I was invited to spend a weekend in Door County (right up around Green Bay Wisconsin) with a bunch of musician friends. I know these guys through the drummer, who was my best mate in dental school, and over the years I've gotten to be pretty good friends with a couple of them. The long weekend is consumed with drinking, eating and of course, playing music.

My friends have a studio project called the ExitSpecialists, and have recorded three CD's (one full length disc and two 5 or 6 tune projects). Four of the six guys are part of this band. One guy (the bass player) is part of several bands around Chicago, including his newest project, the PopDollies. ExitSpecialist songs can be found at Amazon and at iTunes. (I couldn't seem to get a link to it but if you have iTunes you can search for ExitSpecialists and check out their songs that way.) I've actually played on a couple of their tunes, including Good Night, Satan's Bordello, The Market,and Walking In Circles. (I'm even credited on the album notes!)

But I didn't necessarily post this as a commercial for the music (though if you're interested...) If anything, it would be more a commercial for Door County in Wisconsin. This little strip of peninsula extends northeast-ward from Green Bay into Lake Michigan. As you might imagine, there is a lot of waterfront property, and my friend's property fits this description. He has a nice house, which he rents out to vacationers most of the summer, situated above the lakefront, with a private rocky beach and a dock for watercraft. There were seven of us up there, and we crashed wherever we could - in the four bedrooms, in the basement, and even in a heated bunkhouse down by the Lake.

It wasn't quite music 24 hours a day, but there was a lot of playing. Even when we did a bonfire by the lake, we brought down the acoustic guitars and some bongos and we played song after song, singing away down there. It helps, I'm sure, that none of us were hideous singers, so it actually didn't sound bad. Or maybe it did, and in our altered states (altered by alcohol consumption - mostly beer with a little wine thrown in) we just THOUGHT it sounded okay. Cigars got smoked, too, but none by me. I stuck to beer for the most part.

We recorded a bunch of tunes, and even did two new ExitSpecialist songs, The Earl Of Oxford and Cheap Conversation. I think they sound pretty good. Both will likely make it onto a future CD.

If there were negatives, it was that the lack of sleep caught up to me on Saturday, and that I really missed my family. All I could think of from Saturday on was how much I was looking forward to getting home to my wife and kids and sleeping in my own bed.

I figure I should be caught up on sleep by tomorrow morning.