New Kids On The Block and a special visit!

When I found out the New Kids on the Block were going to be in Baltimore I called up the sisters to see if they wanted to come out for the show and spend the weekend in Baltimore. Gretchen said yes and decided to bring a mystery guest with her. I suspected the mystery guest was my other sister Heidi, but she wasn't able to get off of work to make it out. So, I was surprised with a visit from my best friend Becky! They arrived on Thursday afternoon and we headed to Cross Street Market for lunch. Becky got her coveted chinese take out and Gretchen and I got cheese steaks. After lunch we took a quick walk to Federal Hill park for a view of the harbor. We headed home and got ready for the concert. We hit up the liquor store for those cute little booze bottles that we could smuggle into the show to avoid the expensive drinks there. All we had to do was buy some coke or sprite and we were set! The opening act, Jabbawockeez, was a dance group and they were okay but not all that entertaining. On to the main act - having never been to a show of NKOTB's in the past, I had no idea what to expect. The sound of that many girls/women screaming was incredibly loud! Holy moley! It was an insane amount of noise...the loudest concert i've been to! The drinks definately helped cope with that aspect of it! The show was good although I still wish I had seen them when I wanted to as a kid. Set list is below, which kicked butt...sang all the songs I wanted to hear and closed with Hangin' Tough, that was pretty darn cool.

NKOTB Set List:
Call It What You Want
My Favorite Girl
The Right Stuff
Didn't I Blow Your Mind
Valentine Girl
Please Don't Go Girl
Grown Man
Dirty Dancing
Games
Single (B STAGE)
If You Go Away (B Stage)
Two in the Morning (B STAGE)
Tonight (B STAGE)
Twisted
Baby I Believe In You
Give It To You
Joe's Medley (I Remember When, Where Do I Go From Here, Thank You)
Cover Girl
I'll Be Loving You Forever
Click, Click, Click (with Pose Off)
Summertime
Step By Step
Hangin Tough

One of the few photos I took from the weekend is of us totally smashed at the Brewer's Art after having a delicious dinner at b a Bolton Hill Bistro. Notice how none of us really have our eyes open except Gretchen, who normally always has her eyes closed so it's always a good clue to look for when she's been drinking!

New Furniture

We finally got some new furniture pieces for the house. Ikea proved to be a good place to start! Since the house doesn't have a linen cabinet, the one we got from Ikea was much needed. It fits all our towels and sheets and has plenty of room left over for even more stuff! I love it's yellow color and the glass doors. We put it in the second floor hallway by the laundry area and I think it looks great!

Our next project was to find bedroom furniture since we don't have any side tables or a bed frame. Due to the size of our mattress, a lot of the Ikea frames didn't work out (at least the one we wanted!). So while at the store we spoted a metal frame that measured out nicely. We also found end tables that were high enough to reach if we were sitting in bed and that included some extra storage. To top it off we got some end table lamps from Walmart to match the metal frame. Now all we need to do is paint and get some new bedding!

BEFORE:

AFTER:Mr_BTM's End Table
My End Table

Modest Mouse at Ram's Head Live

Last night was our first show at Ram's Head Live in downtown Baltimore. Michael & Caitlin got us (and themselves!) tickets for the Modest Mouse show. We met up at Houlihan's for a quick dinner and headed to the show around 8:00 PM. There were two opening bands, each playing a half hour set. The first band wasn't all that great, but was upbeat and had a lot of energy. The second band, Mimicking Birds, played a better show, but their music was a real downer! No energy at all and kinda boring. Modest Mouse then took their sweet ass time getting on stage, having us wait an hour and half between sets for them to come out. A little long, in my opinion! They didn't start playing until 10:30PM, already way past my bedtime! They put on a decent show and the energy was good. There were a few technical difficulties with the mics giving some feedback during a few of the songs, but overall it was pretty good. The venue, however, is strangely designed with three levels. We grabbed a spot at the railing on the second floor and had a good view, but there were definitely drawbacks to the design and places where the sound wasn't all that great. I'm sure we'll head back for more shows just because it's one of the places in town that has shows we like. Below is the set list for Modest Mouse - and no they didn't play Float On!

Set List:
Spitting Venom
Never Ending Math Equation
The View
Doin' the Cockroach
Fire It Up
Wild Packs of Family Dogs
Here It Comes
Dashboard
Guilty Cocker Spaniel
Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
Bukowski
Dramamine
Education
3rd Planet
This Devil's Workday
Paper Thin Walls
Parting of the Sensory

Encore:
The Good Times Are Killing Me
Bury Me With It
Alone Down There
Blame It On The Tetons

Skiing at Snowshoe

At the end of February, Mr_BTM and I left Baltimore on a road trip to West Virginia to meet up with the Mr's parents and brother at Snowshoe for some skiing. We left town on Thursday night and spent the night in Staunton, VA to break up some of the driving. We left first thing Friday morning on a 2-land winding road through rural VA and WV. It was rough going for a while since there had been fresh snow the night before but we made it to the top of the mountain without incident. We were able to ski a full day on Friday and enjoy some of the fresh snow. Too bad it was so cold and windy! Friday night we had dinner at the condo and watched a movie before retiring early. Saturday was a nice sunny day, but really busy on the slopes. We skied with Dad in the morning on some of the tougher trails and met up with Mom and Chris in the afternoon for some easier skiing. The lift lines were pretty long so Mr_BTM and I called it an early day. That evening we went out for dinner at one of the restaurants in the village at the top of the mountain. It wasn't the greatest meal, but it was good to get out and have dinner with the family. Sunday we woke up to fresh snow! We headed out with Dad again early and got in a lot of good runs on the fresh snow. The lift lines were non-existent and we were able to do as many runs in the morning before lunch than we did all day on Saturday! After a great morning of skiing, we headed in for a late lunch and to pack our gear away for the drive home. We got out to the car to discover we had a flat tire! Ok, no problem we'll just change it with the spare, except the spare was held hostage by our bike rack we didn't bring the key for! Doh! **Note to self - get the key for the bike rack and put on car key ring.** Good thing the mountain had a tow truck and an on site shop. We were able to temporarily inflate the tire and drive it to the shop. Once there, they found a screw that had punctured the tire and fix the hole. All for a mere $5! Mr_BTM tipped him heavily for his assistance and we were able to get on our way back home after an hour delay. The drive home was pretty stressful since we were driving through that same snow storm that gave us fresh snow on the mountain. I can't handle that kind of night driving when they haven't plowed the interstates! It took us a bit longer to get home but we got there safely. And, the tire is still going strong!