Mama's fallen angels

I took Eightofadozen and Tenofadozen to the Cheap Trick/ Poison/ Def Leppard concert last Tuesday. When I bought the tickets in April I was planning on a girls' night out with Eight and Nine, but Nine is still staying with Four so I took Ten instead. He just turned 16 and he was very excited to go to a concert, even though he and Eight weren't too familiar with any of the bands. They seemed shocked and relieved to find out we had actual seats on a balcony and we wouldn't be subjected to crowd-surfing or mosh pits. I'm so glad they came! We had a great time.

Cheap Trick was up first. We got inside the arena right at 7 and we were scurrying to our seats when they were being introduced; "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the best f***ing band you will ever hear live!" After an introduction like that they had to be good. They were fabulous. Before March of this year I only knew a couple of their songs, although "I Want You to Want Me" is, in my opinion, one of the best damn rock songs out there. They sang "Southern Girls", "Surrender", "The Flame", "Dream Police" and a few others. I figured out during their last song that if you plugged your ears the music sounded much better and you could actually hear the words, so I feel like I missed out a little. I definitely will be buying their greatest hits album!

Up next was Poison and I have to say that after seeing Poison live I can understand why girls would follow them around. Bret Michaels puts on a hell of a show! They had a lot of pyrotechnics in their set, which was exciting. They rocked the crowd with classics like "Unskinny Bop", "Nothin' But a Good Time", "Talk Dirty to Me", "Your Mama Don't Dance" and of course "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". Every now and then I typed out the words to the chorus in a text message and showed it to Eight and Ten so they could sing along. At one point Bret thanked the crowd for tuning into Rock of Love to watch the "drunken debauchery and ridiculousness that is my dating life." Hilarious. During the last song his pre-teen daughter joined him on stage, which was adorable.

Def Leppard was phenomenal. Those guys know how to rock! They used the stage really well and they had fantastic video effects accompanying the music. They all performed instrumental solos, including Rick Allen who was just amazing on the drums. I heard tons of my old favorites like "Photograph", "Rock of Ages", "Armageddon It", "Animal" and "Love Bites". Some of the moments that stood out were the crowd singing the chorus to "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" and going crazy for "Pour Some Sugar on Me". Eight and Ten got up out of their seats and danced for that one! After 5 or 10 minutes of cheering the boys came back out and did an encore number with "Let's Get Rocked". What an awesome show!

Nephews, nephews, everywhere

I forgot to post about the most exciting event of the year: my nephews were here! Twoofadozen, her husband and their boys came to visit a few days before Independence Day. M will be 4 this month and B is 1 1/2. They are a blast. I had so much fun chasing them around at the playground and pushing M on the kiddie zipline.

On their first day here I gave M a 5 gallon bucket and turned on the hose. He was so excited to spray things outside - including his brother, who didn't share in M's enthusiasm. Here he is taking a "sippy" break:


I very much enjoyed being treated to delicious barbecue from three local restaurants; Oklahoma Joe's, Brobeck's and Arthur Bryant's. My brother in law is a barbecue connoisseur and I was eager to redeem myself after taking them to KC Masterpiece on their last visit.

We stopped for lunch at another local legend, Grinders, where I took this picture of our delicious pizza pie:


That evening we went to a Royals game and I took a panoramic shot of the stadium. It's my first panoramic picture; I didn't know my camera could do that!


The boys made it through 3 hours of baseball and were rewarded with a fireworks display at the end of it. M was thrilled! B was tired.


I'm so glad they came! It was wonderful to see everyone. I gave the boys big hugs and kisses when they left. I wish I could see them more often. If I lose my job here I will definitely apply for something closer to them.

Unexpected Day Off

My car died at a stop light on the way to work. Boo. I called AAA and waited over an hour and a half for a tow truck to drag me 5 miles up the road to my mechanic. Now I'm home with nothing to do. I tried to arrange a ride into work but no one was available to take me home again. Ah well. At least I have vacation days.

Now, what should I do with my free time? I'm thinking Super Mario Galaxy. I beat that game months ago and I'm trying to unlock a new galaxy. I have to collect 13 more stars to do it. I've been hammering away at the same level for 8 hours. I have to collect 100 purple coins to finish the level and collect a star but Mario? He no jumpy so good. Two areas are driving me batshit (crazy). On one I have to do a complicated crouch jump + spin on top of a very narrow rock in the middle of icy water. If I fall in the water I have about 3 seconds to get the heck out before dying. Nice. I have managed to grab the coin 3 times out of 100. The other area is another crouch jump + spin onto a ledge where a spinning star is waiting to shoot me towards the final 20 coins. There's a lot less danger involved but it takes a lot more work to get to that point and so far I have made the jump... never. Grrr.

Here's a video of someone else beating the same level. It looks like he's using a different technique. Hmm, I must try this....



Okay, I could also work on my resume since my job is at risk, but I prefer to ignore the things that scare me and hope they'll go away. There's a small chance I'll be kept on in the new company. I'm clinging to that hope. Besides, it allows me to pursue my purple coins guilt free. Almost.

Total eclipse of the heart - literal version

Wow. I am cracking up. It's easier to embed the video here than it is to call/email everyone I know and tell them to watch it on YouTube. Watch this video! You will thank me :)

Too much recovery information

If what I write below qualifies as too much information, I apologize. I went back on the happy pills because the doc said I need to keep taking them to combat the inflammation. At least, I think it was the doc who said that. It may have been the pink elephants. Anyway, my judgment has probably been compromised. Enjoy!

If you're interested, I'm doing all right. I saw my surgeon for a post-op visit on Monday. I'm taking two more weeks off from work while I heal. I was concerned that there might be an infection because things were looking pretty oozy/scabby. The surgeon prescribed an antibiotic as a precaution. I'm also supposed to rub Neosporin on the scabby bits several times a day, which is leaving vulgar oily patterns on my t-shirts. I'm actually really glad I can stay home and I don't have to walk around the office with oily nipples. That might raise a few questions! Oh, I'm supposed to let air get to the area so my stitches can break down, in case you wondered why I haven't just covered up the oily bits with gauze. I also have to rub Vaseline on the healed incisions to reduce scar tissue formation, so the oily areas are a bit more extensive than what I could cover with a BandAid.

All of this lubricating is impeding my bra shopping. Who wants to try on bras with flaking scabs and Neosporin soaked t-shirts? Not I! Since I still don't know what my new bra size is I'm getting by with a tank top that has a built-in shelf bra. Being double-layered it has the added bonus of soaking up most of the grease so people don't stare when I venture out. I haven't done much venturing since I saw the surgeon on Monday. The Hot Pocket supply is getting low and I ran out of most of my edible foods a few days ago so I'll probably have to slink out to the grocery store very soon. Be afraid. Be very afraid!