Jason Aldean / Chris Young & Thompson Square Concert

Last night C. and I went to the Kentucky State Fair to see Jason Aldean and Chris Young in concert and it was fantastic!  We left the house 3 hours before the concert so we could walk around the fairgrounds for a while before the concert started.  Little did we know it would take us over 2 hours to get to the fairgrounds.  Trimarc signs nicely told us that the main gates were closed and routed us to a different gate.  We thought, WTF, who closes the main gates on the first Saturday of a state fair for a sold out concert?!  So for 2 hours we sat in backed up traffic, maneuvered around several vehicles that had over heated and finally made it to the gates - where we found that the main gates were actually open and probably would have saved us at least an hour.  Thanks a lot Trimarc!

Once we got there we headed to the exhibition hall to get C. a custom fitted toe ring.  It was then that we realized her wallet wasn't in her purse.  Uh oh.  We called the last place we stopped to see if it was there before making the long treck back to the truck.  Luckily, her wallet was in the truck, having slid down the seat and into the back floorboard.  Shoo, that was a close one!

So then, we make the long treck back to Freedom Hall where the concert had already started with the opening acts.  By the time we got back we decided we needed a good cold one, and I wanted to get a t-shirt.  After more line standing, and C. not being able to get a shirt due to the credit card machine crapping out, we snagged one more cold one and headed up to our seats.  From then on, the night was fantastic!  We got into the Chris Young concert just when he was playing his best songs.  Perfect timing!

During the break between Chris Young and Jason Aldean, we took a bathroom break and decided to get one more cold one.  After standing in line for 20 minutes and still 15 people back from the beer stand it was announced that all the beer was sold out.  Nice.  So we moved over to another line for another good 5 minutes when we heard them announcing Jason Aldean.  At that point we abandoned our nice, cold beer and high tailed it back to our seats (which we never actually sat in).

This was probably one of the best, if not the best, concert I have ever been to.  Our seats were perfect, especially for the price we got them for.  We were side-stage and close enough to get a good view of the band members, plus they always have the big screens for the close-ups.  It was a great night out, despite all of our hurdles, and well worth everything!

And of course, some photos:

The equipment trucks - there were 4 of these plus the tour bus:

Our picture with Jason  ;)

Chris Young & Thompson Square

Jason Aldean

Nature and Stuff

It's been a while since I've blogged.  What can I say, it's been a busy month!  But that doesn't mean I haven't been enjoying the wildlife around the house. I even actually dusted off the camera to snag a couple of photos.  I was trying to get the pair of chipmunks that have taken up residence in the rock bed around one of the trees, but the bunny and the birds were the only critters cooperating with me.

Bunny Foo Foo

Ready for Take Off!

As for me, I'm doing fantastic.  I finished up my radiation treatment about a month ago and am finally feeling back to my old self again.  Once fall rolls around I plan to start back on my P90X workouts.  Unfortunately with my surgery and treatments, my first two months of hardwork has reverted back to ground zero due to not being able to work out and not sticking to a good diet.  But, I'll get it all straightened out in due time.  For now I'm busy working and spending at least one day a week lounging by the pool and enjoying summer.  The garden is growing, the critters are abundant and the weekends are full of good times with friends.  Life is good!  :)

Stormy Summer Sunset

As three rounds of tornado producing storms were passing through, they sky was beautiful just at sunset!  This is typical for spring to early summer in Kentucky.  Luckily, we didn't have any damage.

The Waggin' Trail

This morning my friend Christina and I walked the Waggin' Trail for the Kentucky Humane Society at E.P. Tom Sawyer. Christina brought Molly, her blue heeler mix, and I brought Giant Dawg.  Both dogs (and humans) thoroughly enjoyed the walk!  There were lots of people and dogs attending, which is great because that means lots of money was raised for the cause.  It was a 3 mile walk, but Giant Dawg got hot and tired out about half-way through.  He is very hairy and it was in the mid-80's. I've never seen him drool so much.  My spare shirt became a slobber rag and was pretty much soaked by the time we were done. This is the first time I've had him out with a large group of people and dogs and he did fantastic.  I look forward to taking him to more of these!

Giant Dawg - all tuckered out:

Ducks and Stuff

I may have mentioned before that we had a wild mallard pair visiting the backyard pond on a daily basis.  Momma Mallard decided the floating duckhouse would be the perfect place to lay her eggs.  Last Wednesday Momma Mallard emerged with 14 ducklings in tow!  A week later they are starting to explore a little on their own, but still sticking really close to Momma.  We can expect them to be here for a couple of months before they grow their wings and fly off to do their own thing.  It's so awesome!  Here is Momma Mallard with 10 of the babies (the other 4 must have been on her other side):

I am now 3 weeks out from surgery and feeling great.  I'm pretty much back to normal aside from some remaining sensitivity, but my oncologist says that should go away within the next couple of weeks.  The pathology report came back good and they think they got everything.  I start radiation treatments next week to zap anything they  may have missed.  It's every weekday for 5 1/2 weeks.  The kicker of it is I drive 45 minutes one way to get a 2 minute treatment - ha!  Luckily there aren't many side effects from radiation, so the only things that might happen is a sunburn like area at the treatment location and possibly some fatigue towards the end of the treatment rounds. I start on Tamoxifin next week as well, which I will be on for 5 years as a preventative to the breast cancer recurring.  All in all, I'm pretty good to go!

I did make a good accomplishment last month regarding my Flickr Photography Scavenger Hunt.  For the first time in the 2 years I've been playing I actually completed a round!  And my challenge photos got the most votes, to boot!  A silly feat, but a fun one.  You can see all of my photos and the scavenger hunt list if you want.  :)

And now that we have our first day of no rain in I don't know how long, I'll try to get some updated duckling photos to post.  :)

I Heart Faces Pets - Let Go of My Badger!

Lois Lane got a stuffless badger for Christmas and instantly went into a game of tug-of-war!  She loves her stuffies. :)

Luna Moth

Another cool find this spring - a Luna Moth!  It appears to be a male and was hiding out in my umbrella that was drying out on the front porch.  Since they don't fly during the day I set him up in one of the hanging flower baskets until dusk, when he then moved to the porch light and then took his leave during the night.  I've never seen one so vibrant before!  

I'm so enjoying watching the new flowers bloom that we never got to see here last year due to moving in mid-July.  And to top it off we have a rabbit living under the back porch and a momma mallard duck sitting on eggs in the dog igloo that is on the floating duck dock on the pond.  So that means baby duckies soon!   It's been a little piece of heaven for both me and Jason. I'm just happy this year we get to enjoy the full summer here rather than moving and unpacking and cleaning up the old house to prep for rentals.  

My surgery is schedule for Thursday morning so I'll likely not have many photos for a while.  But will try to do a recovery update here, if nothing else out of sheer boredom.  ;)  I'm taking a few days totally off work to recover where I intend to do some reading and movie watching so I can get back at it early next week.  Hoping it's just a small dent in the road and I can be back to normal soon and start my P90X back, at least by early fall.  I've been off of the program since my exercise restrictions after my biopsy and didn't see the point in picking it back up until I can do it right, but I do miss it.  So far, so good though, I'm still fitting in my smaller clothes!  :)