Happy Halloween!

Mr. Na as Thomas the Tank after Trick or Treating at KEXP. You can hear him on today's Cheryl Waters show during the 12:45 p.m. streaming archive at: www.kexp.org.

Gimmie a U!

Mr. Na on the UW football field while he waits for his Ma to finish the Dawg Dash.

Well, Bring On the Dancing Horses!

From Pitchfork News:

Echo and the Bunnymen Plan New Single, Tour

Zach Vowell reports:
Echo and the Bunnymen, the oft-underrated granddaddies of this whole new wave revival thing, will continue their lengthy post-reunion stretch with a new single, "In the Margins", from their latest album, Siberia. In stores October 31 in the UK courtesy of Cooking Vinyl, the single is backed with an acoustic take on "Nothing Lasts Forever" and an instrumental version of "In the Margins".

The band's classic "Lips Like Sugar" will be remixed by Way Out West for Future Retro, a Rhino Records compilation of remixes of several 80s favorites. Rhino's favorites, that is. The comp will be released in January 2006.

By that time, we predict Echo and the Bunnymen will be basking in the glow of having completed their current tour, which takes them through Europe and America, from now until mid-December. (Southern California atmosphere-mongers Innaway open the American dates). Heaven up here:

10-27 Manchester, England - Academy
10-28 Leeds, England - Blank Canvas
10-30 Birmingham, England - Academy
10-31 Portsmouth, England - Pyramid Rooms
11-01 London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire
11-03 Cologne, Germany - Prime Club
11-04 Hamburg, Germany - Grunspan
11-06 Berlin, Germany - Columbia Club
11-07 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega Jr.
11-08 Amsterdam, Holland - Paradiso
11-10 Antwerp, Belgium - Hof Der Lo
11-12 Barcelona, Spain - Bikini
11-13 Madrid, Spain - Arena
11-15 Paris, France - Trabendo
11-18 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
11-19 Boston, MA - Axis *
11-20 New York, NY - Irving Plaza *
11-22 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts *
11-23 Toronto, Ontario - The Carlu *
11-25 Chicago, IL - Metro *
11-26 Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line Music Cafe *
11-28 Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre *
11-30 Boise, ID - The Big Easy *
12-01 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom *
12-02 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richard *
12-03 Seattle, WA - Showbox *
12-05 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore *
12-06 Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues *
12-07 Anaheim, CA - House of Blues *
12-09 San Diego, CA - House of Blues *

12-16 Liverpool, England - Carling Academy
12-17 Liverpool, England - Carling Academy

* with Innaway

* Pitchfork Review: Echo and the Bunnymen: Siberia
* Pitchfork News: Echo and the Bunnymen Schedule North American Tour
* Echo and the Bunnymen: www.bunnymen.com
* Cooking Vinyl: www.cookingvinyl.com

Shucks! I'll been in Hawaii when they play the Showbox.

Beautiful day for a run

Hard to Hold (a 56 year-old)

His return to General Hospital may give me a reason to start watching daytime television.

Funny thing is, though...no matter how old I get, I just can't seem to bring myself to lusting over a 56 year-old. Egads, I can't believe how old he is now!

Silly, isn't he?

No word yet on my open letter...wah!

Great article on the best radio station out there

KEXP featured in today's Seattle Times.

The Collector

Long ago, before it became highly unfashionable to admit patronizing Starbucks, my husband used to collect the store's city mugs. Not wanting to cheat by making purchases on e-Bay, he took care to buy mugs in every city he traveled, or would accept mugs as gifts from people who visited a city and remembered his rapidly-growing collection. Now the city mugs (roughly 25 in all) sit crowded in one of our cupboards in the kitchen, not really being utilized to their fullest extent since they each hold 20 fluid ounces and that would be one hell of a huge cup of coffee.

It wasn't so much the mug as it was the thrill of the hunt. Part of going to a place like, say, Maui (I know, not a city, but we do have the mug) warranted a stop in Starbucks and the purchase of a mug (and a double tall, nonfat dry cappuccino with three Equal on the bottom for him and a double tall, split-shot, non-fat latte for me). Even today, when we visit different cities, he wanders through a Starbucks in the hopes of finding a long-retired city mug; however, there are certain rules to his quest: #1-(which I've already covered) they have to be from a city in which he (or someone else) has visited; and #2-they must be the old city mugs (circa 1994) not the newer ones, which are ugly. There are exceptions when people send the "wrong" city mugs as gifts. We forgive them and love them just the same.

This collection-thing is nothing new. As a young boy, my husband used to collect old beer cans--which, even back then he applied certain rules. He then progressed to certain sports paraphenalia (only cool stuff, though, like Cal Ripken's ball or Ken Griffey Jr.'s bat), in addition to baseball cards.

Being a collector is in his blood since his parents are avid collectors and once owned a Hallmark store/hobby shop which fueled their passion. They are SERIOUS collectors, as in they collect EVERYTHING from gas station signs to old Fisher Price toys. Casually mention that you like cerulean blue Fiestaware pitchers and BAM! one is in a box shipped to Seattle the next day. Comment on the cool Streamline Moderne salt and pepper shakers circa 1933 that are in their kitchen and BOOM! they're mine to keep since they already have two sets. It's crazy, I'll tell ya.

Now that he has a son, my husband's latest hobby is very similar to the city mug collection. Since he travels to Europe frequently, he now collects soccer jerseys for Mr. Na--though he's promised not to overdo it. Of course, the silly-heads we are, we never bought a soccer jersey for him when we were in Donetsk (his birthplace)--which happens to be a huge soccer town. And while the Shakhtar Soccer Club has a totally swank website, there's absolutely no way for foreigners to purchase goods online. So we're hoping that when we go back next year, we might find a way to either make it to Donetsk, or purchase a DCC jersey. For now, Mr. Na is sportive in his new Roma jersey and his new Deutsche jersey, compliments of Cousin Jens.

I can't complain though. It could be far worse. My husband could be into collecting Harley Davidsons or hatchets or guns.

But then, he wouldn't be my husband, would he?

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Mr. Na visited his first real pumpkin patch (as in, not the one in front of Albertsons) today. The farm did not disappoint as it violated every copyright law to include wooden Peanuts characters throughout the patch--including Snoopy, who sat perched on the Great Pumpkin.

After picking out three of the most suitable pumpkins, we entered the giant 5-acre corn maze and about halfway through it, I heard the worst words a mother could ever hear when she's stuck inside a 5-acre corn maze:

"Momma, I have to go poop."

We made it, though, thankfully--despite having to backtrack and then run clear across the field, and uphill to the nearest porta potty. I must say, potty training has paid off tremendously! I highly recommend it. :-)



Anyway, between today's events and his soccer class yesterday, where he actually scored three goals**, and taking him to see the new Wallace and Gromit movie on Friday night, we sufficiently wore the little guy out this weekend.






















**we're talking toddler soccer here, not, like, the real game for big people. Actual scoring may vary.

What Papa Does When He's Got Too Much Time On His Hands...

...He creates a New World Order (with ants and Legos).

Spider Myth DEBUNKED!

Ha! And here I thought I was a Snapple Statistic.

From the UW's Burke Museum, I present to you "Just Plain Weird Stories".

Myth: You unknowingly swallow an average of four live spiders in your sleep each year.

Fact: This very widespread urban legend has no basis in fact. It exists in various forms; another common version is that you swallow an average of 20 in your lifetime. (At 4 per year, that would make a very short lifetime of 5 years...) A correspondent in Pennsylvania had heard a version that involved swallowing a pound of spiders (while sleeping) in one's lifetime. (That would be over 20,000 average spiders, for a lifetime of 5,000 years at the 4 per year rate).

For a sleeping person to swallow even one live spider would involve so many highly unlikely circumstances that for practical purposes we can rule out the possibility. No such case is on formal record anywhere in scientific or medical literature. Since this page first appeared, I have heard from one person who found a small harmless spider hiding in her ear (which is possible), another who claimed to have had one in her nose (but had no evidence that it wasn't already in her hanky), and one who claimed that when she was a young child a spider leg was found by her lips. But not one person has claimed that a spider entered his or her mouth.

The Shining - REDUX. That's Comedy!

This guy is destined to become, like, the new Martin Scoreseeeze for cutting a new trailer for The Shining and turning it into a comedy.

You can read about it here, too, since I'm too lazy to go into detail.

Sweatshirt Saturday

Ahhhh, fall is in the air and my senses were treated with pine, lavender and rosemary during my 6-mile run this morning. I love running just after it rains, though sometimes it can be a bit slippery and tricky to navigate through the puddles around the outer loop of Greenlake.

It's the perfect day to wear one of my softest sweatshirts from my Alma Mater and just hang out around the neighborhood. I hope to get some writing done today.

We saw Everything is Illuminated last night and I thought the film was great despite mixed reviews. It's quite different from the book, but I fully expected that. I don't know that Jonathan Safran Foer's beautiful exposition could ever be fully recognized on the screen, and I highly doubt Liev Schreiber ever intended to take that challenge.

Speaking of difficult novels, I just finished The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Despite Franzen's pretentious abuse of 50 cent words throughout the novel, it's a story filled with multi-dimensional characters that stick with you for a very long time; in fact, I had a dream about Denise last night though I can't for the life of me remember what it was about. I think it had something to do with Country Spare Ribs and Sauerkraut. I recommend reading it, but before the holiday season kicks into high gear.

Speaking of food, my client has roped me in to doing one more week's worth of work which is good and bad. While I certainly don't mind the money, I find myself hungry throughout the entire day pitching pasta or asian spices and poor Mr. Na doesn't have nearly as much fun with me if I'm stuck in my office making media calls. I don't get to write as much either (or at least think about writing more!)

I can't complain too much though. I get to work from home and wear my comfy sweatshirt!