Month: March 2011

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Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Is everyone wearing green? 🙂 Not me. I realized this morning that I have zero green clothes that aren’t t-shirts, so I had to settle for shamrock socks for my touch of Irish today. And I have a little shamrock pin on my jacket that I’ve had since I was a kid (same one as in that picture). Maybe I’ll have to work on an emerald-colored wardrobe addition for next year.

Even though I’m not Irish, St. Patrick’s Day has always been fun for me. Decorating the house with leprechaun footprints and cards for our youngest sister when we were kids, the good spirit everybody seems to be in on this day (much of that may be green beer-induced, but hey, that’s fun too ;)), the start of March Madness, and one of my personal favorites, the annual treat of Shamrock Shakes. My birthstone is emerald and R and D’s is peridot, so those fit right in today, too.

The best part about this St. Patty’s Day so far? It was 50 degrees on the temperature gauge I see each morning, climbing to a high of 60! Wahoo!! And check these out:


You see those? Tulip sprouts!

 

And these:

Buds on one of my lilac bushes!

 

Tulips and lilacs and crocus, oh my! Has Spring finally sprung? I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think maybe it has. The forecast is calling for 40s and 50s for the next 10 days so far, so keep your fingers crossed. I might even try to drag my out of shape butt outside today for a jog after work to take advantage of this balmy spell. Who cares if there’s a little rain shower? It’s gonna be 60! And did you notice what’s decidedly missing from those pictures above? Snow!!

The Badgers play their first-round bball game tonight too, so hopefully Belmont will end up being the easy opponent everyone is expecting. R is making some delicious reubens for dinner, and we might have to pick up some Guinness to add to the Irish spirit.

Slainte!

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Gotta pour one out for my homey

Sad news, my friends. In case you hadn’t heard, Nate Dogg died yesterday. ::tear:: Let us pause to pour a little out from our 40s in his memory…

No more will we get to hear those silky smooth vocals on such lyrics as “ooo I like your size.” Ah, that clear black night and clear white moon will always hold a spot in my hip-hop heart.

Regulators!! Mount up!

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Amaze-balls!!

R and I went to the Willie Nelson and Family show last night at one of the small local theaters downtown and it was amazing! Fantastic, stupendous, ridiculously fun and awesome, I just can’t come up with enough adjectives to describe it. Amaze-balls!

Willie has long been one of my favorite musicians. And I mean long as in I’ve listened to him since I was a baby. Literally. His Stardust album is a staple in our cocktail hour music selection when we go on our family vacation, so each time I hear it I’m instantly transported to one of my favorite places on earth. Plus he’s just a legend. What more reason would I need to go see him? We saw him when he opened for Bob Dylan last year at Summerfest, but that show didn’t compare to this one in the slightest. That one we were up in the back seats of the amphitheater so he was just a tiny blip on the stage wearing a cowboy hat; this one we were in the 8th row, center section, so we could see each hair of his braids and the worn-out hole in Trigger no problem. That one we had to rely on the crappy amphitheater sound system to try to catch some lyrics we knew; this one was crystal clear and provided every opportunity to sing along to some of my favorite songs. That one he only played a brief sample of his hits; this one he played a solid hour and a half, non-stop, rockin’ compilation of new and old.

We missed him the last time he played a smaller, more intimate venue here, so when we saw he was playing one of the theaters again we jumped at the chance and I bought tickets the minute they went on sale. I ended up getting the best seats of any concert we’ve been to, and they couldn’t have been for a better show. He opened with “Whiskey River” (are you kidding?? one of my faves!!), threw in some “Beer for my Horses” and “Gotta Get Drunk”, slowed things down with one of my all-time favorites “Georgia”, did an off-the-charts awesome rendition of “Bobby McGee” (it was hilarious – at one point he kind of paused and said, “Ha, I forgot the words”. and Willie Nelson can totally get away with that!), went a little “Crazy”….. It was unbelievable! I can’t even list the whole fabulous set.

Are you ready for the best part? I GOT TO SHAKE HIS HAND!!!! Me, SM, got to shake the legendary guitar-strumming hand of the one and only Willie Nelson! At the end of the show he came up to the front of the stage to greet fans, and I couldn’t resist. I got right up there, stuck my hand out, and he grabbed it, pointed at me, and winked! ::swoon:: And just prior to that, he’d blown me a kiss at the end of one of the last songs, which I gladly returned. Ohmygosh Willie Nelson blew me a kiss!! And no, I’m not just speculating that said air kiss was blown in my general direction, it was right to me. The guy next to us and one further down our row both even came up to me and said, “He blew you a kiss!” Proof positive. The only thing that could’ve made the night better was if I’d caught one of the 3 red bandanas he tossed into the crowd, but none of them made it back to our row.

Those of you non-Willie fans are probably like woo great, SM, big deal. But I’m still riding that high, and will be for a long time. Oh, no, not that same kind of high that Willie enjoys – gheesh, it was a work night show, and I’ve got a 7 month old who’s still nursing. 😉

I love you, Willie!!

p.s. I have to give credit for “amaze-balls” to my sister M. Thanks, I stole it. 🙂

 

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It’s open!

I’ve been waiting for the day I could finally post this entry, and that day has arrived…. The roof at Miller Park is open!!

I have kept an eye on it for a couple weeks now, as I can see the ballpark from one of the bridges I take to work each morning. I think because this winter has been so awful and I’m desperate for nicer weather to arrive, I’ve been awaiting that open roof as yet another sign that Spring is officially on the way. Each morning I’d glance over and see the snow-covered roof still firmly closed, but this morning the great park was wide open with the lights blazing inside. Hooray!!!

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, Miller Park is where the Milwaukee Brewers play baseball, and the stadium is right in the city. We have spent countless spring and summer hours there, and a couple exciting fall ones too, rooting on the Brew Crew. It’s a great place to gather with friends, take your family, or just hang out on a warm Sunday afternoon when you have nothing better to do. Granted it’s not as great as it was a few years ago since they keep jacking up the parking fee and ticket price, but still.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to opening day this year, so I’ll have to follow along with the play-by-play on the radio. But just hearing Ueck calling the game with the excitement of the crowd roaring in the background will make it seem like I’m there too. I can smell the brats grilling and feel the electricity of that first home game of the season now.

Play ball!

Ahh… doesn’t that picture just scream summer? I can’t wait!

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Incredible

Check out these videos from the tsunami last week. Talk about an incredible, yet horribly destructive, force of nature. The first one is a first-person view of the tsunami as it hit Japan, and the second one shows what it looked like by the time it reached San Francisco Bay.

http://gizmodo.com/#!5781566/this-is-the-scariest-first+person-video-of-the-japan-tsunami-yet

http://gizmodo.com/#!5781221/the-japan-tsunami-casually-hits-the-san-francisco-bay

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those in Japan and around the world who have been affected. Nature certainly is amazing and never fails to remind us who really rules this planet.

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Oops!

That is not the title I was planning for this post, but it’s now quite apropos seeing how this morning started off… Saturday morning I had set my alarm forward 45 minutes and completely forgot to change it back to my normal time last night. Nothing like having your first thought in the morning be “Oh shit” when you realize that mistake. And so much for remembering to set the clocks ahead for daylight saving time, since I woke up 45 minutes late today anyway. Oops!

Then I had to scramble to get ready this morning so I was out of the bathroom in time for R when his alarm goes off at 6:30 (I didn’t get up until 6:15, so getting ready in 15 minutes is a world record for me!). I got D changed and dressed in a flash and fed her so she was all set for daycare, but didn’t have time to pump the other side before work. So I’m now all lopsided and feeling ready to explode. (sorry, tmi, but it’s no fun being me right now) Double oops, or ouch, I should say!

Then when I took the floor mats for the car out of the dryer on our way out the door I discovered that a) they still weren’t completely dry, and 2) they had gotten dirty, muddy water all over the dryer that was now caked on the drum. Fantastic. The car wash shampooed them yesterday with just a big pressure washer/vacuum hose but warned that they wouldn’t be totally dry, so the cashier recommended putting them in the dryer to finish the job. Obviously their shampooing system isn’t the greatest, and putting floor mats in the dryer isn’t exactly efficient. Triple oops!

So you see, Monday morning strikes again, ugh.

But on to what I really wanted to write, which was a little weekend recap. Saturday morning I tested the waters in my first swim practice since D was born. It went well, probably because I swam shorter distances than everyone else and got out early. Hey, I can. 😉 But it was great to see everyone on the team again, and it always feels good to stretch out the flippers after a long break out of the pool.

That afternoon the second of our friends in this string of Ron Dayne 33rd birthdays celebrated his, so we went over to their house for a couple hours before everyone headed off to the bars on a pub crawl. D doesn’t crawl yet, so we headed home at that point to clean the house. Ooo-wee! Yes, very exciting. I must admit, though, I always feel great when the house is clean and laundry is done. Nerd, I know.

We have such a great circle of friends, and it’s so much fun getting out and about again with everybody. This coming weekend will make 3 weekends in a row of many of us being together, which is practically unheard of. We said that probably hasn’t happened since a bunch of us lived downtown within a few blocks of each other a couple years ago. Too bad it also means we keep spreading our winter germs around and getting each other sick each week. Ah well, c’est la vie. 🙂

Yesterday R watched D for a couple hours while I ran some errands, which were nice to get done. My final stop was at the Coach store near our house to take advantage of the 25% off offer I mentioned last week. And yes, I did end up getting that swingpack I’ve been eying. They were sold out of the one I wanted online and at the store, but they were able to order it for me and have it shipped directly to our house. Kudos to you, Katherine at Coach. So someday this week I should have a pretty little package waiting for me when I get home. It’ll be just like Christmas! Ok, or maybe St. Patty’s. 😉

I wrapped up yesterday afternoon with a little of this, which adds a bit of wonderful to any day: