Book Of The Moment

This is the next book on my reading list; She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb. I don't usually read Oprah's recommendations, but I've heard good things about this one, so I'm going to give it a go.

I've made it a point to read something more thought provoking and then a fluff novel. I think it's to rest my mind, just in case the thought provoking book was too thought provoking.

The last two books I've read were real duds, so I hope this one is better, because when I read something awful, it puts me off reading, and I have a zillion books I'd like to get through this year.

I generally like stuff that's light and funny and yes, I admit, I'm a sucker for a good totally unrealistic romance novel. If it's a good fluff novel I can tear through it in about a day. If a book requires thought, well, I can never guess how long it will take to read it. This one looks amusing so I might get through it quickly.

Susan Aglukark

I discovered the song Never Be The Same this weekend. So yes, there's another disc to add to my growing list of CDs that I have to buy.

This song definitely falls under that ethereal/chill out category, which I've been more than a little bit in the mood for.

I have a growing list of female vocalists that I like these days, a far cry from where it was last year. I have noticed one thing about the woman that I listen to, they all have strong voices and none of them go for that "little girl" type image.

I can do without the Lisa Loeb's of the world, though I do enjoy a few of her songs. But it's that general sound that puts me off most female singers.

Susan's voice isn't like that. It's light at least in this song and it's the kind that can lull you into a deep sleep. Never Be The Same is a song like Count Your Blessings Instead Of Sheep, a song that I can listen to again and again and still feel some strange emotion. I'm not sure what the emotion is, but these to songs move me.

I definitely plan on checking out more of Susan's stuff in the very near future.

Sunny Sunday

This is two Sundays in a row when the sky was actually blue. The plus today was that it was actually above freezing!

Holy Heck!

It's a miracle.

Aside from the appearance of the sun and the ubiquitous Mr. Blue Sky, it's been a very boring day. The highlight being going to Ponderosa for the Steak and Shrimp combo that they seem to advertize late at night when you can't satisfy the craving that it creates.

I'm looking forward to having another weekend to do some more interesting things soon.

All I can say is this: "When will spring get here!!!"

Feeling Grumpy

It's been one long weekend. I went to the mall yesterday armed with coupons for Dots and Kohl's with hopes of finding something exciting.

Kohl's was a zoo, as it was the Grand Opening of the location we went to. The store was packed and beautiful, but all the merchandise was summerlike. I don't want to buy shorts when it's 30 degrees out. So to use the 10 dollar gift card that I had, I had to hunt down a purse. I found a great little black bag on sale for 12.50, so all in all, I paid 2.65 for a new purse. Yay!

We had waffles at the Waffle House after that, which was the highlight of the evening. I the Waffle House.

After consuming a waffle topped with strawberries and some hash browns we took off for the mall. Sadly there was nothing in Dots that caught my eye. I wonder if they ever made shirts with sleeves in the past year. At Christmas everything was sleeveless. WTF! The last time I checked Christmas was in the winter in this hemisphere!

So needless to say, I didn't buy anything there. There was a Corpse Bride shirt at Hot Topic, but I talked myself out of it. It wasn't necessary. I went down to FYE to check out the CDs. Nothing! Or at least nothing I wanted to blow 21 dollars on. FYE is the most expensive music chain around. (And there selection stinks)

I hate when I go to the mall and come up empty, it makes me cranky.

Top 5 On Friday

From the ladies @ Music Memoirs

Top 5 songs about death

George Harrison - The Art of Dying

Art Garfunkel - Bright Eyes

Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party

Paul McCartney - Don't Be Careless Love

Keri Noble - A Dream About You

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I enjoy doing

1. Making mix cds and playlists. Music is everything to this girl.

2. Photography.

3. Exercise (I like it more when the weather is better, right now just about everything is a trial)

4. Gambling (I'm not a big gambler, but I do enjoy the slots)

5. Road trips! I don't get to go on many, but I like to discover new places and things.

6. Singing (Loudly and off key...which is the only way I sing)

7. Shopping (especially for music and clothes)

8. Driving (nothing is more relaxing...unless it's through Philly)

9. Memes! (This is one of my favorite blogging activities)

10. Reading (I love my smut novels)

11. Writing (I rather enjoy writing smut too)

12. Eating out. (20 some lbs down but I still love food, especially if the restaurant is good)

13. Talking on the phone (I don't do it as often as I used to, but I still like a nice long chat down the wire)

Hunk Day!

Today is the first day of Lent. Some people give up things for lent. I've never been good at that at all.

I can tell you a few things I'm not giving up, however.

I'm definitely not giving up these guys.



And I couldn't give up Elvis Costello either, even when he's wearing really weird suits.

If It Isn't One Thing It's Another

Every week I seem to have one kind of doctor or another I have to visit. It's either the dentist for me, or the vet for the kitten. Not to worry, the kitten is ok, we're just getting Oogie his shots and the "snip snip" operation.

Tonight is take the kitty to the vet night. Fun, with a capital "F." Thankfully the kitten stays in his carrier at night, so getting him there isn't going to be a problem.

The little guy is so like a typical kitten, full of energy. I hope the vet can keep him down. In the morning when I bring him out until I go to work, he's like hell on wheels, playing with everything and running back and forth across the room. If you're downstairs, it sounds like a train is coming through above your head.

He plays with anything and everything that isn't tied down.

Tonight's going to be fun.

Next week, I'm going to try to fit in an appointment with the eye doctor. I haven't been there in 5 years, which is way too long, but I never had the money. (Not that I do now) The following week is back to the dentist to see what the verdict is on my gums.

I think by April I'll be sick of all doctor's, regardless of who or what they treat.

The Game Show Mix

I found this at CD Of The Week community over at Live Journal. I posted it on Music Memoirs too, to see if anyone was creative. So far, no one is creative. So I'm going to have a go at it.

01. The Show's Title Elvis Costello - Fill In The Blanks
02. The Host's Name Olivia Newton-John - Sam
03. Contestant #1 The Monkees - Mr. Webster
04. Contestant #2 Nick Lowe - Switchboard Susan
05. Contestant #3 The Beatles - Lovely Rita
06. 1st Round Game Arcadia - Say The Word
07. Loser #1's Theme (Consolation Prize) Suzanne Vega - Book Of Dreams
08. Commercial Break Jimmy Buffett - Cheeseburger In Paradise
09. 2nd Round Game Squeeze - The Waiting Game
10. Loser #2's Theme (Consolation Prize) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Even The Losers
11. Commercial Break #2 Semisonic - Sunshine and Chocolate
12. The Final Challenge The Hollies - Look Through Any Window
13. Grand Prize Winner's Theme/Big Loser's Theme Erasure - Yahoo
14. Grand Prize/Consolation Prize Traveling Wilbury's - End Of The Line
15. End Theme David Bowie - Survive

The Outside World Is A Cold Place To Be

I finally got to go somewhere this weekend. As luck would have it, the weather was artic, but I didn't care. I haven't been out and about to anyplace other than the mall since before Christmas.

My friend Mary, was home to visit her mum, this weekend, so we went to Wheeling Island, mostly to eat but also to gamble just a bit. After all, how can you resist the whirring of the slot machines? I tell you it's impossible, especially if you haven't had the opportunity to feed one of those beasts in months.

After we gorged ourselves on the Island Buffet, which was yummy, as usual. We took a walk around Wheeling. I don't feel right being in Wheeling without walking over to the Suspension Bridge that I love so much. Plus this gave me the opportunity to pull the camera out for the first time in ages.

I also found the dog track. Funny how I've been going to Wheeling now for a year, and I've finally found where the dogs run. I got to see a few of the doggies too. Totally beautiful animals, I wanted to liberate a few of them and bring them home with me!

On the way home we stopped a few places to take pictures of the covered bridges. (And a few farm animals). Getting a picture of the one bridge required a nice long walk over a small hill, because the road that the bridge is on is closed, because another bridge down the road was ripped out. But hey, anything for a nice picture, right?

I think it took me at least an hour or more to thaw out from the cold once I got home, but it was worth it. The day was fun. Probably the most fun I've had in months. YAY!

Random 10 - I Finally Left The House Edition

I actually got out of the house this weekend. It was so damn cold, but the sky was blue and the food at the Island Buffet was really yummy!

Feargal Sharkey - A Good Heart
Arcadia - Election Day
Ultravox - Vienna

These were a few of the songs on the New Wave DVD I watched.

Glass Tiger - Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone
The Moody Blues - Tuesday Afternoon
The Moody Blues - Words You Say

The Moody songs were from the Hall of Fame CD, which I listened to while making the trip to Wheeling. The Glass Tiger was played on the way home from Wheeling.

Terami Hirsch - Little Light
Bernie Barlow - My Man
Justin Hayward - It's Not Too Late
Elvis Costello - Egypt

These were on my winamp playlist this weekend.

I have all of these songs, so if there's anything you'd like, give a shout and I'll upload it for you.

My photo?

New Wave = Love

My lovely friend Jennifer (who really needs to call me soon) sent me some DVDs a year ago and erm....well, I finally got around to watching some of them yesterday.

That alone is proof positive of how little I watch my telly or use my DVD player. But anyway, there were two New Wave DVDs full of all kinds of Video goodness.

It was fantastic to see some of the videos and in other cases it was scary. The 80's were an odd time for fashion, but then again so were the 70's. The 60's however had the best fashion, but that's beside the point.

This brought back so many memories since one of the first videos I watched was for Feargal Sharkey's A Good Heart. Lordy, but I used to love that song. All the music is cheesy, but it's fun and the videos for most of the songs were so cheaply made.

It's a shame everything now is so overproduced and so like mini-movies. There's nothing fun about watching a video, if you can even find a station that plays them anymore.

Heck, even the early Duran Duran videos look cheap compared to more recent offerings.

But you know what? I don't care. I like the cheesy stuff. What's even better is the expensively made cheesy stuff. I never realized until yesterday that the video for Arcadia's Election Day was so bad. (But so good) Back in the day, I thought it was gothic and cutting edge. I guess it was in the mid-80's. Oye! I feel so old now, but I'm very amused.

Raging Mulch Fires and Other Random Things

~ Coming home from the trip to WalMart my nephew and I noticed some smoke. OK, a lot of smoke. Seriously I thought a house went up in Belle Vernon near my aunts, but when we got closer, we saw that the fire was further down, much further down. At the bottom of the hill the smoke was so thick it was almost like a fog. Cars were pulled off the road and cars were coming off the Interstate, because of the smoke. We drove on to find that this huge pile of mulch was burning. (I thought it was a coal pile) Anyway...it burned for hours. When I got home I quickly grabbed my camera and ran a block up the hill so I could get some pictures from our vantage point.

~ Cleaning stuff off the hard drive is not a fun task. I got rid of 2 GBs and I've still used 39.5 GB out of 80. I'd like to get rid of another 10 GB but I can't imagine getting rid of any more music from my computer right now. I was actually going to rip a few of the new discs I just got, but I'm not sure right now. I'm down to 4636 songs on this computer!

~ I never realized that Colin Moulding sang Making Plans For Nigel until I saw the XTC video today.

~ Making mix CDs is no longer fun for me. Especially now that I'm cleaning the hard drive. It's funny, doing this used to be one of the joys of my life a year or so ago. Now it's giving me a headache.

~ 80's videos are cheesy and fun. Why don't they make things that are cheesy and fun anymore?

~ I went to GNC to buy some vitamin C today. I think the guy working at the counter was flirting with me. That's funny, the last person to flirt with me was...oh never mind I don't want to talk about that, it was too weird a situation.

Must Get Things Done

Today is a "To Do" list day. Tomorrow come hell or high water (don't you love those old sayings) I'm getting out of this house and enjoying myself. I don't care!

But before I get around to the fun, I have to get some stuff done around home. It's stuff that I don't really want to do too.

1. Finish my local taxes, so I don't have to look at them anymore.

2. Clean out the closets.

3. Finish cleaning the hard drive. I'm doing a fairly large purge, moving stuff to CDRs and deleting what I don't need, it's been a long hard process.

4. Make 5 Mix CDs for MoodyMistress. I have the track list for one of the five almost done. Making mixes was never so hard.

5. Go to Walmart for necessities. (I hate doing that)

6. Laundry

It's a very short list I know, but all the tasks are a pain in the butt and things I don't like doing very much. I wonder if I'll even get half of them done.

Top 5 On Friday

From the ladies @ Music Memoirs

Top 5 "British" bands and a song by each

The Moody Blues! (Yeah, like you didn't think they'd make the list!)



The Land Of Make-Believe from the album Seventh Sojourn.

The Beatles (Another band that had to make the list)



And Your Bird Can Sing - from the album Revolver

Duran Duran (One of the 80's best and prettiest offerings from the UK in my book)



Salt In The Rainbow a demo from the Astronaut CD, that really should have made the album.

Erasure (Techno pop is good!)



Drama! from the album Wild

Elvis Costello and the Attractions



Beyond Belief from the album Imperial Bedroom (one of the best with the Attractions in my book)

Sometimes An Icon Says It All

In this case I have to say make it 10 minutes! Hell, make it a half hour.



Everyone needs love!

And again, these little icons I found are proof positive that I'm very easily amused.

Thursday Thirteen

1. My friend Mary is coming home this weekend, which means that I will finally get the hell out of this house this weekend. Allow me to dance for joy! The only problem is neither of us really knows where we want to go, we just know that we want to go somewhere.

2. I'm going back to the dentist for my followup appointment tonight. Basically I'm just getting my teeth cleaned. I'm actually looking forward to this, because I want to know how that horrible rinse is working and how much longer I'm going to have to use it.

3. I've been unbelievably tired this week. I've gone to sleep early in hopes of feeling better to no avail. I just want to curl up somewhere for several long hours and sleep and sleep and sleep.

4. My CDs from CDBaby came yesterday! Now I have to get them on my hard drive. If I weren't so sleepy, maybe I'd get something done.

5. I think I'm coming down with a cold, to make matters worse. Seriously this is not a good time to be sick. I want to leave the house. I don't want to be sick!

6. I've been reading Duran Duran message boards lately, which is a double edged sword. I discovered some demos that I hadn't heard. But lordy, more wackadoodles! Another good thing is that I find more lovely things there. Like this



7. I've heard conflicting things about the Moodies tour schedule this summer. Are they touring...aren't they. I want to know soon, because I want to try to figure out what my summer is going to be like. Honestly, as much as I love the band, I think I could live without a concert this year, if I could get enjoy Atlantic City without any worries, or if I could get to a few more places on my list of places to go list.

8. I've decided I'm going to buy a membership at Phipps Conservatory this year. I usually just use my sister's family membership, but I may actually have some extra cash so I'll be able to give them a donation.

9. Why is it that paying local taxes is so damn hard. Our local tax authority went to a privatized company to collect the local taxes and it's been a headache. I've got my state and federal taxes filed..I even have my return back from the federal gov't, but I just keep putting off the local.

10. I'm in a mix CD making kind of mood. I begged Moody Mistress for a few Elvis Costello bootlegs that I didn't have and in return I'm sending her some mixes. I haven't made a real mix cd since Christmas.

11. I just realized that the only photos I've taken recently were of a fish tank at my hair salon. My cameras are ready to run away from home if they don't get some use soon.

12. Elvis Costello's live CD is out next Tuesday (I think) I wonder if I'll be able to find it anywhere around my home or if I'll have to wait til I go to a mall.

13. My kitty is going for his first shots next Tuesday. After that I have to make an appointment to get him neutered. The thought of having a day without my Oogie leaves me filled with dread. I love my kitten.

Other Thursday Thirteeners!
Emily
Karen

A Little Bit Of Squee!

I've been trying to get this CD for ages, Keri Noble's Lullaby. A few week's ago it was listed as out of stock at her website, and I pretty much gave up hope of ever having a copy of it.

Today when I checked Keri's site, I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Lullaby is back in stock. (I quickly ordered a copy) The bad news is that she's signed with new management and will be working to get her new CD released, thus the spring tour, that I was anxiously waiting for, is cancelled.

I have a feeling that this is not going to be a good year for concerts for me. At least I'm getting the CD, as Keri is one of my favorite "new" artists. And the other plus is that I'm only paying $34 for the disc, which is better than $54, which is what I've seen it going for at Amazon Marketplace.

I guess that will have to tide me over until she finally does tour.

It's Hunk Day!

Erm, I mean Hump Day! And now it's time for the hotties to come out and play.



Ah, gotta love Simon, he's got a book in his pocket in case he gets bored while performing. Or maybe he's going to quote something profound. Nah! I think he's just going to look all scruffy and cute.



Nick Rhodes makes up for Simon's scruffy self even if he is pouting.




Hump Day wouldn't be the same without Justin Hayward and John Lodge. Both guys always manage to help me over the hump.

Life can go on as ususal now, the hunks are out!

Get Me Outta Here

Yesterday the weather was frigid but the sky was blue and the sun was shining. There's something totally wrong with that, but it put me in the frame of mind to start thinking of the road trips that I hope will come in a few short months.

My mind was focused on one place yesterday, Longwood Gardens.





These are just a few of the reasons why I love the place. Plus the east conservatory is finally open, which it hasn't been in years and years. All the renovations on it are done. I can't wait to see it.

So since money is always an issue with me I checked around to see if there was still a good package deal at one of the neighboring hotels.

Woot!

The Hilton Garden has a weekend package for $177. Initially that looks like a lot, but it includes 2 tickets to Longwood which run about $12 and it includes two full breakfasts.

Mmm, I'm getting hungry just thinking of it. So $177 plus whatever it would cost to rent a car and meals and turnpike fare. Not bad, especially since I'd likely be splitting the costs with the lucky person that would be going with me.

Now all I have to do is wait for spring, and it can't get here fast enough.