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Tomorrow morning we finally leave the state of Florida. We have one more gig before heading home in South Carolina. You don't have to be a geography wiz to know that the two states aren't that far apart from each other, but for whatever reason we have an 11-hour travel day tomorrow (drive to Ft. Lauderdale airport, fly to Atlanta, connect to Augusta, drive to Newberry aka B.F.E.) but its the home-stretch and I'll be home soon.

I found this piece of web-art this morning.

I find it fascinating. Your thoughts?

Milo and Carrie left Florida yesterday. We had a really good time and I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures on the baby blog soon. I'm sad they are gone but it will be less than a week before I'm home.

We went to Downtown Disney yesterday before they left. We had planned on hitting Disney World but because of our schedule that didn't work out. Downtown Disney is a collection of restaurants and shops and I must admit, I don't get it. The trip started badly when we payed over $50 for two sandwiches and a kids meal at one of the restaurants. As we walked around all I saw was shop after shop after shop jam-packed with Disney crap. It's like Disney has figured out how to make buying souvenirs the actual attraction of the place. The only thing you can do in Downtown Disney besides eat is look at and buy junk. I imagine a conversation between a Disney tourist after arriving home and a friend going like this:

"Check out this Mickey Mouse shot glass and Goofy wind chime I got as a souvenir of our time at Disney."

"So what did you do while you were there?"

"Ummm ... I bought this shot glass and wind chime."

You can probably find all of the junk they sell at your local Disney store or online, there must be some attraction to buying the stuff at Disney. At lunch we noticed a man and his daughter wearing some sort of medal, on the ribbon around there necks were pins of all shapes and sizes denoting different rides and Disney characters. After leaving lunch we noticed an entire shop devoted to this; The Pin Trader. It's like this medal and pins are some sort of badge of honor proving you've survived the difficult concrete terrain, navigated the throngs of tourists, and left enough room on your credit card to finally travel home. I imagine this guy arriving at the next family get-together in Iowa, setting his green bean and tuna casserole down on the washer and dryer-turned buffet table, walking in to the living room, throwing his medal and pins down and the coffee table and proclaiming:

"Disney '08! ... Got'r done!"

Got'r done indeed.

When Milo was three months old I took him to Las Vegas to stay at a Casino amidst a crowd of degenerate gamblers and alcoholics. This week at age one I've taken him to Dayton Beach during Spring Break amidst a crowd of sex-crazed teenagers and alcoholics.

Please send your Daddy of the Year votes this way

I was presented with a problem over the weekend. The Boss had hooked up tickets to see the Yankees Spring Training game in Tampa which was also the destination for our next gig. These weren't any ol' tickets, these were the Steinbrenner's box seats. But to make it to the game on time we would have to fly instead of driving with the band, this would mean buying a $100 plane ticket. It seemed like a bit much but after a short deliberation I decided to buy the ticket and go.

This turned out to be the right idea for two reasons. First, it took the band over 6 hours to drive from Palm Beach to Tampa because of bad directions, a speeding ticket, and a hungover band member who had to make vomit stops. Second, these were the best seats any baseball fan could ever hope for. Not only did we have access to the free food buffet which included made-to-order omelettes, prime rib sandwiches, brownies, etc., and of course hot dogs and the like, but the only person sitting in front of me was Yankees manager Joe Girardi. We were right next to the Yankee dugout and I could see right in the entire game. It was pretty amazing.

Now let me say if you remember a baseball post of mine last summer you know I'm not a Yankees fan, but nobody can deny they are one of the premier and most storied sports organizations in the entire world.

A picture from my seat.


Baseball legend Yogi Berra was in attendance to throw out the first pitch.


Jason Giambi playing pitch-and-catch before the game.


Alex Rodgriguez, the best player in baseball.


"Hey Joe! Move to the side a bit, you're blocking my view!"

Yankees beat the Indians in the bottom of the 9th. Got to see two great pitchers, CC Sabathia vs Chin Meng Wang.

We went back to see the Yankees play the Red Sox the next day. We didn't have the great seats we did the day before but they were still good. The Yankees/Red Sox rivalry is one of the best in sports and there were a lot of folks out to see the game.


David "Big Papi" Oriz, my favorite AL player.

It's been a great couple of weeks seeing baseball games. A few years from now I'll bring Milo down to Spring Training, we can scout the different teams and decide what position he wants to play.

I'm sure you are all familiar with Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the high-priced prostitute in the middle of the Gov. Spitzer scandal. It seems like the case has brought her some fame and career oppurtunities. If you check out her MySpace page you'll find a bunch of well-wishes from her friends in the Comments sections giving support with words such as "keep your beautiful chin up", "you're going to be rich and famous ... you're on your way", "do you know how proud I am of you?", and "turn the negative into a positive."

The moral of the story here is become famous. It doesn't matter how or why, just become famous.

It's spring training time in Florida and we couldn't resist catching the Dodgers on our day off. Dodgertown (L.A.'s training facilities) has been in Vero Beach for the past 50+ years and this summer the Dodgers will be leaving for their new spring home in Arizona. Me, our trumpeter Matt, and Mistah Tyrell headed up to Vero Sunday morning to see the Dodgers play the World Champion Boston Red Sox. Steve actually news new Dodger Manager Joe Torre (who until last year was the Yankees' skipper) but failed to get a hold of him before the game. When we got to Dodgertown we learned that the game was sold out and attendance records for Vero Beach were being broken that day. Yikes! We ended up scalping tickets and I'm too embarrassed to tell you how much we paid for them especially since after entering the park we discovered we were sitting on the back outfield lawn. Despite everything we still had a good time and caught the last inning from behind home plate and the Dodgers beat the Sox.





Steve got a call from Joe Torre on the way back to our hotel, he apologized for missing Steve's call and invited us to the game the next day to watch the Dodgers play the Orioles. Sweet! We had fun Sunday in Vero but we were really looking forward to being guests of the clubs on Monday.

The next day we had the hookup, after arriving at Ft. Lauderdale Stadium we snatched up our on-field media passes and hurried out to the diamond to watch batting practice. We then learned we were sitting in the owner's box with hot dogs and frozen lemonades on the house. Not too shabby and the Dodgers beat the tar out of the Orioles.

If you're thinking to yourself "is that Tony Orlando?" the answer is yes. Tony actually went to high school with Joe Torre and as it turns out is an old friend of Steve's. He's a really nice guy and it was fun watching the game with him and his band. (please, no "where's Dawn?" jokes, I heard enough of them during the game)


Here's the man, Matt and I with Joe Torre.


Former NBA coach and TNT basketball analyst Mike Fratello also sat in the owners box with us.


A couple of our boys in blue.


The only way to spend spring training.


It was a phenomenal couple of days, maybe we'll get the same hook up at Dodgers Stadium this summer. The Dodgers have a lot of great young talent and have a great shot at going deep in the playoffs. It'll be a fantastic summer of baseball.

For only the second time in history a muslim has been elected to Congress.

The district he represents? Indianapolis, Indiana.

Way to look past religious differences Hoosiers!

A few weeks ago I watched a stand-up special by comedian Doug Stanhope. He came out in a Libertarian T-Shirt and I thought "this should be interesting." And it was, he spoke a lot about drugs and smoking and the like but then went on a diatribe about immigration that was not only hilarious but spot-on as well.

After a little poking around I found this bit of his online although it was from a special on British TV. This clip is even better because it splices in interviews with him discussing his stance. Dig:


I love when he's talking about the types of jobs that illegal immigrants actually take. Poor people can never catch a break in this country. If you're a poor citizen you're told it's your own fault your poor, you've had the same opportunity to succeed as everyone else, and you shouldn't be on welfare even though millions of unskilled jobs in this country pay a poverty-level wage. If you're an illegal immigrant you're told you can't have any of our jobs that pay below the poverty level. Man, who the heck is going to sweep the floors, clean motel rooms, or serve food in this country?

It reminded me of Nickel And Dimed a book I read a couple of years ago; one that really opened my mind to the plight of the working poor and made me more aware of the similar environment I grew up in. It's a fantastic read and I highly recommend it.

**********

Week 1 in Florida is officially over and there are two days off ahead of me. I'm headed to Vero Beach tomorrow to watch the Dodgers' Spring Training. I can't wait. Hopefully there will be much pool lounging if the weather gets a little warmer, out of nowhere this chilly wind blew in today. I thought Indiana weather was psychotic but Florida just might be worse. Blistering heat one second, torrential down poor for ten minutes, gray and humid the next second, etc.

If you didn't hear, Milo took his first steps this week. I predicted I would miss this milestone last month and I really hate being right.

Florida is cool so far. We are in Palm Beach for the next two weeks, our hotel reminds me of a European hotel in that its got a seemingly hip look but its really not as nice as it appears. We aren't staying at the Colony Hotel (where we are playing) which is fine with me as there really isn't much to do in Palm Beach, West Palm has a little more going on.

The legendary Keely Smith was at the gig opening night. She's come to see us quite a bit. If you don't know her, she sang with Louis Prima for years. She's fantastic, here's a performance from over 40 years ago:

Cool, right?

And on a totally unrelated note, how great does this movie look?

The past two days haven't been nearly enough time for me to get ready for this tour. It's midnight and a car will be here in 7.5 hrs. to pick me up.

While I'll be gone for a month it will only be two weeks until I see Milo and Carrie again as they are flying out to see me. I'm hoping we can make the trip to Disneyworld while they are there.

Here's to hoping for low humidity and intelligent conversation with the locals ... HA!

We had a gig last night in the Great Northwest, Seattle to be accurate. For the first time in my experience the city wasn't gray, drab and rainy, it was a very beautiful day. We played a benefit for cancer that Mistah Tyrell helped start last year in memory of his wife Stephanie. Specifically the proceeds go to benefit Katie Couric's colon cancer foundation. It was a pretty fun gig, Chris Botti played with us as well.

Tonight I got the final mixes to my gone-and-almost-forgotten Bossa Nova band demo. It sounds fantastic and I'm really excited about the band. Hopefully this summer I can put a lot of attention toward it.

I have only two days left before heading to Florida for four straight weeks--YIKES!