the tonedef blog

Saturday was more cleaning and some moving. Band Mom got ready first and headed out to the store to get supplies that she needed then she headed to her mom’s new apartment for some clean up work. The rest of us got ready then I took Things 1 & 2 to my folks’ for the day. Then, Pooh and I headed to Sam’s Club to get some moving boxes and packing tape. After that I took Pooh to Band Mom’s Mom’s so they could spend the day packing while I headed back to the new apartment to lend a hand to Band Mom.

We installed the new washer, new shower head, new toilet seats and cleaned and organized for the better part of the day. Then we headed up to Band Mom’s Mom’s current place. The four of us had some dinner at Eat ‘N Park then loaded the boxes that they packed into the van and headed to BFE to drop Pooh off at her dad’s. Finally, we stopped at my folks’ and got the little ones then headed home.

Sunday Band Mom, Things 1 & 2 and I headed to Band Mom’s Mom’s new apartment for some final prep work. We unloaded the boxes first then did some final cleaning and some paint touch up work. Since cable is included the kids watched TV on our portable and I got to watch bits and pieces of the Steelers game. Around 4 we finished up and Band Mom treated us to dinner at Red Robin.

After dinner it was home to watch some DVR including the entire Steelers’ game.

Friday during the day Band Mom, met with the plumber at her mom’s new apartment to get the washer hookup fixed. After that she did a little bit of cleaning at the new apartment.

After work, I came home then ran out and picked up gyros for the fam. After I ate I headed to practice. Practice went pretty well again. My voice was shot afterward since I walked in with some kind of cold/allergy/chest thing going on. But even with that we banged out some new songs and ran through practice in a couple of hours. After practice we hung out and talked a little about what are plans are. We are all chomping at the bit and ready to get out there doing something…Anything. Hopefully, something will come up soon.

I left Rock’s and headed out to BFE to pick up Pooh. She had to work the concession stand at the football game tonight and then she went to the dance after the game. I got her and headed home. Earlier in the day Band Mom was talking about maybe going out for a little bit when I got back. She was kinda beat though and I really didn’t feel like going anywhere either so we just stayed in and watched some DVR before heading to bed.

After going to sleep Saturday night, we were aroused by the phone ringing. It was like 4 in the freaking morning. Oh shit, that can only be a bad call. First thing I thought was “Who crashed on the way home from the reception” Turns out I didn’t have anything to worry about but the drunk driving wasn’t far off the mark. Apparently some 26 year old was driving through Canonsburg and managed to not notice the barricades and drove right into the festival and took out the first 4 or 5 vendors on that side of the festival. There was nothing we could do about it, but my mom felt Band Mom should know that it happened.

When we finally woke up on Sunday morning, Band Mom said she had the weirdest dream where my mom called about some drunk driving through the festival…I had to inform her that it wasn’t a dream…Band Mom got ready and took off around 10 am. I got ready and all the kids got ready and we headed out around Noon. We stopped at my folks’ and picked up Thing 1 & 2′s tennis shoes then headed to Oktoberfest.

It was weird for me being at Oktoberfest and not being responsible for anything. The last few years I had to run sound and be a stage manager for at least one stage for the entire weekend. So this year I got to wander the festival, eat, take the kids to the rides and whatever. One thing I was looking forward to was playing some Texas Hold ‘Em. For the last couple of years they have had a Texas Hold ‘Em table set up at the festival. Of course, they ran the poker table Friday and Saturday, but not Sunday…DAMN IT!

But we had fun, the kids rode everything, played some games, I ate some German food. A little after 6 I took Things 1 & 2 home to get them bathed and in bed for school. Band Mom stayed for tear down and cleanup, then joined some of the Chamber members and volunteers at Jays for an after party. I got the kids in bed and then sat around and watched some DVRed TV from the weekend. Band Mom got home around midnight and the weekend was over.

Saturday was my cousin’s wedding day. Band Mom and I got up. Got ready. Then headed to Wal Mart to get some last minute stuff. We then headed over to my folks’ so Band Mom could do Thing 1′s hair and we could head to the church. We got to the church then spent the next hour waiting around. Thing 1 had to be there early since she was in the wedding. Band Mom and Pooh stayed with the Thing 1 while I milled around the entrance to the church waiting for them before I got seated.

The Wedding Nazis were in full effect. They chastised the parents of the bride and groom for standing in the entry way and made them stand in a corner off to the side so they were out of the way. If I was the bride or grooms father, church or no, I would have told those Nazis where they could go stand. They then gave the photographer a hard time about where he was set up for the ceremony. Finally the bridal party came upstairs and were getting ready to go. The Wedding Nazis started giving Band Mom a hard time because she was giving Thing 1 some last minute instructions and encouragement. (I felt for sure they were going to be 1 Nazi short starting at this time but Band Mom was on her best behavior!) Band Mom Pooh and I then were seated.

It looked like things were getting ready to begin and My folks, sister and Thing 2 were not there yet. They came in finally about 10 minutes before the ceremony was scheduled and the Wedding Nazis wouldn’t allow them to be seated by an usher up the center aisle and made them sneak up a side aisle on their own…Which worked out okay since we had a pew with space on the side where they could enter. The wedding began at exactly 3 thanks I guess to the Wedding Nazis incomparable coordinating skillz.

The ceremony itself was very nice and rather quick for a Catholic wedding. After the wedding Band Mom and I stuck around since the wedding party had to have pictures taken at the church. After the pictures at the church they were going out to one of the brides-maids family’s houses for additional pictures. Thing 1 and the other flower girl were geeked because they were allowed to ride in the limo which was this giant stretch Lincoln Navigator. So we followed the limo to the house, then asked if Thing 1 would be able to go to the reception in the limo as well. Since she could, Band Mom and I snuck off and went home to feed the dogs and let them out for a bit. After that we headed to the reception.

When we got to the reception we saw Thing 1 entering the hotel as well. It turns out the other flower girl’s Mom brought them since they were done with the flower girls for pictures and the girls were getting a little cold and bored. So we went in got seated and got some finger food. Then Thing 1 had to head out again so that she could enter with the wedding party and be announced by the DJ.

Then followed you standard reception with dinner being served, dancing and all that. Somehow at a wedding with an open bar and with my father and uncle I managed to walk out of there under my own power and more sober than not. The party moved from the banquet room to the bar next door, but Band Mom and I elected to take the kids and head home.

Band Mom and I ended up visiting with the neighbors for a while when we got home while the kids went to bed tuckered from the long day…

Congratulations again Danielle & John!

Friday night Band Mom and I had to take Thing 1 to my cousin’s wedding rehearsal. She was going to be one of two flower girls in the wedding. So we got to sit through the rehearsal while the Wedding Nazis directed the goings on. The Wedding Nazis were these 3 women that the church “gives” to the wedding party to coordinate all things happening at the church. They have to be some of the rudest people on the planet. I was so surprised that someone didn’t just pummel these ladies. Anyway the rehearsal itself was only about 40 minutes or so. After that we went to the rehearsal dinner at Holiday Inn, Meadowlands. The dinner was outside on the patio by the pool and was “cookout” style with hamburgers, hotdogs, ribs, salad, slaw, corn on the cob and more. It was pretty good.

We ate and had a few drinks there. The groom gave Thing 1 (and the other flower girl) a rose for being the flower girls. Also the bride and groom gave the traditional gifts to all of the wedding party. Thing 1 obviously is much younger than the brides-maids so her gift bag was age appropriate, with colored pencils, crayons, activity books, candy and a cute engraved bracelet.

After all of that we headed down to Canonsburg and checked out the last hour or two of the first day of Oktoberfest. We met up with my folks, sister, Pooh and Thing 2. I got to see a bit of Sugar Cane which is the guys from The Guitar Gallery. Also I had a few more beers. How can you go to Oktoberfest and not have a few beers. After the band my folks took the kids home and Band Mom and I hung out for a little then headed home ourselves.

Saturday, 9/8 was another day of confrontation with my arch-nemesis Manual Labor. My folks took Things 1 & 2 again and Band Mom, Pooh and I went to Band Mom’s Mom’s new place and finished painting. It took us most of the day, but we actually got it finished. I finished the ceiling trim while Band Mom finished up the walls and ceiling. Pooh took the floor trim and doors. After I finished the ceiling trim, I painted a closet, an helped Pooh with floor trim.

After that we cleaned up. Then headed home and had some fast food dinner. My folks dropped off Things 1 & 2 after they went to dinner and then the rest of Saturday night was just a laze around. Pooh’s dad came and picked her up after dinner and the rest of us just headed to bed.

Sunday we took care of some things around the house basically just recovered from Saturday.

Friday night we finally got together to practice. I think we skipped like 3 weeks because of shit that was going on. We all kinda thought we’d be rusty…Somebody would forget something…SOMETHING…Boy were we all surprised we just tore it up. It seemed as if everyone practiced more since we didn’t get together or something. We flew through 16 songs or so and jammed on a few more that we weren’t even planning on working on. We’re all itchin’ to get out there now. If anyone knows anyone that needs an opening act playing hard rock covers let us know!!!

We finished practice a little after 10 and all decided to sit down and have a beer and bs for a while. While we were doing that the Colonel stopped by. He asked me months ago to take a look at his computer (no sound) and I have either forgotten or when I did remember couldn’t get the time to take the trip over. So I packed up and headed to the Colonel’s to take a look. It was a pretty easy fix. I opened up the Multimedia control panel and unchecked the “mute all” box and like magic the speakers worked.

After I left the Colonel’s I called Band Mom to see where she was. Turns out she was at Bradford’s and our friends Ryan & Shannon of Lady & The Tramps were doing an acoustic show by themselves. So I headed up there and hung out for the rest of the night. Ryan & Shannon sound great and I chatted with them for a while between sets and after their show. It was good seeing them again. Its been I while…

After that it was home and to bed. Saturday I would probably have to battle my arch-nemesis again.

Monday was Labor Day. So that means a day off right? HA!

Monday was spent doing battle with my arch-nemesis, Manual. You know him, Manual Labor. I try my hardest to avoid him, but today with Band Mom’s help he ruined the majority of my day.

The day started with everyone getting a shower and having some breakfast. Then I dropped Band Mom at Wal Mart to get some supplies. I then dropped Things 1 & 2 off at my folks so they could take the girls to the pool for the last trip of summer. Then I headed back to the store and picked up Band Mom. Then we were off to her mom’s new condo where we spent the day painting. We spent close t 5 hours painting. Band Mom did the walls, while I got the joy of painting the ceiling trim. When we were both finally too pooped to paint anymore I had all but the master bedroom ceiling trim painted and Band Mom had most walls painted. We cleaned up and headed home.

I called my folks’ to let them know we were done for the day. They were already home, and my mom had started cooking already. So we rested for a half hour or so then headed over to my folks’. They had grilled some ribs, made some corn on the cob and other sides. We ate our fill, then headed home since Thing 1 had to go to bed because its back to school on Tuesday.

Sunday our neighbors were throwing a birthday party for J. Band Mom spent part of Saturday evening and the start of Sunday making cupcakes for J and a cake for Bubba. We headed over to the party a little after 3. J had some friends from school and the neighborhood there as well as Things 1 & 2 and J’s cousin who also goes to school with Thing 1. A little later Miss H showed up with her three boys, Lucifer, Satan and Beelzebub. I don’t want to sound like the kids are pure evil, but they are damn close.

The kids all played outside and ran around making all kinds of noise while the adults hung out inside and BSed for a while. Then Nanny served the stuffed shells that she made for dinner. They were pretty good. I’m used to stuffed shells stuffed with ricotta cheese or Band Mom’s excellent chicken stuffed shells, but Nanny’s were meat stuffed shells and they were yummy.

After we ate the kids were back out annoying the neighbors once again. They came back in for a little so J and Bubba could open their presents. Then everyone had some of Band Mom’s cupcakes or cake and ice cream. Then the kids were off again.

The kids spent most of the time annoying each other, fighting, wrestling, tattling…Then suddenly there is hysterics. Turns out one of J’s school friends cut her hand open on something. There was blood everywhere. Band Mom, Nanny and Miss H got her cleaned up, but decided that she probably needed to go and get some stitches. The called the girls mom and Miss H took her, J and another school friend to meet her mom at the ER. They were back in a couple hours with 7 stitches in the girls hand. While they were gone, Pooh took Things 1 & 2 to our house and they were all out. Band Mom and I hung out and chatted with the neighbors well after Pappy got home from work a little after midnight.

Saturday, Band Mom and Pooh headed to Band Mom’s Mom’s new condo to do some prep work on the walls to get ready for painting. I stayed home and did a little cleaning and kept an eye on Things 1 & 2. In the afternoon, Things 1 & 2 and I headed over to the condo to see what’s what. We ended up taking Pooh (or rather Pooh took us since I let her drive) and going to the mall to get a birthday present for J or lives next door and a gift for the newest member of the Santi clan who was born on Friday!

Pooh’s driving was a little better during the day. I didn’t have to scream nearly as much and my shorts were cleaner than they were the night before! After we picked up the gifts we picked up the new washer we purchased a couple of weeks ago for Band Mom’s Mom’s new place. A quick stop at my folks’ to get my dolly and then back to the condo. I unloaded the washer from the van and took it up stairs. I then started disconnecting the old washer. Of course, my luck, it wasn’t that simple. The water shut off didn’t actually shut the water off. Oh well, guess we need to wait to find out where the master shut off is for the apartment, so we can hook this bad boy up.

I then took Things 1 & 2 home, while Band Mom and Pooh finished up what they were doing. They got home, we got some dinner and then hung out for the rest of the evening.