What's up with this no a/c business?

Our air conditioner isn't working. That's right, it's the very hottest time of the year, and the compressor is dead. Dead, I tell you. It's been dead since last Friday night. We called American Home Shield last Saturday and they sent someone to look at it on Monday. That guy was a jerk (best four letter word I could think of to describe him, yet still keep it clean). He said that it was somehow our fault that it wasn't working, so AHS wasn't going to pay for a new compressor. Hubby called AHS and asked for a second opinion. They came out today and said that it does indeed need to be replaced. Hubby's on the phone right now with AHS--I'm waiting to find out what the final verdict is.

On the bright side, even though it's in the 110s here, inside it's a cooler 91 degrees this evening. Remember, it's a dry heat!

Sonny has a window a/c unit, so he's fine with his door closed. Hubby rigged another window unit at our front door, so it's not boiling hot. Also, we have lots of fans running. It's really like being at camp.

One more thing along the lines of 'everything happens for a reason': my sister and nephew had planned to come here to visit us but their plans fell through. If they would have been able to come as planned, they would've been here now...hmmmmm....

A side note, the bookmobile generator is on the blink, so we had no a/c today and had to cancel our stops!

News Video

Last week, KENS-TV, San Antonio, did a news story featuring the new blood donation center in New Braunfels where my sister Kay and family live. Her wonderful husband Jimmy and little John were in the video, and if you look closely, you'll also catch glimpses of Frances and James. Jimmy was interviewed--we're so proud--we miss you all so much! Here's the link to the video After clicking on the link, scroll down to the Medical News section and check the box marked "Blood donation site opens in New Braunfels".

Hot Hot Hot!

Summer's finally here in Las Vegas. It got up to at least 115 today on our back porch thermometer. I usually think that our swimming pool is a pain, but not these days. It's supposed to cool off to about 110 tomorrow...

Country Music Experience of a Lifetime-Part Three

ACM Awards

There aren’t very many pictures here because we couldn’t take our camera in. I did take some pictures with my cell phone of the stage, the cameraman and the crowd as they were coming in. In the sixth picture, you’ll see two blondes—one with short hair and one with longer hair. We stood by them for hours at the Fremont Street concert the weekend before! I think the young one (the daughter, we think) was still hungover…
The last pictures are of us before we left the house. Henry says hi! And thanks Mary, for lending me the hat and boots! The show was a lot of fun—we saw almost Everyone In Country Music Today! There were some touching moments, too. Carrie Underwood was receiving so much adulation during her performance of “ Jesus, Take The Wheel”, that she actually choked up near the end. She is one of those performers that seems like a very genuinely nice and grounded person. I was a little bit disappointed in Dierks Bentley, however. He might be a little too famous or something…
The Academy of Country Music Awards took place at the famous MGM Grand Garden Arena. Brad Paisley opened the show—he’s great! Reba was fabulous as emcee. Some of the performers, like Toby Keith, used the teleprompter for their songs. Most didn’t, though. The teleprompters were huge and placed in the rear of the floor, so we could read the jokes and get the punchline before the TV audience. That was fun. All in all, it was an evening that we’ll not forget!

You know what to do!

Country Music Experience of a Lifetime-Part Two

There was a free concert on Fremont Street, featuring country music artists that were in town for the Academy of Country Music Awards. They had all just been on a 3 hour bike ride up Mt. Charleston, and it was a pretty warm day, but they were ready to play! To go along with the price of the concert, we had to deal with some annoying drunk people, but it was mostly worth it. The pictures in this gallery feature some antique rods that were leaving Fremont Street to make room for all of the country hullabaloo that was about to begin. The rest of the pictures are of the various artists and, of course, the crowd (guess which people were annoying!). I know it’s hard to tell, so I’ll give you the names of the artists that I remember. First was Montgomery Gentry. Troy Gentry is the one with the batman t-shirt (and bat-cycle!). Next came Dierks Bentley (black t-shirt, red bandana). Incidently, the guys with the red t-shirts were the band that backed all of the artists. To continue—the next group was Little Big Town (‘Boondocks’). Then, a new one to me, Rockie Lynne. What a nice guy—and talented, too! Hubby and I noticed how truly nice he was to the fans earlier in the day at the Harley thing. The next person’s name was Melody, I think--I hadn’t heard of her before, either. I think that the next one was John Nicholson—he was entertaining and I hope he’ll go far. I think the guy in the tan bandana was James Otto. After that was Trick Pony. There was an hour break, then the music started up again with members of the Muzic Mafia (stands for Musically Artistic Friends In Alliance). Notice the artist onstage on the left. She painted, twirling her canvas, the whole time the Mafia was on. You’ll then notice some unavoidable crowd shots. If you look closely, past the butts, onstage you’ll see the “Redneck Woman” herself, Gretchen Wilson (yellow cap). The rest of the pictures are of Big And Rich, with Gretchen singing with them towards the end. That was the first time I had heard Big and Rich’s song, “Eighth of November”. The concert started at about 2 pm and was over at about midnight!

It was during this concert that the local radio station’s mascot-dude, “Stunt Runt” was said to be amongst the crowd, giving out tickets to the following Tuesday’s ACM Awards. Suddenly, he appeared next to Hubby and we got two tickets! Those pictures will be on the next post.

Click here for the pictures!

Country Music Experience of a Lifetime-Part One

Las Vegas has some cool stuff going on, most of the time. Some of it appeals to me and some of it doesn’t. But this—this was really something!

The Academy of Country Music sponsors an annual charity bike ride that begins here at the Las Vegas Harley Davidson dealership. It happens to be less than a mile away from our house—how convenient! We arrived there at about 9am on May 21st, along with a pretty good sized crowd. Since it was morning, I forgot my sunscreen…
We saw several country stars. The biggest names were Montgomery Gentry, Keith Urban, and Big Kenny of Big And Rich. Nicole’s husband was very unassuming. MG and BK were down to earth folks, too. How refreshing!
Note that in the third photo, you can see the Wendy’s where Sonny works.

Click here to see the pictures!

Little Mermaid Pics!

Finally—-what many who know Sonny have been waiting for—-the photos from “The Little Mermaid”! Before you look at them, let me explain that they were all taken at the Sunday matinee. You’ll see the set, the crowd, and the actors’ meet and greet after the performance. The next photos show the cast answering questions of a Girl Scout troop. Then, you’ll see, in pretty much backwards order (because that’s the way they did it), photos of key scenes in the play. You’ll also see Sonny helping change the set for the photos, and you’ll notice the professional photographers in some of the shots, too. For some reason, they did one scene out of order—the scene where the Little Mermaid discovers her new legs. All of the actors did especially well, but I’m of course partial to one of the sailors, as well as the good looking young man in the tux.