1.5 hours of the costume party condensed down to 3 minutes.

Life has been busy. I haven’t had a chance to update my blog in over four months! A lot has happened in the past four months…

On January 12 I closed on my house! What a blessing it has been. I’m loving the house and the location is great. Mom came and stayed with me for a week in February and really helped to make everything look more like home. Fifty of my friends and I broke in the house on my birthday, March 24 for Mark-a-Palooza. It was a blast! Thanks to everyone that helped me celebrate.

The house hasn’t been all fun and games. As any new home owner will tell you, there’s always something that goes wrong. About two weeks ago I started hearing noises on my roof and I found a hole in my chimney siding. Raccoons invaded my house!

Getting rid of them was quite an ordeal. The coons weren’t in an area that was accessible from my attic and tracking exactly where they were wasn’t easy. I called an animal trapper who set traps on my roof and in my attic, but those didn’t work. I finally pinpointed where they were and we removed four babies on Monday night and another one Tuesday night. So there were five babies born and a mama raccoon living in my house for over a week! Crazy! I think the mama is gone now but I’ll find out for sure tonight.

I’ve been riding my bike a few times a week on the bike trails that are all over The Woodlands. I even rode to the grocery one day when I only needed a few things. I also like riding out to Northshore Park on Lake Woodlands. It’s a nice 25 min ride each way. My neighbor also rides so we’re going to hit some off road trails soon.

I’ve added several new albums to my Scene Me gallery. Go take a look at my pics from Austin for Thanksgiving, Sugar Bowl, Costume Party, Dallas in February, Mark-a-Palooza, Dallas in April, and Waterway Art Festival.

I’m hoping it won’t be as long before my next post!

Tony and Heather Antonacci’s wedding was last weekend in Atlanta and it was a blast! Definitely one of my best weekends in a while! Friday night, Tony and Heather had everyone over to their house. It was great catching up with old friends and meeting new ones.

Saturday night about 20 of us went to hang out at sports bar. I think the place would have been pretty dead if we’d not been there. We watched football, had a few drinks and took over the dance floor. Oh and we seemed to run into some really interesting locals everywhere we went. At this place there was this guy that was totally gone by 9:30, wore his key chain lanyard on his head and walked everywhere with his upper body tilted sideways. Oh and I almost forgot his green “You looked better on My Space shirt.” (pic) Then there were the old, groping people on the dance floor. Gross! After I left apparently there was some pretty good karaoke too.

Sunday was the wedding. It was at a really nice place called Chateau Elan about 45 minutes northeast of Atlanta. The ceremony was in a large, several story atrium with a glass roof. Heather made a dramatic entrance down a large double staircase and looked stunning! After the ceremony, we enjoyed cocktails, few selections from the winery and cheese before a lunch buffet. The reception was very nice and the couple was sent off in a clydesdale-drawn carriage!

The wedding certainly didn’t end the weekend. Sunday night we went to one of Atlanta’s finest, The Northside Tavern. To be fair, Jon Beam did tell us that it was a white trash bar, so we should have known what to expect, but I’m not sure anyone could have expected this place. I don’t know if I can capture the charm in words. It’s just the kind of place (and the people) you have to see to believe. The Fat City Wildcats were the entertainment for the night. They ended up being a pretty good blues band. I was skeptical at first after seeing a chicken crate, jaw bones, antlers and ram horns are part of the percussion. The band was certainly a sight to see, but the real show was this lady only known as the “zebra lady”. I’m not sure if she forgot her pants or if she was just wearing a dress she shouldn’t have (pic). And that wasn’t the only thing… she danced too. Have you seen the Seinfeld where Elaine dances at the office party? Well this lady was at least that bad. Spastic, freak dancing. Oh and yes there is a video :-)

So yeah, I’m still laughing over that. She really went crazy on the faster stuff! We also saw Joe Dirt there and a few of his friends. Then around 12:30 the strangest thing happened. The place blew up! People started pouring in from I don’t know where. And they didn’t exactly fit the white trash crowd. So the palce was getting really packed, so we decided to head back to Jon’s apartment to hang out. I had a morning flight, so we made it back to the hotel by 3.

Sandy, Jared, Kurt and I rode to the airport and were actually on time. Pretty good after a packed weekend with little sleep. Sandy and I were on the same flight, so it was nice to travel with her, although I was pretty much in a daze most of Monday.

Such an awesome weekend and one that I really needed since life’s been mostly work for me lately. It was great to catch up with old friends and make some new ones! I’m so happy for Tony and Heather and wish them the best!

Pictures! Thanks to Ben, Tarah and Sandy!

I took my Dad to the Astros’ game on Tuesday and have posted a few pics in the gallery. The ’stros played the Cubs and won 4-1!

Here’s the album

Saturday night I took my sister to the U2 concert in Dallas for her birthday. We had an awesome time! This was my first time to see U2 live and it was amazing. I can’t wait to get the tour DVD later this month. I managed to sneak in a camera and took a few photos and a lot of video. The sound on the video is pretty bad but you can see the light show. The curtain of lights was really cool! One of the best parts of the show was when Bono pulled a young guy on stage to play Angel of Harlem with the band. He was holding a sign that said “ANGEL OF HARLEM. In case you forgot: ” and then listed the guitar chords. U2 hasn’t played Angel of Harlem all tour and apparently hasn’t performed it live in years. Bono asked him if he could play it and then they handed him a guitar. The guy jammed and looked like a pro up there! The band even motioned him to the front and center mic to sing! After the song the young guy traded sunglasses with Bono! That’s got to be the ultimate souvenir. U2 played hard for two hours and definitely gave us a memorable show!
[7.20.06 UPDATE] I found a video of the guy playing Angel of Harlem on YouTube!

Here’s the set list:
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Electric Co.
The Ocean
I Still Haven’t Found
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes you can’t make it on your own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride in the Name of Love
Where the Streets have no Name
One

The First Time
Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
Angel Of Harlem
With or Without You

All Because of You
Yahweh
“40”

Photos and Video