MS Office 2003 - Trouble Installing

It was frustrating enough to need to format my laptop, but when MS Office 2003 didn't want to install, I was ready to pull out my hair!!!

When I couldn't get MS Office 2003 to install after a couple different error messages, I was fearful my DVD hardware was failing. The CD sounded like it was hung up and kept saying it couldn't find files. I decided to do what I always do -- I googled the problems. One website mentioned that if my computer had come with a trial version of MS Office 2007, that could be a problem. I would need to delete that first. Since I had already uninstalled it, I knew I had to dig deeper. The Activation Assistant 2007 was still on my computer. I found another site that said the Assistant needed to be deleted before deleting the trial version of MS Office 2007. I downloaded the trial version of 2007 from Microsoft and attempted to delete the Assistant first. I got an error telling me something was missing, so I again uninstalled the trial version.

As I was becoming more annoyed by the minute, I decided to try installing Office choosing the "typical" button which showed as "recommended" rather than "complete" which I had previously been trying. It worked -- it was THAT simple! If you are getting error messages when trying to install, try choosing "typical" (rather than "complete") -- it just might work!

Band From TV, Fallsview Casino, Niagra Falls, Canada

Our trip to Fallsview / Niagra Falls evolved when my daughter told me about this band - "Band From TV" that would be playing in Canada. I had never heard of them, but they sounded like an interesting meld. Of course I had seen several episodes of Fox's House, so I knew who she was talking about, when she mentioned Hugh Laurie (the curmudgeonly Dr. House) and Jesse Spencer (Dr. Chase). At the time, I was not familiar with anyone else in the band with the exception of James(Jamie) Denton (but only because of seeing him on the ads for Desperate Housewives -- I had never seen the show). I had also never seen Heroes and wasn't familiar with Greg Grunberg (Grunny) or Adrian Pasdar. ER - nope, had only seen snippets while my daughter watched so I didn't know who Scott Grimes was either. Bob Guiney - nope never seen The Bachelor. Boy, talk about being out of the loop!

My husband and I agreed to the family trip to attend the show and borrowed a copy of the first season of Heroes, so we would become familiar with two more members of the band. My husband was not impressed with the first couple shows, but he begrudgingly agreed to watch with me. I think he was glad he did, once he was in the same room with Grunny and Adrian. I'll admit, the show is a little different, but it has definitely grown on me and I'm anxious to finish Season One. I think my husband is hooked, too (just don't tell him I told you).

Bob Guiney and Adrian Pasdar, by the way, are not very photogenic. Especially Bob Guiney. I Googled members of the band before the concert. I couldn't figure out how Bob could have become "The Bachelor". I didn't see one picture of him looking cute or handsome. Wow was I wrong! He is adorable in person with lots of charisma and a killer smile. Same with Adrian, too! Both are much more attractive in person, although Adrian was very quiet on stage.

My husband isn't really much of a concert-goer, so I was expecting him to not enjoy the concert especially since this was only a cover band. To my surprise, every time I looked at him, he was smiling. Our only regret was traveling so far and not having gone to the Saturday night show in addition to Sunday's show and not being able to purchase a DVD of the show. We couldn't even stop talking about how much we enjoyed the show almost the whole way home.

Before going any further, I have to say the Avalon is a great place to see a concert. I don't know how many people it seats, but it definitely has the atmosphere of a very small "hometown" venue. Just don't plan on taking pictures or using your cell phone for anything. My daughter sent me a text, commenting on how Hugh Laurie's stage entrance was very Kevin Griffin like and a security guard told her to put it away. If you don't know who Kevin is, he's the writer/singer for Better Than Ezra and could pass for Hugh Laurie's brother! But back to the venue, security was there to pounce if they saw you taking a picture.

Back to the concert - we had heard "Hoggin' All the Covers", which I have to say, is nothing in comparison to seeing them live. The CD pales to their live performance. Bob Guiney asked the audience for a show of hands on how many thought they would "suck". I didn't expect them to "suck", but I did expect ordinary. I knew there would be a bunch of talented guys on stage. It was far from ordinary! Grunny (Greg Grunberg) came into the audience inviting women to dance up front with him and even got two women up on stage. Those two had traveled 10 minutes and 20 minutes to get to the concert. Grunny was looking for people who had traveled more than 20 minutes to get to the concert, wanting them to come up on stage. I'm glad no one knew we had traveled about 8 hours because I'm just not into being in the limelight.

The voices blew me away - especially Scott Grimes, who also came into the audience singing and pulling women up front. Jesse Spencer's electric violin performance was a super addition to the band, especially during "Devil Went to Georgia" and The Who's "Baba O'Reilly".

What a bunch of amazing performers! This is the best concert I've ever been to! The audience interaction helped make it more fun. It was obvious these were a bunch of great guys just out having a fun time, doing what they love. Raising money for good causes is just an added bonus.

SET LIST - vocals from Sunday, March 7, 2010:
Hard to Handle - Bob Guiney
Mary Ann - Hugh Laurie
Mama Told Me Not to Come - Bob Guiney
Wild Night - Bob Guiney
Viva Las Vegas - Jamie Denton
Try a Little Tenderness - Bob Guiney
Walking in Memphis - Scott Grimes
Devil Went to Georgia - Jamie Denton with awesome violin by Jesse Spencer
Oh Darling - Scott Grimes
Don't Stop Me Now - Scott Grimes
Mary's Place - Jamie Denton
Circles - Hugh Laurie
Don't Try to Explain - Bob Guiney
The Letter - Bob Guiney
Baba - Bob Guiney/
Tail Feather - Greg Grunberg

If you have the chance to see this band, don't miss it! Purchase Band From TV CDs bandfromtv

Taylor Swift - Better Than Ezra's Breathless

I'll preface this by saying, Taylor Swift is absolutely adorable and... Congratulations Taylor on all the awards you've recently won.

I must say it is great that Taylor exposed Better Than Ezra's Breathless nationally and maybe even inter-nationally. I have heard she's a big BTE fan. I don't mean this to be a nasty comment, but there's no getting around it -- it was a bit of a massacre. BUT, if you liked the way you heard it on the Haiti show, listen to Better Than Ezra's version and you'll be blown away! Maybe I'm all wrong, maybe I'm just used to hearing it in a man's (Kevin Griffin's) voice, but I thought she sounded like an amateur who was singing it on American Idol. If I were an American Idol judge hearing it, two thumbs down. Sorry Taylor.

I hope I'm not sounding anything like Stephen Colbert when he said "Justin Timberlake may have brought the sexy back, but Susan Boyle sent it away again" at the Grammy awards, because I really do not intend to be mean or nasty, I simply think Taylor butchered the song. I think Stephen Colbert's comment was a really mean and unnecessary (joke) comment.

You be the judge:


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Seth Glier - an amazing performancer!

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I traveled 2 hours to see Seth Glier perform in Greenfield, Massachusetts and it was worth every mile! I have one word to describe his performance - WOW - he is absolutely amazing! I don't quite understand why Seth was not the headliner at this show. 45 minutes of Seth was definitely NOT enough. Two hours of Garnet Rogers...well...did someone say torture? I suggested we leave during Garnet's intermission and terribly regretted that we didn't. I would have loved to have listened to Seth for 2 hours!

If you have a chance to go see Seth I would highly recommend it. Do it now before he becomes more famous and the tickets are a gazillion dollars! At the young age of 21, it is amazing to hear how he controls his voice.

This is not from the Greenfield performance, but I thought it was cute, fun video to share:


Ok, so this is the REAL SETH!

Cuisinart Food Processor

Just before Christmas I decided to retire my 17-year-old Braun food processor. I decided it was time to be on the look-out for a new one, since some of the plastic parts were breaking. This food processor has been really good to me. If I hadn't heard that Braun was no longer making them for the US (which I'm not sure is true) I would have bought one in a flash!

I was not looking forward to spending lots of time researching which food processor might be the best, so I decided to cheat. A friend of mine had recently purchased a Cuisinart and I knew she had put a lot of time into researching them. I happened to see an ad on television that Macy's had the Pro Custom 11 for only $99. Aside from Macy's, the lowest price I could find on this 11-cup processor was about $150. Given the savings, I decided to purchase it.

With all the cooking and baking I did during the Christmas season, I was able to give it a pretty good workout. The motor is nice and quiet. I was disappointed that it did not come with very many accessories. It came with 3 discs: a shredding disc and the 2mm and 4mm slicing discs. It also came with a spatula, knife blade, dough blade and flat cover. I keep the knife blade inside because it does not have a holder for it like the Braun. The food pusher cover does not come completely apart for cleaning.

I do believe that Cuisinart has become the leader in food processors and I'm not so sure I understand why. I wish I had looked around before I purchased this one and I believe I would NOT have purchased a Cuisinart.

UPDATE: Every time I use my Cuisinart food processor I find another reason I dislike it. Since I was using it and my stand mixer today, much of my counter space was taken up. The Cuisinart food processor's chute is in the back. It fits nicely under my cabinets, but not while using it. It must be pulled out fully from under the cabinets to put anything in the chute. This is a big disadvantage when you need extra counter space. Also, there is also only one speed.