Backstage with INXS

This was so FUN! I just returned from two more INXS concerts in Southern California. The first show was in Anaheim at the House of Blues and was great! We were centerstage, 3 rows back standing. Later we ran into Tim Farris as we were walking out to the parking lot and got to say hello which was way cool. Below is Kirk Pengilly and I.

The 2006 Switch Tour

Kirk Pengilly

Next night in Indio at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino was fabulous! A real rock experience. Steve Lukather joined the band onstage for the last few songs and helped to bring the house down. We ran into Kirk Pengilly and his beautiful/model daughter April in the hotel, had the opportunity to say hello to JD and the band before the show and got to hang out with them and April backstage after the show!

The guys were soooo nice, as always, and said we could take pictures with them. Who could ask for more? A totally rocking concert, a really nice band AND cool pictures.... Good Times!

That's Jon Farriss

With Tim Farriss

Fan or Stalker?

Ok, I'll admit this bordered on stalkerish... We saw JD Fortune, a devout vegetarian and current front man for INXS, as soon as we arrived at the hotel. He was walking ahead of us and approached an ATM in the hallway. After getting some cash he turned and continued the other direction heading towards the casino.

Not wanting to waste a photo op I went over and took a few shots of the ATM he had just used. My hand was the first to touch the keypad after his.

My BF called me a stalker and said hotel security was probably going to come and arrest me if I didn't knock it off.

Ha ha I didn't care. Later we got to chat with JD before the show. He's a really nice guy, soft spoken, sincere and always really sweet to me every single time I've seen him, which would be three times to be exact.

Doing my Civic Duty

So a few days ago I was walking my dog near my boyfriend's house. With fall upon us I was enjoying the brisk air, the leaves crunching under my feet and the smell of natural gas.... HUH? I thought to myself. Did I just smell gas? I walked back but the scent was gone.

Two days later my boyfriend and I were walking past the same exact location when once again I smelled gas. I made him come stand beside me and asked him if he smelled it too. He said yes. I said we better go home and call PG&E and he said "Don't be such a Looky Loo."

In actuality he meant "Busy Body" but was confused. He's Canadian.

I chose to ignore his comment and did call PG&E to report the odor. The next day my boyfriend said he walked by the house and two PG&E trucks were there digging a big hole in the driveway of the house, right next to the street.

I walked by there again today and guess what? No gas odor.

So I would like to think that my phone call as a concerned citizen, not a Looky Loo, possibly saved an entire neighborhood from blowing up.

Edited to add: OMG my boyfriend made me change the spelling of Lookie Lou to Loo! Being Canadian he should prefer the "Lou" spelling since they like to add the letter "u" to all kinds of words it doesn't belong in. But he says he pronounced it with the "oo" not the "ou" to which I can only say: Yeah, ok, like it matters?

THINK PINK!

So last month I went for my first annual mammogram. Was it fun? Not really. Was it uncomfortable? Kind of. Should every woman over 40 have one? Absolutely!

So don't wait. Make an appointment to have one today.

Oh by the way... My results were good. Nothing suspicious to worry about!

Meet Christine Alday...

This Company is now closed :(

TheCakeAndIceCream.com

Ever want to throw a fabulous party and have absolutely no idea where to begin? Then check in at TheCakeandIceCream.com a new website dedicated to sharing great party planning ideas. From decorations to sweet treats to vendors, all of the information you'll need is right at your keyboard.

Owner Christine Alday has a knack for having fun and wants to share her passion with the rest of the world. Be sure to sign up for her email list. Also send in an entry for her first contest "Unique Invitations" and win a $100 gift certificate to the Paper Source! Website and illustrations by GIRLgoesGEEK.com

I MET INXS... AGAIN!!! The Los Angeles Road Trip...

Here are my tickets and backstage passes from the L.A. shows... It really makes you feel like you're a "Sombebody" when you get to cruise past security and go backstage. If you ever have the opportunity I highly recommend the experience!


Well L.A. was awesome! The concerts were at the Greek Theatre and even though our seats didn't come close to the second row view we had in Berkeley, the shows themselves were fabulous!

We got to go backstage again and saw Kirk Pengilly, JD Fortune, and Tim Farriss before the show started the second night. Kirk asked how the BBQ went and gave me a hug and Tim gave me a kiss on the cheek! Ha ha my sister is going to be soooooo jealous! After the show we said hello to Andrew and I got to meet Jon Farriss for the first time. He shook my hand and chatted us up a bit. He is as nice as everyone else in the band.

JD's leg seems to be on the mend. He was limping a couple of times onstage Friday but not noticeably at all on Saturday. Turns out he tore his ACL when he slipped on some water onstage at a previous show. Despite the pain he holds nothing back from his performance. I'll say it again... That boy has got some moves!
We are looking forward to a new album next year and many more concerts to come...

I MET INXS!!!

First off let me say the show was absolutely fabulous. If they are coming to your city go see them! They're awesome! Plenty of new songs from their recent release "Switch" and hit after hit of their older material all performed by new lead singer JD Fortune. He's got some voice. I can see why he won Rock Star: INXS.

And thanks to my Fabulous New Boyfriend (FNB) who has been friends with the band for going on 9 years now... I got to meet the band after the show! YAY! Not only that but before the show we were shocked to find second row tickets waiting for us when we went to pick up our VIP passes to go backstage later. It was all completely surreal...

I met Kirk Pengilly, Tim Farriss, Andrew Farriss and JD Fortune (In that order) and got to shake all of their hands. At the end of the night Kirk even gave me a hug. Poor JD was in pain after the show as his leg was injured, not that you could tell watching him perform on stage that night. That boy has got some moves.... Some are pretty nasty, but in a good way! LOL! And when my FNB told JD that I had listened to "Afterglow" 38 times in a row after buying it on itunes, he looked deeply into my eyes and sincerely thanked me a couple of times... He also congratulated us on our three months of dating anniversary. Hee hee... It was too fun!

My FNB had invited them by Evite to a BBQ he was having the next day. Tim replied to the Evite that they couldn't come... And when he saw us he mentioned again that he was sorry they couldn't make it but they had a show to do that night in Sacramento.

At the BBQ everyone was pretty much green with envy that we had such a great time the night before. There is a story about a radish... I'll share it with you in a future post.

The best part is that they couldn't have been any nicer. Like I said at the beginning of this post, if you have the opportunity to see them... Get your friends together and GO! You won't be sorry. DId I mention that Scott Stapp, former lead singer of Creed was their opening act. So we got to hear "Arms Wide Open" performed live, which was yet another really nice surprise that evening.

Now we're off to LA to see them again... I am an official INXS groupie!

Ha ha ha, on a side note I was also mistaken for actress Sandra Oh while we were backstage... Yet again... I could do an entire post about how many people have said I look like her or have mistaken me for her. In fact I will do one soon as it's pretty darn funny.

Hey! That's me!

So this is my new GIRLgoesGEEK.com logo!

As I am working on developing my new website for my flourishing web designing business, I decided it was time to make a graphic to depict the fun image of the sites I've been creating.

Here is a link to my New GGG Business Card I'm working on... Take a peek and let me know what you think. Good or bad, all comments are always welcome!

Those of you who know me well know how I love to wear my boots! These boots were made for walking... Now I'm going to walk on over to my computer and get back to work.

Later I'll walk the dog.

I hope I don't get rabies

So I was visiting a friend at her office when she suddenly noticed an 8" long Northwestern Alligator lizard running across the floor.

Being a lover of all creatures, except for fleas and mosquitoes, I immediately announced we needed to catch and release him or her so that the lizard could go on to live a full and rich life, until it was run over by a car or eaten by a cat or a bird. So after chasing it around a bit, and being careful not to grab it by the tail, lizards tails usually break off to help them elude a predator, I was able to catch the little sucker.... Only to be unceremoniously bitten as I took him outside to release him in some tall grass near a tree. It didn't really hurt, but it felt like a couple dozen teeny tiny razor sharp teeth digging into my hand.

Hmmmm maybe that's why they call them "Alligator" lizards.

RSS has arrived!

A big thank you to my fabulous new boyfriend for showing me how to set-up a super cool RSS feed on my blog... So if you want to keep up to date on all of the earth shattering, silly, up to the moment news of my life... Go ahead and subscribe.

Ha ha ha... OK it may not be headline news, nonetheless some of you have been following my posts and have been asking for an RSS feed.

If you are on Mac OSX, don't use Safari to manage your subscriptions, I downloaded NetNewsWire Lite it's waaaaaaay better.

My first iTunes purchase...

Well it's about time! I just opened my new iTunes account! My first purchase? Afterglow by INXS... I love this song... I have been listening to it over and over again. The new lead singer, JD Fortune, has a great voice. Very soulful with a lot of resonance.

Some of you may have heard that I will be going to a couple of INXS concerts in June... And I will get to meet the band! How cool is that?

My new boyfriend, yes I said boyfriend, actually knows the band and will be taking me to the shows. Wooo hooo! It'll be great. I've been a fan of INXS since I bought the Shaboo Shoobah LP. Yes, I said LP.

I hang out in tattoo parlors...

No I do not have any tattoos... But my pal Judy does, and I have gone with her each time to lend moral support and distracting conversation as she sits there like a masochist, contorting her face in pain as the little needle jabs her over and over again.

As you can see from the pictures this was a fix-up job... Adding embellishments and using more color then on the original application. Judy felt the first time the sunflower, situated on the inside of her left ankle, was too square shaped and bulky.

So after quickly sketching a vine and leaf design for her on a paper napkin at Carl's Junior, where by the way they have Squirt soda, off to the tattoo parlor we went. Both Judy and I were very impressed with the results.

Her latest artist was a great guy named Shannon. If you want a tattoo both Judy and I would highly recommend him. He works at Marks of Art which doesn't have a website but the link is where you can find them.

IT SNOWED IN CALIFORNIA LAST NIGHT!

OK maybe the picture is an "over" dramatic recreation as there wasn't nearly that much snow on the ground by the time we got there... But I think there might have been earlier that evening!

So last night my friend and I got caught in snow, yes I said snow on HWY 280 on our way back from San Francisco. How weird is that? There was one police car swerving back and forth across all of the lanes of traffic at about 15 mph. First we thought there must have been an accident. Then I thought the cop was drunk. As it turned out there was snow and ice on the highway!

When I called to tell my Mom this she sounded completely skeptical.... "It must have been hail" she said. She lives where there is lots and lots of snow in the wintertime. This forced me to go online and find the following excerpt from an article in the San Jose Mercury News to prove to her that I know the difference between hail and snow.

Snow above, sleet below
By Hong Dao Nguyen

... And the weather continued to wreak havoc into the night. About 11 p.m. Friday, the California Highway Patrol was stopping both directions of Interstate 280 between Edgewood Road and Highway 92 in San Mateo County because of snow, ice and poor visibility. Officers were leading drivers one by one along the slushy roadway...

IT SNOWED IN CALIFORNIA LAST NIGHT!

OK maybe the picture is an "over" dramatic recreation as there
wasn't nearly that much snow on the ground by the time we got
there.... But I think there might have been earlier that evening!

So last night my friend and I got caught in snow, yes I said snow on HWY 280 on our way back from San Francisco. How weird is that? There was one police car swerving back and forth across all of the lanes of traffic at about 15 mph. First we thought there must have been an accident. Then I thought the cop was drunk. As it turned out there was snow and ice on the highway!

When I called to tell my Mom this she sounded completely skeptical.... "It must have been hail" she said. She lives where there is lots and lots of snow in the wintertime. This forced me to go online and find the following excerpt from an article in the San Jose Mercury News to prove to her that I know the difference between hail and snow.

Snow above, sleet below
By Hong Dao Nguyen

... And the weather continued to wreak havoc into the night. About 11 p.m. Friday, the California Highway Patrol was stopping both directions of Interstate 280 between Edgewood Road and Highway 92 in San Mateo County because of snow, ice and poor visibility. Officers were leading drivers one by one along the slushy roadway...

To Peep or not to Peep... That is the Question

So feeling nostalgic I picked up a pack of Peeps the other day. Not a big box of bunnies... Just the little mini pack of yellow chickens. I have been in a bit of a funk lately and thought that they might cheer me up by giving me one of those artificial sugar induced highs. I would like to report that while cute, Peeps do not create the same euphoric effect as my beloved Scotchmallows when consumed. I felt as crummy after I ate them as I did before... Just not as hungry.

Oddly though, the page holder for the new Peeps web site does make me smile! It's pretty darn cute... Go take a peek by clicking HERE!

Ha ha ha Keith! Very Funny!

Based upon my last blog entry, my friend Keith sent me this email... The subject line simply said: A better Einstein picture. It needs no further explanation.

Keith made this picture using www.Hetemeel.com

What do I have in common with this man? Well, I can stick out my tongue...

Ok, so I'm no Einstein. For the past three months my television has been functioning from a visual standpoint but the audio feature was sadly lacking from several key stations, or sometimes there was audio but it was in Spanish. I do not speak Spanish. Some stations I received the audio for commercials but none of the programs.

Well yesterday I was talking to my friend Jewel and mentioned to her that I had not been watching the Olympics as the audio didn't work on that station or several others for that matter.

"Oh" she exclaimed, "look at your remote control and hit the SAP button." The what-a-what button? I asked as I began hitting and clicking every button on my remote... And there it was, nestled right between the return button and channel 4... My "Menu/SAP" button. I clicked on it and was instructed by my genius friend to then click on the "stereo" option and.... VOILA! I had audio on all of my stations once again.
Brilliant. For 3 months I have been missing some of my favorite programs because late one night in a sleepy haze I must have inadvertently clicked that darn button! Please keep in mind that this tv is so old I just figured it had finally started to break down. All in all it's still a great tv, good picture quality, a big screen, and it has cool speakers that stick out of the sides.

As I said at the beginning of this post... I can stick out my tongue.

Three Cheers for Common Sense!

It seems to me that common sense is not as prevalent as it once was.

I guess the best way to know if you have common sense is if other people tell you that you do. I mean come on, how objective can we really be about ourselves? Isn't that like asking the people on HOTorNOT.com if they're hot? Or asking an American Idol contestant just before their big audition if they can sing?

Yesterday a friend paid me a compliment telling me that, in her opinion, I did possess this quality... Sure it would be nice to make People Magazine's 50 most beautiful people list or win a Nobel Prize, but since neither of these two milestones are likely to occur in my near future, this was a great compliment and a very reassuring thing to hear.

Maybe I should call my Dad and thank him. As a kid he would always say to me "Common sense tells you..." and would proceed to explain the logical order I should do something in. So perhaps common sense is a learned behavior? Nurture not nature.

Back to my friend though... She shared with me an old saying her Dad used to say to her that made me LOL!

"You know what they say about common sense... It's not that common."

I Love Naila's Mom and Dad!

I found another soul mate recently... We are bound to gether not by fine cosmic threads but by marshmallow and chocolate! She loves her dog as much as I do and we both love Scotchmallows! If you've never tried them I highly recommend them. They're honey marshmallow with caramel and dark chocolate. LOL she and her hubby sent me a See's Candy gift card for Valentines Day! I crossed out each piece as I ate it! A whole pound of scotchmallows all for me! Thanks guys!

I'm Thinking About Getting Schnockered!

I've never cared for alcohol... So I've never taken up drinking but recently I was introduced to "Ice Wine" at Straits Cafe and loved it! For those unfamiliar, ice wine is sweet. Very very sweet. Like Martinelli's sparkling cider sweet with a little bit of fizz in it. After a bit of web based research I learned that it is a French wine where the grapes are left on the vine until the first heavy frost. They are picked in the morning and are immediately pressed while still frozen so there is less water and apparently more sugar.

After my first taste I decided to go buy a bottle. Luckily my sister had given me a Whole Foods gift card for Christmas that was burning a hole in my pocket so I took my gal pal Judy with me and off we went in search of my first bottle of booze!

We quickly realized our quest wouldn't take long. They only had two bottles to choose from. One was $19.99 the other was close to $54. My gift card was for $50 and being a novice to fine wines I figured I was only worthy of the cheaper one.

Sadly, despite my grand intentions to take up social drinking, my bottle of ice wine has become nothing more then a mere conversation piece. I bring it out to show it to friends and excitedly tell them how I plan to drink a big glass some day and get "schnockered" but come on, who am I kidding? The only thing that bottle is going to do is collect dust. (Actual bottle pictured at left)

Apparently for some of us... It's as hard to start drinking as it is for others to stop.

I'm on TV Today!

Wow! My Home and Garden Television segment re-aired this morning! I just woke up and found many emails awaiting me from East Coast viewers who had seen my segment on HGTV's Crafters Coast to Coast! Here is the Link to my origami portfolio in case you missed it on the home page.

This is what HGTV's web site says about me:
Stacie is a Japanese American who is very in touch with her roots - so much so that she spends hour upon hour creating origami cranes. Although she learned paper folding from her grandmother at the age of 5, she didn't come to fully appreciate it until adulthood. Now she spends her spare time creating highly detailed and stunning pieces of origami artwork, as seen in this beaded cherry blossom tree.

A Meatless Cheeseburger

I went to In and Out Burger last night for dinner.... I highly recommend the Grilled Cheese Sandwich which is a cheeseburger without the burger! Yummy.

Fortunately for me the friend who went with me doesn't care for the fresh cut fries so much... So I ate mine and half of his! Bonus.

Blog Policies

The Flirty Guide Blog is the professional and lifestyle blog of Stacie Tamaki.

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Comments are moderated for content and are all individually approved. Comments that contain personal information (i.e. personal phone numbers, addresses, emails, etc.) will be modified and reposted minus the personal contact information for the safety of our readers. Comments containing urls and over self promotion as determined by the blog author will be modified with url's linking to the poster's name only.

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Comments that disagree with the POV of The Flirty Guide or another reader will generally be allowed so long as they are written with respectfulness towards the person you are disagreeing with.

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I, Stacie Tamaki, reserve the right to revise or revoke any of the policies listed below at any time. Last updated 12-26-2012.