missing video - Gorillaz

...season of concerts...

We've been to several amazing concerts this year. First, Jay's old boss Kerry gave us FRONT ROW tickets to a sold out Pixies show. It was pretty cool; we got to share the experience with our friends Marianne and Jamie Tolosa, also HUGE Pixies fans.

Then Jamie Cullum came to town. Jay RAVED about the last time he saw Jamie at the 930 club. So we called my sister, a huge fan of Jamie Cullum, and convinced her and her boyfriend Mason to drive to DC for the concert. It rocked. Hands down one of the best show I've seen. He is a true performer, and the 930 club is small intimate and perfect for a performer like him. In this video clip, you can see he is actually spontaneously creating rythm on the top of the piano. The whole show was spontaneous, had a feeling of a Jazz show with a rough idea of what's going to happen, but with lots of playful musical interaction by the musicians


Then we moved across the country and decided to check out the shows here. In July Mos Def came to town. It was Jay's birthday present to go to this show. I think we both had very high expectations and were...overall a little let down by this show. The building where the concert was held was BEAUTIFUL! It's an old theater that they remodeled and retrofitted to be a concert hall. I think we were both in awe of the architecture and intricate details of the theater itself.

Most recently, last night, we went to see the Gorillaz. As much as I loved Jamie Cullum, this is my favorite show ever. It was absolutely unreal. 1. It's Halloween and people here in SF go nuts over this holiday. So most people were dressed up, there was big bird, cookie monster, a bear, maybe 50 Lady Gaga's, and lots of pink, red, blue, and green hair. 2. The Gorillaz are a random group of artists who originally didn't want to be known so they created cartoon characters who performed for them. Now days people know who they are and they no longer hide their identity but they still have the visual affects of the cartoon characters. It was hard to know what to watch the characters or the musicians. Check out the video and you'll understand.

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Quote of the day...

"The trouble with unemployment is that the minute you wake up in the morning you are on the job."

Warm weather has arrived

It's been a VERY exciting week here in SF. It's been warm and sunny all week long. And by warm, I don't mean 65 degrees, no it hit 80 degrees yesterday! and today is supposed to be warmer! After weeks and weeks of cold and dreary, this heat is amazing.

Jay and I had a bit of a whirl wind weekend. There was a race on Saturday about 3 hours away. We got up at 4:30a because the race had an 8a start time. At the race a little girl, about 4 years old was selling cupcakes for .25 cents. She was very cute, she would shout from her lawn to every rider who rode past "You wanna cupcake?" (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hferguson_photos/) There are photos from the race on my flickr page - On our way home one of our tires blew out. It was...inevitable. Our tires have been on the car for 55,000 miles. I'm pretty sure the warranty was for only 40,000 miles. Jay successfully changed the tire, put on that god ugly spare and we drove home. Sunday I spent the morning at Pep Boys changing all 4 tires. The mechanic said, "yea they don't get much worse than this." We're blaming it on the winter weather we had in Virginia this year. Tires can only handle so many pot holes before they give up.

Jay's friend Carolyn has spent the past 2 years living in Mexico working with a Catholic mission. She returned to the States about 2 weeks ago and was spending a week here in CA with her sister. So Sunday night, Jay and I drove about an hour south to San Mataeo to have dinner with them. It was wonderful. First, it was great to see Carolyn. She was present for our engagement, and has been a great friend to both of us; so it was good to see her. She had some great stories to tell about working with the poor. She said the most impactful part of her time in Mexico was seeing how generous and open the priest was. He would often take in those who had been outcast from society.

Jay got an extra day off for his birthday. According to HR he has 30 days to use it, so next weekend we're going to Mammoth Lakes. Its a huge resort known for skiing and winter sports, but there's also TONS of summer stuff to do. We're going to hike, swim, kayak, and get some R&R. Jay totally deserves it, he's been working 12 hour day for the past week+ and worked some this weekend. It'll be a great get away for him and a new adventure for us!

Quote of the week

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves... ~Anatole France

Off to the races

We went to a race on Sunday. It was about 2 hours from here along the coast. It was a road race, with approximately a 4 mile circuit. It wasn't a huge field, but at least half dropped out before the end. Jay did great! He closed 2 breaks on the back and fought the headwind & crosswind for 75 min.

Look at the second photo from the top. There is an asian man with a red helmet, lots of tattoos and he is peering over the top of his glasses. He rode the ENTIRE race this way. I think he ought to invest in contacts, or lasik.

Weekend Adventures

I was sick all last week, and half of the week before. It was miserable. Just a cold, but honestly, the sore, scratchy throat, and the stuffy nose, followed by a cough was not fun. By Friday I started to feel better, Saturday I felt good, and Sunday was almost back to normal! Since I was feeling better, I decided to drag Jay out of the house Saturday afternoon to check out a craft/art show happening close to our apartment at Fort Mason. It was great to get out, it was a little sunny and we both found things we liked. Jay bought a poster, and I bought a hat. (Sorry no photos of either right now). I also snapped a few shots of other vendors.

Sunday Jay got up early and went for a ride. I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to meet him in Sausalito mid-morning. We went to the Poggio, our favorite place over there, for breakfast. It sits right along the water and serves amazing coffee and breakfast sandwiches. After breakfast we headed over to Tiburn where Jay rode that morning. It's been so nice, he's taken me around several areas that he rides in so I can see a new area. Plus Tibrun is amazing! Awesome little town. Very european in style and so laid back. We found a great house on the water for sale. It's only 1.4 million. Geesh. At this rate we've agreed, we'll never own. As you can see from the photo, it sits across from San Francisco on the other side of the Bay. That's San Francisco in the distance behind the hill.

Now we're back in the swing of the work week; looking forward to next weekend.