Author: Shane

The Music Man

/ Shane / 5 Comments

There is probably not a minute of my day in which I don’t have a song from the Music Man by Meredith Willson running through my head. We got the soundtrack for Christmas, and Evie has lately become obsessed with it.

I love musicals, but the Music Man was not one of mine. I know of it vaguely, having heard some of the songs (especially Gary Indiana and the Wells Fargo Wagon), and somehow knowing that this is a thing people like, but that’s about it. So I’m not really sure why we picked this one out of a hat, but I didn’t really expect it would take off as it has. Evie went through a huge Wicked phase (because I was going through a huge Wicked phase), but subsequent musicals were sort of meh. Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music never really became favorites, and the Wizard of Oz soundtrack keeps in the rotation but never really had that, “play it again, play it again!” quality that the Music Man seems to have acquired.

The thing is, I have to hand it to the Music Man: turns out it is a mighty fine musical after all. I’m not ashamed to admit I really dig the songs, especially Rock Island and (Ya Got) Trouble. Even Ollie has been running around singing the songs (his favorite is Shipoopi, but he likes Marion the Librarian quite a bit as well). I doubt Evie could pick a favorite.

Evie has always excelled at picking up song lyrics, but she’s just about got the whole CD memorized. Picking up song lyrics happens to be a talent of mine as well, but she’s got me whipped. She doesn’t always understand the words she’s saying (at least she knows that “a woman who’ll kiss on the very first date is usually a hussy”), but she’s pretty impressive. The words are *so fast* in the Music Man, I can hardly believe she can follow along.

When I see her enjoying this so much, my consumer-instinct is to buy more musicals. However, I’ve convinced myself not to (although we already have one more in the pipeline). The thing is, when I was a kid, we were fanatical about Jesus Christ Superstar. Was it because this is the greatest musical of all time? No, it is not. But it’s the one we had; the one we listened to over and over again until we could sing the entire musical from memory, start to finish (and still can!). Musicals are like anything: having 5 or 10 at your fingertips doesn’t make you like musicals more, it makes you uninterested in musicals and full of ennui. Needless to say, I’m resisting the urge.

In the meantime, if you come slinking around here, expect to hear the big trombones and the rat-a-tat drums, big brass bass, big brass bass, and the piccolo, the piccolo coming out of the kitchen radio.

He’s a what? He’s a what? He’s a MUSIC man! And when the man dances, certainly boys, what else? The piper pays him!

Yessssss sir. Yessssss sir. Yessssssss sir.

Quote Monday is observant

/ Shane / Leave a comment

::Ollie building with duplos::
Ollie: That’s Gary, Indiana!”
Evie: “Where’s the smoke?”

Evie: “I think I would make a good queen from Swan Lake, because I’m very…bend-ful.”

Evie: “I’m so thirsty that my saliva is threatening my tongue, ‘If you don’t get me something to drink, I’m going to hit you!'”

Evie, seeing a building truss: “Look! It’s a slash-dot-com!” (In other words, it looked like a backslash.)

Fact.

/ Shane / Leave a comment

You want to learn some important truths? Our friends over at Verified Facts are serving up some truth bombs. Hurry over there before the Feds shut them down!

Here are a few of the verified facts. My friends, prepare to have your mind blown:

You might not think that there’s a link between the 2008 financial crash and most of the negative events you’ve experienced personally in your own life, but there is, and it’s real.

and:

Did you know that people with Rocky Mountain spotted fever are admitted to Harvard at half the rate that other people are, even when they have similar applications? Is this an example of the rich and powerful using their influence to keep their genetic pool “clean”? (The answer is yes.)

furthermore:

By tracking the shapes that nuclear power-smugglers’ secret trails leave in the deserts that line the US-Mexico border, we can easily tell that many of these criminals are in league with the Church of Scientology.

Oh, and by the way?

While excavating anthropological sites in Three Mile Island, rusty canteens from the Great Depression were found five feet below the surface. The logos on those canteens? “FEMA.” Everything we’ve been told about the past is a lie.

In all seriousness though, it’s amazing how simple it is to generate random conspiracy theories. This thing is quite brilliant. A couple of conspiracy-laden quotes, combined with a few find-and-replace lists of keywords (The Feds, FEMA, The Church of Scientology, financial crash, etc.) and a sprinkling of quotes such as

Our demands for transparency on this issue have largely been ignored.

And you’re in business. I really don’t think I could distinguish one of these auto-generated ones from an actual conspiracy rant.

Any particularly good ones you’ve found?

February Food Swap

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Time again for a Chicago Food Swap wrap up! (You can see previous food swap posts here.)

In exchange for:

We received:

  • 2 Blue Moon Cupcakes
  • Cranberry Pepper Jelly
  • Cinnamon Pecan Butter
  • Salsa Verde
  • Blood Orange Marmalade
  • Macadamia Nut Caramel Corn
  • Meyer Lemon Marmalade
  • Cranberry Curd
  • Homemade Granola
  • Cherry Pie Filling
  • Pumpkin Butter

2013_02_03_9632

This month’s swap was at Katherine Anne Confections, so in addition to the above, we also tried 3 delicious varieties of fancy-schmancy caramels : rosemary sea-salt, chocolate walnut, and vanilla. Believe me, they didn’t last long. I was very suspicious about the rosemary sea-salt, because sweet and salty is *not* my thing. But actually, it wasn’t bad. I would probably choose one of the other ones personally, but after trying it I can definitely say I would choose eating a rosemary sea-salt caramel over not eating caramel any day of the week.

This time around, Sara went in targeting marmalade, and ended up with not one, but two of them! I call that success We haven’t tried any yet. Sara said the salsa verde was the best thing she tried at the swap, but I haven’t tried that yet either (Soon, my sweet salsa verde. Soon.)

There were a lot of baked goods this time, which isn’t bad, but it’s not really what we’re in the market for. We make lots of baked goods at home, so they’re just not as exciting. Canned jams, however, seems to be what we are in the market for. Right now we have something like 8 different open jars of spreads in the fridge, with a dozen or so more in the pantry. And they are all wonderful.

I should also mention that both of our jams were delicious and interesting too. I almost didn’t want Sara to trade them! Sara bought the Chinese 5 spice powder from the last food swap, and I hadn’t been super fond of it. It’s very anise-y, and it kind of takes over whatever it is in. But something about this jam really was the perfect use for it. The flavor combination was awesome. The mimosa jelly is really good too, although I’m not sure the champagne really made much of a difference (other than being able to say it’s mimosa jelly instead of just regular old “orange”, which is non-trivial).

Sara reports that after her 3rd swap, she’s starting to recognize people and just generally feel like she’s not the new kid on the block anymore, (Look, it was a phrase before the band came around, that’s why they used that as their name! No judging.) but more like she’s one of the grizzled veterans.

The kids and I are definitely still excited about getting all of the delicious food, that’s for sure!

Nala Update

/ Shane / 4 Comments

As some of you were quite concerned about Nala after my last post, despite my assurances that she’s an awful nuisance, I just wanted to give you an update.

We did take Nala to see the vet, which is the most *amazing fun thing in the world* if you’re a child, but not so much if you’re a cat. She had basically a clean bill of health, other than some fairly significant weight loss, but they took some blood for some testing.

Survey says? Hyperthyroidism!

This is apparently quite common in cats of a certain age, and Nala happens to be of a certain age, so there you go. Hyperthyroidism is associated with a number of things, including behavioral changes. However, the vet was skeptical that it could explain the refusal to drink from her bowl (if anything, hyperthyroidism should cause more drinking, not turning your nose up at the stuff) or constantly biting Sara. But, she allowed, every cat is different, so maybe it was related after all.

We were presented with 4 choices:

  1. Be referred to a specialist and treat Nala with radioactive iodine therapy
  2. Give Nala a pill every day
  3. Rub a cream into Nala’s ears twice a day
  4. Buy special food

My reactions were:

  1. Do what now? We’re still talking about the cat, right?
  2. Okay, I’ve had to give Nala pills before, and it is a nightmare. Practically impossible. She can isolate the pill and eat whatever’s around it, saving only the pill in her mouth for an hour before discretely spitting it behind a house plant. And now I have to do this every day??
  3. I guess that’s better than giving her a pill, but sheesh.
  4. Wait, one of the options was to do everything the same except give her different food? And you saved that option until last?

So, yeah, we’re getting her special food now.

Hopefully it will make a difference. Sara pointed out that in the long run it’s probably actually cheaper to give her radioactive iodine therapy, even though it seems expensive. But it just seems….wrong somehow. On the other hand, giving her special food has practically *no chance* of turning her into a giant, super-cat with magical powers. Then again, let me take a look at that ingredient list…