Concert-palooza and Middle Age

It seems that this fall is going to be a concert-palooza of sorts for us. In September, we're going to go see the White Stripes, which I can barely control myself about. If you don't already know this, the "brother and sister" duo is my absolute favorite band, hands down. We saw them two years ago and they were amazing, and since I think their latest CD, Get Behind Me Satan, is the best work they've produced so far, I'm really exicted for the upcoming show. And even though Mike looks like he could vomit every time I say that I think Jack White is pretty hot, I suspect that he has little thing for cute-as-a-button Meg White pounding away on those drums.

In October, we're going to see the double-billing of Weezer and Foo Fighters. Buying tickets to this show made me feel how I am approaching middle-age. Unlike the other two concerts we're going to this year, this show has a general admission floor. In talking about what tickets to buy with my husband last night, I said, "The general admission tickets are less than the seat tickets, but I kind of want a seat, don't you? I'm too old to be moshing around on the floor with a bunch of sweaty teenagers." Not too long ago, I would have been gladly pushing and writhing around on the floor with the sweatiest of them all. Now I just appreciate a good seat.

In December, we're going to see U2. I'm also pretty excited about this show, since I've been a U2 fan as long as I've been listening to music. I have every album and now that they've gotten past that crappy dance music phase they were in (can everyone say Discotheque?), they've released two really great albums that show that they've still got it. I saw their Pop-Mart tour when I was in high school at Three Rivers. The sound was kind of bad because of the arena, but it was still amazing to see one of the biggest bands in the world. I'm also hoping that maybe the Killers will come back and open for them like they did on some of their spring date in 2005.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Mike and I spent the weekend camping in Cooks Forest with my parents and my aunt and uncle. We had three huge sites in a row, which was great because it felt like we had our own compound. The only downer of the weekend was that it rained on Friday and Saturday during prime sitting around the campfire hours. We were troopers, though------I sat with my umbrella open next to the fire in the drizzle. Mike made some excellent shish-kabobs on Saturday night and I made s'mores at every opportunity. Because the sky looked like it could burst open at any moment and send down a plague of locusts, we didn't kayak or hike like we had wanted, but definitely got in some good napping and reading time.

Last weekend, Mike and I went to the Cleveland Indians vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays game at Jacob's Field in Cleveland with my aunt and uncle. It was the first time I had ever been in Jacob's Field, and it's really a beautiful arena. Even though Cleveland lost by 1 in the bottom of the ninth, the game was fun. The best part was that the tickets we had were in the club section and in the club section ALL the food is free. We ate until we felt sick just like a bunch of little kids. We ate pizza, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, nachos, hoagies, ice cream, washed it all down with cold beer, and it was glorious.

The Battery In My Biological Clock Is Dead

After spending the evening after work NOT golfing (long story), Mike and I had dinner at Max and Erma's. I had forgotten how many people take their children to eat at Max and Erma's. This one little girl in particular had such an ear-piercing, claw the skin off your face shriek I just wanted to reach behind me and yank her tiny blond ponytail. My biological clock never started ticking, but if it had, that was officially the sound that would have made the battery go dead. That was the sound that makes one not want children. Give me twelve howling basset hounds any day of the week over one shrieking toddler.

Winning Is Fun (So Was Jersey)

Just as we did last summer, my dad, Mike, and I (or some combination of two of the three) have been golfing weekly since the end of May. Golf is fun, but winning is even better, probably because usually the guys beat me, but last night I emerged victorious. I had a 43, smoking my dad by 3 strokes and edging past Mike by 1. Yay!

On a completely different topic, we spent last weekend down at the Jersey shore with the in-laws and it was a lot of fun. It's always good when you can use the words fun and in-laws in the same sentence, because that's not always the case. It was my father-in-law's 50th birthday and his wife threw him a big party complete with a margarita machine and a one-man-band. We also went kayaking with Mike's parents and saw The Wedding Crashers with my brother-in-law, Chris, and his girlfriend. Two thumbs up for Jersey!