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Legendary concerts are often few and far between. Well, that is unless you’re Cher or Garth Brooks, who hook you into seeing their “last concert ever ever EVER!” and then decide to take up residency in Vegas. (No, I’m not bitter about being tricked at all… at all!) A couple of weeks ago, I hopped down to San Francisco with my mom to help her relive HER legendary concert experience. You see, she was lucky enough to see the Beatles on the first stop of their first US tour at the Cow Palace back in 1964. So when the opportunity to see her favorite Beatle (aka. Paul McCartney) in concert came up, she just couldn’t pass it up and decided to take me along!

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Here’s my super awesome and hip mom – beaming when she saw how amazing our seats were (Tourists take note: this is what you wear in San Francisco in the summer.)

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(Just imagine Paul standing right behind us… well.. 20 rows up at least)
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I’m sure you had no doubts in your mind, but the concert was entirely amazing and awesome. He had just come off a 2-week break, so his voice was outstanding, and he just looked like he was having the time of life performing on stage. Sure, there were probably more WINGS songs performed than most people in the crowd had heard during their lifetime, but anyone that can perform for 3 straight hours is amazing in my book!
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The set list for the concert:

1. Venus And Mars
2. Rock Show
3. Jet
4. All My Loving
5. Letting Go
6. Got to Get You Into My Life
7. Highway (The Fireman cover)
8. Let Me Roll It
9. Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix cover)
10. The Long and Winding Road
11. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five
12. Let ‘Em In
13. My Love
14. I’m Looking Through You
15. Two Of Us
16. Blackbird
17. Here Today
18. Dance Tonight
19. Mrs Vandebilt
20. San Francisco Bay Blues
21. Eleanor Rigby
22. Something
23. Sing the Changes (The Fireman cover)
24. Band on the Run
25. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (HIGHLIGHT of the show!)
26. Back In The USSR
27. I’ve Got a Feeling
28. Paperback Writer
29. A Day In The Life / Give Peace a Chance (John Lennon cover)
30. Let It Be
31. Live and Let Die
32. Hey Jude
    Encore:
33. Day Tripper
34. Lady Madonna
35. Get Back
    Encore 2:
36. Yesterday
37. Helter Skelter
38. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
39. The End 

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And when the show was over, we all piled out of stadium in jubilant awe of what we just saw. Old and young alike, we all had a blast and stayed up way past our bedtime and got rained on by the fog to see a legend in our midst. The guy in aisle next to us paid $650 for his ticket. I heard from others in rows ahead of us that they had spent over $1000 each, and they remarked at the bargain they had gotten. In all, it was pretty darn awesome and I’m happy that I got to enjoy Sir Paul w/my mom!
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If you want to see a glimpse of the concert experience, I mashed up the little video clips I took during the concert into a movie below. Enjoy!
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On Saturday afternoon, Mr. M and I trekked to Emeryville for yet another one of our silly adventures… this time we were off to hang around PIXAR Studios for the annual Cartoon Art Museum fundraiser. Getting inside the gates at PIXAR is difficult to do, unless of course you’re really good friends with an employee or you happen to get an invitation to a soiree of some sort, so we took full advantage of the event and signed up early on! We met people who had traveled from all over the country for the small event … all of whom were fully intent on filling their Christmas stockings with PIXAR-labelled everything from the exclusive gift store! We walked away with a bit of swag ourselves, but nothing that burned the bank too much (I’ll share photos later this week).

At the event, we got to mingle with PIXAR artists, explore the multiple art galleries on site, watch Toy Story 2 in 3-D in their main screening room (complete with an accurate LED starscape above) and interact with some of the production team afterwards, bid on original art in a silent auction, and eat lots and lots of petit fours and grapes.  But rather than ramble on about the awesomeness, I’ll share a couple of photos and hopefully they will tell the story instead:
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Mr. M starring up at the atrium above… with his favorite piece of UP concept artwork behind him.
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The large atrium at PIXAR (the main theatre is at the bottom of the screen) … with me standing right in the middle!

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Our new family portrait!  [p.s. funny story about that Sully statue... I actually had my picture taken with it back in the fall of 2001 before it was ever released. I thought he was adorable... and he was set-up next to a lifesize portrait of Kim Possible... also before it debuted on the Disney Channel. So happy to meet its acquaintance again!]
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Coffee is nice and cheap at PIXAR… I wonder why???
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Two of the pieces of original artwork available for bidding. I really liked the birdie… but Mr. M wasn’t wild about him so we passed.
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We bid on #160… and were the high bidders until the last 15 minutes of the auction. At that point, a woman came over and bid $5 over my previous bid (nevermind that the rules stated she needed to bid $25 more). I proceeded to bid again, which I guess truly upset her. She decided to camp out at the bidding table, take the pencil from the table, and tell anyone that came near the sheet that, “this is for my 2 year old daughter’s birthday – I want it.” Luckily we had reached our maximum bidding level… but it was still extremely tempting to incite her with a yet higher bid. I still think it would have made the perfect nursery artwork… but Mr. M and I refused to play the pity game at the silent auction, and just let it go.

The painting on the right of Carl (from UP) was Mr. M’s favorite piece, but the bidding went above our limit early on. It sold for $2350.

I guess there’s always next year?

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Mr. M joins up with the Incredibles!
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And I do too!
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This is like looking at the backside of water… but so much cooler!
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So that concludes our afternoon at PIXAR. There were lots of cool exhibits and areas where cameras weren’t allowed, so I’m sad I can’t share, but I can tell you that it would be a very cool place to work!

Here’s a couple of the deals that you might want to look into… just in case you had an itch to get a bargain outside of online sample sales:

Like… this new version of my pink HOBO INTL wallet… only $68.90 (instead of $108 it will be priced at this fall).

Or some super comfy flats like these Cole Haan ‘Air Penny’ mocs for $129.90 (instead of $198).

Maybe you need a super awesome baby shower gift…. and splurge on a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag for $99.90 (instead of $167).

Perhaps you’re just looking for some of the beauty exclusives, like these MAC eyeshadow palettes for $35.

Even if you don’t end up splurging on anything… have fun looking at everything that will be out in the stores in the fall! The click over there is worth it just for that!

ERIN! Congratulations!  Look for an email from me today asking for your address and it’ll be in the mail ASAP!

Thanks to everyone else that entered, and keep an eye out for more contests or goodies from me in the future!

[p.s. the coupons expire on 5/31/2009... so make sure you can visit Chili's before then!]

It all started around Christmas time, when our house was full of guests from one eve to another. Mr. M and I had gifted ourselves an enormous new TV for the “man cave” (aka. the loft – women are allowed in and it’s not cavernous) but had left it downstairs until we could find a wall mount to secure it properly in its new home.

It was at this time that all of our guests fell in love with it… including my grandmother & my parents. Grandma suddenly wanted the biggest TV you could buy, and my parents kept commenting upon their return home that an elf had “shrunken” the TV while they were away. I guess it’s just one of those products that, while it looks super neat and shiny in the store, it’s even more amazing when you actually sit down and spend a few hours watching it.

Yet, since this love affair began, no one had jumped out and made the big purchase. My parents had looked around at Costco & Best Buy, done some basic price comparisons, and read up on Consumer Reports, but still no purchase. And then… just one day after going out to look at TVs yet again… something strange happened.

My Dad was watching DIYnetwork (hmm… and you wonder where I get it from?) during breakfast and the program he was watching happened to feature a VIZIO TV. At the end of the show, they mentioned a website to visit for a chance to win your own 55″ 1080p LCD TV. He went to the computer, pulled up the website, and proceeded to fill out the entry form all by 8am.

At 4:30pm, he sent over an email, asking me to check out a legal document he had received. “It says I won a TV. I entered the contest, but it was only this morning. See if this is legit.”

And guess what? It was! By 9pm, his name was posted as a winner on their website, and once his legal forms are sent in, a brand new TV will be on its way to their house!

That’s one TV down… and just grandma to go!