randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

Ok, I confess that I started listening to these guys cause I’m friends with em.  But I must say that they amaze and amuse and I’m sure some of y’all would agree.  Give em a shot, check out an episode or two.  The two most recent episodes are quite amusing.  I laughed, I cried… I damn near peed my pants.

 http://straitjacketquartet.podomatic.com/

But watch out for Claus… he’s a bit odd.

So, last week at the Preston & Steve blood drive, Sisser acquired 2 tickets to the Poison/Def Leppard show.  Generous and loving that she is, Sisser took me to the show last night and damn was it awesome.  God I love seeing Poison live.  Even on an “off” night they’re damn good (last night was an “on” night, but I’ve seen a couple of “off” nights in the past).  I’ve seen Poison several times since ‘99 and loved every single show.  But I’d never seen Def Leppard.  I gotta say that they really rocked it out.  It was awesome.  I only wish they’d played Foolin.  That’s the only song that I really wanted to hear live that I didn’t get to hear.  They encored with Rock of Ages, which was awesome.

Poison’s set list was a little changed from past set lists.  I was very happy to finally hear them play a song I’ve been waiting over 20 years to hear live… and since I know that there are gonna be some Poison fans out there looking for it, I made note of the set list during the show:

• Let me go to the Show
• I Want Action
• Ride The Wind
• I Won’t Forget You
• Your Mama Don’t Dance
• CC’s Solo
• Fallen Angel
• Unskinny Bop
• Rikki’s Solo
• Every Rose
• Talk Dirty to Me
• Bret says goodnight, tells NJ/Philly we rock and  promises he’ll never play Broadway again *giggle*
• Encore: Nothing But a Good Time

The tickets we had were lawn seats, so I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures to post.  Sucks muchly.  But it was a great time.  I do love lawn seats though, I have to say.  As much as I enjoy seeing it all up close and feeling the energy just drip off the stage… the people watching on the lawn is awesome.  Not only that, you don’t have to put up with that being crushed feeling.  It’s also ideal when you’ve decided to take your child to a concert to sit on the lawn.  No, I didn’t take Gage.  Sisser did take her daughter to her first concert.  She even made her a t-shirt that says “I was born in 2005 and I love Poison.”  That little girl rocked out all night.  She was all smiles… dancing, singing along and jumping up and down in her excitement.

It was an awesome evening.

This past saturday, we did the Autism Speaks walk in the area.  It was fun, and we enjoyed it.  Our team (which consisted of myself, Gage, mom and Sisser) raised $320.  Gage got a t-shirt, so did mom and Sisser.  It was more important to me that Gage get one than I get one.  He wore his t-shirt to school today.  Gage actually walked about half of it, too.  Which made me very proud.  He handled the crowd pretty well as well.  I’d like to repeat that experience next year and in years to come.  Perhaps with a larger group next time.

They had information booths set up.  One that interested me the most was the Toys R Us booth.  They had a list of toys that are considered outstanding for kids with Autism.  On the top 10 list was 1 toy he already has (Kid K’Nex), 1 that I’ve been considering getting him (Candyland Castle) and a digital camera, which I know he loves… I just didn’t know was actually helpful to him in anyway.  Apparently trains (which he also loves) are also very good for certain skill development.  Good stuff to know.

They had guys from the 501st Legion at the walk.  It was exceptionally cool.  I got a picture with Boba Fett.  I know, I’m such a dork.  Gage was inspecting a storm trooper, I think he was trying to figure out how to dismantle the armor.  It cracked me up.