Concert, Lake, Family, Fireworks, Beer, 1M(but not necessarily in that order)

What a great weekend! Friday night found me at a local concert to both celebrate the anniversary of a popular eating/drinking establishment downtown, and to raise money for the hospital's cancer services. The concert was held at the site of an historic old hotel just west of town (amongst century-old cottonwood trees). The hotel was torn down in the 70s, but the grounds are wonderful. The first band was The Clintons--a popular band from Bozeman. I don't ride their bandwagon, and I won't ever buy their CDs, but they're a good band for this sort of thing. And they played well. The second band was a local blues/rock band. I'm not sure how they got this gig, but I know there's plenty of other bands that would have sounded better. The biggest criticism would be that the female lead singer thought she was channeling Janis Joplin, even performing three of her biggest songs (not even Janis did all three in a concert!). And apparently, channeling Janis means screaming at the threshold of her throat's limit, and not worrying too much about hitting the high notes remotely in tune. Sorry--Janis could pull it off--this woman can't. The rest of the band was rather ordinary, at best.


But none of us were there to hear them. The headliner was the Mission Mountain Wood Band. The biggest Montana band of the 70s. Back on tour with their first new album since those days, and sounding just as good as they ever have. Since they were pushing the new album, much of the expected old stuff didn't get performed, but that's ok. The "biggies" were still played. I started their set right off the stage, in front of a bank of speakers. I thought I'd lost most of my hearing from years of doing that exact same thing, but apparently not. After about an hour, I had to move back to where the soundboard was. Funny...the sound was much better back there!

The stars were out--not a cloud in the sky. The cottonwoods were snowing, which played hell with my eyes. The beer was cold and plentiful. The food available was incredible. A fantastic beginning to July!

(click 'em to big 'em!)

Saturday was a day of rest, sort of. Sunday was spent out at the lake with the rest of the family and friends. Due to the amount of snow we've had, the lake is higher than it's been in decades. Which means that there's all sorts of flotsam coming into shore. So, since there was little swimming or boating to do, the main activity was beer pong! Thanks to the two nieces who have graduated from college! Almost everyone got involved, including both grandmothers who were there. I didn't play, but I was the designated drinker for the recent high school grads (who knew how to beer pong far better than they should have...). Those who weren't playing beer pong were playing washers (which is the same as cornhole, but the wind in north central MT blows the beanbags too much, hence the use of large washers). Other activities included laying in the sun, and drinking beer next to the bar that's been set up down by the water (complete with margarita blender!). It was a great day.

Monday was another lazy day, but I did get out to watch the big fireworks show. Back in the day, that would have been another good reason for more beer, but I'm getting to old to do so much anymore... All in all, a fine weekend!

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It was amazing to see FB blow up with reaction to the Casey Anthony case. I found it humorous that the Canadians, for the most part, had no idea who/what was going on. Personally, I didn't watch a single second of it, but my question for the many who did...would there have been this much interest in this if the little girl was ethnically different? Would there have been such "outrage"? I think not, because it's happening on a daily basis. And it may be against the grain, but kudos to the defense team. They were able to raise reasonable doubt, and the prosecution (thinking they had a slam dunk case) failed to prove their case. She wasn't found 'innocent'. She was found 'not guilty'. Vastly different. As some TV attorney noted on one of the many news shows tonight--the American legal justice system is built to acquit guilty defendants rather than risk finding a truly innocent person guilty.

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Then again, I did watch Nancy Grace. She was spectacular in maintaining my total disdain for the woman. Possibly the most puke-inducing clip, though, was from the ladies on "The View". They couldn't discuss it without choking back the tears. Really? Quit embarrassing yourselves, ladies.

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The big summer concert is in 10 days. I hate to report that we are WAY behind. Those who are in the upper level planning positions have not been on the ball. I'm sure the concert will come off just fine, but this last minute scrambling is getting old. I see a possible new position for me in the coming year...

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Big news this week--the population of the state is projected to break the 1,000,000 mark before the end of this year. Woohoo!!!