entertainment overload: part 1

Last night, we saw Dean and Britta at one of my favorite local venues, the Rams Head Tavern. The stage area is very intimate, holding only about 250 people. (Unfortunately, it was a little more intimate than it should have been — it was only about 25% sold!)

Dean and Britta are new to me. Both of them are former members of the band Luna (which I knew of in college, but never really listened to), among other bands. Britta was also in the movie Satisfaction, and was the singing voice of Jem!

dean and brittaWhile I don’t know them very well (and am really only familiar with their latest album), it was a great show. Like most performers at this venue, they hung out afterwards to sign CD covers (we have quite a collection!).

I highly recommend going to their myspace page and listening to ‘You turn my head around’ right now. I can’t stop playing it!

The concert-going continues tomorrow night

while preparing dinner …

Me: The cats aren’t going to be happy with me.

Hubby: Why?

Me: I’m going to have to use the can opener to open up a can of clam sauce.

Hubby: They’ll be fine.

Me: But they look at me with those sad eyes.*

Hubby: It would have been funnier if you said you were going to open up a can of whoop ass.

Me: We don’t have any whoop ass.

Hubby: Well, you don’t!

* My kitties think that every time they hear the can opener, there will be tuna for them to share!

my shoes are red and yellow and green and brown and purple and white and pink and orange …

I admit it, I have a problem.

Yes, of course I’ve always had a bit of a shoe habit. But lately, it seems it’s gotten harder to resist purchasing shoes that will have limited use.
yellow/green sandals
Surely, I must have been more practical at some point?

I picked up these green and yellow sandals a few years ago. They were on sale, and while I loved them, I initially went home without them.

What would they possibly match?

Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I knew I had to go back — I figured if they had my size in stock, it was meant to be!

Surprisingly, I do get a lot of wear out of them. The colors are subtle, and I actually have a few light green tops that coordinate.

pink sandals The pink sandals were a no-brainer since they were really cheap at Target. I have quite a few skirts and tops that work well well with them.

(Though, I think I bought the skirts specifically to go with the shoes … but, I really did need more skirts at the time!)

I didn’t buy anything else colorful for a while except for some purple pumps which I needed to go with a dress.
It was a striped dress, predominately purple, but also with some green (so the yellow/green sandals match as well). Since I was wearing the dress for a fall wedding, I wanted a closed toe. The dress has since gotten more use, but I have worn the sandals every other time.

blue owlsThis spring/summer has seen a lot of color!

It started with these cute sneaker flats that I had to have.

They’re the ‘Eleanor’ series by Keds. I liked a few of the prints and decided to purchase the blue owl version.

I do wear a lot of aqua blue, so I wear them a decent amount of time … but I haven’t found a way to coordinate them yet without being a close match.

green parrotsI love them … so when I found one of the other styles I liked on sale at T.J. Maxx the other day, I couldn’t resist.

I wear a lot of green, too 🙂

I really tried to leave T.J. Maxx with just that one pair, but another impractical purchase was calling out to me.

They were very cute, and very comfortable, but I put them down and walked away. They’d be yet another pair of shoes that will be hard to coordinate.

Or would they?

I had to go back and take them home!

red flats

I wore them today, and my feet were very happy!

definitely not the bluebird of happiness

We arrived home today to find a bird standing on the porch. This normally wouldn’t be unusual, except that as I approached, he didn’t move.

He looked terrified; I figured I must have startled him.

I backed off, and waited a few seconds. I was a bit worried that as I walked past, he might freak out and fly into me!

He continued to stand there, beak open.

I nudged his foot with a stick, hoping to snap him out of it and get him to move along.

Nope, nothing.

I cautiously walked past to the front door, and went inside. He stayed there, still looking catatonic.

Since my digital camera batteries were dead (the camera’s kind of broken which caused the drained batteries), I could only get a (crappy) photo with my cell phone camera.

You can’t see the look in his eyes … or that he was standing there with his beak open.

Since I barely have a zoom on that thing, I was also standing no more than two feet from him.

weird bird

After starting dinner, I peaked outside and there he stood. A few minutes later, same thing.

Eventually, he turned his head and hopped in a circle.

After dinner, he was gone.

Hopefully he went on his way before one of the neighborhood stray cats realized there was a free meal on our porch!

i wouldn’t want to be on the cleaning staff here

First Japan’s high-tech (and on-fire) toilets … and now this:


China public restroom has 1,000 stalls
July 6, 2007

BEIJING – They’re flush with pride in a southwestern Chinese city where a recently-opened porcelain palace features an Egyptian facade, soothing music and more than 1,000 toilets spread out over 32,290 square feet.

full story


From my Japanese toilets post, I pulled a quote about a “culture of washing one’s backside.”

From this article, there is mention of “toilet culture.” (Again, I have to wonder if there is something getting lost in translation?)

“We are spreading toilet culture. People can listen to gentle music and watch
TV,” said Lu Xiaoqing, an official with the Yangrenjie, or “Foreigners Street,”
tourist area where the bathroom is located. “After they use the bathroom they
will be very, very happy.”

The emphasis on being happy after using the restroom also seems a bit odd.

Not as odd as urinals resembling the Virgin Mary …