Baseball, Neil and Tornadoes

Jason and I had a great date night on Friday.  We went to dinner at Tobacco Road Sports Cafe, since it is next door to the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC).  I had never been to that part of Durham before, and I was really impressed.  The restaurant overlooks the Durham Bulls Park, so you can watch the game on their outdoor balcony.  The season opening game started at 7:00, and the concert started at 8:00.  It was really awesome to be able to watch a little bit of the game before we headed over to DPAC.  It made me think that I may actually want to go to a Durham Bulls game sometime.  Come on, they have hot dogs and beer.  You know they had me at hot dogs.

The concert was fantastic.  It was a one man show not counting his opening act, Bert Jansch, who played the acoustic guitar.  (I need to get some of his stuff.  He was great!)  Neil played 4 different guitars, 2 pianos, an organ and a harmonica.  Obviously not at the same time.  He played mainly his new stuff, which is really good.  I've been listening to his new album a lot lately, and I really like it.  And let me tell you, he can still rock!

DPAC is a fantastic venue!  Durham should be really proud of it.  I was impressed with everything.  Even the women's bathrooms were extremely efficient during intermission with the staff showing women where the open stalls were and handing out paper towels.  I will definitely go back there for another event!

Saturday was a very eventful weather day for our area.  North Carolina had 26 tornadoes.  The one that came through our area was an EF3.  (The scale goes from EF0 - EF5 for all those who aren't weather nerds.)  It was like living in the Midwest.  We were very lucky that we didn't see any action at our house.  Even though we did find insulation and some shingles in our yard afterward.  These didn't blow in with the wind.  These literally fell from the sky when it was raining and not windy at all.  Who knows where they came from?  The Lowe's that was destroyed in Sanford?  I'm glad that the visit from Jason's parents didn't involve hunkering down in a bathroom! 

Sunday evening we went to a potluck dinner with people from church and had a great time.  Sims loved watching the other kids play and playing with someone else's toys.  They had a lot of yard maintenance toys that he really liked.  I hope he's this excited about lawn mowers and leaf blowers when he is old enough to use the real things!

We had a nice, relaxing weekend, and we were very thankful that Jason's parents were able to babysit Sims (and visit with us, too.)