A picture for Stefanie

If only I had Stefanie's camera I could make her wish come true. Tonight is a full moon. Stefanie has been waiting for a clear night to get a really good photo of the full moon. We have had months of drought in Texas, but now we are having a few days of clouds and rain. And guess what - the clouds are blocking her view of the full moon. While we desperately need the rain and it was really nice to wake up to that sound on the roof this a.m., I was hoping she would get her wish this week and get a good view of the full moon tonight. Of course, where I am, the skies are relatively clear and I have a good shot of the moon from my hotel. Too bad I don't have the zoom capability that she has or I would have a better photo.

I stayed at this hotel about a month ago, you may remember my blog from January. This time I went straight to the gym for a workout. Wow! I didn't take my camera, but I will tomorrow. This gym is palatial, has fabulous views of the ocean, many varieties of torture machines and it was completely empty. On the roof is a walking track with great views of the ocean and inland waterway. Gorgeous sunset!

I guess Stefanie will just have to wait another month to get a photo of the full moon. Let's all keep our fingers crossed she gets her photo in March.

Asleep at the Wheel

I made two mistakes on Saturday. Well...okay, two that I am willing to admit. The first was not bringing my camera to the "Asleep and the Wheel with Special Guest" show at Antones. Rumor was that the "special guest" was going to be Willie Nelson. AaTW is going on tour and all of the tour shows say that Willie will be playing with them. They are calling it Willie and the Wheel. Willie plays Austin a lot so it would not be unexpected for him to show up and if he's touring with The Wheel then it seemed like a done deal. I was feeling really down for forgetting my camera. I had my phone, but the pictures aren't as good so please accept my apologies.

That Ray Benson sure has a voice, doesn't he?! It makes me melt. It seems so effortless for him to sound good. He does a lot of radio spots around Austin and his voice is instantly recognizable. We saw him once as the celebrity playing Mother Ginger - the character in the Nutcracker with the enormous skirt that the sugar plums (or whatever) emerge from during their dance. He even had on his big black hat as Mother Ginger. It was a hoot.

Back to my other mistake. This one was potentially disastrous. Earlier in the day Mike and I were talking about our entertainment options for the evening. Asleep at the Wheel's show was at 7 at Antone's. Joe Ely was playing 8:30 at the Cactus. Both of these were good options but Asleep won because of its early time and potential guest Willie. Mike said "how about if I get our tickets online?" and I replied "Naaah, let's just get them at the door." Major mistake. When we got there, there was a line around the corner and we waited and waited and watched people who had gotten their tickets online go inside. Then we heard Ray Benson's rich deep voice and the band start to play and we were still outside. The line hadn't moved at all. Well we did eventually get in and it was a great show. But no Willie. We are still not sure who the "special guest" was since it seemed like his regular band. We still had a great time and it was really nice that it wasn't a late night out.

FrOG

I had to laugh when I looked at my digital watch today. Doesn't this look like FrOG?!!

TGIF

TGIF!! Now I just have to get through today and I can look forward to an evening of nothingness. Or relative nothingness. No entertainment outside my own (or Mike's) TV. A quiet evening is what I need tonight. Not that this week hasn't been fun, it's just involved being out 3 nights in a row, which I've realized is just too much for me. I love going out, really, just not every night. It's too much fun going home and seeing my happy pups and just being with Mike.

Last night I drove down to San Antonio to have dinner with Stefanie and take her to a movie. Dinner was okay. Noodly Asian food, but it was fast and we got to the movie in time. The movie Theater was the Palladium and it is not an ordinary theater. The outside looks like the Colliseum or something old and Greek. Inside there are a multitude of eateries - even a gelato bar. We should have skipped the other restaurant and just gone straight to the Palladium. Steffi tells me there is an "over 18" theater with large cushy seats and they serve alcohol. Wish we had one of these in Austin!

We saw "Taken" primarily because Stef could get extra credit in French if she saw it and wrote an essay. Not that she needs the EC in French - supposedly she is up for some award in that class. I would give you the red "You Are Special Today" plate if you were home tonight, Steffi. I guess it can wait until next weekend.

About "Taken"...let's just say that if I had seen this movie before Steffi went all over Europe by herself last summer, she would NOT have gone. Now, all I can say is that she will never go back unaccompanied by someone over 40. It was an action-packed movie and the 90 minutes flew by. And Liam Neeson...he was great as usual.

My internet phone and internet are out. If someone calls my home phone they get a recorded message that the call cannot go through and to try later. I called the cable company and they diagnosed a problem with the modem but can't sent a technician until Monday. I'm going to Florida Monday so that won't work. I decided to go exchange the modem for a new one during lunch today. Hey, I may even put the top down on my car and enjoy a little fresh air!

Back to my "no planned entertainment day" Friday now...

Wednesday evening entertainment

Wednesdays used to be softball nights. It's technically "winter" here (although you'd never guess it with the daytime temps in the 60s and 70s this week) and we don't play in the winter. Turns out that there are not enough females to field a spring league this year so my spring softball will be limited to watching Mike play. That begins in March. Until then, Wednesdays are open for other entertainment. Last night we went to see Legally Blonde at the newly renovated Bass Concert Hall on the UT campus. About the renovation which closed the facility for about 2 years, the only real noticable change was in the front of the building. The seats weren't changed at all and still have the same worn brown burlap-py fabric. They're comfortable enough but with all the excitement about the re-opening it would have been nice to have new fabric to sit on! Anyway, Legally Blonde was as you would expect - not fabulous but definitely entertaining. Next month we will see Spam-a-lot supposedly with Richard Chamberlain. Now that will be fun!

The Killers!

Mike and I have a busy entertainment week this week. For me it started yesterday. I recorded Groundhog Day and watched it in the evening. I tried to count the number of Groundhog Days Bill Murray had to live through before finally getting it right, but if you've ever watched the movie, you really can't tell specifically past 5. I suspect it was a number with at least 4 digits since he seemed to become a doctor and learned how to play the piano very well.

This evening we had tickets to see the Killers at the Erwin Center. They were really, really good. They played all their hits and a number of tunes from their newest CD. We enjoyed every song. The only issue seemed to be with the bass sound - it was sooo loud it was distorted. They seemed to fix it after the 2nd song, but to my ears the bass gremlin returned at the end. Here are a few pix of the show. The stage was outfitted with a number of palm trees.And there was a promonent "k" at the front of the stage. Behind the stage there was a curtain of lights that changed colors and they could create pictures and movies and words.
At one point they dropped a large tiger curtain.

There was a desert scene in the background
There's that k again

It rained light

and then around 11 p.m. the sun set on the show.

You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what we do on Wednesday evening....

A superbowl surprise

I wasn't expecting a great Superbowl this year. After all I really didn't care who won. Mike decided to have a little party and that would make the game fun to watch regardless of the outcome. The expected highlight of the game was going to be the halftime show with BRUCE!!! in case you have been living under a rock and were unaware. Even Saturday Night Live joked during their Weekend Update segment that the Cardinals and Steelers were merely "opening" for Bruce Springsteen.

Besides Bruce the Superbowl also meant that we would see a bunch of new funny commercials. My absolute favorite was the Doritos commercial with the guy with a magic crystal ball which was really a snowglobe. The bud light commercial where they threw the guy out the window for suggesting a cost saving measure of skipping the bud lights from future meetings. I am sure they are all posted on YouTube already.

Another highlight of the game was the commercial for the new movie "Monsters v Aliens" that was broadcast in 3D. In the weeks leading up to the superbowl there were commercials saying that we could pick up our free 3D glasses a participating stores when we purchased SoBe or Pepsi products. Mike bought some Pepsi today and got 4 pairs.

Unfortunately there were more of us than there were 3D glasses, but 4 people got to sport the fashionable cardboard glasses and see the 3D effects.

By the way, can you see a special guest in this photo sitting behind the sofa to Mike's left?! Yup, shortly after 4, Steffi walked in the door and surprised me with a visit! She and Mike had conspired earlier in the day that she would drive up from San Antonio and Mike didn't even hint to me that she might drop in. All in all it was a great day - a surprise visit from Stef, a great halftime show with Bruce and a really exciting football game.