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I left the Bradley Center after load out last night (2am) and drove straight home to Edgerton. When I got there my parents were so excited to see me they stayed up, or the dogs barking and me tromping in woke them up. Good thing too, I can never remember the door lock combo. I chatted with my Mom (Becky) for a bit and then retired to an episode of Band of Brothers to slow the brain… Tomorrow, I’m going camera shopping because the Janesville Best Buy didn’t have the one I want, so I have to go to Rockford, IL. Darn Tollways. Sure Wisconsin and Minnesota have high taxes, but I prefer that to paying to drive on a road I paid for with Federal Taxes. Oh well it’s only a dollar. I’m excited because I get to see my brothers brand new house finally too. He’s been sending me pictures while I’ve been trudging around the world. I can’t wait to get a feel for the spatial aspect of it. Well, relaxation day one should be a success.

Listening to: Aketarak - Jorge’s Jam Band (Available here aketarak.com It’s my friend Jeff Cross’ creation, so I gotta plug it. Plus, it’s pretty good if you like that sort of thing. )

After a late drive, I arrived into Milwaukee around 11pm. I took some time to do some quick shopping at my favorite store in Madison. That’s Best Buy, if you didn’t know. I needed to pick up a few things that I uh….needed. After checking in, I went and had a quick drink (French Martini) with some of my friends and then retired to my hotel room for an episode of Band of Brothers (Thanks Krista) and some sleep. Upon arrival this morning, the building wasn’t ready for our internet connection, so it took like 3 hours to get that sorted out, that’s about the longest time to date, including all of Europe, so I can’t say much for the internet connections at the Bradley Center. Now that it’s up, it is quite quick and there is plenty of bandwidth for us to abuse. Today is going to be a busy one, as I’m sure a lot of people will want me to take a “quick look” at their computers before the week break we have. I’ve also got family coming to the show, which will make for a very busy night. I’ll tell you though, the instant we’re done tonight, I’m in the car and heading to Edgerton, to spend some time with my family. I can’t wait.

So the show last night was great, we had one of the best crowds here in Minneapolis. We also had a record for attendance in the Target Center, it was like 20,000 people or something. I’ve decided to stay at home and leave for our next city later. Incidentally, Milwaukee is the next stop, the birthplace of yours truly. So the show was great last night, and I filmed a news story about the “Hometown Geek who becomes a star” with Channel 5 News, one of our local stations. The story was fun to shoot, and turned out OK, but the guy mispronounced and misspelled my name, despite the fact I spelled and gave him the Phonetics…sheesh. I guess next time, I’ll make sure I say it for them on camera, so they can reference back to that. Anyhow, it ended up being good press, and was just what we were after. They even got to film the first couple songs. Well, back to “relaxing”. See you all in Milwaukee.

TV Story (Windows Media Player)

We’ve arrived in Minneapolis, my home, and we’re here to play a rockin’ show at the Target Center. I’m somewhat nervous as there will probably be some press engagement for me today, and that will undoubtedly add a certain level of stress to the day. I slept in my bed last night and Jen and I went out to dinner with my cousins Karen and Bill who are in town for the show. We went to Manny’s and it is still one of my favorite, and the best steakhouses in the city. It was nice to have family in town and be able to hang out. Prior to that Jen and I had just done a little shopping for the normal things and then we relaxed at home for a bit. I’ll post a follow up story later and let you know how it went.