Mi Vida Ocupada: My Busy Life!

Snoop Dogg with Method Man & Redman at Epic Nightclub

Wanna know what I did last night?

Well, first I worked 12 hours.  But who cares about that!?

I got to see Method Man, Redman and Snoop Dogg at Epic Nightclub!! 

It took some deliberating about whether to go or not since the tickets were kinda spendy, I had worked a ton that day already and I also haven't been feeling good for the past few weeks.  You know me though.... rarely do I  pass up a good time or a good concert.  So glad we decided to go! Since Myth Nightclub recently closed it's doors, Epic is hosting many concerts now instead.  The club is very cool with all of it's remodeling, much better than when it was The Quest. 

I brought my dad's camera along and tried to get a few photos but none of the ones I used without a flash turned out very well.  These guys move around too much to get a clear shot, especially Redman! Here are a few of Meth and Red....

Hmmm, I wonder what Method Man is doing here!!!!?

This is the best shot I got of Redman

This shot is blurry but kinda cool; they were spraying water from a  water bottle

 

I was playing with my settings a little and thought this shot was kinda cool too

 

Meth & Red rocked! It wasn't the best show of theirs that I have seen but it was still a lot of fun.  After a short intermission the BIG DOGG himself came out to rock the house.

Snoop Dee-Oh-Double-Gee

 

 

I have never seen a public blaze fest like I did at this show.  Wow!

 

Unfortunately my memory card is only 2 gb and the camera is 14.7 megapixels.  Every time I tried to take a video my card would fill up and then I had to start deleting.  This was the only video I ended up getting and keeping...... Snoop with Lady of Rage

Snoop Dogg with Lady of Rage at Epic Nightclub 11-5-09 from kristi s on Vimeo.

Tuesday's Top 10: Concerts

In an effort to blog more, today I have put together a list of the Top 10 concerts I have been to (and ya'll know I have been to MANY over the years).  It was hard to decide but I chose the shows that were a combo of awesome stage presence,  emotional impact and just plain FUN!

1. Santana at Hard Rock in Vegas 12-31-99 (most memorable way I can think of to ring in the new millenium!)

2. Prince (can't pinpoint which has been my favorite, I've been to too many!)

3. Tom Petty (amazing)

4. Roger Waters (WOW! If only I had been old enough to see Pink Floyd back in the day)

5.  The Police Reunion Tour (kick ass)

6. Queensryche (many of their shows rocked my socks off)

7. Cynic (I am so happy they got back together and that I got to witness it. I love love love the album Traced in Air)

8. Pantera (RIP Dimebag Darrell)

9. Steve Vai & Joe Satriani (best guitar players in the world!)

10. Snoop Dogg (*this might've been the most fun at a concert I ever had!)

11. Sevendust (One of my all-time favorite bands, I almost forgot to add them to my list!)

Living Colour at the Fine Line Music Cafe

Last Wednesday Living Colour was in town to play a gig at Fine Line Music Cafe.  We've been fans for about 20 years but  hadn't ever seen them before, we so jumped at the chance when tickets became available.  Before the show we met a friend downtown at Pizza Luce, where we ordered dinner in the restaurant.  It was really good; much better than I remember from a past experience with their late-night pizza-by-the slice.  I'll link to the review as soon as I have it written up.  After dinner the three of us went to the show, which was really good! It was loud but the guys sounded great.  My brother Jeff was kind enough to let me borrow his camera for the weekend, so I got a few decent photos. 

 

 

 

 

 

I also discovered that the G9 has HD video.... I owned the same camera for a year (until I dropped it) and must've had it set on the crappiest quality you can get because I was never happy with the overall quality. I took a few videos at the show but had to reduce the size of the video for Youtube. Check out "Cult of Personality" below

Taste of Minnesota 2009 ~ Judas Priest & Whitesnake

It is tradition in Minnesota to host a "Taste of Minnesota" Festival every year over the 4th of July.  I know that was two weeks ago, but I am finally able to post about it now.  The original premise of the Taste is to try different samples of food from various restaurants around Minnesota.  I hadn't been to the Taste in about 4 years but wanted to go this year to check out Whitesnake and Judas Priest who were playing a free concert.  Here are my pictures!

Whitesnake

 

 

Judas Priest

 

 

Zas VS Food (I plan to someday blog about my friend Richie who thinks he can eat more than anyone.  I have a ton of pics of him eating like this one

We stayed to watch the fireworks which turned out to be pretty lame.  They only last 7 minutes! I remember them being much cooler at the Taste when I was a kid.

 

 

Here are a couple other random pics

 

 

Testament at The Rock Nightclub

I have already mentioned that Mother's day was quite busy.  I think I left out the part where I went to see Testament play at the Rock later that night ?? I was debating whether or not I should go because I knew I would be out late and I had to get up extra early the following morning for a Dr. appt.  Its sometimes hard to start the week off with 4 hours of sleep, ya know? But like I ever let that stop me before, didn't let it stop me this time either.

 

 

 

 

Queensryche & a Long Night of Rock 'N' Roll

This past Saturday I went to Myth Nightclub to see Queensryche.  I have seen these guys a handful of times in the past 5 years or so.... but who knew they would keep coming back so often?? And of course I went with the two biggest Queensryche fans in MN :)

I had planned to take a million photos but this is all I got before the battery in my camera died.  It was an awesome show!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had to quickly leave Myth as soon as the show was over and head to the nearby The Rock Nightclub in order to get Rich there in time to play drums for Crash Anthem (They were headlining, therefore playing last).  It was a fun time and I saw a few old friends from HS that I haven't seen in a long time.  My camera battery was dead at this point so I didn't get any photos, but had Amanda take a pic of this guy's dreads...they were the longest I have ever seen!

 

Didn't make it home in bed until 4am but it was a fun night! My ears were still ringing the next day........

Benefit Show......

This past Sunday night I went to a show that Buried by Hope was playing to raise money for the family of Bob, their bass player who died tragically a few weeks ago.  This is the band that my friend Rich plays drums for and the lead singer Jeremy is also my friend Heather's boyfriend.  I didn't know Bob at all other than seeing him play at shows, but I thought it would be a nice gesture to go out and show my support for my friends who lost their buddy and band member.

Rich on drums

Me and Heath

Heather and Jeremy

And that is all I have time to update for now.  So much to do and so little time!!

PS Let's all hope and pray that my brother Jeff and his girlfriend do not contract the darn swine flu and can make it back to the USA from Mexico safely.  They have been there since Sunday.

Sevendust & Black Label Society @ Myth Nightclub

I was debating all weekend whether or not to go out Sunday night to see Sevendust, as I have seen them too many times to count, but I just couldn't pass up the chance to see one of my favorite bands perform at an awesome venue like Myth at least one more time.  Sevendust only played a 45 minute set before headliners Black Label Society played, but it was still a good time.  I snuck my camera in the same way I usually do, only to discover that the Myth actually allowed cameras for this show! I was way up front near the stage (after getting my butt-kicked in the mosh-pit trying to get there!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

And how about some of Black Label Society? I opted to get off the main floor when these guys hit the stage, so I wasn't able to see them as well or get as good photos, but here are a few of Zakk Wylde. 

 

 

 

 

To my boys in Sevendust........... Thanks for the awesome show!!

Cynic at Station 4 ~ St Paul

Had the awesome opportunity to see Cynic at Station 4 later on Friday night.  They were really popular underground in the early 90's before breaking up.  A couple of years ago they got back together to create a new album, Traced in Air.  I love it! I was really looking forward to the show so I went despite having a monster of a headache for nearly 48 hours.  The show was pretty awesome! It was very hard to get decent photos of the band from where I was standing, but this one turned out pretty cool

I also captured a couple of videos (which reminds me that although my Canon G9 takes awesome still shots, it has horrible video quality.  Should look into a video recorder)

Here is Cynic performing Adam's Murmur and Integral Birth

Heather and Jeremy were down at the show as well, which was great because I hadn't seen Heather since the Halloween Party!
Heather and Jeremy

A Rockin' Thanksgiving......

Gathered up a few friends late on Thanksgiving night and went down to The Rock to watch my buddy Richie play a show with Crash Anthem (formerly known as Skywind).
 




I went to high school with the singer and the guy on bass.

Here is one with me and Denise which I am happy about because we are together all the time but rarely ever take photos.

Me and Rich after the show

I just LOVE having long weekends!!

Method Man & Redman at First Avenue

Went to see Meth & Red last night at First Avenue.  First time I had seen them since the Blackout 2000 tour! I was able to sneak my camera into the club but got pretty terrible photos and video.  Turned them into a little diddy anyway, however I do realize this video isn't good at all and the sound isn't synced too well from CD version to concert version- you can see exactly what I'm talking about about 40 seconds into it.....

 The show was a late one and I got approximately 3-4 hours of sleep just to wake up extra early to start a crock-pot for dinner, do my hair for school picture-day, and get to work for a staff meeting. Oh, and did I mention I had to work 12 hours for parent teacher conferences tonight? Still feeling good though, not even very tired today :) Throw your Wu's in the Air Ya'll!!!!!!

Testament at The Epic (with Buried by Hope)

Went and saw a pretty sweet metal show at The Epic (formerly The Quest), downtown Mpls on Thursday night.  They have reopened this club under new ownership and remodeled.....its kind of like a mini-Myth now.

The band that my friend Rich is in (Buried by Hope) opened up for Testament.  It was kind of hard for me to get used to taking good photos with my dad's camera, but here is one of BBH.... (The lead singer is my friend Heather's BF)

 Colleen, me and Heather

Me and Angel, Richie's woman.....it was Angel and her identical twin sister's birthday that night

Testament....

 
Rock N Roll!

Tom Petty Rocks!!

It was at least 6 months ago that I bought super-sweet-seats to see Tom Petty in concert.  The show was last night and it was awesome!! Our seats were about 20-25 feet from the front corner of the stage.....some of the best seats we have ever had for a stadium concert.  Perfect place to take a million awesome photos, right?
Except i still don't have my camera back from being repaired.
And the sweet camera I borrowed from my dad? The battery went dead and I didn't have access to the charger.
Oh well. Ticks me off, but what can I do??

Time is flying too dang fast.......my first week of vacation is practically over and I still have so much to do and so many people to see!

Candlebox at Rock Nightclub

Its been a concert weekend!
Friday night I saw Candlebox at The Rock Nightclub.....
For a bunch of guys who have been around since 1991, these guys still sound awesome!!


I was back at the Rock late on Saturday night to catch Fair to Midland.  Awesome show except for the stupid-ass DJ at 93X (Pablo) who felt the need to stand on stage and tell everyone a million times how much he loves the band. (Even during the band's encore!) It was seriously ridiculous and he made a fool of himself talking the way he was....
Sorry, I didn't take any photos of Fair to Midland.

Sevendust @ Myth

I saw Sevendust (one of my favorite bands!) at Myth again on Wed. night.  I am not sure exactly how many times I have seen them live in the past 9 years, but I am guessing 15-20 times.  Love them!  I am lucky I was able to get into the club because once we got there I realized my stupid ass left my ID at HOME!!!!  I wasn't that worried about it though because I know a couple of the bouncers and also the main door man.  Would you believe I didn't see any of my "people" at the door and that it didn't even matter?  The guy checking IDs didn't even ask to see mine....he just asked me if I was 21....I was like "I wish! I'm 31!" And he let me in, not knowing I didn't even have any ID on me.  I think this may be the first time that has ever happened at this club, seriously.  They are hard core.  I think this guy must've either been new or he thought I was cute. LOL.  I also smuggled my camera in and the camera police could've cared less.  Sweet!

I have not been feeling very good since the night of the show and I am not sure if I am getting a cold or if it is a sinus infection.  I tried to get a good night sleep last night because I was beyond exhausted, but I ended up not sleeping very well because the Sudafed I took before bed wouldn't let my brain turn off.  I wouldn't have been able to breathe without it, so I was screwed either way!

I am glad its Friday :)

Rock Night

Richie's band played last night at the Rock.
Fun times!
I love photographing him, I just wish I had a better camera (c'mon, stimulus check- I have plans for you!)
Cheddar Cheesey Corn and Kritti Krack Korn

**PS - So happy Boston is moving on to the next round in the playoffs.  I want my man KG to get his championship!!!!!!!

Prince at Coachella 2008

I wish I had been there to see this!

Santana Concert....

Last night E and I went to see Santana in concert for the 4-5th time.  (Our first Santana show together was on Dec 31, 1999 at the Hardrock in Las Vegas.  See old pics here )
Great show!
We had really good seats too, but unfortunately my camera has a terrible zoom.  I was also annoyed by the cables that hung from the stage equipment.....ruined some of my better shots :(

311 at Myth......

Sunday night was probably the 4-5th time I have seen 311.  It was a pleasure to see them at Myth, they sounded awesome and it was a great time!

No camera police on patrol, so I snapped away :)

Now my knee hurts from dancing too much!

Smoking Ban: A Flaw in the Law

Imagine my surprise when I showed up at the Rock Nightclub on Saturday night to discover that the bar was filled with nasty-ass cigarette smoke and a ton of people were blatantly smoking......WTF? MN banned smoking in public places as of Oct. 1, 2007.

Even though I am not a regular bar-goer, I do go to clubs quite often to see concerts.  It has been wonderful that they have all gone smoke-free.  Of course not everyone thinks so...many bar owners say the new law is killing their business.  Some how someone (a lawyer) discovered a little loophole in the smoking ban.....apparently actors in a performance are still given the right to smoke.

So guess what the Rock and a few other bars are doing now to allow customers to smoke?  They have turned a few regular events into "performances".  This is the play program that they posted and handed out:

This had my friends and I in an absolute uproar...are you kidding me??!! How can they get away with this?  Anyone who wanted to smoke was charged $1 to get a button that identified them as one of the "actors".
Heather gave me a pair of earplugs and I told her I was going to wear them as noseplugs instead!  Here is a staged photo of me demonstrating how much I love smoke:
The show itself was decent and many of my friends came out to see Richie play.  Too bad we didn't do much but bitch about the smoke the whole time!

So despite how much I hated being at the Rock on Saturday night because of the smoke, I got talked into going back there on Sunday night to see Drowning Pool and Saliva.  I could care less about either of these bands, but a friend of mine is the promoter for their national tour.  Hard to beat free tickets! PS Smoking was NOT allowed on Sunday :) 

I can't believe I went out three nights in a row and got very little sleep...I hope this week goes fast!

Tesla at Myth

Fun time last night at Myth!
My best friends were also at this show (upstairs), but I watched the show up front on the floor...I like to be as close as I can! (When there isn't a mosh pit involved, that is! I try to stay away from those).
The show was pretty awesome, but LOUD.  Much more loud than most of the shows we have seen at Myth.

Lenny Kravitz, Ultimate Hottie

If you ever have the chance to go check out Lenny Kravitz in concert, I highly recommend you go for it!!
I had so much fun seeing him at Myth last night :)
He is still as hot and sexy as ever!!!
All of my life, where have you beeeeeeeen? I wonder if I'lllllllllll ever see you againnnnnn????

My long day continued.......

I am going to pick up right where I left off in my previous post, but first I better mention that
I had only 4 hours of sleep last night and I have to work for 12 HOURS today since we have parent-teacher conferences after school  :( If there were ever a time to turn into a coffee-caffeine addict like the rest of the world, today would be it.....but that'll never happen).

Okay, so I left the nature center at noon and hauled a$$ the 20+ miles or so to get to my afternoon school in time to eat leftovers for lunch, then proceeded as normal at 1pm with my afternoon schedule.  I was still freezing from spending all mornign outside in the wind!  After school instead of going to my math class on Campus, our professor had scheduled us to participate in "family math night" at an elementary school in Plymouth (northwest suburb), on the complete opposite side of the Cities from everything I know.  About 50 miles in the opposite direction from where I had been earlier in the day.  That went pretty well, the time flew by!  We were done at 6:30, giving us 45 minutes to grab a bite to eat and fly downtown Mpls to campus where most of us had our science class starting at 7:15.  I was starving at this point but  found a KFC near the exit to the freeway to get back to downtown.  I had about 4 bites of my sandwich, then realized it was too dang messy and dangerous to try to eat and drive at the same time, so I set the sandwich back in the basket with the fries they gave me.  I am cruising along until I came upon some stopped traffic rather suddenly.  I didn't exactly slam on my brakes, but my entire dinner went flying onto the floor, all over the effin place.  Nice!!! Nothing to salvage :(
I made it to campus by 7pm, but needed to quickly change out of the longjohns I had under my jeans, ditch the heavy sweater, etc and change into something a little more appropriate for the rock show I was meeting friends at after class. I seriously changed and fixed my makeup and used my curling iron in the bathroom on campus for a quick fix! (Remember I had been wearing a hat all morning and had serious hat-hair).  I was in my seat by 7:15 and sat through class until our mid-break at 8:30. 

Flew down to Maplewood to the Rock and got there at 9pm, just in time to see Ankla performing on stage.  These guys are an amazing Latin-metal band.  Very tribal-sounding and heavy at the same time.  Good stuff!  So after Ankla played, I stayed at the Rock and actually hung out with the band most of the night. 

I made it home around 1am but was starving, so I threw in a pizza.  I had to check out all the pics I had taken that day and my e-mail, so that is how my long day ended and why I was still up blogging at 2am.  I even showered before going to bed. Did I mention how bad today might suck to work 12 hours after getting just 4 hours of sleep? Oh well, Its Thursday!  I will get to sleep in all weekend and will try to catch up then!

If I have a coherent thought sometime today, I will post my TFT then :)

Memory Overload!!

My brain is about to explode!

Just kidding.

Actually, I downloaded a batch of pics late last night and hit my HD's 100GB capacity.  So then I got out my external HD, made sure everything was totally backed up and then I started deleting a ton of pics and music from my computer's HD.  Wow, that didn't even take me a year to fill up all that memory!  And my drive is supposed to be 120GB..not sure WTF's up with that?  Was up until 1am before I dragged my booty up to bed.

Went to The Rock Nightclub last night to see Richie's band, Buried by Hope, open a show for national acts Bobaflex and Dope.  It was a good time! I always love watching Rich, he is so dynamic and fun to watch.   

Hung with my girls Heather and Ang who both made it out to the show....

The best part about the night is that I came home NOT SMELLING LIKE SMOKE because all of MN is completely SMOKE-FREE as of Oct 1, 2007.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I am exhausted as can be after two very late nights in a row.  Looking forward to some down time and sleeping in this weekend.  Gonna probably do schoolwork all day Sunday.  I still have so much to scrap, but it is very low on the priorities list at this point.  I feel like if I have time to scrap, I have time to read and work on my research paper and other projects.

So anyway, I also wanted to say hi to all the lurkers who have been coming out of the woodwork lately and leaving comments and thoughts.  You are all my dotcomrades (An internet acquaintance; someone you chat with but have never actually met.) (Zoe's new word!)

Peace out everyone!

Sevendust TONIGHT at Myth!!!!

I cannot wait to get my ROCK ON tonight at Sevendust!!!!

I am sick of writing research papers!!  And lesson planning.  And Case Studies.  And reading journal articles and text books.  I have had the past two days off of work for the Professional Teacher Conferences and that is all I have done the whole time.  And I still have so much to do :(

I deserve a break and I can't think of a better way to do it than a 7Dust show!!

Party people....meet me out there!!  $33 at the door

Bow wow wow yippee yo yippee yay...

Snoop Dogg's in the mother effin house!!!!!!!!

Or he was the other night anyway!!!!

Nothing like going VIP to see Snoop tear shit up at the Myth!!!!!! I had the TIME OF MY LIFE.  We all did! Totally worth the $100 ticket price (+ bottle service at a ridiculous price.....thanks to Brian and Eric for covering the bill)

I decided not to smuggle my camera in, as I know they are jerks about cameras there, so I paid $10 for this Polaroid picture of our group shortly after the concert ended.  Do you like my "pose"??!!!  I was pretty annihilated at this point...I actually don't remember much after this!

I was totally excited to see my girl Danielle who just got back from a long tour in Iraq.  We took this pic before we went out to the club.  Her friend Danette is totally cool too...it was fun to meet and hang out with her :)

Some funny drunk pics after the show....

Wow! I don't even remember this! This is the most appropriate pic of the bunch I apparently took of myself! LOL

Fun, Fun, Fun with Snoop D-O-G-G!!!!  Best rap concert evah!!

Battle of the Bands...

My friend Richie's new band, Buried by Hope, had a show last night for Battle of The Bands at The Rock Nightclub.  Heather came out with me and we met Ang out there too.  I didn't try too hard to get decent pics...I had a headache again :(

We are just so bad-ass.

PS I hate cigarette smoke.  I cannot wait for MN to go smoke-free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ETA: On May 16, 2007, Minnesota's Governor, Tim Pawlenty, approved and signed the statewide smoke-free law known as the Freedom to Breathe Act. The law, which covers most indoor public places and places of employment, will go into effect October 1, 2007.

More Rockin'....

Who would've thought that I'd become such a blog slacker this summer while I am on vacation for such a long time?

So far the summer has been pretty much a blur....Boating, hanging at the pool, reading, going out to eat, hanging out with  friends, concerts, trips to gander mountain, ???? Nothing too exciting, but apparently very relaxing :)

Went to a housewarming party for friends Rick & Janeen on Saturday night.  BBQ, bonfire, hangin out.  It was pretty cool, but I didn't take any pics!

Sunday night was a show for  Buried by Hope..... Rich is crazy-good on the drums.

Here is a short video of the band doing a cover of Static-X's "Push it"....its SUPER loud, but you just have to watch Rich!! He plays so effin fastl!

A pic of Heather, Alex (Rusty's fiance') and me at the show....

Okay, I gotta run, but maybe I'll be back in a timely manner?!

Prince Show 07-07-07 at Target Center

Prince!

Just to start off, it was a miserably hot day.  Hot, hot, hot and HUMID.  Apparently Prince's show at Macy's was off to a late start earlier that evening so despite the fact that it was hotter than hades out, Prince made security hold all the doors into the Target Center until 9pm (ticket said 8:30, doors at 7:30).  There were so damn many people in line that I assumed that rather than checking purses etc, they would just make everyone go through a metal detector on their way in.  While we were waiting I chickened out about sneaking my camera in and brought it back to the car parked in the nearby ramp.  Once we were inside and saw that I could easily have brought it in with me, I ran back to my car and grabbed it!  I took about 100 pictures, but these were the only ones worth a damn.

It was a pretty cool show, but it wasn't the best one I have seen of his.  I guess I am a little spoiled because I have seen him so many times before and I usually have seats very close to the stage.  Our seats for this show were pretty good, but not nearly as intimate as other times I have seen him.  Don't get me wrong, Prince was jammin and groovin for over 2 hours (10:04pm-12:14am), starting with "Purple Rain" and then "Take Me With You" and then guitar (which I have not heard too much of since his album doesn't come out until next week).  Then he did Satisfied and covers of The Cars', "Let's" Go and the Beatles' "Come Together".  It was pretty awesome that he had Wendy Melboin of the Revolution playing guitar for him.  Trying to remember which other songs he did...Raspberry Beret, Black Sweat, Cream, Seven, and then he always starts playing the beginnings of his hits but then will start playing something else.  Drives me crazy!!! Sheila E came out for his encore and they did a few of her songs together...that was my favorite part of the show.  Sheila E rocks!! She is an amazing looking woman for being somewhere close to 50?!

Okay, here is the official setlist

White suit
Purple rain
Take me with u wendy here
Guitar
Shhh
Musicology
Play that funky music
Let's go by the cars
Satisfied
What a wonderful world renato & mike
purple suit
Acoustic set w/ wendy
Lil red corvette
Raspberry beret
The 1 u wanna c
Sometimes it snows in april
End of acoustic
7
Come together
Prince on keys
Do me
I wanna be your lover
How come u don't call me anymore
Diamonds & pearls
End of piano set
Cream
U got the look
If i was your gf
Black sweat
Kiss
Lets go crazy
Love bizarre
Crazy--shelby
Nothing compares 2 u
Glamorous life
Sheila drum solo

Here is a video clip I took during "If I was your Girlfriend"

I have been reading on some of the Prince message boards that Prince didn't start his after-show at First Ave until 2:45am and then the Minneapolis cops made them shut it down at 4am.  People were literally sweating their asses off in that place!! I wouldn't doubt if that place spontaneously combusts one of these summer shows because it is sometimes the hottest place I have ever been to!

So that was Prince in a nutshell!

ETA: Hey Prince fans- show some love and leave a comment!! I have been getting many hits from many of you looking for pics and vids.

The Police....

I hardly had time to revel in the awesomeness of Pink Floyd before seeing The Police reunion in concert just three days later!  This has commonly been known as the "most expensive ticket of the summer", with face value at $227 per ticket (with an additional $20+ in convenience charges, etc).  Didn't think there was much chance in attending this bad-boy until we scouted around on E-Bay this past weekend and saw that the tickets were going for so much less than face value.  We figured we didn't have much to lose if we made a decent bid.  So by Sunday afternoon, two tickets on the side of the stage were ours for $80 (+ $20 for overnight shipping).  Saved ourselves roughly $400!!  The tickets were to us by noon on the day of the concert!

Althought the tickets said "no cameras", the camera police didn't give a shit who was taking pictures...lucky me!  The show was pretty cool, but the most they put into the production was the lighting (basically all my pics are the same, just different colored lighting.) I guess I expected more for the price of these tickets.  I may have been slightly disappinted if I had paid full price...

More...

Okay, there was blue, yellow and purple, how about some greeeeeeeen??

This is a horrible picture, but doesn't it look like there is a space ship hovering over the stage, reading to "beam up" the drummer??!! LOL

I even took some video, didn't turn out half-bad!

It was a really good show overall and I am glad I got to go! Have a wonderful 4th of July everyone!!!!!!

Dark Side of the Moon

Any Pink Floyd fans here???

Last night I had the pleasure of attending one of the coolest concerts I've ever been to....Roger Waters of Pink Floyd performing a collection of his hits in the first set and then a full set of Dark Side of the Moon (encores included The Wall, Comfortably Numb).  Wow, totally awesome! I am sure nothing is as cool as seeing them in their full-production, but this came damn close!  It was a very expensive show, but one that I didn't want to miss....opportunities like this may only come once in a lifetime!

Luckily for me there were no camera police at this show, so I was able to take as many pics as I wanted!  We had decent seats, but it was hard to get pictures from as far away as we were, especially since I wasn't using the flash.  Most of these were pics fo the large video screen they had at the back of the stage.  Here is the album of all the pics I took at the show.

This picture was taken of an actual prism that was suspended from the ceiling with lights and rainbow laser lights coming from it.  Effin sweet!

It was pretty cool that the night of this show was an actual full-moon!  I took this pic from my deck when I got home late that night.

This is an amazing week of concerts for me....  I am  seeing The Police on Tuesday night and Prince this coming Saturday!

Fishbone at The Rock Nightclub Maplewood

Last night I went to see Fishbone at The Rock.  It was an awesome show...tons of dancing to the reggae/jazz/ska mix.  These guys are awesome!

There was a guy standing next to us who was having the time of his life dancing for the entire two hours that Fishbone played. He had the best moves...I enjoyed it thoroughly. You know I had to bust out my camera and film part of the action. I am not poking of fun of him at all, it is just too good not to share.  He was totally sober too :) I know one friend of mine is upset with me for posting this for the whole world to see, but he saw me taping him and took a bow when he was done.  Hopefully no one thinks I am mean!  Here are three short clips, about 3 minutes but it is great.  Sorry about the sound quality....

Here are the link to the video uploaded at Google. 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=320459231525872229

St Patty's Day with Sevendust!!!

What could be more fun than seeing one of your favorite rock bands with a huge group of your friends on St Patrick's Day?!!  Thats right, Sevendust was in town last night to play a kick-ass show at Myth and we were ready!!!!!!

Pre-show party at my house.  Lots of beer and pitchers of margaritas (mean and green!)

Lets get this party started! Richie and St Patrick himself!

Now of course I thought ahead and called Myth to find out their camera policy for the evening.  You may remember this post how pissed they made me about the cameras at the 30STM show.  They told me that disposable cameras were fine, but no digi.  So I stopped and picked up a couple of disposables on the way...there was no way I was missing a ton of drunkin-rockin-party pics, ya know??  But wouldn't you know that the DAMNED MYTH CHANGED THEIR DAMN CAMERA POLICY FOR THE EVENING BEFORE I GOT THERE and wouldn't let me take the disposables in!!!!!!  And I wasn't about to walk the effin cameras two miles back to the car, so I left them at the door and never saw them again.  Damn waste of $12...good thing the cameras were on sale!!!

The show was amazing....Sevendust has like 6 albums or so out now and they played a really good mix off all the old albums.  The boys were all down in THE PIT, but Toni and I were ROCKIN it at the back of the floor.  I would've had a good time no matter what since I love Sevendust, but each beer I had made the show more and more fun.  By the end of the show, I was feeling GREAT!!!! LOL

A group of us went to Perkins after the show to get our late-night grub on.  Kinda like the olden days of 10 years ago!!  We were all starving and decided we were going to "destroy" our food. (This means eat it ALL, no matter how much is on the plate) I ordered the corned beef hash and eggs with a side of pancakes...and YES, I DESTROYED IT!!!

Hope everyone else had a great time too!

Prince Halftime Show....

My man rocked the half-time show!  How cool was his stage??!!

I Loved every minute of it! Loved the old school (Let's Go Crazy, Baby I'm a Star, Purple Rain) and the snipits of Jimi and The Foo.

Best part about the Superbowl!

**ETA  Video was removed from Youtube because of Copyright.  I will repost if it becomes available again!

Long time, no blog

After five days without blogging, I hardly know where to begin!

Friday night was a rock-star party night.  A friend of ours got us on the guest list to see Twisted Sister at the Myth.  What an awesome good time! I frickin LOVE jammin to 80's rock!!  The song, "We're Not Gonna Take It!" brings back a ton of memories from college and I knew it would be fun to see Dee Snider and all the original members rockin out and dressed up.  I was not disappointed! Heather and Lanee came out with us too.  I am pretty mad that I didn't bring my camera out that night.  I always have it in my purse but took it out before we left because the show was at Myth and I didn't think they'd let me bring it in.  Of course it happened to be a night that cameras WERE allowed, so I got screwed out of taking a ton of fun pictures.  Oh well!  After the show we met some friends at The Bird in Mplwd.  I hadn't been to that dive in about 10 years and once I got inside, I realized that not a dang thing had changed. Even the music!  It was all the same old-school stuff I danced to 10 years ago, so I had a great-ol' time shaking my booty on the dance floor!! Several shots of tequila and some beer made me feel pretty groovy!!

Drinking and staying out so late wasn't the best idea since I had plans to get up early Saturday morning to scrap with some of my girlfriends.  This gave me about 5 hours of sleep....not nearly enough to free myself from the effects of the night before.  Oh well! I wanted to get started on my Madeline Island scrap project.  Check out what I got done so far!

Here is the cover.  I bought book board and covered it with papers from the Magnolia line.  I am using the coordinated line to do this whole mini-book.

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I have about 30-40 pictures that will go into this album when finished.  It was very hard to narrow it down from the 200 pictures we took on this trip!  I have to do the pages chronologically and in order so that I know where to punch the holes.

Intro page

Lunch and margaritas in Duluth

and the ferry ride!

Thats all I got done so far, but I will get to work on it soon :)

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I have some other layouts that I did in the past week that I finally got to scan in.  I have to say, this new computer is soooo much faster than my old one, I was able to scan and stitch all of these layouts in like 1/4 of the time.

These are all lifts/sketches from the new BH Sketches book. 

I sure have put my new Cricut to use!

and this one, a farewell to Fall!

I will try to be better about blogging this week :)

Have a good one!

Letters to Myth Nightclub and Jared Leto

Dear Myth Nightclub,

I have a bone to pick with you.  I have been a big fan of your club since it opened last year, but the way things went down for me last night at the 30 Seconds to Mars show have me seriously MAD.  I need to get these things off my chest before I think about stepping foot in your club again!

First off, why is it that a brand-new state-of-the-art nightclub ( said to rival some of Vegas's hottest clubs) with a capacity of 5000 has only 100 parking spots in the lot???? It really bugs me when I have to park at Maplewood Mall and walk half a mile (in high heels) just to get to you! And is it really necessary that 10 of those spaces be reserved for handicapped parking? I am all about rights and priviledges for those that really need them, but I seriously doubt there will ever be 10 handicapped people in your dance club at one time.

Now about last night:

I am especially pissed about the fact that after I waited outside in line for an hour to get into your club,  I was told I could not bring my camera inside.  NOWHERE on the ticket did it say that "no cameras are allowed"!  **I have seen 30 Seconds a million times and never once have I been told I couldn't bring my camera in.  In fact, Jared Leto himself has often e-mailed me (and the Echelon) asking to send him cool pictures I have taken at their shows**  Not once did any of your security tell guests waiting in line that cameras weren't allowed!!!  If they had, I would've taken care of it during the wait instead of having all my friends wonder where I had disappeared to.

If you are not going to allow certain items to be brought into the club, you better have a gosh-darned item/coat check available!!!!!!!  How does a club your size not offer a coat check?? That makes absolutely no sense at all.  I think it is total BS that your egotistical meat-head bouncer made me walk ALL the WAY back to my car (about a mile round-trip with high heels, two months after knee surgery) to leave my camera.

I followed your rules....I returned my camera to the car.  So why is it that upon re-entering the club 45 minutes later, I overhear the same meat-head doorman telling the biotch in front of me in line that she could either take the batteries out of her camera, or return it to her car????? Say what?????? Only to tell me that the management has now cleared it that taking the batteries out of the camera is now an option??? I think you better come up with one policy and stick with it before one single guest arrives....changing your mind AFTER I spent an hour walking back to my car in the freezing-ass wind wearing high heels to bring my camera back is pretty messed up!!!!  And if I do say so myself, your meat head bouncer needs a real attitude adjustment.

And finally....if taking the camera into your club was such a big deal in the first place, why did I see 800 million effers up in there with their camera phones, snapping away tons of pictures????  Why did I see tons of people with digi cams snapping pictures in front of so many bouncers, without any of the bouncers saying anything to them????  I am so mad about the injustice of this, I could spit!!!

You guys seriously SUCK and ruined my good attitude last night.  I had been looking forward to seeing 30STM for months and by the time I go to see them, my feet hurt from walking 5 miles in those god-forsaken heels and I was in a real pissy mood.  Thanks a lot, Myth.  I'll make sure to tell everyone I know how great you treat your customers!!!!

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Dear Jared Leto of 30STM,

Hey hon! Its been awhile.... about 6 months since we last saw each other at The Quest.  It still amazes me at how popular you guys have become recently.....I had no doubt this would happen, but I preferred the intimate shows you used to play at The Ascot Room when there would only be about 50 people at your shows.  I am happy for your recent success and think it is pretty darn cool that you guys won the MTV2 video award for The Kill.  I hear you on the radio all the time now too! Last night was the first show of your MTV2 $2 Tour...I scored tickets long before they went on sale to the public (thanks for the e-mail giving me the opportunity).  I was totally excited to see you guys play at Myth Nightclub...huge club, awesome sound, etc.  Too bad those guys were effing me around last night so that I wasn't able to bring my camera in.  They made me really crabby with how they handled it.  I know you enjoy it when I get some good pics and post them on my blog....  I actually have several Googlers stop by my site looking for pics of you guys!

The show was still pretty cool....the production was way more professional than any I've seen you guys put on before.  You sounded great! But I have a question that I have been meaning to ask you since the very first time I saw you.....

Why do you guys always take the longest time in the world to take the stage??????? It never fails...the wait time is always exceptionally long.  Knowing this, I half expected it last night.  Many of your new fans weren't so patient.  Especially the teenagers! Did you know that 95% of your fans are under the age of 30?  I seriously felt OLD.  Waiting until 10:45pm to take the stage is tough on those kids.

Anyway, it was nice to see you again.  Take care and hopefully we will see you again somewhere soon!

xoxox

PS.  My friend Heather *LOVES* you.  She thinks you're beautiful :)  I think you looked better back in the day, but thats rock n' roll for ya!

Sevendust at Myth!

Got to see one of my all-time favorite heavy rockin' bands last night at Myth Nightclub.

SEVENDUST!!!

Of course the camera police were in action so I only got a couple of pics. This is me and my girl Ang:

I had a little bit of an awkward encounter with the bouncer who was checking ID's at the club....he is a former very good friend of mine from like 10 years ago.  A good friend who tried to cross the line of our friendship in a very inappropriate way.  We had a big fight and I haven't spoken to him or seen him in like 8 years.  There was a long line of people waiting to get inside and I was hoping he wouldn't notice me because I didn't want to talk to him.  When I got to the front of the line he glances up at me, does a double take, reads my ID and was like, "Whoa, I haven't seen you in a Looonnnnnng time." And I was like, "Yep, a long time." Then I walked away.  I had nothing more to say to this person and it wasn't the time/place.  It was weird though.

I also saw another reunion between a very good friend of mine and someone whom had once been a very important part of my friend's life for many, many years until about two years ago.  Things ended very badly between them and they had not seen or spoken to each other until last night.  Lots of hard feelings on the part of my friend...stuff that is hard to forgive.  It was very emotional reunion between the two of them and it was emotional for me to watch.  I know that forgiveness is the Christian way, but it certainly isn't easy in some cases. I think my friend handled the situation very well, considering the circumstances that ended their friendship.  Maybe this is the first step toward healing.

The show was pretty kick-ass, but I was pretty tired after late-nights of working and going to the gym on Mon& Tuesday and then working late again for parent/teacher conferences on Wednesday (last night) before the show.  We got home around 1am and bedtime was about an hour later.

So I am majorly dragging today and will be working several extra hours for conferences again tonight. I need a little break!

I am looking forward to dinner with a group of my girlfriends on Friday night.... hitting a cool place in Uptown :)

Late on Friday night we are also expecting E's cousin Dana (with her boyfriend Kevin and daughter Jasmine) to be coming in from Chicago.  They will be hanging out and staying with us until Wednesday or so.  I am trying to talk Dana into bringing some pictures with her so that we can scrap together this weekend. I am waiting on an order from Down Memory Lane Co and want to get my March Circle journals completed!

I actually got a layout done last weekend that I haven't had a chance to post until now.

I wanted to thank Kim, Jennifer, Jules, Jeff and Adrienne for obliging my request to put their locations on the map from my last post.  Its too bad that only five people love me though! But it isn't too late! You don't need to upload a pic if you don't want, and you certainly do not need to leave your last name if anyone was worried about that.

Thats all for now.  Peace out, people!!

Ta'Mar with Prince at the Orpheum

We had pretty good seats for the show last night...about row 13 or so. The performance was short but sweet! They only played for about 90 minutes, unusually short for the Man, but this wasn't his show.  The night was all about Ta'Mar.

I had never seen Ta'Mar before, but this girl sure can sing and dance! She had some pretty cute twin sisters singing back up too, while Prince played guitar. Band included a kick-ass female drummer and guys on base and keyboards.

I snuck my camera in and attempted a couple of  pics with the flash off before the camera police came to get me.  Soooo not worth getting my camera taken away for crappy pics like this:

The funniest part about the show was when Ta'Mar called members of the audience to come up on stage to dance.  One poor woman was trying to get up the stairs to the middle of th stage and her effin pants fell down. And they fell down to reveal a hairy booty!!!!!!! I felt so bad for her but it was soo funny at the same time.  She laughed and continued to dance on stage with Prince!!

I heard rumors of an after-party down at Paisley Park afterward, but didn't want to drive so far away from where I live (complete opposite ends of the Twin Cities from each other) and have Prince not show up.  I read on the NPG Music Club message boards this morning that the party was $25 and Prince never did show up last night....  Just as I expected.We have been down there several times before and only once did he actually play when I was there. He likes to keep his appearances mysterious. But it is worth the attempt in case you do get a private show with the man!

On a Happier Note....

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes about E's grandma, it means a lot to us :) This would have been a very busy weekend for me, but I wanted to spend time with E and his family so I cancelled plans to attend birthday parties for Johnnessa and Mary on Saturday and a car show and a Super Bowl party on Sunday.  E's aunt and uncle arrived in town from Chicago on Sunday night and are staying until Tuesday when his Grandma will be cremated.  It looks like we will be heading to Chicago at the end of the week for the funeral, since all of her friends and family live there.  I am hoping that I am able to go, but this is like the worst week to have to take time from work.  I am doing what I can now so that I might be able to go.  Not looking forward to spending my birthday at a funeral, but such is life!

Before we got all this bad news, we went out on Friday night to see our friends' band, Xero, play.  Rock on!  Here are a few pics from that show. This first one is my friend Rich, the drummer.  I thought this was a pretty cool pic!

Xero (Matt, Bruce, Chad, Bob and Rich)

and me with my girls Heather and Colleen!

I've Had a Busy weekend!

What a relief...it looks like Typepad finally fixed their "technical difficulties" or whatever it was that made a week worth of my posts disappear and access to their site  unavailable.  Glad it is fixed now, but I have been too busy to worry about it anyway, to tell you the truth!

I am now on vacation!  Yayyyyyy! It started Friday evening after a wonderful last day of school before the break. We had a schoolwide enrichment day (organized by yours truly) in which all of the teachers and support staff taught a mini-class of some kind to a mix of grade levels and the kids signed up for classes of their choosing.  The classes that our staff taught were really fun... friendship bracelets, beading, mini scrapbooks, volleyball, creative dramatics, learning to play Cribbage, Jeopardy, holiday craft projects, making quesadillas, Mardi Gras Masks, senufo cloth drawings, hmong culture, cardmaking, etc.

I did cookie decorating for 1st & 2nd graders.  We had a blast!  They loved frosting the cookies and putting lots of sprinkles on!  This pic of me with some kids and our cookies was taken with the school camera...my camera battery had gone dead. ) I got a ton of positive feedback about the day  from both my colleagues and the students and we will be doing it again on Valentine's Day. It takes me many hours to get everything organized, but it is totally worth it!

On Saturday I went to Fashion Bug and took advantage of their latest sale....got about $500 worth of sweaters and tops for half-price.  Not bad!

Came home from shopping and scrapped these two layouts.  This top one is the first one for me to use Prima flowers and no large silk flowers! My stash is getting low...I need to head to Michael's to get some more sometime this week!

This next one is of me and Susan when we went out for Mexican a few months ago.  I love the bright colors of this one! Don't tell anyone but I accidentally made a mistake in my journaling and totally had to move the picture from its original location.  Live and learn, I guess!

Saturday was spent helping  Rich transport all of his drumming equiptment to THE ROCK in Maplewood, where he was going to have a show with his band, XERO late Sat. night.  This took us a few hours of running around, etc.  We stopped for a pizza and then went home to change before going back to the show.  Poor E...he has been really sick all week but has put in 50 + hrs nonetheless...still made time for his buddy and a night out at the bar to hear the band!

We had a lot of fun during the show....

Xero is a band that has been together on/off for like 10 years.  This was Rich's first band, in fact.  We was with another band for a significant amount of time before getting back to jam with Xero.  This is Xero's first show together in a really long time...and my first time seeing them.  Here is Richie Z on the drums....this boy is a bad-ass drummer! 

And here is Matty playing his guitar!

Even though I am not into this really heavy headbanging music, I still enjoyed myself.  I had a ton of fun with Heather, drinking beer all night.  Here we are with Richie after the show...

Here is one of our friends Becky & Miles....they leave for Costa Rica on Tuesday (staying in a Tree House) and I am soooooo incredibly jealous! That is my # 1 dream destination.  I have wanted to go there for at least 10 years now, but that is a different story!

And here is Pods, sportin' the new Xero tshirt

Good times!

So much fun, in fact, that we stayed out until 3am.  Went out to eat and then hung out with some friends and watched The 40 year Old Virgin.  I LMAO!!  I thought it was very funny throughout most of the movie.  Don't watch it unless you don't mind lots of sexually humor....it stars Steve Carrell and he did a great job of playing this role.  It is very, very funny.

I still have a lot of catching up to do on all the blogs and stuff, but I will do my best this week!  Who am I kidding that time off work means relaxing? hah! I have too many things to do and people to see this week! 

Catch ya'll later :)

Korn at the Myth!

We had tickets Saturday night to see Korn play at the Myth NIghtclub....a HUGE band playing before a PACKED audience of 5,000 or so..... Doors were supposed to open at 6 so we thought we'd show up late....there was still a long-ass line when we got there at 7:15 and we had to wait outside in the freezing cold.  I hate that!  Then another 10-15 minutes to get a beer (which cost $5.00 before the tip).  The show sounded pretty kick-ass, but I could hardly see a thing....it was truly packed and nearly impossible to make your way through the crowded floor, so I resorted to the best I could find....about 4 people back from the lower balcony.  I wish I had gotten there earlier to get a better place on the floor.  It was still a great show... I love it when Jonathan Davis comes out and plays his bagpipes......sounds so cool!

What else is new? I might need some help here, people.

I am on the search for a new Vaccum AND a new scanner.  My Kenmore Vaccuum exploded and died last week.  Hoping to get something powerful that picks up all the cat hair.  Maybe a Dyson? I don't know anything about vaccums! I don't want to pay more than $600......What brands should I look into?

I also need a new scanner..... my Canoscan died last night while trying to scan my latest LO (layout).  This is the 2nd time that has happened in the past year.  I am taking it back tonight since I have a warranty for it.  Hoping to get something better.  The resolution on this one is great and it is very small and lightweight.....which I think is also the reason it broke and why it makes such dark shadows....I need something with a heavier lid.  Any recommendations???  Now if only the 12 x12 scanners would come down in price so that I could get one and avoid the tedious process of stitching of my LOs!

I need to get my Holdiay Wish List typed out.... I have lots of ideas of what I want this year.  This makes things so much easier for my family.  Brian, Michelle & Jeff, I want wish lists from you too!  I am one of those people who hates Christmas shopping because of the crowds, lack of parking, etc.  I would avoid it altogether if I had to randomly search for gifts without a clue! Do you want gift cards again???

My friend Lanee got her very first cell phone this weekend.  Wow! Congrats Lanee, for attempting to join the 21st Century girl!  First a DVD player and now a cell phone.  If only you knew how to use a computer and the Internet, we'd really be getting somewhere! Lol

My friend Keith in Missouri called me on Saturday.  I hadn't talked to him in awhile. He is getting married at the end of the month! Congrats, Keith! Now send me some pics of the family, will ya???

I need some dinner ideas.  Especially crockpot recipes.  E is working 12 hour days/6-7 days a week until after Christmas and I am starving and tired by the time he gets home.  I don't want to have to worry about din-din every night!

I still need to go to the scrap store to buy new albums for my upcoming Circle Journals.  My scheme for the color CJ is purple/silver.  Still haven't figured out what I am doing for the other CJ.  Maybe Favorite Places??

I bought several new books yesterday at Shinders.  Stockin' up for my upcoming vacation......Only two more weeks of work until I get two weeks + a day off for Winter Break!!! Let me know if you'd like to get together!

PS I haven't changed this banner in almost a month....because I am not sick of it yet!  I think that is a new record.  Maybe I'll do a holiday one soon.  Hey Raina, did you figure our how to get Christmas music on your banner yet? Let me know when you do!  Otherwise Sade will continue to sing for your listening pleasure.

xoxo

KEAS

They're off! Girls Poker Party, Static X

Saturday was the last day of family with us.....we took them out to breakfast and then spent some time with Bacha before they left.

We spent most of Saturday shopping/running errands....most places didn't seem that busy yet.  We were out in Minneapolis later that afternoon and I had been having a major craving for Pad Thai noodles...so off to Sawatdee for dinner we went!

I had just a few hours to chill before my friend (and neighbor) Shannon and I took off for a little "Girls Poker Night" party at another friend's house just down the street.  Since it was only two blocks away, we walked.....despite the cold ass weather!  These were some girls we went to high school with....about half of them are really serious about playing Texas Hold 'Em, the other half of us kind of know how to play, but just wanted to have some fun.  They had an official looking card table set up....It was a $20 buy-in and we each got 40 chips.  I had pretty crappy cards all night and luckily Shannon and I both went out on the same hand and were able to go home somewhat early! Our friend Mollie ended up taking 1st place and won a nice pot.  I never have played in a tournament before, but we still had fun!

I was finally able to sleep in on Sunday :)  We took a little drive north and went to Quack's for lunch.  You can't beat their Sunday 12 oz prime rib special for $10, so we go there often on Sundays. 

Sunday night we went back downtown Mpls to see Static X play....neither of us really were in the mood to go out, but we had already paid almost $30 for the tickets and didn't want to lose out on the money.  It was a pretty good show, but I think I would rather have spent my evening taking it easy and getting some scrapping done!!

Now it is Monday morning and back to work time.  I sure hope this week goes fast!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

I would like to say Happy Birthday to my mom.....she turns *45* today!  ;)

Here is a little collage I made of her with several family members.  Isn't she gorgeous?

Besides being a beautiful woman, my mom is also very intelligent and knowledgeable.  She is a fabulous cook, sews like a professional, and can rewire an entire house single-handedly, just to name a few of her specialties.  This post would be VERY long if I listed everything that she is good at!

We celebrated her birthday as a family yesterday afternoon.  A perfect chance to see my sweet baby niece.  Annika is getting so big! It is hard to believe she is 3 1/2 months old already.  You can kind of see the smile on her face in the 2nd pic...my flash is pretty strong and unfortunately washed out her features :(

ARMOR FOR SLEEP........

Early on Sunday evening I went to Mpls to see Armor for Sleep at the Quest.  This is a young band that we just discovered about a month ago and have been listening to ever since. 

My take on Football; Sevendust Concert!!!!!!

Sunday was a busy day...

Warning! Boring Football Talk to follow in the next few paragraphs!

My friends Lanee & Roger had a Vikings VS. Green Bay Packers party at their house in the early afternoon.  I didn't watch a single minute of the game while I was there.....I am not proud of the Vikings these days.  And not just because of the recent SEX scandal that has gotten them such great publicity in the past few weeks.  They just plain SUCK!!!  I lost my confidence in them during the 98-99 season when Gary Andersen missed the field goal kick that would've brought them to the Superbowl.  It hurt so bad I decided I just couldn't do it anymore with that team! 

To me football is really about the socializing with other people while "watching" the game.  This is the way it always was for me in High School until my little brother started playing.  One time while watching one of his games, I asked my mom why Brian wasn't out there playing.  She was like, "well he plays defense.  That is the offense out there." I am not kidding...I had no idea that the offense and defense didn't play at the same time!  I was a soccer player for goodness sakes and we all played together!!  Anyway, Kim and Katie came to the party and it was really nice to see them.  Here is a cute pic of me Kim and Lanee:

I ended up leaving the party before the game was over because I had a few errands to run before I went back home.  I got home in time to watch the last 1:23 of the game.  The Vikings had come back to take the lead and then Green Bay tied it up with just a few seconds to go.  Can you believe that the Vikings had a chance to score a Field Goal (for the win) with 2 seconds left, 56 yards away....and the kick was GOOD!!!!  That was a team record FG.  And I still hate the Vikings!!

Shortly after the game we got ready to head downtown to see one of our favorite heavy bands of all time: SEVENDUST!!!!  I have seen these guys probably 10 times and they still kick my ass every time!! The show was last-minute at a small venue and they had this place slammin'.  It never fails that the mosh pit opens up right next to where I am standing and I sometimes  get lost in the pandemonium.  Here are the best pictures I could risk taking:

Latest on my effin laptop.....I think the problem is somewhere in my Network Bridge.  Not sure what my next move will be.  Today at lunch I went to Target to by an External Harddrive....a place I can put all my pictures and keep them safe!  I also bought a jump drive so I can easily take pictures from computer to computer.  Thank God I have a pretty sweet PC at home that still has working Internet.  I'd die if I couldn't get online again!  I will try my hardest to keep up with all the fun blogs I love to read.  And maintain this one, of course!

I guess it could be worse...My brother Jeff just told me that the Web hosting company he uses for his personal site and all the ones he creates for business is based in Miami....apparently somewhere near where Wilma hit....because everything is GONE.  Or at least down for the time being! That really stinks if you have them as your e-mail provider as well.

I also wanted to give a shout out to my Gramps who turned *80* yesterday!!! Happy Birthday!!

Rock Rock Rockin.....Queensryche!

I had the pleasure of seeing Queensryche at the Myth Nightclub on Saturday night.  First, let me tell you about this club....it is GINORMOUS!!! Brand-new with all the hotness of a Vegas club; complete with VIP suites, huge dancefloor, several bars and an ass-kickin sound system.  Knowing that this would NOT be the mosh-pit style concert that I usually go to, I was able to stand with E and his buddies about 8 ft from the stage (despite the fact that the club was packed!).  This band has been around for 24 years now, but singer Geoff Tate was in incredible shape and his voice is still as good as it ever was. 

Queensryche is a band that has special meaning to me and E, at least according to me :) He has loved them since Jr. High....he used to talk about them every single day back in 8th grade geography class when we sat right next to each other.  That was in 1990.  At the time I instantly fell in love with Silent Lucidity, the song that got the most radio-play.  I didn't immediately hop on their band-wagon, but for many years later I always thought of E every time I heard anything about Queensryche.  He has continued to love them ever since and I have also grown to love them over the past 7 years.

Check out these pics I snapped at the show

***Sunday was a nice and relaxing day.  E and I got up fairly early (for a Sunday) and went out to A World of Fish just to browse all the cool fish they have there.  I spent most of the evening just chillin and also got these two layouts finished.

This one is me with my friends Ra and Lori. Pics were taken after Ra's month-long trip to Cambodia.  She came back with gifts and lots of stories! The journaling on this one needs to be re-done but I went ahead and scanned it anyway :)

This one is for Shauna's circle journal.  Her theme was "The Song remembers when...".  I had to find just one song that brings back a memory and do a 6 x 7 two page layout.  I did mine about seeing Santana at the Hard Rock in Vegas on 12-31-99.

So now maybe I am starting to get my scrappin' groove back.  Yay!

Ra, Ra and then some Rap

Hola!  Its only Saturday morning, but already I have had a lot going on since my last post...

**Spent some time with my friends Ra and Lori the other night.  Ra had just come back from spending a month with her family in Cambodia and we spent time hearing about her trip and looking at the scrapbook she made of her pictures. 

Wow, it is a totally different world than here, as you can imagine.  The American $$$ goes a LONG way, so it is extremely cheap to spend time there. Ra brought me back this bag as a present... she is one of the sweetest!!

**Friday night I went out with E and his friends to see a couple of shows....the first one was to see a band at The Quest that (coincidentally) is also named RA.  These guys were pretty cool!  It was sooooo loud and we were about 6 feet from the speakers.  That stupid buzzing keeps ringing in my ears! 

Later we went to see a performer called E-Dot at O'Garas Garage.  He is a friend-of-a-friend and is an up-and-comer in the Twin Cities rap scene.  Unfortunately he was the last act of the night and the sound board man at O'Gara's was a total effin idiot and took off.  Not a very good show because it sounded like crap!  Poor E-Dot.  He was really disappointed.

**Went to Cossetta's to get a pizza fix.  That place is so great!

**Only two more weeks of summer vacation.....the past two weeks have flown by too quickly! I am not nearly caught up on all my scrappin'.  Such is life!

Spread the word!!

I have been asked to spread the word about the new 30 Seconds to Mars album being released on Aug 30th.  I have posted about these guys many times before....they ROCK!!!!!!!!!!

GO BUY IT in a few weeks!!!!

Statix X and Harry Potter

Its still incredibly HOT.  Thank God for my Central Air....I am so spoiled! I have been reluctant to leave the house at all this weekend.  I almost opted-out of a rock show.....Static-X at First Avenue.  For those of you who haven't heard about First Avenue, it is THE club in the movie Purple Rain with my man, Prince. Well this also happens to be the HOTTEST effin club in ALL of Minnesota.  So wouldn't it be a great idea to go to a heavy metal show in a club on the hottest day of the year, the humidity higher than my bathroom during a long, hot shower? I knew what it was like and it was all I could do to get myself motivated.  I seriously debated between staying home and finishing Harry Potter or going to see this band who has so much energy, they kick my butt every time I see them.  And I hadn't seen them in like 3 years.  So, of course I had to go!  There were a few opening bands so E and I hung out in the A/C'd bar upstairs where it was only 87' instead of 110' or hotter out on the floor.  I stayed up there by myself for the first part of Static-X's set, but I just couldn't hear the music...so I braved the heat and sweat and went down closer to the floor.  These guys were rockin out...one of my favorite heavy metal bands!  ****For those of you who do not know this, E is a BIG time metal head.  He LOVES all kinds of music, very ecclectic taste, but loves some head bangin' shizit.  It has come to grow on my after all these years of us together :)

***So I finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this morning. WOW! What an ending! Bring on Book 7...NOW! This is now my favorite book of the series because it explains so much and so much happens.  It totally leaves you wanting to know how it all ties together in book 7.  I have been following discussion of the book on a few message boards and find the theories pretty fascinating.  I might even re-read the book soon, that is how much I liked it!

***I also got some scrappin' done this weekend.  Did this layout. The letters that say"summer" are the Heidi Swapp ghost letters and I 'daubered" them and the ink smeared all over, so the little circles were my way of covering them up! I don't love how it turned out, but I have to prove to myself that I can make mistakes and let it go!

I wish I was at the Santana Concert right now!!!

E and I REALLY wanted to see Santana tonight....we didn't have tickets and had thought about going down to the arena to scalp them, but we knew it would cost us too much $$$...$$ that we do not have to spend right now.  So bummer, we didn't get to see him tonight.
We have, however, seen Santana at least 4 times before, including on Dec 31st, 1999 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas.  I don't know what could be more memorable than seeing Santana as the clock strikes a new millenium, in a small intimate venue!!  Those tickets were almost $300 a piece, but it was definitely worth it!!!  Since I am reminiscing about that night, I might as well post a couple of pics.                       Its hard to believe that that was already almost 6 years ago...I was only 22!
Well, we didn't get to rock out to Santana tonight, but I do know that we will see him again!

30 Seconds to Mars

Last night one of my favorite bands, 30 Seconds to Mars came back to Minneapolis for the first time in over two years...some of you may know the lead singer, Jared Leto from his acting career...he starred in a TV series called My So Called Life and was in the movies Highway, Panic Room, and Requiem for a  Dream. I got tickets several months ago and I am glad because it was sold out!!

The show kind of got off to a late start....it was hotter than ever in the Ascot Room at The Quest club, so we had a few beers while waiting for the crappy opening bands to get over.

30 Seconds finally came on and I was trying to get as close to the stage as possible (you know, better photo opp) when a freakin' mosh pit breaks out around me! This happens almost every metal show that I go to...and this band isn't even that heavy! So I broke away from my boys who went right up to the stage and I found a better place to stand.... still didn't get the best pics, here is one of Jared.  I love going to concerts, but I HATE stinky, sweaty guys rubbing against me.  YUCK!!! I guess that is the price you pay to be anywhere on the floor though!

So I went to bed some time after 1am and then got up at 6.  Now I am REALLY looking forward to going to work and moving all day( I say this sarcastically because the last thing I feel like doing today is anything physical!) I am exhausted, but I can sleep in tomorrow as late as I need to!!!!