Friday, July 18, 2008

Manna from Heaven?????????

Yesterday morning as we were getting ready for work we loaded our last roll of toilet paper in the bathroom. We then talked about stopping at the store on our way home from work to buy some more of said toilet paper. Then we hopped happily in the van and headed off to work. We got to the bottom of the street where we had to stop at the stop sign.
We looked left, there were no cars coming...
We looked right, and there were still no cars coming...
But there were white blobs on the green grass about every 20 yards going down the street.
We turned to see what it was.
We found rolls and rolls of toilet paper left by the side of the road.
Some people get manna from Heaven and some people get toilet paper.

Happy Birhtday to Heidi

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Heidi, Happy 24th Birthday to you!!!!!!
I took 3 dsays but we finally got to eat the German Chocolate Cake her mom baked for her.

It was "Knee High by the Forth of July



Look how his garden has grown. We were going to take a picture of the corn being knee high on the forth of July like the song says but we got busy and forgot. So a week after the forth of July this is how tall it is. My mouth is starting to water for corn on the cob.


Eric does such a good job in the garden. It is looking beatiful. He even made purple flowers grow on our vines.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Usana beckoned... What a "Journey"!!!

Well... I don't even know where to start.... but it has been one fantastic weekend...
We had a really good time last Friday night celebrating our daughter's birthdays (Betsy and Heidi) on July 11th at the Usana Amphitheatre...

Oh by the way, Happy Birthday girls!!! They weren't there... Heidi was in St. George at a softball tournament and Betsy was being pampered by some "maid" named Daveed.... see her blog for details... it is in my list here in my blog...
Anywho.... We went with some friends (Phil and Karen Zobell) to go see a really great concert that featured...















and.....







Can I just tell you what a great concert that really was??? Other that it was really loud, it was a real treat to see these bands... And as I mentioned in my last blog... I will report on this using my new good buddy.... yes.... youtube..

The first band was Cheap Trick... and I have to admit that I remember them but wasn't too sure what some of their songs were... so I looked up some of there music on the Internet and wow... I remembered some of the songs but never was a real fan...

During the concert, the lead guitarist, (on the left) blew two amps and boy was he loud!!! They played hard and long and occasionally I even recognized some of the songs.... For example... this one was probably there most famous...


The lead singer was very entertaining and the the lead guitarist was really a clown... and boy did he have some cool guitars!!!

Well, I waited patiently for my new favorite song and lo and behold... here it came... It was entitled, "The Flame" and other than it was too damned loud, it was still a treat.... Well here... you listen to it!!! Lord knows, I've wore it out!!!







Then here they come... One of my favorite bands was next.... Yep.... Heart.... Growing up, I was really a big fan of them because they had such a variety of hard driving stuff and great ballads. These ballad were often the creation of some even better music videos which resulted in my falling in love with Nancy Wilson, the red-headed guitarist (especially 12 sting) and singer!!! She was a looker with a even better chassy!!! Whoops, my inner self slipping out there.... my apologies. The lead singer, her sister, Ann Wilson had put on about a 100 pounds but she still had a great voicea and belted out those old time favorites... like this one the someone turned in to youtube from the Salt Lake concert... Listen!!! It's called "Alone".

And then they got into classics like "Magic Man"...


And then they played my favorite... "These Dreams"... I wonder why??? I pull up the original "ballad video" for this one...


And what would this blog be without noting one of my favorites...

Barracuda...


Whew! I am exhausted!!! We really need to move on!!! We still have to talk about the creme de la creme... Yes the next feature on this night of rock bands and good music...


The feature band was Journey... But where was Steve Perry, the salty tenor voice who sang all of the those beatiful ballads and great songs??? My brothers and sisters of the blog world, and family and friends... He has been replaced!!! His name is Armel Pineda... a 40 year old Phillipino lad... Let's listen to his story as was shown on CBS's Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood...







There... now that you have mopped up your pride, lets listen to some of the new star's sound... Hmmm... sounds alot like Steve Perry, eh??? Don't get me wrong, I AM A STEVE PERRY FAN... I love his voice... but Armel may have taken over....
It was amazing to watch the energy he had throughout the 1 1/2 hour concert... he sang his heart out, he ran ALL over the stage, jumped from the drum platform, spun piroettes on the stage and on and on and on... he was amazing...

Let's check out a few things by the New Journey... who coincidently now have a new album... entitled "Revelation".



This video came from the Salt Lake concert again...


And then there were the ballads.... how about a little bit of Lights followed by Open Arms and Only the Young.... oh yea....


And then I was nearly moved to tears by the last encore song... He was incredible and was so full of passion... ya know... like Steve Perry...

You will see what I mean from this video from Chile again... Here is the last one.... Enjoy... Tonite I told Marty Knowles (him being a tenor and from the famous May Day Barbershop Quartet) that I wanted him to sing at my funeral... The Flame by Cheap Trick and this song...


Good night all!!! Enjoy the music again... Journey is back!!! What a "Revelation"!!!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

The Rest of the 4th of July. . . . . .

One of the Bowen traditions is to make ice cream on the 4th of July. We have missed a couple of years so this year we were determined to bring back the old tradition. We got out all the ingrediants and got to work. We always like to keep the flavor a secret until the ice cream is ready to eat.







Charlie stopped by to help. He was working very hard helping his Pampa....






This year we made "Butterfinger" ice cream. It was delicious.


Since Charlie is eating real food now, we thought he should try some.




He Loved It!!!!!!






An then he took a nap. . . .

What an exciting 4th of July



Saturday, July 5, 2008

Styx and the Fourth of July...

Let's see... you think of the 4th of July and you think about cookouts, parades..(I don't), watermelon, 90 degree heat and fireworks... right???

Boy did we ever see some fireworks on the Fourth!!! And we didn't even see a spark!!!

For the Cache Valley Cruise In.... (and yes... I still haven't been to one), the fireworks came in form of a very special occasion... one I thought that I would never see or even had a chance to see... Styx... yes, the rock group, was at Logan at the rodeo grounds... What a treat!!!

We heard about this concert several months ago and bought 4 tickets the first day without really a regard as to who might use them besides Terri and I... Well here are the tickets and my "wrist band" and we casually mentioned it to my good friend, Rick Shelton and his good wife Karen, and they were excited to go...






















The concert was excellent, by Logan standards and I was jumping out of my skin throught the whole concert!!!

I took several short video clips with my cell phone but they didn't do any justice and so I have gone to my friend YouTube instead so you can see what we saw and feel what we felt... It was GRRRRRRRRReat!!!

The energy was incredible... the musicians were absolutely outstanding.... the atmosphere was electric... Dennis DeYoung, who was the original lead singer for Styx until 1999, wasn't there, but who cared... Lawrence Gowen more that made up for his absence in my opinion...

Listen to this YouTube clip of Lady... It was incredible live...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3q80A3a188&NR=1

And Tommy Shaw???? Out of this world on lead guitar and high vocals...

Check out Tommy Shaw along with his fellow Styx - James Young in this rendition of Renegade in this YouTube clip... This was from Texas about a week and a half ago and so you can see what we were treated to!!!

Enjoy this one... Click on the high quality version of the video... under the video when it comes up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQaQXQQHA8Q

I have to tell you that I enjoyed this concert so much that I dreamt about the concert all night Friday AND Saturday night.... I was exhausted!!! ha ha... but it was just as good the second and third time...

Well I was going to wait and post this with the rest of our Fourth of July experiences but I promise there will be more to come... We did have a busy day.... and it is forth coming...

So enjoy the clips and enjoy this mini concert because we sure did... In fact, we liked it so much that we are going with our friends, Phil and Karen Zobell to the Journey / Heart / and Cheap Trick Concert at the Usana Amphitheater this Friday the 11th... and I will once again will report on this events of that day...

This is Eric Bowen... signing off...