Eliminating that nagging sensation

Answers to the music quiz have been posted below. Now you can smack your head with an exclaimation of "doh!"

Christmas in the hospital

This is the reason our Christmas cards are late.




We've been at Children's Hospital since Monday with Emily hooked up to oxygen. She has a virus called RSV which has led to bronchiolitis.

We're not sure when she'll be able to go home, but more details will follow whenever that is.

Quizes define me!

I usually hate posting these because they're so LiveJournal-ish, but I got a result I'm proud of (even if it's not accurate)...

You are Penny Arcade! Edgy and sarcastic, you cut through the stupid mundanity of everyday life, but mostly the world of computers and video gaming. While you are hilariously funny, no one will ever know if you never go outside. Put down the controller and get some fresh air.

If you don't get the reference, check yourself out at penny-arcade.com (I do get the reference).

What Internet phenomenon are you?

Quiz brought to you by Quizilla.
Link found via The Body Politic.

Just the distraction I needed

Chez has posted a nifty game over at Misguided Affections. I was only able to get one answer correct out of 30, and I've been gritting my teeth, wanting so badly to Google the lyrics to the songs that I'm sure I know (though obviously I don't), but that's against the rules.

The Rules:

1) On your current playlist, hit shuffle and pick the first 30 songs on the list.

2) Write down one line of the song. Try to avoid putting the song title in the line.

3) Have your friends comment and see if they know the songs. (NO CHEATING!)

4) When someone guesses correctly, strike out the line and list the correct name of the song next to it. (Title AND artist have to be correctly guessed.)

I'm bending the rules a bit by including more than one line of lyrics from each song. I'm also only posting the first 15 songs right now — my playlist at work is limited to only 100 songs or so, and I figure it will be more intersting to post the next 15 from my selection of 3000+ songs at home.

Anyway, here's my list. Have fun!

1. Hold on world 'cause you don't know what's coming / Hold on world 'cause I'm not jumping off
R.E.M. - "Around the Sun"

2. I'm the patron saint of the denial / With an angel face and a taste for suicidal
Green Day - "St. Jimmy"

3. I know my heart is being used / But what I'm not allowed to have, I never could refuse
Afghan Whigs - "Blame, etc."

4. I might be old, but I'm someone new - she said / I'm so sore that I could cry - always
Neil Finn - "She Will Have Her Way"

5. She just climbed the stage and died / Lights that rose and fell again / Songs that thinned out near the end
Buffalo Tom - "Torch Singer"

6. I'm a waste of a mama's boy / It's a shame they say this so much
Angie Aparo - "Hush"

7. It's raining like a nose bleed, cigarettes and sweets / And I feel it coming on / Bloody as the day I was born
Ryan Adams - "1975"

8. Why can't you shoulder the blame / Coz both my shoulders are heavy / From the weight of us both
Snow Patrol - "How to Be Dead"

9. You are the last drink I never should have drunk / You are the body hidden in the trunk
Pulp - "Like a Friend"

10. Looking down the shirt of a flirt in a plaid mini-skirt / When she said she was a Catholic, I told her I'd convert
Marginal Prophets - "Like This!"

11. I wish it was the '60s / I wish we could be happy / I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen
Radiohead - "The Bends"
(I thought surely someone would have gotten this one)

12. Thirteen's my lucky number / To you it means stay inside
Social Distortion - "Bad Luck"

13. They come from miles around / In avarice and love / To suckle on the blood / Of some forgotten God
David Gray - "Dead in the Water"

14. Sometimes, sometimes I see right through the scenery / The first place that's on my mind the last place I find each time
Beth Orton - "Paris Train"

15. I don't know this sea of neon / Thousand surfers, whiffs of freon
Rufus Wainwright - "California"

Update: Here are the next 15, from home this time. Some of them are a lot easier, and some of them are ridiculously difficult.

16. What can you tell them? / What can you say that won't make them defensive?
The Beach Boys - "Hang on to Your Ego"

17. I know we said goodbye / Anything else would've been confused / But I wanna see you again
Dido - "Sand in My Shoes"

18. Something I wasn't sure of / But I was in the middle of
Keane - "This is the Last Time"

19. You don't want to die / But the living gets you down
Matthew Sweet - "The Ugly Truth"

20. Does your memory stray to a brighter sunny day / When I kissed you and called you sweetheart?
Elvis Presley - Are You Lonesome Tonight?

21. And as strange as it seems / If you wish all your dreams / Will come true after all
Sugar - "Man on the Moon"
(I wouldn't have known this one — even after typing it in)

22. She stands with a naked flame / I stand with the sons of Cain / Burned by the fire of love
U2 - "In God's Country"

23. I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song / I'm twenty-two now, but I won't be for long
Paul Simon - "Leaves That Are Green"

24. I could get back up if you insist / But you'll have to ask politely
Aimee Mann - "The Fall of the World's Own Optimist"

25. If you go my way you won't go wrong / You'll find out where you really belong
Curve - "Alligators Getting Up"
(another ridiculously difficult one)

26. If I could feel / All the pins and the pricks / If you were real / I could take what's apart and put it back together
Nine Inch Nails - "Deep"

27. This is you on a bad day, you on a pale day
Morrissey - "Do Your Best and Don't Worry"

28. Can I ride with you in your BMW? / You can sail with me in my yellow submarine
Oasis - "Supersonic"

29. I'm falling all over you like a bad jacket
Possum Dixon - "Skid Marks"

30. Playing Sara-with-no-h's favorite song / La da da, la da da, la da da
Ben Folds - "Zak and Sara"

RSS

I still don't really understand how it works, but Impending Distractions has an RSS feed going now, nonetheless.

Futile scribblings

I had a dream the other night in which I saw Eva Trout in concert and they closed with "Mazzie," my favorite song. When I woke up, I realized the tune was not as it should have been. That is to say: As far as I was concerned in my dream, the song was "Mazzie," but in the real world, I knew it wasn't. I couldn't sleep until I got up and wrote down the notes so I could figure out the imposter tune later.

Of course, since I can't read music, the notes are pretty meaningless.

Traie

I don't think I've mentioned here before that Misty's cousin (second cousin really, but that's not the point) has been expecting a baby. There's been some tension in the family regarding the fact that she's not married to the baby's father. Misty and I weren't married either when we learned that Emily was on the way, but this situation is an entirely different convoluted mess that I have no desire to transcribe for all the world to read. Just trust me; there's been tension.

Last night as I was reading Emily her bedtime stories we got a call from Misty's family. I didn't actually talk to anyone myself — all the information I have comes second-hand from Misty, who in turn got it from her cousin's hysterical mother — so my details may be sketchy.

Yesterday, Misty's cousin took herself to the doctor because she hadn't been feeling well and she hadn't felt the baby move for a couple days. Apparently, she'd been leaking amniotic fluid, and she was told that the baby needed to come out immediately. She underwent a c-section, and 12 weeks before his due date, Traie arrived into the world. He weighed just around 2 pounds.

Traie was brought by ambulance to Montclair hospital in Birmingham where he will likely remain for a couple of months. He has been given a 40% shot at survival. His mother has not been able to hold him.

I'm not sure how I feel about the claims of "everything happens for a reason," but if that's the case I'd say the reason was this: For this family to put aside their tension and disagreements and to love each other while they can.

Santa's 'naughty' list

We got a series of letters to Santa at al.com over the weekend that I can't post in our Santa's Mailbag blog, but I just can't let them go unread, either.

*Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

First letter:

Dear Santa,
Erin deos not want eny thing for Christmas.....................................

From: Erin
Age: 8

Second letter:

Dear Santa,
    Please ignore the letter Shana sent you asking that her sister Erin not get any gifts. Please watch both of them closely to make sure they behave, because I agree only good kids should get gifts from you. I know they can be really good, and I hope you can bring them several things from their list.

Thanks,
Erin and Shana's Dad

Third letter:

Dear Santa,
I am very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very sorry for my note that I sended.

Love,Shana

From: Shana
Age: 6