9 days to go!

9 days until the Eric Clapton concert ... I must say I am rather excited. It was funny how this all came about because I was talking to Jim one day about how there are some artists that I want to see and money wouldn't be much of an object, if I could do it without going bankrupt I'd pay just about any amount to see them ... and Eric Clapton was right at the top of the list. Fast Forward a few days and he finds out that Eric is playing in Detroit in Sept. No problem, I can drive 2 hours to see him, heck I'd drive 2 days =) Then we saw he was playing Chicago too, and usually when an artist is signed up for playing in Chicago and Detroit it means they stop in the middle too ... Grand Rapids. Sure enough he is and we got plans together for Jim, Paul, Jean and I to go and Jean offered her credit card to put the tickets on them so we could get them and Jim was in charge of tickets ... he got us 11th row on the floor!

Anyhow, the tickets weren't real expensive considering ... my limit for Clapton was about $300 and my ticket cost half of that, unless you add back in the new adorable blouse I got *lol*

So ... who is on your "must see" list that money wouldn't stop you from going? Besides Eric, my list includes:

Paul McCartney
Bob Seger
Elton John

Oh, I was also googling today and found this cool site with lyrics to most of his songs, check it out: Clicky

It must be hard being a cat

Yesterday I was taking some photos of some items to put on ebay and apparently Abbie got a bit bent out of shape about it ... that she wasn't getting the attention so she was "helping" me with the auctions.

First she got up in front of the camera and then gave me the 'look'



She finally got disgusted with me and stalked off waving her tail at me and "chattering" ... well apparently it was too much work for her because not 10 minutes later this is what I saw when I looked up from the computer:



A few more minutes later ...



Oh to be a cat :)

Countdown to Clapton!

For those that are on SS, you've no doubt seen my ticker counting down to the Eric Clapton concert ... today reality hit that the concert is 10 days away!

I am going with 3 other people and we have had these tickets since June, so now it's starting to feel "real" and it's 10 days away.

Friday night Jean and I were talking about the concert and how we had a setlist for Eric to play for us and we were hoping he'd hit a few of our favorite songs including Pretending, Layla, Bad Love, and White Room.

I did some googling today and found the set list from his concert about a month and a half ago in Helsinki, Finland and if he plays some of what is on this set list it's going to be an awesome awesome concert!

I've decided since it's 10 days to Clapton to do a daily blog about all things Eric. Today I will include the setlist I found online:

Setlist

Pretending
I Shot The Sheriff
Got To Get Better In A Little While
Old Love (with Robert Cray)
Everybody Oughta Make A Change
Motherless Children

sit down set
Back Home
I Am Yours
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
Running On Faith

After Midnight
Little Queen Of Spades
Further On Up The Road
Wonderful Tonight
Layla
Cocaine

Encore
Crossroads (with Robert Cray)

Opening Act:
The Robert Cray Band

Celebration on the Grand

I mentioned it in a previous blog, but here is some more information about Celebration on the Grand

Celebration on the Grand is an annual weekend celebration in September to celebrate all things Grand Rapids and to celebrate developments that have happened in the town. The Grand River runs right through downtown, hence the name :) Plus it's an excuse to get a hot dog or elephant ear ... both of what I had Saturday night!

It's a weekend celebration with concerts, activities for kids and a big fireworks display that is usually on the Friday night but since we got rained out they moved it to Saturday night.

The fireworks were great, a nice display of them to watch and then afterward Jean, Deb, and I went to listen to Foghat while Jim and Zach went home since Zach was falling asleep and I don't think he could stand to hang out with "old people" for much longer than he did :)

The weather was a bit chilly but not bad, just a change from the warm summer we have had, it felt like fall had arrived!

The final countdown

No I won't start singing that song ... it just on the radio right before I read Stacy's weekly blog challenge which is also a countdown, how's that for irony?


10 Things I wanna do before I die
10. Go to Australia
9. Go on a cruise
8. Get married
7. Have a baby
6. Visit every state in the union
5. Wear a size 8/10 again
4. Go to England
3. Own my own home
2. Get my college degree
1. Go on an Alaskan cruise

9 Places I last spent money
9. At a hot dog stand at Celebration on the Grand last night
8. Walgreens (prescription and other items)
7. Meijer (packing supplies)
6. Post Office (mailing ebay auctions)
5. Walgreens (more packing supplies)
4. Family Fare (snack attack!)
3. McDonalds (french fry craving!)
2. Cafeteria at work
1. Gas station

8 Sounds I routinely hear around my house
8. Abbie meowing at me when I get home from work
7. The a/c kicking on
6. The person that lives below me coming home and slamming her door
5. The phone ringing every weekday at 7pm on the dot (what good is the do not call list?)
4. The Microsoft Windows "welcome" when I turn on my laptop
3. Abbie "talking" the birds and squirrels that hang out on my deck
2. The TV
1. Abbie knocking something off the counter to play with

7 Real restaurants where I last ate out
(some of these are a few months back, I've cut back drastically on my eating out)
7. Applebees
6. Bennigans
5. Outback
4. Some chinese buffet place Jim took me to
3. Carrabba's
2. Kobe Japanese Steakhouse
1. Skippers

6 Things I scratched off my To Do list recently
6. Put items out on eBay
5. Clean kitchen
4. Take out garbage
3. Do laundry
2. Refilled allergy med prescription
1. Organized photos into mini PS box

5 People I don't know who I'd like to hang out with
5. All of my Scrapshare Sisters I've not been able to meet yet (and those I have met I want to hang out with you again) =)
4. Elizabeth Dole
3. Eric Clapton
2. Kenny Chesney
1. Rosie O'Donnell

4 Songs that make me happy
4. Jack and Diane
3. Pretending
2. I want you to want me
1. Heaven is a place on Earth

3 Things I hate to do
3. Clean the bathroom
2. Take out the trash
1. Drive in the winter when it's snowy/icy

2 Things I'm really good at
2. Photography
1. Being a good friend/listener

1 Bad Habit
1. Procrastinating

A whole lot about nothing

This is for you Heidi :)

I'm a terrible blogger, but sometimes I feel like I don't really have anything to say so I don't blog as much as I should.

This week has been kinda busy, I am working on the implementation team for a project at work and we are "going live" this weekend which has been several years in the making. It's going live tomorrow just for our department to use and then after next week will turn it on to everyone including our outside agents that use the site we support. This will give us time to test and make sure the last few kinks are worked out.

I can't believe it's September already ... seems like this whole summer has flown past and I like that I have been able to do some of the things I wanted to do and on Labor Day I finally went to a Detroit Tigers baseball game ... I've been meaning to go for 5 years and finally did :) They were playing my boys, the Seattle Mariners so it was even more fun to watch both of the teams play, and the Tigers did win. I got some great pictures and we had great seats, down the first base line more towards the outfield 25 rows up, I can't wait to see how my pictures turn out.

With September comes my worst time of the year for allergies, goldenrod, ragweed and the combination of the weather getting a bit cooler touch mine off to where no matter what I do I can't get relief, today is no exception ... I've taken a bunch of meds and have gone through almost a whole box of kleenex. Right now I just want to stop sneezing!

Nothing else really going on in my world. Tonight I'm going with a few friends downtown to watch the fireworks, we went last night but got rained out so we decided to try again for tonight.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Color

I have to say one of my favorite colors is pink. I've always liked it and it's a color that I feel (and have been told) I look good in. For as long as I can remember I have liked pink, I think it may stem from my Barbie collection and how I always played with Barbies as a girl. I can remember telling Mom that I wanted a hot pink room with silver polka dots on the wall :)

I still don't have a hot pink room with silver polka dots but I do still collect Barbie's and I have a pink and lime green bathroom. Some people think that my whole house must be pink since I like the color so much and it really isn't. I have a pink and lime green bathroom, but my bedroom is purple and my living room is neutral although I do have a pink poodle from Build a Bear in my living room.

My favorite flower is Stargazer Lillies, and one of my favorite dresses as a girl was my Rosebud dress, with ... pink roses. Mom saved the dress for me and in alot of pictures you see me in that dress with my black shiny Mary Janes. I guess you could say I'm a girly girl ... I'm wearing a pink shirt right now even *wink* One of my favorite movies is Legally Blonde and Grease ... when I was younger I tried to start a club called the Pink Ladies just like in Grease ... Think Pink!


CM Pink Passion Paper! (I just opened up a package for the first time a few weeks ago!)

Countdown to Kenny!

Well it's Wednesday ... 2 more sleeps and it will be the Kenny Chesney concert! I am so looking forward to the evening out with my friend Dawnn and spending it with Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley and of course Kenny :)

I have my outfit picked out and I found adorable sandals last week that match my blouse perfectly so I will match nicely!

My 100th post!

Well it's my 100th post ... not much to say so I found some more stuff on blogthings and thought I'd post it here.

Happy 100!

You Are A Lily

You are a nurturer and all around natural therapist. People see you as their rock. And they are able to depend on you. You are a soothing influence. You can make people feel better with a few words. Your caring has more of an impact than even you realize.

What Flower Are You?

Music Quiz

Music Quiz
CASEd from Heidi who got it from some random blog.

List 10 musical artists you like (do this before reading the questions below):

1. George Strait
2. Kenny Chesney
3. Keith Urban
4. Faith Hill
5. Elvis Presley (he's just timeless)
6. Tim McGraw
7. Bon Jovi
8. Reba McEntire
9. Garth Brooks
10.Martina McBride

What was the first song you ever heard by 6?:
Indian Outlaw. I remember there was a big stink about it by some members of the Native American community.

What is your favorite album of 2?:
Everywhere We Go as this was the album that really seemed to launch his career but The Road and The Radio is incredibly awesome too!

What is your favorite lyric of 3?:
Oh there are so many ... I guess if I have to choose "now she's strummin on my six-string Across her pretty knees She's stompin' out a rhythm and singin' to me the sweetest song."


How many times have you seen 4 live?:
Just once but excellent show!

What is your favorite song by 7?:
Ohhhh too many! I think It's My Life

What is your favorite lyric of 1?
Amarillo by Morning, Marina Del Ray or Blue Clear Sky :)

Is there a song of 4 that makes you sad?:
On her Faith CD, Wild Frontier.

What is your favorite song by 9?:
"Ain't going down till the Sun Comes Up" (too bad he doesn't perform anymore, a great concert!)

How did you get into 3?:
When he was in the band, The Ranch, they had a few songs that got heavy airplay at a station that is no longer around back in Seattle and I thought he was good, then he came out on his own as a solo artist and I was sold! Great concert by the way... :)

What is your favorite song by 4?:
Dearly Beloved or The Secret of Life

What is a good memory concerning 2?:
Way too many! Driving around with Heid in Seattle ... being at his concerts ... doing the crazy hip swinging dance from the How Forever Feels video ... and then finding out I'm not the only one that does that crazy little dance ... Heidi does too!

Is there a song by 8 that makes you sad?:
Ummm some of them are tearjerkers, hello it's Reba. She is good at getting emotion out of you.

How did you become a fan of 10?:
I heard 'Safe in the Arms of Love' and was hooked. She has one heck of a voice!!! Great concert too btw :)

Random thoughts of a non-morning person

This morning my alarm went off and it was playing a song and I was in that state of half asleep, half awake where the song became part of a crazy dream I was having so I couldn't tell if it was my alarm or something else. I was laying there trying to decide and realizing I don't really like the song and thought I'll roll over to look at my alarm and smack down the snooze button ... then determined I couldn't roll over for some reason. I just laid there on my stomach thinking about it for what felt like a long time but was probably a few seconds then all of a sudden I remembered where I put my Zyrtec that I take for allergies!
Last night I was chatting with some friends and was like "If you were my Zyrtec where would you be?" because I couldn't find it, I didn't get much help but did get Jean to realize that she is supposed to refrigerate one of the vitamin type things she gave me for stomach issues :)

So I got up and sure enough it was in one of my spring purses in the bottom of my closet in the tote that I store some of my purses in. I think this was the first morning I was actually up and moving around without having hit my snooze button too..yet I still made it into work with 1 minute to spare :)

I guess the moral of this story is to go to bed earlier ... but we all know that won't happen =)

mmmmmm... Margarita's

You Are a Strawberry Margarita

You're so sweet it's a little overwhelming, and people are a little afraid of corrupting you... It's a little difficult to imagine you with a margarita. And you're truly a different person after you've kicked back a couple!

What Flavor Margarita Are You?

Sonic

This past Saturday Dawnn and I went on a road trip to Fort Wayne Indiana to go to Sonic. I have been craving Sonic since I moved back from Alabama and for my birthday I told her this was what I wanted to do. We made the plans and I got directions from a great lady on Scrapshare as to where one was in Fort Wayne and we set off Saturday with Dawnn's daughter Skye who is almost 2 in tow for a girls road trip.

I had a great idea to write down stuff as we were on the road about the adventure to use later in our albums and grabbed a pack of Creative Memories storybox paper out of my trunk and snapped a few photos of the odometer and ourselves and away we went. The storybox papers turned out to be a great idea!

Here are some excerpts:

12:17pm "We are on our way" As we stop 3ft from Dawnn's mom's house after dropping Jacob off to get the storybox and cameras out. "I have to have it out and ready" Diane says.

12:22pm "We're really going now" Drinks from Burger King (without straws) and a happy meal for Skye... we should be good for at least an hour.

1:14pm I-94 west of Battle Creek. Still on the road, no stops yet. Di and I were chatting and out of nowhere "Sonic" comes in a singsong voice from the backseat. Sky was just chattering away and all of a sudden "Sonic" came out .. awww.

1:48pm Back on the road after a rest area stop. Ice cream $2 so we decided on cookies instead for a snack. Met a nice southern truck driver, took a group photo and we are outta here.

3:00pm 20 miles from Fort Wayne...there was dead stuff all over the road, and then we saw this huge dead thing. Di thought it was a coyote, Dawnn though it was too fuzzy so Di called Paul and asked if coyote's are fuzzy. (come to find out it was a coyote... craziness.)

3:15pm We find Sonic!

3:25pm After much deliberation we order the 1st round of cherry limeade's with our food and plan to order more drinks before we go as Di brought a cooler to hold it all. Oh, our food just came! More later!

3:30pm Our food is getting cold while we take photos of us and our food. Di says oh I think my southern accent is coming back! She's startin to say 'ya'll' again :)

3:50pm How can it all be gone Dawnn says staring into her empty cherry limeade cup. Meanwhile Di is changing the roll of film in her camera to get more photos.

4:10pm $18 in drinks later we are getting ready to pack up and head out to find Chick-Fil-A to take care of my chicken fix at the same time :)

4:23pm Goodbye Sonic! In search of I-69 and Chick-Fil-A we have our 10 drinks piled into the coolers. Di has the map and we are on a mission to find Chick-Fil-A. Our parting words from Skye "Bye Bye Sonic Miss You."

4:45pm Hello Chick-Fil-A! We find the mall with the Chick-Fil-A and Di is in heaven ordering several packs of nuggets and asking for tons of buttermilk ranch dressing. We also get a couple packs for our friend Rachel who couldn't go with us.

5:03pm Tragedy strikes! Di went to get Dawnn's diet coke with coconut and cherry out of the arsenal of beverages and noticed her cherry coke with lime had a hole in the bottom of the cup and has leaked into the cooler, thne whole thing! Dawnn says just stick a straw in the cooler and start sipping!

6:56pm What about Bob? I-94 in Battle Creek. Holy cow we swear we just saw Bob from the Bachelor! Di wasn't driving fast enough to take a 2nd look, I should have pressed down on the gas ... I could have hooked her up!

6:58pm Why can't we find anything good on the radio?!?!

8:17pm and 356.5 miles later we are back! Had a great time and can't wait to get our pictures back, we think we have between us over 100 photos!

I will post photos when I get them back!

The 5 Love Languages

On a great recommendation from Heidi I got the book The Five Love Languages for Singles by Gary Chapman. It is a great book and there is one for married couples and children also. If you have not read the book I highly recommend it. I stumbled across this quiz tonight and thought I would post it so you can take it too. These are my results.

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Physical Touch
with a secondary love language being
Quality Time.

Complete set of results

Physical Touch:		12
Quality Time:		6
Receiving Gifts:		5
Words of Affirmation:		5
Acts of Service:		1

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

More butterflies!

I haven't been online much the last couple of days but here are some more butterfly photos.

If you ever come to Michigan in March-April this is a must see! Even when the butterflies are not at the gardens it is still worth going to, it is so beautiful to walk around and photograph.

The butterfly house: where they are "born" and where they stay for a few hours until they are ready to enter the big world of the garden:






These are actually 2 butterflies ... I thought it was one large one at first but it is two ... there was some speculation over what they were doing....


This is my favorite photo, I couldn't believe how well it turned out.