Photoshop Fun

Ok... I ran across these pics today & they made me laugh really hard. thefug.com recently "combined" the photos of the current Presidential candidates & their respective spouse.

Check it out.

Loretta in person

Have a couple of pics of Loretta for you. The video clip is still a work in progress.

We ended up with better seats than I anticipated. We were on the first row of the lowest balcony near the stage.

Tidbits: a) The first guy to the right of LL in the black suit is one of her son's (Marty Stuart is in white). b) You can click on the pics to get a larger view.

Enjoy! and thanks to my assistant, Beagle, for the photo's. :)






Ummm... as evidenced in this pic, we're still trying to get the Zoom feature working on this relatively new camera. :)

There's Loretta!!!

OMG... what a Saturday, y'all! We went to the Preds game at 2pm... it was a nail-biter that went into overtime and a shoot-out. Luckily, the Preds pulled it off and still have a slim chance to make it into the playoffs. We'll see what happens.

One interesting tid-bit from the game was that Jimmy Fallon, former SNL star and star of movies I havent seen yet, was at the game. They showed him on the Jumbotron and during one intermission, he had a line of fans waiting for pics for 15 minutes. I've never noticed people doing that before in Nashville... Apparently he was in town for some comedy gig the night before.

ON TO THE BEST PART!!!

We didnt have much time to get home & into Grand Ole Opry gear, but we worked it out. We were a little bit late for the first segment, but didnt mind.

If you've never been to the Opry, here's how it works. The show we attended was 2.5 hours long. They break it up into 30 minute segments. Each segment has a different host, so we saw 5 segments. Each segment also has a different sponsor and it's funny to realize that it is also still a live radio/TV show.

The 1st segment: we saw (some of) included Little Jimmy Dickens & Jeanne Seely. I know both of them, but not very well. Little Jimmy is an Opry staple though and was rocking a fantastic purple, rhinestone suit.

The 2nd segment: I didnt know anyone and was mostly bored until a female comedian came on and made me laugh a little, despite the jokes being mostly about menopause.

The 3rd segment: Lorrie Morgan hosted and came out looking smoking hot in a cute, little, pink dress. I've always liked her, but didnt recognize the two songs she sang. Apparently she wasnt too familar with them either, b/c she was the only performer I noticed using the teleprompter.

The 4th segment: Steve Wariner hosted. I think he is a great songwriter & enjoyed seeing him perform two of the few personal radio hits I'm familiar with, "Two Teardrops" & "Carmelita." Riders in the Sky also performed in this segment and they were entertaining.

FINALLY... THE 5TH SEGMENT:

A little backtracking here, so there's a couple minute break between each segment, so the artists for the upcoming segment come on the perimeter of the stage a little early. At the end of the 4th segment, Hal said... "There's Loretta!" and sure enough, there she was. It was easy to spot the sparkly dress.

She obviously had been eating some bologna in her dressing room (and we all know what bologna makes you do), so she seemed to be in a perky mood.

Anyway, Marty Stuart was the host of the 5th segment. He was enjoyable and then Connie Bradley (country legend herself and Marty's wife) popped in... and the next part was what I've been waiting for for weeks.

They introduced Loretta. She was wearing a spectaular gown with plenty of sequins. It was LL fabulous. She sang "Coal Miners Daughter" as her second song. I was in nirvana. Marty Stewart came out & surprised her by requesting some random song. She turned to see if her band was still there and agreed to sing on.

Signature Loretta, she forgot the words halfway through & had to look back to her backup singers to get the lyrics. She's the Country Queen though and owns a permanent pass for lyrical lapses.

She continued with an acapella version of "How Great Thou Art" and rocked it out. I got a little misty eyed. sniff sniff :)

It was a great show... If you havent been to the Opry, you should pick a week with good performers and check it out. It's definitely unique :)

Go Preds!

TGIF, y'all!!!

I'm so happy that the weekend is here. I've honestly had a light work week and didnt work today, but I've got an exciting weekend on tap.

We're going to a rare 2pm Predators game tomorrow (hopefully the results will be better than the game against the Red Wings last night... boo!) and the event I've been anticipating for several weeks starts at 6:30pm!!! I'm so excited to see the The First Lady of Country Music. Hopefully I'll get a good picture to share.

On another note, I've got spring fever and we've resumed the hunt for a house. We're content living in the duplex that Hal owns, but ready to have a single family home. I've already had some disappointment with 2 properties that I loved... but they already were under contract after a week (and I didnt find out about them being on the market until it was too late).

When I was growing up, I wanted to be several things, but mostly either a travel agent or a real estate agent. My friend and I would look at home guides and dream about the money we would make in commission. I figured out that travel agents dont really make any money... and never really pursued the real estate thing.

Boy am I glad! I've looked at several properties and I hate being that bitchy, picky buyer, but it's all part of the day's work for a realtor. While I hate being that person, I also have to remind myself what a major purchase I'm about to make.

We're pretty sure we will stay in our immediate neighborhood, but we'll re-evaluate that if the search continues past a couple of months. I'll keep you all posted!!! Hopefully I'll have good news sooner rather than later.

Ahh... daytime tv

When you have a weekday job, you dont usually have a chance to watch the morning talk shows. My favorites, aside from GMA, have typically been "The View" and "Ellen."

I worked from home on Wednesday and will be on Thursday this week though; unfortunately, I couldnt find what channel or time slot they moved "Ellen" to in Nashville, so I missed that one, but caught "The View." While I miss a semi-recently departed host, I still enjoy the roundtable discussions (when they dont talk over each other) and some of the guests.

On Wednesday, Tracey Ullman was a guest. I realize she has a much longer history, but I first started watching her on the HBO show, "Tracey Takes On..." I absolutely loved the show... She is a riot and one of the best impressionist/sketch comedians in my opinion. Unfortunately I cant find a video clip of the show today yet.

Anyway, she's about to have a new, limited-run series on the Showtime network and I only had HBO :( but a quick call to Comcast changed that. Luckily, they are running a special 6 month promotional offer, so I was in a happy state to get it for 6 months at least.

If you are a Tracey fan or sketch comedy fan... and have Showtime... or at least Comcast so you can get the promo rate, you should totally check it out. Here's the link with a preview.

'Backwoods Barbie' thoughts

I'd spend an hour trying to review all the songs on the new Dolly Parton album, "Backwoods Barbie," so I will give you a few brief thoughts along with some links to "professional reviews," some that I agree with and one that I dont (like the Rolling Stone review... but I'm including the link b/c you can listen to the album for free by going to the link.

I'm a big fan of Dolly, so I might be a little biased in my thoughts, but... I am really enjoying the album. "Backwoods Barbie" & "I Will Forever Hate Roses" are my favorite singles so far. I enjoyed Dolly's cover of the Fine Young Cannibals single "Drives Me Crazy" and The Miracles/Smokey Robinson's "The Tracks of my Tears."

I'll also point out that the album is on sale at Target this week for $8 and only the Target version includes live versions of "Jolene" & "Two Doors Down." I've gotta make a serious effort to see her Live b/c she's so spunky & fun.

Here are some review links:

I'm on the same page as this one

Rolling Stones review that I understand but dont agree with... but it allows you to listen to the album

Billboard's review that I pretty much agree with

I guess the bottom line is that if you are a true Dolly fan, you wont be disappointed, especially for $8!!! If you get the album or listen to it online, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Best Week Ever

I love the tv show Best Week Ever on MTV (or is it VH1?). It's usually entertaining, so check it out sometime if you havent seen it before.

I'm feeling pretty darn good today though. It's not really my "Best Week Ever" but it's pretty good. I had a two day class last week that I hadnt delivered before. I usually get nervous when delivering for the first time, even if I do know the material, I just get nervous analyzing if I am presenting it well. Last week was even added stress, as the class was about some things that, frankly, I dont know much about. It was pretty technical about servers, installation and zzzzz....

Yep, thats what happens to me when I talk/hear about servers.

Anyway, the survey results for the class were tied to be my best ever! I was so relieved. One of the students freaking came from Cork, Ireland JUST for that class... she (and the rest of the group) were so much fun.

Anyway, it helped me enjoy this beautiful weather we have today (70 degrees). I celebrated by going to Target to get Dolly Partons new cd, "Backwoods Barbie." I havent listened to the whole thing to give an adequate review, but I like what I did hear... how can you not like Dolly???

Speaking of country music, Carrie Underwood was invited to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry this past weekend. I love love love her as I've mentioned before, so I was happy to hear that.

AND... speaking of the Opry... I'm going this Saturday to see an American Music Treasure (whose identity no one except Josh attempted to guess). You'll have to go to the Opry website to figure it out. HINT: I'm super excited even though I've seen her before. The first experience with her was one of my first blog posts!!

P.S... I just ran across this link on another site, but it's relevant to my blog post title. It's cute animals who appear to be drinking pics on the Best Week Ever blog

You're a hot mess!

If you didnt watch Project Runway this past season, you wont understand this clip... but... they spoofed the PR winner two weeks ago on Saturday Night Live and it is hilarious.

I was sad that the season had to end, but I was so happy that Christian won... and that I can now watch new episodes of Top Chef (also on Bravo).

Check out this clip:

The Snow's gone

I hope you all had a great weekend!!

Friday night with the snow was a lot of fun. It was still on the grass & car when I got out on Saturday.

I went to have lunch with about 11 family members who were about 30ish miles south-east of Nashville. I hadnt seen them since Christmas, so it was a lot of fun.

Saturday night was a a ton o' fun. We went to dinner with some friends at, The Acorn, and followed up with drinks at Rumba.

The Acorn was a new restaurant for most of us. I was hoping for "OMG...that was so delicious" food and it was mostly, "That's good... I like it." In short, I wasnt blown away, but it's definitely not an anytown chain. The service was nice too.

I couldnt find a link to Rumba's website... if they have one?... but it's a tapas & drinks joint. Their specialty drinks contain... wait for it... "Rum." Good times for sure. I enjoyed a few cranberry (and more) mojitos. Of course they had a more cutsie name than that.

Sunday was pretty uneventful & back to work for Monday. I'm looking forward to a more relaxing week than the last!

and I'm out.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

It's the perfect situation. I wrapped up an Uber-Stressful work week this afternoon. I've been dreaming about the weekend ALL WEEK LONG.

The silver lining though... is that it's freaking snowing right now! It just started at my house, and it's accumulating fast!

I havent seen snow this winter (I was out of town when it snowed last week). I typically hate weekday snow b/c I usually still have to go to work, and I hate driving in it.

The good thing about this snow is that it only started on Friday night after rush hour! Woo Hoo. It's awesome... we have plenty of adult beverages for the evening and are looking forward to staying in (and looking out the window). We are supposed to get 2-4 inches. That's more than Hedwig has, y'all!

I hope you had a good week and have an even better weekend.

P.S... I'll really have something exciting (to me) to blog about in two weeks. I'm going to see an American Musical Treasure. Take a guess who in the comments section!

I'm back, y'all!!

Sorry for the blog posting delay! I actually got back from Brownsville, TX last Thursday. I'm sad to report that I didnt find anything to take a photo of though. I even crossed the Mexican border on Wednesday night. The food & beer was cheap... not to mention it only cost 60 cents to crossover the bridge to Matamoros and 30 cents to return.

I didnt venture very far into the border town though... It was kinda late when I got there (7pm) not to mention kinda dark and nothing in close walking distance that I felt safe walking to, despite the plentiful Mexican military around. On one street, one man was trying to let me know he "had a hooker in the car." We all know that was hard for me to resist, right?

Anyway, about the only thing I did was have a couple of beers at an Irish Pub (of all places in Mexico), then checked out Garcia's. It's a little bit of everything... Mexican style clothes & touristy souvenirs, liquor store, restaurant, and best of all.... a lounge-type area with a cover band singing everything from songs in Spanish, to Fergie and Shania Twain. I did enjoy that... plus they were singing The Doors, "Light my fire" as I was leaving.

Anyway, I've been pretty busy since then. I did go to a wine party Friday night, more sofa shopping on Saturday & dinner with the "un-laws."

I'm teaching a class this week, so I've spent a lot of time continually preparing for it. I'll be glad when Friday comes!

Sorry for such a long--and delayed-- post!!!