stronger than zyrtec

After some flight re-routing and multiple-hour delays, we finally made it home to Northern California yesterday. Draggin’-tired and zombified, I decided not to blog and instead give myself a nice easy comedown before an early ~9pm lights-out. Vacation was wonderful – reinvigorating and restoring for my spirits. The time spent with friends, the time spent with family, the mid-afternoon catnaps and warm weather: all of it worked like a trip to an old-timey “sanitarium,” shaking the white-collar dust off my boots and reminding me what life’s pace should really be like. Well, OK, perhaps that’s a bit romanticized for a mere two-week respite from the millstone, but it certainly did improve my outlook (I give work three days max to settle the clouds back ’round my head, though). Seriously, though, Florida was great and we had a splendid time there – but it’s also good to be back.

Before I get into it then, I’ll go ahead and break my dry spell by posting a backlog of Keaton pictures. These stretch back over the weeks I’ve neglected posting because of work stress and/or vacation non-stress. Check ’em out here, but make sure to remember to come back to read the rest of the blog when you’re done.

In other Keaton news, over our holiday she really seemed to sprout like a weed – learning new things like “cruising” and opening drawers and cabinets and possibly even saying her first word (it’s hard to tell, but she sure does seem to say “hi” in the right context and with good repeatability). Maybe, if her first word does turn out to be “hi,” it’s a good sign socially… or something. Sometimes I see her in a certain light and am taken aback by how “big” she is. In those moments, I instantly feel like I’ve not been paying enough attention, like things shouldn’t be allowed to change this fast, like I’ve she’s somehow changed while I wasn’t looking, while I blinked. To see her tiny legs holding her up when I can remember well the days where we cheered her as she struggled to roll over… that’s something, I tell ya. I have this fear I’m gonna take a nap and wake up to her in miniskirts and eyeliner…

Three days ago I decided to go off my allergy pills, cold turkey. I’ve been on them ever since my run-in with anaphylaxis, and had, at a couple times since then, ran out for a day or two before refilling the prescription – which, without fail, resulted in an intense all-over itching. I never had this whole-body itching thing before I started taking allergy pills, and for some reason I got the idea in my head that, maybe, I’d become reliant on their histamine-stomping powers so much that my own system had become weak. Also, I had begun to loathe the $15 a month which we were shelling out on the pills. I got to thinking, is itching really that unbearable? I mean, is it $15 unbearable? Plus, I have this notion that if I’m able to just stop taking the pills, my body will step up to the challenge and once again begin its regulation of histamine, unassisted by modern medicine. In the meantime though, I’m a red, blotchy, itchy mess – and am having to rely on my tremendous mind-over-matter fortitude to mentally block out the prickly fires on my skin. I can do it though, I’m convinced I’m stronger than the Zyrtec.

Two songs, people… two songs. That’s what’s leaked so far from the Arcade Fire’s upcoming 2007 release (which, consequently, is totally mastered and ready for release – and therefore literally begging to be leaked… can you imagine being the scenster who ups that badboy?… talk about instant kung-fu). See, it was only supposed to be one song, “Intervention,” released exclusively on iTunes. But, something went wrong… I’ll let Win explain it himself (I know this is old news to those who are up on the wold of the ‘Fire):

The song that people have downloaded from the US side of iTunes is called “Black Wave/Bad Vibrations,” and it is the next track on the record after “Intervention.” I guess it is sort of charming that we can send the wrong song to the whole world with a click of a mouse…oh well. The real “Intervention” will be up soon…

Turns out they accidentally pushed a mislabeled and completely different song from the album onto the US iTunes. The mistake was corrected with a quickness, but not quick enough to prevent the bits from filtering into the ether and eventually making their way into the P2P universe. So now, there’s the supposed-to-be-released track and the accidentally-released track floating around (and in heavy rotation in my iPod). Both are good, and have my Pavlovian instincts wetting my chin in anticipation. I also think it’s cool that the band “gets” that illegal downloading is inescapable, and is creative about it, saying: “… there will be a paypal link up on arcadefire.com for those who have downloaded the songs without paying but still want to give some money to www.PIH.org.” Way to be progressive guys, way to be.

Before I go, here’s some linky goodness that spoke to the new father in my, check out this article on the extreme hoochiefication of today’s girl-type youth.

Goodnight.

Also written on this day...

• gray day - 2021
• I’m no parent, or anything - 2008
• racist? me? - 2006
• newborn year - 2005