L’s band, We Are Not Rebels, plays next Saturday night, Feb. 9, at the Rex Theatre in Southside. If anybody local wants tickets, we have a bunch at a discounted price. They are warm-up for The Show. Here is the link:
http://rextheatre.com/

||||||  lynard

L’s band rocked in 2nd place at Teen Oasis’ Battle of the Bands last Saturday. Many friends and family came out to support him, including GRANDMA and GRANDPA. Unbelievable. That’s OK, grandma said, grandpa is already deaf…  And, she went upfront when We Are Not Rebels took the stage! I suspect that she moshed, but I didn’t catch her.

We Are Not Rebels is Teresa Pegors on drums (she was hard to get a pic of), Nathan Beard on lead, and Steve Lackey on rhythm. L played bass and sang for this concert.

You can listen to some stripped-down recordings with synthetic drums at:

http://www.myspace.com/wearenotrebels

Their next gig is The Rex in the Southside (known as Sahthsuhd in Pittsburgh) on Feb. 9. They warm up for The Show. Tickets are available directly from the band for only $10.

||||||  lynard

Once when I was “powdering my nose” in a public ladies’ room, the woman in the next stall said “Hi there!” very enthusisatically.

Uh. When I didn’t answer (my training in the hood, I guess), she persisted, “Hey, you there?”

“Yes,” I offer relunctantly (my Pittsburgh politeness kicking in….). Man, what did she want: tissue? directions? small talk? Oh please.

“Yeah, I’m good! I was thinking of dropping by sooner than later,” she says.

Oh my wacko wireless! She was on the insidious cell phone!

For a nano, I considered saying, “Sorry, I thought you were talking to me.” But no, that would just interrupt her private conversation.  Aack!

I rushed through washing my hands, and flew out of the restroom. The thought of being pointed out later as the “idiot woman that thought I was talking to her in the bathroom” made my skin crawl.

Now the whole thing is much funnier. Why would that woman even feel comfortable doing that? Has our society changed that much, that we can’t take a private moment without yacking on the phone?

This week my friend Barry has some wise thoughts on guidelines for cell phone use:
http://sycamorerpc.blogspot.com

He recommends a column on the ethical and cultural ramifications of cell phone use in The Atlantis by Christine Rosen:
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/6/rosen.htm
She talks about the phenomenon of “absent presence” that is common with cell phone usage in public: the person is there, but they are not aware of you or their surroundings. Examples are chatting mothers at the park pushing their babies absentmindedly, chatting drivers swerving in to your lane without turn signals, and chatting loudmouths in public restrooms.

Both articles gave me pause. I love my cell phone, but I am more determined than ever to mark and dig out my boundaries. One that is a no-brainer for me is: “NO chatting in the restroom!”

||||||  lynard

19 Jan 08 edit: Another post on the subject~~very funny~~ http://www.mannersthatsell.com/articles/cellphone.html

I haven’t couponed for a long time. I got to a point where I realized that it was a better use of my time to freelance and earn extra dollars than to cut coupons to save dollars. Also, I long ago quit shopping at the mainstream grocery stores, which often charge triple the price of an Aldi or Big Lots.

Then, I found the coupon mom blog:
http://www.couponmom.com/blog/serendipity

Over my Write@Home students’ break I decided that I had the brain space to try some of coupon mom’s advice. The cool thing that she does is show, by store, how in-store specials coordinate with available coupons. Sometimes, like with CVS’ Extra Care Bucks, you can get items for free with coupons in combination with virtual money back to spend on anything next time you go to CVS. Other times, it shows you how to use a buy one get one free special in combination with two newspaper coupons and get products for pennies.

Because she blogs and databases it all, I don’t have to bust my noggin comparing all the newspaper coupons with all the newspaper fliers to see who might have the best deal.

By the way, to see the lists for individual stores with their databases for corresponding offers and coupons, you need to register your name and email address. No fee is required. Then you can access pages like “Rite Aid Deals” or “CVS Special Deals.”

Last week, I saved over $150 among four different stores. Mind you, this is a savings off the regular retail, which can sometimes be outrageous. This week, I’m using the virtual and rebate dollars that I got back to shop with this week’s coupons. It is fun, and I am stocked up on pain reliever, soup, unmentionable necessities, and shampoo. Woo hoo.

Oh yeah, and remember having to circle items on receipts, matching rebate numbers with the product names and finding a stamp and envelope? Rite Aid now offers paperless rebates! I know you are excited about this one: Online, you type in the transaction number and dates from your receipt and Rite Aid looks up your receipt in its system and determines what is eligible for cash back. Once you are registered, you just click “Send Me My Check.” Yes, send me my check.

When I start my freelancing schedule again, I will not have the brain space to do all this, but maybe I will have learned some strategies for more deals. Maybe I can offset the skyrocketing gas prices.

||||||  lynard

Docs Replace Man’s Severed Thumb With Big Toe

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321647,00.html

Man, that would be an instance   when it would be nice to have long toes, which I don’t. Probably dear hubby’s toes wouldn’t graft in as well to my DNA, but they would actually look pretty good on my short hands. Shall I prove it in Photoshop?

||||||  lynard

These are not good pix, but K is in every one—sitting, scrapping, stacking, boxing out, and standing for conference. When Dad G. was here, we watched Serra Catholic womp TCS hard with K sitting on the bench for all but a minute and a half. (She is a frosh on varsity, so bench-sitting is not a big surprise.)

However, on Saturday, she got to play for almost two whole quarters, and this time TCS’ Lady Falcons did the womping–and of a public school, no less! K had three offensive rebounds, three defensive rebounds, and four points–a good showing for her first significant play, IMHO. Frazier-32; TCS-64.

She kept her chin up when #30 repeatedly elbowed her in the gut, and she played with gusto. Yay, K!

EDIT 9 Jan 08: I deleted a couple pix so the display wasn’t so unwieldy, but they are still in the photo blog.

     
 
||||||  lynard

Vacuum maintenance seems like a monthly chore. The headaches fall on D, ripping all the threads and hairs off the beater bar so he can see what the problem is this time. Mostly, the contraption needs a new belt, but
this time it needs a new beater bar…the end caps melted, or stuck or something, into the little places that they are supposed to go and rotate freely instead of freezing with a stink.

The vacuum store is only open until 4 on weekdays, so it is my job to get the new part. D tries to tell me the model type, but then instructs me to take the actual beater bar to show it to them. “They’ll know what to get.”

The woman at the Steel City Vacuum shop is cheery. “Happy new year!”

“Happy new year.” It would be happier if our vacuum would just work all the time without us having to up-end it every other week. “I need one of these,” I say, offering up the dark cylinder.

In the light of the vacuum shop, I regret not having been more dilligent in removing the hair from the bristles. The dog hair is mostly gone, but the strands that match the long ones on my head are unmistakable. Ew.

The lady receives it gingerly. “So, what kind of vacuum is it?” she asks.

I don’t know. First we had the green one, then a burgundy one. Now we have a purple one. We used to use F bags, but now they are G, or is it the other way around?

“Eureka, I think. Or maybe a Hoover. I’m not sure. We’ve had a bunch.” I grin helpfully, recalling that we bought this one at Wal-Mart.

She smiles. “OK, I’ll try to look it up.” She is kind.

Behind her are aisles and aisles of steel shelving with small labeled cardboard boxes.

Instead, she navigates past the warehoused parts and goes behind a windowed wall, showing my dirty, hairy beater to a studious-looking man with a headset and a computer. They begin doing data searches, looking for my model, I suppose. She is still holding the thing for comparison, at a distance.

Other people behind the glass, about a half dozen, are modifying computer illustrations of vacuums and talking on the phone. Steel City Vacuum is an interesting place.

The lady and her helper are frowning. She disappears into the warehouse.

I call D. He says we have a Dirt Devil upright. Oops.

Fifteen minutes since she initially left, she returns emptyhanded. I explain that I led her down the wrong beater path. She admits that they had begun looking at Orecks and Panasonics (don’t they make stereos?). “And what is the model then?”

Sigh.

To make a long story short, I call Levi to get the exact model number and finally get the correct beater bar in my hand.

Surprisingly, the bristles on this new beater bar are bright white. Well, that is perhaps a bit silly.

As I leave, I ask the clerk for a recommendation for reliable vacuums, explaining that my hubby is in this shop a lot for pieces-parts. She muses that I must vacuum a lot. So funny.

I’m seriously thinking of saving for a robotic vacuum–y’know one of those little round Roombas that travel your floor day and night, making life more sanitary. My father-in-law and next-door neighbor now have them. One website has a buy-two-get-one-free offer. That would be the life, huh? A robotic maid on every floor.

Now they have robotic wet mop cleaners. I’d like one of those, too. But first I must save up to replace the 10-year-old minivan.

Do you think they will make robotic bathroom fixture cleaners? *deep sigh*

||||||  lynard

I have to use my Pittsburghese because we were in the heart of the city tonight to ring in the New Year. Dad G, Uncle Joe, Aunt Jackie and our five attended First Night downtown in the Golden Triangle.

In Pittsburgh, you pay for a badge to get around the non-alcoholic, family activities, but you can reserve free, yet vouchered seats for high-demand events. We attended the Pittsburgh ballet at the Byham on vouchers, then gave away our seats at Heinz Hall for Johnny Angel and the Halos to get in the stand-by line for the Amish Monkeys, an improv show. The latter paid off because part of the seating they reserved for stand-bys were the box seats. While some stand-bys didn’t get in, others stood in the back on the theater. We, however, got the box seats!

The ballet was three dances, two of them pas-de-deux, from three different ballets. Very stirring and amazing, the dancers made all the leaps and spins and points effortless and wore the attire that fuels little princesses’ dreams. The last dance was avant garde and humorous, and ended with a 101 uses for a frying pan. If you want to know more, I’ll demonstrate in person.

The Amish Monkeys were entertaining but not as witty as I anticipated. I’d rather watch my brother do improv. But then he is hard to beat on stage.

We rang in the New Year outside nearer the Point with The Clarks, a Pittsburgh band, whose lyrics I know a little too well, much to the chagrin of my family: “Shimmy, shimmy low, kids!”

Near Pittsburgh, County Executive Dan Onorato took the stage to help emcee or something, and most of the crowd booed! Even though it was rude and inappropriate for the moment, it gave me a glimmer of hope for 2008… *sigh*

Oh, Pittsburgh had a first this year: a glittery bright blue ball that weighs over 1,000 pounds and is wider than my hubby is tall. At midnight, the glowing orb *rose* (not fell) over Penn Avenue Place. According to the Tribune-Review:
“The ball will rise, not fall, because Pittsburgh is rising as a green city, as a cultural center.” (Ken McCrory, of McCrory & McDowell, chairman of First Night at a press conference before the event.)

Sure enough, the parade was themed “Transformation.” It boasted floats about urban renewal and greening, one high school band, lots of fire trucks, and many Mardi-Gras-like huge people puppets. It was probably about the oddest and shortest parade I have ever witnessed. The last float was a Happy Birthday Pittsburgh cake and a large wigged puppet popped out of it wearing an “HELLO, MY NAME IS WILLIAM PITT” tag. Yeh, truly.

Here is a pic of the inner workings and outside of the ball, which is copyrighted by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. I will try to replace it with a pic that T took with his camera phone after the orb reached its apex and the fireworks had finished erupting.

We saw several dear friends and acquaintances on the streets–Sylvia H, Tony R, Bruce T, Maria T, and Sarah F–to name a few, and L made many new acquaintances as he was wearing his new T-equalizer shirt, which is battery powered and responds like an equalizer in multi-colored lights to sound. (Amazing how many strangers will talk to you if you wear a shirt that looks like a psychedelic recording booth.)

I’ve rambled long enough, but I retire to bed satiated with all the festivities and the family with which to share them. Tomorrow we take the oldest back to the airport, back to the institution of higher learning, and prepare for the daily routine of 2008.

Happy and blessed New Year to you! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

|||||| lynard

Yays

My niece sent me a cool app on Facebook that “sketched” my profile pic.

K not only got game time tonight (with her Pappy G in the stands), she sunk her first two varsity points with two good-form foul shots.

Pappy brought shoo-fly pie from Paradise, and my sis brought scrapple from Blueball’s Shady Maple. .:yummy yay:.

L has a new CD review published on http://www.indiemusicstop.com/.

T is going on mission trips to Phoenix, France and possibly Switzerland for spring break and summer.

Boos

We only have a few more days with T, who will not be coming home much next year because of his mission trips.  :-p

We realized that most of the boys’ collectible Hallmark baseball-player ornaments on our Christmas tree are on steroids.

It is supposed to rain for New Year’s Eve and we are planning on attending First Night downtown.

The cookie press cookies that K and I made for Christmas are Unidentifiable Lying Objects.

||||||  lynard

Mac’s Photobooth can provide hours of mind-numbing entertainment—not to mention deformities, anomalies and incongruities:

||||||  lynard