What's in your iPOD? A Music Meme

OK, admit it. You have some real cheesy songs on your iPOD (or Zune or other MP3 player of your choice). You know, those songs you only sing in the car when you are by yourself or maybe in the shower.

To say that my taste in music is eclectic is quite the understatement. I enjoy music - plain and simple. If it evokes an emotional response in me or if I can relate to the lyrics in some way, it will most likely find its way onto my play lists - no matter the genre. I have songs on my iPOD ranging from hardcore heavy metal to classical. It's not about liking just one style of music, its about gravitating towards a certain rhythm or reminiscing about a song from your childhood. And that can come in many, many forms and styles of music.

So as Anna Nalick sings in 'Breath (2 AM)' -- which is on my iPOD -- "And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd / Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud / And I know that you'll use them, however you want to" -- I challenge you to list the top 5 songs on your MP3 player that you'd simply prefer to keep to yourself lest you reap the harassment of friends and family . . . and why they are on there.

I'll start. Here goes (deep breath) . . .


1. Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bonnie Tyler) - That smokey, raspy voice just conjures up memories of 80's music that I grew up on. Maybe the original "power ballad". I crank this one up to 11.

2. Les Mis Soundtrack - Possibly the best musical ever performed (well, at least for the soundtrack). Do you hear the people sing?


3. Glamorous / Fergalicious / Big Girls Don't Cry (Fergie) - Maybe another 80's connection for me. You remember Stacey Ferguson from "Kids, Inc." don't you? Seriously, how can you top lyrics like "I'll be up in the gym just working on my fitness"? All I can say, is that it's "D to the E to the L-I-C-I-O-U-S!

4. Celestial Soda Pop (Ray Lynch) - Completely new age and totally synthesized, this instrumental has a hauntingly catchy beat. I would nearly wager my next paycheck that no one has ever heard this song, let alone has it on their iPOD.


5. Forever Young (Alphaville) - If you are a bit of a romantic and went to high school in the 80's or 90's, then you are probably familiar with this tune. You maybe even slow-danced to it at a mixer. Ah . . . what fond memories of being rejected by members of the opposite sex!

Now, let the tagging begin. Let's see. Jeff, Nic, and Amy. You're it!

A Day Underground

On Saturday, we wanted to go out and do something different. After Meg nixed the idea of shooting the children with paintball guns, we decided to take a ride out to Crystal Cave in Kutztown, PA (technically it's in Virginville . . . yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun). And despite feeling like we were making a futile trip to Wally World, we actually had a great day.

Founded in 1871, Crystal Cave is the most popular natural structure in Pennsylvania. They offer a 45 minuted guided tour of the cave (which is a pleasant 54 degrees year round!) including an 8 minute movie about formation of the cave and its discovery.

After purchasing our cave tickets ($10.50 for adults, $6.50 for kids 4-11, under 4 is free), we made our way up (and up and up and up) to the entrance of the cave.

Tours run about every 20 minutes, so we had a time to catch our breath a bit at the top and take some pictures.

Once inside, visitors are treated to a magnificent display of nature's awesome work. Some cave formations are created of hundreds of thousands of years. Though but a blink in geologic time, that timescale is nearly inconceivable to us. As oils on our fingers could indefinitely stunt the growth of the stalactites, stalagmites, flow stone, an other nature creations, we are reminded not to touch the interior of the cave - except where and when we are told.

After re-emerging into the hot summer air, we scaled back down to the main facilities where we enjoyed some Amish style fast food (beef and pork bbq and pierogies).

We then tried our hand and "panning" for gem stones and fossils, and AJ walked away with a sizable bag of each. Actually, bags of "loaded" dirt and sand are available in the gift shop in various sizes and prices.

Before leaving Crystal Cave, we had to indulge in one more summer time treat - hand dipped ice cream from Hershey's. Chocolate with rainbow sprinkles for Shane Victorino . . . err . . . AJ, Butter Pecan for Meg, and Denali Moose Tracks for me. Yum. Abby is not so interested in the sweets. Weirdo.

On the way home, we stopped at a farm for some freshly harvested sweet corn. And given the fact that it is quite infrequent that I pass one, we had to make a pit stop at Yocco's Hot Dogs for a Doggie Pac that we thoroughly enjoyed that night for dinner. Double yum!

Some T21 Ink

Meg and I went last Sunday to get some new ink from Billy at Liberty Tattoo. My second, her first. I love tattoos -- always have. I'm a huge Miami Ink fan and I find many tattoos fascinating. Although I admire many of the ones I see, I don't necessarily want them on my body. For example, I may see an amazing rendition of a human skull with a snake crawling through its lifeless eye sockets, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to get one. Likewise, tribal tattoos can have amazingly intricate patterns, but last I checked, I didn't have and Fijian ancestors.

No, any tattoo I have must mean something to me. And the ones we got last week certainly mean something. Down Syndrome Awareness ribbons. Here are some pics. Enjoy.

Revelations - Coming Full Circle

Tonight, after taking his shower and getting his pj's on, AJ, without socks on, reveals to me the following:

AJ: Dad, do you know why I always want to sleep with my socks on?

Me: No, AJ, I don't. Why?

AJ: Because I'm afraid that you or Mommy might sneak into my room at night and try to cut my toenails.

Me: Well, what would you say if I told you that one night, I came into your room with a flashlight and took off your sock and clipped your toenails?

AJ: Ha! No way, Dad. You don't have a flashlight.

Looks like the kid was smarter than me . . . he was wearing socks long before I took up my covert-ops mission!

And 2 More Makes 5

Just a quick congratulations to our dear, dear friends in Dallas who welcomed twins into their family last week. Both Hudsen and Tate entered our world healthy and hefty (nice job, Ash!). Here's hoping Mom and Dad are hanging in there with 3 kids under 2 (for another week or so anyway). Oh boy!

And girl!

And another girl!

Oh, and thanks for increasing the Eagles fan population of Dallas by two!

I Be A Thogger!

I am honored and humbled (and embarrassed since it's taken me so long to accept this!) to be nominated as a Thogger -- a blogger that makes you think -- by Nicole over at All4MyGals. Nic is the Mom of, you guessed it, 4 beautiful young ladies and her second oldest, Tarenne, has also been blessed with "a little something extra".

These are the rules for this honor:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme (see link above)
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is a silver version or gold ).

So, here we go . . .

1. In the category of "Pretty Sure This Blog Has Never Been Nominated" . . .

Jeff at Out With The Kids

2. In the category of "Not Sure If This Blog Has Ever Been Nominated, But If It Has It Deserves Another" . . .

Tammy and Parker at Praying For Parker

3. In the category of "Already A Thogger, But No Matter Who You Are You Have To Admire Her Strength, Courage, and Faith" . . .

Heather at Especially Heather

4. In the category of "A Blog That Meg Told Me To Nominate" . . .

Cher at Cake For Breakfast

5. And finally, in the category of "Probably Invented The Thinking Blogger Award And Was Nominated In The Post That Nominated Mind Flakes" . . .

Dave Hingsburger at Chewing The Fat

Just For Fun - LOST

In a slight departure from most of my posts, I thought I'd share this little gem I found on YouTube. Even if you are not a LOST fan (huh?) you have to admire this guy's mad Photoshop skillz.

Presenting John Locke in fast forward . . .

I have to start a blog . . . so I did

AJ hates having his toe nails clipped. HATES it. Screaming, crying, kicking, and generally freaking out is pretty much the norm. He's been like that with his toe nails since he's been born. We got away with it for a long time as I think the crawling around on carpet in bare feet would file the nails down for us!! His finger nails? No problem whatsoever. None. Heck, he'll even cut them himself.

So the nails on his one foot in particular have gotten pretty ridiculous. On Sunday night, I decided to do something about it. When I went up to bed, around 10:30 or so, I brought with me not a flashlight, but a head lamp. Yes, a head lamp like a miner would use. I got it as a White Elephant gift this past Christmas and I figured this would be the most logical way to break it in.

I crept into his room and went to the foot (no pun intended) of his bed. Nail clippers in hand, I went under the comforter and crawled, commando style, to my target. Socks. The kid won't sleep without socks on. Slowly, I removed one of his socks. Great Scott! I had not seen his toe nails, up close anyway, in quite sometime. Ever see the picture of that lady with finger nails like 3 feet long and they are all curled under? Yeah? Well, it didn't look like that, but still. He was sleeping on his belly, so his nails were facing down. This was going to be tricky.

At this point, Meg had come upstairs. She knew the plan and was there to draw fire, should AJ wake up. I was trying to think of what would go through his mind if he woke up, looked under his covers, and saw me with a head lamp on, one of his socks off, and clipper in hand. That it would have been ugly is all I can say for sure.

And so I started clipping. I opted for the unorthodox little-toe-to-big-toe strategy. I figured I needed to get out of there with as few clips as possible. I wasn't trying to get points for neatness and so I was unsure about going for the honking big toe first and having to make multiple clips. I need to start with a clip-to-toe ratio that was in my favor.

Clip - little toe done.
Clip - next toe (ring toe?) done.
Clip - middle toe done.
Clip - index toe(?) done.

I had my little stack of nail clippings piled up for removal upon completion of the mission (I had decided that this would be a one foot job). I was home free -- which, oddly enough, is always right where you are when disaster strikes. He was moving, stirring, whimpering. My wingman, err, Megan pushed my head down to the floor so I'd be out of his sight. I covered my head lamp with my hand for good measure. Meg said, "Hey, AJ" as if she had casually bumped into him at the grocery store and as if there was not a covert toe nail clipping mission going on right under his nose.

He settled down, and I moved back into position. CLIP. The big toe. I knew it would take more than one, and sure enough there it was. The last nail. Hanging there. Taunting me. He moved again. Tossed and turned. I went for it, trying to pull it the rest of the way off. It was there, between my fingers, and just like that I missed my opportunity. I was getting hot under there. It was getting hard to breathe. Suddently, he turned over one last time. This was it. It would be all or nothing. I grabbed his foot to hold it still and I took the shot. Got it. But now I needed to get out of there. I had no time to find the button to turn off the head lamp. So in one motion, I covered the light with my hand, ducked out from beneath the covers, pivoted around to face the door, and as I passed Meg on my way out, I somehow tripped over the 3/8" pile in his carpet and just about took a header into the wall outside of his room.

We made it into our bedroom and nearly collapsed with laughter. After we settled down, Meg said that we should write this down so that we'd always remember it. Somehow, I don't think I'll forget this. The next morning, when he came out of his room, he had his other sock back on. He mentioned that when he woke up, it was lying next to him, so he had just put it back on. I asked him if he had ever heard of the toe nail fairy and he said he hadn't. I dropped the subject.