Skid Row

Cory is a big fan of what he fondly calls "butt rock". I'm a fan of the old-school butt rock, but not so much the new stuff. Clearly I'm in desperate need of something (anything!!!) to do here in Idaho Falls because when Cory asked me if I wanted to go to the Skid Row concert last week...I agreed. Oh my. Mostly, I laughed the entire time I was there. Let me set the stage for you. The concert was held in the "Old Ernst Building" i.e. it used to be a grocery store. It even still has the island in the center where the cash register used to be. This was the first-ever music concert held in the building. I wouldn't recommend that they have any more. L.A Guns was the opening act. I think I may have actually understood 20 words from all of their songs. They did let everyone know that they like to have their picture taken and they graciously stood at the back of the room for photo-ops while Skid Row was on stage. I don't think anyone went to see them. Cory, Jared and Scott were good sports about posing for me while I tried to take some pictures - it was a great people-watching experience.
I'm not sure if you can see it or not, but this is a picture of the crowd holding up their lighters. Yes, their lighters. The lead singer was prepping the crowd for a song and mentioned that "back in the day", people used to hold up lighters when they played this particular song. But nowadays, most people hold up their cell phones. The Idahoans in the crowd were seriously offended by the notion of holding up a cell phone. So they all whipped out their lighters. And the band was dumb-founded. Me too.

We saw a wide variety of people - and even some kids. It was a good quality show for kids...

And I don't even know what to say about this one.

The lead singer took every opportunity he could get to opine about our economy today. Let me share with you a few of his thoughts.

Thought 1: I see some Motley Crue, Kiss and AC/DC shirts out there in the crowd. And that's what it's really all about. Some great bands coming together to make some great music. We are all one united nation of rock. There are some people out there who will try to tell you that rock 'n' roll is irrelevant. You can tell them to !*#$ &%^$!!

Thought 2: Friends who drink together, stay together.

Thought 3: In this economy, we all need friends and music. You are all our friends and we have the music.

Now don't you all feel enlightened?? And to wrap up a great evening, after the last song, everyone just left. No one even pretended to want an encore. Peace out, man.

The Spa

As a general rule, I despise Valentine's Day. I dislike the commercialism, the compulsory displays of affection and the mushy, sappy "yuck" that makes up the entire day. Don't get me wrong - I like it when someone does something kind or sweet for me, but those words are completely different than mushy or sappy. I am of the opinion that you should treat your significant other like it's Valentine's Day all year-round (please note that I do not profess to be perfect at this). In fact, I've even asked Cory not to give me flowers on Valentine's Day (or my birthday). I like to get flowers on a day that I would least expect to receive them. However, with all of the stress that has been in the air lately, and because it's still miserably cold here, I decided that we needed to do something to pamper ourselves. So we went to the spa yesterday and had a couples massage! Cory had a deep tissue massage and I had a hot rock massage. Ahhh! Then we had sushi for dinner. Yum! Perhaps Valentine's Day isn't so bad...

The Phenomenon That Is Church Basketball

It's that time of year again. That's right - time for church basketball. Cory has been playing on our ward's team with the guys and I have been attending the games as head cheerleader. And I've decided that I just don't get it. These guys almost kill themselves every single game and yet they still seem to love it. For example, most of these guys are so out of shape that they turn every shade of red/purple imaginable while they are running up and down the court - it makes me worry that they are going to expire at any minute. One guy plays with a knee brace on. I asked him how bad his injury was and he said that he doesn't have any cartilage in his knee and that when he runs he can feel bone rubbing on bone. What?!?! And you still come back for more each week?? And for a church ballgame (think "love one another"), it can get quite violent / emotional. I've witnessed two near tackles and one pile-up on the court that resulted in one guy hyper-extending his knee as he went down. Can someone please explain to me why this is fun for men??? Clearly I need to be enlightened.

Christmas in January (and birthdays too)

This weekend we went to my brother and SIL's house in Afton, Wyoming, for a family get-together. We didn't get to see my Uncle Dean on Christmas day because he got snowed in, so we finished opening Christmas presents with him. And we needed to have a birthday celebration for my mom, Dean and Cory (they all had recent birthdays).

We had pizza and cheese bread for lunch and my SIL made the most amazing banana cream pies! Oh baby!! Could my pants hate me any more??

My brother works as a diesel mechanic at the Simplot mine in Afton. Translation: he gets to work on some huge trucks / mining equipment and he absolutely loves it. He took us on a mine tour after lunch. We had to watch a safety video and put on safety glasses and hard hats. I've decided that it's impossible to look good in a hard hat, but we sure tried hard!

Just to give you an idea of how big these trucks are, note that we aren't even half as tall as the tires. I'm told that one tire costs $8,000. Sheesh!

We all watched in awe as this giant "shovel" scooped up ore and dumped it into the dump truck. Only four scoops and the truck was full! Thanks to Jaron and Karen for being great hosts! We had a wonderful day!