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The Highs & Lows of 2005 – The Highs

Damn–this is taking longer than anticipated! I thought I could get this done in one post. Obviously not! Here, I present the second half of the post from below.

“The 10 High Points of 2005″
(in ascending order)

10. The Brad Paisley/Sarah Evans/Sugarland concert in Spokane with Megan. She’s not a regular blogger, but she lurks from time to time. Great conversation, fun times! We had to drive back the same night so she could be at work, and I could get in line for Seinfeld tickets. No picture here–my camera was AWOL!


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9. Class of ‘75 30-Year Reunion. For you youngsters out there, when you get to this point, reunions are FUN! Bodies have changed, kids are most likely in high school, spouses don’t get jealous, games aren’t played much anymore. I saw some friends that I’d lost contact with since early college. I saw some friends from the cross-town high school’s reunion that I hadn’t seen since 6th grade! No pictures here, either. Too busy drinking beer!


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8. Symphony Under the Stars. The summer concert that the Symphony puts on for free on the campus of Carroll College. We had upwards of 7000 people out for the concert, which isn’t bad at all. This is an official “View From the Back Row.”


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7. Alison Krauss concert in Bozeman with just.a.girl. We were center aisle, maybe 5th row (can’t remember). I was nabbed by security for having the audacity to take pictures. I got the camera back, after they deleted the memory card. Thank God for recovery software! This was also where I got to meet my second first blogger (and very first fan!) Lizabeth!


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6. My band–In Cahoots w/the Mob Rules Horns (yeah, it’s damned long, isn’t it?)–was named as the best band in town as voted by local residents. This, of course, wasn’t news to us, but it was nice to see that everyone else thought so too!


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5. Early in my blogging, I got a comment back from someone who claimed that we lived in the same town. Son of a gun, darned if she didn’t! Rachel has turned out to be one of the best beer buddies a guy could have! We spend alot of time together, which is nice (hope you guys are a little jealous out there!). She’s told me to fuck off (in that seriously pissed at me way!), she’s gotten girlie on me, we’ve watched all the Star Wars movies together. Among our activities was going to see Willie Nelson, together with Reckless Kelly and another band (my apologies to the Austin readers–Mike + the Mechanics is the only name I can come up with–you know who the other band was!). Cold and rainy and kick-ass! And Rachel flirted shamelessly with Willie throughout the entire night!


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4. My Portland trip in November. I got to see the Rolling Stones!!! I drove to Portland for the concert and took the ever-lovely just.a.girl. Lots of good things happened on this trip–the concert obviously, the half-nekkid pics of her and her best friend, the drive to the coast, the sushi above Portland. And the unannounced meeting of my second blogger–Addict! The brief amount of time spent with her was beyond-words-wonderful!


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3. The time that Moose was in town this summer. As I’ve said many times before, she is my absolute closest, dearest, bestest friend. I hadn’t seen her in probably almost a year. Of course, I had to share her with her many friends here in town, which sucked, but what can you do? While she was here, she and just.a.girl and I went to the Mission Mountain Wood Band reunion concert. That doesn’t mean much unless you’re from Montana, but it was a great time! Moose–you need to move back to Helena!


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2. HNT–What more can be said? When this whole thing started in mid-May, I don’t think there was a person on the face of the planet who could have anticipated what it would become. Not just half-nekkid bodies, but half-nekkid souls, half-nekkid confessions, and half-nekkid friends. I have gained dozens of new friends that I am closer to than the people I know in real life. I have become quite close with a small handful, and I’m so happy that they have come to depend on me, as much as I depend on them! I have gotten to meet many of them. I am amazed, I am humbled, and I am ever so grateful that you people have made this such a large part of my life, as well as yours!


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1. There was really no competition for this one! NASHVILLE!!

I was in dire need of a getaway, Carroll was playing for the championship, and the circumstances were favorable to make this trip. I contacted Samantha Alice to see if there was a chance to meet, or even have a little party. Tish was already coming from out of town, and I had both Moose and just.a.girl looking at flying down for the football game (didn’t happen…). Then RayRay joined in, and others started showing interest. I checked out the drive, and whom I might be able to meet on the way. Got to meet Fems, FreckleBoy and GG. Tish drove in on the night before (HOOTERS!). We picked up RayRay on the way to the game. The football team won their 4th consecutive national NAIA championship. We get back to party at the Nashville Hilton with KellyKline, SamanthaAlice, Dr. Pineapple, Summer, YoJ, Bsoholic, VampiricKitti and Chunk. I hadn’t felt so much at ease in months. After many hours, we went our separate ways, but all with new-found friends. I got to meet Kalani for far too brief a time on my way to Minnesota. And I got to spend some time with Moose. This was, by far, the best thing I’ve done for myself in ages!

The Highs & Lows of 2005

There’s less than 12 hours left in 2005 in my particular time zone. I’ve been reflecting on what the last posts of the year should be. Many of you have done the full “year in review” thing. Some have gotten reflective. Others have started looking to 2006 already. I’ve decided to do two lists–”The 10 Low Points of 2005″ and “The High Points of 2005″. If I had a little more gumption, I’d have given them snazzier titles, but I’ve only got 11+ hours left!

“The 10 Low Points of 2005″
(from least low to lowest of the low)

10. I got ticketed for slowly rolling through a stop sign. Which then got me the obligatory “not wearing seat belt” ticket. Fortunately let me slide on the “no proof of insurance” thing.

9. Death of Pope John Paul II. Though I’m not an actively participating Catholic, I was raised Catholic, and consider myself a Catholic. John Paul has always been a great man in mind. Sure, there are those who have issues with him and the Church, and that’s OK with me. I watched the entire week’s worth of coverage on TV. It was a very sad week indeed!

8. Katrina, Rita, et. al. While safely tucked away in the mountains of Montana, I’d normally look at the destruction and give the standard “Wow, that’s too bad” response, but this time around, through blogging, I found that I knew people who were dealing with it on a first-hand basis. The fact that parts of the area still look like a war zone still amazes me.

7. Bloggers dropping out of sight. Everyone has their reasons for starting a blog. And there’s as many reasons for dropping it. But I hate seeing that bloggers that I’ve enjoyed either drop with no warning/explanation, or they drop after bitching for awhile. Regardless of the reason, I generally don’t like it. I’m selfish in that respect.

6. Bad things affecting my blogfriends. There’s been death, cancer, suicide, sexual assaults, divorces, etc. among them or their RL friends. Again, this stuff happens all the time, but now it’s affecting me, because it affects my new friends. I said this when I first posted about it—damn you all for making me care!

5. Music stand in the mouth. This happened in April, while loading a U-Haul to go to an out-of-town gig. You can read about it here. It happened the day after my birthday. It screwed up my chops for about 2 months, and I now have a permanent dent in my upper lip from where it hit….

4. Missing the Crosby, Stills & Nash concert. I spent some bucks for these tickets. The concert was in Missoula. Twenty minutes before the gates were to open, I was in a park in Helena drinking beer, oblivious to the fact that I’d forgotten about the concert. They would have been playing their encore by the time I would have gotten there. So I stayed in Helena and drank considerably more!

3. Assholes invade HNT. And not in a good way. I should have expected it, but haters decided to attack a couple of HNTers in particular. Of course they left anonymous comments, or made it difficult to track them down. Some sites were shut down. Others were renamed/moved. In any event, this has left a tremendously bad taste in my mouth.

2. My camera gets stolen. While playing a gig, at the same park mentioned in #4. While it did result in a great camera to replace it (without any insurance $$), and spawned a great number of weeks of Mystery Guests, my trusting nature took a kick to the gut.

1. The worst low of the year– the lack of commitment from players in my orchestra here. It has been the #1 source of frustration and tension in my life for over a year. It forces me to have to spend money to replace them at the last minute, which in turn incurs the wrath of the overlords of the Symphony. I’m disgusted with the attitudes of some players that I used to consider friends. I know it’s not personal, but I take it that way. And I shouldn’t.

Year-End HNT Memories

Edit: Two things I’ve notice about today–1) This was an inadvertent way to show off to some of the newer HNTers what we “old-timers” have done over the months. Alot of exploring the archives going on today!, and 2) I have a great deal of housecleaning to do over in the Nekkid roll. There’s alot of dead links I need to get rid of! Continue on….!

Just a reminder that the plan for this HNT is for you to pick your personal favorite HNT picture from the ones that YOU’VE posted. And write a little blurb about why it’s your favorite. Of course, many of you will do a new one instead, or in addition to your favorite. Or you’ll pick more than one favorite. That’s OK too!

For me, there was really only one choice. HNT w/Me & Michelle in the Tub. This one showed up on Sept. 15th. I like it the best because of the long story that preceded the actual picture. More than a few of you were ready to string me up by my privates for what I wrote, which described, among other things, physical abuse, playing around, loyalty, threesomes, and the fact that Michelle stuck with me through thick and thin.

If you want to check the original post, you can find it here. So give us your favorite! And then let’s ring in the first HNT of 2006 with a bang!

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The only notification I got about early posts were from Trouble (a newbie), and Susie & Mr. Ratburn (doing a little tag team post).

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Other things to check out:

• Be sure to get listed on the free Frappr map. The link is over there in the sidebar—->>

• There’s only a couple more days where I will blatantly be asking for booby shots. Many of you have graced me with your pictures, and to you I say thanks! Many of you are teasing me with “I’ll get one to you” or “Maybe”. You need to get them to me! If you have questions, see the post below from a couple of days ago.
• In case you don’t make it back here in the next couple of days, here’s hoping that you have a SAFE and Happy New Year! We want to see you all back in 2006!!!

End of Year HNT

OK–I promise that this will be the last time I screw with HNT for awhile. It was painfully obvious that many of you don’t come by here on a regular basis, as the Christmas Wish HNT came as a suprise to many of you. That’s OK, my ego can handle that. It also shows why doing a “theme” for HNT is risky at best!

That having been said, I’ll offer one last “theme” for 2005. A few of you over the past month or so have suggested that I come up with a “Best of HNT“, or a Top Ten list of favorites, or something like that. HNT has never been intended to be a contest or other competition. Though some of you do it on ocassion, I don’t rate HNT pics, or set up a specific site (like Bloggin’ Hotties). That’s never been what HNT is all about.

HOWEVER–for the end of the year, I think it would be good to see what you think is your favorite HNT picture that you’ve posted. And maybe a little explanation of WHY it’s your favorite. Don’t put up a picture of someone else’s HNT. We want to see which of YOUR OWN pics is your favorite. And why.

Again, this is optional. If you’ve got something ready for this week, go ahead and use it. If you’re still dealing with family and the holidays, then this will take a little pressure off. If you’re a relative newbie, then you certainly could go either way here. And trust me–no more “themes” for quite awhile!

Blogging Memories

I stole this from Leesa’s site. It’s pretty cool.

What was the first line from your blog the first day of each month in 2005.

January: Yep, it’s happening! (Starting my blog, that is!)

February: As I was trolling around the blogosphere (a word I don’t like–not sure why), I saw a post by a woman who was so excited that she found an alternate way of posting pics without using Hello, or whatever PC people use. (I tend to ramble on, can’t you tell?)

March: I’m flipping through channels, waiting for something decent to come on, and I end up watching “Nashville Star”. (Why was Bret Michaels from Poison a judge for this???)

April: His death hasn’t been announced yet, but it seems inevitable. (Pope John Paul II)

May: I didn’t own my first computer until I was 30 years old. (Post about how damned old I am…)

June: I don’t usually get worked up about much, but once in awhile, I just get pissed off. (Rant about Burger King employees leaving two slices of tomato on my Whopper, after TWICE requesting no tomatoes.)

July: Here’s to Ago-go, Dena, Corrina, and any of my other Canadian blogfriends I’m not aware of. (Happy Canada Day!)

August: Like I don’t have anything better to do, such as SLEEP! Here’s an alphabetical list of CDs I own. (Sort of self-explanatory.)

September: I have 2 tickets to see Crosby, Stills and Nash in Missoula tonight (115 miles west of here), and the gates opened 20 minutes ago! OH, FUCK!! (And I’m drinking beer in a park in downtown Helena. FUCK!)

October: I have my own personal reasons for contributing to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (the same group that organizes the “Race For the Cure”). (Plugging this year’s BoobieThon.)

November: Well, I’m here. (Reporting on my trip to Portland to see just.a.girl and the Rolling Stones.)

December: Let’s get down to business first. (Announcing that the day was Sasha’s birthday.)

As I was going through Leesa’s first sentences, I found that I need to go back and check some things out! She didn’t leave any explanations, which made for interesting comments! Please feel free to steal this and relive your own 2005!

Tagged Yet Again!

I generally hate these things, but I was tagged by Kelly, so I’d better do it. She’s got a shirt of mine that can be held hostage. Or worse….

1) What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was the Executive Director of the Symphony. At the time it was a highly dysfunctional non-profit, with board members making my life a living hell. I was the sole staff person, other than the music director. (By comparison, the Symphony now has a 17-member paid staff, and the Board pretty much stays out of the way!)

2) What were you doing a year ago?

Lamenting the fact that I had nothing planned for New Year’s Eve. Ended up going to two different parties that night!

3) What are 5 of your favorite snacks?

Oranges.
Grapes.
Ruffles Potato Chips w/Nalley’s Dill Pickle Dip.
Macadamia Nuts.
Scrapple.

4) What 5 songs do you know all the words to?

Rodeo Song – Gary Lee & Showdown
Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw – Jimmy Buffett
Star Spangled Banner – Francis Scott Key
King Herod’s Song – Jesus Christ Superstar
Brandy – Looking Glass

5) 5 things you would do if you had money–

Take care of family members.
Take care of close friends.
Get a bitchin’ stereo for the car.
Invest!
Travel.

6) 5 bad habits–

Spending money I don’t have.
Procrastinating.
Not introducing friends to others (sorry Rachel!).
Paying bills late.
Being sarcastic at inopportune times.

7) 5 things I love to do–

Music–anything to do with it.
Surf the internet.
Golf.
Drive.
Pontificate.

5 things I would never get new, buy new,or wear again–

Cowboy boots.
Sweater vests.
Pre-recorded VHS movie.
Off-the-shelf musical instrument.
Ice skates.

9) 5 favorite toys (not in order)–

Powerbook
iBook
New digital camera
Michelle (my trombone)
Bass guitar

Now I get to tag 5 people–

I will not subject this torture on anyone further. Besides, I think everyone I know has done this one at least once already!

Odds & Ends

Some of you might have caught the short blurb I posted just before leaving for Nashville that my computer crapped out on me. Yes, people, my Mac Powerbook was acting up. The one thing about Macs is that they never crash and burn. But when they do, they do it big time! I had my iBook with me on the trip (the one that had 2 screws and a spring left over after I swapped out hard drives). That was a lifesaver! After coming back home, I tried a couple of things to fix the Powerbook, then the weekend hit. Well, yesterday was dedicated to reviving it. After some cloning, and copying, and purging and erasing, I believe I’ve succeeded! This post is being done on it! And I’ve played around on some other apps, and things seem to be fine. Now I have to spend time wading through 343 unread emails (it duplicated alot, and there was alot of emailing going on during Nashville), and also getting this site out of its Christmas mode. And my surfing has been lacking too. So be patient with me!

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I don’t normally get involved in doing the prayer request thing, especially for complete strangers, but Julie brought this site to my attention. This woman has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy once a week now. She’s not dwelling on it though–it’s wonderful to see how upbeat she is about things. But she doesn’t sugarcoat things either. Go check her out. She could use some prayers and good thoughts going her way. Maybe even some more tangible things as well.

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Christmas around Osville (Osville???) was spent with family for the weekend. All but one sister live here, so it’s not that hard to get together as a family, but during the holidays it’s always special. And fairly quiet. There was more food than there should have been–thank God for the concept of leftovers! And beer. And the two older nieces beginning to get in on the “adult” discussions (no, not that type of adult). Discussing world affairs, politics, etc. Hard to realize that the oldest one has friends who have been married for a year or two with a kid. She just doesn’t seem that old! Oh–no cameras. Anywhere. All weekend. I suck.

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Update on Dad–First off, thanks to those who have asked about him. He’s doing quite well, but will have to go back for a 15-minute surgery in mid-January to adjust the pacemaker somehow (all over my head….). When that happens, they’ll take him off the medication that is currently causing him to have fluid in the lungs. He’s moving a little slowly, and he tires easily still, but that’s to be expected. He’s got a little more color to him now, so that’s a good thing. The plan is to do surgery, then fly off to Hawaii for 2 months. Damn, it must be nice to have come up with a good retirement plan!

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The boobies request is still bringing in submissions. Now I’m waiting for those of you who said they’d come up with something…. don’t let me down!

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Not much more to write about at this time.

Christmas Wishes

To all of you–the very best Christmas wishes! I’ve met (and actually MET!) so many new friends this year that I can’t possibly get out to all of you personally. But it doesn’t diminish those wishes, or my desire to say them to each and every one of you. I hope you all have a great weekend, great times, and a very Merry Christmas!

Now leave me some wishes in the comments….!

BTW–Boobies can still be left at osbasso (at) gmail (dot) com!

Shameless Christmas Begging

EDIT #3: Booby pics will always be accepted at any time. I will only be blatantly crass and crude and continue to publicly ask for them through the week.

EDIT #2: Who would have thought that just by asking, I’d get booby pics?? And a safe to keep them in? Or an album to keep them in?? While I’m not being flooded by pics, I’m getting quite a few of them! Many thanks to those who sent a pic in, or said that they were working on one. All very tasteful, all very nice. One, in particular, was a bit of a surprise, but certainly appreciated! So in the spirit of Christmas gift-giving, I’ll continue to accept booby pics for another week up to the New Year!

EDIT: Today’s HNT/Christmas gifts post can be found a few posts below.
I’ve gotten some good response to this. Thank you to those who have taken the time!

A couple of weeks ago, Brico caused me to be in a little bit of hot water. He referred to my “private HNT collection”. I said at the time that such a thing didn’t exist, and then all sorts of people piped in with opinions about that. Yes, I’ve been privy to some preview shots, and have made suggestions with many, but I don’t have a “private collection”. After receiving another email this past week which basically mentioned the same thing, I’ve decided “screw it”, maybe I should have one. To paraphrase a fellow blogger who apparently has had success with this, “If you ask for them, they will send them…”

So that’s what I’m going to do. For Christmas this season, I want booby shots for my “private collection”. Gentlemen need not send any. And no pictures of the weird bird or orangutan boobs. I want YOUR boobs. Uncovered, uncluttered boobs. More than half-nekkid boobs. For me, and me alone. Not that have been shared with others. Not that might have found their way to HNT. No cartoons or pics of Pamela Anderson’s. Your boobs. Send them to my gmail account: osbasso (at) gmail (dot) com. If you want to send more than one picture, that’s OK. If there’s more than just boobies, that is certainly your decision. I’m OK with that too!

I won’t tell who did or didn’t send them. They’ll never see the light of day. I just want my own “private collection”. If this seems crude, I apologize. A week of traveling will do that to you. Thank you in advance for your holiday spirit….