It’s been a busy TV week. Let’s jump right in. American Idol. I didn’t watch Tuesday’s show, but I can’t say I’m disappointed George Huff got the boot. He’s got a tremendous voice, but he’s a one trick pony. For about the first four weeks, you think, “This guy is awesome!” After that, though, you realize he sings every song exactly the same way. Good guy, nice singer, but not finalist material.
We’re honored to have the following dispatch from blog correspondent Mike “Punkmaster Flex” A., who attended the Prince concert in Kansas City Tuesday night. I’m officially green, or whatever color jealousy is colored these days. Arguably the most talented musician alive hit the stage Tuesday night in Kansas City’s rickety Kemper arena. Buoyed on by 15,000+ screaming Princeaholics (my ears are literally still ringing), Mr. Rogers Nelson and his ultra-tight New Power Generation band did not disappoint.
I just made my first legal download. I dropped 99 cents to grab The Thrills' “One Horse Town” off of Musicmatch. I feel dirty. I feel like a sell out. I feel disappointed I didn’t thumb my nose at the recording industry giants and continue to grab tracks for free off the file sharing services that are still out there. Now I’m just another consumer who’s taken what the powers that be want me to take.
First, it’s far too cold for May 3. I hate that one last cold snap that just ruins some weekend in the spring. Not sure how cold it actually got here last night, but we flipped the heat on at 5:00 yesterday afternoon. So much for thinking the gas bills wouldn’t be something we had to worry about until November. Friday night, we watched a birthing video. I can’t claim I learned much because I was busy ridiculing the fashion of the people in the video, which was filmed in 1987.
Putting some assorted thoughts down while watching Keith Olbermann’s Countdown Wednesday night. The #5 story was about a backlash against the wildly popular novel The DaVinci Code. I don’t know much about the book, other than I may be the only person to fly American Airlines in the past year who hasn’t read it. Anyway, there are several “rebuttal” books coming out that argue against some of author Dan Brown’s plot developments, especially those regarding the life of Jesus.
The perfect adult weekend: ideal weather (sunny, highs in the low 80s, just a hint of humidity but not enough to make it truly sticky), an entire day in the yard, another day spent out on the back deck listening to baseball, and the wife has been in Florida the whole time. Wait, that last part isn’t ideal, don’t quote that line ever. But pretty much everything else about the weekend was perfect.
I bought my first outfit for my daughter last night. I got her a Safari themed bodysuit from Baby Gap. Lions, crocs, elephants, monkeys. How will she not be happy wearing this? In a nursery update, we made the final major additions to her room this week. We had a chair rail put around the top of the wall to serve as a border for the animal alphabet cards we got.
There’s nothing like logging in on a Monday morning and finding out someone has been trying to get you to take their place, without your knowledge, at a meeting that would require you to book and get on a place Monday night. Sometimes people are just far too generous. As if ripped from the comments box, we had the proverbial big weekend. Three trips to Lowe’s! That brings us to a total of seven trips in the past seven days.
Scene: Interior, couple sitting on couch drinking coffee in the morning. Wife: How did you sleep? Husband: Pretty good, you? Wife: Good, Little Girlfriend had to wake up early and play, though. Husband (Leaning over and speaking to wife’s stomach): Your daddy doesn’t like to wake up in the morning. We can work on that once you’re born, ok? This kid is moving around like crazy. Last night, I noticed S’s shirt jumping.
If you’re not listening to the Royals-White Sox game today, you should be. Ryan Lefebvre is really on a roll. I’m shocked, SHOCKED, that the Royals lead the American League in home runs. I was perusing the roster of Your Indianapolis Indians and saw that former Royal Dan Reichert is on the staff. It’ll be fun to see one of the Arms of the Future of the Royals from a few years back toiling in AAA.
Heartburn. Or reflux I guess. I’ve got something going on with my stomach that I don’t like. For about a month, shortly after I eat, I’ve been getting these waves of mild nausea. The kind where you think you’re going to throw up in, say, five minutes, but you never get all the way there. I hadn’t had any real feelings of indigestion or heartburn with it until today. I’m pushing four hours of suffering today and the good doctor has the cheery opinion it could be reflux or an ulcer.
I’m in the process of uploading my pictures from the weekend in KC. I’ll share them here later today. To tide you over, a conversation overheard last night between a pregnant couple. (Not your typical prego couple conversation, but worth sharing anyway.) (Scene: Interior, pregnant couple sits on a couch watching the Nick & Jessica Variety Show.) Wife: Really, what’s the point? All anyone can do is stare at her boobs.
(Scene: Interior, wife is getting dressed for work, holding top under her chin so she can look at her 23 week stomach in the mirror. Husband enters room, laughs.) Wife: Shit! Husband: What? Wife: Look how big it’s getting! (Husband places hand on stomach.) It’s like a basketball. Husband: Can we paint lines on it?
More catching up thoughts, including the occasional comment added during Monday’s game. Portland is by far my favorite place to visit for work. It’s a tremendous city, full of gorgeous views, brewpubs, a college town vibe, clients I actually enjoy visiting, and most importantly, a group of people I know from previous lives that I can visit with. Unlike most other business trips, I don’t retreat to my hotel room each night with the sum of my excitement being checking e-mail and hoping something interesting is on HBO.
Trying to organize my thoughts from recent trips while watching the national championship game. I think it’s safe so say I’m one million times less tense tonight than I was a year ago tonight (or April 7 I guess). I don’t recall a time when I was wound as tightly as I was leading up to the KU-Syracuse game. Even if we had won, I don’t know if I could have enjoyed it as tense as I was that night.
Big day. Huge day. Important day. Opening Day in baseball. As should always be the case, the NCAA championship game is tonight as well. You may recall my suggested sports calendar last fall required baseball beginning the day college basketball ended. And just for the cultural reference freaks out there, it’s the 10th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. I’ve got a lot to work through here, without even touching what I’ve compiled over the last two weeks.
The Jayhawks lost, I am sad. I felt my daughter move, I am glad! The downside to getting so much joy and satisfaction out of your team’s successes is you generally crash with them when their season ends. You spend five months planning your life around when the next game is and suddenly there’s no next game. I’m pleased to say I was able to get out of bed this morning, unlike April 8 of last year when I used the excuse of getting my truck serviced to stay in bed staring at the ceiling for about three hours.
It’s currently 12:43 AM EST. My alarm went off almost 23 hours ago after a night in which I got about two and a half hours of sleep (following two nights when I probably slept a combined seven hours). Consider yourselves lucky I’m so wiped, as I’m sitting about two miles from the house I lived in for 11 months during our great, California experience in 1986-7. I’m sure I would wax poetic from the Hilton Garden Inn if I had any wits left.
(Interior. Couple sitting on the couch, watching NCAA tournament. Husband’s alma mater is playing. They’ve just blown an 11 point lead.) Husband: GOD DAMMIT! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO STOP PLAYING SO FUCKING STUPID?!?! JESUS! Wife: You’re going to have to put the earmuffs on Little Girlfriend if you want to talk like that this time next year. Husband: (Patting wife’s stomach) Sorry. (Apologies to those who are offended by above blasphemy.
If that wasn’t the craziest weekend in the history of the NCAAs, I’d like to know what was. In the opening 32 games, there were three upsets. I picked two of the upsets correctly, but lost three games overall in the first round. Not a bad way to set up your bracket. Now, sitting here on Sunday night, I have one Final Four team left. Tear up your brackets! Two number one seeds gone!