my favorite summer songs!

the upcoming holiday means picnics and barbecues and firework shows. music pairs great with these events. the following are a few of my favorite summertime songs (well, videos) - enjoy!


love shack by the b-52s (sophomore year in high school baby!)



hot in the city by billy idol (big!)



alone again or by the damned



ants marching by dave matthews band



groove is in the heart by deee-light! (with bootsy collins!)



hold on tight by elo (wasn't this used for a wheaties commercial when i was a kid?)



our lips are sealed by the go-go's (go-go's = summer!)



feel good inc by gorillaz



24 hour party people by happy mondays



take me home country roads by john denver



punka by kenickie (not an official video, but it's kitschy and brilliant!)



there she goes by the la's (this was big my senior year in high school, and i remember that when i hear this song...)



calcutta by lawrence welk (this one reminds me of sitting on the veranda in your lily pulitzer sipping lemonade circa 1966...)



steal by sunshine by len (tail end of the 90s...)



the life of riley by the lightening seeds



ray of light by madonna (happy engagement summer before i got married)



pleasant valley sunday by the monkees (cookie cutter houses with grills smokin...so relevant now as it was over 40 years ago...)



holiday road by lindsey buckingham (how could i not include this one?!)



brother love's traveling salvation show by neil diamond (with a johnny cash cameo!)



in bloom by nirvana



just a girl by no doubt



how bizarre by omc (this was big the summer of my first grown up job...)



set adrift on memory bliss by pm dawn



starry eyed surprise by paul oakenfield



every little thing she does is magic by the police



in the summertime by shaggy



soak up the sun by sheryl crow



my coco by stellastarr*



lime in the coconut by



alright by supergrass (FYI i loved this song before it was on wii's just dance!)



let's dance to joy division by the wombats



cotton eye joe by rednexx



around the bend by asteroid galaxy tour

sock meets haggis...and scythian...and icewagon flu...

the yarn harlot often takes pictures of her sock-in-progress with other knitters.  sometimes she takes them with famous people.  last year i took a cue from her and took a picture of my monkey WIP with various members of celtic bands and documented its adventures here.

i was excited to do the same this year.  trouble was, i had two pairs of socks OTN, and i didn't know which one to take along.  sunday swing (my rav linky) was pretty but i didn't have the brains to knit on it at the moment (the pattern had evaporated from my memory) and while i was working on hermione's everyday sock (my rav linky), it wasn't as showy.  hermione won out, becos it was easier to knit, and really, the colorwave of the zauberball was tartan-ish in my opinion.

this year's performers at the friday night concert were enter the haggis with scythian and icewagon flu opening for them.  we'd heard scythian play a few years ago, but never heard of the FLU.  the gates opened early, with the FLU kicking off the show.  after they finished their set, i went over to their sale table and sock got its picture taken with the lead singer (his name is escaping me at the mo'):

while i was off getting grub scythian started their set.  they were great (albeit really loud with a lot of distorted feedback - strange considering it was an outdoor setting - and i couldn't understand their words really well).  i joined the throngs of other festival goers who wanted their autographs and pictures taken.  they guys were really good sports getting their picture with sock and zauberball.  i'm sure they're not used to getting requests like that every day, but they had fun with it:

our favorite band got on stage around 8:30 and really rocked it.  my pictures suck (took them with hubby's iPhone - naturally i left mine at the hotel! - and left the good camera at home) but at least the sock ones turned out okay!

victim new drummer bruce with sock and zauberball:

he couldn't get over that i was knitting a sock.  when we finished, he reminded me to knit the second one!

then mark the bassist obliged (he looks a little unsure in this pic!):

trevor the guitarist/singer had fun with the picture.  i even asked him how his new baby boy is!

we waited a while for fiddle player/keyboardist/singer brian's picture becos the couple ahead of us just wouldn't STFU with him.  i asked if i could take his picture with my sock, and reminded him that i was the crazy sock/yarn lady who asked him to do the same thing last year at fling.  he looked at my sock and the DPN holder and commented that it was "cool...yet scary".  he found an equally as wacky pose with sock and zauberball and i got this:

dear bob, i love him.  :) :) :)  just think, i have brian DNA on my sock now!  brian also signed the bottom of hubby's beer stein.

no clue where craig the bagpipe player was.  he's the only one sock didn't get its picture with!  oh well, there's next year...

one thing that i love about ETH is how they hang around to talk with their fans.  on facebook, they (i'm presuming brian) thanked everyone for seeing them at fling and making them feel like rockstars.  dude, you ARE rockstars!  how freaking cool that you take the time to talk with your fans and indulge their whims.  

hubby and i had a ball at celtic fling.  we enjoy rocking out with our favorite band.  we can't wait to see them again - hopefully sooner than celtic fling next year!

this week...

...has me feeling a bit like this:



the boy had sinus infection and a bit of pneumonia.  petunia has ear infection and croup (and i suspect a sinus infection too).  freddie, who got sick after the boy and before petunia, seems to be getting sick all over again along with the croupy cough.  the three of them are one big coughing cacophony.  the boy and petunia were on preds, so not only are they sick, but they are amped up too.

hubby is getting over a cold and still has sore throat.

i'm just on the verge of a cold but never tipping over the edge...sore throat, yellow snot, my sinuses fill then dry up like a tide.  on top of that i have killer HS carbuncles under my arms that make any kind of movement excruciating.  my sugars are improving while my HS worsens - figure that one out!

this song always cheers me up - definitely could use it right now as it's been one long hard winter...

remembering john lennon

this song was played at the boy's baptism...one of the rare occasions that mom and dad allowed a secular song in a church service.  it is one of my favorite songs.

makes you wonder what the music world would have been like had john lennon lived.

5 bands - NaBloPoMo

What are the five best bands you've seen play live?


1.  enter the haggis  we saw this band 3 times during the past 2 years, two of those times over the course of 3 months. we discovered them at the pennsylvania renaissance faire. canadian celtic rock at it's finest.


four of the members are on my FB buddy list.  star fucking at it's finest.




2.  live  i saw this band twice, once in college, the second time when i was dating hubby.  the first time i went, i was in the balcony, and people were smoking pot around me.  i was positively paranoid that i'd smell like it and that i could get high from the second hand smoke, and i remember driving home very carefully.  (incidentally,while i like the smell of pot, although i would never smoke it.)  




3.  albannach  another awesome celtic drum group.  their energy is infectious.




4.  billy joel  hubby and i saw him the fall before we got married.  our seats were behind the stage in the nosebleed section but we had an awesome view of him.  i almost got into a catfight with a girl sitting behind me - she was screaming in my ear, and i told her to shut up.  i suppose i'm lucky she didn't belt me.


going to billy's show made me incredibly randy.  we barely made it (to our new) home before hubby and i attacked each other.  




5.  cher  mom and i took grams to see cher at the wacovia arena 7 years ago.  she loved cher, mainly the sonny and cher years, but surprisingly, she liked cher's newer music too.  i was 6 months pregnant with the boy.  we were in nose bleed territory and basically stayed in our seats the entire time becos the aisles were so narrow and they were afraid i'd fall on my bump.  i remember getting a stuffed teddy bear with a cher shirt for the baby, to commemorate the occasion.  we had an awesome time - there were 4 generations of my family at that show.  


i used to joke that if the boy is gay, i'll take the blame, becos he was at the show in utero.  

the music of our lives

it's funny how hearing a song takes you back to another time in your life.

a story on GMA this morning talked about abbaworld, this traveling museum of all things abba.  hearing "dancing queen" took me back to when i was 3 or 4, playing with my barbies and singing along to my 45.  when i was 6, dad gave mom an "abba's greatest hits" album for christmas, but i was the one who played it ad nauseum on my little denim record player.  20 years later, hubby and i saw "mamma mia!" in toronto on our 3rd anniversary.  if you want to make a grown woman weep, just do an audience sing-along encore of "dancing queen".  if i ever did karaoke, i'd prolly pick "dancing queen" as my song.  thinking of this song reminded me of "YMCA" and how the kids at my dad's church taught me the gestures to that song.  over 30 years later, i remember.

which got me thinking about other songs i love that i'd sing for karaoke.  and the memories that accompany them.

"just a girl" by no doubt.  when i first heard that song, i was driving home from harrisburg, after taking the state exam for being a caseworker.

"hand in my pocket" by alanis morrisette.  that song transports me instantly to 1996, the summer i worked at c&y.

"one last drink" by enter the haggis.  i'm surrounded by food which i can't eat becos i'm sick.  it's too hot to be sick to my stomach.  it's a month after losing ani.  i'm depressed, my hormones are rioting but hubby and i went to ren faire anyway.  the energy of the band and the audience cheered me up.  this is also the song that i swear will be played at my funeral.

"believe" by cher.  i'm 6 months pregnant with the boy, sitting in nosebleed seats at wacovia with mom and grams.  4 generations brought together.

music is power.  music is memories.


multiple blessings

another story on GMA this morning talked about women's fertility.  apparently 90% of eggs are gone before a woman turns 30 and only have 3% of their eggs by the time they're 40.

by those statistics, the kiddos are true miracles.  i had the boy shortly before i turned 30, and the twins when i was 35.  considering the fact that the twins were conceived naturally, they are a true miracle according to these stats.  i also wonder, if my miscarriage aren't somehow tied into these fertility issues.

we found out about the twins a year ago.  have you ever received news that made your stomach feel like it was ripped out, and feel icy chills go down your spine?  that's how i felt when i found out i was having twins.  we were grateful to just be pregnant, then to find out we were having twins.  i thought my doctor was playing a joke on my.  this was around the time of the octomom and jon and kate debacle.  i kept saying i wasn't having twins, that it was a joke.  ultrasounds don't lie.  we saw baby a and baby b.  whether it was genetic predisposition (my grams had twin aunts) or ovarian luck (i was in the window where multiples occurred naturally) we were blessed.

i remember driving home feeling stunned.  fear.  worry.

fast forward a year, and the twins are nearly 6 months old.  they are healthy, alert, and active.  monkey ears is so chill.  the pixie is a firecracker.


about a month ago a set of quints was born to a family who go to my hairdresser's church.  they were born at 31 weeks, not a bad run for a set of super twins.  my hairdresser told me that 50 people signed up to help the family take care of the babies around the clock.  they had to buy a bigger house.  a bigger vehicle.  and a newspaper article provided an address for people to send the family money, diapers or offers for help.

i showed hubby the article.  he said "that's nice, but in a way, it's not fair."

i knew what he meant.  this couple used fertility drugs to conceive their children, and on finding that they were carrying multiples, refused embryo reduction (can't say i blame them, i couldn't either).  our twins were naturally conceived.  twins are boring compared to multiples.  people aren't exactly clamoring to help take care of them to give us breaks.  we got gift cards when they were first born to help with supplies. we went through those within weeks (formula is so expensive.  what a crime). we had to buy a van - an expense we hadn't anticipated (i loved my mangemobile and hadn't planned to trade her in, but i had to).  our house, which felt big when we first bought it, now bursts at the seams with toys, multiple baby paraphernalia, and love.

i shouldn't complain.  we've been blessed with healthy children, and we are grateful for what we have.  while taking care of 2 babies at the same time is tough, i can't imagine taking care of 4 or 5 babies.  i know my babies' personalities.  i can tell my babies apart without having to mark them (yes, a peek in the diaper is easy and it helps that the pixie is a redhead) - they have distinctive looks.  i wouldn't trade that for anything.

edward gorey lullabies

i just spent the past hour downloading rockabye baby lullabies from iTunes, about $40 worth. thanks to Vickie Howell and her tweets about playing the pixies, and my SIL who was going to get us Pink Floyd for babies, i was curious and looked them up. years ago i had bought cds of "elvis for babies" and "beatles for babies" but this was an absolute treasure trove of music! all my favorite groups, played as tho by schroeder from peanuts! the ramones! the cure! yum!

some groups lend themselves to lullabies. coldplay and the beatles were great. nirvana and metallica were surprisingly beautiful. NIN was very haunting (hence the title of this post). i tried the ramones, but "i wanna be sedated" and "blitzkrieg bop" just didn't seem to lend themselves to lullabies. neither did, surprisingly, some of the cure. but i got some awesome music that i hope the babies will enjoy. i hope they love music as much as the boy does. this is a kid who knows the lyrics to "crazy train" and drinking songs from haggis! and the babies did get exposure to lady gaga and fall out boy this summer.

there is a thread on HAPL about tv shows or movies with pregnancy loss subplots, or babies in general. i just hit on my first infant death subplop post baby. on HawthoRNe, a woman who took her mother to the hospital forgot her baby in the car, and the baby died. it reminded me of the plotline in a CSI eppy that came out not long after i had the boy - a father left his baby in a car where it died - unfortunately he did it deliberately. the plotlines made me feel horrible. i remember being scared i'd forget the boy. however we had small cars at the time so it was easy to see him in his carseat. now i have 2 babies to worry about, and we drive a boat, and it scared me for a moment that the same thing could happen to me. it will probably be a long time before i go anywhere alone with the babies, and between hubby and the boy it's unlikely it would happen, but it did give me a little shock of reality.

it's getting dark, so a storm's approaching. the boy is with my ILs camping and coming home soon. then mom and dad are picking him up to take him to the zoo tomorrow. it's coming up to the pixie's supper time. it's time to hang this up.

sweet 16

i just turned 16 weeks today. i'm nearly halfway through this pregnancy. it's funny, but it's going really quickly.

i celebrated week 16 by actually cooking MEAT today! i made sausage and pepper sandwiches for lunch, and i'm making meatballs (rather, packaged meatballs) in tomato sauce for meatball hoagies. i also boiled eggs for pickled eggs. i guess this is a really good thing! not being able to cook really sucks.

another harbinger of spring has arrived. YARD SALES! mom left a message saying they got a baby swing at a sale, plus clothes (for the boy or the babies, i have no idear). i like yard saleing, cos you can get great deals for not a lot of money. we were pricing swings at bRu, and they're actually quite expensive. now if we could only find another pack and play and a high chair, we'd be set!

i bought music on itunes for the first time since xmas. i spent less that $15 getting new stuff by the cure, morrissey, a song from lily allen that i liked, and some fall out boy. yesterday i saw on the news that itunes is changing some of the music pricing, so newer recent songs will cost more than older songs. everything i've wanted is new, so i really didn't feel like spending $1.29 next week on 15 songs. hubby usually gets stuff on itunes. we download a lot of songs we've heard on tv, like on grey's or private practice.

through the monsoon

this is the song i have been listening to on repeat all week. for some reason dark brooding music is really suiting me right now. it's funny. i haven't listened to hard core rock probably since college/early employment, but this song and group (tokio hotel) has been putting me in a better mood. who knew emo was good for you?

this is the boy's second week of school. he seems to enjoy it. i've been encouraging him to play with the new kids, especially the ones who are having adjustment issues. he can come on strong so i don't know how this is playing out. i hope he's doing well with his seatwork too. he shows no interest when we sit and do "homework" like writing his name and learning to use the scissors correctly. maybe it's learning from "mom." hopefully he's better with his teachers.

i upgraded my phone from go phone to a regular (but cheap) account. i figure next year the boy will be in school full time and if we don't have a baby i'll be back to work. i run a lot when he's in school so i figured i might as well get a new phone plan and have a reliable one at that. i also got a new phone - my pink razr! an expensive new toy, one we really can't afford, but hopefully in the long run will prove itself.

i stole hubby's work bag (a generic laptop/messenger/man bag) that they gave out at work. i converted it into a traveling knitting bag so i don't have to haul the suitcase all around. don't get me wrong, i love my knitting suitcase, but i can't really take it to KDO (i can but it's rather cumbersome) and this bag i can sling across my body. i don't need a lot of things for KDO, or for knitting group for that matter. i just like my knitting clutter. so i pared down. let's see how long it lasts!

i also started walking and swimming this week. i walked today after i dropped the boy off from school and walked while he was in choir wednesday night (4 repeats of "through the monsoon" equal a mile). got my swim pass yesterday and swam 24 laps. i think i was up to 40 when i last swam, and i prolly could have kept going, but my muscles were aching, and considering that i haven't done hard core laps in almost 3 months, 24 is NOT BAD. i seriously thought i could maybe do 10, but i kept pushing myself. i'm hoping to swim laps twice a week, walk laps wednesday nights, and hopefully walk twice a week after i drop the boy off at school. i really need to lose weight, i need to get my blood sugar back to normal, and hopefully the losing weight/eliminating insulin resistance/dropping BP will also help with making B A B Y.

currently doing the BD during O week. please pray for us.

just full of faux pas today...

first of all, i should cut my tongue out NOW. becos of me and my big mouth, now we have to haul MM's ass down to the land of chaos er xmas in july/anniversary celebration tomorrow. we were going to take my mange mobile to stretch her legs but now have to take hubby's car. it's not a big deal. it just means we can't bitch about stuff going back and forth. MM's hearing is shot, but with my luck she'd hear something naughty that i'd say and it would get repeated.

secondly, the rules and regs for ravelympics. i have 3 pairs of socks on needles (barely toes) and i need to make 2 pairs of hats. the hats are easy - they're in hat dash. i'm making them for team charity since that IS where they're going. the socks i originally registered in sock put. the i found WIPs wrestling and registered them there since i really did start them. then yesterday when i was checking tags hand dyed hurdle came up for my blue ombre socks. so i registered the socks there too. so today when i'm reading posts i find out that my socks can only be in WIPs and not socks or hand dyed. i get the sock one - technically they were started. but why can't they compete in hand dyed too? it's not like i'm using any old sock yarn. they were KP sock blanks, and I DYED THEM. who knits plain old blanks? so i'm being a good girl, and now only competing in 2 competitions. i'm waiting for someone to bitch about me being on 2 different teams (team charity and the socks are for team SAI.) also, i started my blue socks in JULY which may or may not fall within the official WIP timeline (prior to july). what difference does it make really? i know there are supposed to be rules, but it sometimes it feel like splitting hairs (or threads in this case) and now the game doesn't feel as much fun. people are prolly bitching becos i have 3 pairs of socks and 2 hats. saucer of cream much? i look at it this way. i would LIKE to get these projects done during the olympics. but i'm not holding my breath that they will ALL be completed. the hats will be easy and i'll get them done. i'd like to get A PAIR of socks done. if i can get 2 done then cool. 3 done and i'll pee my pants.

i got my vase and the boy's magnets back from the pottery shop and they look really cute! i bought flowers at the grocery store and arranged them myself. hubby liked them and commented on how nice it would be to have flowers on a regular basis. a really nice thought, but just not practical and cost worthy. but i suppose it wouldn't hurt to get flowers every so often. my sunflowers really did look pretty in the dining room. our old fashioned rooms now SCREAM for flowers.

i really need to cut my nails soon. i can barely type becos they are so long. they haven't been this long for a long time. i'll cut them after tomorrow.

what else? aunt flow has gone and hopefully now we can continue our baby quest. i pray it happens as quickly as it did the last time.

speaking of which. hubby reminded me of something that i don't do very often and i should. he reminded me that i should pray. actually, he commented that the other night he prayed and in his prayers asked for help with our finances, that we have enough for bills and stuff. yesterday he got a call for some tech support for a lady he helped a while back. she always calls when we need money - for philly, for baltimore, for when it seems we need it i shouldn't be reminded of this - i should pray often and i think subconsciously i do but really need to be mindful of it. i could use the prayers now, spesh for the baby. i realize this is a yes/no/we'll see proposition, but prayer certainly doesn't hurt.

i downloaded hooked on classics from itunes. i had this album on vinyl as a child and LOVED it. i'd pretend to direct it. or dance to it. play barbies to it. i had really eclectic taste as a child. hooked on classics and abba. but classical music isn't bad at all. hopefully the boy enjoys listening to it too.

guess that's about it.

a package for me

my knitpicks finally arrived! 3 sock yarns, the chisholm, new needles, sock book.

**squeals in delight, claps hands and skips**

mr. ball winder is going to be very busy this morning.



speaking of balls. hubby got me the new goldfrapp cd for my bday. i got to listen to some of it last night. she sounds more mellow instead of disco-y. and that's all right with me.

but from the looks of the pics in the lyrics booklet, she needs to get LAID. and BADLY.

cool knitters i recently discovered

what do morticia addams, june cleaver and roseanne's crazy mother have in common?

THEY KNIT.

i found out a few weeks ago that roseanne's mother bev knitted...and she used DPNs to boot! i watched an eppy of "the addams family " last week and discovered that morticia knits. and a few days while watching "leave it to beaver", i noticed that june cleaver knits too. how bloody cool is that!

and then the most coolest thing of all:




see those two little puppets? they're the two johns from they might be giants! as KNITTED PUPPETS. how bloody cool is that now!!! TMBG knitted! now i have an even deeper appreciation of a john sandwich! yesterday i discovered that they had new podcasts for the kiddies...and they use these puppets. and the whole time i'm watching them i'm trying to figure out what kind of pattern to use to knit one up... and now i know why like the song "hot dog!" from mickey mouse's clubhouse so much. i'm such a freak.

FINALLY finished the magic loop socks i started after thanksgiving. they look and feel great. i just have no patience for knitting ribbing.

guess that's about it.

NEW GOLDFRAPP!

just found out there will be new goldfrapp at the end of february. A&E is the. best. song. ever.

2 tour dates in england. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE come stateside.

burning morrissey

hubby gave me morrissey and smiths cds for xmas. i'm just getting to downloading them onto my playlists. some songs i already have from downloading a while back, but i don't have many songs. i was OBSESSED with this guy in high school. he's still hot stash.

i got bad news today that a family friend passed away after a long struggle with cancer. lately i've been feeling very sensitive to death. i think becos i'm getting older and death is inevitable. i'm afraid of losing my parents, my grandmother, my husband, and my child (not in that order). i have my funeral planned, with music and scriptures and everything.

boy is this an incredibly morbid post.

now if only their catalog included the beatles...

i'd be happy as a pig in mud. yes, itunes updated their catalog and finally included some artists that i've been DYING for...the stuffies, kim wilde, elvis costello, bob dylan...i managed to scratch half the obscure songs i have on a wish list in 15 minutes. now if only they'd urban dance squad (deeper shade of soul), whale (hobo humpin' slobo babe) , and more meat puppets (back water, sam) and kirsty maccoll (walking down madison) i'd be ever so happy.

i also finally got HP7 in the mail today, a week after it came out. about a quarter of the way thru it. it's a pretty quick read, for me anyway. also finally got 1 question, 2 answers which hubby ordered for me nearly a year ago for my xmas pressie but because it's a hard book to get a hold of, the order got cancelled, until 2 weeks ago i found a copy floating on amazon and ordered it. so now i have a lot of stuff to read.

ran to my favorite yarn shop to pick yarn for hubby's cousin's wedding afghan. i picked plymouth yarns 75/25 blend in a pretty pale bluish heathery colorway. my cousin's wedding colors are different blues and hopefully the afghan will have a faded denim sort of look. (just thought, could've looked at the rowan denims line. oh well). i have 11 months to make it. yesterday i spent an hour looking at stitch patterns and picking 20 types of cables, panels and stitches, which may get cut to either a 9 or 12 square afghan. also found some yummy purply blue debby bliss boucle and a second ball of DB cotton in apricot so i can knit something with it (just don't know what yet. somehow knitting up a dishrag in debby bliss seems sacreligious).

bathtime.