Officially Technological

I’m a little ashamed (but obviously not enough to make me stop writing) to say that last week I bought a Charlotte Church CD. First of all, I almost never buy CDs. I’m not much of a listen-to-a-CD kind of girl. I like the radio, and call me crazy but even an entertaining commercial now and then is a completely acceptable way to spend a commute. So, I have long viewed CD’s as an unnecessary expense. My husband, the owner of hundreds of CD’s (that are currently being downloaded onto his Zune so he can listen to them even more), does not share this opinion. I think that the last time I purchased a CD was two Christmases ago when I heard a Christmas song on the radio that “inspired” me.

One might ask what a non-CD purchaser (such as myself) is doing buying a Charlotte Church CD. Charlotte Church, though she has an absolutely gorgeous voice, is the kind of person that is half painful for me to listen to since she reminds me so much of being such a band-geek in high school. Not that she’s a geek or anything, because I’ve never met her. But I can’t help feeling that since she’s been a famous classical singer since she was a little girl, she must be a geek, or at the very least not quite normal (much like me). Anyway, she kind of reminds me of high school, so typically I can’t listen to her music without feeling a pang.

However, I overcame my desire to not spend good, hard-earned money on something I could hear for free on the radio, and I conquered the undeniable twinges of geek-hood to obtain “Prelude” by Charlotte Church. What could arouse such a transformation, you may ask.

It is “The Flower Duet” from “Lakme”. It’s a beautiful piece. It gives me chills. I first heard it on an unassuming day at Michigan State, back in the days when I had 24/7 access to the perfect NPR station. It was a beautiful Michigan fall day when it was still quite warm and the leaves were changing colors and the sky was bright blue (like it is in the summer, not pale blue like in the winter). It was the kind of day that makes you glad to be a Michiganian. Anyway, Charlotte Church has a beautiful version of this song. As I drove home on a rainy January Friday in Indiana, I skipped to song eleven on my CD and felt refreshed, and like somehow it added a little poetry to my life. I guess that’s how good music is.

You would think that a couple that is so busy they don’t have time to make dinner would have a lot to write about on a blog. But we don’t. However, if you want to read an exhaustive review of how to potty train a puppy, or the seemingly endless descriptions of dog-toys and treats, we could, with some eloquence fill infinite blogs.

I don’t want to bore my 3 faithful readers with lots of dog stories; however, I do want to tell you (because it’s actually clever and funny) that Sam has out-smarted his Kong. For you non-dog-owners, a Kong is a rubber toy that is shaped like a snowman with a big hole in the bottom. You fill the hole with food (such as peanut butter, treats, or cheese) and then the dog has to chew on it to get stuff out. Most dogs find this to be entertaining for hours, but Sam has everything out in 15 minutes flat, which made us wonder what he was doing. It turned out, he would get out all the sticky stuff with his tongue, and then when there were only treats left in it, he would put the Kong on a hard surface and bat it with his paw to make it spin and then the hard treats would come flying out. I think it’s a little depressing that my dog is smarter than me.

But enough about the dogs. Aw, just one more quick thing. Maggles (the new nick-name craze for Maggie) is now growing at the alarming rate of 2 lbs per day. She will likely turn into a small moose (don’t tell her I said that – girls don’t like to be compared to a moose). She’s super cute and her skin is still baggy like she plans on growing some more. I think she looks like she’s wearing a costume, but I can’t find the zipper.

And really briefly, Mags voice changed literally over-night. On Sunday evening she was barking at the neighbor’s dog and it sounded like a little puppy-dog yip (all scratchy and rough like puppies). Then on Monday night she nearly gave me a heart-attack because when she barked she sounded like a large fully grown dog. Like WOOF! WOOF! I thought another dog must be eating her alive so I ran outside and it was Maggie making such adult-like noises. It was strange. She was barking at nothing and very intently, so I think she was kind of impressed at the sound of her own voice. Like, “A-hem *delicately* WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!” Brian thought she was like the lion that learned to roar.

Boy, I’m glad I made it all the way through this post without talking about the dogs too much, because if I had talked about the dogs this whole time everyone might think I’m weird, like I don’t have a life or something…

The mundane details of my life are pretty mundane.

The count-down to our vacation is starting to get a teensy bit out of control. Days of work left? One more day, then five more days, than four more days. Yeeeeeeah! I don't know that I've ever been so excited about a vacation in my life. Not that I'm expecting it to be perfect, just not getting up every day and going to work. Yep. That's enough for me.

Last night I made chicken stew for dinner. It was good. Unfortunately, it's heart-attack in bowl. In order to make chicken interesting enough to make into a stew, you have to put all kinds of goodies in there. Like cream of chicken soup and sour cream, and the like. But it was good. It was nice to eat at home for a change (I never thought I'd hear myself say that).

Um... that's about all the details that are even interesting enough to be considered mundane. :) Have a good evening.