Lots To Do

One of the great things about living in a larger city like Houston is greater access to museums, concerts and events. I look forward to becoming a member of the Museum of Fine Arts and spending time in the Museum District. I also look forward to taking Daphne to the Children’s Museum when she gets older. Chris is taking part in a Flickr meet-up this weekend at the Natural Science Museum. They will have full run of the place after it closes, which is so cool!! I love museums and am happy that I will be able to enjoy such a variety here, as well as expose Daphne to different kinds of art. I can vividly remember my mother taking me to the Art Institute in Chicago and looking at “La Grande Jatte” (Which I thought was pretty cool. Even if you aren’t an art person you’ve probably seen it. It was in Ferris Bueller.) and I remember thinking that still life paintings were pretty darn boring. I was a little art critic even in preschool/kindergarten.

As far as events, Chris and I are always looking for something new to see and do. We tried to hit all the festivals in B’ham. We’ll have a much bigger selection now! We aren’t big on concerts, but I did have to laugh after my husband and my mom pointed out that George Michael (the singer-songwriter, not the Bluth) would be here on Monday. I had the biggest crush on George Michael, like so many other 80’s teen girls. I saw him 20 years ago (dang that makes me feel old!!) in Dallas, TX at Texas Stadium at the height of his fame (The Faith tour). Tens of thousands of teenage girls screamed their lungs out for a few hours. It was a really good concert. That man can SING! His opening band, The Bangles, pretty much sucked. But I still like their music anyway. I went with one of my friends from Dallas and I think my dad paid scalpers $75 a ticket, which I’m sure was a lot back then (now you pay that for the nosebleed section). And I still have the concert t-shirt. It’s in a tote with my Guess jean jacket that I can’t part with, and my Swatches. Someday Daphne can wear them to an 80’s flashback party. But, I just have one question. How did we not realize he was gay????

Really, what straight man would wear that hat? After looking at the set list, I’d kinda like to go. But with Chris going back to work we just don’t have time next week. It would be fun though.

City Stages

Some of Chris’ pictures from City Stages last weekend. He had a media pass and was right up front.

Hoochie Coochie Man

Just a little blues for your Sunday morning. Last night Chris went to City Stages for the Buddy Guy concert. Here’s a video clip:

Hoochie Coochie Man .

I admit, the only reason I know who Buddy Guy is would be because I’m married to my husband. Otherwise I’m sure my blues knowledge would be limited to BB King, since I’ve been to his restaurant in Memphis and, you know, he played with U2.

Jen & Daph’s Big Adventure

This morning Daphne & I headed over to Homewood for a Magic City Slingers meeting (our local babywearing group). The topic was DIY projects and it was very informative. I think I’m inspired to make my own ring sling, because I still just don’t think I’m getting a good fit with my two pouch slings. Daphne likes me to wear her in a hip carry in a sling around the house. If we are going somewhere I normally put her in the Ergo and do a back carry (that is if my husband is there as a spotter, I actually had a woman in the library stop me and ask how I put her on my back by myself… yeah, I had help. I’m sure I’ll get more comfortable with doing it by myself without a bed or another person as a spotter, but I’m not there yet).

After the meeting I headed to Whole Foods to pick up some baby food. Let me just say this, there is a reason why my husband drives 99.9999% of the time we go someplace together. Not only do I drive like a grandma, but I have no sense of direction. Really, I’m not sure I could even drive you to my mother-in-law’s house in Sand Springs, OK and she’s lived there now for several years. Anyway, I had the brilliant idea to see if Oxmoor Road went all the way to 280. After I had passed I-65 I called my husband and asked him. His suggestion was to turn around and go down Lakeshore. He also said that Oxmoor had too many twists and turns and I would get confused. Nah, I can figure it out. Um, yeah. We got lost, to the point that I was going West when I should have been going East. Then, by chance, I actually found Lakeshore only to not take the right road onto 280 and got stuck going through Vestavia & Hoover. Here’s a visual… I’m trying to get to point A from point B (sorry that’s backwards). The blue line is Google Maps suggested route, and, you guessed it, the pink route is me. I suck.

Weekend Plans

Did you know you could iron tulle? Yep, it totally worked. We are taking Daphne’s picture tomorrow to practice with our new reflector and her dress was so wrinkled. I was afraid I’d melt the tulle, but it worked out great. The silk portion ironed well too. Here’s the dress:

I have no idea what I’m going to do with her hair tomorrow. We have 12 million bows and hair clippies but no light pink to match the dress. So, I’ll be sitting here, watching Battlestar Galactica tonight trying to create a hair bow. I suck at bows. Maybe I should get a small artificial flower or something from Michaels and glue it to a clip. That would probably look stupid.
After pictures tomorrow we are going to the Do Dah Day festival. The festival raises money for animal shelters and has bands and a big dog parade. Here are some of my favorite pics from last years event:

And since I’m a sucker for girly dogs:

And do not adjust your monitors, the following dog is pink. Her name is Raspberry and I think she stays pink year round, not just for pet parades:

Sunday, Chris has another photo shoot and then we tackle the yard. A busy, fun weekend. What are your plans??

Beaner & Ken

Since my iPod plugs directly into my car, I’ll admit I very rarely listen to the radio.  Another reason I don’t listen to the radio?  The lack of decent stations in Birmingham.  Several years ago I would listen to the “X” and their Beaner & Ken morning show.  I never listen to morning shows, but Beaner & Ken were hysterical.  Chris just pointed out Ken’s website where you can listen to some of their favorite bits.  This one always cracks me up:

Satan Calls Radio Shack

“Mark cannot help you now!!”And of course, there is always the Vulcan, god of the forge bits.  For those of you that aren’t local, Vulcan is a huge iron statue on a mountain overlooking the city.  I still find it funny that he’s wearing an apron and nothing else, which is why there are so many butt jokes.  These two clips aren’t the best:

Vulcan, god of the forge

Their “Ask A” and “Real or Fake” series were always good too.   Too bad they aren’t on the air anymore.

Farmer’s Market

Today we woke up early and headed out to the Farmer’s Market over on Findley Ave.

Normally we go to the Pepper Place farmer’s market, but I kept reading comments on Chowhound about how only yuppies go to Pepper Place and how the one on Findley is SO much better. Well, I certainly don’t consider myself a yuppie, but I happen to like the music, cooking demonstrations, and artisanal bread selections at Pepper Place. And it’s much closer. Anyway, we didn’t end up buying anything at the market. We might try it again later this summer, but for now there was very little to choose from. And I didn’t notice anything specifically labeled organic. Later in the day we just went to Whole Foods.

The main reason we went produce shopping was so I could start making baby food for Daphne. I had every intention of making all her baby food, but since she had no interest in solids for the first 7 1/2 months I just bought Earth’s Best organic jarred baby food. She must be going through a growth spurt now because she has been HUNGRY this week. Like finishing off several jars of baby food (with a little rice cereal), a teething biscuit and some sweet potato puffs at one meal. So hopefully she’ll enjoy my homemade stuff.

And since I’m on the topic of making baby food, if I had a huge kitchen with tons of space for frivolous small appliances I would totally get this Beaba Babycook from Williams-Sonoma.

It steams your food, then blends it to the desired consistency. It’s the lazy way to make your own baby food.

Sunday in the Park

After brunch we went to a park in Homewood just to stretch our legs and let Daphne play.  She enjoyed the kiddie bucket swings.  Here’s a pic of Chris and Daphne.  (It’s not great, but soon after I was attacked by ants and lets just say the photo shoot was OVER!)

I need to get more pictures of the two of them together.

More MCAC Photos

Just a few more pictures from last weekend’s Art Connection. One of the things I really like about MCAC is its focus on art and being family friendly. That sounds silly to say, shouldn’t an art festival be about art? Well, I’ve seen my share of art shows/festivals that seem to really get going after dark when the bands and booze come out (cough * Mayfest * cough). I must be getting old.

Flamenco dancer. I really enjoy watching this group perform.

Russian dancers. These ladies had the BEST costumes. And at least 4 costume changes, I believe.

The Neo Jazz group. I think this is the 3rd or 4th time my husband has shot this group. Very photogenic kids.

This little girl is so cute I can’t stand it!! Love the color combination in her costume.

Tamales from the Corks & Chefs tent.

And finally, one of the winning artists.

Little Notinee Dancers

Today at the Magic City Art Connection:

How cute are these little girls? I love their brightly colored costumes.  And the colors were really this intense.  I actually turned down the saturation and vibrance a bit in Lightroom.