LeRoi Moore forgotten by Grammys

During the Grammys last night I noticed that they left LeRoi Moore of the "RIP" Montage that they do every year. I even said something to Lizzy. Here is an article on the subject I found on teh webstie antsmarching.org. I wanted to bring more attention to the subject...so here is the article.

LeRoi Moore (1961-2008), 12 time nominated and 1 time Grammy winner, was shockingly forgotten by the Grammy’s. Lifetime musician, influential jazz saxophonist and one of the founding members of the Dave Matthews Band was left out of the Grammy’s annual Memorial Tribute. The Tribute is a video montage put together by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honoring those in the music business that have passed in the last year. A number of known (and not-so-known) artists (and a photographer) were honored in the video but LeRoi was missed (or skipped, we aren’t sure.) While we are disappointed and saddened that the Grammys and CBS did not give LeRoi the tribute he deserves, they do not properly represent the music industry’s and the many billions of music lovers feelings. Although the so called National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences did not honor him, we at AntsMarching.org will continue to pay tribute to his contributions. If you haven’t already checked it out, or you want to revisit, here is an amazing medley of some of LeRoi's top moments with Dave Matthews Band (featured in Podcast #15) and a tribute article titled Remembering LeRoi (both put together by AntsMarching.org's own Jake).

Doggie Pedicure

For the first time today I used a dremel tool to trim my dogs nails. I've been leading up to this for several weeks now. We bought the dremel about a month ago, and almost every day I've been getting it out and doing various things to get them used to the sound and feel. The first week I just brought it out and said things like "What's this?" in a high pitched voice and when they came over to check it out I'd give them a treat. The next week I started turning it on low- so they could get used to the sound. Every time they would come over to sniff at it, I'd give them a treat and tons of praise. The 3rd week I had them sit...and give me a paw and then I'd turn the dremel on and touch a nail with it for a very short amt of time...once they let me do that they got a treat. Tonight...for the first time I acutally used it on more than one nail for each dog. Sumo got both front feet done and Sophie got one foot done and part of the second. Lot's of treats were involved in this!!!

I don't want to push past their patience, because I could ruin all of the work I've done so far. The worst thing that could happen is for me to hurt them or freak them out and then they'll never let it happen again. I'm really happy that my patience has paid off and we've gotten this far with it. I want my puppies to have beautiful feet!

It's never going to happen....

Every time I think we are ready to buy a home I get woken up to reality and realize we're not. This happened again last night. I'm 31 years old...Jeff is 46...we SHOULD own a home. We make enough money to own a home...what is the major malfunction?? I just feel like we suck at life right now. I get ideas about buying into my head and run with it...then when I realize how much money we need...I get deflated. Credit is not an issue...debt is not an issue...employment is not an issue...it's having enough money to put down on the damn thing!

I'm having a pity party today....so feel free to join me if you have some pity of your own.

25 Random Things About Me...the expanded version

I'm taking the lead from my little sister who did this on her blog...here is the "expanded" version of the Facebook version.

1. I love to paint. I have been drawing as long as I can remember...and started to paint in high school. It's soothing to me.

2. I'm somewhat fashion conscious. I love clothes- and am really frugal so I like to find "deals" anywhere from the thrift store to the mall.

3. I have had many adventures in my life that if I told you, you might not believe me. From skipping school and running around the strip & getting of the rooftops of hotel/casinos in Las Vegas (in grade school)....to riding in the tourbus with Fishbone from KC to Omaha...and going to a party with 311 in Omaha...just to name a few.

4. I love sunbaithing but gave it up when I turned 30. I'm scared of skin cancer..and want to prevent wrinkles!!

5. I am extremely sensitive...if someone says something that hurts my feelings, I'll dwell on it all day. I can't help it.

6. I love decorating my home...in fact, I used to want to go into interior design. Once again, my frugal ways come into play- so it's a work in progress!

7. I have a very particular style. I'm picky about how I dress and the way I want things to look around me (that I have control over).

8. I love my kids in a very deep, connected way. I love being a mother....I really enjoy being around my kids...I've never been one of those "stressed out" mothers who just wants to get away from her kids. They are everything.

9. I am a natural leader and make most major decisions in my life on my own. I've been that way since I was about 15-16.

10. I have met Trent Reznor. I was 17..at a concert in Topeka. That was also the night that 3 parts of my cornea flaked off...VERY painful...the next morning I went to the Dr. and ended up wearing an eye patch for 3 days. So when I met Trent Reznor I had a big fat swollen eye!

11. I don't eat dairy. I quit 2 years ago after a Dr. advised me to....now, I don't even crave it. I do have to take Calcium suppliments.

12. Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite movies. I love it when it comes on tv on the weekends.

13. I took my sister to see LL Cool J in concert about 10 years ago....it was awesome. We saw him at the Beaumont Club in Westport. We had a GREAT view...it really was a childhood dream come true.

14. I've been to Alaska. I went with a dim wit ex boyfriend....but he's not even part of my memory of the trip. It is so beautiful....

15. I love to cook. I always have. One day I want to take a cooking course or two.

16. Quitting smoking 1 year ago after smoking for 16 years the best thing I've ever done for myself. It was really hard....and it's still hard, but I don't want to take anymore years off of my life by doing something I can control.

17. I like serious movies the best. I like to "think" when I watch movies.

18. I'm a neat freak about my office...I clean off my desk every day before I leave work. I've always been that way since the first time I had my own office. I guess I like to come in to work with a clean desk and a clean slate each day.

19. I miss having long hair and am growing it back. I just don't feel like myself with shorter hair.

20. I've learned to like onions....but not raw. I cook with them every week!

21. I love shoes and have about 30 pairs of high heels. Total I probably have about 50 pairs of shoes including boots, flip flops and misc. Here's the deal though...I did not pay more than $20 for most of them!

22. I'm extremely frugal. I love to bargin shop- and I can make a little money STRETCH.....you'd never know that most of my wordrobe comes from a thrift store!

23. My kids help me cook almost every night....I want them to know how to cook when they are adults! It's a life skill that I think is very important. I tell my son that chicks dig it when a man can cook!

24. I broke my back when I was 13 and have 2 12" titanium rods in my back. My lifestyle changed considerably to accomodate it but I'm used to it ...it's been 18 years.

25. I like watching football. Especially the Chiefs. I don't have a favorite player....but it's fun to cheer for the home town team.

**BONUS FACTS**

26. I use a Franklin Planner at work...I have for about 8 years. It keeps me organized. Like they say...it takes 21 days to make a habit...and this is one of mine. (I wish more people would use them)

27. I LOVE to see live music...here are a few artists I've seen in concert.. Nine Inch Nails (2), Dave Matthews Band (5), Tool (7), 311 (4), Pearl Jam, LL Cool J, Beasite Boys, John Mayer (4), Ben Folds (2), Ozzy Ozbourne, Fishbone, NKOTB (haha), Natasha Beddingfield, Lady GaGa, Maroon 5, Cyprus Hill, Snoop Dogg, Flaming Lips, Butthole Surfers, The Cure, Goo Goo Dolls, Counting Crows, G Love and Special Sauce.....ok that's all I can think of right now.

28. I'm freaking BLIND...I wear contacts or glasses and could not leave my house if for some reason I didn't have either.

My First Haircut

I cut my sons hair yesterday. Since I spend $15-$20 everytime I get it cut I decided to go buy some clippers and give it a try...why not? I've seen it done ten thousand times....I can do it...lot's of mothers do. The clippers I bought had an instructional DVD too. I'm quite proud of my first haircut...it looks pretty good! 1 small "oops" over an ear but nothing that's too noticable.

Doing well...

I am having a successful "no coke" week so far. It's been tough. I think my husband is trying to sabotage me....no seriously, he "cheated" yesterday- and so he was trying to get me on the cheating bandwagon! He kept bringing it up in front of me...how great it would be to have a coke...he might go get one etc... I held strong (no thanks to him). You'd think we were talking about cigarettes here! If I can quit smoking then I can definately go a week w/o coke.

NO COKE

I am hopelessly addicted to Coke....Coca Cola that is. Trust me if it were the other kind I would't be struggling with my weight! Anyway, there is not many things that feels and tastes better in my mouth. I crave Coke...everyday. I drink 1 Coke a day during the week and sometimes more than one on weekend days. I even keep Coke Zero at my office because it's the 0 calorie kind. That gives me an excuse to have a regular Coke at night....because I didn't have any calories with the one I had earlier in the day. It's sickening.

No Coke this week. In fact, I'm going to try really hard to drink nothing but water and coffee (in the morning).

Help hold me accountable!

NIN

Yep...I know.

The Great TV Find

This morning my husband got a notion to clean our bedroom. Not just pick up dirty socks or clean off his dresser...he decided to move the bed, move everything out of the "womb" (I'll explain that in a minute) vacuum and even use the carpet cleaner on the carpet (which he's never done btw).

*Womb explanation*

Our bedroom is a finished attic made up of two rooms. It's really cool actually. The main room has a hardwood floor, and it has our dressers, a kennel, my dressing table and 2 open closets. The smaller room- which is actually a walk in closet that never got finished is what we call the "womb" ...because it's small and cosy. Instead of the bedroom, it's the bedwomb...ok corny I know. Anyway, it's big enough for our king sized bed, and tv and tv stand...Sophie's homemade dog bed and 2 bed side tables.

Ok, back to the story. In the course of him moving out the furniture...he pulled out the cable cord from the back of the 19" tv. Not just the cord but the whole piece that attaches to the cord came out of the tv. So my husband is beside himself because he has this nasty habit of watching tv every night before he goes to sleep (I hate it). Never in my life until I married him have I had a tv in my bedroom and frankly, I could do without it. But he can't. So he informs me that he's been saving his "allowance" and wants to go replace the tv asap. Our bill account is not being touched for anything but necessities these days because we are saving every extra penny. I'll tell you why in a few weeks :) He knew, that I didn't care enough to authorize using the bill account, so he had to pay for a new tv with his own money. Well being the cheap bastards we are....(and I love him for this btw)...he wants to get a 19" $120 special. Not Plasma, not LCD Flat bla bla bla. If/When we make that transition....it'll go in the living room anyway.

Our first stop was Best Buy. There were only 3 "old style" tv's being sold there and the sales lady informed us that they are going all flat soon and that's all they have left. Really? Are we that behind the times?? We decided to go to Wal-Mart next because I'm always seeing commercials about their electronics dept. Wal-Mart had 4 choices on "old style" tv's and TONS of flats. Nothing really exciting though so we decide to go to Nebraska Furniture Mart. Let me just say what a waste of gas that was. They had ZERO. I was really feeling like a dork by that time...so we left there and I said "honey, why don't we go home and you look on craigslist?" . He did and guess what he found? A 32" SONY for $100. Yep, this tv is freaking huge. We decided to put it in the living room....and take our old living room tv which is 27" and put it in our bedroom.

I'm pretty happy with the outcome of our day, although we could have saved some gas.

I'm so tired

My left hip has been hurting lately. I think it's because I've been working out almost every day for a month....nothing major but stepping, jogging etc... Anyway, yesterday it was constant pain all day...into the night. When I went to bed at about 11 I decided to take an 800mg Lortab..which is a GOOD pain killer. I rested in bed for about 20 min. slowly drifting off into a comfortable sleep...my hip still hurt but the medicine took the edge off.

I woke up at 2am feeling very "high"...(which wasn't that bad!) and loopy...got up and got a drink, was a chatterbox with Jeff for about 1/2 an hour...and even took the dogs out to pee. My hip DID NOT hurt at all!! The downside is....narcotic drugs have a terrible side effect with me..they make me ITCH terribly. I'm talking all over..head to toe junkie itching. So- I spent from 2:30am to about 4am lying in bed obsessively scratching all over my body and getting NO sleep.

I am really really tired today- I'm no good on minimal sleep.