End of Summer

I hate it when the summer ends. I wish it could stay daylight until 9 pm all year long! Anyway here's some of the random stuff we've been up to.

A few weeks ago, my lifelong friends Jill and John visited from Burgettstown, and we had three days of fun, driving all over Los Angeles and gorging ourselves. We had a great burger at The Counter, an excellent Mexican meal at La Sirena, and of course, a classic In N Out burger. But the highlight was our splurge at Gordon Ramsay at The London.



The food was amazing -- but I did send some fish back. It was, well, you know, too fishy. I was hoping Gordon Ramsay would come out and call me a F**$@*NG DONKEY but instead the waiter was really nice about it and took it off our tab. What a letdown!

Brian and I were invited to an X-Games party in Hollywood. We're still not sure how we ended up on this guest list, but it was a blast. Right in the middle of Vine they had motocross riders doing tricks (that greenish blur is a guy flipping through the air).



We also got free t-shirts, hot dogs, drinks (yeah, open bar!) and a concert by Mike Ness. They had Guitar Hero Aerosmith and an old-fashion barber shop set up right in the middle of the dance floor where you could get a shave. Brian passed on the shave, but happily partook of the Guitar Hero and free drinks. Wonder why he kept going back to the bar...





Then we headed to Kentucky for my beloved cousin Dena's shower. To be more accurate, it was a co-ed "stock the bar" shower for her and her fiance Sam. We all greatly missed the presence of Samantha, but we still had a great time. Sam's dad brought some apple pie-flavored moonshine and I slurped it down like Crystal Light. That's the main reason why all of the photos I took are blurry.

Kelli with my Aunt Deanna saying "Bring me more moonshine, please. Do it!"



Brian making a gesture meaning "I need to consume more. Nothing's as great as flying cross country with a massive hangover. Bring it!"



My dear cousin Berni thinking "I think I am smiling normally, so take the picture! And bring me some moonshine, now."



Wow, here's a photo that isn't all that shaky, and the people in it look semi sober! This is gorgeous Dena and her badass bridesmaid Ashley.



Hey! Another one where we don't look so hammered. But appearances can be deceiving. Oh, except for my cousin Kelsey -- she's only 17 so of course she did not have one single drop of moonshine, fruity shots of vodka punch, Rolling Rock, or the specially-concocted Hurricane Dena (blended by her clever bridesmaid Severin). Right? Not one drop!



My poor brother Lee stayed sober all night. That didn't stop me from trying to drag him into my drunken web.



Ahhh. And a good time was had by all.

Back in LA, I went to see Extreme with three friends from "back in the day". I thought it might be cheesy. Instead, it was astounding! Okay, it's true, a lot of the crowd was kind of stuck back in the 80s. But I guess you gotta admire these people for sticking to their roots. Regardless of the number of acid washed jeans or mullets in the room, the band was incredible. Nuno Bettencourt is one of the best guitarists I've ever seen in my many, many decades.



This reminds me of a story from this past Christmas. I got my brother and sister-in-law tickets to see Van Halen (with David Lee Roth!) in concert in Las Vegas. My mom knew about the gift and as a special bonus, she got Lee a "vintage Van Halen t-shirt" from eBay. Well, when he opened it on Christmas day, we all got the laugh of the year: it was a Van Halen shirt featuring Gary Cherone!! I laughed so hard I think I had an asthma attack.

But honestly, after seeing Gary Cherone perform this past week, it isn't as funny as it was before -- he's fabulous! But still, nobody can take the place of David Lee Roth. Anyway, hang on to that shirt Lee, it's probably a rarity!

I leave you with a joke courtesy of my Uncle Dean. It's funny because of its accuracy.

A 3-year-old boy examined his testicles while taking a bath.

"Mom," he asked, "are these my brains?"

"Not yet," she replied.

(photo of Mr. Testicles from the Male Cancer Awareness Campaign)