Friday Playlist
My collection of new music dwindled over the past six weeks, as I both devoted most of my time to either holiday tunes or reviewing my favorite songs of 2016, and as the music industry dialed the spigot back a bit on new releases. I’m looking forward to the flow increasing again soon. For our first playlist of the new…
Big 12 Hoops
“Lord, honey, it’s gonna be excitin’!” Our family is pretty addicted to the various Food Network baking and cooking competition shows. We are especially fond of the Holiday Baking Championship. The quote above came from this year’s winner, Jason Smith, a folksy, down-home baker from Kentucky who was full of oddball yet hilarious comments. That one was used, over-and-over, in…
The End and Beginning
The holiday portion of our Christmas vacation is over and the new year is off to a decent start. Things ramped up another notch last week. Our family from Denver flew in late Wednesday night for a brief visit. We picked them up at the airport after 11:00 pm. By the time the luggage was collected, we got home, and…
Stats
Time for my monthly/annual recounting of what I’ve been listening to. The December numbers are always an aberration, as I go all-in with the holiday music. I think the 2016 totals are rather interesting, though. I don’t believe I’ve ever had my #1 artist so far out in front of my #2 artist. Remember, these only reflect what I’ve listened…
Reader’s Notebook: #58
For my final entry of 2016, I’ll make my first attempt at my promised adjustment in how I share the books I’ve been reading. No more monthly entries, where I can barely remember the details of the book I read five weeks ago. Back to individual posts for each book. Or occasionally a small group of books. I began 2016…
Carrie
Yesterday was one of those weird afternoons where you take a brief nap and, after waking, nothing seems quite right for an hour or so. The cobwebs seem too thick to push through and you’re left feeling like you’ve taken a bunch of cold medicine. As I was sitting there, trying to find solid ground again, I picked up my…
Christmas 2016
A very busy and fun first quarter of our Christmas break is in the books. As is required of anyone who still runs a personal blog, here is a rundown of the past few days. The girls were not released from their academic responsibilities until 1:00 Thursday. By comparison, the neighborhood kids all finished the previous Friday, so our girls…
Harry
I didn’t read, or really pay any attention to, the Harry Potter books or watch movies when they were first coming out. Sure, I was aware of the phenomenon. I knew what Hogwarts was. I knew that adults seemed to enjoy the stories as much as young adults. But they came along at a point in my life where I…
Holiday Catalog Insanity
Over the past year or so, Drew Magary has become one of my favorite writers. Whether in his novels and collections of anecdotes about being a parent, his writings for GQ and Deadspin, or just on Twitter, he never fails to amuse me. I might have first discovered him through his holiday-themed posts on Deadspin. You might recall when he…
33 Favorite Songs of 2016
I usually offer some State of the Music Union thoughts when I share my favorite songs of the year lists. 2016 got off to a great start and then kind of cruised to the finish. Most of my favorite albums of the year came out during its first six months. There were some albums I was greatly looking forward to…