It's been a busy couple of weeks since Thanksgiving. The move is almost complete, literally. Tomorrow I'm going back to the old place to clean and pick up the last few items still over there, and Saturday will do the final walk through and turn over the keys I honestly had hoped that I would live there for many years, and ultimately purchase the house, but alas that was not to be.
My friends, The Rogues, entered a Battle of the Bands being sponsored by an Irish brewery. They took 2nd place in the preliminary round, out of 65 bands from North America and Europe, and advanced to the finals. If they win, they will go to Las Vegas to perform at one of the resorts for St. Patrick's Day, 2010! If you would take just a moment to go to http://www.slbc.ie/involved/competitions/, watch their video, which is listed first on the page, and cast your vote, I would really appreciate it, as would they. Also, your vote will also enter you into a drawing for a trip to Vegas to see them!
Thursday afternoon I made my 3rd annual trek to Galveston for Dickens on the Strand. I had hoped to head down earlier in the day, but alas that didn't work out and it was very nearly 4 p.m. before I got out of here! I was looking forward to seeing the island in the daylight, to see the recovery from Ike. Obviously since it was after 9 when I arrived, I was only able to see what was lit, and truthfully, that alone was an AMAZING difference from last year! I stayed with friends who live on the island, in a beautiful, late 19th century home, which, fortunately sustained no real damage to the living spaces, though the workshop on the ground floor had about 5 feet of water & muck in it. Of course we stayed up entirely too late, since we hadn't seen each other since June. They added a train to the scene in their living room.
Friday was full of roasting and other preparation of food for the party Saturday night. I promise to put up recipes later. There were dire predictions of a significant (for Galveston, anyway) snowfall on Friday, however we only saw a few tiny flurries that didn't amount to anything, and about 5 minutes of sleet, but it was COLD! It was good to see more of the island than I've seen in a great many years! We had lunch at a little bakery called the Sunflower Bakery & Cafe as we had to go by there to pick up the birthday cake. I can highly recommend their Deluxe Grilled Cheese, made with Gruyere Swiss, applewood bacon, and tomato (which I left off, thankyouverymuch) on sourdough. Of course we stayed up way too late again that night, but that's because the rest of the visitors had rolled into town.
Saturday dawned COLD, and I layered up so in an effort to be warm but not overly hot and needing to go back and forth to the car. It was a cold, but pretty day, and the crowds were pretty good, from what I saw. I kind of thought I might run into more people from up here than I did, but for whatever reason, it just didn't happen. The Rogues had 2 stage shows and did several street shows throughout the day. I have to say that being back in the pub was AWESOME, since last year we were pretty much out on a street corner the whole weekend because so much, including the pub was not yet open again after the storm. Because of the weather in the Midwest, one of the pipers couldn't get back to TX in time for Saturday's shows, so we had an emergency fill-in, Stuart Clements, who did a fabulous job, especially considering that he had NEVER played with the Rogues before! It was a wonderful day, and the gathering at the house that night was, of course, a good time, as the bunch of us that was there tends to spend a lot of time laughing and enjoying the conversation, not to mention the food!
Sunday was a bit warmer, and another beautiful day on the floaty bit out there in the Gulf. I was only out until about 2:30 due to a need to get the Canadian contingent back to the airport in time for their flight. I did score some fun things, including a couple of Woozies, a smartass, an awesome 2 piece barrette thing for my hair, and a couple of other gifts that I am not ready to reveal, lest I spoil the surprise! My drive home was longer than I would have liked, largely because it was rainy for about half the trip, but I was certainly glad to get back to my kitties and my own bed, on the ground floor, as opposed to on the 2nd floor of a house that sits about 12 feet above ground level to begin with… Have I mentioned my butt is quite tired from all those stairs?
Today's random weirdness can be traced back to Sunday at Dickens, and the smartass I bought. On Saturday, as I walked around looking at the various vendors, I came across one that had a variety of pins shaped like butts. There was a rat's ass, dumbass, a smartass, a kickass, a pain in the ass, cinnamon buns, a candyass, an ass 'n' 9, a grapeass, a buttface, and I don't even remember all of the rest of them, but I found them highly amusing, and went back on Sunday to purchase one of the smartass, and a rat's ass. While I was standing there deciding just which ones I needed, I noticed some beads on the other corner of the booth. When I'd made my selection, I was looking at the rest of the booth, and I realized that the beads over there were ROSARIES! That struck me as even more amusing than the asses in the first place, having both products in the same booth!
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