The Swell Season

Last night, D and I had a date night. The Swell Season (with Glen Hansard ... the guy from Once and who won the Oscar for best song this year) came back to town, so we headed over to Keller Auditorium to see them. Of course, if you're going to have a date night, you must go to dinner first, so we went to Higgin's with two other couples also attending the concert. Dinner was good, but it didn't blow me away. I always like the food at Higgin's, but this is the third time in a row I've felt attitude from the wait staff. It's rather off putting. However, the location was right since we were able to walk from the restaurant to the concert.

The concert was great. We got there right when the opening band started playing. Since we had assigned seats - versus the standing room only at The Crystal Ballroom where they played last time - it was not a problem to get there so late. It wasn't quite as good as the last concert, however, Glen Hansard did the coolest thing. He and Markéta Irglová took a walk right before the concert and were stopped on the street by a local guy who was apparently asking for advice about performing. Halfway through the concert, Glen told the story and asked the guy if he'd like to come down and sing a song with him! The guy, Joseph, came down (not knowing this was going to happen) and was clearly very nervous. The band didn't know the song Joseph was going to sing. They said just start singing and they'd work it out. So he sings maybe 10 words and the entire band was able to just start playing music behind him. Joseph, upon hearing the music, gained more confidence and started to find his groove. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen. Joseph did have some pitch problems towards the end, but overall, he did quite well. The audience gave him a standing ovation at the end. So very cool is all I have to say.

Avery was over at the G's for our night out. It worked very well just picking her up after the concert. She slept through being loaded into the car seat and D gave her a bottle when we got home.

In PIO news, Avery seems to be through the worst of it. In general, she goes down without crying at all for most naps. This morning was my best proof that she's figured out how to get herself to sleep. She was clearly tired and had started to drift off as she was having a bottle and then when I did a few ball bounces (we're down to maybe 100 before putting her down - sometimes less), but when I laid her down, her eyes were wide open and she was stretching. She tried to protest, but when she heard me close the door behind me, she stopped and was asleep within a minute. And now she's been down for 1.5 hours. I think I hear her waking now. That's a good morning nap for her. We're off to the grocery store.