Keith Urban - 7/26/11

Keith Urban

Hampton Coliseum – 7/26/11

Life has been a bit busy this summer. Exactly one month from this date we leave for our 16-day Alaska trip! Combined with all the other stuff we’ve managed to cram in this summer it’s been quite chaotic.

Cari came home Sunday and since she needed an outfit for an interview on Wednesday and I still needed a couple of tops for the cruise AND I had a 20% off coupon for Kohls (that expired Sunday), we grabbed some lunch and went shopping. Let me just say it was a pretty productive shopping afternoon. We got home just in time to head back out to meet Mike and Paddy for Harry Potter at the new Beach Movie Bistro. It was after 9:30 when we got home.

Monday we met Herb and Jean at Baker’s Crust for lunch and ran some other errands afterwards. Farm Fresh had some wild caught Alaskan for a change so we picked up some for dinner. By the time we got home it was around 4:00. After dinner we watched another boring movie from Netflix. Cari and I played around on our Nooks and another day bit the dust.

Tuesday we dropped Peanut off at the groomer and stopped by Dress Barn to see what kind of clearance deals we could get. We got some. Let me just leave it at that. We managed to get out of there just in time to pick up Peanut and head home to meet Regina for lunch. I put some chicken salad together for dinner and it was time to leave for the concert. I guess my reasoning for putting all this in my Keith journaling is because Cari and I weren’t even excited about the show! We hadn’t had time to even think about it to get excited. I don’t think I have ever gone to a concert before with so little anticipation. It was a weird feeling.

The drive to Hampton was really not bad – even in rush hour traffic. The doors opened at 6:30 and we were there waiting in line by about 6:25. Jake Owen opened at 7:30. While I don’t love every one of his songs, I really liked him. I’ll enjoy listening to him even more now. He played for about 40-45 minutes.

Keith took the stage between 8:30-8:45. It was awesome. The whole show was awesome. It’s been so long since we’ve seen him – except in Nashville at Fan Fair. There is definitely a difference in Keith the person and Keith the performer from the last time we saw him in Richmond (2006). I guess between the life changes he’s experienced (marriage, children) and getting clean, he’s just happy. At least it seems that way.

The title of his current CD is “Get Closer.” It’s also the title of this tour. One of the first things he shared with us was his reason for choosing the Hampton Coliseum over the amphitheater. He wanted a smaller feeling venue, something more like a club. He asked us how we liked the new stage, “with all those stupid fences gone that separates us from you.”

This new Keith seems to be all about getting close to his fans. He gave us a taste of that in Nashville when he picked our section to come up in and perform. Talk about the highlight of the entire week! There was a small circle “stage” in the center of the floor that he played several songs on, which gave him the opportunity to see and “get closer” to even more fans. Towards the beginning of the show he was talking to us and reading signs people were holding up. He spotted one that said “Sweet 16.” It was her birthday. Keith said, “Sweet 16 and never been kissed … not by me!” He motioned for her to come up on stage and kissed her on the cheek. Now how stinking cool is that? Towards the end of the show he did exactly what he did in Nashville – picked a spot in the upper section to perform. Since we had experienced that we knew EXACTLY what those fans were feeling! God it was fun! When he finished “You Look Good in My Shirt,” he signed the guitar he was playing and handed it to a little girl nearby. She looked like she was maybe nine years old and talk about being in shock! Can you even imagine?

The entire night was like this. When you see a performer having so much fun interacting with his fans, you can’t help but have an incredible time yourself. I just love watching him. I love watching him get lost in his guitar and just be in the moment. I love watching his body language and mannerisms. He’s just fun. And when he demonstrates that he enjoys us as much as we enjoy him it doesn’t get any better than that.

“Kiss A Girl” was another special moment of the night. After the first verse or so, he stopped playing and picked three random people from the audience to join him on stage. It was like a sing off competition. The people had some brass ones I’ll tell you. However, DJ was pretty damn good – he “won.” The prize was actually singing with Keith. I videoed the entire thing – it was amazing!

He took a moment before it ended to acknowledge that lots of people are dealing with tough economic times these days. There are always a lot of concerts to choose from when deciding which ones you can afford to go to. He thanked us for choosing to spend our Tuesday night with him.

The man played for nearly 2-1/2 hours, performing 23 songs. Here’s the set list:

Put You in a Song

Fly With Me

Boondocks (Little Big Town)

Days Go By

Only You Can Love Me This Way

Long Hot Summer

Stupid Boy

Silly Love Songs

Making Memories of Us

I’m In

Blue Jeans

You’ll Think of Me

Better Half

Georgia Woods

Summer Comes Around

Sweet Thing

Kiss A Girl

Without You

Somebody Like You

Who Wouldn’t Want to be Me

You Look Good In My Shirt

Tonight I’m Gonna Cry (my fave)

Better Life

I didn’t even take my camera so the only shots I got were with my iPhone. I did take lots of videos though. Walking back to the car guess who we ran into? DJ! I told him I got the entire thing on video and he gave me his email to send it to him. He was still on cloud nine! We certainly walked away from this show feeling like we got more than our money from those tickets. That concert is definitely in my top five faves, if not my top two.

... and next week we get to see Kenny again!!! :)

"Big Pool!!"

After sleeping late, Heidi came over for lunch and we all headed over to Regina's for some pool time. Morgan is talking up a storm and parroting any and everything she hears. It's so cute!! I had picked up a float and some water balls (you know the baby loves her some balls). On the way over we were telling her that we were going to a big pool. She knows what a pool is because her MaMaw has an above ground and she loves it. You should've seen her face when she saw the big in-ground pool! So cute!!

She was a bit clingy in the beginning. I think she was just overwhelmed. It didn't take her long to get over it though. She absolutely LOVED when Regina turned on the fountains. It's hysterical how she loves to get under them and get her head all wet! Heidi put her floaties on and before long she was jumping off the stairs, the side of the pool and even the diving board. She was fearless!! We'd be playing in the water and she'd look at me and say, "Jump?" LOL When I said, "Sure, go ahead!" she'd go up the stairs and walk around to the side and jump to me. I can't even begin to tell you how many times she did that. Regina called her the little energizer bunny because she did not stop the entire afternoon. She wasn't the only one who was gonna sleep good that night.

Regina made these incredible chicken nachos for us to snack on (should've taken a pic of those too). It was the perfect afternoon! We have to do that again before the end of the summer. It was heaven!!

Heidi said Morgan fell asleep in the car on the way home, around 4:30. She had to wake her up to try and get some dinner in her and Morgan cried through it. Went back to sleep and didn't get up until almost 7am Saturday morning. I think we wore her out! :)

So sad ...

The anticipation for the final Harry Potter film had been building for months, years actually. I think many of us had conflicting emotions about this film. I was so excited about seeing it, but at the same time was so sad that it's over. We had to say goodbye to Harry, Hermoine, Ron and the rest of the gang.

Cari and Matt drove down on Thursday and we met at PMS Deli for lunch. From there we ran some errands and the rest of the afternoon and evening flew by! We left here around 10:00pm to pick up Regina and get to the theater a little early (or so we thought) so we could make sure we got a good seat. R-I-G-H-T ... There were 18 theaters (some large, some small) showing the movie at midnight. You could sit anywhere you could find a seat - with the exception of the 3D theater. We went through most of them an even 90 minuets early we couldn't find four seats in any upper section. It was crazy!! We ended up sitting in the back row of a lower section - closer than we'd have liked but it was the best we could find. The time passed fairly quickly (playing Angry Birds - LOL) and soon the lights went down and it was time ... for previews. After 20, or more, minutes of previews the movie finally started!

Those two hours went by fast. I loved the movie and thought they did a good job (mostly) of portraying the book correctly. They did change a few things but for the most part it was accurate. It was a late night. I think we got to bed around 3:00-3:30am. But it was awesome.

25 Years!!

I guess I'm just getting bloody old. Bob and I have been married for TWENTY FIVE YEARS!!! Wow! It still blows me away! I'm so lucky to have found a man who puts up with me day in and day out. I know I'm not the easiest person to live with some days - especially with this hormone deprived, menopausal body now. There are days even I don't want to be around me. They suck. Still he loves me anyway. He may not like me some days but he still loves me. There are so many instabilities in life it's comforting to have a partner who is stable. I've always said he's my rock, my grounding rod. We are so very different, Bob and I. Like night and day on lots of things. But where it counts, home, family, core values and such, we meld pretty well.

He surprised me with my very own new Nook Color reader!! I was so excited!! I still have my issues with not being able to share digital books I buy but I guess I'll learn to work around it. At least with the Nook I can borrow books from the library and read them for free. You still can't do that on the Kindle. (On a side note, Dad is loving his Kindle!) I was in the middle of reading Iris Johansen's "On The Run" and immediately went to the library to see if I could check it out and finish it on my Nook. I could!! That was pretty cool! It's going to be so nice traveling with it! I'll really get that experience on our trip to Alaska.

We went to Burton's Grill at Hilltop for dinner. It was one of the best dinners we've ever had! Bob and I split their Mediterranean Salad for an appetizer and it's always good (with a nice bottle of wine of course). For our main course they had fresh Alaskan Sockeye Salmon that was to die for! It was over some kind of fresh corn salsa (and you know I love corn!) and slices of fresh tomatoes from Pungo. We ordered Creme Brulee that finished it off nicely! We waddled back to our car. What a wonderful day!!

Been reading too ...

Started re-reading the Harry Potter books back in May. My plan was to read a book then watch the movie. That was all going according to plan until I picked up the Kindle Brooke and I were giving Dad for Father's Day. She put all the "Fever" books on there. Damn! I had read books 1-4 several years ago. I remember being so pissed at the end of the fourth book. I picked it up thinking it was the last one in that series. It so was not the last one. I'd read that whole book thinking I'd get some kind of closure at the end. NOT!! And I had waited for it to be released so I had no clue when the sequel was coming out. (If you aren't familiar with the "Fever" books go here to read more.)

Fast forward to June. Cari bought herself a Nook Color. She'd been waiting for the fifth and final book to hit the shelves so she could read the entire series at once. Well book five came out in January - I still hadn't picked it up though. It had been several years so I wanted to start back at book one and read them all again. All it takes is a couple of pages and you're hooked - so hooked. Cari read all five books in six days. Granted she wasn't in school or working and she had really missed reading for fun. There's simply not much time for that in between studying and homework during school. So, although I was into book four of Harry Potter I had all five "Fever" books at my finger tips. I couldn't resist. I caved.

I devoured the first two books. Then I hit the brick wall called Nashville. I didn't get much reading done the next two weeks. Acknowledging there was no way I could finish before handing the Kindle over on Father's Day, I went to the library and checked the rest of them out. I am so glad that series is done!! Good Gawd I needed a massage after finishing that last one! The entire thing was unbelievably intense! And it ended with, " ... the end" and on the next page, " ... for now." So you know that's not the end of the story, but at least Ms. Moning provided us with some closure.

I've got two and a half weeks to get ready for Harry Potter now!! Yikes!!

PS - Both Missy and Pat have now caught the fever! It's gonna be fun watching them read too!

Ahem (clearing my throat) ...

... no literally. I've been feeling poorly since Monday. Woke up with a sore throat and just dragging. The coughing started Wednesday night. My voice started going Friday afternoon. Today (Sunday) is the second day of absolutely no voice whatsoever. I talk to myself - a lot. And yes, I answer myself too. Is that an indication of intelligence or Alzheimer's? Not sure but I'll choose intelligence thank you. I've always talked to myself, even growing up. I remember trying to figure algebra problems and talking my way through it in class. Maybe it's a product of being an only child. Who knows? Anyway, now I'm whispering to myself. I forget I don't have a voice until I try to say something. If it wasn't so frustrating it would be funny. Anyway ...

Can't believe it's been two months since I've blogged. So many of life has whizzed by!! And wait, two months from today we'll be on a plane heading to Alaska! I can't believe it's that close! We've been planning this for months now. It's incredible to believe it's only weeks away now. I am so not ready! Well I'm ready, but not ready. You know what I mean! I've always wanted to go to Alaska - always. So we decided to take the trip of a lifetime for our 25th wedding anniversary! OMG the pictures I'm gonna take!

Mother's Day - Cari made me an awesome chocolate pecan pie! We had breakfast at Rock-a-fellers and snow crabs for dinner. It was a wonderful day!

Kenny!! Our summer started with a bang on June 4 going to see Kenny at Fed Ex Field. Jamie went with us and the yewts (Cari and Matt) met us at the hotel. We got to the parking lot as they opened the doors and had a wonderful time tailgating most of the afternoon. Carla and Eddie joined us - it was great reconnecting with them again. (More on this in a separate post.)

After coming home from Kenny on Sunday, I started getting serious about getting my act together for Nashville! Cari arrived Tuesday about lunchtime and the frivolity followed!! The whole trip (with the exception of Miranda Lambert being a bitch) was awesome! For me, the best thing about it was just being together. Six full days with Cari and Missy! We had a ball!!

We landed about 11:30pm Monday night - exhausted and elated. Cari had planned to stay through Father's day and Matt arrived Thursday afternoon so he'd be here for Morgan's 2nd birthday party (which was awesome!) on Saturday. The Troupe crew met at Jewish Mother for breakfast Sunday morning - that's always a fun time! Cari left Monday for Harrisonburg Monday afternoon. The bug that was working on my body had already latched on. It was a long week. So that's where I am right now. Time to back up and fill in some blanks ...

Happy 2nd Birthday to Morgan!!!

It's funny. On one hand I can't believe it's been two years since Morgan was born. On the other hand, it's hard to remember back to a time she wasn't a part of our lives. She's always been beautiful but I swear she's even more so every time I see her. It's humbling to realize there's a little bit of me in there somewhere. She was napping when we arrived so was a little groggy at first. Cari was so excited for Matt to finally meet her! Whether she remembered Cari or not (it had been about six months) it didn't take Morgan long to warm up to her. Babies and kids naturally take to Cari - she's like a magnet to them.

We ate, opened presents - LOTS of presents! - sang, had cake and played in the pool! Tiffany and Lauren were blowing up the beach balls I brought - Cars, Princesses and Nemo. Morgan saw the Cars one and said, "vrooom vrooom!" It was so cute! She's always loved balls - and the movie, "Cars." This summer she's a little fish in the pool too. Poor thing, she was shivering and turning blue in the pool but still didn't want to get out.

For more birthday photos, click here.

Kenny!!

We had been looking forward to this show for a long time (actually bought the tickets back in November). A stadium show had been on our "to do" list for years. And since he didn't tour at all last year we were in detox mode for sure! Jamie came over bright and early Saturday morning and we hit the road around 7am. After dropping Peanut off with Dad we were on our way! The drive up was pretty uneventful and it gave Jamie and I a good block of time to catch up. The yewts beat us to the hotel and one of our rooms was ready so we went ahead and checked in. All of us were excited (yes even Bob) and we were out of there pretty quickly.

Cars were lined up to get into the parking lot. The gates opened at 12:30 and we were there ten minutes early. Needless to say we got a great spot. As as soon as the car stopped we were unloading and setting up for tailgating! The little Weber handled our burgers and dogs with no problem. Cari made broccoli salad and I brought potato salad. It was a bit hot - in the upper 80's - but we were thankful it wasn't any hotter. As clouds went by and gave us some shade it gave us a little bit of a break. Carla and Eddie (Jamie's ex sister-in-law and her husband) joined the party a little later - it was great to see them again and reconnect!

I'll tell you, some people have the art of tailgating down pat. The jeep next to us had a margarita machine, tent, an incredible spread and they even brought some sand and a baby pool! It was awesome! They actually made Kenny's Facebook page! His manager was riding around in a golf cart taking photos of different fans' setups. It gave us some ideas for our next tailgating party. :)

Finally it was time to make our way to the stadium! Cari and I bought the same Kenny shirt - she has good taste - and we went through the gates. Our seats were awesome!! Carla and Eddie's were awesomer though. LOL They were right next to the sand bar. Wow!

Uncle Kracker opened right at 4:30. He was okay but nothing to write home about. Apparently others weren't too excited about seeing him either since the stadium was pretty close to empty. I like his cd better than his live show. That's a shame isn't it? Billy Currington took the stage about 20 minutes after Kracker left and he was really good. We were very surprised to learn the Zac Brown Band was the last band before Kenny. I was sure it would be Billy. I really like the Zac Brown Band but their "jamming" sessions can go on and on and on and on. It even got to be too much for Bob and he generally likes that kind of stuff. After a while it all begins to sound the same to me. Cari, Jamie and I got up in search of something to eat. We missed a lot of their set but Cari and I knew we'd see them again in a few days in Nashville so we weren't too upset about it.

In the meantime seats were filling up. By the time Kenny made his appearance there wasn't a seat to be  had. Kenny never just comes out on stage. He's always where you least expect him. This time he came up from the tech center in the center of the field swinging high through the crowd. It was awesome! The show continued to get better and more exciting from there. Kenny looked rested and thrilled to be in front of his fans again - needless to say, we were thrilled to have him in front of us again. He sang, danced, high-fived fans and made us all fall in love with him all over again. I later found the set list - the man sang 26 songs in that two hour period. Bob walked away saying, "He does a great show! He certainly is an entertainer." This was Matt's first ever Kenny show.  Let's just say it won't be his last.

Click HERE for more photos from the night.

Back in the hotel room, we snacked, showered and decompressed a little. Cari and Jamie made fun of me on my Ambien - I remember most of it. I probably would've made fun of me too if I could have. I usually take it and go to bed, not attempt to be sociable.

After breakfast in the morning we hugged the yewts and started our trek home. Then it was time to start seriously getting stuff together for NASHVILLE!!

Happy Easter! Blessings Galore ...

The weekend started on Friday by having lunch with Heidi for her birthday. How in the hell she's supposed to be 29 still has me completely stumped. Didn't I just turn 29 a couple of years ago? Anyway, we had a wonderful visit even though Morgan was sick with a double ear infection. She was still a sweetie and pretty dang pleasant considering how crappy she must've felt. Lauren and Tiffany had been trying to get her to tell Heidi "Happy Birthday" and she was so proud of herself saying "Bir-day!!" It was SO CUTE!! The only thing is that she's associating her Easter baskets with "Bir-day!!" I guess she'll have it figured out soon enough.

Saturday morning we left early to drop Peanut off with Dad before heading to Charlottesville to meet Cari and Matt for lunch. We ended up at a favorite Italian restaurant. Cari and I both got pasta with their famous "Pink Sauce," Matt ordered a Stromboli and Bob a personal pan pizza. Everything was wonderful and we certainly walked away satisfied. After browsing some of the shops it was time to hit the brewery - Starrhill Brewery, about 13 miles away in Crozet. It wasn't a "Cari" thing to do but we knew Matt would really enjoy it - and he did. I don't think they've seen the last of him. We enjoyed sampling six of their creations on tap - well we enjoyed most of them. One, Double Platinum, was perfectly horrid! It's extra hoppy and literally turns your mouth inside out! Nasty Asty!! None of us could even finish the sample. After filling two of Rick's Growlers with Cryptical and Love it was time to move on.

Before we left though, I wanted Cari to open some of the goodies I took her. A couple of months ago she ran across a fabulous deal on a complete set of all seven NCIS seasons on ebay. Unable to resist, I bought them. She's a hopeless NCIS junkie. She was thrilled when she saw I brought them to her. Our neighbor, who is NCIS, managed to finagle a personalized autograph of Michael Weatherly for her. I hadn't said a peep to her about any of this and was dying to see her surprise when she took it out of the bag (along with MY personalized autograph of Mark Harmon!!). Surprise is putting it mildly. She was amazed!! And softy that he is our neighbor said her joy over it made HIS day!

On the way to Harrisonburg Bob and I stopped at the hotel to check in and freshen up. Salad Creations, one of the local places was where we found ourselves for dinner. To my knowledge, we don't have anything like that here. They have quite a few salads on the menu, but you can also create your own. It was very reasonable and everything is fresh - it tasted wonderful!

The movie "Source Code" was next on our agenda. It was certainly different! Bob stayed awake through it - that's saying something! We went back to Cari's apartment to enjoy a cup of tea before going back to our hotel room. By the time I had my face washed and pjs on it was nearly 11:30. Bob was soon snoring and I didn't get much reading done.

This morning Cari wanted to fix us some of her wonderful banana pancakes for breakfast. She was right - they were delicious!! After visiting some more over an awesome breakfast it was time to leave for home.

Delivering the Growlers was the last thing on our agenda for today. We had no intention of assisting to "kill" them - but that's just what we did. So, all in all it was a perfect weekend - time spent with younguns, family, friends, good food and last but not least, good beer = good times. Like I said ... Blessings Galore ...

Happy Easter!

Spring!!

Well I guess spring is officially here. While most people are loving this weather, me not so much. The pollen is killing me. The yellow/green dust from all the pines covers everything. I'm a prisoner in my own home. By the time the pollen is mostly gone it'll be so hot I'll still be miserable. Between allergies and menopause I've really become more of a winter person. Fall has always been my favorite time of year anyway - now even more so.

Anyway, I'll do a week in review. I can only review the latest week because I can't remember enough to review the whole month and a half I've missed. Last week wasn't my best week. Oh it started off good - it just went in the toilet pretty quickly - and I mean that literally. I finally got a new iPhone on March 17. That piece of crap LG Voyager was really on its last leg. I was loving my new phone!! There's a few quirks that I'm not thrilled with but mostly I was in love with it. Monday I met Heidi and Morgan at Mom and Dad's so we could all go to lunch together. It was lovely! The weather was good (for most people, that means sweating while doing nothing for me), lunch (at Panera) was delicious and we had four generations together! That doesn't happen every day. When we got back to the house I just slipped my phone into my back pocket and grabbed my keys - left my purse in the car. Long story short, I went to the bathroom before leaving to come home and guess what? I forgot my phone was in my back pocket. When I went to pull my pants down that baby flipped right out and went swimming!! You have never seen anyone dive so fast into a toilet in your life! It was only in there a second - thank goodness it was clean water! (All of a sudden I really didn't even have to go anymore!) My heart sunk about as fast as my phone. Not pretty.

I dried it off and it appeared to be okay. I took a breath. I thought maybe I retrieved it fast enough. I didn't say a peep to anyone about what happened. Still hoping against hope it wasn't damaged I took it out to snap a picture of Morgan ... um, not good. The view was all cloudy. First major sign it didn't escape unharmed. I left not long after that and was constantly checking the phone to see if the camera was any better. I plugged it into the radio and it even played my tunes fine. I still had hope ... for a while. Until I picked it up and it was hot to the touch. Not a good sign. I didn't know if it would dry itself out or just continue to get worse. In the end, I decided to go by Best Buy and ask what they recommended. Thankfully, we purchased the Black Tie program and it was exchanged without a problem. I had to go back to my piece of crap phone for a few days but on Thursday morning I got the call saying my phone was in and I could come pick it up. That was a happy day.

Knitting
I am making my first wearable garment - well I guess that isn't actually true because I started a Kimono last spring. But a Kimono is a cardigan and it doesn't have to fit particularly well to be acceptable. I started a Miley-tee a couple of weeks ago. The yarn I'm using is Cascades Ultra Pima and it's a beautiful rich teal color. I love the sheen of this yarn. It's 100% cotton so it's not exactly forgiving to work with but I think it will be worth it. Anyway, Friday morning at S&B I was so excited to get to the point of putting the sleeves on a holder and just working in the round on the body. The sleeves and body of the top added up to nearly 400 stitches per round - it takes a while to complete a round. I had never been ecstatic with the way the "v" had come together when joined but figured there was some little finishing technique that would "improve" it. Well I broke one of the sacred rules when I started this top - I didn't read the pattern all the way through before casting on. As written, the "v" is fairly deep. Since I didn't want to have to wear something under the top, I decided to join it earlier than the pattern stated. Well, the instructions for joining were further down on the directions and I didn't "catch" it until about 3" past where I joined. I was sick. I knew ultimately I had to frog (rip out) all the way back to the join and do it again. Three inches may not sound like much but when you're looking at nearly 400 stitches per round ... well, let's just say it's a lot. Saturday morning I sucked it up and ripped it back. Challenging though it was I managed to get all the stitches back on a needle and have been playing catch up. I'm still not back to where was on Friday but I'll get there.

I also had to rip out some socks I was working on - quite a few times. Not a very productive week for knitting. But ... there's always the next week!! I finally got the Kimono I started last spring seamed on Monday. Karen came over to help me figure it out and between us we did. So yaaahh!! It isn't perfect but nothing I make is so that's ok. This was a learning experience and I didn't spend big bucks on the yarn for this project so if it ends up being a knock around the house sweater, that works for me. I still have to do 7" worth of garter stitch all around the front (lapel) so it's not done - but a whole lot closer than before!! It will be my auto-pilot project - except when it's too hot, which would be today. It's supposed to be almost 90 degrees today. I'm hibernating.

TTFN,
QB