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The pictures in this post are taken by Haley… she took different ones than I did… shows more detail of the night, since I really just focused on the two main guys.

Most of the stage... zoomed out

AC's guitarist and bassist

In a straight jacket

The guillotine

AC's final death of the night...

And more Zombie!!  Well first, his guitarist…Haley got a lot more pictures of him than I did.  Everytime I tried, he moved away too quickly.  LOL  Anyway… he used to be Marilyn’s guitarist.   Oh and he’s from Michigan!  =o)  One year younger than I am.

John 5

John 5

Mars needs women!! Angry red women!

I'm your boogeyman...

John again

House of 1,000 Corpses

One of the feather shooters!

John 5 in his Werewolf Women of the SS get-up

That’s it for this set…. I have enough for one more post… another day.  =o)

This show was one of the best nights I’ve ever had… the music couldn’t have been better for me and I was with Elizabeth and two great friends.   It was The Gruesome Twosome tour, one of the last shows of their tour.

The show was in Charlotte at The Fillmore – NC Music Factory. It was the first time any of us had been there and we were very pleasantly surprised. It was an outdoor ampitheater; I had bought pit tickets which turned out to be the BEST THING EVER.

Haley, Elizabeth, Noelle and myself.

Waiting in line to get in

Theater of Death screen

This would be a good time to mention HOW FANTASTICLY CLOSE to the stage we were.  We got to stand right at the railing that separated the pit from the stage.  No people in between me and the show!   I used my little Nikon Cool Pix camera for all of the shots.

For the rest of the photos, I’m going to leave them pretty large so you can see all the details.

Alice at the beginning of the set

He made a few jokes about his age…. the first one was this:  A crutch made from skeleton bones.   Later on, he used his normal walking stick thing as a cane, and he walked hunch-backed across the stage.

Using a crutch made from skeleton bones

A look we were all familiar with

Still rocking after, what? 40 years?

Alice Cooper’s set was longer than any of us expected… I knew he had an extensive collection to play from, just didn’t think it would be so much of it!  It was fun… a nice show, fun time.  He was kind of hard to hear because I thought the music over-powered his voice a little too much.  But you know all of the words anyway, so it was ok.

He still put on a great stage show… very entertaining with lots of action and other people doing stuff along with him.   They rolled out a massive guillotine at one point and beheaded Alice.  hehe  He was hung at one point, near the end.

My main reason for being there, tho was ZOMMMMBIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.   The anticipation was killer… and when they finally raised the curtain and the music exploded out, I think I lost my mind. 

This was our first view:

Show time!!!!!!

We got moved back a little from the railing, and when we returned, Haley helped pull me up to the front again… thru some jerk guys who weren’t going to move out of the way.  And thank god for it…. my pictures are incredible.  He  was in constant motion, so these are a little fuzzier than the Alice shots (Alice didn’t move around nearly as much.  LOL!)

Hair!

The green lighting is great for photos

I love that he wore a Frankenstein t-shirt!  It’s so fitting and cool. 

Call me your American nightmare!!

Zombie's best Captain Morgan pose

The music was sooooo, SO good.  It was loud and it was everything I’d hoped for.  I knew every single song he played and yelled along the whole time.    The vest he came out wearing was one of his wife’s designs from Total Skull.  That was really awesome, too!!

More hair!

Can the pictures get much cooler?  LOL!  I don’t think so!  It was hard to get clear ones because of all the people jumping everywhere, knocking into me.

LOVED the skeleton mic stand!!!

The hellbilly hat went on at the end of the night

Ok, so midway thru the show, Rob leaves the stage, coming down right where we were standing since we were front and center.  He circled around to our left, went back into the middle of the pit and people went INSANE.   And so did WE.  For a few minutes, we couldn’t see him at all because he’s so short.  Then all of a sudden he appeared out of the crowd right next to Haley and Elizabeth!  Haley took this photo and Elizabeth wrapped both arms around the guy and hugged him!!  LMAO  Go girls!  I stood there gawking at it all.  =o)

OMG

So he crawls over the railing in front of me, gets back on stage and says, “I see thru my trip down among you, that most of you are a little age challenged, as am I.  [He's 45 now]  So this next one’s FOR YOUUUUUUU!!” and the beginning riffs of White Zombie’s “Thunder Kiss ‘65″ started!!  The insanity after that was off the charts.

During a down time in the performance, when it was just music… a couple of guys were pulling out a bunch of big rubbermaid bins and things that looked like crazy long leaf blowers.  Turns out….. we were about to get feathered!!  And since we’d been out there going crazy for a couple of hours, those feathers STUCK to us.  Tarred and feathered is exactly how it felt.  LOL!!

Feathers!

 The result?

Sweaty and feathery

During the last interim, they showed Zombie’s movie short, “Werewolf Women of the SS”.   When it was over, he and the band all came out in these outfits:

Oh, and speaking of the band… the guitarist seemed familiar to me, but I didn’t dwell on it too much.  Haley, tho, was bugged by it so she looked him up, and discovered that it was Marilyn Manson’s guitarist, John 5.   No wonder he looked familiar.

Elizabeth thinks this was her favorite show we’ve been to yet, and she’s been to some excellent shows!  I loved it… I can’t say how fantastic it was.  I’d go again in a second.

So Ernest’s last day happened recently. We joked about taking pictures of the occasion, and by the time the day rolled around, I was ready! Not that it was a festive, PARTY atmosphere or anything…………

Ceremonial Handing over of the keys

Ernest hangs his head in sorrow (hehe)

Punches out and leaves......

Lori looks on, no doubt thinking Jer and I are nuts

Less than 30 seconds after Ernest punches out, Jer's already removing him permanently from the system

Buh Bye Ernest!

The next day, I was showing Haley the pics on my camera and then I hear, “Liiiiiiiiiisaaaa”

Huh............ what?

Ugh!! Then one more with some advance notice… it didn’t help or change much.

Doing Cat Counts - wheeee!

And last…. a couple of Sugar because she’s so cute. I can’t remember what the little cardboard tray was from, but as soon as it fell on the floor, she sat right on it and owned it.

She's a Sugar B

Don't mess with her card board!

Thank you so much, Hon, for the flowers that you had sent!! They are beautiful and made the whole first floor smell really good. =o)

Front of the bouquet

And the back

Thank you for the message attached to them, as well. <3 I love you too!

It’s been a while since I last posted… I have been mostly bed-bound, staying off my legs that I just haven’t done ANYthing but lay here and read or sleep. I finally got a doctor appointment for this afternoon, in 2 hours. THANKGOD!

Anyway, I finally got my camera and the nook and the laptop all up here in the bed with me, so I have pictures to post.

nook as it comes out of the card board box

 Whoever dreamed up the packaging for nooks did a VERY fine job of it.  It was so hard to fully open that there are videos posted to help people free their new eReaders!  Yes, I used a video to help guide me thru, so I didn’t break anything by accident.

Got the first round of packaging off, still in hard clear plastic case

So you have to charge the device to full battery charge before using it… which I did.  They said it could take 3 hours, but mine only took less than 2.  As soon as the yellow light went off, I got down to business.   =o)

Now-a-days (i.e. 4 days later, hehe) my nook is fully dressed, protected and accessorized.  Oh, and NAMED.   You name your nook, and then that name appears at the top left of the screen.  On the nook forums, I’ve seen long discussion threads about this.  Some people are pure utilitarians and they either put their nook’s serial number OR their own  phone number in case it gets lost and some good samaritan finds it and wishes to return it.

Anyone who knows me, knows I do NOT fall into that category.  I believe that if I were to leave my nook somewhere by accident, the finder would NEVER call me and say, “Hey!  You must be so upset that you’ve lost your nook… I have it tho, safe and sound.  Meet me “here”, and I’ll return it to you.”  Yeah RIGHT. 

And I also wanted to give my eReader a nice, creative name.  Coz that’s just me.   So after I decided which skin I was going to put on it, the decision for a name came fast and easy.  Well, mostly.  Here’s how my thought process went:

I got the Sacred Honu skin from the Decal Girl website.  It’s a gorgeous Hawaiian themed skin, and I therefore wanted a proper Hawaiian name.   After living on the island for 3 years, and subsequently missing it like crazy… it was an easy choice all around.

So, the obvious names aren’t really working for me… like:

“book” in Hawaiian is “puke”.  That’s pronounced Poo-Kay…. but if you dont know that, it’s not a very attractive name.  LOL!
“library” is “Hale waihona puke” or house/closet of books.  Not too cute.
“knowledge” is “ike” …. Mmmmm no.

So I love the whole legend of the volcano goddess… but her name was Pele.  And most people are going to think I’m a South American soccer fan if I used that.  LOL!

Akamai wahine means smart girl… which I like.  hehehe
Kipona aloha means deep love.

Makala pua kai means beautiful ocean… which goes with the skin.  I really like that one… and chose it as the winner.

And if I were to lose it, somehow, and if the person who did find it REALLY wanted to return it to it’s rightful owner, my email address is in the settings screen.  Which is not hard to navigate to.  They COULD do the right thing; even with my creative nook name.

Dillaine cover with the reading light attached

Here you can see the nook w/ the front skin on it, installed inside the cover

And the nook pulled out so you can see the back of the skin - the Sacred Honu

So far, so amazingly good with it.  I really think for anyone who loves to read, it’s an excellent thing.  It definitely changes the old world order of things, tho.  No more thrift shop scrounging for .25 cent books, or swapping bags of DTB’s with family when you get together with them.

[YES, a new internet acronym has been born!!!  DTB.  Dead Tree Book.  I swear to god, it's a common one on the nook boards.  HEHEHEHE]

And no more selling books back to used book stores when you are finished with them.

The upside here is that there are hundreds and hundreds of free ebooks to be had.  Any book in the public domain is free automatically.  For a book to be in the public domain, it’s copyright has to have expired.  And that happens 50 years after the author’s death.  So all the old classics are, therefore, FREE!   It’s a macabre thing, that I find myself doing now…. Googling an author to see when/if they have passed on yet… and seeing how close to the 50 year mark we are.  Weird!

And there are always offers of free ebooks on the B&N site and several others.  I have something like 32 ebooks and only paid for 2 of them… one for $2.49 and I think I did pay $9.99 for one.

You can check out ebooks from your local library if they participate in the Overdrive program.  That’s really cool!  I filled out an online application to the county library here so I could to that, so I just have to go down their and show my proof of residence and then I can check books out that way, too.

Chris sent me one photo and put the rest on his own blog (theaidbag.com)…. well as many as he could before his connection wouldn’t allow anymore of that action. LOL

Snow in Afghanistan

Amazing how beautiful that is. We got snow here, too, in Fayetteville and it’s sleeting now. It is NOT attractive at all. But Nikolas is outside in it, playing with friends.

He started out in his new Vans, but they soaked thru really fast, so he came home for his Timberlands, but he has to finally admit those things are too small now, so the only other thing was for him to wear his new football cleats! LOL

I’ve fallen a bit behind, but only by a half a week, at this point. Just finished up Week 3 blocks!

Week 3 Blocks

Bottom yellow one is “Michael’s Motorcycle” – 22 pieces
Middle blue one is “Mary Ruth’s Corset” – 28 pieces
Top green one is “Mary’s Journey” – 33 pieces
Triangle is “Tartan” – 33 pieces

Whew, the triangles give me hell, I have to tell you! I have like 4 hours in that one… and it’s wonky! Not horrible, but it’s the best that I could get it after ripping and redoing two times. I got to not caring anymore, just like that last one. LOL

12 blocks done so far.

First… I watched my first BluRay movie tonight! It’s been a long time since I sat and watched a movie at home, to begin with, but I’m so glad I did. I added the BluRay option onto my Netflix and this was the first disc to arrive. Thank you PlayStation 3!

It’s funny… the first one that came. You’d think I would make sure some huge, cinematic feast was the first on the list, but as it happened, I got “Julie & Julia” as my first BD. LOL!! A romantical cooking movie… not exactly full of action and special effects!

Anyway, I really liked the movie and it made me want to look at the cookbook! Even try some of the recipes…. but let’s not get crazy here.

Secondly, I finally spent my Christmas money that my Dad and Grandparents gave me! Thank you Dad! Thank you G&G!

While looking at eReaders for Chris, I inadvertantly decided I wanted one REALLY BADLY. Spent a few days agonizing over the choices… Kindle, Sony reader or Nook. Amazon, Sony or Barnes & Noble. Hmmm.

My reasons for choosing the Barnes & Noble nook are as follows:

- I like how it looks better.

- I like how I can go inside a real store and “do stuff” there… they talk about exclusive content you can get while in a B&N. Don’t know what it is, but it sounds exciting.

- I like how it uses “Overdrive”… the bit where you can go get free eBooks downloaded at your local participating library. I searched for one here in Fayetteville and there is ONE. But that’s cool…

- Just in general I LOVEEEEE how old classics are part of the public domain and are therefore FREE!

- The nook uses the Android OS and I read that makes it easy for people make cool new mods for it. hehe

- Oh, I think the lending feature is neat… tho it’s pretty restrictive… but at least it’s possible.

- I like how the nook can accept SD memory cards to increase storage even more, and SD cards are cheap.

- And I like how it looks. =o)

So last night Nikolas told ME that he wanted to go get his hair cut!! Secretly I was thrilled… outwardly I showed some reserve and concern; “Are you SURE…?” (Please say yes! Please say yes!) He was sure!

After school today, we had to hit the PX up for a couple of school supplies for the new semester, and then it was Barber Shop time.

HANDSOME BOY!

Mr. Man! Looking rather self-satisfied, I think!

When I mentioned I wanted to take pictures for Dad tomorrow, he said, “Where’s the camera?!” Well ok! So pictures tonight, then! The gel stuff the guy put in his hair is gone, it’s still nice I think.

He said he felt like a convict taking these shots. We took one from the rear, too... but ya know.

Hi Dad =o)

Peek-a-booooo! (Said in your best Beavis voice!)

Ohhh Sugar Sugar!

MAG Cover art

Today was movie day!  Elizabeth missed out on dinner with her boyfriend’s family, so because I felt bad, I told them I’d take them to a movie, and today was the day.  Nikolas and I went along and invited my friend Lori and her son, Zach.

Nice theater, eh? With the flowers on each table… It screamed for me to start taking photos! We were waiting for Warren to arrive, so you know she was looking pretty. hehe

We didn’t get to see Avatar as was the original plan, so we ended up seeing the new Jackie Chan movie, “Spy Next Door”. It was a cute, family movie… perfect for the boys.

We have a new member of our family…….

That’s right, Kratos (and the only system one can play God of War on) is a new member of our household. Must be chilly in hell today, right? =o)