What the Grammys missed
Some nice clips & vids right on Ratdog's own website click http://www.rat-dog.com/index.html

So much to do before I leave (zero hour 9AM) for Seattle! Gotta get all the tickets, documents and maps organized- 1 set for myself and another for Scott, who I'll meet up with in Vancoouver. Just remembered that I'll need Canadian money at some point. Hopefully, the atm exchange rate isnt too deep. Today I think I'm schlepping my kid & her friends up to Haight street? They were going to BART in to the city but then I found out my in-service meeting at work today is ~optional~! Had I known that before booking my SEA Flight, I'd be on my way to Portland.

The Haight will be fine- kinda boring for me at this point (I prefer playing in the Mission) but I look forward to seeing what's new and crafty at Mendel's, getting a shwarma @ Ali Baba's
if I wear some form of Ratdog apparel, perhaps it will help me stumble upon a fellow fan. We'll need to be back in time to pick the other kid up from school and then, I really need to figure out how to fit all my gear into one wearing thin carry on bag. hmmm?
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Here's the start of my own review- Hope I can finish it before I leave town:

My Funny Valentine

Instead of getting up to the city for line duty at a neurotically early hour, I stayed home and spent the day with Scott . We picked Noah up from half day at the middle school and had a nice lunch together. I got a ton of cookies wrapped and ready to go. Scott made the kids dinner and (finally!) we were headed out to the City. Met massive traffic on the way in. The extra hour we planned on grabbing dinner in had faded away- it was now a race to get in the will call line.

In addition to the monster basket of cookies (I was able to find one of the usual suspects to lug it up the backstairs), I had two shopping bags filled with little bags of Valentine candy to pass around. Go figure, this was the first time I had seen folks selling food to the Fillmore line- it took forever to give away FREE candy. I didnt want my freebies to compete with people selling sweets to make tour money, but since me, my kids and friends spent so much time and energy on making the little bags I wasnt going to give up.
One nice lady was willing to hand out the contents of one bag and I managed to hand out most of the other bag before running into another usual suspect who promised to toss the rest of the candy (red hots, conversation hearts, gummy bears,chocolate kisses & stickers that had the date & venue on them) in one of the Ratdog buses.
Sugaring up to the pups.

Made it back to line just as will call was opening. The it was off to get in the ticket line. We were so late, I didnt expect there would be much room in front by the time we got inside.
Scott went upstairs to find our friends- I headed to the dance floor and lo and behold!!! There was about 50 inches of rail space right in front of Jeff’s set up. Most folks were wandering around or staking out territory in the sweet spot. The fellow next to the remaining rail said it was open and so I took it! It was very cool- I had figured we’d end up watching from upstairs or somewhere in the back and that wouldve been fine since I’ll be in line early in Seattle . However, once I saw that Fillmore rail unclaimed, I figured it was meant to be for me. yo, fate!

Kemmie also arrived later than usual. She brought beautiful bouquet of pink roses and chocolate dipped strawberries for everyone! She and Rose and Calea and Joey ended up being right near us- the sweetest show circle one could ask for. Later Mazzy and some other friends came by for visits - right before the show started, Scott found me and it was sure lovely to have him to hug, kiss and hold hands with at a show. It’s been too long since we shared a show. I’ll miss him in Seattle. Sorry to sound so gushy but it was, after all, Valentine’s day and he is my Valentine .
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Ah the JOY of the opening jam. I expected Shakedown but got Stranger. Right off the bat, it was a “setlist tarot” night- every song making perfect sense and key lyrics echoing or answering thoughts or questions running through my head ((my poor old head))).

Stranger was nice but Maggie’s farm was nicer! I saw on the boards that Mission was coming to SF - I almost didnt tell Scott that because he wouldve been soooo disappointed
if they had not played it. When Mission came up third - it was a relief! I just couldnt stop smiling from that point of the evening on. It was a good one . :o) I love Josephine and was delighted to hear it- yum. On to a fabulous BEW- I’ve heard a lot of BEW, but this one is a little different- the jam in it gets pretty curly ! Odessa was fun. Fantastic playing all through that one, too.
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More soon.