A Karaoke Birthday

My birthday is right around the corner and everyone in my family is asking me what I want this year, so I have been thinking about it and I have decided my top pick would have to be a home karaoke machine. Ever since I was a young kid I’ve always find myself turning up some of my favorite music and singing along (quite loudly, mind you) with it, dancing around the room with a spiral hair brush in my hand pretending it is my microphone. Most of my girlfriends did the same thing and when we would all get together we would spend most of it listening, singing and talking about music. Man didn’t we have some great times, all based around the magic of music.

And the sleep-overs, I swear I don’t think I ever spent a weekend along. I was either at one of my friends house or one or more was sleeping over at my place. Most of the time we were at my house, it was always so kid friendly and a safe place for all the kids of the neighborhood and all the other kids that wanted or needed a place to hang and have fun. My parents made a huge effort to make and keep it that way for as long as possible. They still have people come to the door that used to come over  and play that just wanted to stop by and say hello and see if our family was still calling the house our home. My mother really gets a kick out of seeing how much they have grown and changed and hear all of there stories.

shure sm58
The Shure SM58 Mic

Well back to the subject of a karaoke machine I searched around on the Internet for some idea of the prices that they are asking for today’s home karaoke machines, and where to buy a microphone that I would like with it and had found a particular website that offers so many awesome karaoke machines for outrageously low prices. I sent out an email shared this sites URL with my close family members that have asked me for any ideas that I might have for a birthday gift this year.

Beauty Salon Equipment Supplies By Elegans

Next week will be a great week if the weather could only cooperate a bit more. The kids will be out of school for their spring break and we are all piling into the car and heading down to North Carolina to spend some time with Judy and her kids. Judy and I have been very close friends since the fourth grade. Even though she moved down south, an eight hour drive from here, we have managed to keep in close contact with each other using our cell phones and of course there is always email and Facebook that we can rely on to communicate with each other.

Judy is in the process of opening up her own beauty salon. It will be good to be right there with her to get a good look at all of the things that she has been telling me about. Finding the right beauty equipment for sale has been a challenge for her. She is lucky that her mother lives less than 5 miles away and used to work as a beautician before they moved down there. I have always been envious of their close mother/daughter relationship. My mother and I rarely talk. I can’t imagine my mother just randomly coming over to the house and just hang out for the day. With her it still requires an invitation and it takes hours to get the place cleaned up before she is scheduled to arrive.

Anyway it looks like she has decided on the salon equipment sydney that she found online with the link that I found and sent her a few weeks ago. That makes me feel good to have been able to contribute to her new goal, even living so far away from each other. Watch out North Carolina, here we come!

Doomed From The Beginning

As far as any one of us were concerned, our musician friend Eric had flown the coop to San Francisco and had no plans of seeing him again any time soon. He and his buddy, Josh, left right after Christmas, they loaded up their cargo van with all of their musical instruments and equipment and a few things that they would need once they got there and got settled in and left town with the biggest grins on their faces. A Kodak moment to be sure, too bad no one had a camera and didn’t think to use any of the cell phones that we all had that could have captured the moment, sigh.

So imagine my surprise to answer the door last night to find Eric and Josh both standing on my front porch looking pretty ragged and tired. I got them in, fixed them some grub and brought in the six-pack that I had just purchased on my way home and settled in to hear their tales of woe.

They were doomed from the beginning with getting two flat tires even before leaving the state and of course they only had one spare. That held them up an extra day and put a hurting in their budge right off. Then one night when they were in a restaurant/bar some body broke into their vehicle and stole a bunch of their equipment, including Eric’s brand new apogee quartet that he had just gotten for Christmas, which broke Eric’s heart and his spirit enough to were they never made it out to California at all. How depressing this whole adventure turned out to be.

Cat Stevens

I wonder whatever happened to Cat Stevens. I haven’t heard anything about him in so long. I fell in love with his music when I was a kid, my parents used to play his album back before CDs where even thought of. I’m glad that my parents always had music playing in the house that we grew up in. I love all types of music and You Tube has become one of my best friends as of late.

Aunt Shirley, Our Golden Oldie

Aunt Shirley has mastered her smart phone in a very short time. No one expected her to catch on so darned quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is great, considering a lot of people her age wouldn’t even attempt to do some of the things that this “golden oldie” has learned to do. Last year she celebrated her 78th birthday party. Her 80th birthday party is going to be crazy fun. As a matter of fact it is already in the planning stages.

After Uncle Bernie passed away, she was back on her feet in no time. She went and got her real estate license and has done pretty well considering we are still in an economic crises and houses are still moving at a snail’s pace. She has been using a lot of tools that having a smart phone can offer. Even a pretty cool real estate closing checklist app that has proved to be one of the best toolss to come to the real estate business in a long time.

Heck I don’t even have a smart phone. Don’t want one. Don’t need one. As a matter of fact, my two year contract just ended with AT&T and I am due for an upgrade. I don’t want anything fancy. Don’t need the Internet, GPS, the weather, none of the stuff, just let me make a call, send a text and take a picture and I’m good to go. I know that they still make flip phones, but they don’t come with a slide out keyboard that is required for texting.

Searching for Chocolate

My sister belongs to the local Red Hatter’s club, so I’ve been helping her to find a cool restaurant to hold their March gathering. They are a great group of ladies, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting most of them at various functions that I’ve attended with my sister. One day I’ll be joining the club, but you have to be 50 years old and I have a ways to go yet, but it will come soon enough, I’m sure.

Anyways, it is cool that we no longer have to rely on the old fashioned paper version of the local yellowpages to find local restaurants and such and that we can turn to the Internet to find just about anything you need at any time. Whether it is a local search or trying to find something half way across the world, it’s all there for the taking for anyone looking.

We did come up with a place called The Frenchman’s Corner, that sounds interesting, you can drink your coffee or tea and  taste their Belgian chocolates on a what is promised to be a journey of gastronomic sweet delights. Going with a group of friends to a place like that is perfect. If and when they decide to go there I’ll tag along, sounds like fun and I love chocolate!

Generations

Weird how some things get passed down through the generations and some things don’t. I come from a family that is over flowing with musical talent of some type. There are singers and dancers galore, as well as many types of musical instrument being playing played all year through, while I can’t do any of the above. If I start to sing, people start leaving as soon as possible. I had piano lessons while I was a kid. The lady next door was my teacher, she was a great piano playing and a a good friend to my mother. But no mater how hard and long as I practiced I just never got the hang up if and I insisted that I don’t want any more lessons, ever.

One major trait that I did inherit is hair and lots of it. Hair everywhere in the usual places and more. I remember riding the bus in elementary school and the kids started calling me gorilla arms. I can’t tell you how embarrassing that was. I took it as long as I could but then I just plain had enough of it and came home, found my mothers razor and shaved both of my arms and have continued doing that for the rest of my life. Up until now that is.

There are so many products out there to help with people that have extreme hair issues and I’m ready to start looking at them. I’m tired of shaving my arms every day. It’s bad enough to have to shave my legs and arm pits almost every day. So I have been looking into purchasing an epilator to do the job. For the past week or so I have been looking online and have found a great site that gives us epilator reviews and guides that has been very helpful. If I am going to dive in and give one of these epilators a try I want to make sure that I am buying the right one and paying the right price for it as well.

interesting epilator
Emjoi AP-18 Emagine 72 Tweezer Head Epilator

This particular one is listed as an Emjoi AP-18 Emagine 72 Tweezer Head Epilator. It isn’t cheap but I think it just might be the right one for me. I think I will go ahead and order one. I’ll keep you posted on how it works out for me.

 

Tee Time at Myrtle Beach Come June

My sister just called and has invited me to go with her and her husband to spend a nice relaxing long week end at one of the best Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Resorts come the end of June. They just got their tax return in the mail (crazy quick I know, right) and have decided to live it up for a change. Things have been so depressing with the economy and the extreme winter weather that we all need a nice break before we all lose our minds. Wasn’t that so cool of her to include me in on the fun in the sun at the Myrtle Beach Resort that she has made reservations at come summer!

She went online and did a quick research and found a great Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Resort that has some great golf packages to offer. We all enjoy a good game of golf now and then. Our parents got us into golfing at very early ages and it has always been a great family activity that we try and partake in as much as possible. So golfing at one of the great golf courses that Myrtle Beach is so well known for sounds wonderful!

Knowing my sister as well as I do I can imagine that she has found one of the better Myrtle Beach Resorts that they have there and we are all in for a great treat. It has been a rough couple of weeks for me at work and this is just what I need to keep me going. Thanks sis!

Cheap Gift Ideas for Guitarists

Last Christmas was made so much easier by utilizing the Internet for all that it is worth. I actually purchased every single present online this time. I didn’t have to go to the mall or to Walmart or Target for anything, 100%. Except of course for any of the groceries or items that are sold at the grocery stores. Now that is what I’m talking about!

I did all of my research online as well. There is so much good information out there – it just amazes me. By using sites that offer advice, like the one that I used to find a cheap gift for guitarists which gave me good info that I actually used to help decide a couple of gifts with. I don’t think there really is a music store here in this town. Other than what Walmart and Target have to offer, and that isn’t much at all. So online is the way to go unless you want to drive over an hour to the next town over that has a small music store in the old town district.

Surprised Kitty Video on You Tube

I love finding cute videos on You Tube, the ones with puppies and/or kittens are my favorite. This one just cracks me up each time I watch it. They actually had this on The Animal Planet Channel two nights ago so I rushed to my computer yesterday to see if I could find it on You Tube and sure enough it was there. Gotta love You Tube!