The Stones, the Road Trip, Mystery Guests & other things

I’m off in the morning on a road trip to see the Rolling Stones! With Mötley Crüe as the opening act. The opening act. Mötley Crüe. Be sure to add that to their resume! Multi-platinum record sales. Drugs, sex and rock ‘n roll! The epitome of a Decade of Decadence. Oh, yeah. Opening act for the Stones….. Looking forward to have a great time with great company (just.a.girl)!

---

Last call for HNT Mystery Guest entries! The last “official” one will be this week. A number of you have told me that you were working on one. If so, it’s now or never! Next week I’ll post the ones that weren’t used, along with an alphabetical listing of participants!

---

Most of you will read this on Halloween. If you had a party that you went to over the weekend, or plan to dress up tonight, be sure to post your costume pics! I’ll be on the road, so I doubt that I’ll get to do anything. But you never know!

---

This was something I stole while visiting Leesa’s site. Even Einstein recognized a good thing!

---

Speaking of Leesa, I read awhile back that she was lamenting the fact that living in the sticks of Montana (yes, there’s sticks out in the sticks!) doesn’t offer much in the way of entertainment or culture. She noted that Seinfeld sold out both of his shows in Helena in a matter of hours. Well, knowing that she would have liked to have had tickets, and that I had two, and that I’m not a really big fan by any stretch of the imagination, and knowing that I was going to need $$ for a new camera–I got in touch with her and sold her my tickets. I do hope that we’ll get a chance to meet while she’s briefly in town. We’ll see what happens…

---

Another thing that I stole (well, it was suggested to me by Shumpy) was the map thing. It’s pretty cool to see the distribution of us! If you haven’t left your mark yet, click the button on my sidebar to see what it’s all about!

---

Not much more. I plan to have my computer with me on the road trip, so I’ll be online a little bit. A warning about HNT–I’ll post the Mystery Guest picture, but I’m not going to have a chance to check anyone out until Friday at the earliest. So to my longtime regulars, make everyone feel welcome (as you always do!). You know I’ll get to everyone eventually! Have a Happy Halloween!

Quick update

I had so many people wondering how things went last night, I figured I’d do a quick post. The concert went relatively well and fairly smoothly. As I figured it would. It just gets a little old having to kiss everyone’s ass as much as I seem to. The performance was not as good as it should have been–I think fatigue played a factor in that. Unless you are a musician yourself, you have NO idea how physically and mentally exhausting it is to rehearse for almost 8 hours in a 20-hour period, and then be on top of your game for a 2 hour concert. I, of course, was stunningly brilliant and played virtually flawlessly for the concert, but I don’t want to toot my own horn. So to speak.

I slept in today (after skipping the open bar reception after the concert last night….). I’ve been running around taking care of everything in preparation for my road trip that starts tomorrow. I’ll be back to post again tonight. Until then…

Small TIdbits

Here’s alot of unrelated bits of stuff cluttering my mind tonight:

• Shumpy recommended adding a Frappr! map for HNT. So I did. There’s a button over there in the sidebar. Give your information, add an avatar, and let’s see where we’re all at!

• I hope you all appreciated the comments section being available early. Once again, we’re getting a little lax on the “Thursday” part of HNT. Again, let’s hold off on posting things until 10:00 PM unless it’s really necessary! Of course, those of you who live east of Cape Spear, Newfoundland, Canada–just post on Thursday!
• My camera came today!!! My camera came today!!! My camera came today!!!
• My stress level comes to a head this Saturday night when the Symphony performs its second concert of the season. For those who want to know: Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man”, Kapilow’s “Summer Sun, Winter Moon” (premiere performance) and Dvorak’s “New World Symphony”. The Kapilow piece was commissioned by three orchestras in celebration of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial. We will be playing the “final” version. Documentary film crew, Native American ceremonies, singers, dancers, musicians–this is why I’ve been so busy this past couple of weeks. That’s also why I’m running away to see just.a.girl and the Rolling Stones next week! If you want to hear the “Fanfare…”, check it out below (about 3 min. long).

  Powered by Castpost

• I had pizza and beer with Rachel last night. We watched “Ray”–an outstanding movie. And yes, we talked about many of you!
• I anticipate a great surprise for you next week! No hints, no clues!

Time to go check out the rest of the HNT posts. Kudos for a fine holiday theme! For those of you who missed the word on that, don’t worry about it. We still love ya! And I have to get up to speed with the camera.

Halloween HNT Mystery Guests!

The great Halloween HNT Mystery Guest thing was a bit of a flop. I did get three submissions, so that’s a good thing. And they all had something to do with head. My head. Make any nasty connotation that you feel you need to do here. Without further ado, here they are (in no particular order…)!

This came in from Spinning Girl, who modified one of her previous HNT pics. Love the mask, love the lips!

This one’s from Gigi (a.k.a. Goobergirl). Lovely girl, but I don’t want to get on the bad side of her!

Lastly, we have the submission from Bricotrout. Feel free to use this as the template to carve your own pumpkins!

Many thanks to these three who answered the call! As usual, there were the early entries, but I was smart enough to be able to include them in the comments below (if you already commented, you don’t have do it again!). Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween HNT Mystery Guest Deadline

Time to get your Halloween Mystery Guest photo in to me. I’ve only received 2–I was certainly hoping for more! Check out the previous post for details–

BUT THE BIG NEWS!!!

I’ve finally bitten the bullet. Purchased it this evening. I present to you the
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H1 5.1 Megapixel Digital Camera

Features:

• 5.1 Megapixel (2592 x 1944 Pixels)

• 12X optical zoom lens
• 2.5″ LCD monitor
• Super SteadyShot® Optical Image Stabilization
• 32MB flash memory built-in

I won’t get it before the weekend, so I’ll still need your Mystery Guest pics. And I need to get used to the thing to see what it can do. If any of you have this camera or experience with it or want to tell me what a sucker I am for buying a camera from the same people that invented BetaMax, feel free! I’m also looking at possibly naming the thing, so if you have suggestions….

Schedule of events for HNT Mystery Guests:

• Thursday, Oct. 27 – Halloween themed Mystery Guest (all entries submitted will be displayed!)

• Thursday, Nov. 3 – Mystery Guest (I’ll be returning from the Stones concert. Your help still appreciated!)
• Thursday, Nov. 10 – Final Mystery Guest posts. All remaining pictures that haven’t been used will be displayed. A list of participants will be posted (alphabetical order–I won’t specifically identify anyone)
• Thursday, Nov. 17 – First HNT with the new camera!!

Halloween HNT Mystery Guest!!

OK–I’ve gotten a few emails about what HNT will be doing for Halloween. I’ve weighed the pros and cons. Primarily–do we want to use Halloween costumes for HNT? Most costumes are not going to be very “nekkid-friendly”, and everyone is going to be putting up costume pictures anyway after the fact (except me–I have no camera, remember?). But I had a wonderful suggestion given to me for HNT this week.

I’m going to open up the Mystery Guest position this week to EVERYONE who sends in a Halloween-themed HNT Guest post. MOST IMPORTANT–TO BE A GUEST POST, I MUST APPEAR IN THE PICTURE SOMEHOW!! You’ve seen how others have done it. Give it a shot yourselves! All entries will be identified by entrant (if not already obvious). All other rules for the HNT Mystery Guest will be followed. In particular, I will need pictures sent to me by early Wednesday morning at the VERY latest! Feel free to go with the Halloween theme on your own sites too! And put up any costume or party pics next week, but let’s pick up “regular” nekkidness on Thursday, Nov. 4th. (Yes, if you got half-nekkid at a party, you can save it for then too!)

Sorry this is a bit late, but I have no doubt that you’ll come through with flying colors!

Time

Too Much Time On My Hands

Time

No Time

Time of the Season

By the Time I Get To Phoenix

Time After Time

A Time For Us

Time Warp

I saw this link on Lee Ann’s site (she’s a HNT newbie–go check her out!). I first saw this about 3 years ago. It’s still as funny now as it was then! Check it out, if you’ve got the TIME!

Ever have one of THOSE days??

Yesterday goes down in my book as one I’d rather just forget. No do-overs. No acknowledgment. But I can’t. It kicked me in the ass, over and over and over. With really pointy boots (which I sometimes like, but I digress…). HNT was a bright spot, but even that wasn’t perfect. Let me list some things for the day:

• Death in the HNT family (see post below).

• Another death this week, less publicized, in the HNT family.
• Snide comments on other sites from some total jerks, but hey, it’s all they know.
• My phone is disconnected in the afternoon without my knowing it. At the same time I’m home waiting for phone calls to be returned.
• Being made to feel totally incompetent due to the dependence upon others who can’t respond to phone messages or emails.
• Realizing that I’m that way quite a bit myself.
• Continuing my fight with phone company from the Symphony office, since I don’t have phone service at home. It’s been rectified.
• Staying at the office for SIX hours trying to contact people. Have I mentioned I sometimes hate my job?
• I only got to about 70 of the comments (out of 250+). I haven’t seen many of your HNTs. I’ve neglected alot of newbies, so they will be my priority in the next couple of days. I promise I’ll get to all of you (even if I don’t leave a comment….).
• No lunch, no dinner.
• Blogger had its head up its ass last night. I wanted to post this then.
• A good friend of mine is having some real life issues. You know who you are–HUGS TO YOU!!! If you’re not sure if this applies to you, then it doesn’t.
• Sometimes I feel like Jimmy Stewart in “It’s A Wonderful Life”.
• Sometimes I feel like Jimmy Stewart in “The Glenn Miller Story”.

The list could continue, but you get the idea. Today won’t be as bad, but it’s not going to be stress-free.

There were a few good things to list:

• EDIT–Hell, I forgot the biggest news–Addict was visitor #50,000!! At about 12:45 AM Mountain time. (And I’ve gotten over 2000 visitors since then–about 38 hrs later!) Anyway, she’s the recipient of a prize. Not quite sure what it will be, but I’ve got a pretty good idea!

• I was “discovered” by an old teaching buddy from 20+ years ago. We’ve settled into the Christmas card relationship over the years. But he tripped across my blog, and was duly impressed by my apparent popularity! I blush. I do need to reconnect to him and his family.
• I won a contest yesterday!
• I’m pretty sure I’ve got Brico’s contest won, but I’ll hold back my gloating.
• I got notice of some new Mystery Guest pics coming soon!
• The weather is still absolutely gorgeous these days!
• Ummmm……

I’m sure there’s some other stuff, but it’s not coming to mind.

Hope you all have a great weekend. I’ll post some more later….

Death in the HNT Family

As most of you know, Tony (BTExpress) has been a presence on HNT for quite awhile. Always one of the first to be checking on the week’s posts, and always leaving comments. What some of you might not realize is that his wife has been enduring inoperable brain cancer for a couple of years. Well, her pain is no more. Tony’s wife of 33 years, Barb, died on Monday. She had taken a turn for the worse after the weekend. Obviously this is a tough time for his family. Even though this was the expected outcome, and he was quite open about that, it doesn’t take away the sadness. He asked me to convey his thanks to those who have already left words on his site or by email. He also approved my posting about it. Head over to his site and offer your condolences, especially if he’s commented on your site quite a bit. He’ll appreciate it.

HNT Mystery Guest V

I haven’t had much of a chance to post (or even communicate) over the past couple of days. I’m getting frustrated in my job with the Symphony. Well, I’ve always been frustrated, but it’s gotten worse. A little history–the Symphony celebrated its 50th anniversary last season. For a vast majority of that time, it’s been tolerated as a nice cultural group. A place for music lovers to get together and play, but not worry about getting fired or replaced. Because it’s a volunteer group, you have to do a little back-bending to keep people happy. About 4 years ago, we had a nationwide search to find a new conductor. We’ve got one now who is decades wiser and more knowledgeable than his 35 years would imply. He actually wants to make us a legitimate performing group! There’s a concept that’s new around here!

So what has he done? In this, his third season, he’s increased the budget 300%, increased season ticket sales almost 350%, increased audience size by at least 300%, corporate sponsorships have skyrocketed, and he has elevated the status of the Symphony around the state to being one of the best. By using most of the same musicians as before. And without the benefit of a local university music department to draw musicians from. So what’s the problem? Dealing with musicians who question everything he does. Who commit to playing, then have something “come up”, or pick and choose which concerts they want to play. Excuse me–if I make the team, do I get to tell the coach which games/practices I’m going to show up for?? Same thing here. Too many years of being a social group, not a performing group. I can’t wait for the musicians to be paid (which will be phased in next season). Funny how a little cash will improve one’s approach!

So what does any of this have to do with HNT?? Absolutely nothing. Other than allowing me to vent and sort of explain my lack of posts this week. This week’s Mystery Guest was the favorite of the committee, though personally, I was hoping for a different one (no offense to this week’s winner). Yes, I bowed to peer pressure this week….

---

Updates since I drafted this earlier today–Astros are in the Series! Nice to have something good happen to the Houston area! Also–a whole slew of early posters tonight. Check out the comments to the prior post to see who’s already up!

Have a great HNT this week! I’ll be checking all of you soon!

One more thing–I’m getting my 50,000th visitor sometime in the next hour. No promises of a prize, but you never know!

---

It was brought to my attention that HNT is exactly 5 months old tonight! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

---

Well, it took about 2 1/2 hours from the time that I called it, but I’ve surpassed the 50,000 visitor mark! Many thanks to all of you! This is the person who hit #50,000. Doesn’t look like they spent any time here, but they came here from Addict’s site, and they live in the Pacific time zone (not Denver). Anyone recognize this IP address? Is this you Emily? Click on the picture to make it a little bigger. Let me know!