Okay, so I got tagged with this by Pam at Blogmeister USA. What the hell. By strange coincidence I've been searching through the iTunes store lately looking for old songs that I always liked. I don't have an iPod but I burn these disparate selections onto CD's and call them "mix" collections. The mix I just did has a lot of interesting tunes but I picked what I think are my favorite seven that I'm currently enjoying - nothing especially out of the ordinary:

Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett) - One of those songs I've always liked but have never owned. It's a great tune to play when you're just hanging out, having nip of tequila - ideally, a margarita. It also always helps me get through the winter time. Play it on a warm day in February and you can almost feel Spring coming. There's a line that goes, "blew out my flip-flops, stepped on a pop-top". Nowadays anyone under the age of thirty probably wouldn't even know what a pop-top is - that little metal thingy you pulled off to open a can of beer or soda and just tossed on the ground. Well, when the Mrs. was a youngin' she though the line was "stepped on a pop-tart". And she never thought to ask "why?"

Born To Fly (Sara Evans): This is a hit from Sara's album of the same name, not her current release which is "Real Fine Place". I just really find this song uplifting.

"But how do you wait for heaven,
And who has that much time?
And how do you keep your feet on the ground,
When you know that you were born,
You were born to fly!"

Listen To Your Heart (Roxette): Strangely enough, I wasn't all that big on this song when if first came out in 1989. Recently, I heard a slower acoustic version on the radio. I really listened to it and I came away thinking, "wow, that's a really good song". So I downloaded the original.

Just The Way It Is, Baby (The Rembrandts): I never felt like shelling out for the whole album. Thanks to iTunes, I don't have to anymore. These guys are more famous for their theme song from the TV show "Friends", but that got damn annoying after a while. This one on the other hand is a real toe-tapper.

No Myth (Michael Penn): The hard strumming of the acoustic guitar bangs out this catchy tune and I can't stop listening to it but the lyrics make no sense to me:

We said goodbye before hello,
my secrets she will never know,
and if I dig a hole to China
I'll catch the first junk to Soho.
What if I were Romeo in black jeans,
What if I was Heathcliff, it's no myth.
Maybe she's just looking for,
someone to dance with.

Theme From "The Greatest American Hero" (Believe It Or Not) (Joey Scarbury): C'mon, who doesn't love this one? Who can't help but sing along? The funniest use of this song was in the TV show "Seinfeld" when George Costanza adapted it to make a message on his answering machine: "Believe it or not, George isn't at home..." I always think of that episode whenever I hear this one.

Let My Love Open The Door (Pete Townshend): I used to be a huge Who fan and I like a lot of Townshend's solo work. Then of course he got all weirded out. But this is a very upbeat, bouncy song that was also used for the closing credits of the movie "Look Who's Talking". Makes me think of that little kid, Mikey. Also, my youngest goes nuts when I play this one. Must be very appealing to the little ones. Pretty ironic when you consider what he got nailed for downloading.

Well, that's it. Now, I'm tagging:
GroovyVic
The Real Ugly American
and
The Wordsmith

They'll be hearing from me soon.

Posted by: Gary at 04:55 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Dave at third world county beat you to it by about a week Gary. I may listen to some of your picks once in a while but I wouldn't tell anyone about it =p. Wait a minute I think I just did. Damn it!

Posted by: The Ugly American at February 28, 2006 09:18 PM (l6Yll)

2 OMG, the Greatest American Hero. I loved that show! And I always liked Roxette, although I never bought any of their albums. Speaking of pop tops, I saw an episode of That '70s Show recently where Red and a friend were hanging out and drinking beer. The props, sets and costumes on that show are very good...but they just couldn't get a hold of an authentic pop top can. The characters drank beer from modern tab cans. A popular thing to do was to make necklaces out of them...

Posted by: Pam at February 28, 2006 09:35 PM (3ehRw)

3 So Gary, you have a crush on Sara Evans too? Is there anyone you don't have a crush on. You have that French floozy and your '80's throwbacks. Don't drag country girl-next-door Sara Evans down into your tart-a-week. She's too good for that. Plus, Sara's mine.

Posted by: .....Dan at March 01, 2006 05:24 AM (ZNAq7)

4 Aargh! I can't beleive you tagged me! I hate these meme things (usually), but I'll play. It may take me a moment, though. Btw, I too echo Pam's love of Greatest American Hero. And the catchy song. I think I had it on audio cassette at one time, back when.

Posted by: Wordsmith at March 03, 2006 01:51 PM (nrGCx)

5 Here's mine Mr. Blogfather!

Posted by: Wordsmith at March 03, 2006 02:42 PM (nrGCx)

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High School Senior Jason McElwain of Rochester, NY plays in the final four minutes of his team's last home game. What he does will make you cheer.

Jason has autism.

The story has special meaning for me because autism is a part of my family's life. Be sure to watch the video that goes with the story. Special thanks to BullDogPundit for linking this.

Posted by: Gary at 02:01 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Actually, happy Lincoln's birthday (late) and happy Washington's birthday (early). The whole idea of creating one municipal holiday to honor not just these two greats but all 42 men who've held the office - even the lousy ones like Carter, Buchanan and Harding - has always bugged me.

Anyway, I have today off from work (and didn't even realize it until the end of last week) but I'll be working nonetheless. I have a "honey-do" list a mile long and, believe me, I've got my work cut out for me. The rest of the crew is off on a day trip and my success or failure will be judged exclusively on how "neat, tidy and organized" the house is on a surface level only (i.e., if it looks clean, it is clean). No "deep" cleaning exercises today. It's all quantity over quality. And no questions asked.

Over the years this kind of domestic whitewash has become my specialty, going back to the days before the kids when the Mrs. had to work every third Saturday.

Today's agenda is daunting, but I'm up for it. And may even have time for the occasional post.

Posted by: Gary at 09:52 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Today I attended a funeral where a poem was read that I thought was pretty inspirational.

It's called "The Dash" by Linda Ellis and it refers to the dash between a person's birth date and death date. It was written in 1996 and, since it's copyrighted, I'll simply link to it rather than reproduce it. I'm sure I could get permission but I'm pretty tired right now and I wanted to post this ASAP.

Read "The Dash".

Linda Ellis' website is here and it features a very nice flash movie version of the poem.

Posted by: Gary at 07:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One of my wife's uncles passed away suddenly last week and the services are this morning.

So posting will be light today, to say the least.

Posted by: Gary at 06:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Why do some men feel it's necessary to walk up to a urinal and pull their pants and underwear down just to take a pee?

Dudes, pants have these things called zippers. Their purpose is allow access for ol' one-eye to the urinal. Granted it's a little easier if you wear boxers but if you can't figure out how to move aside the flaps on a pair of briefs to let your meat-puppet see the light of day maybe it's time to change your style of underwear.

There is nothing more annoying in a men's room (outside of stupid conversation) than to have some guy walk up beside you and go through the trouble of unbuckling his belt, unsnapping his snap (or unbuttoning his button), unzipping his fly, untucking his shirt and yanking the whole works down to his knees just to take a whiz! Is he afraid of actually touching it? Maybe he figures then he won't have to bother washing his hands. But that's a whole other topic.

C'mon fellas. You've had the equipment for decades now. Learn how be more efficient with it, will ya? Sheesh!

Posted by: Gary at 11:30 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 It's a good thing we live on opposite sides of the country then, and you won't ever have the honor of standing next to me at the group urinal. I don't, however, pull my pants down to my knees (maybe when I was 4). I think it's quicker to unbuckle and unsnap. Fiddling around with the flaps is more work. What I don't get is the backdoor flap. I suppose those were only put on longjohn one-piece suits, where you couldn't simply pull your pants down, since it was attached to your shirt. I wonder if that's how the front flap originated as well? By the way...I spend a good 20-30 seconds just shaking the last drip off of my hose. I don't like having stains on my undies. Even the front end. If there is toilet tissue on hand, I'll use that to dab. Just thought you'd like to have the not enough information about me, Gary.

Posted by: Wordsmith at February 13, 2006 12:50 PM (nrGCx)

2 I'll bet you don't even leave a "buffer" urinal next to the other guy, do ya? Noooo, you probably just saunter right up the very next spot. Especially if they don't have one of those divider things in between. And you probably "courtesy flush" too! Am I right? The only odd thing I ever do at the urinal is complain about the tempurature of the water. So there!

Posted by: Gary at February 13, 2006 01:55 PM (PLHs9)

3 By the way... You should have stopped there -- way more information than we needed to know.

Posted by: rightwingprof at February 13, 2006 05:43 PM (/IE5Q)

4 Pretty funny! You should check out this Flash game. I was gonna do a post on it but figured I'd just comment with a direct link. http://flasharcade.com/urinal_game.html It epitomizes guy behavior in public toilets. .....Dan

Posted by: .....Dan at February 13, 2006 11:50 PM (604CD)

5 Weeeeeel...my son still does that, but he's six, so his he okay? He's learning, though, because he has "longjohn" style pajamas, and one morning he got up and said "Mommy! I'm using the pee-pee hole!" (Since we're sharing so much, here) But he won't touch it, is this weird? We keep telling him he can, it is his, he's in the bathroom, but he won't aim that gun!

Posted by: GroovyVic at February 14, 2006 06:10 AM (MHfik)

6 Wow. Such a stimulating conversation you've created here, Gary. When my brother was five-years old, he spontaneously decided that he needed a bandaid for the hole. I've kept that shelved away for two decades now, just waiting for my drunken toast at his wedding.

Posted by: Sadie at February 14, 2006 08:01 AM (cP0Aq)

7 I agree, I hate that. And BTW, I've always thought those flaps in briefs were useless. I wear boxers now, but back when I wore briefs it was always less trouble just to pull the whole elastic band down enough to whiz than to try to separate those ridiculous flaps in the front.

Posted by: Cynical Nation at February 14, 2006 12:26 PM (vC1jc)

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Well, here's a look at how badly we got blasted:

This is my garbage can to give you an idea of accumulation. I reckon that's at least 18 inches on top, probably a little more.

Here's a view of our street.

Went out to shovel a little (the stuff that the plow guy doesn't get) and although it's very fluffy, I dealt with a LOT of it. I just thank God we didn't lose power. As soon as my legs thaw out I'm considering getting a fire going in the fireplace. Then again, I might just fall asleep right here. I can smell sausage and peppers cooking. Mmmmmm.

Posted by: Gary at 05:31 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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You see this:

If you look closely, in the middle there's this little blue strip just a big darker than the surrounding blue - right through Connecticut. Well, apparently I'm located in the worst part of that little blue band. And the "heavy" stuff isn't even supposed to come until after noontime.

Reports of power outages in the area have me concerned. I've got three kids ages nine, five and two. If I lose TV, I'm screwed. I better charge up that portable DVD player!

Posted by: Gary at 11:47 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 According to the NOAA website, we also have the possibility of thunder. THUNDER!!! In a snow storm!!!

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at February 12, 2006 12:00 PM (DdRjH)

2 The weather guy on CNN (sorry) said that "thundersnow" occurs in less than 1% of snow storms and can cause up to 4 inches of snow per hour. Wow! That's nothing compared to the cute little dots of flurries we woke up to this AM in Hotlanta! How novel for us!

Posted by: Georgia Girl at February 12, 2006 08:46 PM (EvFfn)

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