Musing on the present. Reminiscing about the past. Posturing for the future.
Everyone here at sounds familiar (which, actually, is just lonesome old me) urges you to get out and do your part in flexing the muscle of the people today. In other words:
(Oh, and the “real” entry for today is just below this one.)
Hey internet. Didja?
I’m going before work bright and early; depending on the coast you’re on and the time you’re reading this – I may in fact have already been. Think we’ll get a definitive result tonight? Not sure… but I sure hope so. We’re off to Oregon on Wednesday and I’d like to be able to know who’s taking office come January. Here’s hoping. Ready, set, blog.
Three random paragraphs I wrote and have no way to make slick segues between, presented in no particular order:
I’m pretty sure that when I took “science” back in middle school that someone along the way taught me that the average lifsepan of a common housefly is about twenty-four hours; a single day. In fact, unless I totally imagined that (for some oddball reason), I recall thinking how crappy that was. Birth, a dedicated search for both potato salad and a suitable mate for procreation, and repeated attempts at escaping by flying headlong into closed windows (not even knowing what a window is or why you can see, but not fly, through it). But man, that was a bunch of bunk. There’s been a fly in our house for days now. How he survives, I have no idea… but 24hrs is a load of dook.
Don’t know what I was thinking about doing a picnic today with Keaton on my “working from home” daddy-daycare day, it’s been cold, cloudy, and rainy for the past few days. I guess I was just in some daddy-n-daughter time fantasy world. Instead, we decided to take a walk over to a local eatery, rain and all. We both crowded under my large umbrella and braved the elements to have lunch together. It was one of those salad-bar places so we both kinda hunted and pecked of my plate, veggie-style. By the time we’d finished eating and chatting, the rain had subsided for our short jaunt back home. The walk in that direction is mostly uphill and I thought up the idea of challenging Keaton to a “race” to the top in an attempt to at least let her expend some energy before naptime. Was fun.
Finally decided to try and sync my iPhone Safari bookmarks with my “standard” bookmarks today. I use a server-based bookmarking application called SiteBar to store/access my bookmarks. That way, I can access/edit them in any browser and anyplace in the world – instead of having them locked to a particular application on a particular PC. I used the SiteBar “export” feature to get an HTML bookmark file which I could import into Interner Explorer (which I don’t use, so was void of bookmarks), then told iTunes to sync the IE bookmarks with Safari. Worked like a charm and it’s really nice to have the entirety of my usual bookmars on the device – really helps make the internet more usable.
OK folks, off to get one final pre-voting day dose of punditry before I sleep on my intended vote one last time (and, wait for my wife to get home from her short out-of-state trip!). Have a good day, and I’ll be talkin’ to you tomorrow.
Goodnight.
Hello again from Monday.
Wanted to have this done last night but had a ton of redeye to process out (not very skillfully, as I was in a rush, I may add) of the costume contest photos. Anyway, I got through about half yesterday and finished up early this morning prior to “going in” to virtual work here on the couch with my laptop, cellphone, and bluetooth earpiece. So, what do we have?:
Click here to see the Halloween 2008 costume contest. Looking over the pix, I notice there are more than a few folks we missed getting snapshots of; so if you were there and have pictures we missed – send ’em along. And remember, you can vote on the pictures to voice your favorite. Have fun!
Click here to see a bunch of randomly-chosen, totally un-retouched candid photos from the evening’s festivities. Enjoy!
If you weren’t there, you totally shoud’ve been! Love ya, have a good Voting Eve!
7:15am on Sunday morning.
Sharaun’s arrived safely in Florida last night, and I spent the day cleaning and recovering from the party. People ended up coming over for football Saturday, despite most of them having just left the night/morning prior, and we grilled ribs in the rain (with a huge umbrella shielding the fire). I steam-cleaned the carpet and did general pickup and tidying. Place looks good for a guy left alone for a weekend, I must say.
Keaton’s in the kitchen eating her waffle and yogurt (one of her favorites – Sharaun had a stroke of brilliance substituting syrup for a yogurt “dip sauce” and it works great). When she’s done I’ll get her down and jump in the shower to shave and get ready for church. Don’t tell Sharaun, but I brought her into our bed last night to sleep with me; I mean, it just seemed like there was so much empty space there. And plus, it’s just her and I this weekend – so I can do what I want. (I was beaming proud inside of the ponytail I gave her the other day when people told me it was an exceptionally good “Daddy do.”) Since I’m working remotely tomorrow with her, I think we’ll go on a picnic for lunch.
OK, what about Halloween?
Halloween went great this year. And not just the props or the party, but the trick-or-treaters too. We got quite a few more than in years past and all of them seemed to get a kick out of the setup. A setup which, by the way, remained 100% functional all night – gremlin-free for the first time ever. So, yeah, Halloween night was the single solitary rainy and windy day all month… but ain’t that always the case? Just before dusk fell on the street I had two uprooted tombstones needing repair and one backwards-facing witch I had to tweak. But, things totally came together in the end and the wind even died down enough for the fog chiller to do it’s business.
The party also went off swell, with a great turnout and honestly one of the best times we’ve had at a party we’re “in charge of.” Several people mentioned that it was fun – so I’m happy. And guys, one of the best moments of the whole night for me was when the second distinct person came up to me and praised my garage playlist. One guy even said, paying his third or fourth compliment, “Where can I buy this playlist?!” Well, he screamed that, actually – over the cacophony of Wreckless Eric’s “Whole Wide World.” Being that it was a somewhat hasty and totally eclectic mix, I was worried. Look, I’ve now written something like three paragraphs about the dang iPod playlist… sheesh.
Oh, and just in case you’re that guy… here… it’s just over six hours of music and it’s way better than Sharaun’s:
Grandaddy – A.M. 180
Nine Inch Nails – All The Love In The World
Cut off Your Hands – As Happy as Can Be
Ben Folds – Bitches Ain’t Shit
2 Bad Mice – Bombscare (Original version)
The Breeders – Cannonball
Kanye West – Celebration
The Cure – Close To Me [Closet Remix]
Shout Out Louds – The Comeback
Phoenix – Consolation Prizes
The Hold Steady – Constructive Summer
Led Zeppelin – D’yer Mak’er
Of Montreal – Eluardian Instance
Cut Copy – Feel the Love
Animal Collective – Fireworks
Band of Horses – The First Song
The Streets – Fit But You Know It
Modest Mouse – Float On
Modest Mouse – Florida
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Forever Heavy
Jimi Hendrix – Foxey Lady
The Chemical Brothers – Fuck Up Beats
Wailers – Good Good Rudie
Kanye West – Good Morning
Clor – Good Stuff
Led Zeppelin – Good Times Bad Times
Slade – Gudbuy T’Jane
The Helio Sequence – Harmonica Song
Cut Copy – Hearts On Fire
The Cloud Room – Hey Now Now
Explosions – Hip Drop
Black Kids – Hit The Heartbrakes
The Bravery – An Honest Mistake
Animals – The House Of The Rising Sun
T. Rex – I Love To Boogie
Of Montreal – Id Engager
Modest Mouse – Interstate
The Strokes – Is This It
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Jamming
The Go! Team – junior kickstart
The Go! Team – ladyflash
The Chemical Brothers – Leave Home
The George Baker Selection – Little Green Bag
Iggy Pop – Lust For Life
The Hold Steady – Massive Nights
Chuck Berry – Maybellene
Ohgr – Minus
The Cribs – Mirror Kissers
Led Zeppelin – Misty Mountain Hop
The Strokes – The Modern Age
Malajube – Montreal -40°C
Soul Brothers – Mr Kiss a Bang Bang
Johnny Osbourne – Murderer
Menomena – Muscle N’ Flo
Cloud Cult – No One Said It Would Be Easy
Animal Collective – Peacebone
The Most Serene Republic – Phages
Built to Spill – The Plan
Alexander Henry – Please Be True
Prodigy – Poison
Jay-Z – Public Service Announcement (Interlude) (Produced By Just Blaze)
Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze
Prince – Purple Rain
Wolfmother – Pyramid
Nirvana – Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Refugee
The Strokes – Reptilia
The Beatles – Revolution
The Rolling Stones – Rocks Off
Jason Collett – Roll On Oblivion
Beastie Boys – Root Down (Free Zone Mix)
Clash – Rudie Can’t Fail
Weezer – Say it ain’t so
Of Montreal – A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger
Beastie Boys – Shake Your Rump
Lily Allen – Smile
Beastie Boys – So What’cha Want
Wolf Parade – Soldier’s Grin
Ben Folds Five – Song for the Dumped
+/- – Steal the Blueprints
The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever
The Hold Steady – Stuck Between Stations
Postal Service – Such Great Heights
Prince Buster – Ten Commandments of Man
Kanye West – Touch The Sky (Feat. Lupe Fiasco)
The Arcade Fire – Wake Up
Vampire Weekend – Walcott
Lou Reed – Walk On The Wild Side
Eagles of Death Metal – Wannabe in L.A
Pixies – Where Is My Mind?
Wreckless Eric – Whole Wide World
Cloud Cult – The Will Of A Volcano
Jackie Opel – You’re Too Bad
Wolf Parade – You Are A Runner And I Am My Father’s Son
Spoon – You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
The Faint – Your Retro Career Melted
The Strokes – 12:51
Jay-Z + DJ Danger Mouse – 99 Problems
Goodnight.
Happy Halloween folks.
We do our annual (but for last year) party tonight, and the latest pollsters are predicting record attendance. As always, I’m both excited to have fun and leery of the logistics and cleanup. I always fret over the same things: Will there be enough beer? Will people have a good time? How bad is the mess gonna be in the morning? Ad-infintum.
This party is complicated by having the fear that Keaton won’t sleep well over at the babysitters (really the parents of friends of ours who’re doing us a favor) and the fact that Sharaun has to be at the airport for her flight to Florida around 10:30am the next day.
Sharaun and I are going through our iPods and music right now making the party playlists. I’m in charge of the garage list, which tends to reflect my tastes more, and she’s in charge of the house mix, which, as you’d expect, reflects hers. So, in the garage you’ll hear a mix of what I think are some of the more “accessible” tracks from my favorite discs this year, and in the house you’ll hear what Clear Channel decided they’d make people like so far this year (mixed with a good dose of classic party tracks that get people in a good move, such as the venerable “Bust A Move”).
We still have to move furniture, toys, clean up, re-arrange, decorate, pick up kegs, pick up ice, pick up this and that and the other thing… oh man… I’m freaking out.
There’s so much left to do… we’re gonna be up forever… I have to go.
Tuesday night and the iPod has shuffled up some fine Grateful Dead, an extended jam on “Playin’ In the Band” from early ’73 in Nebraska. The Dead sound good to me nearly all of the time, and only occasionally do I find myself out of the mood (if I can use that phrase) for some good ol’ noodling around.
And, in other music-related news, I saw this jarring headline on NME this evening: Led Zeppelin to tour with Robert Plant replacement! Why oh why Zep? Is this some ploy to get Plant to step in at the last minute despite his public statements he’s not interested? Some kind of rock ‘n’ roll supergroup “bluff?” I mean, with Sharaun going to her third New Kids on the Block show this weekend (and this one a world away on the other coast of the dang US), and our agreement that I could pay whatever the cost to see a reunited Zeppelin as turnabout for the money she burned reliving thirteen – you’d think I’d be happy. But… no Plant? Argh; just argh.
I didn’t write last night, or, rather, I wrote a bunch of unfinished and disjointed stuff that I just couldn’t massage into a viable post so I scrapped it altogether. Tonight, I’m hoping for different results. I’ve just put Keaton down to bed and Sharaun is at volleyball (man, it sure seems like I’ve been getting more than my share of evenings alone lately) – so I have the place to myself. Although, I have to admit I didn’t use the time doing anything super exciting: washed the dishes from dinner, tidied the kitchen, played with Keaton, and listened to some tunes. And that brings us to the present…
This past Saturday the college football crowd at the house for the games was a swollen one, one of the better Saturdays of the season thus far. At some point, being that the majority of attendees are friends of mine from the sawmill, the discussion turned to all things finance and bailout. Somehow, this led to a “401k-off” where each of us in turn logged onto our retirement portfolios online to look at our “yearly change” percents for 2008 so far. The game being simple: whoever had lost the least this year wins.
There were seven people who participated, and, of those seven, the winner had lost 39%. Yes folks, that was the winner; the guy who was only down 39% on the year. Surprisingly, I took second place by only being off 42.6%. The “loser” was down a future-mortgaging 48%. To be perfectly clear, those are all negative numbers. This, my friends, is what inspired the newest tombstone in our front-yard Halloween cemetery… whcih can be seen accompanying this post. Good thing we’re not retiring tomorrow, eh?
Sorry for skippin’ so many of my normal dailies lately folks (if you can call them “normal” anymore). Work is getting progressively busier, and will only get moreso as we move into 2009. I’m not giving up on blogging by a long shot, I still enjoy it immensely… but if I had to bet I’d say this year brings down my overall frequency average a mite. Bummer.
Stick with me, OK? Goodnight.
Man, today worked out great. A Sunday like the Sundays of old. I mean, after church, we all went down to the town square and sat under the old oak tree for an afternoon concert.
Yeah, well, maybe not exactly like the Sundays of old… but we did come home church and take a family-style nap – all three of us sacked out in various places around the house for a couple hours. Quite nice. Later on I put together a new set of shelves I bought for the garage; more storage for our ever growing collection of stuff we don’t need.
The weekend otherwise was normal. Dinner out with some friends Friday, the crew over for beer and football Saturday (and helping put some last-last-minute touches on some of the Halloween decorations), and then a chili-cookoff at Ben & Suzy’s place later that evening. It was a nice low-obligation weekend with no real “work” I had to get done, since the props are all up and running (minus the new one I didn’t build… there’s always next year).
If you couldn’t tell already, I don’t have much today, like I said I whiled away the afternoon on the couch listening to music and napping. I do, however, have a little Keaton audio I took tonight on the trusty iPhone. I wanted to share her new joke with you guys. Yeah, I taught her the joke (Mom did laugh, but wasn’t exactly anxious for her to go around telling it to all her friends, either… but that’s what dad’s do, right?) – but she’s getting really good at telling it. Here, I’ll let her show you herself:
[audio:keatons_joke.mp3]
She has her dad’s impeccable timing.
Wasn’t that awesome? She’s been telling people this “joke” for about a week now, and, even though it may sound perfect, her timing still needs a little work (what you hear here benefited from a little editing wizardry from dad). Anyway, perhaps another generation of class-clown in the making…
Goodnight.