It is time to start submitting your Casper-colored patches of flesh to the grueling sun, to start making friends who have lake houses and to start sizzling semi-meat-products on the grill. Memorial Day weekend is here: the unofficial, official kick off of summer. Not everyone has a boat and an awesome captain’s hat to don while out of town this weekend, here is some stuff to do if your Memorial Day weekend is a Memorial Stay weekend:

• There is no shame in throwing on your 3 Wolves t-shirt and heading down to see Night Ranger at the Rib America Festival downtown. Seriously. Bret Michaels will also be there Saturday (however, if the tour bus is a rockin’ you might want to find some type of breathing mask if you go a knockin’), and Cowboy Mouth (never seen them in town before!) will be there with Third Eye Blind on Sunday.  Saving Abel is there Sunday (no comment from this peanut gallery). Get there before 5pm on Friday and 1pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday and you get all of the hair-band awesomeness for free, otherwise it will set you back $5.  
• Should you find yourself able to resist the hairspray and eyeliner ninja-powers of Bret Michaels on Saturday (and it will be hard but with effort you can overcome) head over to Deluxe to catch the CD release party for the local garage-punk rockers The Nevermores. The CD release party is part of a Trouble in River City Artist Showcase which includes the awesomeness of the 75′s as well.
• The I-70 Series is also going down this weekend between the Cardinals and The Royals. Might not be as exciting as the Cards/Cubs rivalry but for some reason (or at least according to their emails) the Cardinals organization thinks it is. Tickets are still available for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and there are some freebies each night – including Six Flags passes on Sunday. I could go for that…

Remember three things this weekend: sunscreen is your friend, you can’t pout becuase you probably don’t have to work on Monday, and keep your hands off my brat. Have fun and be safe!