The time is nigh

If you need to take the night off from partying to focus on your animal song then that is what you have to do. There will be plenty of time for partyin' after midnight.

I re-learned a little something while watching a preview for what I thought was Bring it On #3, but which I now believe after searching IMDB is actually Bring it On #5. A spunky latina taught me that it's not about winning or losing; it's about whether you "traigalo" (bring it). Also, whether you have lots of attitude. And possibly whether you shove the privileged white girl's face in it.

How successful do you think a "Bring it On" film festival would be?

get excited for rock

i know of at least five participants in the songwriting contest so far, which is a victory in and of itself. be excited for songs about mammals and fowl and maybe something else.

Songwriting Contest Extended to End of Month

What? Can I do that? I figure until such time that someone else takes over administration of the Awesome Songwriting Contest series I can do whatever I want. So your entries are now due July 31st. And that is final. Probably. Remember we are writing about either a particular animal (e.g., Tony the Tiger) or animals in general (e.g., tigers).

Luxury Camping/Cupcakes Weekend

So it wasn't quite that nice, but we did bring the queen air mattress with micro-suede top and we even took showers. It was lovely. And I learned that my $30 Walmart tent, which I have taken on several backpacking trips (eat your heart out REI), is quite impressive in the rain. Okay, it wasn't THAT much rain, but several little showers. Our dinner was also quite delicious (brats, asparagus, and croissants -- all cooked over the fire) and our breakfast was positively decadent (pancakes with maple syrup, fried eggs, sausage, and peaches). When preggo, luxury camping is the only way to go.

The next day we awoke to the most beautiful morning ever--blue sky with a smattering of feathery cirrus clouds--and a complete family of deer wandering through our campsite to chomp on the vegetation. We then went on a leisurely four-mile hike with a waterfall and ate lunch just in time to stop the pregnant lady from getting the shakes. Then we left the park, hung out with El Esposo's fam who made cupcakes to celebrate me, and went to see Harry Potter Six, which ended up being about equal parts entertaining and disappointing.

Sunday was nice and churchy and then some friends came over to surprise me and brought me . . . what? Cupcakes! And cute maternity clothes so I look less frumpy. And El Esposo gave me CDs. Yes, CDs! He knows I am more comfortable living in the nineties. In fact all of the CDs were related to bands I became a fan of in the nineties, even though they are all new for 2009: this one, of course, this one, and this one which proves El Esposo is a good listener. Probably this means I have sophisticated taste in things that last. Or that I am old. Thirty-freakin'-one. Actually, I feel pretty good about it.

Is it too late to defect to Russia?

(SONG CONTEST BELOW)

The other day I was talking to a woman from Russia that el esposo works with and she told me that she got 3 months maternity leave BEFORE the baby was born (fully paid) and 18 months AFTER the baby was born (I think part of it was full pay but most was half pay).

Do they still call it "defecting" anyway?

P.s., A quick bit of wikipedia-ing shows Russia is not normally as generous as this woman's experience, but every country except for Swaziland is more generous than the US, all offering some paid leave (from weeks to years).

Girl drummers are cooler anyway

Abby and I were wrong. Everyone else was right.

Songs Due July 25th

I thought I would remind our hardy band of three or four participants! Come on let's get it up to five this time. Five songs about animals is like half of a They Might Be Giants cd.

Meanwhile I am ridiculously tired. I think I will just sleep the day away in front of the computer. Until I drool on the keyboard. And jam up the keys. And knock over my open water bottle. And fall out of my chair. And get fired.

Staying up til midnight for me right now is like staying up til 3 am when I do not have a little kicking monster inside of me.

Little Kicking Monster's first rock concert with (theoretically) the ability to hear was pretty excellent though. LKM seemed a lot more active during Conor Oberst but I think it is because Wilco lulled him/her into a dream-like trance of magical rock musicland. And because we ate right before Conor Oberst.