Terri and I spent last week at the Chain-O-Lakes Resort to celebrate our birthdays. It’s located about an hour northwest of Houston. We read, slept, fished, slept, swam, slept and ate our way into relaxation. Here are some pics. I have been going here since I was kid and love all of the new additions. I highly recommend this place to anyone who wants to get away and relax.

Terri and I attended the Shinedown concert at the Verizon Wireless Theater on August 22nd. It was pretty good

We arrived late and I am not sure why. As we got onto the floor Deepfield was finishing up their set. I know they have a song on the radio called “Get It” so I was disapointed not get to see them. We did meet the guys from Deepfield after the show so I had them autograph a CD for me. Apparently the lead singer was locked in the bathroom so we missed him.

My disapointment soon ended when SURPRISE! Operator rolled their way onto the stage. Those dudes are freaking awesome. One of my favorite songs right now is “Soulcrusher” and they closed the set with it. Here’s a video I found on YouTube.

He kind of sounds like Chris Cornell from Soundgarden/Audioslave.

After Operator finished up it was time for Shinedown to come on. Shinedown’s stage presence has matured a ton since Terri and I saw them on the Glimsmack tour when they opened for Rob Zombie and Godsmack. The lead singer took control of the crowd and even broke up a fight! The music sounded really good but the mic kept cutting off the vocals through the first part of the show. So that was a letdown because this guy can really sing. Terri’s favorite part of the concert was when Shinedown did an acoustic rendition of Lynard Skynard’s Simple Man. I found a video of it from another concert.

Dude can blow!

And here is the video for it if you want to hear Shinedown’s LP version.

It was pretty awesome. But my favorite part of the concert was still SOULCRUSHER!!!…
After the concert we headed to Whataburger for some taquitos and then back to the cabin.

Here are some horrible pics.

I passed the BSCI on August 13th. This is the routing exam for those of you who don’t know. It was killer but I achieved a really high score, instructor level in fact. I now have two exams left. ONT which I am studying for now and hope to take this week or next. And the ISCW. I am excited to be half way there and looking forward to completing this monumantal task.

…this will happen to me.

I just had my first Big Red in eight months. Nectar of the gods. Thank you Kirk.

I ordered an M1 Garand

and an M1 Carbine from CMP yesterday.

Hopefully they will have the Springfield soon.

So In honor of that, here are my favorite gun safety videos.

The gun I sold my mother.

“This is a Glock .40, 50 cent, Too-Short, all of them talk about a Glock .40. OK, I’m the only one in this room professional enough – that I know of – to carry a Glock .40. I’m the only one…”

I love cops!

My all time favorite. This is so much fun!

Last but not least, an email from Warren. This is from a story on Yahoo.

Out troops in Iraq are now restricted to throwing bullets by hand!

An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

Last Sunday night Terri and I went to check out Saliva at the Verizon downtown with 300 of our closest friends. Saliva was headlining the HoustonPress Music Awards Showcase. Here are some pics we took at the event.

We arrived downtown about 6:45 and walked into the Verizon expecting a full house like there was at the Godsmack concert a few weeks ago. Let me just say I was very disappointed at the turnout.

The first band we got to see was The Mighty Orq. They were excellent. The Mighty had a kind of hard rock/blues sound to them. Terri and I found them extremely easy to listen to. I will be picking up a few of there CD’s. At one point during the set they broke into a rendition of Prince’s “Kiss”. It was one of my favorite moments of the evening.

The next band to take the stage was The Handsomes. Terri really liked these guys but I was kind of blas’e about them. They had kind of a poppy 311 vibe mixed with a little of that boy band reject that made it to the finals on American Idol this year. I was underwhelmed with enthusiasm for them. I really liked the next band though.

The Dimes……………part Beatles?……..part Napoleon Dynamite? Check this out and you’ll see what I mean.

These guys tore up the stage. The had a weird, highly energetic vibe to them. They were just so different than anything I have seen. I highly suggest checking them out if you get a chance.

After The Dimes finished up their set Terri and I hit the pit to get better seats for the Saliva show. Saliva stormed the stage close to 10:30 with “Black Sheep”. These guys put on a helluva show. The rhytnm guitarist was a lunatic. He was runnning all over the stage like Godzilla, wrecking everything. The band sounded great live. This was our first time to get to see them in person. Terri enjoyed “Rest in Pieces”. But my favorite part was the encore where they played “Ladies and Gentlemen” and “Your Disease” back to back to end the show. While we were waiting for the encore I allmost had to drop my “pimp hand” on some drunk idiots but security stepped in so I ended up not having to go to jail, which is always good for the home team. We will definitely see these guys again if they come back to Houston…………or Dallas………….or San Antonio.

Terri and I ended the night at the local Whataburger with some potato taquitos and picante sauce. How Texas is that?