Tuesday, July 24, 2007

old crow medicine show

i really wasn't a fan. i'd heard a few of their songs on xm and occasionally aaron would play their cds on a drive but i never had that "i have to have a copy for myself" feeling about them. so when he got tickets i was a little less than enthused. it was, however, something to do in boone and a chance to absorb some local culture. (they're from a nearby town)

there was a broad array of people at the show. hippie kids trying to get tickets outside the door; rich, grey heads sitting in seats all around us; lots of college kids dancing in the aisle. i was quite surprised the show was sold out, but soon changed my mind after the band took the stage. there wasn't an opening act, which doesn't happen too often these days.

the band took the stage a few minutes after 8. a stand-up bass player, 2 banjo players, a fiddler who also played the harmonica and guitar, and an acoustic guitar player. most of the guys looked like they were about our age, perhaps even younger. i wasn't expecting that at all. by their sound, i figured they were a lot older. they pretty much started rocking (or whatever you'd say bluegrass bands do) the instant they took the stage. i seriously felt like i had stepped back in time. no fancy light shows, no frills, no gimmicks just music. there was a lot of clapping, foot stomping, and hooting and hollering. even a little bantering between band members. they also had a local guy clogging/tapping/flat-footing to a few songs. i could imagine what the grand ole opry was like in it's heyday. i wondered if hank williams, johnny cash, patsy cline had played shows like this. it was, overall, a great experience.

far different from the police concert we had seen the week before. at least old crow appeared like they wanted to be there and that they still enjoyed each others company. don't get me wrong, sting was great. but that's about all i can say about the show. it was blah. none of the band members made any eye contact. hardly any movement about the stage. i was sooooo unimpressed. and that's all i'll say about that!

so i may be a slight convert/fan now. live shows have a way of doing the unexpected.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

holy cannoli

Keeping busy, if it's not with the house then it's with activities in and around boone.

First, the food. we've pretty much eaten out every meal. We checked out some local digs and hit up a few standbys. Had my first cannoli after visiting a local Italian eatery (joe's). It's the first time I'd ever "save room for dessert." (what the sign said). When the waitress told me it had ricotta cheese I was a little stand-offish. But the picture looked so delish, I just had to try it. It was better than I expected, who knew cheese could taste like ice cream. Mmmmm. We also ate at black cat's (burritos), capone's (pizza), hunan's (Chinese buffet) and last night we went to the mellow mushroom. We originally went there for pizza but it was crowded and we would have had to wait 45 minutes for it to cook. So we ended up getting hoagies instead. Tonight we cooked a meal at home, a welcome change of pace.

After the mellow mushroom we went to Appalachian State (App. state) with jill and Jerome and watched old crow medicine show play to a sold out crowd. (I'll post a more detailed description about the show later, very worthy of it's own post). Came home afterwards, had a few drinks and turned in by midnight. I couldn't keep my eyes open, even when reading a short steven king story. Not typical for me. Today we were up by 7:30, at the farmer's market by 8, dog park at 11:30, art in the park in blowing rock at 2:30. Home at 5. Unpacking and crafting the rest of the evening. Yes, a very, very busy day. I'm waiting for things to slow down.

Unfortunately, I signed up for a swap before we moved and I have to get everything done in the next 2 weeks. It's the sweat shop swap, where I have to make 10 crafted items for 10 different people. Now was probably not the best time to participate, but I'm sure I'll be able to pull through. I've got half done, so it is looking promising.

Now to get some sleep and finish the story I started last night.

and i'm officially licensed in the state of north carolina to operate a motor vehicle. yeah!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

handy sue

we finally see floor, at least upstairs. the basement, that's another story. everything that once was up is now down. i may try and freecycle the boxes. seems like a waste to dispose of so many useable ones, specially since we paid for them. hopefully someone in the area is moving soon and we'll clear out the house and be ecofriendly at the same time.

in a better attempt to keep organized we raided lowes and walmart looking for anything and everything that will keep things nice and tidy. might as well start off clean, how long it lasts that's another story. i installed an in-the-cabinet trashcan and a pot/pan lid organizer. aaron attempted to fix the lawn mower, had the manual out and everything. apparently the movers had disconnected the hand brake and he couldn't figure out how to reconnect it. lucky he has me, i took a look and bada-bing it's working. one thing aaron lacks is patience that and handyman skills. good thing he has me! he did put together some shelves in the garage and a tool organizer. so props to awes.

jerome came over today and switched out our dryer outlet. i guess newer dryers have 4 prongs and ours only has 3. i'm glad he's around to help with the little things, well I guess that's kinda big since neither of us would have known what to do. he was in and out in 5 minutes.

another run to walmart to get a dresser to replace the one we gave baby baima and to lowes to replace the battery to our cordless drill. we've pretty much got a beeline to both places. i'm sure we'll be visiting often in the upcoming weeks. if you can't find us here, we're probably there.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

welcome to the high country

It’s official, we’ve left the Midwest and are slowly becoming residents of boone. We left Carbondale Saturday morning and made it here in about 9 ½ hours. (Had to make a few pit stops with the dogs.) It’s the first time I’ve had to drive the last hour of the trip and let me tell you that I’m not a fan. Just don’t like those windy roads. Guess I better get used to it, it’s now my life. At least we live really close to town and I won’t be driving them on a daily basis.

All our loot arrived yesterday, all 8500 lbs of it. Aaron had to go pick up our truck driver at 6:30 a.m. cause the driver drove by the night before and didn’t think he would be able to make it with his semi. There was a possibility they would have to get a smaller trunk, unload our stuff in a parking lot, load it onto the small truck and then drive over here to unload again. Luckily, in the light of day it wasn’t a problem. I was amazed how the driver was able to maneuver that big rig. He was able to back it up on an incline and turn completely around in a small cul-de-sac. Crazy. I also learned it costs about $1000 to fill up a semi truck that has a 300 gallon tank. And they get between 5-8 miles a gallon. Insane. We ended up helping the guys unload the truck. They didn’t get a local crew to help so there was just 2 guys including the driver to unload. We called in Jerome and the five of us got everything unloaded in about 5 hours.

Anyways our stuff made it safely, at least all the boxes we’ve unpacked thus far. We’ve mainly plowed through the kitchen boxes and not a single glass broken, chipped or scarred. Impressive. I remember when I was younger how excited I was about unpacking boxes every time we moved. (Which was once ever 3 to 4 years.) It’d be 3-4 months before you got your stuff so you’d semi-forget what was packed. How quickly that changes when you’re unpacking a whole house of stuff you just saw last week. I guess I really can’t complain. At least I didn’t have to pack, load and transport everything.

It may be a few weeks before we get internet and cable. I think they have to lay a line out to the house before we can have everything up and running. We’ve been heading to panera and aaron’s office to get on the internet. You don’t realize how much you use something til it’s gone. I think I could live without tv, but the internet that’s a different story. We google everything. How do you make sushi rolls? Who’s the actor in that one movie? How do you spell…? The list goes on. Plus it feels like a slight disconnect when I can’t check my email or other sites. Plus none of you all know how we are if I don’t give you an update every once in a while.

Just to let you know, I did fail the written portion of my nc drivers license test. Don’t worry, I missed the most obscure questions that have nothing to do with my driving abilities. How am supposed to know the percentage of people killed by drunk drivers every year or that you have to downshift when going down a steep incline instead of breaking? (who drives a stick anymore?) it would have helped if I would have glanced at the book, but I didn’t think I would have to take the actual test since I’m licensed in Illinois. Now I know the laws backwards and forwards. Ask me anything!! (Courtesy of not having tv or internet or anything else for that matter.) The funny thing is that I do have a license number already in the system from when I lived here 15 years ago. I remember taking driver’s ed in Fayetteville my sophomore year of high school. I don’t remember actually getting a license but my permit must have acted somewhat like a license. Weird, I almost don’t associate living at ft. bragg as living in north Carolina. And we lived there twice while I was growing up. Maybe boone was more than a cowinky-dink. Hmmmm.

Back to unpacking…ugh!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

he's baaaaack!

when i was walking by the t.v. today i caught a little snipet of the upcoming season of dr.90210. to my surprise, i saw an all too familiar face pop up on the screen. yes, dr. kirby is back. i did a quick google search and found his official website. oh wait, he has two. his professional and his fan site. i laughed out loud when i read the about section, actually i was amused by the whole site. first of all, i can't believe he has his own line of cosmeceuticals, oh wait, yes i can... gotta jump on that bandwagon. he just finished his d.o. residency and now he knows everything there is to know about skin. i'm sure he was coming up with his line in between appearances on the young and the restless and battle of the network reality stars. second, i like how it doesn't mention anything about being a board certified dermatologist, oh wait he's not. third, why the hell do you have to register to view his so-called fan site? he's not that big a celebrity. even in his own field, most dermatologists have no clue who he is. i must say this, he's kept his name out there, learned how to brand himself, and i'm sure will make a killing when the show airs. hello people. he's not offering you anything you can't get over-the-counter. yeah, i'm a little biased. just a tad.

Monday, July 09, 2007

the great credit card prank

we had to run out and buy microsoft office for mac today. after my hard drive crashed last month i lost all the software i "borrowed" from work which included microsoft word. i had decided it wasn't really necessary to reinstall but apparently aaron thinks it's a must have so we went to 4 different stores to find it. finally found it at micropower, where we should have started. when paying for the program the clerk asked to see aaron's i.d. his signature on the back of his debit card says "see i.d." the clerk asked how many people actually ask to see his i.d. and aaron told him about 25 percent of the time. the guy said he was only asking cause he has the same thing written on the back of his card and he rarely gets asked for an i.d.

what's funny about the conversation? i was just telling aaron on the way over there about this site i came across yesterday about the same thing. i actually found the site because it had a tutorial on how to put skins (graphics) on your credit card. it had a link that went into detail about an experiment the user did on whether or not clerks actually compared signatures on the backs of credit cards. i found it funny and quite disturbing at the same time. no wonder identity theft is so prevalent in this country. check it out the great credit card prank and then some

Sunday, July 08, 2007

**blush**

so my partner received her package today and she just gushed. i thought i'd post the personal message she sent me and the post to the group. it was a great first swap and helps confirm my future may lie in crafting.


Susan!! Oh my god, i just wrote the most insanely long post in the rockabilly swap gallery gushing over everything you sent me!

I absolutely love everything you sent me. Sometimes swaps are really hit and miss and there will be a couple of things i like and the rest are just nice.. but i LOVED everything you made, that box is gorgeous.. and the bag! You went above and beyond and your skills are awesome!
Thank you so much, i hope you really did like what i sent you because i LOVE what you sent me!!

xoxo Suzanne


I received from my partner nosusanfx today and ohhhh my god, she did an amazing job!! Seriously, she nailed my style and taste perfectly and i love love love everthing. I couldn't possible even pick a favorite!

The bag is insane, its made out of the cutest cherry print fabric with a drawstring top, and the handles are red and black beads, seriously love it! I already transferred all my purse crap into it!







There was a matching small cherry drawstring bag with two felt stuffies in it, a nautical star and a heart with wings. A perfectly cute matching pin cushion and headband too!



I love this box. Its going to be my new jewelry box. The cover is hand painted with the most amazing skull butterfly, the outside is painted with spiderwebs AND decoupaged with traditional tattoo pictures, and the inside is lined with leopard print!



see how awesome!?



I had really been wanting some felt day of the dead skull stuffies i had seen floating around craftster but never got around to making any.. and when i opened up the wooden box look what i found:

THREE of them!! And some awesome marble magnets that are already on my fridge!

I love everything Susan, you did an awesome job, everything was soo well made and thoughtful, I can tell you took some time to eally figure out what i would like! Thank you!!