MxPx in St Louis! Our 24th Anniversary!

We went to St Louis to see MxPx for the first time in years! This was part of our 24th anniversary/my birthday celebration and we had to do it right.

The venue (The Pageant) was right next door to the Moonrise Hotel where we stayed, which was nifty because we could just walk next door to see the show and didn't have to deal with the mess of traffic or finding parking.

I got a picture of the lobby the next morning when the light was better:

The hotel had a rooftop bar, so we had some drinks up there while we waited for the show to start. It was low 70s and there was a light breeze, it was perfect. You couldn't ask for a better fall weekend.

Our room was super cool; the moon and stars theme is obvious throughout the hotel and we even had some Georges Méliès framed stills in our room.

Waiting for the show to start!

The only video my dumb blog will allow me to post, but it was an amazing show!

These dudes had as much energy as I remember from the last time we saw them, years ago. Fast-paced, blazing riffs, and great songs. They were a blast to watch and I like shows like this where the entire crowd knows the words to every song. And they even did the bass/guitar toss across the stage to each other, just like back in the day. Only difference is the mosh pit is full of blue hairs now. But so what, it was a lot of fun!

Got a picture of The Pageant the next morning as we took a walk to explore the neighborhood:

On the way home, the odometer hit 123456, so I had to capture that:

Ah well, I suppose. All good things come to an end...

Aurora Borealis

This is the second time the northern lights have been visible from our house. They would've been a lot easier to see away from the city lights, but really this is not bad for a shot from the backyard with my phone: 

Busted!

One peaceful June evening our meth tweaker neighbor two doors down kinda went off the rails. It started with him pacing back and forth in his yard screaming nonsense at... no one. Then it escalated to dumping some sort of accelerant on the neighbor's work truck and setting the truck on fire. Wish I had taken more pics of the burning truck, but there's just this pic of the fire right after he started it. When it really got going I was on the phone with 911 and didn't take a pic:

Took a couple 911 calls to get CRPD interested, but they finally showed up (20 minutes later) and as soon as they did, Dan the Meth Guy barricaded himself in his house and shut off all the lights. So the cops set up shop across several yards and waited:

You can see a couple cops with AR-15s hiding behind our tree:

And some in riot gear behind his house:

Then an MRAP showed up and they started ordering Dan out of the house over the loudspeaker. He was screaming nonsense back at them, something about how cops are hunting down and murdering meth users. It probably made sense to him. I mostly got video, but blogger is being a jerk and won't let me post it, so I have just a handful of pics instead:

After busting out his windows and throwing in some flash bang grenades, they went in and hauled him out. They asked me to go over and identify him since I was the one who called. Dude looked awful, like he'd been awake for a week. Then they opened his garage and discovered he had barrels full of chemicals that are used to make meth, but he hadn't started cooking yet. Good timing! He had racked up a long list of local and federal charges by the end of it. He has since been sentenced on the federal charges and won't be out again for a long, long time.

Yoshimi

The Flaming Lips toured playing their entire 2002 "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" album as well as the "Soft Bulletin," "Transmissions from the Satellite Heart," and "Clouds Taste Metallic," so we couldn't pass up on that. They used all the same props and costumes from the original tour and even brought back the two-story tall pink robots! The show was a blast and they did not disappoint.

The laser light display was awesome:

The robots (with people in them making them dance)!

Bubble boy:

The balloons he's holding up say "Cedar Rapids'" but they kept falling over:

So much fun!

Warm Days

 The traditional burning of homework and school stuff at the end of the school year:

The crumbling dock along Cedar River:

My cactus that I've had since 1995 bloomed! I think it has only bloomed once before:

I spent lots of time out on the water in my kayak:

My Parent's 50th Anniversary

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary! We were there and I can prove it.

I picked up some pictures below from their wedding album. There were some pictures that I've never seen before. I'll start with the oldest photo first.

This gem captured a magical moment when my junior high aged mom was acting junior high age and my grandpa was trying to get the dog to cooperate and keep the whole thing together:

My parents when they started dating sometime around 1970-71:

Their wedding in 1974:

And a random shot of my Grandma Nodland's hair salon in Des Moines!

Setting up the church basement beforehand:

[waiting for photos]

Abby's daughter, Ashlen:

Me and my siblings. We definitely got the memo about wearing gray:

These people were good sports: