Throne Away

Eric's band, Throne Away, had a show tonight with their new, official line up.  He's been really excited for his show and it went great!   "Like" their facebook fan page.  Shawn took some video and it will be posted on their facebook fan page soon.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

Sherwood Forest Faire

A few months ago I bought a Groupon (isn't Groupon amazing???) for 2 admissions to the Sherwood Forest Faire.   This is a Rennaisance Festival about an hour east of Austin.  It seemed like something Shawn and I would enjoy to do together.  So since we were both off of work today we went to enjoy the faire.

As soon as we walked in we found archery to the right.  They had stuffed animals on the targets!  I was shocked to find Logan's green stuffed monkey (Sheldon) on one of the targets!  Poor Sheldon! 

Which way do we go??

These guys were singing a song from Serenity...very Rennasiance?

Oh Shawn!

My princess hat...can I get it??

The "Birds of Prey" show was really cool!  The show started with a hawk.  He was very well behaved...followed all the instructions and flew all around the crowd.  We were warned to keep turkey legs well hidden from him ;)

 The owl, Artemis, was the coolest!  He had huge claws and legs, not skinny and scrawny like the other birds.  When he flew it was absolutely silent...except that he wouldn't stop "talking."  He looked so intense as we was flying right toward us!  His wing brushed my head!

The vulture, Igor, was hilarious!  He did not want to follow directions and kept walking around the audience looking for scraps of food.

Cool suit of armor.

The jousting competition was pretty cool too.  It was a real competition, not acting.  These two guys were part of an ongoing competition.  One of them was Canadien and the other was from New Jersey or something like that.  It was neat to watch...even though no one got hurt :(



We had a really good time.  Shawn was not allowed to buy a sword...although he tried!  I did get my turkey leg (yummy), we bought a really cool wooden mug (I will take a picture when we use it), and we both got sunburns (yes, it was almost 80 degrees today!).

Austin City Limits Music Festival

This year was our first time at ACL.  We only went for one day but I'm glad because we are so sore and worn out today!  We got there early, just after they opened the gates.  There was still room to move around then...the majority of the people didn't show up until after 3pm.  Then it was hard to move at all without touching someone!

The festival had 7 different stages set up for live music throughout the day.  We didn't know all of the bands that were there, so we wandering around checking them out when there wasn't a band we wanted to see.  We started out by checking out a band the Cults.  They had a different sound I really enjoyed it.  Here's a picture and a sample of their music.

Next we headed to the big stage...The Bud Light Stage (all the stages were sponsored by different corporations).  This stage was one of the two that was showing the main (more known) acts throughout the day, which would culminate at the end of the night with Kanye West.  He was awesome, btw.  I don't have any pictures of his show because there were SO MANY people that we really couldn't get any decent pictures, even of the video screen.  It was great fun though with so many people dancing and singing along.  In the morning though we saw Theophilus London.  I had heard of him before but I had never heard his music.  I didn't even really know what type of music it was...turns out he is a rapper.  He was really good.  We enjoyed the show.

The best part of his show...IT RAINED!  Woohoo!  The audience was more excited about that than his performance ;)

We checked out a few other bands that we didn't really like much, then we stumbled on Brandi Carlisle.  She was good...even Shawn like her band.  It was a different sound, but country based.  They were playing on the other main stage, the AMD stage.  This was located on the other side of the park from the Bud Light stage and was showing the other main acts throughout the day.  After her shown we ate and then waited for Ray LaMontagne.  He was really good as well, but his music is so mellow it is really kind of weird at a festival such as this.  Plus, during his show is when the rest of Austin decided to show up and the sun decided to come out...boo! Thus began my sunburn!

We took a break for awhile to sit in the shade and have a snack before SARA BAREILLES.  She is the show I was really waiting for, and she did not disappoint!  She was so freaking good!  We have a really shitty camera, so we didn't get very many good pictures but I did manage to get a video on my phone of one song.  I can't even describe how awesome she was.  If you like her even a little I would highly recommend seeing her live.

Everyone was hoping she would sing "Gravity" but that song was way too mellow for her level of excitment!  You could just tell how thrilled she was to be there.  Her whole band...their excitement was tangible!  She has a really good stage presence too, she's funny!  I'm still working on uploaded the video from my phone...once I get it to work I'll post it on my blog.

The two closing acts were Kanye West and Coldplay.  We were closer to Coldplay after Sara Bareilles was finished with her set, but we both thought Kanye would be more fun.  We danced and had a great time!  Our feet were absolutely killing us already, so we didn't stay for his whole show (we still had to walk the journey back to our car) but we stayed for most of his show.  We left after he played "Stronger" since we both love that song.  He played some new music and a lot of old stuff too, which was awesome! Overall, we had a great day and can't wait to do it again next year!

Week Awesome!

Shawn has dubbed this week Week Awesome for several reasons.

#1  My bestest Theresa Vargo is visiting with her mother Barb Sequin.  Yay!

They love us so much that they drove down from Indiana to spend the week here!  They arrived Sunday night...and so Week Awesome began!

Monday we went to lunch at the Hula Hut.  Theresa and I shared a drink that was served in a fish bowl!  It was tasty...fruit juice and rums.  Yum!

We also went out to dinner at an Irish pub downtown called Fado.  It was really good!  I had a drink that was delicious.  It was called a Black Velvet.  It was half Strongbow and half Guiness.  Delicious!  We all had really good food too.  Everyone cleaned their plates!  The waitress tried to get me to try some drink that sounded disgusting.  It was Jameson Whiskey with pickle juice!  Gross, right?  Anyway, we had fun and I got called an asshole while we were walking back to our car.  Oh...fun times with Theresa!

#2 Yesterday was Shawn's 28th Birthday!

Shawn decided that he wanted to rent a canoe and go out on the lake for his birthday.  Mom found us a deal a few days earlier so we decided to do it.  Barb and T had one canoe and Shawn and I were in the other.  We had 2 hours out on Lady Bird Lake.  It was awesome!  Shawn and I will being doing this again for sure!  I forgot to sunscreen my legs though...mistake!  They are beet red!

Just starting out.  We ditched the life jackets pretty quickly!

We got our exercise!  Especially Barb and I, because Shawn and Theresa decided to relax back a few times into the canoe!

Downtown Austin from the lake.

We encountered some wildlife along the way too.  Theresa was afraid of the swan...he did sound pretty mean though.  But I just reminded her that we had a paddle and I'm pretty sure we could take him!  There were a ton of turtle too!  Shawn and I drove our canoe under the Congress Street Bridge to see if we could see the bats...we could not.  They tuck themselves way up into the bridge during the day.  We could hear them though!  You could really tell there were a ton of bats up inside the bridge!

Overall, the canoe experience was awesome!  And so Week Awesome continued!

#3 Eric came home from his trip to Indiana yesterday, just in time for Shawn's birthday!  The house was not the same while he was gone!  Of course Nessa was CRAZY EXCITED that he was back.  Plus, she just got back from her trip to England and Ireland.  And she brought us a present from Dublin.

 It's Mini-Marcie!  We love it!

Marcie is not so sure though ;)

We all went to Plucker's for dinner for Shawn's birthday since he get a free meal on his birthday.  It was a great time!  Logan was super adorable, as usual!  He was eating everything in sight...he really liked the ranch dipping sauce!  Afterward, we all came back to the apartment and played a new game Theresa brought with her.

Basically everyone acts really stupid during the game and there are some hilarous trivia questions.  Ask Shawn about cantaloupe.  That is all I will say about that!

Well...the week isn't over yet!  We still have outlet mall and Harry Potter ahead!

Cubs Game

Shawn has ridden his bike down to Wriglyville several times, but never on a game day and he's never been to a Cubs game.  Until today!  Although he isn't a Cubs fan (and lets' be honest, not many of us long-time Cubs fans have had much to be happy about this season!), he had to have a Wrigley experience before we move.  So today Theresa, Barb (her mom), Kaley (her sister) and Scott (Kaley's boyfriend) came to visit and we went to a Cubs game!

Although the Cubs lost (surprise, surprise) we had a great time!  There were some annoying, drunk guys sitting around us yelling really stupid crap (one guy actually yelled to one of the Cincinnati outfielders sometime about having AIDS and his mom being a whore...like I said, really ridiculous shit!).  Also had some interesting people around us on the train...long stories though!  We decided we should do it again next year for Theresa's birthday and do a Wrigley Rooftop experience though.  It was a really great day...except for my sunburn, which is really uneven.  Basically just my right side.  Stupid sun!

These old guys were playing and it was really good!  So cool!

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang

Chelsea Handler, comedian and host of E!'s highest rated show (Chelsea Lately), was here in Chicago yesterday for a stop on her book tour across the country.  We have not bought the book (I will wait until paperback) but we did go to the comedy show.  Her first two books, My Horizontal Life and Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea were both hilarious!  She has been having a different person from her round table regulars open for her and it is always a surprise at the show.  We were lucky to have Heather McDonald (a.k.a. Heather Long Boobs) as the opening act!

It was a great show!  They were both hilarious and I can't wait until the Comedians of Chelsea Lately are on tour in the Chicago area.  Shawn and I are hoping to see Josh Wolf, Jon Caparulo, Jo Koy and Whitney Cummings (or any of the others...they are all great on that show!)  If you've never watched Chelsea Lately (well...#1 get with it!  It's awesome) you should check it out.  It's on E! at 10pm Chicago time.  Good stuff!  I'm so glad we went to the show!

They weren't allowing pictures, but we took one anyway :)

Let's Go Hawks!

As you may know, Shawn and I have become huge hockey fans since we went to a game when we were in D.C. (plus living near my dad, who is a HUGE hockey fan, has helped this habit along quickly).  The Blackhawks had a great season last year and are doing even better this year.  We went to the game last night at the United Center and, as usual, it was AWESOME!  We just got cheap standing room only tickets, but that made it so we had extra money to buy beer and other random stuff :)  It was the first home game since the Olympics so the Hawks had a special recognition at the beginning for all 7 of their players that had the honor to be Olympians.  3 played for the Gold Medal winning Candadian team, 2 for the Silve Medal winning USA team, and 2 that played for Slovakia. I was a bit irritated with the fans at first because they boo-ed the Canadian players...and that isn't right!  They are still our Blackhawks and they are amazing atheletes that played great hockey for their country...just the same as the American players.  Anyway...the boo-ing was short lived.  The players were wearing their Olympic Medals...it was pretty cool!  We had a great time and I can't wait to go again!

Odds 'N Ends

The Colts lost the Superbowl last night...and the way the played was deserving of what they got.  The Saints played a better game and the Colts defense was nowhere to be found.  Although, the game was overall pretty boring.  Nothing really great happened from either team.  The commericals were not all that great.  There were a few funny ones, but nothing that I will even remember tomorrow probably.  All in all it was a pretty uneventful Superbowl.  But...we had a pinata and that wasy fun!  Watching 5 grown men punching then hitting a pinata with a small childs-size paddle was hilarious!  Thanks for the great party Brent &  Soriya!

My headache of the last few days has finally started going away.  It is still currently lingering at my temples, but it is at a tolerable level so now noises and the lights are bothering me.  I think it is time to call the doctor though.  A friend of Brent's that we met last night is a Chiropractor and he told me I should go see one.  Mimi suggested the same thing.  I think I will talk to my doc about physical therapy and then see about a Chiropractor.  All I know is something has to change because I can't tolerate my neck hurting like this and causing these terrible headaches.

On to the random activities planned for today:

Grocery shopping

Not eating everything in my house

Watching Bones

Possibly reading a bit

Wii Sports Resort

Wii Sports Resort is probably one of the most addicting games ever...or at least for the moment.  I have decided that it is such a good workout that I don't need to go to the gym today.  Seriously...my arms are aching!  Try it...you will see!

Disney on Ice

Shawn's parents, Bob & Stephanie, came for a visit this weekend with Shane of course so we could all go see Disney on Ice at the United Center.  We had a great time!  They arrived Friday evening and we had a nice time chatting while Shane thoroughly enjoyed our Wii (especially Wii Sports Resort).  Saturday morning we went to breakfast with Dad, Ana, & Niko (our typically Saturday morning routine) and it was delicious.  We were going to check out the Lego Discovery Center near Woodfield Mall but it is like $20 a person, so we decided against it.  Shane still got a lego police helicopter.  The Disney on Ice show was really good.  The skaters were all great and the show really wasn't too incredibly cheesy...well yes it was, but it was still good.  Jasmine and Alladin skated together to "A Whole New World," which will always hold a special place in the hearts of Shawn and I since we danced our first dance to that at our wedding :)  We had to introduce Bob & Steph to Lou Malnati's pizza too, so we got that on the way home from the show.  SO delicious.  I only had one piece too in order to at least semi stay on my diet :)  I am afraid to say that I crashed mega early, but we were all up this morning playing the Wii again before they left.  I think we only found one lego on the floor after Shane left too.  Not too bad.  It was great to have them here, but Shane is quite a handful!  We were glad to have some peace and quiet today to just sit around and watch movies.

I am trying out a new recipe from the Weight Watcher's website today called Chili Meatloaf.  It looks like it will be pretty good, so we'll see how it turns out.  It is in the oven right now and we are watching Hercules.  I love lazy days with my husband!