Welcoming in a new year - 2010!

This is the second year in a row that we have seen Bob (Schneider, of course) on New Years Eve.  Last year we stayed in a hotel downtown instead of driving and enjoyed Bob and his band at Antone's.  It was super great, but Antone's is a standing only venue and I still remember how much my feet hurt by the end of the night!  This year our good friends and the "other fun Whole Foods couple", Mark and Renee generously offered to share their VIP passes to see Bob at the Paramount (a theater venue with comfortable seats!).  The VIP package included a "meet and greet" with Bob.  We stood in line to shake his hand and had our picture taken with Bob, who was looking mighty spiffy.  Because I was starstruck all I could think of saying that wouldn't be too stupid was to compliment him on his hair, which did look so much better than the last time we saw him. 

We cleverly arranged for a cab to pick us up at home and take us downtown and then return to take us home later.  Since we weren't driving, we popped some champagne

it made the ride in the Lincoln taxi that muchmore enjoyable.

Before meeting Bob we had a delicious dinner at the Roaring Fork. I had a wedge salad followed by grilled shrimp and grits. Mike had the caesar and pork tenderloin. We need an excuse to go back there because I "accidentally" walked out with a wine glass (full of expensive red wine that I was not about to ditch just because our taxi had arrived and, uh.. never mind the sheriff standing by the door) and need to return it!  My kids can vouch that I do return things that get borrowed from restaurants!

Here we are at the Paramount.  The photographer didn't do a very good job pointing the camera, but you get the idea. 

Other photos from the evening (that blogger decided were upload-worthy)

We had THE BEST time!  We always have a fun time with Mark and Renee anyway, but the whole evening was just perfect.  Bob and his band were as good as ever, our meals were excellent, we drank good wine and beer, the weather cooperated and we were transported there and back in plush comfort.  The dogs weren't too mad at us when we got home, but we did have to play with them a bit before finally falling into bed at 3.  3?!  a.m.??  Omg.  I need another nap.  Happy New Year!!

Footnote:  Blogger photo uploader is not cooperating so I am giving up posting any more photos. 

From Christmas to New Years Eve eve

Falling down on the blog job again...in spite of getting a new teeny pink pocket camera from "Blogger"  (who I think was really Santa or Mike).  Here are photos from the week.  Mike and I have been working partial days and staying up way past our normal bedtime.  Tonight (New Years Eve) should be really fun.  We have a cab picking us up at 5:30 and again at 1:30 a.m.  More on what happens between those hours tomorrow.  Really, I promise. 

Here is the group at Sandy's and Una's house for Christmas dinner.  We actually wore those silly paper hats that come in "poppers" through the whole meal.  I think we must have assumed that only the others looked silly in them.

See, Mike has his hat on as he helped himself to delicious turkey & sides.

We had Christmas pudding.  This was actually flaming but the flash didn't pick it up.

On Monday we went to the Trans Siberian Orchestra show at the Erwin Center.  It was good, but not as good as last year. 

There were laser lights, fire, fireworks, snow, etc. 

On Tuesday we had some friends over for dinner.  We talked and laughed a lot and it was really fun.  We drank too much wine which we regretted the next morning when we had to get the house ready for an early showing.  It all worked out fine.

Last night we met Stephen at Maudie's for dinner and then walked to the Saxon Pub to hear Monte Montgomery play at 8:00.  We've seen him on the schedule every Wednesday but this was the first show of his we attended.  It will not be the last!  Monte is an awesome guitar player.  He mixed in some covers (The Who, Jimi Hendrix) with his own material.  He was done by 10:15, it was perfect. 

I've got my camera all set up for tonight so I hope to get some good pictures.  See you tomorrow!!

a holiday tour

Merry Christmas Eve!

I can't even remember the last time I blogged.  I think it was some time in November around Steffi's birthday so it's been over a month.  You know what we've been up to....packing, moving, and packing more.  I am so glad that is over, at least for one house.  While I've been away from blogger they updated their editing capabilities and I am finding it much easier to upload and arrange photos. 

Just before the house closing we celebrated my umptyumpth birthday at Maudies.  Duncan and Steffi collected their Christmas presents from Gramma since they would be in the UK over the holidays.  Duncan's wallet is perfect for him - duct tape!

Steffi's is a classy green that looks very Christmas-sy with those red nails!

While Stef is away I am fish-sitting for Marcel.  He is very happy on my desk at work.  I thought about putting him by the window so he could look out over the Whole Foods parking lot, but then I thought he might have a fear of heights so I left him on my desk. 

On the 19th we went to the Paramount to see Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis.  It was a great show again this year!

Mike and I bagged groceries on Tuesday this week. 

After bagging I bought a new car!  She is gorgeous and although it is hard to see with the reflections, her color is black sapphire pearl.  It is a very pretty dark sparkly blue. 

It has lots of gadgets that will probably take me 3 years to figure out. 

I will miss Lila, but I love this new one.  Now I just have to figure out the right name.

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Someone is no longer a teenager!

We celebrated Stefanie's 20th birthday (wow!) last night. Several of her friends from college came with her (Kaitlin, Alli and Karena - I am sure some of these names are misspelled) plus we had Brandy, Meg, Stephen and Duncan over for a bbq dinner.
Choco and Boo performed their parallel dog trick

We had champagne!

There were presents to open

And finally, there was singing and cake!

Here's to you Stef! A teenager no more - say hello to your twenties!!

It was a good game, but....

This may have been my last time at the old Jets-Giants stadium. I didn't think about that yesterday or I might have taken more photos. The photo above I took after the game while we were waiting for the parking lot to clear out. It was a beautiful evening with an almost full moon shining high above the stadiums. Next year the new stadium (right next door to the old one) will be where the Jets play their games. The construction is complete and they are still trying to sell all the seats. Supposedly all those horizontal lines have lights behind them and it will light up green on the outside when the Jets play and red when the Giants play. I guess that works out well enough since the teams have to share a stadium.

We were in line to enter the parking lot of the Meadowlands at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday. Good thing we got the benefit of "falling back" and getting another hour of sleep this morning or that would have been really early.

Jimmy was the master chef, with cousin Johnny assisting. Peter and his two boys were there. And Mike and me. Patrick, one of Jimmy's sons came at the last minute too. As usual, we ate well and a lot - bacon sandwiches, pancakes, sausage for breakfast followed by chickenwings, cocoanut shrimp, crabcakes and burgers and onion rings for lunch.

The boys played football in the parking lot before it got too crowded.

We went into the stadium around 12:45, in time to see the players run out onto the field. Just like at the Longhorn games, when you see the steam you know that the players are about to run out onto the field. And when they do there are flames

and fireworks

It is always fun to be there for a live football game even if the score doesn't reflect the outcome we hoped for.