Chicago in summer

I learned something interesting on my trip to Chicago - it's HOT there in June. Seriously HOT; even hotter than it was in Austin at that time. It probably would have been better if I had planned my wardrobe a bit better! I did enjoy the trip and I would love to go back. My favorite parts were the water taxi tours of the river and Lake Michigan.

The John Hancock Center.

This is Cloud Gate, a 110-ton elliptical sculpture found in Millennium Park.

Cloud Gate is big enough to provide me shelter in a rain shower. (Hence the grey sky.)

One can tour Lake Michigan on a sail boat. Sadly, the departure time didn't work for me.

A view of Navy Pier from the ferris wheel.

If you're still with me, you might also like to check out a place called ENO. It's in the InterContinental Chicago hotel. The sign reads "wine. cheese. chocolate. sensation." It's true.

Shake, Shake, Shake

Last week I did something I don't recall ever doing. I had three milkshakes. Yes, three. I didn't have three in one day, I promise. I had one on Monday, I think, then one on Thursday, and one on Friday.

Only two of them were remarkable. There is a hamburger joint near my office called Wally's. It's a family owned place. In fact I think my next door neighbor's father owns it. He promised me one time he'd get me some coupons, but nothing! Anyway, I had a burger there once and it was nothing spectacular. But Monday night I just wanted a shake, so I went through drive through and low and behold I saw the choices! Butterscotch? Cherry? Vanilla? Chocolate? Sounds super. I chose a small butterscotch shake. OH MY GOODNESS! It was great! So great! Gone in about ten minutes, maybe five. I thought of it all week and had another one on Friday. And that was after I had a boring chocolate shake from Whataburger in a fit of madness on the way back from San Antonio Thursday night.

Just so you know, I have passed Wally's several times a day since then and have not succumbed to temptation. This week I am shake free. But I have had Halloween candy.

Tomorrow I'll do better. I promise.

Concerts 4

I will get in trouble with my friend Teresa if I don't mention that she and I saw Jack Ingram at the River Road Ice House in New Braunfels, Texas, earlier this summer.

It was fun but rather warm and very crowded! As you can see Jack closes his eyes a lot when he sings and sweats just the like you and me.

BTW that means I saw Jack Ingram and Lyle Lovett twice each this year. Funny!

Jack Ingram at the River Road Ice House in New Braunfels, TX.

Jack up close.

I just think this is funny, he turned just as I snapped the pic. Very nice layers, Jack.


I know this looks funny - some fan held up her beer while yelling wildly...
so he's either singing into her beer or about to take a swig, right?

Concerts 3

And now for the pictures of Keith Urban and The Wreckers. It's not hard to narrow it down to just a few of Keith in this case because many were dark and or blurry. The Wreckers pictures all turned out very dark, so you'll get just one.

Keith did a really great show and I'd recommend him to anyone. You know more music of his than you think! I'll go next time he's in Austin if you anyone wants to go.

The Wreckers - Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp.
(I'm pretty sure that Michelle is on the left.)

Thank goodness for the big screen!

I couldn't decide on this one or the one above. So, both.

They did this weird thing that made it seem like a fun iPod commercial version of the song.

My only clear "close up" shot.

I love that you can see him playing on stage and his facial expression on the big screen.
(I also like the effect of the spotlights.)

Concerts 2

I promised pictures from the other two concerts that I attended over the summer. The first was The Wreckers opening for Keith Urban and the other was Little Big Town opening for Martina McBride. Keep in mind that I'm taking care of you by posting only a few of the hundreds and hundreds of pictures that I took. For whatever reason, I only took my small digital camera to these two events... So no 10x zoom! You'll easily be able to tell at which concert I had 3rd row seats and at which I did not!

I think I'll limit this entry to LBT and Martina.

As a bonus, I saw Taylor Kitsch who stars as Tim Riggins in the NBC TV show Friday Night Lights. Scroll to the bottom for that picture.

Martina pictures must be first.

As you can see I couldn't decide which photos to include.

So I picked four.

Yes, that's right, I picked four out of about one hundred.

Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet of Little Big Town.

Kimberly Roads and Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town.


Little Big Town, all together but a bit blurry.


We happened to be sitting on the best side of the stage, in my opinion!



Actor Taylor Kitsch (in white) enjoying LBT and Martina.

Concerts 1

I know - I've been away. I've not been blogging. I have good reasons. Up until a few weeks ago I was busy with not so fun things. The last week or so I've had a time for a bit run and relaxation.

I generally see a concert or two a year, maybe. Well apparently I've stepped into new territory this year. I've been to see at least 3 concerts and one music festival. I decided you'd like to see my pictures. In fact I have hundreds of pictures from all the concerts. It's lucky for you that one or two of them turned out to be in focus and centered. I'll go in reverse order and split this up into two posts. Also it should be noted that my 10x optical zoom camera (a Canon S1 IS) died during the festival, so a few pics are with my 3x optical zoom camera (a Canon SD650). For those interested, Canon is fixing the problem for free because it turns out it's a known issue with the CCD imager. Yea!

These pics are from the most recent events - the music festival and the Lyle Lovett concert.

Lyle Lovett at Stubbs in Austin, TX.

Lyle Lovett with John Hagan on cello, what a team.


Los Lonely Boys at the Big State Festival in College Station, TX.

Dierks Bentley at the Big State Festival.

Another of Dierks Bentley at the Big State Festival.


Craig Morgan at the Big State Festival.
(He's great but always makes funny faces.)


Jack Ingram at the Big State Festival.


Kelly Willis watching husband Bruce Robison sing (only 3x zoom).
(We saw Kelly sing too but I did not get a picture.)


Charlie and Bruce Robison at the Big State Festival (only 3x zoom).


Willie Nelson at the Big State Festival (only 3x zoom).

Tim McGraw closing out the Big State Festival (only 3x zoom).

No Mail

I know what you are thinking. I do.

You're thinking, "Does she mean mail or male?" Clearly both versions of the word apply, especially with the word "no" preceeding them. But I've chosen to discuss the USPS version today. Mail.

Our post office isn't so great. Everyone knows it. Still, most times I get my mail in a relatively timely manner. (I know there is some delay based on surveys and information I get from Netflix.) Thank goodness I have BillPay with my bank, otherwise I would be more nervous.

Yesterday I stopped at the little community mailbox in my neighborhood. I open my box, number 03/14 in a large bank of boxes. I had mail... yay! Upon inspection I discover it is a bundle of mail for my neighbor down the street. Not one of the pieces is for me. Not one! No Netflix movie that I had expected. No bills, no checks, no credit card applications. I delivered my neighbors mail and kindly asked if they night have mine. Apparently they did not as I have not heard from them.

I called the local post office (I refuse to capitalize those words) today to discuss the problem. I spoke to a supervisor who claimed he would check into it now that the regular carrier was back from vacation. Apparently he often gets complaints when the regular carrier is out. (Must be when I see the kids in shorts and t-shirts out there putting the mail in the boxes.) So today I expected to receive two days worth of mail. No such luck, I got the regular Wednesday grocery store flyers and one credit card application (in my name). This means that whoever got my mail either dumped it or hasn't checked their box yet... If they have checked then they haven't put my mail into the proper box... the one that is for mis-delivered mail. Hmm, happens enough that there is a system. ARGH!

And that's not all.

It just so happens that the internet ate at least two email messages of mine yesterday. I spoke to a friend today who said she did replied to my message yesterday and so had another of our friends. I did not get these replies. I checked junk mail, I checked my folders that use rules to sort incoming mail, I checked deleted items and I checked sent items. NOTHING. I even went online to my providers webmail site. Nothing.

I couldn't be more frustrated with mail, or the lack of it.

The same could be said for the other spelling of the word, but that is for another post.

An ode to cooler days at my house.
It's August 1st, the beginning of our other season in Texas.
We just finished with summer and now it's AUGUST.

The Astros

I am a huge Astros fan! Ask anyone I know. I'm no fair weather fan.... I watch when they win and when they lose. They're losing a lot lately. Tonight they gave up 9 runs in one inning. Doh!

The most interesting thing going on with the Astros is Craig Biggio's race to 3000 career hits. He's only 3 hits away now. His career stats are pretty impressive.

My dad recently bought some very nice seats at a charity silent auction. We were three rows behind home plate at the game on June 2, against the Cardinals. Great, great fun. I'll highlight Mr. Biggio with my pictures below.

Things I've learned from Dove dark chocolates

Chocolate is educational. Really. Inside the wrappers of Dove chocolates are "messages." I'm not sure how many messages there are in a bag, but I'll take an informal count at the end. You must know that I've been building on this post for a while... Really. I promise.

There's no excuse not to dream.
Count the stars.
Be mischievous. It feels good.
Do what feels right.
Flirting is mandatory.
Age is nothing but a number.
Decorate your life.
Sing along with the elevator music.

Stink

No, the title does not refer to the problem with the rodent.

I had almost finished a whole post when my computer, router, and modem combination freaked out. So I rebooted... The post was gone as I had not saved it yet. Nice!

I've messed with my blogger template. What do you think? Is it too wide for your browser? Do you see two columns under the header? How do you like the picture in the header? Yes I took it myself (see old post) and then cropped it.

The airplane picture reminds me of the trip to Washington State. I wonder when I can return.

Mount Rainier and Reflection Lake on a sunny day.

Las Vegas 2

I was thinking that the next time I go to Las Vegas I might just take pictures of the people. One of my favorite things to do is "people watch." Seriously, Las Vegas does NOT disappoint. So. Much. Craziness.

I love chocolate. I heard that there was a huge chocolate fountain in the Bellagio. Clearly I had to check it out. It turns out it's the "world's tallest and largest volume chocolate fountain." And it's BEHIND GLASS. Remember that old Mervyn's sale commercial with the woman standing at the glass door chanting, "Open! Open! Open! Open!"? I thought about doing that but thought better of it. But just barely.

The fountain...

The details of the fountain. Click on it if you feel the need to read it!

We decided to head down the strip to the M&M Store. Need I say more about this? I love M&M's, but managed not to buy anything but a couple of decks of playing cards. Who knew M&M's had a smell. They do, or the store did at least. Too much of a good thing, I think.

Who doesn't love a whole store based on candy?


This is about 1/3 the wall of M&Ms. Yum.

Las Vegas 1

The Bellagio.

Have you been to Las Vegas? I had never been, but was able to tag along with friends in February. By tag along I mean that I didn't have to plan any of the trip. My friend Bonnie had most things already planned for herself and her two granddaughters. When she heard I hadn't been, she said I should come along and she also invited her two daughters (my friends from growing up and mothers to the aforementioned granddaughters). Bonnie did most of the planning. She reserved another room at the Bellagio and added tickets to each of the shows. Because of Bonnie's hard work we had great seats to three shows: Blue Man Group, "O" (Cirque du Soliel), and Celine Dion.

Me and a Blue Man.
This might be my Christmas card this year - act surprised!

You should stay at the Bellagio once in your life. Get the lake view room, it's worth it to see the fountains. If I ever figure out how to do it, I'll post a video of the fountain/light show.

From the room.


From the street.

Nephews

My good friends have a new baby, just 6 weeks old. He is very sweet and cute and handsome. His mom and I have lunch sometimes, but usually he is out for the count (see below). Last week we had another of our friends in town and we all went to lunch . To be fair, there is a picture of the boy with each of us "aunts" holding him.**

Lunch out with the girls...

He woke up!

I had some good friends come for a visit this last weekend. They brought their precious daughter, her cousin and this little guy below. Frosty is a teacup maltese puppy and is already half grown at 1.5 pounds. He is very good natured and calm. I almost want one!

Frosty on his first trip to my house.

For your reference, I did write this last night but somehow I never posted it. Good one.

**Yes, I did ask permission to post pictures of him. He has his own blog, linked at the right.