3 concerts... 5 days

No, I'm not a Deadhead. I only like some of their music.

So last week, Jen made me go to a concert-- she lured me with the promise of everything paid-- to go see The Duhks (new grass/country band from Canada). I didn't think I'd like it-- not because I don't like bluegrass, but just because I don't like their name (in case you're wondering, you say it like the animal-- ducks). Anyway, so Jen and I went to the Birchmere in Alexandria. I think the Birchmere is my favorite concert venue for many reasons.

1- it's non-smoking so I didn't have to worry about smelling like someone's nasty ash tray.
2- it's a sit-down place where they serve you food... so I didn't have to stand so long and try to see.
3- they serve food-- and it's not that bad.

The concert was cool. The Duhks, despite their not so cool name, are actually very entertaining and their songs are actually cool. It's a little Allison Krauss, a little Nickel Creek, and a little Riverdance all in one band. And the bands opening for them weren't too shabby either. A man-and-his-guitar singer/songwriter, Rex Moroux opened the show. A an all-women band named Fruit opened for the Duhks. Both were very good bands. I ended up buying the Fruit CD-- because their music is fun. It's very Ani DiFranco and Indigo Girls, but happy.

Second concert-- National Symphony Orchestra playing Halloween-y tunes on Sunday afternoon at the Kennedy Center. Played stuff from Harry Potter (my main reason for wanting to go), Psycho, and other scary-like music. It was a great concert. It was a kids concert where they could go and where their Halloween costumes and the orchestra also dressed up. It was really cute! My problem was with the parents. This family in front of us were UNBELIEVEABLE. The kids were fine-- well-behaved, even. The parents were antsy and talking and just annoying. I finally had to just stand up so I could see without their head in my view or their whispering in my face. Crazy.

Finally, the last concert was on Monday after work at Iota in Arlington. We went and saw this band called The Veltz Family (formerly Cecilia). I have a history with this band. When I first saw them a few years back when they opened for a band I was seeing, I really liked their sound. I even went to their website and ordered not 1 but 3 of their CDs. So I waited and waited... and no CDs ever came. So I emailed the band and actually got a response back where they apologized and sent the CDs again. Again, no CDs in my mailbox. I gave up on them eventually, but when I heard they were coming back to DC on Monday (I'd missed the last few times they were around here), I thought I'd give them another try. It was a great show-- not crowded at all, only problem was the tall people in front of me-- but I went for the music and not for the sights, I suppose. Jenny bought their newest CD and it's really good. Lesson: Buy indie music at the concert and not from their cheapo website.

I think I'm done with concerts for now... I hadn't been to a live concert in awhile (I think Nickel Creek was the last one... they're breaking up by the way at the end of 2007). It was nice to go out and hear live music again and hear something new for a change. Oh, something interesting: Turns out that on Monday, Beck had a surprise midnight show at another club in the DC area. Didn't make it to that one. Maybe next time Beck...

GO CARDS!

A muddy slip-n-slide weekend

So this weekend, I spent a lot of time out in the country... an office party at a farm in WV and then a day visiting farms in MD. The office party was pretty cool. Got in a hayride and brought home some fresh apple cider. It was weird to see people from work... not at work. Also, it was a little weird as it was very much an "All-American" scene-- guys throwing around a football, little kids rolling around in the grass, dogs and puppies everywhere. Almost like a Kennedy affair-- not that I've been, but what I'd imagine a Kennedy affair would be like.

The farms in Maryland were very cool. Our main reason for driving all the way out to Maryland (almost PA)-- a corn maze. Actually, 4 mazes in 1 GIANT maze. See picture below in my last post. It had a Civil War theme (naturally-- we are in the south). They warned us before that it would be muddy... little did I know, they were NOT kidding. Unlucky for me, I wore my current favorite sneakers instead of my old beat up gore-tex shoes. Here's my shoes when all the mazing was done... how will I get them clean???

The maze was really cool. Lots of twists and turns... and more corn than I would know what to do with. I'm not really sure when we got into mazes... but this year alone, I think I've been through like like 3 or 4. Weird, I know. It reminds me a little of Labrinyth... the creepy David Bowie and young Jennifer Connelly movie... with the puppets.

Anyway, we had a great time at the maze farm. We got to shoot pumpkins from a pumpkin cannon. Seriously... a pumpkin cannon... kind of like a salad shooter, except it shoots out pumpkins! And they had targets to aim at-- an old boat, some broken tractors, tires, barrels, etc. What did I hit? Not a single thing... but I like to see the pumpkins go splat on the ground. Jenny didn't hit anything either. Gordon, however, hit the boat (the highest target) and broke a tractor even more.

Saw 15,000 turkeys that will be market sized (meaning... ready to sell and eat) in a few weeks-- just in time for Thanksgiving. Turkeys... are surprisingly white... and they smell... like poop. But interesting to see that many turkeys. And only now have I thought about how they were treated! It was in a pretty long and open barn... but maybe they trap them in cages after everyone goes home. OH NO! Jeez... maybe I can't eat turkey anymore.

All in all... some fun times in the Maryland countryside. I never realized how much I missed fall! Uzbekistan doesn't have seasons so much as just cold and hot. Yay, it's fall! FINALLY!

Check out the pictures from this weekend on the side under Newest Pics...

Who's got a new TV?

That's right, folks. Jenny and I have said goodbye to our sad, blurry TV. Hello, Sharpie-- our new flat screen Sharp tv! Gone are the days of the screen blurring whenever red or yellow is on the screen. Yay for HDTV. Amazing thing, that HD. I never thought it would be that great of a deal... but ESPN in HD makes it look like you're actually at the game (so it's kind of like I could have been at Game 7-- GO CARDS!), The Lion King looks like Africa-- for real, and Little Mermaid? Well... not the greatest "remastered" Disney DVD, but still a great movie. And... on the Today Show Meredith Vieira, not the prettiest in HD, but Anne Curry, still pretty.

Who knew TV could look this good? Oh, I guess all of you people that have had HD for like 2 years or something already. Then again, I also didn't know what a DVR was when I came back to the states.

Tonight, Jenny, Gordon and I saw Flags of Our Fathers. You should see it. It's very good... and if you can look past the fact that Jesse Bradford (yes, the guy in Bring It On) is a jerk, you'll enjoy it. Ryan Phillippe did a pretty good job. And you'll recognize a lot of the war buddies too (my favorite-- Jamie Bell, Mr. Billy Elliot himself!). Anyway, I think it's good... and very interesting since I had to take gaggles of children to the Marine Corps Memorial here in the DC area (actually in Arlington). A little disillusioning, but good.

Things I'm looking forward to in the coming weekend? A corn maze in Maryland, an office party (the cider squeeze) at the big boss' farm in WV, watching the new TV, and possible sunshine so I can finally wear the new sunglasses after a gross and rainy week. Word.

awww-- bunnies!

I never had a bunny when I was growing up... but lately I love them! I wish I had a bunny! Check out this cute disapproving bunny:

http://www.birdchick.com/adventures/rabbit/index3.html

Can't Get You Out of My Head...

Do you ever walk to work and out of NOWHERE... all of a sudden you're singing some song in your head and you have no idea where it came from?? It happens to me all the time! This morning on my rainy walk to work, I had that song... you know that song... by Suzanne Vega??

Tom's Diner. It's so catchy that it gets stuck in your head... even though I didn't even like that song growing up or now. Apparently, the song has some really interesting background:

Did you know the exterior shots of the diner on Seinfeld are actually the same diner from the music video?

Maybe it was the rain that made me think of the song... as I vaguely remember it talking about raining in the music video, who knows.

Anyway, interestingly enough, there's a list of songs that get stuck in your head. And if it's posted on WebMD, it must be right... right? And another one for all you hoarders of all things pop culture.

yay for new glasses!

So apparently, my eyes have gotten better... which means I'm now 5 steps from blindness instead of 3. And finally with insurance and a great vision plan, I decided to get a pair of perscription sunglasses too! Word. So now I can see and wear sunglasses without having to wear contacts and touch my eye. :)

Other things happening this weekend... went to a Russian church bazaar here in the city. It was really cool! Got to have some food that I haven't had since UZ and bought some cool Russian gifts. I guess it makes up for never going to Russia while I was in Uzbekistan.

Lasting effects of movies...

I love movies... you kind of have to if you want to hang out with my sisters. We quote movies and know where the quotes come from. Gordon and I do that, too... but our quoteable movies are very different as in he doesn't think that Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a classic for our generation! But there are two movies that have had negative lasting effects on me... I say they traumatized me...

As a doctor's kid... we saw some pretty gross stuff. All the infectious diseases journals with disfigured body parts and nasty symptoms (think the grossest episdoe of House and multiply it times 10). Also, my mom made us watch "The Miracle of Life"-- the old documentary that follows the life of a fetus-- from conception to birth. Yeah, that was pretty bad. It'll put anyone off making babies for sure. Even now, it makes me shudder. Seeing that as a young kid scared the hell out of me. EW. What I remember most from that documentary? The birth at the end. The #1 reason for why I don't want to have kids. You can still get that documentary-- done by PBS and Nova back in 1983-- at Amazon if you'd like to scare someone into NOT making babies. They did an updated version that everyone STILL loves-- adults watch it and think it is beautiful (silly). Another memory of that movie was me thinking about hiding the video when we moved to our new (current) house so that Mom could never make me watch it again.

Another movie that I have to say I remember TO THIS DAY... "The Day After." There was some discussion about this movie between Jenny and me. With the new show Jericho being about a post-nuclear attack on middle America, we both thought back to when we saw this movie that showed the aftereffectsnof a nuclear attack on middle America. We couldn't remember what it was called but we remembered sepia tone coloring and a general fear of nuclear attacks (and general dislike of mushrooms-- because they can grow in basements even during nuclear attacks is what Mom told us). And then this weekend what is the Sci-Fi channel showing but THE DAY AFTER! So we taped it... and watched it in two parts because . Have to say, still one of the creepiest movies ever! It was very scary and just disturbing. Also disturbing is that in the end they say that the movie's events are less severe than what would happen in an ACTUAL nuclear attack. Great. So it'll be worse than Steve Guttenberg's hair falling out, the military guy's skin and teeth falling out, and the squatters killing the farmer and eating him.

So while I enjoy Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed (if you haven't seen it yet, you should-- I heart Matt Damon even when he's evil)... it's the movies that freak me out that I'll remember the most. Kind of scary because now I don't want to have kids and I'm afraid of a nuclear attack.

Rats, Little Mermaid, and Beck

Ew. Today after work, the gang of 3 went to Borders to use our handy Borders Rewards coupons to buy some new stuff. While looking at books and whatnot, all of a sudden there was a ruckus in the Borders Cafe. What the hell is going on...?? There was a RAT in the cafe... scurrying around and going BEHIND the food counter!!!! EEEEEEEWWWWWW. So everyone was all yellin' and screamin'. The best part?? This big dude was standing on his chair when he saw the rat yelling just like a girl!

Meanwhile, I bought the new Beck CD-- buy it in stores, yo. You get to make your own CD cover! So Gordon and I decorated my new Beck CD cover. Gordon used to look like Beck-- back when Gordon's hair was long, and Beck's hair was shorter. Also, bought The Little Mermaid-- straight from the Disney vaults. The Little Mermaid is the best Disney flick.

So be careful out there when you're browsing the local Borders.

It's like a new blog... every day!

So for those few of you that read my blog... maybe you noticed a couple of changes (every time you look at my blog). I've found that I've become almost obsessive with re-doing my blog. Last month, I was on myspace all the time, redecorating my page and this month? It is my blog.

I've been trying to learn some basic coding stuff which puts me on the road to computer geek-dom. Great. However, it is just because I covet other people's design savvy and want their blog. So I had to make do with what I had-- the blogger templates-- and came up with this one with my own photo. So the photo up above is actually not from any cool or exotic place. It's not Uzbekistan, London, or anywhere in Italy. It's Salisbury!

Growing up, I passed by this statue ALL the time. It's right in the center of town (so like a mile from each end... I exaggerate-- a little). Even now, I have to ask Jenny what the statue is for. Turns out that it's for confederate soldiers. With Salisbury, NC being in the south, it makes sense. I never really thought about the statue, except for when the town made a huge deal about it being taken down for awhile to get clean-- it was copper and like the Statue of Liberty and the nasty penny in your pocket, it turned green. But on a recent trip home and my new cool digital camera at the ready, I got this nice shot of something so ordinary.

Lesson of the day: Sometimes the cool stuff is where you least expect it-- like back home instead of in some exotic locale.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the blog... we'll see how long it takes before I take it down and substitute another picture.

word.