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The big ice storm of April 2013 caused one big casualty on our property. Fortunately no further damage but we will be sad to see this tree gone

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The weather was bad yesterday. But that didn’t stop Bryon, Pat and myself from heading to Hamilton to see The Who perform Quadrophenia (plus more!). For $150 a pop, a blizzard couldn’t hold us back. Floor level seats!

The concert was absolutely fantastic. Quadrophenia, although not there top-selling album, was a great mini-opera album that showcased all of their talents in their prime. It was certainly a treat to hear it from start to finish uninterrupted. And then followed by some great favourites.

I’ve said it a million times. I can’t think of a more talented guitarist than Pete. And he was definitely ‘on’ last night. Roger looks incredible and his voice still has that trademark power. Pat took some seriously good video and I will treasure it forever. He captured the entire version of Baba O’Riley. Crazy!

Sadly, I can say with virtual certainty that this was, and will ever be, the only time I saw The Who live in concert. Knowing this, I savored every moment and appreciated every second of that performance.

Set List:

1. I Am The Sea
2. The Real Me
3. Quadrophenia
4. Cut My Hair
5. The Punk and the Godfather
6. I’m One
7. The Dirty Jobs (Simon Townshend on vocals)
8. Helpless Dancer
9. Is It in My Head?
10. I’ve Had Enough
11. 5:15
12. Sea and Sand
13. Drowned
14. Bell Boy
15. Doctor Jimmy
16. The Rock
17. Love, Reign O’er Me
(followed by band introductions)

Encore;
18. Who are You
19. Behind Blue Eyes
20. Pinball Wizard
21. Baba O’Riley
22. Won’t Get Fooled Again
23. Tea & Theatre (Roger & Pete acoustic)

Notes:
The concert lasted from 8:00pm to 10:50pm – 2h 50m !
The multimedia was well used. The screens were HD and syncronised. They highlighted the musicians playing the instruments. But more importantly 2 things:
1) The backdrop continually showed themes, images, footage of the band over the years and inspirations to the songs (mods, sods). An excellent montage of historical moments during both the overture and the finale….climaxing in the fall of the World Trade Center. Very emotional.
2) There was an homage to John (5:15) and Keith (Bell Boy). The band interacted with the video of the two performing the song. It really was as if they were still alive playing with the band. A wonderful touch that really signifies a closing moment. A good way to end it all.

When Pete and Roger performed Tea & Theatre it really hit home that this is the last time I’ll see these guys live. And it was such an intimate moment when i think back on it. Too bad I didn’t capture that moment on video

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Olivia has the pox. Yay. Greg is up for Wonderboy, not sure if he has had them. Whoops.

Other than that life is good. Looking to buy a BlueJays package this year now that they finally spent some money and brought some talent in.

Also have season tix to the Rangers. Playoffs are coming soon.

Sonia’s 40th bday coming up. Not really a surprise….but should be fun

Learning Italian via the Rosetta Stone. Mamma Mia!

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Stuffed Chicken (Can do without if you make enough sauce)

6 or more chicken breasts, butterflied and pounded.
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces portabella mushrooms, sliced
6 ounces onions, diced
2 -4 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces fresh spinach
1/3 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
salt and pepper
2 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2 Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Saute mushrooms, onions, and garlic for 4 minutes. Add spinach and wine cook until wine is evaporated.
3 Season with thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper and allow to cool.
4 Place chicken between plastic wrap and pound thin.
5 Season both sides of breast with salt and pepper.
6 Add egg to stuffing and place half the stuffing in each breast.
7 Fold over to encase stuffing and tie with butcher’s twine to hold the stuffing in place.
8 wrap with bacon and use toothpicks to secure to the chicken

heat oven to 400. Top with foil for 20min. Remove foil, drain juices and cook for 20min. Drain again and then broil for 10min.

For White Wine Mushroom Sauce:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup semidry white wine
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Use cornstarch and water to thicken instead of flour. Add more wine to taste.

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Hey bro, you’re going down! Newton over Manning in an epic battle!

Good Luck!

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OK, so at about 10:12 pm last night, the closest thing to the end of the world that I noticed was that a piece of space debris brilliantly burned out in the farmer’s field behind the house. Which, when you think about it, could be considered a close call.

On the bright side, on 12-12-12, the last triplet we’ll ever have (until we find that youth serum), I topped 5.7 million on Robotron and made it to level 235 – twenty levels shy of the game reaching the famed crash! A bit frustrating as I typically find it hard to top 3 million. So this was a serious run that I don’t think I’ll be able to duplicate.

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I can’t believe it. Echo & James will be playing together on 3 nights in April but in the UK. I wonder if it’s a co-headline or if James is the main act?

Anyway, let’s wait a bit to see if they announce any North American dates. If not, time to make that trip across the pond!

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Been sprucing up the website using Jquery components. It’s pretty neat what can be done with HTML5 these days. Yeah, you need a heavier browser for this but it seems like all the smartphones have a decent browser these days.

Also been doing some native smartphone (iOS, Android, BB) development at work as well as JQuery Mobile / Phonegap development.

All of this makes me wonder where we can take Wonderboy in terms of a product.

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I forgot to post this at the time.

Went back to Vegas and stayed at the Excalibur with the same bunch of friends I went with…um…was it before 2008? Geez.

Went back to the some of the same restaurants I was just at a couple weeks ago: Tao at the Venetian and Gordon Ramsay’s Steak at Paris. Repeated them because they are just that good. Note to all: Worcestershire butter sauce on your steaks is the way to go.

I spent a lot of time playing craps at the Casino Royale just beside the Venetian. It’s the only $3 craps on the strip and they take 100x at one of the tables. On this trip, I honed my No Pass strategy. Although it takes longer to make (the odds are flipped since you are playing house), it also takes longer to lose. More often than not, you end up slowly making and eventually, if patient, you’ll likely double money before you get tired of playing.

The weater was great for the 1st 2 days (Wed Thur) but then dropped to the low 10s…which ironically was even lower than the weather back home. So not so much walking. Initially we took the monorail to get around but then I remembered that it is so inconvenient it’s hardly worth it. The stations are always at the back of the casinos so you end up spending way to much time walking around anyway. I decided to cab it everywhere I went. I also would pair up with a stranger who was going to a casino close to where I was going. This amounted to spending about $5 to go from Excalibur to Venetian which pretty much is the distance of the strip. So keep that in mind whenever you visit Vegas and want to get around on the cheap.

I also played a bit of poker. Last time I played was way way back when online poker was just starting to pick up. It was hard to find a table anywhere. Now, they are at all the casinos and the rooms are usually pretty nice. I played a couple of sit-n-gos at the Luxor and the Excalibur. Both were $50 buy in multi-tables. I busted out early in the Luxor but made it to top 5 at the Excalibur which netted me about $30….and about 8 Heinekens too.

The other new twist to my gambling this year was playing video poker. I know a professional poker player who told me that a lot of them play video poker when they are not playing real poker. Video poker is quite different than what most people think. It is a house game true, but if played properly, the odds are 99.96. With comps you can actually make playing. But you need to search far and wide to find the right machine: Jacks or Higher with 9/6 odds. Anything else lowers the odds. I had a heck of a time finding any 9/6. The best I could find was 8/6. Which was good enough for me. I ended up making a couple hundred when I eventually hit four 7s on a progressive machine.

When’s my next trip to Vegas? Can’t wait.

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At Gordon Ramsay steak Vegas.  Private room.  Listening to echo & the bunnymen “doing it clean”!

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