Stompadu part two

On Saturday night David and I ventured down to Chocolate, aka Charlotte to see my sister Michelle perform in STOMP. Normally my sis is a part of the NYC cast, but occasionally they will allow her to relieve someone in the touring group if she wants to go perform in a particular city. This was her first week with the touring group and we were so excited she was performing close enough so we could go see her.

David has a bunch of old friends from high school that still live down in the Charlotte/Mooresville area. Before the show we were able to go and eat at one of his friend's restaurants in downtown Charlotte, Tin Tin Box and Noodles. I absolutely love this place! It has great hibachi style food, and my favorite thing to get there is the dumplings and noodles. So grood and great. Plus it was right across the street from the theater so it made for a quick pit stop before the show.

The show was fantastic! Michelle was awesome as usual and we also got to see her old tap buddy Nicholas perform with her as well. He played the lead male role 'Sarge' and has been with the touring cast of Stomp for several years. They both were so fun to watch! A million thanks to Mash for getting us great seats and for free! I think we were only like 10 -15 rows back from the stage and dead center too!

After the show Michelle took us back stage, introduced us to the cast, and let us explore the set! I was so stoked about this because when we saw it in New York we weren't able to go up on stage afterwards. We got to play with her drums or 'bins' as they are called, see the set up, and she also showed us where she ran into the set and got this nasty bump on her head. Ouch! Workers comp? Hmmmm....

The touring show is slightly different than the New York show so it was fun to notice and see the differences. A few of the characters add new elements to the show because they cater to the individual in the role making it fun to see different spins on a character. The set is different too and in one number Michelle gets to swing from the upper level of the set (seen above) while drumming unlike the NYC show where she has to stay on the first level. Mash says it is so scary because the set moves while they are swinging! They even do this one move where they push off and back real far from the set suspended in air. She was worried about this because one time she missed her footing on the way back in and collided with the set. But by Sat night she had it mastered!

After touring the backstage area, Michelle signed autographs for Stomp fans eagerly waiting outside. It was kind of strange watching people ask for my sister's autograph. I felt like charging them, but Michelle would never have allowed it. She was very gracious and humble, and talked to them answering many of their questions about the show and cast.


Since Charlotte is about an hour and a half from the boro we decided to stay overnight instead of drive back super late. We took Michelle and Nicholas to The Cheesecake Factory so they could get some much needed calories and nourishment and we had a great time hanging out and catching up. Then we crashed at Mash's hotel and were lucky enough that she had a room to herself and an extra bed just for us! Thanks again Michelle and Nicholas for a fabulous evening! We had so much fun and hope to do it all again when the show comes to Chapel Hill!

Kitcheny Backsplashy

So, for the past couple of weeks, Natalie has put up with a disaster-area kitchen and has allowed me to undertake yet another one of my home improvement "projects." This time, I decided that I wanted to learn how to tile, thinking to myself "How hard could it really be?" And, in keeping with tradition on "Natalie & David's Blog," I am now going to share with you all the pain of my home improvement (at least improvement was the goal) endeavor. Before I begin, I must thank my parents and Natalie's parents for their generous support (in the form of Home Depot and Lowe's gift cards) that has made my latest project possible.

So, this was our kitchen before I started my tiling project. Isn't it just hideous? I mean, something had to be done about that backsplash area behind the kitchen stove, right? That's what I thought as well. Completely unacceptable. How did we ever toast our bagels amid such squalor?

This picture embodies what I like to refer to as the "point of no return" in any home improvement project. It's that point in the project where there is no turning back because you have done so much damage preparing for the improvement, that if you didn't follow through you would have to pay someone else a lot of money to fix your mess. I personally like to get to this point in the project as quickly as possible so that Natalie can't use her last minute line-item veto on my project. In this particular project, the "point of no return" was surface preparation. Before you can tile any surface you have to completely remove everything from the base (i.e. paint, wallpaper, etc.). I did this while Natalie was at work one day. Boy, was she excited when she got home! Take out food anyone?







After I completely destroyed the kitchen, it was time to start putting the pieces back together. When you tile any space, they say that you need to lay the tile out first, make your cuts, and then you can actually start using the mortar to set the tiles in place. Well, the unique challenge of tiling a wall is that you can't lay all the tiles out on the wall without sticking them to the wall with mortar. So, I had to improvise by creating a mock backsplash on the kitchen floor to use to lay the tiles out.





















Here I am cutting a few tiles with my new RotoZip saw. It was awesome! Smoke, sparks, little pieces of tile flying everywhere. Kids - Don't try this at home.

























After making all the cuts and laying the tile out on the floor again, it was finally time to actually put the first tile in place.























Here is the wall after I was done laying all of the tiles. The little spacers were also kind of a pain because they kept falling out of the wall. Yet another reason that tiling a wall is a little more difficult than tiling a floor (in my humble opinion).

















Once all of the tiles were in place and had been allowed to set for 48 hours, we were able to start the grouting process. Doesn't that look yummy? Kind of like a big bucket of frosting . . . for all of you Amazing Racers out there!













Here is my beautify assistant Heidi (a.k.a. Natalie Horrance) helping me with the grout. Heidi, I mean Natalie, usually likes power tools, but this time she had to settle on a grouting sponge.

After all of the hard work, here is the finished product. If anyone is looking to have a backsplash put in their kitchen, I . . . yeah right.

Yes We Can

It's time for a change...

Yes, we can.