30 Day Music Challenge - Day 3

Song That Makes You Happy

Also very difficult. I have many to choose from. And it's hard for me to discern happiness from amusement, and I feel confident there's going to to be a "Song that makes you laugh" category at some point. So I will go with Elliott Smith - "Bled White".  There's nothing intrinsic to this song that makes me happy.  But I've been listening to it for as long as I've known Chelsey.  And in that time, I can always count on her to sing the Ah Ah Ah Ah part at the 2:00 mark.  No matter what she's doing.  She always sings along to that part.  We can be in the middle of an argument.  It doesn't matter.  I probably just ruined it for us both, but that's one of my favorite Kosterpelding things. 

It also has an F-bomb in it, which would have to be a prerequisite for any song that makes me happy. 




Kent's song.  I actually considered this song too.  But then I started thinking of other songs on that album and realized that I might enjoy "Bottle of Smoke" more in that way.   And then I was like "Do I even own that album?"  And I decided to look elsewhere.




Chuck's pick.  What I love about this song is that for the longest I had a copy of this album that didn't include this song.  So to find out that there was yet another song on this album that I already loved.  And then to find out that it was the best song on the album.  Well that was a really great feeling. 




Chelsey's song.  Just like with the other three, I have a connection to this song.  Peter Ryan and I used to sing it to eachother with great expresssion back in New Orleans.  Now he's dead.  But that's one of my favorite memories of him.



Wendy's entry.

30 Day Music Challenge - Day 2

Least Favorite Song

There's no way of know what my least favorite song is, so I am tweaking this to "Most Disappointing". In my case, I will bring everyone back to 2004. Wilco was putting out their follow-up to one of the best albums of my lifetime, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". Radiohead had just put out "Hail to the Thief", re-establishing my faith in them. I was on a musical high. I purchased "A Ghost is Born" at Borders or something and put it on as I drove home. And this piece of crap came out. Wilco has sucked ever since.



Kent's is below. I picked "Chillout Tent", because I think it really captures what he's talking about, and it might be the first of many bad turns for them. Plus this is a homemade video for the song, and those are always the worst.



Next is Chuck's



And finally Chelsey's - also with homemade video!



Wendy's pick. What the hell is this?





All good choices, I have to say. With the notable exception of Runaway Train. I agree with Chelsey. That song is awesome.

30 Day Music Challenge - Day 1

So my friend Jeff Clary is doing this, and I think we should all do it too.  I have no idea what categories lay ahead, as he is only on day 3, but I think this sort of thing is custom made for someone like me.  And since this blog has limited exposure, I don't have to worry about looking like a chump.  Here we go.

Day 1 - Favorite Song

Obviously this is really hard.  There are many candidates, but when I have to think of my favorite all-time songs, there are only a few songs that come to mind regularly.  I feel like these have to be songs that I have been listening to for at least 10 years to qualify, so I have to rule out things like "Doomsday" by Elvis Perkins, and "Buriedfed" by Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson.  Which basically makes me pick between contemporary to my life songs like U2's "One", "Boy With the Arab Strap" by Belle & Sebastian or "100%" by Sonic Youth.  Or older songs like "If You Want Me to Stay" by Sly and the Family Stone, "To Sir With Love" by Lulu, or "If I Can Dream" by Elvis.

But at the end of the day, I went with the first song that jumps in my head when this subject comes up.




I love this song.  I couldn't find a decent album version on youtube, but this is good because it's contemporary to the time it was released.  Before Wayne Coyne started wearing the same suit over and over and smearing blood on his face.

I went ahead and added Chelsey's favorite too, so everyone could listen if they wanted.  Her explanation is below in the comments area.




And Chuck's (also explained below)



And Kent's



And Wendy's! I love this song too. It makes me sad that they don't seem to like it as much as I do. I can't remember if it's this or "High and Dry" but they totally ripped on one of those songs in an interview I read. Which made me mad.

Whose Up for Some Cloud Watching?

Please look at this picture and try to make out some dicernable parts, aside from the massive ear.  It appears we may be having a blob.  We will love her just the same.

King Edith Further Update

So there's better news on the Edith front to report from our last baby doctor appointment.  For one, our doctor all but ruled out any of the nastier forms of spina bifida.  Which means we are most likely only going to be dealing with the occulta version - if at all.  Great news. 

So I asked her what to replace spina bifida with on my top 5 list of things to worry about.  She said her main concern woud be preeclampsia (or high blood pressure), which will present it's own list of issues, but most of them seem navigable.  Maybe bed rest or induction will be in order.  All of which are ok.  Not great, but ok.

Also, we are going to Minneapolis this weekend to buy baby shit from Ikea.  Very exciting.  We are also going to stop by Okaboji and see a Twins game.  It's our last vacation before King Edith comes along, so we are going to make sure to take lots of pictures. 

We have also been hitting the gargae sales pretty hard and heavy for baby shit.  That seems to be going well. 

It always comes back to a world war

The crazy old lady strikes again! Let me start off by telling you a bit about my crazy old lady neighbor. She has lived in her house since 1942, her husband was a WWII vet who went crazy and then died. She never had kids, she has only had one cat in her life, and she claims she still doesn't have a cat even though I have seen cat food in her garbage can more than once. The first time I met her it was a cold March day. She spent 25 minutes talking to me outside about WWII and certain regions in Japan (wondering if I was familiar with them). She is clearly a hoarder. I try not to look in her house in fear of what I might see but this photo depicts what I imagine it looks like in there....maybe worse. She smells awful and dresses like a homeless man but she is super smart and can be really sweet. No matter what we are talking about it always comes back to a war (usually world war II, but yesterday it was world war I). Here is a recap of our conversation yesterday:

Crazy lady (CL): Are you pregnant?
Me: Yes, I am.
CL: Congratulations, you are carrying low. My aunt so and so always said that if you carried low that meant you were having a boy.
Me: Yes, I have heard that but the doctor says I am having a girl
CL: Well, they are probably right then. My aunt so and so had one child who died from the flu around WWI. You know, at that time they said that this was caused by germ warfare. That the Germans were the ones who spread that around. The Germans were much more advanced at that time. We lead in science now but back then it was the Germans.
(I just keep nodding along at this point as she continues to repeat parts of this story for a while).
CL: So anyway, congratulations on becoming a mother. I am glad you are going to have a child, so many women get abortions these days.
Me: (stunned, shocked) Umm, yes. Thanks.

And we both go our separate ways......

King Edith Updates

Here's the latest on the baby front:

• We know we're having a girl.  Found out for sure when we visited our special baby doctor.  
• Our special baby doctor also told us that with Chelsey's genetic blood-clotting condition (MTHFR), combined with her blood work results put us at a 30% risk for spina bifida.  Hooray!  There is also the risk of us losing the baby late in her pregnancy, thanks to the MTHFR - so Chelsey will probably not go full term, to get little Edith out as soon as possible.  
• Nothing earth-shattering, but no one wants to hear they have a 70% chance of having a totally healthy kid.  
• We'll know more when we talk to our regular doctor this week.  
• In the meantime we are adopting the attitude of "fuck it."  There's a whole bunch to worry about with this stuff, but we can't do anything about it.  It's just there.  And we can fret about it, or we can just say fuck it, and continuing falling in love with our future daughter.  
• On the positive side, the room is painted, and we go to IKEA in a couple of weeks to get the crib.  Very exciting.  
• We're also still sold on the name Edith Pearl - which is great because of this future vacation spot.
• Now we just have to buy Chelsey some more maternity clothes, and get a doll so we can trick Deuce into being nice to the baby.

Speaking of Deuce.  Here is two minutes of him licking my hand.