All in a Garden Green

Yesterday was spent in the company of friends, some of whom I do not see nearly enough, playing our fingers off on plastic instruments, and having one heck of a time. I likey my new guitar. I even managed to let go of it a few times and let other people play... :) Beatles came out after most people left, we finished the story, and then I sang Beatles songs till I couldn't anymore at 11:30 last night. And it was GOOD. The harmony bit on Beatles RockBand is really, really cool (peaseblossom03, you and your Mr. will definitely have to come over sometime, bring a USB microphone, if you have one. ;) I share the happy.), but again proves I cannot sing harmony on the fly. At least not very well. Unless I do it while I'm singing along anyway. Gah. :)

Today is yet another gift from November, and I finally will wash and wax my car before winter sets in. May also make the appointment to get my headlights repolished (only to have them sandblasted away in winter again...). We will see.

8 years, it's been, I think, since I've been stung by something or other. And never in a terribly painful spot. Back of the knee was worst, I think. So what happens this morning? I grab a branch, release VERY quickly, and pull back flailing with an incredible pain in the palm of my hand. There were some curse words spoken. OW. Sonofa... why there? Why on the day I need to actually USE that hand? No stinger, so it was some sort of wasp, I suppose, but neither coworker Matt or I saw anything. Owowow. Been about an hour, and there's tinglyness happening in my left hand, but the swelling has gone down, and the spot is gone. All will be forgotten by the end of the day, probably. Not allergic, but still, OW.

Demo was awesome. Full report with photos to come later, after I get everything unpacked...

The Beatles should be waiting for me in the mailbox... I hope so, anyway... I'm going to try and be good and toss some stuff in the laundry and get the apartment cleaned up before I play silly games, but who knows, really. :)

And Ivan's. He helped.

Though I almost decided to say "nope, too tired, got to go home," we made it through 'Green Grass and High Tides' last night, on Hard. WOO! The vocals are the easy bit, but they give the musicians a much needed star power boost right at their end.

Ahhh... simulated rock stardom does have it's satisfying moments. :)

Long night of RockBand last night after singing practice... it did well and truly rock. Traded instruments throughout the night. I still cannot play drums. I hate my foot. Getting a little bit better. Not flailing wildly any time a pedal hit comes across the screen like I did when I noodled around on my brother's set. Songs that are different than my CDs make life difficult (I'm looking at you, Sea and Sand... where did those extra words at the end come from???).

bobbyvector has a very, very good point, in that 'Testify' is much better done in the style of a cheerleader. :) Worth several laughs.

In other, very exciting news, I am off to Staples to run off a few prints. Woo... thrilling. I know you all cared. But first, a grilled cheese sandwich.

And almost forgot... the US Fish & Wildlife dept got my 'want my foxfur, dammit' letter on Tuesday. Yay for delivery confirmation. Now... I wait.

RockBand Rocks. :) We got as close as we're going to get to a 'chick band' last night, unless ninian_vesalius starts picking up drums.

Hooray for alexsaintpierre's XBox not exploding, and restarting ok when the partial Red Ring of Deathy Doom appeared at the beginning of the evening. Hooray for alexsaintpierre's awesome drumming of awesomeness, and valkyrie1972's singing, even when she didn't know the words, and for anna_mickel's groovy bass playing. Rawk.

Played some more songs on Expert, and did not fail. Found I still have issues with the movements that I have had issues with all along. I just cannot figure out fast 1 to 1-3 switches... argh. Got my first 100% on a song on hard difficulty (that I probably could have done on expert...), and made it through the entirety of 'Behind Blue Eyes' on hard. I have never made it past the beginning, stupid finger-pick acoustic section. HA! Thwarted! I am teh winnar! My pet_spider was there with me in spirit, if not in person. ;)

( Click here for non-RockBand ramblings, and to find out how my morning has gone so far )

Not too late to singing practice. Got there just in time for dinner, discovered it could now happen, as a soprano had arrived, and the panic commenced. Not really. Even without our Fearless Leader anna_mickel, there was music made in Saco tonight. I did OK. Getting better. I can sing Gaudete, and do it pretty well. This makes me happy.

RockBand is more fun when we have 4 people in the band. We just played tonight, in 'no fail' mode, so no worries about doing things on hard or even expert difficulty (though I mostly stayed on hard...). I have gotten better. I like this. I rawk at teh plastic guitar, go me. :)

House hunting update to follow later today. For now, I am going to bed. The 7 AM alarm will come far too quickly.

Spent a glorious weekend. Two days off in a row! What a rarity...

As this was computer delivery weekend for a friend of mine, my brother came up on Thursday night. There was much co-op Guitar Hero. Joy! Friday morning after some serious slow waking up and a lazy morning, we piled us and our stuff into his awesomely cute li'l turquoise MINI, and headed north. Met E at her apartment, dropped off the computer, and headed to Olive Garden for our usual lunch. Much socialness and silliness happened, and we all ate way too much wonderful, wonderful food.

E had the presence of mind to realize that the Bangor City Forest would be an excellent post-stuff-ourselves-lunch walk. Bangor City Forest? What Bangor City Forest? Why, this one! So beautiful... Spring flowers were blooming everywhere, plants I'd never seen in the wild before, plants that I'd never seen before, period! Painted Trillium, Blue Bead Lilies, Rhodora, and cute, cute, cute little Fringed Polygala. There were literally dozens, possibly hundreds, of Lady Slippers blooming... I'd never seen so many in one place before White and Pink, and one slightly off-pink/yellow one, that I think may have just been a newly-bloomed pink, and not a true (extremely rare) yellow.

Four years I was in Orono, in a horticulture program, even, and nobody thought to mention the 640+ acres of beautiful Maine woods and peat bog, stuffed with all manner of plant (and animal) life. Four years. I could have spent so many happy hours wandering around getting lost in the woods... We spent a good three hours wandering around, not quite getting lost in the woods, but attracting more and more mosquitoes every time I stopped to take a photograph...

Saturday brought blessed, blessed rain... it's been far too long without. Now lawns will be green again, and gardens won't be quite so stressed... Hung out at E's apartment for a while, had lunch at Tim Horton's, headed south again around 3:30, stopped at her parents' house to visit and see her mom's gardens... a lovely time. Her parents have two English Mastiffs, Jack and Stella, who are lovely, very sweet, fortunately very well behaved, but oh my goodness what huge doggies...

The evening saw some marathon Rock Band. We got the band back together, with a special guest lead guitarist. He's now acquired the nickname of Spider (for an explanation of why, please see here). So amusing, and so true...

Flowers are blooming all over the nursery, it's a beautiful time of year. And now, there are chocolate chip eggo waffles and insta-bacon for dinner. Life is good.