Read this article on that burial box that is supposed to hold the remains of Jesus's brother James:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/832057.asp?vts=110820020710
In the picture, doesn't it look like this guy is flicking off the box? How rude.

I must have died and woke up in Ohio today. It is rainy, cloudy and "only" 61 degrees this morning. Contrary to the song, it does rain in southern California. Tonight Ryan and Michele roll in. Nothing else to say. Well, one other thought on my comparisons of the best musical time periods, if there is any doubt, let me say this, the Beatles. Without them or their influence, most of the bands of today would suck worse. I think the Beatles by themselves could take on today's music and still blow it away. Ok, thats it for now.

"If that chick don't want to know, forget her" Thin Lizzy
"Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird, Surrender" Cheap Trick
"I am the Walrus" you should know who this is

I was pondering my likes and dislikes of music. And I decided that although I love punk/indie rock, and there are a lot of great bands that I love that are recent (last 10 years or so), that overall, my favorite music comes from the 50s-70s. Oldies basically. I know more bands and more songs from the past than I do of current music out. Well, maybe its equal, but oldies are cool, minus disco. Well, some disco is funny at least. I might change my mind in the future, but as for now, this is my judgement.

Jeb-hope your feelin better. And I was thinking about that day you made me buy "Through Being Cool" by Saves the Day at Boogie Records. You said I would be into them, and you were right. Nice job. Too bad you can't listen to Rome at work. Rome recently said he would never do a tour stop in SD or LA, so I'm bummed. My monkey here in SD puts the Rome on tape delay, so that sucks, but at least I get it. Late.

I am depressed today. I just found out that Guns n Roses will be in San Diego on Dec 28, but I will be back in Ohio. That sucks. It wouldn't be the same anyway. Not like it would have been when I was in Junior High. That would have been truly life changing. When I was in Junior High, Larson and I had wanted to sneak out and see the Guns n Roses Metalica concert that was in Toledo, but we never did. Last night I bought the new U2 best of 1990-2000 cd, and its good as it should be, since it's their best. I played a little b-ball last night outside. Nothing else going on.

Dad-thanks again for helping me get Panera for my Practicum presentation. I was just thinking about that the other day.
Ryan-there are 12 Ricks waiting for you in my fridge.
Mare/Case-need you to meet us earlier in LA, please! Whats one weekend of football compared to more quality time with us?

"How about Al Gore making out with his wife at a convention, that was strong!! By strong I mean wrong." Jim Rome
And scoreboard on the Lakers by the Cavs, nice job. Ryan, bring me some stogies this weekend.

I got up at 6am today and I am but tired. Saves the Day was very good last night. The lead singer is pretty dorky though, don’t ya think? The show was at Canes Bar and Grill, which is literally right next to the beach in Mission Beach, San Diego. It’s a pretty cool venue. We also saw Ash, they were one of the openers, they were pretty good as well. When the show was over we walked out onto the boardwalk of Mission Beach. It was an amazing feeling to walk out of a good show and see the ocean right there. And then it took us 5 minutes to drive home. Let me just say this was way better than going to a show in crappy Detroit, or Cleveland, walking out in possibly winter snow, then having to drive an hour and a half, I hated that about Ohio. To say life has been upgrading for me would be an understatement. Tracey and I had a good time at the show rockin out and laughing at emo kids. And we got to see some bouncers break up a fight and throw some kids out, literally. In five days I have seen two bouncers pounding on teenagers, that’s weird.

Today I get a free lunch at work. Our “team” is going out to lunch on the company, very nice. Two more days till Ryan and Michele are here (Tracey’s brother and wife). Not much else really going on. Jay has left the building (thanks for cleaning up our living room!). Sunday we (Ryan and Michele, and Mary and Casey meeting us) are going up to LA overnight then to the Price is Right on Monday, pretty funny. Looks like I will probably be able to go (for awhile I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get off next Monday to go). But I must say Mary, I would be sad not to see you guys till late Sunday since Casey wants to watch football, but I understand the desire. Ryan and I will be catching as much football as we can as well before leaving. But we want to go up to Santa Monica for the afternoon, so if you can sway Case, if would be sweet to meet up in Santa Monica. For those of you who have not been, Santa Monica is one of the few places I like in LA. Cool shopping and beach, as well as the famous Santa Monica Pier where Route 66 ends. Ok, I’m off to my free lunch.

I am freakin tired. Last night Tracey, Jay and I got some Hodads for dinner and stuffed ourselves. After that we went to this clothing store in OB and Jay bought a John Ghotti t-shirt which was really cool. A few hours later Jay and I went bowling. We got in 5 games. My best game was a 162 and I broke 100 every game, so that was fun. An interesting thing happened at the alley. I don't know if many of you know of or remember Peter King, but he is a former pro surfer, was in the band Dakota Motor Co. and hosted the first beach theme MTV show many years ago. Anyway, he and his buds were bowling next to us last night. I never said anything to him, but it was funny. He had a cool clear bowling ball with a skull in it. After bowling, Jay and I went home, sipped Chianti and watched the Big Lebowski. Jay leaves today. He is already depressed to leave and go back to Ohio. Its very sunny today and around 65 degrees, so that will not help Jay leave. It has been a good run with Jay, soon he will also move out here, along with the REST OF YOU! Tonight is Saves the Day, and although I am excited for it, I'm tired and will probably be really tired the rest of the week.

I didn't want to downplay Tracey getting back this weekend. Even though I had tons of fun, I missed her and was glad she came back safe. Like I have mentioned before, I'm still a little freaked about flying, and also when people I love fly. I think we may all have fears about things like that, but I'm a little obsessive lately, I don't know why. I missed my bus this morning, so I'm in a bit of a foul mood. I had to take a later bus and miss an hour and a half of work. Did I mention that I've got more Cable TV now? To say I'm excited would be an understatement. I want to say congrats to Justin on his phone book conquests.

Well, I’m alive, but very exhausted. I have to say that thess past 3 days have been some of the best I have had. Lets start at the beginning. I picked up Jay Friday afternoon. We rolled back to my apartment, got cleaned up and drove up north to Encinitas to hit this great indy record store called Lou’s Records. Around 5pm we drove back down to Old Town to have some stogies at this great place call Hemmingway’s. We went back to my apartment at 7:30 to meet up with Stevens and his crew. They didn’t show till 8:30 and they were super tired, so they did not go out with Jay and I that night. We were also supposed to hook up with Donkey Boy but could not get ahold of him. Anyway, Jay and I went to this new place called the Gaslamp Stip Club downtown SD. Before you get any ideas, it was a steak place, not a girls get naked place. Just a funny play on words. Anyway, this place is really cool and you actually cook your own steaks on grills that are placed all over. So we had a great dinner, chatted up with the locals and I even got to see some kid get punched by a bouncer, pretty cool. We were going to try to see a late showing of Jackass, but we missed it. So we went to this cigar bar called the Cuban Cigar Factory and did what people do there. Great convo was had throughout.

Ok, now to Saturday. We slept in a bit, then Stevens and his crew came back from an early surf session at OB. We chatted a bit, and then they crashed for a few hours. Jay and I got some breakfast and went to a few more record stores. When we came back, Stevens, etc were still asleep. We had planned to go eat lunch with them at Hodads, a great burger joint in OB, but time was running out and we needed to get ready for Vegas. Eventually, Jay and I just got ready for Vegas then woke up Stevens, they had to roll up to LA, so we never really got to hang out with Stevens, even though he stayed with me for almost two days, but that’s cool, next time. So Jay and I just got some Arbys and hit the road about 3:40pm PCT.

The drive was not that bad, about 4 ½ hours. We had the tunes going and just had that great feeling of anticipation and excitement. We knew that what was before us was going to be a great experience and memory. We arrived in Vegas around 8:45pm. At night you can see the lights of Vegas lighting up the sky about 45 minutes out, something everyone should see. We parked at the Bellagio Casino, which is on the main Las Vegas strip. We tried to find a good buffet but lines were long at the Bellagio, so we walked on over to Caesar’s Palace and found a good buffet. We had steak, shrimp, chicken, salad and great desert. The White Russians were also making themselves know within us. From there we hit the Casino at Caesars. We played some slots and Jay played some black jack. We went to another Casino, can’t remember what it was called and did some more slots and black jack. We then ended up seeing a late (12:40am) showing of Jackass, which was out of control. Wow. That movie is an experience. The crowd was really wild as well (probably a little under the influence), yelling and screaming, but it was fun. We hit a Fat Burger for some more food. We walked around, went to a few more Casinos, including the New York, New York, which was really cool.

Around 4:30am we decided to call it a night and go to our room Well, actually, our room for the night was my car, in the parking garage of the Bellagio. We slept from 5-8:30am, not very well mind you. But we saved some cash, and we got a head start on the traffic. It took us around 5 hours to get home because of a bad Burger King breakfast run, apparently, a certain employee of BK had just woken up and was not very fast in her service to us. The sun was out, the windows were down, music was cranked and we were feeling pretty good. I must say, Vegas was good. We did the whole trip in 22 hours total, including drive time and sleeping. So I am a little tired this great Monday morning. Jay and I ended up going to the beach in OB yesterday afternoon when we got back from Vegas. We had some pizza then came home and crashed for 3 hours. Then we went for some In and Out Burger. At 10:30 last night I picked Tracey up from the airport and thus ended a great weekend. Tonight Jay, Tracey and I are going to try to go bowling and maybe some Hodads. Jay leaves tomorrow, but the fun continues. Tomorrow night we are going to Saves the Day, then Tracey’s brother Ryan and wife Michele will be here Friday for a week. And next Monday we are going to try to get on the Price is Right in LA, so wish us luck. Have a great week. Marr.