Noteworthy on YouTube

The great all-female a cappella sensation has a big concert this coming Saturday night, including the release of their hott debut album, On The Horizon. In honor of Noteworthy, here is an awkward video of them performing at BYU's annual celebration, Friday Night Live. You can hear their greatness through the mismatched video and sound. Check it out:

Thanksgiving in the CLE

Rosa and I had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with the Parma family in Cleveland. We drove up last Wednesday, eight hours of perfectly uneventful driving. Last year, it was a near blizzard in Cleveland on Thanksgiving. This year, it was near 70 degrees!! And there's still a few orange leaves clinging onto those last few branches. Gotta love the midwest.

We had the actual Thanksgiving meal at Monica's house. They deep fried the turkey! It was my first deep-fried turkey experience, and let me tell you that it's SO GOOOD! It looks exactly like you'd think it would - a turkey sitting in a big vat of very hot oil. It's just like dropping fries into oil at McDonalds. As soon as the turkey hits the oil, it immediately seals off the outside, so all the juices stay in the bird. Soooo delicious. And Rosa made her hit rolls (Mom's recipe). Delicious appetizers, yummy mashed potatoes and gravy, veggies, the works! We had a great time visiting with the family.

We got lots of family time in, fun and games, a double-date with Rosie's brother and his wife, and even some candy-making. The biggest hit of the weekend, though, was the newest addition to the Parma clan: Bria.


I've chronicled a bit about her before on the site, but let me just say that she is adorable. Six weeks old, and about as cute as they get. She's got many of her mom's features, but she's got her dad's tan skin tone and thick dark hair. Beautiful.

We woke up early Sunday, and drove back, covering the 8 hour drive in about 9 or 10 hours, thanks to the lovely ridiculous holiday traffic, and several episodes of rubbernecking. But we got back in time for Rosa to play piano during Relief Society and have me teach the Elders Quorum lesson at church. Phwew! We're exhausted, but overall, a fabulous weekend!

And now back to studying...

Watch me morph into Joe Montana

See me morph into Joe Montana

Create your own Celebrity Morph™ on MyHeritage.com

Happy Engage-i-versary!

Rosa and I were engaged two years ago today! It was November 20, 2004, right before the Vocal Point concert. Smartest thing I ever did.

SoJam 2006

Rosa and I spent the weekend at the newest, hottest event for singers. It's called SoJam. Now in its fourth year, SoJam brings together tons of a cappella groups from all over the south. There's a collegiate competition on Friday night. Then Saturday, there's workshops by the pros on everything from marketing to vocal percussion to comedy on stage to recording tips to master classes to you-name-it. The whole weekend culminates in a big pro concert. This year's show featured the Duke Pitchforks (winners of the collegiate competition), moosebutter (hilarious), Boston-based Firedrill!, and SF Bay Area-based Hookslide. My guts hurt from laughter after seeing moosebutter - they're always awesome. And nothing against Hookslide, but Firedrill! brought down the house. UNBELIEVABLE. Every once in a while, after listening to so much crappy a cappella, you hear and see something that reminds you why you fell in love with it in the first place. Incredibly talented singers, and nothing else. So perfect!

Bill Hare, a cappella studio engineer extraordinaire, was on hand with his ever-ready camera, and zapped some good photos of the whole weekend. Check 'em out:

Bill's photos of SoJam

Hear ye, Hear ye

K, so backtrack a few days. Just before Halloween, our neighbors and best buds Greg & Michelle Olson hosted a Murder Mystery party, in honor of the coming hallow's eve. The theme was ancient rome. I was a Roman senator, and Rosa was Cleopatra. My costume was pretty much just a sheet wrapped around me, along with some greenery in my (unfortunately too short) hair. My hair was so short that we couldn't bobby pin it in; eyelash glue didn't work, and neither did our craft wire. So on the fourth and last attempt, we just used packing tape. And it stayed all night! Rosa's costume was almost entirely borrowed from generous Michelle, and I think it very much Cleopatra-ed her up. We all had a GREAT time, and it turned out Michelle did it. Jerk.

Here's a picture of all of us smiling, proving we had a good time:

Brianne and Derek Casper, Michelle and Greg Olson, Stephanie and James Forbes, me and Rosie

Podcast update

Joey and I finished another episode of our "A Cappella Originals Podcast." It's episode 4, baby. If you've got iTunes, just search for "a cappella" and you'll find it. If you're scared of iTunes, you can find it in AAC or mp3 format here.