Music Monday- Everybody by Ingrid Michaelson

I have loved Ingrid Michaelson since she had that song of hers used in an Old Navy commercial a couple of winters ago. You probably remember the one, "If you get chilly, here take my sweater...", she sang. She's got a way with a catchy hook for sure.

Since then she's put out a couple of CDs. The newest, and most current one called "Everybody" is great.

I recommend buying the whole CD, but if you want to just download one feel-good, happy song that will get you moving (especially on a Monday!), go to the title track called "Everybody". It's so catchy, you'll be singing along almost immediately. And I think you'll agree with what Ingrid sings...Everybody, everybody wants to love
Everybody, everybody wants to be loved
Ohhhh..
Just let the love, love, love begin...

Make No Bones About It

That's right, folks- I skipped this weeks installment of Thrifty Thursday- I am so sorry. Next week's will be worth the wait!

I've been a bit distracted by two things, both involving bones.

First of all, as I was cutting thru my neighborhood's wooded area to my running trail earlier this week, I saw the police taping off a section of it. Then I saw a man who looked like the stereotypical homeless man standing off to the side.

I asked him, "What's going on?"

And he answered, "Dead body. I found a dead body. I was digging thru a big trashbag and a big jaw bone fell out."

So, it sounds like he didn't so much find a body, but the remains of one. Either way, it's a little creepy. Actually, more than a little.

The police said, along with lots of bones scattered around, they found identification of a woman who had disappeared back in June. Oddly, nothing about this has shown up in the newspaper since this happened on Tuesday. Does this kind of stuff happen more often than I realize?
(This is my photo of the scene of the crime!)

I've never felt ultra safe passing thru that area, so I take off my headphones and I pay attention to who and what is around me. This trail is very near a Dart Rail station, and I've heard that can bring riff raff into new areas. And by riff raff, I guess I mean drunk fishermen peeing and pooing along my little hidden trail (which I have written posts about somewhere in the archives of this blog!), a prostitute (which my neighborhood crimewatch sleuth told me about), and a few other "suspicious looking characters" that aren't typically in my neck of the woods, so to speak. I just think of the Dart Rail as a means of transportation, but didn't realize it just might be increasing the crime in my neighborhood, too.

Anyway, I'm feeling a little at odds about these bones. Apparently, coyotes and whatever other wildlife hang around there have scattered the bones around quite a bit. Did someone just dump the bones there? And why? Who was this lady who disappeared in June? I feel like people in our neighborhood deserve a little follow up from the Dallas Police Department. And it also seems the Dallas Morning News would've run a story about it! Isn't this news??

The second reason for my lack of focus on my Thrifty Thursday post this week: I did something insane to my lower back. And what's insane about it is, I don't know what I did, or when I did it, but I'm moving around like someone who had a major injury in some kind of high speed collision. Honestly, I think I might have done it just by taking my guitar case out of my car.
(This is not a picture of my back, but does illustrate my area of pain!)
Bones. Bones. Bones. This week, they're not so lovely.

Music Monday "Hard Times Come Again No More"

This is a song written a long time ago- Way back during the civil war in fact!

It was written by a man named Stephen Foster in 1854. Since then, it's been covered by a whole lot of people. Recently, for a Haiti benefit, Mary J. Blige covered it. But the best version, in my opinion, is the one I'm going to post here today. This cover of "Hard Times Come Again No More" is performed by one of my all time favorite musicians, James Taylor, and cellist Yo Yo Ma. Oh, how I love the cello...

Anyway, like I said, it's been covered by many, for good reason- What a beautifully sympathetic song. One more person will be covering it soon... Can you guess who?

Book List 2010

We're almost entirely though with January 2010! And my book list for 2010 is already well underway. I just finished reading my 5th book of the year so far.

At the beginning of January, I came across some weird little journal I had on my bookshelf but had never used called Book Notes. It's just a blank book for readers to jot down books they've read and stuff they might want to remember about them. It sounded like a great idea. So since it was a fresh new year, I decided this would be the perfect time to start using it.

I read quite a bit. In the bathtub, every night for about an hour. And if the book really has my attention, I sometimes read in bed before I doze off.

I have on occasion picked up a familiar looking book, and thought, "Hm... Have I read this?" I've even began books, and they read so familiar that finally I realize on about page 50, "I have read this before!"

So this idea of writing down books I've read seems to be a good one. I'm also kind of curious to see how many books I go through in one year's time.

I couple of books I've read this year that are certainly worth recommending:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Push by Sapphire

What's on your list of books you'd like to read this year? Do you have any great ones to recommend? Please leave a comment and share a title or two.

Thrifty Thursdays- Chai Tea at Starbucks

Welcome to the first edition of Thrifty Thursday!

I'm a thrifty girl at heart. I'm positive I got this trait from my mom. She used to make me shop at the Marshall's by my childhood home, and I thought it was so lame at the time. But I grew to love it. Finding things for a bargain price is thrilling. And these days, it's also necessary. So thanks, Mom, for instilling the practice of wise spending in me.

Ok, so onto today's Thrifty Thursday tip...

I've never been a coffee drinker. But I really like the smell and the social idea of it. "Let's meet for a coffee!" I've never met up with friends for true coffee talk because I don't drink coffee. But several years ago, after meeting up with my family for a weekly ritualistic lunch, my brother offered to buy us all a Starbucks across the street. I said I'd come along, but that I didn't like coffee. But my mom convinced me to try the Chai Tea Latte (with Soy Milk). Mom knows me pretty well, and can be trusted when it comes to recommendations like this, so I ordered my first Starbucks drink. It was around Christmas time, and as soon as I took a sip, I said, "It tastes like Christmas!" I loved it. I've gone on to have many, many days of Christmas since, at all times of the year.

Not only are those teas a little pricey, they have a lot of sugar in them as well. But hey, you only live once, right?

But then, one fantastic day a barista gave me a sample of a hot soy milk with a chai tea bag in it, rather than the chai tea concentrate. Not as sweet as the Chai Tea Latte, but better! AND cheaper! By about a dollar.

I just order it by saying, "I'd like a hot soy milk (no water) with a chai tea bag." Since it's not really a named drink on the menu, each barista rings it up a little differently. I once got it as cheap as 97 cents, although it tends to be about $2.40 usually. The other chai teas lattes I used to order are about $1 more than that.

I know, it's just a dollar. But it's those little things that add up! Less money, less sugar, less calories?!! And still, it tastes like Christmas!

Music Monday- Brandi Carlile

It's a new year, and I'm changing a few things around here. I hope these new changes will give you some ideas, things to think about and a reason to come back to my blog and website regularly.

One of those changes that pertains to this blog is this-- Monday's are now officially (very officially) Music Monday's where I will spread the word of a song, an album or just an artist that I want to give some praise to. It's not called New Music Monday- so although I might offer up something "new", I also might dig deep into to the past and remind you of someone perhaps you hadn't thought of in a while. Basically, I just want to celebrate great music that inspires!

Today I'd like to give a big shout out to Brandi Carlile. I saw her last year at the House of Blues when she was supporting her last CD, The Story, which was fantastic. Her current CD, Give Up the Ghost, just came out a few months ago.

I finally loaded it onto my iPod a couple of weeks ago. Now it is in constant play while I'm on my runs, and since that still wasn't enough, I've also put the CD in my car, where it has stayed for the past week.

The CD is full of great songs. So great that it's hard for me to even speak of just one. Which is why I mentioned the whole CD. I love it so much, and am so inspired by everything about it. Here's one song from it, which is one of my favorites. It's called I Will.

Isn't that brilliant?
I so love the lines toward the end of the song that sing,
"I have to say that I am proud to know you
and I'll never be the same because we met
You might not miss this....
but I will, I will, I will..."

The whole CD is masterful. Great melodies, thoughtful songs, and beautiful production.
Brandi Carlile- Give Up the Ghost
AND she'll be back at House of Blues in Dallas in March! Hope to see you there!

Pee-u!

My girls, Zoe and Scout, are sweet, sweet, sweet. And really, there are few things in life better than loving on my doggies. If I'm ever in a bad mood, all I have to do is spend some time with them and I start to feel better. They have been free therapy for me for years and years.

As the ladies are getting a little older, they are also getting leaky. I think the technical word for this is incontinent. I guess it happens to a lot of aging folks, which is why there is such a thing as Depends.

There's a medication we've tried before, which maybe it works and maybe it doesn't. I've never been so sure because I'm not very good about consistently giving it to them. It is such a battle to get them to swallow the big pill. I can wrap it in cheese, peanut butter, or whatever, but they are very skilled and love the food part, but spit the pill out, often times, when I'm not looking. Then I'll find a pill on the floor later in the day. And I don't know which one of them it belongs to. So the only way to effectively get them to swallow it is to push it down their throats. And all 3 of us hate that.

So lately, I've just let it go. And they, in turn, have let it go as well.
They share a pillow they sleep on at night on our back patio. Yesterday morning when I went to wake them up so they could have breakfast, they got up from a soaking wet pillow. And it was so stinky. Not just the pillow but the patio. And not just the patio, but Zoe and Scout. So stinky that I couldn't even stand to pet them. And that got me in a very bad mood!

It's a relatively new pillow. We bought it just a few weeks ago. But as I took the case off to wash it (ewwwww), I noticed they have torn their pillow up! You know how dogs scratch around getting their bed just right? Well, they've done that so much, that is is now very, very wrong.

And stinky.

The case was so stinky that when I put it in the wash, my laundry room was stinky. The fumes were leaking out of the washer I guess. It was a smell so bad that it made our eyes burn!
By the time my husband got home from work, I was just about to lose my head over the whole thing. I think the fumes got to me. I just kept saying, "Something has got to be done!"

So both last night and this morning, I gave the girls their pills. And they were compliant and didn't spit them out. Baths are happening either tomorrow or Saturday. And a new, fresh pillow will be either made or bought within a day or two. Something has got to be done. And it will be.

My girls are too sweet to smell this stinky!