Happy Birthday

Holy cow there's a lot of birthdays that have either just pasted or are upcoming. I will mention some February birthdays that have passed: 6th was Jerry Katz's bday. The 19th was Bill Bruers bday. And just last week was my sister-in-law Joy's bday. She celebrated it as she was recovering from a surgery she had earlier in the week. I wish her well!

Today, March 28th, is my niece Maggie's third birthday (Bob and Joy's youngest). Ain't she a cutie, pictured here with her pigtails.










The 28th is also my friend Sharon's birthday. Here she's pictured in Rangers Field in Arlington Texas.











And March 1st is my friend Ellie's birthday. Here she's pictured sitting on the ribbon rock at Isle of the Pines (Dorthy's winter island).














Then the 5th is my daughter in-law Jessica's birthday. Here she's pictured trying on her new backpack last spring at Bass Pro Shop in Springfield Missouri. She looks a little different now (7 months pregnant with my grand daughter).









And then on the 7th is my mom and Jerry's dog Cassie's birthday. Here she is hanging out on the back of my sofa.

Miami Ink

As promised to some of the gang, I'm posting my pictures I took at the Miami Ink Studio. It was two blocks from my hotel I stayed in last week in Miami.

It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. It looks a lot bigger on tv. I didn't see any of they guys from the show. But the place was packed with people and artists.

You can catch Miami Ink on TLC Tuesdays at 9 central.

Lunch with the Perry's

Today I had the privilege of seeing Andy and Eleanor Perry in the Minneapolis Airport. You may remember them from my trip to Connecticut this past summer. They are Ellie's parents and very fine hosts.

Well as luck has it, they were on a layover from San Antonio to Providence. I was on a layover from Miami to Brainerd. And it just so happened our layover times were almost exactly (almost exactly??) the same. Both our planes landed at 10:30am and I had to leave at 1:00pm and they had to leave at 1:30pm. Weird huh? Well I found them down in baggage claim. They were actually expecting their grandson, David Boeckermann Jr, to meet them but David wasn't able to get there. They had no idea I was coming there. SURPRISE. They were a little disappointed David couldn't make it but they seemed okay to chum with me.

We went back upstairs and went through security. Andy had some problems getting through without beeping. After removing darn near everything but his undies he did make it through. But by then he was so flustered he forgot to pick up his stuff (this would include his wallet) but some kind man said "hey buddy... " and Andy Buddy went back and gathered up his stuff.

Then we went to Chili's and Andy treated us to some nummy smoked turkey sandwiches. Thanks Buddy Andy!

We had a very pleasant visit. It was so nice to see them again. They told me all about everyone back home (Stonington Connecticut) and all about their vacation in San Antonio (yep...the Alamo). And as fast as it started it was over. We went our separate ways to jump on different birds.

Gary Allan

I haven't told you about the Gary Allan concert I went to last Friday night. Gary was awesome. It was the fourth time I've seen him perform. The concert previous to this past friday (the third concert) I met him (pictured here). Gary is an "Alright Guy".

Here's Bill playing the harmonica for us up in Rhonda's hotel room during "Happy Hour" before the concert. If his hat looks too small it's because that's my hat not his.

Miami

Just a quick note to everyone that checks into my blog...Miami...NO THANKS. Not my favorite place. Be sure to ask me about my horrid accomodations if you see me. Unbelievable. The radio station traded out my room....great. Traffic = el sucko! Bad bad bad. I'm staying on South Beach and working 16 miles north of there. Yesterday it was 55 minutes to accomplish that trip. Cars seem to just flip upside down on the six lane highways. No super food to report. I did get to Hard Rock to get Bill's shot glass (think I'll use it if I find any Jose). I did stop into Miami Ink to marry Ami but he wasn't there. To bad..... Will be home Friday night.

Lady Luck!

I'm not usually very lucky. I've come to accept that. But on Saturday night Lady Luck came my way. There were so many things to win. Everything from a freezer full of meat to a wheel barrow full of booze (of course I bought some chances on that). There were quite a few guns. A couple for door prizes, several on the general raffle and a few you could buy chances on. One of them came with the Bird Package. For $20 you got a stretch (as many as you could stretch from one hand to the other across your chest) of tickets. Well Dave Boeckermann Jr. Had just bought his stretch when I went over there to buy my stretch. We compared stretches and his was longer than mine, so he so kindly did my stretch for me.

When they finally drew for this prize there was a five gallon bucket damn near full of tickets. Wow ....It was a very popular raffle and even though I had somewhere around 40 tickets from Dave's very nice stretch, it was pretty small odds that I was going to win. Besides all my tickets would have been way down on the bottom of the bucket because I was one of the very first people to buy my chances.

Well they called the number. I think I looked at my tickets. But I guess I didn't hear right or didn't look at them right because I didn't think I had won. I actually threw my tickets down on the table. And then no one came forward. The emcee kept reading it over and over. He was going to draw again. He read it one more time and for whatever reason I picked up my tickets and it was the last one on my long stretch. Dale Kaiser was standing next to me and he said something like "you have the ticket". Good grief... I jumped up and down and ran up there to claim my prize. I almost missed out on it. And it was a goodie! The Bird Package had a pair of $90 Rocky Boots (men's but I can trade them for women's), Browning chaps with the Pheasants Forever logo embroidered on them, blaze orange bird hunting vest with the Pheasants Forever logo embroidered on it, leather Pheasants Forever shooting gloves, a Pheasants Forever/Miller High Life cap and a $1500.00 Ruger Red Label Over and Under 12 Gauge. It's awesome. I still can't believe it. Thanks Jr. for the good stretch. It was the last ticket on the end. If I would have pulled my own tickets I probably wouldn't have pulled as many as he did and would have shorted myself the winning ticket. Thanks Ellie and Dave for inviting me to join you guys at the banquet.
Here I am with a stupid "I'm in shock" grin in front of my Bird Package Prize.







The Dave's (Boeckermann and Makita) where very very busy with the Dave's Dice Game. They brought in over $2600 running it. They gave away a gun just like the one I won. Out of all the folks that played only one guy qualified for the drawing for the gun. He was one happy dude. But it's not Jeremy Jansen (pictured here rolling the dice). Jeremy was probably the most popular player and spent the most money on the game but didn't win for all his efforts.

Aitkin County Pheasants Forever Banquet

The newly formed Aitkin County Chapter of Pheasants Forever is having it's 1st annual Membership Banquet tomorrow (Saturday) night. Social Hour (my favorite hour) will begin at 4pm with dinner to begin at 6pm at the 40 Club Convention Center in Aitkin (Convention center in Aitkin??). Actually I'm volenteering to assist at this event and will be helping with the silent auction. It should be a good time. Maybe I'll win something like a new shotgun (ya right). 

Gary Allan

Tomorrow I'm going to see Gary Allan perform at Grand Casino Mille Lacs. It will be the third time I've seen Gary. I won't be meeting him this time. I met him the last time I saw him. He doesn't do meet and greets anymore, ever since his wife killed herself in 2004. Regardless, he's a great singer/entertainer and I look forward to seeing him again. I haven't seen him since he released his latest album Tough all Over.

Brainerd High School Talent Show

My second cousin, Andy Fischer, performed this past Monday night in the Brainerd High School Talent Show. My photo isn't very good but he's the lead singer playing the white guitar. He also sang a solo and played his guitar and harmonica. Both performances where of original songs he and his buddy's wrote. He was really good. But he didn't place in the top three (they only announced the top three that night). Andy placed fifth overall.

If you ask me the whole thing was rigged. I say that because some of the very best people didn't place in the top. Some stupid stuff won. The guy that came in second place read some stupid poem. And there was a girl, Gretchen Retka, that sang sooooo good. She is a future star, no doubt in my mind. But she didn't place in the top three. And who were the judges??? Teachers. Shouldn't it be a little more impartial than that? It was fun anyway. And there were a lot of talented kids there. There was even a student juggler that juggled knives (he was later suspended for bringing knives into the school).

Happy Valentines Day

 

It was awesome...

Me and Toby...damn that was cool!

Toby played for two hours. He was great! He sang all the songs I wanted to hear and then some. I'm trying to remember some of the songs....let's see....."How Do You Like Me Now", "Country Comes to Town", "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight", "I Wanna Talk About Me", "Beer for My Horses" (with Willy singing on the video), "Stays in Mexico", "You Ain't Much Fun" (since I quit drink'n), "Should've Been a Cowboy" (he made it into a Raggae song...Weird), "Honkytonk U", "As Good as I Once Was", "Who's Your Daddy", "I Love This Bar", "Whiskey Girl" and "Weed With Willy" (and I didn't even have to ask). And he also sang two songs from his up coming album to be released April 11th (Get Drunk and Be Somebody).
And as you can well imagine (if you're at all familiar with Toby's music) he did some of his patriotic songs including "American Soldier", "The Taliban Song" and he finished the night with "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue".


Me and Joe...that was very cool also. Joe rocked the house. As I walked up to him backstage he started singing. I thought that was neat. He has a great voice. It's very deep. He sang all his hits.

Going to meet the stars.....

Tomorrow I'm going to get to meet Toby Keith and Joe Nichols when they preform at the Xcel Center in St Paul. My radio connection (aka: Makita) has gotten us backstage passes with access to both artists. Now let me tell you, I've met a lot of country artists but to meet Toby is going to be the ultimate for me. I hope I don't do or say anything really stupid, like "I'll be your whiskey girl" or "Please sing the song Smok'n Weed with Willy"!

And Joe Nichols...guess what? Tequilla makes my clothes fall off too.

Chainsaw Sisters Saloon

Well a trip to Ely should also include a trip to the Chainsaw Sisters Saloon. Here's a great shot of me by the sign outside the bar and one of Dave, Ellie and myself enjoying a afternoon toddy in the wood heated saloon (thanks for taking over the photo duties Makita).

This place is something. We traveled 18 miles north of Ely on the Echo Trail to end up driving down a snowmobile trail in the truck to the most remote bar I've ever been to. There is no electricity there. The place was absolutely packed. We happened to luck out and get this booth after a group of snowmobilers offered it to us as they left. We were the only people there via vehicle. Everyone else had arrived on snowmobile.

The saloon overlooks Picket Lake and is the only privately owned entry point in to the Boundary Waters. Michele Richards, originally from Richfield Minnesota, and her twin sister Marlene eventually moved to Ely after spending several of their summers working and living up north. They bought the forty acres of land from the Potlach Corportation in 1986. The buildings on the lot include the saloon, the family cabin, a shed and an outhouse (yep .... that's the only place to "go"). The only power comes from a generator. Most appliances are run off propane.

The twins acquired the Chainsaw Sisters name while working for the U.S. Forest Service planting trees and clearing trails of dead falls. They didn't particularly like the name at first but it stuck.

And here's the best part. You can actually buy the saloon. Yes it's for sale! Check it out at http://bearislandland.com/data1151.html

Hey Lorrie....what do you think?

Snow Sculpting

Here are a couple examples of some awesome snow sculpting we saw in Ely this past Saturday. It was some kind of winter festival up there. Although, other than the the snow sculptures, we didn't see anything else that even remotely resembled a festival.

Crazy Water-mobiling

A trip to Ely this past saturday enlightened me in several areas. One was these crazy guys on snowmobiles that where skipping open water. It was the wildest thing. They've taken their sleds and rigged them up to go on open water. The tracks have large paddles built in to help them. They've removed the seat and off they go. After reading about this strange activity, I learned that you must be at speeds of around 90 mph to stay above the water. The state of Minnesota says that this sport is illegal unless it's done at an authorized event. I question that this was an authorized event. There where quite a few fellas there to try their sleds on this body of water. They would go along way and we didn't see anyone sink. I'd say "that was cool"!

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow

Six more weeks of winter? We haven't had much of any winter. It's been so warm here in Minnesota that we didn't bat an eye when old Phil saw his shadow. Bring it on. Then this morning we did wake to cooler temps (currently it's 14 degrees) and a skiff of snow. 

Groundhogs Day

Groundhogs Day is a big day for me. Eight years ago today I quit smoking ciggarettes. Gosh I miss them. Every once in awhile (usually when I'm around bad influences) I'll have a puff off a Backwoods cigar. Gosh I like them too. As someone I once knew said, "I'll gladly pay you on Tuesday for a cigar today"....the dude never paid me.