Just call me the cookie monster...

Hahaha, so for Dave's Kickstarter project (the link for those who missed it- http://kck.st/besQ64 ) he made a video and after recording all day he started to have a hard time getting out what he wanted to say...but the camera kept rolling and I was behind it making comments as we went along...we didn't mean for the things we caught to be funny but when we put them all together in one "blooper" video it turned out pretty hilarious! At least to us...check it out for yourself, but you have to wait 'til the end to understand the title of this post :) Hope you enjoy...

And here is the real Kickstarter video...

Vegetarian going on vegan...

As some of you know I stopped eating meat (except for seafood) as of April this year.  For me that was not a hard decision at all since I barely ate meat anyways and I always felt better when I didn't.  I have had times when I've only had meat when I ate out (if even then), but never gave it up all together until a few months ago...first I watched "Food, Inc." this movie is very informative about the food we are buying at the grocery stores, tells some scary facts we should know about the USDA and FDA (and how corrupt they both are), and explains the importance of buying organic and locally grown foods.  Now I like to consider myself pretty informed when it comes to food and the issues we face with food here in America, but I was so shocked by the things I learned by this video...not to mention the fact that some of the things that go on (like abuse of animals and use of antibiotics in our foods) that I did already know about were in this movie for me to see first hand.  I will warn you, most of it is pretty gruesome and disturbing (I cried, not gonna lie...), but I would recommend it to anyone.

The other thing that happened around April was I read "The Kind Diet" by Alicia Silverstone.  I love how this book presented the information in a way that was easy to understand with beautiful pictures throughout.  It talks about how eating animals is not only destroying our bodies, but also the planet.  The information stuck with me and as soon as I finished the book I gave up meat and never looked back...the book also has some great recipes in there that I can't wait to try!

The book also explains why it is important to go vegan and I'll admit I'm still working on that part.  Milk was something I already didn't use anymore; I have been drinking soy or almond milk for a few years now, but it can be challenging at first to make sure the products you’re buying don’t have milk in them. There are just so many! But once you know that gets easier. The other thing I am working on is my cheese intake…now I do find myself craving cheese every now and then and unfortunately we have been eating out a lot lately so that makes it VERY difficult to cut out cheese. When we are cooking at home we have started using veggie cheese (which tastes great!) or just simply buying things without cheese on them.

I have been very proud of Dave throughout this whole process…he was definitely an “I need meat at every meal” type of person when we met and he has done so well with this transition. At first he just didn’t eat meat at home since I obviously wasn’t, and then when we ate out he would get meat. But he started to realize that the less he ate meat the less he wanted it, or when he would eat it at a restaurant it would just make him sick. Now he still eats it every once in awhile, but only the good stuff (organic, free range, etc) and he has also been making a conscious effort not to eat as much cheese and such. Milk was also an easy switch for him and his fav little “snack” now is dark chocolate almond milk :)

I think the last step going vegan for me will be the seafood part…and this will be the hardest. While I don’t eat fish as much now, we have been putting scallops in our pasta or eating it out some (and of course sushi.) This article helped me understand some environmental issues on why we shouldn’t eat certain fish, since The Kind Diet didn’t go into that enough for me. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9139/healthfriendly_and_ecofriendly_choices.html?cat=5 We gave up shrimp after looking further into it and reading this article http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/Top-10-Reasons-Not-to-Eat-Shrimp.aspx ...they had me at “poop cocktail” haha.

Anyways…sorry for such a long one this time, but it is something I have become very passionate about. I never want to be “preachy” about it though, just informative and only when people are interested. Here are some pics of things we’ve been eating lately…

Jason's Deli has become our favorite restaurant~

 

Portobello Wrap at Jason's Deli (minus the cheese)...so yummy!

For the Veggie Wrap we just use a whole wheat tortilla and a bag of frozen vegetables...once the veggies are cooked we wrap it up and cook it on our George Foreman Grill :)

My favorite...avocado and vegan pepper jack cheese quesadilla w/ salsa

vegan pizza...the crust on this is to die for!

pizza box...they have this at Target

 

Dave's Kickstarter Campaign

Hey everyone, as some of you know Dave has just launched a campaign on Kickstarter.com to raise money for his next album...we are very excited (and nervous!) about this!  This album is something that he has waited years to make and we're hoping and praying that Kickstarter proves to be the platform that can make this album happen.  So please please please share this with your friends and family and ask them to pass this along as well...because the more people that hear about it the better!  Here is the link...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/101911357/love-via-music-lets-make-the-dave-owens-album-toge-0

Thank you guys for all your help, we really appreciate it...love you all, Mal

Punk Rock Princess ≫≫ Something Corporate live.

So on the 15th I got to see a band live in concert that I have been DYING to see since I was about 15...so in other words this experience was a decade in the making, which means I was pretty dang excited!  I fell in love with Something Corporate back in high school and they have been one of my top five bands ever since, unfortunately they never came to the city I was in and then in 2005 they stopped touring together.  Meanwhile the lead singer/piano player (the talent of the group- in my eyes) started up a band Jack's Mannequin and also was diagnosed with and fought Leukemia...and while I love Jack's Mannequin, it just wasn't the same.  But this summer they are back together and touring for the first time in 5 years, they didn't come to Knoxville so we got tickets to see them in Atlanta.

The venue was called The Masquerade and it was the perfect venue to see live music in because it was a smaller, more intimate venue.  We had to wait outside in line for awhile and I got this shot...

Once we were inside we got really got spots with a perfect view of the piano :)  And we took a few pics while I anxiously awaited the start...

SO excited about how close we were

We entertained ourselves during the wait by listening and watching the couple next to us. Our guess is there were around 19...the guy was about 6'5" and his girlfriend was about 5'4" and when we got there she was clinging to his side, mind you there was no AC in there and everyone is shoulder to shoulder and the last thing you would want is someone hanging all over you.  The WHOLE time we waited for Something Corporate to come on she was whining about everything you could imagine in a high pitched voice..."I can't see" "it's hot in here" "can we get closer"...while tugging on his shirt to get his attention (since his tactic was to just look straight ahead and pretend not to hear haha.)  Then when she wouldn't get a response or the answer was no she would cross her arms and *humph*...it was hilarious.

I was just praying that she would stop once it started and thankfully she did, the show was better than I imagined (which says a lot) and they rocked the house!  Their use of lighting was amazing...

Singing on the piano

Andrew hanging from the rafters...you'll have to click on this one for the full size to see what I mean

By the time it was the encore everyone had shifted so much and people had moved to the back or left that we got an even better view of some of my favorites (I love all their songs, but the best of the best)...including Punk Rock Princess and Konstantine.  I put a link to a video of Konstantine live a few weeks ago, but Dave got this one on my iphone and it's great so I thought I'd share again, it's just the first half of the song...