A-ward Bound, (iPod part 3)

No, my dear, dedicated...two readers. (Hi!), I have not forgotten about the iPod thing. Last week involved all sorts of shenanigans (soon to follow), So now it's time to catch up on the songs.

I started my new volunteering gig last week, a few mornings a week doing office work for a non-profit. It's calm and mindless, and a great time to make big headway on my track list. I started with the A's, since My car and my iPod differ as to how what order the symbols/numbers should be played in. But everyone can get along with regards to alphabetizing. It's pretty finite.

So far, I am still plowing through the As. Starting with  ABC by the Jackson 5 (still awesome) and i'm now up to Always by Blink-182. If there are any song writers out there, please take this moment to absorb that it is time to start coming up with songs that are NOT titled  starting with "All" or "Alone"....the 'Alls' chunk of my playlist is 46 songs, not including duplicates.  I also have 5 or 6 completely different songs that are titled "All I need".  Time to be more creative, kids.

Some highlights from the bunch:

-Acts 1-5 of Much Ado About Nothing by the Royal Shakespeare Company (radio version?). Always a fun listen, and kept me busy for much of my time in the office.
- I may have discovered a little bit of love for Toby Keith
- I seem to have an obscene amount of Bruce Springsteen. I knew this already, but i keep being surprised at the sheer amount of it. Particularly as I was never a huge fan? Not that I object, but just....seriously.

By my count i'm 149 songs in, not counting the symbol/number songs. Which should add another 20-30 or so. At this rate, I'll be done in a few years.

What the hell is on my iPod pt 2

More songs I didn't know I had. I'm pushing to get through the symbols and on to the letters, as my car and my iPod/iTunes seem to differ in opinion on how they should be handled. Which means keeping track of what I'm listening to involves taking a photo with my phone while driving. Not fun. Once I get to actual letters, i'm figuring I can just make playlists.

"It's Not a War Story. It's a Love Story. A Ghost Story." - This is How Rumors Get Started
- The band is headed by someone I knew in high school, every so often their stuff comes up, and I always get a bit of a smile out of it, quite catchy.

(All I have to do is) Dream - The Nylons - A capella version

(Everytime I hear) That Mellow Saxophone - Brian Setzer Orchestra

(Goin') Wild for you baby - Bonnie Rait

(Night time is) The Right Time - Ray Charles

(No More) Paddy's Lament - Flogging Molly

(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay - Rockapella - This actually turned out to be their cover of Surfer Girl.

(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay - Rockapella - Actual song

(The Legend of) Johnny Kool - Brian Setzer Orchestra

(Urban Edit) Stole - Kelly Rowland

(Where do I begin) Love Story - Tony Bennet

...And the Future - Robin Williams (tail end of Live at the Met)

[Bonus Track] - Fefe Dobson (Rainbow) (I really liked this one)

[Untitled Track] - Rockapella

This last one is making my brain hurt. I'm not entirely convinced it's even Rockapella singing, although I think i might hear that rather distinctive bass singer in there somewhere. What I DO know, is that it's sung mostly in Japanese, with the occasional chorus along the lines of
'Christmas Eve...something something? hold me, hold me, warm me love. Christmas time for you and me. Love me, Hold me, warm my body. Christmas time for you and me"

Not a damned clue, and google is turning up absolutely nothing. I know it's not a track on the Rockapella album it lists, as i have all of those other songs. I'm pretty stumped on this one.

Saturday Night Shenanigans

So, around 7pm last night I got a call from my friend M, wondering what I was up to. At that point, I realized that I had been roaming among the wilds of Whole Foods for TWO HOURS. While I will be the first to acknowledge that I tend to lose time when shopping, two hours in a food store? That's a new one, even for me. Put in perspective though, it makes sense, as huge chunks of that time were spent looking for ingredients I haven't used before (or even knew existed. See: coconut flour). I was a little horrified, but at least I'd finally found all the ingredients I was looking for.

M proposed a trade, dinner for dessert. I felt like this was a pretty good deal. So I had a lovely dinner of vegetarian tacos, and presented M with the banana bread I had planned on making that evening.

Specifically, this banana bread:

The recipe is actually from the Duggar Family Blog. The blog itself is not run by the Duggars, but i think they are affiliated with them in some way. Regardless, it was highly tasty bread, and a recipe from a source I hadn't seen before. On the whole, it came out very tastily. My thoughts comments on the recipe
A) I added some cinnamon as well, might add more next time.
B) The bread rose *a lot*.
C) In my oven, it took longer to bake, but only about 5-10 minutes.
D) I'm always initially very disappointed with banana bread. It's not a baked good that is at it's best fresh out of the oven, I've wrapped the part of the loaf that I kept (most went home with M) and put it in the fridge to sit for a couple of days. I've found this is generally the best way to go with banana breads, gives the bananas time to get their strength up.

Today, at some point, I'm intending to try out a Gluten Free Strawberry Cupcake recipe I found, hence all the searching for odd ingredients. I've never done any gluten free cooking, so this should be interesting.

What the hell is on my iPod, part 1 (?)

This past week, after being thoroughly destroyed in the local pub's Trivia Night, I had the thought that I really am somewhat devoid of musical knowledge. I never did claim to be terribly aware of what the current music scene is up to, but after a medley of 14 hit songs from 2008, of which i knew ONE? I might just be living under a rock. (My excuse is that I was living in London then, because, you know, there's no radio there....

I then furthered my acknowledgment of my musical illiteracy, admitting that I don't even know what's on my own iPod.

Now, I don't think I'm going to become music aware over night, but I can at least listen to the music I already have. Some 5000+ songs, to be precise.

I set my plan into action on my drive home this evening, starting alphabetically, since it's the only way I'll ever keep track.

Tonight I got:
'Cause you can - Birdmonster
'Round the World - String Cheese Incident
- Eternity - Avril Lavigne (Aka Two Rivers)
"Highway Blues" - New Stories, composed by Marc Seales

I wasn't particularly wild about any of them, may or may not delete them at a later date. I think most of these were from a chunk of music I got from my cousin, as I don't recognize any of them.

Reason to the Madness

I'm attempting to blog again.

It's an interesting, yet often frustrating task, and one i've set myself for the month of June. This month is just to start with, however, as I intend on continuing the trend. I actually did decently with the previous blog I had last spring/summer, but due to the death of my sister, it became more of a record of my grief. I haven't touched that blog since then, because every time I see it, i think about the sheer amounts of pain I was (understandably) in.

So we're going to start fresh, with no excuses.
Some things I expect to be posting here: Baking and cooking attempts (i make no promises of success), knitting, daily life and photography. All in all, nothing terribly exciting. It's just another blog, only this one's mine.

Starting Fresh

I've been bad about blogging in the past. But i feel like i should do it more. (Sound familiar? Shut up)

Let's start with some photos from my visit to my dad in NJ/NYC this weekend.

First up, we have the base of the GW bridge, from Ross Landing in Fort Lee. On Saturday afternoon we took a minor hike down the palisades and along the waterfront. It's a gorgeous view, albeit not always the best smelling. I'm sure all sorts of money has gone into restoring the area, and for the most part, New Jersey/Fort Lee have done a really good job. Then again, it IS the Hudson, so it's never going to be something I'd consider swimming in. There were,however, hordes of people down at the landing barbecuing, playing football and having extended family reunions. I gather that the Landing is a secret place for the Locals, unless you know where to look, you'd never know it was there, or where the entrance was. It also provided some spectacular views.
Second, we have downtown, as viewed from the NY/NJ Ferry, coming into their main departure point in New York (I forget the name, possibly Port Imperial?) When I did an internship in NYC for a summer, I discovered that this really was the most pleasant way to get into the city. Depending on where you are going, the subway can take up to two hours, and parking is obscenely expensive. The Ferry was a nice, happy medium. Also, during the summer months, it was just a nice pleasant commute (instead of stressing out in rush hour traffic, or having to stand for 9 million stops because all the seats were full. This was also right after I took my first infectious disease course, so I was absolutely convinced I was going to get plague if i touched anything. It made for a rather stressful ride).