Muzzle

Ok, let me start by saying, there is no way that I am going to be able to do justice in describing how INCREDIBLE Friday night's Smashing Pumpkins concert was. It is a few days later and I am still amazed.

So we left Boise after the tennis tournament on Friday around 12:30. We had to get to SLC by 6:30, so we were a little concerned about making it in time. We ended up getting there just in time, with a little time to spare to grab some quick Wendys. When I saw this from the freeway, I made CJ take a picture....I was SO excited...

So we grabbed our dinner and went into the concert. We totally lucked out by doing "will call" for our tickets because we were able to avoid a huge line at the entrance and were able to walk right in without waiting.

When we got in, the opening band "The Bravery" had already begun. I was really excited to see this band perform. They are a fairly new band (at least to me) and have a pretty cool sound. They are probably one of my favorite new bands out there...but I am not sure how much I'll like them in a year or so. They seem to be kind of fun, a little faddy, and not super incredibly musically. Oh, and I forgot to mention, we had amazing seats! We were sitting very close and had a perfect view of the stage.

So after waiting about 30 minutes, the Smashing Pumpkins came out. They were all dressed in white, and Billy Corgan was wearing some silly knickers...which ended up growing on me later in the show. They began the show with a new song called "United States". This is about a 10 minute long song and is pretty cool. I hadn't heard it before the concert, and I loved it. There was a huge Billy Corgan guitar solo and a cut of the Star Spangled Banner, which gave me goose bumps. Prior to the concert, I feared a little that this concert was going to be disappointing and that the new Smashing Pumpkins were just going to be a cheap ripoff of the old Smashing Pumpkins. After 10 minutes of hearing Billy Corgan wail on that guitar, I quickly put those fears to rest. This concert was at least 10 times better than the Smashing Pumpkins concert we saw 7 years ago. They played lots of new stuff (which was awesome) and lots of older stuff which sounded amazing. For over two hours, the Smashing Pumpkins played song after song and the music was intense and flawless. Ciege and I were so exhausted just listening to it. The intensity was amazing, the music was crystal clear, Billy Corgan's voice was as good as ever, and they played relentlessly.

When they said their goodbyes and left the stage, I wondered if we'd have an encore. There was so much music played that night, I felt that they must have been just exhausted. Sure enough, the crowd kept cheering for a few minutes and they came back out and played an awesome final song. Then they left and CJ and I slowly made our way out. As we were leaving, the crowd was still cheering and the Smashing Pumpkins came out for a second encore! We ran as fast as we could back to our seats, and they performed "Muzzle", which ended up being my favorite song of the night. It was incredible and had me in tears. One of the lyrics in this song says "My life, has been extraordinary blessed and cursed in one", which I've always really identified with. The song talks about how all good things must surely have to end, and it was such a beautiful way to end a great concert. After the song, the lights came on and Billy Corgan stepped out onto the stage and waved to the crowd for about 5 minutes. He went to all sides of the stage, pointing at the audience, thanking them, and waving to them. It was awesome.

We talked about the concert for 2 hours on the way home that night. It had been a whirlwind day with the Tennis tournament, the drive down to SLC, and the amazing concert. It was SO worth it!

Someone has posted the "Muzzle" performance on youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5GWbYdoImE

Tennis Tournament

Craig is an awesome tennis player, and I didn't even know it! It's amazing that I am just learning this after knowing him now for nearly 11 years. Our work had a doubles tennis tournament for the previous few months and Craig and his partner made it to the final round! This was the very first time I've seen him play and it was a blast watching him...he was super competitive and serious about the game. Unfortunately, Craig and his partner ended up losing the match, but not without a fight! They played well and it was a lot of fun to watch it. Here are some pictures of the match...

P.S. I forgot to mention to you that he lost against the infamous "Scott". Ugh!!!

BSU Game

Last Thursday, Ciege and I were lucky to score some free tickets to the BSU vs. So. Miss football game. We sat in a really fun section above the end zone and had a blast. There were quite a few loud fans directly in front of us who would turn and give us 'high fives' whenever BSU did well...which was frequently in this game. Also, it was fun to see the stadium with the alternating Blue/Orange dressed fans. We were in the even numbered section, so we wore blue. The weather was awesome, the game was really fun, and it was a great break from an extremely stressful and busy week at work. Things are ramping up quickly this Fall and time is speeding along. It's great to be able to take an evening out together and enjoy football and each other.

Smashing Pumpkins Stood Us Up!

All day long today Ciege and I were super excited about our much awaited Smashing Pumpkins concert. We're definitely the most devoted SP fans around.

It all started for us in 1996... Ciege took me out on our first date to Chili's for lunch. We had a great time, and decided to spend the rest of the day driving around town in his hot red Pontiac Fiero. Hours seemed like minutes as we took each other to all of the places we had grown up, discovering that we had almost crossed paths so many times in our childhood. It was amazing to me to learn that we had both attended the same high school, at the same time, our families lived in the same general area of Boise, we frequented the same restaurants, and Ciege even played with my step brothers when they were little. All of these times we could have met, but for some reason, the grand plan was for us to meet in 1996 in the Micron fab. Anyway, this first date was amazing, and even though its not good dating etiquette to tell someone you'd like to marry them on the very first date, I knew immediately that Ciege was going to be my future husband...and I was bold enough to tell him. The greatest part is that he was equally as smitten and agreed that it was as if we had always known each other. So all day long as we were falling in love, and learning about each other's history, we were listening to the Smashing Pumpkins. The album they had just released during that time was "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness", which was an amazing soundtrack to fall in love to :) The album has 28 songs on it, and I'm sure that we listened to that thing multiple times that day. It was amazing, and ever since we've been in love with the Smashing Pumpkins. It is crazy how music can take you back to certain times in your life. I am so glad that anytime I want to reminisce, all I have to do is pop in that album.
So when we heard that the Pumpkins were coming to town, we were elated. We bought tickets immediately and have been counting down the days since.

Until today....today we learned that they cancelled our concert due to "scheduling constraints" (AKA Boise doesn't like the Pumpkins as much as we do). So for about 2 minutes I was SUPER bummed and then I hopped onto the Internet, looked up their tour dates, and bought tickets for this Friday evening in Salt Lake City. So in only two days, Ciege and I will be taking an unexpected road trip to Utah to see our favorite band play. I can't wait! It is going to make for a super crazy weekend, but I know that it will be worth it.

Fall Campin'

What do we do when both CJ and I are suffering from a cold? Why go camping in rainy cold weather of course :) This was the last and only opportunity of the year for us to go camping, so this last weekend we decided to head on up to the woods despite our sniffles and soar throats.

The weather was decent, typical fall weather. The trees and bushes were already starting to show their fall colors and it was beautiful. CJ entertained himself with a slingshot which he used to throw rocks at his target, an empty pop can. I mostly just sat around the campfire and tried to nap and relax a little. It was a really good little getaway. Here are some pictures of our weekend trip...

Bullseye!

Yesterday morning I went out to the upstairs balcony and what did I see? A arrow stuck in the side of our house! It was most definitely a surprise to see this thing. We called the police just to file a report, but they didn't seem to be too concerned. 3 hours after we called, an officer came out to our house. The officer grabbed the arrow, giggled, and told us that there was a shooting downtown, so this was "small potatoes" comparatively speaking. He said that he'd fill out a report, but didn't seem to be nearly as concerned as we were. We just kept thinking, what if we'd been sitting out on the patio, or what if it had hit Bachelor in the backyard? Well, we're just super glad that it didn't hurt anything but the side of our house. It was definitely a funny way to start out our Monday, that's for sure!

Fun with S & K

Saturday evening, CJ and I attended the Idaho Shakespeare Festival's "Little Shop of Horrors" with our great friends Sean and Kendra. (we call them S & K) The venue had a strict no photography rule, so we weren't able to take any pictures of the set or the actors, but were allowed to take a picture at intermission.

The Idaho Shakespeare Festival has a great outdoors amphitheater and the weather was very beautiful. We sat upon the grassy hill and enjoyed a fun night of entertainment and great friends. CJ spotted a Donald Trump lookalike in the crowd. If I was more gutsy, I would have taken his picture...but I didn't. But it was hilarious because the guy really did look just like the Donald. I like this picture of CJ because it shows what kind of mood he was in that night....really silly.

Before the show, we had decided to go grab a picnic dinner. Sean had a great suggestion that we get egg rolls from Jack in the Box, so we ended up eating egg rolls on the hill while we watched the show. We had such a great time eating our egg rolls while the more "cultured" folks were sipping their wine and eating their cheese and crackers.

The play was great, but I think what I enjoyed most was the feeling of sitting there on the hill with three of my most favorite people. Sean and Kendra were sipping their coffee and CJ was making silly jokes about people in the crowd. The wind was blowing the trees above us and I could see a beautiful foothills view behind the stage. It was definitely one of those moments for me. You know those moments, where you just have to stop and take it all in. It was great.

Star Party at the Dunes

This weekend my family invited us to go with them to the 23rd annual Idaho Star Party which is held at the Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park. The Idaho Star Party is an event that is hosted by the Idaho Astronomical Society. The society rents out the park and encourages amateur astronomers to come and bring their scopes for great star gazing at night and fun at the park during the day. Idaho's largest observatory is at Bruneau Dunes State Park, which features the tallest single-structured sand dunes in North America surrounded by sagebrush desert and grassy flats.

We arrived around dusk Friday night with our Durango packed up ready to camp. We had a bed setup in the back and we were ready to go. The weather was amazing. It was a cool 70'ish and completely clear night. All of the campsites had their scopes focused on things in the night sky and as it got darker, we were able to see a breathtaking view of the Milky Way Galaxy. We saw lots of great shooting stars and the people there were so helpful and excited to show us things in the sky. I think the most impressive thing we gazed at was Jupiter. It was great and so cool to see it sitting out there with its moons.

The observatory was really great, but unfortunately wasn't focused toward any planets, so I was only mildly excited. We saw a star that had exploded and was a ton of light years away. It was a lot of fun, but the best part was gazing through all of the astronomer's telescopes. A few of them had super high powered lasers which they used to outline constellations in the sky for us.

The next morning, we got up for some breakfast and then loaded into the car to head out from camp to the base of the sand dunes. First we climbed up one of the smaller dunes and then we headed out for about an hour hike up to the top of the 470 feet tall sand dune. It was very challenging because the sand is super soft and your feet sink with every climb upward. We took many rest stops along the way, but when we made it to the top, the view made it all worthwhile.
Here are some pictures of our trip....

The view was really pretty.

Here we are at the bottom of one of the smaller Dunes. From left: Becca(my sis), Reece(foreign exchange student living with my parents), Roxy(Becca's cute little dog), CJ, and Bachelor preparing for the hike.

Here we are taking a rest before beginning the 470 feet tall dune.

CJ challenges Becca and the dogs to a race up the Dune...Bachelor wins :)

Bachelor later regrets exerting so much energy in the beginning. Here we are resting after a long hike.

And finally, CJ and I have made it to the top and we are celebrating! CJ wants me to explain to you that his pants are tore, but you are seeing his pants liner, not his underwear in this picture :).

CJ and the dogs exploring the Dune.

Roxy and I relaxing.

Taking a dip to cool off.

Becca and Reece back at camp.

Check-a-biz Check-it-out

As most of you know, CJ has spent most of his time outside of his 40 hour per week job working on a some website enhancements for Checkabiz. (http://www.checkabiz.com/) I'm pleased to announce that the software is finally live! The image above explains what CJ created.

Checkabiz is a great consumer website which allows you to review local businesses. It is a cool place to go when you're looking for advice about area businesses as well as a place to air your grievances when you don't get great service from a company.

CJ developed an add-on program for this website that would allow participating businesses to be notified when they received a review. Additionally, this software allows the business to respond to the customer and offer them a coupon or free services at their choosing. So after much hard work, this system has been live for a few weeks. It's really great and will be an integral part of the business for the client.

I've been super ready for this project to be over, but now that it is, I'm so proud of CJ for all of his hard work and dedication over the past 8 months. It's been crazy and lots of work, but it is great to see that his hard work has really paid off.

Just Passing Through

Tonight CJ's Aunt Wendy and Nancy headed into town for a quick visit (from Seattle). It was a great surprise and it was very nice to get a chance to visit with them. They came by and toured our house and then we took them to tour our work. Afterwards, we went downstairs to the Cottonwood Grille for dinner. It was so nice to be able to chat with them a while and enjoy their company. The food tonight was excellent....a little too excellent for me! The waiter sold me on the "Surf & Turf" special which sounded wonderful, so I ordered it. He didn't mention how much it was, but I figured that it would be comparable to the other entrees on the menu. At the end I had HUGE eyes when we saw the check. I owed $49.99 for my meal! I was not expecting that at all, so we got a few laughs. Overall it was a great evening, and we were so glad to have been surprised by their visit.

Labor Day Weekend Recap

For our extra long weekend, we made it a point to not do much of anything but just stay home and relax. On Saturday, we went to Walmart and purchased a computer game and lots of sodas & snacks for the long weekend. Later that day, I had to hit the sales at the stores and purchased a new bedding set for our spare bedroom. (pictured above) We spent the entire weekend shopping and playing computer games. This time together to just sit around and relax was much needed and was a lot of fun.