4.29.2005

Saturday Music Opps

7-9 p.m.
Just back from the Buddy Guy tour, Tom Hambridge and the band are performing a special show in Nashville at BB Kings. Good stuff. You'll definitely want to take it in if you can!
BB Kings
152 2nd Ave.
Nashville615-256-2727

AND, after Tom's gig, I think I'll head over to the Mercy Lounge to catch:

Starts at 9 p.m.
You'll love Paul's band, wit and charm. I usually leave his shows musically inspired and exhausted from laughter. He's a riot.
One Cannery Row
Nashville, TN

I'll be there... well... everywhere I guess!
Let me know if you want to join me.

DON'T FORGET: Big gig tonight...

We had a great rehearsal at our house last night. I roped JTC (drums), Hubert Knight (bass), Kiwamu (a.k.a. Josh) Stewart (acoustic guitar), Steve Cirvencik (electric guitar) and Cat Miller (background vocals) into playing. They are all top notch and I'm very thankful that they agreed to be a part of the "Roundabouts".

You definitely won't want to miss our gig tonight if you can help it. It's 45 minutes of nothin' but BB and the Roundabouts AND it is going to be a blast.

Song line-up:
- Sometimes Love's Not Enough
- The Forgotten Ones
- You Can't Get It Back
- Gotta Get Up
- Don't Love You Anymore
- Quit Your Bitchin'

Be prepared to sing along! (Especially on Quit Your Bitchin')
If all goes well tonight, I might just take this show on the road!
HA.

Hope to see you there.

4.28.2005

Meeting hell...

Tuesday:
7 a.m. - Church meeting
8:30 a.m. - Project meeting
10 a.m. - IT status meeting
11:30 a.m. - Birthday lunch (whoohoooo)
4 p.m. - Vendor meeting at work
6:30 p.m. - Song class

Then there was yesterday:
9:00 a.m. - Projects meeting
10 a.m. - Monthly marketing meeting (two hours)
Noon - Webinar on new technologies
1:30 - New product demo
2:30 - Project meeting
5:00 - Deliver rehearsal packets
6 p.m. - Church meeting
7 p.m. - Choir rehearsal

Today:
NO MEETINGS. I've blocked off my calendar so that I can work on all of the things I talked about getting done in all of those meetings over the last two days. AAAAaaaaaaahhhh.

The only commitment I have this rainy day is "Jeanne & the Roundabouts" rehearsal at 7 p.m. And that sounds like tons of FUN not work.

I say we all declare this day the unofficial "No meeting day."
In fact, I may do the same tomorrow... then it will be "the official unofficial no meeting day."
Deal?!

4.27.2005

Most Expensive Zip Codes

Forbes published an interesting list of the most expensive zip codes in 2005.

Notice, TN, SD, NE, IA, WI and MN aren't in the list.
Whew!

Just thought I'd share.

4.26.2005

Happy Birthday to ME!!!


This is what 36 burning candles looks like.
OMG.
Do you think I'll need to call 911 to get these out?

4.25.2005

BB and the Roundabouts

Hey... I just realized that I haven't invited you all to my gig on Friday night at the French Quarter Cafe.

No... this isn't BB in-the-round.

It is BB with a BAND.

Here's the scoop:

Friday at 7:30 p.m.
BB & the Roundabouts
Performing on Jack Scott's Writer / Artist Showcase
French Quarter Cafe
823 Woodland Street
615-227-3100
No cover.

I'd love to see you all there.
The show lasts about an hour, so it won't be a late night... unless you want it to be!
Drop me a comment if you think you can make it!
Bring some friends... strangers... whatever.

Nashvegas traffic post

This is a GREAT post about Nashville traffic at BJ's Random Nonsense. Love it... so I had to share.

For those of you not familiar with Nashville roads, not only to they intersect each other multiple times (I mean the same streets criss-crossing each other) they also have multiple names and some are even complete circles (OHB). Once you get used to it (it's taken me almost five years) it's not so bad. However, when I first moved to Nashville I felt like I was driving on another planet. Nothing made sense... oh yeah... and no one knows how to follow the rules of the road either.

Crazy.

BB is sad.

Well, as predicted at the end of this post, BB is sad. Brenda, Denice and Paige are getting on a plane right now to return home to Nebraska and South Dakota. : (

We had a SPECTACULAR weekend... It went way too fast.

Yesterday, after church, I found out that JTC had roped the three of them into a big plan. We arrived home to a surprise b-day party! (My birthday is Tuesday.) How cool is that?!

Not sure how they did it, but I was clueless until we pulled into the driveway that there was anything in the works. Very cool.

Gwen brought a b-day cake, LaLa brought chocolate covered strawberries and bananas, peanut butter pie and baked brie (all homemade BTW... very YUMMY), Micol brought a yummy pasta salad, JTC grilled burgers and dogs... it was excellent.


When we were done eating, we all (about 14 people) ended up sitting out on the deck pickin', singin' and playin'.
It was a BLAST.





JTC's present to me was a left-handed acoustic guitar. I've been talking about learning to play, but wasn't planning to get a guitar anytime soon. He completely blew me away. Can't wait to get started!



Thanks to everyone for an incredible weekend with old and new-old friends.
It ROCKED.



I miss you already Brenda, Paige and Denice.
You're the BEST.
XO,
BB



4.24.2005

Fun with Corn-crunchers

My friends from Nebraska and South Dakota are visiting this weekend. Friday night the only thing we actually did that I said we'd do was go to the Opry.

Yesterday, we went to the Pancake Pantry, the Frothy Monkey and then down to Franklin to window shop before we went to the Earth Day Festival in Centennial Park. Well... we never made it to Centennial Park. When we got to Franklin, we realized that the Main Street Festival was going on and decided to go with it.

We had a blast, rain and all.




Fun with port-o-potties:


Callin' it a day:




Saturday night, we decided not to go out. Instead we frumped-out and watched "Ocean's 12" and "Meet the Fockers." Does this mean we're old?! : )



Venting about Brad

On Friday I posted about a Brad About You blurb that really torked me off. In it ("What Does Omaha have that we don't have?!?") Brad Schmitt called people from IA and NE "corn-crunchers" and it kinda boiled my blood. JTC is from IA and I'm from NE, so I was annoyed, got a little defensive and went off on Brad and his name-calling, whiny ways on this blog.

Well, today the post is gone and I apologize to those of you who had to endure it. It was a TOTAL rant. While I stand behind everything I said, you shouldn't have had to be tortured with these things.

For those of you who didn't see it, well... just be glad you didn't have to witness the whole thing.

Just don't make fun of these states and you'll never have to worry about feeling the rant of BB: NE, SD, IA, MN or WI.

Thanks for playin'.

HA.

4.21.2005

Garden update

JTC was finally able to get compost (Lowe's was out of stock until yesterday!) so we could finish filling in the garden bed. By the time I arrived home from work, he'd already hauled and finished the job! It looked GREAT. Thank you, John!

It was all I could do to make myself go to choir rehearsal last night... what I really wanted to do was plant my veggies and herbs!

Instead, I woke up bright and early this morning to plant the garden. There was no rain in sight at 5:45 a.m., so I went for it. Man, did it feel good to get it done.

As promised, here are some photos of our newly mulched trees and fresh flower beds...


pretty potted impatients and Gerber daisies...



and the new-and-improved BB Garden.



Planted so far: tomaotes, green peppers, onions, Italian flat parsley, basil, sage and oregano.

MmmmmMmmmmgood.

4.20.2005

Two days until...

Brenda (NE), Denice (SD) and Paige (NE) visit Nashville for the second annual "Nashvegas Chick Weekend!"

WHOOhooHOOhooHOO.

So far, we've got a fun-packed weekend in the works. We'll hit the ground running when they arrive on Friday at 5:30.

From the airport, we'll go straight to BB Kings to hear "Whitey Johnson" (a.k.a. Gary Nicholson) with Reese Wynans and Tom Hambridge.

Then, at 8 ish, we'll head out to the Opry to catch the show.

From there, who knows?! It may be a late night of honkey tonkin' or we may just go to our house to rest-up.

Saturday, not sure what we'll do in the AM (sleep in?), but a trip to the Pancake Pantry is probably in order. Then, we're off to the Earth Day Celebration in Centennial Park. The music line-up kicks bootay. Not sure what we'll do Saturday night... maybe that will be the honkey tonk night... no matter what, we'll have FUN.

Sunday, possibly church (if the guests are up for it), maybe a little Nashville shopping and a good old fashioned BBQ at the Richardson residence.

Monday, the chicks return to NE and SD.

And then, BB is sad.

In the meantime, I can't WAIT for them to get here.

Yeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaa.

4.19.2005

Target rocks.

Leave it to Target to think of something like this.

Can't wait until July 24 when the new Super Target opens at I-65 S and OHB. Traffic will be hell... but ohhhhhhh... the convenience of having my favorite store just minutes away!

4.18.2005

1,600 pounds of top soil

This weekend was BEAUTIFUL in Nashvegas. Originally, I had big plans to spring clean inside all weekend as JTC was out of town playing with the Drifters, Coasters and the Marvelettes.

But, it was just too nice outside to be inside cleaning. (sorry house)

So, from about 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, I trimmed the Russian sage bushes, completely cleaned and gutted the flower beds in front of the house, weeded and mulched the threes / bushes, put down 800 pounds of topsoil to rebuild the flower beds (40 pounds at a time) and potted five flower pots with red impatients and orange, yellow and red gerber daisies for the front step and deck. I was able to salvage all the flowers in the beds out front, so I'm hoping in a few weeks we'll see some pretty purple salvia and some yummy yellow rudibekia.

It looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

Yesterday, after church and lunch with JTC, I went to work on the vegatable / herb garden spot (a raised circle bed about 10' in diameter).

Nothing was spared. It was time for an overhaul. That darn Bermuda grass completely took over my little raised bed last year, squeezing out all the good stuff. (When we planted it about four years ago, we didn't know about weed screen and Bermuda grass.)

While I tore out the grass / weeds/ plants, JTC made a trip to Home Depot to get more top soil, weed screen and boundary bricks. (He went to Lowe's first but they were sold out of everything and he had to re-route.) By the time he returned the green stuff was gone and I had begun diggin' out the Bermuda root infested bed. He pitched in and helped me. We probably hauled off 10 or 12 wheel barrows full of clay / dirt. In the end, we'd dug out / down about 12 inches.

Hello weed screen. An ample amount was placed over the hole and over the first layer of gray concrete boundary bricks around the bed. Then we added another layer of bricks and I'm thinking we may add a third later.

After the weed screen was laid, we proceeded to dump 20 bags (800 lbs) of top soil in the hole. I think we'll need another 800 to completely fill the bed. (Yikers.)

When the sun started to go down, we called it a day. JTC is going to get more dirt this afternoon and I'm hoping to find an hour or two to finish the job up this week.

So, 1,600 pounds of top soil later, we've still got some dirt to haul. But, by the time all is said and done, I think I'll have a solid two feet of soil for my veggies and herbs to thrive in.

WhooHOOhooHOOhooooo!

I'll post photos of our handy work once everything is done and planted.

4.15.2005

The Ugliest Car

A few weeks ago Car Talk was looking for input on the ugliest car.
I sent in a comment on the Pontiac Aztek.

And the winner is...

They are just UGLY.

(Of course, JTC drives a Honda Element which made #4 on the list... and I love it... so what do I know?!)

Save a gnome, use a rolling pin.

Woman beats off burglar with gnome
(Nice headline CNN.)

LONDON, England (AP)-- A grandmother stopped an intruder from entering her home by lobbing a heavy garden gnome at him, police said Friday.

Jean Collop was woken early on Tuesday morning by the sound of an intruder on the roof of her home in Wadebridge, southwest England.

"I grabbed the first thing that came to hand -- one of my garden gnomes -- and hurled it at him, and hit him," she recalled.

"He lay there and I began to scream. I went back into the kitchen and found a rolling pin in case he came down. I didn't want to break another gnome."


It is nice to know those stupid gnomes are good for somthing.
HA.

News 2: Please Read

A nice post / how to on media blogging.
It is spot on.

4.14.2005

The "gentle" alarm clock

What a cool concept. Some Brown University students were inspired by their own sleep deprivation to develop a "clock that wakes you when you're ready." I'm just not sure how I feel about having to wear a headband equipped with electrodes and a microprocessor to bed to make it work.

UPDATE 04.15.05:
Just read about this on BB. There is actually something already out there called the SleepTracker... it's gotten a pretty good review, too. I WANT ONE! (No chip necessary.)

4.13.2005

Finger chili mystery solved

Apparently, the woman who found a finger in her chili a few weeks ago has a "suspiciously litigious" past. And, it looks like the actual finger donor (04.14.05 Updated link) may be a Nevada exotic animal owner who lost her digit to a leopard two months ago.

Here is a link to the story on AP.org.

Bob Davis suspected there might be something like this going on, but I didn't believe him. So, he owes me a big "I told you so..."

Doesn't change the yuck-factor one bit though.
I still agree with Lindadblu on this one...

EEEEEeeeeeewwwwww.

American Idol-oke

Last night, I was feeling a little wiped out and felt a sore throat coming on... so, I stayed home from my songwriting class to recharge a little... which allowed me to watch American Idol with JTC.

It was like watching a televised kareoke competition. No one is really putting any heart and soul into the songs. They're just going through the motions, singing the songs exactly like the original and they aren't "bringin' it" at all.

So far, I think Bo, Anwar and Nadia have the most potential. But frankly, I think all of them are pretty average. This years competition / contestants are yawners compared past shows. contestants. Fantasia blows all of them out of the water. As does Rubin and Kelly Clarkson.

Is it just me?
Am I over analyzing it?
What do you think?

4.12.2005

YaGoohoo!gle

Ran across a link to this at FrogBody.
What a cool concept.
So far (no surprise) Google is winning on my searches.

4.09.2005

A day in the life of the Nashville Zoo

JTC and I spent a few hours at the zoo today. Below is a pictorial of our adventure. The new elephant exhibit is INCREDIBLE. Can't wait to go back when there aren't so many people!









(My favorite animal at the zoo today... JTC.)









Now entering the new Elephant Savannah...