Natasha Bedingfield Live

I saw Natasha perform back in Boston a few years ago and just loved her. She is an incredible performer and her voice is even better in person. I was thrilled when I found out that she would open for NKOTB. And again, she gave another amazing performance. Here a couple of clips from my favorite songs.

I Love You, I Love You


Unwritten

Visit to San Diego State University

My youngest sister Sarah has been doing a masters program in education at San Diego State University. She was able to take us on a tour of campus, including spending some of her "dining plus-esque money" (meaning her on campus food allowance). I was struck by their library and how much it looked like the HBLL at BYU. And I should know that building since I spent most of my time there. Sad enough, people used to come and look for me there if they wanted to talk to me. See how they even have an underground glassed area- just like the "pimping it" section of the periodicals. Everyone knew that was the place where you went to "work it"- and not in terms of books.
But the thing that I couldn't believe was the name of their library- literally its the LOVE library.
The BYU library wasn't formally named that, but I'm sure several marriages have emerged from there so its probably "informally" named that.

A New Find for Amazing Bread

I LOVE bread. I always have. I actually judge the quality of a restaurant by how good their bread is. Olive Garden has been dethroned by Pat and Oscars. My sister Cynthia introduced Sarah and I to it for dinner when we were down in San Diego and I have been craving it ever since. Honestly, I think they are the BEST breadsticks I have EVER had. You receive a free hot one while you are waiting to order, and we actually ended up getting a meal for two and got a big basket of them (probably about 10). I ate most of them because they were so good and couldn't let them go to waste. The rest of their food is ok- good, but nothing super special like the bread sticks. Sadly, they are only a Southern California thing :-( I guess that I will just need to make some more trips down there to satisfy my craving.

Museum of Making Music

I flew down to Long Beach airport last Tuesday and my sister Cynthia picked me up and we drove together down to San Diego. On the way, we stopped at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad. It is is fairly small museum, and very inexpensive (only $5), but quite entertaining.
The beginning part of the museum when throughout the late 1800s to the present time. They provided examples of different categories of instruments from all around the world, along with samples of the music they created.

This is a beautiful Steinbeck piano, with incredible murals along the sides.
They had TONS of guitars over the years, but not playing the guitar myself, it was hard for me to really see all of the subtle differences and changes.

I thought that this electric organ from the 1980s was really neat, showing just how much wiring goes into producing the sound.
We also enjoyed listening to all of the different music videos from the 1980s from all of the different musical genres like pop, country, hard rock, classical, and ethnic, to name a few.

But, the BEST and most enjoyable part of the museum was the Interactive area at the end. We timed it perfectly in that we had the instruments all to ourselves.

Here I am trying to be a "rock star" . . . . I think I will just stick to sociology
Here's Cynthia jamming on the drum
And the banjo
I was able to be a dj and scratch these records- it was quite fun, but I'm not going to quit my day job.
However, the most unique instrument that we played was the theremin, one of the oldest electronic instruments. Its played without direct contact but the hand movement near the antennas interrupts the signal and results in differences in tone and pitch. Here's a video of Cynthia playing it.

Pre-Thanksgivings

So, I had several little smaller Thanksgiving meals before the big day. The first was with the mother's group the Friday before where we all made side dishes- no turkey- and it was a great way to start. I made the pumpkin dessert squares, which the little kids loved. There was great stuffing, salad, jello, yams, and pumpkin pie. And we were able to write some Christmas card to some missionaries in Guatemala for one of the girls whose in-laws are mission presidents there. On Sunday, we were invited over to the home of a sociology colleague I had recently met. She was so gracious and her husband is also a sociologist, but he works in the applied computer industry so that there were tons of individuals working in the computer industry. Thus, it was a fascinating evening for both myself and William. They live in Belmont (CA, not MA ;-) right near the top of the hills and so we went on a mini "hike" (more like a walk) up to the top. Check out this gorgeous view of the bay
One of our new friends was kind enough to take a photo of us together- something that is fairly rare.
And besides great conversation, we also had great food. We had appetizers, turkey, ham, two kinds of stuffing, potatoes, sweet potatoes, fresh veggies, fruit, pies, baklava, and chocolate cake. It was a great way to meet some new friends. Thanksgiving should definitely be celebrated over multiple days

MAJOR Disappointment . . . but a little bright spot

As posted earlier, I am headed to San Diego on Tuesday to see one of my favorite performers- Celine. I have even been listening to her music all week as I worked out. I have seen her perform twice before and it has been AMAZING. So I was SO DISAPPOINTED, (DEVASTATED is probably a better word) when I found out that the concert had been CANCELED. Yes, you heard me- CANCELED. It turns out that Celine has been sick and is on vocal rest for a few weeks now and has canceled her shows in San Jose, Salt Lake, a few other places, and San Diego. I feel sorry for her that she has been sick and it is really a big deal when your vocal cords are inflamed- you definitely have to take care of them so that your voice isn't permanently damaged. My vocal performance major sister, Cynthia, knows this first hand and has had to be on vocal rest many a time. But, she still has her great voice. The redeeming thing is that Celine rescheduled her tour to San Jose to be on Feb 20th, but that's William's birthday. He is such a good husband that he told me he would let me go to the concert, on his birthday, if I bought him a video game. DONE DEAL. And I will make sure that we spend the rest of the weekend celebrating his birthday for my few hours at the concert. I thought that my trip down San Diego was going to be somewhat of a bust, because all of the cool attractions- like the zoo, legoland, wild animal park, etc- close at 5 pm or 6. BUT, me being the Internet travel adventure fanatic finder, stumbled upon a little gem of something to do in the evening. Its no where near as good as Celine, but it will be quite entertaining and very reminiscent of my elementary and junior high school days . . . . its the New Kids on the Block concert! Its performing that night at the arena right next to my sister Sarah's dorm. And they even still have cheap tickets left ($20). I admit that I had several of their music videos on VHS (though sadly they were donated to DI a few years ago) and so the three of us would watch, sing, and dance to their classic songs like "Hangin' Tough" and "Step by Step". It will be funny and interesting to do. I'm also going to try to fit in a few museums or other little events while there so that the trip isn't "wasted". So admidst my major disappointment lies a little bright spot of fun (hopefully :-)

Our Weekend . . . .

was much less eventful than normal in that William had to spend most of it working :-( But at least he was able to be home :-) We were able to go out to Pluto's for linner on Saturday- it's this create your own salad place in Palo Alto, but I think that the location at Santana Row in San Jose is better. But they do have these amazing garlic curly fries (yeah, to balance out all of the healthy stuff :-) We also went on a long walk outside on Sunday because it was nearly 80 degrees! My old roomie from Boston said that they were currently having an "Indian summer" because it was 50 degrees- it totally made me laugh because I used to think the same thing when I lived there. Now I REALLY know what an Indian summer is like. The weather here is hard to beat in that it is the middle of November and I have still been wearing short sleeved shirts. It is sad though that my great coats are being neglected . . . but I will get some wear out of them in Utah over Thanksgiving and Christmas.