35 Years Young!

Happy Birthday to me...well yesterday!  35 years old...jeez what the hell happened?  Is it me or did it feel like when we were all in high school that the year went on forever?  Now, it feels like it was July 4th yesterday and all of a sudden it's the end of July...WTF!  To have no responsibilities again HA

Mom's Turkey Day Recipes

The last two days were rather interesting; Sunday marked 3 months since we lost my mom and Monday was of course my first birthday without her around.  It was tough I do have to say...not hearing her voice giving me a call, seeing her signature on the envelope and card that my parents would get me.  I miss her a lot.  So Erin wanted to give me one of my presents on Sunday before we headed off to a little family gathering at Shannon & Mike's (sis & bro-in law) house.  Of course she didn't have "time" to wrap it, she bring out this big white'ish box.  I turned it around and my eyes completely start to well up with tears.  Growing up there was something I always looked forward too...and that was Thanksgiving at my house!  My mom would always make turkey, but would make two of the best sides EVER!  Stuffing and her drunken sweet potato's.  So so so so so so so so so good!  A number of years ago I asked my mom for the recipe she used for both and of course she wrote it out for me but I never made it.  This Thanksgiving was my first time ever cooking the entire dinner including my mom's stuffing and potato's.  Luckily I did a good job and will of course continue that tradition with my family.  Onto the present...I flipped it over and in a two photo spot picture frame was my mom's hand written recipes.  Even thinking about it now, I get a little teary.  Well from now on that frame will be hung up in my kitchen so my mom can always look over my shoulder as I cook!  I owe all my cooking skills and my love for cooking to my mom who made me at a young age learn how to cook and work around a kitchen.  My dad helped a bit too!

Monday, Erin was able to tell me what the rest of my present was and luckily it was delivered while we were out to lunch and the movies.  As many of you reading this know, I love music.  I also love playing video games...yeah I'm 35 but still a little kid. So putting both together in a game was amazing...Guitar Hero, Rock Band love it!  Playing a plastic guitar is always fun, but actually learning the real thing would be awesome.  So present number two was an electric guitar with amp and a "game" to teach me how to play, RockSmith. It's very cool so far, my fingers are killllllling me though.  Such a good birthday and of course all the B-day love I received through Facebook was great as well!

Battlecross - Autograph poster

  Finally, it has been the summer of music so far!  In June I headed out to Detroit, MI for the 2nd Annual Orion Festival put on by the might Metallica!  It wasn't as heavy as last year (band wise) but was still a lot of fun!  We were right on the front railing for Metallica as they closed out the weekend on Sunday and Saturday I got to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers again which was cool.  One of the bands I really wanted to see was a local to the Detroit area band called Battlecross.  They are an up and coming heavy/thrash metal band (they coin the term Blue Collar Thrash); the guitars are fast and heavy, the drums are just thunderous and the bass is as fast as I've ever heard.  The singer tops it all off with a deep growling voice mixed with screaming vocals.  The musicality of this band is fantastic, their ability, technique, lyrics and melodic writing really grasp the history of metal with an updated spin.  They were so good at Orion that it made me want to see them again when they came around to Hartford for the Rockstar Mayhem Festival.  During the festival after their set I was able to not only meet the band (all five of them), not only get their autograph, but had the opportunity to chat with them for a bit.  Letting them know how much I love the music they put out and that I've been following them online through Facebook and Twitter since we saw them in Detroit.  If you're into this type of music, it is definitely a band to check out and listen too!  New album is War of Will, but also check out Pursuit of Honor.

During the afternoon at Mayhem, Battlecross definitely stole the show!  The pit was crazy (and dusty as hell) and the crowd really loved it.  As for the headliners (Amon Amarth, Mastodon, Five Finger Death Punch and Rob Zombie) 5FDP by far had the crowd the most pumped, amped up and ready to rage!  Will be checking them out again in concert as soon as I can.  More metal to come this summer as we get to check out Avenged Sevenfold at Foxwoods in which I hope they'll play some more new music off their upcoming album Hail To The King!

That's all for tonight...I'll be back later in the week!