I read an article that said Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' was released 40 years ago today. When I was 15 or 16, my dad gave me a collection of Led Zeppelin's greatest hits. Well, I'm not sure if he gave it to me, or I 'forgot' to give it back. I had a bad habit of stealing his CDs. It quickly became one of those that stayed in my car's CD player - on repeat.
Dad always made sure me and my sisters appreciated good, solid rock music. I'm going to enforce the same principles in my future, hypothetical, non-existent children. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and The Beatles will be household names. Brian will make sure they know who Hank, Johnny, and Merle are. We're going to raise those babies right. :)
After I read the article, I started wondering if I could track down the CD and look what I found in my trunk. This is the same CD holder I had in my first car 10 years ago. When did I get old?
It really made me smile to find it.
In honor of this anniversary, I thought I'd post this video. As a bonus, I posted a sound clip of one of my all time favorite songs 'Going to California'.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself it's not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.
Tonight is girls' night (whoo!), and we are going to see Katy Perry in Nashville! I love me some Katy Perry. She is totally one of my girl crushes. I can't decide if I love her or her husband, Russell Brand, more though..hmm. Anyways, I hear she has a really fun, entertaining show. Can't wait!
In honor of it being Friday, and to get me in the Katy Perry spirit, I thought I'd post her hilarious 'Last Friday Night (TGIF)' video. Have a great weekend!
On the last post, I talked about the rocky start to our vacation, but now I want to share the fun parts. Our days consisted of sleeping late (no alarms), having breakfast on the balcony, soaking up the sun, and drinking fruity beach drinks. Our goal was to relax and be as lazy as we could stand. As you can tell from these pictures, we definitely accomplished that goal!
This is the only picture we took together. (We are bad about that!) That's our condo in the background.
We planted ourselves on the beach for most of the trip.
Like I said, we didn't really move.
Oh look, a rare action shot... to cool down so he could lay in the sun some more. :)
At night we did venture out to listen to some live music and to eat a ridiculous amount of delicious, fresh seafood. Well, I enjoyed the seafood. Brian is allergic to shellfish. I know - it makes me very sad for him. Don't worry, he enjoyed a ridiculous amount of every other type of food.
LuLu's had a great Jimmy Buffett cover band and their fried green tomatoes were amazing!
Watching the band and the intoxicated moms and dads breaking it down at The Hangout.
I don't know why, but Brian and I seem to attract natural disasters. A wildfire broke out at Gulf State Park the day before we came home. Thankfully, from what I have read, most of the fire has been contained.
This is a view from the back balcony.
This vacation was exactly what we were needing. A chance to completely disconnect from the world and relax. In closing, I will leave you with the theme song of our Summer Vacation 2011, Zac Brown Band's 'Knee Deep'. I think I'll hit play, close my eyes, and pretend we are still there.
This weekend I found a new drink that I had to share! I can't believe I love it as much as I do. It contains my alcohol enemy... whiskey. Seriously, I can't do it..at all. However, this recipe just might have changed my attitude.
Bartender
In an attempt to save a few calories, I used unsweet tea with two Splenda packets per individual drink. I also used Coke Zero instead of the real deal. A shot of Jack Daniel's (1oz) has about 65 calories, so I figure our drinks were about 100 calories a piece. (This is way better than those tiny 100 calorie packs - just sayin!)
My sister Ellen - my favorite little whiskey girl
Below is a performance clip of Lynyrd Skynyrd's, 'Whiskey Rock-a-Roller'. This song will have you craving some Memphis Iced Tea in no time! There are a lot of good whiskey songs out there, but this one is my all time favorite.
This footage is from 1976 - the year my parents graduated high school. I like to pretend that's Donna and Rob jammin' at the 33 second mark. Ha!
A couple of weeks ago, I got in a very serious discussion about the amazing-ness that is the singer Adele. At one point, I angrily lashed out at Brian because he tried to say he wasn't a fan. Ok, so I may have lept in his direction like I was about to defend Adele's honor. Ellen made sure to bring me back to earth (and gave me this post's title).
No, Seriously, RESPECT!
I do love her oh so much. Her latest album, 21, is pretty much the only thing I have been listening to for the past month. It's called 21 because, well, she was 21 when she wrote it. Twenty-freakin-one years old.
My favorite song has to be 'Set Fire to the Rain'. How she sounds live is EXACTLY how she sounds on her album. Girlfriend can SANG.
This is clip of her and Darius Rucker covering Lady Antebellum's "I Need You Now." Crazy Talented.
Now you can see why my seemingly irrational outburst is TOTALLY justified, right? I thought so.
Recently, Brian and I took the plunge and bought our first house.
Home Sweet Home!
We have been married for a little less than 2 years, and during that time we have lived in 3 houses. In the past 7 years, both Brian and I have moved 8 times. Needless to say, we were finally ready to call something our own.
It was an exciting and stressful process. From the second I saw the house online, I knew it was our house. Brian loved it but wasn't completely convinced. After we looked at it, we both knew it was the ONE. We decided to put in an offer and things got a little crazy. The seller was in a unique financial situation and initially refused to budge on the price. After we made our original offer and it was rejected, we put in a verbal "hail mary" offer, the absolute best we could do, and she rejected that too. Yes, I cried like a baby and was extremely immature and dramatic about it..what else would you expect?
About a week later, Brian got a call from our realtor and the seller was ready to negotiate! We came to terms that made everyone happy and just like that - we bought ourselves a house. It is very much a move-in ready home, but I have all kinds of ideas swirling around in my head. I watch way too much HGTV and DIY network not to take on a few fun projects.
Hank couldn't wait to see his new house.
Now listen to "Home" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. I have deemed this jam to be our house's theme song. (What? A house can have a theme song!)
Favorite verse - "Laugh until we think we'll die, barefoot on a summer night, Never could be sweeter than with you, And in the streets we're runnin' free, like it's only you and me, jeez, your somethin' to see."
