• Friday Playlist

    https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/7q4GpO5FHjKwTHMk5e2jcR “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness” – The National. The first single off the next National album is a shot out of the dark. So many of their songs are slow, brooding, builders. Here they get right to the point. Which confuses me. I’m used to it taking a long time to get into their albums; it took…

  • Good Old Days

    I came across this piece on Twitter and really enjoyed it. Gone The Way Of The Zambezi Zinger The Zambezi Zinger was awesome. It didn’t have huge drops, didn’t loop, didn’t go insanely fast. But all those turns and the consistent speed through the ride were tons of fun. I kind of forgot that you didn’t even strap into the…

  • Spring Sports Pt. 1: Kickball

    Part one of the spring kid sports roundup will focus on the kickball girls. First up is C, who is playing in her third season, and on a team mixed with 3rd and 4th graders. They’ve had a really good season, sitting 5–1 and tied for first with a game to play. They won their first three games easily, and…

  • Return Your Carts

    I made a quick trip to Menard’s yesterday morning. I was inside for maybe 10 minutes, and in that time the car I parked nose-to-nose to did not move. However, while I was inside, someone did decided to jam a shopping cart between my vehicle and the one opposite mine. They didn’t do any damage to either car. But I…

  • Friday Playlist

    A couple kind of heavy songs in this week’s list along with a healthy dose of Ryan Adams. https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/1hPWVHKtAFDJAJKIT0cAke   “Headless Pin Up Girl” – Chemtrails. Written just as lead singer Mia Lust was coming out as Transgendered, this is all about the meaning of identity. “Burn Blue” – Flasher. Hazy but not quite shoegazey. “I’m Not” – Daddy Issues.…

  • Reader’s Notebook, 5/4/17

    A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles As I point often, I amuse myself with my To Read list. I’ll read a blurb about a book somewhere, or see it on a Best Of list, or get a recommendation from a friend, and just throw it on my list and then forget why the book received acclaim. Which is kind…

  • Testing Day

    So yesterday was a fun day: I got to experience the joys of having my first colonoscopy. Yep, big time fun it was. A few of you have already been through this rite of passage. For those who haven’t, fear not; this is not going to be a highly detailed account of what went down at the endoscopy center. The…

  • Third First Communion

    Saturday was an official Big Day for the family. It was L’s First Communion day, a day we’ve all been looking forward to for two years, since C’s First Communion. Do we just love First Communions so much that we couldn’t wait for the next one? Nope, that’s not it. Rather, we’ve been laughing for two years over the prospect…

  • Friday Playlist

    Some really good, brand new music to share this week. https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/4dmpYiVFF1j6PRmrFnzLe0 “Shine On Me” – Dan Auerbach. The lead single off the Black Keys’ vocalist’s second solo album sounds like Beck channeling George Harrison. Which means it’s fabulous as hell, and perfect for spring and early summer. “Silver” – Waxahatchee. Katie Crutchfield has written some great songs over the years,…

  • What If The Beatles Had Said Yes?

    Last week was a guest editor week at Kottke. Tim Carmody took over and devoted the week to looking back at where and how the web has evolved over the past decade-plus, and revisiting some of the site’s readers’ favorite parts of the classic web. On Thursday Carmody posted a piece called The Web is a portal to other words,…