Hello, Ruby Tuesday('s)

E's landed a job at one of the local Ruby Tuesday's restaurants. She goes tomorrow for orientation. Starts work Friday as a hostess. This will be her first work experience.

M worked at Kohl's today - back on the floor as a cashier after a couple weeks unloading trucks. C and I did a fair amount of housework, a little shopping and took a ride on our bikes. Went along one of the trails that cuts through some woods and through a little creek a couple times. Good exercise.

Was thinking about the group at the house for Memorial Day. I hope the weather was OK. Ours was generally pretty good.

C goes to NYC on Wed. for the big book fair of the year for publishers. She'll be there until Sunday.

Matt rocks Centreville with some old guys

Matt had a lot of fun last night drumming for my friend Kevin Maney and a couple of Kevin's buddies when they played at a local coffeehouse. Called the Desperate Husbands Tour, the show featured lots of original songs written by Kevin and/or his friend Mark Holmes, as well as some classic rockers.

The guys asked Matt to play with them this week and he'd only practiced with them once, but it sounded as if they'd been playing together a lot. The old guys were very happy to have a solid backbeat - "he's like a metronome, it's so easy to play with him" - said bass player Mac Bollman. Matt also played bass on a couple songs while Kevin filled in on drums.

That show followed Matt's afternoon performance at Potbelly's, where he'll be appearing again today.

The band split $10 and got free drinks and danish for their appearance last night. I, the drum roadie, had to pay for my own latte. Look below to the next "post" for another photo from the show.

C unfortunately couldn't be there. A touch of the flu that hasn't quite gone away yet this morning.

E is off to an interview at the local Ruby Tuesday's restaurant.

Matt and the geezers, May 28 2005

From left to right: Kevin Maney, Mark Holmes, Mac Bollman and Matt Memmott at Jamie's General Bean, Centreville, Va., on May 28, 2005. (Click on the photo to see it larger.)

Post-prom wrap-up

All in all, things went very well this year. E and Pat, along with one other couple, got back to our house before 2 a.m. Sunday. The limo dropped them off. I was still up. C came downstairs. We made them some food and then the kids started to watch a Spiderman DVD. C, who stayed downstairs, says they were all asleep on the floor of the family room within a short time. C slept in a chair in the next room. I got up around 8 a.m. and they were all still asleep. By around 10 a.m., the kids were stirring. Soon after, they headed to Silver Diner for breakfast.

Compared to last year (M's accident) then, things this year were fairly dull.

M and his buddy Mike had another good day performing at Potbelly's on Sunday. For more than an hour, we understand, it was just M solo. Mike had to go to work at the movie theater next door (big weekend for him, of course, thanks to Star Wars). They'll be appearing there again this coming weekend. No plans for a tour just yet.

Later in the day on Sunday, M and another buddy sat outside at the same shopping center and played guitars. No tips were collected, we're told.

C and E, prom night 2005

Two fabulous looking young women on prom night.

E, Pat and other couples, prom night 2005

And here's a shot of all the couples. The guy in the kilt was born in Scotland.

E's prom night

E and Pat are off to the prom with six other couples. We took some photos at our house and at the house of the friend where the couples all gathered. Here's one of E and Pat in front of our home.

M & M on stage

M and his buddy Mike did their first 'paid' gig today at the local Potbellys sandwich shop. We stopped in around 12:30. C told the manager she thought the singers were really good - without revealing her connection.

They were up above some of the tables in a sort of loft. Only about 4 feet of headroom. M couldn't sit on the chair behind him without hitting his head on the ceiling.

While we were there they did some Byrds, some Beatles, some CCR and a couple other songs. Pretty noisy place but people seemed to like hearing them. We're looking forward to hearing about any tips and/or free eats they got.

Tonight's the prom. E and her boyfriend Pat will be going with six other couples. A few of the couples are due back at our house around 1 a.m. We've got lots of snacks. C will probably sleep downstairs on the couch to keep an eye on things. E's already been to the beauty shop to get her haird done. Looks beautiful.

Great weather here today. Hopefully tomorrow we'll get C out on her new bike.

Hang 'm High

Success! It took a couple days and some improvisation, but I got C's and my bikes hung up and out of the way in the garage. Now, C needs to get out and ride hers. Hopefully the weather will be good this weekend and we can do that.

Martha and I drove out to Middleburg yesterday for lunch and touring. It was a beautiful day and nice ride. We ate at the Red Fox Inn, an historic place. Both of us had a cup of peanut soup, which was actually quite good. Then I had a salad of curried chicken salad and she had a chicken sandwich.

Today, Martha left for Rochester about the same time C and I left for work. She called around 6 p.m. to say she'd made it. E had school and color guard tryouts/practice. M and his buddy Mike played and sang for an hour this afternoon at the local Potbelly's sandwich shop. It was their tryout. They've been invited back to perform Saturday at noon. We're hoping to go. Now, he's at work at Kohl's.

Pretty quiet day at work. I missed the action yesterday (the Newsweek story).

U2 report

We're back home after seeing U2 Saturday night in Philadelphia. Excellent show. Much like the concerts from their tour in 2001, but with new stuff added and a few old songs they hadn't played in recent years.

C and I stayed overnight at the Courtyard by the airport, which was also near the Wachovia Center.

Martha and the kids seem to have survived the night without us. A huge thunder/hail storm came through. No damage, we hear.

Aspen and Fenix are glad we're back.

Tom, Liz and hopefully Cullen will be over this afternoon. Maybe I'll have some photos later.

Aspen of the mountains

Always happy, especially when the air is fresh and the smells are plentiful.

Fenix of the jungle

The hungry beast searches for food.

Getting in the swing of things

I'm still getting used to how to get photos into this thing. I didn't realize that if I deleted photos from my flickr account, they would also disappear from this blog. Anyway, that's what happened to the photos from the other day. I'll republish them another time.

We had a very good Mother's Day weekend, I think.

Saturday, we got a covered swing for the deck and I put it together. C's wanted one for a while and Wegman's had a very nice one. So here she is on Mother's Day, enjoying a good book.

She also got: cards from her children, a new bicycle, the new Springsteen CD, chocolate chip cookies and the pleasure of working in the yard two straight days. Oh, I also washed all the cars and M mowed the front yard. E will do the back yard tomorrow.

M had a couple buddies stay over last night. He's off with some other guys now. E is home. She took the SAT yesterday. Says it seemed to go fine.

Work could be interesting this week. Perhaps the latest flap will blow over without much attention being paid.

Sounds like a lot of work got done in LV last week. Looking forward to checking it all out, hopefully in June. Also looking forward to Martha's visit and the U2 concert next Saturday.

Byrdmania

What started as a very soggy weekend ended with a glorious day. Bright sunshine and in the 60s. Did a lot of yard work - spreading mulch, mowing the law, trimming. We took the dogs for a good walk. Had a big group for dinner. E and her boyfriend Pat. M and two of his buddies. We had to order a couple pizzas because we didn't have enough of the good stuff (pork chops, stuffing, vegetables). The kids seemed to prefer the pizza anyway. And they liked the pineapple upside down cake I made.

M goes back to school for his last four days tomorrow. Then he's back to work at Kohl's on Saturday.

The Roger McGuinn concert Thurs. evening was excellent. M really enjoyed it. Kept saying things like "wow, that was good," afterward. The show as over around 10 p.m. so he and I went to a diner afterward.

Friday, McGuinn's appearance at work was also excellent. He talked about how he now records directly on to his laptop. He's effectively replaced the studios of past years with one computer and some software.

Of course we also got him to tell some stories of his days in the Byrds and to play a few songs. He did Tambourine Man, Turn Turn Turn and a couple others. M, who came with me to work, was again quite impressed. We introduced ourselves to McGuinn afterward and I got him to sign one of my old albums. Pretty good day.

I've posted some photos to site that hosts such media. As soon as they're available for linking to, I think I'll be able to get them on to here. I'll get better at these things as I go along, I trust.