Thursday, October 6, 2016
Well, the MLB playoffs are here, a bittersweet time for me - and many of my readers - for sure. There is a sadness that the Royals aren’t part of the festivities this year. The last two Octobers were so much fun, even if they were intensely stressful. I imagine my blood pressure will appreciate watching games more casually this year. Yet there will be the constant references to the Royals for the next month, which will be good.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
A pretty solid month of reading in September keeps me right on 52-book pace for the year. Palace of Treason - Jason Matthews. I read Matthews’ excellent Red Sparrow three or four years ago. Turns out Matthews enjoyed those characters and settings so much, he’s decided to turn it into a trilogy. Volume two just hit the shelves in June. Matthews, a retired CIA officer, does another first-rate job in building a tale of modern espionage.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Yesterday was a very busy day, which makes me a day late in offering up my birthday post for L. Our youngest turned 8 yesterday, and everything about the day fit her perfectly. As a lot of you saw, I posted some pics of her to Facebook with a little birthday announcement. At the end of the day, I showed her how many people had liked it or sent birthday greetings her way in the comments.
Friday, September 30, 2016
As promised last week, a video and playlist of older songs I’ve heard on SiriusXM over the past 15 days or so. youtu.be/dbXzAAXOB… “Bye Bye Love” - The Cars. I heard this song a week or so ago on one of the SiriusXM throwback stations. As I listened, and considered it’s greatness, I thought about how many hits The Cars had over the years. I bet most people, when asked to name their three favorite Cars songs, wouldn’t think of “Bye Bye Love.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Our academic year is off to a decent start. The girls got their mid-quarter progress reports a couple weeks back, and all three are doing well. C has really taken to fourth grade, which is when the teachers at St. P’s begin pushing students to be self-motivated for getting their work done. Unlike the K–3 years, we don’t have to review her assignments and sign her folder every night. She’s done a great job of balancing her practices and games for kickball and cross country, getting all her school work done, and still having some time to herself each night.
Monday, September 26, 2016
Friday night was fun. Perhaps it didn’t live up to every expectation I had for the evening, but my philosophy for the night was I would not complain about anything that involved a free concert by my favorite band within almost throwing distance of my house. There was a quibble here and there, but overall it was a very good evening. We were going with our friends K and T. K went to the Frightened Rabbit show with me last April, and he and his wife T went to the Revivalist show with us a couple weeks back.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Music post #2 for the day. Consequence of Sound released their list of the top 100 one-hit-wonders of all time earlier this week. It’s a lot of fun. All music lists are ripe for being picked apart for any number of reasons. I think one-hit-wonder lists are especially troublesome. You can argue for hours about how to define a one-hit-wonder band in the first place. For example, Kris Kross had another top 20 song (“Warm It Up” peaked at #13), but 95% of people only remember “Jump”).
Friday, September 23, 2016
It’s a big music day around here. I had a nice Friday Playlist ready to go - mostly built on older songs this week - but I’ve decided to hold that off until next week so I can focus on a couple other music-related things to share. That’s right, Kansas has a new album out today! (Insert record scratching sound here.) That’s actually true, which is bizarre. But, no, that’s not what has me excited today.
Thursday, September 22, 2016
It was not to be. M’s kickball team got routed in the city championship game yesterday, 27–1 in five-plus innings.[1] Their opponents were just too good in every aspect of the game. St. B’s had a 5–0 lead after one, 10–1 after two, and 13–1 after three. Although the margin wasn’t great at that point, the game felt over. Our girls looked defeated and were struggling to make plays they had made all year.
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Game day! In about nine hours we’ll have a new sixth grade city champion in kickball, and M’s team just might be that team. It’s a perfect day for kickball, too! It’s going to be hot and clear, which is ideal for heating the asphalt to well over 100° - so everyone - players, coaches, and families watching - is all sweating uncontrollably. I especially enjoy it when my sweat drips onto the scorebook and smears my notations.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Awwwwww yeaaaaaaaaah! It’s leaf-changing season, ya’ll! That’s right, the time of year when your gutters are constantly overflowing with dead leaves and seed pods and your yard needs to be raked/mowed every 45 minutes so your lawn, which is still trying to recover from the summer, doesn’t get smothered before the winter. It’s also the time of year when we can suddenly see our douchebag neighbors who are blocked by our trees, bushes, and crazy weeds we let grow in the summer to gain a little privacy.
Monday, September 19, 2016
The countdown continues for the big kickball game Wednesday. Other things distracted me a bit over the weekend, but I imagine the nerves are going to start to kick in again later today. The distractions were good ones, though. First, C had her best ever finish in her cross country meet Saturday. She finished 16th in her first meet of the year. She was running against 5th and 6th graders in that race and there were over 100 girls total in her race.
Friday, September 16, 2016
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Hard Girls” - KT Tunstall. Tunstall has been a little uneven over her past couple records. Her new album has not received great reviews, but the good songs are a return to the smart pop sound that was the core of her breakthrough. “Buffalo Stance” - Neneh Cherry. One of the great one-hit-wonders of all time. A legitimately fantastic song that came along at just the right moment. I remember shooting around in Robinson Gymnasium one Friday afternoon my freshman year of college while the KU Crimson Girls practiced a routine to this one court over.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Well, maybe my stressing about games played on diamonds isn’t completely over for this year. Despite the Royals season spiraling down the drain, I have one more game to get myself worked up about: M’s kickball team made the city championship game. They will play for the title next Wednesday. And I’m already a nervous wreck. Her team had a fantastic regular season. They won their first game by nine runs over a very tough team.
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Last Sunday, as I often do, I turned on the American Top 40 replay from the 1980s on our local soft rock station. The countdown was from this week in 1985, and I caught it just in time to hear the #1 song from that week, John Parr’s “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion)”. First thing first, whether you approach the song with irony or earnestness, it’s a damn fine song.
Friday, September 9, 2016
Heyo! It’s NFL kickoff[1] weekend, which means it’s time for some half-assed, barely-informed predictions! It should be noted I pay almost no attention to what happens in the NFL offseason. I know Teddy Bridgewater got hurt a week ago, and the Vikings traded for Sam Bradford to replace him. The Colts drafted a bunch of shitty guys who will never contribute. I think someone the Cowboys drafted got into trouble with the police.
Friday, September 9, 2016
I believe I’ve said this before, but one of the reasons I like Spotify a lot more than Apple Music is because of the new music Spotify recommends to me. Apple Music’s recommendations always seemed to suck. Every week, between the Discover Weekly playlist on Monday and Release Radar playlist on Friday, I find at least one new act to listen to thanks to Spotify’s suggestions. This week’s playlist kicks off with two artists I was introduced to over the past week via those lists.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Apple product launch announcements aren’t the must-watch events they once were for me. I’ve scaled back my purchasing of new electronic toys to a much slower pace.[1] No more new Mac to replace a perfectly good one every 12–18 months. I keep my phones well past the two years I’m obligated to keep them without having to pay to upgrade. Mostly this is because the pace of technology has changed, at least for now.
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Before the Fall - Noah Hawley. As soon as I saw this on a list of recommended books to read this summer, I knew I had to read it. Hawley, who has worked in TV for years, is the main creative force behind the FX show Fargo. I’ve still only watched season two of the show, but you may recall that I was floored by how brilliant it was. Could Hawley’s brilliance translate to a novel?
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Hall & Oates somehow just received their Hollywood Walk of Fame star last week. Which makes total sense. You know, an act that was in its prime 30 years ago just getting their recognition now. Honestly, it’s staggering if you scroll through the list of entertainers who previously received stars and compare some of their careers to H&O’s. Maybe there was some conflict back in the act’s prime that prevented them from accepting a star; Hall can be notoriously prickly at times.
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
The last weekend of the summer is in the books. It was a busy and fun one. It started super early, at least for C and I, as she had her first cross country meet of the year Saturday morning. I had to have her at the course by 6:30 am, which meant a 5:45 alarm for us. I was not super fond of the early wake time, but she did just fine.
Friday, September 2, 2016
We didn’t travel much when I was a kid. Summer vacations for me were just trips to my grandparents’ homes in central Kansas for anywhere from two to six weeks. So I was pretty much always home Labor Day weekend, with three days to kill before school started on the day after the holiday. Since my mom was generally working two jobs, she’d go in both on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and on Labor Day itself.
Friday, September 2, 2016
The last weekend of the summer of 2016. Not all of these songs fit that theme, but most do. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Not Gonna Kill You” - Angel Olsen. Olsen’s MY WOMAN just hit this morning. I’m not all the way through it yet, but based on what I’ve already heard, and the reviews, it’s a strong contender for album of the year. “Pony Show” - Heidi Gluck. Gluck used to perform with Indianapolis’ Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Classic album covers with Star Wars characters? Hell yeah! Star Wars Album Covers
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
I was not looking forward to this week. Not because I had a medical exam on the calendar, or because I had to deal with some other uncomfortable, personal issue. Nope, I drew the jury duty card for this week. Luckily, while I had to report yesterday, my service was completed in about three hours and I was a free man before afternoon school pickup time. I was sweating it, though.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
A few of my KC friends asked how the kickball thing was going. Well, it’s going, that’s for sure! Since this isn’t an entirely private site, I’ll share only some of what has filled the last month or so for me. As coordinator, my job is to make sure we get everyone registered by the deadline,[1] recruit coaches, put the teams together, order and distribute uniforms and equipment, communicate with the CYO office about when our teams can/can not play games, sort and approve practice time requests, making sure all participants have all their healthcare paperwork submitted, and put out any fires that develop along the way.
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Once, summer trips to Kansas City were the norm for me. Just about every summer I would sneak away for a weekend that, famously, included the four B’s: baseball, Boulevard beer, barbecue, and buddies.[1] But as the girls got a little older, it became more difficult to get away. Buying a lake house where we spent most of our summer weekends added another layer of difficulty to making that trip during school vacation.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
A quick run through the books I read last month. Arcadia - Lauren Groff. I really wanted to like this book. It received great acclaim in 2012 when it was published, so it’s been on my To Read list for ages. Unfortunately, Groff’s writing style just didn’t connect with me. The book mostly takes place on a hippie commune in upstate New York, from the early 1970s through the 1980s, then jumps ahead to the near future.
Monday, August 15, 2016
What up, fools?!?! It’s that time! Time for an epic Olympic notebook unloading! Not the most timely first edition this year, as I’m waiting nine full days into the games to get to this. So we’ll race through some of the things I jotted down 6–9 days ago that aren’t exactly fresh. Opening Ceremonies. Watching these things with kids is kind of the best. Because Olympics opening ceremonies are always wacky, and lend themselves to tons of questions.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Summer is done. At least the school vacation part, that is. The girls went back to school this morning. They were excited to see their friends, find their school supplies on their desks, and get back into their routines, I think. There certainly wasn’t any grumpiness this morning. I bet that changes early next week. Sixth, fourth, and second grades this year. Good times. School Shoes So how was the summer of 2016?