than the lines for beer. There were pig races. Old ladies dancing on the tables for beer money and then stuffing it down their shirts. Port-o-lets that looked like outhouses. The most redeeming part of the whole event were the fireworks. At first I thought they were just alright. There was no music to go along with it, but then I realized that if there were music I wouldn’t be able to hear the crowd’s commentary. I was rolling on the ground by the end of it…

Saturday we lay low for most of the day. Ended up meeting Mike at the Granfalloon and then walking through the plaza art fair for awhile. Nothing too exciting about the night, besides the Mojito I had from ReVerse. Kim had to wake up the next morning really early to drive to Iowa for a golf outing so it was an early night…

Yesterday I went over to a meat smoking party. The American Royal is this coming weekend so Phil, Todd and their college buddies were warming up for the competition. I had some smoked chicken that was pretty darn tasty. Next weekend should be a good time…

Back to work for this week however…

Friday was a day of traveling. We flew to Indianapolis and had to get my brother to come pick us up. We finally got home around 1 I think. We messed around for a little bit, but when to bed soon enough. We knew we needed sleep for the next day…

Saturday was such a great day. How do you even sum up Pig-Fest? I think it is really hard to do unless you have been to one of these events. I had friends come in from all over the place. Chris arrived first, after a two day drive from Charlotte. We immediately started drinking on the Yuengling he brought along. Once he was there, the floodgates were open and my all of my buddies started pouring in. Tracey showed up with a bunch of boys from all over the place. Sharkey had driven from Rhode Island, and picked up Pat on the way. Dave flew in and so did Weeba. They added even more beer to the collection. Jay showed up with Corinna and Shell, they had a tent that was the size of our house. Liam, Fighty, Joe, Reif, Kim and Hazard all showed up as well, making shorter drives from all over Ohio. Someone said that there were 200 beers for 10 or so people, well that wasn’t enough I guess. American Cherry played some tunes for us as always, and sounded really tight. Tim read Pat’s biography over the microphone, funny stuff. The cops showed up, but were soon turned away after Tim told them the band was done playing, haha. Way too many storied I could tell, but it wouldn’t matter if you weren’t there. All my friends who came said that the party will definitely be on their list of events from now on!

Sunday we all said our goodbyes, then Kim and I headed over to her parents for a cookout. I was too tired to do much, but I did manage to lose yet another game of cornhole. Kim’s parents then drove us out to Indy, and we were on our way back here…

Some of the pictures my mom took with my camera are up on the pig-fest site. I also put my pics up from last weekend, finally…

Sorry about slacking on the updates. I had a nice entry typed up at my parents house over the weekend, but then their computer froze and I lost the post. I’ve always hated that computer…

The last work week was not terribly exciting at all. I did take a half day on Friday though, so that we could make the drive to Cincy. We made it into town around 10 on Friday night, and I immediately met up with Liam and our buddy Reif, to go see The Shantee at Mad Frog. We got on the guestlist thanks to Pitcock, so it was a pretty cheap night out, especially with $4 pitchers of Coors Light. I think they only played 2 or 3 songs that I knew, but they sounded so good, and the crowd was really into it. Good show!

Saturday was the anniversary party that we went into town for. Another good night, and I’m really glad we made it in for the party. I got to see all of the family of course and some of my parents friends. We ended the night playing flip cup, haha.

Sunday we went cabrewing or floating as they say here in Missouri. We went down the river at a speedy 1 mph. We then later went to the Red, White & Blue Ash bash. Styx was playing on the stage when we arrived, but I don’t think that the original signer was up on stage with them. We were pretty far back though, so I don’t know. I never heard them play Mr. Roboto though, which sucks. The fireworks were great though. I took a ton of pics and a video of the finale. It doesn’t get any better than Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks!

Yesterday we headed to the Beach Waterpark with Kim’s family. I forgot how much fun that place is. I think the combined two days in the sun have left me pretty red.

If you remember from a few weeks ago, my buddy Pat was writing a part fictional part factual biography of yours truly. Well, he finished it up, so here it is in it’s entirety…

The Legend of Ed Paff Jr. (abridged from the full legend of Ed Paff Jr, later re-named The Odyssey written by Homer)

Forward: Throughout the ages, very few men have attained the status of Hero. Fewer still could be called Legends. Only one man, Ed Paff Jr. has the ability to not only be a legend, but to be worshipped as a new God. One day children will kneel before the statue of the man called Ed and praise the name of Paff, drinker of alcohol, loser of shoes, and collector of girls whose names begin with the letter K. Mostly, however, he will ever be known as The Creator…of oarsa.org, the Bible for all who listen to the band OAR. Long after Ed ascends on his flaming chariot into the heaven reserved only for the truly gifted, his work, oarsa, will continue to be available as the resource for all things OAR. God Bless Ed Paff Jr., you say? Oh, he already has my friend.

THE LEGEND OF ED PAFF JR.

Part 1 : Early Childhood through College

Ed Paff Jr. was born to rocket scientist Ed Paff Sr. and Claire Paff on March 24th 1980. He was born how most geniuses are born: ugly as sin. He actually won the “ugliest baby in Alabama” contest in 1981, and if you’ve ever been to Alabama, you know that’s no easy feat. It was later found that by a miraculous feat of nature, Claire’s breasts were not pumping milk, but rather Bailey’s Irish Cream. Once the problem was remedied, and he was on the bottle, he became much more normal looking, more active, and he no longer had such a hard time developing words. It was the only point in Ed’s life that hitting the bottle had these results.

As Ed grew up, his family decided to move from Huntsville, Alabama to Cincinnati, OH. Whether it was his dad’s hankering for chili, or the fact that Cincy was the headquarters for Hustler Magazine, the Paff family was heading for the town with the greatest motto in America. “Cincinnati: Its like Kentucky, only its not”.

Although young Ed had a hard time adjusting to school at first, he found that the fumes from the local refinery calmed his nerves significantly. The teacher liked that it caused a stall in his hyperactivity, so with an open window and a happy heart, Ed Paff Jr., slightly buzzed, got his education at Archbishop Moeller High School, which was known for 2 things: Its winning football team and its sign that proudly announced “No Molestings in 472 days.” (changed daily, of course)

One day while Ed was walking to school, he noticed a sign that said “Special Ed”. “Well, shucks,” he thought “I must be one popular guy to get my own room.” And in he went. It was only when his fifth period teacher noticed that Ed was late for his home economics class (he made the best strudel in the entire class) that the situation was remedied. When Ed later explained what had happened, there were discussions about letting him stay.

During this time, Ed developed a love for the sport of hockey. Coming from Huntsville, Alabama, the “hockey capital of the south”, he became interested in skating on the many frozen lakes in Alabama’s blustery winter nights. After almost drowning twice, Ed also decided to take swimming lessons. This helped make his transition to Cincinnati “The swimming capital of Southern Ohio” that much easier. Ed loved to prance and twirl upon the ice, making figure eights and doing triple axles to impress his friends. After getting beat up several times, he stopped with the triple axles but found that the figure eights were still ok, as long as he said he was actually making boobs on the ice.

Also during this time, Ed joined a Pastoral Ministry program. Although not a highly religious person, Ed grew spiritually through this. So much so, that he actually became a minister with the Universal Life Church. Though the minutes it took to fill out his internet form were grueling, Ed was rewarded one hour later when he was contacted via email. He was now The Reverend Ed Paff Jr., and could officially start his own church. He played around with artsy names for his church like Over A Rainbow Stands Allah and On A River, Satan Asphyxiates, but none of them really clicked, so he shelved starting his own church for the time being to concentrate on his hobbies and school.

Finally the day came: Ed Paff Jr. graduated from high school in 1998, and decided, following Jesus’ example, to pick a life of danger, pain and poverty. And so he enrolled at The University of Cincinnati. Ed’s grades had miraculously picked up by that time, and he was able to get into the college of Engineering, where he labored for 5 years to get his degree, only to never use it in a real life situation. Degree in Engineering? F**k that, he decided to sling sausage while the slinging was good, and he’s a better man for it. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Part 2 : The Rise of Duckfood – Present Day

Ed had always listened to music, except for that one year he stuck a q-tip too deep in his ear. At this time, however, he was a casual fan. He went to the occasional concert (usually Dave Matthews Band) but wasn’t really too big into the music scene. That all changed when his brother, Tim, made him listen to “That Was A Crazy Game of Poker” by that band that has that name of the thing you row with. From then on, he would never be the same. He saw his first show at Bogarts, a small club known primarily for kicking Ed out, on 9/23/2000. He was blown away by the 4 guys on stage jamming out and having a good time. It was like he was born a 3rd time (Ed was actually born, crawled back in, and was yanked out again by the umbilical chord, so the phrasing “born again” doesn’t really work here).

His lust for live music sparked, he joined the OAR tape trader’s board (the early precursor to oarfans.com), where he met many like-minded people. In fact, some of those people were right there in good old Cincinnati, and after going to a few shows and meeting with them, he decided to room with 3 of those young rapscallions: Liam, Ryan, and Nick.

Although he didn’t know it at the time, big things were in the works for Ed, and his decision to move in with the 3 of them would ultimately change his life. In late 2001, Ed and Ryan (or Fighty, as was his stage name) decided to form a band. Ed was on vocals, Fighty was on guitar (and drums), and Liam with the occasional guesting on cowbell. There were a few other people from Cincy, too, but they aren’t really important to the story.

And so Duckfood was formed. They started from humble beginnings, opening for opening bands. Often playing in front of just Liam, they wondered if the band would ever truly take off. One day, however, Ed got a call from Marc Roberge, lead singer from OAR. Ed answered the phone, and Marc said “Who is this? Oh, Ed? Sorry, I dialed the wrong number.” That phone call stayed with young Ed Paff and gave him the strength to continue his singing career.

Then one day they got their big break. They played in front of a capacity crowd at 112 W. Oakland Ave in Columbus OH (once named Vedder Arena, the naming rights have since been bought by Cialis. They don’t let concerts last more than 4 hours without medical attention). They performed a mix of samples, teasers, and covers to an overwhelmed audience. Aaron “Weeba” Weeberson was immediately signed on to manage, and what happened next can only be called scrumtrulescent.

Duckfood’s metoric rise to the top was fueled by Ed’s screeching vocals and Fighty’s screeching guitar riffs. Every now and then Liam would make a screeching sound by running his finger up and down the cowbell. They thought about changing their name from Duckfood to Owlfood to accommodate their style, but decided against it for marketability purposes.

The pinnacle of their career came in March 2003 when they played in front of dozens at 223 Bosley in Cincinnati. They opened for Pseudopod who opened for Marc Broussard who opened for OAR. This festival was called Marchtober. Duckfood played all of their hits, such as “The Stone at 2x speed” and “Half of The Joker before Ed forgets the lyrics”. Sadly, this was to be one of the last times they would play together. After the show, there were several incidents such as a girl throwing a bottle, DMX sightings (they were in the middle of a heated Midwest/West Coast feud at the time), and a lady throwing rocks at the band and the band’s friends. It had gotten to be too much stress on the young frontman.

During this up and down roller coaster ride that was Duckfood, Ed made a habit out of traveling to see his favorite band, Ore. He’d follow them, basking in the 5 members (they added a trumpet or something) on stage performing. Watching them, Ed decided that although Duckfood was an important part of his life, he couldn’t do it forever. After a hiatus due to creative differences, Ed announced that he was moving to Kansas City to be with the one he loved. After Fighty said he was staying in Cincinnati, he decided to move to KC anyway with a girl named Kim.

Life in Kansas City was rough for a while. As mentioned earlier, Ed was unable to find an engineering job and so took a job with Hickory Farms setting up sausage stands in Kansas City, “The Sausage Capital of the Midwest”. Eventually, however, Optimal Solutions Inc utilized his computer and engineering skills in a quality assurance capacity. This made Kim, who was tired of hearing stories about how much sausage Ed was handling, very happy.

Part 3 : OARSA.ORG

Edison gave us the light bulb. Bell gave us the telephone. Some guy somewhere figured out sliced bread was a really, really good idea. All of these ideas are complete crap compared to oarsa.org. God is kicking himself for not thinking of it first. That’s how great it is. For those of you who dwell in caves, living off grubs and bats, oarsa.org is the Of A Revolution Setlist Archive. It is the bible for all things OAR. If you need a setlist since 1999 or if you want to see when a song was played, you can go to oarsa. If you want to see how many times you’ve seen a song played, or which songs you haven’t yet seen live, you can go to oarsa. If you need direction in your life, and you feel like you have no where to turn, go get therapy, then pop in an OAR cd and go to oarsa.

Ed thought up the idea after taking down setlist after setlist at shows. One day, he decided that through the vast network of the message board, if he could get one person to take down the setlist at every show, he could have a comprehensive online list of every show date, venue, and song played that anyone could use for a reference material. He even made friends with the band so that when they play in places that no one inhabits (like Canada or Iowa), they can still give him the setlist, and its there for anyone’s reference, even if they just played for a hillbilly, 3 bears and a squirrel.

Paff 3:16. For Ed Paff so loved the world, that he gave it oarsa.org.

THE SECOND COMING

With OARSA v2 now no longer just a twinkle in his eye, Ed Paff Jr. has done what no one could have imagined. He took a perfect setlist archive, looked at it, and spit upon perfection. The new v2 is so good, that it is a step above perfection. So seamless is it that a new word had to be created just to describe its flawlessness: Pafflawless.

One day when your children are online, looking up setlists, you will be able to relate the story about the man who started it all. You’ll look at your children and with a tear in your eye be able to say “Ed Paff Jr. was born to rocket scientist Ed Paff Sr. and Claire Paff on March 24th 1980…”

So Ends the Legend of Ed Paff Jr (for now)

So the weekend was another fun one in Cincinnati! Kim and I drove straight from work and got into town at 2:30 in the morning, and immediately went to sleep. We then hung around my parents house for awhile on Saturday, and later on went to her friend Julie’s new place. This was my first exposure to the cicadas since they aren’t at my parents house. These things really gross me out, they are HUGE and dumb. They can hardly fly and often end up running into everything. I have some close up pictures of them to put up here eventually. After attempting to avoid them for what seemed like hours, we headed over to Kim’s parents place. We were going to take her brother Jason down to the Taste of Cincinnati along with a few of his friends. We had a couple hotel rooms downtown so we could enjoy the festivities without having to drive around. We all had a great time down there, and met up with a bunch of people. The Rusty Griswolds were great as always!

Sunday Kim and I visited her brother Michael for a little while and then headed back out to my parents house for the graduation party. Good time at the party for sure. I got to see a bunch of the family as well as meet some of Tim’s buddies. I even convinced my buddies Jon and Ken to come over. We ended up drinking beers and chatting until 3 AM. Always good times with them.

Yesterday we drove home of course. We did get to stop and see Kim’s sister Bobbi’s new apartment. It is really nice, well much better than my old place near school. The cicadas were all over Clifton though too, so I tried to stay inside.

This week I think we are going to be working out at Woodside a bunch as well as starting some golf lessons. The Hemmelgarns gave me an old set of clubs to use, so big thanks to them!!!

Kim couldn’t wait any longer, so we joined Woodside last night. You can check it out online at www.clubwoodside.com. I think we may meet up with Doni and Phil tonight for some workin’ out…

The Pig-Fest evites have gone out. Hopefully you can join us for a wonderful time! (Let me know if you somehow didn’t get an evite, and we will fix it.)

Friday night Kim and I met up with Doni, Phil, Todd and the others up at the Brooksider. We took the bus up there, so that was my first experience on the KC buses. Kim has a bus pass, so she rode for free just like she does everyday, and I had to pay $1. Sure beats driving though!
The Brookside Art Fair was going on, so we did that for a little while too. I saw a guy who was incredible at playing the djembe. That was my highlight of the art fair for sure…

Saturday we did the usual errands and then went to a Wizards soccer game. They play out at Arrowhead, the football stadium. There were almost 30,000 people there for the game. Crazy! The wizards won, and we even got to see 2 goals plus a shutout. Perhaps we will go back sometime…

I dropped Kim off at the airport this morning. She was heading to Vegas, which is where I’m heading on Wednesday after work. I’m ready, get me outta here!!!

Happy Birthday Tim! (It was yesterday)

Friday I went from work directly to Baja 600 on the Plaza for happy hour. Todd was there, along with Susan and some other people she works with. We were drinking margaritas by the pitcher, and racked up quite a tab, it was perfect outside though. Good times!

Saturday, Kim and I went to a wedding shower kind of thing for a guy I work with. It was actually a lot better than I was expecting. Half of the crowd was doing shots of tequila and it was interesting to see most of the people I work with unwind for a while. I wanted to go to a couple of shows that night, but we ended up staying at the party until 11 or so. Hopefully more things like this happen soon…

Sunday brought with it the usual activities, and lunch at Chipotle! I had one of the largest burritos I’ve seen in awhile! Afterwards, it was time for the sopranos party and Todd’s birthday celebration over at Susan’s house. Great dinner with some huge chicken breasts, potatoes, corn, salad, bread, etc. I had to tape the Sunday Night radio show, and after the party listened to parts of it. Jim, the guy who runs it and brought me into the studio, is moving to Arizona and next week will probably be his last show. I hope the show goes on, and perhaps you’ll hear more of me on that station. :)

The Trolley Run is right around the corner, and it seems like almost everyone is going to do it. I’m going to run along with Todd, and Kim will probably stay on our pace as well. I don’t think she is in a hurry to get it over with. Doni and Phil are also participating, and everyone has the same goal of not puking while doing the race, haha.

So, progressive is only going to pay $13,000 dollars for the car, so I owe the other $2000+.

Just kidding, april fools! That was pretty bad, but I don’t have any good jokes for this year. Progressive actually did come to me with a number of $14,450 which is much less than what we were expecting. They did make a mistake though, and the number is actually $14,950. I haven’t heard back from the credit union yet, but I’m just hoping that whatever happens I don’t have to pay anymore money. I did purchase gap coverage on the car, which is supposed to cover this difference. We’ll see…

On Monday I saw Mission 19 as part of The Planet’s new artist showcase. A few guys from the OAR board have been talking about this band for a long time now, as they should have been because this is a good band. It was only the two main guys of the band playing acoustic guitars, but it was a very nice hour long set. I did get a chance to talk to them right before leaving the club, and they were very nice and easygoing. We ended up talking with them for awhile and found out that Joe’s mom is from Cincinnati. We talked about Cincinnati a bunch, amongst other things. I really enjoyed the show, and I hope that they make it back very soon…

Nothing else terribly exciting has been going on, although Pig-Fest is likely going to be on July 10th this year. So keep that date open on your calendars. I’m working to clean up that website, and then I’m sure we will be sending out the invites very soon!

I have a Tanner Walle show to catch tonight, especially since I skipped the show last night. I needed some extra sleep though…

For your reading pleasure:
Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes Of All Time

The Mraz show was pretty sweet. I still enjoy the smaller shows of his more, when he just played with Toca and Ian. The show is now very produced, but the one thing that benefits a lot from that is the sound. My tape from this show is smokin’ Check it out if you are one of those music friends of mine. :)

Tonight, Kim and I are hopping on a plane to Indy. It is the big wedding weekend in Toledo. Should be a good one…