The Daryls Reunion

Cory's bachelor party was a success. He thought he was going to meet all his buddies at the Mariners game on Friday night, but instead his friends planned a surprise.

Cory used to see The Daryls - his friends' band - play all the time. He even went on a couple 2-week West Coast tours with them over a decade ago. Since then, they've all grown up, gotten married, had kids, and thus haven't played in a very long time.

Friday night (June 8th) they got together to preform a reunion show for Cory. Luckily they invited everyone to come, so those of us who know their songs but have never seen them preform - including the lead singer's wife - were in for a treat. Our first Daryls show!

The Daryls from Liz Smith on Vimeo.

We video-taped the event and I was able to cut it down from 40 to 16 minutes. If you don't know the Daryls, you're not likely to be interested in watching the whole thing since it includes a snippet of almost every song they played. For you, some key moments include:

• 00:00 - The Daryls telling Cory that they're playing - he still thinks they are going to the baseball game
• 01:00 - The Daryls start their first song of the night
• 02:27 - I didn't realize the camera was on, so I was filming the floor - I still wanted to include a snippet of this song though
• 03:04 - The first beer is spit on the lead singer, Brain Moore
• 10:15 - Darren does "the Tebow" because they're about to play the song "Jesus is the Reason I Won the Superbowl" - nobody gets it
• 14:25 - 14:40 - Cory dresses up as "The Cheese Man" for "The Cheese Song", runs out on stage, and flings Kraft singles at the crowd - something he used to do at very early Daryls show...he's still got it, he's zinging those cheese slices pretty well

Crawfish Boil

Now that I've been to New Orleans, I find it important to integrate the area's culture into my life... Or, my friends who used to live there had a crawfish boil and invited me. You choose.

Our chef, Chris, stirring the pot with a nice view of Shilshole Bay.

The crawfish are shipped in from Louisiana, so they must be legit.

One mean looking crawfish.

Apparently crawfish can survive a voyage to Seattle because these guys were active.

Maybe it's because they knew they were about to be eaten.

Tim and Cory made a friend.

After they're boiled in a pot full of seasoning, sausage, and potatoes, you dump the crawfish on the table for everyone to eat.

Getting the meat is not for the faint-hearted. You have to tear the head off, scrape out any remaining organs, and peel the tail to get to the meat. You don't get much, but the peeling process is most of the fun.

No faint hearts here!

A Long Weekend at Home

Shockingly, I spent my three-day Memorial Day weekend doing pretty much nothing. I didn't go anywhere and I didn't have any plans made at all. It was kind of nice for a change.

Since we had nothing to do, Cory and I decided to drive to Lacey, WA (about an hour-and-a-half from Seattle) and watch the final day of the high school fastpitch softball state championships. One of our friends coaches a team that was in the tournament.

They play on a turf infield and grass outfield.

Its been a long time since I've watched a softball game.

It was pretty fun to just sit in the sun and watch the girls play. Unfortunately my friend's team didn't win, but they did pretty well and lost to the team that went on to win it all.

The next day I woke up and cleaned my refrigerator. Now I realize nobody reading this will be excited by the next two pictures, but I am. I took everything out, including the shelves, and cleaned the shit out this fridge.

So fresh!

So clean!

The next day we went to Men's Warehouse, decided on suits for the wedding, and had them measure Cory. It's amazing how much you can get done when you've got three days of nothing to do!