I’m back at work wishing I was still in Wisconsin. That was a great weekend, and we may just have to head back up that way next year when DMB returns. Here’s a recap of what happened:

My hockey bag weighed 48.5 pounds on the airport scales! The lady at check-in said I was lucky. After an uneventful flight, I met up with Weeba at the airport in Chicago and we headed over to Tracey’s apartment. Our friend Pat was already there and the rest of the clan was already out at a bar. We quickly got ready and took a cab over to meet up with everyone. A friend of a friend was having a $20 wristband party. I guess these are a popular thing in Chicago. Basically you and your friends pay $20 a piece to drink whatever you want for a certain amount of time. I think we got our money’s worth even though we only had an hour and a half of drinking time. From there we went and checked out a little bit of the Greenstreet show but we didn’t stay out too late since we wanted to get up to Wisconsin fairly early.

We woke up at 7 AM or so, Tracey said that we looked like kids on Christmas. We were way too excited to sleep anymore. After some breakfast and showers we packed the rental SUV (aka the urban assault vehicle) to the roof and headed off. I’m not sure why, but we hit some traffic that never seemed to end. We ditched the highway route and headed on the back roads to the campsite. It probably should have taken an hour and half to get there but it took us over three hours. Not the best way to start off the weekend, but oh well. We finally got our site, setup our camp and waited for the rest of our group to get in. One problem with the setup, I forgot the tent poles for my tent. Ooops. We did have 3 other tents though and there were only six of us so it was alright. Once everyone got there we ate some food and drank some beers until a very scary storm quickly approached our camp. At the front of this storm were some rotating clouds right above us. We were in the middle of a field with a tornado forming above our heads. It was fairly frightening and it almost canceled the show. We didn’t know this at the time, but when this all was blowing over the venue they closed the gates to the lot. We left really soon after the storm passed and were then stuck in traffic for awhile waiting for the gates to open again. Unfortunately we didn’t get into the lot until around 6 and OAR was starting at 7. As we found out the next day we should have arrived earlier, the party scene in the lot is incredible. The show was great, the seats were great, everything was great. After the show we sat in our seats for awhile and when everyone was gathered we exited the venue. We quickly saw the insane amount of traffic trying to get out and the large number of people who were giving up for now and carrying on with the party. We joined in for an hour or two after the show and then ventured back to camp. We did stop at some local country bar on the way back for a drink and on the way out had a little fun with their sign (see the pictures). When back at camp we hung out some more and before we knew it the sky was getting lighter and lighter. Three or four of us managed to stay around the fire for awhile and I don’t think any of us managed to keep our eyes closed for longer than ten minutes.

Later that morning everyone else decided to get up around eight. Later on I took a pretty nice nap under the canopy and was ready to go again. We took everyone back to the bar we visited the night before for some lunch. From there we headed into the lot to take full advantage this time. We brought along our cornhole boards and beer and had a blast despite it being about 110 degrees with the cars packed together, people everywhere, grills going, etc. It was worth it though, the partying was great! The show was of course excellent again and we were all pretty much in the same 5 rows of the same section. After the show we hung out like the night before and headed back to camp. We tried to keep the party going but you could tell everyone was dead.

The next morning it was time to pack everything up and head back to Chicago. We stopped back by Tracey’s to clean ourselves up and were off to the airport. Sarnovsky and AP were also flying out around the same time we were. We soon found out that all of our flights were being delayed though. We had some lunch and a few drinks to kill the time and then we were all on our separate ways, thus ending a great weekend. The nice thing is that most all of us will get back together again in a few weeks at Pig-Fest!

My last couple days have been all about the trip this weekend. My friends and I have been searching all of the DMB boards (antsmarching.org, nancies.org, etc.) for tickets to the shows. Many of us already have tickets in our hands (I am not one of those people) and are looking for better seats, while others have been holding out for the best seats possible. It’s a known fact that ticketmaster.com will release some unused band comp tickets as the show date approaches. With this in mind, we have also been checking out the site at least every half hour. I got a call from my good friend Nasim (lead singer of O.A.R.’s wife). She told me that I’ve got at least one ticket to each night this weekend, so I can finally relax thanks to her. Although I’m still checking ticketmaster quite often to see what they have and also to let my buddies know when something is there.

With my ticket concerns mostly out of the way, I’ve been concentrating on my packing. We will be camping the whole weekend and our friends who live in Chicago don’t have much camping gear. This means that I am somehow going to take some large things with me on my flight as checked luggage. I’ve borrowed two canopies from my parents that I hope to bring with me. However, each one of them weights nearly 15 pounds! The limit on southwest flights is 50 pounds per piece of luggage. So two of the canopies in one bag is already 30 pounds. The next problem is that they are so large that only one will fit in the biggest piece of luggage that we have, and it only fits diagonally across the bag. This doesn’t leave much room for other things. The good news is that I can check up to three pieces of luggage. I’ve been considering using my hockey bag to transport some of the supplies, but it seems that it might be too big to use as a free item. In addition to these two canopies, I’m also taking one or two bag chairs, a smaller sized tent, an air mattress, a pillow and sleeping bag. That’s in addition to any clothes that I’ll pack. So you sort of see my dilemma that I face when putting it all together tonight. Another problem is that I’ve only got about an hour to get it all done. Wish me luck…

It is so loud in here that it is very hard to concentrate on anything. Let’s see if I can make it through a blog entry without getting distracted. The reason for the loudness is that they have knocked out the back wall of our break room so that they can expand it. They are also currently working on our office expansion into another quarter of the third floor. Currently we have one quarter of the floor, with a psychiatrist office occupying another quarter. That leaves half of the floor empty and we have signed on to occupy half of that giving us almost double the space we have now. The downside is that we keep losing employees and don’t really need the added space.

I snuck into the expansion area after work yesterday along with another guy I work with. He showed me where the new conference room is going to be and then I counted at least eleven new offices that are going to be over there. We don’t even have eleven people right now in the cubicle alley, so I’m guessing that we’ll have more offices than people once this is done. That is unless they start hiring some people, but we all know that it is a long process for them to hire anyone here. With all of that being said, I better get my own office. I don’t mind sharing with Margaret at all. In fact, I don’t know if there is another person here that I would rather share with. Wouldn’t it be nice to have my own room though? I think so.

With all of the noise I’ve been forced to listen to some loud music. This reminded me that I have not added a song of the moment in quite some time. That is until now, feel free to download a new Pomeroy track that I’ve been listening to a whole bunch lately titled “Soundtrack.”

Today starts the never ending summer of traveling…

This weekend my cousin Karen is getting married back in Cincinnati. We are going to drive back after work today so we should hopefully get into town around 3 or 4 in the morning. Yay! :| At least we have a Busch wedding to look forward to! I learned at a young age that a Busch wedding is not something to mess around with. I believe I was 18 years old when my Uncle Andy (my mom’s youngest brother, the baby of nine children) got married. Being that he is my godfather, I was asked to be in his wedding. The wedding went fine, and then came the bus ride from the church to the reception. This is where things took a turn and my Uncles decided to feed me with lots of beer. I barely remember being introduced into the reception but I do remember having a ton of fun. That is until I ended up outside of the reception hall, seated on a tree stub, puking my brains out. Hey, at least I made it outside, right?

The weekend after this I am flying to Chicago where I am meeting up with some friends. From there we are going up to Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin. O.A.R. is opening for DMB for two nights, which is a guaranteed good time. All I need to do now is get some tickets for the shows…

The weekend after that we will actually be in KC but we have another wedding to attend. The Reynold’s are family friends of ours from our time in Huntsville, AL. My mom has kept in touch with them throughout the years, and when I moved out here we realized that they weren’t far away in Overland Park, KS. Anyway, their daughter Stephanie is getting married so Kim and I will be joining in the festivities. Hopefully my mom and dad can make it out too!

After that we have to go back to Cincinnati again, this time for yet another wedding. Kim’s friend from high school (Julie) is getting married and Kim is in the wedding. The nice thing is that we will actually be taking a full day off of work for this trip since the rehearsal is on Friday.

The weekend after that brings us back to Cincinnati a third time. This is of course for Pig-Fest. Enough said!

And one more trip the weekend after that for me. I’m heading up to Chicago once again for O.A.R.’s Feeling Better Than Everfine Festival. I’m sure this will be another kick ass weekend, just as it always has been.

After that I am taking at least a month off with no traveling. I should be very busy, but at least I’ll be having a blast doing it all!

I finally got a nap in after work on Friday. After that we picked up Christie and Ashley and headed to Doni and Phil’s for dinner and some cornhole games. This time Doni and Phil actually played a game or two. Not much else happened, I think most of us were still recovering from the night before.

Saturday we headed over to the pool at Woodside. Todd and Susan met up with us and we spend a few hours lounging and swimming. From there we headed over to Geoff and Casey’s apartment to meet up with them and Mike for some more rounds of cornhole. We suddenly became the life of their apartment complex. We must have had a dozen or so people out playing, and some were actually good even though they claimed they had never played before. After the sun went down we decided to meet up with Christie and Ashley at Tomfooleries. Not sure that was the best idea since we had all been drinking most of the day, but we escaped with no incidents. On the walk back home Mike decided it would be a good idea to take a dip in the JC Nichols Fountain. We all joined in and were having fun until we realized how dirty the fountain probably is. We continued on our way, but when we got to our apartment I realized that I didn’t have the keys to get in. Kim was convinced I dropped them in the fountain, so she went back down to search for them. We later realized that we left them in the car which was parked outside of Geoff’s place on the other side of the plaza. Therefore we opted to borrow dry clothes from Mike and just crash at his house for the night.

We woke up on Sunday and decided to take a walk to Chipotle and then over to Geoff’s to pick up our cars. Before we knew it, it was time to head out to the Tom Petty and Black Crowes show. We got their early to do a little tailgating and ended up missing part of the Black Crowes because of the large line to get in. What I did hear of their set was really good. Tom Petty also rocked the place and toward the end of the night said that the crowd was the largest ever at Sandstone. I guess it was a sold out crowd, and one that was probably oversold. There wasn’t a bare spot on the lawn, which was pretty annoying at times, but we all had a good time I think.

Pictures from the 4th are finally up on the site. I had to manually lighten a bunch of them since I forgot to switch back the fast shutter speed I was using at Wakarusa. Check ’em out!

I’ve added a track from Matisyahu to the song of the moment section, download “King Without A Crown.” He played one of my favorite sets while at Wakarusa. I would definitely recommend seeing him if you get the chance, it was one of the most interesting shows I’ve seen based purely on looks. Based on sound, it was an incredible show that I’m glad to have taped. If you want a little taste of the show, check out this performance from the Jimmy Kimmel show. I’ll try and get some other tracks up soon from some other new favorites of mine at Wakarusa.

Kim went and got new Missouri license plates for the car yesterday. Hopefully no one steals our tabs, although I’ve yet to put the plates on. Perhaps I’ll do that tonight. We also have some more cleaning up to do from camping and a few things we want to put up on eBay.

Obviously I had Chipotle for dinner last night. Doni and Susan came along with Kim and me, even though their diet should probably tell them not to. We had our burritos and a drink and were off to a free concert that was being put on by 97.3 The Planet. The band was Low Millions, who has had two songs played regularly on the station for a couple of months. These two songs aren’t bad even though they sort of fall into the whiney brit pop that has been invading the airwaves recently. The more recent one titled “Statue” is much better in my opinion, and was the closer for their short set. I do have a few complaints about this band though. They try way too hard, their actions on stage are a little over the top, and apparently they sound checked for almost twice as long as their set was scheduled to be. The singer either wants to be Prince or thinks that he already is. I found it no surprise that the first artist listed in his musical influences was Prince. If you think of Prince and how he acts, you’ll kind of get an image of how this guy was. The problem is that Prince is actually good. Needless to say, I won’t be paying money to see this band.

Our high temperature today is in the lower nineties. We also have our first ozone alert of the year. I guess it is going to stay this hot at least through the weekend. Should make for some interesting cornhole matches. Weeeeee!

Wow, what a weekend! On Friday we got back out to our campsite pretty quickly. We had dinner and a couple of drinks and were then on our way to see some bands. The first act we saw was the North Mississippi Allstars. It was my first time seeing them, but I’ve always heard great things from my friends. Good news, they did not disappoint us. We then headed over to another stage to check out Ozomatli. Their set was supposed to start while NMAS were on stage but it luckily for us it didn’t. This was an awesome show, I even think I caught Kim dancing a couple of times. I’ve seen them before and was happy that I finally got a chance to see them again. We then caught a little bit of the String Cheese Incident on the first stage and headed over to see Chubby Carrier. The lady I share an office with said to check him out and I’m glad we did. That pretty much wrapped up our Friday night since we were both pretty tired from the week.

Saturday Mike met up with us fairly early and the party quickly started. Before too long we were back at the main stages to check out Mofro, Rose Hill Drive and then the John Butler Trio. I was pretty impressed with the first two bands for not knowing much about them. I was very happy to finally see John Butler. The day was off to a great start. After those sets we went back to camp for some dinner and to refill on a few beers. Kim opted to stay behind at camp while Mike and I headed out for some more music. We caught some of Wilco’s set and then wandered over to see the end of Gov’t Mule. At this point the stages were pretty crowded with something like 30,000 people now at the festival. We then watched Matisyahu and his hasidic reggae. Probably one of the most interesting bands I have seen, but it was really cool. Definitely something you have to see for yourself. After that set Mike and I walked up and down “Shakedown Street” grabbing some grilled cheese sandwiches and even helping sell them for awhile. Next thing I know the sun was peaking out over the tree line. I couldn’t believe how late it was so I went back to camp to sleep for a couple of hours until the heat would wake me back up.

Mike left fairly early Sunday morning and then we packed everything up into the car. I was a bit worried that all the stuff we brought wasn’t going to fit in the car, but luckily it all did. We caught a few more sets of music from ProtoKaw and Xavier Rudd. Then we went over to see Matisyahu again so Kim could experience the show. The heat from the day was really getting to me and so we decided to head out a little earlier than I would have liked, but I had definitely got my money’s worth at that point. All in all it was a really good time and I would definitely do it again. Maybe next year it will be Bonnaroo, we will see…

So I keep talking about this weekend, but haven’t really mentioned what we are doing (unless you read the comments from yesterday). Kim and I are heading to the Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival. This is similar to Bonnaroo, which just happened this past weekend, but on a much smaller scale. I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing though. Smaller bands with smaller crowds, seems like a good idea to me. There is still a ton of music going on throughout the weekend, pretty much around the clock entertainment. And then there are all the activities that normally come with a state park. I’m sure it will be a busy and fun time!

We did not go out shopping last night since we decided that we pretty much have everything we need besides some food that will need to remain cold. We have now borrowed a couple of tents, I have a couple of canopies that I borrowed from my parents, a couple of borrowed coolers and a couple of bag chairs we bought before last weekend. I do need to pickup a rain jacket just to be safe. The forecast is actually looking really nice from now through the weekend. I hope that it stays that way.

After work on Friday Kim and I headed to our local Target to pick up some supplies for the weekend and also for this coming weekend. We bought some cheap bag chairs, a new flashlight & lantern combo, some buy spray and some other stuff. From there we headed to Doni & Phil’s to have some drinks and play some cards. We decided on Pitch, a game that Kim and I are picking up on pretty well. I still don’t think it is better than Euchre though.

Saturday morning we woke up fairly early so we could get out to Salina, KS for the Smoky Hill River Festival which VACO was playing at. We met up with Steve Christy at our hotel and shortly after were on our way to the show. Salina is not a very big town, but the festival was packed. Either everyone from Salina was there or there were a ton of out-of-towners in attendance. Either way this is a pretty well planned event. An $8 button gets you unlimited access to the park and festival, and you can bring your own cooler in. We took advantage of that and brought something like two cases of beer in. I believe we got there around 2 and VACO first played at 3. It was hot and the local freaks were out in force. We saw VACO play two sets that day and although they were short they were a bunch of fun. The festival was over by 10 I think, but we left shortly before then. We headed back to the hotel and were out around midnight. It was a fun day!

Sunday we woke up to a rain filled day. VACO was supposed to play again that day at 4, but we left town before they started. The rain was showing no signs of stopping and there is very little cover near the stage they were playing at. We hit some nice storms on the way home but made it back eventually. It would have been an even scarier drive if we would have realized that our brake lights weren’t working. Yeah, you read that correctly. We have yet another problem with the car, but again I think this is something I can do myself pretty easily. Perhaps I should consider a career move though.