"Take it, LeRoi!"

While I was out running some errands today, the radio station I was listening to played "The Proudest Monkey" a song by the Dave Matthews Band as a tribute to LeRoi Moore, the band's saxophonist, who also co-wrote the song. LeRoi died yesterday as a result of injuries he sustained in an ATV accident back in June.

As I was listening to the song, I was surprised to find my eyes welling up a bit with tears. Why the hell this occurred, is beyond me. I didn't know LeRoi, his death won't affect my daily life - shoot, I didn't even know of his accident until I learned about his passing this morning.

Maybe tears came to my eyes because when I hear DMB, I'm immediately brought back to being an undergrad at UNH when times were way less complicated. My best friends all lived within a couple of miles of me - we partied, went to shows - many of them headlined by DMB. There wasn't a time in those days that you wouldn't find a DMB tape - that's right - TAPE in my car's dash. LeRoi, and the rest of the band brought me a shit ton of joy back in those days - they still do.

In tribute, let's all throw in a DMB album and crank it up.

Small town girl in Asia

My sister, Kim is over in China for the Olympics...She is there as part of a class at Southern NH University. She and her classmates are blogging for one of the local papers, click here if you'd like to read about their experience!

Lalalala

Tomorrow the Avett Brothers release their new record, Gleam II. They've released the first single on their myspace page. This is one I've been waiting on for awhile and I'm really looking forward to hearing the entire album.

Less than two weeks till Shangri-La. Yeehaw!

A Funny Video

Randomly, Scott sends me some videos that he *thinks* are funny. Sometimes, I'm left scratching my head wondering when the video is going to start getting funny.

This one however, I laughed through the entire thing.

If you are offended by profanity, do not click. If you're at work, use some headphones, or just wait till you get home.

This is a good history lesson.

Lexington Junior League

Monday night marked the start of the Lexington Junior League Horse Show, the first in what is known as the Saddlebred Triple Crown. The other two shows being the Kentucky State Fair (Louisville) in August and the American Royal (Kansas City) in November. For the second year in a row, the American Saddlebred Horse Association is providing a live webcast of the event. I decided to tune in on Monday night, because...

My barn brought down two horses this year. One of whom is undefeated so far this season, "Naughty" is a gorgeous five gaited horse and she and her owner make a beautiful team.

Naughty did what she does best on Monday night...and won her first class. She will show back in the Championship class for that division on Thursday night and I'll be tuning in. If you have any interest in seeing the absolute best of the best, check it out here. It does cost $15 to register...As Adam said, "Is anything in your sport free?" - but if you have any interest at all - it's worth the mula.

A hardboat isn't for everyone.

This past weekend was the last one that Adam and I will be spending together for a while, while he transitions to going to school 4 days a week and working the other 3. We decided to do it up in style.

We headed north for some sleeping under the stars, paddling, and and mt. biking. Good times. The best part of the weekend for me, was discovering the inflatable kayak. I have never had so much fun on the river before and I'm seriously considering selling my hardboat and trading it in for a "ducky" as they are called.

We rented this one from our paddling club for the weekend because I just haven't been having a good time in my hardboat. It's far from comfortable and I just don't go enough to be able to control my turns without flipping it over - hoping I make my roll, and ultimately, doing a lot of swimming in whitewater - meh - not so fun.

But this weekend, in the inflatable - it felt like a completely different sport. I LOVED it. I was able to catch eddies that I was too scared to try in my hardboat - for fear of flipping. I was surfing waves that I wouldn't have caught before. It made the river seem a lot less scary and a lot more fun. I'd take any of you out in one and you would have a blast - for sure. Let me know if you'd like to take me up on it.

I came home to news in my inbox, that the Avetts signed with a major record label. Glad I decided to get tickets to the festival...this will probably be their last year of small venue shows. I'm really happy for the boys - no one deserves it more, and I hope this increases their audience.

That's all for now.

My weekend, in a nutshell

Why do the fun ones always go by so fast?

Maggie, you may be jealous of this first part, just a warning...My dad bought my sister a brand new scooter to take back to college with her for the summer. Friday night, after Scott put the thing together, we went for rides. Oh man, are these fuuuun! They're having a sale on them, Mag - I'm just sayin' it might be time for you to get yourself one.

Then on Saturday, there was mt. biking here.

Sunday, I spent the day with the Maine Rowe's - hanging in the back yard - swingset and a sandbox? Do you really need anything else?

Finally, there was internal debate...Should I go here or not? I always like to go see the Avett's when they are near - and this looks like a good time. But, as Scott said, gas prices could be $5/gallon by then, and maybe I should just wait till they come around again, but closer. It's kind of a haul - 3+ hours each way. Still undecided.