We've been having a great time with the kids these days, which is in no doubt because of the earlier pick-up times from daycare (thanks to leave without pay under the FMLA - thank you, Bill Clinton ) and which reinforces our plans to change our work schedules starting in 2009. Haven't figured out all the details yet, but I think we'll be moving them into the local pre-school and pre-K programs, and then doing some sort of brief aftercare for an hour or two. Rick is planning to go part-time, and I will have a reduced workload for [...]
At least, that's how I would characterize the winter mix we are allegedly going to get tonight. Lately, it seems to me that the National Weather Service has become incredibly optimistic about winter precipitation - we almost never get what is forecast. Visit the blog to read the full post and hear some great music! John Flynn - A Manatee Sneezed On Me ( buy ) I wanted to take a minute tonight, when I should be sleeping, to wish you all a [...]
Tonight at dinner... Me: Please don't feed the Scout food from the table. BM: Why not? Me: Because it will make him fat. BM: That would be funny. Me: It's not really funny when people or animals are fat, BM. BM: What if the wall were fat? (The kitchen wall.) Me: That would be funny. If the wall had a mouth, what would it say? BM: "Why do you hang pictures on me?"
Look at what I have just seen on eMusic! It's John Denver & the Muppets: A Christmas Together ! You must go listen and/or buy this right now ( here at eMusic , or here at Amazon ). This perhaps my all-time favorite Christmas album. I saw the special on TV once, maybe twice. I picked up the CD later, and the music made such a deep impression on me that I could probably sing along to this disc without a single mistake. I listened to it that much. And [...]
I haven't purchased much new Christmas music this year, but I have been pleasantly surprised by what I did! Visit the blog to hear some great music! First, on a whim induced perhaps by an impending infusion of caffeine, I bought this year's holiday collection from Starbucks, Winter Wonderland . These collections are often hit or miss, but more often both, with some good tracks interspersed among bad ones. Not so for this collection. Pink [...]
Over at the Contrast Podcast, the annual Festive 50 countdown is underway. Tim was a bit under the weather so the podcast is a couple of days late, but as always it was worth the wait! My contribution was Melody Gardot's "Love Me Like A River Does". As you may well know, I think Gardot is fabulous. She's a local (Philly), has a voice as smooth as glass, and somehow seems to override all the thoughts in my brain, instantly erasing them with her flawless delivery. Visit the Contrast [...]
Last night, K asked me what I thought we should do on Christmas Eve. Since this will be our first Christmas together as a family (of four), we want to do something or things that will become our family traditions. Visit the blog to hear some great music! When I was a child, my family - probably like most of you - went to church for a Christmas Eve service. When my sister and I were old enough, this sometimes translated into a trip to the beautiful [...]
Hi, all. Just a quick post to test out some things I'm trying out. First, Feedblitz , the service I have been using for about a year to send emails whenever there's a new post, seems to have become blitzed itself. For whatever reason, there aren't any emails going out now (that I can tell), even though the feed is just fine. So, if you want emails, please do fill out the nifty form to the right here, courtesy of Feed burner , not to be [...]
Note: I originally wrote this post in January of 2007 , but for some reason, neglected to publish it. Better late than never! I love word games. To be more specific, I love puns, making plays on words, or at least that's what I think it is. Usually, my puns are just plain bad. For example, in my world, the Waffle House is the Affle Ho, the Home Depot becomes the Home Despot, and Pizza Hut is the Pizza Slut. Clearly, not that funny. I'm [...]
I recently had a conversation with a buddy of mine about a post from XPN's Kathy O'Connell on the 10 best CDs of music for kids in 2008. You can read Kathy's post here, at NPR's Music website . Nothing shocking about that by itself. What was surprising to my friend was how much he knew about the albums in Kathy's top 10 list. Because my kids are younger then his, we haven't really transitioned to the level of music she writes about and plays on her show. At least, that's my excuse. [...]
So, we've had a good weekend here. I hope you all have as well. Visit the blog to listen to some great music! I realize that you probably aren't too interested to read about the mundane details of our daily lives, but there was something fun about this past weekend that made me want to share it all. Perhaps it's just that something about the space we've come to inhabit is giving me a good feeling which colors everything else. I dunno. [...]
BM still says some things in a decidedly Russian way, and one of the best has been Santa Claus, which comes out as Santa Klaus. Imagine a big, jolly German. Anyway, I pulled out my mp3 player the other day when we were hanging out at home and tried to get BM to tell me a few things about Santa. The results were a bit, um, surprising. Well, like I said, we have our issues here. We're working on it. We do actually [...]
Well, folks, we had an exciting Thanksgiving weekend, complete with "fireworks" and some much needed rest. (You'll need to visit the blog to hear these great tunes!) We started off the break with a much-anticipated trip to Baba & GP's house up in PA. This had been the bait and leverage for several days now, and there was electricity in the air, let me tell you. Occasionally other things were in the air as well, but you know how it goes. Everyone pretty much had [...]
I started working on this mix in August, throwing together a playlist of a bunch of songs that were mixing together in my head. I finished it, more or less, in October. Since it is now late November, you can understand how little time I have to devote to these things! A ton of great music has come out this year, as this playlist might remind you. Almost all of this mix is from 2008, with a few notable exceptions. I'm not usually a big fan of the Stones, but I love how lyrical the guitar is in [...]
We recently had the boys tested by a group of really excellent behavioral and developmental specialists. We didn't do this just for the fun of it, but because we wanted to see how they were doing and what we need to focus on to help them make up for lost time, language development, neglect, and so on. All the usual, horrible things that go along with being orphaned. They Might Be Giants - Seven Days A Week (I Never Go To Work) ( buy at Amazon ) [...]
In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say. From the Borowitz Report . (Thanks, ch!)
It's a great time of the year for music. Everyone is soliciting input on their year-end lists. From the perspective of someone who always lets a large quantity of good music slip by, it's a chance to catch up. This text will be replaced First up, XPN is doing their annual Year In Review countdown. You can send in your submissions here and check out what the hosts have on their lists. Kind of like Christmas. They need your input by [...]
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