2 DAY JUNKET TO CLEVELAND

The Mom was missing her only son, so we decided to go on a two day junket to Cleveland.

As usual we had no specific plans other than visiting a local winery. Ironically, the name of the winery was called John Christ Winery. You can imagine the fun we had with that. When we arrived it looked like we were visiting some friends out in the suburbs. A normal looking house with a stone driveway. We had reservations about our choice of activities.

Once inside, we realized that we had made the right choice. They had a wine bar on the inside, a full food menu, and of course what we were searching for...a wine garden. As we perused the facility, we noticed something that we had never encountered before at a winery. Off to the side were an assortment of board games. They had Jenga, Life, Sex and The City Trivia, Pictionary, Scrabble and Monopoly. Alas, no Cranium to be found for which the Mom was eternally grateful.

We purchased a nice Cabernet as well aa a sweet white called Niagara, a cheese and sausage plate. You read it correctly...a sausage plate. Hot, cooked summer sausage. It was actually very good. We headed out to the garden.

We sat in the sunshine on a beautiful summer day and proceeded to consume our two bottles of wine. We looked to our right and noticed that this winery was located next to a golf course (mental note for me and Kevin). Several golfers stopped and meandered into the winery to try and forget their horrible game. Believe me I know the feeling. As we looked around at the other winos, we noticed a couple drinking what we believed to be Sangria. Ah, the juice of the Gods! I looked at Kevin and he looked back at me as if to say..."We're getting a pitcher" The Mom was fading fast. The Niagara had kicked her butt. The Alpha males dominated and we ordered a pitcher of Sangria.

While we waited inside for our Nectar Of The Gods, Kevin jokingly said we should take the Sex And The City game out to the garden and play. I looked at him and asked, "Have you ever watched Sex and The City?" To which he repliued "No". Instead I grabbed Scrabble. We had our Sangria and we had Scrabble...what more could you ask for?

As you can see at the right Kevin is deep in thought deciding whether to go for Rod or On. The biggest word of the contest was Helium which was used by yours truly. Have you ever played Scrabble with two drunk people? Believe me it is a challenge. I jokingly asked if this was the Grade School Edition. The Mom and Kevin didn't laugh.

We finished our game of Scrabble which the Mom won (with my help). We insulted some other people who were having a birthday party and at the last minute decided to go to an Indians Game downtown.















Little did we know , but it was Drew Carey bobblehead night. We all got bobbleheads and watched a pretty exciting game between the Indians and The Kansas City Royals. The Mom was bored to tears, but once again the Alpha males dominated and we drank beer, ate shelled peanuts and Cracker Jack. The Indians won 6-5. It was a good night.











Day Two. Once again the Alpha males dominated and we headed to the Pro Football Hall Of Fame in Canton. The Mom was less than ecstatic. I have attached photos from the Hall Of Fame. The rest is self explanatory.




The First Football Uniform Note the archaic face guard.






















Kevin wondering what his head would look like in the Hall Of Fame next to Jim Thorpe's.























The Mom in her glory standing next to her favorite team: The Pittsburgh Steelers.











Even though it was a lot of driving we ended up having a good time.

This weekend The Boy hits Toledo.

Stay tuned for more Blog updates.

CUTEST BOOK EVER!


I just finished the cutest book ever. It's called Marley And Me. It's about a family who owns the world's worst dog. It chronicles his life from puppyhood all the way through adulthood and then into old age.

Marley is a yellow Lab with enough energy for 10 dogs. He has a neurotic fear of thunder and nearly wrecks their house whenever a storm approaches. He failed obedience school. He chews and eats everything.His antics will keep you in stitches thoughout the whole book.

For anyone who's ever owned and loved a dog, this book is for you. I highly recommend it. It's a quick read and you'll find yourself turning pages to see what Marley gets into next.

One Great Book!

Well, we did it! Another Ozzfest under our belts. If my calculations are correct that makes 8 years in a row that Kevin (my son) and I have attended the Prince Of Darkness' yearly tour. There was one main difference this year: No Ozzy. System Of A Down headlined the massive summer tour. Which was ok with my son; he's here more for the second stage. And this year I will have to agree with him. The second stage kicked the first stage's ass!

The day started like any other Ozzfest. Kevin would stop by around 8:00 am, hug and kiss his mom and then we would be off to our annual ritual. Kevin was feeling a little rough this morning. He went to see Uncle Ted Nugent the night before in Cleveland at his favorite venue: House Of Blues. He loved the show. Ted has a knack of making everyone have a good time regardless of how they are feeling when they get there. He struts around stage with his coyote tail and loin cloth laying down some of the heaviest licks you'll ever hear from a Les Paul guitar. I must have taught Kevin well because he told me he was the only one in his group that knew the words to every song. I'm so proud! Ted can get political as well. Kevin said he shot an arrow into a cardboard cutout of Osama Bin Laden. You gotta love it. This is what we talked about on the drive up.

We arrived at DTE around 10:00 am. According to our tickets the show started at 9:00. WRONG! We sat in the van and watched as a long line of metalheads stood outside waiting to get in. We also noticed an extreme increase in the number of Sheriffs patroling the parking lots for pre-concert partying. Luckily, Kevin and I decided not to drink a fifth of Jack Daniels before the show (we did it one year and now we have acid relux).

The first thing we noticed when we stepped out of the air-conditioned van was a sweltering wave of hot air. Little did we know was that this would be the coolest part of our day. We took our spot in the queue and as we always do proceeded to make fun of the people around us. There was one dude that had so much sunscreen on he it looked like he was covered in Crisco oil. Kevin's comment was " at least no one will be able to push him down in the mosh pit...they'll slide right off". I had to laugh at that one.

We finally get up to the entrance gates and now it's time for the ole strip tease. "Take everything out of your pockets. Please open your eyeglass case. Can you take your hat off for me?" It took me a good 10 minutes to put myself back together so I could walk toward the stage. Kevin and I walked across the tarmac to listen to the closing songs of A Life Once Lost. As they finished their set, we strolled over to the T-Shirt booth. We always do this to see what shirts they have and to determine how much money we need to put aside so we can get one. I got an Ozzfest shirt while Kevin opted for All That Remains.

We grabbed our first beer around 11:00 am. It went down hard because of the heat. After that we switched to water. No need to get heat exhaustion. We watched the entire second stage acts all afternoon. I could feel the back of my neck starting to sting. I looked at Kevin's arms and they were red as well. We couldn't wait to get out of the sun and into some shade.

We grabbed some pizza and pop and headed to our Pavilion seats. They weren't the greatest, but it was a place to sit down and re-energize. We had shade for about 45 minutes, then the sun came around and was shining right on our seats. We couldn't get away from it. We decided to walk around until the first stage acts got going.

Once the sun went down, our thirst went up. Now we decided it was time for some alcohol. Making up for lost time, we each double fisted and headed for our seats which were now in the shade. We struggled through Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed (we've seen them so many times). All we cared about was System Of A Down.

We had a nice buzz going when they came out. I told Kevin I thought the lead singer was on heroin because he hardly moved on stage. Regardless, they sounded really good.

All in all it was fun. I just wish it would have been a little cooler. Maybe next year.