Thoughts On The Show

It was so much fun!! Here is what happened:

1) The B-52's were playing at the Northern Quest Casino, which I had never been to. So we went a little early and had dinner there. So Max and I were sitting there eating and watching the horse races where the horses pull those little chariot thingies, and Max got an idea for a movie about a donkey who pulls a cart in Mexico but has dreams of being a chariot racer, so the donkey disguises himself as a horse and makes his dream come true! He titled it "Donkey Cart II--Juwanna Horse". It was hilarious at the time but I guess you had to be there.

2) Then we had some time to kill so we played the slots for a little while. Max broke even and I lost $3.34.

3) Then it was time to go to the show! So we get to our seats and we realize that we are fairly close to the stage. Then I realize that we are surrounded by older people. Did I look as old at them?, I wondered. Then I decided no, they were all older than me. I could be in denial about this, but I don't think so because I stood up and danced through the whole show while most everyone around me sat through it and only got up when they played Love Shack and Rock Lobster.

4) I wrote down everything that they played, here it is:
Mesopotamia -- 6 or 8000 years ago, they laid down the law!
Pump -- This is off their new album called "Funplex" which I already own and have mostly memorized. Pretty good song, but not one of my favorites.
Private Idaho -- I think they just played this because we are so close to Idaho and they felt obligated. I would rather have heard Cindy sing Give Back My Man from that same album.
Ultraviolet--Another new one.
Channel Z -- One of their hits off of the Cosmic Thing album. When that album first came out I loved it and then Love Shack blew up and everyone loved the B-52's which kind of irritated me because I didn't want to share them after having them to myself for so long. So now I really don't like the Cosmic Thing album too much.
Strobe Light -- A classic! But doesn't anyone know that in the middle of that song the strobe lights come on and it looks cool when you dance? Strobe lights are not as cool if you just sit there!
Juliet of the Spirits -- One of my favorites off the new album. Kate and Cindy stood together and just sang it, it was beautiful, I love the way their voices mesh.
Roam -- See Channel Z.
Funplex -- Great catchy song. Video is here.
Hot Corner -- Pretty good new one.
Keep This Party Going -- Good dance tune off the new album.
Love Shack -- Finally all the oldies got up! Tiiiiin roof! Rusted.
Then they left the stage and came back for the encore:
Planet Claire -- Thank you B's for playing the first track off your first album for me, that was the song that got me started on you to begin with.
Love In The Year 3000 -- Not my favorite new one.
And of course they ended the show with Rock Lobster -- Down! Down!
It was a great show which could have been better had they played about 15 more songs but you know, they are older now and we just have to be happy with what we get.

5) On the way out Max says hey, that guy has a DEVO tattoo, so we stopped him and got a picture of it. Turns out that back in the day he was a punk from SoCal, he also had a Black Flag tattoo which was cool. I showed him my Cosmic Thing tattoo, and we realized that we were now just a couple of middle aged punks and had a laugh about it.

6) On our way back through the casino, Max won $15 playing blackjack. Also, in the casino they give you free sodas, which was awesome since I was quite thirsty after all that dancing.

7) Here are some pictures that Max took:



So that's it! Thanks to the B-52's for coming to my town! See you next time!

Spring Broken

Today is the first day of Spring Break for Leo, and this morning I took him to the airport, as he is flying down to California to spend a week with his dad. Lucky him! Here's what he is leaving behind:





Lucky us! Actually, lucky me, since before this day is over, I will have seen The B-52's! WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!

UGH!!!

I have been slowly re-organizing my office. Wait a minute, the word re-organizing implies that at one point the office was organized to begin with, which is SO not true! Unless you call organization boxes of papers that I packed up and moved here and never opened until tonight. So I open the first box and it is chock full of everything from important house papers to Leo's grade school artwork to old bills that I don't even have anymore. This mixed up mess means that I have to handle EVERY PIECE OF PAPER and make a decision about it. Keep? Shred? Recycle? I do not have that many decisions left in me by 10pm on a Thursday. I can hardly bear it! I can do about an hour and then I have to run away screaming and swearing. I mean, I work in an office and I handle papers and make decisions about them all day long, why why WHY do I need to deal with it at home too??

If I was wearing one of these I'd have to switch it to the other hand right now!

Easter Is Back On Track (Sort Of)

When I lived in CA I had the same Easter tradition for years. Make a potato salad and go to Dick and Cesca's. After I started going to church, the tradition became make a potato salad, go to church, go to Dick and Cesca's. Last year was our first Easter in Spokane and it was a total bust. This Easter, things are looking up. I have a church home now, and our Easter service is being held at the Fox Theater, too cool! Also, I am in a small group bible study, and we are having an Easter luncheon, which means I get to make potato salad and bring it somewhere! So tomorrow my tradition will be make a potato salad, go to church and go to Mike and Tammy's. I can live with it.

Still totally miss Dick and Cesca's Easter though.

Three Things

1) See the tree. See the leaf buds. See the calendar, First Day of Spring!



See the snow.

2) This is for you Tami--The new B-52's album is out and you can listen to it here. I spent all last night watching B-52 videos on YouTube. Nine days until I see them, I can't wait!!!!

3)Did you know that Spokane ranked #9 on Forbes list of Best Places For Business and Careers! Woohoo! Just another reason to love it here.

That's it.

Seeking The Perfect Relationship

My job requires me to do a lot of writing. I write pretty much all day. Lately, I have been unsatisfied with the performance of my pens. I have been going to Staples and Office Depot practically every weekend trying to find a pen that fits all my needs, which are as follows:

1) Non-gloppy ink.
2) Blue ink.
3) Medium point.
4) Soft grippy thing.
5) Ball point. No gel.

I am not looking for the Holy Grail here, I am just looking for the perfect pen for a long term relationship. Saturday I bought a pen called Dr. Grip Center Of Gravity. It was great until I started writing with it this morning. GLOPPY!! AUGGGHHHHH!!! In my desperation I am turning to the Internet to help me on my quest. Wish me luck. This is driving me crazy.

The Parade

1) It was sooooo cold! We had to stand around for an hour and a half before we could go and it was freezing! I could not feel my face, fingers or legs. Once we started moving I got some feeling back but I did not feel warm until after I got home and put a blanket around me.

2) The band in the animal costumes that were practicing during the parade assembly, Gorilla Rabbit and Chicken were hilarious! I'm not sure if they were really playing that badly or just goofing off, but it was awesome. Music played badly is really funny to me. I'm sure that is why Max never practiced his trumpet, he probably got tired of me crying with laughter in the other room.

3) It was nice that people cheered for the Spokane Humane Society, everyone really appreciates what they do for the animals.

4) Also it was good that we had a bunch of really cute and sweet dogs with us, that way nobody was looking at our ridiculous hats.

5) If I am in the parade next year I will make a point to go around looking at other entries in the staging area, I wished that I could see the parade and also be in the parade.

6) Being in a parade offers some fantastic people watching opportunities. Let's just say that parade goers are a colorful and fun bunch of people and leave it at that.

7) After the parade was over, Faythe and I went to Frank's Diner for lunch. I didn't realize how hungry I was, boy was it good.

So that's it! Faythe has some pictures on her blog, along with her take on the festivities.

We're Holding The Banner!!

I told you last year that I wanted to be in the St Patrick's Day Parade. Well, when I found out that my friend Faythe was going to get to be in the parade I totally asked her if I could glom onto their entry so she asked her bosses and they said YES!!

So we are going to be in the Spokane Humane Society entry, we were going to walk dogs and wear funny hats. But Faythe worked it out so that we are not walking dogs, we're holding the banner!! That is some official parade shit right there!

So come down to the parade and see us holding the banner in funny hats!

WOOHOO!!!

Not A Lot Going On

It's been one of those weeks. Here are some highlights.

1) Been watching Idol with Faythe. It is now to the point where I don't really want to watch it by myself anymore, mainly because we have so much fun watching it together. We laugh and laugh.

2) The time change has been making me more energetic in the evenings. This is good news for my kitchen. An increase in both cooking and cleaning has been noted.

3) I'm using a different shampoo. Waiting to see if my hair starts falling out again once the effects of the Nioxin wear off.

4) Bought an iPod over the weekend. It's a nano and it's turquoise, very cute and oh so much fun. Leo is pissed at me because it's the one he begged me for at Christmas and didn't get. It feels good being the envy of my kids for once.

5) Bunco tonight.

6) Parade on Saturday!! Starting to get excited about that, also a little nervous.

That's it! I'm surprised I squeezed 6 things out.

Hope you are able to squeeze some fun out of your week.

Two Hours Off

This time change really screws me up, and this year more so than other years because I was laboring under the delusion that we were going to put the clock back instead of forward. Not sure why, but I had it in my head. So last night at 11:45 I go to change the clock and here is what I say out loud to nobody but me.

Spring forward, Fall back...
And this is Spring...
What??
It's almost 1 am!!
And I'm not even tired!
(sigh) I'm gonna miss church...

Which I am right now.

Hope you all made it to church!

Until We Meet Again

So, the mighty Led Zeppelin's reign on XM ended yesterday. I didn't listen to it all the time, but I did listen some every day. It brought me back to another time in my life when I listened to Led Zeppelin every day, about 30 years ago. Only this time I didn't have a joint or bong in my hand like I did then. When I was a teenager everyone I knew loved Zep. Guys wanted to be them, girls wanted to be with them. And while I thought that Robert Plant was cute and oh so sexy, I always stood in awe of Jimmy Page and how he played guitar. For me it was about the music. There was this guy named David Long who lived on the next block in Del Rey Oaks, and he singlehandedly turned all of us on to Zep. He used to carry the album "Presence" around with him and came to my and all of my friends' houses and played it for us. He converted all of us into fanatics, especially Steve and Mike and me. A couple of years ago back in CA when Steve lived in my garage and Mike lived in my shed (AKA The Command Module) in the backyard, the three of us would get together and drink expensive tequilla and watch The Song Remains The Same with the volume cranked. It is just a given that Led Zeppelin will always be a part of my life. When I am old and frail and senile, I know that hearing "Tea For One" or "Achilles Last Stand" will bring a light to my eyes.
So with a sigh I bid farewell to XM Led for now. I understand that XM needs the bandwidth for the upcoming baseball season. But they said that XM Led will make it's triumphant return later this year. I'll be waiting.

I Feel Compelled To Explain

Faythe blogged here about last night's American Idol session over here. She told a tale of me laughing over a picture. Lest anyone think I'm crazy (I am, I just don't want you to think so), here is the explanation of the David Cassidy photo and how it came about.

Last night Faythe and I were talking about how appliances are coming out in all kinds of cool colors now, and I mentioned that growing up, our kitchen had a turquiose refrigerator, stove and dishwasher. So I got out a box of pictures in an attempt to find a picture of the kitchen. I was going through some pictures that I recognized to be a pile that I used to have up in my cubicle at my old job. And I came across this:



I had totally forgotten I did that! It was about 6 or so years ago, and I was going through a David Cassidy phase. My friends at work knew about it so one day I found a little picture of him on my desk that one of them had cut out of a magazine. I was staring at the wall of my cubicle thinking where can I put this little picture and my eyes rested on a picture of Dana and the boys. It was a "bad" picture of all of them, but I loved the expressions on the kids faces. I didn't particularly enjoy looking at my ex-husband though. So in a flash of brilliance, I killed two birds with one stone.

So last night was the first time in like 5 years that I saw that picture and I started laughing to the point that Faythe felt compelled to blog about it. So that's the story of that.

Faythe, I found a picture of the turquoise stove, here ya go.

Flu Productivity

So I have had this intestinal bug since Sunday afternoon and I feel crappy in every sense of the word. However, I still have been a tiny bit productive from the couch.

You know about our cat Grace and her bum leg. What happened was that last summer she got a blood clot in her leg artery and her leg was completely lame for a while but over time the secondary artery kicked in and now she can walk with a limp, but the circulation is not as good as it was. Her leg feels cold a lot of the time, so the kids asked if I could knit something to put on her leg to warm it up. So this is what I came up with:



I really don't think it does anything for her leg, but it is kind of cute in a Flashdance sort of way.



All she needs is a little torn off the shoulder sweatshirt and she will be a maniac, maaaaaaniac on the floor!

Odd or God?

Anyone who has known me since I became a Christian has heard me say this. I say it when something happens, or there is a circumstance that seems super coincidental. Rarely is it just odd, I believe it is God either using me or trying to tell me something. Sometimes they are even answers to prayer. I will give you an example: One time a few years ago when times were harder than they are now, I wanted to give up my big coffee maker and buy a new smaller one. They were only $15, but I didn't really have it. I stood in the coffee maker aisle at Target and looked longingly at the coffee maker I wanted. I thought about how God wants me to be a good steward of everything including my finances, so I told God that I understood, and that I would not be buying a new coffee maker that day. End of story? Heck no! THREE DAYS LATER I am at work and one of my co-workers comes in with a giant box. She sets this box on my desk, and inside it are about twenty little coffeemakers just like the one I had passed on in Target! Her husband worked for a large hotel chain, and it seems that they were replacing all the little coffee makers in the hotel rooms. Let's summarize--I was obedient to God and didn't buy one coffee maker, three days later I have a box of 20 of them free for the taking in front of me. I ask you--ODD OR GOD?? I'm going with God. This kind of stuff happens to me all the time.
So here is what is going on right now: In the past few weeks, not one but two single fathers with custody of their kids have crossed my path. I have had the opportunity to speak with both of these great guys and give support and encouragement about their situations because I have been exactly where they are and come out the other side with perspective and the peace that comes from God that surpasses all understanding. I have been able to pass a tiny bit of that peace along to them. And I am wondering if the reason I was put through all that hell ten years ago was so that I could comfort and encourage people today. Hmmmm...Odd or God??
My money's on God.