Blink182 and Weezer Concert

Last night we and our friends went to the Blink182 / Weezer concert - and it was a great show. I do think that I'm getting too old for the lawn seats though (we spent much of the Blink portion of the show avoiding drunk teenagers who thought it would be a good idea to mosh in the middle of families and other reasonably sober patrons).

Anyway, focusing on the positives, the best part of the night was the encore when Travis Barker performed a drum solo that lifted his whole set into the air and spun it around. It was spectacular, like him and Blink182 in general. Here is a video clip from youtube from their WI tour:



It was also my first Weezer concert, and I had tons of fun singing along to their songs as well. It was a throwback to their hayday songs - and good thing too since I don't know any of their new stuff! I'd definately go back to another Weezer show - they were quite entertaining!

Squeaky Clean

I have connections...in the soap business. My brother knows someone who gets free sample products from one of those major beauty/food products manufacturers. These aren't the tiny sample bottles either- they are Sam's Club sized gallons of shampoos, soaps, mayo... you name it! So every couple of months we are being pleasantly surprised by random tubs of beauty products and fooding stuffs; one month we may get 10 sets of shampoos, the next month bars of soap and granola bars. My sister has donated much of her freebees (hotel shampoos and these gifts) to the local women's shelter as well. Whatever we can't use, someone can.

Seeing the 30 bars of brand-named soap on my shelf next to the 18 partially used hand soaps from all the hotels I've stayed at - I can't clean enough to use them all! But I decided to try my hand and turn some of those soaps into liquid hand soaps - something we were running low on - and without the additional chemical additives! Here's the play-by-play:


1: Heat 1 gallon of previously boiled or distilled water until its just steamy.

2: Shave 1 bar of soap until its nice and thin.

3: Add soap to steamy water, remove from heat, blend. Let sit for a few hours and make sure its well blended. 4: Funnel into soap containers.

Technically this can also be used in place of body wash (since they are effectively the same thing) but with out the $12 price tag. So one bar of free soap just saved me $12 any way I use it. It only took 15 minutes to make the soap (without the time to wait for it to sit!). It came out a bit liquid this time, next time I'll use a smidge less water.

Book Report: The Teahouse Fire

Ellis Avery's The Teahouse Fire offered me a true getaway mixed with a bit of learning. This was, no matter how hard I tried, not a quick read - there was too much to pay attention to in each chapter. I tried to 'gulp' it down - it was really quite good - but I couldn't because there was too much to savor. Avery's descriptions of the transition of men to women forming the responsibility for this historical ritual of tea, and the challenges of class systems and a population's hatred of those people who are "different" - who had to practice their own lives in secret was so thought provoking. One of the things I found really shocking was being an American, I never thought about how the Japanese may have once found us less than human; to them we were the savages. Avery really gets you to mold into this book and understand what it means to be an outcast trying to live in the popular culture, never understanding why you don't truly fit in until you make your own path.

What I loved most about the book was its inspiring undertones about how you make your own destiny and luck. Perhaps I've had luck on the mind lately - just getting back from Las Vegas with all its gambling and the people trying to strike it rich... watching all my friends and family make decisions to move or get married or have a family. This seems like such a great time to make your own decisions and form your future. And no one can do it for you. You can decide to stay in the city as its burning down, or hop on a carriage and take a chance on a new destination. You can decide to take the life that your parents plan for you (in this book, to marry) or fight back and make your own path. Its such a liberating feeling to know that we have some control over our own destinies, even if I still believe God has the ultimate say.

Needless to say, I quite enjoyed this book. It threw a couple more challenges at me than some of the beach books I've read recently, but I think the balance between a good story and a challenge was wonderful.

Book Report: Gods Behaving Badly

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips was an accidental discovery for me while I was throwing books into my library basket two weeks ago, and I loved it.

The book is an easy story about Greek gods (Aphrodite, Zeus, Artemis, Eros, Apollo, etc.) who live in current-day London with current day jobs. Aphrodite (goddess of beauty) is a phone sex operator, Artemis (goddess of hunting) is a dog walker, etc. When Aphrodite and Apollo get into a bit of a spat, two humans get caught up in the mix and 'all hell' ensues.

This was really an enjoyable read and I'd highly recommend for those interested in a weekend getaway. I didn't learn anything from the book, other than enjoying how creative some authors can be, but that's just the kind of vacation book I needed.

Book Report: Girls In Trucks

This was one of my summer beach books; the kind that are easy reads, but don't really add anything to your life. While the cover was cute and the book summary was enticing, I didn't really enjoy the book.

The main character- Sarah - is a girl raised in the debutant southern society, and doesn't like it. All she wants to do is run away with a boy and have fun instead of being in 'appropriate' dance class or learning how to drink her tea. Sarah goes to college up north and ends up becoming a wild child and involved in one troubled relationship after another - in complete contrast to the rules she was taught as a girl. And when she comes home, she understands that her family was only pretending to live by the rules as well.

I liked this book up until Sarah left for college. I thought the author did a great job of building scenes of the debutant society and enjoyed the character build up. It was a shame she spent the bulk of the book on cyclical relationship suffering and depressing wild-child behaviors - the book had a lot of potential. When the author returns to the south at the end, you could feel the warmth coming back to the book; but cut it short.

Perhaps its the sheltered life I grew up in and maintain for myself, but I can't imagine ever throwing myself away like she does. She seems to not care about herself or her own life, and has no goals except finding some sort of romatic 'high'. I can imagine others enjoying this book - and did until it left the south.

Las Vegas: Day 3

On Tuesday, the entire family went to the Hoover Dam & rafting on the Colorado River.

The raft is a large, slow-moving boat that glides down the river holding 30-50 people. The weather was a bit hot (a balmy 106*F) , and the river was chilly (around 50* F). It was a nice trip though, and at the end, a bus drove us back to the Hoover Dam for a tour. Here are some photos of the day-trip!

Las Vegas Days 1 & 2

VEGAS! We had a blast; I was so excited to get there, mostly because I haven't had a whole week off from work since my honeymoon over a year ago, but also because I got to spend time with the many family members (11 + me!) and show Bo the many sights of Vegas he'd not yet seen.

This trip was intense, so I'll break up into sets of days instead of one gigantic post.

Sunday, August 9th: My brother drove us to the airport and we had a long and bumpy airplane ride with a connection in Denver that we had to walk briskly for. Once we got in LV, however, we were pleasantly surprised with an awesome hotel room at the Palazzo (see below) and dinner with the family. The hotel bathroom even featured a flat screen you could watch from the tub or the shower - much to Bo's delight.

Monday, August 10th: I decided to get off my duff and go running. Unfortunatley for us, the gym cost $40/person/day. That was, undoubtedly the most rediculous thing I've ever heard, and shame on them for trying to gouge us like that! So I decided to go running, at the mall across the street. I must have looked a fool running down an escalator, up an escalator, then around the mall several times! However, I ran a full 3 miles in training for my upcoming 5K, then followed it by lounging by the pool & gambling all afternoon. The family then went to the Rio for a seafood buffet which had an incredible dessert bar and we all stuffed ourselves silly.

Sunny Tomatoes

I'm super excited, our tomato plants have started growing in!! Here's a photo update. Thanks to AL & UM for the plant starter. Maybe this will help me with my salad problem...