in the three weeks that followed:

1. in addition to the $300+ kennel visit for my large chocolate lab oscar, oscar broke open the tip of his very long and powerful tail inside of his pen, which never healed and then had to be amputated at a cost of a pretty penny. now i have a lab that looks like a weimaraner/dobermann.

2. a distant buddy had been brutally murdered outside of his chicago 2-flat on a sunday morning around 8am. the chicago pd isn't giving out any details, and what i do know is speculation.

3. knowing eventually that my almost 10yrs old son would be needing braces, i wasn't expecting my ex to drop an almost $2000 orthodontal bill in the mail, which is due before the end of this month!

&

4. one of my best friends' mother was involved in a serious car crash, with my friend's 3yrs old nephew riding in the back seat, that resulted in the death of a 40yrs old hispanic mother of seven. my friend's mom just picked up her grandson and was driving down a 2 lane rd, when she received a cell phone call, which was in her purse on the passenger side floorboard. she bent down and over to get it, and well, you can figure it out... she was banged up pretty badly, and the fog is beginning to lift. the grandson miraculously survived w/ only a scratch because, thank god, he was sitting in the middle of the backseat.

all this after visiting baltimore, dc, philly and pittsburgh, and having the most amazing time seeing and experiencing things that i'd only imagined before.

my apologies go out to dhr and cotton. dhr, we were at the ale house that night, but missed you, and cotton, we didn't have access to a computer and got your email a day late. hope that you made it to ween; it was an awesome show!!!

glad a visit to philly hasn't left you with the same bitter vitriol as the rest of the clowns on this board. I actually never made it to Ween, but heard it was a great show. I ended up passing out on the cheasapeake instead.

Damn Mo that sucks

Geez. That's pretty rough. Sorry to hear all that. But when that kid of yours smiles with a perfect set of teeth, your day may be brightened?

philly was great! caught my brewers lose @ citizen's bank bp, but got a prince fielder foul ball in our last at bat. had a cheese steak at pat's, not geno's!!! the night ween played at penn's landing was perfect! man, that was the most weed at any show... philadelphians were cordial at the game, not boorish. and at the show, one guy even went to buy me a beer. why? "it's the right thing to do," was his reply. did the independence mall/liberty bell tour the morning of memorial day. i got no problem w/ philly.

Was your chicago friend in Logan? There were two last week, one on our block and one up by Small Bar on Albany near Diversey.

no, this was up in avondale a couple of weeks ago, when there were 6 shootings that night.