More Of Tom & Patty's

X-mas @ Tom & Patty's

X-mas Morning!

Kody kept trying to wake Vince up...hurry hurry he'd say. He was all excited to open presents. We all had a nice breakfast before heading to Tom's house.

Ho Ho Ho

Merry X-mas Eve!

We had a wonderful day that started out at 8 am. I woke up and dragged Vince out of bed so I could drag him to Kohl's with me. We walked around in one big circle, gazing at a whole lotta nothing, trying to find that one last minute gift that never happened! I said, "nothing in this store is worth standing in that line"! We left and went to the grocery store for some last minute goodies and the appetizer to bring to Tom & Patty's on Christmas Day. The store was packed we hung onto each other for dear life. We both just wanted to get home and stay home. Nicole was going to be here to celebrate along with Andrew. Mom & Dad came by for dinner and to see all the lights Vince put up. It was a great evening. Andrew got a new hockey bag that was bigger than he, Nicole convinced him to get in it, to see if he would fit...CRazzzy kids haha. I really missed Teri & Kody. They are at their moms tonite. They will be here sometime this evening. So we will celebrate with them in the morning. This will be the first year they get to spend x-mas morning with Vince. We are both really excited.

Concert Video

System Of A Down Oakland CA 10/8/05

I got these tickets comp'd from work. Vince, Andrew, Jeffery, Daniel, his friend, and I all piled in the truck to go see these guys along with Mars Volta.
I took this high quality (ya right haha) video of the show. If you look closely at the end of the video you can see Mr. baldy rockin out. This was such a mega high energy show, we loved it! We all had a blast!

Another Brick In The Wall

Click here to sign our Graffiti Wall!

When I saw this, it reminded me of one of the most innovative & outstanding groups of the 80's !

Click here to listen: Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall

Christmas In The City

Click on an image to enlarge

We did the annual Bart ride to Union Square in San Francisco on Sunday.
It was alot of fun being with everyone! We ate dinner at Lefty's Irish Pub, it was delicious!
The kids enjoyed picking out an ornaments for our tree at Macys.

Christmas At Our House

Vince spent alot of time putting up the lights at our house.

Christmas Cheer

The other night Teri, Andrew, Kody and I decorated the the tree we got the other night.

Kody was so cute, what a big helper. He helped me untangle the lights to put on the tree.

Vince is starting on the outside of the house today. Chevy Chase wanna be.
The ladder he is using that he got from work, is taller than our house!
Scary... I'm sure glad I'm going to work today!
He's certainly deckin' the halls! Pictures to follow.

This will be our first Christmas together, so we're all very excited.

Patty's Surprize Dinner Party

GD Review

REVIEW Green Day plays its home turf, smacking punk out of SBC Park
Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic
Monday, September 26, 2005 now part of stylesheet -->

Billie Joe Armstrong's face wreathed in smiles Saturday as he held up a bright red sweatshirt tossed onstage from the front row. John Swett. "That's the high school I went to in Crockett," said the East Bay-bred vocalist for punk rock champions Green Day.
"No," he corrected himself. "That's one of the high schools I went to. I didn't graduate from any of 'em, and Ma, look at me now."
Armstrong can be forgiven for a tiny boast about his lack of education. He was headlining a sold-out show at SBC Park, the biggest rock concert so far this year, before a hometown crowd of 42,000 undoubtedly full of family and friends. Armstrong recollected playing as a teenager at the Teen Center in Davis and ticked off the names of the long-gone bands who appeared on the same bills as if it all happened last week instead of 17 years ago.
But the punk rock trio from the remote reaches of Contra Costa County has climbed on top of the rock world. With the release last year of "American Idiot," Green Day has become the rock band of the moment, the only group to ascend to stadiums in years. What makes it all the more amazing is that the band has accomplished this without making any obvious accommodations to the pop charts.
The multiplatinum success of "American Idiot" brought a much younger demographic into the band's camp. SBC Park was filled with young teens and even younger fans, with their parents. Punk rock as family entertainment? There's something so terribly wrong with that, yet, at the same time, something so very right.
Not that Armstrong manicured his stage demeanor for the huge preteen contingent in the house. He liberally sprayed his favorite f-word and gave a goofy, mischievous grin as he reached into his pants at one point in the proceedings.
Looking almost like a cartoon punk rocker -- his eyes framed in Alice Cooper's eyeliner , his black hair a perfect mess, his red-striped tie stuffed military style into his black shirt -- he wore an armband around his shoulder that read "RAGE." He ran from left field to right field and back again on virtually every number, exhorting the crowd at every opportunity. He has become a master of the grand gesture, the overstated pose, and when he curls up his mouth and pops his eyes, Armstrong gives some of the best rock face in the business.
Four 40-foot-tall video screens cradled the back of the stage, with computerized lights flashing in between. The band used more fireworks than Journey or Kiss ever did, blowing off flash pots during virtually every number and ending the concert with a display that rivaled a small town Fourth of July. Extra lighting sent beams into the grandstands and the heavens.
Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt held down the grooves with drummer Tre Cool, vamping steadily while Armstrong ranted and raced around the giant stage. Second guitarist Jason White added rhythm and leads, allowing Armstrong to dispense entirely with his instrument at points. A two-man horn section added some cacophony to the rumbling, driving sound, and Jason Freese played not only saxophone and trombone, but accordion, too (he is also the extraordinary drummer in the band A Perfect Circle).
The band's music has grown far beyond the relative provincial confines of punk. "Wake Me Up When September Ends" was a Beatles-esque ballad that had cigarette lighters flickering across the stadium. Some of the band's midtempo songs recalled middle-period Stones more than Sex Pistols, and the band returned for an encore with Queen's "We Are the Champions," although the Ramones hyperdrive still chugs through the center of many of the band's best pieces. Even when the band entertained a more generic punk rock sound, there was always an element of classicism to Green Day.
Green Day has taken punk rock places it has never gone, like the centerfield of SBC Park. It is all part of the mainstreaming of punk culture that put a Hot Topic boutique in every mall in the country. But while Green Day broke through with the band's major label debut, "Dookie," writing anthems about masturbation and boredom, "American Idiot" is a frankly political tract, and Armstrong spared no invectives in lacerating President Bush from the stage. These gentlemen are nobody's cookie-cutter punks.
E-mail Joel Selvin at jselvin@sfchronicle.com.

Family Campout 2005 HatCreek-Burney Falls