Next American Idol … and it’s not even close…

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Got some practice in on Thursday night after my game, Friday because I didn’t have a game (basketball season is winding down), and some today… This is about one-forth of the piece - I’m pretty pleased with it after less than a week! Can’t wait to be able to play the entire piece - it is simply amazing.

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OK — since my mom called me out, here are some pics from the birthday dinner that my parents took me to last week! I didn’t have all my photos up in iPhoto - just the ones from my lunch with Richele, so I forgot that I had these. (That’s what happens when you blog in the wee hours of the morning!)

We had a great time! And if you ever make it to Grotto, the Veal Kickarillo is amazing - in fact, I’ve never had anything else! We don’t go there that often and that was the first thing that I tried when I went and it was so good I can never talk myself into trying something new!

Mom and Carrie

Me and Carrie

Me and my parents

Some great wine!

Presents!!!

Tiramisu! YUM!!!

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After a fun weekend at Natalie’s birthday party I got to celebrate MY birthday finally - or at least start celebrating it… I spent my actual birthday refereeing a college game and then playing poker — two things that I like to do, so I guess it was a pretty good day. However, Carrie and I are trying to find a night to go out and celebrate with a nice dinner - probably Sunday of this upcoming weekend. I had games every night the week of my birthday except for Valentine’s Day and neither of us were interested in trying to fight the masses that night!

Anyway, back to the birthday celebrations… Richele came up and took my to a birthday lunch on Tuesday. We went to La Mesa - a new restaurant here in the Woodlands (as if we needed another one!) … It’s a cool spot that replaced the old Taco Milagro that was in it’s location previously (at Six Pines and Timberloch - walking distance from Riva Row! Woohoo!!) It seems to be the consensus that it is a big improvement too!

Richele missed out on the weekend festivities because my niece Alyssa had a cheer event. So, while at lunch I recorded Richele’s happy birthday video for Nat…

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had been thinking of what I might want for my birthday — not that I really need anything… And I didn’t even really want anything — a nice dinner out sounds good. I’m easy.

But several weeks ago I spontaneously decided to download some classical music on iTunes. I had some projects to work on and my normal playlist consisting mostly of the rap genre was a little distracting at that moment. So, I downloaded some “relaxing” classical and piano music.

After listening to some of the music it really got me thinking about playing the piano — something that I did growing up (thanks for the lessons Mom and Dad!). I always really enjoyed playing piano - then in college taught myself how to play the guitar simply because it was something I wanted to learn. I don’t play as much guitar as I used to - probably because it is tucked away in the closet (my office is not exactly an IKEA commercial) - and I hardly ever play piano … mostly just at Christmas when at my parents.

I had almost a few hundred dollars in Amazon gift certificates (from credit card bonuses) and so I went to Amazon.com to see if they sold keyboards (tip: they do - they sell everything!). Of course, by the time I started looking around, looking at all of the features that different models had, etc., the gift certificates weren’t quite going to cut it - but at least they would make a dent!

I researched, browsed, and read a lot of other user’s comments and found the keyboard that I wanted. I even found a couple of YouTube videos of people playing it - very cool (what did we do before the internets?!) So, last week I called Carrie and told her what I was thinking - that I was really wanting to get back into playing piano and there were some classical pieces that I wanted to learn. “Go for it!” was her almost immediate response. That was a good response because my Amazon.com shopping cart was already loaded and I was one quick click away from buying it!

So, here’s my new setup - upstairs in my office… I cleaned up some, but I have yet to do a little rearranging. Once I get things moved around the keyboard will not be in front of the bookshelf, obviously!

The technology is amazing — the keyboard feels and plays like a piano… The keys are weighted and play like a piano (softly/loudly depending on how hard you play them). Another thing that is cool is that, since it is digital, you can use headphones for a little privacy. It has just over a dozen different voices, but the mainstay being the Grand Piano - that is actually sampled audio programmed into the keyboard … it sounds very realistic.

It arrived Wednesday night of this week, so after clearing some space I got everything setup and tried it out. I broke out some piano books (also purchased from Amazon, of course!) and started tinkering away. One of the pieces that I want to learn is Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. I made some quick progress after about an hour or practice that night - at least the first few measures…

Of course, it gets harder from there!

Another famous piece that I want to learn is Für Elise - probably one of Beethoven’s most recognizable piano pieces. I tinkered around with it a little on Wednesday and then Thursday night after I got home late from my game in Louisiana and got to where I could play the first part somewhat…

It’s really fun to be able to play something that is recognizable fairly quickly! You can definitely hear a few timing and note mishaps, but it’s getting there… The rest of the piece gets really fun (read: difficult!), but I hope that with practice I’ll be able to get there! If nothing else, this is really inspiring my creative side!

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Carrie and I (ok, mostly Carrie) hosted Natalie’s birthday party at our home this weekend. Johnny took care of many of the logistics as well — food, drink, etc. JFLO was our master DJ and provided a 9 hour mix that was put to good use (be sure to scroll down to the end for videos)!!!

Thanks to all that helped put it together as well as to everyone that came by… This was a great party!!!

Just some of the flowers from this weekend’s festivities…

California rolls… know how to party… Cal-if-fornia….

Brad and Brendan take Carrie’s new MDX for a spin!

Natalie and Megan “Mamasita” Martinez

Family pic!

Natalie and Johnny

The cake!

Natalie and Carrie sharing a laugh…

…and then filling Brad in.

Happy Birthday message courtesy of WonderfulGraffiti.com

Natalie, Kendall, and Carrie breaking it down!

Stan and my mom getting their grove on!

Brendan with his fondant bow-tie!

The guys… Yes - we are gangsta!

Videos!

Birthday wishes to Natalie…

Dance montage (thanks again to JFLO for the mix!)…

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