Spain Trip Preparations Volume 1

#1 Decide to Go
#2 Pick a date
#3 Book Flight / Hotel
#4 RENEW Passports!!!

Check out our mug shots from our original passports! Oh, we were so young...and adorable ...well maybe that is a bit of a stretch!





















Check out those bangs!!!






















Wow, you have bangs too!

My Aunt is famous!!!

The following information was broadcast on the HGTV Series, "The Carol Duvall Show. Do these look familiar????????????

Colorful fabric ornaments were sent in by Joanne Szakal of Gerald, Mo., that looked like two-inch yo-yos but they weren't...quite. Actually Joanne started by cutting fabric circles and stitching round the outside edge of each one but when she pulled the thread to gather the stitching she first inserted a two-inch cardboard circle. After knotting and cutting the thread she added a colorful sticker or decorated cardboard circle to cover the rough edges. They were very festive.

España

Well it looks like the trip to Spain is on!

We are planing on leaving the fourth of June and returning on the sixteenth. Tentatively we would board the plane in St. Louis at 2:24pm change planes in New York and arrive in Madrid on the 5th at 7:45am. The actual flight time from NY to Madrid is a little less than 8 hours.

At the point of landing in Madrid we have three choices:

1) Stay in a hotel in Madrid and use that as our home base.

2) Continue on a flight to Sevilla and stay there or in Cordoba.

3) Get on the Ave (train) in Madrid and Stay in Cordoba.

The cost on options one and two is close to the same where as option three would cost a bit more but include a nice train ride. Option one gives us access to the most places for the least money once we are settled in. There are also a lot more choices in resturants in Madrid. (I found a web site that lists 25 vegetarian places.) There is also a book we might want to get called The New Spain - Vegan & Vegetarian Restaurants.


I am posting here to get feedback from the Lacubrious Crew and anyone else who cares to put in their two cents worth.

Merry Christmas from the Szakal, Ploskunyak, Dziejma, and Henderson Families

Christmas 2005 at The Szakals House:

Notes From Spain

Hey all,

We found this site: http://notesfromspain.com (via a podcast I found on iTunes). It is maintained by a British guy who has been living in Spain for 7 years, after only planning to stay for a month!  The podcasts (26+) are insights into life in Spain from a non-native point of view, but sometimes includes dialogue from his wife who is a native of Madrid. Plus he has photos that go along with some of them.  Check it out!

An evening at Brandt's...

Rushed home from work today to pick MrsLacubriousJonez and head down to Growler's to meet LacubriousToo and MrLacubriousJonez for dinner. Alas, Growler's was too crowded so we decided to head to Delmar (at night) and eat at Brandt's before catching Javier's show at the same locale.

We worked our way through a pitcher or two (or three?) of Warsteiner Dunkel (yum!) and veggie burgers, pasta pesto (double-yum) and cashew chicken....forgetting to order our appetizer of Spinach Dip! The owner was nice enough to seat us where we could catch the show and our waiter was very attentive.

Javi, along with David and Carl, played three sets. The acoustics were a little rough, due to the hard surfaces in the restaurant, but the show was great and even included a birthday song dedication to yours truly! A la' Lluvias en Abril!

We saw several Javi Fans that we recognized from other shows over the past year (has it been nearly a year already?!) and everyone was really enjoying the music along with the beer, wine and spirits abundantly flowing!

All in all a great night and the only minor mishap was Cinder-fella (aka LacubriousToo) losing his shoe, but only for a moment.....Talk about kickin' up your heels! Hay Carumba!

Today is my birthday...

Today I received this from Ed, Joanne, Holly, and Ryan

Happy Birthday
Who needs candles.
You can't blow these out, but they are sure better to take off the cake.
Happy Birthday Kim.

Also the following items were bestowed on behalf of Bill:

And the card! So Cute!

A Happy Birthday Singing Phone Call from Mom.
A Happy Birthday Phone Call from my Brother, Kev.
A Happy Birthday phone Call from Dad, Thanks for letting everyone in the office know!

And this email card from Ed & Joanne:

Darrin took me out to dinner at The Hawthorne Inn and gave me a DVD:

From Kevin & Anica - Some Lucky Scratchers!

Does this photo look better with the black background?

Giant fly Attempts Landing at Lambert Airport!

Dialogues...

...via email...
L2: Hey, Are you listening to music?
L1: On and Off, Why?
L2: I just wondered. I have been listening to Peter Gabriel, but if you get a chance, check out the very first part of JMB's "Step Into My Place". Does that sound like a door to you?
L1: It DOES sound like a door! What's up with that?
L2: I guess it's someone stepping into his place....
L1: LOL...That should go on the list of 10 (100?) questions for Javier!

Final at Finale'

Saturday December 17, the Lacubrious Crew attended the last two shows of Javier Mendoza Band.

Here is the message Javi posted on his message board concerning the breakup of the band:

Jim, Moisés and David will be performing with me one last time at Finale in Clayton as a band. Come check it out! After this show I'll be performing with other musicians as well as David and Carl. Jim and Moisés are pursuing their other project full time. The JMB crew is parting, but I'll be performing solo, or with other musicians until I'm no longer in this world. Javier Mendoza is stronger than ever!

I am currently working on a brand new DVD and cd with new songs and in the summer I'll be going to Spain to work on a new CD. So keep on coming to shows and picking up my music, because without you I'd be doing something else!

Thanks as always for your continued support! You are the reason I'm still here! I'll see at upcoming shows in 2005 and 2006.

Having developed a rapport with Javi and the guys, and experiencing a great number of shows over the last year, we were very sad but not completely surprised when we heard the news. Over the last few JMB shows we noticed that attendance was starting to fall off and at the last Cicero's show, the opening band "Fundamental Elements" had a large group that did not stay for JMB. I think this show had a real effect on Javi. I don't think the attendance problem has anything to do with the band members, or their skills. I personally think that Javi's target market has been changing over the last couple of years and becoming more mature. Overwhelmingly the people purchasing tickets to Cicero's and Blueberry Hill are in their early to mid 20s (at least at the shows we have attended). This, in my opinion, is why Javi's solo and duo shows are doing so well at places like Erato Wine Bar.

That being said, ON TO FINALE'

We started the evening at our favorite pub Growlers, after a great dinner and a couple of outstanding beers, we headed to the Finale' restaurant and Music venue. We arrived about 7:00pm picked up our tickets (for both shows) and were promptly escorted to our table. The venue was beautiful, and the acoustics were better than any other venue we have visited!

First off I have to say that the shows were both INCREDIBLE! This evening was in the top 1% of JMB shows that I have experienced. Everyone seemed very relaxed and ready to play. At the end of the first set , which went by way too fast, we talked to Jim, Moisés, David, Julie and Andrea for a few minutes and moved to our new table for the second show. When we got settled in and ordered a drink, Javi dropped by the table to bring us a "surprise" CD of some of the early versions of his songs and a few unpublished tracks. Just before the set started we were joined by Steve Leslie and his girl friend Adrianne. Steve is also a very talented musician and singer /songwriter who had not heard JMB before.

Tom James took some great pictures of the show:

(Sorry, the pictures previously listed here are no longer available)



Towards the end of the set Javi dedicated the song "Join the Party"” to the Lacubrious Crew. After the show we introduced Steve to the band, talked to Javi for a few more minutes and headed home.

Goodbye JMB, you will be missed.

To Javi, may 2006 be your best year yet!!!!

Columbia - Return to Music Cafe....

So after our last experience at the music café, you'd think we would never return...but here we are again. Let me explain; we're back in town with plans to see Javi at the Cherry St. Artisan on Friday. Being we are here a day early, we decide to hit our favorite pizza joint in Columbia, Shakspeare's Pizza. Lo and behold, who do we spot but STENDEK! He's a musician we saw at the Savoy way back. Sure enough he is playing at the Blue Fugue, formerly the Music Café. Thus we now have plans for the evening!

STENDEK was entertaining for the first part of the show, but then he turned to "mixing" / DJ-ing or whatever you call it. We listended for awhile but the smoke was killing us so headed to the hotel to get some much needed rest and get ready for Friday!

Very special yarn...

LacubriousToo thinks this is creepy, but I think it's pretty cool!

http://vipfibers.com/

Blogpins

Check out this site: http://blogpins.com/blogpins.html

When to draw the line between work-life and home-life...

Either my brother got creative with his riding lawn mower, or the city of Mowtown has a new law man!

....And yes it even has working police-style lights!!!

Irish Ale! Gimme Some!

What a Cheery Photo, courtesy of my Uncle Ed!

Live from Erato Wine Bar!!!

So HOW COOL IS IT to be surfing on my new wireless Axim PDA and listening
to Javier and enjoying a beer with good friends? AWESOME!!!!!

We enjoyed a yummy meal at Mangia, an italian place here on S. Grand Ave.
Then headed down the street to Erato to listen to Javier's Acoustic set.
We're celebrating Mr.Lacubrious's b-day weekend! Erato is a pretty nice
wine/beer/dessert bar. Javier sounds pretty good. The acoustics are not too
great, plus we had to sit in the back, but all in all, very pleasant. Even
though the guys ordered a hefe-weizen that was too clovie, so
Mrs.Lacubrious traded her Newcastle and drank their rejects!!!

Chicago - Day Two - Continued...

Onward - post Goose Island...

• Gave $5 to some woman who was $4.83 short to get her towed vehicle back.
• Browsed the Crate & Barrel Outlet.
• Wished we had a video of MrLacubrious in the wheelchair lift...too funny!
• "Bite my ass."
• Drove back to the Hotel, via Roosevelt Ave.
• "I know this town like the back of my hand..."
• "You're talking out the ass you want bit!"
• Nap time & re-energize
• Coyotes Mexican Grill
• Gin & Tonics
• Cicadas!!!

PLUS

Does NOT equal this...

MrLacubrious, you are our hero...

Chicago - Day Two - Fun in the Sun!

We spent a little time on Friday night trying to decide how we wanted to hit the sites. We decided to head right into Chicago. So after breakfasting at the hotel and plotting our trip (and me grabbing the maps!) we headed east and picked up Lake Shore Drive just South of the city. The sight of Lake Michigan was awesome. The water was a fabulous shade of blue-green that day. Tons of people were out walking, biking, running, dogwalking, etc. We stopped at Navy Pier (Can you say U-Turn?). Which turned out to be a pretty nice tourist attraction. Lots of shops, pubs, and fast food joints, harbor cruises lines, river cruise lines, entertainment and the like that you would expect. Most impressive was the Stained Glass Museum.

Beautiful...

What the heck is he doing?!


We took a 30 minute Shoreline Cruise around the harbor...it was sunny and pleasant and we got a great view of the city.

And Navy Pier...

Even Better...


Another view...

A lighthouse and blue water...



All of us on the pier...




After soaking up as much atmosphere at the pier, we decided to head out again. We originally tried to get to Uncommon Ground, but Wrigley Field traffic and parking proved too much for us to handle at that point. So it was renavigation (always fun) to Goose Island Brewpub. We were disappointed with the beer, but the food was pretty tasty. We were in the vicinity of Lincoln Avenue, which is the venue for the street festival that JMB was going to be playing on Sunday. So we had a better idea of where we would be headed...always a good idea with this group!

***A little side note here. MrLacubrious got a pretty good dose of the sun on this outing. Enough that he was being referred to as MrCrispy by yours truly. Oddly enough when he unwrapped a Dove Dark Chocolate later that night the little saying on the inside said "You know what? You look good in red."

Chicago....And Other Navigational Terrors - Continued

7/29/2005...
"CD's in the car are one big ole tight pain in the ass!" That's why the Ipod is so much better. WKIM is our favorite station....and the 6 hour car ride to Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois was so much more pleasant. We arrived around dinnertime on Friday night...luckily we had excellent directions to the hotel. Oh wait, no we didn't. But not to worry, our navigational skills prevailed and between the LacubriousOnes 10 year old memories of traveling the same roads and the Jonezes driving and having the hotel's actual street address..we arrived with barely a u-turn at all!

Weary from travel, we freshened up at the hotel, but not until after a game of musical rooms, since, once again, online travel booking yielded us with rooms 3 miles from each other. (Even after MrsJonez called the hotel to make sure everything was good to go!) None of us likes to stumble too far to their room. We did get a couple of free in room movies for our trouble!

We headed to a local brew-pub known as Anyway's. A couple rounds of beer and some decent grub and we were ready to hit the town! Or so we thought...you see we needed to buy some beer for the room, and bothallofus forgot to bring speakers for the Ipod for in-room listening pleasure. So we decided to find a Walmart. We first stopped at Dominicks Grocery and selected some decent brews, headed back to the hotel to stow them in the fridge, then headed back out to find Walmart. We were going to ask the front desk for directions, but MrJonez jumped on google maps while stowing the beer and decided he could find it.....because "he knows this town like the back of his hand". I beg to differ. I will say no more on this topic. Other than this, 22 is not Butterfield and only by the grace of the navigational gods did we get the speakers.