7/26/09, 9:17 a.m. PST

(580): Haven't heard from you in a while. We're on the road with my parents to Southern Cal for a family bbq.

(414): Been kind of a busy week. Where in Southern part is the picnic? And how can it be the end of July already?

(580): In Moreno Valley - east of LA county. 5 hour drive from A-town. Don't know where the summer has gone!

(414): Are you the ony Beatle B***** at the reunion or are there more of you?

(580): Dad & I are the only B*****s, period. These are all H*****s, Mom's people. I'm the only Beatles nut. Oddball as always!

(414): Them H*****s are pretty oddball, from what I hear from the other hill folk. Goofy as all getout. Goofy as the day is long.

(580): The word's out, huh? I should've known.

(414): Biggest ripoff/disappointment: Revolutions Bar @ the Mirage. $10 for a rum & Coke? Please. If there had been more time (AND more money), I'd have liked to hav

(580): Message cut off. You'd like to have done what? Something dirty? :)

(414): ...paid the cover charge and gone to the Revolutions nightclub next to the theater.

(580): Drat. Well, I guess that would've been okay too.




7/27/09, 10:48 a.m. PST

(414): I got my racing sausage bobblehead - but I still think all those H*****s are GOOFY.

(580): Says the man with the bobble-headed phallic symbol.

(414): At least they're not giving out H***** family bobbleheads....that'd be too weird.

(580): Oh yeah? Well, you're a poopyhead! So there! Ha!

(414): Actually I'm very fond of the H*****s. :p

(580): You should be. We're AWESOME.

(414): At least we can agree that, with the exception of your children, ALL of the J*****s is GOOFY!

(580): Yeah, I'm totally on board with that.

8/15/09, 3:15 p.m. CST

(580): Tell Bobby Jack he'd better not be telling all our secrets. I vaguely remember how girls talk when they get together.

(918): He's already passed out. That seriously happened on ur wedding night....

(580): I dunno....I was downstairs partying with two Elvis impersonators, a showgirl and a Bolivian midget.

5:05 p.m.

(580): WTF? Did you all leave him in a ditch somewhere? My children are asking where Daddy is. I don't have the heart to tell them.

(918): LOL He is on his way home!

(580): Partially sober, I hope. And still wearing pants would be a huge bonus.

(918): Consider that our gift to you. :)

Just posted pictures from the Paul concert last night. Check out the sidebar on the left!

'Tis a sad state of affairs when I have even failed to blog about the fact that I am going to be seeing Paul McCartney next week....twice.

All of this came about (relatively) quickly. In the past I've known for months in advance the cities where he would be playing and then tickets have always gone on sale several months before the shows. On this abbreviated tour, however, his August 17th show in Tulsa was announced in July. I have known about the Dallas show for even less time. Somehow, and I'm not sure how I managed it, but somehow I missed the news that Paul was playing there. I had no clue until a friend mentioned it to me on July 13th, scarcely more than a month before the show!

There was some self-created drama centered around whether or not I'd get tickets for both shows or not, and also whether or not I could take Madalyn as I'd been planning to do for about the past seven years. It really is crap timing, though, us having just got back from practically the entire summer in California, and financing that, and having to pay our part of the body work incurred by Robert and his run-in with the Single Horse, Man, of the Apocalypse. So, though it was contrary to my wishes, I decided to go solo again (and, okay, it meant I could afford better seats. Shut up.) Now, if Paul never tours again, I will go to my grave wracked with guilt that I never took at least one of my kids to see him, so let's all cross our fingers that he comes around again so my soul can (at some date far in the future) rest in peace, mmmmkay?

So, where does that leave us? Well, it leaves me dashing off to Tulsa on Monday for the show at 7:30. Unfortunately I won't be able to stay overnight so it will be a late, late drive back home afterward. Then I have Tuesday to prepare to be gone overnight and Wednesday I'm off to Dallas for concert #2. I'm staying the night at Le Meridien, near the Dallas Galleria. I plan to have a couple of good meals while I'm out and enjoy the peace and quiet in the hotel room during the short period I'm there.

Not only do I get the joy and thrill of seeing Paul but, like the spoiled brat I am, I have some pretty spiffy seats for both shows. To whit:

Tulsa, Section 120, Row D

Dallas, Section C, Row 16

Yes, needing only a single ticket does have its advantages.

Incidentally, I paid face value for both of these tickets, via the official online ticket outlets (Tickets.com for Tulsa and Ticketbastard for Dallas). Tulsa was simple. I got online and was waiting at the website when the tickets went on sale. The first three or four times I clicked it said nothing was available but I kept trying and that seat popped up. It was actually the section I was hoping for, if I couldn't get a floor seat.

Dallas took a little more diligence. The show was, officially, sold out. However, as many people advised me, the venue often releases seats they'd held as the concert date got closer. I'd been browsing secondary-market tickets on several websites and was frustrated with the selection. The cheaper ones were all too far away from the stage for me to consider and the really good seats were out of my price range. Taking into account the advice I'd received I started checking Ticketbastard every few hours, daily. This went on for about a week. I'd had some moderately acceptable lower-level stadium seats pop up and then some poor floors seats (in Sections A and E, which Ticketbastard flags as having "limited views of the stage.") This past Monday night I was getting ready to head to bed. I almost closed the computer and then thought, "Oh yeah, I'll just check one last time for tonight." Thirty seconds later I nearly fell off the couch when a Section C seat popped up. I even opened a new tab and pulled up the seating chart to make sure it was really where I thought it was! I had a brief moment of temptation where I thought, "Hey, maybe if I put this one back it will give me another one, even closer!" but then I snapped out of it and went, "Whoa, lady, you've ridden the luck train as far as it's going to go. Take it and be done with it!" And, really, you can't get much better than 16th row, dead center floor for face value. I feel like I got off cheaply, and the good thing about shopping for tickets on the secondary market and then reporting the prices back to Robert is, he feels like it was pretty cheap, too. Everybody's happy.

So there's the latest. Check back later in the week for Part Two: Depression and the Aftermath of Post-Concert Letdown.

Good stuff! This mash-up of Tomorrow Never Knows/Within You Without You is from the LOVE soundtrack. Brilliant stuff by George and Giles Martin, and the video is fun.

Please enjoy this slide show of pictures I took at my old stomping grounds, Hearst Castle. I took Madalyn and John-Zachary for their first visit ever (and my first visit in about seven years) the last week of our stay in California.

By the way, I bet you didn't know this: the Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies was modeled on the Refectory (dining hall) at Hearst Castle. Producers from the movie came to the Castle and sketched the room for use in designing the room!