Today counts as an annual holiday at our house. It doesn't always fall on the-day-before-Easter, and it usually wouldn't happen before April; but TODAY is the-day-we-take-apart
-the-ice-rink. It isn't because we dislike the ice rink. It isn't because we regain that huge chunk of yard under it. It's a holiday because while the plastic liner is drying in the wind, the kids LOVE running under it. Remember in P.E. when we got to play under that parachute? It's like that-except bigger, and personally ours, and full of anticipation, and unpredictable due to the wind that blows it into caves, tunnels, and domes. It was a great time! And I'm afraid I added to the annual festivities: we built a log cabin with the wood that framed our ice rink. I'm sure we'll have to do this every year now, too. Which is fine-because it's a great way to let the wood dry. So, anyway, that's today. -kmf

So I read this story about Owen Wilson's nose, and it -naturally- made me think of "Bottlerocket"-perhaps my favorite movie. That in itself made me think of "Hi-Fidelity" in which John Cusack makes lists of his favorites. And I figured that -since this is a blog- I should post a list of my own. Anyone who's known me for a while already knows all this about me, but what is the point of having a blog anyway... So here's my list of the Greatest 10 Albums of All Time* (*subject to change at any time author chooses to change it-it's my list, isn't it?!)
Astral Weeks--Van Morrison (with an honorary nod to Common One-on a more personal basis)
What Makes A Man Start Fires?--Minutemen/coupled with IF'N--fIREHOSE (I can couple 2 albums as one if I want--It's MY list, remember? -and, anyway, there both really short, so it's easy to pair them together)
Drukqs--Aphex Twin (Everthing can be summed up in track#10 of disc #1 [quite likely the most important song in my entire life]-just ask my wife how many times I've played it!)
Discovery--Daft Punk (Thank you, Jackhammer! -for helping me to understand)
Troubadour/Naturally--J J Cale (again, I can stick two short albums together. Troubadour is night-turning-to-dawn...Naturally is dark-evening-turning-to-darker-night in a myriad of Faulkner stories)
Loaded--The Velvet Underground (especially the 'fully loaded' set with demos and extras...WOW)
Sorry, Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash--the Replacements (I got this cassette back in '88 [by dishonorable means] -I haven't stopped listening to it since then-it is on cd now.
Gold--Starflyer59 (the untitled album that is gold in color--I'm eternally glad that girl broke up with ol' Jason Martin!)
Kaya--Bob Marley (I borrowed this from my future bro-in-law the 2nd time I met him back in '90...I think I gave it back [but I have had his Sonic Youth's "Goo" on vinyl ever since then])
Pistolero--Frank Black and the Catholics (This holds a special place in my heart and when I saw them live they played some awesome songs from it--especially "So. Cal" WOW.)
Figureheads on the Forefront of Pop Culture--Blenderhead (Songwriting at one of its finest hours-I wish these guys would just get together and stay together!)
Okay, so I know there's, like, 13 albums (in 11 spots) on my top 10 list...whatcha gonna do about it!?

So last week I realized the truth to those goofy old cliches. "Don't spend it all in one place." And even (albeit loosely translated) "a rolling stone gathers no moss". Yeah...so if you know anything about anything you'd know that I had the week off from work last week. (With the holiday Monday I actually only missed [I wouldn't exactly say I ~missed~] four days of work.) I believe I had the greatest vacation I've ever had. And I give the credit to its (lack of) planning. Truth be told: I was always under the impression that a good vacation involves going somewhere for a week or so and seeing all the sights that place has to offer and "all that jazz". But this time, instead of going to one place for a long time, we went many places for short times. We didn't put all our hopes and dreams (eggs) into going on some trip(basket) that would fulfill all our vacating desires. We didn't spend it (our time) all in one place. It was awesome. We didn't even tell our kids that we were going to Omaha to the zoo until we woke them up really early on Wednesday and each one asked why they had to get up. It was SO fun. We stopped at an old fashioned soda fountain and the Jerk gave us each these goofy paper soda jerk hats. Anyway...there were WAY too many things that we did to tell in one post -so y'all just have to imagine the great fun we had all over our little chunk of the midwest (not gathering any moss, mind you).-kmf