The day so far ..

So I had to wake up early. Very early. Like 5-am-early. To drop Rachel off at the airport. She will be in Oklahoma all week, and I have to figure out how to survive alone for the next few days. I'm hoping the cats know how to call for help, should it be necessary.

Tried out a new bagel shop, Main St. Bagels, that has started operating right outside my apartment complex. Well, more like, was forced to go find some breakfast, since the kind folks at the apartment complex front office decided to play a game of Lets-pretend-you-don't-exist by sticking an "Away" sign at the office entrance and refusing to let anyone in, although I could very clearly see human activity on the inside. I did get in, eventually, and finally got my hands on a precious Fedex package containing Clapton concert tickets for later in the evening.

During the afternoon, Chris and I hiked along one of the trails at Almaden Quicksilver County Park. Although it was, perhaps, the hottest time of the day, I was quite refreshed at the end of it all and, strangely enough, was not sweating profusely. There were a few good views of San Jose along the way, and also a couple of encounters with the local wildlife (think snake and rabbit). Too bad Rachel took the camera with her. *sulk*. After the hike, we treated ourselves to some spicy Mussaman beef curry at little Thai place (whose name escapes me right now), and picked up some Mango Mochi (which I am enjoying right now..) at Trader Joe's.

Attended an Eric Clapton concert at night with Apu and his roommate. > What a fantastic show! Clapton played some of the meanest blues I've heard in ages; and what a great support cast he has! Their soulful, hear-wrenching rendition of Have You Ever Loved a Woman contained the best individual solos of the entire concert, although Clapton's insane guitar solo during I Shot The Sheriff wasn't one bit less enjoyable. Clapton switched gears in the middle of the show to play some crisp acoustic blues, mostly from his new album, Me and Mr. Johnson. All numbers performed to perfection, as expected.

All in all, thoroughly satisfying, and worth every dime spent on the tickets. :)

Good day so far ...

Blues at B-Street Billiards..

The Red White and Blues got together for a short gig at B-Street Billards in downtown San Mateo on Friday. Disaster struck a couple of hours before the gig, when I busted my D harp during practice. Fortunately, the nice folks at Guitar Showcase had plenty in stock.

B-Street Billards turned out to be a nice little pool hall with a bar, high ceilings and a decent crowd that seemed to care for the blues. We were opening for another band, Casual Soul, whose lead guitarist joined us for our 7 song set. It was good to see familiar faces in the audience, Chris, Peter and Alex from work, one of Rachel's colleagues and Apu.
I think we did good; the crowd appeared pleased and some folks walked up to us and let us know how much they enjoyed it! Nothing like a little bit o appreciation. :) Apu showed his by buying us dinner at the KingFish across the street ..