A few months ago we got the Condo appraised and it was suggested that we just do minor touchups. Well it is summer and with the prospect of finding a house anytime soon being as likely as me running for pope, I have done little in the way of those “touchups”. The weather is just way too nice and the weekends too short to spend them painting, scraping, or replacing items besides the fall is much better weather wise for that type of stuff.

So I have been obsessing of late with replacing the flooring on our second floor (sans the bathroom which I already did) mainly due to the carpet we have. I freely admit it was home depot special carpet we bought right after some water damage to replace the horrible stuff that was already there. At the time we needed something ASAP and with kathy in college, whoever could put it in quickest won. The carpet is starting to show it’s age and the installers did less than a good job putting it in. I could attempt to re-stretch it but risk opening some of the seams even more.

So my obsession with what type of flooring to replace the carpet with started. Looking online, all the big box stores, a couple local places, and in CT didn’t really help that much. There are a ton of choices and the ever important cost/value/comfort/environment factor. With Kathy’s allergies too, it becomes a big factor in what to get to minimize any chance of the flooring making them worse.

Well last night at 11pm or so I took the plunge and ordered some solid bamboo flooring from a place in CT, decided that I had to end the obsession. Might as well take the plunge and do the hallway, closet, and stairs and order the bedrooms next week or so. I would have loved to get Teragren which every professional found thought it was good (it is in the dental office Kathy works with too) but given that we are going to be in the condo for not much longer it made no sense (it is pricey). I am thinking of this as good practice for putting in a solid hardwood floor which I have only done once before.

So my obsession hopeful has ended for the time being, now the fun part will begin soon, ripping stuff apart.

Read again they may be making a movie based on Voltron, how cool would that be. Seems this time it might actually happen.

http://www.Etsy.com–a huge portal where people hawk their homemade artwork! (Leah should do this!).

Blonde Redhead’s new album, “23”–I’ve just fallen in love with this group, but I’m learning that they’ve been around for a while. A Japanese art student meets Italian twin brothers and forms a band–the rest is magic. They are like the Lush of the new millenium. Check out their myspace page and listen to the title track, it’s fantastic: http://www.myspace.com/blonderedhead

The BBC show, “Coupling”. Thanks to Netflix new “watch it now” feature, we’ve been able to watch this show that our friend Bruno has been raving about. It’s like the naughtier version of Friends, and even funnier.

Yoko Ono, “Yes, I’m a Witch”. I take back anything bad I ever though about Yoko Ono. Sure, she’s a wee bit out there and some of her older “Plastic Ono” stuff is a little TOO avante-garde for my taste, but that’s just Yoko. She is a real artist, and she’s been recently growing on me. I just discovered this new album of hers in which she collaborates new versions of her songs with other artists–she is still featured in all of the songs. Hearing her sing “Revelations” with Cat Power and “Kiss Kiss” with Peaches makes it worth listening to the entire album.

yay!

These are just funny quotes we’ve heard from various people over the past few months, we thought we’d share them.

“I hope he at least had a nice body”.- 64 year old patient commenting on a recent “streaker” in downtown Brattleboro.”

“Every time you call me a girl’s name, I die a little inside”-Zach Braff , “JD” from Scrubs.

From a French lesbian we met at a concert describing breasts “Just a handful is good for me. Anything more than a handful, I don’t know what to do with all the extra.”

“Idiots are fun, no wonder every village wants one”-Hugh Laurie, “House”

“These deatheaters can move about as fast as Severus Snape when confronted with shampoo”–Fred from Harry Potter’s The Deathly Hallows

“Get your hands off my daughter, you bitch!”, Mrs. Weasly defending her daughter in The Deathly Hallows

“I’m so gay that I was the one sperm that cried “No! No! Don’t make me go into that scary cave!!”-from BBC’s Coupling

“When you go stalking animals at night with a flashlight at a campground, I call it “Night Elking”; of course if you find a dangerous one you are screwed, you can’t shine it do death”–rambling from one of Chris’ online friends

“No one ever said Facism would be easy”-a patient, in response to the current Bush regime

“Giving people flowers actually isn’t all that nice a thing. It’s like saying, “Here…now watch these die”-Demetri Martin

“Cirque du Soleil is like heroin for old people”-Patton Oswalt

“Cheese is the devil’s plaything”-Hugh Laurie, “House”

“We are the sharpshooters, flock of parachuters, necessary voodoo”.-Bjork, Earth Intruders

“That woman needs a brain enema”-saying overheard by someone observing another woman wearing a strange fur coat

It is sad of late to hear some people so against some sort of universal health care. I see MA is going that route and maybe people just don’t want everyone to be covered and healthy. I am sick of reading people saying that, “well if you work then you have health insurance”, or the well “companies take care of their employees already” what are these people crazy?? Take for example my wife, almost no Dental Hygenists get insurance. Or several of our friend who are in normal non-government/state jobs who would have to give up a 1/3 of their salaries for coverage. Just crazy stuff……

One more thing, why is it always the men that say women who give birth should not have any sort of government paid leave? Interesting since men can’t give birth that they expect some people to go back to work right after this life changing event. The family leave act is a joke, yes you get the time but almost no companies pay you so can you really take the time. It would be nice if we followed Sweden or the dozens of other countries that offer government paid time off, I guess it shows how little some people value the ability to be able to spend time with ones newborns.

Further Ramblings on this subject, definitely read Dave’s comment it is a good one.:

As our good friend Dave points out, MA is trying something and it is not universal but has brought a LOT of talk lately about how the health care system is zany which is a good thing.

I agree Paternal leave should be their, and by that I mean whatever partner did not give birth. But my second rambling is more about how a women who gives birth is expected to come to work the very next day. Very few companies give any sort of payed recoperation time, nor insurance,  and neither does the govement. Just seems insane that this is not covered in some way across the board, ie. you give birth, you get 2 weeks off instantly.

The entire craziness that follows in getting the proper amount of time off to raise ones child (both partners)  whether by birth, adoption, transfer, is a subject for a new post in the future, which I plan on stealing some of Daves comments for 🙂

Ok I will not give any of the plotsaway but we both just finished harry potter and the “last” book was really good. Now we don’t have to worry aboout hearing anything about it that may have previously spoiled the plot for us.

Definitly read it as soon as you can.

I’ve been googling Neko Case on the internet and searching on YouTube for any hints that she might have given people attitude in the past, and all I can see is her being generally good natured and laughing and chatting with the audience. I can’t believe she gave Monty such a hard time, I’m always sad to hear when someone I like cops a major ‘tude. As much as I can’t excuse her behavior, however, I can’t stop loving that old-soul alt country sound. And she was a great live performer, so yeah, I’d probably go see her again–I just wouldn’t bother to hang out backstage. I hope this doesn’t make me a bad person! Why Neko, why?

Yes she is a good singer but a total jerk. Monte Belmonte, from 97.3 the river who brought her to be a Puesdo headliner for the Green River Fest, introduced her when she came on stage and plays her music all the time was wronged by Neko Case.

She wouldn’t answer just the one questions (he waited for an hour was snubbed several times) and then he got a string of swears issued his way and threats from the guitarist, fairly crappy to do when he is from the station that brought you to town and helped your family to get backstage when they did not have their passes on them. You might be able to catch what transpired on a podcast from this morning.

An event like this makes me wonder, as several people who called in too said, that she is a drunk, maybe she is aiming to be the next Amy Winehouse .

Update: I heard from Monte Belmonte,

“She could’ve at least taken :30 for us all. It’s weird when people won’t come of their high horse especially when their horse isn’t all that high.”

I love out of the ordinary stuff! Here are a few weird but awesome music finds I’ve discovered this summer–check em out!!!-Kathleen

Top 5 Bizarre Albums of the Summer

1. Klaxons- ‘Myths of the Near Future’– on their myspace page, they describe their sound as like, “when Buzz Aldrin returned from the moon and turned Muslim”. They are electronica-rock reminiscent of KLF and Orbital on acid; totally addictive stuff.

2. Gogol Bordello-‘Gypsy Punk‘. What kind of a name is Gogol Bordello? Czechoslavakian, I think. Remember the guy who played “Alex” in the film Everything is Illuminated? Well, he headlines this band and sounds exactly like his character in the movie. The title of the album is very true to form, as this really is gypsy/punk/reggae/ska. And with song titles like, “Hats of to Koplakof”, how can you go wrong?

3. Babylon Circus-we saw them live in NYC and they were insane. On the same gypsy/punk/reggae/ska vibe as above, but French! C’est formidable!

4. Erlend Oye -‘Unrest‘. What would happen if the nerdy, glasses-wearing member of the duo Kings of Convenience tried to do an electronic, solo album? And what if he collaborated with people all over the world, including a DJ from Connecticut? This album. I love that it sounds kind of like “robot music”. What can I say, I’m such a dork.

5. Too Good to be True, the Very Best of El Records-I have never before in my life heard of El Records, but I happened to find this randomly through Yahoo music and I can’t even describe the odd plethora of great music on this album. Think old movie soundtracks mixed with a little 80’s alternative? I can’t stop singing songs like “Cecil Beaton’s Scrapbook”, from the Would be Goods, or “Curry Crazy” from Bad Dream Fancy Dress.

I’m sure I’ll find more unusual goodies before the end of the summer, feel free to share any of your strange finds–maybe I should start a livejournal page dedicated to this?

Hey, can anyone think of a good 2-day illness to make up to excuse yourself out of 2 days of work??