Una Pinata para Amy

Feliz cumpleanos a ti

Feliz cumpleanos a ti

Feliz cumpleanos querida Amy

Feliz cumpleanos a ti

Some people like a quiet birthday party with a few close friends and a basic birthday cake. Amy is not "some people". For her 24th, she and her roommates planned a fun evening, complete with good stuff like:a princess cake, finger foods, plenty of friends, and [drumroll, please! badabadabadabadabada]a unicorn pinata. Happy 24th, Amy!

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"In the Name of Love", "I Will Follow" an "Angel of Harlem" on a "Beautiful Day" "Where the Streets Have No Name"

I feel like music fans generally have a list of a few bands they'd love to see in concert at some point during their lives. I've been able to see some of mine so far, including Metallica, Coldplay, Rascal Flatts, and the Dixie Chicks. Okay, so that last one isn't actually on my "must see" list, but I've still seen them, and they put on a decent show. Anywho... fate smiled on me and I was able to see another one of the big ones: U2. Yeah, maybe you've heard of them?Christina, Steph, Becky, and I met up in Old Town and drove together to FedEx Field. Amazingly, there wasn't total gridlock on the freeway, so we made good time and were even able to find a parking space quickly. We snagged some Johnny Rockets and found our seats during the opening act, which was Muse. A couple of their songs were recognizable, but we aren't huge fans or anything, so we were just whetting our whistles for the main attraction which was to come.Marcia came and we all enjoyed watching the show from our birds-eye-view seats. We had a perfect view of the spaceship/praying mantis stage, complete with walkways surrounding a fan area, so some people were in the inner circle right by U2. Plus, four Brazilians were sitting in front of us, and they were quite entertaining both to talk with and watch during the show.One thing I'll tell you for sure. U2 has a plethora of recognizable and sing-along-able songs. I felt like almost the whole time we were joining in and having a great time with it. [A long aside, if I may: I realized that during one song Bono let the crowd do the singing. He was just hanging out. Then I realized that lots of bands do this at their concerts. Then I realized that we as audience members pay good money to attend these concerts and listen to talented and polished band members sing and play for us. They're taking our money and then making us sing to ourselves! Lazy singers, making us do the work when we're paying to hear them! Just an observation. Ok, that's enough ranting for one blogpost.]

U2 sang/played[/let us sing] for 2 hrs and 15 mins, and that's a lot of time to fit in great music. The setlist included such favorites as "One", "Where the Streets Have No Name", "Beautiful Day", "Vertigo", "With or Without You", and "Sunday Bloody Sunday", plus a whole lot more.After 2 or 3 encores, they called it a night and walked off the stage. When the lights came up, we knew it was over and started to head for the car. Time = 11:15. It maybe took 20 mins to get to the car. Then it took another 45 mins to get out of the parking lot (no thanks to jerkyfaces who don't honor the allow-a-car-then-go rule. If you don't know that rule, call me or email me and I'll be happy to explain. It's one of the fundamental building blocks of car etiquette, but it was being brazenly disregarded at this event, and that makes me sad... and frustrated. We're talking Incredible Hulk frustrated. After taking Marcia to her car downtown, we finally got home at about 1 AM. It was a looooong night, but worth it to see the legendary U2 live in concert.

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Takes a Licking...

Young man, there's no need to feel down.

I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.

I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town.

There's no need to be unhappy.

Young man, there's a place you can go.

I said, young man, when you're short on your dough.

You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find

Many ways to have a good time.

"YMCA" by the Village People

For the past 10 years, the Roanoke Valley YMCA has held a fund raiser that brings triathletes from all over the state (and some from other states, of course). The Big Lick Triathlon was a great event and very well put together. Smith Mountain Lake is a beautiful setting and the recent rain made the scenery green and lush.My race was fairly standard, with a little run drama due to my unhappy IT band. Using kinesio tape helped for most of the race, but the rain during the bike ride made the tape fail during the run. Oh well, it was good while it lasted, and maybe I can find a better way to adhere it to my skin. Superglue?In her final race of the season, Julie tore it up and came in 3rd in her division. Great job, Julie!

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Those Poor, Unfortunate Murderous Villains

"The 2nd most poignant super-villain tale of our generation."

-Aaron Smyth

Do you love superheroes? Do you love reality TV show camera confessionals? Do you love Doogie Howser... I mean... Neil Patrick Harris? Then have I got a treat for you!

Today I came across a fantastic internet film called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Between this and Wicked, I'll never look at villains the same way again. As the great Phil Collins once sang, "We always need to hear both sides of the story."Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a short film (three 14-min. acts for a total of 42 mins), so you can watch the whole thing in less than an evening, or just on your lunch break. Take a little time and watch it HERE. I think you'll be glad you did.

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Red Sox 3 - Orioles 1

ESPN probably summarized tonight's Red Sox vs. Orioles baseball game with details such as:

• Clay Buchholz (BOS) bested Jeremy Guthrie (BAL), though they both pitched pretty well.
• Jason Bay (BOS) and Luke Scott (BAL) hit home runs.
• Jonathan Papelbon finished it off for yet another save.

What you won't get from that ESPN story is all the fun that Shonni and I had at the game and all the delicious (and nutritionally-vacuous) foods we inhaled. For example, at the hot dog line, a girl slipped under the rope to get in line with her friends. I joked with them about being careful that the rest of the line behind didn't start callin them "butters" like back in elementary. I thought that'd be the last time I ever saw these people. To my surprise, about 15 minutes later (after Shonni and I had found our seats), this exact same trio came walking up the stairs towards us and sat down right next to us.

The guy with these two girls looked very familiar, but I couldn't put a name with the face. I just figured he must have one of those faces, ya know? Well, I was wrong. As we got to know them, the guy turned out to be ex-NBA basketball player David Wesley, and the lady who butted in the hot dog line was a Cleveland Cavaliers executive. Awesome.Now where were those seats, you may ask? I mean, they must be excellent seats, in order to be by an ex-NBA player and a basketball team executive. Right? Wrong. Our seats just so happened to be on the very top row of the entire stadium. We even had the chain link fence behind us to keep us from falling backwards to our deaths. These nosebleeds seats were, however, directly behind home plate. Which means we had a great view of the whole field, even if we had to squint to see what was going on down there.According to one of our new friends, people from Boston have another name for Oriole Park at Camden Yards. They've dubbed it "Fenway South". Shonni and I noticed early on how many Red Sox fans there were in attendance, and we decided that our friend's nickname for the ballpark is quite appropriate. There were even times during the game that Red Sox fans would start a chant for their team, and it dominated the whole crowd. So much so that if you didn't know it, you'd think you were at a Red Sox home game. Now that's a display of passionate fans to show up en masse at an away game! Here's me with the base of what used to be a #8 statue for Cal Ripken, Jr. Last week, some numbskulls took it for a joyride around the city. They got busted and I'm sure the Orioles will put it back eventually, but they're probably figuring out how to make it more secure and less likely to be the victim of a 5-finger discount.

And no trip to the ballpark would be complete without those yummy foods. Here's our 9-inning food intake:

• 2nd inning: hot sausage dog with mustard and peppers
• 3rd-5th inning: nachos & french fries
• 8th inning: Dibs ice cream snacks [Note - Where have these been all my life?!? Tasty and little-to-none of the mess normally associated with ice cream. Genius!]

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Laws of the Universe

There are some laws of the universe that we're all familiar with. Some are scientific, like gravity and intertia. Then there are some that are societal laws and well-known, like Murphy's and the Peter Principle.

Today I realized that there is one more. Not sure if someone has already identified it, but if not, then I dub it the Aaron Law. And the law is thus:

"When you have the most work to do, that is when you will find the best time-wasting websites."

My example for today: My Life is Average. Enjoy!

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Going Private

Hey y'all. I've decided to go private with this blog. I know this is tragic news for all the voyeuristic pervs out there, but it's time for you to face your demons and come clean on wanting to follow my blog on a regular basis in the light of day.

I'll try to invite as many of you as I'm aware of, but if you aren't on my list, just ask me and I'll approve it. I'm thinking I'll do the actual privatization on next Sunday, thereby giving you a full week to see this post and let me know you want in.

In return, I promise to provide continued reading material and pictures (including extreme and awkward close-ups like this):Happy reading!

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