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Post by printandpolish on Jun 30, 2007 19:01:20 GMT -5
Nice! That sounds like a lot of fun. I've never been to Massachusetts, but I've been to the Atlanta airport twice... okay, so that's not exactly having experienced Georgia, but it's something.... right? Lol. Bah!! It surely counts. It really was fun, my husband hates to fly so we said this was the trial run to drive cross country next year. He's reconsidering his stance on being in the air. Liz, you must let me know how Rush was. Rich hemmed and hawed and finally I was tired of listening to him and tried to get tix, and it was all sold out. Have you heard "Snakes and Arrows" yet? Amazing. I want to be Neil Peart when I grow up. Speaking of -- if any of you want a great read, get "Ghost Rider" by Neil Peart. Peart is the drummer for Rush and lost his daughter and wife (car accident and cancer, respectively) within a year. He took off on a motorcycle and drove across Canada to try to heal himself. He's a great writer -- Rich (my H) gave me the book after we suffered a great loss and it was truly inspiring. |
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Post by fairlane on Jun 30, 2007 19:54:28 GMT -5
It's warmer here today - a balmy 10'C. I've had to start putting a jacket on my dog. He's an Am staff and it looks ridiculous hahah! But not so ridiculous as him shaking and shivering.
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Post by Nittanylizard on Jul 1, 2007 17:33:57 GMT -5
Liz, you must let me know how Rush was. Rich hemmed and hawed and finally I was tired of listening to him and tried to get tix, and it was all sold out. Have you heard "Snakes and Arrows" yet? Amazing. I want to be Neil Peart when I grow up. Speaking of -- if any of you want a great read, get "Ghost Rider" by Neil Peart. Peart is the drummer for Rush and lost his daughter and wife (car accident and cancer, respectively) within a year. He took off on a motorcycle and drove across Canada to try to heal himself. He's a great writer -- Rich (my H) gave me the book after we suffered a great loss and it was truly inspiring. Ah, the concert was great. We saw it in an ampitheatre, with lawn seating (though we were on the upper tier under the pavillion), so my ears aren't feeling clogged today, haha. Perfect weather, too, in the low 70's. The only thing I didn't like was that the keyboards were turned up too high, and for the first half of the show, every time Geddy used those keyboards there was this vibration that just reverberated through your entire body and made it feel like your heart was going to just give up its own beat and hop on the Rush bandwagon  . It went beyond uncomfortable to bordering on nauseating. I felt like one of Pavlov's dogs - "Oh no, he's going for the keyboards!" Other than that, it was great. Oh, and the guitar was hard to hear for the first half, but everything seemed to be balanced out much better for the second half, and the band looked like they were having a great time. Neil Peart's solo was, naturally, unreal. I have so much respect for that man. He was the biggest reason I became a fan - I read several of the songs before hearing them and just fell in love with the lyrics. Profound, inspiring, amazing. I almost bought his book online a few months ago and got *interrupted*  , so thanks for the reminder! When I bought our tickets five minutes after they went on sale, it took less than five more minutes for all of the lower seating to be sold out. The couple sitting next to us had driven two or three hours so they could see the show on a weekend, since their work schedules weren't open for a middle-of-the-week show. Liz |
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Post by queenjaneapprxmtly on Jul 1, 2007 21:38:14 GMT -5
Ooh, that sounds really fun!
Speaking of concerts, I just saw the New Colony Six and the Grass Roots last night at the Naperville Rib Fest!
It was so much fun. My aunt met Ray Graffia, the original founder and lead singer of New Colony Six, through hospice because his mom was dying, and she told him that we (meaning me, my aunt, my brother, and my mom) would go to the Fest and that her niece (me) was a really big fan! Which I am. They are awesome.
So, it was great. I recapped the whole thing in my LiveJournal, but obviously I can't do that here because it was too long, lol. New Colony Six is a Sixties band from Chicago, where I live, and the Grass Roots are from L.A. I got to meet them, too! My aunt talked with Ray for a while and so did my brother and I, and I got to take a picture with them and everything!
It was so amazing. I always thought I'd pass out or something if I met one of my favorite Sixties bands in person, but I didn't. I looked extremely stupid in my picture with them, but I was very calm and cool about the whole thing, lol. It was spectacular.
I hope everyone else is having a fantastic summer, too. :)
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Post by zevie on Jul 6, 2007 1:43:39 GMT -5
Okay, I've been here (BC) four days and it's *gorgeous*. Weather - perfect. Mountains - spectacular. Hot boy count - off the friggin charts. I've found the answer to the question: "Where have you been all my life?" It's: "Vancouver". Seriously considering moving here, although am put off a little by stories of three months of straight rain. Also, I went up to Whistler the other day and there were bits of cotton or dandylion fluff floating around EVERYWHERE. What's up with that?! It was like being at the scene of a cotton ball massacre. This has nothing to do with anything, but I feel like sharing.  I have met the supreme human anomaly in the form of my English cousin - a nice, polite, funny, SWEET fifteen year old boy. He's extremely thoughtful and good natured and eloquent. When I was fifteen I was selfish and irritating and spoke moron fluently. (Obvious joke: I haven't changed.) It's either the power of Van-land, or the English have a secret power. |
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Post by Nittanylizard on Jul 6, 2007 9:57:24 GMT -5
Zevie - I swear to God, you crack me up every time you post. You are so funny. You need to write a book. I wouldn't even have to make sense, it would still be funny ;D.
Oh, and Vancouver sounds like a great place to visit! Except for the killer cottonballs...
Liz
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latch22
Up To No Good
Anybody got a pitchfork?
Posts: 206
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Post by latch22 on Jul 6, 2007 13:54:49 GMT -5
The weather has actually been pretty nice here, except when it's been raining. It hasn't gotten too hot, really. Like today, it's nice, and tomorrow is supposed to be as well.
My summer got off to a pretty decent start, which I didn't expect. I did meet my uncle and his girlfriend and... I admit... I was wrong. He isn't creepy and she isn't evil. I actually had a good time and I'm glad that I saw them, even if he got depressed a few times when he realized how much time had passed and that he had been gone for thirteen years, barely calling.
My aunt brought out a bunch of pictures--two whole boxes' worth, I think. Somehow, she ended up with all the pictures. We don't really have any. It was amazing looking at them all. She cooed and awwed when she saw one of them, and my cousin came over, but when he saw that it was a picture of a dog, he went, "Oh... I kind of thought it might be a picture of, you know, me." Then she did see one of him as a baby and she laughed, and she mentioned her reaction, and he went, "Well, that wasn't the reaction I was looking for. You laughed at me!" It was so weird seeing him as a baby. He's almost twenty-five now, 6'5", and a big guy. He found an old baby shoe of his that looked like it could fit maybe a toe. It was unreal... Then there's my barely five feet, petite self standing next to him. Yeah. No one else mentions it to be polite and not hurt my feelings, but I think it's hilarious.
Cheers!
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Post by Tensleep on Jul 6, 2007 20:00:31 GMT -5
Ugg. the cottonfluff is bad here, too. The poplars like flood basins and we flood every few years, so yeah, lots of poplar trees in the rock.
It's Stampede time again. So naturally there are people all over the place dressed to the nines in cowboy rigging. You know, you can tell who the tourists are pretty easily...meh. Like I was saying, cowboy hats and boots everywhere! It's like Christmas!
And tomorrow night Three Days Grace is playing the Coke stage. I might even consider braving the city for that. Wish me luck.
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Post by zevie on Jul 8, 2007 21:24:23 GMT -5
Liz - Thanks! I aim to please. ;D
I wish there were cowboys in Toronto. I mean, there are, but only for pride. I wish there were some that rode horses. And wore pants.
Mars thanks for all the tips! I wish I could go around to all of those places, but I'm caught in the whirlwind of family visits that I'm sure you all have experienced. Not that I'm missing any of the westcoast greenery. Everything just grows here, my GOD. I was taxi-ing down the street minding my own business when out of nowhere this monster hundred-year old tree appears in the middle of the road. INSANE for a city girl that's used to the tree equivalent of the ninety-pound weakling. Most Toronto trees are maybe the size of a Van-land branch. Maybe.
If any of you ever wants to know what it's like to be a Lilliputian, go to Stanley Park and try to hug a tree. (Note: You *will* be laughed at.) Or drive down flat ground and look up at the Rockies. Or stand at one end of Long Beach and try to find the other. Everything is just bigger in BC! And now I'm signing off before I make an inappropriate joke.
Oh wait, to tie this babble in to the Outsiders - I saw the most beautiful sunset of my life coming over on the ferry. We were pulling just out of the active pass, coasting by all these dark shapes of the islands covered in trees. The water was really still, just these tiny little waves from the ferry, all of them glittering in the fading light. The sky was dark blue, with streaks of gray clouds and the gentle orange-pink colour of dusk, and then all of a sudden we pulled into open water and there was this gorgeous red light everywhere, the colour of a raspberry rose. You couldn't look away, it was so beautiful.
Yikes, I'm waxing gross. But, seriously, it made me think of the book (almost *everything* does, lol). S.E. was totally right - if you haven't seen that kind of sunset, you need to.
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Post by BlindedxxFalcon on Jul 8, 2007 21:27:24 GMT -5
Hmmm.... I am going to Sea Girt, NJ to visit my aunt, uncle, cousin and my cousin's fiance. Then on the 17th I am going to DE...and we might go to NY. That's it, really.
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Post by queenjaneapprxmtly on Aug 7, 2007 15:09:40 GMT -5
I guess this topic has been kinda dead for a while, but did anybody go to the Chicago Beatlefest this past weekend?
I went. ^_^
It was from Friday, the third, to Sunday the fifth. I was only able to go on Saturday, but it was still awesome. I met two of my online friends there, Tory and Loren, and whenever Tory uploads the rest of her pictures I'm making a big picture post in my LiveJournal, all of the pics came out so great. :D
It was so cool, though. I've never been to a Beatlefest before so I was just in awe, lol. They were playing Beatles music all throughout the hotel, and there were people sitting around with guitars just jamming. The marketplace was FILLED with Beatles merchandise. I was in heaven, lol. I wanted to buy everything, but it was all so expensive ... I ended up getting a really awesome bag that I can use as a purse and for school, and a pin that says "I Love the Beatles." Which is an understatement.
My aunt (that's who I went with) got a pin that said "I Slept with Paul McCartney," and she wore it, and when somebody asked, "Did you really?" she said, "I'll never tell." And the funny part is she is of he age where she conceivably could have, lol. But she didn't.
We also saw Terry Sylvester of ... well, Tory said that he has the band name on google alert so that whenever somebody says it on the Internet, t shows up and he reads where it says it (stalker much?), so we'll just say, Terry Sylvester of the band that does the songs Carrie Anne and Bus Stop, lol. Anyway we saw him speak, and he was really hilarious.
And we just had a blast.
And I just wanted to know if anybody else went, lol. Next year we might go all three days, which I'm happy about, because I was upset about missing the Friday night Sixties Dance Party, lol. ^_^
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Post by theonceler on Aug 7, 2007 19:27:08 GMT -5
Beatlefest? You lucky dog. I lovelovelove The Beatles. On the topic of weather--here it has rained every single day since about May, except for the past week. Now it's about 100 degrees! Ughh. At least I live on a hill, so there's a breeze. And i'm going to Tulsa in two days for a family reunion type thing. Maybe i'll bump into S.E. Hinton. |
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Post by Nittanylizard on Aug 7, 2007 21:13:20 GMT -5
Beatlefest, very cool! Yet spellcheck doesn't seem to like it. Has anybody else also noticed that spellcheck doesn't like the spelling of spellcheck?
Moving on...
I was in NJ for a week (it was a week ago already, I'm a bit late here) with the kids to visit my family. We went to Island Beach State Park one day, which was awesome. I haven't been to the shore in years, and my kids have never been. They loved the waves, the sand, the sandcrabs, the way your PB&J crunches when you bite into it... ;D I did get a nasty sunburn on my back out of that one because when I put the sunscreen on in the morning I had a t-shirt on and I forgot to have somebody fill in where I had missed around my bathing suit, but hey, it was worth it.
Also took the commuter train to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden. It was my first time there. We got in early and went straight to the new shark tunnel. Very cool, even though we had to keep it quiet because they were filming a bit for Good Morning America for shark week. Anyway, sharks are swimming on either side of you and above you, and apparently if you're 12 or older and pay extra and make a reservation, you can put on a wetsuit and get right in there with the sharks. Didn't sign up for that one, lol.
Those were the big trip days. We also went in a couple of people's pools (they knew us, we didn't just drive by and hop into somebody's pool, heh heh), and my sister and her brother-in-law took the boys to the movies on the rainy day.
My sister is coming up here on Saturday to visit for the week, so after that I should have a whole new list of fun things we did on Part 2 of our bunch-o-boys adventure.
Liz
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Post by queenjaneapprxmtly on Aug 7, 2007 22:00:22 GMT -5
Beatlefest? You lucky dog. I lovelovelove The Beatles. Yeah, it was so much fun! I had a blast. And glad to see another Beatles fan here! They are practically my life, lol. I've been listening to them since I was about six or seven. We go way back, lol. ^_^ |
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Post by theonceler on Aug 7, 2007 22:06:04 GMT -5
lol i'm not sure when I started listening to them...probably since I was about nine years old. But they broke up on my birthday.  Well, a few years before I was around. And one of Paul McCartney's grandchildren has my name. hehe, I find that amazingly cool. |
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. It went beyond uncomfortable to bordering on nauseating. I felt like one of Pavlov's dogs - "Oh no, he's going for the keyboards!" 
, so thanks for the reminder!
I have met the supreme human anomaly in the form of my English cousin - a nice, polite, funny, SWEET fifteen year old boy. He's extremely thoughtful and good natured and eloquent. When I was fifteen I was selfish and irritating and spoke moron fluently. (Obvious joke: I haven't changed.) It's either the power of Van-land, or the English have a secret power.
Well, a few years before I was around.