A Likely Story!

Who Gives A Crap About Cinco De Mayo?

This sounds a hell of a lot more fun!

Thanks to Sean !

ps- that DOES NOT mean that I am not up for partying my butt off for Cinco De Mayo, btw.

So Many Options...

There are so many killer concerts on the horizon...

AFI, The Fray, Charlatans UK, LIVE, Death Cab For Cutie, Snow Patrol, Neko Case, and let's not forget LOLLAPALOOZA ($140 a pop) and lots of others I'm positive I've forgotten for the moment.

There are several things that need to be done around the house...the sprinklers heads Tom tried to help me find the other day have been found...but it seems the sprinkler system is in need of repair (ka-ching), the system needs to be flushed (ka-ching), several of the sprinkler heads are broken (ka-ching) and the lawn, which has made me the slacker of the neighborhood needs to be roto-tilled and replanted (ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching).

The concert whore that I am is in deep conflict with the happy homeowner that I am.

What to do?

Ponder on it and we'll see what the estimate is after the sprinkler guys visits me on Tuesday.

In the meantime, the actions I took to pick up the  40# of you-know-what yesterday have resulted in me not being able to walk today. I envision a new exercise...c'mon everyone, let's do the 'Pooper Stooper'. So I'll take a breather at picking up the remaining 1/4 of the backyard and instead will tackle re-arranging my office (the feng shui is non-existant and it's bumming me out to work in there on a daily basis) then it's on to de-cluttering the garage.

So what if my lawn looks dead, the inside of my garage will be pristine and organized.

11:25 pm update =

Garage looks 10 times better. All the moving boxes that I was saving for Tom's move have been turned over to him, so the remainder of the boxes will be broken down tomorrow and Tuesday to go out for recycling on Wednesday...unless any of you need moving boxes and in that case, come n' get 'em! Rearranged and organized to my heart's content and watered the back, front and side yard when I was finished in the garage.

My office, while not the way I really want it to be as a finished product, is a lot better as well. Have to set up the fax and printer that I was supposed to set up the first day I started working from home...and just haven't gotten around to it yet, which leads me to believe I really DON'T need a fax and printer but since they gave it to me I probably should set it up, ya think?

Found a bunch of pix from back in the day while cleaning out my office closet...pix of my Gramma, my cousin Neal (both of whom have passed away), my beloved Maxi (also now in heaven) and pix of all 5 of us kids one random Christmas....Diane, Brian, Kelly and Pat all playing with toys and me with my nose stuck in a book. Nice memories and not much has changed, other than I now do most of my reading online...oh, and I don't celebrate Christmas anymore :)

On that note, time to stop blogging and call it a nite.

NNSD, y'all!

And The Winner Is...

(drum roll, please)

Shmeder!

Cause everyone knows that a man's 3 favorite words that he LOVES to hear are: 'You. Are. Right'.

What does Shmeder win? Have no idea, but I'll do the payoff sometime next week when she is out of school and will be itching (ha ha, read her last post) for something fun to do.

Thanks for playing, everyone!

Now I gotta go pick up dog poop that the former owners never cleaned up before they moved. Gross, I know, but it's gotta be done before Thursday, cause I made Tom a bet that it would be done before he came back from UT otherwise I would pay him $100.

Good motivation, huh?

The Nancy Drews WILL Rock You

The day many of us have been waiting for is hours away.

This Saturday at 8ish come out for The Nancy Drews at  Old Curtis Street Bar, near 21st street. Am tellin' ya, it's much better to see the ND's now, up close and personal, rather than waiting in line when they hit big-time.

Wow...that rhymed! LSE, feel free to take it and run with it, dude!

It'll be rockin', it'll be almost free (small cover), it'll be the place to be. Damn. Another rhyme. Not trying, really I'm not.

So get off your asses, join the masses, raise some glasses and grab some lasses. Ok, I tried that time. Sue me.

See ya there!

[update from LSE: the first band's not going to go on until probably 9:30 though, which means we'll go on at around 10:30, fyi.].

HDW, I'm still down for getting there at 8-ish...what say you? Hubs? LSE? Anyone else? I'm flex, so let me know if I need to readjust my ETA.

Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You

Used to have a black journal that had that phrase inscribed on the front in white lettering. Bought it on my first trip to Boston and saved it for several years, wanting to wait for that one perfect motivational experience on which to journal my scary days. When I got a personal trainer, it fit the bill.  Over 16 weeks my trainer religiously documented each session. It never failed to crack me up that he spelled 'cardio' as 'carido'. He was a trainer, not an English teacher. After 16 weeks I was down 46#, looking good and feeling great. Then my trainer misplaced the book and I had rotator cuff issues from moving into my new house that I'd just bought.

The book is gone, but the phrase still remains with me to this day.

Tonite I took the first of many steps to do something that ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIES ME. Beyond scary. Yet, it's something I want to do and I think once I get over my initial fear/terror/anxiety of doing it, I'll actually like it a little bit...or maybe a lotta bit.

Wanna know what it is? Sure? Ok, here goes.

Cousin Bill, you might want to sit down and don't partake of anything liquid while reading this cause you just might spit it out after reading the next sentence.

I'm signing up for cooking school.

Stop laughing, Kelly, Jillian, Big, Little and Chayale. You know some...and in Kelly's case, all...of my cooking goofs, blunders and oops.

Have always wanted to be a good cook and over the last year have religiously watched the Food Network, but when push comes to shove, I just can't do it. Used to hate to cook but did it anyway. I want to get from hating it to enjoying it to actually being half-way decent at it...and not end up sending my boyfriend's brother to the emergency room like I did back in college when I decided to cook for Murlin (bf) and Milo (his bro) one night.

So there you have it...I'm gonna start cooking. It's gonna scare the crap out of me, but that which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.  Or something like that.

Wish me luck!

Three Little Words

Called my buddy Howard earlier today to get his male perspective on a issue I was dealing with.

Called him back later in the day and said 'I'm calling to tell you the three little words that all men love to hear'.

He stammered and stuttered and acted all surprised. Then I told him the three little words I meant.  He laughed and agreed with me.

What are the three little words that I said?

Will post the answer Friday morning.

Lessons Learned

Red Bull and Vodka on an empty stomach = Danger Will Robinson.

Note to self...stop forgetting to eat.

Weekends Fly By...

...this weekend was no exception. It never ceases to amaze me that Monday thru Friday drag by slo-mo then fast forward warp speed from 3:31 Friday to Sunday night.

Coheed and Cambria & AvengeSevenfold concert was fun...we got there after the first band had ended so we didn't get to hear them. It was general admission and we managed to snag some decent seats, had a couple beers and foot long hotdogs and decided half-way thru Avenge  that we were good to go (we'd really come to see C&C) so we headed off to the Celtic Room (after having our picture taken by the C&C street team cause T asked about the C&C poster they were carrying down the street) and that ended my Friday night.

Saturday was sleep in late day, shop for flowers day, Costco run day, lunch at Red Robin with endless fries day and finally watering my backyard day since it dawned on me that I have no idea how to run the sprinkler system that came with my house and the lawn wasn't gonna get any greener unless it either rained or I watered it.

So I watered my lawn for the first time and yeah, it was a nice feeling of satisfaction and home-ownershippy pride...and a teensy bit of guilt since I have the potential for a killer backyard but I am too lazy/uninterested/clueless on what to do to and when.

See, in FL you don't even have to water your lawn cause it's FL and rains all the time. And here in Denver, there are seasons to do this and seasons to do that.  Like watering lawns, I have to get with the program and develop and implement a plan.  Or, I could just tear up the grass and put in huge flagstones, a firepit with chairs around in, a hammock, and a trellis or two on which I could train night-blooming jasmine...if it even grows here...who knows cause I don't.

I digress.

After watering the lawn I left for the previously blogged about The Vanity/Hoobastank concert. Then today, well, today was supposed to be a day of fun and sun and Rockies baseball and I wound up staying home due to my vision problem mentioned in my last post, not going out ONCE, basically being a hermit and only talking with T  (about the hail) and the ex-roomie on the ex-roomie's favorite subject...himself!

Finished the last of my LOST Season 1 DVD's (the whole 'behind the scenes stuff' which I totally love). Wasn't totally hungry so had a most unhealthy dinner of tortilla chips and mango/peach salsa with Diet Pepsi (Wild Cherry, if you must know) and can I just tell you how YUMMY the Cost Plus Mango/Peach Salsa is? OMG...very yummy!

Did all my laundry, cleaned out and re-organized my bathroom cabinets and drawers, and that was the extent of my not-so-exciting day...pretty boring, actually!

And now it's almost midnite and I'm sad. Fun week ahead...hike and bbq after work tomorrow, T closes on his new house Tuesday and leaves for Coachella on Weds (and I'm beyond jealous) and lots of other stuff I'll blog about as it gets closer, but for now, I'll mourn the loss of my weekend.

And the end of the Mango/Peach salsa.

Some Things In Life ARE Free

Like last night's Hoobastank concert.

Yeah, we had to sign up on the internet...or not (depending on who you talked to) and yeah, had to stand in line for over two hours (no big deal) in the midst of a group of 15 NON-STOP SMOKERS (huge big deal that resulted in cigarette ashes gettting blown in my eyes twice which resulted in my left eye being swollen shut this morning and made me miss the Rockies game but I'm not gonna go down that road right now) and yeah, sitting in back of a group of 10 smokers at the concert that kept smoking despite repeated attempts from security to get them to stop smoking, blah blah blah.

So while I didn't have to shell out any money to get in, and was Respiratorily&Visually-incovenienced by the inconsiderate concert goers around me, it was a free show to end all shows. Hoobastank played like it was their last show on earth.

Lots of old favorites and the new stuff they played really rocked as well. Their new CD 'Every Man For Himself' comes out 15 May and you can bet I'll be at  T&S  to get my very own copy on the 15th.

The Gothic was a great place to see them...very intimate, great sight lines and sitting just feet from the bar wasn't too shabby at all. Would love it if more bands did the 'free show' thing...a nice give back to loyal fans and probably an excellent marketing strategy.

On the way back to my truck, walked down the block with a family of 4...Dad, Mom and two kids around 8 and 10. The parents were psyched as were the kids...it was their FIRST rock concert and the fact that it was free enabled them to experience it as a family. Now THAT'S the type of family values I can relate to.

Thanks Hoobastank!

Not So Vain

Nope.

For a band called The Vanity , they're not vain at all!

Met Kamruz and the boys tonite when they ROCKED The Gothic  big-time. Openers for Hoobastank, (more about them later) they played it hard, fast and tight. I'm not a music critic - far from it- but I know what I like and I really liked these guys. Was lucky enough to snag one of their demo CD's which I've already dowloaded to my iTunes and have been playing over and over and over.

There are a ton of great local bands here in Denver and The Vanity is a band you won't want to miss. If you're one of the unfortunates that didn't get to see tonite's show, you can check them out this Thursday (27 April) back at the Gothic . It'll be time and money very well spent.