I Miss Cedric Diggory

Friends. Greetings. It is almost 3am, Central Standard Time, and I am sitting in a hotel room in Whitewater, Wisconsin. WHY am I up at 3am CST? Well - because I just got home from seeing HARRY POTTER - THE GOBLET OF FIRE...and I'm a little wired, quite frankly. Now, sensible ME is saying go to bed, since we have 3 shows tomorrow...and get some rest. But realistic ME, who I speak to more often, is saying you're going to lay there and toss and turn anyway...since you're all riled up after that movie...so just BLOG out the extra energy. So here we sit.
Today we did our last show in LaCrosse, and it was great fun for ME, because I had a large group of FAMILY in the audience. As you have learned in previous posts, my cousin Cindy and her husband, Corey, live in LaCrosse. And then Cindy's mom and dad, my Aunt Willie and Uncle Jim, flew in last night, to spend the week here and have Thanksgiving! So it was perfect timing for them to see the show. And finally, to expand the circle, Cindy's older brother, Jeff (if you're doing the math...he is ALSO my cousin) and his wife, Anna, and their 2 boys, Alex and Nick drove down from their home in Rochester, Minnesota (about an hour from LaCrosse) to see the show! It was SO great to have them all in the audience - and to visit with them aftewards. I appreciate them all making the effort to make it to the show! And a BIG thanks to Alex, for all of his great questions afterwards when we were talking...it helps keep me on my toes! (Your questions were good, too, Uncle Jim!)

Here we all our! Back: Aunt Willie, Cindy, Anna, Jeff, Uncle Jim. Front, Alex, me and Nick. Sorry you couldn't make it, Corey!

After the shows, we stopped in downtown LaCrosse, everyone grabbed lunch and then we were off on another road trip across Wisconsin again - this time back over to the East side - but closer to the Southeast corner. Everyone is into their own grooves when we are on the road now.
Eric and I spent the approx. 4 hour trip watching 3 episodes of American Dreams...Season 1. I feel like it's my job to introduce good TV that was underviewed in its original run to everyone that I can. And Eric has become a fan. It makes me proud.

Lunch at one of the many little places in downtown LaCrosse. Jackie SWEARS by the chicken chili. The rest of us, after 4 hours in the van, did NOT swear by it. Only at it.

L: Andrew enjoying a deli pickle from the sandwhich place. Must...not..make...any...jokes..... R: Eric, sitting across from Andrew, shows us his total disdain for pickles. I believe at one point, he might have been dry-heaving.

The heart of downtown LaCrosse.

Jackie has a joyous reunion in the van with the Symphony bar she thought she had lost. I know you think I'm kidding - but she SERIOSULY welcomed it back into her life. PURE joy.

Once we finally arrived in Whitewater (beware of Mapquest directions from LaCrosse to Whitewater...they are NUTTY! I am pretty sure SOMEWHERE, based on where we were, the directions had to say 'Drive to the end of the pavement and a crow standing on a burnt tree stump will give you the rest of the directions from there.' ) and got checked into our hotel, the crew went to set up the show and we all did our own thing. Due to some KEEN detective work from Eric, we found that Harry Potter WAS playing at 12:05am, and we headed over to buy tickets.

Eric and the Harry Potter Ticket Miracle of 2005.

The cast went to dinner tonight at Randy's Restaurant & Fun Hunters Brewery. How could you turn down a dining experience with a name like THAT!? Dinner was good, and they EVEN had a cheesecake on the menu. It was a turtle cheesecake, and it can be seen below. After dinner, everyone headed back to the hotel and did their own thing. I decided to take a nap for a couple of hours (perhaps adding to my AWAKE STATE now) before we headed off to the movie.
I won't get TOO much into a movie review, but I will say that I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the movie. For those Potter-Readers, you know the Goblet of Fire is a BEAST of a book to adapt. And I feel like they did a great job in doing so. Visually, it was awesome. I loved how they made Voldemort look...it truly was creepy. And overall, it was a lot of fun. I would give it a HIGH and SOLID 8 on the MASE...and recommend it to anyone looking for a fun time at the movies. (Who SAYS things like that? Honestly...shoot me.) And for those wondering, Cedric Diggory is a character from the movie. That's all I will say.

The Turtle Cheesecake from Randy's. It came in on a high 7 on the MASE. There just was something...OFF about it all. And yet, as a team, all 7 of us cleared the plate. We are impressive.

Tomorrow - 3 shows here in Whitewater, pack it all in and we head 60 miles due East to Kenosha for a few more shows. The next week is crazy. When I counted it up 2 days ago, it was 8 days, 12 shows, 5 cities. I think it's down to 6, 10 and 4...but still, those are crazy numbers.
Want to know some other crazy numbers? 20. The high in downtown LaCrosse when we were out today. 11. The temperature when we arrived into town tonight. 4. The number of hours before I have to wake up. I better be going!
G'nite.
G

OH! AND 2 VERY IMPORTANT BREAKING NEWS STORIES!
1. Today. Thursday, November 17th, is my nephew, Tanner's Birthday! YES - I called and talked to him. He sounds like he had a great day. Happy Birthday, Tanner! Can't wait to see you at Christmas!

2. Yesterday. We received some late-breaking good news! Chris Sizemore, our own Mike Teavee, was supposed to leave the tour December 20th and someone else was coming to do the Spring portion.
Well, long story short, that SOMEONE ELSE is not coming - and Chris is with us until May! HOORAY! Congrats to Chris! And LOOK OUT EAST COAST!


So this was in a music store we went to in LaCrosse. Heading down into the basement, they had all these ORANGE signs that say 'Duck for the duct.' Clever, I know. AND YET - as we were heading back up stairs, Eric smacked his right into the duct. Evidently he couldn't see the signs clearly. Or the duct wasn't well marked.

So...evidently there is a huge reptile market in La Crosse. And this sign would lead you to believe that all the other reptile dealers are not quality dealers. Look these guys up when you're in town.


L: A self-portrait entitled: "Is it really 20 degrees at 12 noon?" R: Eric shows off the sheet music we found, right before he rammed his head into the duct. Music was on sale, 10 for $1. Amazing.


What is that exactly, you ask? Why, it's Stage Manager Elisa, trying to block out the sun so she can see a computer screen. Sometimes, it's like ROCKET SCIENCE how she gets things done. PURE genius.


The remnants of the first snow of the season blankets the country side of Wisconsin. Looks cold, huh?


These will be my first 2 entries on my list entitled: Signs You Know You're In Wisconsin. (No 'sign' pun intended.)