The Great Salty Potato Tour

Last weekend Ryan and Cameron played their 3rd show within 5 months in Pocatello, ID at ISU. It's amazing and exciting to be in a city that is so crazy about their music! This show, was once again, a huge success. In fact, the college decided to make it a dinner concert as something extra special for students. The show was in a ballroom with tables nicely decorated and extra chairs in the back of the room, for those coming just for the show. Given that many of the students at ISU are "non-traditional" (a.k.a. mean age of students is 24) since they spend a year on a (LDS) mission, they have kids to bring along to the concert. There were 3 kids in particular that were sooo cute...dancing around, clapping their hands, trying to go up on the stage, etc. I tried taking a picture, but since they were so active, I couldn't get all 3 in at the same time...


Some of the students had made their own RH shirts, complete with lyrics on the back...(there were other designs, but these are the only ones I got a picture of)...


It was beautiful fall weather in Pocatello...it's nice to experience all of the seasons while we are on the road, and know that we can still be in warm weather when we get home. In fact, it just cooled off enough to turn off the a/c and open all the windows...I'm loving it! Oh, back to ISU...they had a craft shop!! I think that I was supposed to have gone to this school! It was soo great...sewing supplies, all sorts of beautiful papers, tie-dye, looms for weaving, etc...I wish I could have spent an afternoon there!

The next morning we went to eat breakfast at our hotel and our waitress was a huge RH fan! She started asking all about the show, and we were like, "how do you even know who we are?"...it was pretty wild...not ready for that sort of thing. She had Ryan and Cameron sign a photo and a t-shirt for her son, it was pretty cute to see how excited and chatty she was.
We got to Salt Lake City in time for an early supper at a delicious mexican restaurant, called the Red Iguana...they have like 9 different types of mole there...it's incredible!

We had wanted to go back for dessert after sound check, but we were too full! So, instead we walked around Temple Square in the rain. It was beautiful! Only LDS church members can go inside the temple, so after walking around the outside, we spent some time in the visitor's center looking at paintings.


Back in the Green Room...Ryan worked on the set list, and Cameron did visualization for the show. :)


The next day...it was back to Tucson for me to promote Charmin (just passed on coupons this week...no science fair experiment!) :)

The guys are back in LA recording...

My Big Fat Greek Vegas

Hello!

Well, today we journeyed through through 4 states....all so that we could stay at the Abb(e)y Inn Hotel in St. George, UT. Well...not really for that reason, but we did drive through California, Nevada, a wee bit of Arizona, and Utah. We stopped in Baker, CA for a great greek dinner...gyros, greek salad, and fresh strawberry shakes!


It was a beautiful car ride through the mountainous desert filled with Joshua Trees...


We drove through Las Vegas...all a bit of a blurrrr....


And now here we are at the Abb(e)y Inn and I think it's about time for bed...

Oh...and a p.s. to the annonymous poster (Meredith H.?) of yesterday's blog...all recipes were found by googling the ingredients we wanted to include. :)

Another day in LA

Well, I've had two incredibly relaxing days in a row. While the guys have been in the studio, I've been hanging out at Ken's house, going for walks, going for runs, cooking, doing RH work, reading, etc. And, since my days have been so relaxing, I don't really have too much to post, so I thought I'd give a post of things that I recommend...

Books that I've read lately:
The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
Gap Creek by Robert Morgan
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

Music Artists that I've recently listened to (live and on cd):
Rachel Loy
Teitur
Alexi Murdoch
Andrew Bird
Carnivaleros
RH (of course!)

New recipes:
Carribean Turkey Soup (just had it tonight...delicious! Be sure to use sweet potatoes and cilantro!)
Parmesan Crusted Chicken (Ryan made this the other week...soo good!)
Lentil Burritos
Squash Apple Bisque

Favorite websites:
www.mapmyrun.com
www.coolrunnings.com
www.bostonvineyard.org/sunday/sermons/podcast/ (great online sermons)
www.jillsady.com (beautiful stationary)

Kitchen gadgets:
the apple peeler/corer/slicer! (I just used this tonight while making an apple pie...they are amazing!!)

Okay, I think that is about it for now...I'll let you know if I think of anything that I've forgotten. :)

PA tour

I met the guys in LA on Thursday morning and then we flew to PA for a couple of shows. It was sooo great to see Ryan after having been apart for 8 days...I hope we don't have to go that long without seeing eachother again anytime soon!

The show at Bucknell on Friday night was in their 7th Street Cafe, a really happening coffee shop on campus. Ryan and Cameron played there last year as well, so their were quite a few people in attendance who knew of them and had their cds already, which is always fun.


I decided to put out the jewelry that Melissa and I have been making for our first night of opening business to the public...



Bucknell put us up in one of their campus houses for visitors called the Ward House. It was nice to be able to stay on campus, eat our meals in the cafeteria and be around students. Here's the guys doing a little pre-show practicing in Cameron's room...


Our next stop was in Pittsburgh for a show at Carnegie Mellon University. It was a neat show that was sponsored by City Reformed Church of Pittsburgh...they decided to put the show on simply for the sake of supporting the arts and felt that Ryan and Cameron's music would be a great way to start this series of concerts to support the arts. The show was in a large lecture hall that held 234 people...and since there was a chalk board behind them, they put it to good use by writing out the songs as they played them...it was a great audience...great show!


Afterwards a family from the church invited us over to their house for a late night dinner...so nice to have homecooked food while on the road! :)

We are back in LA at the Rock 'n Roll Hotel (Ken's house)...we had a delicous dinner, watched Home Makeover (yes, I did watch tv everyone...and yes Jill, the show made me cry) and now the guys are rehearsing for their time in the studio tomorrow...

flower time!

(oops...I wrote this a few days ago, and forgot to post it...)

Hello!

Well, this post isn't going to be the most 'up-to-date' info of what is going on, but I took pictures a while ago that I never posted and I decided it's better late than never...

Ryan was in LA last week recording, while I was in Tucson promoting Charmin Ultra Strong toilet tissue...yes, it's true, I was one of those people in the grocery handing out samples (of toilet paper) and then doing a demonstration to show just how strong Charmin really is! :) Ryan wishes he would have been home to take a picture of me on my first day of work...but to be honest, I'm quite fine with the fact that there isn't a picture. :)

I picked up Rachel from school one day and we had fun making big soft pretzels...


In fact, I got to see a lot of Ryan's family throughout the week...We had a great family dinner on his mom's side at Bazil's one night, Sara and I had lunch one day, and then we had a ladie's dinner for the Green side of the family another night.

Our flowers are all still blooming quite nicely...a lot of this has to do to all the TLC Grammie gives them when we are out of town...




Right now we are in Lewisburg, PA at Bucknell University for a show that the guys will be doing tonight...tomorrow we are off to Pittsburgh for another show at Carnegie Mellon. I'll fill you in with pictures probably sometime tomorrow!

The Greene Room

Well, Ryan and Cameron are back in the studio, this time they are at "The Greene Room" Studio...we had a lot of fun loving on the name of course. :) It's a home studio, although not exactly attached to the home...more of a converted garage w/ a great studio, control room, bathroom, fridge/microwave, etc. It was a really nice area to be in...they had a backyard and table that got to be our lounge area...



Ryan in the studio...


Ryan and Cameron playing a lap steel that was lying around...


We went out to a great family-owned Italian restaurant for salad and pizza...we got pepperoni and spinach, and then read in the newspaper the next morning about the E.Coli breakout with spinach, but fortunately we are all feeling fine. :)


On Tuesday evening, I met up with my friend Katie Koski from City Year/Americorps. It was so nice to see her...she lives right by UCLA, so we walked around by the campus a bit and through the "hip" area surrounding it...had a great yummy dinner and a scoop of ice cream for dessert. It was a pretty amazing ice cream deal...only $1 for a scoop of ice cream, or you could have it sandwiched between their homemade cookies for only 25cents more! I wish I wasn't so full and I could've gone for the ice cream sandwich...next time! :)

I forgot to take a picture with Katie this time, but here is one from last time when we got together in April..


Well, I'm back in Tucson now and the guys are still busy recording in LA. Tonight I'm going to a young married couples small group that is starting through our church that I'm really excited about.

And, I just got word that Jill ran her 20 miler today in preparations for the DC Marine Corps Marathon...and it was her best run yet!!! Yeah Jill!!!

The Rock 'n Roll Hotel

After church we drove to LA for another week of recording. We talked a lot in the car, listened to the new John Mayer and Chris Thile cds, and played tri-bond until we realized we had gone through the whole deck of cards.

We are staying at our friend Ken's house for the week...we prefer to refer to it as 'The Rock 'n Roll Hotel'. It's so nice to stay at someone's house as opposed to a hotel. When we arrived, he had the patio table all set with candles and an incredible dinner prepared. Ken lives alone in a 3 bedroom house, so Ryan and I get our own bedroom and Cameron gets his own room. It kind of feels like showing up at Grandma and Grandpa's when we're here...the feeling of just carrying our stuff right up to 'our room' and then coming down to eat dinner....he's a great host!
We keep talking about how fun it would be to have a whole tour where we just stay with people we know the whole way instead of in hotels. In being able to stay with someone we know, we'd be totally fine with sleeping on the floor...it's just nice to have the company and opportunity to visit with a friend we don't get to see all the time. So, don't be alarmed if we show up on your doorstep with sleeping bags! :)

And, likewise, if anyone is ever in Tucson, please feel free to stay with us...or even stay at our house while we are on the road!

I didn't take any pictures today...so instead I'll post one of us traveling in the Carolinas last December....

Double Date!

Last night Chris and Melissa took us out for a super nice dinner as a belated anniversary treat! It was a super nice restaurant, Wildflower, in the Casas Adobes area of Tucson which is nestled in the northwest mountains.

After dinner we went to Tucson Community Church for their Saturday Night Cafe, an outdoor concert with a festival-like atmosphere. It was one of those events where I thought, this is exactly an event I'd love to bring our kids to someday...there were tons of families with kids running around and playing together outside; parents and teens were standing around talking, listening to the music, and taking in the atmosphere...

Then, we went for dessert...delicious gelato at Frost....I love gelato! Unfortunately, no pictures...we ate it too fast. :)

Beantown!

I just returned home to Tucson last night after having spent 8 days in Boston visiting friends, attending weddings and wedding receptions, walking until my feet blistered, seeing lots of cute pregnant bellies, and witnessing Jill put her first offer in on a condo!!

I just don't get the weather in Boston...I went from sweating like crazy (it's my own fault for not wanting to wear anti-perspirant anymore I suppose :) to freezing overnight! It was nice to see the fall weather and the very beginning of some trees starting to change colors...it's my favorite season for running!, but I must also admit that I'm happy to be home in my 85 degree weather where I know what it will be like outside before even walking out the door.

Jill and her roommates had a party on Friday night...lots of fun conversation, great food, and of course good music too! (he he he, I was given the duties of making a playlist...I think since Ryan's a musician, people think I know music too...I like to pretend I do, but the truth is...I only know what Ryan has taught me!:)


(Jana, Jill, Megan, Toby, and Matt)

On Saturday Jana and I went to the Vineyard Festival to hear Kathleen Dieguez perform!! Kathleen and her husband Francisco were in our small group when we went to the Vineyard. For those of you who haven't yet heard of Kathleen Dieguez, she's an amazing singer/songwriter who got her start in Cambridge, MA. I think she is the only person I know who just one day said she wanted to write a song, and wrote something soo beautiful and worthy of performing on her first try.


(David Linhart and Kathleen Dieguez)

Rebecca from our small group was also there and looking sooo cute and pregnant...she's got one more month to go!


Orla, who was my roommate while I was studying abroad in Ireland, got married to Will (whom she met while we were studying in Ireland!). Will's immediate family and Orla's extended family came over from Ireland for the big celebration!




It was such a fun wedding!! When Orla was little she used to tell her mom that she wanted their neighbor, Willy's band to play at her wedding. And sure enough the 5 piece band drove all the way from New Jersey to play at their wedding.



There was tons of great music, including some good Irish pub songs, and lots of Irish dancing. Orla went to the World Championships for Irish dancing, so she and some others from her dancing group did some incredible Reels and such. We all got up and did the Seige of Ennis, which was super fun and dizzying all at the same time.



Sunday morning I had breakfast with Meredith and Erin before church. So great to see them!!


It's fall...a tree that was already changing colors...



I spent all day Sunday and Sunday night at Liz and Douglas' house. They made a delicious Ugandan dinner of gonja (baked plantains), curried beef, avocadoes, and Irish potatoes.



We planned Liz's baby shower and went to Target to get her registered! She's due on December 6th!



Jill, Jana, and I got to be back together and spend some quality time talking, running, eating, walking, etc! Sooooo great to see them again in person (not that I don't love our web cam dinners together, but it's harder to hug a person over camera than it is in person.)


Jill may soon be entering the world of condo ownership as she signed for an offer on a great place in Washington Square! Ryan is a little confused as to why she didn't get a 2 bedroom for when we come to stay...but I have him assured that we can still visit Jill when she's in Washington Square!


The saddest part of my trip came at the very end. There is a great musician named Teitur. Ryan and I went on two "not"-dates while we were just friends to see him in concert in Boston. We listened and sang on the top of our lungs in the car to one of his songs just before Ryan proposed to me, we danced our "first dance" at our wedding to one of his songs, and then that same song came on shuffle on Ryan's iPod at 11:59pm on our 1 year anniversary. You get the picture...we really love this guy's music and he's become a special part of our relationship. Anyway, I decided to extended my visit a few days so that I could see him in concert while I was in Boston. I got to the show sooo excited...only to find out that Teitur hadn't been able to get into the country because of visa troubles! Mauryn and I were devastated...so we went to Angora Cafe to get pizza and sulk. (I'm not sure why the gold squiggle around Mauryn's head is there...perhaps it's a halo.)



Ryan picked me up at the airport and brought me home to a fabulous dinner that he had prepared: parmesan crusted chicken w/ red pepper alfredo sauce and pasta, and spinach salad with mixed berries in it. And for dessert...A CANNOLI!! :)

Labor Day Weekend Part 2

(DAD, please scroll down slowly so that you end where I menion for you to, and your birthday surprise doesn't get spoiled!...thanks...we love you!)

I hope everyone had a great 3-day weekend! There was a large music and film festival downtown Tucson all weekend long, which is where we spent a lot of our evenings this weekend. There were 3 large stages, a ton of bands, one guy who did spoken word, and lots of people to enjoy the entertainment. As I mentioned in my last post, Cameron and Ryan both played at the festival over the weekend as guest performers in other bands.
Cameron played guitar and sang with the band "The Sidewinders", formerly known as "The Sandrubies"...he did an awesome job and had a ton of fun, which was very apparent to all watching. :)



Ryan was the guest guitar player for Al Perry, a Tucson legend for being one of the first to introduce 'desert rock'. The day before the show Al told Ryan a rough idea of what songs he was going to play...then the day of the show Ryan got a call from Al saying, "I forgot to tell you that we don't play any of those songs in the same key as their recordings.."...there goes any sort of rehearsal or preparation that Ryan could have done. Then again, we are talking about Ryan..."the maestro"...needless to say, Ryan was incredible...he blew the crowd (and Al Perry) away with solos!



Our friend Chris' band also played a great set! (Chris is on the far left in the photo)...


We also had some great meals over the weekend with family and friends...(unfortunately no pictures, but I'll mention them anyway...)...

We went out to the French Quarter with Chris and Melissa to hear Jim's classic rock band play and had alligator and fried pickles!...I don't even like pickles, but these were soo good!

Aunt Teri and Jim (from Classic Rock band above) came over for lunch and we had squash apple soup, salad, and Ryan's yummy garlic/cheesy bread.

Lori and Todd had us over for fish and chips...and wings...and corn on the cob...and gluten-free brownies! :)

Oh...and over the course of the weekend we watched two episodes of Little House on the Prairie!! Ryan got me dvds of some of the episodes as a surprise...we love that show!

This morning we woke up bright and early...aside from when we were in the Grand Canyon, this might have been the earliest we've ever woken up together! We got up at 5:20am for an 8mile race at Saguaro National Park. It was my first race since running the DC marathon in 2004 and I loved it! I'm so pumped to get back into racing again...there is a great running club here that I'm super jazzed about. The 8 mile course was super tough! I'd dare to say that it was by far the hardest 8 mile run I've ever done in my life. The entire thing was hills! Starting right in mile 1, there were hills...larger than "rolling hills"...then from mile 3.5-5 it was completely uphill...it evened out for about 1/2 mile, and then continued to climb for 1/2 of a mile! It was crazy, but very beautiful!!

pre-race stretching...


the start of the race...


approaching the finish line...




done! I finished in 1 minute and 2 seconds under my goal time! :)


It was soo fun to have Ryan there with me!


My free post-race massage!!


DAD...IF YOU ARE READING THIS, PLEASE END HERE SO I DON'T RUIN YOUR BIRTHDAY SURPRISE! :)









After taking naps once we got home from the race, we spent a large part of the afternoon making a "Gimme 5" game board for my dad for his birthday!


Ryan just left for LA to do another week of recording in the studio..
I'm heading off to Boston on Wednesday for Orla and Will's wedding, and Summer's Boston wedding reception!! Can't wait to see all of you Bostonians and Cantabridgians!

Labor Day Weekend

Hello! So, I realized that we've been up to a few things lately, however I haven't been too good about carrying my camera around! However, I thought I'd post anyway...

Last night we had Grammie and Sara over for dinner (vegetarian lasagna and peach custard pie) and then of course a game of "Gimme 5"....Grammie and I beating Ryan and Sara 5-1! :)

Then this morning we woke up VERY early to help a friend load and unload her moving truck. It's funny, when I lived in Boston it would be normal, albeit gross, to see a dead mouse under a couch when you went to move (or if you are my friend Jana, you might see 8-10 mice skeletons :), however here, you are more likely to see a dead lizard...possibly even missing it's tail because the cat ate it...it's a much more pleasant experience seeing how dead lizards don't have any sort of an odor.

We picked up Rachel from school today, she's in 2nd grade this year, and took her over to Grandmo and Grandpo's house to go swimming...it was actually a pretty hot day today considering it's September 1st...I suppose that's just life in Tucson!

This weekend there is a big music festival at Club Congress...Ryan and Cameron aren't playing a show together there since they are trying to take time off in Tucson to build up for their cd release, so instead Cameron is guest singing tonight with another band and tomorrow Ryan is sitting in as a guest guitar player for yet another band...should be a fun weekend!