roger wilco
Leah and Dan went out to a show tonight, using tickets very kindly donated to us by someone who won them from a radio station but couldn't make the concert. It was Wilco that we saw, and, never having heard a note from them before, I thought that they sounded pretty good. The only problem was we had to sit through the whole opening act first, and they weren't so good, and they were also incredably too loud. Which leads me to wonder, why are the mixes at rock shows always so bad? It isn't the volume alone, its the fact that the volume makes all the band's sound blend together in a uniform mush that is both boring and painful in its loudness. It seems like the sound guys expect the audience to be listening to the show through fancy high-end ear plugs; we didn't have any of those, but we did our part to comply by sticking our fingers in our ears throughout most of the opening act's performance (they were called 'The Fiery Furnaces', for anyone who cares. Wilco was loud too at times, but they were better mixed and they also comprehend dynamics, so it was much more bearable and indeed pleasant at times. Still, nothing too exciting--at their best they sounded like an average Sonic Youth song--so when Leah started feeling tired I was happy to leave early with her. I guess we're just old. It was still fun though.
service is state of Nothing
You see that Circuit City changed their slogan: I don't remember what it is now, but if you'll recall it used to be 'welcome to Circuit City, where service is state of the art' or some such. Well clearly that had to go, because we were in their the other day and their service is, well, not good. Or maybe that's too harsh: if you're interested in hearing a dissertation on the methods and benefits of pirating movies, I'd have to say you'd be all set at Circuit City in Burlington. Unfortunately, all we wanted to do was buy a DVD player. We were thwarted in that ambition, sadly, and in addition we were unable to escape the 'sales' 'help' who was determined to tell us about how he copied rented DVDs and saved himself a good deal of money; all the better for him, I suppose, if he's a movie fan on a Circuit City salary, but we didn't really need to hear about it at such length. Anyways, we eventually escaped, and don't plan to return to Circuit City for hardware purchases in the near future.
And a DVD player, by the way, has been ordered from Amazon.
introducing Mr. A-------d
Yeah, I think it's weird too, but since I've started a new job as a classroom aide at in a public school kindergarten, I'm now Mr. A-------d. There's a kid named Dan in the class, and whenever any of the other teachers says 'Dan, stop that!' I, ehm, at least turn my head.
At least we have our new DVD player now... Thanks, Amazon!
a visit to a butterfly farm!
Today my kindergarten class went on a field trip to the Butterfly Place in Westford, and we saw about a million butterflies. When we walked in the door of the atrium there, a greenhouse-like enclosure, we all--kindergartners and adults alike--were amazed to see the hordes of butterflies winging this way and that, like some sort of Saturday morning cartoon come to life. They were all sizes and shapes and colors, and all and all it was pretty neat. The only down side was driving to Westford and back in the school bus, especially since I had to go right back up Rt 128, that I had just driven down not an hour before. And then, of course, I had to do the same thing in reverse at the end of the trip. When you only have a four-hour school day it's hard to fit in a field trip that takes 45 minutes or more of driving, each way.
Still, I gave a positive enough review of the whole experience that Leah wants to go check out the little flutterers for herself. Sadly, the place is closing for the winter after this weekend, but if we don't make it out there this year it'll be an adventure for next spring.
mazel tov, Emmy!
Today we went to Emmy's Bat Mitzvah, and it was good fun. Or at least, the party portion was good fun; I confess I didn't understand much of what went on in the service, except I noticed that it was very long. At the party we even danced a little: people commented on how good Leah danced, and the kids pointed at me and laughed. A good time was had by all.
my girl is nice
Along with the DVD player, I ordered Leah a copy of her favorite movie, Mean Girls, and it came yesterday. Since we were both a little sick (read: alot sick), after we came home from the bat mitzvah we watched the whole movie through twice. Ah, the magic of DVDs: first we watched the movie plain, and then again with the commentary. And then there were all the special features: Leah is still watching them as I write this. Really, I don't know how folks survived before DVDs were invented, and I'm glad that we here in the squibix family have finally joined the twentieth century. We're so excited, we're talking about getting a microwave now.
fall crispness and apple
I'm not a terrible cook--I can follow a recipe and produce edible results--but I do have a problem producing entire meals. There's so much planning that's needed to manange making two dishes at once, to say nothing of managing the timing required to get them all on the table at the same time. Today I managed to cook two things for dinner and a third for desert, so maybe I'm starting to get the hang of things. And what a desert it is! Apple crisp (though the apples actually came out pretty mushy), the perfect desert for a delightful fall day like this one was. Sadly, I didn't really get out to enjoy the season because, as is Leah, I'm still trying to recover from this sickness that's been hanging around for a couple weeks now.
The other thing that's worth noting about the fall is Red Sox playoff baseball. Let's see how that goes.