-L-A-H-O-M-A!
We couldn’t miss this year’s Zilker Hillside Theater summer production. Monte played the lead in this show back in the day. Show tunes are still ringing in my head. 🙂
Category: Music
Navy band unplugged.
It is Armed Forces Week in this traditionally U.S. Navy home of the Puget Sound area. Mom and I caught a very nice performance by the Navy’s wind quartet and brass quintet at the local library tonight. Lots of feet were a-tappin’.
Go Navy! 🙂
And, the program:
Here we go again!
I wish you a most happy, loving, and exciting 2014! I’m counting my blessings while reeling through memories from the year we just wrapped up. Here’s to the next lap ’round the sun. Cheers!
A most excellent Christmas Eve Eve.
Yesterday was the first day since my vacation started that I didn’t have anything already on the todo list. It was all my day. So I lounged around in the AM, hit the gym, did a little bead shopping, made some shepherd’s pie (yum)…. Just relaaaaaxed.
An extra treat was to see a couple of friends that stopped by the house: first Rob, and then Marty.
THEN in the evening we headed downtown to Donn’s Depot to listen to the amazingly talented Chris Gage during his weekly gracing of the stage there. WHAT a great show. Chris was joined onstage, as usual, by a host of other musicians in the house singing rockin’ Christmas songs til the wee hours – his wife and music partner Christine Albert, the King of Hillbilly R&R Jon Emery, newly Grammy nominated Kym Warner of The Greencards, David Carroll on upright bass, Jeff Tveraas, and the incredible Marcia Ball… It just can’t get better than that.
I saw my friend Winker, and I ran into my friend Kathy who I haven’t seen in at least a couple years. It was fun to catch up with her.
A simply perfect night.
Albert and Gage are one of my all time favorite musicians. Chris has a brand new instrumental christmas album out, Ornaments, which I’ve played a few hundred times already this year 🙂 And A&G have a Christmas album called One More Christmas that I bought last night which is fantastic as well. Check out all their stuff whether solo or together, you’ll enjoy them. By the way, A&G are playing the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar at noon today…go see ’em!
Here are a few pics from the night…not great, since I didn’t want to use the flash, but you can see the awesomeness of the night…
Home.
Touchdown ABIA.
It’s good to be home. I’m very tired. And, I’m on call this weekend for work, so I won’t be able to venture very far. So while it’s nice to be home to recharge, there’s still lots of things to keep me busy. Monte has dart night at the house tonight, so I’ve slipped away to putter around til i fall asleep.
Sometimes I create playlists on iTunes just based on a word search in the title or the lyrics of the songs in my library. Tonight, I searched for songs with “home” in the title and found many hits. Here’s a sampling, in order of when i first remembered hearing them (sorry ’bout the goofy ads before many of each of these…hopefully you can click through). I have a story to go with each of these, but for now I’ll just share the links. Maybe you’ll enjoy and/or remember them, too. As for me, i love how music is woven into my memories….
– Carole King’s Home Again
– Alice Cooper’s I’m Going Home
– Tim Curry’s I’m Going Home from Rocky Horror Picture Show
– Cecilio & Capono’s Home (and I’m staying this time)
– Bonnie Raitt’s Home
– Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes’ Home
– Phillip Phillips Home
Multi-tasking.
My Sunday wannado list was longer than the day would allow. I made it to the gym early, then caught up on laundry and paperwork. Then the dilemma: park in front of the tv for 4 hours to watch my Seahawks in action? Or go to the Pecan Street Festival and run a few other errands?
So, I decided, BOTH!
I streamed the game on my iPhone via the NFL mobile app as I walked around the festival with an earbud in my ear. The rain held up and it was a nice afternoon. And, oh my, what a game! The Hawks came back from being down 20-3 to Houston at halftime, winning in overtime. I was the most animated festival attendee on the scene. I got a few dark looks from folks wearing Texans jerseys, as I walked around in my Seahawks shirt. 🙂
The festival was lively, as usual. Music, food and a couple hundred vendors selling art, jewelry, candles, tye-dye, and such. It’s held twice a year — once in the spring and once in the fall. If you missed it this time around, mark your calendar for May 4 & 5 next year.
This is a shot of one of the 3 music stages. Son de Rey was playing.
Music City, revisited.
After brunch today we said our goodbyes to everyone and dropped Gene at the airport on the way back into the city. We ended up staying an extra day, so we’ve decided to spend some of it getting more acquainted with Nashville.
We stopped by the original home of the Grand Ole’ Opry, the Ryman Auditorium.
We took the tour and got to see the stage up close:
And a view from backstage: 
It’s a beautiful venue. Amazing to think about all the stars that spent so much time here…
One more shot from the balcony: 
Then we wandered off to the nearby bars on Broadway. We ended up at Jack’s BBQ for some brisket and pork shoulder – and it was delicious.
Nashville is the “Athens of the South,” and in 1897 they built an exact replica of the Parthenon for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. So, of course, we had to see it. Unfortunately, by the time we made it to Centennial Park, the landmark was closed for tours, so we did not get a chance to see the statue of Athena. But we did get a great view of all 4 sides.
We made it to the Bluebird Cafe, but didn’t get a photo (!)
We ended up a great day at the Pla Mor Lanes. Monte kicked my butt 2-1 … even with the badminton injury 🙂
Looking forward to a leisurely morning tomorrow and (especially) spending the weekend on the boat. More exploring tomorrow, before heading to the airport for our flight home.
Good ‘night!
Girls’ trip!
Sort of spur-of-the-moment, but with just-enough planning, I left today on a girls’ weekend to San Diego with Lori, Doray, Laura, Ann and Irene. Here are some sights from today.
We flew Southwest – my first time on that airline. Ended up with a window seat.
We had reservations at the Palomar Hotel in the Gaslight district. AAAWESOME!!!! No complaints on the lodging.
Dinner at Croce’s restaurant Thursday night. Good jazz, kind of loud, and very busy. BTW, they are not closing, they are moving, so check them out in their new location.
Steel drums.
Yay Friday. We went to a party at friends’ home tonight. They designed and built this house themselves and moved in 2 years ago. This week they put it on the market and it sold in about 5 days. So in 3 weeks they move out and will do it all over again on a new lot in town. An amazingly beautiful place.
They had friends come in and play steel drums for entertainment. A great sound. I have only a picture to share.
Mock – yeah. ing – yeah. bird – yeah.
We share our property with some very friendly and vocal mockingbirds – the state bird of Texas. Here’s one:
And here’s the song that is now stuck in my head. Enjoy!
Fins up!
We set out again with Marty and Sue this afternoon for the Austin installment of the Jimmy Buffett “Songs from St. Somewhere” tour. We got there a couple hours early so we could phlock with all the other parrot heads. We saw Rob and Jen, too. Though the concert was postponed 24 hours, the place was packed.
The new Formula 1 track complex is pretty impressive. It sprawls over 1300 acres, located SE of the Austin airport. Quite a trek, but boy do they know how to move people in and out quickly and smoothly.
The Austin360 amphitheater is very nice. Brand new. Accommodates 14,000, which we must have been close to tonight. It is nestled between 2 giant hairpin turns of the F1 racecourse. The tower behind the stage is the observation tower overlooking the racecourse
And the concert was fantastic. Jackson Browne opened, and Jimmy played for a couple hours straight. He’s a great entertainer. I hope he doesn’t wait 17 more years before coming back again.
Postponed.
We’ve been counting down to tonight, to go to a concert with Marty & Sue at the new Circuit of the America’s racetrack concert venue called the 360 Amphitheater: Jimmy Buffet + Jackson Browne!
The last time Jimmy Buffet played a show Austin was 17 years ago at the (no longer there) Southpark Meadows. I was at that show, and have been looking forward to tonight’s show as well.
So we all headed out together in parrot head garb, and stopped to eat at Chuy’s before the show. It was there that we learned, an hour before the gates opened, that the concert had been postponed on account of high winds, until tomorrow night. A cold front came through early this morning and the winds have been blowing 20-40 miles all day, and will continue through the night.
Ok, I guess we’ll do it all again tomorrow!
A Saturday drive.
For the last 15 years, Becker Vineyards has had a Lavender Festival. Its been one of the things on my todo list. This year, i put it on my calendar several months ago, so I wouldn’t miss it. And, it worked! Today we headed out for a long drive through the hill country, in the miata with the top down. And we had a really great day…
We walked out through the lavender fields. They have several different varieties. It didn’t look quite like I had expected – i was imagining endless rows of deep purple, like in Provence. But it was pretty, nonetheless.
They also grow their own artichokes. I have never seen them in the wild before!
We walked through the vendor booths. Lots of lavender goodies, flowers, herbs, nibblies and such. 
Then one more walk through the fields, this shot is looking back at the winery.
We packed a light lunch and ate it at the festival while sipping wine and listening to the Raggedy Cats (we really enjoyed them).
Then a winery tour. Lots of new factoids. Becker has been here 20 years or so, and in that time, they’ve increased the amount of their wine that they make from grapes grown at the winery to 85%. The rest come from Lubbock.
Can’t wait for the Fredericksburg peach harvest!
On the way home we decided to dodge the brewing thunderstorms and buzzed over to Der Lindenbaum in Fredericksburg for some German home cooked food for dinner.
The festival is open tomorrow, too. Get out there if you can, this year or next!
Showtime.
Tonight the conference is hosting a concert in the garden arena of the MGM Grand. Carrie Underwood is treating us to an evening of music. On the floor you can see upwards of 8000 IBM-ers, clients and friends cutting loose. I’m enjoying seeing colleagues from current assignments, as well as those I haven’t seen in over ten years or more.
Sheila365 