Word Crimes

There are days I actually love social media. Today was one of those days because a friend posted the video below:

As an English major, I cringe a lot over shortened versions of words. I understand taking shortcuts when it comes to texting, but when it starts to simmer over into real life writing...well then I just shake my head and wonder if the English language will ever be the same. 

I think the video would be great for kids to see in their English class. And they just might want to have a dictionary handy for those big words in the video, ha ha!

The Happy Challenge: Day 98

Courtesy of Amazon

Day 98 of 100 Happy Days Challenge.

The happy for today was hearing the toddler singing along with "Bicycle Race" from Queen. It's so funny to hear him sing: "Bicycle...bicycle...bicycle..." And when the CD moved on to the next song, he kept asking for the "bicycle song." 

The Happy Challenge: Day 83

Day 83 of 100 Happy Days Challenge.

Today I introduced the toddler to the iPod. At first he thought it was a cell phone, but when I plugged in the earbuds and gave him one to listen, he found it fascinating. It was fun to watch him bob along with the music.

The Happy Challenge: Day 79

Day 79 of 100 Happy Days Challenge.

Today's happy is all about music! I played a few of Michael Jackson's old and new videos for my toddler. We had a great time dancing around and watching them. Plus, it was just great to hear some of the old songs I grew up with.

Michael Jackson in "The Way U Make Me Feel" video

The Happy Challenge: Day 72

Day 72 of 100 Happy Days Challenge.

Happy #1 - Today I was going through some of the $.69 songs on Amazon to see if I wanted to purchase any. Boy, playing the little sample snippets brought back some memories! Every now and again, when a song hit the toddler's fancy, he started dancing around. It cracked me up to watch him react. One of his favorites: Jump by Kriss Kross.

And, to top off the musical flashback, I saw the Snoopy pic on Instagram just after hearing all the songs - great timing!

Happy #2 - A work deadline finally completed!

The Happy Challenge: Day 71

Day 71 of 100 Happy Days Challenge.

Happy #1 - Saw these blooms when I was grocery shopping today...

Happy #2 - As soon as the toddler heard "Happy" (the Pharrell Williams song) on the TV, he immediately perked up and started bouncing in his seat (he was on his tablet at the time). Music definitely has an impact on him!

Happy #3 - The toddler did NOT watch Despicable Me or Despicable Me 2 at all today! Considering he has watched one or the other (or both) on a daily basis for almost three weeks, this is quite an accomplishment. While I like both movies, it was starting to get a little old. :)

The Happy Challenge: Day 63

Courtesy of Amazon

Day 63 of 100 Happy Days Challenge.

Happy #1 - A new work project.

Happy #2 - The song "Love Never Felt So Good" from Michael Jackson's posthumous album "Xscape." I haven't purchased the album, but I did hear a snippet today of all the songs. There are two versions of this song - one that's jazzed up and an acoustic version. Both are great!

The Happy Challenge: Day 38

Day 38 of 100 Happy Days Challenge.

A big happy - listening to all the music on my iPod (which hasn't been synced in a few years...yikes)! I especially love hearing the Christmas music, since Christmas songs always make me happy!

Another happy - Pad Thai for dinner! I haven't had it in so long, and it was soooo good! I even have some for lunch tomorrow. ;)

While I know this challenge is to find just ONE happy thing in your day, I've been challenging myself to find more than one happy thing each day. Maybe I'm just an overachiever, lol.

The Happy Challenge: Day 17

Day 17 of 100 Happy Days Challenge.

The happy for today...

Finding and listening to Straight No Chaser's version of the song Happy. Just click on the image below to sing and dance along!

An Evening with Michael

I am a huge fan of Michael Buble. Yes, he's cute. But it is his voice that makes me swoon! And I finally got to go to a concert a couple of years ago. It was one of the best nights and most favorite concerts ever! I finally documented that night with the very fuzzy photos that I got - we were very far away...

CREDITS

Papers and Embellishments: Music Maestro (Ninigoesdigi)

Font: Pristina (title); Century Gothic (journaling); KG Seven Sixteen (date  - Kimberly Geiswein)

Template: Toxic Generation - Freebie (Cornelia Designs)

Whirlwind Weekend #2,983,749

Another busy weekend. I think every weekend in November is busy, which is surprising for me. Usually I have at least one weekend free, even if it's only one weekend day! And did I mention that I also had a newsletter deadline this weekend??? %-)

Friday night found me having sushi with Jenn and checking out The Elevators at Vinideus. Jenn and I discovered that Nick had more groupies since the last time we had attended one of their concerts. At least half the clientele at Vinideus that night knew Nick and were there to hear him and the band play. They sounded great as usual, and a new band member joined them that night. The Elevators are expanding their repertoire to blues, so it's going to be fun to see what other songs they'll be performing in the future.

Although I didn't have any of the wines, I did get to sample desserts...
Saturday found me at an all-day conference for Relay For Life. Since I'm on the planning committee for 2010, the committee members had a mandatory training conference, where we attended different sessions, based on our committee responsibilities. I'm volunteering for the Public Relations committee, after a hiatus for several years. One thing about this event is that HOPE is THE word... Craft Warehouse had their annual open house on Saturday night, and I was too wiped to even attend. I think this is the first time I haven't attended their annual open house in the last four years, lol!

Sunday was a scrapbooking session to make exploding photo boxes. The gals all made a Christmas-themed box and had a blast doing so.Another weekend that flew by. And with Thanksgiving coming up in a couple of weeks, the weeks are going to fly by even faster! Have a good week!

12 Days of Christmas Favorites - Day 7

Today's favorite is The Nutcracker.

I'm referring to the music since I've never seen the ballet performed. There's just something so fun about hearing Tchaikovsky's music.

However, on Friday night, David and I attended an interesting performance of The Nutcracker. The arrangement was done by Duke Ellington, so most of it was very upbeat. I'll admit that a few of the tunes were not immediately recognizable to me, and the program had variations of the original titles, so I have to actually look at the real titles to figure out which songs they are.

I'm not sure if I would do this as an annual thing, but it was definitely worth going to at least once, just to hear a different rendition.

I think it's time to go pop the CD in...

12 Days of Christmas Favorites - Day 1

I thought I'd try something new this year, especially since I just realized today is December 1st. So, to kick off December, I thought I'd share my 12 Days of Christmas Favorites!

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music. Yesterday, I loaded a bunch of Christmas songs on my iPod and created a special playlist just for Christmas songs. Some of my favorite songs of the holiday season:

"The Chipmunk Song" - Alvin and the Chipmunks
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" - Vanessa Williams
"All I Want for Christmas Is You" - Mariah Carey
"Baby It's Cold Outside" - Bobby Caldwell and Vanessa Williams
"This Gift" - 98 Degrees
"What are You Doing New Year's Eve" - Harry Connick, Jr.
"Christmas Through Your Eyes" - Gloria Estefan
"Merry Christmas, Darling" - The Carpenters
"When My Heart Finds Christmas" - Harry Connick, Jr.
"Miss You Most (At Christmastime)" - Mariah Carey
"The Christmas Song" - Christina Aguilera
"Santa Baby" - From Ally McBeal, A Very Ally Christmas

By far, my favorite all-time Christmas album is When My Heart Finds Christmas by Harry Connick, Jr. It's a classic on my playlist!
I also had to recognize an album from Dave Koz because I love the title: December Makes Me Feel This Way.

And I have to say, December certainly does make me feel this way.

I love Christmas!

The Elevators: Live!

Last night, Jenn and I went to see The Elevators live at a local wine bar. The group is comprised of three guys, one of them being Nick, one of the mentors of our running team.

The Elevators play jazz, a little bossa nova style. Their original tunes are catchy, and Nick writes a lot of the songs. They also have some interesting arrangements, including a jazz arrangement of a song by Weezer. (No idea which song it is, but Jenn recognized it right away.)

After their performance, Nick sat with Jenn and I to chat about the upcoming marathon on Sunday and to give a few words of wisdom regarding our training.

Can't wait to catch their next live performance!

New Video from Michael Buble

One of my favorite singers, Michael Buble, has a new music video out for a song that's kind of sad. Something I noted while watching--Michael looks like a young Donny Osmond in this video.

Enjoy!

Thriller is 25 and Talking About Music

Remember the song Thriller from Michael Jackson? It turned 25 years old today.

That fact just makes me feel old! I remember listening to that song in high school and how it was played at the dances. I'll admit that I never learned the actual dance (which is in the movie 13 Going on 30) back then, but it would be funny to learn it now.

And speaking of music, I woke up this morning to the DJs asking listeners to share stories about songs that remind them of a very specific memory. I've always found this topic very interesting, especially since I have lots of songs that remind me of specific memories or events in my life. For instance...

Wicked Game by Chris Isaak always reminds me of Matt. The lyrics are a bit haunting to me since it reflected our relationship at the time. I think we both knew there was always something bigger than both of us.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and More Than Words by Extreme brings back memories of my old roommate, Fiona. She always wanted someone to sing Elton's song to her--said that it would be the guy she would marry--and as for the Extreme song, we used to sing it together in harmony every time it came on the radio.

Classic Beach Boy songs, like Help Me Rhonda or Be True to Your School or California Girls, bring me back to my freshman year of college, specifically when me and two of my friends, Nancy and Lillian, would go workout at the Rec Center before dinner. When we got back to the dorm, Lillian would bring her boom box into the showers and blast Beach Boys songs while we cleaned up for dinner.

Truly by Lionel Richie was the song that I slow danced to with my friend David (whom I had a HUGE crush on at the time) during our sophomore year (it might have been early in our junior year) of high school while we were attending a dance at the State Hospital. (Don't get the wrong idea here--one of the clubs we were in used to go to the State Hospital and put on dances as a community service project. Only the patients that had "good behavior" were allowed to go to these monthly dances.)

Africa by Toto was a song from freshman/sophomore year of high school when me, Mary, and Brenda (whom I was no longer friends with my senior year) used to pretend we were part of an air band. I think Brenda was percussion, Mary was guitar, and I covered keyboards.

What a Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers takes me back to riding the bus to middle school in seventh grade. My friend Valerie had written up a copy of the lyrics for me, and each time we heard it on the school bus, we would sing along. To this day, I still turn up the song each time I hear it on the radio.

Kiss Me from Sixpence None the Richer is a fun memory of Brian, who used to make up lyrics to fit the song. When I hear the song now, I still think "Green beans, oh how I love to eat them..." (Heck, I even had a hard time remembering the real name of the song when I typed it in just now!)

Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes is a really fun memory right now since Kathy and Jen are keeping a running toll of how many times we hear the song in a month. So far, the total count is 3. I'm not really sure how this got started, but every time it comes on the radio, Kathy calls me or Jen sends me an email.

And the list goes on... How's that for a Flashback Friday (and yes, I really need to bring that back!)?

What songs spark your memories?

A Few Christmas Favorites

Must be the sunshine or the fact that I'm feeling better that I'm much more motivated today. I finally broke out the Christmas CDs to play while I'm working. My favorite Christmas CDs? Harry Connick, Jr. and Mariah Carey. However, one of my favorite songs is by Alvin and The Chipmunks. How can you not smile when The Chipmunk Song is playing???

Oh, and speaking of Alvin and The Chipmunks, the movie is coming out on December 14th--can't wait!

So a couple of favorite Christmas things...

Peppermint bark from Ghiradelli. As you can see, I'm building up a stash for the rest of the year, when peppermint chocolate is VERY hard to find. I think I need to go back to Target and get a few more bars--on sale this week!

Here's the best part--I can leave the peppermint bark anywhere in the house, and it won't disappear until I eat it--LOL! ;)

And this one's for Victor--guess who's on my couch? (No comments from the peanut gallery!!!)

It's my favorite buddy...Snoopy! And he's all decked out in his holiday gear.

No tree yet, but I still don't know if I'm going to put one up. Anyway, I'm still celebrating Christmas in a few fun ways. Love this time of year!

Looking for a UNIQUE gift idea? Check out Signature Days. Some of the gifts are a little pricey, but definitely cool ideas!

Lastly, did you know Marisa Tomei's birthday is today? I can't believe she's 43! I'll bet George Costanza is still crying over Marisa...hee hee!