Here are some of my pics from the Gorge this year, which was... as always... a blast. We were quite a crew this year, made up of four guys, which made even more extreme the ratio of dick and fart jokes, the level of drunkenness, and the final level of stinky that accompanied us home :) The band's not touring next year, though, so the show was particularly awesome this year, with Ben Harper opening all three nights. On Saturday, he came out and played "All Along the Watchtower" with Dave on his slide guitar, which was a bad ass fucking song. The video below is of Matt (shirtless, from Australia) and Gabe (sunglasses, from Philly) attempting to hula hoop at the campsite of some new friends we made. It was quite an experience hanging with Matt all weekend, as his accent (which I, of course, tried to imitate) was the greatest pantie-dropping elixir I have ever seen... women would hear him say something walking by, grab him, and not let him leave until he spent some time in their tent. Over the course of the weekend, we had him shotgun his first beer (something they don't do in Australia, apparently, though they binge drink plenty!). The funny horn this one young lady is blowing on is Sam's vavuzula (the South African horns that were made famous at the world cup, where he obtained this one). It makes one hell of a noise, but it's tough to do. Dmitrius got it very easily and wouldn't put the damned thing down, but I kept failing in my attempts :)




In addition to all of that, I've been spending a good amount of time with my boy, who is getting so damned big. He's also recently developed an adventurous side that had been missing. These pics are from an afternoon when we went to feed the ducks and ended up spending about three hours wading through waste deep streams, finding cool rocks and critters. He's become even more of a character, too, and the one thing that I'm most proud of these days is how well our relationship had developed. We talk about everything, and he can even explain to others why he doesn't like Wal Mart ('they like money more than people or nature') or Target ('they don't like boys with boyfriends or girls with girlfriends'). I know that's a funny example, but what do you really expect from me?! Beyond that, he's getting so big! He turns 5 in 18 days, at which point we'll be in Legoland, which I'm really excited about. He can't even describe how stoked he is, and my mom's going to be there with us, and he loves his Gramster. I love her, too, but she's fucking nuts, right Steve?!

Amanda, Happy Birthday! Sorry I totally spaced when we were talking today. I don't even pay attention to what day it is usually, and I'm generally bad with dates. No excuses, but it may have something to do with short term memory loss or old age or something. Regardless, you are now 32, too, and I'm still 31. :)

Everyone keep thinking about new years eve, at which point we need to all be together. It even looks like I'll have the money to travel to wherever we're heading, but we've gotta make some plans. Thoughts, all?

Miss you guys!