I was introduced to Tom Waits' music in 1989 on a road trip to Las Vegas and Los Angeles with my friend Jennifer Brown. On a drive that long you have plenty of time, so it was possible to get aquainted with a lot of his work.

One thing you can count on Tom Waits to do is to hit you in the gut with his lyrics. Sometimes they're hauntingly beautiful, sometimes they're funny and sometimes they're pretty darn spooky.

For the last couple of years, I've stuck on Don't Go Into That Barn, mostly because of the chilling lyrics:

Bank since Saginaw Calinda was born
It’s been cotton, soybeans, tobacco and corn
Behind the porticoed house of a
Long dead farm
They found the falling down timbers
Of a spooky old barn
Out there like a slave ship
Upside down
Wrecked beneath the waves of a rain
When the river is low
They find old bones and
When they plow they always
Dig up chains

If I knew how to embed music here, I'd put this song in so you could listen to it.

Whose music do you find moving because of the lyrics or music or whatever? Any road trip songs?

Labels: music

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  Milk prices expected to rise 9 percent

Dairy economists predict the retail price of milk could rise as much as 30 cents per gallon — a 9 percent jump — by fall. The reasons include rising fuel and feed costs for farmers and increasing demand for milk products around the globe.

The average retail price of whole milk could rise to $3.35 per gallon by October, up from $3.07 in January, said Ken Bailey, an agricultural economist at Penn State University who specializes in the dairy industry.

I tell you what, that's enough to make me consider relactating.

Labels: newsworthy

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  Dang, apparently we really are totally sick!

After this crud just kept going on and on, I just decided to go in and have strep tests done. We don't have a lot of throat issues, but at this point I was desperate to get to the bottom of all this.

Of the 6 of us, only one didn't test positive. And, my bet is that she'll end up growing it out in her culture. They're treating her with antibiotics, too, since it's fairly likely she just got a false negative. (Interesting fact I learned from the doctor today: About 1 in 4 rapid strep tests return a false negative. Just like my kids' did! Good to know that at least according to this my family is fairly normal...)

After we heard back from the pediatrician's office, we headed over to the urgent care to get ours done, since it was after hours by then.

Davin tested positive and was given a prescription and allowed to go home.

My doctor said something you really just don't want to hear:

"Your strep test is positive, but that's not really your biggest problem right now."

Of course, if you've been reading here for long, you realize that I have all sort of problems, but I didn't really think they were THAT easy to tell by looking! I like to think I can pass among the sane population for at least a few minutes before people are on to me... ;-)

Sorry, going off-topic.

He said the my "biggest problem" was that I was dehydrated, and because of that I was tachycardic. In other words, my pulse rate was very high (at one point it was 137 bpm. Dang!)

So, I got 2 liters of IV fluid to help get me back to normal, and warnings that I was to continue drinking as much water as possible to catch the rest of the way up. So, I've been up all night peeing.

Oh, and on top of all that, I have a sinus infection, too.

It's good to know that all this whining I've been doing has the strong support of the medical community.

Lest you all think I forgot about you while I was at the Urgent Care, I took a photo of myself to show you! This is me and the arm the IV was in. I took the picture with Davin's camera phone in the other hand, then saved it and emailed it to myself so I could share it with you. Not bad, considering I couldn't bend one arm at all!



Hopefully we'll all be feeling well and back on track sooner rather than later, I'll keep you updated!

Labels: sick

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  I'm starting to think we're cursed.

Everything looked like it was getting a little better over the weekend, and we went to church and everything. Today Anya and I have fevers again, and my throat is all swollen and yucky.

I'm sorry, this has become the most boring blog in the world lately. I don't even have the energy to catch up with everyone else. I promise when we're back up to speed, I'll start posting.

At least we don't have big abscesses in our butts, poor Anna Nicole...

Labels: sick

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  Barely!

We came back from our weekend away to kids that had gotten a LOT worse. Then it hit Davin, too, and I think it's coming for me but I'm avoiding it so far. So, I'm mostly doing nursing duties around here, and trying to keep up with our co-ops, etc, with whomever is able to attend that day.

So, give us a little longer, and hopefully we'll all be back up to speed!

Labels: sick

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  I hope these are coming to Denver!

I'm out for the weekend, but I'll be back to let you know how it all went :-)

Labels: newsworthy

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  Human Voice Works Like a Jet Engine

Researchers have discovered an unlikely link between patterns of airflow in a jet engine and how the human larynx produces sound.

Obviously, these people have been around kids...

In other news, today is our anniversary, 15 years! Woohoo! Doesn't that sound grown up? I don't feel grownup, but I guess that will happen one of these days.

Labels: newsworthy

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  Yep, Wednesday is our 15th anniversary. It's hard to believe! I've actually known Davin for more than half my life.

We got married when I was 21 and he was 22. Now that seems so young, like we really were just kids. But, obviously we had enough on the ball to pick each other and get settled down. :-)

We're going away for the weekend, I'll tell you all about it when we get back. That is, unless we're all sick. If you're the type to pray, would you pray that we'll stay healthy? I'd appreciate it!

Labels: family, holiday

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  Aren't we?

Some folks apparentlythink so, as a bill has been introduced to change our state song to John Denver's Rocky Mountain High.

David Harsanyi analyzes what John Denver meant by Rocky Mountain "High."

I realize there has been considerable debate about whether Denver was referring to illicit drugs. Denver, before his accidental death in 1997, had publicly stated that "high" had nothing to do with drugs.

Fact No. 1: Every song written in the '70s was - implicitly or explicitly - about sex or drugs, often both. All the timeless pop groups we've come to love, from the Starlight Vocal Band to Dawn featuring Tony Orlando, prove this theory true.

Some readers, no doubt, will claim that Denver was referring to a spiritual awakening that can happen in the glorious Rocky Mountains. When Denver croons about friends around a campfire "and everybody's high," he merely means folks are high on life.

Fact No. 2: No one was high on life in the '70s. They were just high.

It could be worse, it could be Sunshine on My Shoulders. There he brings up the whole "high" thing again, stating that "Sunshine almost always make me high." Maybe Sunshine is code for something, since I've lived in Colorado a long time and never had any of these reactions to regular old sunshine. I've never had sunshine in my eyes make me cry, nor has it made me happy or high. Sunshine on the water does indeed look lovely at times, but other than that John's lost me.

Labels: newsworthy

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  I know that most of you are probably already aware of Engrish.com, but I just had so much fun going through it yesterday that I thought I'd put it out there again in case you've missed it or haven't been back lately.

According to the website, "Engrish can be simply defined as the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design." That doesn't sound funny, but MAN this site is always hilarious.

Sometimes you can tell what they were TRYING to say, for instance this lemon drink which appears to have a phonetical spelling mistake on it, or this restroom sign that is saying pretty much what they mean, but, well, you'll see. And then there are some that I just don't get.

I gotta go, I want to order myself this t-shirt, the sentiment is about perfect for wearing around the Horde...

Labels: link

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We're going to meet up with some other homeschoolers today and visit the Denver Art Museum. It's one of the last days to see Linda.

To create Linda, the Colorado-based artist took a plaster mold directly from the body of a living model, then cast the form in polyvinyl. Next, he meticulously painted the surfaces, including such tiny details as freckles, before he finished off by applying natural hair, brows, and eyelashes—strand by strand. He once said, “If I could make it breathe I’d say, ‘I’ve done a good day’s work now.’”

I first saw "Linda" on a field trip in high school. She looked so real that I actually gasped as the sculpture came into view and I wasn't the only one. We were all spellbound, which wasn't that common for a group of angst-ridden teenage punker geeks.

So, if you're down at the DAM today, stop in to see Linda, and say howdy if you see the Horde in there!

Labels: art, homeschooling, newsworthy

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  This is a conversation between my 11 year old and I the other day.

Anya: Do you ever get really angry?

Me: Yeah, sometimes. I think everyone does. Why?

Anya: When I get angry, I just wish I could breathe fire, or shoot spikes, or grow claws and rip everything up. But I can't, >sigh< so I just have to settle for being cranky...

I'm finding myself very grateful that she's not blessed with superpowers. I don't know how Superman's parents dealt with stuff like temper tantrums. How do you get a kid to take a nap when he can FLY right out of his crib? How can you ground him from the TV if he can use his X-ray vision to watch the neighbor's set? By all rights, he should have grown up to be a Superbrat. I think we all owe the Kent family a round of applause for how well he turned out!

Labels: kids

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