Under The Sea

Who would have known that watching an uninhabited fish tank would be so exciting? One of my Christmas presents this year was a ten gallon aquarium from my husband. We spent last evening shopping for all the necessary fish accoutrements and setting up the aquarium. Now we are antsy because we have to wait a week for the tank's water to stabalize before we can introduce any fish to their new environment. We've been watching the filter process the water, the temperature rise on the exterior tank thermometer, and the live plants wave around. We're anxiously awaiting Thursday when we become official fish parents!

What Doesn't Kill You...

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right? That's usually my theory when it comes to spending the holidays in New Jersey with my in-laws (I'm kidding, Mike!...for the most part). New Jersey is actually my current blogging location, typing away in Mike's parents' house on Christmas night. It was a jammed-packed weekend, but we got to see most all of Mike's family on both sides, so what little time we had was efficiently spent.

The most relaxing part of the weekend was Christmas Eve afternoon. Mike, my brother-in-law Chris, and I headed down to the boardwalk in Ocean City for lunch to have some of the best pizza I've ever had at Mack and Mancos. I try to have at least two slices every time we're down at the shore and we always wash it down with Birch Root Beer...yummy yummy! You just can't get pizza this good in Erie. Afterwards, we walked the boardwalk in the sunshine and watched the surfers. We spent the rest of the afternoon pumping quarters into various games in one the arcades on the boardwalk. It was a good time had by all.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas with their loved ones! Happy Holidays!

Saturday Morning Sidenote

Just as a sidenote, I just wanted to say that I am uncomfortable with both the physical size of the scary-ass King in the new Burger King ads and also with the phrase "Kong-sized Whopper".

Even Better Than The Real Thing

Last night, Mike and I made the the 100 mile jaunt to nearby Cleveland, Ohio to see U2 for their stop on the Vertigo Tour at the Quicken (formerly the Gund) Arena. The last time I had the chance to see U2 was in May 1997, a day before my 18th birthday, in Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh when they were on their Popmart Tour. I was amazed then by their show and was blown away last night. They've only become better since the last time I saw them.

Their visual effects were incredible. In watching their setup, both Mike and I thought that their stage design seemed simple, but when the the lights came up, WOW! It was a blinding and colorful three song punch, with In The City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, and Elevation and the show just kept building from there to a fervent climax of Sunday Bloody Sunday, Love and Peace or Else, and Bullet the Blue Sky.

One of the highlights of the show was when they played Miss Sarajevo, a song that they had recorded with Luciano Pavarroti. Bono sang Pavarroti's operatic parts and I was really surprised he could sing those lower, stronger notes.

The show was also full of nods to John Lennon in honor of the 25 year anniversary of his death that was this past week. The band touched on Help!, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, Happy Xmas (War is Over), and an full performance of Instant Karma during one of the two encores. Overall, they played for 2 1/2 hours. It was well worth the money and the driving to see.