Summer fun stuff - non-music related

I woke up a 4 this morning and couldn't sleep. I hate that. There are some good points, though - I loved in Siggy for a little while, I'll be able to get in a long workout, and I'm getting in a blog post. :-)

I was trying to think of fun stuff this summer that wasn't musically related, and really, it's mainly been things that've happened in August. We did go to Texas at the end of May but that seems like ages ago, plus I already wrote a little bit about it. Here are a few good things that have happened:

Cubs games: yes, they're sucking this year, but at least they won the afternoon we saw them play the Cardinals. That was actually one of the best baseball games I've been to overall - the weather was perfect, the game was exciting, there was good people watching, and all of that sort of stuff. They almost won when we saw them play the Brewers a week and a half later, but no such luck. Oh, well. I really gave up on them around mid-June this year, and I'm so mad they traded Derrick Lee (to Atlanta) that I haven't gone out of my way to watch them much over the past couple of weeks. As we say in Chicago, "there's always next year."

Cleveland road-trip: Trey and I took advantage of not going on the Donau trip this year by doing a weekend getaway (Donau was farther away and therefore pushed to early-August rather than being held over Labor Day weekend). We started off by sleeping in (!), and then went to a baseball game at Jacob's Field, or whatever they call it now - this is year 1 in Trey's and my quest to visit a new ballpark every summer. LOVE the ballpark! It's so cute, and so cheap, I cannot believe it was so empty. Seriously, I bet it was only about 40% full, which is not only a shame, it's downright shocking compared to what we're used to with Wrigley. I think the thing that floored me the most was the been vendor who not only used my name after checking my ID, but remembered it when I went back for refills a few innings later.

After the game we spent way too long looking for someplace for dinner that wasn't either way too crowded or more than we wanted to pay. We ended up failing, but not before Trey tripped over something on the sidewalk and cut his toe open. We were right next to the really nice mall downtown, only it was after 6 so everything was locked up. Fortunately a security guard found us some bandaids and some disinfectant wipes.

Day two was spent at the Rock n' Roll hall of Fame, something I was excited about going back to (I visited in the fall of either 1998 or 1999) and was happy that Trey was not bored with. The coolest thing in my opinion? They have Johnny Cash's tour bus parked outside. They let you go inside and point out highlights (like June's compartment being decorated in her favorite light blue color, and Johnny's compartment's wood paneling coming from their farm). LOVE IT!

Our evening was spent at Great Lakes Brewery, which I love now even more than I did before. True the food at the brewpub was mediocre, as I'd been warned about, but the beer is all out of this world (Glockenspiel anyone?). I learned that they're super eco-conscious, too, which will have me buying their beer more often.

Our last morning was spent touring the cargo-ship turned museum in the harbor, but not after Trey got a really fun message in the morning. He was practicing in the hotel room as he often does when we travel, and when he was finished he stepped into the hallway to get some ice. He opened the door to find a note that said, "You are cool. Thumbs up! :-)" He was always self-conscious about practicing in hotel rooms, but now he won't be anymore!

Camping: Ok, so I'll make this quick because this is getting too long already, but this past weekend we got out of town for a camping trip. Now, I'm not the outdoorsy type, but I consented on the condition that the place we went had showers and flushing toilets somewhere on the premises. Dude, the place Trey found was awesome - we were the only people there the first night, and the place pretty much backed onto a cornfield. It was quiet, roomy, and even impressed the friends we went with who go camping all the time. The bathrooms were cleaner than I was expecting, and I could've brought my blow dryer because they did have outlets.

All in all it was a relaxing weekend - wine tasting, window shopping, and eating smores really did the trick and helped me temporarily forget about our tax mess and the surrounding issues. It was cute to see Trey get all into it, too. He insisted on cooking most of our dinner each night over the fire (well, over the coals he'd banked after making the fire). I think he got a little reminiscent, too - I went to bed around 12:30 Saturday night, but woke up at 3 to find him sitting by the dying fire. Cute. :-)


And now...all hell breaks loose. This week it's been back to things almost every night - Monday was chore night for me, but I also had my picture taken for this newspaper article about our tax situation (more on that when it gets published), Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rehearsal, Friday night gig. Glad I've got Monday off - I'm not quite used to this yet!

Have a great long weekend all, I'll try to post more soon - at the very least I'm hoping to post a link to this newspaper article over the weekend.