Alice in Chains and Hurt












I have been a bad boy lately with not keeping everyone up-to-date on stuff.
Last night I had a chance to go see Alice in Chains at The Wiltern in Hollywood.
The concert was AMAZING!
For the people who are not familiar with the group, the lead singer of Alice in Chains, Layne Staley, died of heroin overdose about 4 years ago. Alice in Chains has been on hiatus until recently when they replaced him with William DuVall. William sounds just like Layne and was amazing how the group sounded live! I took my friend Ryan, and while he wasn't familiar with all of their music, he was impressed with the concert and the group. HURT did and hour show with Alice in Chains doing a 2 hour show. Alice did a nice acoustic set in the middle of the concert, instead of at the end like I have seen in some concerts. They also played a couple of video clips that was a tribute to Layne as they set up and tore down their acoustic stage.
A special shout out to HURT, the opening band. They sounded very tight live and the music was a good match for opening band for Alice.
Overall it was well worth the 3 hours on my feet and the expensive tickets from Ticketmaster and the $30 t-shirt.

HAPPY FEET Opens at #1!

Hi friends! If you haven't already heard, the movie John worked on in Sydney opened at Number 1 this weekend! It's been very exciting to see all the advertising here in LA (not much in Sydney by the time we left), and then go see it, and then find out it opened at #1. Friday night (opening night) we saw it at an IMAX theater with Maggie Langley and some of her friends. Maggie worked with John in Sydney, and now they work together here in Santa Monica. (She's super nice!) Sunday, we saw it again with friends from church - about 16 of us! - with lots of cheering and clapping when John's name came up! We'll be seeing it again the day after Thanksgiving with our pseudo-family in Temecula. Whew! Thankfully, we like the movie, so it's fun to see it several times! :)

It's been a rough couple of weeks as we've moved into our new apartment in Santa Monica and tried to get things organized. Among other things, I (Kitty) about went ballistic when my new MacBook wouldn't connect to our new Internet connection and the Apple tech had me reinstall the operating system. Now I can "see" but can't access my old data! That's one of the things that made it a hard week, and I don't think you'd want to read what I wrote but didn't post. :)

But it's a new week and, as the guest speaker said at church on Sunday, what's really important is that God loves us so much He'd rather die than be without us. The rest just isn't that important - even though it seems like it at the time. :) So this week we're trying to take everything in stride. We will have lived here without furniture or pots and pans for 2 1/2 weeks before it's delivered, but we're managing. And my friend Milissa is going to help me unpack everything when the storage company delivers our stuff next week. Hurray!! I'm looking forward to next Tuesday night - the first night we've slept in our own bed in over a year!

We're going to try to keep you updated on things - especially when we hear things about the potential New Zealand job and how things are moving along with my book - at least twice a week. We hope you enjoy the pictures (more coming, have to get the camera connected to John's new computer first) and our little stories!

Love and Hugs!
Kitty :)

Happy Halloween!!
We celabrated Halloween with our friends in Temecula. Dougs brother, David, and his wife were kind enough to throw a little party. There was lost of witches brew to drink, burgers to eat, and of course CANDY!
Here are a couple of costumes that showed up:




















Friends of the hosts showed up as a ketchup and mustard bottles.





















Here is Kitty and our friend Doug. Kitty is a jillaroo and Doug was a friar.





















Here is Kitty and I. I had to come as a beat up rugby player.




















Our hosts sister and husband came as a mobster and his floozy.

















Our host David, is dressed as King, and his 11 month old son, Blake, was dressed as a dragon!
Our other host, Janinne is seen in the background dressed as a fairy.

Home Again

Well, Kitty and I arrived back in the U.S. safe and sound after my job finished in Sydney. We were staying with our friends Mel & Andrew in Sydney for about three weeks after my job ended. They were great hosts!
We then stayed with our friend Doug at his place in Temecula, California, while we set up a job and a place to live in L.A.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers, it's great to be back!













(This is Doug and I)