Concert Review

Pictured Left: Two of the tickets from the concert, and some of the confetti they dumped on us at the end of the show.

[Disclaimer: If you don't like Van Halen or you're not into Rock and Roll, this may not be the post for you.]

The Music: It's tough to beat Van Halen. And this was a huge trip down memory lane with David Lee Roth. There were times however that the music didn't work. "Hot for Teacher" was done at double speed [it seemed] and was barely recognizable.

Eddie: Eddie is a God. He's the Man. What a survivor.

Alex: Lays down a wicked beat. He's no Neal Peart

David Lee: He's kind of like a manic ringmaster with perversion issues and a wardrobe assistant. There were times that he was spot on and other times that he sang every 4th word. And one time that he admitted he forgot the words. He and Eddie worked well together, but I felt that David was far more a performer than a vocalist. Sammy was great at both.

Wolfgang: He is his father's son. I saw him do things on a bass that I had not seen before. The kid is awesome!

Final score: B+

Notes: We took our seventeen year old daughter. I never have before, because one issue with her disability is her inability to handle noise. If can also be really hard for her to process crowds and I could tell she was nervous last night before the conceret started.  We brought her some great earplugs and just coached her on what to expect and that she could tag me if she needed to get out. She's really interested in rock and totally believes that she is a rocker chick and this was a band she hoped she might like.

The good news was she seemed to have a great time. We started to lose her toward the end of the concert because she was just so tired and overwhelmed. She said she wasn't sure if she liked it but she was glad she went. This morning she was sure she liked it, but doesn't want to do it again. I gave her the ticket and confetti for her to show at school so kids will believe her. I'm glad she gave it a try.

Personal note: I think it's very romantic that Eddie still wears his wedding ring 2 years after his divorce. And he was adorable with Wolfgang on stage. Not sappy, but you could see how excited he was to have his child with him.

Final Note: The Golden Ninny award goes to the gentleman behind me on the way out. His friend asked him how he liked the show. He responded with the following comment: "The band was okay, but who was playing the keyboards? They never showed that."

Those in the know will understand that there is no keyboard in Van Halen. Sigh.

And how was your weekend?

If you ever wondered how dismal a date I am, ask MOTH (man of the house). He took me to a family birthday party at a local restaurant on Friday. The in-laws were there, which was great because I had not seen them in a while. Things went downhill in quickly however as there were an abundance of candles burning throughout the room we were in. This was followed in short order by smokers. [editors note: not all smokers are poison. Some folks smoke and don't smell. Other folks smoke and have it coming out their pores, their hair and goodness knows where else. The folks at the party fall into the latter group.] It is inevitable that these smokers have to stand very close to talk to me. One smoker went to the ladies room and made it worse covered the smell up by layering perfume over the top. Some folks were just straight perfume. After about 20 minutes, the lungs were well and truly peeved. I had to leave because the rescue inhaler only keeps you upright and conscious for the debacle. It doesn't restore function if you continue to breath smoke/perfume/candles. Yes, I left my husband there where he no doubt had to explain his wife, the social pariah asthmatic again. Stupid lungs.

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Today is Sunday. My favorite day because I allow myself to make/eat sourdough pancakes. Explaining the sourdough would be a whole nother post. I'm not sure I want to go there now because there are so many good things about it.... [cough....sourdough turnovers...cough]

On Sunday nights, I rationalize the cure for my weekend of gluttony (samples at Costco anyone?) is to eat something lighter. Tonight I made chicken soup. I used honey cured chicken sausage however and put everything I can find into it. Here's what it looks like.

Please note the very festive holiday placemat. I use these to distract the family from the fact that there's no tree yet.

Asthmagirl

PS~ Yes, there's tortellini in the soup. My daughter asked so nicely. I think it's chicken and garlic.

PPS~ Unlikely there will be a post tomorrow. We're taking our daughter to a concert. Reports to follow.

The confession chronicles

Occasionally, despite clean living, excellent oral hygiene and detailed planning, you find out things you don't want to know.

This year, in the midst of making our very tasty Thanksgiving dinner, the phone rang. Even though I had my sleeves rolled up and was frantically cooking (I was under a timeline, MOTH had to leave for work at 1pm) I happened to be the only one available to answer the phone. Must have something to do with physics or geometry or something. As I checked the caller id I could see it was long distance and actually took a few moments before answering to curse all telemarketers who can't give it a rest on a holiday even!

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is Joe Bob at Prestige Camera. Is MOTH there?" (he actually asked for MOTH by name)

I tried to look confused and handed the phone off to MOTH who promptly went in his office and shut the door. All the while my brain was scrambling madly on how to play it off when he came back out. Just think, a guy (a great guy) goes to all the trouble to buy his wife a great gift (a really great guy) AND keep a secret and Joe Bob there ruins everything in 15 words or less... The emotions were scrambling wildly in my brain, trying to figure out whether I was angry at Joe Bob, angry that MOTH had spent what was likely too much money or thrilled that he'd picked such a perfect gift. No matter what it was, it was bound to be gadgety and my little techie heart was going pitty pat at the thought!

In the end I did play it off and hoped that my acting skills were convincing in the extreme. I had already been cautioned not to look at our credit card bill online, but when I logged on yesterday to check the balance on my business account, I could see the balance on the credit card and it was clear that he had spent far too much money. What the heck did he do, buy a small country? Half of Microsoft? A new Chihuahua?

After a little dithering, I finally decided to tell him that I thought he ought to ease up on the spending. As we sat at the brewpub last night I brought it up. First he accused me of actually looking at the credit card account and then he said "well, I better tell you now because I've been worried about it".

Noooooooo!

I have enough information at this point to guess... but don't TELL me. Where's the mystery, the anticipation, the surprise? How about toying with your beloved for at least another week... I mean crap! We're not even in December yet (last night) and here you are spilling the beans.

Yeah, so he told me. I am excited. And torn. I truly did not want to know all the details, but it is a relief not to have to pretend I didn't have a pretty good idea.

So much for my holiday budget....

It's official (almost)

December is almost upon us and along with tidings of comfort and joy, there are certain traditions that must be adhered to.

Because my dogs love me, they do allow me to dress them for holiday photos. Their union contact (Little Dogs Unite!) does not allow me to do this outside of holiday observations, so for the most part they keep their dignity. I do have a verbal agreement that I may use such images for the length of the holiday season, so beginning December first, the fun begins.

Since I'll be at the brewpub tonight with MOTH (man of the house), I won't be posting before midnight so I'm using my verbal agreement to post early images. I hope this adds a little extra joy to your holiday season.

End the day on a high note

I fell asleep last night without taking my medicine. It's not the end of the world, but you can feel that you're not in top formwhen you get up in the morning. I was also fighting a headache from lack of sleep. Maddie needed a potty break at 3am since she didn't go out late last night. I could have gotten the cape fluttering, but in an uncharacteristic surge of common sense, I decided to pace myself and take the day off. This means that I cleaned the kitchen this morning and wrapped all the presents in the holiday closet. Then I crawled in the recliner with the girls, and we turned on Food Network and had us a nice puppy snooze.

When I came to, I heard Paula Deen telling us how to make a Sugar Cream Pie. She ran out of whip cream, but she did have a nice custard sauce that she topped it with. All I could think was that it was a heart attack in a crust. Holy Crap.

Lets be clear that I'll never be as accomplished in the kitchen as undomestic diva, however I can putter around pretty good and put something tasty on the table. I had some pretty big goals for today if I could knock back this headache.

I started with something that I hadn't worked with before; phyllo dough. First I made a yummy chicken pie filling. Then I filled my baking dishes with the filling. Then I realized I would have to trace around each dish to cut the phyllo. It's not super hard, but it is a lot easier to do when you don't have baking dishes full of hot chicken pie filling!

 

Once I got all the phyllo layered, buttered and cut out, it looked something like this.

I love chicken pie. 25 minutes in the oven at about 375 degrees and it's a comfort food festival!

I wasn't done yet however. (note the bakers chocolate in the above picture...) I decided to get in the cookie rut even though it isn't December yet. Behold the double chocolate cookie with mocha frosting.

Anyone want to come over and clean my kitchen? I'm even more tired now....

What are you diggin'?

I'm the kind of girl that when I find a restaurant I like to eat at, I tend to stick to a couple different items on the menu. A creature of habit, if you will. I don't go looking for ruts to fall into, but when I am in one, I do try to find ways to appreciate it.

One of my favorite ruts to be in is the winter soup fetish. I tend to make large pots of soup at least a couple times a week at our house. Although there is a little grumbling from the MOTH [man of the house] generally soups are conusmed readily and presumed to have all sorts of curative powers from the healing of tennis elbow to hangnail reduction. Fortunately we don't dangle body parts in the soup pot, but in general anyone walking through the door with a less than fabulous day is immediately instucted to have soup and considered cured following it's application. Occasionally a second dose is required, but the restorative properties are potent enough that it can be put off until the next day. In some houses this might be called leftovers... in ours, it's called follow up care.

Tonight, it's a tomato lentil soup to which I added lowfat Italian chicken sausage sauted with herbs and garlic. My face has cleared up and my daughter noted that her headache is gone. My youngest says her hands are not as chapped. Yes, we are diggin' the soup!

The other thing that I'm diggin' is online shopping. I generally appreciate this year round, given my issues with going to the mall. But I'm especially fond of it during the holidays when I feel pressed for time. My favorite part is how boxes show up in my office while I'm in meetings. That is worth a $5 shipping fee many times over. No jockeying for a parking place, standing in long lines or throwing off my schedule. I'd rather be standing in front of the stove making soup.

What I'm planning on diggin' next week? Two things....

• Stuffed Cabbage Soup- This requires Savoy Cabbage and my supermarket just got the first shipment in! Woo Hoo!
• Holiday Cookies Baby! I am currently laying in supplies since we tend to bake right up to Christmas Eve. My only dilemma is where to start. Traditionally my first salvo is the chocolate snowballs. However this year, I'm considering the double chocolate fudge cookies with espresso frosting. My barrista daughter pulls me shots each week to keep up with the frosting requirements. They aren't traditional holiday cookies, but they're so good I only bake them once a year so I don't end up weighing a bazillion pounds!

So.... What are you diggin'?

Just the facts, Ma'am

The noise you hear is my cape fluttering.

I have been swamped the last two days at work, running on a little less sleep than usual and trying to do enough to keep folks happy. My house is half a mess, laundry is half done, presents are half wrapped and I have to get up for the presentation tomorrow at like 4:30. I had a meeting today that precluded me finishing a last minute powerpoint for tomorrow. I do have a display board in my trunk however. I'll make an outline tonight and probably do a pretty decent presentation at 6:30. I'm hoping to bug out of work a little early tomorrow though. I think I want to come home and make tomato lentil soup. At times like this, it's beneficial to recharge instead of getting run down and risking a visit from the asthma fairy.

For those of you reading without asthma, I thought I might try to do a Joe Friday and keep it really basic. There's all sorts of emotions that go with asthma like denial, avoidance and frustration, but we'll set those aside for now.

I am very lucky as I have non allergic asthma. This means I can live with 3 dogs, 3 cats and about a bazillion dust mites and have no issues. I could fall face first in a field of moldy leaves and tree pollen and be just fine. Whereas most folks have allergic reactions to environmental crap, I don't (yet). My airways do react mightily to VOC's (volatile organic compounds). These are found in paint, perfume, hairspray, shampoos, scented candles, air freshener, cleaning products, laundry detergent, fabric softener, etc. Many building products will have VOC's such as older kitchen cabinets, insulations and new carpet often off gases VOC's as well. I also respond negatively to weird stuff like air pollution, auto exhaust and smoke of any kind.

• Biggest fear: being trapped (in a theater, elevator, line at the bank or in a meeting) with someone doused in perfume.
• Most embarrassing: having to explain to people that they are literally making me sick
• Greatest challenge: admitting that I can't climb higher, hike further, bike faster or paddle longer. Sometimes just admitting I can't breath
• Places I can no longer go: Bed Bath and Beyond, Bath and Body works, any Macy or Nordstrom, race tracks, casinos, my in laws (big smokers), the spa
• Things I can't do: Not much. Can't breath well above 6000-7000 feet but can do just about anything else at a different pace.
• Things I miss: perfume, candles, aromatherapy massage
• Things I don't miss: cleaning the oven

I'm hoping that active living will keep the lungs healthy longer, so I do hike, climb, bicycle, kayak, fish, whitewater raft and just about anything else through much of the year. This isn't so much a proven theory as it is an act of defiance, but I continue to hope for positive side effects.

So there you are. A little snapshot of asthma. Speaking of snapshots, today... no dogs. This shot was taken this summer from about 4500 feet. One of my favorite hikes.

Stating the obvious

As I took the girls out for potty late last night I got a little unexpected feedback. Our back yard faces some apartments that my husband and I lovingly refer to as 'the ghetto'. I won't go into that now, but suffice it to say I am not on a 'howdy neighbor' basis with any of my apartment dwelling neighbors. As I encourage the girls to do their thing so we can get to bed, one of the dwellers hollers down "HEY! How many of those little things you got? Buddy! C'mer! Look at the little dogs!"

For the little dogs, this is the cue to begin their territorial posturing and let the woman know that even though she is on her own balcony, she's violated the little dog treaty and yes.... it is on! As I begin to gather them up [they had already done their business for the evening] I yell back "there's three of them". Buddy, who has been watching me wrangle the doglets yells down "How come you got three dogs? That's too many".

Dude. From your perch you can see there are clearly three of them... and this isn't a conversation I am going to have yelling up at your third floor balcony. But I will answer the question on my blog because... well... I can.

Lets start by saying I didn't want any dogs. I had a full life. My middle daughter (21, in nursing school) started commenting about getting one when we moved into the bigger house 3 years ago. Over my husbands and my objections, she acquires one and says it will stay at her boyfriend's house and just come over for visits. You see where this is going, right? Yes, the dog started spending the night and our worst fears were realized. We fell in love with the dog. Every time she came through the door we would yell "did you bring the dog". The dog moves in and we began to miss the dog when she would take it with her to visit friends... and my lap would get cold.

I began [gasp] to contemplate getting my own dog. At this point you should visualize the requisite discussions that occur between my husband and I followed by my search for a perfect dog despite his coolness to the idea. While I was on a business trip in a nearby state, I picked up a newspaper (who knew they had puppies listed in there) and responded to an ad. Yes, I would love to come out and look. Who goes out to look at a puppy and walks away? Wrong color? Doesn't fit in my arms? What's with all the kisses? I wasn't looking for the big liquid puppy eyes? Yeah, I saw Maddie and drove to the cash machine to make a withdrawl.

Fast forward 6 months. I had no idea that Maddie would come fully equipped with all sorts of neurotic issues (another post for sure), but she wasn't coping well when my daughter took her dog out. My solution? Get another dog. If you have two, how much harder is three? Besides, my daughter would be taking her dog when she left so we'd still only have two. Wisely, my husband didn't bother to fight this one. I found Cassie online with a breeder and paid the deposit, little knowing what kind of an impact she would have. (another post for sure). Lets just say the last year has been very interesting.

So, that's why I have three dogs. Charming, wildly affectionate, cuddly and great companions. I'm using this photo today to show how different they all are. And yes, it's SOOC (straight out of Camera).

And yes, I stepped in Dog doo last night when I brought the dogs in.

Dammit.

Trepidation

I'm sitting here with a Chihuahua in my lap. Yes, it's Madeline. She knows she has priority over either of the other two. She's wiped out from watching the football game with my husband.

Either she knows how to keep score or she can read muscle tension because she bailed when we fell behind in the first quarter. Madeline never bails on my husband. However much he objected before I trumped him and brought her home (I found her on a business trip!) they mutually adore each other now.

But I digress.

Sundays are for relaxing, but once my husband leaves for work, I begin to contemplate what must be done in the coming week. I wish I could claim this was a process of organizing my thoughts but it actually accomplishes nothing but cutting my weekend short! This week...

• The computer consultant was in the server this weekend and wiped out everyone's (mine included) password. I can either go in today (NOT) or early tomorrow and reset all 50 passwords
• Atrocious hours....6AM presentation 20 miles away on Wednesday. I do this presentation every year at their request. It's hard to say no, and they do buy me breakfast!
• Confirm fund raiser for next month at local sports pub. The owner loves us. I'll let you know how it goes. There's no smoking there so I should be fine.
• Shop... the only food I've been buying was for Thanksgiving. After $85 in groceries Wednesday, my cupboards are bare and my fridge is starting to be. Even the leftovers are going, going, gone.
• Prepare for Van Halen. They are playing at one of the only local venues that actually is non smoking. My asthmatic lungs rejoice.
• Stall. As I was making breakfast this morning, one of my daughters asked me when we were putting the tree up. We'll get the tree issues soon!

[bloggers note: I have nothing against smokers and am not some militant anti smoking activist that mocks those who do. My poor lungs just cannot deal with any type of smoke. Thus all activities are carefully analyzed for potential scent or smoke exposures before proceeding. Trust me; I'd rather be fun loving and spontaneous, like I used to be. I don't care for the person my lungs force me to be... which is why I sometimes rebel and try things I hope I can get away with.... sigh]

Right now however, I am going to try to clean out my wrapping closet enough to get the presents in my trunk in there. Maybe I should add present wrapping to the list?

Obligations- such as they are

We've reached the portion of the weekend in which my obligations are officially over.

1. I have prepared and served a fabulous Thanksgiving meal on time and with attitude
2. I have made significant yet thankless attempts to entertain my youngest with feminine bonding activities. (lets just say I need to "up my game"- she didn't dig the chick flick)
3. I have girded my loins (whatever that means) and charged into the fray that is Black Friday. I dodged perfumed shoppers, found half price socks and Rubbermaid dishes and I bought a wrench
4. I have watched my first holiday movie with the fam- National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

I have also much to my chagrin started lying to everyone I love. This starts from the time I buy my first Christmas gift. When my children were younger, they were outraged to find out that I can lie and lie well during the holidays. They quickly began to question me over even the most mundane things; dinner menus, the year of my birth and of course everyone else's presents. This is now viewed as a family tradition or a harbinger of all our Christmas traditions from the tree to the baking. Stay tuned for an up close look at my anxieties surrounding all things holiday related. This gets interesting...

Since this is the official beginning of the holiday season, here's a little something to get you in the mood! Enjoy!

  Oops! Wrong Holiday!

After a brisk search of our hard drive, we'll get back to you with our festive holiday photos.

We apologize for any inconvenience the pirate may have caused you.