Not since the Oscar-Winning-Actress-Divorces-Non-Oscar-Winning-Actor-Husband has there been such an anticipated and general crowd-pleasing tradition as my annual New Year's Rockin' Eve Super Mix series. Although Ryan Phillippe, Benjamin Bratt, Alec Baldwin, Hank Azaria, and Chad Lowe have yet to listen to this year's installment, I'm sure they'd ( Read more... )

Not to beat a dead theme with an inter-LJ segue, but of all the musical storytellers out there, Dar Williams has consistently found herself near the top of my list of favorites. That's the easy part; the tricky part is trying to pick a favorite among her songs. For the sake of this LJ entry, my favorite song for today is "The Babysitter's Here," in ( Read more... )

Who says songwriting is dead? Here are some lyrics from two of my favorite songs this month:

"Tables and Chairs" by Andrew Bird

I know we're going to meet some day
in the crumbled financial institutions of this land.
There will be tables and chairs,
there'll be pony rides and dancing bears,
there'll even be a band.
Cause listen, after the fall,
there'll ( Read more... )

"Would you like paper or plastic?" "Would you like fries with that?" "Who can spot the dangling modifier?" English majors are familiar with these questions because, in their loved one's collective opinion, these questions accurately reflect the only possible postgraduate avenues down which someone with an English degree can travel. After the ( Read more... )

Sister #1 and her husband celebrated three additions to their home this year: their third beautiful child, Niece #4; a new 2nd floor bedroom, built to accommodate Niece #4; and a second full bathroom, built to accommodate a household with 4 females. On a whim, Freckles and I visited their home last Friday night to see the new bedroom and bathroom, ( Read more... )

As it has every year, the Little League World Series has signaled the impending demise of the summer as well as all summer-related activities that have so mercilessly wedged themselves between my creativity and my LiveJournal time. Each night, the boys of summer race to finish their seasons before the chill rains of fall arrive. After sacrificing ( Read more... )

This week's sign that the apocalypse is upon us, or, at the very least, that the generation in my rearview mirror is dumber than it appears:

The Virgin Mary was telling a coworker about her Lebanese friend who is stressed out over what's happening in Lebanon when her coworker interrupted her to ask, "What's Lebanon?"

At work, I was recently asked why I had a fear of pools/water and so I described in vivid detail, the events that transpired over 20 years ago that, to this day, still greatly affect me. During this global-warming-reminder of a summer, when water is our source of sweet relief, I think that maybe we could all benefit from this lesson-learned in ( Read more... )

Here's how this works ( Read more... )

Day 3 - J’a’quint tribe

The J’a’quint tribe is eating Leonardo’s pizza in their hotel room. The Irish Postman is shown hugging Ms. Parker.

The Irish Postman - Ms. Parker, you totally kicked butt today! You may have quit on us yesterday, but if you weren’t on our team, we wouldn’t have had a chance today. Thank God I was the only one who voted ( Read more... )