Not (Quite) Time To Freak Out
Tonight the Kansas Jayhawks officially begin pursuit of their 10th straight Big 12 conference championship. Despite an immensely talented roster, that quest seems rife with concern at the moment. There’s no denying it: the season has been disappointing so far. Disappointing, not a disappointment. While it’s been far from worst-case – the Duke and Georgetown games were fun – I…
December Books
I read 55 books in 2013. Not bad. Not bad at all. Here’s the last of the bunch. A Christmas Story – Jean Shepherd You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas – Augusten Burroughs Shepherd’s work is an annual tradition for me. Before I can watch the movie, I have to go back and read the original essays it was…
A Foot
There’s no two ways about it: this sucks. Over a foot of snow. Windchills are currently -40. There are travel bans all over the area, meaning unless you have an emergency or you’re on your way to a shelter, you can be arrested for taking your car onto a road. And worst of all, M. and C.’s holiday break was…
I Am An Idiot
A – Many of you have been saying I’m an idiot for a long time. B – Chiefs fan, you might want to skip this one. I’ve been claiming, for years, that I’ve shed many of my sports superstitions. And that’s true to a point. Back in the glory days of my superstition-dom, game days involved elaborate ceremonies of picking…
NFL Playoff Predictions
Our girls keep using the word “awkward” incorrectly. For example, earlier this week we ran into their Uncle D at the grocery store and then him again with Aunt J walking their dog through the neighborhood the next day. Both times the girls kept shouting, “AWKWARD!” I had to explain that awkward means uncomfortable, weird, strange, not just an expression…
Fun With Regional Accents
In case you missed it over the holidays, the New York Times had a fun quiz that, based on the words you use for certain terms and how you pronounce those words, shows how you compare to people across the country. The first time I took this, my most similar cities were Denver and Aurora, CO and Albuquerque, NM. Later…
Final Holiday Wrap Up
Happy New Year! We woke to 4-5” of new snow on the ground, with even more predicted for Saturday night. The girls are excited. I’m excited I can finally get them outside of the house for awhile. With apologies to all the fans of Epiphany out there, the holiday season has officially ended. Yesterday we took our tree to the…
Stats, 2013
I know none of you probably pay any attention to these monthly accountings of my music listening habits. Like most of what I do here, it’s mostly for my amusement. First, what I listened to in December. As always, it was a little different that what I listened to the other 11 months of 2013. Frank Sinatra – 68 Bing…