Overall, the concert was great. Mat sounds amazing live, and totally delivers in concert. He probably played all of his songs from his first album, as well as his new album (which is amazing, btw). I couldn’t have wished for a better performance.

I got a lot of great pictures of Mat, and even a few good ones of his crazy hot guitar player that was to the left of him; in fact, all of the backing band members were cute and bearded (which was definitely an added bonus). You can check out the whole set on flickr.

One cool thing that happened during his set, was when he was singing a song, and started to get down off of the stage to lean over and touch people’s hands: surprisingly, instead of just shaking hands and what not, he jumped off the stage into the crowd and ran right past us!! You could tell that no one was expecting it, because instead of rushing up to him, people just ran away from him. It was kind of funny, actually, because you would have expected the opposite. I managed to get a very paparazzi shot of the moment he was closest to me. Neat stuff indeed. I think it added to the whole concert, because he was clearly having fun because of the crowd. I did think that he was a bit cocky with expecting everyone to know the words to all of his songs, because near the end of the show, he pretty much just held up the microphone to the crowd for like 15 minutes. While that was a little annoying, it didn’t distract from how good the rest of the show was.

Since it was at a standing room only venue (Center Stage), I just knew that I would encounter some of those “we are entitled to walk to the front and stand in front of you because we are better people just because we are” people, and low and behold, about an hour into the show, they tried to push their way up in front of us. The best, though, was that they ended up in front of the people in front of me, and they were very vocal about their disapproval; they left after like 2 songs. I just don’t understand why people have that sense of entitlement. If you want to stand in the front, do like we did; get there early, and wait it out. If not, don’t complain when someone doesn’t want you to come up in front of them and stand there; we put in the time, so we deserve to be up front… you don’t. /rant

We’ll go back soon, buddy!!!

My heart goes out to anyone that was touched by this unusually heavy storm; I hope that everyone is safe and their homes are safe as well. Luckily for us, we just lost power for a few hours, and that was the worst of it. I just hope that things don’t continue to escalate for those that have already suffered. If you are still out there facing the flooding, please, stay safe. I only hope that the coming days of forcasted rain don’t make this dire situation even worse.

I got in it yesterday after it filled, to put the salt in, and it was very cool and nice, even though I didn’t actually “go for a swim”. It is only about 3 and a 1/2 feet deep, so it isn’t really enough to “swim” in, but it is surely enough for me to float in and drink a well deserved Mai Tai (which I am still trying to find my favorite recipe) or seven. I just hope that I can enjoy the fruits of all my back-breaking labor, and hopefully have a few friends over to share in the fun. Who’s in?

This is a story of one of those curve balls.

After redoing the main bathroom’s shower and all of the headache that came with it, I refused to go back to using my shitty master bath’s vanity, so I figured I could just “add that on” to the other project. Most of all, it was easy fixes; there is nothing wrong with the shower in our master, and the floor is okay, so I just painted (sassy green!), and thought a new vanity and medicine cabinet was all I needed. For the most part, I have been 100% correct; I am totally happy with all of the somewhat minor changes that I have made. I LOVE the new cabinet, and the vanity is way more compact, and looks way more high end than the one that was in there since we moved in. However (there’s that word again!), I hit a snag when I went to connect the new faucet to the water supply line.

As you can see in the above picture, the lines were just a little too short, but that wasn’t the real problem; the fitting was completely different than the fitting of my previous faucet, which meant that they would not connect to the supply lines.

In fact, it should be stated to anyone that considers ever getting Ikea faucets, that their supply connection STANDARD is 1/2″ (which actually measures 1″ in diameter, which is just odd), not the 3/8″ standard for the United States (NOTE: I could be getting this backwards (but I’m pretty sure I’m not): Ikea says, “Connection hoses with 3/8″ connection included.”, but I’m fairly certain it was a 1/2″ connector at the end of the supply line… regardless, it doesn’t fit.). So what does that mean, exactly? Well, it means that the Ikea supply connections are far bigger than the existing connections that come out of your wall, and well, to put it bluntly, it just won’t work. I found this interesting, because it isn’t mentioned ANYWHERE in the Ikea manual for the faucet.

Hmmm…

So here’s what I did:

First, I googled the situation. I managed to find out that this is only a slightly known issue for those that have ventured into the realm of Swedish flat pack furniture, and lucky for me, there were solutions! So here’s what I had to do…

1) I went to Lowes, and was told they didn’t have what I needed. Don’t waste your time, go DIRECTLY to Ace Hardware, because they have everything you need; which differs from Steve’s (somewhat more complicated, sorry Steve!) solution I linked to above. Here’s what you will need:
2 connection adapters (not sure that’s what they are called); these will be the connection between the Ikea hoses and your new hose. It should be 1/2″ on the Ikea end, and 3/8″ on the other end for the new hose.
2 new faucet connector hoses, standard 3/8″ fittings on each end.

And that’s it!!

Now, here are some pictures, because this is incredibly difficult to explain just using words:
This is the new hose that I was describing with the male/male adapter installed on top:

This will be screwed into the Ikea faucet connector:

Now, the the Ikea faucet is screwed into an adapter, and that adapter is now screwed into a hose that has the standard connector for the supply line coming out of the wall. We’re all set!!!

This is what it looked like when I got everything all in:

$25 dollars and a little elbow grease, and it works like a charm. Now, I don’t know why those hoses start at 12″, causing me to have to snake it around like that, but I don’t care as long as it fucking works, and it does.

So, if you plan on getting a cute little sink, and oh-so-easy to install faucet to go with said sink, be sure to come back and reference this post. It will save you time, because you won’t have to start out empty handed; you can get the adapters and new hoses before you start!

Oh the joys of DIY home improvement… right?! Needless to say, I am more than happy with my “new” bathroom(s), and I can let out a sigh of relief and go back to loving Ikea wholeheartedly (even though I MAY have cursed their name a few points during the project); but don’t even get me started on that weird ass p-trap and the nonsense that went into getting that cluster fuck to work.

UPDATE: It didn’t occur to me to post pictures of the sink/faucet (I was focused on the stress of getting the damn thing installed), but Shan’s request reminded me; so here you go: (I may update this with actual photos of MY cabinet/sink/faucet in the near future, so check back for that)

I will say this; I have been to Center Stage MANY times. Most of the time, it is sold out. I have never, however, seen as many people there as I did the night of Lady GaGa. It was insane. Speaking of which, people need to be more respectful of others. You can’t save 5 seats. You can’t get all assholish when someone in the standing room only area accidentally bumps into you. People really need to learn how to be nicer. Anyway…

There were 3 (!!!) opening acts for Lady GaGa, and I really enjoyed Chester French (who I have featured on the 5SF in the past), and I also liked White Tie Affair (who’s CD was on my ipod, but I have never listened to it). After much anticipation, and some shuffling around trying to find a great place to watch the show from (IT WAS PACKED), the curtain fell, and Lady GaGa emerged from a funky looking set up in the middle of the stage. What followed was a full hour of costume changes, dance routines, and killer vocals from Lady GaGa. She completely delivers live, and she owned that stage like a seasoned professional.

A few songs into the show, she got more intimate, and put on her now famous bubbles outfit, and played a bubble filled piano. She played a new song, which I think is called Future Love, and it was, to quote the Lady herself, marvelous. It seems that Lady GaGa has a lot more great music to give us in the future.

Overall, the show was energetic, and the crowd was totally into her. I will admit that she is a bit “out there” with her fashion and her style, but I think that it makes her unique in that she isn’t afraid to be different, and do something funky. The result was a sold out show full of people clamoring for more of the newest, and biggest, pop diva to take hold of the reigns of pop music. I can say that I was really glad to see her again, and whenever she comes back to the ATL, you can bet that I will be there.

Check out the pictures on flickr.

After Kameron left the stage, it wasn’t long before the amazing Adele took the mic. While I was watching her perform, it was really difficult to believe that she is only 19 years old; she commanded that stage like a seasoned professional. She was so cute, and adorable in the way that she genuinely had a great time performing, and I love seeing someone who genuinely seems to be having a good time while they are performing. She giggled and laughed in between songs, waved to the audience, and proclaimed her gratitude for everyone coming out to see her; she seemed surprised that so many people knew who she was. She even told of how she acquired her “drag queen eyelashes” earlier that day in Little Five Points, as well as how much she enjoyed seeing Atlanta for the first time. I thought it was a bit strange that someone in the front held up a CD for her to sign, but she did sign it between songs, and was very sweet about it. Overall, she came across as a beautiful person as well as a beautiful singer.

One of the things that I like most about Adele, is her beautiful voice, and fantastic song writing skill. I love how she uses her voice more as an instrument, which takes her songs from being simply sung, to truly performed; which translated amazingly live. Also, she played both the guitar and the bass on several songs, and did so effortlessly.

It is rare that you see someone live who is arguably better than they are on their CD (even though, she is pitch perfect, and fantastic on her CD), and Adele definitely falls into this elite category. Her voice was flawless, and her live singing ability was very impressive. She has a powerful gift, and I feel privileged to have gotten the opportunity to see her in such an intimate venue. As I mentioned to Jason after the show, this is the reason I love going to concerts; sometimes, you have an opportunity to see a truly amazing artist who’s talent just blows you away. Adele’s performance was nothing short of amazing, and after seeing her live, I definitely consider her amongst my favorite singers. She played a bit of a new song last night as well, and it was beautiful; I can’t wait to hear more from this beautiful Brit. Overall, it was an amazing night, and an amazing performance, and I am glad that I was able to be a part of it.

(to see all of my pictures from the show, click here.)