Adventures in Domesticity

Who wants honey/As long as there's some money/Who wants that honey?

As silly as it sounds the Smashing Pumpkins album Siamese Dream is a really important album to me.  I'd never really listened to all that much music until I put that cd on and the opening drum rolls of Cherub Rock (the lyrics in the title are from that song) came on.  Ever since then I've been hooked not just on the '90s alternative rock that first grabbed me, but all good music.

I've been fortunate to see the Pumpkins in concert in both 1996 at the Target Center and in 1998 at the free outdoor show in downtown Minneapolis that drew over 100,000 people.  On Tuesday Carl and I headed to Roy Wilkins' Auditorium to see them for a third time, but the first without original band members James Iha and D'Arcy.  I was a little concerned that without them the show wouldn't measure up, but it did.  They played a ton of old stuff to go along with some of the new stuff off Zeitgeist (an album I don't own and haven't actually heard most of), and Billy Corgan (while not aging gracefully) still rocks.  The crowd wasn't fabulous, but that is too be expected when those of us who weren't in diapers when Siamese Dream first came out are a little old to be crowd surfing and in mosh pits.  We don't want to break a hip, you know.

If you have the chance to see them, do.  Below is the set list if you are interested:

1. United States 2. Rocket 3. That's The Way (My Love Is) 4. Neverlost 5. Drown 6. Bring The Light 7. Stand Inside Your Love 8. Tonight, Tonight 9. Tarantula 10. Zero 11. Glass and the Ghost Children 12. 1979 13. Perfect 14. To Sheila 15. Bullet with Butterfly Wings 16. Hummer 17. Home 18. Superchrist 19. Doomsday Clock 20. Heavy Metal Machine 21. Cherub Rock (first encore) 22. With Every Light (second encore) 23. Today (third encore)

Apart from the concert I just completed my second week at my new job and things are going very well.  My coworkers are great and I'm loving the chance to be a "real" attorney.  I actually had my first court appearance on Wednesday and even though it was a default motion where the Defendants didn't appear it was nice to get that out of the way.

Anywho, that's all for now.  It's almost time to watch the Hawkeye football team get blasted again.

Craig

 

My toe is many colors.

So I said awhile back that I was going to try and post more.  Well, it only took a few months for me to post for a second time.  Anyway.  The following is what I've been up to.

1) Had a three week long murder trial for a murder that occured in January 1978 when I was a Zygote.  Back then a gas station attendant was beaten to death and it was never solved.  Two guys were suspected, but they had an alibi in that they were shooting someone in Minneapolis at the time of the murder.  So....fast forward to 2003 and the case was reopened and our Defendant was eventually arrested and charged.  It was a difficult trial because the case had to proceed under the law of 1978, and two of the three charges against the Defendant don't even exist anymore.  Needless to say I had to do A TON of research, and it isn't over quite yet because he now needs to sentenced under the law of 1978.  If you want more info feel free to ask, but I can't tell you all that much yet because the case is likely to be appealed.

2) I'm back on the baseball diamond as an assistant coach for Aliperto Ranch of the East Twins Babe Ruth League.  Yes, that's right, I've been entrusted with teaching 14 and 15 year olds how to play the game.  I'm enjoying it so far, although our record is quite poor, and I don't think I've permanently damaged any of the kids yet.  I have, however, damaged myself.  At last night's game a wicked foul line drive came at me, and I couldn't get out of the way fast enough, and the ball crushed my left big toe.  It is very bruised, but I don't think it is broken.

3) The basement project has slowed quite a bit while we build up the funds to buy the next round of supplies.  I have, however, made the changes required by the inspector and now have no further use for the nail gun.  <sniff> <sniff>  It is soon to be sold to Carl's dad, though, so it won't be too far away, and I can pine for it like the Norwegian Blue pining for the fjords.

4) Scrubs got picked up for a seventh and final season.  Yay!

5) I've been rereading a lot of Kurt Vonnegut lately, insipired by his passing, and just have to say, if you've never read any Vonnegut, do it!

Ting-a-ling.

Craig's Idle Thoughts

I thought it was about time that I make my very first post on our various blogs.  These are some things that have been bouncing around in my head.

1) Power tools rule, and the day the nail gun was invented was a great day in world history.  If I was having to do our basement framing with a regular hammer it would take a year and a half and I would have fingers that look like this:

 

2) I was recently introduced to the single greatest music website in history, www.pandora.com.  You enter a band, song, or genre and it plays songs that have the same musical characteristics.  You can then tell the website if you like a song or not and the future playlist will take that into account.  I've discovered some great music due to it.

3) I have one of the weirdest jobs in history.  Where else will you get a call from a probation officer wondering if going to strip clubs is the same as "buying or possessing pornography" for the purposes of a probation violation.  Turns out, it isn't.

That's about it for now, but I'll post more often in the future.