01.01.70

James: The show was amazing. We had an opportunity to practice with some old members Nevin Hillegass and Neil McGrath . They were in our original band Red Letter Daze. Red Letter Daze showcased our music with a little harder alternative edge. I came out in Aaron Rodgers packer Jersey, Mullet Wig(I had a mullet when we started in 1992), and Chuck Taylor shoes. We played five songs; two covers and three originals. All of the songs sounded better than we played back in 1992. The crowd was having an incredible time. It came together well for only one night of practice with the RLD group.

The next set was with our second incarnation called Mystery Machine, which had Neil McGrath in it as well. He wrote many of the songs during that phase of our band. It was a little more jam band and pop/classic rock feel. So, needless to say, after my second wardrobe change into a Phish tie dye from a 1998 Maine Lemonwheel concert, we dug deep into the MM set.

Before the set started I got a surprise from my great friend Angela James. She basically was able to do some research and cut through the red tape to get my degree from UW Madison. This was 21 years in the making. That is a story in and of itself; for another day perhaps.

Source: Examiner.com

by Emskyrooney

With a three year old in the house we knew we wanted to be home for Christmas.  So we decided to head to Vegas on December 27 and stay for a week.  LP did great on the six hour flight out there (although the whole not quite completely potty-trained child on a full flight with teeny tiny airplane bathrooms was a nightmare) and jumped right into playing with his 5 year old cousin as soon as we arrived... We celebrated the New Year at 9 p.m. for the kids (hey, it was New Year's back in Massachusetts!) and by midnight only three of us were left standing (or lounging on the couch).  We rang in the official New Year by making fun of the local Las Vegas news anchors and their absolutely horrible New Year's show- it was so poorly produced that we were literally on the floor laughing as their countdown was about 10 seconds beyond the official countdown shown on the screen. We attempted some family photos- this is the best one I could get of my mother-in-law and her 4 guys....

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by managedmom

Our annual hockey tourney that takes place in Las Vegas right on the heels of the end of the holiday season.

Managed:   If you have to take your family to Vegas, there are some family-friendly activities that are appropriate, but be warned that your kids may see some PG-13 and even some R-rated characters around the strip.  Unfortunately, that is hard to avoid.

Seeing Mickey Mouse with a liquor bottle in broad daylight was bothersome and we looked the other way, but it was hard to shake that sad image out of our minds.  Since I have a teen and a tween, the intoxicated Mickey didn’t bother them that much, but I’m sure that could really affect little ones!  So if you must go to Vegas with little ones, proceed with caution.  For my older kids, we found some super cool stuff to do while we were in town for the hockey tourney….which was great fun, as it always is!

Here are our family-friendly Vegas suggestions:

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