IBM Playlist

I love iTunes gift certificates (don't worry, my birthday isn't until September and all of the major gift-giving holidays are over - in other words, this is not a hint).

Because iTunes gives me the ability to purchase only the songs I like vs. having to purchase an artist's entire "album", I haven't bought a CD in quite some time. In fact our normal tradition of buying a CD while on vacation was recently usurped by my burning of a homemade disc from iTunes and our own previously purchased music. And the other thing is, once you enter your gift certificate number, you have an automatic store credit so you don't have to spend it all at once - you can just purchase a song here and there as one strikes your fancy.

Baby sister got me my first iTunes gift card and I'm pretty sure I told her what songs I bought (if not, I'm sure she'll let me know after this posting!). But my most recent gift certificate came from my friends, the IBMers. This was a 2006 birthday gift that also came with a package of blank CD's. This past week I finally finished spending every last cent of my store credit. Here's a sampling of what I purchased over the course of the past four months:

+ Saving Grace, Tom Petty (without the Heartbreakers)

+ Rebel Yell, Billy Idol (good jogging, or getting mad, music)

+ Old Man, Liz Wright (good recommendation Ms. Postal Service)

+ How to Save a Life, The Fray (what can I say, I'm hooked on the music from Grey's Anatomy)

+ Southland in the Springtime, The Indigo Girls (I was making a CD for my mom who wanted to hear some of their music)

+ How We Operate, Gomez (just a cool new band that I like - shoot, I bet they were on Grey's Anatomy too?)

+ River, Sarah McLachlan (an awsome remake of Joni's original)

+ Easy, Barenaked Ladies (I love them and you really need more on your iPod than "If I had a Million Dollars")

+ Stella, Andreas Vollenweider (good memories from the 80's)

+ Get Ur Freak On, Missy Elliott (my jogging "power song")

+ We Belong, Pat Benatar (more good memories from the 80's)

+ Better Life, Keith Urban (I had to see what all the fuss was about - I hate to admit it but I sort of like this song)

+ Give Blood, Pete Townshend (One of my all time favorites - for the tune, not necessarily for the lyrics)

Mind Your (blog) Titles

I have a free service attached to my blog called stat counter. You may have noticed it at the bottom of the blog as it's what counts how many times my blog has been viewed. As of today, the blog has been viewed almost 2000 times (thanks to my family I'm sure!). The service also has some other pretty cool features. StatCounter can tell me if someone has done a search for a particular word or phrase and then has been directed to a specific posting I've written. For example, in one of my prior posts, I included the above photo of a loripetalum. Someone did a harmless google search for "photo of a loripetalum" and was directed to my site. You get the picture.

But who would have guessed that someone looking for porn would be directed to my blog? One of my prior postings was entitled "No More Pantyhose". Well, just last week, someone from Korea was doing a search of English language blogs and typed in "no panty" (do you think they meant "no panties" or am I reading too much into it? I guess they could have meant "no pantry" and just had a typo?). Anyway, I'm sure whatever was intended, the person was probably quite disappointed to come upon my musings about nylons.

Hmmm...I'm wondering if I'm now going to regret putting the word "porn" in a posting????

My Cardinal Cups Runneth Over

It's not too often that I knowingly quote "The Bible", but my red cardinal cups runneth over ("Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over", Psalms 23:5).

In order to know what I'm talking about, you'd have to go back to my sixth ever blog posting. Click on the link and you can read the story.

Doc. B. had purchased me my own cardinal cup, but sadly I broke it. I was of course quite bummed. But in a synchronicitous act, one of my long-time friends mailed me one for Christmas :) She didn't even know about the broken one or that it had been sent off to recycling heaven. And then last week, I got a chance to see the original Red Cardinal cup, pictured above! "Leona", whose mother owns the cup, had been home over the holidays and got permission to take it across state lines to show it to me. So I made sure to get a photo of my bespectacled mug with the pariah mug. No, I didn't really drink out of it, I just pretended to put my lips on it...

Which Blog?

Photo courtesy of MoJo Pizza

I wasn't sure where to put this blog entry? I decided since the story prompted the lyrics vs. the lyrics prompting the story, I'd put in on the Blue Mailbox instead of One Good Line



“Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown...
For the times they are a-changin'.”

"The Times they are a-changin'", Bob Dylan

Last Saturday was a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine, could you be mine... Hello neighbors. Can you say "global warming"?

I started off the unseasonably toasty morning by going to work from 6:00 am to 1:00 pm. When I got home, Doc. B. and I decided to walk up to the Universal Joint for lunch and a beverage. The patio was overflowing with customers and dogs but we found a seat in the sun, placed our order, people watched, and admired the changes we’ve witnessed in our 'hood.

The first time we set foot in Oakhurst was probably about 8 years ago. Our friends had just purchased a home in the neighborhood and invited us to dine with them at the local pizza joint, MoJo’s. I recall being so scared by the seedy looking characters walking by that I seriously thought we were asking for trouble by sitting in one of the booths by the big picture window. Can you say "drive by shooting"? We vowed if we finished our meal alive, we’d need not venture back any time soon.

Now I’m grateful that MoJo’s, and others who followed, decided to give Oakhurst a chance. And I'm glad we eventually did too. It’s really turned into a very pleasant place to live.

As we were walking home from lunch, we ran into our friend "MAD". Well, actually, he ran into us since he was the one cruising around on his moped. MAD gets credit for giving our fair neighborhood the nickname "O-town". So MAD stopped to shoot the bull with us for a while. As we stood on the street corner catching up after the holidays, we became aware that others were also enjoying the weather. People were jogging, walking with baby strollers in tow, or driving with convertible tops down. It didn’t occur to us that all of the people we were noticing happened to be white until a car full of young black men pulled up to ask us for directions. The passenger opened his door and asked if there were any parks in the neighborhood. We started naming them off and they kept saying, "no, I don’t think that’s it". I finally said "what are you looking for, hoops?" They indicated that they were. That triggered my memory. I remembered that I had seen a lot of guys playing basketball at a park in the neighborhood next to us, East Lake. So I told them where it was and how to get there and they responded with "is it in a black neighborhood"? The three of us just looked at each other; glanced at the unusually large, seemingly endless flow of white people around us; shrugged our shoulders; and said "yeah, I guess you could say that."

Oh, the times, they are a-changin'...