Movin' On Up.....

Well, today I closed on my new house!! It's a bit overwhelming to have a big mortgage again, but the reality is it's a good investment, the timing was right in the market, and I finally found a house I really like which has a lot of potential.
Here I am walking through the front door for the first time as the owner!

There are several renovation projects to be done. I'll try to find a place to upload all the before and after shots so you can watch the progress if so inclined.

The Broads are back in town!

Saturday, March 29 saw the Broads descend on Atlanta once more...and this time the snow stayed away! We originally had tickets to see Barry in Atlanta back in January but a freak snowstorm (that ended up really being nothing) caused the concert to be cancelled. So this was the rescheduled date, and what a great time we had!

Lyn and I met up earlier and went to breakfast at a GREAT place called the Thumbs Up Diner while Lois, Laurie, and Joy did some shopping while waiting for the hotel room to be ready. It was SO good to see everyone again and have some Broads time together. For years, Barry was on the road, and we were on the road with him, and saw each other far more often and had such great fun roadtrips together. But then Barry got old and went to Vegas, and we got older too and real life intervenes, and the end result is we just don't have the time to see each other like we used to. But when we do manage to get together, boy...do we have a great time!

We ended up at what seems to be the offical Broads restaurant...no, not Denny's....but THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY. Joy's on a diet so here's a picture of what was left of her big bowl of roughage...

but the rest of us enjoyed our meals and Lois was delirious over her Dulce de Leche cheesecake.

After dinner, we headed to MARTA to subway to the show, and actually got in trouble for...of all things....LAUGHING TOO LOUD in the station! Security actually came down to check on us thinking we were being murdered or something, I suppose, and when they found out we were actually just having a good time, they told us to keep it down! LOL!! Go figure....

We got to the show as the opening act finished up and headed to our 2nd row seats....Joy and Laurie on one end, and Lois, Lyn, and I on the other. Barry came out in a really cool jacket with blue sparkly things that changed in the light. He struggled with the sound and made comments about his voice going, but I thought he sounded overall pretty good and the crowd was very enthusiastic. The old footage of him singing Mandy and Could it Be Magic as he duets with himself live always gets to me, more because it just reminds me of all the years I've spent loving this music and this experience with my friends. And his encore of Forever and a Day was particularly powerful. Here's a couple of the big guy...


And one after inhaling the "funny cigarette".....

For larger versions of these and the rest of the roughly 90+ pics from the show and trip, feel free to peruse the following link:
Barry pics - Atlanta

For Lois' account of this trip, please visit her blog by clicking here.

It's always pretty cool to look around an arena of that massive size and see the green glowsticks throughout from top to bottom. We did unfortunately have 2 complete morons sitting behind us who chose the night that they spent $200 on 3rd-row seats to carry on a never-ending conversation with each other, screaming over the music and never once paying attention to anything happening on stage. I was ready to kill them already, but when they did it all through Could It Be Magic (with a full orchestra, no less), I thought fists were going to fly. We tried to be subtle, we tried being rude...nothing worked. They were oblivious to everything but each other. Girls, next time, save the $400 and pour yourself some nice glasses of beer or wine in the comfort of your own home and chat away, and leave the concerts to those of us who actually paid to hear the performer and not your conversation.

After the show and a rather lengthy wait for MARTA, we headed to Cafe Intermezzo for cocktails and dessert, then headed back to the hotel in the wee hours. We had a nice breakfast and chat at the hotel breakfast bar on Sunday morning before we too soon headed our separate ways. I was so reminded of how much I miss these gals and our trips together, and hope we can all find a way to do it again sooner rather than later!