28 years and still working the bugs out.

Sep
09

September 4th was Little Man’s 2nd birthday. It’s really hard to believe how much he’s grown in the year I’ve known him. He’s gone from a “baby” to a “child” overnight, it seems.

A year ago I’d never changed a diaper in my life. And though I still usually leave that job to Daddy (heh), I have since conquered that and more. Bathtime, books, pajamas and playtime … every moment (even the occasional grumpy one) is a joy and I feel truly blessed to have been able to experience them alongside his dad.

Anyway… Daddy and Miu had WAY too much fun shopping for him. We got him a few little trucks and things, but his big gift was a kid-sized basketball hoop.

Little Man is ALL about basketball right now and the hoop was totally Daddy’s idea. What a great idea it was, too! As soon as he ripped the paper off and saw what it was, he was jumping up and down, exclaiming “Basketball! Basketball!” over and over. Wish I’d gotten that on video.

I did get some video though. Here’s Little Man shooting some hoops!

<a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.vimeo.com/14707756');" href="http://www.vimeo.com/14707756">http://www.vimeo.com/14707756</a>

Daddy: Time for bed.
Little Man: I can’t, I’m playing basketball!
Daddy: But you need to go to bed.
Little Man: No, I NEED to play basketball!

Tags: birthdays, little man

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Sep
02

Happy 90210!

Life

by Mandi

You know you can still hear that theme song in your head.

Yup. Happy 9-02-10.

Tags: funny

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Aug
25

I Survived Uproar

Music, Movies and TV

by Mandi

So. I survived my first rock fest.

This post is going to be mostly photos (and video) and not so much on the words. ‘Cause it was really all a blur. (A very, very fun blur.)

We were really excited and to be there. Can you tell?! Mike was really pleased with our seats too. (Totally made my day to see him so surprised!)

We got to meet Corey Taylor and the rest of the guys from Stone Sour. I got the cover of their CD single autographed.

The Jägermeister stage featured: As Summer Dies, Hail the Villain, New Medicine, Airborne and HellYeah. Hail the Villain was freakin’ amazing. They’re big in Canada but haven’t made as much of a name for themselves here in the US yet, unfortunately. As Summer Dies (a local Buffalo, NY band) was pretty great too.

The main stage was: Halestorm, Stone Sour, Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed.

I liked Halestorm pretty well; Mike and I agreed their drummer, Arejay Hale, is freakin’ amazing and SO fun to watch.

Stone Sour, sadly, fell a little flat. Still totally worth seeing … but somehow they seemed sort of disinterested in performing? Maybe it was just me.

A7X flat out stole the show. Check out how they opened their set…

(Uh, yah. That may have been me screaming when the guy jumped out of the rafters there.)

A7X’s tribute to The Rev was a tear-jerker. Mike Portney (the drummer from Dream Theater) really held his own though, and it was great to see fans giving him a warm welcome.

While I think A7X could have easily carried the show themselves, getting to see Disturbed was just a bonus. I can’t believe this year marks the 10-year anniversary of The Sickness being released.

Yup. Happy times.

P.S. There are more photos on my Flickr photoset for Uproar Fest – here.

Tags: avenged sevenfold, concerts, music, rockstar uproar

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Aug
16

Long Time Coming: Rockstar UPROAR Fest

Music, Movies and TV

by Mandi

In case you haven’t seen it all over Twitter or Facebook (heh), this is where I’m going next Sunday with Mike…

I am SO. FREAKING. PSYCHED!

This will be Mike’s 10th time seeing Disturbed. (Not necessarily on purpose; they have just happened to play at several festivals — Ozzfest, Mayhem, etc. — that he’s been to over the last several years.) He promised me about 5 or 6 years ago (when he’d only seen them maybe 2-3 times) that he would take me to see them. For a whole variety of reasons, it never happened.

It was really purely a whim when Mike told me to check the dates that Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed were playing. (I don’t think he realized it was a “fest”; I know I didn’t.) When we saw all the bands that will be playing … well, it was just a MUST.

Sunday, we stopped at Giant Eagle’s Ticketmaster counter to pick up the tickets. Mike stayed in the car with Little Man (we were on our way home from church) while I ran in to get them. Again, on a whim, I asked the clerk to check if there were any good seats left at a reasonable price (I was assuming most of the good tickets would be gone with only a week till the show). We would have been just as happy with lawn tickets, but I managed to get seats in the front of section 200 (dead-center)!

The best part? Seeing Mike’s face when I went back out to the car and told him the seats I got. Total jaw-drop reaction. It completely made my day!

Tags: A7X, avenged sevenfold, concerts, disturbed, music, Stone Sour

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Aug
13

Bad Attitude

Life

by Mandi

It’s Friday the 13th.

Ink Assassins is doing $20 tattoos. (Ya know, in case you care.)

Me? I’m feeling snarky. Snarky may not even cover it. I have a full blown case of “WTF is it a full moon or did everyone on this planet suddenly turn into idiots”-syndrome.

The other day, I had the unfortunate chore of having to go into a WalMart. You want to see me go into an extreme rage? Put me in a busy WalMart store.

Hordes of people shuffling around like zombies with glazed over eyes, staring at the ceiling and randomly stopping every three feet to check out the amazing roll-backs on Snuggies and snack cakes (like, OMG). Meanwhile you’re just trying to run in and out and grab some batteries or something and you’re tripping over these asshats left and right. MOVE for God’s sake.

Oh my good Lord don’t EVEN think you’re going to try and buy a Sharpie this time of year … the back-to-school aisle is treacherous. Misbehaved little snots hanging off the shelves, laying on the floor and/or running into people with the 750-pound pile-o-crap in their parent’s cart.

I think maybe I should start avoiding human contact in a retail-setting. People seem to lose their minds when shopping. (Black Friday stampedes, anyone?) I swear I’m ordering everything from Amazon.com from now on, including toilet paper. (Don’t believe me? They totally sell it.)

Apparently I’m getting crotchety in my old age. Old age being 28. Woo. I always was an overachiever and ahead of my peers.

(By the way, this is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Lighten up.)

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