Music of the Week 2

Time goes fast people! I'm ashamed to say that I didn't prepare my weekly song winners yet, but I have a couple of entries to share and then I'll have to write mine for Monday. Jessica and I are off to her grandparent's cabin this weekend!

My brother, Matt, was able to finish all of his songs! He's been working on it for a little while and now the task is done! He writes...

Delightful Surprise: Most of the tracks from PFR. Those albums were old and dusty, and it was nice to hear them again. It's still crazy 80's music, but it hit the spot this week.

Utter Disappointment: Ella Fitsgerald's *bad* attempts at singing in German instead of English on (You'll Have To Swing It) Mr. Paganini. Don't get me wrong, I love Ella; but I can tell a faked German accent when I hear one. Yikes.

Boo-Yea: Finishing the two month task of listening to all of my songs in alphabetical order by song title. Also, the song Words Are Like by TMBG. I like that song.

Steve has joined us for the ride as well. He has a couple of new categories, which are awesome.....

Song so good that I had to listen again - Atlantic by Keane

What was I thinking song? - Beautiful People by I don't even want to dignify the artist

Pleasant Surprise - Bette Midler song (After all, it's my wife's iPod too)

Until Monday. Keep on keeping on. Slap those iPods into shape and enjoy the sweet sweet songs.

random fact # 8

Public toilets freak me out. When I use a public toilet (even at work) I have to line the seat with toilet paper. For a time, I tried the "squatting" thing, but I decided that just added stress to my life.
In this eco-conscience world, some may consider my extra toilet paper usage to be wasteful. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about being mindful of the environment and the carbon footprint we are leaving, but when it comes right down to it...the 4 extra squares of paper I'm using, allowing me to have peace of mind in that one area of my life is well worth it. I'm just saying.

My One and Only.

Today is my beautiful wife's birthday.

It is a complete joy to have her in my life, and to be married to her. I may be a little biased when I say this, but I don't care....BEST.WIFE.EVER.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

XxOoX
(Big kiss, little kiss, big hug, little hug, big kiss)

The Robed and the Bearded

Wouldn't that be a great name for a soap opera? I thought so.

Alternately titled: HP rocks the party!


Over the weekend we attended and incredibly elaborate Harry Potter party hosted by my very talented sister. She transformed her apartment to look like the inside of a Hogwarts classroom. We had a fabulous time. Here are the host of characters that showed up to join in the fun!

Harry and Ginny

Fred and George Weasley

Professor Trelawney

Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall

And even Moaning Myrtle made a bathroom appearance

We played HP trivia while sipping Pumpkin juice and butter beer and nibbled treacle tarts and mini pumpkin pies. It truly was a magical night!

Luna, Tonks and Trelawney

Fred and Dumbledore did a little hair/beard switcher-oo!

The whole gang

Music of the Week

So here's the first results of people that are on the journey of listening to all of their songs from A to Z (and some just what they have listened to.) Not a HUGE response this week, but some good ones that's for sure.

Margaret writes...

Surprise: Godspeed (Sweet dreams) Dixie Chicks I haven't listened to this album in a super long time and I forgot how much I love this song - its beautiful.

Utter Disappointment: I don't really have one that I was totally disappointed with from this album. It is pretty good all around and didn't feel like was being tortured by having to listen to all of them, all the way though. Sorry. - maybe next week.

Boo Yea: Truth No. 2 Dixie Chicks - I was driving in the car and when this song came on was like "oh, yeah" and started to do my driving dance.

Becky writes....

I love this idea! it's so fun! So I started with song #1 yesterday, and I think I got to about number 65. And my favorite Pleasantly Surprising and Boo Yea at the same time, was "All the Way Up to Heaven" by Guster. I haven't listened to them in forever, and it just made the happiest girl in the world when I heard it. So yep - that's what I've got to say about that!

Matt writes...

I’m finishing up ‘S’ today and moving into ‘T’. It’s all downhill from here!

I will say that the “Utter Disappointment” for the entire month has been Peter, Paul, and Mary. They are making a solid effort to supplant Paul Simon from his esteemed place of “worst artist in my library”.If you’re up for some weeping and gnashing of teeth today, check out the song “River of Jordan”. Wow. That is a _bad_ tune. If not, avoid PPM for the rest of your life.

I write...

Delightful Surprise: My surprise would actually be hearing songs in groups of threes. One day in a row I listened to Alice Childress by Ben Folds, All along the watchtower by Bob Dylan and then a cover by Dave Matthews and also All Creatures of our God and King by David Crowder. Honestly I thought I was going to dread all of that, but it turned out pretty nice.

Utter Disappointment: All fall down by Kayne West. I thought I removed Kayne off my iPod months ago. I guess not. He will be removed...

Boo Yea: The boo yea song was in fact. All aboard the Soul Funky Train by The J.B.s( The James Brown's). Just what I needed some shouting and then straight into a good old fashioned funk song.

Well thanks to everyone who participated. Again, if you want to join us next week, just e-mail me at hildotunes@gmail.com. Groove on.

Random Fact # 7

Admit it. Random facts are fun. I realized this when I had to come up with some for this post. They are so fun that I decided to periodically post other random facts about myself. So without further ado...random fact # 7:

It is rare that I can make it through the entire day with my hair down. It's a shame really, because I generally like the way my hair looks when it's down, but around mid day I'm driven to near insanity and I have to tame the mane into a pony tail. It just feels so refreshing to have it up out of my face. Through the years I have threatened many times to shave it all off. I may just have to follow through with that one of these days...

Wordless Wednesday

Blogger Unite....with music!

Hello Blogland,

Alright, due to a few questions/pure excitement for the idea, stolen from my brother, of listening to my iPod music in alphabetical order (check it here), I thought I might try and unite the blogger world, by having other people do the same type of winners list for the week. I thought people could e-mail me, and then on Fridays I could post everyone's winners of that week.

Here are some guidelines

you can send me an e-mail at hildotunes@gmail.com, by Thursday afternoon/evening and then I will post everyone's responses on Friday.

the e-mail could have your winners for the categories Delightful Surprise, Utter Disappointment, and your Boo yea song.

they could have a description of why you choose that particular song, and possibly a couple of runner ups or something.

It also wouldn't have to be your songs in alphabetical order because I know not everyone has an iPod nor do they feel the need to listen to all the songs in alphabetical order, so you could just make some winners up of the songs that you listened to that week.

I thought it would be fun to unite everybody and compile a list of songs, that we all enjoy/hate and it would open our eyes to some new music and what not. If you don't want to send me your winners or you just want to participate in your own way,no big deal, I'm still going to do my winners on here.

Let the music groove you.

Love these pictures!

Alright, here are just a bunch of randoms pictures that I took with my phone, and I've been planning on taking them off my phone for a while now. There are a couple more of manhole pictures, and just some other random stuff.
Here. We. Go. (that's for Justin)

Proof that Jessica likes cats...



We came across this "science lab" one night when we were eating out in downtown Minneapolis. Who knows what they had bubbling away on those burners...



This is a picture of the fridge at work. Check out the bottom right hand corner. That is definitely yogurt...



Random Cabin Photo...



Personholes...







From Tom and Lisa's wedding at Minnehaha Falls...



I don't think we'll be buying any "Fraboni" any time soon...

Penguin Man and more cabin pics

You know those guys (or gals) who stand on street corners holding signs advertising "close out sale!" or "get your taxes done (here)" or something equally lame? They are always standing there looking like they would rather have their toe nails pulled out one by one than stand on that street corner and advertise with a giant sign. This was not the case yesterday. There was a man dressed like a penguin standing on a street corner advertising a Halloween shop and he was actually waddling back and forth and looked like he was having the time of his life. That's great! If you have a crappy job, at least make the most of it, right? I wish I could have taken a video, it was pretty funny, but I happened to snap this picture before the light turned green and we had to drive away:



Here are a few more random pictures from last weekend:








Isn't this a rad bridge? So rustic and woodsy.


And this picture that Dave took of my parents is so totally rad. I'm going to use that word for everything today. Rad rad rad. I love that word.





Have a good weekend friends. We are headed out for another wonderful weekend at the cabin. Now THAT is rad!

#36 Adventureland - Steel Drums

WOW. Not only did I claim that I was going to post 3 times yesterday, I failed to even post twice! Wow.

Well I'll TRY and write the last post tonight sometime. We'll see if it happens.

Anyway....Thanks to my brother, I have decided to start listening to all of the songs on my iPod in alphabetical order.* Yesterday as I was going to post I was on #36 which was a song clip from Adventure Land in Disneyland - specifically the steel drum sounds.(thanks Justin!) It was awesome. Today I'm already up to #63 Airline to Heaven by Wilco.
During the course of this adventure I'm going to try and post one weekly update. In the weekly update I will have three different categories with one winner for each category, possibly a few runners up as well. The categories are....

Delightful Surprise - this could be a song that caught me off guard, and pure enjoyment followed.
Utter Disappointment - this may mean two things. 1. I hate the song or 2. The iPod played the song at exactly the wrong moment and I didn't want to listen to it.
Boo Yea! - The boo yea song will be something that when it comes on I immediately think "Boo yea! That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

So here we go!

Delightful Surprise - Absolute Beginners by David Bowie. It had a really good flow to it. Nice work Bowie.

Utter Disappointment - Absence of Fear by Jewel. Wow, in a matter of one day, only in the beginning of the alphabet I had two, count them two, over 6 minute long Jewel songs. Jewel is usually pretty relaxing, that's just fine with me, BUT I don't need Jewel putting me to sleep on my way into to work. How can I look manly, if someone sees me singing along to Jewel on the bus....wait a minute I don't sing along to Jewel.....AAAAAAAAAHHHHH. NEXT SONG!

Boo Yea! - Africa by Toto. Everyone should listen to this song today.

Until next week!

*I'll probably skip any sermons that come up in my play list or any segments from audio books. Sermons are great but in their due time. Audio books are sweet too, but I will definitely have the possibility of random chapters coming up, I can't do that.

Goals for a Wednesday.

Alright I decided that I'm going to try and blog 3 times today. One right now, hopefully one in couple of hours, and one a little later tonight. I have lots to talk about, actually I have lots of nothing to share and this is the place to do it.

First things first.

check out my buddy Jason's blog. I think it's a great idea. He's going to put stuff on craigslist and see what trades are offered to him for them, and then he's going to post polls on his blog to see which trade he should take. NO MATTER WHAT, he's going to take the trade the polls suggest. So it's up to us. I know people hate talking politics these days, but really get out there and vote. (On Jason's website......AND....go Nader.)

Stephanie M Photography

Our friend Steph is a very talented photographer. She just started her own business so I wanted to invite you to visit her photography blog and take a look and perhaps keep her in mind for your engagement/wedding/pregnancy/children/family/retirement pictures, or anything else you want captured on film.

Isn't she good?

Lions and Tiger and Bears Oh My!

Alternately titled: A Really Long Post

Twice a year the entire family gathers at the cabin for what we call "work weekend." The guys take the boat and dock out of the water, chop down trees and do other manly things while the girls dust and vacuum and dust some more. The cabin is stuck in a time warp somewhere in the 1950's. Get over it. As I was saying...there is some work involved, but then we get time to play and relax and go on hikes in the woods where we get lost and get scared by wild animals. That story will come later. Be patient. Here are a few shots of the guys doing their manly work.





I didn't get a picture of the girls working, but rest assured we were all outfitted in June Cleaver approved dresses, aprons and high heels. Yes we were. Ok, so this is what I was really doing while the guys were working:







The sun absolutely refused to come out for most of the weekend. I was hoping to get a few vibrant color shots against a clear blue sky, but alas...there was no cooperation from the weather. None.
On Saturday afternoon Za (my grandmother) took us to a real old fashioned tea house. It was so lovely and whimsical to sit sipping exotic flavored teas, munch on fancy desserts and listen to the soothing sounds of Frank wafting through the air.





On Sunday before we left, we decided to take a walk/hike through the woods on some old cross country ski trails.



To this hidden lake:



And in case you were wondering who the "we" is I was referring to, here's the crew (minus my grandparents and my little cousin Jacob)



On the way back to the cabin, my dad being the adventurous type, suggested we take a different trail. This was all well and good until my mom requested that I get a picture of these mushrooms:



It took me a few minutes to get a shot I was satisfied with and by the time Dave and I started walking again, everyone else was nowhere in sight. "No problem" I thought. "I know the general direction of the cabin. We will be just fine." Well, we were lost in no time and decided to leave the trail and go straight through the woods in the cabin's direction instead of following the winding trails. As soon as we climbed the first hill, we heard a deep chesty, throaty growl that could only have come from a large "I'm upset because you woke me up" kind of animal. We looked at each other with terrified expressions, I whispered, "what was that?" and we took off running down the hill, praying that whatever we had disturbed was not high tailing it after us. Thankfully the bear or wolf (we didn't stick around to find out what it was) decided that his nap was more important than eating our flesh and we found the much sought after road a few minutes later. Whew. After returning safely to the cabin we could finally smile like this:



If you stuck around to read this entire post, you deserve something really great. Treat yourself to a cookie. Treat me to a cookie too. Thanks.
I have some more fun pictures from the weekend that I might post later. I can't right now. I'm tired of typing and reliving that scary story wore me out. Come back later.

Enchanted

What is it about listening to Louie Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald that makes me want to drop everything and dance with my honey?

I've been listening to them at my desk today and it's leaving me completely....enchanted.

"The way your smile just beams, the way you sing off key, the way you haunt my dreams...no, no they cant take that away from me..."

"The evening breeze caress the trees tenderly. The trembling trees embrace the breeze tenderly. Then you and I came wandering by and lost in a sigh were we..."

Isn't that magic?

a very special wedding

First of all, thanks to those of you who participated in my little guessing game. Yes, "getting to know you.." is a song from the King And I. It's one of my very favorite Rogers and Hammerstein classics, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers being right up there with it. So, Nancy, Jamaal, and even Margaret who thought the right answer, but didn't comment, get a big dose of cool points. Nice work!

This weekend Dave and I attended a very special wedding. For about four years, I've been taking care of a little girl named Lark. Lark's mom passed away when Lark was one years old, so starting when Lark was about three, I helped out her dad by taking care of her once a week. Lark is very near and dear to my heart and I hoped and prayed that God would bring her a mommy (and Tom a wife of course) and I'm so very thankful that my prayers were answered. This weekend Larks dad Tom married Lisa; a very sweet, spunky, wonderful woman who Lark happens to completely adore and we couldn't be happier for them. They had a beautiful out door ceremony at Minnehaha Falls and their reception was at the Sea Salt where I had the best crab cakes and scallops I've ever had. Ever. They were exceptional. Yum. Here are a few pics from the night.



Why do all of our pictures together look like this? Oh yeah, it's because my camera has a flip out screen and I'm addicted to taking self pictures, or however you would phrase that.






Here's the happy little family. Lisa looked stunning in a "golden age" of Hollywood type ensemble. If you look closely, you can see that even Barack made an appearance. These people have connections!
But in all seriousness, Tom and Lark (and now Lisa) are very special to me and to know that they have found love and happiness brings me so much joy. We simply couldn't be happier.

Blog Games? Really??

Okay, Okay, I never knew there was any such thing as blog games, but I can't just sit on the sidelines and watch all of this happen around me. Janet tagged me....so I have to post 6 random things about myself. I decided to get quite specific and I'm going to post 6 random things about me sleeping....

1. When I start to get a cold, I think that it will go away faster if I sleep with a stocking cap on. I usually lose it somewhere during the night.

2. I have crazy, crazy dreams. Two nights ago I had an entire crime/thriller/mystery play out. It took place in New York City, it involved beanie babies, and it ended with a Merchant of Venice like twist.

3. One time I was sleeping on my arm wrong and I awoke with it completely numb from the shoulder down. In my half-awake stupor I thought it would be smart to take my left hand (that still had feeling) and hold my right arm in the air to get the blood moving. I then proceeded to let go of my right arm only for it to fall down and hit me in the face. (since it had no feeling I couldn't hold it up.)

4. I like to have the room as cold as possible when I sleep. It makes the warm blankets feel all the more warm.

5. I can't sleep on couches, I just don't fit. I'll either move the couch cushions to the floor or hope that the carpet is cushy.

6. I am unable to nap. In college I took one "nap". Which I don't even really count as a nap. I woke up early to take a test, crawled out of bed, took the test, and went back to sleep (in my bed, not the classroom).

So that's that. I would have tagged more people, but I think most of them have been tagged already....maybe Jason and Julie (Julie you could feel free to post on either blog)

The Hulk Cakes

Here is a picture of our "hulk cakes" and yes that is a box of Franken Berry underneath them...and yes that is a box of Boo Berry underneath that.

Note from Jessica: The sugary cereal was all Dave. I don't eat that stuff. Yuck. However, I must confess that the Hulk Cakes were actually my doing. I just needed them ok? Sometimes, you just need a Hulk Cake. 

"Getting to know you...

Getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me..."

Name that tune! Cool points will be awarded. Lots of them.

UPDATE:Nobody even has a guess as to what that song is from?? Are there ANY Rogers and Hammerstein fans out there? Anyone?

Here's an opportunity to get to know me a little better. I was "tagged" in one of those bloggy "games" as Dave affectionately calls them, so here's the haps:

1)Post the rules on your blog.
2)Write 6 random things about yourself
3)"tag" 6 people you think should also look deep into their soul to share 6 random things
4)And if you're "tagged" just do it. Come on...it's gonna be fun.

Let the randomness begin!

1) 78.9% of the time I listen to classical music in my car, mostly because traffic, and other drivers in general make me crazy and the soothing sounds of Handel and Debussy make me....well, less crazy.

2) I ALWAYS chew only half a piece of gum. Always.

3) We have a stand up fan in our bedroom that we have on every night and I HATE walking in front of it. Why is that? So strange...

4) I could watch the Food Network all day long. But I cant. Because we don't have cable. "we HAVE cable," Dave would say, but I say, "if we don't have the Food Network, we DONT have cable."

5) I have a tattoo. I'm pretty sure everybody knew that though. Does that count as something random?

6) Last night Dave and I were at Target picking up a few essentials, and we made the most random purchase I think we have ever made: Hulk cakes. Yep, Hulk themed Hostess Cup Cakes. What??

Now for the tagging.....drum roll please....
Becky, Lauren, Autumn, Kendra, Margaret...and I'm only tagging 5 since those are all the friends I have left that have blogs and haven't already been tagged by Janet or Shelly. So, feel free to bend the rules a bit when you play along!