It was time. Life hasn’t been easy and I knew I had to make some changes. I performed a self-assessment and the answer I came up with was not an easy one. I am spatially challenged. I am incapable of getting where I need to go without a slew of U-turns and tears. This morning, I logged in to Amazon and bought the TomTom One. I did some comparisons between the Garmin and Magellan but I decided on the TomTom based on it’s one feature of being able to change the navigating voice to Mr T, Ozzy Osborne or Darth Vader. “Make a left, FOOL!” My feeling is I will earn the money back just in sheer gas cost. Let’s hope it helps.

I made this recipe today. It came out really good. The recipe calls for anything from cinnamon to lemon zest, pecans, chocolate chips or fresh berries as a filling and, of course, the only thing I had in the house was cinnamon which ended up working fine. If I was to do it again, I would pam the pan, cut down the amount of butter and use strawberries, blueberries or bananas. This dish works as a great alternate to pancakes.

1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 425.

Mix all ingredients. There will be lumps. That’s good. Melt butter in 12-inch skillet.

Pour in batter and let cook for one minute. When edges bubble place in oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until all puffy and golden.

To liven it up you can throw into the batter anything from cinnamon to lemon zest, pecans, chocolate chips or fresh berries. Eat instantly and prepare to make a second.

Don’t tell anyone, but I am blogging at work. I just feel a need to let everyone know I am struggling to keep focused. I just want to go to sleep. I am really tired and pooped and jaded and ready to go home and do NOTHING! NOTHING AT ALL! I have no aspirations whatsoever.

The thing is, tomorrow I have a baby shower and the next day a BBQ. I don’t think I will be having the quiet weekend that I need.

poopie

I forgot to mention one of the most exciting parts of the concert. Right before it started, Caren and I walked over to the 95.7 Ben FM tent that was erected in the middle of the concession area. There was a man sitting at a table and in front of him, covering the table were a ton of knick knack items. He motioned for me to come over and he told me I could win anything on the table if I could name 5 bands or people with colors in their names. James Brown. Johnny Cash– wait, he’s just the man in black, scratch that one. Red Buttons, Red Skelton, Redd Foxx— (He ignored those). Caren said, White Snake. Then we both started rambling off Blue Travelers, Blues Brothers, Moody Blues. The man told us to pick anything from the table– sitting on the end was the autobiography of none other than DAVID HASSELHOFF! I grabbed it off the table. The guy took a picture of Caren and I holding the book. He said it was to post on the BEN FM Web site but I haven’t seen it go up, I’m guessing my eyes were closed or I looked like a sasquatch next to petite little Caren and he was being kind not publishing it.

How many bands can you name that have a color in their name? Here’s a few more to get you started: White Stripes, Deep Purple, Red Hot Chili Peppers…

Lee Hazlewood passed away on August 4th.

Rob and I said good bye to the farm this weekend. Rob moved most of the stuff out himself last week but I pitched in this weekend and together we got the remaining bits out. We walked through the empty carriage house and then walked around the farm. I sat on the porch swing and thought of all the nice times we experienced. Tears kept coming to my eyes but I kept blinking them away. Finally it was time to leave and Rob and I walked to the car and drove away. It’s hard to imagine that the farm is no more yet I accept it. It was time.

Wednesday, Rob emailed me that he bought 4 tickets to see George Thorogood and Bryan Adams in concert at the Mann Music Center! The show was the next day. Thursday arrived and I ran out of work at 5 and caught the R6 to Conshohocken where Rob and Steve and Caren were waiting for me. We drove back into the city and got to the Mann without any traffic woes. Rob bought the next to cheapest tickets available and we were in the far back and right of the stage. I was pretty happy with the seats because we didn’t have any chairs directly in front of us which meant we could stretch our legs a bit. About 15 minutes to show time a rather grizzly older man walked over and sat directly behind us.
“Mates, these are horrific seats!” he said.
“Yeah, but these are the seats that are on our tickets.” Rob replied.
“Do you like to have fun?” the man said.
“We always have fun!” replied Caren. At this point I was pretty sure he was going to offer us ecstasy or some other drug and I was getting nervous.
“So you like to dance and have fun?” the man repeated.
“Sure!”
“I want you to promote the band, mates! Get up and dance and have fun and promote the band!”
He then handed us tickets! THEY WERE FOR THE PIT! SECOND ROW RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE! We grabbed the tickets, thanked the grizzly old dude and ran to the front. The seats were incredible! We were right up there! It was like watching the show on TV but we were really there!
It seemed odd to me that George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers were opening up for Bryan Adams. Is it just me or is Lonesome George the bigger name? Regardless, he came out to a roar of thunderous applause. The first song he performed was Rock Party which seemed like an extremely apt choice to me. He sounded a thousand times better in person than in his recordings. He was fabulous! Here’s his set list:
Rock Party
Who Do You Love?
Night Time
I Drink Alone
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer (although he sang One Bourbon, One SHOT, One Beer)
I Got My Eyes on You (I never heard this song before but I LOVED IT! One of my faves now!)
Haircut
Gear Jammer
Move It On Over
ENCORE: Bad to the Bone

By the time he left the stage, I was POOPED! Let me tell you, it’s difficult promoting the band! By the time Bryan Adams came out, I had to sit the first 3 songs out! My rest ended when he played Summer of ’69. I am not a huge Bryan Adams fan but I did make my father take me to either Silo, Sam Goody, Wee Three Records or some other music store back in 1984 to buy his Reckless album. At any rate, I spent the rest of his performance up dancing. In fact, when he played Heaven, Rob and I slow danced together. We did it not to be romantic but because it was silly and we were PROMOTING THE BAND, MATE! One of the cutest points of the concert was when Bryan Adams pulled a girl up from the audience to sing When You’re Gone. The girl did a great job singing with him! I was really impressed. One of the scariest parts of the concerts was when I looked to my right and I saw (this is absolutely true, I am not lying!) a girl lifting her shirt and showing off her floppy breasts!!!!! I was speechless and I tried to motion for Rob to look but it was too late. As soon as I regained my vocal ability she covered herself. Rob said that this type of thing is quite normal at concerts. Let me tell you, that type of thing does not occur at the concerts I go to! Of course, most of the concerts I go to, the singers are senior citizens and they would most likely go into cardiac arrest if it happened! But that could be because most of the audience is also senior citizens and heck, I would go into cardiac arrest if I saw senior citizen boobies. Bryan Adams is not a senior citizen but he was very very thin and didn’t look healthy at all and I found myself worrying that he might be over-exerting himself. Steve and Caren and Rob all remarked at how small and skinny he looked. He must be one of those vegan people– he really looked like he needed to eat a nice hunk of steak. The concert let out at a respectable hour and I was able to get enough sleep to wake up the next morning refreshed and able to face the day.

The days of the Indian family living in Jersey hosting my Web site are long gone. I’ve been using Dreamhost for over a year. My decision to switch came after realizing one’s site should be up more than down. Communication was also difficult since I am not fluent in Hindi and they were decidedly not fluent in English. But mainly, I figured if Dreamhost was good enough for Charles at Dustbury, it was good enough for me! So I switched. Once a month, or there about, Dreamhost sends out a newsletter to all their subscribers. Their July newletter came today and after reading the first section, I just had to share it.

0. Introduction.

But, as anybody who’s gone to the bathroom after a little woman who forgot to flush will tell you, BIG things can come in small packages!

Toilet humor, gotta love it! The Indian Family from Jersey was never this entertaining.

A new month. New and better results will be had! I have fallen into a cycle of negative thoughts and it’s time to dust myself off and get back to thinking positively. All will be fine.

I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!

Musikfest is quickly coming up! I hope to see Los Straitjackets again. The Red Elvises are not playing this year which leaves me feeling very very sad. I haven’t looked at the other acts but I am sure there should be a few more that I would enjoying seeing. We shall see.

I don’t blame myself. I blame Rachel Ray. Last night, Rob and I made dinner. I was about to choose something from Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less but I decided I would be better off with a more in depth recipe so I headed off to the Rachel Ray section of the Food Network’s Web site. I clicked around, yelling out different recipes to see what intrigued Robert. Finally I came upon Halibut Fish Tacos with Guacamole Sauce and Rob said, “I like fish and you like Mexican– let’s try it!” The recipe is very simple, completely un-intimidating. We got the ingredients together and as Rob grilled the fish, I made the Guacamole Sauce. Once finished, I was quite impressed at how much it looked like real Guacamole! Just like from a Mexican restaurant. We sat down to eat the beautiful fish tacos. Rob took a bite. I took a bite. Rob took another bite. I took another bite. Something wasn’t quite right. The Guacamole sauce was tasteless! Utterly tasteless. Rob kept eating it but I couldn’t bear it. I did everything to a T! The only answer is that Rachel Ray posted a recipe that was easy to make, produced a great looking dish but has no taste! This isn’t the first time this has happened with a Rachel Ray recipe. One Thanksgiving we made her Stuffin’ Muffins– they were salty. Then there was the Not-sagna Pasta Toss that just was blah. I think I am calling it quits! No more Rachel Ray recipes for me!