Mynee's Musings

Beautiful

We saw Beautiful at The Fox yesterday.  It’s the story of Carol King.  I had no idea she wrote so many songs; Take Good Care of My Baby, Some Kind of Wonderful, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and of course, Beautiful, I Feel the Earth Move and It's Too Late just to name a few.  She sold her first song, It Might as Well Rain Until September, at the age of 16 to music publisher Donnie Kirshner.  Of course I remember him as Don Kirshner on the show Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. LOL.  Captain & Tennille were even on the show a few times.  Click here to see one of those performances.  More on them later...hee hee hee.

After the show, we ate at Urban Chestnut in The Grove.  Always yummy food and brews. Next show, If/then. 

American Idol Tour 2014

I really enjoyed the 2014 season of American Idol.  The judges really seemed to like each other and they were hilarious together.  The top 12 finalists were fantastic.  My favorites were Caleb, Jena, Malaya, Jessica.  I actually liked them all.  Unfortunately,the tour wasn't making a stop in St Louis so we thought about going to Kansas City.  Well, the concert was the day before we were planning to leave on vacation so KC was out.  The other logical choice was Springfield Illinois on August 8.  That was the perfect choice for several reasons; it was a Friday but there was no Muny performance that day, we were still on vacation but would be back in St. Louis, Springfield is only 2 hours away and oh, there is a microbrewery in Springfield that was calling our name...hee hee hee.

We left home around 1:30pm and arrived at Engrained Brewing at around 3:30pm.  The food was good although I ordered a pepperoni and green OLIVE pizza and they put green PEPPERS on it instead.  Normally, I would have said something but the pizza took about 20 minutes to arrive the first time and  I didn't want to wait for a new one so I ate it and it was good.  The beer was good too.  I had the red ale and an IPA and Bill had an IPA and an oatmeal stout.  We will definitely be paying another visit maybe in the spring when we can also go to the Lincoln Library.

So, the concert was at the Illinois State Fair.  The last time I was at a state fair was back in 1984 and that was the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia.  Bill and I went to hear President Reagan speak but I digress.  OK, so we found the fairgrounds easily (gotta love gps).  We parked and made sure to note exactly where our car was and then walked around the fairgrounds.   I had to have a funnel cake.  I mean seriously, you can't go to a state fair and not have a funnel cake...hee hee hee.

No, I did not eat the entire thing.  Bill and I split it.  It was soooo tasty!  We then continued walking around the fairgrounds.  Oh my goodness, how cute are these babies...

 

One of the building next to the grandstand has spaces where vendors sell various items and throught the building there are displays of memorabilia from past fairs.  I smiled when I saw this...

Um, they incorrectly spelled Tennille.  Maybe I should let them know.  Ha.  I would have thought that someone would have noticed the error since I also saw this...

They spelled it correctly here!  Yeah, I'm definitely going to let them know.  Anyway, we then headed to the Grandstand where the concert was to be held.  The weather had been overcast most of the afternoon and by now, it was actually getting chilly and it was drizzling.  Our seats weren't covered so we moved back to seats that were.  One of the ladies I work with is an Idol fan and so is her son.  They were at the concert and the ended up moving also and sat in the row right in front of us.   

The concert started at 8:00pm.  Here's the setlist (copied from Wikipedia): 

• "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic - Group
• "F*ing' Perfect" by Pink – MK Nobilette with Malaya Watson and Jessica Meuse as backup
• "Tightrope" by Janelle Monáe – Majesty Rose with Jena Irene, Waston and Meuse as backup
• "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line – C.J. Harris and Dexter Roberts
• "When I Was Your Man" by Bruno Mars – Watson
• "Wake Me Up" by Avicii – Nobilette, Rose and Watson
• "Let Her Go" by Passenger – Alex Preston and Sam Woolf
• "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" by The Georgia Satellites – Roberts
• "Muckalee Creek Water" by Luke Bryan – Roberts
• "Pompeii" by Bastille – Preston with Harris and Woolf as backup
• "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones – Irene and Caleb Johnson
• "Gravity" by John Mayer – Harris with Preston as backup
• "American Woman" by The Guess Who – Harris with Irena, Meuse and Preston on backup
• "Happy" by Pharrell Williams - Group

Intermission

• "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors and "Story of My Life" by One Direction - Group
• "We Are One" – Irene with Rose and Meuse
• "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis Presley – Irene
• "My Body" by Young the Giant – Irene
• "Lego House" by Ed Sheeran – Woolf
• "Sail Away" by David Gray – Woolf
• "You and I" by Lady Gaga – Meuse with Irene, Rose and Watson on backup
• "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People – Meuse with Rose and Woolf on backup
• "Fairytale" (Alex Preston) – Preston
• "Too Close" by Alex Clare – Preston
• "Family Tree" by Kings of Leon – Johnson
• "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney – Johnson with Rose, Watson and Woolf on backup
• "As Long As You Love Me" – Johnson with the girls on backup
• "Dazed and Confused" by Led Zeppelin – Johnson
• "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons – Finale

I was sooooo glad that Jena sang Can't Help Falling in Love as she had on the show.  What a great performance!  I'm also glad that Alex sang his song "Fairytale" because even though he wasn't one of my favorites, I love the song.  As for Caleb Johnson, wow!  I love rock and he's definitely a rocker.  His CD will be available on Tuesday and I will definitely add it to my collection.

The concert ended at about 10:20 and we were in the car and on the road by 10:45pm.  We pulled into the driveway at 12:45am which was earlier than I had anticipated.  I figured that we wouldn't get home until 2:00am or so but there wasn't any concert traffic leaving the fair.  I think they all stuck around to eat more funnel cakes...hee hee hee.  

Until next time...

Toni Tennille Files For Divorce

Never is my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would type those words.  I initially read the news on their website on Saturday, January 18.  Here’s what was posted:

The screen shot above is somewhat difficult to read unless you click to enlarge it.  It says, "UPDATE: Until Thursday, January 16th, 2014, when Toni Tennile met with a DIVORCE ATTORNEY, in Phoenix, AZ, everything relating to THE CAPTAIN & TENNILLE appeared to the public as them being the ideal model for a "rock-solid' married pair. But almost all people naturally evolve over time, & sometimes hidden feelings start to be uncovered when one may read, just a little more into (the popularized, substitute heading appearing just below), stating, for instance: `'MUSIC HAS KEPT THEM TOGETHER."  I thought perhaps the site was hacked and someone posted it as a cruel joke.  Daryl has always maintained their website so I figured it couldn’t possibly be he who posted this since Toni’s last name was misspelled (one L instead of two).  I didn’t want to believe it, I refused to believe it., no one could make me believe it…that was, until January 21 when the media reported it and Daryl confirmed it.  My heart sank.  Even my rose-colored glasses weren’t enough to make everything look sunny.  I went from being shocked to being extremely pissed off.  They’ve been married for 38 years.  How in the world can she file for divorce after 38 years especially when Daryl has had health problems for the past 5 or 6 years.  What the hell?

Just about a week prior to the posting on their blog, there was a segment on TMZ in which they were talking about singers who are still together. Harvey Levin specifically mentioned Captain & Tennille.  Who knew that just about a week later, Toni would file for divorce. 

I have been a Captain & Tennille fan since May of 1975 when Love Will Keep Us Together hit the charts.  I have seen them in concert numerous times and I’ve even had the pleasure of meeting them both on many occasions.  In addition to the C&T concerts, I’ve seen Toni in The Rainmaker (5 times) and Victor Victoria (twice) and numerous solo big band performances.  I had every album, watched every show, knew everything about them, or so I thought..  Love was supposed to keep them together, forever!       

It wasn’t always easy being a Captain & Tennille fan, especially in high school when other kids thought that Toni & Daryl were “uncool.”  I never cared what other people thought.  Toni and Daryl were my idols.  Even back then, there were tabloid rumors of divorce which obviously weren't true.  When they celebrated their 20th anniversary in 1995, I thought to myself, "See, they really do love each other."

I've written and rewritten this blog post several times over the past 3 weeks but haven't posted it until now.  My first few attempts sounded too angry.  I’m getting over the anger because I realize that one, things aren’t always as they seem and two, their divorce is their business and it doesn't change the fact that I still am and always will be a Captain & Tennille fan.  I'm sure it will be quite a while before I will be able to listen to any of their CDs though.  Sadly, the song  “Love Will Keep Us Together" will never sound the same again.   

 

Prescott, Arizona

This looks like such a pretty place...

 

Did you notice who the narrator is?  It is none other than Toni Tennille.  She and Daryl live in Prescott.  Phoenix is on our list of future vacation spots and Prescott is only about 100 miles away so maybe I can talk Bill into visiting Prescott.  I mean heck, they even have a microbrewery called Prescott Brewing Company so it would definitely be worth the trip.  :)  

 

Snow in March

OK, so it's not totally unusual to have snow here in March.  Sometimes it's even a fairly big snowfall.  I remember back on March 7 of 1978, we got about 8 inches of snow.  Now you're probably wondering how I remember the date and the fact that it snowed.  Well, there are several reasons.  First, I was in 10th grade that year and was taking Driver's Ed.  It was my 6th hour class (last class of the day) and I was supposed to drive after school that day.  Well, it had started snowing around noon and there were already several inches of snow on the ground by the time my Driver's Ed class started.  When I got to class, I asked the teacher, Mr. Brooks, if our driving session was cancelled due to snow.  He said, "No" and then I replied, "But I've never driven in snow."  He looked at me and said, "Well, you've got to learn sometime and today is as good a day as any."  Grrrrr...I was so not looking forward to it.  I had only driven two other times so I wasn't exactly an experienced driver.  Besides that, Captain & Tennille were going to be on the Mike Douglas Show that afternoon and I was going to miss it if I had to drive.  Well, about half way through the class, a school-wide announcement was made that all after school activities were cancelled due to the snow.  Of course I immediately raised my hand and said, "Does that include our driving session?"  Mr. Brooks looked and me and said, "Well, I guess so but you'll still have to learn to drive in snow one of these days."   Hee hee hee.  I didn't have to drive in snow that day AND I was able to see Captain & Tennille on Mike Douglas.  School was cancelled the next day due to snow and it was my sister's birthday so that's how I remember the date.  Well that and I also have a memory like an elephant!

So, we got 3 inches of snow on Monday and then yesterday it was 68 degrees and I drove home with my top down.  Today it was a record-high 83 degrees!  Talk about wacky weather.  

We've Got a Kitchen

OK, so technically we've had a functional kitchen for about 6 weeks now.  The cardboard was still covering the floor until about 4 weeks ago when they removed it and sealed the grout.  The knobs were finally finished about 2 weeks ago along with a lot of little odds and ends.  As I mentioned in my last post, we still need to decide on new window treatments and we also need to buy a new fridge.  We're looking at stainless, counter-depth models.  That will be fairly easy but the window treatments are much more difficult.  We keep going back and forth on what we want.  Anyway, here are a few pictures of the kitchen as it is today...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Here is a picture of what is written on the frames of the cabinets...

 

I just cracked up when I saw this.  C&T stands for Callier and Thompson but I immediately thought Captain & Tennille. 

We got 8" of snow on Thursday and they were predicting another 1 to 2 inches on Friday night.  That never materialized, thank goodness.  They were then predicting another 2 to 4 inches today but we only got get another inch or so.  I am so sick of winter.  When our local Fox weather guy, Dave Murray, gave his extended forecast/prediction back in November, he specifically said that January would be very mild temperature-wise and that there would be little if any snow.  You can ready his entire forecast by clicking here.  Um, hello?  I haven't seen "mild" yet this month.  I have shoveled "little if any" snow 4 times so far and each time, it hasn't exactly been little.  If anything, I'd say his prediction was a "little" off.

I have a few cards to post in the upcoming week.  Be sure to check back.  Until then...      

River City Casino & Toni Turns 70

We went to the River City Casino last night.  It's a new casino in South County, Lemay to be exact, which opened about 6 or 8 weeks ago.  The theme is the 1904 World's Fair which, as you probably know, was held here in St. Louis.

We ate dinner at one of the restaurants in the casino called 1904 Beerhouse.  They have 32 beers on tap and 100 bottled beers.  We tried their house brew which is a red ale.  It was good and the funny thing is, the waitress told us that it's brewed for them by Anheuser Busch.  Like I've said before, they know how to brew beer, but they choose to make that light stuff instead...hee hee hee.  Anyway, we started with the crab fritters; think hushpuppies with crabmeat inside.  I then had a big bowl of the cheddar beer soup and the hot pretzels and Bill had the french dip.  We headed into the casino after dinner.  I lost $5 and Bill won $2.44.  We're such big gamblers!  After we finished gambling, we stopped by the 1904 Beerhouse again to try one of the bottled beers, Arcadia Cocoa Loco, a triple chocolate milk stout.  Perfect for dessert.

In other news, Toni Tennille turned 70 years old today.  Happy Birthday, Toni.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Pioneer Woman & People I'd Like to Meet

I received my Pioneer Woman cookbook from Amazon a few days ago.  I absolutely love her website.  She has a great sense of humor and her recipes are amazing.  Her real name is Ree Drummond and she lives on a ranch with her husband and children.  If you've never visited her website, be sure to click here. 

Pioneer Woman was in St. Louis last week for a book signing.  For the past month or so, I had been thinking about going to the signing but about a week before the signing, they changed the venue from Left Bank Books to Christ Church Cathedral because they were expecting A LOT of people.  I'm not fond of standing in lines, especially long lines, for hours and hours.  The change of venue pretty much sealed the deal for me and I decided not to go.  As much as I would have loved to meet her, I was not willing to wait around for hours.  I'm satisifed with my non-autographed copy.  I figure that any recipe I make will taste the same whether the book is autographed or not...hee hee hee.   

This started me thinking about the people for whom I'd be willing to stand in line for a chance to meet.  When I say "in line" I mean for hours and hours.  OK, here's my list.

1. President Reagan - Yes, I  know he's no longer alive but, if he were, I'd stand in line ALL DAY LONG for a chance to meet him.  I saw him "in person" twice; once right before the 1984 election when he was in St. Louis for a campaign stop under the Arch and once in 1986 when he was in St. Louis for a Republican fund-raiser luncheon.  That one was especially cool because my table was right in front and when he and Nancy walked out to the head table and they were literally only 4 feet from me when they walked by.  Oh my goodness.  OK, I digress, but I think you get the idea.
2. President George W. Bush and/or Laura Bush - No, I didn't agree with everything he did during his presidency, but he still was a great President and I believe that we remained safe because of him.  I shudder to think what shape this country would be in if Gore or Kerry had won and I worry every day about what damage the current administration is doing.  Yikes.  As for Laura, I just think she's a wonderful person and I love her personality and would love to meet her.
3. Sarah Palin - She is amazing.  I voted for McCain specifically because of her.  Well, I guess I would have voted for him any way because there was no way I was going to vote for BHO but McCain wasn't my first choice (I voted for Romney in the primary).  Sarah's beliefs and values are much more in line with mine than McCain's are.  When I voted, I told myself that I was voting for Sarah Palin.  McCain just happened to be on the ticket with her.  I truly believe that she will be on the political scene for many years to come.   
4. Captain & Tennille - I've met them several times before (I've lost count actually), but I'd still stand in line to meet them again.  They are enjoying retired life in Arizona so I'm sure I won't ever have the chance to meet them again but who knows.
5. Fleetwood Mac - I'd love to meet the entire group but I'd specifically like to meet Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.  I've seen them in concert about 15 times (plus Stevie solo about 10 times and Linsdsey solo 3 times) but I'd love to actually meet them.  Yeah, like that's ever going to happen.

There you have it.  If you're not on the list, I'm not going to stand in line to meet you...hee hee hee. 

70's on 7

I just love the Sirius Satellite Radio in my car.  There are so many cool stations and the best part is, most of them are commercial free.  How great is that?  I also like the fact that the artist and song are listed on the display because sometimes I know the song but have no idea who sings it.  

Some of the stations that I have preset on my radio are the Fox News, Conservative Talk, Mellow Rock, Disco, 70's Rock, 80's Rock, Hard Rock, and 40's Big Band but perhaps my very favorite is the 70's Pop channel aka 70's on 7.  They play artists such as Donna Summer, Andy Gibb, Carpenters and my absolute favorite of all time, Captain & Tennille.  Woohoo.  Before I had Sirius Radio, I can't even remember the last time I heard a C&T song on the radio.  Anyway, I heard Love Will Keep Us Together a few days after I bought the car and I heard Do That To Me One More Time a few weeks ago.  Well, I heard Love Will Keep Us Together again this morning on the way to work.  I sang along and then hit the "back" button to listen to it again.  Yes, that's a cool feature.  There was even a sound bite from Toni and Daryl after the song.  Ah, the 70's!  

By the way, I do still stamp.  I've been stamping quite a bit lately, however, most of the creations are either Halloween or Christmas so I can't share them on my blog until the recipients receive.  I do have some 3x3 cards that I made last weekend so I'll be sure to take a picture and post them here tomorrow.

We're going to dinner at Blueberry Hill tonight.  Can't wait to eat the fried cheddar cheese balls and the blue cheese and bacon burger.  Mmmmmmmm...

23 Years

OMG.  Has it really been 23 years?  Yes, Bill and I were married 23 years ago today.  That's almost half of my life time ago!  Yikes.

Here's the card I made for him.  Being the avid Captain & Tennille fan that I am, I love the "love will keep us together" sentiment and I use it whenever I can...

 

Ingredients:

Ink - Dark Chocolate by Papertrey Ink 

Card stock - Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy, Kraft and Vintage Cream by Papertrey Ink 

Patterned Paper - by @Stampin' Up    

Images - Itty Bitty Buds by @Stampin' Up, sentiment by Papertrey Ink 

Accessories- buttons by Papertrey Ink, Top Note die and linen thread by @Stampin' Up, ribbon by Michaels

The Muny season opens tomorrow with 42nd Street.  Stay tuned for details...