Category: Music

Lollapalooza 2013

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Lollapalooza

I’ve never attended Lollapalooza and had no plans on ever doing so; crowded outdoor festivals in the summer heat hold no appeal to me whatsoever. Then I learned that The Cure is one of the headliners this year. I was eagerly awaiting the official lineup announcement, which came this morning, to find out which day The Cure would be playing and what other bands might be sharing the stage with them.

Much to my dismay, The Cure is playing on Sunday, August 4th. As headliners they will likely be playing in the evening which means we would have to get there early to secure decent seats even though there aren’t any other good bands playing on Sunday (why oh why does New Order have to be playing on Friday???) and we would have to take that Monday off or suffer the consequences of lack of sleep (I’m going to assume for the moment that I’ll have a job by then). Basically we’d be trekking downtown in the heat and battling the crowds to pay $200+ just to see The Cure. Needless to say, as much as I love that band I’m leaning towards not going.

Making a final decision would be so much easier if I knew whether The Cure plans on touring the U.S. anytime soon. If so I wouldn’t hesitate to skip their Lollapalooza appearance. As it stands now there’s a 25% chance I’ll be begrudgingly purchasing tickets on Wednesday.

Podcasts & Kittens

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I’ve gotten super behind in the podcasts I listen to (all audio ones featuring dance music)! Many of them date back to October of last year. For some reason I don’t really listen to music lately even though I’m home all day and it’s the perfect opportunity. I think I was listening to it more when I was working as a sort of stress relief. I’d listen during my commute and also when I worked from home, although not as much in the last few months since things were so hectic with meetings and conference calls that I was lucky to listen to one song without being interrupted.

In other news, my foster application was approved! I could have a kitten or two as early as this afternoon. The organization I’m working with is picking up a few adult cats from the city this afternoon but they are guessing there will likely be some kittens they will need to place as well. I’ll know more later today. I can’t wait! I was able to get Bella to acknowledge the laser pointer today (previously she ignored it so much I thought she couldn’t see it) but she wasn’t quick to pounce on it like a kitten would be.

Good Time

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I’m in a much better mood than yesterday. How can I not be? I only have one more day of work before Joe and I have 9 glorious days off together which couldn’t have come soon enough. This week has been rough – I worked 10 hours of overtime. I don’t like working extra hours because I value my free time but I keep reminding myself those long hours are going to make for a nice paycheck, which, if I wasn’t so practical, I’d put towards an iPad mini. I admit it – I want one. It’s the perfect size to keep in my purse. But I don’t need one, so I’ll hold off… for now.

I’ve got a lot of stuff planned for my week off, including finally redeeming the massage gift card Joe gave me last Christmas. I kept putting it off for when I’d feel less stressed but let’s face it, stressed is my middle name, so I’ve got an appointment for Monday for a one hour Swedish massage – my first ever. I hope it goes well.

Oh and that title? I’m listening to the latest Owl City album. It’s too easy to download music cheaply these days. I found a $5 MP3 credit for Amazon so the album only set me back $3.

Every day I’m shufflin’

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I wish Facebook had a feature where you could unsubscribe from follow-up comments other people make on a status update that you commented on unless it’s the person who made the original update. I hate getting updates on crap that doesn’t matter to me. It’s the reason why I don’t comment as much on people’s updates as I otherwise would, especially if they are one of my more “popular” friends who tend to get 20 comments on one update.

Anyway, here’s what’s been going on around these parts since I’m a sucky blogger.

Home

Our garage door started acting funny a week or so ago where it would start to close and then halfway down it would go back up. It was doing it here and there before then but it got to the point where nothing would make it go down all the way. Joe had to open and close it manually to get our cars in at night and out in the morning which sucked since it’s been getting colder around here. Also yours truly didn’t have a nice warm car to get into when I left for work. But hey, at least I didn’t have to mess with the garage door! Joe figured out what was wrong – the plastic (yes, plastic) gear was shredded, so Sunday we went to the Sears parts store. $40 and an hour of Joe’s time later and it’s all fixed. That was our excitement for the week.

Movies

Hmm… what else? We saw Puss in Boots with Joe’s daughter last time she visited (his son couldn’t make it) and I thought it was a pretty good movie which was lucky since I had no idea what it was even about going in. I want to see The Muppets even though I’m not a muppet fan, because I like Jason Segal. Remember the Muppet Babies? I did watch that as a kid but I never liked the regular muppets. Rowlf was my favorite, but I hated Miss Piggy and always will. Someone needs to turn her into a BLT already. Oh, and we saw a 3D movie for the first time in years – A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. It was legend-… wait for it… -dary. So much better than their second movie. Possibly even better than the original.

Kids

I don’t think I wrote about the fact that we got K’s iPod Touch replaced by Apple for $150. They let us purchase a refurbished one. We took the money from K’s account since she broke it, though. Sucked to have to do that, but better than buying her a brand new one. She also broke her Kindle. Well, we aren’t sure if she broke it or if it had something wrong with it, but either way Amazon replaced it at no charge which was good. So when she was over last time it was like Christmas for her getting a new iPod Touch and Kindle.

Speaking of Christmas, I’m glad that the kids are older because instead of buying a ton of little things I only have to buy one or two things which means less time dealing with the crazy shoppers. This year we’re getting E a Kindle Fire (he already knows since he asked for it) and I don’t want to mention what we’re getting for K in case she knows about this site but I think she will find it very useful.

Holidays

We’re both off work Thursday-Monday so it will be a nice extended holiday weekend. I love Thanksgiving! What’s not to love about being encouraged to stuff one’s face? Hopefully all the exercising I’ve been doing lately will lessen the weight gain.

I have no plans on shopping on Black Friday, and didn’t want to go outside at all that day but I have to get a cat scan in the morning and then pick up the kids in the afternoon. I’m staying away from all the stores though!

I don’t even know what I want for Christmas. Nothing, really. I would like an iPad, but not the one that’s out now. I can’t justify spending $500 (and let’s face it, even if it’s a “gift” from Joe it’s all the same moolah) on a device that has a lower quality screen than my phone. Plus if I had it my way I’d prefer a 7″ tablet. Maybe next year they will introduce an iPad 3 mini. I’d be all over that.

I do like opening presents, but I’m so not into buying stuff just for the sake of it. I keep trying to get rid of stuff either by donating to Goodwill or selling on Craigslist and Facebook. I recently sold Dance Dance Revolution 2 to someone I used to work with. Joe got it for me because I asked for it but I ended up hating the game because I have no rhythm; plus the stupid dance pad took up too much space. I’m glad to see it gone. Another thing I need to get rid of already are the Disney souvenirs I bought for my coworkers on my honeymoon six years ago. I’m sure I wrote about this before but I was so pissed when I came back from my honeymoon to learn that essentially nothing was done the entire two weeks I was gone that I never handed them out. They’ve spent the last six years in a hall closet and I get angry all over again whenever I see them so it’s time to let it, and them, go already. I’m going to ask my mom if she wants to wrap them up for our annual game of Crazy Bingo this year. I really don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. I often have a hard time parting with things I’ve spent money on but I’ve come to realize it’s silly to hang onto things you’re never going to use just because you feel like you wasted your money. It’s wasted either way, so you might as well get rid of it and clear some space in your house. It’s been getting easier letting go of stuff once I see how less cluttered the closet looks without it around.

Anyway, I don’t know whether Joe and I will be exchanging gifts this year. He’s a pain to buy for and I can’t think of anything I really want, so we might go small this year. Maybe I’ll have him get me a few CDs or something.

Music

Speaking of music, in case anyone cares, these are the top five songs I’ve been playing lately. Feel free to share yours in the comments. I love discovering new music.

You Make Me Feel – Cobra Starship
Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5
Hello – Martin Solveig feat. Dragonette
Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO
Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People

My Birthday

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My 34th birthday was a week ago and I’ve gotten so used to not being able to take my birthday off from work that even though this was the first time in years I could have taken a vacation day, I didn’t bother. My reasoning was that a) it was cold and crappy outside anyway and b) I’d just have to go back to work on Friday and work even harder to get caught up from losing a day. So not worth it.

I started reconsidering that decision when I learned we were getting hit with some snow Wednesday evening into Thursday, but Joe and I decided he’d just drive me to work since the Escape has four wheel drive.

While I was in the shower he put two gifts on the sink that I discovered as I was drying off.

Inside were two very pretty necklaces. One is a sterling silver heart and the other is purple cubic zirconium shaped like a flower. I wore the purple one into work as I just so happened to have chosen to wear an outfit that matched.

After work we stopped at Blockbuster to rent a movie (Away We Go, which was not very good) and pick up a pizza from Lou Malnati’s. With the crazy weather I wasn’t up for a dinner at a restaurant.

After the movie I opened my presents.

Birthday Presents

I’m pretty disappointed with the CDs. It’s not Joe’s fault; I had them on my Amazon wish list. I just don’t know what I was thinking with The Cure tribute album as most of the songs are terrible. As for the Fatboy Slim CD, we both thought it was the same concert as the DVD we own, but it’s not. So that sucks.

Also one of my iPhone cases doesn’t fit quite right, but I contacted the manufacturer and they are willing to send me a replacement so that’s good. I really love iFrogz! I was thinking about buying a case from them for my iPod, but I’d rather have this skin instead.

I’m pretty excited about my DVD even though I haven’t gotten around to opening it just yet. I used to love The State so many years ago. I remember watching it at my grandparents’ house since my parents never had cable. Maybe I’ll check it out this weekend since we’re kid/plans free. We’re doing dinner and BINGO with friends tomorrow night, but Saturday and Sunday are wide open.