another reason to love nola!

This is pretty awesome... I walked by that very spot in New Orleans every day for four days in a row and I never saw Lenny Kravitz ;) How cool was that moment for the kids in that choir!


Lenny Kravitz crashes the VOP Choir in New Orleans for "Fly Away" CNN:

this gave me chills...

I cannot WAIT till November.. and July 2011... although then this will be over too. 2010 and 2011 suck for being the end of awesome things like Lost, 24 and now Harry Potter, one of the most amazingly spellbinding (yes, I meant that) pieces of literature ever, with awesome (but not as awesome as the books) movies to complement it and bring it to the dumbed-down masses. My greatest wish is that I could ever come up with a story as creative, detailed and emotional as the world JK Rowling created.

Enjoy... Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, the Official HD Trailer

home improvement - day 3... they're done! they're done!

They finished just before 4pm .. so it took them three days, just like they said it would and it looks AWESOME! I will now say, this work was done by Genesis Stoneworks. My sales guy was Steve Sage, who is super nice and educational/informative, and the crew that did my work was led by Luis. YAY!!!!

The "after" shot:

Here's the path (it's a real path now, not something in between a path and a garden border) around my big garden:

Here are my new, really big steps out of the kitchen. The brick looks really brown here because they're wet, but they are really a more stone/sandy color:

home improvement - day 2 ... paving with pavers

So I came home expecting to see maybe half of the patio done, or just the steps. Wow. The whole patio and most of the border around the flower bed is done. They just need to finish the border around the whole patio and the steps tomorrow.. and pound it all in. Looks like (knock on wood) they may actually be done in three days like they said they would be. Good thing too since they are paving our street on Friday and we can't have anything (like piles of pavers or big construction trucks... or cars leaving for work) on it as of 6am. Ugh.

Here's today's progress...it's very gray....

home improvement - day 1...demo

So the patio pavers people arrived a half hour earlier than expected (at 7am) and got a lot done today.

Here are all the bricks that used to be my patio (now free to friends who need brick until the day I get around to laying them out on the side and back of my house where no one goes... aka circa 2013 ;)

And here's what my patio area looks like after being demo'd (including my steps), dug out and with gravel poured and pounded down. There is also a big pile of interlocking pavers in front of my house, and a pile of sand, ready and waiting to lay the new patio tomorrow and Wednesday :)

home improvement

When I bought my house a year and a half ago, the house itself had already undergone a major addition and renovation, and basically looked like something out of the Pottery Barn catalog, which is why I loved it and bought it. The backyard, on the other hand, needed work. Over the last year, I've gotten all but the very back corner of the yard and garden under control.  Tomorrow, the back patio -- a collection of bricks sitting un-level on a bed of sand, that when it rains, turns into a collection of puddles followed by slippery moss -- will be getting replaced by professionals who shall remain nameless until I decide they've done a good job. I have high hopes for the gray, moss, charcoal and stone-colored interlocking pavers that will soon be set on a 7.5 inch foundation and with drainage in mind. Keep your fingers crossed this week please :)

Here's the "before" photo for reference:

Once the patio is done, the only major backyard task that will remain will be calling a junk hauling company to come haul away the rusted shed the previous owners left... and calling my friend Mike and his chainsaw to come knock down "the pony shed". I WILL do that by the end of this summer!

something to aspire to..

I interviewed a tech manager candidate today who referenced this deck as helping him to verbalize his management style (context, not control) so I looked it up. There is a LOT of good stuff in here. Now I like Netflix even more :)

Culture

View more presentations from Reed Hastings.

bye-bye blakey :(

Tomorrow will be a sad day... now both of the players I love will be retired. This also made me realize I've been a Kings fan for 20 years.... I'd like to say it doesn't feel like it's been that long, but sadly it does. :p

AP source: Sharks defenseman Rob Blake to announce retirement after 20 years in NHL - latimes.com

symphonicity

I just got home from the Hollywood Bowl, where I experienced another musical spectacular from Sting, who, like fine wine, just gets better and better with age. I don't know how many times I've seen the man in concert (let's just say "a lot"), but tonight was unlike anything he's done before. He was backed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra + a tiny band, fronted by his long-time guitarist and songwriting partner Dominic Miller. It was, in a word, AWESOME. The evening was a beautiful celebration of music, lyrics and the stories behind them, as Sting introduced almost every song with some sort of anecdote about how he was inspired to write it, or why he wrote it. He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the show as much as the audience was, playing guitar, tambourine, and collaborating on stage with Dominic and guest trumpeter Chris Botti. And experiencing this concert at the Bowl, which is one of my favorite places to listen to music -- outside, under the stars, with a slight chill in the air tonight -- only added to the beauty of the evening. It was an amazing show. 

quick summer movie update

Other than the awesome Iron Man 2, the Summer Movie Blockbuster Club (SMBC) has seen three movies thus far this summer that I haven't logged an opinion of yet. So here's the quick lowdown:

Sex and the City 2:  This was a super-fun girly movie! Not as depressing as much of the first one was... just the girls back together and back to their old selves from the show. Hilarious music number at a wedding. Hilarious Samantha back to her raunchy self. And loads of cool clothes to covet. (Worth a full price ticket.)

Prince of Persia: I could have lived without paying Arclight prices for this. (Shouldn't I have been able to see it for free.. hello!) It was shorter than SATC2, yet felt longer.. mostly because it had two "almost endings" (where you think it's going to end, then keeps going), which was annoying. It wasn't bad, just wasn't super-awesome. I'd compare it to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which was no Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. (Wait for cable.)  

The A-Team: The SMBC was a bit split on this. Everyone liked it, but those that did not watch the TV show in the '80s liked it more than those of us that loved the TV show in the '80s. It was action-packed and funny too, but about an hour after I got home, I realized why I didn't love it as much as I could have: On the show, each mission was to help some underdog-type who'd hired them. In the movie, they were still on a government mission (it's a bit of a prequel to the outlaws on the TV series), so there was no Robin Hood-esque stealing from the rich/screwing "the man" to give to the poor element that was the essence of the TV series. Also, sorry, but Liam Neeson is no George Peppard. He just didn't have the coy humor that the late, great Peppard brought to Col. Hannibal Smith. Bradley Cooper, on the other hand, was awesome as Face... he's the only actor I may have liked better than the original. (Worth a matinee-priced ticket)

david bryan, three-time tony award winner

The collective known as Bon Jovi now has more Tony Awards than Grammy Awards... what's up with that?!?!  Oh well, congrats to David Bryan on Memphis' big wins tonight.

let's hope the outcome ends up similar too...

... and in LESS than 49 years. Like, 42 would be AWESOME!

Los Angeles Kings are following Chicago Blackhawks' blueprint - latimes.com

the toys are back in town

Got an early screening of the super-amazing Toy Story 3 yesterday at our all-hands meeting. LOVED IT! The Toy Story films are works of art filled with so much heart and humor, people of all ages can't help but love them (and I'm not just saying that because of who I work for). And the story in 3, about what happens when toys are outgrown, and the strength of friendship... well, let's just say I have to go to my parents' garage and find new, loving homes for all of my old toys that have been in boxes for 20 years now. Toys deserve to be played with... gently :)

round and round

Had a super-fun day today at Griffith Park near the merry-go-round to celebrate month 6 of my friend Shawn's "40 Years of Fun & Adventure" year-long celebration leading up to his 40th birthday this December. We had a great picnic in the shade and then went for a ride on the carousel, which goes surprisingly fast for being 73 years old. :)

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

how's this for a real a-ha moment...

oh how i've missed this show...

"God, Jesus, Mary Madeline, Allah, Confusion, Buddha, Scientology, aliens, that lion from Narnia... " LOL!

Minisode: Jason