I have a toothache and I can't go to the dentist until next Tuesday because, apparently, dentists are closed on Fridays and Monday is a holiday. It's not too bad... yet. But I have all the faith in the world that I'll be crying by Saturday. Or maybe it will get better while I sleep tonight. Regardless I need to get this crap fixed sooner or later. I'm just pissed that it'll eat up all the nice money I've been saving for this fall. Also, I'm scared I'll be in a lot of pain and I won't be able to take their nice prescription meds because they make me sick. OK, that's all. Just some whining.

PS. Does anyone know if the whole putting onion/garlic on your achey tooth thing is for real? Seems like a load of hooey to me.

I haven't written much regarding the tour. It was fun and exhausting. The shows could have been better but everything else went off without a hitch so perhaps I should just be thankful things went as well as they did. There's multitudes of things that could go wrong and we seemed to avoid all of them.

I met lots of nice people and stayed in the homes of several of them. I learned that I still don't really like LA but I do like San Francisco. I'm still continually appalled that people live without a/c. Even if it only gets really hot a few weeks out of the year and you don't use it much, get a window unit! I'm just saying...

I think the best story of the tour was when we went walking on the beach in San Francisco, there a was lone seal playing in the waves. A small boy, about 8, I think, came up to us and asked what it was. When we said it was a seal, his only response was an enthusiastic "Tight!"

Going back to work has been fine. It's still boring. I've been going out pretty much every night since we got back out of boredom. I can't seem to turn my mind off long enough to just hang out at home. I need to clean and organize my room in the worst way. Stuff has just been piling up for a year and a half. I need to sell/give away/throw away some of this junk. I mean, how many old crappy computer monitors do I really need? Anyone want to have a yard sale?

This is us on the beach in San Francisco. James stayed in the car (and is therefore not in the picture) so as not to get sand in his shoes because "You'll never get all that shit out."

I'm home! and I haven't showered since San Francisco or slept in 24 hours or so! but I'm home.

My house smells bad (and I've been in a van for two weeks so that's saying something).

The drive from Denver to Austin sucks.

I didn't take many pictures at all.

Amanda it was a-w-e-s-o-m-e to see you in Denver. I love meeting up with friends in strange cities.

In LA at a friend's house who is putting some of us up. It's very nice to have a home base while in town. He also has a pretty nice home studio where we're doing a song today. I think it's turning out very nicely.

The tour so far has been pretty good. Most of the show have been ok - none spectacular but none awful either. We're playing one more show here in LA tomorrow night at the Echo and then we leave for San Francisco on Tuesday. Everyone is slowly getting into the tour mindset and adjusting to a severe lack of sleep.

A cookout is imminent. I can't wait.

bu-bye!

You can tell when I'm starting to get super busy and anxious because I start to make lists of everything and carry them around with me at all times. I managed to cross several of the shopping-related things off my list. I'm a little more anxious than usual because Alan, the regular guitar tech for Trail who I've worked with every other time and who always keeps all this stuff together, is not going to LA. So I'm trying to make sure we have everything and all the guitars are working and do we have enough tuning pedals (the answer is no but I'm going to cannibalize one or two to make one good one) and do we have gaffer tape and how will I get reimbursed for buying this stuff and how am I getting from the airport to where ever the hotel is and which hotel will we be at? Endless questions.

The thing is, I know it'll be fine. I'm just freaking out. And that's just for their show. I haven't really dealt with our tour too much yet beyond trying to remember to do laundry before I leave. I'm gonna go to LA friday morning, do the show, watch some BMX (remember the show is at the x-games), hopefully go out for a night on the town, sleep a bit, then catch a plane home.