Thursday, May 31, 2007

Damn, Well . . .

Last night Jeffro and I went to the Birchmere to see a much-anticipated show, The Damnwells and Ari Hest. We found out at the last minute about a third opening act, Julian Velard. Initially, I wasn’t thrilled to have two opening acts, but I actually wound up liking Julian’s voice quite a bit. I wouldn’t say he was commercial or pop enough for me to actually purchase his music (sorry, Julian) but he has an absolutely wonderful voice that made me want to keep listening. I would describe his voice as Jeffro did of Melinda Doolittle on American Idol, like warm chocolate, velvety. I would liken his voice to Lou Rawls, for the few of you who might remember him from “You’ll Never Find” or “Lady Love” back in the 70s. Listen for yourself and see what you think.

Ari Hest was quite good as well, and his band was outstanding. Ari's voice had a bit of vocal effect on it, which probably isn't needed since he's got a fine voice that doesn't need crazy vocal production. Frequently, I thought Ari’s voice sounded like a non-country version of Mark Miller from Sawyer Brown. His bass player sang harmony vocals that really made the songs shine, and his guitarist/steel guitarist sang occasionally as well. There’s nothing I like better than good harmony.

Which leads me to The Damnwells. They are a great band, don’t get me wrong. The lead singer has a great voice, the guitarist/steel guitarist (yes one here too) was superb, and the songs are catchy. I was really looking forward to seeing them cause Jeffro plays their CDs all the time and I’ve gotten to really like them. They put on a great show, however, it was severely lacking in harmony vocals. I found out today that due to a recent change in band members, there was no one to sing backup. But last night I was gravely disappointed and that kind of ruined the experience for me. I kept telling Jeffro I was "crushed." But despite this, and a suddenly very slurring lead singer during the encore, I am still a fan of The Damnwells. They just need to polish up their act to include once again the brilliant harmonies that are so much a part of their recorded songs.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Kiwi Invasion

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted. This was a busy week, as they all are, made busier by a visit from friends of mine who have been living in New Zealand (kiwis) for the past couple of years. They originally weren't supposed to stay with me, but at the last minute their plans changed and they asked if they could crash here. It was actually fun having house guests. They were here from Thursday till today and we had some fun times and good eats. Thursday night was another visit back to Cap City and last night we ate at Panjshir II in Vienna, which was really good. Friday night, Jeffro's band, Jeter, played out at Bistro Europa and it was a good show. I just wish I didn't have to leave early, but I did because I had to work all day yesterday. So it's been a busy few days. But this morning I slept in, and all I'm doing today is going out to buy some plants to do a little gardening and keep things fairly low key. The kiwis left this morning and Jeffro is off doing band stuff, so I've got an entire day of peace & quiet. Well, except for my obnoxious dogs, that is, who are insisting that we all go for a walk NOW. Bye!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Birthday Weekend

This Sunday is Jeffro's birthday, and finally a weekend where we are not going out of town. Festivities started last night when we met a friend of mine whose birthday I missed last month at Cap City Brewery in Shirlington. Today we're meeting friends of Jeffro's for dinner (during the day I'm going to Home Depot to get plants for my yard and get a pedicure, yeah!), and tomorrow we're going to the Corcoran Museum (Jeffro's been wanting to see their new modernist exhibit) and to a secret place for lunch.

BTW, I'm STILL sick, going on week 3 or 4 now, I can't remember. I'm pretty sure it's a sinus infection so I finally got some antibiotics, but am not really feeling any good effects from them yet. Unfortunately, when I get an infection like this it usually takes something powerful like Cipro to kill it, but I am trying to hold out hope that this lesser one will work . . .

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Idol Slip?

I'm so bummed about the outcome of American Idol tonight . . . Melinda Doolittle was sent home. However, we all got a warning about it from Ryan Seacrest. Was it accidental or not? Before a commercial break he said something like "when we come back, Melinda is going home," supposedly to mean that we were going to see footage of her visit to her home town. Or not? I think he was secretly trying to prepare us, cause as soon as he said it I knew she'd be kicked off. It sucks.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Rear Ended!

This morning driving to the allergist I was rear-ended for no apparent reason. There was a long line of traffic, and I'd been sitting there stopped for quite a while. So it wasn't like a sudden slamming on brakes or anything explainable like that, the woman just didn't feel like using her brakes, apparently. It took me a minute to figure out what happened, and thank God my airbag didn't deploy. There was no damage to my car, but her bumper looked pretty well ruined. So at least there was that. I didn't get her info, cause in the past when I've exchanged info I haven't needed it, but in hindsight I probably should have just in case. Cause now of course my back is hurting a bit.

Jeffro and I leave tomorrow to go to yet another wedding, an Indian wedding like we went to last year. Hopefully it will be a fun time, but I'm freaking out cause I have so much to do at home. I haven't vacuumed in weeks (if you own dogs that's a big deal) and we haven't been grocery shopping in forever. So somehow when we get back we need to do those two very important things or I will indeed lose my mind next week. Hopefully it will be a better week than this one.

And for all you allergy sufferers, there's a new antihistamine nasal spray called Astelin that I've been prescribed, so I'm gonna give it a try. I'll let you know if it's the next miracle drug.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Long Time No Post

Sorry folks, been sick and didn't really feel like posting last week. That was the sickest I've been in 2 years. Very nasty virus or something, and I'm still not feeling 100%. I really thought that I was going to wind up with a sinus infection. I even took Weds off work, but had to go in Thursday and Friday for a conference. So this weekend I tried to get some rest, but had to take my oldest dog to the vet for an ultrasound that I'd put off for a month cause I wasn't home at all in April. The results were better than I expected. Her liver enzymes have been increasing for a while, and we weren't sure why. Now we know:
  1. Her gallbladder is messed up, essentially she has a gallstone and suspicious inflamed tissue.
  2. Her liver is messed up, she has a nodule and suspicious inflamed tissue.
  3. Her adrenal glands are enlarged, which could mean she has Cushing's disease, a disease that humans also get.
The treatment is 3 weeks of antibiotics and then rechecking the blood to see where things are. Of course, this whole ultrasound, etc. set me back almost $600. That was fun. Then I gave the dogs a bath, had a drum lesson, and didn't do much else this weekend.

I'm having a short week at work, thank God, cause I'm just not in the mood right now. I'm taking Friday off to go to a wedding with Jeffro. Of course this means I'll miss Mother's Day and my sister's birthday yet again as I seem to every year. I'm not in a good mood today, but going to a yoga class tonight, so hopefully that will cheer me up or mellow me out. My job is really getting me down.