11/21 - The Harland

It's the winter solstice and it's a full moon. A Christmas full moon ~ ya gotta love that. Well, it's not official full-like until the 23rd, but of course I howled even though we couldn't see it, because the sky was so overcast. However, just for future reference a street light comes in handy as a replacement full moon. It also comes in handy when trying to put one over on your gullible friends (and succeeding in doing so).

We're also celebrating Festivus. I do believe that Mud won out in the airing of grievances and he and I might have tied in the feats of strength, although lifting a van is not quite the same as hefting a piano compared to another's piece of paper.

As for the actual gig, Greg sat in on the drums with us and I'm going to steal a line from my mom to describe it. "that's different". Enough said.

And we walked the dog on route 66. We're alright, don't worry about us. Crossing traffic was a wee bit tricky, but we survived.

Dancin' Charlie made his appearance, which made the night complete.

Patti, our beer goddess, is now hooked on chocolate covered Altoids and if you've never tried them you need to stop reading and go get some. You'll be hooked too.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part of all ~ it was the best Mojo Christmas! My new magic carpet is the way best EVER. It's leopard print and I love it. I couldn't stop looking at it through out the gig. My new friend, Bart even asked me what was up with it. I told him that it truly was magical and that just by standing on it made me sing better. Of course I lied. Well, only a partial lie. It is magical, and I really couldn't stop looking at it, but it didn't make me sing any better.

Oh well, it's always somethin'.

12/15 - South Side

Well, I'm pretty darn sure that we won't be playing there again. We were told to leave in the middle of the second set.

It's the first time I've ever been kicked out of a place because I wasn't rowdy enough. Will wonders never cease?

Apparently when people sing along and dance and clap at South Side it's not interpreted as a good thing.

12/8 - Mutt & Jeff's

Okay, I know it's Wed and the gig was on Sat, but get off my back. I'm quite sure that I got distracted by something shiny. Now, let's see what I can remember and considering the level of CRS I'm dealing with that should be quite a challenge.

The place sort of reminded me of the joint in the movie Thelma & Louise, but on a smaller scale and much less crowded (and with no rape or gunfire). So, I guess it was nothing like the bar in that movie.

We had some dancers, but they were actually "dancers". One of the two girls was vertically challenged and I'm not talking about her height. She spent a lot of time falling. And I guess these girls decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone when they realized that our music would be a great accompaniment to their aerobics. It was the first time I'd ever seen anyone do jumping jacks and cartwheels to our music. It kinda would have been oddly amusing if they'd done the jumping jacks while C-Man sang Jumpin' Jack Flash. Maybe that's where they got the idea.
Thankfully, there was no flashing to go with the jumping jacks.

There was Rob, who was mesmerized by Anno's bass playing abilities rather than being mesmerized by the chick he was there with. Hey, Anno's got it goin' on. It's really not his fault. Well, I'm sure it was his fault for something during the evening.

And then there was the guy who said that we were playing bluegrass and he liked salsa. Well, I like salsa too with some tortilla chips. Clearly, we were not the band for him.

That's pretty much it for this installment. Meet ya back here after Saturday's gig.

12/7 - The Station

After this gig, C-Man will never be the same (and neither will the poles in the bar). Marcie had quite an effect on both. She's such a cutie, although that would not be the word to describe her version of dancing. Hence the reason that neither C-Man nor the poles in the bar will ever be the same.

Aside from C-Man being up for Marcie (pun intended), we had our own cheering section too. Troy, Max, Pete, Petie, Marc, Cindy, Cindy's sister and brother-in-law, Peanuts, Chloe, and let's not forget Marcie. Pretty darned sure we won't.

You know how when you're on a plane they tell you that your seat cushion can be used as a floatation device (which would only be useful in the event of a crash in the water and that's such a comforting thought). Well according to C-Man, during the flight of my carpet (an actual piece of carpet - geeze, you guys are pervs), my front parts also become floatation devices. We didn't get around to proving that theory. Maybe next time. Or not.

And I do believe that I'll have to file a workman's comp claim. I was injured on the job. Don't worry about me...I'll be alright. I had no idea that singing could be so dangerous. There's a blood blister on my finger and stupid me thought it was dirt or ink and tried to wash it off. It's still there.

Ooh, and I got a lovely parting gift. It's an official-like Project Mojo luggage tag. My band bag is wearing it proudly.

12/1 - The Office

What I learned in school today. I mean, what I learned at the office today.

I learned that it has been determined through lengthy debate that there is no difference between Johnny Walker Red and Johnny Walker Black, except for the color of the label. However, the people who were debating and came to this conclusion were drinking beer, not Johnny Walker. But, it still counts as something I learned.

The other thing I learned is that those little drink stirrers can be used as chop sticks.

Let's see...what else...oh yeah, I learned that if you're a smokin' hot bartender even the girls will be checkin' you out. The bartender really was smokin' hot. And, no I'm not a lesbian. But if it helps you to get through these posts to believe that I am, then by all means I am.

Okay, now that you've stopped reading and are just fantasising about me and the smokin' hot bartender I can pretty much type anything.

Anything.

11/30 - The Harland

The Harland has got to be my favorite place for a gig and if you've been there you've got to be asking yourself why right now. I think it's because everyone there is just so damn nice. Plus the fact that they really seem to like us. That always helps!

Speaking of liking us, I'm assuming that this is a good thing - our new friend, Greg told me that my "white rabbit" (the song, you goofballs) was off the hook. Maybe I'm still on 33-1/3 speed, because to me that means that the hand set of my telephone is not on the cradle and it's doing that funky buzy signal sound followed by the weird screechy sound that you can hear from a mile away so that you know you're phone is off the hook. I have found that if you leave it like that long enough, it just gives up and it's quiet, which came in handy for the times when I didn't want to talk to stupid boys, so all they got was a buzy signal. But I digress. That's so unlike me.

Mud has a new gadget that does stuff. Now you all want one too, don't you? I have no idea what it's called, but it does do stuff. It was kinda freakin' me out a wee bit, because I thought that the voices in my head formed a band and were jammin' with us. They weren't.
No, I'm not really crazy (at least that's what the voices in my head tell me!).

Dancin' Charlie was cutting a rug, which is way different than cutting the cheese (of course he may have done that too, but we were upwind of him). And now I'm stuck in 1940. Who says "cutting a rug" anymore? Apparently, I do.

Then there was Rose and Chloe ran interference. She's our protector. Thank you, Chloe.

And there was the couple who really needed to get a room. It was pretty icky. It was also like a bad accident where you can't look away no matter how hard you try. And I really did try.

On that note, I'll leave you. You're welcome.

11/10 - Union House Bar

Oh guess what - they had the Big Buck Hunter game there as well (see entry for Den Too), so that should give you some indication of what the evening was like.

My mic stand was set up directly in line with the starting spot for darts which read "the bull starts here". Coincidence? I think not.

Chloe was able to get some great still shots. It's so much easier to focus on the non-moving.

We had some dancers, which was good and then there was this one guy who was actually dancing on the bowling machine, which was not good. Kinda looked like some reenactment of what he might have remembered seeing at a strip joint (less the stripping), but no one felt compelled to give him any money.

Then there was Ed. He was special. This guy knew how to get money from people. No, he did not strip and that was a very good thing. He did hike his drawers up quite often, so I guess he was a reverse stripper. Anyway, he picked up the tip bucket and went around collecting money. Special Ed did not take his new found, self appointed duty lightly. He not only stopped at the tables and at the bar, but he stopped in front of every single person and demanded tips. When people said no and tried to wave him away, it just made him more determined. Not enough tips to skip town, but Ed did manage to get us some gas money for the van. Like I said, he was special.

Let's not forget the aliens. No, not really but that's what Rev. Marty was calling it. There was some ringing/buzzing combo goin' on and it was most disturbing. Well, damn it now I want combos. Gotta go.

11/2 - The Station

Project Mojo has supporters! And I'm not talkin' old lady support hose, or a guy's athletic supporters, either.

We had the UCC girls - Janet, Jean, Barbara, Chloe (& me) there. Those girls are just way too cute. One of them requested that I sing "Molly McGee", which Mud expanded on to call it "Fibber McGee". So, I'm thinkin' that song will never go by it's real name again.

Barry was the chaperon for the girls and seemed to enjoy himself.

We also had the Rattler, Mark, Cindy, and her brother there to show their support.

Sadly, it was a very uneventful night. No one got crazy, no one danced, except for Barbara as she danced her way out. But, on the bright side no one threw their boots at us this time (see blog entry for the Great Lakes Brewery).

Stay tuned for next weekend's entry when we have the full band. There's always something outrageous-ish when the whole band is together. Better yet, just get your ass out to the gig and experience it first hand!

10/26 - The Harland

Another full moon! And it brought out the best in people. We ended up playing over our scheduled time because everyone was having such a good time and they didn't want us to leave.

We had "Dancin' Charlie" to get everyone up and moving. This man had to be about a hundred twelve, but so cute. With all the twisting and near gator moves he had, I was a little worried that there would be at least one broken hip and/or heart attack before the evening ended.
Thankfully, there was neither.

Our post card hoarder was there to turn it in for the free beer. We found out that he also handed them out to some of his friends who were there as well enjoying their free beer. But, it pretty much balanced out when Mike bought the boys and me a round of drinks.

This was my first gig since coming back from vacation. The last time I got back from vacation, my fist gig back was at the Harland. Quite a coinkidink, don't you think? AND there was a full moon at the last gig I played. Hey, it's the little things in life that mean a lot.

And speaking of coincidences, I've been working on "call me", by Blondie and I was planning on singing it at this gig, but I chickened out. Just as Mud started to play another song for me, one of the girls in the crowd requested that I do a Blondie song. So, I muddled through it.
Still wondering if Mud didn't put her up to it...

9/27 - Rooster's

Okay, I don't get it (maybe if I did my hair different). No, that's not it. What I don't get is that when it's a bazillion degrees complete with matching humidity, we play outside on the patio and everyone stays inside where it's cool. Now that it's cool outside, we played on the patio and everyone stayed inside where it was cozy. But, this time the blinds on the windows were closed so we couldn't even watch T.V. while we played. Such hardships we must endure.

It did get a titty bit nipply by the time we were wrapping things up, but don't worry about us...
we're alright.

Anno joined us and a good time was had by all.

Mud determined that Chloe claps as fast as a cocaine addict's heartbeat. She really does.
She also ran to each table to clap after one song so that it would seem like we had more people out there with us. Didn't work.

Darryl and company were there for a bit and that was most appreciated.

We got to see the full moon (not to be confused with the full monty) as we were packin' it up and of course I had to howl. Don't tell anyone, but Mud got in touch with his inner howler.
Oops, too late - secret's out.

9/22- Den Too
Happy 4th Year Anniversary!

It was like old home week being at Den Too again. They have some regulars. Christine, who sang with us last time we played there, compared it to Cheers. It's just a nice, friendly neighborhood bar.

Okay, enough with the endorsements. Let's get down to brass tacks.

I didn't notice this the last time we played there, but along with the usual video games of golf, bowling and NTN, they also have Big Buck Hunter. I kid you not. It's a hunting game. And we were in North Royalton, not North BFE.

There was a TV located about 2 feet above our heads, so I kept thinking that people were mesmerized by us, when in fact they were just watching TV. Oh well.

Part of Den Too's anniversary celebration included a free buffet, which was a dream come true to some of us...
Anyway, the buffet table had a chocolate fountain at the end of it complete with fruit for all your chocolate fountaining needs. So, of course all I could think about was drinking in all the chocolate and the ways in which to do that varied as the night went on. You'll probably figure out (if you didn't already know) that chocolate ranks right up there with M&C with me, which brings me to how I messed up my song -

In the Indigo Girls song "closer to fine" the chorus goes like this: I went to the doctor, I went to the mountain, I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain. Guess what I was thinking about when I sang the "drank from the fountain" part? That's right, that damned chocolate fountain. I kept picturing my glass of water as a glass of chocolate that I could sip through the straw. But, it didn't stop there. I started thinking that the more people drank, the less they would use the handy dandy toothpicks that could also double as a handle when stuck into the fruit that was waiting to be immersed in chocolate. And then I started thinking that those same people who would forgo the use of the toothpick handles in their fruit would eventually forgo the use of fruit and just stick their fingers in the chocolate fountain. Which lead me to think that I should have been there when they started that fountain up so that I could have had chocolate that didn't taste like other people's fingers. I was thinking that the best way to get the most chocolate from that fountain in the least messy way would be to stick a straw in it and make like a Hoover. And yes, I thought all this while in the midst of singing "closer to fine". Remember the song? Anyway, when the chorus came back around on the guitar, I was still thinking about that fountain so all I could do was sing words that rhymed with fountain (good thing that fountain wasn't a duck), so I sang "I went to the mountain, I went to the mountain".

Okay, got through that.

They also had the Miller Lite girls there and let me tell you, I kind of felt like a lesbian (or an old guy perv) 'cause those girls were hot. It was really hard (no pun intended) to not look at their parts, but I digress. I'm sure that some of you wish I would digress more, but you know what they say about wishing, don't you?

The hot Miller Lite girls were handing out free wrist bands and coolies. We found a new use for a coolie. All you pervs just cut it out, it wasn't for that. We had our own version of Pat. Remember the old Saturday Night Live? Well, if I had to make that reference, then you don't remember or you're not old enough to have seen it. Anyway, this person sitting at the bar was a cross between Pat and Foghorn Leghorn (remember the old cartoons-the really good cartoons?)
"Pat" decided that the coolie would make a great head band, which in turn made Pat's hair stick up like a rooster's and now you get the Foghorn Leghorn reference. But, what made it even funnier was that Pat had to keep checking the look in the mirrors at the end of the bar. Apparently, Pat was pleased with the look.

Well, I got to sing Bobby McGee in the the key of G rather than the key of Gee That's Low.

Oh yeah, they also had a cat. Pretty sure it was an outdoor cat, but it was very comfortable around people. Actually, I think it was a teenage feline - not a kitten, but not yet a cat.
Who cares. The point of the story is that when we were bringing out equipment to load up the van, the cat was just laying on his/her (don't know, didn't check) doormat and he/she just layed there looking up at us like we were no big deal until we set down the amp. He/she jumped up all excited like because the amp must have looked like the best giant scratching post EVER.
I had to pull the cat off of it, but it was no big deal. I thought perhaps he/she would latch on to me as a make shift scratching post, but thankfully I left without a case of cat scratch fever.
About midway through the van loading process, he/she decided that the inside of the van would make a really great place to hang out, so he/she jumped aboard. It would have made an amusing video to see Mud and Chloe trying to shoo or rescue (depending upon which person you were watching) the cat from the van. The rescuer won and the cat quickly dashed off to an alley.
So, would that make he/she an alley cat? I know - bad joke, but I work with what I have.

That's pretty much it or at least all that I can remember from that night.

9/8 - Edison's Pub

The place was still just as wee, but not nearly as packed as the last time we played. However, 2nd shift and 3rd shift showed up. We ended up having a good time, even though it wasn't a real hoppin' night.

Tonight's guests were Alex (no, not Alex Bevin), who played the violin (fiddle for you country folk) and Hollywood Dan, who played the drums. I have no idea how he does it not knowing what songs we're going to play and/or when we're going to play them. Both boys were great!

Anno and Lola did the screaming thing again and there could have been a cat fight, but just the audio version.

The bartender had the whole shakin' thing goin' on with mixing drinks so I asked him if he wanted to play the maracas. He declined.

There were CD's laying on the side bar, so I took one to listen to on the way home. It was called Spank Rock. Interesting. Oh well, at least I wasn't bored.

The end.

9/7 - The Station

We played inside this time, because of the rain that was doing the on and off thing. It didn't seem all that cool inside, but at least the boys were hot too so I knew I wasn't having a hot flash.

Mark and Cindy were there for the first set, the Rattler got there about 1/2 way through and Chloe was able to break away from her event and made it there just in time to be our roadie. There were a few other people throughout the evening who were very supportive, but all in all it was a pretty uneventful gig.

One bit of good news for all you technos - computer and cell phone reception is excellent there.

9/1 - Great Lakes Brewing Co.

When we sang "takin' it to the streets" we meant it. We were playing in the street, but they had the street blocked off so it wasn't like we were dodging traffic while we were singing, although that would make for a very interesting gig.

It was a great gig. Lots and lots of people. The Brewery was having their October Fest (I know, it's not October), the air show and the taste of Cleveland were all going on at the same time.

Mud used his handy-dandy, laminated, wallet sized poetic license to change all the train lyrics to airplane lyrics to better suit the mood of the day.

The gig started at noon o'clock with the sun at it's blaziest and silly me wore a black t-shirt. Not one of the smartest things I've ever done, but certainly not one of the dumbest either. And as entertaining as those dumb things are, we don't have that kind of space on this blog. I was smart enough to bring the sun screen.

There was a band playing in the courtyard about a hop, skip, and a spit from us and when we started playing it truly became a battle of the bands. It wasn't pretty at all. C-Man talked them into sharing the gig time with us, so it ended up working out okay.

We had our resident cutie. She was just a wee little thing and oh so too very adorable.

We also had visitors from Slovenia. Their fashion police must be on strike, because one of the guys was wearing an orange flowered terry cloth shirt, short shorts and cowboy boots covered in real cow (or some sort of animal hair that looked rather cow-like). His friends decided to do a citizens arrest and took his boots from him, which would have been fine, but they also felt the need to hurl them toward us. A lot less messy than the tomatoes, but a bit more painful.

C-Man ordered food for us about 1/2 way through and they gave him this number on a little stand like you'd see at a banquet table. Our number was 50. We never got our food. It got to be a joke with some of the people there who started teasing us about it and asking if they should go check on the food for us. When the gig was all over, I became the designated food orderer and when I asked about our previous order the bartender exclaimed, "oh you're the ones with the mystery order!" At least she didn't say mystery odor.

While we were eating I noticed this framed section of the wall that appeared to be straw. I took a picture of it, which I'm sure will eventually make it's way to the website, but getting the film developed first will be the key. Anyway, I asked the waitress chick (Ashley) about it and yes, yes it is straw. That's what was used as insulation for the walls . Apparently they've never heard of the big bad wolf. All it takes is a huff and a puff and that wall is history. Oddly enough, there was a working fire place (not working at the time) on that very same wall. Talk about fuel for your fire.

We sampled a couple of their beers, because we're pretty sure that's the law at a brewery.
Oh yeah speaking of the law, the story goes that the bullet hole in the wall behind the bar was made from the bullet that was intended for Elliot Ness. Fact or fiction - you make the call.

8/30 - Rooster's

As I was walking up to the patio where the boys had set up shop, I noticed that they were talking with a man who looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place him. When I finally made my way up to them, I saw that he was our buddy Lawrence (from the Cleve Grill). We chatted with him for a bit before we got started. He's such a nice man.

The weather was finally nice enough for people to be out on the patio and not have to feel like the Wicked Witch
(I'm melting...melting...).

We made new friends, Lynne and Cheryl. They were very funny girls. They gave Mud a new nick-name - The Brick Man, which quickly morphed into Adobe Man.

There was a young man there who was feeling the music and we were able to play all his requests. I think he may have left there a little happier than when he arrived. His mom was celebrating having him and his sister back in school. They even moved up from their table in the way back to a table up front. I think the waitress chick (oops, 2 faux pas in one) was a little nervous that they left her with the bill when she came back out and didn't see them. The look on her face was rather amusing to me.

Because Chloe wasn't there to get the high sign signal for ordering food for us, I went through M&C withdrawal. The same waitress chick who thought those people left her with the bill also thought we were invisible. Maybe I'll start bringing some in a thermos (it keeps things cold and hot, but how does it know?). Anyway, that could be my signature instead of a bottle of Southern Comfort. Hey, it could work. Macaroni & cheese is a comfort food. See the similarities?

8/28 - BW3's

Their patio was pretty nice, except for that big harry spider that C-Man pointed out to us. It could have been a baby tarantula. I said could have been. After every song, I kept looking back to make sure it wasn't making it's way toward me to bite me and make me suffer a slow painful death. Spiders are not my favorite creature. I'll wait right here while you get your shocked face on. Well, the spider ended up moving from his spot, but did not bite me nor make me suffer a slow painful death. Just call me Capt. Obvious.

Barbara and Barry ventured out this evening. They stayed for almost the entire time. It was so great to see them again!

We had our dancers again, but this time they were grown ups not tiny. One of them (I think his name was Dave) kept calling me Susan Sarandon all night, which was perfectly fine with me.

There was a full moon and there was some howling going on. Was it live or was it Memorex? No, Ella Fitzgerald wasn't there. Along with the Memorex version, I did some live howling with Barry. Well, not so much with him as much as next to him. He took some pictures of the moon and I'm really looking forward to seeing them.

8/25 - The Station

Once again, patio/hot/humid. Just add feasting mosquitoes, dust, and trains with crazy horn blowing engineers to the mix and you've got this gig.

At least this time we had people on the patio with us. We had our crowdling dancer who was the way cutest little boy, although he was actually more of a swayer than a dancer. Sorry, won't explain the crowdling thing. Privileged inside info and I know as Chloe reads this, she's singing.

I gave him the shaky egg and he quickly realized that it would be way more fun to use it as a soccer ball than as anything related to music. It was most enjoyable for me to watch his parents scramble for it as it went sailing across the deck.

Oh, guess what I had to eat during one of the breaks? If you guessed M&C, then you are absolutely correct and win nothing.

The power was off across the street, so the people in that neighborhood must have all decided at once to follow the light, which lead them to our gig. They got there during one of the breaks and about 2 seconds before we were ready to start playing, as Mud was switching the music off and the mics on, all the lights across the street came back on. Mud was pretty happy to finally figure out what that one switch was for. But, as soon as everyone saw the lights they all herded themselves back across the street. Gotta love the power of the pack.

8/23 - Rooster's

Played on the patio again and it was oh so too very warm. Who am I kidding, it was HKT hot. I have no idea what that means, but mom used to say it during the dog days of summer. All I know is that is was HOT.

And the humidity was at 1,000 percent so that made it all the more enjoyable. It was so humid, the air was almost liquid. To quote Owen, "the night was moist".

From our spot on the patio, we had a perfect view through the windows to all the people inside enjoying the AC action. Other than Chloe (our official MojoPhotoGrapher), there was 1 table of people on the patio. They toughed it out and stayed almost until the end. A couple of boys came outside and sat down for 2 or 3 songs during the last set and then went back inside to join the others and all the comforts of AC.

The only thing that got me through the evening was the deep fried macaroni and cheese. The boys and Chloe determined that I'm addicted to M&C. Hey, there could be worse things to be addicted to. At least with M&C I'm getting some of the basic food groups: dairy, whole grains (I'm pretending that the pasta wasn't made with processed, bleached white flour) and let's not forget the most important food group of all - grease. It's also a musical.

8/16 - Rooster's

We were back on the patio! It's much nicer to play outside. The weather wasn't too horrible.
Maybe a wee bit humid for a bit, but it cooled off nicely by the end of the evening.

I now know the weight limit on my "coffee table". That would be 1 giant glass of water and 1 big ass beer. Too much. Yeah, it came crashing down. Glass broke. Liquid spewed. It was not pretty. The worst part about it was that I had only 3 sips of the beer before it went sailing into oblivion. You know how there's that moment of silence immediately after the sound of breaking glass, no matter how loud it was just before the breaking glass sound? Yeah, we had that. Then Mud broke the silence with "clean up on isle 4" and then everyone went back to what they were doing before the crash and isle 4 remained unclean.

The rest of the first set was pretty uneventful, but on the break I decided to tempt fate and got another big ass beer and yet another giant glass of water. Perhaps the bartender thought it would be entertaining to see what would happen if I had a sharp object too, so to this glass of water she added a lemon that was speared with a really pointy plastic sword. I changed my mind about fate and immediately removed the sword and handed it to the nearest adult and I used an actual full size table with actual full size legs to set the glasses on this time. Usually I'm much more adventurous, but hey - there was beer involved.

During our last break, C-Man and I both had heart-attack-on-a-plate. Deep fried macaroni and cheese with sour cream. Yummm... It was most good.

Other than that, I've got nothin'.

8/11 - Kelley's Island Brewery

The Rattler and I decided not to take the car over this time. Remember the Saturday Night Live commercial spoof called "bad idea jeans"? Yeah, that was us. For a couple of reasons:

1) Lola does not walk for transportational porpoises. When I'm at home I walk from the couch to the refrigerator and back again. When I'm at work I walk from my desk to the coffee pot and back again. I usually count these walks as exercise since they're repeated throughout the day.

b) The Rattler and I both wore black shirts (the sun was out in full force) and I had on my Frankenstein sandals, which I ended up carrying after about 10 steps.

When we finally arrived after many "are we there yet?" questions from yours truly, we discovered that we were part of the Matching Mojos. We all had on black shirts and khaki shorty pants. The boys all had on baseball caps, too (apparently, I didn't get that memo).

We ended up doing a Rolling Stones tribute with every song being a Stones song. We could have sung Tennessee Ernie Ford and it would have been a Rolling Stones song. It was pretty entertaining to see the confused looks on people's faces and to read their lips when they told the people they were with that they thought for sure that was a Beatles song, which of course it was.

C-Man was told to make an announcement that a couple there would be married in 3 weeks. The announcement was news to the groom-to-be. Oddly enough, they left shortly after that.

We had our resident dancer again. A cute little boy who was accompanied by his dad and his grandfather. It was very sweet. They did their own version of the bunny hop.

I had been looking forward to having an Island Devil beer, but it was still "green" and not yet ready for public consumption. However, after I whined to the owner about not being able to have it and that I'd been so looking forward to it, he whisked me away to the private brew room to get a sample. I know you think this is going to be a dirty story, but it's not. That's the only sample of his that I got and/or cared to have. The Matching Mojos know the real reason that Lola got her way! Pretty sure it had something to do with floatation devices...

We were set up in a much better location this time and hopefully next year when we go back they'll have electricity out there so everyone will be able to stay after dark.

While we were singing, I kept seeing island taxis driving past and as I was memorizing the phone number I was also wondering where they were when my bare feet were becoming one with stones and hot pavement. But, not to worry - Mark took the Rattler and me back to the ferry after the gig, which I thought was very nice of him.

None of us were in the party mood when we finished up, so we all hopped the ferry to come back home. We were all star gazing with Mud making up names of constellations which were oh so too very funny at the time, but of course I can't remember any of them now. CRS strikes again.
I did learn that Orion's Belt has a big old belt buckle that says Orion on it. Yes, I know he made that up too.

8/10 - The Driftwood

Perfect night for being outside, especially compared to the last time we played there. We got to see the sunset, which Mud got some pictures of, and we had a perfect view of the lake (until it got dark). Life is good!

Searched for beach glass during one of the breaks and didn't find any. I thought that there would have been a ton of it out there, but no.

We had a guest percussionist/dancer. Her name is Clarissa Lynne and she's a whopping 2 years old. What a little cutie! She gathered up an armload of twigs and branches and used a couple of the larger ones as her drum sticks.

The table that was close to where we set up shop for the night was all feng shuied out with stones, which I took as a really good sign.

Barbara Jo and William E. came out to see us. That made me pretty happy. Probably won't see them again until Christmas time. You'd think we live at opposite ends of the earth.

Paul and Little B. came out too! Poor Brenda, with her asthma - during one of the songs, she ended up having to find a place to sit that wasn't downwind of the cigarette smoke and moved to 3 different spots until she finally found a place to breath. Paul said that she was trying to make it look like there were more people out there.

The inside was pretty hoppin', which didn't make any sense because there was no air conditioning in there and it was such a beautiful night to be outside, not to mention the whole lake view / sunset thing goin' on that they missed out on. But more importantly, they missed out on the Mojo. It's a project, you know.

The bugs liked us. As soon as we coated ourselves in Off , the bugs came around in full force. Maybe they took it as a challenge, I don't know. But, the funny thing was that C-Man didn't use any and he seemed to be bug free.

At one point, Mud had his own Discovery Channel thing goin' on with a bug that decided to hang out on his mic during one of his songs. Thankfully, he looked away in time so that his cross-eyed condition isn't permanent.

I got my taste of a bug when it flew into my mouth while I was singing. Yummy. Now I understand why those people who eat bugs coat them in chocolate.

8/9 - B.C. Rooster's

We ended up playing inside, because of the weather and I'm pretty sure that we all like the patio setting better. For me it was more relaxed and fun. However, a couple of the servers there made it fun inside. They danced to some of the songs and did the choreography to Stop In The Name Of Love.

I got to play the Mojo version of peek-a-boo with a little girl who was sitting at one of the tables with her family. She was hiding behind her mom and I got to hide behind the mic stand
(I know I can't fit behind the mic stand, I'm not that delusional). Not sure which one of us had more fun.

Chloe, our MojoPhotoGrapher was there and got some fun shots of us. She's a great supporter!

Joel showed up during the last set to redeem himself from being absent for so long. C-Man gave his blessing and all's forgiven. We sang Hang On Shirley for Shirley in her absence. Joel did the choreography on that one.

That's pretty much it for this gig. Hopefully, next Thursday we can be back outside.

8/3 - The Station

When I got there I noticed that C-Man had already made a new friend. Her name is Leah. She's 8 years old. He was teaching her one of the songs and she was just enamored with him.

Leah sang Can't By Me Love with us and played the maracas. I seriously thought about just packing my bag and leaving right then. This little chicklette was great! She hung with us for a while, playing the maracas and keeping us in line.

The cutest thing was when Mud was singing Kodachrome and he got to the line, "when I look back on all the crap I learned in high school", Leah's head snapped up to look at him with a horrified look on her face. When I realized that she thought he'd said something hugely bad and was going to get in trouble, I leaned over and whispered to her that it was okay, he sad "crap" instead of the real bad word. She was okay with that.

C-Man was the one for her, though. He remembered her cat's name (Biscuit) and talked to her about her cat and about life in general like she was a real grown up, not just a little kid and it made her feel so special. It was very sweet.

She even got paid for her gig! A whole dollar. Hopefully, we didn't violate any child labor laws.

This time around, we did have a couple dogs on the deck with us. A basset hound named Buford and a black lab named something I can't remember. The CRS kicked in, sorry. Buford was so very cute. The only way we could tell that he was happy was that his little tail was wagging. His face and eyes still had that sad basset hound look.

The trains didn't seem to be as bad as the last time. Of course they came at the most inopportune times. Once while C-Man was singing, he just mouthed the words until the train went by, which reminded me of the Little Rascal's episode where Alfalfa is giving a speech at the train station and each time the train would blow it's whistle, Alfalfa's words were drowned out, so of course it cracked me up.

Then when Mud was singing Driver 8, a train went by. I thought that was most appropriate.
I looked to see if the train was the number 8 train, but it wasn't. The driver may have been...

8/2 - B.C. Rooster's

Rooster's is a fairly new place in the Parma-ish area. It's only been open about 3 months.
Tim, the manager is a hoot. Oh no, wait - that's an owl not a rooster. Whatever. Anyway, he's a very nice boy.

We played out on the patio and we ended up having a pretty decent time, despite the heat and humidity. I felt like the wicked witch. I'm melting...melting. It was not pretty.

There was a boat parked in the driveway of the house across the street, so we sort of pretended that we were still at the island gig. I said sort of.

Chloe was there (of course!) and took some pretty cool pictures.

It's going to be a standing gig for Thursdays through August and September, so that's good for us. Not so good for Lola once choir practice starts up again, though. Yes, choir as in church choir. Lola meets Sister Christian. Hey, weirder things have happened.

Nothing out of the ordinary to report on this gig.

She's baaaaaack...

Okay, let's continue with the island gig. I'm only 1 week behind and for me that's not so bad.

7/28
Saturday at Put-In-Bay

After hiking from our deluxe accommodations and rounding the corner to the main drag to grab some breakfast at Pasquale's, which was reported to have the best breakfast on the island, we were shocked and amazed (I was anyway, don't know about everyone else) at the amount of people who were already cruising the strip, some of them cruising with a nice buzz. I was a wee bit envious about the morning buzz thing, but not envious enough to have a bloody mary to kick start my day. Having had a nap in place of a full night's sleep, I needed coffee and lots of it. However, there was no one selling coffee to the people waiting in line out the door and down the sidewalk.

At that point, I didn't really care if Pasquale's had the best breakfast or not and I was about to suggest that we keep moving when I realized that I could just cross the street to get my much needed jolt of caffeine at the coffee bar that pretended to be a real bar by offering a choice of margarita or bloody mary, both of which I declined. So, Chloe and I took every one's coffee order (everyone in our group, not everyone in the line) and while we were waiting for our 6 cups of LARGE coffee, the line at Pasquale's started moving. We bailed on the coffee bar chick.

After breakfast and lots of coffee, we said our goodbyes to Gene and Denny and then Rattler, Chloe and I went to the peace monument and then went to check out the winery and the crystal cave. We got chips (poker type chips, not potato type chips) for free glasses of wine. But, by then it was starting to get close to the time that Rattler had to catch the ferry back so we didn't get to use our chips. Of course I kept them to cash in later.

Chloe and I sent Rattler on his way and then hiked back to the Ritz to settle in for a long summer's nap. Napping is good.

After the second round of gigging and standing in the same spot with the same view (which was incredible, because we got to look out at the lake to see all the boats and sunsets), I noticed that the middle of the tree in the middle of the patio looked like an elongated heart. I thought it was kinda neat. Yeah, I said neat.

In between the view of the tree and the view of the boats and sunsets was the view of the sidewalk and the street. Not too much of interest on the sidewalk, just the standard view of people passing by. The street was a different story.

There was some rent-a-bride thing that kept passing by. We're not really sure if it was a chapel on wheels or a van load of desperate girls looking to have their version of a Vegas wedding.

There seemed to be a continous stream of police cars and firetrucks. No, it wasn't a parade. It might have been the same 1 police car and 1 firetruck making tons of trips. Don't know. But the point is that Saturday night was so different from Friday. Much more activity and great people watching!

After the gig, we went to the Beer Barrel to listen to a band that I missed out on hearing the night before for reasons that fall into the selective senility area of my brain. The lead singer wears all kinds of different outfits which he changes every couple of songs. The outfits are all women's clothes. I think it was just his "shtick". It certainly made us remember him!

The Beer Barrel has the longest bar EVER. It winds around kind of like a maze, but it's one continuous bar that's about a bazillion feet long. That's long. The place was packed, but we managed to get through the sea of people to find a place to sit.

Some guy wanted to get from one side of the room to the other, so he took the shortest distance between two points approach and walked across the tables to get there. It was way more fun to watch the reactions from the people who were sitting at the tables he was walking across than it was to watch him.

And let's not forget the couple at the table next to us who decided to do their version of dirty dancing. Because they were standing and we were sitting, we got to be right up close and personal. I'm thinkin' the sharp stick in the eye might have been better.

From there we made our way down to the Round House to listen to the 15 year old we met the night before at the dorm. When we got there the people were packed in like sardines, the line was out the door and WAY down the sidewalk so we chose to just stand on the other side of the street where we could see them and almost, but not quite hear them.

There were a few bachelorette parties going on that night too. One of the brides-to-be was sitting on the porch at the Round House wearing a cowboy hat complete with a veil and a penis No, not a real one. Well, the veil was real. We assumed that she was a bride-to-be and not someone with a really weird sense of fashion.

C-Man ended up splitting off from us and going back to crash, because he'd been fighting off a cold for a couple of days. He was a trooper, though.

Chloe, Mud, and I decided to continue people watching and we found a park bench where we could sit and enjoy the show. It didn't take long until the show came to us.

Some girl meanders over to us, carrying her CFM yellow pumps (yes, yellow). She told us that we looked harmless and asked if she could sit with us. Sure. She was on the island for her sister's bachelorette party and oh guess what, her sister was the one with the penis hat.

The park bench was right across from the pay phones and some guy was using the phone while he was listening to his MP3. This girl thought that he was using the pay phone while he was on his cell phone. That was most disturbing to her.

She was telling us that 2 years ago was the last time she was at Put-In-Bay and that time she ended up passing out in the park next to some animal sculpture. Her friends took pictures and posted them on My Space. Okay, you've totally stopped reading this and are searching My Space for chicks passed out in the park at Put-In-Bay in 2005 aren't you? Of course you are. I almost did the search my own self.

Oh, but guess what else we learned about her - she never drinks and is in bed by 9:00 every night. Come on, you haven't forgotten the rule already have you? Let's review: do not mess with other people's fantasies.



7/29
Sunday at Put-In-Bay

C-Man was already out and about, so the 3 Musketeers (okay, Three Stooges) headed out for breakfast. We took a long-cut and ended up getting to see a pirate ship. Not a real one though.

This time we went to a breakfast buffet which was way more exciting to think about than it was to actually see it in person. Remember the dirty dancing couple from the night before? Yeah, they were there. Thankfully, this time our tables were not right next to each other.

After a sufficient amount of grazing, we took the ferry over to Middle Bass where we rented a golf cart and did the self guided tour. We got a map and stopped at all the "hot spots".
Middle Bass was so quiet and peaceful. I could definitely see the attraction for living there.

The place that we rented the golf cart from was also an ice cream parlor AND a bar. Ya gotta love that. Of course we got ice cream when we dropped off the cart.

The bar was pretty interesting. It had playing cards that had people's names written on them randomly stuck to the ceiling. But, the whole cards thing didn't match any theme that they did or did not have going on in there so Mud asked the nice man behind the bar what the deal was with the cards. HA! I crack my self up. Get it - deal...cards. Okay whatever.

Anyway, the story is that some magician was in there and gave a deck of cards to someone to write their name on one of the cards and to put it back in the deck. Then the magician flipped the deck up and the card that had the person's name on it stuck to the ceiling. It was a pretty impressive story, because they did not have a drop ceiling in that joint. I think it would have been way fun to see in person.

We noticed that there was a priest on the ferry with us on the way back and we didn't know whether to be nervous or comforted. We figured that if the boat went down, at least we'd get last rights. It didn't sink. And we didn't get last rights.

After we got back to PIB, Chloe decided to do the nap thing again so Mud and I cruised around for a while.

We went to The Boathouse to see Alex Bevin. He's not such a skinny little boy (from Cleveland, OH) any more. Stayed there for a couple of songs and then it dawned on me that I still had the chips for the wine. Guess where we went next. That would be correct.

However, we decided to walk. It's a really long walk from the Boathouse to the winery. But hey, it was free wine. Remember the "I'd walk a mile for a Camel" slogan? I guess our slogan was "I'd walk a ways for free wine".

On the way back from the winery, we hit the chocolate factory/museum. The museum portion of it was a small room with tins from long ago and some reproductions that had any thing at all to do with chocolate and a big poster on the wall that gave us all the information we needed about the evolution of chocolate.

I became a Lolaloompa (like an Oompaloompa, but different), complete with a picture. I also got to be in the chocolate factory episode of I Love Lucy. Well, not the actual episode. Just a picture.
We each consumed about 5 lbs of chocolate and downed a huge coffee before we left, so we were not the least bit hyped up when we left there. Not at all.

After that, we wondered around a bit in a caffeine stupor and then finally decided to split off until the gig that night.

We never saw C-Man in our travels. Turns out that he was the smart one in the group, because he rented a bike to cruise around on all day.

Chloe helped us set up and then she headed back to the ferry.

The gig that night was pretty layed back. We did have some dancers, though. There was a couple who danced to a few songs and there was the cutest little girl who was dancing the cat's eye dance and shimmying her shoulders with a very mischievous look on her face during a couple of the songs. It was like having a mini-Chloe there!

Mary's sister was there and I talked with her for a little bit at the bar. She was very nice.

The boys sang happy birthday to me for my 1 year anniversary. As it turns out, next to Anno I'm the longest lasting mojo-ette they've had.

Mud drove me to the ferry after the gig and I stuck my head out the window to howl at the moon again. Forgot about howling at it on Friday night with Gene. He was way too cute.

The ferry ride was most interesting. Hope you're up for it.

There was a girl and a guy, but from different parties who were both on the verge of hurling. I stayed far away from them. The other girl who was taking care of puke girl had to be her best friend, because when puke girl started doing the neck craning thing with the worried look, the other girl held her hand in front of her pre-puking mouth and kept telling her that she was alright, to just keep breathing. It became kind of like a mantra. When we boarded, the "stewardess" gave puke chick a plastic bag. Not sure what became of the guy.

I talked with some chick who works at the Park Hotel, at least I think that's what she said. I know it was one of the hotels. Anyway, she commutes to work. It's about a 20 minute ride from home to the ferry and then another 20 minute ferry ride to go to and from work. That's not so bad, since my ride is that long too. I would love to have half of it be broken up with great scenery and fun people watching. She stays at home with her daughter during the winter months.

Then, there was this older couple that I didn't notice while I was waiting, but couldn't stop watching during the ride back. They were sitting at one of the tables, facing toward me. Both of them were on the same side and he was sitting sideways with his arms around her while she was sitting up straight as a board, smashed against the wall looking straight ahead with her hands in her lap not touching him at all. They never talked the entire time. At first she looked like it was a first date gone bad and she couldn't wait to get the hell away from him and then after about 5 minutes, she scootched around to a slouching position, leaned up against him and brought her arm up to circle around his head and was caressing the back of his neck and she got this porno look on her face. Ewwwww. The thing that really grossed me out was that he looked so much like a guy who works with me. I swear it was like a bad car accident, I just couldn't look away. So I didn't. When they got up to leave, she reverted back to the "don't touch me you freak who I just wasted my entire day with and I'll never get it back" mode. Very interesting.

Oh yeah, then there was the boat bouncer who was standing at one set of doors that closed off the inside seating part from the outside standing part trying to look like a bad ass in him Capt. Stubing outfit. There were some rowdy guys on the outside deck, so young Capt. Stubing closed the doors and stood there with his hand holding the rails of the doors to keep them from coming inside. What the poor dumb thing didn't realize is that those party boys had no intentions of coming inside to cause a ruckus. They were quite content to be out there and that about 6 feet to his left, there was another set of doors all big old wide open with no bouncer. So, then I couldn't stop watching him to see how long it would take him to notice. Apparently, he already knew because after a couple minutes of bad ass door holding, he left his post and went to the other set of doors. I thought he was going to close those too, but nooooooooooo...he ended up walking through them and going to the upper deck leaving us to fend for ourselves. He probably realized what a dumbass he was and couldn't bear to face us any longer, so he went upstairs to hide from us.

When we're coming up to the end of our journey, one of the other Capt. Stubing wanna bees who looked like he was about 12, came up to the front where I was sitting (oh yeah, I rode backwards the whole way with out getting sick! I was going to turn around, but then I knew I'd miss everything.) and he picks up a life jacket and puts it on. I wasn't sure if that was a signal that we should all do the same, but then he went through the front hatch to the outside and started getting the ropes all ready. Whew, I was a little concerned.

That was pretty much it. Quite an adventure!

7/27 - 7/29
Put-In-Bay!

I played the islands. I'm somebody now. We played at The Crew's Nest on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'll try to remember as much as possible. Gonna be tough. It was a whirlwind weekend. Okay, here goes nothin'.

7/27 -
I made a new friend on the ferry ride over. Well, we actually met at the tiki bar while waiting for the ferry. Great idea putting that bar there. But of course the ferry shows up after I take 2 sips of my drink, so I chugged. Hey, I'm not proud (or tired). Anyway, my new friend Margaret and 25 of her closest friends were going camping for the weekend. Since it was just Margaret on the ferry by herself I wondered if she might be the only one who could see those 25 friends.
Not really. Geeze, I'm not that mean. But now that I think about it, she didn't have any camping gear with her...

We docked at the complete opposite end of the island from where the gig was, which I discovered after I called the boys to let them know I had landed. I guess my whining technique hasn't lessened over the years, because Mud came to get me so that I wouldn't have to walk.

They were very generous with the food and the drink there. I know if we had stayed any longer
that C-Man and I would have caused them to have to restock the pantry. We ate a lot.
Not nearly as much as that one bird did, though.

As I was making my way through the hordeurve table with my plate loaded down with snick-snacks, I hear this man say from behind me that it sure looked like there were a lot of calories on that plate. I was torn between thinking that had to be the worst pick up line ever and knowing that I'm still carryin' around last year's winter chubs, but I don't need that fact to be pointed out to me by some rich bastard. So, I decided to play nice and turned around with a smile on my face, thinking how I can't wait to get to the bottom of my mound-o-food and who do I see, but Larry and Sue! Previous thoughts evaporated (except of course the thought of chowing down!). We kibitzed for a while and then they came outside to hear us. They're just so cute.

We made another new friend, Doug who's mother-in-law was a back up singer for Elvis. Hey, gotta play by the rules - don't mess with other people's fantasies. His dog's name is Chloe, which he made a point to tell our Chloe. She took it well.

While we were playing, this brother and sister duo was running around chasing each other. They were kids. Guess I should have clarified that earlier. Anyway, the girl ended up in the gazebo and stopped to watch us. She frantically waved over her brother and pointed at us. They stood there inside the gazebo, side by side with their elbows on the railing and their chins in their hands while they watched us. It was the most angelic looking thing, which didn't even last as long as it took me to tell the story. Then they were off running around chasing each other again. Ah, youth. We do that and it's ADD.

We met some nice people who were on the ferry with Terry. They were bikers (not that there's anything wrong with that). It's probably a good thing it was dark when they arrived, because I'm pretty sure that their reception would have been way different had the rich folk been able to actually see them. They invited us to go out and play after the gig, but we didn't find them.
I guess you have to actually look for some one in order to find them. Perhaps that explains it.

Oh and let's not forget our accommodations. The Ritz it wasn't. Cracker or hotel. Bunk beds in a dorm. But not just any dorm. This dorm was at the end of the end of the end of a very long oil coated dirt road that had more twists and turns than a murder mystery. And we got in trouble within the first minute and a half of being inside. Our den mother was Large Marge. She shooshed us for being so loud. The boys got the dungeon suite. Very scary. Speaking of very scary, the shower not only had the nastiest mold encrusted shower curtain ever, but it also came complete with it's very own used washcloth wadded up in the corner. As far as I know that washcloth is still in there. I wonder how many tenants before me got to live with that washcloth. Eeeeeeeeew. But, hey it was air conditioned. It was heaven on earth. Really. I had the top bunk and I didn't figure out that the ends of the bunk were built in ladders until the last day. After I was done using the bed. It was most entertaining getting my own self in and out of that top bunk with no ladder. I found a plastic chair after the first night. Oh, and making the bed was an adventure all it's own. No, I didn't make my bed every day. I'm not a freak. The beds came all naked with the sheets and blankets folded up on them. Some assembly required.

We met a boy named Jeff (not Sue) who is in a band that was playing at the Round House.
He looked like he was about 15. I asked him the band's name and he said, "Go Go Gadget". I kept saying that the name was familiar, but I couldn't place where I'd heard it before. Finally he asked me if I'd ever watched Inspector Gadget. Bingo! No, that's a whole different game. Then I kept humming that stupid Inspector Gadget song.

That's about all I can (or choose to) remember from Friday. More about the rest of the weekend and tonight's gig later. Hey, I've been busy. Stop yelling at me. It's now officially tomorrow and I need to go sleep fast. B'bye.

7/26 - Den Too

This was a fun neighborhood joint. Too bad about the construction right out front, but that didn't seem to matter to those who wanted to come out and play. There was a nice little crowd.

We set up right in front of the fire place. I'm talkin' right in front, as in our amp was almost inside the fireplace. I sure hope we don't play back there during the winter.

We made some more new friends - Mike, Randy, and Christine. Christine came up to sing and she did a really good job! There's a picture of her floating around somewhere. It'll eventually make it's way to the site.

Gene was way too cute. He was schmoozin' it up with the ladies while we were singing Ready For Love (how appropriate). I think he walked away with the most numbers that night.
The best thing about Gene is that he was getting everyone else to come out of their shell and have fun too. I think we'll keep him.

And let's not forget the Kahlua girls. C-Man announced that the girls were giving away free shots, but apparently they're not allowed to say "free". They quickly corrected us that they were giving out "samples". Whatever, it was still free. And so tasty, too. No wait, that's Vitametavegimin.

7/21 - Edison's

This place was so small you could barely change your mind in there. The drums took up most of the corner where we set up camp for the evening, but we made it through.

Speaking of drums, thanks to Danny for sitting in for the Reverend. He did a great job. I think it's really neat how complete strangers can mesh together through music. How corny did that sound? Way corny. But I don't care, it's true.

While we were singing I Got A Line On You, a guy at the bar decided to expel some sort of fluid from his mouth. It came out in a slow motion stream and I'm still not sure if it was spit or puke, but all I could think of while we were singing was "I got a line of puke" instead of the real words. I looked around to see if anyone else noticed and if anyone did, they either had a great poker face or they just didn't care.

We made some new friends. Erin, Maryellen and Cindy. They were very nice. Erin and Maryellen danced quite a bit, which was remarkable considering there was only about 3 feet of space between them and us (remember - small bar). Later that same day, Erin decided that she must go outside and climb up on the old bicycle that was bolted into the sidewalk in front as a sculpture type item. It's one of those monstrosities with the big old wheel in front that stands about 5 or 6 feet and the little one in back, has a teeny little seat. She made it up there. Have no idea how, but she did. And she made it back down with out falling and/or showing any of her parts (she was wearing a mini skirt). Maybe her confidence came from Maryellen being her spotter. I'm sure the liquid courage helped too.

Oh yeah, turns out that Anno and Lola are screamers.

And there ya have it.

7/15 - Knuckleheads

This was a big old biker bar complete with big old biker boys and underwear hanging from the ceiling. Mostly bras, with some underwear thrown in for good measure There was a pair of BIG old granny panties hanging above the ladie's room. That was a titch disturbing. They were HUGE. I'm talkin' the biggest pair of underwear you can imagine. They were also powder blue. Perhaps the color was to disguise the size. I don't know, but they were REALLY big.

Umm...what else. Oh yeah - there were bikers there. They didn't hang out in the section we were playing in, but they were there. It was most unpleasant having to play to an empty room.
Okay - almost empty. Terry and Chloe were there and there were a couple of other girls who stayed for the duration. That was pretty much it. Everyone else was in the other section.
Let's just say that if this bar were a percussion section, it would be WAY off beat.

I must say that they have a good wine there. It's called Hog Chardonay. Pretty sure it's made from grapes, not made from hogs.

7/14 - Driftwood

Geneva, right on the lake. How great is that? Well, it could have been great...

The big debate was whether to set up on the patio outside, or set up on the stage inside since it had been raining on and off most of the afternoon. We decided to not risk it and set up inside.

After every piece of equipment was moved from the van to the stage inside, it became quite clear that our decision was not the same decision as that of the owner who wanted us to play outside, because they were having an Island Party. At least everyone got leied (the necklace of flowers, you perv). Her decision was encouraged by Rattler (a.k.a. Rattlesnake, a.k.a. Terry) who looked up the radar on his fancy schmancy cell phone, which showed clear skies.

So, we re-moved everything outside to the patio and as soon as we were completely set up and ready to play it started to rain. DAMMIT! Rattler sensed his impending doom and fled the scene. Not really. Well, he did sense his impending doom, but he decided to try to redeem himself by helping to move everything back inside where we started.

Once everything was back inside where there was NO air conditioning and we dried off all the
equipment and untangled every cord and set everything back up AGAIN we were ready to play only an hour off schedule. Between getting rain soaked and then being hot from the lack-o-air conditioning we were all just one big sweaty mess. Yeah, it was nice.

Karen, our hostess for the evening, was very nice and she even sacrificed a piece of beige carpet for us when we thought we were playing outside and a very nice hand tied "no sew" blanket to cover the amp when the rain started.

Not quite sure if she just felt guilty or if she really liked us, but she invited us back in August.

And once again, we had our resident drunk. This guy requested the song "I'll kiss the lips in the morning that kissed my ass all night." Needless to say, we didn't play his request nor did we invite him up to sing it his own self.

Hopefully, in August when we go back it will be clear skies all the way and we'll be able to play outside with the lake as the backdrop. Stay tuned to find out. Or better yet, stop out there.
August 10th. Mark it down. Don't make me have to remind you. It's a miracle that I can get out the door in the morning fully clothed. Consider this your reminder. August 10th - be there.