Chapter One of 2008 ARBA Convention: Adventures in Kentucky

The 2008 ARBA convention is over. I've been back home for 3 days but it still feels odd. I can't seem to get back to the mental state of 'being home'. It just feels weird.





Convention was nice. Its lovely building, parking is super. Food in Louisville is great. Waffle house, steak n' shake, nom nom nom. Amanda and I stayed at the Best Western and it was pretty nice. People there in Kentucky are just friendly. I'd say over all we had a good time.



I am not going to attempt to write this blog and say that my trip was perfect or that it was crappy, because it was both. I do think that getting to KY at 6 am on Sunday set the mood for the week thought. I never could seem to get over the whole being really tired thing. We slept a lot and ate a lot and just hung out a lot. There were so many things I wanted to do and see and experience, and we just didn't go do any of them.



We did go see the Drive-By Truckers on Thursday night for the opening night of their national co-headlining tour with the Hold Steady. That was pretty freekin' cool. The DBT are one of my most favorite bands in the world. It was my first time seeing them live and it was FANTASTIC. I do need to talk about how very, very strange the concert was though. It was a good sized venue; really neat looking on the inside, with 3-4 bars, pool tables a smoking section, large stage and AWESOME SOUND. So the venue was neat-o. But… the folks… once again SO POLITE. It almost made me uncomfortable to be around so many nice and considerate people. There were a lot of people there and they were all so polite. If someone had to get through the crowd they touched you gently on the shoulder or back and said "excuse me I am so sorry". It was so strange. Basically I have chalked it up to culture shock. I'm used to being shoved around and stomped on at concerts. Also, nobody was really dancing or moving around during the show. There was some head bobbing and a tiny bit of toe tapping, every once in a while there would be a 'woohoo' and a fist or two in the air, but for the most part, people just stood there. I wanted to dance around and sing and have a good time. I still had fun but it was definitely weird. Not like any concert/show I've ever been to before. They played for about 75 minutes maybe a tad longer. They played sinkhole, and let there be rock and marry me and tons of other great songs, lots from the new album. I had my heart set on getting a DBT t-shirt so I waited in line after their set for what seemed like forever. The merch guy was on some serious drugs. It was a bit scary. Lady in front of me used her credit card to buy her merch. I found that quite odd… I wouldn't have given that guy my credit card for sure. He was itchin', scratchin' and adjustin' all over the place. Trucker speed… nope for like the real deal, imho. Next time you see me ask me to do my impression of the merch guy… I guess I can do it pretty well. Then I think I got hit on. I'm still not quite sure what that was all about. A tall nice looking man came up behind me put one hand on my shoulder and the other down by my waist and asked, "How are you ladies doing this evening? Would you care for a drink?" Amanda and I were like holy what the ???? I just said, "were doing great, and no thank you. But thank you anyway" It was very odd indeed. I thought for a moment he worked there. About 30 seconds later we decided it was time to leave. I was quite disappointed in the Hold Steady. I only gave them 2.5 songs to impress me, sadly I wasn't. DBT kicked butt though and Amanda was a good sport for going with me. I appreciate that a lot.



So back the the rabbity part of the rabbit adventures…



Arriving at 6 am Sunday put out internal clocks a bit haywire. I think I consumed more than the recommended daily dosage of red bull on the drive out there. We crashed upon arrival, and then put the rabbits away early afternoon Sunday. I was somewhat baffled by the layout of the Netherland Dwarf cooping. We got it all figured out and got the kids settled in. Got hooked up with the Cottontail Express and got the new mini lops. I will just leave it at that about the mini lops.



Found the Himi doe from Cheryl Carpenter, very nice rabbit. Found the himi buck from mark Jacobs. Apparently he had hurt his eye pretty severely, so unfortunately we had to scratch him from the show. That was a huge bummer, he is a nice buck. Hopefully his eye will heal up ok. Mark was awesome though and we are happy about the outcome of that deal. Amanda found Gigi and got that all taken care of. Gigi is super cute, can't wait to get her bred.



After the kids were all tucked in we headed back to the hotel and ate dinner at Ernesto's. It's a Mexican restaurant that was attached to our hotel... I just wanted some Tecate in a bad way… and a tamale and chili relleno and a chicken enchilada. We ordered some queso dip and nom-ed down on the salsa while we waited. Our food showed up and looked great. So we began eating. I think we were so tired and ravenous that anything would have been great. So we got about a 1/3-rd of the way into our meals we both simultaneously decided that uh… nope, this is not delicious, its actually pretty gross. My chile relleno was basically a green bell pepper chunk over a scoop of beef with some Velveeta cheese melted over top. Amanda's enchilada was soggy to the point of not even being done in the middle. We were so disappointed. My tecate was delicious though! I think that living in Des Moines has me somewhat spoiled for Mexican food. This may seem like an odd statement, but hear me out… we have LOTS of really really good authentic Mexican restaurants here. Homemade everything. Delicious. Ernesto's simply didn't not measure up to my refined and sophisticated palate.





Then we went to the hotel and promptly passed out.



Chapter 2 will commence tomorrow.