Day 83/365

So Maggie had her surgery yesterday. I can't believe this is happening to my girl. She apparently broke her hip when she was just a puppy and has learned to live with it. Who wouldn't have helped her and gotten it fixed when it happened?! I am so happy she lives with us now. I will always do what I need to do to help her. She is about the sweetest dog there ever was. Here is a pic of Tyler watching over her when we brought her home today.

Day 82/365

Today I visited the Bed and Beyond departments.

Day 81/365

Basil overload. Our small basil plants have grown into enormous basil plants. They are starting to overshadow our Rosemary plants. Please, if you live nearby, come by and take some basil. You are welcome to it! I can only use so much and I hate for it to go to waste. It's in a bed right in front of our front porch. Come by, even if we aren't home!

Day 80/365

Had to work today. I hate working on Saturdays. But alas, the hospital never closes. Never. Came home and went to Nola for dinner. Always a yummy choice. Got home and thought I'd post my pic of the day. When I logged onto Blogger, I realized I had no pic of the day. So I took one of the screen. It's blurry, but I don't care. It's a boring pic of a website. Do you really need it clear?

Day 79/365

A day full of x-rays. My back and Maggie's hip. Hers was fractured. I'll find out about mine when I go back to the Chiropractor tonight. Surgery is in Maggie's future, which makes me very sad. And we had to cancel our trip that we had planned for next weekend. Not a great day.

Day 78/365

Going to bed, cuddling with Buddy.

Day 77/365

Bought peaches the other day. Had a peach and goat cheese salad for dinner. It was a good choice.

Day 76/365

No one is fooled by your buttery spread.

Day 75/365

Was off today and it was a beautiful day. If all summer day's were like this one, I would be a happy girl. Stayed up later than we should have last night, so I figured I'd sleep in today. But I decided to get up when Steve was getting ready for work. I figured if he was going to be tired, so was I. Luckily, though, I wasn't. Had a great walk with the dogs. Came back and had a little breakfast. Showered and all that jazz, then read some vegetarian cookbooks for inspiration. Headed over to the Common Market, which is one of my favorite places to shop. Came back and had a little lunch and caught up on some TV. I am sooo happy that the new season of True Blood started. Got some laundry done and decided to clean up the kitchen. It was sure a lot more fun packing for Bonnaroo than it has been unpacking. We still have a ton of stuff in the office. Decided the day was too nice to spend inside, so I took a book and headed out to the patio with the pooches. Read some David Sedaris, who makes me laugh out loud. Meditated for a while out in the yard. Laid in the grass with Tyler. I was so happy. Now, I'm debating on what to cook for dinner. I'm thinking grilled portabella's or a nice stir fry. I love summer veggies. The only thing that would have made this a better day is having my honey home to share it with me. I miss him.

Day 74/365

Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world. I love you Dad!!

Day 73/365

Cornhole at dusk

Day 72/365

I have waited so long, but finally, my lilies are blooming!!  

Heading to Volt tonight to start the weekend-long celebration of Ric's birthday.  More pics may follow...

Day 75/365

My friend Cara's dog Sugar at Craft Night:

Day 74/365

Finally caught up on posts!  My cat is lazy.  How lazy is he?  He just laid down on the counter, used his paw to pull his food dish over, and ate lying down.  

Day 73/365

So happy I was off on Tuesday.  I needed a day to recover from Roo.  I actually need a week to recover, but a day was all I had.  I never left the house, except to go into the back yard.  It was nice.  I was happy to see my tomato hanging basket started to get some maters while I was gone!

Day 72/365

Monday, Monday.  Woke up EXHAUSTED!  Packed up our campsite and started the long drive home.  It was made even longer because it took us almost TWO hours to get out of the venue.  VIP entrance, but no VIP exit.  Then we hit a ton of rain on the way home.  So we got home after 14 hours.  That's about all there is to Monday.  Here we are in line to get out of Bonnaroo:

Day 71/365

Woke up on Sunday to the sound of Phish's soundcheck.  Just reinforced our decision to stay thru till Monday so we could catch the last show.  Sunday started with some good old Gospel.  Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Review.  Let me tell you something, that was an amazing show.  It's good to get your gospel on when you are at a festival like that.  It wipes your slate clean and you are forgiven anything that might need forgiving!  Citizen Cope was on right after Mike Farris, so some young kids (yes, that's what they were) were sitting right up at the stage, sitting on the ground, reading.  How do you NOT get up and dance when Mike Farris is on stage?!  I just don't get it.  Oh yeah, and then 2 teenagers got behind Steve and I to try to get close for the next band.  The one girl says to the other, "when the old people leave, we'll be able to get up close".  I thought it was very funny and thought, if she is cool at all, one day, she will be the "old" person at a festival.  

I think I said that we tried to see the Daily Show Comedy on Saturday, but it was crazy.  Actually, that was on Sunday.  The days all run together!!  So after we decided against that, we did a little shopping, ate lunch then went to camp for a bit before heading to Erykah Badu.  By now, our feet, legs and backs were killing us, so we took some chairs to Badu so we could sit further back and relax.  We sat down and I thought maybe we should try to get a little closer.  Then we realized that the pit wasn't very crowded yet, so we headed in there and ended up standing just in front of the stage.  The set started like 30 minutes late and then the back up singers and band played for a while before she FINALLY came on.  She's a little diva, but also a bad ass and can do what she wants.  I dig her.  I really do.  She was one of the highlights of the entire show.  If you EVER get a chance to see her, DO IT.  You won't regret it.  I promise!

I wanted to go check out Merle Haggard, but I was just to beat to walk over there.  So we headed to camp to grab some shade for a bit before we went to Snoop Dogg.  For Snoop, we were pretty far back.  It was incredibly crowded.  Snoop has a LOT of fans.  It was funny, because there was a thick cloud of smoke over the crowd the whole time.  Snoop Dogg tells the crowd to smoke weed every day.  They sure did that day.  Then Erykah Badu came out and did a song with him!!  It was awesome, awesome, awesome.   I missed the Neko Case show, but it was worth it. 

The night ended with a 3 1/2 hour Phish show.  I've never been a huge Phish fan.  But I am now.  What a great show.  I loved it.  A lot.  So we hung out and watched it from the VIP seating hill.  It was a nice, cool, relaxing night.  What a beautiful way to end a beautiful weekend.  As they were finishing, there were fireworks right over our head.  I mean RIGHT over our head.  So much so that the debris actually fell on our heads.  We headed back to camp to try to get a little sleep before the long drive home.  

The cloud of smoke over Snoop Doog.

Erykah Bad-ass Badu.

Puff...

Mike Farris  

Day 70/365

Had a very late night on Friday, so Saturday morning came EARLY.  We attempted to get some sleep in the am, but the tent was essentially an oven.  Steve was able to get a few more zzzzs thanks to the eye mask and ear plugs:

He didn't even know I took his picture because of them.  Woke up early because we heard Springsteen's soundcheck.  It sounded tight.  Grabbed a little breakfast and planned out our day.  The weather was beautiful.  Still no rain, like we had expected.  

We headed over to the surprise Jimmy buffet show.  It was sooooo much fun.  As I stood there, with my best friend, in this beautiful place, having more fun than you can imagine, I realized it was one of the happiest moments in my whole life.   It actually brought tears to my eyes.  What a great start to the day.  

After that, we headed over to the Comedy Tent to see if we could get tickets to the Daily Show show, but it was a total clusterfuck of craziness.  So we went back to camp to listen to the Wailing Souls on the main stage.  Great reggae.  Steve went down and hung out in the pit for a while, but I stayed at camp to listen and  relax in some shade.  

Thought about heading over to Booker T and the DBTs, but then Rodrigo y Gabriela came on the main stage and they sounded so good, we stayed to listen to them.  Really cool sound.   We headed over to Jenny Lewis early to get a good spot.  And we got a great one.  She came on and gave an amazing set.  I totally love her.  I would see her over and over if only she would tour here more.  Can you believe she came to DC to the 930 club on her way to Bonnaroo, but we were already there?!?!?  I was so upset.  But I saw her at Roo and she did not disappoint.  Played so many of my favorites.  And then Elvis Costello made a surprise appearance and sang Carpetbaggers with her.  So cool.  I dig him.  I really dig him.  We planned on staying to watch his show, which was after hers, but we saw him recently and my feet were KILLING me and we were tired and had a really long night ahead of us, so we headed to grab lunch and rest.  We ran into our friend Steve Haddad.  Sat and chatted with him for a bit, then headed to camp and caught some Wilco, including two of my favorite songs, Hate it Here and Walken.  

Headed to the main stage to see the Boss.  I love Bruce Springsteen.  I never understood the haters, but to each his own.  Music is a personal thing, so like who you like.  But I strongly urge everyone to see him live.  It will blow you away.   So he started late, which is annoying.   He came out with a hit or two, then proceeded to play a lot of new stuff and an indulgent song that I hated "Outlaw Pete".  The song should be outlawed.  And it went on for a looong time.  I was getting irritated.  Then, he finally turned it around and the rest of the show was great.  We hadn't gotten up front, because I wanted to be able to sit down occasionally.  It was nice, but I would have loved to have been up front.  After Bruce, we were so beat, but wanted to see Ben Harper.  We stopped by camp to drop stuff off and headed over.  They put Ben in a tent that was waaaay too small.  The place was insane.  We headed past the Silent Disco, which was fun to watch and then over to the weird circus.  It was weird, but cool.  We went back to check out Ben.  His new stuff is really rocking.  Different from the usual Ben Harper.  The sound where we were was horrible.   We were dying by then, so went back to camp to sleep.  I was worried about whether I could sleep, with Nine Inch Nails playing so close to us.  When I laid down, I realized I could hear Ben Harper so much better in my tent than I could at the show.  Then NIN came on.  I slept thru it no problem.  That's how tired I was.  

What a beautiful day.  Life is so wonderful. 

 

Day 69/365

Friday at Bonnaroo.  Wish we could have seen all the music, but it just isn't possible.  And you have to pace yourself or you will drop.   The rain that was supposed to happen all week/weekend only happened on Thursday.  Friday weather was GREAT.   Some clouds, which kept the heat in check, and some sun.  Boy did it get hot when the sun was out.  Who knew Tennessee was so hot?!  Anyway, we woke up to the sound of Al Green doing his soundcheck.  What a great way to wake up!  He sounded amazing and convinced us we had to go see him.  I had been thinking about skipping him, but decided I couldn't.  That man still has it.  We got up and had some breakfast at camp and hung out for a bit.    At this point, I realized our camera was GONE.  We think it fell out of Steve's pocket while we were watching the comedian the night before.  We checked with the VIP and the Main Lost and Found, but no luck.  I was very, very sad.  And my phone was broken, so I had no camera phone either.  

The first act we were going to see was at like 12:30 or so.  We headed over to Centeroo and had some lunch.  What a huge selection of veggie and vegan options! One vendor even had Vegan Pizza.  The pizza at this place was amazing.  I had a few slices over the weekend.  Wish they had a store in Frederick!  We headed over to see Vieux Farka Toure (Ali"s son, if you are familiar with him.  If you aren't, get familiar with them both.  Amazing).  He blew us away.  The tent was so muddy when we first got there, but then they cleared out the folks right in front of the tent and brought in TWO dump trucks full of sand and a backhoe or some sort of thing and spread it all out.  It was fun to watch.  Plus, then we didn't have to wade around in the mud, which was nice.  Oh yeah, I also did a hard reset on my phone.  I lost ALL info (but should be able to recover with a sync at work), but I was desperate to see if it would fix my camera phone.  It did, so I got some pics of Vieux.  We headed back to camp after that for a bit and listened to Galactic with Trombone Shorty while at our campsite.  I LOVED that we could sit there and hear and see the main stage.  

We headed down to Al Green.   Who BLEW ME AWAY.  Let me say it again-he blew me away.  I actually had wondered if he still had it.  He does.  A lot of it.  From there, we headed over to Lucinda Williams.  One of all time favorites.  Man, oh man.  By this time, I've already had so much good music, and its' only half way thru Friday!

Had some dinner then headed over to the Beastie Boys.  It was beyond packed.  One of the perks of VIP is that they have some VIP viewing areas that have a bar and an air conditioned bathroom.  Nice.   We headed there, because there were about 2 million people on the lawn.  We hung out for a bit, but I decided that although I love the Beasties, I couldn't stop thinking about David Byrne who was playing on another stage, so we headed over there.  We made a great choice.  He is so cool.  And he played some Talking Heads.  He came out and did Burning Down the House in a tutu.  I'm not sure why, but it seemed fitting.  He rocks my socks.  He is dressed in all white, as are all the people on stage with him.  And he has white hair now.  So he looks like a glowing ghost in all my pictures.  Oh yeah!!! Forgot to mention.  After Lucinda, we decided to go check lost and found again, and sure enough-they had my camera.  Oh happy day!!!  I could prove it was mine, because there were pics of Steve on it.  I was so happy, I almost cried.  

After D. Byrne, we headed back to camp to rest for a bit before Public Enemy, which started at 12:45 am.  At camp, we listened to Phish.  They sounded GREAT.  At that point, we decided we had to stay until Monday so we could go to the Sunday Phish show, which was the last show of the festival.  We headed over to Public Enemy, and I just can't begin to tell you how great it was.  Fight the Power, indeed.  They did their album, "It Takes a Nation of Millions" from start to finish, which was very cool, then they did some of their songs from other albums, including Fight the Power and 911 is a Joke.  I have a complete and utter respect for Flavor Flav now.  He's been made into a joke by VH1, but dude, that guy is awesome.  And Chuck D?  Man.  Chuck D is my hero.  After that we started heading back to camp.  I looked down on the ground and saw a dollar bill.  I bent over and realized there was a 19 year old's wallet there too, with a ton of money.  Talk about Karma!!!!  I headed over to Lost and Found to turn it in and realized Bonnaroo is a very special place.  

Went to bed around 3, even though there was still more music going on.   Like I said, you just can't do it all...

Oh Lucinda.  I just heart you so much.  

Vieux Farka Toure.  He is Ali Farka Toure's son.  He is every bit as good as his dad was.  And he is super cool.  

Flavor Flaaaav!!  Like I said, new found respect brother.  

Chuck D and Flav.  I really dug watching them on stage together.   What a cool bond.  

The all white, glowing David Byrne.  They don't come much cooler than him.  

 

Day 68/365

Drove into Manchester, TN around 9am.  Drove past over 10 miles of cars parked on the shoulder, waiting to get into General Admission camping.  Took our VIP exit and picked up our tickets and were on the farm in under an hour.  Sweeeeet.  We can see the main stage (The "What" Stage) from our campsite.  Can walk into Centeroo in about 1 and 1/2 minutes.  Bathrooms are air conditioned and I think maybe even a little nicer than mine at home.  Found the FREE BEER tent that was serving free beer until 11pm, along with a free buffet dinner.  And the beer wasn't just crappy Bud light or something.  They had Sierra Nevada, Sweetwater, Magic Hat.  Yumm.   There was also a free concert for VIP on Thursday.  Between bands, they had a comedian that we just happened to stumble upon and it was someone we know and love!  He is on Flight of the Concords (he plays their best friend).  Hysterical!  Went to bed at a reasonable hours (easy after all the free beer) because we knew we had a loooong day coming up...

Our campsite was so close to the main stage that we could hear perfectly and even see the big screen.  Amazing.  Was VIP worth the money?  You better believe it.

The VIP bathrooms were ridiculously nice.  They were just trailers on the outside, but air conditioned and wood trimmed inside.  And they ALWAYS had toilet paper and even had mints and lotions, etc.  The entire trip, I only had to use the Porta Potties three times.  Sweet.

Setting up our campsite.  It started raining RIGHT as we were finished.  The timing could not have been better.  We had our canopy and just sat and had a drink.

Here is just one shot of the poor GA folks waiting in line for HOURS as we drove by to the VIP entrance.  

Day 67/365

Road Trip!  Headed down to Chattanooga today.  Going to spend the night here then we are off to Bonnaroo in the morning.   It's about an hour from here.  Had a fun trip down with just a few snags.  We had two traffic issues and a little rain which turned out 9 hour trip into about an 11 hour trip.  Luckily, I was with my best friend.  We got to the hotel and our first room smelled terrible, like pee.  They allow pets, so hopefully, that's all it was.  But we were not going to stay there.  So they moved us.  Our new room hadn't been cleaned yet.  Soooo, they moved us again and now we are settled.  We grabbed some dinner and got our beer for the festival and now I'm in bed.  Pretty sure I won't be able to post at the Roo.  I'll be taking tons of pics, I hope, so I'll update when I get back.   I loaded the pictures in reverse, starting in TN and ending in Frederick.  Too lazy/tired to change them...

                              

Dinner in Chattanooga.  Ordered a beer, got a HUGE one.  

Well, if you insist, I'll be a Hippie.  I always do what my

radio tells me to.

Tennessee welcomed us with some rain, but it didn't dampen 

our excitement.  And it didn't last long. 

On our way...

Luckily, we bought a bigger car before our trip!

Day 66/365

Sylvester decided he has had enough of Chef Basil.  So he tossed him off the counter to his death today.   Poor Chef.  

Day 65/365

Vacation has begun!  So excited.  Wish we were leaving tomorrow instead of Wednesday.  We have been piling all of our stuff in our dining room, creating a big Roo Pile.  

Day 64/365

I can't believe this is the last weekend before Bonnaroo!  Spent all day yesterday getting ready.  And spent part of today getting ready too!  It was such a great day though, we had to get out for a bit.  So we biked downtown and walked thru the Festival of the Arts.  We have been so many times, we didn't even stop in any booths.  Just breezed thru.  Stopped to hear my friend Bill's band play for a bit an hung out with Lynda and Barry.  Amy and Clarisse stopped by for a bit too.  Then I ran into Geri for a bit too.   I love living downtown.  Best decision we've made.  Or at least one of them!