30 Seconds to Mars, Christmas Shopping, and Birthdays

We got started late with Christmas shopping, but shopping online makes it easy. We decided to go with the "one big gift" philosophy this year.

I just bought the new 30 Seconds to Mars album, and I love it so far, though I'm still listening to it now, so I haven't heard it all. Some music has to sink in; some music I like right away, but it doesn't last; some music I like right away, but there is still something there to sink in over time, so that I'm always discovering something new.  30 Seconds to Mars music is like that, I think.

Edited to add: I bought  the new 30 Seconds to Mars album on iTunes, but I just noticed that Amazon has it as one of their $3.99 specials. These specials usually only last a day or two, so if you're interested, get right over there. You don't get the bonus tracks, but they are sort of novelties anyway--alternate versions of songs already on the album.  I sort of wish I'd seen this before I paid full price at iTunes. *sigh*  


Amazon also has the new Switchfoot album, Hello Hurricane, for $5.00, Night Castle by Trans-Siberian Orchestra for $7.99, and The 99 Most Essential Christmas Masterpieces or $5.00. 



Today is my husband's 50th birthday. His birthday is today, my daughter's is Friday, and mine is next week. Now that we are old, we usually celebrate all the birthdays together. We started this when my daughter was at college, because she was usually not home for her birthday, but was home sometime within the next week for Christmas vacation. This year she's at home, but my son is away at college, so we'll wait to celebrate until he gets here.


Even so, I want to do something for my husband today, because it's his 50th and that's a huge milestone. Perhaps I'll bake some cupcakes or make/get him something for dinner. I have a bunch of errands to do tomorrow, though. Perhaps I should bake cupcakes before I go to bed, but if I do that, he'll see them before he goes to work.


David Cook performed Lie on a Carrie Underwood Christmas Special tonight and...wow!

Cirque du Soleil & OliveGarden

Tonight we went to Cirque du Soleil. It was very strange. I loved some parts of it, but didn't like other parts. It was the show in which a lot of the performers were dressed as clowns or were wearing quite garish facial makeup or masks. I know it's a style, but I just find it creepy. OTOH, I loved the main singer and the music, and I also loved all the acrobatics and all of that. It was a lot of fun to watch. They also do not abuse animals as part of their show (in the show or behind the scenes), so they get a lot of imaginary points for that.

We went to dinner first at Olive Garden. Our companions suggested it, and we tried to find someplace else, but we didn't know the area well, and couldn't find anyplace on short notice. On their website, Olive Garden is not vegan friendly at all, which was why we tried to find someplace else to go. My husband called them early in the morning before we went, and the manager was very nice and tried to be accommodating, but basically what they have that is vegan is salad, bruschetta, or bread sticks (which you must request be served without butter, because they brush the tops with butter).

I ordered the bruschetta and some bread sticks without butter. What they call bruschetta is esentially toasted bread with a side dish of chopped fresh tomates, olive oil, and fresh basil. When I was growing up, the Italians that I knew that made bruschetta actually cooked the tomato stuff on a fresh dough--essentially a thick pizza with tomato stuff on top, or they'd put it on thick slices of Italian bread. In the grocery store here, you can buy a jar of bruschetta topping to put on bread and you end up with something similar. What Olive Garden called bruschetta is exactly the same thing as what California Pizza Kitchen called "checca."

It wasn't bad, but if I'd known they'd toast the bread, I'd have asked for it untoasted, only because it was toasted hard, and I don't really like dry, hard toast like that. I brought the bread sticks and most of the bread home with me. I would have taken the checca/not!bruschetta home with me, too, but we were going to the show after, so I didn't want to leave it in the car all evening.

Oh wow. This blog is boring. heh I think I can boil it down to:

Olive Garden is not vegan friendly even if they try to be nice about it. Cirque du Soleil was interesting and fun; I'd consider going again to a different show that didn't have clowns.