Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Further proof

Further proof I'm living in the wrong state.

    Ellen Carrington, 21, who was crowned Miss Tennessee on Saturday night, has a concealed weapons permit.

    "I have a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber," Carrington told reporters on Sunday...


It's good to see that she was raised to take care of herself. Well done Dad!

Monday, June 23, 2008

The finger?

Is Kyle Busch giving the crowd the finger after winning the Toyota Sav-Mart 350 at Sonoma?

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Juan Pablo Montoya

I'm not a fan of JPM in any way so this performance by Jim Tavare on Last Comic Standing was priceless.

Friday, June 13, 2008

CMA Fest - Day 2

2:30am was way too late to go to bed. At least for someone as old as me. The wife wanted to go back to the convention center for pics so we were up at 8:30 for breakfast. In downtown Nashville by 10:30. I decided to try and park closer to the river. Found a parking garage near 3rd and Commerce. Much closer than on Day 1.

Saw more people in the convention center. Even Alan Jacksons hat. Jessica Simpson was there promoting a Country CD. Kellie Pickler as well. Two truly beautiful women. Brooks and Dunn had a booth there but since they were not playing at the fest (something about money - funny coming from millionaires...) there was not a whole lot of traffic at the booth. Kind of reminded me of Juan Pablo Montoya's trailer at Chicagoland Speedway last July. Hunger started to set it so we went off looking for barbecue.

And had no luck. Lots of busy restaurants. We ended up at Coyote Ugly (again) and took in the lunch buffet. It was pretty tasty. Then it was time for cold beer and hot women. The singing Coyotes were there as well and quite enjoyable. Lil and Jacqui were behind the bar taking in the show. As we left I managed to get a picture with the two of them.



With shade on the river front we went and watched the performers there for a while. Soon it was time for the nightly show. Lady Antellum, the beautiful and sassy Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner, Julianne Hough, Faith Hill, and 'special' guest Keith Urban performed. Keith ran into the crowd while playing guitar. One really lucky fan held up a sharpie and got a autographed guitar for her effort. Soon it was midnight and the show was over. Whew. Headed back across the bridge for some refreshment. Ended up with ice cream. It was perfect.

Around 1:00am we headed for the car and noticed something that we had never seen before in Nashville. My wife referred to them as 'angry urban youth out looking for trouble'. To be they were black teens out looking for an easy target. I'm not sure that a drunk redneck would have been the smartest choice. More about these folks later.

Time for sleep.

Big Day for Thing1

He has his first job interview. It should be interesting. Hopefully educational too.


    Update: It seemed to go well. Thing1 reports that it was more like a intro to the interview rather than the interview. If he decides he's interested in working at the school he can meet with another person at the school in July. We'll see.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

More of Day 1 at CMA 2008

After watching the Air Mutts I found the wife at the convention center. She was trying to get pictures of some of her favorite stars. Some of the folks there were waiting hours in the 'hopeful' line in an attempt to get a signature. Thats dedication.

After that it was off to Coyote Ugly. I'm not big into the bar scene but this is a fun place. Beautiful girls tending bar, BMF's keeping the peace, excellent entertainment, and reasonable beer.

Now that the sun was getting lower in the sky we went over to the riverfront stage. The last 20 feet or so of the lawn was now in the shade and made the bands so much more enjoyable than sitting in the sun.

As evening approached we headed across the bridge to LP Field. We ran into the Nashville Metro PD Mounted Police at the peak of the bridge. One of the officers was the same man we talked to last year. Once the wife mentioned that the conversation really got going. Officers Stockdale and Dzirany (along with Storm and Henry) were a blast to talk to. The horses loved the attention. And according to Officer Stockdale, Storm loves the post show fireworks.

The show started promptly at 7:45. Shocking. :-). The National Anthem as well as a F18 flyover was a great way to start. Montgomery Gentry, Kellie Pickler, Taylor Swift, and Sugarland were among the performers along with 'surprise' guest Rascal Flatt. Four hours later it was over. The wife really enjoyed MG and Sugarland. Taylor Swift has excellent stage presence. If she stays out of trouble as she grows up I think she will rule country music.

For someone like me, who isn't a big fan of country music, this was a pretty good show. Most of the artists are great on stage and know how to handle a crowd. We'll see what Friday brings.

After the show we headed back over the bridge and started looking for an open bar with a decent band. Found both at Legends. The beer was cold and the music was good. All of the sudden it was 2:00am and us old people were tired. Time to find the car and the hotel. In that order...

Flying Dogs

As mentioned below - furry things to watch.



The entire Air Mutts show is worth your time if they are in your area. The neat thing about the dogs is that they are either adopted or rescued.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

VMFA-224 flyover at CMA Fest

We were treated to this every night to start the show.



It was much louder in person.

I'm not a country boy

The wife is a big fan of country music. I, on the other hand, am not. There are a few country artists that I like but for the most part it's just not for me. So when she decided a few weeks ago that she wanted to go to the 2008 CMAFest in Nashville I was like - can you take your sister?

Well - her sister, thanks to snow days, was still going to be teaching when the festival started on June 5th. Bummer for me.

So she booked a motel room for 5 nights and started looking for tickets. She had first looked for packages that had club level seats (private 'facilities' as well as concessions) and the prices were $700 per person. A bit pricey so she got a cheap motel. Now it was ticket time. E-Bay came to the rescue. She found a pair of club level seats that had no bids on it and was due to expire in a day. Set a watch on it and ended up winning the auction. Got $280 worth of tickets for $175. Not a bad deal.

(attentive readers might notice that 'she' has been doing the work. Not being a fan has its rewards...)

So we had a motel and tickets. Nashville is 500 miles from home so gas wasn't terrible. 8 hours of driving and we were there. Music City. Not our first time there so we kind of know our way around. OTOH we never had to try and park when there are 150,000 of our closest friends there looking for parking as well....

I'll say this for Nashville - it's a easy city to get around in. Just remember that you can circle the city using 24, 40, and 65 so if you miss an exit you can just loop around. Not that I ever had to that before...

Day 1 meant dropping off the wife at the Trace Adkins fan club party. (more on that later). I went back to the motel (after scoping out parking and exits out of the city) and waited for her to call me back. Since the show ended up running late I went downtown to look for a parking spot as she was going to take a cab. Parking was easier than expected and I got to wait. Luckily there was something fun (and furry to watch)...

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Dog meets food

Buffy was a bit hungry and decided not to wait for dinner...