Month: September 2015

My New Obsession: Regina Spektor

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I was vaguely aware of Regina Spektor. I enjoyed her song Fidelity (If you’ve ever heard a Regina Spektor song, you’ve probably heard Fidelity), but I was mostly familiar with the song she did with Ben Folds, You Don’t Know Me. So I would say that I had vaguely positive feelings towards Regina Spektor.

My obsession began with You’ve Got Time, the theme song to the wildly popular show Orange is the New Black. I never even watched the show, but Sara did, and I *could not* get that song out of my head. Love it. I listened to it over and over again (ask either of the kids and they’ll sing it to you; they learned all the words via osmosis). I listened to it on repeat, hummed it in the shower, learned to play it on guitar.

Fidelity is a really good song that I like a lot, and You’ve Got Time, natch, but there are even better ones out there.

My current favorite is “Samson”, a beautiful love song referencing, of all things, the story of Samson and Delilah (you know, that old love story? Real sweet, those two.)

Another one of my favorites is “Laughing With”:

Okay, another, nother favorite is On the Radio. Wait, no, or The Call. Or maybe Us. Or maybe all of them?

The weird thing is that I like every one of her songs. All of them. Spotify has like 5 or 6 albums, and I haven’t heard a song I didn’t like yet. Every band has a stinker, right? I mean, you can’t like EVERY song someone writes.

Well, maybe I can. At least for today, that’s Regina Spektor for me.

Badass Accordion Gloves

/ Shane / 3 Comments

Guess who’s got himself a pair of badass accordion gloves?

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As a knitter, I feel like I should have something on hand (see what I did there?) to show people. Almost like a sample or something, like credentials, as if I need to prove that I’m not lying about knitting (because that’s totally what you would lie about to be cool, right?). However, as a person married to a knitter, my hats and scarves have all been provided by Sara. “Oh, did you knit your hat?” they ask. “Well, no. I mean, I could have. I do knit hats, sometimes, but not this *particular* hat…”

No, I needed something of my own.

And hey, if you’re going to go custom, go all the way custom, am I right?

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So I made myself some “convertible” gloves, that can transform from fingerless gloves into mittens with the flip of a flap. There are even little flaps for the thumbs!

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As I was picking out the pattern for the gloves, I saw some with embroidery on the knuckles, and I knew I wanted to do that. But what message to put? Something badass, something awesome, something uniquely me, and something no one else would ever have in a million years.

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Look, I’ve even got a picture of me working on my mittens in Costa Rica. Mittens! In Costa Rica!

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Now, I will admit, knitting these mittens has taken all the time that I would normally use to practice the accordion. But, hey! Now that I have the accoutrements, fame and fortune can’t be far behind, can they? If nothing else, at least I’m prepared for some winter busking.

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Quote Monday gets philosophical

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Ollie: “The world never ends, god never ends, and a hula hoop never ends.”

Sara: “Let me tell you, there’s probably no one who forgot what time to meet to give their kids away for the week.”

Ollie: “I never run out of boogies.”

Evelyn: “Are you making, like, a fruit salad, except with veggies instead of fruit?”

Back to School (yesterday)

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I know yesterday was the day for posting back to school pictures. “A day late and a dollar short” Halbach, that’s my name.

We did take these pictures yesterday, but we had an out of town visitor last night (hi Dabu!) so I didn’t get a chance to upload these. Two big kids, ready to go!

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As usual, Evie is calm, cool, and ready to go.

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She was so excited to start school, she could hardly stand it. This year is perhaps a little more serious than last year. Evie told me this morning, “We can’t talk, except at lunch and recess. It’s so hard to just sit there all day! I just have so many things to say!” Now THERE’s a daughter after my own heart.

I looked at last year’s post, where I said about Ollie, “Is it me, or did he age about 5 years this summer?” Well, he did it again. So I guess he’s like 15 now.
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Of course, his bike accident scab flaked off this morning, the day AFTER back to school pictures. Oh well.

Here’s to another good year!

Clearly, an omen

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This picture is actually from yesterday, the last day before school started. We came around the corner, and *boom*! Double rainbow, all the way.

A last hurrah for summer, or an omen for the upcoming school year? Or perhaps I just a to find a better place hide that pot of gold than under my mattress…

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