After taking a break from fixing-upping, I'm back in the saddle. On Saturday Eric installed our new kitchen faucet. We had been planning to wait until we could buy a new cast iron sink, but decided to go ahead with the faucet when the old one started dripping incessantly. Here's the old one (forgive the dirty dishes, I had just made rolls):
The pull-out sprayer was nice, but I've heard from a couple of different sources that they are well known for not being very durable. Here's the new one.
All of the hardware in the kitchen now matches! Yay!
Next up: Figuring out how to get a huge felt board off the wall in Sawyer's room, priming and painting the walls (I still haven't picked out a color, I'm going to Home Depot to pick up samples right now), and installing new baseboards. When that's done, we can move his furniture and toys in and we will finally have our master bedroom back! It's starting to feel ridiculous having our whole family sleep in one room with three empty bedrooms just sitting there. I have an iron wall hanging that will go above the pantry in the kitchen, and one that goes over the back door. I also have more curtains and rods coming for the family room - I decided we needed them on the windows next to the fireplace too. More befores and afters to come!
I just got back from a fabulous weekend in Las Vegas. Girls only. No kids. No husbands. No cooking, cleaning, picking up or dropping off. Just girl talk, good food, 85˚ weather, shopping, and less than 8 hours of cumulative sleep. It was amazing.
These are the girls I got to spend time with:
And this was the reason for it all:
This was my fifth time seeing Rob Thomas. It only takes once to realize that the guy is freakishly talented, and he puts everything he's got into each performance. This time was no different. It helped that we had second row seats, and that the Pearl (in the Palms Casino) is an amazing smallish venue. I didn't keep track of the set list, but luckily the lovely Tiburon of Shark Bait did it for me in great detail. She got lots of great video and much better pictures than my iPhone can produce (one of these days I'll get a compact digital camera - my Canon EOS never gets past security, which is a bummer, because I could get some pretty sweet shots with my long-focus lens. Oh well.) Here's the best shot I managed to get, during "Fire on the Mountain."
And another kind of cool one, I think this was during "Sunday Morning New York Blue."
I did get some pretty OK audio, although it takes me a few seconds to start recording so I cut off the beginning of these songs. (Also it took me a while to figure out that it was loud enough that I didn't need to hold my iPhone up to record. Just holding it in my lap while recording worked much better. Duh.)
My favorite moments of the evening were, predictably, the acoustic ones. He covered Tracy Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You," which was a welcome surprise - I have always loved that song. He more than did it justice. If you listen closely you can hear Tiburon professing her love for Rob, and you can hear me singing along. I like to pretend I was up there on the stage singing with him. I'm weird.
"Baby Can I Hold You"
Rob explained that he had run into a couple that day who told him they got engaged at one of his concerts a couple of years before. They were in Las Vegas on their honeymoon and were at the concert that night. "Ever the Same" was their wedding song, and he dedicated it to them. It's a really sweet version.
"Ever the Same"
He also played "Smooth," which isn't quite as awesome without Santana, but is still one of the sexiest songs ever if you ask me. I like the classical guitar action on this one. (This video is from his Soundstage performance, not the show I was at, but it's almost the same arrangement. He had Zach Filkins, the guitarist from OneRepublic* accompany him.)
And I just have to post this because it highlights his best dance moves: the hip circle, the chest pat, the jump up and down in place, the crouch, and the point at the audience.
Although it is missing the finger twirl, demonstrated here (at around 1:04).
Seriously though, I love his dancing because he puts his entire body into his performance. The amount of passion he exudes is incredible. (I mean passion for music. Ahem.)
Sing to me Rob. Sing in my ear.
Thanks so much for an unbelievable weekend ladies! Thanks especially to the gorgeous Mindi of Word to Your Mother, whom I've never met but who let me have her ticket. I hope your generosity comes back to you in spades. Or in the form of free concert tickets. Or whatever you wish.
*Speaking of OneRepublic, they were the opening band. They were AMAZING. Ryan Tedder, the lead singer, has one of those voices that is even better live than recorded. He was jumping from microphone to keyboards to guitar and back, crooning and belting and generally blowing me away. I will be buying their new album for sure. Check them out, they are way more than just "Apologize."
Like a lot of people, I go through phases with the music I listen to. For the past few weeks I've been solidly in a Weepies phase. They are wonderful. Happy, thoughtful, wistful, melodic folk/pop. Here are a few of my favorites.
The first Weepies song I heard, which I still think is one of their best.
Here's the song I wish we had danced to at our wedding. (And in case you're curious, here's the song we actually danced to. I know, SO cheesy, but it's meaningful to us from our high school days, and it hit the radio waves in 1993, the year we met. Please don't judge me.)
And one more for good measure - I sing this one all day long. It's Eric's favorite.
Now it's your turn. What are you listening to these days?
At 10:15 this morning Sawyer climbed on the school bus for the very first time. He's attending an ECSE (early childhood special education) preschool class that meets at an elementary school. We were nervous about how he would take to the bus since he sometimes has a hard time separating from mom, but he did great and didn't cry at all. As he climbed up the steps he proudly told the bus driver "Sawyer's a big boy!" The one moment that had me worried was when he stopped at the top of the steps and turned around to see if I was following him, and when he saw that I wasn't he said "Mama?" and looked crestfallen. But the assistant helped him get buckled into his seat and soon he was telling her all about the chocolate milk in his lunch box. I didn't get any pictures of him actually getting on the bus (I was too focused on keeping myself together until he was gone!) but we took some pictures on the front stoop.
