Some early dates are in....

hint to Mary and Bob - look at February.

Wow! What a nice surprise! An early date. You know I'll be there. Cool! What about you Bob?

WOW is right! Talk about extremes! First August - now February?? Surprising indeed - but I'm there. Just had a thought: What if a Birch "regular" got there early (for a change) - and I show up at 6:30?
Best,
Bob

I get off work at 5:30pm, which puts me at the Birchmere around 6pm. I'm not leaving work early. And I'm not camping out in the dead of winter. (It's not that I'm not willing to make sacrifices. I'll be missing my aerobics class that evening. ) I'll just roll the dice and take my chances. Maybe one of the other Birchmere regulars (there are quite a few) will be there.

I should be done with physical therapy by mid-January.... so I am actually thinking about it. Fly in - fly out.... and if I go, I'll save the seats

I miss hearing the band, it's been since August - I missed Florida and (gasp) 12 days of pizza due to my shoulder surgery.

I'm in for Denver(w/ wife and one of her co-workers). Thanks AA & Ruthless Mgr.!

Throwing my usual requests for: Same Road, Same Reason & The Last Flamenco :)and Playing for Time............................

I'll see you there!

Nice! - Looking forward to it.
Bob

Just had to make this post regarding AA on the All Star Smooth Cruise. What a band! What troopers they were!

The theme of their concert was to have been a nice outdoor concert under the stars on the Lido deck near the pool. Nice concept, but the weather did not cooperate. It was cold and windy that night! You're probably wondering, well, why didn't they just move the event indoors? The problem is that the ship was not full charter, so Smooth Jazz cruisers were competing with regular Carnival cruisers for event space throughout the duration of the cruise.

In any case, the crowd bundled up in coats, hats, scarves and gloves, sat outside, drank tea, coffee, and hot chocolate, and enjoyed AA on the Lido deck. Despite the cold, there was a good, enthusiastic crowd of not only SJ cruisers, but regular Carnival cruisers as well since this show was "open to the public." In between songs, band members tried to keep warm. They too were bundled up along with the fans. Dave Hiltebrand (Nick Colionne's bass player) was in attendance at the show and told us how hard it is to play under those conditions, and that he felt for AA. (And he knows cold. He's from Chicago!)
Stewart told us that since the stage was a good 10 feet higher up on the deck, that The Lads were feeling the cold and wind more than we were. But, they pulled it off and put on quite a show. It's always a pleasure to see AA, even outdoors in the freezing cold, however, I'm looking forward to seeing them in a nice warm venue....like, say, the Birchmere, in about a week!

Hey, Mary
Thanks! I remember finding out about the Japan dates and the Cruise when we talked to Stewart at the show in August. Didn't know that you were sailing. I will, of course, expect a full report next week! See you there.
Bob