My Current Musical Obsession

I've been listening to Fountains of Wayne for years and I think they're fabulous!

Actually, I haven't. I've only been listening to them for 2 months, but it feels like much longer. And it may be more like 10 years. Let me explain...

This past Christmas I received a $30 gift card for Rhapsody's music service for some downloads. In order to use the service, I had to sign up for their basic account, which includes 25 free plays from their website each month. Being somewhat of a "techno-pi-rate", I've been using some specialized audio software in conjunction with the free plays to complete some music collections (in January I recorded my favorite Partridge Family songs and created my own greatest hits compilation) and try out some new music. While going thru some computer files, I ran across a WMV version of "Stacy's Mom" video someone sent me when it came out - before the advent of YouTube. Back then, I probably listened to it for 2-3 days straight. The tune was so catchy and hilarious - not to mention Rachel Hunters performance. But I wrote FoW (how REAL fans refer to them) off as a one hit wonders and never checked out any of their other recordings. Big mistake. So when I saw the file, I made a mental note-to-self to check them out in March.

Late one night in February after a long day of snow blowing, I recorded "Welcome Interstate Managers" to my Zen for work the next day. I then preceded to listened to it for 3 days straight! Every song on the album is a hit, but my favorites are "Hey Julie" (one of my favorite love songs) and "All Kinds of Time" (with song lyrics based on football play-by-play). I started researching their other albums and found out they'd been together since 1996! How did a band this great fly under the radar for so long? Fortunately I'd found them with a pretty good catalog of music - 3 other albums (one being a 2 album set) and one coming out soon (April 3rd). I had enough free plays to make my own copy of one of their first 2 albums, but I'd have to buy the other 2. Or wait for the next 2-3 months to compile enough free plays for the other albums.

Interlude... I don't make it a habit of recording music this way. Normally, if I like a artist/group, I'll buy their stuff. It just so happens that I need to keep inexpensive gift giving options available to the wife and kids. Father's day is coming up...but I couldn't wait until June! So I recorded what I could until I get originals in my hand. Now back to the story.

So I recorded "Utopia Parkway" - with my favorite song of theirs, "Red Dragon Tattoo" - before our trip and bought a copy of "Out-of-State Plates" - which has one of the funniest songs I've heard in "Maureen" and a song I can relate to in "Baby I've Changed". When we got back, my free plays had reset and I recorded their debut "Fountains of Wayne". By then it was April 3rd and "Traffic and Weather" was available, so I bought it.

Now I had all 86 tracks of their published music. But that still wasn't enough. While obsessing about the group one day while Googling, I saw that FoW made an appearance on an NPR program and that the good people of NPR were making the audio available with the click of a button. You know what that meant: more recording. Then I saw that they would be hosting an XM Loft Session. 45 minutes more of acoustic Adam and Chris - the brains behind the group. Further searches turn up nothing more. So I think that I have all I can get...for now.

With only a couple of exceptions - in my car and at home - this is all that I've been listening to. It's not the first time it's happened to me. Other artists and/or groups to have been the object of my obsession are: Elvis Costello, Squeeze (both of which were referenced by FoW during their Loft Session - a huge plus), The Police, REM, Bob Marley, The Bangles, Steely Dan, The Guess Who, Bruce Springsteen, and of course, The Beatles. They're in pretty good company in my opinion.

If you feel inclined to check them out beyond "Stacy's Mom", I'd suggest you listen to "Welcome Interstate Managers" first. Its loaded with great music that will appeal to a wide audience. If you want to hear more of their guitar work, move on to "Utopia Parkway" or their self-titled album. If you want more evolved sounds, take a listen to their newest, "Traffic and Weather". Many of the people who have been with them from the beginning are disappointed by their last 2 efforts because they feel they've abandoned their roots of solid guitar pop. And to some extent they may be right. But would they rather have had The Beatles stay in the "Love Me Do" phase and never create "Sgt. Peppers" or "Abbey Road"? Or how about Bob Dylan sticking with "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" (which is a great song!) and never see him record "Tangled Up in Blue" (my personal favorite of his)? And I suppose REM was to continue "Murmur"-ing and never go "Out of Time". I don't think so. So don't listen to early fans that want things to stay the same. Both of these efforts are great. And so is their earlier work. Try it all. Who knows, maybe you'll obsess over them, too...

And I didn't forget my 10 years ago reference. Does anyone remember "That Thing You Do" - the movie written and directed by Tom Hanks? It followed the short career of a fictitious 1960s one-hit-wonder group called The Wonders and their hit "That Thing You Do". Even thou I didn't see the movie until 2 years after it had come out, I owned a copy of the soundtrack based on the title track shortly after it came out. The title track was so infectious! During my research on FoW, I found that Adam Schlesinger, one of FoW's primary songwriters, wrote the song. So, to some extent, I HAVE been listening to them for years...and I think their FABULOUS!

Life Lessons

Among the toys The Boy received for Christmas this year was the Lego version of Darth Vader's Tie Fighter.  He's only seen each movie once or twice (except for Episode III, which he hasn't seen yet - not sure his sister could handle the ending) but is totally plugged in to the mythos.  Playing hours of Lego Star Wars on the Playstation 2 nurtured it, but building his own ship just cemented his love for the saga.  And made him thirsty for more.  For his birthday, he asked for and received the Lego versions of the X-Wing fighter and General Grievous' starfighter.  But in between then, he lobbied to buy an Imperial AT ST with his own hard earned can-crushing money.

We tried to dissuade him, citing all the toys he had just received at Christmas and the gifts he was sure to receive for his birthday in March.  Even if he didn't receive it from us, he might from one of his aunts or uncles. I also explained to him that if he bought it, he'd wipe out nearly all the money he had saved up to that point.  If he spent it, he'd have to save longer for purchases like the laser dart tag and Lego Star Wars II video game that he'd been talking about longer than the Lego model.  Words like these seemed to fall from my mouth much too easy.  With good reason.  They were the same ones my dad would use on me time and time again when I had money burning a hole in my pocket.  Now I know that he was trying to build a good financial decision foundation in his son.  But back then I resented it.  It seemed he brought it up with every purchase I wanted to make, to the point that I rarely bought anything and spent Saturday mornings counting quarters ($.75/week allowance) like King Midas.  This lasted until college when I had my own job and cheap access to used records.  But that's a story for another day.  I promised myself that I would never use those words to manipulate (which is what I thought happened to me) - only to educate.  So when I heard myself begin Dad's diatribe, I changed it to become a dialoge.  After explaining the principles of "which do you want more", I asked him if he understood and never brought it up again.  It seemed to work until we got back from vacation and he saw the girls celebrating their birthdays with gifts.  The "can I buy it now?" question resurfaced.  Busy-ness during the month of April has prevented us from getting together with my sister and her family for gift exchanges, so we were still able to use the soon-to-be gift excuse to hold him off.

Fast forward to today.  Prudence left at noon to attend a women's retreat with some other moms, which left me in sole charge of the kids.  Friday afternoons, The Boy and Em attend a gym and swim program at the local YMCA, so I took time off work to take them.  On the way, The Boy asked me if we could go to Walmart so he could buy the AT ST.  I reminded him that we would get together in the next couple of weeks for more gift exchanges.  He informed me that he now wanted to create an army of AT STs, and that buying one before he received one from his aunt would work out in his plan.  After making sure of this, I agreed to let him buy one.  So he counted out his $22 (made up mostly of $1 bills and quarters), put it in a zip lock bag, and tucked it away in his backpack.  After gym and swim, we visited the Walmart where he last saw one.  They were out.  Luckily, there is another Walmart within a few miles (almost becoming like Starbucks in this part of the country).  They were out as well.  I told him we would try Target and Toys R Us.  If they didn't have one, he wasn't meant to have one.  But when we arrived at Target, they had 2.  He took one to the cashier and gave her 2 fists of money - bills in one hand, metal in the other.  She didn't even count the quarters - she just took my word for it (yes, I did recount it!) and gave him his receipt.  After all the waiting and work it took to get the goods, I expected to see a "bouncy Tigger" with a big grin on his face.  But he simply took the bag and left the store.

Five minutes down the road, I heard him say something that will stay with me the rest of my life:  "I thought I'd be happier, but I just feel empty."  I asked him what he meant by that.  He said he expected the toy to bring joy, but he didn't feel any.  Even though he couldn't verbalize it, it wasn't that he didn't want the toy.  He just wasn't sure that this was the right time or way to get it.  I believe he also realized that he didn't really buy the "army of AT STs" rationalization he'd sold himself earlier. We talked about the idea that everything we do/give/receive comes as a cost.  And that we have to weight that cost.  He asked me if the choice he'd made to buy the toy was a good one.  I told him only he could make that decision.  But I asked him to think about it overnight before opening the box - just in case he wanted to return it.  He asked me how much Lego Star Wars II cost.  When I told him he went silent for a few minutes.  Trust me, this is rare for him.  He just stared at the box.  After a while he asked if it would be okay to wait to build the AT ST until after we saw his aunt.  "Not a problem, buddy."  Then he wished he had a good hiding place for the toy.  I told him I'd take care of it.  After all this, he seemed to be at peace with the decision.  Only once later in the night did he come to me with a request to open the box (while it was still out on the counter), but he stopped himself in mid-sentence.  He realized he was being tempted to go back on his agreement, and overcame it.

Sometimes the best lessons are learned when you're not in school.  My dad would be so proud.

Back to Reality

When our plane touched down at 5:30am on Friday and it taxied to our gate, I knew what our stewardess was going to say...and I dreaded it. It's the same phrase you hear at the end of every flight: "We know you have a choice in airlines, and we thank you for choosing United". But this one would be special. Not only would it signal the end to our trip to Paradise, but it would also be punctuated with a word I'm sure not to hear any time soon on the mainland: Mahalo, the Hawaiian word for "thank you". It's the one native word I had managed to work into my vocabulary, and this was the last opportunity to hear it and use it. In a matter of moments, I would be back in Chicago listening to everyone talk like a member of the Superfans ("tanks!", "what haive you", "over by der", etc.). Not something I was ready to go back to. But it happened. She said "Mahalo" and I returned the phrase as I left. We walked the gangway and were back to light jackets and jeans, fast-paced walking, and surely cab drivers. The dream was over and it was back to reality.

Here are a few notes from the trip:

• Our flight there was great. We were worried about how we would entertain the kids for 9 hours in a confined space, but thanks to in-flight movies ("Happy Feet" and "Night at the Museum"), my brother-in-law's portable DVD player (with spare battery), and the fascination with airplane bathrooms, we made it without a hitch. I listened to an hour of my audiobook, "1776", watched the above movies (plus "Casino Royale"), and took a short nap. We were there before we knew it.
• We stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki on Oahu. I woke up at 3:30am the first night there and couldn't go back to sleep. So I went for a drive up to Diamondhead and watched the sunrise. Pretty cool. And I made it back to join the family for a tremendous "everything" omelette (including spam and shrimp) at the Seaside Cafe!
• The kids, Prudence, and her sister swam with dolphins at the Sea Life Park. I'm just glad The Boy didn't stick his finger in the blow hole.
• We played on an incredible white sandy beach in Lanikai with some great snorkeling and a view of 2 small islands off shore. Very picturesque.
• We endured a long drive and day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Don't get me wrong - there were some cool things to see and learn there, but at 5-6 hours with kids was too long. And I'm not sure how many times rednecks from Illinois can watch natives stomp, clap, and hula. To top it off, my brother in law had a bout of "Hawaiian revenge" from some Chinese food he ate at lunch.
• We couldn't visit Hawaii without a trip to the USS Arizona memorial. What a moving experience. We also toured the USS Bowfin and USS Missouri.
• Our family visited 3 beaches on the North Shore. Lots of surfing. None by me. I'd end up eating a rock like Greg Brady. But we did climb around some cool tide pools with water so clear it was like looking thru glass.
• On Monday we left for Maui. We spent the entire afternoon in Lahaina. They had a local craft show that took a lot of our souvenir money. Prudence ended up with a jewelry box made of koa wood, inlayed with shell in the color and shape of turtles. We also bought Christmas ornaments made of koa and shells for the kids. I bought a surfer-type necklace that features blue coral. Panda also chose a necklace. Em wanted dolphin earrings. And The Boy picked a men's jewelry box for his shark tooth necklace. I also bought my Hawaiian shirt there, as well as an orange & blue Maui cap. I paid $10 for the cap, then wandered down 2 stores and found it for $7. Later in the week I found the same hat in a K-Mart for $5. So I bought another one.
• Tuesday found us whale watching. On the way to the whale tour, Prudence spotted a momma and calf just north of Lahaina, so we pulled over to watch them swim and play. As they moved down the coast, we followed them. After a quick bite at Peggy Sue's (thanks for the tip, Aynde! The kids especially liked the juke box that played real 45s!), we set out on our tour and met up with another mom/calf pair. These 2 were flanked by a primary and secondary male escorts, so we got to see and hear a lot of whale pick up lines. Nothing seemed to work for the poor guys, but it kept the trip at a G or PG rating.
• Tuesday night was our luau at the Old Lahaina Luau. Great setting and show. Good food - if you like Hawaiian food.
• Wednesday we woke up at 3am to make the trek to the top of Haleakala to see the sunrise from above the clouds. it's a 2+ hour and -50 degree trip from our condo. When we arrived it was 36 degrees. The Boy did nothing but complain until the sun came up. But it was a breathtaking site. The trip back down the mountain was just as impressive. So many incredible views.
• Our last beach run was to Kapalua. The cove we swam in had righteous waves. The surfers could ride them easily to shore. The kids enjoyed body surfing and jumping into the waves, but they knocked Prudence on her butt. To top it off, we had another whale show. This time a calf breeched (jumped out of the water) at least 4-5 times. Incredible!
• Thursday we began the journey back at 7:30am (actually Prudence and I were up at 5:30am). We flew to Oahu to catch our flight home, but had a 5 hour layover there. So we rented a couple of cars and drove the 10 minutes back to the Pearl Harbor sites where the kids could expend some energy before the long flight home. With the time change, we arrived in Chicago at 5:30am. But we still had a long drive back to the Bloomington area. After picking up Lance (freshly groomed!), we arrived back at our house at 11:30am. The end to a LONG day.

Much sleep ensued on Friday and Saturday. And after avoiding a cold before and during the trip, I finally came down with a bit of a head cold on Sunday. Lance really brought us back to reality this morning. Beginning at 2:30am, he woke us up every hour or so with a bad case of diarrhea. Unfortunately we all had to leave the house this morning, so he left us a lovely mess to clean up when we came home. Yup, the vacation is truly over.

Pictures will be coming soon. You thought I wrote a lot. I need to weed thru almost 6GB of data to pull out the keepers from all the thumb shots. Plus I need to get my taxes done. The reality just keeps coming...

Finally...the end to a Forgettable Season and Other Stuff

Chester Frazier, Rich McBride, Warren Carter, Shaun Pruitt, and Brian Randle. Anyone other than those living in a 75 mile radius of Champaign-Urbana know who these 5 are?

Didn't think so.

But these were the players leading the Fighting Illini to one of the most forgettable seasons in recent memory. No pro talents. No incredible athletes or phenoms. No great stories (such as walk-on to team captain, star graduating in 3 years but staying for championship run, etc.). Just a group of B-grade talent that journeyed themselves to the middle of the Big Ten standings (which outside of Ohio State and Wisconsin, was mediocre at best). Many said that 2 wins in the Big Ten tournament would guarantee them a spot in the Big Dance. They did just that, then fell incredibly flat against Wisconsin. The experts classified them as a bubble team that got lucky theirs didn't burst. This angered some in Illini nation. "We play in the Big Ten! We played the #1 and #2 teams in the nation pretty tight! We beat Indiana twice! Blah, blah, blah..." I've never heard such "homer" talk from this group. Didn't they see them play this year? Sure, they could play tenacious D (speaking of which, did anyone see this movie?), but holding opponents to 40% shooting only works when you shoot much better than they do. They had no ball handling skills and gave up possessions like a politician handing out handshakes. Their decision-making on the court was brutal (I remember during the first meeting with Indiana Bruce Weber yelling at Chester not to foul as Chester body-checked one of the Indiana guards into the scorer's bench.) And I haven't even touched on free throw shooting, but no one works on their free throws anymore. No, this team was NIT worthy at best. But someone fell in love with their RPI rating and the idea that a Illinois-Southern Illinois (Weber's old school coached by one of his former assistants) could be a great story if it happened. It got many worked up into a lather - especially when they had a 13 point lead with 8 minutes left against #5 seed Virginia Tech. Even I couldn't believe it. Had they been saving themselves for this moment? But then as I watched them score only 5 points in the last fifth of the game and turn the ball over 10 times, I remembered why I guarded my heart with this group. Final score: Virginia Tech 54, Illinois 52. Was I pissed? You bet! Did it last long. Nope.

Unfortunately, Illini fans have nothing to look forward to. No talent sitting on the bench and no blue chippers coming our way (but I DO have a new reason to hate Indiana: Kelvin Sampson and his theft of Eric Gordon). Bruce Webber is a great coach. He knows his X's and O's. But he's not shown himself to be a great recruiter. No matter how well he can manage the court, he'll still be taking his Marcus Arnolds up against the Greg Odens of the world.

And it started out to be such a great decade...

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Thanks to all the folks who have still been checking in over the last month. You guys are great! I've been trying to stay current with your when I can, but this blogging thing is tough for me. First of all, I am a painfully slow writer. Oh, I have ideas running thru my head all the time, but corralling them into a coherent thought takes me hours. Would you believe that I've been sitting here typing this for 2+ hours? 2 hours for this dribble? Makes you wonder why I even began this endeavor. Have you ever wondered why I don't comment very often? You wouldn't believe how clever I think I need to be in the 2-3 sentences I'd like to leave on your sites - especially when you folks write such great stuff! I wish I were as fluent here as most of you are. You write like you speak and converse. That doesn't come easy for me. Like a lot of things in my life, I need to work extra hard to not sound like the idiot I am.

Secondly, because it takes me so long for an entry, I need to write when everyone is either out of the house or in bed. This is still a problem. When I was at the "top" of my blogging game, I was writing after work or after supper - during prime family times. It became a source of contention between me and my family. So I scaled back to blogging late at night. That worked for a while. Then the sleep issues came and I had to step out. I thought the CPAP machine had corrected this (I am sleeping better), but I didn't realize how dependent my nights had become on caffeine. Over the last 2-3 months, I've tried to limit caffeine intake to 2 cans of pop in the morning. The rest of the day I drink either Diet Rite Pure Zero or water. What this means is that come about 10pm or so, I'm ready for bed, in a good kind of tired way. But that means my blog output (writing, reading, and commenting) is for squat. I try to get thru what I can before I go to work, but that isn't always much.

Lastly (you know, it had to be in threes - it's the perfect writing number), I've been in a writing funk for about a month. Ideas come to me, but if I don't deal with them when they show up on my brain's front door, they lose meaning. And I can't write without a passion for something. And instead of the passion being like a wildfire I need to put out, it's been more like a matchstick that I can't hold on to very long. The only reason I can write this now is because I really feel it now. If I waited until morning, it'd probably be gone and there I'd be: another day without an entry. In the last month, I've let the following opportunities go by:

• The passing of one of our tenants. Melvin died February 6th in his sleep at the age of 91. The night before he'd played cards with some friends and won every hand. Then he kissed his wife of 60+ years good night and said "I'll see you in the morning".
• The passing of Anna Nicole Smith during the same week. The contrast between her life and that of Melvin's could take weeks to chronicle.
• Two snow days from work. The pile I created with the snow blower melted just last weekend.
• Driving 30 miles to sled down a hill that would barely read on a protractor.
• Numerous lunches with the guys. In one, I had Pik driving around a building to 3 different entrances to pick up Rudiger, who was at a completely different place. The sad thing is that Rudiger told me where he was numerous times on the phone, and I just didn't get it. I'm no longer in charge of picking people up.
• A special surprise I'm saving until the end of this post.
• The special surprise turned me into a germaphobe for the past 4 weeks - to the point I wore a mask and rubber gloves to visit my dad and self-medicated myself with echinacea and amoxicillin from Mexico.
• The Boy's birthday dinner at BWW.
• Heroes!

I don't know where all this is going, except to let you know that I'm still here and I'm still reading. I'm not hanging it up or anything. I'll probably show up here and there when I can. Just like the Great Pumpkin traveling from blog patch to blog patch, I'll be looking for those entries that are the most sincere :)

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On February 13th, central Illinois was hit with one of the biggest snow storms we've seen in years. 12-14" landed in my neighborhood. We sat in the house all day and watched it pile up in the driveway. And we smiled and smiled. Why? Because earlier that morning we received news that on March 20th we would be on a plane to Hawaii!!!

My inlaws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year and wanted to do something special with the entire family. They put away some money from a couple of real estate sales so that they could take everyone on a special vacation to make some memories. Various destinations were tossed around until they decided on Hawaii. The initial plan was to go sometime in the November/December timeframe, but a deal came up on Expedia that they just couldn't pass up. So here we are, mere days away from Paradise! We'll be back on the mainland (just had to use that term) March 31st. Look for a Flickr album shortly thereafter.

I'd love to take each and every one of you with, but I'm only allowed one carry on and one personal item. If you can blow air up my nose for 6-7 hours a night, read the novel "1776" (unabridged) or sing/play the Beatles or Steely Dan in my headphones, you're welcome to come. But be prepared to be flung over my shoulders or stuffed in an overhead compartment.

Have a great weekend all! Go Heels! Sorry, Sue, but I just can't bring myself to root for Bill Self :)

Weekend Roundup

Not much time to blog what's really on my mind tonight (and I'm alternating between writing and watching Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid on the Sleuth network - yes, Librarian, I missed recording Heroes again this week), so I thought I'd share a little update on the weekend's festivities:

• My birthday was great. After getting up to feed Lance, let him out to do his business and quickly post some pictures, I went back to bed. Friday was my day off (I work 9 x80 with every other Friday off). The family allowed me to sleep until 9:15am (a rarity around here). It worked to both our advantages as they wanted to finish wrapping my gifts and decorating cards. When Prudence woke me, I was in the middle of deep REM sleep. Didn't really know where I was. After a few minutes I recovered enough cognitive ability to drag myself out of bed and make it to the dining room table. Remember this nugget when you see my picture below. Prudence baked my favorite cake - a sour cream coffee cake. That was breakfast for us all. After a round of blowing out trick candles - The Boy and Em couldn't wait to see me blow them out - they gave me my gifts: Band on the Run by Paul McCartney & Wings from Em; A DVD recap of the 2006 World Series from The Boy; Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player by Elton John from Panda; and Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy by Elton John from Prudence. What a haul! Do I have the coolest family or what? After the kids did some school and went to gym & swim, we made the trek to Champaign for Zorbas! The weather was bitterly cold, but the gyros were hot and garlicky! We can't quite get the kids to try them. They eat a Chicago style all-beef hot dog on a pita, so we're working them up to gyros. The Boy even said he wanted Zorba's for his birthday, so we may be back in a month. Excellent.
• Saturday started out as a lazy day. Prudence and I alternated being up with the kids and dog and then back to bed. We didn't really get going until lunch. Then Prudence and Panda went shopping for ski/snow pants for Panda's first ski trip to Wisconsin next weekend. It'll be her first trip any significant distance from us without family. Naturally she's excited and we're a little nervous. But she'll be with a trusted group of people and 3 of her best friends. She'll be fine, but her mom will probably be a bundle of nerves. Anyway, with them shopping and a Saturday afternoon Denise the Menace marathon on Boomerang, I was set to do some blog customization. This place hasn't really felt like home since the move. Kinda like not having pictures on the walls. First, I was missing the Spaces banner DrCara worked up for me (Cara, we miss you!), so I needed to get that posted. Then there was the issue of fonts, colors and layout. Spent the better part of 2 hours making CSS/HTML changes to the template I'd chosen. Can you believe they didn't have styles for bulleted lists? I had to add the disc and circle statements all over the place. I'm still not completely happy with it, but I'd probably have to come up with my own template in order to be totally satisfied. That's too much work for now, so what you see here will probably still be here a year from now.
• Sunday brought church, adult bible fellowship, some maintenance work at the duplex, and of course the Super Bowl! Our church had planned to show the game on 2 screens using projectors from different parts of the building. Then we read about the church in Indianapolis that was banned from having a Super Bowl party. While we didn't really agree with the application of the ruling, we didn't want to be in violation of the copyright law. So Friday our minister rented a 50" TV and we changed the layout of our fellowship hall. It turned out pretty well, and 50-75 people had a great time watching the game. Lots of good food, fun, and fellowship. About 90% of the attendees were Bear fans, so a number of folks went home full but disappointed. Because I don't have a true allegiance to any NFL team, I was just looking for a good game. Won't say it was the best game played, but there were plenty of exciting moments in the first half, and my buddy Bill finally got a professional championship from one of his teams (sorry, Bill, but I probably won't be rooting for the Northsiders anytime soon).

That's it in a nutshell. Hopefully I'll be back later this week what I really should have blogged about. But I'll have slept since then, so don't bank on it. Until then, stay warm!

Could Really Use One of These Today...

The temp is -6. Thankfully there's not much wind, so the wind chill is only -9. But the dog demands his walk - even if it's only around the block. Hope I'm not a Chris-sicle by the time I get back. Just who IS the master around here anyway?

More life imitating TV, I guess...

I Didn't See My Shadow...

...but judging by the frost on my nose, I'm guessing we still have a lot of winter left around here.

Yep, it's my Birthday.  43 years ago my mom gave birth to a 19" long, 10lb 9oz cinder block.  Not much has changed - just a bigger brick.  Unfortunately, the hair is almost the same.

To celebrate, I've uploaded some pictures to Flickr of me from my dad's house.  You'll see a lot of bad red hair on a big head.  Play close attention to the shirts.  Wide collars, psuedo-turtlenecks, and ring zippers.   Most (if not all) were either hand-me-downs or homemade.  Feel free to comment.  No shot is too low.  It was the 70s, remember?

After The Boy and Em's gym & swim session at the YMCA, we'll make a trip to Zorba's in Champaign - home of the best gyro on the planet!  I can't wait!

And be sure to stop by and give some love to my sister in the Ground Hog Order: Weimiegirl!  She's promised to show off some technocolor clothes that would make Joseph jealous!

Have a great weekend, all!

For The Record...

"Go on and write me up for 125 Post my face Wanted dead or alive Take my license and all that jive I can't drive 55!" Sammy Hagar from 'I Can't Drive 55'

Yeah, I saw your head bobbin', mouthin' the words with an angry Red Rocker look on your face, maybe even pumpin' your hand in the air at the make believe judge. Don't deny it. It's one of those tunes that just gets into your head and won't let go. Sammy at his best!

You've probably guessed it, but I can't drive 55. It was more like 70. Or so the local police tell me...

I was running late Monday morning, thinking about the various things I needed to get done that day, kinda in my own world. The road from my house into work starts off with a 5 mile stretch of country road - your standard Illinois rock-chip and oil variety. The rest is about 11-12 miles of nicely paved road. There are very few dips, twists, turns and trees as well. It's pretty straight and flat - another central Illinois fixture. So it's extremely easy to get ramped up for the ride into work - especially if you have a lead foot like mine. It also means there are not many places a police car can hide. Quite a combination. Almost makes you feel untouchable. Almost.

About 1 minute into my drive (which means about 1 mile from my house - how stupid am I?) I notice a pickup that I normally encounter headed the other way flashing his lights. This should have tipped me off right away that a smokey lay in wait up ahead. But I was so deep into my own head that it took a moment to "get" his signal. By then it was too late. The cop was sitting in the only green spot along the road. And he had me dead to rights. His lights went on and I pulled over. He asked if I knew how fast I was going. I knew I was going 70 (I glanced at speedometer right when I saw him - but until then, I had no idea), but felt I should give him a range - just in case his gun was running slow. So I told him 65-70. "Yeah, you were doing 70", he said. So if I don't learn anything else from this experience, I know that my speedometer is accurate. I was as polite as I could be, and he was friendly and nice in return. If it wasn't that I was $75 lighter, I'd say it was a pleasant transaction. For some strange reason, that wasn't enough. I had to share the story with the boys at work. During the rest of the day Rudiger, Ed and Pik made sure the wound wouldn't heal. Can't say I blame them. I'd have done the same.

After 7 tickets in 27 years, I think I've finally learned my lesson. But just in case, check back in 6 months and see what my top speed for the day was...

I Can't Drive 55 - Sammy Hagar

I think my favorite thing about this video is the dialog between Sammy and Claudio.

Sammy: "Ooowww! This thing is running great! Its running great. Runnin' smooth into the the curves! What did you do, Claudio?" Claudio (in his best Italian Kermit the Frog voice): " I just adjusted the cassidy cavern and the tire pressure."

No idea if he actually said "cassidy cavern", but it works for me.

Now to end this on a musical note (sorry, the bad pun came out before I could stop it). Which do you prefer?

• Sammy Hagar as a solo act
• Sammy with Van Halen
• Diamond Dave with Van Halen
• None of the above

I Though It Was Conditioner!

Everyone showers in the shower in the master bathroom.  Prudence, Panda, and me in the mornings.  The Boy and Em of an evening.  It cuts down on the number of baths we need to keep clean...and I'm too cheap to have a plumber come take a look at what makes the main bath shower leak to the basement when we use it.  I'll eventually need to take care of #2, but until then, we shower in our shower.

Other than bar soap, we keep all bath products the ledge above the glass door to the shower.  That is, until The Boy and Em were able to take showers by themselves (one of those magical milestones that parents long to see reached - much like walking, potty training, reading, etc.).  Now we keep smaller bottles of shampoo and conditioner on the "seat" built into the shower just for them.  When they were smaller (just a few months ago), the bottles would run out and they would come out of the shower - soppin' wet to the bone - into the hallway and yell "I'm out of shampoo!!!".  We would come running, yelling at them to either call from the shower or dry off and then call for us, refill their containers from the containers on the ledge, and finish their shower.  But they observed what we did and began plotting ways to help themselves.  Mind you, they would need to stand on the built in seat and lean across the shower, lean on the glass door while they reached to the ledge above - while wet.  All very safe ***insert eyeroll here***.  So for the past few months, they've (scratch that - he's) been refilling the containers when they've run out.  At least that's my interpretation, since I haven't been called to refill a container for a while.  Until last Thursday, my/our ignorance has been bliss.

Even though the torch of bathing has been passed, hair styling is still left up to me.  Yes, the man with no hairdo (should that be a hairdon't) does the hair of the little ones.  Don't worry, it's primarily a part and either combed back (The Boy) or brushed straight (Em).  When they're old enough to do their own, I'll step out and let them work on a something that helps define themselves, other than mohawks, blue/orange hair, etc!  But I digress...

So last Thursday, Em comes out of the shower and I start brushing her hair.  Its a gnarly mess!  I ask her if she used conditioner.  She tells me that The Boy told her they were out and that he found something else that would work.  I asked her to show me and she said it was the pink vitamin E stuff.  Huh?  Never seen that in our shower before, so we went back in.  There, sitting on the seat was Prudence and Panda's Skintastic Shaving Cream!  Prudence ushers her back into the shower with explicit instructions about what NOT to use on her hair.  After setting her straight and refilling their bottle with more conditioner from the cabinet, Prudence comes back to me and says, "I'm sooooo glad we don't use Nair!"

Six Weird Things

Yeah, I know this is an old meme (and I've already things documented a number of weird rules here), but I told the some people I would do it, and I try to be a man of my word.  Plus it saves you from hearing about a boring weekend - cleaning out my computer workshop (7 computer carcasses, 3 14" monitors, and 3 printers went to an electronic recycling center), 3 sick family members (Em - for almost a week - Panda and Prudence since Saturday), a busy day at church (running the computer for worship and leading my adult bible fellowship class), and 2 great football games (don't know who to root for now - I just want a good game!).  Well, I guess it didn't save you from it after all.  Some man of his word, huh?  Let's just forget that happenend move on to the meme:

1. When I get napkins from a dispenser for myself, I always get 3.  One at a time.  And I count them in my head. "One, two, three".
    
2. Complete silence scares me.  I can't sit in a room or ride in a car without turning on a radio or TV.  Maybe I'm scared to be alone with my own thoughts...
    
3. I struggle to download only a song or 2 from an album.  I always feel as tho I'll be missing something.  Sure, there's always at least one cut that absolutely sucks (except for Sgt Peppers, Abbey Road, and Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs), but if I don't have the whole album, I don't have the whole album!
    
4. I watch "League of Their Own" every time it's on.  I own copies on VHS and DVD and can watch it any time I want.  But if I see that its on at 11pm before I shut off the TV before I go to bed, I tell myself "I'll just watch until the 'no crying in baseball' part."  Next thing I know, Madonna's singing "This used to be my playground"...
    
5. I love to eat salt and butter on Zesty Saltine crackers.  To save time (because the way I eat, I don't have much of it) and dirtying a knife, I dip the cracker in "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter", then spread the butter over the cracker with my tongue.  Then I salt the cracker with a salt shaker.  Did I mention these were SALTine crackers?  I like salt.
    
6. I can't stand to pay for stuff I can usually get free or relatively cheap.  Like bottled water, for instance.  Pop, coffee, and other drinks take work to make.  Water is already here, and water fountains abound!  I'm probably just bitter that I didn't think of it first.  Tacos also come to mind.  It takes about $.25 worth of materials for a taco, and you get charged almost a $1 for one.  This one probably boils down to the fact that it takes 5+ tacos to fill me up, which adds up to too many pesos for that meal!  I feel like I'm getting swindled or something...

There you have it.  More than you probably wanted to know.  Just tell me when you want me to stop.