Write (a blog)

The tickets are spent. *sigh*

This was my third NIN show. And as always, Trent never disappoints. It’s obvious that he loves his fans and he puts on the best concert shows… ever. I’ve been to a lot of concerts. NIN is always THE BEST. (Sting puts on a great show too, but NIN gets extra points for being so, so fucking kick-ASS.)

And because Pierre and I are also kick-ass, we proved our kick-ass parental skills and took the kids for their first ever concert. I mean really. My first concert was Hall & Oats. NIN is not just another ballpark, but a different sport all together.

We had pre-sale floor tickets which IMHO are the golden tickets, except that you end up standing for 3+ hours. We didn’t bother getting there early, infact we were still at The Loop having dinner 30 minutes before the show. We entered through the nin.com members entrance, and sauntered into the arena a few minutes before showtime.

The opening band was Health, who kinda sucked and got heckled. But I can see why Trent likes them. They’re Indy, kinda edgy techno rythmic, and weird. They look like dorks from That 70′s Show, and did a lot of noise-making and screaming. I wasn’t the only one happy when they finished their set.

Jacksonville doesn’t seem to have a huge NIN fanbase. We were far from packed-like-sardines so we didn’t have to squish, push, or even make an effort to move towards the stage and we were still probably not more than 20 yards away from center stage. The place was plenty packed, just not to an uncomfortable limit. NIN came on at about 8:30 and rocked us til 10:30 with lots of stuff from the new albums like The Slip, Ghosts and Year Zero as well as the old favorites like Closer, Terrible Lie, Wish, Reptile, and March of the Pigs. Gah. Heav-en-ly!

I have no pix of the show. I unfortunately did not smuggle in a camera (and didn’t bring my cellphone) which drove me nuts being the shutterbug I am. But I’m sure there will be plenty of pix on Flickr in the coming days as LOTS of other people had cameras. There are already some pix showing up. There’s lots of pro shots on the NIN photostream too, but nothing compares to being there. The light effects were spectacular, indescribable, and unforgettable. Like I said, he puts on a fantastic show.

I looooove NIN. Love, love, love. Love.

ETA the setlist:

999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the Pigs
Head Down
The Frail
Reptile
Closer
Gave Up
Me I’m Not
Vessel
Ghosts 21
Ghosts 14
Ghosts 19
Ghosts Piggy
The Greater Good
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
The Big Come Down
Only
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole
Echoplex
A short speech by Trent (Thank you Jacksonville, love you guys, when I think of Jax I think of Fred Durst) LMAO
The Beginning of the End
Hurt
In This Twilight

(Setlist thanks to nin.com forums)

The latest herb garden update:

I was in Atlanta this past weekend to go to my sister’s baby shower. (Baby’s due at the end of February!!) No, I didn’t get to go to Knitch… again. But I’m trying not to be bitter.

When I got home, my herbs had apparently thrown a party while I was away because they were wild n crazy looking. I’m sorry, I pruned before I took a pic for you, so I don’t have any photo evidence of their crazy weekend. I promise not to do that again! BUT, I do have pix of the harvest and after pruning.

After harvesting

First harvest

The first harvest yielded a lot of basil. I even took a couple more leaves off the next day so I had a lot of basil to use. So last night, I made PASTAaaaa!

Penne pasta with fresh basil, tomato and vodka sauce. Yummy!

__________________

In other news, we’re going on another mini vacation this weekend. We’re going SKIING!!! In the snow!! Hooray!! I get to play in the snooooooowwwww!!! (Can you tell I’m excited?)

We’ll get out of here Thursday afternoon after the kids get home from school and get as much driving in as possible, probably spending the night somewhere around the North/South Carolina border. Then Friday morning we’ll travel over the mountains (possibly making a run through the Tail of the Dragon) and head to Cincinnati Ohio. We have family friends in a little town just outside of Cincinnati who are gracious enough to let us stay for the weekend.

While we’re there, we’re going to Perfect North Slopes on Saturday to earn our bumps and bruises as new skiers. Pierre has gone skiing before, but it was like 18 years ago so he’s practically a noob like the rest of us. IF I actually put skis on my feet, I’ll be found on the bunny slopes only. When I’m not on the sidelines knitting, that is. The kids will be on the bunny slopes too. Although we’ll be taking  the “Learn to Turn” lessons, so who knows how far that will take them. But I’ll still only venture out to the beginners slopes. Period. Pierre… well, I’m afraid that I’m going to spend the day trying to keep him OFF the expert runs. Although he said I won’t have to, I know what adrenaline does to his level of courage. *sigh*

I’m going to play in the snow!!! Oh yes, there will be pictures. Barring any unforeseen circumstances (or broken bones), we’ll be back home Monday night. When I’ll take another pic of the herbs BEFORE pruning them again.

Pierre, the kids and I went to see Sweeney Todd on Friday night. Yeah, I realize it’s not exactly a “family” movie, but that’s the fun part of having teenagers. You can take them to see a tale about a murderous barber and no one thinks bad of you. (At least I hope not, and if so… well.. loosen up a bit, will ya?) I certainly wouldn’t have taken them to see this if they were 5 years younger, but they’re 16 & 13 now.

And uh.. the 13 year old is the one that wanted to see it most. Being the little Johnny Depp fan she is.

Anyway, it was fantastic. Really, really brilliant. I think its my new favorite Johnny Depp/Tim Burton movie.

Pierre wasn’t thrilled that it was a musical, but by the first murder, he was starting to enjoy it. Taylor seemed to like it plenty too, although he couldn’t get past the Jack Sparrow similarities. Sydney and I would be happy with seeing it again and again and we can’t wait for the DVD. She already has Mr Todd as her desktop picture. It’s very, very much a musical with singing like every 5 minute, but there’s lots and lots of blood and gore to tone it down.

If you’re a Depp or Burton fan, or just like the macabre, it’s a must see. Two silver razors up!

Last Christmas I bought a video game for Pierre. He had mentioned before that he would like it, so I remembered, and bought it for him. It’s called Guitar Hero.

I bought him Guitar Hero II and two guitars so he and the boy could play together. And they did. And I watched, feigning little interest in the game, because after all, I bought it for Pierre. The girl soon started tinkering with it, and then of course I couldn’t take it anymore and one day said… “Ok, lemme try!” And I did, and really, really liked it. We soon after bought Guitar Hero I. And recently bought the new addition, Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80s.

Now all four of us are total Guitar Hero geeks. We play this game all the time. We argue “No, it’s MY turn next!” blah blah blah. Pierre and I stay up late playing on a regular basis. I can’t believe how much fun and addictive this game is! Taylor is the best at it, he can play on expert mode. Pierre can play mostly on hard and some expert. I can play on hard and medium. And Sydney is at the medium level. I’m tellin ya, we all l♥ve this game.

And we’re chomping at the bit for October 28th when Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock is released. *pant pant*

But it doesnt’ stop there… on December 10th, ROCK BAND will be released. And then we can all play TOGETHER!

Yes, we’re dorks. But we’re Rock Star dorks. So it’s ok.

I do believe there is only one thing in the world that a man will give up his garaged parking space for…

Of course, there has to still be room for the bike. Not even a pool table can take the bike’s space.

We got this baby from a friend of a friend who rebuilds old houses. This was left in the on the second floor of the guest house. It’s a true slate billiard table, a Brunswick Heirloom model. It’s about a $5000 table, complete with balls, chalk, rack, cue stand and cues. It’s in really great shape, the wood and leather is a little dried out, but nothing some TLC can’t fix. And we got it all for a couple hundred bucks. SA-WEEET!

Now we can go about raising a couple of pool hustling sharks like proper parents should! (Ok, ok, I’m just kidding… well sorta.)

It’s not gonna stay in the garage forever though. Eventually it’ll go on the back patio as soon as it’s finished (meaning enlarged and closed in as promised, but we’ll see how long that takes to happen). And then Pierre will have his beloved parking space back.

No, I don’t get to park in the garage. But that comes with driving a long bed extended cab truck. It won’t even fit in the garage.

Ok, so I’ve been home since Thursday night. I just didn’t feel like blogging. I hate when that happens.

But anyway, the trip to Tampa was excellent from the moment we left. It was only two days, but it was a really nice mini vaycay. The train ride was fun, the hotel was super lush, and the concert… I think it was the best show I’ve been to. Yes, even better than NIN (omg, I can’t believe I said that!) But it’s mostly because the arena was sold out and jam packed with an electric audience and The Police responded with an equally electric show. Fantastic.

I couldn’t believe I was there, seeing The Police live in concert. It was like I was 15 years younger.

Except I was surrounded by old people. :/

I’m outta here till Friday! Pierre and I are headed to Tampa for The Police concert tomorrow night. But before that is the train ride… which I am seriously looking forward to. Maybe more than the concert. Yes, I’m a dork.

I’ll BBL! XOXO