I HOPE ED BEGLEY GOES TO THE PUYALLUP MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR EVERY YEAR

because I'm going to start a wall collection of me and Ed.

Me and Ed in 2012

Me and Ed in 2013 - I've gained weight and Ed got a haircut

Larry and I love going to the Mother Earth News Fair.  We leave inspired, wanting to do better and more, plus, it fuels our dreams of one day being completely self sufficient.

Now that we our little flock of five, we went into the poultry tent to check out some feathered friends.  Some have the craziest, coolest hair!

Some are drop dead gorgeous and other breeds, not so much.

We saw a hen lay an egg - something I've never seen before - SO cool!

Larry and I went to many seminars and demonstrations - electric motorcycles, solar power, soap making, taking care of our chicks, farmstead cooking, herding dogs, medicinal weeds....and there were more we couldn't take.  That's why we love going back every year. We learn SO much!

I fell in love with goats and alpacas.

And one of the funniest things we saw on our way out were a couple of llama carriages.   So cute and hilarious!

I MET ED!

When we saw that the Mother Earth News Fair was going to be in Puyallup, we thought it would be fun to go.
When I saw that Ed Begley Jr was going to be there, I knew we HAD to go!

I found the booth Ed was in before he went on stage to speak.  I was so excited!  That smile didn't leave my face all day.  Larry was in a solar class, so he missed it  :-(

Ed's presentation was amazing.  Top three pointers I got were:
1.  Get a home energy audit.
2.  Don't go into debt going green.  Do what you can with the simple and inexpensive changes first.  With the savings you are getting from your changes, upgrade to better green options when you can.
3.  Live simply so that others can simply live.    

PS - For those of you who love Ed also, and are wondering if Living With Ed will be coming back, it won't. BUT there is great news.  A new series called On Begley Street will.  It will either be on cable or a web series.  Yay!

IMAGINE DRAGONS AT WATERFRONT PARK

Yes, we've seen Imagine Dragons in concert three times this month. We just can't help it.  Their music speaks to my soul, and it's not everyday that they come to the northwest.  And the entire man clan agree - Imagine Dragons knocks our socks off.
It was just Larry and I for this concert and we had four jealous boys - muah, ha, ha.

It was a perfect Portland evening, with a front row view of one of our favorite bands who put on a ridiculously awesome show.

IMAGINE DRAGONS CONCERT IN SEATTLE

When Larry and I went to the Imagine Dragons concert in Portland, we had some really bummed teenagers.  So when they added an all-ages concert in the Seattle area to their schedule, I got us tickets.
Want happy teenagers?  Get them Imagine Dragons tickets!  

The boys were REALLY hoping they could meet the band, but towards the end of the performance, they announced they were heading out immediately to catch a red eye flight.  Oh, our boys were so sad.
Thankfully, Ryan, I.D.'s tour manager, found us so the boys could quickly meet the band.  Besides being amazingly talented, these guys are the nicest guys ever!  Needless to say, we had beyond ecstatic teenagers!

Larry, with Ryan and his LongBoardLarry board he has named "citrus" and Dan, Image Dragons lead singer

Our happy teenagers with their perm-a-grins and Uncle Steve.  It was a really fun night!

IMAGINE DRAGONS CONCERT

I know you think I'm going to say, Imagine Dragons were AWESOME!  Well, you're wrong.  They were BEYOND AWESOME!  It was amazeballs - they killed it.  They play with SO much energy and passion,  They are super fun to watch and we were bummed when their segment of concert time was over.  We could have listened to them all night.

We were right up front for the concert.  The stage is really small at Mississippi Studios and so with the setup, we could see Wayne and Dan perfectly, part of Daniel but could only see the top of Ben's head.

The photos were taken with my small pocket camera, no flash and dim lights.  I don't even care that they are blurry.  Even if the lighting was brighter, they'd still be blurry because I couldn't hold still the whole time they played.  

Benjamin Francis Leftwich opened first.  His songs were mellow and some of the lyrics were interesting, not sure what inspired some of the songs, but overall we liked him.  He was really funny.
The Jezabels were the headliners.  They were good, but to be honest, they should have been opening up for Imagine Dragons.  No joke.

Local friends, you are going to have two chances to see Imagine Dragons this month with just a smidge of drive time:
Friday, May 25 they will be playing in Auburn, Washington.
Sunday, May 27 they will be playing at Waterfront Park in Portland.

Get your tickets right now.  You're welcome.

IMAGINE DRAGONS AND LONGBOARDLARRY

Larry made a custom 56" Cruiser for Dan Reynolds, lead singer of Imagine Dragons.  You know us well, if you know Imagine Dragons is one of our FAVORITE bands.  We were beyond excited to make this longboard!

We had tickets to see them in concert Friday night, as part of a Portland weekend for Larry's birthday, so this beauty was packaged up and we took it with us Friday morning.

There was a special private acoustic performance at Kink FM in the afternoon, in the Bing Lounge, that we were invited to, to do the hand off.  To be honest, we were giddy!

Of course, they were amazing and it was super fun to watch.  After the meet and greet, we unveiled the custom longboard.

photo taken by Ryan 

photo taken by a cute and super nice Kink FM gal

photo taken by the same cute and super nice Kink FM gal

you guessed it, taken by the cute and super nice Kink FM gal

They are really nice, super friendly and down to earth.  Larry and I smiled the rest of the afternoon and were even MORE excited to see them in concert that night.  Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of summer we're still smiling.

PS - We had another "highlight" at this performance.  Kink FM gave everyone at the performance tickets to see Imagine Dragons, on May 27th, at the Rose Festival RoZone Concert at Waterfront Park.

Local friends, you must, and I mean MUST, get tickets to see them on the 27th.  If you don't, you're insane in the membrane.

I'M HIGH ON FLOWERS,

Brandon Flowers, that is. What an awesome concert!
In September Larry bought us tickets to see Brandon Flowers playing at the Roseland and the night finally came! The energy in the theater was exhilarating! Larry and I have had some awesome date nights and this one is definitely one of the best!We were front and center and it was so much fun! Fran Healy opened and oh my goodness is he funny and he had great music!
The only thing I would have changed about the evening is not to have to take photos with my phone - I wish I could have had my real camera with me!
I just have to say it one more time - the concert was awesome, awesome, AWESOME!!

I'M GOING TO HAVE TROUBLE

sleeping tonight because I am on a Leverage high!

My sister, Stephanie, and I went to Hotel Delux to see the screening of Season 2 (front row!) and got to meet Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Timothy Hutton, Aldis Hodge and Beth Riesgraf...

Remember the "you're adorable" episode?

(Steph has a some photos on her camera that I will post later).

We got autographs, photos and a t-shirt. It was such a great evening! So fun!!