Leigh's new grill

Ever Since we arrived in Davis (more than 15 months ago) Leigh has talked about how nice it would be to have a grill. . .

Then just this evening, as we were headed home from the tennis court, something silvery and ghostly flashed in the night. . . you guessed it a grill by the side of the road.

Leigh did a couple quick U-turns and there she was in our headlights. . .

After a brief inspection and the quick realization that there was no way to fit it into our car, Leigh decided to push it home - it was only a few hundred yards away from our house.

Must have made an odd spectacle, I thought that upon first glance she looked as though she were pushing a pram, but so shiny, and so loud!

Like a ghost in the night, she rattled and rumbled homeward. . . I mocked her most of the way and cant' say that I helped her much. . . She threatened that she would cook burgers and eat them herself leaving me to look on jealously. I countered with threatened vegetarianism. We'll see?

a nice walk and a great hike this weekend...

On Saturday, we went for a great walk through a part of the Yolo Causeway we hadn't seen yet. En route was a dead pheasant:
Some pretty yellow flowers:
An unusual spider's web:


On Sunday, we finally found a great place to hike with a touch of altitude. An inauspicious start:
We saw a great tree and beautiful flowers:


The hike actually climbed into some elevation and offered views of Lake Baryessa and the valley:

Yippee - a great hiking spot!

Bruuuuuuce

Last night, Andrew and I saw Bruce at Sacramento's Arco Arena. Because we had general admission seats, we needed to show up before 5PM for a wristband/number which gave us the opportunity to be placed in "the pit", the cordoned-off area right in front of the stage. We arrived at the stadium around 4:25, and were given wristbands #545 and 546. At 5:45PM, someone on line was chosen to pick a number from a hat - #550. Yes, folks, we were stuck in the back of the line, as this means #550 to the end of the line, then #1-544 would line up in front of us! Oh well, so much for the lottery system. Turns out that this was just fine as two things happened. First, someone ran up to us and gave us their tickets for Section 109 row x, telling us they felt badly that we were 'robbed'. My NJ/NY sensibilities told me that these ticket printouts must have been duplicated - who would offer up two hundred dollar tickets for free? So we were confused, checked the tickets, they were real, and decided to go onto the floor, then if we really couldn't see the stage we'd take the seats. (Later, we realized that we should have will-called the tickets and called two friends to pick them up and see the show for free. But we didn't think about this until 30minutes into the show.) Second, after we got inside, we realized that our floor situation was perfect. There was a divider between the 'pit' and the other general admission people. We were able to stand just behind a few short people who were against the divider. This meant that I could see (as I am 5'4, this is usually an issue!) and that there was plenty of space between us and the people in the pit. Plus, if there had been rows, we would have been around the 15th. Nice. In addition, we were right next to a woman wearing a GSP 117 t-shirt. Right at home.


The show was phenomenal, with Bruce taking requests from the audience:


Here's the synopsis and setlist from Backstreets:

April 4 / Sacramento, CA / Arco Arena

Notes: A real Friday night kind of show. Between "Spirit in the Night," "Sherry Darling," and "Rosalita" (not to mention his description of what Patti was guarding against back home as he left: "the beer kegs were rolling up the driveway, the pot brownies were in the oven, and the Girls Gone Wild tour bus was pulling up!"), it seemed Bruce had youthful partying on the brain.

"Spirit" wasn't quite a surprise, since it was the winner of the KSEG pick-a-song contest, but who expected it to kick off the show? So the first song of the night found Bruce sitting on the edge of the stage, his legs hanging into the crowd, looking at one point like he might even jump off. More dynamism as Bruce threw in some Townshend-esque windmills at the end of "Gypsy Biker"; after a breather with "Magic," the wailing guitars continued on the tour premiere of "Murder Incorporated." It looked like "Reason to Belive" would follow, but Bruce waved it off (for the first time this tour) in favor of "Candy's Room," and the breathlessness continued from there through "Because the Night" and "She's the One."

Jeff Bristow reports: "This show was a completely different tone from the two Oakland shows this past fall. Then, it was Bruce and the band working very hard, playing hard, and a few nice surprises here and there. Great shows, but they had a very structured feel to them. Sacramento seemed to be all about having a blast. When they opened with 'Spirit in the Night,' one of the things I noticed early on was how much fun Bruce seemed to be having. For a song that has been played very little on the tour, they nailed it. And the crowd was completely into it.

"And that mood carried through the rest of the night. Bruce just seemed to be having a lot of fun with the songs and the crowd, at times he just seemed almost goofy, in a good way! I managed to check out the setlist a few songs in, and there was a big difference between what was on that paper and what was played, lots of audibles. I know for a fact that 'Sherry Darling,' 'Candy's Room,' and 'Rosalita' were not on the list. 'Incident,' 'Thunder Road,' and 'Reason to Believe' were. But I can see why the changes were made, with Bruce having so much fun and the crowd eating it up, those songs might have slowed things down, where this was just one big party. Oh, and Nils killed on his solo for 'Because the Night.'

"On the Rising tour we got a very special show in Sac, and tonight was as good, if not better. It was one of those nights where it felt like anything could happen, and I haven’t seen him having this much of a good time on stage probably since the Born in the U.S.A. tour."

Signs were part of the fun last night, too -- and not just song requests. During "Livin' in the Future," Bruce plucked a "Clarence for President" sign out of the crowd, and after carrying it for a while he set it up againts Nils' mic stand, where it stayed for the remainder of the show. After "Sherry," Bruce was visibly looking for signs, with Steve calling his attention to one for "Held Up Without a Gun." Bruce remarked, into the mic, "We can't do that one." Finally spotting one for "Backstreets," Bruce pointed to it and gave the band their cue. Two more audibles in the encore, with Bruce propping a "Rosie" sign on the stage as they played that one, and going on to replace the setlisted "Glory Days" with "Ramrod."


April 4, 2008
Sacramento, California
ARCO Arena

Spirit In The Night { lyrics }
Radio Nowhere { lyrics }
No Surrender { lyrics }
Lonesome Day { lyrics }
Gypsy Biker { lyrics }
Magic { lyrics }
Murder Incorporated { lyrics } Tour Premiere
Candy's Room { lyrics }
Because The Night { lyrics }
She's The One { lyrics }
Livin' In The Future { lyrics }
The Promised Land { lyrics }
Sherry Darling { lyrics }
Backstreets { lyrics }
Devil's Arcade { lyrics }
The Rising { lyrics }
Last To Die { lyrics }
Long Walk Home { lyrics }
Badlands { lyrics }
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Girls In Their Summer Clothes { lyrics }
Rosalita { lyrics }
Born To Run { lyrics }
Ramrod { lyrics }
American Land { lyrics }