Garth

Garth Brooks. One of the greatest country musicians and one of my favorite artists happens to perform regularly in Las Vegas at the Encore. Fortunately, we're lucky enough to have some connections that got us tickets. This wasn't Garth as you've seen or heard about him - there's no flying over the audiences, no fireworks, and no 10 man band rockin out like Skynyrd. This was hanging out with Garth at the local honkeytonk while he talks about as much as he plays. No fancy clothes or cowboy hats - just jeans, work boots, a hoodie, and backwards ball cap, and his guitar. Storytellers meets Unplugged meets open mic.

First, let me tell you about how Garth came out of retirement to perform in Vegas. He does a few shows a month on the weekends. Steve Wynn, who owns and operates the Encore and Wynn Las Vegas, brought Garth in to fill the theatre where Las Vegas mainstay Danny Gans was set to perform over the next 10 years before passing away about a year ago. To get Garth, Steve Wynn promised him that he could set the ticket prices (all tickets no matter whether they are front row or back of the mezzanine are the same price and first come first serve), he could set the dates, and he could have full use of one of Steve Wynn's private jets to fly him back and forth between his home in Oklahoma so he could take his kids to school and watch their soccer games. So Garth flys in each night, does his show(s) and flies back home. Pretty nice gig compared to being on the road on tour for months at a time.

So we weren't sure what to expect about the show but once it began it made perfect sense. The best way to describe it would be a musical autobiography. Garth talked about how his music was formed by what surrounded him - his Dad (A Haggard/Jones man), his 5 older brothers (children of the 70's), and his mom (Pearl Bailey). He played a lot of licks from different artists and helped show how they inspired his songs and lyrics and the songs he chose. He also brought his wife, Trisha Yearwood, out who came with him on the trip and they sang a few songs. It was cool because they interacted with the audience, taking requests and asking people why they requested the songs they did. The best was when he spoke to a woman who was on her Bachelorette weekend that requested him to sing the song "River" and she started crying because she was so excited and Garth got pretty choked up to. My favorite part was when he transitioned from Bob Seger's "Night Moves" to "The Thunder Rolls" - pretty awesome and chilling. I also enjoyed his rendition of Ricky Skaggs "If you're gonna cheat on me don't cheat in our hometown" and his shameless (no pun intended), self-depreciating nature and sense of humor, such as admitting that he didn't actually play his guitar during certain songs (i.e., Calling Baton Rouge) when on tour and he just played air guitar. All in all, it was an awesome show that reminded me how much I love live music and the influence music has had on my life

Who's excited for Iron Man

Booyah

Weekend in Vegas

Last weekend I had a few friends from Emory & Henry in town for a guys weekend in Vegas. Nothing too crazy - but we did discover the dangerous temptations of sports wagering. Puts a little extra umph in the game. A few of the guys won big but I was stupid enough to think that UNC wouldn't lose to Duke by more than 15...I believe the final score was something like 82-50. Fortunately I only lost $10 but losing money is never fun.

We also found a pretty nice restaurant that was affordable - Trevi at Ceasars Palace. If you're ever looking for a place to go, the Pizza was delicious and affordable and I highly recommend the Poutine fries. If you've never had Poutine, it's an Italian cornbread (cornbread with Italian spices). The ones we had were fried and came with marinara sauce and were absolutely delicious. Kind of like mozzerella sticks without the cheese.

One of the things all the guys asked me was whether we ever get tired of all The Hangover references people make when they are in town, living in Vegas and all. Honestly, I don't because I thoroughly enjoy the movie. The movie really helped increase visitation and interest in Las Vegas, which we really needed. Things look to be getting better in town, especially for The Venetian.

Vegas Weekend

This weekend some guys from EHC are in town for a traditional vegas weekend/escape from crazy east coast weather. One of the few times in the year where I actually gamble. Let's hope lady luck is kind!

Update

What a great couple of weeks. Weather has been beautiful lately. A few weeks ago we went to a chili cookoff at Lake Las Vegas and then went to Boulder City to Boulder Dam Brewery. Sat outside in the beer garden and had a drink and some delicious spinach & artichoke dip. Boulder city is a great little town about 15 minutes south of Vegas/Henderson. I went a few years ago for the first time with Ronald and Zach when they came out to visit, and ever since we try to get out there a few times a year because it reminds us of a small town back home. And one of the greatest events we've been to out here is hosted there - the Boulder City BBQ festival over Memorial Day. One of our favorite little trips to get away from Vegas. I highly recommend it if you're ever in town (and it's close to Hoover Dam if you head out that way).

Last weekend we had a few friends over for dinner and games. We made Lasagne, had some wine and beer, and kicked some butt in pictionary - all in all we had a great time. We had a great time setting up and hosting everyone so we're already thinking about when to do it again.

We also learned that we really like Karaoke. We went for a going away party for a coworker of mine last Thursday. It wasn't like any karaoke we had ever done - there was a private room that your group used and got to choose your own songs and share a couple microphones. Only a few people sang at first but after a few drinks we really got into it. Our highlight was "Friends in Low Places" - G even sang the rarely heard fourth verse.

Speaking of Friends in Low Places, we lucked into some tickets for Garth Brooks at the Wynn. Pretty stoked about it as I've always wanted to see him. It's a pretty interesting gig - basically Danny Gans passed away last year and Steve Wynn needed someone big to fill his theatre and make him some $$$. Somehow he brought Garth out of retirement to do solo shows (with occasional guests like his wife). We're stoked about it and ready for an awesome show. It's not until April so we have a while to get excited. Maybe we'll go out for a nice dinner at Venetian or Wynn before hand and make it a date.

As for this weekend, G has a conference downtown at the Golden Nugget that she'll be at most of the day Saturday and Sunday. I've been cleaning house (finally finished putting up some Christmas stuff) and hanging out with Bauer. Tomorrow I'm going to a friend's to watch the USA-Canada gold medal hockey game. I thought I would have a tough time pulling for USA because they have so many players that are on teams I hate, but when I turned out the Canada-US game last Sunday I had a burst of patriotic fever and got really into it. I watched the games this week and got pretty excited about it so I'm pumped for tomorrow - a few guys from last weekend are coming as well so it should be a great time.

Anyways, more to come later! Take care!

Highlights of the week:

Finally got to use the iron skillet to make a delicious pizza frittata. A little well done, but still delicious.



BEER!

Tasted the first batch of my beer. It actually turned out pretty well. I took a few over to the super bowl party we went to and everyone seemed to enjoy it.


Also went to Whole Foods on Saturday while G was at her training and picked up two new beers. One is the new Ranger IPA from New Belgium brewery (maker of Fat Tire). Pretty delicious I must say. I really enjoy New Belgium's brews and this one doesn't dissapoint. It's a bitter beer and this is right up my alley.



The other is the Mirror Pond Pale Ale from Deschute's brewery in Oregon. My friend Mike at worked talked this up to me. I think my batch was a little flat (or maybe it's because I had one of the IPA's before hand) but it left a little to be desired. It wasn't as flavorful as I was hoping it would be, but I'll give it a second chance to stand on it's own later this week.

Baking!
G made a Pineapple Gooey Butter Cake this weekend. Mom made one when we went to Disney World over Christmas and we couldn't walk past it without taking a bite. G's was delicious as well and we shared some with as many people as possible this weekend so we didn't get stuck with a bunch of leftovers.

Bauer!
The dog was pretty rotten today. He was being a pest during dinner so we put him in his crate. He has a little blanket in there that he likes to push around and somehow he had it on top of him like a real blanket. We tried to get a picture but he got too excited when we got up and pushed it off. We played one of our favorite games, monkey in the middle, with him. Eventually he wound up with the toy. I thought he looked like the jailhouse dog with the keys on Pirates of the Carribean. And I would know, because our boat broke down for 30 minutes in front of that scene.


I'm continuing to run and got up to 6 miles on my long run this weekend. G's pushing through on her dissertation and is waking up at ungodly hours to push it through. We enjoyed a great weekend full of games, pizza at Grimaldi's, football, and the Caps pulling off a great comeback against the evil Penguins (Not to mention a Wake overtime win). We're looking forward to our "chinese new year" party, a chili cookoff, and valentines day this upcoming weekend. Till then - take care!