"BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!"

Another crazy week in the books. Summer is flying and it's almost July. Wow. I had a week off from art lessons so Mia and I spent some time doing fun things before my normal shifts. Mia's BFF Cecilia returned from her trip with her family to Italy as well as other countries so Mia was stoked to see her. Sadly, the weather was a bit too hot for the park. Bummer. The kids however hung out at Cecilia's, played, drew some pictures, and went the sun went down, played some soccer in her yard. Cecilia is totally motivated this season to score a goal. She was a fearless defender and I think she'll transition nicely into an attacking forward. Later we picked up Jill from work and had dinner. Friday was a rainy morning, but Mia and I made the best of it. We watched Into the Spiderverse which was surprisingly, a really good movie. Mia was actually super into it. She doesn't get excited about super hero movies (and neither do I) but man was it good. Later, we met up with old friends Hannah and Gracie for a long overdo reunion. These two sisters were Mia's FIRST best friends when she was only 2 1/2 years old. They hung out every Friday at play group at the library where they first met and over time, hung out at parks, pools etc etc. Over time, they didn't get to hang as much do to school and other activities but in the Summer, they try to hang out when possible. Mia had a great time for a couple hours, but it was time to go order some food and prepare for Jill's birthday dinner.

It's been quite a while, but we decided on Ono Kine Grindz for dinner. Mia and I picked up 8 individual orders from our favorite little Hawaiian cafe/store in Tosa. The only place in town you can get POG juice as well as some super tasty Hawaiian delicacies. After dinner, we had the cake Mia made on Thursday. Yum. Jill loved all the gifts she got from my family and hers.

Saturday, we got up early and drove down for Jill's very special surprise birthday party. We met her friend Leanne at a Jewel so she could take Jill out to keep her busy while Mia and I met up with friend Jacqui to set up for the party. One by one, more of her friends came in as well as spouses and family. Finally, it was time for Leanne to bring the birthday girl. We were so excited and when Jill came in, we all yelled "ALOHA!!!" Jill was shocked. A beautiful Hawaiian birthday party for my amazing wife. All she asked for this year for her birthday was to see her friends. I had told her at that moment "Okay" and began preparing for this. I literally made her birthday wish come true. I couldn't believe Mia kept the secret. So awesome. We had Puka Dogs (or at least the closest thing to them) complete with sauces made by Leanne. They were fantastic. Also some fruit bowls and an amazing cake made by Jacqui and some shave ice. Yum! It was a great Hawaiian-themed party. I couldn't believe we pulled this off. About 10:30, we called it a night and drove home. While Mia slept on the long ride back, Jill stared at her photos of herself with friends with the happiest tears I've seen in a while. I'm so glad I could give her this gift. Once again, thank you ladies for making this possible. Thank you to their spouses for coming as well.

Sunday, Mia and Jill tried out her new baking toys and after I came home from a really lousy shift, I saw their awesome Pride brownies and large cookie. Jill said Mia had a blast with her new air brush.

This week, I've got a lot of art lessons and apparently, we're having a 4th of July party on Thursday. Crazy. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

On With The Show

What an insane week. Still recovering after the insane show I went to Saturday, but we'll get back to that later. I taught Mia how to make a very basic tattoo stencil early this week, so she was tattooing herself as well as my in-laws. Silly kiddo. Tuesday, she had her very first bass guitar lesson. She was super excited. The morning of the lesson, she was pretty cranky and self-defeated about things so when I went to work, I was nervous she'd go to her lesson hating it. Luckily, I was wrong. Jill texted me that Mia had the BEST time and really likes her instructor. She learned quite a bit for her first day including technique and how to play with fingers. I was totally impressed when I got home from work when she showed me what she had learned. Well done kiddo! Since then, she's been practicing daily.

I had a great lesson Thursday with Micah and Gigi. This week, they re-created my infamous watermelon sketch and learned how to make colors pop on toned paper. Specifically, using white to blend and layer with the red to get that watermelon look. It took Gigi a couple tries to get it, but eventually she was okay with her final result. I really liked it but she wasn't digging it. I still have to work on her self-confidence. Her sister Micah NAILED the sketch. Totally proud. Really made the colors pop. I've got a week off from art lessons and next week I'll have a group lesson. It'll be intense and fun. It will also be a new challenge working with kids of similar skill level so I need to come up with a great lesson piece.

Saturday, I did some yard work, we ran to Trader's for groceries and later, my parents stopped over with their new puppy Simon. Such a cute dog! A bit later,  I drove to Cudahy for Dummerfest 2019. It was my first time going to this festival at this little arcade bar, but if they bring bands like The Lawrence Arms again in the future, I'll totally be back. The overall feel of this place was like a punk rock BBQ. Kids running around with over-sized band shirts, burgers/veggie burgers/brats for sale and plenty of beer. I rarely go to concerts anymore but tempt me with one of my all-time favorite band The Lawrence Arms and there is no way I'm missing it. I first saw them perform back in 2002 at the Plea for Peace show with a bunch of great acts. While waiting for my good buddy Jon to meet up with me, I watched some of the other 11 different acts that were performing throughout the day including Minneapolis's The Punchlines. Every song was a groan-worthy painfully funny joke. The singer would tell the joke, the crowd would laugh and they would start the song singing the joke. Really liked them. While watching a band inside, I ran into Brendan Kelly of TLA and he gave me a hug. He remembered me from a few years ago when he stopped in Madison with his side project, The Falcon.

Later outside, I told him how my daughter Mia just started playing bass and recently got into TLA. He was gracious enough to record a personal message to her giving her advice on learning how to play bass. Such an incredibly nice guy. Every time I've met him, he's the most down-to-earth guy and I hope when they release their new album, they tour and come around again. Mia really wanted a t-shirt from the show but when I showed her the video message this morning, she was beaming with a big smile from ear to ear. 

After her recorded the message, I ran into Chris, the other singer. I was really hoping I'd be lucky enough to talk to him. He was super friendly and we got to chat a while outside after a quick picture. Both guys signed an album for me as well. Wish I would have taken a better picture of myself with him, but oh well. I sadly didn't get to talk to Neil, their drummer. He was a bit elusive and was always in a conversation with someone or just not around. I met him several years ago when he toured with the Smoking Popes. 

Later, Jon finally arrived and we played a few arcade games before Direct Hit went on. Lippies played before them and they weren't too bad. Crowd really liked them as well. Direct Hit is a local group from Milwaukee and they were pretty solid. During sound check, the guitar player broke his string. After he replaced it, he broke it again. Talk about luck. When you're an up-and-coming band, you don't tour with multiple guitars so he just dealt with it and played  sans string.  

Finally, it was Lawrence Arms time. After a lengthy sound check, they finally took the stage with the Laverne and Shirley theme blasting through the speakers. It was an insanely amazing set with the crowd going off to every song. Set list was as follows in no particular order:
Slowest Drink
Devil's Takin Names
Great Lakes
Like a Record Player
You Are Here
Seventeener
Acheron River
Beautiful Things (encore)
Cut it up
Recovering The Opposable Thumb
Margaret
100 Resolutions
Brickwall Views
Intransit
Drunk Mouth/Kitchen Smile
The Revisionist
On With The Show
Alert The Audience!
Chapter 13: The Hero Appears
 Ramblin' Boys of Pleasure

 I hope I'm not missing anything. It was an awesome night. I still can't believe it happened. TLA played in a weird town to hundreds of people in a packed arcade and it couldn't have been a better night. If they would have played my favorite song "Turnstyles" it would have been magical. Alas, they didn't but it didn't matter. I was lucky to give one more "thank you" to Chris after the show before heading out. We had a blast and  it will go down as one of my all-time favorite shows. One of the best things about being a part of the punk community both as a musician and fan, is that some of the really amazing acts play little hole in the wall places or intimate venues that give you access to meeting band members. You feel this connection when the band is a foot or two in front of you. You don't get that hundreds of feet watching a screen in an arena. There are no pits or stage diving. For me personally, I wanna be right up there with the fans. The ones sweating, singing and feeling every note and lyric. It's a magical experience that took me back to my youth. The drive home was ridiculous after Jon and I said our goodbyes. Just thinking about the night and how lucky I truly am to have discovered this band so long ago. I was so excited the next morning to talk to Mia about it, show her the video and give her a button I was given from the tour manager. I couldn't snag a set list but that's all good. I brought a TLA shirt themed for the Milwaukee stint with a cheese head and Chicago sausage. The tour manager said it was stupid but the fans all bought them. Today, I painfully am recovering and remembering that my age. Voice took a bit to come back but eventually it did at work. This week, Mia's got bass lessons, hang with some old friends and a vet visit for Remi. Jill's birthday is this week so we're taking her out for dinner. That's all for now, thanks for reading!!

One Last Dance

Good evening everyone. Quite a week with a fun weekend, so let's get started. Throughout the week, Mia's been wanting to explore as many music stores as she could. First stop was Guitar Center. She sat down at this pricey e-kit equipped with a double bass drum pedal, and immediately went to town on it. I explained how drummers who play double bass play really fast and she figured it out quite quickly and surprisingly stayed in time while drumming with her hands. HOW? She constantly impresses me with things she can do. We made our way over to the bass room and she plugged in a very bright green Jackson bass guitar and instantly fell in love with it. She never heard my bass guitar  plugged in when I play it because as a baby, she broke the knobs. She loves the low sounds of the bass and really really really wanted it.

The next day, we went to Cascio. Mia immediately wanted to look at bass guitars but alas, they didn't have any nearly as "cool" as the one she discovered at GC or that actually fit her.  She still had fun exploring the E-kits, banjos and ukuleles. Later, we picked up Jill from work before making dinner and calling it a night. The movie for the evening was Ralph Breaks the Internet. Such a great movie. I didn't have any art lessons this week, but will be getting back in this coming week. Mia had rehearsal Friday for her big recital the next day. Saturday, we made some pancakes, did some cleaning, cut the grass and later met up with family for Mia's recital. Her last dance. She has been a part of the Dance Academy LTD for the last 3 years and decided at the half way point this year would be the end of her dance career. 3 years of ballet and tap, 2 years of jazz. She'll claim that it became "too easy" for her, but deep down I know that it just wasn't as fun anymore. After the recital, she admitted she'd miss the rehearsal/recitals but really disliked the practice for some reason. She's most excited about her new adventure that starts this week. I'll post about that soon :) Thanks go to both our families that could make it including Auntie Ashley and Uncle Tommy. After wards, we went to YoMama for some fro yo before calling it a night. I gave my very special Father's Day gift to my Dad as well which was 2 tickets to see Fiorentina vs Chivas in Chicago at field level. I swear to God, I've never seen him more excited. I had a really hard time this week coming up with something fun and unique for Father's Day, but decided the old man needs more experiences than "things" so this was a good idea. He'll probably never ever get to another European game again, so why not sit him as close as possible? I'm looking forward to it as well as he is.

Today, Mia made blueberry muffins for Father's Day with Jill and we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone before I went off to work. It was a nice little moment with the kiddo. Her and Jill got me a cute pineapple shirt and Mia made a fun card.

This week, I'll polish off the rest of my resume before sending it out to jobs, I've got an art lesson, Mia and I are planning on some much-needed soccer at the park and hope the weather improves. The last few days have been weirdly cold. Mia starts her new adventure Tuesday evening as well which she couldn't be more excited about. That'll do for now, thanks for reading!

End of the Year, End of an Era

Well the school year has come to a close for 2nd grade. To me, it went unbelievably quick. The other day, Mia and I counted that she made NINE new friends this year. Crazy. She learned so much this year and has really developed her creative writing. Man, she had a ton of spelling tests which actually have been great with getting those words spelled correctly. Luckily this year, we didn't really have any bad bullying issues for a change and hope it'll continue for 3rd grade.

Thursday, I had a dual art lesson with students Micah and Gigi. They've been itching to do some painting so we worked on a water colour/pencil piece of a koi fish. The girls did fantastic and are looking forward to their next lesson. Mia painted as well and did an awesome drawing of a unicorn. I wish I could just do this for a living. Oh well. I'm looking forward to a busy Summer teaching more kids art and hope they all have fun. I'm going to work on this week getting an updated logo for Thrill Factory and promoting the lessons. Gigi wrote the sweetest letter on why my art lessons are so great. Thanks kid!

Friday was a half day for the diva. Sort of a pointless day but she had a surprise visit from her original 2nd grade teacher which put the biggest smile on her face. Honestly, we couldn't have had a better teacher for her. I traditionally brought Remi to pick her up and just about every kid ran up to give him some love. He of course didn't mind :) Mia said goodbye to some friends before we walked home. Later, she went to Stone Fire with Jill and her Grandparents. When I got home from work, there was a huge unicorn she won.

On my break Friday night, it was officially announced that Eden Hazard signed for Real Madrid. An end to an era. They have been rumoring almost his entire career as a Blue that he would leave for Madrid one day. The Prince will be painfully missed at Chelsea and has left an incredible legacy and huge shoes to fill.  His 7 years were fantastic and we all have some great memories of some of his incredible goals. He was a great servant to the club and always gave his best. He never dove and penned a great "farewell" letter. Couldn't have been any classier. Mia and I will miss watching him tare apart defense and scorch the keeper's net. Despite leaving for a club I loath, I wish him luck and hope he's treated well in Spain. Maybe he'll come back to the Bridge one day...Pictured is the shot I got of him when I saw Chelsea take on Inter several years ago when he took a PK and got the 2nd goal of the match.

Saturday we kept pretty damn busy. Because of the beautiful weather, we went to the zoo. We had a quick picnic before wandering around. Mia, Jill and myself were laughing hard at this duck that was flying and skidding across the water several times. Super cute. Mia enjoyed snapping pictures of the flamingos, giraffes, birds and otters. The red panda area was closed for some reason. The weather was too warm anyway for the critters to be out. Bummer.

Later, Mia and I picked up some food and went to the Torrent game. The girls played their heart out and got the big win 1-0. Mia had the best time cheering them on and pounding my drum. I sincerely love that she has this excitement for soccer (football) Whether it's watching the Torrent men/women's team, or our beloved Chelsea FC, it's something we get to enjoy together. Normally, we stick around for her to kick the ball about, but we had to go home and pick up Jill to go see Secret Life of Pets 2.

The movie ended up being pretty good and better than I expected. The girls crashed when we got home. Today, we did some grocery shopping before I went to work. This week, possibly some art lessons, hopefully some park visits with the diva and she's got her final rehearsal and recital this weekend. Crazy she's almost done with her dance career and ready to move on to other things. She's stated she wants to focus on her soccer and snowboarding skills, but has shown some interest in the girls running club and the newspaper club. Till then, we've got plenty of Summer to enjoy, although I think I speak for all of us that we wish we were heading back to Hawaii like last year. Oh well. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

The Home Stretch

Good evening everyone! Made it through another hectic week at work, and after this week, Mia will have completed the 2nd grade. WOO! This week was the Chelsea vs Arsenal final for the Europa trophy. I was pretty pretty pissed to have to work and miss it, however I Was stoked Mia wore her Chelsea shirt to support our fav team. They triumphantly defeated the Gunners 4-1. Hazard, who's rumored to leave London for Spain netted two goals. His farewell to the team he gave everything too. Unbelievable. Was stoked to watch the highlights when I got home with a much needed beer. It was such a rough season for my Blues, but they ended it on a high note picking up hardware. Hazard was injured the last time Chelsea was in the Europa final, so this win was a redemption. The EPL truly will lose one of the greatest players when he leaves for LA Liga. His creativity and incredible skills are unmatched. Mia's going to miss her football idol as well. I was super stoked to her the next morning that our beloved Blues pulled off the win :)

Thursday, we went to her little play at school the different groups put on. Her and a few kids performed a short Puss in Boots play. Mia was a magic mirror that she made all by herself. The kids did a great job and it was pretty cute. Originally I was going to do an art lesson, but it was sorta last minute and I didn't have any source material for my students to use. Hopefully we'll get in some more lessons too. Mia and I picked up Jill after work and we chilled out and had dinner.

Friday was our anniversary. 11 years married. And.....we didn't do anything. Jill and I love each other very very much, but we didn't find it necessary to take off (well me take off) from work to go out to dinner or anything. We reminisced about our wedding with Mia before she went off to school. Saturday, we celebrated my Mother-in-laws birthday a bit early with some dinner, a cake and fun. Jill and Mia made a strawberry lime cake but it didn't quite go as planned. Frosting was still really good. We watched Monster University before calling it a night when they split. I gave Mia a bath before she passed out for the evening.

Sunday, they came over for a picnic at the park on a gorgeous afternoon. Remi especially enjoyed it. We haven't taken him to Pro HealthCare Park in quite a while so he was super excited. We even let Mia walk Remi, which by the way was super cute and terrifying. I think as he's gotten older, he's gotten way better with walking and doesn't want to run immediately. He knew Mia was with him so he behaved well. I'm really the only person our dog ever runs with. I was proud of both Mia AND Remi for handling the walk. Later, I cut a bit of grass before calling it a night.

Lastly, I had some great drawings for Mia over the week. A pretty well-received quick sketch of some small orange cuties, and a very very rare attempt at Spiderman. I don't do superheroes but was intrigued by the classic comic book character and gave it a go.

This week is her last week of school. The home stretch. Sorta wish I would have got off on Friday since it's a half day, but what can ya do? Nothing else majorly planned so far. Possibly going to the Torrent game with Mia Saturday night. I'll continue looking for a new job as well. That's all for now, thanks for reading!