Why not me?

Like so many before me, why don't I tell you what I'm listening to now. Actually, I'll just tell you about my two most recent musical acquisitions:

Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (sweet, mellow, really good...I love it already)
Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham) - Ease Down the Road

In addition, I just saw that Ritter is coming to STL in October and playing at Mississippi Nights, opening for the Frames.

Lots of stuff in no particular order

For the first time in I don't know how many weeks, the AC is in the off position. This is a very good thing. Heat index. I'm not sure exactly how to calculate it, but when it's 114, I know that's bad. There are some more epic thunderstorms on the way tonight, which will hopefully give us a nice break. The real victims here have been my dogs. Moose will, from time to time, when we go outside simply flop down on the front lawn, as if he is giving up and surrendering to the heat. I try to pull on his leash, and he just lies there. I swear, he's one of the most stubborn dogs I've ever seen. But very cute. And he's better than all the other dogs in his obedience class at "Relax". He's got that one down.

I've noticed that I haven't been posting much. And when I do, it's been mostly links (interesting, funny, and otherwise). I'm not sure what that's about.

And there's been a complete lack of Red Sox Rants. By this point last year, I was up to Red Sox Rant #2 and was about to lament the trading of Nomahhhhh. What a difference a year makes. I should be up in arms about bringing back Schilling so soon, about our ace pitcher getting knocked silly by a line drive, about Trot getting hurt, about Manny wanting out, and about the Damn Yankees continuing to hang around, despite everything that has happened so far. But I'm not doing it. I'm just not.

Kia cut my hair yesterday. I was going to post "Before" and "After" pictures, but it's not this drastic change, so it would be sort of pointless. And in the "After" picture, I am no longer wearing a shirt. I will spare you that visual. Or maybe I won't. We'll see.

And on Sunday, Kia and I went to the Festival of Nations in Tower Grove Park, the park I played frisbee in last summer. Were it not for the oppressive heat (and going to see "Wedding Crashers" that afternoon) we would have stayed longer. The highlight was definitely the Ethiopian food, which has been elusive here in STL. When I lived in DC, Kia and I had some great Ethiopian at this place on 18th St. in Adams Morgan, and we got the window table so everyone walking by could watch us eating as they walked by, including a bachelorette party, who were carrying around a huge inflatable penis. Hey, it's Adams Morgan. Anything goes. And if you know the restaurant I'm talking about, it's not just a table that's next to a window, it's a table that's IN the window. It's almost like a window display you'd see at a department store. You feel like you're being watched, like you're being scrutinized, like people will see what you got and wonder what you were thinking. But all in all, the window table was a good experience. I hope to find some acceptable Ethiopian food here.

Don't Vote for Pedro

Napoleon Dynamite backlash, I guess.

More things NOT to name your restaurant

Something must have gotten lost in the translation... 

That looks awfully familiar

When exactly did it become OK to so blatantly rip off other websites??

Case in point, a very unoriginal Friendster knock-off:

http://www.friendscene.com/

Son Volt is back

Same name, different look.

July 4th recap

Although we didn't go away or go to any wacky-wild parties, Kia and I enjoyed our long weekend, thankyouverymuch. Inexplicably, she had four (4) days off from Pier 1, which I don't think has ever happened in the history of retail. And certainly not over 4th of July weekend. So we felt like we should take advantage. But rather than go on one big trip, which inevitably requires doing something with the dogs and paying for a place to stay, we took a series of smaller trips. Some of the highlights:

-a hike with the dogs at Pere Marquette State Park in Illinois, where we got engaged in January. It's got lots of hiking trails and things and luckily for us, this time there was no snow.

-a trip to a dollar store. I made the requisite "So, how much does this cost?" comment.

-fireworks along the Mighty Mississip, at Fair St. Louis (aka REDNECK CENTRAL). No seriously, the fireworks were good, but we did not get to consume funnel cake. It cost 6 tickets!

-Shoe Carnival, which features a basketball hoop and two mini basketballs, like one of those shooting games from video game arcades. Something for guys to do while the ladies buy shoes. Smart store.

-a mini wine tour, to this winery and then to this one. Feel free to use the photos below as visual aids. Apparently, there are a number of wineries on said "wine tour," but we only managed to hit two of them.

-on the way back from said "mini wine tour," we stopped by what was claimed to be Daniel Boone's house. Dan wasn't home at the time, and it was closing momentarily, so we just observed the premises from the car. Nice place, nice place.

I took a different approach 

Kia pouring wine into a plastic cup 

Some good press

Hey, here are some links to an article about the paper I'm on, which just came out in Biological Psychiatry July 1. It's all the same article, but it's cool that it's popping up in lots of places:

Science Blog

Schizophrenia.com

Innovations Report (I'm a little confused as to why this website picked up the story, but any press is good press)

Late night in the land of get-rich-quick schemes

I was hoping I could go for the Euro trifecta (three straight posts about European-related sports), but unfortunately there just ain't much more to talk about right now than the Tour de France and wife carrying. Except perhaps European Football.

But I will tell you that I had an awful night of what was apparently food poisoning or some other foodbourne illness. The sharp pain in my stomach set in around 7 or so, and continued throughout the evening. By the time Kia had to go to sleep, it was clear that I would be doing no such thing. So I bid her goodnight and sat down for some good late night TV. It started out promisingly enough, with some Letterman and Conan. Unfortunately, it went rapidly downhill from there. The number of infomercials and "financial independence" shows was outstanding. It seems that insomniacs really want to get rich without having to work too hard. I guess I can't blame them. But at some point, I just wanted to get sick and get it over with so I could get some sleep. And that happened a few times. I think I finally passed out around 4.

The one highlight (if you can call it that) was around 3:30am, when I saw a live news conference with Bush and the prime minister of Denmark in Copenhagen. My food-poisoned brain found this odd, but then I realized that it's much later in Europe than it is Missouri. (See, I was able to work in Europe after all). Oh, and Bush's first comment to the assembled crowd was that he would recommend the cake he had just been eating. Oh George, you're so witty.

Wife Carrying

If you're not familiar with this sport (hobby? pasttime? odd ritual?), you really should be. Apparently, this is very big in Europe, and Kia is quick to tell me that the Estonians win every year, with half of her being from Estonia and all.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/europe/050706

Frenching it up

Just a quick question regarding the Tour of France (or, as the French say, "Tour de France")....

So the current leader of the race wears this yellow jersey, right? And there are presumably different leaders throughout the race, right? Well, at least until Lance Armstrong takes over.

So, do they just pass the sweaty, grimey yellow jersey from one guy to the next? Just strip it off of the one guy's back and put it onto the next one? Seems kinda unsanitary to me. But hey, it's France.