Last night my family celebrated my and my second cousin Brock’s birthdays. I was a little concerned before the party because no one had asked me what I wanted. There is usually a thread of emails that gets forwarded around the family before a birthday asking if the birthday person has any gift suggestions. Not to worry though, I was very pleased with the outcome.

My mom got me a seven volume, hardback collection of the complete sermons of Martin Luther. Wow! I was very surprised by that and extremely exited to own such a thing. Super cool. I also got some pajamas that are much more age-appropriate than the Spongebob jammies Riley got me. Right on. In the event of a house fire I would be much more inclined to run into the front yard wearing these pajamas than if I were wearing my Spongebob jammies. If I were wearing the Spogebob jammies I would probably just have to go down with the house so as not to cause any humiliation to my wife.

I also got a bunch of cash. For those of you who read this blog on a regular basis you might rememeber that I already bought myself a birthday present six months ago banking on the presumption that I would get some money for my birthday to pay it off. Phew! My gamble paid off.

Here’s a picture of me and Angel from last night.

Isn’t she pretty. This picture demonstrates why God created Rock-n-Roll bands. Because some pretty girls are suckers for an oaf with a Stratocaster.

Last night we hung out with Dino and Gina Nicastro and went to an art exhibit at Dino’s and my alma mater (although Dino and I attended Webster at different times and for different reasons. Dino studied Computer Science to get a good job and I studied Jazz to quit after my third year and be labeled a quitter for the rest of my life) Webster University. I guess it’s technically not my alma mater since I didn’t actually graduate. So we’ll just call it the school I paid a whole slew of money to so I could learn to play altered dominant scales way faster than you.

The artist who was exhibiting (how would you say that?) was Jason Hackenwerth. He did the artwork for The Imps‘ album, which was the band Dino played with before he played in The Drew Johnson Band.

It’s always great to get to hang out with Dino and Gina. It’s funny how our conversations have changed over the years. Five years ago Dino and I would have griped all night about how we’re not seeing the success from the band that we knew we should be having. But last night we just talked about our kids, laughed a lot, and conceded the fact that there are aspects of the music scene we don’t miss at all.

Here’s Gina and Angel from last night.

Here they are from eight years ago or so.

On Monday Angel’s Uncle Rickey died. Rickey was 53 and was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy eighteen years ago and was given only seven years to live.

This is Rickey and Riley from a few years ago.

As soon I got home from work on Wednesday we drove down there so we could be at the funeral on Thursday. It was a pretty rough few days but it was very nice to see the people who came out in droves to pay their respects.

We got back into town late last night so if I haven’t replied to your email yet I’ll get to it soon.

We decided to take Lilly with us since Angel’s family hadn’t met her yet. Driving nine hours in a compact car with an oversized dog is not easy. Lilly tried every conceivable position she could think of to get comfortable. Here are a couple of pictures of her efforts.

Angel’s mother’s dog Picco greeted Lilly with a big old smile as soon as we got there.

This is Angel’s brother Matt, her mother Connie and Riley before we left for the funeral. Yes, Matt is really as huge as he looks.

Uncle Rickey was buried just a few feet from Angel’s brother Marcus who died of Spina Bifida in 1984. This is why Riley’s middle name is Marcus. This is Marcus’ grave if the pic is too small to tell.

OK now for some comic relief.

Riley always wants me to record him on the computer either talking or singing or screaming or rapping or whatever he’s decided would be funny that day. I’ve got hours of this stuff. So today Riley decided that raspberries would be comedic theme for the day. He was buzzing his lips so hard that he blew two gigantic snot snakes out of his nose that reached all the way to his bottom lip. Listen to this mp3 and you’ll hear the magic at about 15 seconds in. Then there’s some more general foolishness after that.

Download the mp3 here.

Today was Riley’s first day in the first grade.

We decided we’d have him ride the bus this year. I guess I’d never really given it much thought until today but there is something very strange about putting your only son in a vehicle driven by someone you’ve never met and just hoping they’ll actually bring him back. They did. We’re relieved.

Yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens because we thought that heat stroke and dehydration was a small price to pay to get to see some plants.

I am unable to save the kid from a sure spinal cord injury and carry this water at the same time – now hold this.

Riley learns that what goes up must get scared.

These are the trees that money grows on. Just ask Dale Chihuly.

Chihulyhulahoop.

This is why we can’t have nice things. The lady we bought Lilly from suggested that we get Lilly her own mattress to sleep on. We just so happened to have Riley’s old crib matress so we gave it to the dog. Here’s what she thought of that idea.

Riley had been drawing on the sidewalk with some of his chalk when Lilly decided to give it a taste. This was way funnier right before the picture was taken when she hadn’t yet licked off half of her pink mustache.

When we all woke up this morning Angel, Riley and I all gathered on my bed to wrestle with the dog and enjoy the fact that nobody had to go to work today. Angel thought that Riley and Lilly were being so cute that she grabbed the camera to capture the moment. Here’s what she got.

Happy 4th of July and may all your puppies be as sweet as ours.

Last Friday morning we flew to San Antonio, Texas for my stepsister‘s wedding and my brother‘s high school graduation. We got back into town yesterday afternoon sunburned and tired.

This was the first wedding Riley had ever been in and he did surprisingly well. He was the lord of the rings and he looked rather dashing.

We had a good time.

There may be some music news coming soon. There are a few things going on in the next couple of weeks that might yield some exciting possibilities, sorry for the vagueness.

I was sneaking around in Christopher Gustave‘s Photobucket page the other day and found some pictures of The Drew Johnson Band I’d never seen before. I asked Gustave if he’d mind if I post them here and he said “Mi bucket es su bucket.”

Most of these are from the soundcheck for the George Harrison tribute show we did at The Pageant a few years ago.

This show was far and away the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of as far as music goes. We had a twelve-piece string section, a four-piece horn section, Tim Redmond (from Cobalt Blue) on keys, Sean Garcia (from Three Merry Widows and Tinhorn among others) also on keys, Lliam Christy (I don’t even know what to say here, it’s just like totally Lliam Christy of Lliam Christy fame, and a long time ago he played in The Stranded Lads) on guitar, and The Drew Johnson Band rounding out the the whole thing.

Steve Nowels (bass – The Drew Johnson Band) gets all the glory for pulling this whole thing off. Dave Kalz had asked us if we would play in this Harrison tribute he was putting together and of course we agreed. I assumed we would just tackle it as a three-piece just like we had always done. Then Steve came into practice with the idea of putting together this gigantic band and he said he would write out all the scores and rehearse the orchestra and the horn section and the whole nine yards all by himself. To this Dino and I gave a resounding “Pfft!” It was a wonderful idea but we knew there was no way we could ever pull the thing together in a few short weeks. But I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if Steve didn’t pull it off.

The whole thing didn’t come together until the soundcheck because we couldn’t find a way to rehearse such a huge group. So we had to use the soundcheck as the only rehearsal where everyone was there all at the same time. I was stunned by how well it all came together. Huge kudos to Steve for having a vision and seeing it all the way through. His incredible work ethic made for an unforgettable experience for everyone on stage.

I think the thing that made me the giddiest was that Steve was able to get Lliam Christy and Sean Garcia to play with us. Those guys are legends around these parts. I went to college with Lliam and always saw him as this enigmatic super-human guitar wizard so to get to play with him was really an amazing thing for me.

Here is an mp3 of us playing ‘Here Comes The Sun’ at that show if you’re interested in hearing how the whole thing sounded.

All photos are by Christopher Gustave.

This is Sean Garcia.

This is me with hair.

Dino Nicastro

This is me trying not to giggle about the fact that I’m on stage with Lliam Christy and he’s actually talking to me.

Me and Lliam again.

Sean Garcia with Tim Redmond and the Magical Mystery Orchestra.

Steve Nowles – the brains behind the whole thing.

These next two aren’t from the Harrison show, I just thought they were cool so I stole these too.

Me and Steve.

Here are a few other pictures I happened to have from the Harrison show. These are of the actual performance. These are not by Gustave. These are not very cool.

Man I really wish I still owned that Les Paul.

Around Mother’s Day our camera went missing. Around yesterday afternoon it turned up in one of Riley’s many backpacks. I know. Your guess is as good as mine.

To celebrate its return I thought I’d post a few of the pictures that returned with the camera.

We have a lot of these.

This one was taken at the Shriner’s Circus just after watching some bears ride bicycles. Possibly the most awesome thing ever.

This is a cake Angel had her friend Missy (our own personal Ace of Cakes) make for me on our anniversary. For more info on the theme of the blue turtles read this post.

There’s an interesting story that goes along with this next picture. The boat that Riley is in is a boat that my folks bought when I was probably thirteen years old, so that would be about ten years ago. This boat has been sitting unused in my garage for about the last fifteen years. I figured that Riley was about at that age where a boy should learn to fish, so a few weeks ago I dug it out and got it all cleaned up.

I don’t have a truck to haul the thing in anymore but I do have a super tough and cool Escort wagon with a luggage rack so I figured that would have to do. On this particular Saturday morning I heaved the boat up onto the car and tied it vehemently and redundantly to the car. This took a long time. A long time. Then I loaded up all of my fishing gear (that I’ve owned since I was a kid which now smells like fifteen years in a garage) and all of Riley’s fishing gear (that smells like Wal Mart) and we headed to the lake.

After arriving at the lake I had to repeat the boat tying routine in reverse. This took a long time. A long time. Then we had to wait for a few guys to load out their huge boats at the boat ramp before I could drag our boat into the water by hand. Then I took a few pictures. Then we finally pushed off for our first father and son bonding/fishing adventure. I was very excited.

When we had pulled about ten feet past the boat dock my phone rang. It was Angel. She needed to know if I had left her the key to the Neon, our other car, because she had an eye doctor appointment in forty-five minutes.

I should mention here that we only have one key to the Neon and it’s on my key ring. Of course we have two keys to the Escort so it never dawned on me to take Angel’s keys and leave her mine when we went fishing.

So our first fishing trip lasted from the boat ramp to the end of the dock before I had to load the boat back onto the car (did I mention how long that takes) and go straight back home to take Angel the key to the Neon.

By the time we got home I was so frustrated that we just decided to stay home and try fishing some other day.