The Cherry Trees Are Blossoming

I saw this cherry blossom in front of Milford Memorial Hospital as I was leaving from my shift this morning. It was the first one I saw this season. The ones in our yard just started to bud. It was a nice reminder that Spring has started.

Megan has a nice opportunity to see many cherry blossoms tomorrow. She's going with her family (Barb, Charlie and Sheri) to D.C. tomorrow. Why am I not going? Because, I'm working. Apparently, Megan planned this family trip on a day I was supposed to work. Coincidence? I have no idea. At least I got to see one cherry blossom this season.

mp3: "Missed the Boat" by Modest Mouse

This is a song by the newest incarnation of Modest Mouse, by the way. It's the one that includes guitar legend Johnny Marr, returned drummer Jeremiah Green, and guest vocalist James Mercer. It's a dream line-up if you ask me, and despite my initial skepticism I love the new album.

Shin Date

Megan and I went on a date last night. It was dinner and a show. Part of that was fortunately due to Sheri, generously Paige-sitting for us. Unfortunately, Derek, who was supposed to meet us at The Shins concert, missed it for work reasons.

The show was in Philadelphia, so Megan and I decided to go early and eat dinner in Chinatown. There used to be this great placed called the Nice Noodle House, but the name was changed to "Ong" and the menu changed too. We ate there anyway and found that we liked it, especially the jackfruit shakes. Megan impressed every non-white person there, by ordering an off-menu item.

The show was great, mostly because of audience enthusiasm. They played nearly 2/3 of all their album material, which meant that if you had a favorite Shins song, they most likely played it. Songs from their older albums, especially Chutes Too Narrow received the best response. My favorite moment was their energetic cover of a song by The Modern Lovers, because it a pleasant surprised to see them successfully break away from what they did well (melodic, carefully-arranged pop) to something a little uglier, a little more punk.

Megan received VIP treatment. Her and I watched the show from the balcony, so we could be close to the bar. The best view was from the landing at the top of the stairs, but a bouncer was there, shoo-ing people away to keep the flow of people moving. He certainly wasn't making friends doing it either. He respected Megan for not standing on the landing, but he did notice that she was centimeters away from it so she could have an unobstructed view. The night began with him telling people to move out of the way "to keep this area open" and later became "you're blocking someone's view." Megan thanked him at the end of the show and he asked to make sure she had a good time. I felt bad we didn't tip him.

Here's the setlist from what I can remember. They played a lot of songs.

Sleeping Lessons
Australia
Pam Berry
Phantom Limb
Kissing The Lipless
Mine's Not A High Horse
Girl Inform Me
?
New Slang
Saint Simon
Girl Sailor
Turn A Square
Gone For Good
A Comet Appears
Turn On Me
Know Your Onion
Pressed In A Book
Caring Is Creepy

(encore break)

Pink Bullets
Someone I Care About (The Modern Lovers cover)
So Says I

Is there anyone out there who can identify the song they played after "Girl Inform Me"? More importantly, does anyone have a recording of their version of "Someone I Care About"? It was amazing.

By the way, they're going to be on Conan tonight, so set your VCR's (or TiVo's).

mp3: "Someone I Care About" by The Modern Lovers

Training Day

Today, Megan and I got to play with our new snowboards at Blue Mountain, PA. She did very well and progressed to some slopes with decent pitch. I'm looking forward to dragging her through some steep, powdery big-mountain woods on next year's ski trip. As for myself, I widened my stance by one inch and that made sticking jumps much easier.We weren't the only ones improving our winter sports skills today. Mary, Alexander and my dad met us there. This was Alexander's second day skiing. He rode the lift today. I saw him ski without support and then stop. It was amazing. I'm also looking forward to dragging him through some steep, powdery big-mountain woods.Best of all, one of my old winter-sports buddies put on skis for the first time in four years. I'm referring, of course, to my sister Mary. Granted, it was only to train her son on the bunny slope, but it did raise hope that we would see her on next year's ski trip. I'll drag her through some steep, powdery big-mountain woods, too.It was a fun day, made possible by Barb's and Sheri's volunteer Paige-sitting. Thanks to them, Megan and I also had time for a brief apres-skiing date.