This weekend was hot! I'm not talking hot like "off the hook" or "stylish", just plain hot. Probably one of the consistently hottest weekends I can remember in St. Louis in all my short life. Unfortunately I spent most of it outside, although most of those hours were in the evenings by which time the heat index had dipped to a balmy 105 degrees.

Friday night I got to see my first Cards-Cubs game at Busch since I was like 12 years old. I've been to one at Wrigley Field since then (back when I was about 14) and have been to probably over 100 Cardinals games just in this decade alone (including several playoff games), but always seem to miss the Cubbies when they come to town.

As aforementioned, it was hotter than nuts at gametime on Friday, and my beer which rested below my face seemed to keep filling itself up with the sweat that was constantly dripping from my chin. Mmm, sweaty beer.

At any rate, the game was a classic. Got to see J-Rod hit is second major league homer, and both Zambrano and Carpenter pitch gems. Albert got robbed of a home run, and Izzy pitched out of another scary bases loaded situation in the top of the tenth. But getting to see the Cards win it on a squeeze play in the bottom of the 11th inning was definitely the highlight of the game.

On Saturday, after watching the Cards lose game two of the series by only a run (and playing with what was essentially the "B-Team") I got myself all cleaned up and headed out to see a band in concert that was long overdue. My favorite guilty pleasure band of all time, Journey. Oddly enough, even with the scalding temps and the fact that Journey hasn't been wildly popular in many years, the concert was nearly sold out. And even more surprising was the number of young adults and teenagers that were in attendance.

Oddly enough the man that introduced the band that night was none other that Mr. Tony LaRussa, coach of the Cardinals. Both the band and Tony grew up in San Francisco around the same time, and apparently he is a long time fan.

The tour was called the "Generations Tour" so Journey's set that night included a first act encompassing all their music from the 70's when the band had more of an experimental progressive rock sound. They came back after the intermission with a much longer second set covering all of their classic songs from the 80's when Steve Perry joined the group and made them a commercial powerhouse. The new singer Steve Augeri continued to impress and even live sounds exactly like Perry did. Even new drummer Deen Castronovo has vocal qualities similar to Perry. They did play a couple of covers including Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix and a Santana song the name of which escapes me at the moment. Fitting, since Neal Schon played with Santana at Woodstock as well as playing on both Abraxas and Santana III. He also did a stirring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner which whipped the audience into a frenzy. They played just about every song you could have hoped for as a casual or hardcore Journey fan. A damn fine show all around.

Sunday I took it easy and went over to Takis house to watch the rubber game of the series on ESPN in High Def. I won't even comment about the game because I'm too pissed for words right now. You can't blow leads and then spoil bottom of the ninth comeback's like that. Just piss poor. Although it was again pretty much the bench players out there vs. all the Cubs starters and their best pitcher.

BTW, congrats to Lance Armstrong on his 7th Tour de France victory. Take that Frenchies!

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:41 AM