Music Plugs

I was reminded this weekend of a free music site that I’ve been using for a while now. I have apparently neglected to share the love but Cousin Tasha has discovered it just as I was introduced to it about a year ago.

You can find it at… http://www.pandora.com/

The site allows you to create you own online radio stations (no commercials!). Type in an artist or song you like and it will continuously play songs according to your tastes. It will begin playing songs from your selected artist, similar artists and songs, the bands that influenced your favorites or new artists that have been influenced by them, etc. You can then vote for each song as it plays (if you choose) giving your approval or forever banishing the songs you don’t want to hear from your personal airwaves. The system learns and remembers your personal preferences.

I’ve currently got eight stations at my disposal and I love hearing the stuff I like and discovering new songs and artists I didn’t know about without enduring the junk I don't care for.

Also…

I picked up the new Third Day album that released this week. Third Day is one of two bands that will get my purchase no questions asked so any review I would give them is completely biased. The long trek home from Chicago with sleeping passengers allowed me to give the disc four full listens yesterday. I’m liking the overall product very much and really like a good number of the songs on their own.

And finally…

I feel super cool when I know someone personally who is in a band that has an actual CD out. This has been the case four times before and will soon be the case again. My former workmate, good friend and all around great guy Brian is involved in a band that is pressing their first album this week. I’ve been listening to their stuff online and have been promised a copy of the CD which excites me and has me feeling very insider-ish.

Check them out if you wish at… http://www.myspace.com/thedivinersband

I especially like “Coming Home”, “State of Mind” and “Sell Your Childhood”. Mostly mellow stuff from this Los Angeles-based indie band.

Cattle in the Congregation?

Kellen’s not always the type to willingly play in the nursery while his parents head into the Sunday service. That means when we travel to see family and friends he’s likely to sit with us as we desperately try to entertain him as quietly as possible while bribing him with Cheerios to keep him from squawking.

As we were discussing this past weekend, we made a major error in this attempt over the 4th of July weekend in Iowa. I remember it being very quiet (during prayer perhaps?) when we handed Kellen a book to keep him quiet. The book that was grabbed from the diaper bag was his animal book…the one he’d been using to practice his animal sounds. The peace in the church was soon broken by a one year old boisterously unloading a…MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

We wisely left that book out of sight this past weekend.

Windy City Weekend

Nothing is better than…sleeping in your own bed…without additional visitors.

In the hotel over the weekend it was difficult to get both boys to go to sleep simultaneously and on time which meant putting Aidan on the pull out couch to drift into sleepiness while a very distracted Kellen stayed up way too late before finally succumbing to slumber in the bed between us. We would then put Kellen in his portable crib and move Aidan to the bed because he’s a roller and we didn’t want him falling out in the middle of the night. That shuffling of the sleeping kids kept Aidan from bouncing off the floor but meant he was twisting and rolling between us all night. All of these things plus the fact that any other bed is simply not your bed makes the act of trying to rest comfortably a difficult task. Alas we were more interested in what we got to do and who we got to see than the minor inconvenience of not sleeping in our own beds.

The weekend was great and the “not at home” sleeping will hardly be remembered. We got some additional hang out time with Andrea and Dave (Happy Anniversary!) on Saturday night and Aidan got to pick where we ate…which means we ate at Chili’s. Sunday we headed back to our church in Wheaton and it was great to see all of the familiar faces. We had a chance to chat and spend some time with friends before heading back to wrap things up playing at the park (below) and DQ’ing before bedtime.

Monday we all visited Ms. Sherri and the kids from Aidan and Kellen's former daycare. They boys got to run around with their buddies and lunch with them before we headed for home.

The drive between Chicago and Minneapolis is not too bad but certainly longer (seven hours) than the Iowa to Chicago/Iowa to Minneapolis drives (four to five hours) we trek along when we visit home. Big naps from the sleepy trio in the middle seat allowed me to drive along with my tunes and licorice navigating road construction and ignorant drivers in peace.

I’m feeling fully decompressed and rested from the journey this morning and ready devote my day to cleaning up our travel mess and entertaining Aidan who is already begging for something to do.

PHOTOS: Park

Two at the Zoo

Growing up I always found it quite amusing that the zoo had a section of farm animals. I guess I did not realize that not every child had an uncle or two with all of these animals available for viewing at anytime. Cows, pigs and the like were not the zoo, they were any day on the family farm. Of course if you don't have access to the farm these animals are just as exotic and rarely spotted as the lions, tigers and bears. That's the difference between growing up in Iowa against suburban Chicago or Minneapolis.

A former workmate of mine talked often of taking his son to the Cosley Zoo in the western burbs of Chicago. I decided to take the boys today along with Aunt Andi and Uncle Buv (that's Andrea and Dave) while Rachel was at her work function.

The zoo was predominantly those previously mentioned rural animals but for two boys who have grown up in suburban Chicago and Minneapolis (many miles away from their great uncle's farms) it was a hit.

I posted some photos below so Kellen can watch and spout out the appropriate noises.

Incidentally the rabbit shown is easily the largest I've ever seen.

PHOTOS: Cosley Zoo

Home Sweet Hotel

Recap of the family-of-four-unloads-all-their-belongings-into-a-hotel-room of last evening:

1. Check in and turn the boys loose in the room after a sizable car ride.

2. Boys bounce off walls, climb things, canvass every square inch of the room in 15 seconds.

3. I stroll through the lobby with load one and manage to bump the emergency call button in the elevator with my massive load of bags. I inform Eric that it is not an emergency situation.

4. I return to the room for the first time to find Kellen has already placed a call to the front desk, Guam or room 134...not sure which. Aidan is jumping from corner to corner on his new king-sized trampoline.

5. I stroll through the lobby and back (and the elevator) without incident but people are starting to notice me now.

6. I return to the room a second time to find Kellen changing the time on the clock radio...the music is blaring.

7. Third trip to and fro. I'm that guy with all the junk (arms full of toys this time).

8. I return to the room for a final time to find the boys have torn down the shower curtain, tied up their mother and have purchased 82 pay-per-view movies with the remote...o.k. that part's not true but it would have been really funny.

A bed big enough for two kings

Matching P.J.'s on a beautifully stripped couch