Apocalypse

Kim and I went to see the band Apocalyptica last night. It was the anniversary of the Warsaw Rising, so it was held in the park right outside the Rising Museum. What better way to celebrate the courage of the Poles in WWII then with a Finnish band of 4 dudes on cellos and 1 drummer? And best of all it was free! They rocked pretty hard, but it's kinda funny seeing guys with hair down to their asses headbanging while playing a cello. The weather was perfect for an outdoor concert and we both had a really good time. I loved it, but Kim was even more into it than I was. She's already told me that we're going to see them again the next time they come.

One Last Fix

The Ministry concert was last night and it was awesome. For the live band they recruited Tony Campos from Static-X and Tommy Victor from Prong. I had no idea what a great guitar player Victor was, but that mofo can shred like nobody's business. The played two 65+ minute sets, the first of which was all the best stuff from their last three albums. That was great, but since this was a farewell tour, I really wanted to hear some old classics. They started the second set with some crazy instrumental stuff, but then the bass line for "So What" kicked in and the crowd went nuts. They followed that with "Just One Fix", "Thieves", and "N.W.O." and completely tore the house down. It was so kick ass, but kinda sad at the same time since this will be the last time we'll ever get to see the great Uncle Al perform. Last night was the penultimate city they'll ever play, and I got to witness it's awesome power.

It was a great 20+ years. 

RIP Ministry

Fun on the seas

For the long holiday weekend, a group of 20 people from Kim's work took a trip to the Great Masurian lakes for some fun on the water. We rented 3 sailboats, with two of them holding six people plus a captain, and another holding eight with the captain. The boats were a bit smaller than we expected, but it wasn't too bad. At least not until it was time to go to sleep in the tiiiiiny cabins. I woke up in the middle of the night on friday and felt like I was in a coffin, so I took my sleeping bag and slept up top.

The weather was beautiful most of the time, we were able to set anchor and swim around for a while until a massive storm hit us saturday afternoon. The wind and rain was coming down really hard, and then it started hailing like crazy. Luckily we were able to get to the dock before it got too bad, or I'm sure we would've had some pretty sick sailors on board. Especially with the rather large amounts of vodka/pineapple juice/cranberry juice drinks and vodka soaked watermelons we all consumed. The storm passed pretty quickly and it cleared up and turned into another great night.

We were docked at the town of Mikolajki, which was pretty small but had a few nice cafes, a place to get fresh baked waffles covered in whipped cream and chocolate (yummy!), and most importantly, a huge trampoline to jump on. I and two of the girls from our boat were the only ones who jumped, and we had a blast. Except I forgot that my green laser was in my pocket and apparently something got jacked up when I was doing all those flips because it completely died after that. Don't worry, I already ordered a new one today.

Sunday we just puttered around the lakes nice and easy, tied the three boats together, and swam for a while before heading back to home base and driving home. All in all it was a great time for everyone and we're going back next summer. But we all agreed that we're going to rent the motorboats that hold eight people so we don't have to screw around with putting the sails and masts up and down every time we go through a different canal between the lakes.

Stanley Xs Two

Most people reading this probably don't care, but the Red Wings just signed Marion Hossa to a one year contract. And if that wasn't exciting enough, they also signed Brad Stuart to a 4-year extension, and Andreas Lilja for 2 more years. Plus they brought in Ty Conklin to be Osgood's backup for next year. If that doesn't guarantee another Stanley Cup next year, I don't know what does.