14dabucs's Blog

Well... that was FUN!  Yesterday our family headed to Dogtown and the party thrown by those fun Hibernians and folks at St. James the Greater School.  Once I got past the fact that I was ordering shots of Jameson's Whiskey IN A CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, there was a lot of fun to be had.  People were very nice, even to lace curtain folks like ourselves.  Even the really "happy" people looked out for the kiddo's stroller.  

As I get out of my own zip code more and more, I can't get over how much this city can be.

Okay, full disclosure:  I am a bit of a naive nut.  I'm the girl that is cynical on the surface, but deep down still holds out hope for the best in everyone else out there.  If a friend does well, I am (usually) genuinely happy for them.  I've been lots of places and had great experiences.  If I meet you, I love to hear about you.  People have genuinely interesting lives.  

Now, I'm not ripping on people who like things the way they are.  After all, I married one.  He loves Gulf Shores (and quite rightly so), but really has no desire to go to other countries ("Why do I want to go somewhere that is probably a lot like America except I can't understand anyone?" which, come to think of it, may also explain why we've never been to Miami).  When I ordered our wedding cake from a bakery in Carondelet, he could not believe I chose somewhere so FAR AWAY.

 So right from the start, things promised to get interesting when we joined friends in Soulard to see a rock band fronted by a marimba player.  I don't think my husband had been to Soulard in 20 years.  I'd never been there.  Right off the bat, we overshot the place and ended up on the south side of the Budweiser brewery before we realized we were lost.  Once we got directions back to the bar, I saw a place I fell in love with immediately.

 The old Smile building on the corner of 9th and Allen was gorgeous.  All the old buildings were awesome.  Then we went into the Shanti.  Now, keep in mind it was dark, so my view might be a bit romanticized, but it was interesting.  The bar area was narrow and reminded me of some of the great bars along Water Street in downtown Milwaukee.  The bar's backdrop was a massive mirror and wooden shelves.    Just past the bar was a large brick patio, hilariously uneven due to the large tree and its expanding roots.  This made for some entertaining walks to the loo by various overindulged patrons.  Surrounding the patio was a wooden fence with lots of knotholes and various screened areas which allowed for interaction with passerbys on the street and even led to quite a show as a couple that could barely walk stopped for a five-minute-makeout session.

 

 

What what what?  I heard from a friend of a friend about this band playing in Soulard Saturday night called the Kevin Lucas Orchestra.  They have a freaking marimba in their band!  How crazy is that?  Anyway, I guess that is where me and the husband will be on Saturday night, in Soulard at Shanti's seeing how this goes.  Never been to Soulard before either, so this should be fun.  Any tips?

I railed on them in Roche Madden's blog, but man, they were bad.

 

I am still superpissed that CARS was robbed by Happy Feet.  What the heck?  Nobody can tell me CARS was not as good as HAPPY FEET.

 

 The interpretive dance numbers ground the show to a halt.

 

That choir blew (literally).

 
Overall, it was umpteen hours of my life I'll never get back.

 

THANKS FOR NOTHING, ACADEMY!  YOU BLOWHARDS!

 

Good Lord.
 

I may be nutty, but I sure do.  I've found some great music by digging up the songs, and tonight I figured out that the fun song from the Nintendo Wii commercial (where the Japanese men drive to people's houses and play games with people there) is "Kodo (Inside the Sun Remix) " by the Yashida Brothers.

 

The other song I STILL love even after hearing it a billion gazillion times is "Galvanize" by the Chemical Brothers.  That's the super-fantastic song from the Budweiser Select commercials.  If you heard it you'd know it.

 

Also, when Verizon Wireless first came out with the Chocolate phone, the commercial used a song I'd heard a number of times on Sirius Chill (channel 35) by a band that has a lot of other great songs, Goldfrapp (the song is "Ooh La La").

 

Last favorite, I promise.  Six or seven years ago when Jaguar had redone the S-type line of cars, there was an awesome commercial that aired on A&E a lot with beautiful footage of the car and was just perfect for the spots.  It's still on my mp3 player and I still love it.  Check it out under "History Repeating" by the Propellerheads.

 

If there's a song you want to know the name of, hit me up here and I'll find it for you, because I'm cool like that.

It's 1 a.m. and officially February 14th. Around St. Louis, women (and men) are full of hopes and dreams (albeit completely different) about just how their Valentine's Day will turn out.

 

Personally, I am expecting zero so I will not be disappointed. Also, I probably don't deserve anything since I tossed his Valentine's Day gift bag towards him Saturday during a ridiculous argument. He proceeded to throw the ipod fm transmitter/charger into the trash along with the other contents of the bag, not realizing what was inside. Next, I grabbed the whole trash bag and dumped it on his nightstand (it was a new bag, the only other contents a poopy diaper in its own bag and a yogurt container, maybe a paper towel). Then I felt bad and cleaned it up before he saw it, but not before saying, "Way to throw away your $80 ipod charger, dumbass!" Of course, this lightened the mood and hilarity ensued and everything is back to normal. We seem to need ONE stupid fight a year, and that was it.

 

As a woman, I'll sit here and say I really don't expect/want anything, his love and company is a gift I celebrate every day, and in my head I might believe that, but in my heart... I soo just want to spend some time with JUST HIM, OUTSIDE THE HOUSE, have a nice dinner, do something fun, and maybe get some flowers or a sweet card. So in keeping with the old adage "misery loves company," feel free to share how your Valentine's Day is REALLY going here. (Even though "misery" is an awful strong word. How about "hijinks" instead?)

... it sure seems there are a lot of moms with totally adorable kids on here. I'm not sure how busy everyone's life is already, but since I don't have a church family here, it's not real easy to find playdates for Bub. What do you all think of getting together once a month and going somewhere fun in St. Louis, whether it's to a pool, or the Magic House, or the Children's Garden or the Zoo or any other number of activities? St. Louis has so many of them it's ridiculous.

 

Anyway, lemme know.

 

Bethany

Thought you guys might enjoy this video of Bub taken in October. Apparently he watches way too much Access Hollywood.

Ok folks... here is the deal. I've worked in radio in the past (sports type), and I loved it. Major market, mid market, small market, there is nothing like production, which sounds lame, but I enjoyed it.

Imagine my surprise when I come to St. Louis (what I would consider a major market, and a great sports town to boot) and I see that the sports radio scene is just a mess. I was crestfallen, as I wanted really good wall-to-wall coverage of the Rams, Cardinals and Blues so I could catch up a bit.

Nobody really offered that. I looked for anything to sate my desire and ended up with 97.1 and some great talk.

However, one can only handle SOOO many years of Tom Turbrock playing the perennial "yes" man. For crap's sake! Disagree with Glover alright already.

So anyway, fast forward to September of 2005, I think it was. We looked into both XM and Sirius satellite radio, and Sirius got our vote because of its NFL coverage. We got a little Sportster that is still chugging along to this day, and the rest was history. AM/FM radio are a thing of the past. I listen to a wide variety of music to begin with. With Sirius, I get hits, 50s/60s/70s/80s stuff, standards, a chill station, a dance station (or three), a new wave station, an old school rap station, a standards station, a Broadway station, a stand-up comedy station, a kid's station (or three)... all commercial free. Not to even forget Howard Stern, who actually puts out a pretty dang good product and is a great interviewer. We rented a Cadillac XRS because of a car mishap on vacation this year that was equipped with XM, and with all the overlap, we listened for about an hour and then turned it off the rest of the trip.

Anyway, my question is multi-faceted: Do you have satellite radio? If you do, which one? If you don't, why or why not?

Here's my list:

SUNDAY:

24 (FOX) is pretty dang good, and by no means am I a fan of bang-bang shoot-em-ups. However, I must advise you that watching this series on regular tv, and tivo, or multiple episodes at once is dangerous for your health. Great writing, great characters, an interesting show, overall. It gets an A.

Mythbusters (Discovery) is an irreverent take on a number of urban myths and/or movie stunts. They used some gas substitutes last week and only a couple of them worked. What's cool about this show is that they show you when they screw up too, like setting the car on fire when they tried to run it on hydrogen, I think it was. A

MONDAY:

How I Met Your Mother (CBS) is a cute show, it pulls you in. God knows it's better than that dreck, Two and a half Men or the The World According to Jim. How do these shows stay on the air? B

The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS) This show is hilarious. The characters are likable and funny, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is really in a groove. Her physical comedy is not to be missed. A

This show is HORRIBLE! It is HORRIBLE! Does anyone else watch this? The writing is atrocious, the characters are actually caricatures, and the plotlines... ugh. You can see things coming from five miles away. Not one, FIVE.

What's worse is that the usually reliable Entertainment Weekly likes this show! Has everyone gone mad?

The show comes across as being written by someone who has never lived in a small town or the Middle America and how they think people are.

Just terrible. To make matters worse, the husband watches it. I just sit and roll my eyes and tsk real loud. I guess I should just be happy he isn't looking at Gossip magazines at Walgreen's, but dang.

Okay, I am no academic, high-minded snob, and I know I make my share of mistakes, but in the twelve hours I've been here, I have never in my life seen such an appalling inability to grasp even the most rudimentary concepts of grammar, nevermind punctuation. Do schools no longer teach grammar or something? Is there no emphasis on it?

If you're a grown-up, and you forgot everything, please buy this book immediately:

http://www.eatsshootsandleaves.com/

The title refers to a joke about misplaced commas (yes, there are jokes out there about misplaced commas) that goes something like this...

So this guy is sitting in a bar, and the next thing you know, a panda comes in, orders some lunch, finishes, shoots up the joint with a rifle and then walks out. No one seems to pay the panda any mind and the guy sitting in the bar is completely shocked.

"Pandas don't do that! What the heck is going on in here?" he says.

The bartender pulls out a terribly edited book about animals and says, "Well sure they do! Look here! Right under 'Panda,' it says 'eats, shoots, and leaves.'"

Basically, the book is an irreverent review of grammar lessons, short and sweet. I am sure some people on here ARE smart and have wonderful points to make, but man... I can barely read some of the posts.