Erin Shaw Street

Farewell Nate

I can't say that I'm entirely shocked that Nate Fischer has gone the way of his clientele, but "Six Feet Under" did give us an interesting twist by having him wake up, seem to be doing fine, break up with his pregnant wife, exchange knowing glances with his stepsister and then send him to the great beyond. I love that show and with only three episodes left ever am beginning to miss it. I thought that I couldn't wait for this week ... and now I really can't wait.
Television Without Pity

So this is my last 24 hours of being 28 years old. I have gotten some great presents this weekend:
We finally bought a couch and chair for our family room (to replace the world's stinkiest dog couchs) and we bought new tricked out cell phones. So we spent hours this afternoon figuring out how to send text messages and take picture of the pugs for screensavers and download ring tones.  I downloaded Missy Elliot and thought it was cool for about 15 second and then realized it was quite annoying. Shane found a surprisingly large selection of obscure 80s, including The Cure. Who would have thought it?

But those weren't really presents.  Last night we went to dinner with Mom and Dad and had ice cream at Cold Stone *yum* Cold Stone Combinations

I got a sassy new running suit,  three books I really, really wanted -- "Specimen Days" by Michael Cunningham, "Plan B" by Anne Lammont and "If No One Speaks of Remarkable Things." Also got a pillow depicting The Horseshoe and a stuffed Cocky, because no one can have too much USC merchandise. And a device that makes my ipod remote controllable, an armband for my ipod for running and a CD of mango hits. Plus Dad is making me a DVD of movies from growing up. How great is that?

I would lik e to turn 29 everyday.

Stephanie sent me this link that is pretty amazing. You can type in your name and see where it ranks presently as far as babies being named that, and how it has increased (or decresed) in popularity through the years.  My name was most popular in the early 80s, but is continuing to fall out of favor. Oh well.

Fascinating Name Information

Famous Clearwaterians

Wow, I love where I grew up. I can't believe I have forgotten to write about this till now.

Last night we were watching one of our favorites: "Family Plots." They had a psychic on who told them all about the spirits, etc. that inhabited the funeral home. Buy it was no ordinary psychic. It was Gary Spivey!

I hadn't seen good old Gary in years. If you have never seen him, please admire his amazing hair. He is just one of the many treasure celebrities from my hometown of wacky Clearwater, Florida.

I urge you to visit his site.

Gary Spivey: Modern Day Nostradamus ???

Almost equally disturbing is Hulk Hogan's new TV show, "Hogan Knows Best." Link to VH1's "Hogan Knows Best"

HH also lives in Clearwater and belong(ed) to the church where I grew up. In fact, one Easter I spied said WWF wrestler and family in the overflow Mass. He was wearing his trademark banadana and sunglasses. It was just the parish hall but still. I told Dad and we created quite the papparazi storm in the church parking lot. His children also went to my elementary and middle school. Parochial of course.

The only other celebrity I've spotten in Clearwater: Evil Knevil. He sat next to me at a Fantastic Sam's once and I didn't know who he was. Yeah, I went to a Fantastic Sam's, OK?

29, A Wise Age

Tonight I worked out with my trainer. I love him even though he makes me work muscles that have probably never been used before  (see: pathetic sight of me trying to lift 2.5 lb. weights). He also endures 1 hour of my complaints, psychic angst of not being able to lift hardly anything, and my general gripes about tragic purse-related toe injuries; weak arms and fear of other people in the gym who are 1,000 times buffer and surely staring at me.

"I think you are imagining that," he says.  No, I'm pretty sure those football players were laughing.

Anyhow, after doing the leg press I confided that when I push the unbearable weight away I am pretending to push the glaring numbers 2-9, 2-9, cause this is how old I will be in seven days. Upon which he proceeds to say:

"29. A wise age. A powerful age."

Ah yes, the 29-year old Boddhisatva I am, an enlightened, compassionate being. Shane couldn't stop laughing from this one.

Penguins, Sushi, Lamp Shades and Ice Cream

This was perhaps the best dinner outing we have ever had.

First we went to see "March of the Penguins," which was excellent Penguins Marching! . The film follows penguins as they make a 70-mile trek to find a partner, and then the ensuing 9-months as the male and female partners take turn caring for their vulnerable eggs and then their vulnerable penguin offspring. Amazing cinematography and a good story.

Next stop - furniture shopping. We may finally be agreeing on a couch, which is like a major  treatise between nations.

Then we went to Sekisui for sushi. After we finished our meal we spent a lot of time trying to figure out where to go for drinks and dessert. We decided that there really wasn't a good place for just that -- unless we wanted to go to a place like Ocean and take up a table that really should be for diners having an entire meal. Then we came up with the idea of a place that serves just appetizers, drinks and desserts called Bar + -- a great place for cocktails with more than bar food. But since Bar + doesn't exist, we decided to go to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream.

Fortuitously, we came upon ParkLane, a fantastic yet overpriced home decor store, which had marked down everything in the store to 60% off! So we're stocking up on candles and accessories and such when we came upon the most amazing light fixture.  I have been looking for new light fixtures for our house -- esp. to replace an ugly chandeleir affectionately dubbed "Crystal Carrington," but have had no luck. But we found just what I'd been looking for -- with no luck -- till tonight.

It is a modern, beige cylindrical cloth shade, simple, hanging from a simple cord. And 60% off! Needless to say, we got a huge deal, and I am still on a bargain high.

Bringing Hair and People Together

Tonight on BlowOut, Jonathan made a profound statement (paraphrased)

"Hair is like people. It doesn't like to be alone. It needs to be with other hair."

The man is a brilliant poet-philosopher-stylist. To add to his genius, he also stumbled upon the revelation that washing his hair with bottled water made it softer, so he should create a line of Jonathan Shower Filters. I about died, seeing as the water in McCalla, AL is the bane of my existence.

In other news of hair and people and coming together, we celebrated Shane's brother's wedding this weekend in the greater Cocoa Beach/Melbourne Area. They got married in a cute little chapel and it was fun times all around. I've posted some photos under "albums."

Other highlights of the trip: surviving the Atlantic waves and going to Denny's, where we ate Grand Slam breakfasts. That is quite possibly the best meal, and certainly breakfast, known to man. Sadly, the closest Denny's is 94 miles away in Cullman. You can find out your closest Denny's on a convenient locator on their website.

Two pancakes, two eggs, two bacon strips, two sausages = almost paradise

Dennis

Hurricane Dennis is hurdling toward us, but things are pretty calm in Birmingham. We just got the good news the Shane's parents' home was spared any major damage, which is amazing since they were in its direct path.

In the meantime, I'm getting Artwalk work done and doing research for our upcoming trip to San Fran/Napa.

This week we booked a very cool room at a B&B called The Old World Inn. One of the rooms was redone by "Trading Spaces," and apparently the B&B has been mentioned on Oprah so it has to be good, right?

We are staying at "A Night In Paris." Shane didn't like the name because he is scared of all things French, but he did like the blue walls, as did I. And the plasma screen TV ..

Old World Inn's Site

4th of July

This was the first July 4th that we celebrated at our house. We usually go to Florida to visit Shane's parents. In fact, two years ago yesterday Shane proposed on the beach there because he thought he could get away with telling me the fireworks were just for us.

Anyhow, he did a fantastic time grilling today. My parents and Megan came over, along with the DeButts family, including the lovely Olivia Jayne. She is just about to walk and we all had a great time watching her do her patented crawl/shuffle all over the house.

She is talking up a storm (did we hear "Dada?") and loved the dogs. F. Scott and Lola didn't quite know what to think, but they were very well behaved.

We are stuffed with burgers and Soutwest dip and cake. Ah, America.

For more photos, check out the July 4th album (under "albums.")

(I made a mix with songs that had either an American reference or a state name. Here's the list ...)

I Just Want to Celebrate (Mocean Worker Remix), Rare Earth Motown Remixed

New York, New York Ryan Adams

Good Ol' U.S.A.,Billy Joe Shaver 

American Woman, Jimi H.

Kentucky Rain,  Elvis 

Born In The U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen

New York City, They Might Be Giants

Your Own Private Idaho, The B52s

California, Joni Mitchell

America Is Not the World, Morrissey

American Pie (Parts 1 And 2), Don McLean

American Crawl,  Davíd Garza

America, Simon and Garfunkel

Englishman in New York, Sting

Kentucky Woman, Neil Diamond

Toledo, Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach

Stars Fell on Alabama, Ellla Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

American Triology, Elvis

Monks Eat Cake Too

Happy Birthday, Dalai Lama!

Send His Holiness a birthday message.  Though I think he already has some good karma coming his way ...

Happy 70th Birthday Dalai Lama!

A 47 Pound Rooster with Sushi To Boot

Review Tonight we ate at Sekisui, a new Japanese restaurant in Vestavia . The food was excellent, perhaps the best Japanese we have had here.  The sushi was incredibly fresh, and our favorite was the "Mimi" roll, which included crab, avocado and a little apple. The ginger salad was also nice, as were the tempura vegatables. We will definitely be returning.

I was very excited to sample my new favorite pinot noir at the restaurant. It's called "HRM Rex Goliath!" named in honor of a real-life 47 pound roosterRex Goliath Pinot Noir.

The label says HRM (his royal majesty) was "the treasured attraction of a Texas Circus" at the turn of the 20th century. I didn't know about this special freakish rooster when I ordered a glass, but it makes me love it even more.

After we went to a new wine place in Hoover because I had to have a bottle of this rooster juice. The place had a decent selection, but there was a rather loud and seemingly cheesy group of randoms getting smashed in the tasting room. Plus there was a cigar area -- yuck. Thankfully they did have Rex Goliath, which I think we'll have on the 4th.