Summer Solstice

"When I try to show you this

Song is meant to keep ya

From doing what your supposed to

Like waking up too early

Maybe we can sleep in

Ill make you banana pancakes

Pretend like its the weekend now"

Jack Johnson

I spent Saturday night with my wife, good friends Bill and Sarah Dermody, and 40,000 other people at Alpine Valley Music Theater. And by theater they mean one big-ass indoor/outdoor amphitheater. The hills that went up from the stage were easily steeper than the hill I used to walk in Utah and I am amazed that with the combination of booze and gravity that I didn't see people tumbling down the hill all night long. Jack Johnson put on a tremendously entertaining show. This guy personifies everything that is right about music. He writes tremendously fun songs, addresses important issues in his music and is without a doubt in a very small group of people who can get 40,000 people to show up to see one guy play a guitar. He also made a point to let people know that money from the show was going to help families displaced by the recent flooding, had eco-green info groups and voter registration booths throughout the venue.

We had pretty nice seats about 30 rows up from the stage and dead center. Not quite as cool as our last two set of seats but still it was better than the hill where people at the top would need a telescope to see the stage.

Here's Jacky and I in a self portrait with our friend Sarah adding some background.

















Here's some pics from our volleyball tournaments this week. We played in two eight team double elimination tournaments at Club Tavern, our volleyball home court.


Zach, Alex, and Luke. Alex went on injured reserve about halfway through game 2 when his knee blew out and is currently on crutches and limping around Bourbon Street waiting on an MRI this week.









Jenny and Elijah and Leah and a small bit of Jenn. Leah is also on the reserve list this year after playing the last couple years. She has a nine month engagement with a new addition to their family.

Another shot of Mrs T. and I. Looks like it's time for haircut and a shave.

Let's wrap up everything else. Starting with Volleyball where we won both of the tournaments. We were the favorites Monday night but not Wednesday and it was extra sweet beating a team that had beaten us twice this year. We won 4 matches each night, and we are playing really well. I had my tenth weigh in this past week at Weight Watchers and for the first time in my life I have wrung up ten consecutive weeks of losing weight. 32 lbs in the ten weeks I have been back from the Ridge, and really close to triple digits overall.

I have been contacted by a handful of people who have wandered onto my blog while investigating Fitness Ridge. I am happy to hear from you guys and happy to answer any questions you might have. Let me reiterate that it is a great, tough, program stocked full of friendly helpful people.

We have a busy week ahead; 3 nights of volleyball, Jacky's birthday party and Summerfest(more music). My parents bought a house with a pool in Venice Beach, Fl and I can not wait to visit but probably not until November. That's all the news from here. I hope you guys are having fun...Peace, Jim

REM in Chicago

"You've got all the right friends"

REM

So do to the kindness of my good high school friend, Tom Scott,who has been the business manager for REM for 20 years My wife and I got to have a really cool backstage experience at the show at The United Center last friday.



Tom and I sporting the back stage passes.


We got picked up at 6 pm in a Secret Service tricked out SUV and driven directly into the under belly of the United Center. I held the door for four guys walking in that turned out to be Modest Mouse but I was clueless. Backstage before the show is fairly locked down. I would say there was a dozen or show guests as oppossed to after the show when there was around 100 or so. First person I met was Mike Mills who had a 70's picture of Joe Namath on his id and the name Joe Willie. He said he got tired of looking at himself all the time and opted for Broadway Joe instead




The National was going on stage next and I really wanted to see them. The manager for REM had gotten us six seats in the 6th row dead center. I was really impressed by this band. Very tight, high energy, great tunes
After the National's set we went backstage for dinner. The had a room set up with a hot buffet/cold buffet/ carving station dessert station beer, wine etc. The guys from the National came into eat dinner and seemed really friendly. Peter Buck came over and thanked us for taking the time to come to the show...WTF are you kidding me thank you for playing. His girlfriend was the only "family member" of the band who was in attendance. They said they were waiting to take them to the Europe leg of the tour because thats more fun. I wandered out to the stage to see Modest Mouse and watched a few songs from the side of the stage. They are not really my cup of tea, but the crowd was into them and the REM team was really happy that they had agreed to open as ticket sales had been strong for this tour.

After Modest Mouse there was another 30 minute break. They had a vip lounge where all the members of the band and about 5 support staff and a dozen guests were hanging out. The Security guy came in about 15 minutes before the show and escorted everyone to their seats. REM doesn't allow anyone near the stage during the show.

REM SETLIST

Chicago, IllinoisJune 6, 2008(1) Band entrance (0:32)(2) Living Well Is The Best Entrance (3:22)(3) These Days (3:36)(4) Begin The Begin (3:35)(5) What's The Frequency, Kenneth? (4:01)(6) Pilgrimage (4:04)(7) Banter (0:51)(8) Hollow Man (3:02)(9) Animal (3:59)(10) Man-Sized Wreath (2:42)(11) Intro (0:55)(12) Ignoreland (5:02)(13) The Great Beyond (4:00)(14) The Great Beyond (reprise) (0:51)(15) Accelerate (4:09)(16) Houston (2:06)(17) Michael story (1:55)(18) Electrolite (4:19)(1) The One I Love (3:48)(2) The Final Straw (4:31)(3) Find The River (4:36)(4) Let Me In (3:43)(5) Walk Unafraid (3:54)(6) Orange Crush (3:44)(7) Horse To Water (2:15)(8) Bad Day (4:35)(9) I'm Gonna DJ (2:05)(10) Encore break (3:58)(11) Supernatural Superserious (4:31)(12) Pretty Persuasion (3:58)(13) Barack Obama endorsement (2:26)(14) Losing My Religion (5:04)(15) Fall On Me (3:12) *(16) Banter (2:37)(17) Man on the Moon (5:26)* w/Johnny Marr

After the show they had a reception room set up for guests of which there were plenty. Michael Stipe told the wife of my friend that he saw us out their all night long when he was singing. We were around for about 20 minutes when the SUV took us back to the hotel. Peter Buck was already in the hotel bar. We had breakfast the next morning with the bands manager and they were all catching a charter flight to Toronto. Each member of the band has their own bus but they would be hauling the crew to the next stop. They travel party is around 45 people, with stage workers brought in at each stop. It was a really cool night, but you can see the business side very easily and while you think its exciting to the band and their support it's just another day at the job.

Saturday afternoon I hopped a flight from Milwaukee to DC to get my teeth work finished. I got to spend a great night with a bunch of friends at the Cracked Claw, got to spend some time with my mom sunday morning, and at a cookout at another friends home sunday night. Monday I got to sit in National Airport for 4 hourse waiting for my delayed flight, get home at 6:30pm and pick up another volleyball win at 8:30.

A couple of friends shout outs and thank yous:

To Tom Scott and his family: Thank you for an incredible friday night in Chicago. Thanks for making the trip north to see us and thank you for your generosity. I can not say enough about how impressed I was.

To Timmy Dunn: Thanks for saving me 3,000 on my dental work and shuffling your schedule to accomodate me. I am really impressed by your practice

To Danny, Dan, Rag, Dave and Fran thanks for coming up to the Claw. Some of my fondest lifetime memories are hanging out with you guys. You always make me laugh and I'm glad we could make some money as well.

To Danny and Doc thanks for having me over to your house for thousandth time for dinner. I really miss the fun times I had in your house.

I hope everyone else is well. Madison and all of Wisconsin is drying out after massive rain. All else is well and I hope it is with you as well. Peace, Jim

Sheryl Crow show

"Chasing dragons with plastic swords,

Jack off Jimmy everybody wants more"

Sheryl Crow

Well it's wednesday night in Madison and Myself, my lovely wife, my workout partner Karen, and my really good friend Jenny went to see Sheryl Crow. We had amazing front row seats. She played all of her hits and even brought Madison native Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick out on stage for a rousing rendition of "I want you to want me".

A couple other little updates for you. I feel damn good on the volleyball court. My 3 teams are 6-0 monday, 8-1 wednesday, and 3-0 tuesday. I am heading to Chicago friday to see my good friend Tom Scott and the band he represents REM. Saturday I fly to DC for 48 hours I get my new 3 unit bridge in my mouth monday morning and return to Milwaukee monday afternoon in time for monday night volleyball. I had my seventh weigh in since returning from Utah this week. I have lost weight each week which is awesome for total of 26.2 lbs lost since returning and close to 90 lbs overall. I hope everyone has a great week. Peace, Jim

Memorial Day weekend

"Freedoms just another word for nothin left to lose,

And nothin aint worth nothin but its free,

Feelin good was easy, lord, when bobby sang the blues,

And buddy, that was good enough for me,

Good enough for me and my bobby c."

By Kris Kristofferson

performed by Janis Joplin

Wanted to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day Weekend. Also wanted to give a special shout-out across the pond to my most loyal blog reader and because he lives in London he gets no Memorial Day cookout. Happy Man U is champions day to Bobby Carnathan.

Memorial Day in Madison means only one thing.... Bratfest weekend. Leave it to the pasty, white, chubby Wisconsinites to come up with a festival that honors a sausage. I spent about 4 hours there yesterday because there is a ton of live free music playing all day and night on two stages. The calorie content on a brat is only 240 calories the buns add 130. I kept it under a grand. :) The brats are $1.50 and they hope to set a new record by selling over 200,000 brats this weekend. The beers were $5 and I went for none of those.

Here's a couple photos from today's circuit training at Swimwest. And a special congrats to my workout partner for dropping a size. Way to go. Again I can not stress enough that having the accountability of a workout partner makes you so much more likely to stick to the program. Today marked six straight mornings in the gym for both of us. Weight Watchers weigh in this week was -4.8 lbs bringing the summer total to minus 21 lbs.







Today's music.... well, of course, some Sara.



















A little treadmill time. I have been trying to mix the circuit with the treading by sprinting as much of the interval as possible









Hard to see in this picture but the little red peg directly behind me has every plate above it. In high school we called this doing the stack.
















Obviously one confused soul. Let's see UCLA shorts, Syracuse shirt, Maryland hat.

Peace and have a fun, safe, wonderful weekend, Jim

Sunshine Daydream

"Sunshine, daydream, walking in the tall trees, going where the wind goes

Blooming like a red rose, breathing more freely,

Ride our singin, Ill walk you in the morning sunshine

Sunshine, daydream. sunshine, daydream. walking in the sunshine."

The Grateful Dead

In an effort to keep this somewhat entertaining I thought I would give you a couple of pictures of our store in Madison. It's graduation weekend here in the capitol city and that means lots of parents in town pulling out their credit cards to buy the happy grads some hippie reminders of their time in Madison.

Here is your happy clerk ready to answer all those questions about tie-dye, phish, and and the best scent of patchouli.

Here's my pictures on the wall of fame gold star to anyone that can name all 3 of the celebs sidling up next to me.





































Let's wrap up the last week. I spent 5 days in the DC area. Here is a picture of my wonderful mother who is finally retiring down to Venice, Florida and hopefully getting a house with a pool for her eldest son to splash around in when he visits.

I got to spend one day at the Cracked Claw OTB in Urbana, Maryland which was my old stomping grounds 15 years or so ago. It was like old times with my running mates Danny, Dave, Fran, Dan, and Rusty all stopping in for some laughs and to lose some money.

Friday and Saturday were spent with my family celebrating the life of my grandmother. Friday night was marked with much, much alcohol that led to lots of funny stories, some great teenage confessions, and one member of the family barfing into a bowl of potpourri. Saturday morning we had a very small graveside ceremony that was just family and we all got to say our goodbyes. Saturday afternoon was of course more food, more booze and more laughter. It was really good to spend time with so much family, living in Madison has limited my time with these people and truly they always make me smile. Special thanks to my Uncle John and Aunt Betsy for their loyal readership of my blog and to many others who chimed in on my recent weight loss.

My flight home left National Airport at 6:25 am Monday morning and that is one early trip to the airport. The flight touched down in Milwaukee at 7:45 am and I was back in Madison by 10 am. Long enough to see my wife for 24 hours before she left for 2 days in St Louis on a buying trip for the store. We had 3 volleyball matches last week and went 3-0 winning 8 of 9 games. I saw NO live music but I did pass out some Sara Bareilles cd's to my family so they could experience what I had been writing about. I felt really good on the sand at Volleyball, but it was a tough trip for dieting Jimmy. Two things I have learned about myself, drinking does not lead to smart food decisions, and travelling makes dieting and exercise hard. It wasn't a disaster but I had some work to do when I got home to shake off a couple pounds I picked up on the road. I am back on track and feel good and look forward to being home the next six weeks and increasing the pace. Hope all's well with you guys and as always Peace and Love, Jim

Greetings from Maryland

"Walk home to an empty house,

sit around all by yourself

I know it might sound strange, but I believe

You'll be coming back before too long

Don't go back to Rockville"

REM

Got to have lunch with my mom who said my belly looked smaller
and get to see a whole bunch of my friends tomorrow at the Cracked Claw OTB.
Also get to my favorite dentist of all time Timmy Dunn on friday morning for
some tooth work or lack of tooth work I guess would be more appropriate. The
first step in a bridge.

I snuck into a weight watchers meeting tuesday before I left and
had lost another 1.6 lbs pushing me up to 16 lbs since I got home. I am trying
to do 10 a month so I am ahead of pace but slowing down. Travel is not good for
diet or exercise but you learn to make better decisions and it helps. Hold the
cheese, no onion rings I said to the slightly stunned waiter today at lunch.
Plus I am trying to limit diet sodas and opted for some iced tea. I still reach
for the sweet n lo which I am sure has killed many a lab rat in its day.

Speaking of today's quote by REM I am very excited to see the
boys from Athens June 5th in Chicago at the United Center. More excited 'cause
my very good friend Tom Scott is their accountant and he and his family are
flying in for the show. And of course that means backstage for the concert. I
doubt I'll see weird groupies and guitar players snorting lines off an amp like
my last trip backstage at the 1981 REO Speedwagon show.

Services are saturday for my grandmother and 4/5 ths of my
family will be in attendance. Sadly I can not remember the last time 5/5ths of
my family was together but maybe this year at Thanksgiving. It was awfully nice
of Maryland to schedule a basketball tournament in Orlando that weekend.
Everything else is well. I miss Maryland but I sure don't miss the traffic. All
my best Peace, Jim

Highs and Lows

"I dont know what happens when people die

Cant seem to grasp it as hard as I try

Its like a song I can hear playing right in my ear

That I cant sing

I cant help listening

And I cant help feeling stupid standing round

Crying as they ease you down

cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing

Dancing our sorrow away"

Jackson Browne

I'll be heading to the Washington DC area this week. My 94 year old grandmother who was given a week to live last June, finally decided that it was time for her to leave this world and passed away sunday evening. I know the last thing she would want is for someone to make a fuss or feel bad about this. She had an incredible life and spent the bulk of her last two years in the presence of her two loving daughters. She was a loving mother to my mom, and I owe much of who I am to these two wonderful ladies. She will be missed but she will also be remembered.

The Derby this weekend again showed all that is wonderful about horse racing and all that is sad. Big Brown certainly delivered, it was as overwhelming a Derby win as I have seen, very similar to Barbaro's victory in its ease and race style. It will take something freaky to get this horse beat at Pimlico and an injury or something unforseen to get him beat at Belmont.

I have seen thousands of races, I have seen lots of horses sadly breakdown, I have seen a few horses breakdown after the wire, I have seen a few horses collapse after the wire mostly from heat exhaustion, once or twice from a heart attack, but never in my life have I seen or heard of a horse collapsing after the wire from multiple compound fractures in both legs. It's beyond unbelievable to me that something like that could even happen. When I saw her lying down I never once thought she had broken an ankle much less both ankles.

That being said she ran an incredible race, and chased a freak of a horse. I'm always sad when a horse is euthanized, I have a print of Go For Wand on my wall, but I take solace that this breed of horse is bred to race. They love to run, love to compete, and if not for the sport of horse racing would never have had a chance to live. She's not a doped up cheap claimer, and trainer Larry Jones is a damn good trainer, who cares about his horses. He is a true cowboy, gets on their back himself to train. He would never do anything to put this horse at risk. What happened was an incredible freaky injury and she will be forever remembered for what she did before the finish line.

I spent two nights last week in the Hilton Garden Inn in the suburbs of Chicago. I walked past a number of things some good, some bad. Each morning the Hilton was kind enough to serve a full breakfast buffet. Sausage, Bacon, Eggs the works that I walked by. They also had a fairly nice workout room and pool, I walked by them as well. I didn't bring any shorts not that it would have mattered because I was horsing it from 9am until 11pm both days. They also put out the nicest smelling chocolate chip cookies each night. I walked by those as well, but then turned around and grabbed one:)

My wednesday weigh in was -2.6 lbs for a 3 week total of 14.6 lbs. I didn't get a 5 lb sticker this week from weight watchers. My volleyball team got run over on wednesday night, swept away by the team we played. I felt young last week and old as dirt this week. No live music this week but I did feel obliged to atleast pass some new tunes on to some new friends.

I get to see my family for the first time since fitness ridge this week. One thing's for sure they won't be commenting on my tan thanks to the Wisconsin spring. That skin tone is long gone. Peace, Jim