Thursday, May 27, 2021
Today marks two weeks in as an Audi owner. I owe you faithful readers of this series some thoughts. The honeymoon is not over; I still love, love, love my Q5. It is pretty much everything I was looking for in a replacement for my Big Chevys.[1] Nimble, quick, comfortable. It has just enough sportiness to make it fun while remaining just big enough to have use as a family utility vehicle.
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
We had great weather all weekend, and a ton of activities (L and I went to watch Indy 500 qualifying, C had her birthday dinner out with friends, and we hosted a nephew birthday party), so I did not sit and watch endless hours of coverage of the PGA Championship. I saw enough to get the vibe of the tournament, though, including roughly the last hour of Phil Mickelson’s win.
Monday, May 24, 2021
We have reached the final week of the 2020–21 academic year. It’s kind of hard to believe the year was as “normal” as it was. To be very clear, it was not normal. There were all kinds of mandates and limits and headaches compared to what our girls had done every year before Covid hit. There were lots of bumps along with way, especially with C’s grade at St P’s. As we are almost done I won’t get into the details of those, but it’s the first time we’ve had any serious problems with school administrators.
Friday, May 21, 2021
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Don’t Go Puttin Wishes in My Head” - TORRES Mackenzie Scott has been making critically acclaimed, ground-breaking music for going on a decade now. This might be my favorite thing she’s ever done. “Heavy Glow” - The Glow I always think it’s kind of cool when bands have song titles that include their name. Like it’s some kind of cheesy wink to the audience. Anyway, this song is a heavier take on traditional dream pop, and I like it.
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Remember the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can? Leonardo DiCaprio starred as Frank W. Abagnale Jr., a man who fooled people into thinking he was an airline pilot, among other things, to live a jet-setting, check-forging, stewardess-banging life. The movie was wonderful, as I recall. It had just the right breezy tone to fit the times it was set in and dispensed with looking too deeply into the truth of Abagnale’s story in favor of a couple hours of enjoyable entertainment.
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Some thoughts on the latest goings on with University of Kansas athletics. KU football I mostly sat out the search for the latest KU football coach. I was aware of the biggest names that were getting thrown around - Buffalo’s Lance Leipold and Army’s Jeff Monken - but I refused to invest much time or emotional energy into following the process. I assumed whoever KU hired, it would be the wrong choice.
Monday, May 17, 2021
If you’ve read my blog entries over the years, you know I can often be a little wordy with the background before I get to my point. I believe context is important and want to fully inform my readers. However, sometimes it is best to cut to the chase. So… Yep, I am now the proud lessee of a 2021 Audi Q5. It’s pretty fucking sweet. We picked it up Thursday, so it is still early days.
Friday, May 14, 2021
After six weeks of action, we are done with spring sports. At least at the middle school level. We had a little scare before the week’s events began. L had knee issues last fall and winter, a combination of growing pains and Osgood-Schlatter disease. They largely went away after the winter basketball season ended and never popped up again this spring. Until Monday, when she could barely walk. We got her a crash physical therapy course (thanks to a pediatrician she knows well and some Googling), a heavy regimen of Ibuprofen, and a lot of Icy-Hot before activity.
Friday, May 14, 2021
Happy Friday! The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and the mini-chill that has dominated the first half of May seems to be moving out. Please enjoy this hand-crafted playlist. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Misandrist to Most” - Lady Dan We’ve been trying to teach our girls since they were born to be strong and independent. Tyler Dozier, aka Lady Dan, has provided this fine anthem for independent women of all ages.
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Time for some book chat. The Marsh King’s Daughter - Karen Dionne I hate it when books that come highly recommended don’t hit me with the same impact they hit others. I found this book on some “best new thrillers” list, and its jacket featured some positive blurbs from other authors I’ve enjoyed. But the story just didn’t work for me. It tells the story of Helena, a woman in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan who was raised in captivity.
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
When I began this process last fall, Audi was at the top of my list. It didn’t matter which Audi. The Q3 if I went with a subcompact. The Q5 if I went compact. The Q7 if I wanted to blow out the budget. Once upon a time, say in the early ‘00s, Audis were my ultimate car, specifically a well-appointed S4. For years I’ve loved the looks of the Q series.
Monday, May 10, 2021
Track The City track championship qualifying races were held Saturday. L ran the 50, 100, and 200. C ran the 100 and 200. L was a little annoyed with her assignments. Each athlete has a three event limit, and she was hoping to run a relay. Her coaches are smart, though. They know we will win the medley relay as long as we don’t drop the baton thanks to our 400 runner.
Friday, May 7, 2021
I have no set order or reasoning to how I am scheduling my test drives. I guess some of it is stock dependent: if a dealer does not have the car I’m interested in on their lot, I’m not going to drive something else just for grins. In general, though, I head to whatever dealership my car muse sends me to. Last week I randomly picked my local Acura dealer - right across the street from the Mercedes dealer!
Friday, May 7, 2021
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Throw Me Around” - The Blips While not your standard supergroup, I think The Blips officially qualify. Made up of members from various bands in the Birmingham, AL scene, they may not be known entities, but they are still coming from different backgrounds to make something new. One reviewer described this as “Tom Petty takes on pop-punk.” That seems pretty solid to me. “Strawberry” - Doss I don’t know that I’ve listened to Doss before, but I like this first experience with her music.
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Chart Week: May 1, 1982 Song: “867–5309/Jenny” - Tommy Tutone Chart Position: #8, 15th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for three weeks in May and June. Quick show of hands: if you were alive and old enough in 1982, how many of you dialed 867–5309 to see if Jenny would answer? I know I did. I believe in Kansas City the response was an AT&T recording that there was no such number in my area code (816 represent!
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Shows and Movies Pearl Jam Live On 6/25/2010, Hyde Park, London, England To celebrate Easter weekend, I guess, online streaming service nugs.net put this show up for free from Good Friday evening through Easter Monday. An outstanding show with terrific sound and a stellar setlist. It was unnerving to see how tightly the crowd was packed in, though. Not because of Covid but more because of the sheer amount of people in a small space.
Monday, May 3, 2021
The pace is winding down but still kid sports notes to share from the past few days. Track Yesterday was CYO track meet #3. This one was a little different: kids were free to make their own schedules. They picked a race, show up when it was called, and then scanned their wristband at the finish line to “register” themselves for that event. L kept bouncing around on what to run.
Saturday, May 1, 2021
April 2021 Middle Kids - 61 Manchester Orchestra - 39 The Natvral - 26 Dumptruck - 24 The Pack A.D. - 23 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.
Friday, April 30, 2021
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Keel Timing” - Manchester Orchestra Their new album drops today, and it is getting excellent reviews. I’ve really liked each of the advance singles. Perhaps an early contender for album of the year? I will give it my first listen as soon as I post this. “The Right Thing is Hard to Do” - Lightning Bug I was reading a little about this band this morning. They were poised to have a breakthrough year in 2020 and then, well, you know… This is a lovely, majestic song that has me looking forward to what else they have to offer.
Thursday, April 29, 2021
We’ve made it! After three entries of background bullshit about my search for a new car, we’ve finally arrived at my first test drive! As previously noted, I am focusing on the luxury compact SUV class. While there are a ton of cars in this space, I have pretty much whittled it down to five I want to compare first hand: Acura RDX Audi Q5 BMW X3 Mercedes GLC300 Volvo XC60 Very imaginative names, no?
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
I mentioned that this would be a very busy kid sports week. That has proven to be true. As there were a couple big developments, I’m going to go ahead and get you caught up on what’s gone down the past two days. Tennis Monday M played her second tennis match. We never heard why, but they mixed up the partners and she played with one of her best friends.
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Crap. I realized in part two of this series, I left out one angle of my car search. It’s not terribly important to the big picture, but I figure if I’m writing about the process, and some of you are actually reading about it, I shouldn’t skip anything that happened along the way. At the end of my last entry, I revealed that I had settled on a specific category of cars to focus on: luxury compact SUVs.
Monday, April 26, 2021
We are about to embark on our busiest week of the spring sports season: three tennis matches, four kickball games, one soccer game (two games missed because of kickball), and trying to squeeze in at least one track practice per girl before next weekend’s meet. Here’s how they did last week. Tennis No tennis matches for M last week. She gets to play today in the first JV home meet of the year.
Friday, April 23, 2021
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “How the Race is Done” - Smile This feels straight out of some 1986 College Rock compilation tape. Mostly because of that Peter Buck-like jangly guitar, which recalls early R.E.M. (with a lot more energy than R.E.M., though.) It has nothing to do with ’80s college rock, but the bass sound and style reminds me of Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament. The real kicker: these kids are from Turin, Italy. Does that blow your mind?
Thursday, April 22, 2021
It was some 24 hours we experienced from roughly 5:00 pm Tuesday to 5:00 pm Wednesday. On Tuesday we got hit by that freak, spring snowstorm that blew through the Midwest. Both C and L had kickball games scheduled, and both games were cancelled. C’s was actually cancelled on Monday night when their opponents all went into quarantine. With kickball out of the way, she decided to join her soccer team on Tuesday.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
This is the second entry in my collection of observations as I search for a new car. In part one I listed every car I’ve owned. You can read it here. Today, I’m going to set up some parameters for my next purchase. If you look through that list of past cars, a trend is obvious: the last four were all selected based on the needs of our family. That’s not meant to be a complaint: two of those were pretty awesome rides that we were able to justify by saying “We need a big ass car to haul all our shit.
Monday, April 19, 2021
We have a very busy sports week ahead - weather permitting - and my plan was to hold off on another kid sports update. But it turned out to be a fairly significant sports weekend, so I’ll go ahead and share our girls’ latest accomplishments on the fields of athletic battle. Friday was M’s first-ever tennis match. I had not seen her hit a tennis ball since last September, when we went to a local court to hit together.
Friday, April 16, 2021
Another Friday, another list of fine musical products for your ears. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Hot & Heavy” - Lucy Dacus Dacus was responsible for my favorite song of 2018. She may have released my favorite song of 2021 this week. This is just so freaking good, and she is a total treasure. “Complex” - Tristen Tristen also had one of my favorite songs of 2018. She’s right in that indie/Americana/folk pocket that I can really get into.
Thursday, April 15, 2021
We are about 10 days into the spring CYO sports schedules, which means we are at roughly the halfway point of those compact seasons. Here’s a quick look at how the family has done so far. Both C and L are two games into their kickball seasons, with a third game rained out for each team. L’s team is 2–0. They won their first game by 10 runs against a team that is usually pretty good.
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
This piece is from last fall, but I came across a Tweet that linked to it over spring break and saved it for a moment like now, when I’m busy and can’t generate any original #Content for you. Although I am a lover of pop culture lists, I can appreciate how they are often ridiculous. This “list” is a fine skewering of those of us who obsess about such things. The context in which the things that we rank take place is often more important than the things we are ranking.