Perfect for Decompressing

My favorite disc to chill out to lately is Andrew Bird's Noble Beast. This song, "Oh No", is the first track and sets the mellow, yet incredibly musical vibe for the thirteen songs to follow. Bird plays a variety of instruments on this compilation including the a masterful guitar and violin.

He's also an expert whistler.

Kick back, relax and enjoy this live version, the best of the lot to choose from on YouTube.

Owly, The Cutest Owl In The World

I know it's super-duper gorgeous outside today, but take a moment and read my review of Andy Runton's Owly comic over at The Full Mommy, OK? OK.

Because The Sun Is Shining

A little fun Fred Schneider for a sunny Spring day. I love this song, "Monster", from Fred's solo album Fred Schneider and the Shake Society. Kate Pierson, also of The B-52's, sings on four of the album's tracks (including this one). That's her in the video, too, and Tina Weymouth of The Talking Heads makes an appearance as well.

This song hearkens back to my college days and maybe I'm a little nostalgic lately because I'm in the midst of compiling mix discs for a reunion coming up in a couple of weeks.

So. much. fun.

Get up and dance.

If this fails to make you shake your booty, notify your next of kin because I'm afraid you are dead.

Q: Wanna Know What's Torture?

A: Going to Chicago's Brookfield Zoo on a glorious, sunny Saturday afternoon and leaving the camera at home.

Yep, we traveled north to my mother-in-law's home Friday evening and as we merged onto I-57 I remembered the camera. Everything else was packed: Easter goodies for the kinder (my 2 plus 2 nieces and 2 cousins), clothes (except I forgot dress socks for Evan), birthday gifts for my sister-in-law, and the assorted flotsam and jetsam that comes along for the ride (Evan and Flynn's blankies, stuffed animals, pillows, etc.). Everything except the camera, the one item I almost always bring.

Bugger.

So instead of viewing what were sure to be awesome photos, you'll have to use your imaginations.

And of course the polar bears were surprisingly active, as were the gorilla babies (chasing each other all over their environment, one running back to its mother when the play got a little too rough - my mother-in-law and I could've watched them all day), a tiny cotton-top tamarin was not six feet from me, just hanging out on a branch over the path through the primate exhibit. He was so cool, chirping away at his admirers. A grizzly bear was curled up asleep next to the window looking into his open-air enclosure. He was hugging a traffic cone.

I tried not to agonize over the missed photo opportunities.

We also walked through the new dinosaur exhibit, Dinos Alive!. It had just opened last weekend and displayed 18 animatronic dinos ranging in size from a massive Ruyang Yellow River dino to the smallish Baryonyx. My little boy was in dinosaur heaven. Flynn, not so much, but afterwards proclaimed to have enjoyed it. Evan was disappointed there was no Velociraptor, but quickly got over it and LOVED walking down the path through the robot dino habitats, four of which zoogoers were allowed to manipulate from interactive remote-control panels. I wish I had a picture of Evan working the Allosaurus controls. Or one of the look on his face as he triggered the motion sensor on the Baryonyx. He must have jumped a foot into the air as the puppet moved and growled.

Gah.

I think I need to leave a camera in the car at all times.

Film Review: The Tale of Despereaux

Find out what I thought of the DVD version of The Tale of Despereaux here.

Maybe Just One More

I was with the 4th graders again today and will be with them tomorrow as well. Generally, I enjoy my days with them; they're smart and funny, though at times I could staple their butts to their chairs and put tape over their mouths.

Today during reading class we were discussing "judgments" and "decisions." In their text book was this still from Charlie Chaplin's classic 1939 film Modern Times:
We were discussing man's role with machinery/technology and I told them a little about 1930's American life. Echoing my previous experience, one kid pipes up with "Were you there?"

I was temporarily speechless then 20 other 9-year-olds jumped to my defense. "She's not that old!", "She's young!", "You never ask a woman about her age or her weight. Don't you know anything?" Then they wanted to know what my age is. I told them. I have nothing to hide.

One little boy said, "39? No way. I thought you were 27."

I now want to adopt this precious, precious child.

An Interesting Mental Image To Say The Least

Yesterday, the family and I bundled into the car and headed out to do some plant shopping. Well, it was more like window shopping since we weren't planning on buying anything; just getting ideas for when we have the time, like in May, when we can put things in the ground.

As we're heading north on Staley Road, we passed a construction site.

Evan pipes up with, "Hey, look! It's a portal potty."

Frank said, "Yeah. It's called the T.U.R.D.I.S."