The image above (posted last time) shows the bottom ends intact on the frame jig.

Here they are broken down and ready to start procuring the needed parts for freshening and reassembly.

This is what is left when a 29 pound block (from this post)  is machined to make the blower manifold.

These photos show the blower, manifold and head set together to verify that they do in fact fit as an assembly.

Triumph ha deciso di realizzare, per il 2009, una versione dalla Street Triple in grado di offrire prestazioni ancora più esaltanti.

Partendo da una già ottima moto, non è stato difficile ottenere una versione dal carattere ancor più deciso.

La Street Triple R, infatti, è la moto per chi non si accontenta!  

Di rilievo soprattutto le sospensioni completamente regolabili e freni radiali derivanti dalla Daytona 675. A completare la cattiveria della "R" ci saranno le nuove colorazioni Matt Graphite con grafiche arancio (foto sopra) e Matt Blazing Orange con grafiche grafite.

Today I started walking/running 27 minutes, that's running 1 minute & walking 2 minutes, repeated 8 times. Incline 2 on the treadmill. Watched Ugly Betty and time passed quickly. Today was a really warm day and the gym was soooooo hot. Adding those extra minutes to the walking/running always takes a bit more out of me, and it's nice to feel myself getting stronger.

My mp3 player is completely broken, sad story, and I need to get another one quick. I really like the one I have and have considered buying the same again, but cannot get it here and when ordering through an online store I'd have to pay taxes when it arrives here, through customs. What to do? Also, I have some music on there which isn't on my laptop, so it's lost ... forever ... !

Next week the schedule says I have to run for 2 minutes and walk for 2 ... yikes!

Here is another absolutely beautiful example of a Yamaha XS650 street tracker. This bike is one of the nicest Yamahas HONAHA has ever seen.  This is an amazing mixture of old and new school styling.  Notice the Buell front end, the front and rear discs, all the  modern exhaust and wheels all seamlessly inergrated with the old frame, engine, paint scheme, and plastics.  This is a true work of art.  I think my next project my be an XS.  For more info click.  Stick around for more to come.

Rowling is one of the most successful book authors of all time, and the most successful by far of those alive today. Who knows? Her Harry Potter books may yet become classics that endure down the ages. Rowling herself would be thrilled, because she loves classics and studied them, to the distress of her poor (literally) parents, who wanted her to study something "useful". As a classics fiend myself (in a world of blank stares whenever anything Greek or Roman comes up), I love her just for that.

But let's get to her "failure". Her commencement address at Harvard this year was, in its entirety, a paean to failure--its ability to help a young person navigate life and to liberate her imagination. For the first nine minutes, she reminds her audience of (mostly) successful Harvard graduates and parents of her own family's crushing poverty when she went to university, but says that "What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure." Then failure came:

... by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

She did not see it at the time, but this turned out to be a liberating event, rather as Steve Jobs' career disaster at the age of thirty had been for him:

Here are the key passages:

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

More disasters followed. She lost her mother, she thought of killing herself, she was depressed. But she kept writing--in cafés, whenever her baby daughter fell asleep--and letting her imagination range freely as it now, after failure, could. The irony would soon be complete: several publishers turned down her Harry Potter story! Even her book, in other words, began as a failure. Then, one publisher took it. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Ergänzend zu den Triumph Sport BH's kommt die funktionelle Wäsche "Bodywear" hinzu. Dadurch fühlen Sie sich beim Sport wohl, egal bei welchem Wetter.

Den glanzvollen Auftakt bildet die neue Serie "Satin Temptation" mit verführerisch schimmernden Dessous. Dabei wirkt die Kombination aus Satin und edler Spitze mit Blumenmotiven edel und sehr sexy. Der raffinierte Schalen-BH und der blickdichte Tai-Slip präsentieren sich in dieser edlen Materialkombination. Einen Hauch freizügiger wirken der Bügel-BH aus feiner Spitze mit hinterlegtem Tüll, der etwas Haut durchblicken lässt und der sexy Hipster aus leicht transparenter Spitze und einem edlen Satinbund.

Bei den BH's setzt Triumph auch auf große Cups und bietet beide Artikel bis Cup E an. Die aktuellen Farbtöne dieser Triumph-Serie sind ein neues "Havanna"-Braun und ein edler Vanille-Ton.

Die Triumph-Dessous sind ab sofort im trend-wäsche.de Onlineshop zu sehen und zu kaufen.

Hip Hop was, is, and will forever be my music of choice, so it is only fitting I set this thing off with a tribute to the greatest Hip Hop group of all time, Wu Tang!  My favorite Hip Hop verse of all time is Deck's verse in "Triumph".  I placed the video below, for all of you who are musically challenged.

If you had to watch that video to be reminded of who Wu is, I don't even think I want you reading this.  Paz yourself.  Otherwise, I'm curious of what you all think of GZA the Genius's "beef" with Curtis "50-Cent" Jackson. You have one of the greatest to ever do it (GZA) creating a diss track about one of the worst to ever go platinum (Jackson).  Oh, you don't know the track?  I present to you, my readers, "Paper Plate" by GZA, the Genius.    

So what do you think?

This one is for all you do-it-yourselfers out there. Check out this home built electric motorcycle. Looks like the guy tied a few Optima dry-cell batteries together and hooked them to a little electric motor. This baby is rumored to go up to 45 mph, and have a range of a little over 20 miles. Also, this whole project cost under $3,000. I really like this idea, and think that it would be a really fun project to build an all electric cafe racer. For all the details on this bike click here.
Something like this may just be HONAHA'S next project if gas prices get much worse. Stay tuned.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pit0zG1vswM

to start off, i noticed the song choice. "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers. I actually have that part of the song ("i've got soul but i'm not a soldier") as one of my ringtones. One of my favorite bands.

The video is about "stories of triumph". The campaign includes LeBron James, Bill Bowerman, John McEnroe, and Cristiano Ronaldo among others. One prominent example of LeBron's passion and triumph come from his performance in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals over the pistons (scoring 29 of the cavs final 30 points in game 5).

I like the quick succession of images throughout the video, creating an almost overwhelming feel. I like the quick cuts of a cheetah, liu xiang and then carl lewis. i liked the few images of prefontaine thrown in there too. I notice something new each time i watch it. This is something i want to do as a career. I want to make these creative, inspirational videos.

[00:47:13] Anne: erzähl mir mal was über hasen
[00:47:47] Charlotte: sie haben längere ohren als kanickel
[00:47:51] Charlotte: sie sind größer als man denkt
[00:47:58] Charlotte: es gibt nicht mehr viele in den wäldern
[00:48:07] Charlotte: es gibt ein berühmtes bild mit nem hasen
[00:48:29] Anne: noch mehr?
[00:48:45] Charlotte: man kennt die hasenschule
[00:48:51] Charlotte: und überhaupt osterhasen
[00:48:58] Charlotte: sie schmecken
[00:49:18] Anne: weiter!
[00:49:41] Charlotte: man nennt sie meister lampe
[00:49:50] Charlotte: es kann auch ein kosename sein
[00:50:10] Charlotte: sie hüpfen
[00:50:21] Charlotte: es gibt ein lied mit hasen auf einer grünen wiese
[00:50:38] Charlotte: der hase verliert gegen die schildkröte
[00:51:40] Anne: sonst nichts mehr?
[00:52:34] Charlotte: es gibt stups, den kleinen osterhasen
[00:52:40] Charlotte: und felix den hasen, der immer auf reisen geht
[00:52:43] Anne: stubs
[00:53:32] Charlotte: (ich dachte immer, er heit fips, aber das ist falsch)
[00:53:41] Anne: fibs
[00:53:51] Charlotte: fibs
[00:53:52] Charlotte: ja
[00:53:57] Charlotte: aber so heißen ja affen
[00:54:09] Anne: weißt du noch was über richtige hasen? so lebendige?
[00:54:30] Charlotte: hm, ich wollt grad noch was zur hasenscharte schreiben
[00:54:37] Charlotte: na ja... hasen haben halt löffel
[00:55:00] Anne: und weiter?
[00:55:22] Anne: (wer hat eigentlich nochmal lichter?)
[00:55:39] Charlotte: rehe? weiß nicht genau
[00:55:52] Anne: du bist mir auch keine wahre jägerstochter
[00:56:36] Charlotte: sie laufen bis zu 70 kmh
[00:56:47] Anne: das hast du jetzt nachgeguckt!
[00:56:57] Charlotte: [Löwenzahns Hasen- und Kanninchenquiz]
[00:57:03] Charlotte: ein hasenquiz
[00:57:12] Anne: Lichter: Augen des Hirsch-, Reh- und Gamswildes
[00:57:18] Anne: geil! echt ein quiz?
[00:57:25] Charlotte: aha! ich bin eine geile jägerstochter
[00:57:45] Anne: jaja, weißt du auch, was ein mönch ist?
[00:58:12] Charlotte: abgeshen vom richtigen mönch? nein
[00:58:26] Anne: mann ey. ein geweihloser hirsch natürlich!
[00:58:33] Charlotte: scheiße
[00:58:35] Charlotte: ich deb
[00:58:38] Charlotte: das wusste ich
[00:58:49] Anne: ach komm
[00:58:59] Charlotte: ich habe es schon mal gehört
[00:59:31] Anne: ey, ich bin so geil beim hasenqiuz
[01:00:34] Anne: und bei welchem dier nennt man den schwanz standarte?
[01:00:48] Charlotte: äh dachs
[01:00:57] Anne: quatsch
[01:01:33] Charlotte: wildschwein
[01:01:38] Anne: nein
[01:02:01] Anne: wie albern wäre es bitte, wildschweinschwänze standarten zu nennen?
[01:02:35] Charlotte: dann sag
[01:02:43] Anne: fuchs und eich
[01:03:51] Anne: wieviele zähne hat das eich?
[01:04:00] Charlotte: 32
[01:04:10] Anne: ja?
[01:04:14] Charlotte: oder 24
[01:04:19] Charlotte: mehr als 4 zumindest
[01:04:23] Anne: du tipptest ja mal auf vier
[01:05:00] Charlotte: entschuldigung
[01:05:01] Charlotte: das waren si
[01:05:10] Charlotte: ich sagte "da kann das eich nur drüber lachen"
[01:05:34] Anne: pff, aber wieviel hat es denn jetzt?
[01:05:52] Charlotte: alter!!!!!!!!!!!!
[01:06:00] Charlotte: eiche können ihre zähne spreizen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[01:06:11] Anne: wie bitte?
[01:06:32] Charlotte: Eine Besonderheit ist der geteilte Unterkiefer, der es den Hörnchen ermöglicht, beide unteren Nagezähne 2-3mm zu spreizen.
[01:06:46] Anne: meine scheiße. aber ihre zähne wachsen auch 15cm im jahr - ich denke, das ist mehr als sie groß sind
[01:06:57] Charlotte: ich denke auch
[01:07:52] Anne: aber wieviele denn jetzt?
[01:07:55] Charlotte: keine ahnung
[01:07:59] Charlotte: steht nirgends
[01:08:06] Anne: wieviel hat ein mensch?
[01:08:23] Charlotte: 28
[01:08:24] Anne: zwerge haben 20
[01:08:28] Charlotte: und dann noch weisheit
[01:08:30] Anne: nur 28???
[01:08:37] Charlotte: na ja, si hatten 5 mehr
[01:08:39] Anne: ein eich soll mehr zähne haben als ein mensch???

Wie man sieht sind wir leicht vom Thema abgekommen und haben uns stattdessen über das Gebiss des Eichhörnchens ausgetauscht. Sollte jemand wissen, wieviele Zähne ein solches Tier denn nun tatsächlich hat (es ist eine Frage bei Trivial Pursuit (von 1970, schätze ich)), dann würden wir uns sehr über einen entsprechenden Kommentar freuen. Es sind jedenfalls viel mehr als man vermutet ...

Zurück zum Hasen aber, ein paar brauchbare Bemerkungen waren ja dann doch dabei. So meinte Charlotte zu wissen, dass die Hasen längere Ohren haben als Kaninchen. Das stimmt. Allerdings sind ja nun Kaninchen auch Hasen, aber das soll hier jetzt mal keine Rolle spielen. Beim Feldhasen jedenfalls sind die Ohren sogar länger als der Kopf (das muss man sich mal vorstellen!).

Weiter bemerkte Charlotte, Hasen seien größer als man denkt. OH JA! Sie sind riesig! Hasen, Feldhasen natürlich wieder, werden 70cm lang, das ist so lang wie mein ganzer Arm, von den Fingerspitzen bis zur Schulter!

Dass es nicht mehr viele Hasen in den Wäldern gibt, na ja ... Charlotte behauptet ja auch, die in Niedersachsens Wäldern zahlreich beheimateten Waschbären wären alle mindestens zwei Meter lang ...  Ich kann allerdings sagen, dass Hasen viel lieber in der Steppe wohnen und dass es in Deutschland immerhin noch 16 Feldhasen pro Quadratmeter Lebensraum gibt.

Es gibt auch bestimmt ein berühmtes Bild mit einem Hasen, Dürer würde mir einfallen, eine Hasenschule gab es bei uns zu Hause auch zu Ostern und den Osterhasen kennt man sowieso. Woher der aber kommt und warum er Eier bringt, ist nicht wirklich geklärt. Überaus einleuchtend finde ich allerdings eine Erklärung, die Wikipedia zu bieten hat, nämlich die, dass der Osterhase seinen Ursprung in einem verbackenen Osterlamm fand. Da wollte also irgendwann mal irgendwer zu Ostern ein überaus christliches Osterlamm backen, hat das Ganze ziemlich versaut und einen Hasen aus dem Ofen gezogen und seitdem bringt dieser dann auch noch Eier. Hervorragend! Bemerkenswert ist in diesem Zusammenhang auch, dass es nicht unbedingt ein Hase sein muss, der die Eier bringt. In der Schweiz übernahm diesen Job lange Zeit ein Kuckuck (der ja nun wirklich Eier bringt, wenn auch eigentlich nur fremden Vögeln), in Westfalen gab es den Osterfuchs, in Böhmen bemühte man den Hahn und den Thüringern ist nichts besseres eingefallen, als den Storch neben den Kindern auch gleich nochmal den Kindern die Eier bringen zu lassen. Na gut.

Schmecken tun Hasen definitv, auch die falschen, und Meister Lampe nennt man sie wegen ihres hell leuchtenden Stummelschwanzes. Das leuchtet ein, erklärt aber nicht, warum der Fabelhahn immer Henning heißt ... Und sowieso diese ganzen Namen!

Der Rest ist eigentlich zu vernachlässigen. Sie hüpfen sehr schnell, in der Tat bis zu 70 km/h und werden mit Fell und sehend geboren. Kleine Kaninchen sind übrigens nackt und blind. Neben der Geschichte mit dem Hasen und der Schildkröte gibt es auch noch die mit dem Igel. Oder besser: den Igeln. Bekanntlich nimmt dieser Wettlauf einen noch schlechteren Ausgang für den armen Hasen, der fällt nämlich vor Erschöpfung tot um.

Wichtig zu wissen ist in meinen Augen auch noch, dass der Hase mit seinen Löffeln seine Körpertemperatur kontrolliert. Wenn ihm zu warm wird, pumpt er einfach ganz viel Blut in die Ohren und weil die Haut da so dünn ist, kann die ganze Hitze sich da super entladen. Eigentlich ganz praktisch, die Ohren allein können ja 20cm lang werden, da ist auch genug Platz zur Kühlung. Hasen sind auch nur knapp 50 Tage schwanger und haben 48 Chromosomen.

Die Tempomacher bei Langstreckenläufen nennt man auch Hasen. Dachhasen sind Katzen. Und glücklicherweise gibt es eine Menge Sprichwörter und Begriffe mit ihnen (also Hasen, nicht Dach-):

"Ich dachte, es hätte mich ein Hase geleckt!"

"Wissen, wo der Hase langläuft" - oder auch: "wie er läuft" - oder wiederrum: "wohin er läuft"

"Den Hasen laufen lassen"

"Merken, wo der Hase liegt" - "Da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer!"

"Mir ist ein Hase über den Weg gelaufen"

"Einen Hasen im Busen haben"

"hasenschreckig sein"

"Ein Hase sein" - "Hasenfuß/hasenfüßig" - "Angsthase" - "Hasenherz"

"Das Hasenpanier ergreifen"

"den Hasenkurs nehmen"

"standhalten wie der Hase bei der Trommel"

"Hasenschuhe anziehen"

"Er ist kein heuriger Hase mehr"

"alter Hase"

"Hasenbrot"

"dem Hasen Salz auf den Schwanz streuen"

"jemandem einen Hasen in die Küche jagen"

"dem Hasen nachlaufen"

"Das ist doch keine Hasenjagd!"

"zwei Hasen nachlaufen"

"Hasenohren haben"

"den Hasenschlaf schlafen"

"sich um den Hasenbald zanken"

"Arbeit und Schulden sind keine Hasen"

"blinder Hase"

"wo sich Fuchs und Hase gute Nacht sagen" - oder auch einfach nur "die Hasen"

"Bönhasen"

"Mein Name ist Hase, ich weiß von nichts"

"den Hasen suchen"

"dem Has läuten"

"die Hasen rauchen"

Meine Favoriten stehen natürlich ganz am Anfang und ganz am Ende. Die werde ich zukünftig auch ständig verwenden.

Im Übrigen hätte ich viel lieber über Eichhörnchen geschrieben, aber ich hatte ja Hasen versprochen. Die sind aber irgendwie ... langweilig. Jetzt aber werde ich erstmal schlafen, hoffentlich nicht den Hasenschlaf, sondern den der Gerechten ...

CETERUM CENSEO TRIUMPHUM EMERERE!!! (Aber das erkläre ich ein andermal ... oder auch nicht ...)

That morning cup of "yes I'll help you wake up even if you don't want to".... I love my coffee. I can drink coffee all day. Sleep, you ask? Nah!! Sleep is very overrated. I think having 2 kids nearly back to back has taught my body that it's ok not to sleep. And in return my body has taught my brain that it can handle no sleep as long as it doesn't expect to get any smaller.... dammit!!

So I've come to the realization that I must smother my coffee habit in place of actual sleep. I will miss the energy.... and the aroma.... and the feeling that I don't need to eat if I have coffee to drink. Because dammit I've been working to damn hard at the gym to see NOTHING change on the scale... I miss my ice cream... I miss my chocolate. This frozen yogurt crap just isn't the same.

I CAN do without many things but coffee I will not. I CAN cut back and I CAN get some sleep. Right?? And NO decaf just isn't the same!! Seriously decaf just won't cut it!! I don't drink black coffee. I add lots of junk to my coffee... all fat free of course So it's NOT the taste I'm after. I do love the smell but I NEED the caffeine!!

Maybe I'll go back to the weight loss clinic and get more Adipex?? It's such a last resort move tho. And I really don't want to pay them $100 for a $35 rx! Anyone know where I can get some from Canada.... pretty please??

Ok my cup is empty... time to fill it up..with more coffee...

RateBeer Rating, Style and Glass: not enough ratings (I'm #7) traditional ale, mug, pint, stein, yard
ABV, Volume & Calories: 5.1 % in 16 fl oz. estimated at 175 C
Purchased at: on tap at Triumph in Princeton for $5 with good friend Sean Piotrowski after his last day at Rider.

Aroma: fruity, banana, alluring. 9 out of 10.

Visuals: cloudy, dense, yellow, white persistent head, nice lacing. 5 out of 5.

Taste: sweet, banana, citrus, orange. 9 out of 10.

Palate: salty, granular, strong finish. 4 out of 5.

Overall: It was essentially a hefeweizen, but a very nice, slightly stylized rendition. Second only to their IPA, IMO. A very well crafted ale. 18 out of 20.

My sister Sigrun accompanied me to the gym today and tomorrow she and her daughter Isafold will both come with me. I show them what to do, and I like playing personal trainer. The power! I got them each a 2 week pass to the gym (I got them for free), and so they are going to go with me for a couple of weeks. Nice to have the company.

I know I've been slacking on the posts again, but you know how wild summer can be. Anyway, I wanted to highlight another great looking aftermarket cafe racer seat similar to one I wrote about in an old post, but perhaps even better looking. This seat is fiberglass, and has a little lower bubble than most as well as a flat spot at the very end for a taillight or just to give it some distinction. Also they make them for cb 750s 550s and 400s, as well as xs650s. Personally, I really like the looks of this seat. In fact it is a front runner in the race to see what seat I choose to put on my own cb550...serious stuff. Take a look at caferace inc. their seats come in a gel coat from the maker, and look mean on just about any application. For more info or to place an order click here. Enjoy this link, caferace inc. has a ton of cool cafe racer parts and accessories. Enjoy.

But I'm telling myself that sometimes it's good to take a break. Just because I haven't written in the last few months (or even done anything writing related like critiquing or e-mailing) doesn't mean I love what I do any less. It just means I needed an extended vacation or that life intervened at a time in my life where I haven't figured out yet how to budget time for what I love to do with time for what I need to do.

Despite what I tell myself, it doesn't mean that it's any less difficult to get back into the swing of things. I look at the blank screen and panic. How did I ever know to fill the empty spaces? Bravely, I try a few sentences and shudder at the sudden rise of "be" verbs. Lordy, but did I always rely so heavily on those pesky easy-outs?

My fingers have memorized the backspace key. Just to spice things up, they have the occasional tryst with the delete, but the backspace stakes the greatest claim. I erase those offending sentences and try again. "No 'be' verbs," I tell myself. "Think beyond the 'was' and 'were'."

Suddenly, adverbs crop up like mushrooms after a storm. If that weren't bad enough, they pepper themselves with bad similes.

*Sighs* But here is where I raise my fist in defiance. I will conquer this again!

I really like seeing a bike that uses parts from multiple different donors creatively and with style. It's easy to throw crap on a bike and call it a day (use any of my old race bikes as examples of this), but it is difficult to do it in a manner that actually improves upon the concept at hand.

Take this Daytona... Front brake from a period Suzuki, Marzzochi forks from a Guzzi, custom exhaust, and a Lucas headlight. Who the hell brags about Lucas headlights, anyways?!?!? The headlight not withstanding, I really like this bike. A good recreation of what could have been done at the approximate time this bike was originally delivered from the factory.

Thank Yous:

Dad: Thanks for the tools and the help with sub-floor replacement.

Carol: Thanks for tools.

Dave: Thanks for the help last night in getting the new tile down.

Erik: thanks for the tools I never used...haha.

Lisa: Thanks for putting up with me.

Rocklahoma 2008 was 5 day concert of 80's hair metal bands with some early 90's stuff thrown in the mix.

Wednesday - we got there about 5 pm. We had just enough time to get the camper set up and run to the stage. Firehouse was first up Wednesday night then Jackyl with RATT last. Firehouse was OK. My wife likes them. Jackyl was great and hilarious. The only unfortunate aspect of the show was the lead singer, Jesse James Dupree, mooning the crowd with his pasty middle-aged buns. RATT was a bit of a disappointment for me. I don't know why. I guess I was expecting more.

Thursday - it rained Thursday morning. We were not vigilant in making sure the water drained off the camper's awning and it filled up with water. When we realized it, I ran out to lower one side to drain it off and managed to collapse the whole thing. It was my in-laws camper. So after the rain and destruction, we didn't get out until late in the afternoon so I missed LA Guns. We did catch part of Dokken's show and wished we had seen all of it. Sebastian Bach followed Dokken. His Skid Row songs were great, but we didn't know any of his solo stuff. Last on Thursday was Brett Michaels. He sang a few new songs off his new solo album, several Poison standbys with some cover songs thrown in. I think his cover songs were the best, and his performance was one of the best of the weekend. I wish I could have seen him last year with Poison.

Friday - we were lazy again and missed Living Colour. Night Ranger was next. They have a good live show. I was surprised at how many metal heads knew all the words to 'Sister Christian'. Extreme came on after Night Ranger. I didn't care much for their set as a whole. It's not that they were bad. I just didn't think they were as good as they could have been. The most rockin' song of the set was 'Play With Me'. Triumph closed out the night. I've never listened to them much, but their live show rocked. I will be expanding my music collection with some Triumph songs.

Saturday - this is when things got interesting. We were watching Trixter when a storm blew in. We pulled out a poncho and shared it thinking that we could ride it out in our seats. Trixter kept playing but the wind picked up then it really started raining. Suddenly Trixter stopped playing (the weather shafted them, but they were doing great) and people starting running for shelter. We skedaddled with them and took shelter to the left of the main stage against a building. With in a minute, a 60 mph straight line winds hit and blew over the two side stages (one on each side of the main stage). We were about 50 yards from the left stage when it collapsed. With the wind, rain and thunder we never heard it fall. A big guy next to us was screaming into his cell phone that he was in the middle of a tornado and to come pick him up. A woman ran up crying and screaming about more tornadoes coming. After the wind and rain let up (there were no tornadoes then or on the way), we sloshed back to the camper and put on some dry clothes. It continued to rain off and on for the next 6 hours. About midnight my wife woke me up and said that they had started again. Warrant was supposed to start about then, and my wife REALLY wanted to see them so we rushed back to the stage. Sure enough Jani Lane was on stage belting it out as best he could with his cold. Despite the phlegm, Warrant put on a great show. I'd say they were second best so far after Brett Michaels.

Sunday - we started out with Steelheart. They put on a good show, but I felt bad for them. The crowd was a little subdued. I guess 5 days of inebriation takes a toll. Ace Frehley came on next. We watched part of his set then grabbed some supper. After Ace was Tesla who put on the best show of the whole weekend. They were awesome. I wish the Rocklahoma folks would have closed out the weekend with Tesla instead of Queensryche who were the last act. Queensryche performed Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety. While Mindcrime might be popular, I thought it was very weird, extremely depressing and only interesting in a car crash sort of way. It may have gotten better as it went along, but we'll never know. We left halfway through.

And that was our mini vacation. Hope it wasn't too boring for you. We had a ball and are thinking of going back next year.

Next up for the blog are reviews of Dean Koontz's Odd Hours and James Rollins The Last Oracle that I read over the weekend.

Diecast Model Triumph TR7 Convertible in Platinum Silver (1:43 scale)