MENU OF THE DAY:
on the iPod: John Butler Trio (but i can't think of the song title and i am too lazy to walk the 32 steps into the other room to look.)
Book: At Barnes and Noble today i picked up the paperback Up in the Air which is a recent movie starring George Clooney. The book is pretty good so far!
Photos: I took these at The Mandolin Cafe, which is a hip, urban bohemian coffee/wine bar. Ms. hippie/kylee, Brian and i went there Sunday night for open mic, which is so fun. Included is a photo of Kylee/ms hippie wearing my glasses (I love this photo of her).
Christmas Moment: See the photo of the dad in the Santa hat and the little girl playing violin? that's the Christmas moment. They played an instrumental Christmas song (Kylee, maybe you remember which one because i don't) and the father was so proud beaming at his daugher, who was only 9 years old. they got the most applause of the night and i went over to tell her what a good job she did.
Mandolin Cafe Music: the best band is actually professional and they do this for exposure. They are a funky band out of California called Champagne Sunday. They travel from gig to gig in an RV (and i think they live in it too). They are amazing! The lead blonde woman (see photo playing guitar) has the most amazing jazz voice. They play all kinds of music and have their own cds and this is really their job. Their version of Ray LaMontagne's Jolene nearly brought me to tears. their lead guitarist just played the piano and she sang. It was amazing. The guy in the yellow shirt is an exchange student from Ecuador named Juan. In Spanish he sang a beautiful song in a beautiful voice. when i showed him the photos (I had a couple) his host dad asked me to email them because he was upset that he hadn't thought to bring his own camera. So i did. He was so thankful. He is only 19. and was so nervous. He also got lots of applause.
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1. I wish i had musical talent. But i already know that i don't want to take the time to learn. (I would love to know how to play guitar.)
2. I can't help but feel some musical talent has to be in your DNA at birth. i already know that the Louvraks (my maiden name) don't have that DNA.
3. I don't mind trying to learn everything i can about flyfishing, because i think flyfishing CAN be learned, you don't have to be born to it. It's not like they give out Grammys for flyfishing.
4. Though i wouldn't have minded one bit if Norman Maclean was my father.
5. You know what i really hate about Christmas commercials right now? (I believe i might have ranted about this on Gumbo years ago.) I HATE HATE HATE those BMW and Lexus commercials as if most people can afford to buy one of those for someone for Christmas. I do not want to know people who buy these kinds of gifts for Christmas. Even if they want to buy ME one!
6. So Ms hippie's older sister, Ashley, is stressed out about buying her new boyfriend a Christmas present and i can understand that. They both agreed earlier to not do that since it's a new relationship. But now he is getting ready to break the rules because he has been checking in with Kylee for what to get Ashley and hippie/Kylee told her. So she asks me for an idea what to get him. I jokingly write back, make him a CD mix. And here is Ashley's reply which totally cracked me up (written in caps just as she did: )
AM NOT MAKING A CD MIX.........OR ANYTHING ELSE ALL MUSHY AND LOVEY OMG IM NOT TALKING ABOUT ALL THIS I WANT TO PUKE IM SOO STRESSED
7. LOL.... I think Christmas can be pretty stressful on new relationships!
8. I just thought of something. Since he broke the rules, it might be pretty funny to get him back my making a joke cd mix but not letting him know right away that she meant it as a joke. She could include the Wind Beneath my Wings (my new funeral song) . Maybe we could even get louielouie to record it for us!
9. The problem would be she would have to pay 99 cents for them (unless we can commission louielouie). Maybe she could just buy one crappy song and repeat it over and over.
10. If y'all have ideas about a joke cd mix for Ashley for her boyfriend, let us know! I'll pass them on to her.
11. It's really a pretty ironic to love your friends but to approach your mailbox with dread during the holiday season that you are going to actually receive a Christmas card from them. Because then it means you are going to feel guilty for not returning the gesture. I am terrible about cards. Because for one thing, they take me too long because i have to write in them. Every season i buy a box of 8 cards and i usually have about 2 left over. And i hope the following year a couple of those folks don't notice that they got the same card twice in a row! consider yourself super honored if you got one from me. (But if you didn't, don't think that means i don't care about you.)
Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks for making this blog fun. And to the rest of y'all who just read, please join in. (Make it your New Year's Resolution!)
- Come visit and let me know of your ideas for a cheesy song for Ashley's new boyfriend's cd mix.
- Tell us all what your latest Christmas Moment was.
- And also i would like to know what your favorite Christmas carol is. (I already mentioned mine is o come o come emmanuel.
- and anything else you want to talk about. Grammar? punctuation? show-offy new words that nobody else knows about?
9 comments:
Cheesy mix songs: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17070789/
gotta love google!
Christmas moment: the first card I received this year was at work from our employee assistance program. It is blue with a foil embossed snowflake on it. When I opened it, I rubbed my fingers over the snowflake and teared up.
Favorite Christmas song: I have always said "O Holy Night" for a religious song, and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" for a secular song. But since I made myself the long holiday mix, I am discovering new appreciation for "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Go Tell It On The "Mountain," "Greensleeves," and "Christmastime is Here." I love all of the music from the Nutcracker. And I also really enjoy the "Hanukah Song" because I think Adam Sandler is very hot.
We had our cowgirl Christmas dinner tonight after riding. I was feeling kind of blue when I arrived at the barn, but I had a really fun ride on Hope. Then Barb had her friend Sue who has a business called Pasta To You, make us dinner. She makes and serves homemade pasta. We started with a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne, "barely buzzed" cheese ( that I brought - yummy cheese with ground coffee beans coating, from the new gourmet cheese shop), Eileen brought caesar salad, then we had the spaghetti in a delicious meat sauce with wine and garlic bread, and pizzelles and dark chocolate swedish horses (that I brought) for dessert. Melanie came and hung out with us. It was a nice evening and cheered me up quite satisfactorily.
Jo, I love that photo of you and Kylee. <3
i think i look kind of funny in the photo, but thank you anyways lol
uhmm i dont remember which xmas song but it was a classic like "have yourself a merry little christmas" or something, not a cheesy carol like 'jingle bells' though
i didnt know the jolene song was Ray LaMontage! now i understand the whole legal thing, they must be allowed to do it since its open mic and they arent getting money for it.
and juan was 17 not 19, which is why i was so offended when the owner suggested we get together lol
ash and her boyfriend never talked about presents, hes not breaking any rules, they just never talked about it, ash assumed they werent doing presents "wouldnt you talk about it if you were going to do presents?!" i thought it was normal.
my mom is mad at me though she said i shouldnt have told her and let her boyfriend give her a present and let ash not have a present to give back "people give me presents all the time and i didnt get them one" was my moms response LOL
but i think in a relationship its more like common courtesy to give a gift to the person who gives you one ESPECIALLY in a relationship, granted it is a new relationship but still. if it was me i would have talked about it, not just assumed we werent getting presents, especially when the boyfriend has a decent job ie: has money.
what do you guys think on that? was it right for me to tell my sister "your boyfriend is getting you a present" because i knew she wasnt getting a present.
i just assumed if it was me i would be so embarrassed to not have a present to give back.
equeyaya did i misunderstand or did you actually get teary-eyed ie: soft cry over your work xmas card? thats so cute, haha.
favorite xmas song: have yourself a merry little christmas by frank sinatra. his is the most classic version, i also love the kenny G version.
i went over to my nannie (english grandmother)'s house tonight and i was giving her facebook lessons. facebook is a great way to keep in contact with relatives over sea and anyone who works in the cruise industry (as I and my grandmother both did) are on facebook its the best way to keep in contact with everyone but she gets confused. then i "googled" her and she was soo tickled. haha. she's the cutest little thing.
Jo, if you haven't seen this commercial, I hope you haven't eaten in the last 6 hours.
http://www.kay.com/lwp/wcm/connect/Kay/Loves+Embrace/Learn+More/
These jewelry stores are killing me with the ads this year. Enough already. Women aren't helpless and they aren't afraid of lightning!! They're setting women back 100 years. This looks like an ad from the 50s.
On a more positive note, my favorite Christmas song is "O Holy Night." I am the least religious person on the planet, but this song hits me squarely in the gut every time. It's also absolutely impossible for me to sing. It's way out of my range. I sound like Bugs Bunny.
I feel the same way about O Holy Night, Amanda. I think I appreciate it so much because I could never sing it.
Kylee... first of all about the photo. When we look at photos of ourselves, we see everything we don't like about our appearance. When I look at that photo, I see jo and her neice laughing and having a good time and I think that's beautiful. And in 10 years, you'll look at that photo and think, I wish I still looked that good, lol!
You weren't wrong to tell your sister he was getting her a gift. You were just in the unfortunate position of being the messenger. She'd be just as upset, if not more, if she didn't find out until he gave it to her and she had nothing for him. The funny thing is, as a guy, he probably doesn't really care if she gets him something or not and isn't agonizing over the whole thing the way she is.
And, yes, I did well up over that stupid simple Christmas card with the embossed signature from our Employee Assistance Program (how ironic is that?!). And this morning on the way to work, I put the classical music station on and a chorale performance of "The First Noel," moved me to tears.
Another Christmas moment: when we drove home from dinner last night, there was a doe just a few feet from the road, amidst the trees and snow, just standing still. She was close enough to see her big beautiful ears and her soft eyes, and she made me feel Christmas for just that moment.
Very cute googling your grandmother! I love that you're sharing facebook with her.
I'm picking Grace up from her dishwashing job in a few minutes and taking her to Target to do her Christmas shopping. I don't think it's fair that I have to go to Target on December 23 when all of MY shopping AND wrapping are finished. But this is the first year she wanted to buy ME a present, and after all Christmas is all about me, lol.
sayonara...
kylee, which photo is it that you dont' like? the one of you wearing MY glasses is cool. You should love that one.
and listent to equeyaya!
Amanda, i love it when you post! seriously, make it your New Year Resolution to post on jojo's blog. Your blog is so cool too. (check my profile for Amanda Haines if you are curious) Brian and i are having fun on it posting on it from different computers at our home at nearly the same time! He tells me that you and i have many similarities our our personality. We'll have to meet in person over wine/beer and discuss what he might mean about that!
Amanda, back to you for a moment. Are you talking about the Kay jewelers commercial? OMG if you are (i haven't checked your link yet) i am dying laughing. Modern Hippie, my niece, Kylee and i have already gone round and rounda bout this (i think maybe two years in a row now) about how much we hate this commercial.
haha yeah jo the one of me in your glasses i think i look goofy but its okay if you like it, i woudlnt be the one to look at it haha
but no equeyaya i love the picture of me and jo, probably because its me and jo in the picture together lol
I like the pic of you and Jo also because it has the little latin singer in the background that the owner thought you'd fall in love with, Kylee! :)
My favorite Christmas song is probably the classic Rudolf by Gene Autry or Have a Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives. I know they're cheesy but just hearing them perks me up. When I hear their happy and familiar voices I can almost taste the snow. They should play these two songs to depressed people. If that doesn't work, pull out the banjo. :)
Fabulous Christmas Here
1. Cheesey Song: “Same Old Lang Syne” Dan Fogelberg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QExQCwn6kwg&feature=related
2. One swell Christmas moment: when my nephews left the family gift opening Christmas Eve to change into their new argyle/flannel aunt louielouie Christmas pjs. They wore them the rest of the night.
3. Favorite Christmas Carol: “Santa Baby”
http://www.lala.com/#search/santa%20baby
got to go with the original Eartha Kitt version
4. That’s about it for now. Did get a chance to go out Home Depot today. I normally refuse to engage in Boxing Day shopping but my clothes dryer died yesterday. Really can’t complain because it’s older than my son.
We did spring for the matching front-loading washer too. Now have a perfectly good top-loader to find a home for. Nick needs one but some how shipping a 5 year old appliance to Hawaii doesn’t seem reasonable.
I am really liking Christmas on a Friday this year. Today feels like a bonus holiday at my house.
Hope all is well with all of you.
It is the Kay jewelers commercial. It's for the Love's Embrace collection, which is supposed to look like two entwined arms, though it really looks like testicles. (I hope that wasn't too graphic!) Hideous, awful jewelry and really awful commercials. I pity any woman who got one of those ugly pendants for Christmas!
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