Vegas Baby!

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."

Now Playing on my iPod...

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?

Babies and Daddies

Waiting for the bus yesterday:

Sawyer: Look, Mama, look at all the baby lions!

Me: ....you mean dandelions?

Sawyer: Yeah, Daddy lions!

First Day of School

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.

Mario Pepsi

I'm not sure how this is related to Labor Day, but I like it!

Yo Gabba Gabba=Freakiest Show Ever

This is Sawyer while watching Yo Gabba Gabba for the first time.





He had the same expression on his face (disbelief mixed with intrigue mixed with fear) for about five minutes, then he turned to me and said "watch Diego?"




UPDATE: For the past two mornings Sawyer has asked for Yo Gabba Gabba immediately after waking up. He loves it now! I guess it grew on him.

I love this kid

This got forwarded to me and I had to repost. In about 14 years the clubs won't know what hit them.



By the way, the little girl pretty much looks like me when I'm dancing, only I'm much older and fatter. HOT.

iPod Song Lyrics Shuffle

I'm a sucker for iPod memes!

Here's how this one works:

1. Put your iPod/MP3 player on shuffle
2. Write the first line[ish] to the first 25 songs
3. Put an astrix next to it or cross it out when someone guesses one right
4. Put your guesses in a comment.
5. Looking them up on Google (or any other search engine) is CHEATING [but I don't really care if you do, as a last resort. :D ]

Ready....GO!

1. Well the truth it fell so heavy, like a hammer through the room, that I could choose another over her Ray LaMontagne "Lesson Learned"

2. Worms don't dance, they haven't got the balls, no matter how do you do, it's just you do that's all

3. Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head The Smiths "Bigmouth Strikes Again"

4. I went looking for someone I left behind, yeah but no one, just a stranger did I find

5. I can feel the earth begin to move, I hear my needle hit the groove, and spiral through another day

6. Tarzan wasn't a ladies man, he'd just come along and scoop'em under his arm like that

7. There's strange weather in the back of the room, and she's pretty Jessie's spinning the tunes

8. Been up all night staring at you, wondering what's on your mind

9. My friend and me looking through her red box of memories, faded I'm sure, but love seems to stick in her veins you know

10. I can't help my feelings, I'll go out of my mind, these players come to get me 'cause they'd like my behind Weezer "Hash Pipe"

11. I remember it well, the first time that I saw your head 'round the door, cause mine stopped working

12. Come in, come in, come in to my world I've got to show, show, show you

13. Goodbye, goodbye, every day I look across the office floor, there you were, your hair down to your legs and your legs down to the floor Flight of the Conchords, "Leggy Blonde"

14. Galileo's head was on the block, the crime was looking up the truth Indigo Girls "Galileo"

15. Nothing here to fear, I'm just sitting around being foolish when there is work to be done

16. You know and I've been wondering, you know all the way home, whether the world will see I'm a better man than others by far

17. I don't feel as if I know you, you take up all my time, the days are long and the nights will blow you away cause the sun don't shine

18. Paul is making me nervous, Paul is making me scared

19. Those who are dead are not dead, they're just living in my head

20. Take the sky for example, a canvas of a billion suns, but our local hero shines them out by day The Weepies "Hideaway"

21. You say adjust your heels girl, they stick out like an anchor, and don't touch the flowers cause you can't hear them well

22. My life's like a migrant's, there's not a moment of silence, and so I take up my time with you

23. I guess I'm alright, guess I'm alright, I guess I'm doing fine, guess I'm doing fine

24. On the way home, this car hears my confessions, I think tonight I'll take the long way

25. I'm packed and I'm holding, I'm smiling, she's living, she's golden Third Eye Blind "Semi-Charmed Life" (BTW if you don't know all the lyrics to this song, you probably don't want to.)

Overheard in the Ward

I have a new favorite Mormon blog: Overheard in the Ward . It's like the great Overheard in New York but without all the profanity. Enjoy!

Yard Stuff

One thing we learned quickly is that buying a house with a big yard = doing a lot of yard work. We've been spending a lot of time outside. I love it. I can't seem to keep up with the weeds, but I guess we're going for a "natural" look. Yeah, that's it. Anyway, here are some pictures of what we've been doing.

Here's the front flower bed before:
I wish I had remembered to take a picture before we started weeding, because this whole area was completely covered in weeds. You couldn't even see the brick pavers. We couldn't tell what was a weed and what was a "real" plant, so we decided to start from (almost) scratch. At this point we had ripped out pretty much everything except for the hostas and a large bush. Eric is in the process of cutting down a tree that was blocking the front windows.

Here are the flowers I've put in:
In the forefront are vincas (annuals) and behind those are blanket flowers (perennials.)

I repurposed the off-white planters that were on the stoop - you can see one in the first picture, they were pretty shabby looking. I gave them a good scrubbing and painted them black. Here's a closeup of one, surrounded by my container herbs - sage, thyme, basil and parsley. I moved them out front because that way I remember to water them!

And the front stoop from farther back (I should have taken down that flier in the door, whoops.)


Next steps: Replacing the brass lights and house numbers (that's pretty much the theme of all our decorating in this house!) and get a new welcome mat that won't fade in the sun.

This is a before picture that's prettier than the after, because it's not blooming anymore.
Sawyer watering the giant hosta. It's doing great considering it was neglected for a year. I love its blooms. You can see the black-eyed Susan I tried to plant right in front of him but it doesn't look like it's going to make it.


I hung some geraniums in baskets on the pergola in front of the house. I've loved red geraniums ever since my mission - all the houses in French villages have them in their window boxes in the spring.

And...Indoor Stuff

Our indoor improvements were at a standstill for a while because of illness, travel, changing jobs, and working outside. But no more! The past couple of weeks we've been doing a lot of work. Here's the proof.

Breakfast Room: To refresh your memory, here's the before before:
After:
And after with drapes:
It's a subtle change but it makes a huge difference in how cool the room stays during the day. All those windows can really make it heat up. We kept the custom fabric blinds that came with the house - it's nice to be able to open the drapes and let some light in and still have privacy. Our table looks smaller in the last picture because it is - that's what it looks like without the leaves in.

I also put up some art and a new entry rug by the back door. That's Penny's bowl on the floor, it's not usually there but I had to move it temporarily because my soapmaking oil buckets are blocking the usual spot in the kitchen.

Our next big project was changing the sewing/craft room upstairs into a bedroom. The previous owners had cabinets and counters installed on two walls. We'd like it to be Sawyer's room (it's the biggest room other than the master) so we can use the two additional rooms as guest rooms and an office.

Before:

And after, but obviously still incomplete:
Eric and I took down the cabinets and managed to keep them in pretty good shape so we can sell them on Craigslist, although so far they're just sitting in the basement. A few days ago I took down the track lighting and filled in the holes in the drywall left by the cabinets (dozens of them on 2 walls and the ceiling.) Today I sanded and discovered 1) I don't look all that bad with gray hair and 2) duct taping a piece of sandpaper to a Swiffer actually works pretty well when sanding the ceiling.

A project I did a while ago but is still incomplete: replacing all the doorknobs in the house. They were all bright brass and we're swapping them out for oil-rubbed bronze.

Before:
After:
All the closet/pass-through doors have levers and the privacy doors have knobs:

The bathrooms have brushed nickel.
I'm now realizing that changing the knobs was the easy part - now I have to change all the hinges, one by one. Ugh. It's taking longer than I expected.

I've halfway through changing hardware in the bathrooms to match the doorknobs - previously all the drawer pulls were the same brass ones as in the kitchen.
Oh, how I hated those! Especially next to the chrome fixtures (which we're also changing, but that's a bit further down the list.) This is in Sawyer's bathroom. Before:
After:
And our most recent change, taking down the brass light fixtures upstairs and putting up oil-rubbed bronze ones. We've had them for months but just got around to installing them.

Before/in progress:
After:
Still to do upstairs: Paint everything, get new carpet in Sawyer's room and the tiled room (photos forthcoming), replace the ceiling fans (they are HIDEOUS), change bathroom mirrors and fixtures, finish replacing all those hinges (ugh), and get new furniture for Sawyer's room, guest rooms and office.

In progress downstairs: Replace carpet in family room with hardwood, paint foyer (we'll have to hire someone for that because it's 2 stories), install new chandelier in foyer (ditto), paint living room and dining room, move piano from my grandfather's house into living room, repurpose chandelier in dining room (I'm going to try painting it), mount TV over fireplace and install in-wall home theater system, install built-in bookshelves in living room/dining room, buy new couches for family room, change fixtures and mirror in powder room.

And that's just off the top of my head.

Long Overdue...Our Trip to Utah

Back in July (was that really over a month ago??) Sawyer and I traveled to Utah to visit SueSue and Grandad. Here's what we did.

[Edited to remove the embedded slide show, because the automatic music is super annoying. Here's a link instead.]

Slide Show

Tantrum Time

Sawyer is currently throwing a tantrum because I turned off the TV. When this happens I usually ignore him and he stops pretty quickly. This time though he is persisting, and little does he know that I'm typing everything he says, for posterity, of course. I stopped short of getting out the video camera - this is slightly less cruel, right?

Sawyer, while rolling on the floor and wailing hysterically:

I soooo sad! Look at my face! Look at my eyes! Soooo sad! What happened? Are you OK? [I think that part is what he thinks I'm supposed to be saying to him.] I'm rolling! I'm rolling! Uh-oh! I too sad! [lots of heaving of breath and artificial wailing.] I too tired! I too sad! I need 'yardigans! Ahhhh! Oh no! I hurt myself! [He didn't.] He's crying! Sawyer is crying! Look at meeeee!

Ah, the joyous times.

My Life According to Tori Amos

This is a fun tag. Thanks for the idea Tiburon!

My Life According to...

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "my life according to (band name)" There were so many good options for some I couldn't pick just one.


Pick your Artist:
Tori Amos

Describe yourself:
Cornflake Girl
Playboy Mommy (um, no.)

How do you feel:
Strange
Crazy

Describe where you currently live:
Barons of Suburbia
Virginia (too easy!)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Cool On Your Island
Ireland

Your favorite form of transportation:
Cars and Guitars
Take to the Sky

Your best friend:
Hoochie Woman (hee hee!)

You and your best friend are:
Purple People

What's the weather like:
Cloud on My Tongue

Favorite time of day:
Sweet Dreams

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Here, In My Head

What is life to you:
A Sorta Fairytale

Your relationship:
Song for Eric

Your fear:
Professional Widow

What is the best advice you have to give:
The Power of Orange Knickers

Thought for the Day:
Mother Revolution

How I would like to die:
Caught a Lite Sneeze
Happy Phantom

My soul's present condition:
Little Earthquakes

My motto:
Pretty Good Year

You know you're doing a LOST rewatch when...

We got Sawyer a new toothbrush today. He picked a robot one because, as he said, "it's a Bad Robot!"

For those of you who don't watch the show, this is what he was referring to.

Sawyer's Prayers

We love hearing what Sawyer comes up with when he says his nightly prayers. At first we gave him lots of prompting ("What did you do today? What are you thankful for?") but now he launches into it all by himself. It's not always easy to understand him but he is often very thoughtful. Some recent examples:

-"Thank you for washing the car and splashing the car." He had helped Eric and me wash the cars that day.
-"Bless Penny in her crate."
-"What's Penny barking at?" Not sure if this is supposed to be rhetorical.
-"Thank you for Backyardigans and Pablo and Wall-E."
-"Thank you for Father's Day." He started this one on Father's Day and then kept mentioning it for weeks afterward.
-"Bless Caroline and Mary Grace and Megan and Ryan and [whoever else we've seen recently.]"
-"Thank you I go to preschool." He's getting very excited to start preschool in the fall!

And the other day he made up a song that went like this: "Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, you so so nice," repeated over and over again as he danced (naked) around the house.

Broken

Sawyer, after spotting the half-moon during our morning walk yesterday: "Oh no! Who made it broken?"

Rolling in the Dough

I recently got a notice that my car insurance policy was going to be credited because Geico made a mistake calculating my premium. I waited excitedly for the check to find out how much I would get back - it's not every day that some of that money you pay out in bills comes back! Finally the other day it came.




Yep. They sent me a check for 24 cents. I guess they knew I couldn't get by without that last (less than a) quarter in my budget. Thanks Geico!

I'm taking it to the bank.

Every Parent's Dream

I related more than usual to today's Engrish Funny:



After months (OK, actually years) of potty training, pleading, begging, scolding and bribing, Sawyer is finally consistently using the toilet. Our developmental pediatrician says that it's pretty common for kids with a language delay to also have issues with potty training, but we finally made it, right around his fourth birthday. Hallelujah!

He still has accidents sometimes when he gets really involved in playing and he doesn't want to stop what he's doing. He'll come up to me and say "Uh-oh! Accident!" Then he'll say "Oh well, that's OK," which is a line from a book he likes about learning to go potty. I want to tell him "NO! It's NOT OK!" but I usually manage to rein it in.

Next step: teaching him that yes, you really do have to wash your hands every single time.