Lyle and Bonnie

Have you seen Crossroads on CMT?

You haven't? You should!

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Great music knows no boundaries. CMT Crossroads shows the far-reaching roots of country music by pairing country artists with musicians from other genres. Each episode will feature a different set of stars playing together, swapping stories and sharing their common love of music.
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I'm excited about an upcoming episode pairing Lyle Lovett and Bonnie Raitt. It airs February 11th at 8 pm CST. Lyle used to open for Bonnie Raitt. They are both excellent musicians, talented songwriters and they share a love for blues and gospel music. I've seen Bonnie live. I've seen Lyle live. I've seen Bonnie and Lyle live. This will be a great show.

To get you in the mood, try to catch the best Crossroads yet: the one pairing Pat Benatar and Martina McBride. Whew, can those ladies sing. A fabulous show! It airs on February 1st at 7pm CST. Also, be sure to check out another excellent episode, pairing Sugarland with Bon Jovi; it airs tomorrow, January 17th at 10 pm CST.

No, I don't work for CMT, nor do I date anyone who does. :)

It's Joyce, not iJoyce or eJoyce

I haven't posted in a while. Were you all worried about me? All 3-4 of you who occasionally check my blog?

The title above should tell you I've been experimenting with music files and MP3 players... I think I finally have all my music on my iPod. I really like it. I would just like it and iTunes to talk to each other consistently. Is that too much to ask? Is it too much to ask for iTunes and my iPod to get along? Come to think of it, there's no 'i' in team. :) Suffice it to say it all does work, just not like it did the first week, or the second...

Now on to another task. USE THE iPOD FOR WORKING OUT! Wait, I do use it WHEN I workout. So I guess the task is: WORKOUT CONSISTENTLY.

For your reference, I'm listening to two great new CDs: Lifehouse (a gift, thank you!) and Bonnie Raitt.

Priceless!

I would have put this picture in my last post, had I seen it in time. It's a good explanation of my feelings.

Now I'm all for Vince Young going pro. What better time? Don't gamble on winning the Heisman next year, Vince, go pro!

Oh wait, my maroon blood is coming out again.

More later.

They Did It

UT wins. What a great game. I enjoyed it all. It was a good match-up. Both teams played to win and acted like gentlemen. UT showed up, turned it on when necessary and got the win. I found myself cheering for them the entire game. I couldn't help it.

I'm still an Aggie, no question, it's just more thrilling than I thought to see a national championship come to the state of Texas.

I found the following on the Austin American Statesman site. Great pictures. I think Vince Young goes pro now. No question.



NEXT YEAR IS THE YEAR OF THE AGGIE. I FEEL IT. ALL THE WAY BABY!

The Big Game

I'm watching the Rose Bowl tonight with coworkers at a coworker's house. Neither are originally from Texas. I'm sure they will not care for which team I cheer.

Really, I just want it to be a good game. A close match-up with good play and good sportsmanship. If all that happens, then I will be happy no matter which team wins.

This view makes me the outcast around Austin, for sure. To borrow from Kermit the Frog: It's hard being maroon (I mean green). The pictures below might provide some insight.



I cannot help but wonder if the UT fans would pull for the Aggies if we were in their position. What do you think?

Skiing

I want to go skiing. Soon. It's winter, it shouldn't be 80 degrees. If I was skiing, I'm sure it wouldn't be in 80 degree weather.

Anyone want to go skiing? Maybe a long weekend in early February? Somewhere with bunny slopes and hot chocolate.

I'll think back on my only ski trip, ever, to Brighton, Utah in February 2004.

Cute Boys

The Park boys are my buddies. Samuel (Spiderman) and I worked a 150 piece puzzle, while Jeremiah (Batman) and I attempted a 24 piece puzzle. Much fun was had by all!

I had plans to exercise today, so that I could say (at least once in my life) that I exercised every day this year. It didn't happen!Does the phrase, "It's the thought that counts" apply in this situation? Please?

I've been working on my list of 101 Things (about myself). I have 72 things so far. There are many more, but I'm trying to make a list of 101 INTERESTING Things. I might go back and edit the aforementioned 72.

I'm posting from a Mac today, courtesy of the Park family. At least I can say I have posted a blog entry every day this year!

Happy New Year

A short post today to wish you a Happy New Year!

Maroon in College Station!

I'm in College Station for the weekend. I arrived without my laptop, so I'm posting without the luxury of a HUGE cache of pictures with which to illustrate my post. I know all of you are saddened by this. Right? Right.

The plan is to relax, see the Aggie men's basketball game and hang with good friends. All is going according to plan, except for the fall off the porch. Ask me about it sometime.

And for the record, that was Dennis Quaid, the actor, in the picture with me. I removed it. Wouldn't want his second wife to get jealous. You could just see the chemistry!

Poll Question

Am I posting too many pictures?

I _KNEW_ that this would happen!

Short post this time... A few things to prove the title.

• Last night I spend WAY too long figuring out things in Blogger.
• Tonight I spend quite a while "perfecting" my earlier post.
• Offline I am thinking of the 101 Things list (about me) that I plan to post soon.

So I say this: I knew that I would wind up spending way too much time on this.

But I find I like it: learning and sharing. Knowledge is power.

Gratuitous picture:


I took this picture in Washington State on one of the most beautiful days I've ever seen.

I'm editing this post to add a picture of Mount Rainier taken on the same day. Breathtaking.

Luckenbach, Texas and a Birthday

Today is my father's 81st birthday!

I'd say "Happy Birthday Dad!" but he doesn't own a computer with which to view this post. I thought I’d talk a little about him today, though.

My family and I made the 90 mile drive to Fredericksburg on Monday to visit some family. On the way we stopped in Luckenbach, where my father was born. Yes, my father and his brother REALLY were born in the town made famous by Waylon, Willie and the boys!

It was a beautiful day for a drive, as you can see. Dad wanted to show me the one room schoolhouse again, and mentioned that he started there in 1934. 1934! We also measured the distance from his house to "town"... it turned out to be just over two miles one way. He had always claimed 3-4 miles each way. Ha! He told me some great stories, like the old car they had was often so hard to crank and start that it seemed faster to walk to town. Goodness!

On a side note, my uncle took me to Luckenbach once when I was say 10 years old. At the Luckenbach General Store (pictured in the first link above), I held a bear cub. No lie! I'm not sure why there was bear cub nor am I sure of why they let a 10 year old girl hold it!

Our visit with family was good. Here's a picture for posterity.

Stay tuned in the coming days for more stories from Dad about his time in WWII.

Christmas 2005

This is a picture of my parents (on the left) and my aunt and uncle. I have a better picture, but it doesn't have the name of the restaurant that means so much to my family (she says sarcastically). Almost every time we meet for lunch, we meet at this Luby's.

Today I read a few entries on another's blog. I noticed two things: there were many entries and they were almost all short and sweet. Each entry was a paragraph about a book, a CD, a purchase or an observation.

So, I decided that if I keep each entry short, I might have a chance to post one per day. Game on!

December in NYC

Let me start with my Christmas card! Hopefully you got one in the mail. Ask me sometime how Costco printed the cards the first time.

So I spent December 8th, 9th and 10th in New York City. It was a good chance to see my friend Beth and explore all that the city has to offer at the holidays. Beth saved the day by letting me crash on her pull-out couch! I was able to explore Central Park on my first day. There was a little outdoor market with many types of vendors. I bought a homemade ginger snap and a cup of hot cider. I walked around enough to get blisters on my feet! I loved the park with snow on the ground. I have many more pictures to prove it, but here is one of my favorites.


I enjoyed three shows while in town: Sweeney Todd, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and The Color Purple. Seeing Sweeney Todd gave me the chance to see the great Patti LuPone (Tony winner for Evita) on stage!

I had a great hostess in Beth. She showed me bits of the real NYC. She even took me to her friend's Christmas party at his place in Harlem. I had a great time and was sorry to leave.

Up Too Late

I took this picture on November 3rd, just after the colors began to show themselves here in Austin. I stopped at a customer, got back in my car, opened my sunroof and turned up the radio. I was sitting at the light you see above when I noticed the contrast of colors. I especially love the deep blue of the sky.

This picture means even more to me now that we've had a good hard freeze, making almost everything here a shade of tan or brown.

I hope you and yours have very happy holidays!

Aggies Beat Kansas State

NOTE: A good friend of mine was kind enough to point out my lack of new entries! I wrote this awhile ago, but I'm just now posting it!

I'm back from a whirlwind trip to Kansas to see the Aggies play K-State. There is a cute little downtown area around K-State called Aggieville.






The game was good. The weather was bad! I just looked up the temperature... The story says it was 53 degrees. With the rain and the periodic gusts of wind, it felt much colder to me. Our seats were just above the Aggie band, so we stood almost the entire game. Overall it was a great experience and we got the win!

My First Post Ever

This is my first blog entry ever.

This will be a short test to see what my blog looks like.

More later from my INTERESTING life.

(Written in a Manhattan, Kansas hotel room on the eve of the Texas A&M vs Kansas State football game.)