Mark Groves' Weblog

I have decided to move my personal blog over to http://markgroves.us.  I have moved all of the current posts from this Live Spaces blog over there. 

Val has been wanting a new flash based music player, and of course me being the gadget guy that I am I had to see if we were going to jump the Zune given it finally has a flash player.  So on Friday before I left for my leave I decided to stop by the Microsoft Company store and pickup a couple new 8GB flash Zunes.  I have to say I am pretty impressed, the devices is much lighter than I expected and the screen is great to look at.  I actually like the new Zune software, the big issue I have right now is no ability to build auto playlists.  What I am looking for is the ability to customize what I put on my player based on how much I like the music and how many times I have played a given track.  I understand that the Zune team pulled the Auto Playlists in this version since they did research that most normal users just never understood how they worked.  Well I hope they bring them back, and better than in WMP. 

Today is my first day home being Mr. Mom.  Yeah, that is right, Val is back to work I am home with Evelyn for the next 6 weeks.  So far so good, 9:40 and the baby is still alive.  I do have a some help the next two weeks, my Mom is out from Pittsburgh, so there is little chance I will even get to hold my daughter. 

I am happy to announce that our daughter Evelyn Lucille Groves was born Sunday the 15th at 2AM.  Val and baby are doing great and are home resting.  Evelyn was born at 7 lbs 3 oz, just under 21" long.  Hayden is very very excited:

  
Video: Happy Birthday Evelyn HQ

Grand National, the latest John Butler Trio album must be doing great in the US.  It was just announced that JBT will be doing a full US tour starting next month in Baltimore.  I already have our tickets to the Seattle show.  Although this is where I wish we still lived in Denver, it would be cool to see JBT at Red Rocks. 

USA GRAND NATIONAL TOUR
5/22/07 Sonar Baltimore, MD
5/23/07 9:30 Club Washington, DC
5/24/07 Webster Hall New York, NY
5/27/07 Jam on the River Philadelphia, PA
5/30/07 Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto, ON
5/31/07 St. Andrews Hall Detroit, MI
6/1/07 Headliner’s Louisville, KY
6/2/07 Riviera Theatre Chicago, IL
6/3/07 The Vogue Theatre Indianapolis, IN
6/5/07 TBA
6/6/07 Eagles Club Milwaukee, WI
6/7/07 First Avenue Minneapolis, MN
6/9/07 Wakarusa Festival Lawrence, KS
6/12/07 House of Blues Dallas, TX
6/13/07 La Zona Rosa Austin, TX
6/14/07 Warehouse Live Houston, TX
6/15/07 Revolution Music Room Little Rock, AR
6/17/07 Bonnaroo Festival Manchester, TN
6/20/07 4th & B Theater San Diego, CA
6/22/07 Wiltern Los Angeles, CA
6/23/07 Fillmore San Francisco, CA
6/24/07 Fillmore San Francisco, CA
6/26/07 Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR
6/27/07 The Moore Theatre Seattle, WA
6/28/07 TBA
6/30/07 Red Rocks Denver, CO
7/1/07 Taos Solar Music Festival Taos, NM

WOW, what a concert.  Val and I were lucky enough to get tickets to John Butler's concert last night at The Triple Door in Seattle.  For those that do not know the John Butler Trio, you are really missing out, they are this great band from Down Under.  The best way I can describe their music is a mix between Blues, Funk, Reggae, Folk, World music. 

If you have any interest at all in the above types of music I would highly suggest you check them out.  I have been listening to JBT for a couple years now, I happen to stumble upon them in searching for new artists a couple years back, and really dug John Butler's guitar playing, and to see it live was way more then I expected.  To see in person him play a 12 string acoustic, and the combination of sounds he is able to produce really makes their songs even more enjoyable. 

The Triple Door was a killer place to see a show like this, it is a intimate dinner style theater, I believe it only seats 300 people, with full service kitchen and wait staff.  The sound system was great, and with no seat more the 35 paces from the stage there is not a bad seat in the house. 

Check out Grand National releasing some time around the end of March. 

Well I have been holding off creating this post since I was not sure how I wanted to approach this topic on my blog.  But as many of you already know, Val and I are expecting another child.  Not that Hayden was not good enough for us, but we thought it would be good to try for kid 2.0.  

Hayden is actually very excited, he has always wanted to be a "big sister".   In our many conversations with him on this topic he is very convinced that the new baby will be a little girl, and that he is going to be a big sister.  I know he is just a little confused, but since we don't actually know if it will be a little boy or a little girl yet, the conversation has yet to make progress.  Needless to say he is very excited, although I am not sure how excited he will be to have a little brother (if that is the case) since he seems very stuck on have a little sister. 

Since Hayden blessed us by coming 2 months early we are considered high risk on this one, so that means we will be getting plenty of ultrasounds between now and when the baby arrives, hopefully somewhere around end of June (~+36 weeks).