Concert Review: Dave Matthews Band

Better late than never! A couple Saturdays ago, Mike, Sean, Erin and I went to Shoreline Amphitheater to see The Dave Matthews Band. I haven't seen them since high school and trust me, it was everything that I remembered it to be!

We had a bit of a run-in with the police before the show... we got there with plenty of time to tailgate, however, they came by and told us that we needed to pour our alcohol out! We were told that you're allowed to tailgate, but you are not allowed to tailgate with alcohol. Now, I suppose this makes sense in my head (you know, the whole drunk in public thing) but I have never been somewhere that they've actually enforced it! Here we are before the show:

Before the show, Erin and I bought tshirts (come on, what kind of summer concert is it if you don't buy a tshirt?!) while the boys bought beers. I was super excited... Dave even played my most favorite song, "Crush"! The show was wonderful... they played for hours and hours! The opening act had a fantastic brass section who came back out mid-concert to do a little jam session. If you have ever heard DMB live, you'll know that these little jam sessions are just about the best thing about their shows!

For All The Ladies

When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place.

Once it's your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is occupied.

Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall.

You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn't matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants!

The dispenser for the modern "seat covers" (invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty.

You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there was one, but there isn't - so you carefully, but quickly drape it around your neck, (Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR!), yank down your pants, and assume " The Stance."

In this position your aging, toneless (God I should have gone to the gym!!!) thigh muscles begin to shake.

You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold "The Stance".

To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, "Honey, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!" Your thighs shake more.

You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday - the one that's still in your purse. (Oh yeah, the purse around your neck, that now, you have to hold up trying not to strangle yourself at the same time). That will have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail.

Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn't work.

The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet.

"Occupied!" you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT.

It is wet of course.

You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try.

You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, "You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get".

By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl that sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes.

The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in too

At this point, you give up. You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat.

You're e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d.

You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks.

You can't figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, .....so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women still waiting.

You are no longer able to smile politely to them.

A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it??) You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, "Here, you just might need this".

As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used, and left the men's restroom.

Annoyed, he asks, "What took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?" .................

This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with a public restrooms (rest??? you've GOT to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men what really does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked questions about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse, and hand you Kleenex under the door!

Book Review: Mothers & Other Liars

As promised, here's book review number two. "Mothers & Other Liars" by Amy Bourret is a pretty good read. I was a little disappointed in the plot development... I felt it was a little unrealistic as to what would happen in the real world. However, the concepts that Bourret explores are quite difficult - would you sacrifice one child to save another? Here's the back cover synopsis:

Ten years ago, Ruby Leander was a drifting nineteen-year-old who made a split-second decision at an Oklahoma rest stop. Fast forward nine years: Ruby and her daughter Lark live in New Mexico. Lark is a precocious, animal loving imp, and Ruby has built a family for them with a wonderful community of friends and her boyfriend of three years. Life is good. Until the day Ruby reads a magazine article about parents searching for an infant kidnapped by car-jackers. Then Ruby faces a choice no mother should have to make. A choice that will change both her and Lark's lives forever.

It may be a while before I do another review... I'm taking on "Crime and Punishment" out of spite. Both Sean and Mike have said they couldn't get through it, so I'm going to do it if it kills me!

Book Review: Who Loves You Best

While on vacation, I read a couple of really good books. The first is called "Who Loves You Best" by Tess Stimson. Here's the back cover synopsis:

An unforgettable story about the complex choices women make for love, motherhood, and family—and the unexpected events that open our hearts to what really matters in life.


Clare Elias feels more than ready to conquer being a parent. She’s already mastered the business world, running a flourishing chain of boutique flower shops. Her husband, Marc, is handsome, successful, supportive—and nearly a decade her junior. Clare is at the top of her game, so how hard can motherhood be?

Then the babies come—both of them. And Clare finds herself in the midst of the crisis faced by every woman who’s ever tried to Have It All. She’s sworn she won’t have her children raised by nannies the way her inattentive mother did, but when help arrives in the form of pretty, young, hyper efficient Jenna, Clare has no idea that bringing this stranger into her family will change everything. As Marc becomes distant and secretive and, worst of all, one of her babies gets sick, Clare—and Jenna—must make the kinds of heart wrenching decisions that no woman wants to face.

Wise, witty, and powerfully emotional, Who Loves You Best captures the working mother’s joys and frustrations—as well as the guilty secrets of nannies—in a tale that is surprising to the very end.

The beauty of this book is that it leaves you wanting more. When I finished, I wanted to know what happened next for each of the characters, especially Claire's brother Xan. I think Stimson does a wonderful job portraying the fear in new motherhood that Claire goes through. She juggles wanting to have a career, take care of her own children and the fear of leaving her kids with another woman. This is definitely a must read!

Return from the Lake

No, it's not a horror movie... we're actually back from vacation! There will be several posts over the next couple of days (two book reviews, vacation and a concert review) because we've been so busy!

Lake Almanor was fantastic! The weather was beautiful - warm during the day, chilly at night. As is my usual tradition, I pretty much spent the first two days reading and napping. I like to call it recharging, but I've been told by some that it's letdown. Whatever you want to call it, I had a great time doing it. We fished every single morning that we were there and ended up catching around 40 fish! They ranged from big to very small (Mike set a new record on the boat!) and we had a fantastic time.

One of Mom's fish:

Dad's monster fish:

One of my fishies:

One of Mike's bigger fish:

And, finally, Mike's record-setting fish... that's right, the smallest ever caught on the boat:

Mike and I also got a great hike in... we had wanted to climb up Mount Lassen, but the trail was closed for the entire week due to helicopter training and work going on near the top of the peak. Instead, we climbed up Mount Harkness, which is about 2,000 feet shorter than Lassen. The hike was beautiful - right near the middle there were some fantastic meadows full of wildflowers and beautiful views of the surrounding lakes and mountain peaks. Once we got up to the top, we discovered that there was a fire lookout... meaning we had a spectacular 360 degree view of the entire area. It was awesome! Here are some of the pics:

Juniper Lake:

The view of Lake Almanor from the top... I've never seen it from above and was a little shocked at how big it is:

Here's the lookout tower:

It was also our week of seeing things that we'd never seen before. One of the days that we were out fishing, I looked over at the rocks (we troll at about 2 miles per hour, about 25 feet off the shoreline, so we can definitely see the rocks) and saw this sleek black looking thing. I thought it was a cat, but it turns out, it was an otter! It had pulled something (a fish?) up onto one of the bigger rocks, eaten it and then was getting ready to go swimming again. It dove off into the water and swam away before I could get a good picture, but in all of the 15ish years that we've been going to the lake, we have never seen one of those! Also, all along those same shores are falcon nests... they're constantly diving down to pick fish off the top of the water to take back up to the babies. We saw one go after a fish that we were not able to revive after catching it when all of the sudden another falcon swooped in. The second falcon was apparently very angry that the first was hunting in it's area because it smacked into it like a linebacker! We could hear the crunch from 50 yards away! The second bird sort of splashed down into the water, collected itself and then flew away. It was spectacular:

We also had some spectacular water skiing and jet skiing days... it was a wonderful trip! Tucker and Gracie also had a wonderful time... they loved swimming and running around on the grass! Gracie really took to the boat and had a fantastic time!

The rest of my pictures are up at Facebook... if you want to see more, head on over!

Book Review: Her Fearful Symmetry

I recently finished another excellent book, "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffenegger (the author of "The Time Traveler's Wife", which I have not yet read, but will be after this latest book!). Here's the back cover synopsis:

Julia and Valentina Poole are twenty-year-old sisters with an intense attachment to each other. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the suburbs of Chicago. Their English aunt Elspeth Noblin has died of cancer and left them her London apartment. There are two conditions for this inheritance: that they live in the flat for a year before they sell it and that their parents not enter it. Julia and Valentina are twins. So were the girls' aunt Elspeth and their mother, Edie.

The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders the vast Highgate Cemetery, where Christina Rossetti, George Eliot, Stella Gibbons and other luminaries are buried. Julie and Valentina become involved with their living neighbors: Martin, a composer of crossword puzzles who suffers from crippling OCD, and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. They also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including - perhaps - their aunt.

Now, reading this back cover again (after having read the book), it doesn't do it justice. This book draws you in with a series of twists and turns that you definitely don't see coming. It touches on life after death, the bond between sisters and what people will do for love. This book is great vacation read - it makes you think but quickly becomes a book that you won't want to put down!

In other news, this weekend was pretty fun. LONG but fun. On Friday I had started to not feel well, but sucked it up for an evening out with Kimi, Mike and Kayla. We had a lovely dinner at the Olive Garden down in Folsom. Later that night I started to feel really yucky, so I spent most of Saturday morning trying to rest because we had Matt (Mike's cousin) and Megan's wedding in Sonoma Saturday evening. It was a really long drive... we hit traffic just West of Davis and pretty much sat in it the rest of the way there. Thankfully we had left early... we made it there about 10 minutes before the wedding was supposed to start! Megan looked beautiful... but since I wasn't feeling well, I didn't take too many pictures. In fact, the only one I that had her in it was during the ball and chain tradition:

Yeah, you read that right... apparently it's a Blankenheim right of passage to be tackled at your wedding and shackled with an honest-to-God cement ball and chain. It's happened at all of them and the key ends up in random places, like the bride's garter. Here's Mike and I after the ceremony:

We decided to drive home after the reception, so we didn't end up getting here until just after midnight... this morning I actually slept until almost 8am! I spent the rest of the day reading (I've moved on to a trashy romance novel... I have to slip those in every now and then) and napping while Mike watched golf and napped. It's been a really long time since I've had an entire day to lounge in bed... it was awesome! Next up, some Sunday night football and an early bed time to kick whatever this weird little bug is!

Evening Out

Mike and I went out to probably one of the best dinners I've had in a long time. We went to a place in Folsom called Sudwerk Riverside (formerly The Cliff House). It was absolutely fantastic! We started with calamari (Mike) and a grilled sausage sampler (me, but I shared with Mike). Then I had the filet minion and Mike had the prime rib (both were served with green beans and some fantastic garlic mashed potatoes). We followed all of this with some yummy cheesecake.

The best part is that the restaurant is right on the river - we were seated outside at a little table that overlooked the water. The weather was beautiful (holy cow, it's cool for August!) and I could not have asked for a better dinner! We definitely need to do that more often!

The rest of the weekend is going to be spent relaxing... everything has been so busy lately, so it's nice to have some down time today!