Loving the Weather

It's a beautiful day here, picture perfect!

 I have chili cooking in the crock pot, clothes hanging on the line and just a little bit of house work standing between me and the things I want to do.

National Cat Day

It's National Cat Day, so to our Miss Kitty and all the Kitties every where I say," Happy, Happy, Happy!"

Concerts

Though I was never a big punk rock fan, the death of Lou Reed has me thinking about music, and Jay over at My Family and Other Cricketers writing about finally getting to see a band she'd wanted to see for a long time (The Boomtown Rats) has me thinking about concerts we've seen through the years.  No way as many as our daughter has, she's still going to them , but a fair amount.

Our first concert was to see The Rolling Stones in 1973, it was in Frankfurt, Germany and we paid all of $5.00 to see them.  Billy Preston opened for them.









Then, in no particular order:

Emerson, Lake and Palmer  I remember a lot of headbangers

SuperTramp  I still like their song Breakfast in America

Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band, his song Night Moves is still one of my favorite songs













Foreigner  with Bryan Adams as an opening act  We took our daughter, she was the one wanting to see them and we thought she was too young to go on her own







Queen They put on an incredible show

The Who  Still have to say this was the best concert I've ever been to












U2  Saw them in Atlanta on their Joshua Tree Tour






Paul McCartney  Saw him in the late 80's when Linda was still alive, wonderful show

Chuck Berry  Saw him at a casino in California playing with guys young enough to be his grandsons, he can still Duck Walk though










Our daughter took us to see Arlo Guthrie when she was in college.  Loved hearing him do Alice's Restaurant




There were probably others, but these are the ones that stick in my mind.  We still go out to hear live music and  to dance, hope we never get too old.

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet

It's supposed to be a feeding platform for the birds, not a lounge area for the cat. You weigh way too much to be laying there Miss Kitty, the birds are not amused!

A Coven

Seeing that one of our favorite band was going to be playing locally we decided to go out dancing last night.  What we hadn't realized was that because Halloween is in the middle of the week this year many of the local bars and clubs were having their Halloween celebrations this week.
We got a clue quickly when we saw a lady dressed up as Elvis as we walked in,  wish I'd thought to take a picture she really did look good.
Then as we sat there waiting for the music to start a coven of witches flew in, the parking lot was full of brooms.  Some really great costumes.  It's fun to watch people enjoying themselves, and the coven was in fine fiddle.
We shared the dance floor with them for a while, but soon realized we'd be safer watching.

I didn't have my camera with me so I took the photo with my phone which has no flash.  So not a great picture, but I had to have one.

The Good News and the Bad News

The good news is that we got to do our annual physicals on the same day eliminating the need for a 2nd visit.
The bad news is that our Doctor called in sick and we'll have to go back to go over the results with him.

The good news is that we got to go out for breakfast this morning and it was delicious
The bad news is that we had to fast for our blood tests and so we were starving and ate way too much.

The good news is that the commissary has reopened and we did our monthly  grocery shopping.
The bad news is that we had to haul eleventy-million bags of grocery up ninety thousand stairs.

The good news is that today is glorious, high blue skies, a gentle breeze, low humidity.
The bad news is that it dropped to the low 40's last night and some areas had frost warnings.

But I have to say, all in all, it's a great day.

Happy Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband.  I apologize for taking you for a haircut on your birthday, but I promise to make it up to you.  I'm attempting to make a crab chioppino this afternoon.  We went by the fish store and picked up fresh shrimp, scallops and cooked crab (I can't kill a live animal), have some fish in the freezer and there'll be clams or mussels (I don't eat shell fish)
 and I pulled a recipe off of Pinterest for the sauce, so I'm hopeful.  I think I made this once, about a 100 years ago, I put too much cayenne pepper in it (definitely puckered your lips) and I used crab still in the shell and when we cracked it it went all over the ceiling.
Hoping for a less dramatic version this time.

OMG

There are only 9 more Saturdays until Christmas, not good!

How Honest Are We?

Found this interesting artictle, what do you think, where would  your city have ranked?

New York City rather surprised me, though when we've visited there we always find the people friendly and helpful.

Autumn

Beautiful Autumn day, walk done, aerobics done, short ribs cooking in the slow cooker and football awaits us.  The trees still aren't losing their leaves, but the wisteria are, need to drag out the mower one more time (if it'll start up) and blow them away.  Mac says his Halloween display is a work in progress, he's still not done with his white spider.

New Works From Mac

Mac has been painting a load of paintings to sell and decided to take a break and paint for himself.  He hadn't painted any horses in a while so he decided to do a couple,  I really like the horse in the snow, have to find a frame for it.  The horse with the cat is sweet, he painted a similar painting a few years ago for a friend.
Then I found a photo of a cow in some long grass and asked him to paint it for me.  Love the colors!

Next he's doing a series of Thanksgiving paintings, one of a turkey and the other of an old shed with loads of pumpkins.

Better Late Than Never

Happy Birthday P. G. Wodehouse, born October 15, 1881, one of our favorite people.  Mac has read all of the Jeeves and Wooster stories many times, the Blandings stories more than once, the Mulliner books frequently and his Golf Omnibus repeatedly.  I like his golf stories best.
We own all the Jeeves and Wooster DVDs, the Wodehouse Theatre DVDs and just recently viewed the new series Blandings, it's not up to the standards of the others, but still quite fun.
Jeeves, as portrayed by Stephan Fry,  is of course our favorite character.  We once saw a horrible American film (Thank You Jeeves) from  1936 starring Arthur Treacher as Jeeves and David Niven as Bertie and it incredibly bad.

I understand that there is a new play on in London (Perfect Nonsense) starring Stephen Mangan and Matthew MscFadyen---Rowan of Circle of the Year says she has tickets for it, envy, envy envy.

Perfect Nonsense

Wodehouse fashioned Jeeves after his own butler Eugene Robinson, but named him after a cricket player named Percy Jeeves who played for the Warwickshire County Cricket Club.  Unfortunately the real Jeeves died in the first World War.

Percy Jeeves

Our fictional Jeeves first saw the light of day in 1915 in the story Extricating Young Gussie.
With the permission of the Wodehouse estate, author Sebastion Faulks has written an "homage" to Jeeves and Bertie entitled Jeeves and the Wedding Bells, I'm considering it as a Christmas present for Mac.

Getting High

Endorphins are  an endogenous opioid peptide produced by the pituitary gland when exercising and can give a feeling of well being similar to opiates.  Excitement, love, spicy foods and eating chocolate can give you a similar high.  I walk 2 miles a day and do aerobics 3 times a week and never feel this "high".  Eating chocolate on the other hand does it for me every time.
Thank you to my sister-in--law who introduced me to Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.

Another Post

Been feeling philosophical lately, must be impending old age so I thought I'd share this with you.

 And if you're ever in a philosophical mood and need a bit of a giggle let me recommend:

I've read this a couple of times and always have a laugh or two.

The Benefits of Eating Gummi Bears

Hans Riegel the inventor of Gummi Bears died Tuesday at the age of 90.  Guess a little sugar in your diet is not a bad thing, think I need some Gummis.

Wine Country Trip

While in California visiting Mac's brother George and his wife Laura we spent a fabulous day in the Napa Valley doing a wine tasting at Castillo di Amarosa.  They (George and Laura) had made all the arrangements, renting a limo, arranging our tour and wine tasting and reservations at a rather fabulous restaurant Mustard's Grill and we were also joined by Mac and George's nephew Alex and his wife Renee.  They've been married 15 years, but this was the first time we'd met her--she was so bubbly and fun, looking forward to seeing her again.
What a treat to ride in a limo, haven't done that since our 40th wedding anniversary.  The tour at Castillo de Amarosa was really well done.  Cold down in those wine caves.  At the end of the tour we did the tasting.  We're not really wine drinkers and when we do drink we prefer German whites, but it was fun picking out wines to taste.  Our favorite was the dry Gewürztraminer,  rather like a German.
Lunch at Mustard's was great!!!! Mac had leg of lamb and I had the best rabbit I've ever had, way too much food, but that's ok.
It was a wonderful day.

Mac, Me, George, Laura, Renee and Alex

Entrance to the Castillo, Love the Olive Tree

Patio at the Winery

Knight's Hall For Private Parties

Me Ready For a Tipple

No Red Wine Please

Waiting For the Wine Tasting