Peacefield

The Mika show last month was fab. His tour was called 'An Intimate Evening,' so it was very mellow and unplugged, I guess you could say. No other shows on the horizon, unfortunately. The Killers are coming in August but to a venue I just hate. I've seen them before but am just settling for trying to win the tickets rather than pay for them. Sod, that Blues 'n Roots festival lineup looked great!! How was it?

Congrats to you and your family, Grandma Poppy I hope your cold goes away very soon, Pontalba, and that your elbow heals swiftly, Jules! We dropped the dog off at daycare yesterday and had an IKEA day followed by an early Mother's Day lunch for my mom. I gave her a 3 season set of Downton Abbey, which she's obsessed with, so hopefully that will tide her over since season 4 doesn't start over here until January! Yesterday I put together our new grill and also set up solar lights along our front path. It was very pretty last night! I'm heading up to the cabin on Thursday to open it up for the summer season. I hope everyone has a lovely week ahead of them!

Political talk radio this morning... I need a lively debate to keep me from dozing off

Hello and welcome to BCF! Good to have you

I treated myself to a hotel room last night so I had breakfast there this morning. I had a rock shrimp and spinach omelet, boxty (is that how you spell it?) potatoes and a couple lovely cups of coffee. It was all so YUM!

I'm past the point of complaining about the 'state' of weather in my state. I would give anything to go back and talk to my ancestors and ask WHY did you come to America, go west and stop here in the middle?? You should have gone south or kept going to the coast! And I'm 3/8 Lebanese, so I'm really baffled that my grandparents actually liked the snow, ugh Oh well, 3 pleasant seasons out of 4 is nothing to complain about, so I'm just going to sit here and wait for the warmth. PS: I forgot about my Acadian ancestors from Canada. Why didn't they go down to Louisiana like some others did - then I might be your neighbor, Pontalba!

I love you Simon...

Oooh, exciting, Chaliepud!! I loved that book and Jasper Fforde is just fantastic. If you like it you should definitely try and read more in that series I'm about halfway through Before the Poison and am getting thoroughly creeped out. Loving every minute of it! I'm not sure if I posted this before, but recently I purchased The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George. Her first time writing young adult fiction so I'm interested to see what it's like! I also went to a used book store in the cities over the weekend and found a very old book called The Flowering of New England. It's an account of how New England formed throughout it's early years in the Revolutionary War, the Salem Witch Trials, etc. They talk about Longfellow in Cambridge, Hawthorne in Salem, Harvard University, etc. I'm fascinated with all of that stuff.

Supermarkets around my neck of the woods don't really sell alcohol either. You have to go to a liquor store or an upscale market to get it. Are liquor stores allowed to be open on Sundays in LA, Pontalba? They aren't up here. I had a busy weekend so would have loved one more day to just relax! I went out for breakfast on Saturday with my mom and then I picked up a shiny new grill for the patio. I also went out for dinner that night to celebrate my friend's birthday and then I went to CB2 and spent my birthday gift certificate on more stuff for outdoor entertaining. Yesterday I put up some shelves in the garage and got all the pots and boxes ready for flowers. It's a bit too early up here to plant so we're going to wait a couple more weeks. I would LOVE to have a proper vegetable garden again. We had one as a family when I was growing up and there's nothing like growing your own food . I hope everyone has a great week!

That's good to know about Allegiant, Chalie, thanks! Yes I'll eventually read Insurgent, but I'll probably wait until it comes out in paperback unless I find a good used hard cover. I'm curious to see what happens next in the world of Tris, Tobias and Caleb! I read a good chunk more of Before the Poison last night, and am very much enjoying the way Peter Robinson wrote it. The majority of the book is set during 2010 but frequently placed is snippets of one long article written after a murder which happened in 1953. Both time periods and events are connected which makes everything come together nicely.

I finished Divergent over the weekend and LOVED it! Such a thought-provoking read. I've added it to my ever-growing list of reviews I need to write . I started Peter Robinson's Before the Poison on Monday. I felt like a creepy, ghost story type of read and it's fitting the bill nicely so far! So much so that I decided to stop reading last night when it got dark outside

That drive looks spectacular, Muggle! No wonder you enjoyed driving to work. We stayed in Morro Bay while visiting SLO and Hearst Castle and you're right, I definitely remember the good seafood places there. That was the first time I explored the central coast and I had no idea how pretty it was. When I visited in November I stayed in Ojai, which is beautiful in itself, and I loved the drive down to LA and also out to Simi Valley. Such a different vibe in Ojai than in busy LA. I won a pair of airline tickets a couple weeks ago here at work and I'm debating whether or not to go back to CA to see the siblings or to go somewhere I've never been. Decisions!

Disneyworld should be fun, Muggle! I've never been to Florida but have seen Disneyland several times. I love driving CA as well. SLO is beautiful! Have you had a chance to go to San Simeon and see the Hearst Castle? I love Santa Barbara too. In all my past trips there I stuck to the shore and the Pier but this last time we ventured more inland and saw so many cute shops! I also visited the Museum of Art too and even though it was on the small-ish side, it was lovely and they had some great pieces. Speaking of driving on the coast, have you been to Dana Point? Absolutely beautiful area. I could go on and on...

Have fun in San Fran, Pontalba! Such a lovely city - do you have big plans while you're there? Enjoy your trip to Austin as well . We had another snowfall last night, about 4", ugh. I'm convinced the reason our winter is dragging on so long is payback for last year when we barely registered any snow at all. Mother Nature is very cruel! Hopefully it was the last though since this weekend there are rumors of 70 degree days. This week is a quiet one for me aside from work and going out for a friend's birthday this weekend. Have a great week everyone!

I have! Yum Never have I ever tried snowboarding.

'Black Chandelier' - Biffy Clyro I bought Opposites on vinyl yesterday so I've been listening to nonstop Biffy today. Love them!

Congrats, Kell! Count me officially and completely jealous, Chrissy! Have fun and wave at something groovy for me . Last week was a hectic one, and it ended with a bang today when I had to spend over $600 in car repairs, ugh. I'm okay with it though because last week at work I also won a pair of domestic airline tickets, yay! Now I just have to decide where to go .

"what record u looking for?" From my friend asking me what I was going to buy during Record Store Day this weekend .

There's too much speculation at this point, Chrissy. Plus the FBI and other authorities I'm sure want to keep mum until they know more. I have a hard time watching the news programs because they speculate and talk to experts but no one really knows for sure. I do know that they have some people who are being "questioned," and overnight the authorities searched and confiscated several things from an apartment in Revere, Mass. Yesterday was Patriot Day in Massachusetts and I've also heard that security was not as air tight as it is at other indoor sporting events. There were lots of spectators wandering around with bags and such, but the finish line was in constant view of cameras so how the criminals could set this up I'm not sure. It's very sad, and just mind-boggling. So much hurting going on and to see that little boy's face on the news, who was killed, is just heart breaking .

Oooh, exciting, Diane! I love New York - what a fun place for him to visit! You're right with Mother Nature being mixed up, Bookmonkey - what's up with that?! It took me an hour to drive my 15 miles to work this morning because we're in the middle of a snow storm. And it's thundering and lightning too! I'm generally just going to be annoyed and bitter today

Yay for you on getting into Supernatural, Noll! Love that show . Weave is also a HUGE fan, I know! I saw a Robin the other day while I was uncovering all of our deck furniture, and now we're poised to get up to a foot of snow here in the Midwest in the next couple of days I'm so tired of winter!! Grrr... Tomorrow night I'm going to a movie theatre to see the first of Fathom Event's 'Great Art on Screen' series about Edouard Manet, so I'm very excited! It's about a career-encompassing exhibit on Manet at the Royal Academy of Arts and they're televising it in theatres across the US. Most of the time Fathom will televise certain operas or symphonies, but this time they are going for art which makes me happy . The next one in the series is on Edvard Munch (which I'll probably skip) and the last one, in October, is on Johannes Vermeer for which I'm super-pumped!

I have - nearly every day in one form or another! Never have I ever visited the Grand Canyon.

Theo James is a British actor who's currently in the US TV show 'Golden Boy.' IMDB says he's also been in series 'Room at the Top,' 'Case Sensitive' and 'Bedlam.' He's a cutie, though, and he's going to be playing Four in Divergent!

I really enjoyed that one, Pontalba. I thought Brad Pitt especially was hilarious, as was John Malkovich. Not my favorite Coen film, but I got a really kick out of it . I bought the DVD of Lincoln and watched that over the weekend, then the past 2 nights I've finished watching season 2 of Downton Abbey. Next up is season 3!

That's great to hear! I can't wait to read more. Did you know they are making a film of Divergent which is due out in 2014? All I know right now is that Theo James has been cast, which means I'm automatically going to see it!