This is what my boy looks like:

Yup – he’s that big

Hey, Y’all – maybe you heard me mention the Jimmy Wayne (right now he’s got the new song Sara Smile) is walking across a chunk of the country to help raise awareness of homelessness – and he’s doing it in the winter! Turns out he went through a rough upbringing that left him homeless for part of his teenage years, so this really means a lot to him. Here’s a good overview of what he’s up to and what he went through.

If you want to follow his travels as he heads to Arizona, you can follow him on Twitter here . ‘Guy’s doing some good stuff.

~a

Need Lady Antebellum’s new CD “Need You Now” now?? Well, they’re letting you have one pre-release song each week until the CD comes out on January 26th! Here’s the link for American Honey – this week’s pre-release: http://twitter.com/ladyantebellum/statuses/6932377996 Merry Christamas indeed!!

Hey, what with the holly daze and the visitors coming and all that jazz, you need some ideas of how to get your festive on, right? Here’s just a couple of things you might check out…

The Holiday Lights Walking Tour is going on Thursdays – Sundays through December  and can be a great way to discover some festively lit hotel lobbies, a garden, Union Square… this is a paid tour, but you could also make up one of your own!

In Palo Alto, they’ve got the Christmas Tree Lane lit from 5p-11p nightly through Dec 27th.

You could see a show – Cirque du Soleil is in town with OVO by AT&T Park, Wicked is at the Orpheum and is such a great show! There’s any number of Nutcrackers, even the Hard Nut is back courtesy of Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall, too!

If you’re on a tighter budget, you could do a potluck game night! Have your friends over, everyone brings something that reminds them of the season (though beware, if everyone brings sweets, the sugar crash isthat follows that kind of night is evil! LOL!) and pull out games or a DVD.

Remember tomorrow night, JD is going to be out for a Guys’ Night Out, Wolf-style at the San Mateo Jockey Club! Hoooooowling good time and come New Year’s Eve, the only place to be is at the Saddlerack with Micki Gamez for the Wolf’s New Year’s Eve Party that can’t be beat!

Come on and get your Wolf on and have a very festive season!

Cheers,

a

Seeing as the holidays are here, it’s fun to get out and fall on your butt, right? …unless you’re like my friend Patricia, who is a closet ice skating pro, who, unlike me, looks fabulous when she’s on the ice. Me? I’m there for comic relief, but I’m there and having fun! So, where’s to go to get your skate on?

Well, top of the list is Wolf Skate, coming up Sunday, December 13th… that’ll be at San Francisco’s Holiday Ice Rink at the Embarcadero, which is open daily through January 3rd. I’ll get you more details soon

There’s also the Holiday Ice Rink in Union Square – if you’re downtown with a car, you may want to try parking someplace other than the Union Square garage – it was nuts the other day… but hey, you never know! LOL!

San Jose has you skating under the palms with Downtown Ice at Circle of Palms and Walnut Creek has the Downtown Walnut Creek On Ice rink again, too. This year there are ice rinks in Dublin and Pleasanton, too! Check out the rink at 4808 Dublin Blvd., Dublin and Sharks Ice and the city of Pleasanton have set up a 14,000-square-foot ice rink in the parking lot of the Pleasanton library, at 400 Old Bernal Avenue.

Come on! Get your cutest hat and scarf on and go have some holiday fun!

Hey, Guys! Hope you’re having a fabulous long Brooks & Dunn weekend with the Wolf!

The planned work on the Bay Bridge is due to finish on schedule but they found a crack during a complete inspection of the span and that needs to be fixed before they can reopen the bridge.

Get traffic updates via our website, follow info on twitter via @baybridgeinfo or check the full website at baybridgeinfo.org for the latest.

BART and the Union are negotiating through the weekend, but just in case there’s still a strike, here are some options for your commute:

Transit

BART will provide limited charter bus service carrying passengers from 5 East Bay Stations (Fremont, Dublin, Walnut Creek, El Cerrito Del Norte, and W Oakland) to Downtown SF at Fremont and Folsom St – Cost is $5 for round trip – WB service operates in the morning 5am-9am, EB service 3p-8p

AirBART shuttle service between Coliseum/Oakland Airport BART station and Oakland International Airport is also suspended during the BART strike.

AC Transit will operate a limited number of additional buses where they are needed most.

SamTrans and Caltrain Plans: http://www.samtrans.com/news_2009_BART_strike_08-13.html

Alameda Harbor Bay Ferry and the Alameda/Oakland Ferry will operate addition service. Visit http://www.eastbayferry.com/ for scheduling information.

Larkspur Ferry will operate an additional high capacity weekday trip departing Larkspur at 7:30am. You can find GG Transit Larkspur Ferry schedule here: http://goldengateferry.org/schedules/Larkspur.php

Vallejo Baylink Ferry will operate additional ferry and express bus service. You can find more information here: http://www.baylinkferry.com/schedule/bart-strike-ferry-service.php

WestCAT Express and Transbay services will operate modified service. http://www.westcat.org/bartstrike.html

Billy Currington’s band was on stage when this happened.  Billy Currington did have minor injuries, was treated at the hospital and released per a Candian TV station’s website: http://www.chtv.com/ch/chcanews/story.html?id=1854739 but another member of the band was reported to be trapped, then rescued with a badly injured arm. (UPDATE: I just found a pic on Twitter to confirm: http://twitpic.com/photos/bvjphotos )

Here’s the link to the story below

Final day at Big Valley Jamboree cancelled as clean up begins

Ben Gelinas & Andrea Sands, edmontonjournal.com

Published: Sunday, August 02, 2009

EDMONTON – In the wake of the Big Valley Jamboree mainstage collapse Saturday night that left one person dead and dozens injured, the fourth and final day of the country music concert near Camrose was cancelled Sunday as distraught organizers tried to come to grips with what occurred when vicious winds ripped through the packed site.

At a 10 a.m. press conference Sunday, one of the festival’s organizers, Larry Werner, said staff had only two minutes of warning that dangerous winds were coming their way before the stage collapsed.

“I wish nobody was hurt. I wish it never happened, but it did and now we have to deal with it,” he said.

 

Werner said jamboree staff always monitor the weather throughout the day. On Saturday, RCMP communications warned them at 5:55 p.m. of an unconfirmed report that a tornado had touched down near Nisku with winds that might be headed their way. Jamboree staff immediately went to clear the stage and open-air concert bowl when the wind gusts hit at 5:57 p.m., he said.

Werner was onstage with a staff member at the time.

“It just happened so fast. We were trying to get everybody off the stage. We were trying to get people down the stairs,” he said.

About 100 people were on or near the stage when it came down, including one person who was killed by falling debris. Camrose police are not releasing the identity of the victim, but witnesses say it was a woman, who was crushed by a speaker.

About 75 other people were injured and two remain in hospital in critical condition.

Among those hurt was country singer Billy Currington, who was on the stage when it collapsed. He was treated in hospital for minor injuries.

Actor and singer Kevin Costner was also on the stage, getting ready to perform with his band. He was not hurt.

Environment Canada meteorologist Yvonne Bilan-Wallace said the wind was the result of a 200-kilometre-long line of storm cells that moved southeast across the area. Numerous weather watches and warnings were issued throughout the province all day Saturday. A warning was issued specifically for Camrose around the same time the storm hit the Big Valley Jamboree, she said.

A “gust front” – wind gusts with speeds exceeding 100 km per hour – was travelling about 20 km ahead of the storm that hit Camrose, Bilan-Wallace said.

Winds typically start causing damage at 60 km per hour with gusts up to 90 km per hour, she said. “Some structures are going to be more vulnerable to damaging winds than others,” Bilan-Wallace said.

People need to be aware that powerful wind gusts can be just as damaging as tornadoes, she said.

“You get them with probably the same frequency as you get tornadoes in Alberta but they can cover a huge, huge area. They might exist for hours whereas a tornado might touch down for a minute or two minutes,” said Bilan-Wallace.

“If it’s a tornado, people take notice…. But with any summer severe storm here, there’s a risk of these kind of straight line winds, these gust fronts, and as you can see they can be extremely damaging.”

Authorities were dismantling the stage Sunday and asking campers to leave the grounds.

There is no word on a damage estimate.

Environment Canada issued multiple severe thunderstorm warnings again Sunday, including a severe thunderstorm watch for Camrose.

Hey, guys!

Just a few ideas for what’s up this weekend:

Sat:
Beaver Fest in downtown Martinez, a celebration of three years of beavers (and now mink, too!) in Alhambra Creek – 12:30-6:30 p.m. at Alhambra and Marina Vista avenues today. Expect live bluegrass and jazz bands, tours of the beaver dams and arts projects.

Sat:
Film night in the park – Dolores Park, SF – Tonight’s movie is Pretty in Pink – Free! Bring a picnic, a blanket and have a great summer time!

Sat & Sun:
LAKEFEST ’09 – Oakland -  10a-6p, both days – A Fabulous street fair with art, live music, great eats, a kids zone and the popular Grand Lake Farmers Market.

The 15th Annual San Francisco Aloha Festival – 10am – 5pm – San Francisco Presidio Main Post/Parade Grounds

Sun:
Join the Wolf’s Corey Foley at Bay to Barkers to benefit the Berkeley Humane Society – 10a-1p – North Parking Lot of Golden Gate Fields, Albany

Plus, just about anywhere you look there will be fun – the Fremont Festival of the Arts, the Sonoma County Fair and the Santa Clara County Fair among the pickins for the weekend, too.

Now, lets go have some fun!

Check out this video of Zac Efron bungee jumping in Canada.. He does a pretty sweet flip!