On Saturday, we hosted Laura’s birthday party at our house – our birthday gift to her. Laura chose money as her theme, and it turned out really fun! We had a playlist of money songs for the start of the party, lots of green/gold/silver decorations featuring $’s, jewels and play money and a craft room with paint-your-own piggy banks and coin purses. I “blinged” out the photobooth I’d left up from my last two parties. I was planning to break it down anyway, so I figured I’d go all out and make it bright, shiny gold. The only downer during the party was when China gave a guest a scratch on his nose. It wasn’t her intention to hurt him, …
Psst! I posted a bunch of questions for you girls (and guys with style/fashion opinions!) in my last post!
Despite the rainy weather, Benny and I were able to enjoy our usual outdoor breakfast at Starbucks this morning. There was a chair that had been under the tiny roof overhang that was dry. I was told by no lest than 5 people in 15 minutes what a well-behaved dog he is. He just lays sweetly at my feet – though, it has taken a lot of training to get to this point. And a lot of crumbs from my scones!
Friday, Friday, Friday! I think we are going to try to get our “band” together tonight on Rock Band online. There is a couple in PA we play with. I still need to find an evening clutch to match my wedding outfit. And, some shorts/capris would be good. I wonder if it is worth it to go out to the outlet mall? Sometimes it is hard to find my size there. Other times we do really well finding things.
I forgot to post this one… Me at our party and my character in Rock Band that night! Hehe. I forgot how annoying crimped hair was. And hot! I bet you’re jealous that I still have my original crimping iron!
On Saturday, we had Dan’s birthday Rock Band party. It was a lot of fun! We wore costumes and band tees like last time. We spent entirely too much money on having the party catered, but it was super tasty! It was great seeing friends that we don’t see enough of now that we are out in Ashburn.
A couple weeks ago I presented Danny with the idea of having another Rock Band party in honor of his birthday, which is coming up on May 7th and possibly having it catered. He was down with that (we are both big fans of the game since we love music so much) and liked the idea of having Mexican food since Cinco de Mayo is right before his birthday.
So, this week I finally got the Evite sent out (if you are a friend of Dan’s and I missed you, let me know!). The party will be on May 3rd, and we are encouraging people to dress with a music theme like last time.
Last time, I dressed as a glam rock groupie. For this party, I am going in a different direction. Like, totally! I am dressing like an 80′s pop star (a la Madonna and Cindy Lauper)! I have a mountain of tulle that was $1.50/yard in black, pinks, purple and an electric blue. I am going to make a tutu skirt out of it and wear footless tights with lace cuffs and bright pink socks. Nice.
Now, I just need to figure out which shirt to order when I get the tights. Thanks to everything old being new again, I have some 80′s-inspired choices. I need your help! The skirt (and my tights) with be more black than anything else, though I’mnot sure how it will turn out. Bright pink is my main accent color. Please help me choose!
My second Rock Band video! “Roam” by the B-52′s on Expert. I got my very first FC on Expert!! And, I just barely squeaked by with gold stars…
There are a few hiccups in the audio, but I didn’t have time to rerecord it – I was on my lunch break. My voice is a little shaky on some of of the jumps. I need to work on air support. My “woo’s” are really loud cause I’m having problems with it picking up my activations (“activations” are when you make a loud noise at certain places to use the “star power” you’ve built up to go into “overdrive”). Cover your ears!
(You can hear me taking photos and doing my little “go me!” happy Snoopy dance at the end! Yes, I am still a dork. I think it is a permanent condition… )
I totally have to record myself doing some Iron Maiden or Metallica so you can hear how funny it is when a soprano sings it!
We have a tax appointment at 7:30 pm tonight. Bleck. On Saturday, we go to California, but only for one night. We fly home Sunday/Monday on the red-eye.
This one goes out to all you gaming nerds out there…
I had never sung anything on the “expert” level in Rock Band – I’m usually on hard or medium. But, since a video of this song was requested, I decided I might as well try! I got myself so nervous about it that my heart was racing and my voice shaking! I know, I know… It’s just a game.
While I didn’t get a perfect score (and didn’t expect to on my first try), I got a 99% and my first ever gold stars (meaning my score was half again higher than needed for 5 out of 5 stars)!
So, here is the video, in all it’s wonderful dorkiness!
As my twitter posts have mentioned, I’ve taken up singing in the game Rock Band as a stress reliever. Surprisingly, it has worked! As soon as I devoted myself to really trying to improve, instead of casually singing when I got tired of playing drums in the game, my digestive problems went away and I started feeling healthy again. In fact, going to bed early hadn’t helped me, while staying up late to sing *has*. Huh.
I definitely don’t have a lead-singer quality of voice. But, I played in instrument for 12 years in school and have a really solid sense of pitch. It’s just a matter of working on my lung capacity and learning to control my voice so I actually hit the pitch I know I’m supposed to. Then, of course, I have to learn to sing the songs *exactly* as the game wants me to to, which can be tough when I’ve never heard them before. Practice, practice, practice!
I’ve currently hyjacked Danny’s Xbox Live account so I can sing in online bands. He is not pleased, so I am looking into setting up my own, even though it would mean starting my “singer” (Rock Band character) from complete scratch. I really enjoy the online play. When I get matched up with a band full of people playing at the “expert” level, it really inspires me to get better. Especially watching the insane drum parts. You are basically playing really drum parts on a practice kit at that point. (Drums and vocals are the most true-to-life in the game. Guitar/bass pushes buttons, but is still very hard at the higher levels.) Online play has inspired me to start singing some songs on “hard” (it goes: easy, medium, hard, expert.)
As requested by Johnathan, who got to see us streaming Rock Band last night, I made a video of me singing. We had just started playing so I wasn’t fully warmed up, but you can kinda hear me. The original vocals play as well. There are parts in almost every song that I have to sing up and octave because they go low. Oh, well. maybe a lower register will come to me gradually?
Another post about this might appear. i tried to post it from YouTube, but an hour later it still hadn’t shown up. I’ll delete it if I see it.
Back to work now. I have 3 ads due today and a postcard tomorrow, on top of other things.
