Is that freedom rock man? Well, turn it up, man!

Lastnight my friend Kate was in town from Chicago, so I went out with her and a few other friends. Our plan was to meet in downtown Minneapolis for some drinks, then go see Scott Munns. Our friend Res had seen him before, supposedly it was just him and a guitar.

So we had the drinks and then walked down the block to The Lodge Bar for the music. The atmosphere was a little different than I was expecting. The throngs of 21-year-olds gyrating to the pumping dance music of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, etc. did not fit the mindset I was in...how did a one-man acoustic show blend in with this??

As it turns out, the one-man show was actually a 2-man show with full drum kit and electric guitar, and that night they functioned as a cover band, playing mostly classics from the 70s and 80s, with a few whimsical renditions of current hits (Timberlake's "Sexy Back" was a highlight). Aside from the fact we were about 10 years older than 80% of the crowd, it was pretty entertaining, including:

Guy: Hi, I'm Pat.
Me: Hi.
Guy: And your name is?
Me: Linda.
Guy: It's my birthday.
Me: Well, happy birthday!
Guy: Aren't you going to ask what birthday?
Me: OK, what birthday?
Guy: Guess.
Me: [sigh] 24?
Guy: Hey, thanks!
Me: Older or younger?
Guy: Why would I thank you if it was older? 26. [winces] I'm old.
Me: Why is that old?
Guy: Because I'm like, 4 years from 30.
Me: I'm 30.
Guy: No way! That's cool. How did you handle that?
Me: No big deal. 30s are a fun time.
Guy: I don't know, it's like every year is closer to death.
Me: [supressing severe urge to roll eyes] Don't take it so seriously. [pats him dismissively on shoulder] Happy Birthday then.
Guy: Uh, ok. See you. Have a nice night.

My other observation from the night is this...as I sat there watching people born in 1985 get all excited and pack the dance floor for "Sweet Home Alabama" ca. 1974, and "You Shook Me All Night Long" ca. 1980, I am thinking "how do they know these songs?" But then again, how do I know these songs? For the first I wasn't even born yet (and I've never even been to Alabama), for the second I was only 4 years old and I seriously doubt I was into AC/DC. Yet I still rock out to both.

These songs have transcended decades and found an entirely new audience. They just don't make them like that anymore. Where are all those classic guitar riffs? But I did catch myself with a pang of jealousy when I heard all these young-uns shouting their drunken hearts out to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" ca 1986. Hey, that's one of MY songs! (Come on, you know you're singing it, 'Shot through the heart, and you're to blame...")

The power of music. But will kids in 2026 will be dancing and screaming to Britney Spears, All America Rejects, Beyonce, Eminem?? These songs have their place, but are they destined to be classics? Will music change to an all-techno format? Or will my kids still bob their heads and mouth that classic line"turn it up..." when they hear Sweet Home Alabama? Will that song even be played anymore in 20 years? It remains to be seen.

Author's Note: I just relayed this story to Husband, and he responded by chuckling and giving me a resounding "You're getting OLD!!"

Ode to Dyson

I have the day off today and spent a little time vacuuming. And to fully understand why I chose to vacuum on my holiday, I need to tell you that before Christmas I made a very big purchase. I marched into Target Saturday morning and bought myself a Dyson DC14 Drive vacuum cleaner.

Impulse buy, you ask? Hardly. I've been coveting this vac for months now. A different model was on our wedding registry, but we didn't receive it. We did receive a boatload of Target giftcards though - and I had clearance from Husband to fork them over for the Dyson. We spent a little on other things, but there was plenty left to cover most of the cost of this spendy sucker.

Easy decision then, right? Not for someone like me! I researched, I waited for a free gift card promotion, I hemmed and hawed. I wasn't sure if this was the best use of our "money."But after several nudges from Husband and a lot of "you haven't bought that vacuum yet?" from other family members, I finally got in the car armed with the bulging envelope of gift cards and the intent to buy the darn thing (a $50 gift card promotion helped my cause).

I walked back to the vac aisle with my cart, reached for the box...and paused. Was this the right thing to do? This is an investment, am I choosing the right model? Should I be spending our wedding gift cards on this? And then a little voice said, "Jess, just buy the damn vacuum!"

So I did, and walked out of the store feeling slightly giddy and slightly sick. I got it in the house and Husband and Brandon put it together. I vacuumed a 3x3 foot area, and my first thought was...

Gross, what is that green fuzz and dust already in the canister?! Followed closely by Why did I wait so long to buy this thing?! I never thought it possible that I would be this excited about a household appliance, and one used for cleaning no less. I had a great time vacuuming the entire house, and got great satisfaction from seeing the canister fill up and emptying it out. All of that crap the old vacuum missed. I could even vac the stairs without any complicated attachments, and I didn't have to haul it up to reach all of the stairs - the hose is long enough to reach them all!

So you see why I spent part of my day off using this beautiful machine (aside from the fact there were some remnants of Christmas on the carpet). If this is a sign of me becoming a "housewife," then I guess I'm on board!

Merry Christmas!

First off let me just say Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it. I hope you had a wonderful holiday filled with all the people and things you love.

It started to feel a little more like the Christmas season for me this past Thursday, when we finally got some snow. It looked really pretty coming down, and even though it was pretty heavy and slushy, it left a beautiful wake (see a pic of our backyard below). It's funny what a little wintertime precipitation can do for my holiday mood. I left work feeling very festive and ready to tackle the holiday head on.

The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity. Friday I worked, but our whole group (about 14 of us) was treated to a holiday lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. We sat at the hibachi table, which is where they cook your food right in front of you. The chef does a lot of cool stuff with his utensils and the food and it was all very fun and impressive. Sushi is not really my thing, but I tried some and then really enjoyed the meal prepared for me on the hibachi. I was able to leave work a little early that day to finish up some shopping, and then headed home.

Friday night and all day Saturday we worked to get the house in order and food prepared for Husband's family to come over for their holiday celebration. Our place is perfectly suited to host Christmas, as the carpet on our main floor is a delightful (can you smell the sarcasm?) green color. But preparing the place for 20 people to come over is no small task, and by the time 4:00 rolled around and people started to arrive, I was already pretty tired. But it was a great time. Husband's family is pretty casual and easy to please, so we just had a buffet of sandwiches and appetizers to which everyone contributed. We had A LOT of food. Our niece Hayley and cousin Mason also opened gifts, and that is a treat for everyone. Christmas is great fun with kids around!

On that subject, this holiday season we fielded several inquiries and innuendos about status of our family's potential growth...

Official Laabs Family Statement:
Yes, we would like to have kid(s). No, there are no immediate plans. God willing, the time will come and things will not be complicated for us when we do decide to try. For now we are just enjoying being married and spending time with Brandon.

Speaking of that rapidly growing redhead (I swear he'll be taller than me soon), Brandon also opened gifts and one in particular sparked my attention...a box full of dollar bills! Genius gift for a teenager, in my opinion...

The party ended about 10:30PM on Saturday, and after cleaning up we decided to do gifts with our little family. I was thrilled to see that Brandon loved his gifts, and we all had a particularly good time with the "Deal or No Deal" game and the farting/belching/dancing/etc. robot he received. We had some good laughs and stayed up way too late...

Sunday morning came early, and after some final preparations we dropped Brandon off and headed down to Storm Lake. It was a long drive as Husband and I were both pretty tired, and we had to go straight to Grandma's house. After a few minutes to change clothes and stretch, we had a great time. All of the cousins were there, which doesn't happen very often, and we had two new additions this year, so it was nice to have babies in the house again. Grandma's house on Christmas Eve is a long-standing and cherished tradition in my family, and I am grateful to my husband for honoring that this year when everyone was home.

After another late night, we headed back to Mom and Dad's and stayed up for awhile chatting. We all got up this morning and had breakfast and opened gifts and it was just really nice for us all to be home...but we missed my sister-in-law Abbey, and hope she can be with us next time. Everyone was heading off to other celebrations by noon, and Husband and I left shortly after.


Now it's almost 9PM, and Husband is downstairs watching football, and I am upstairs blogging and watching "Deal or No Deal". Order is restored to the universe! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Two Movies in One Day!

Not much new to report here. I just got home from a nice night out with my friend Jacquie. We chatted over dinner and then went to see "The Pursuit of Happyness" with Will Smith and his completely adorable real-life son Jaden. It was a very inspirational story and also very heartwrenching to get a glimpse into the life of someone really scraping to get by, with a happy ending of course.

Today we also had a family date to see the movie "Eragon." Both Husband and I have read the book and really loved it. The movie was pretty good but skipped a lot of parts of the book, of course. The visual effects were pretty amazing, but then again we come to expect that sort of thing in movies these days. The main thing is that Brandon liked the movie and is now interested in reading the book also.

Other than that it's been fairly quiet around here. We're getting ready for Christmas, which I can't believe is only a little over a week away. It certainly doesn't feel like it with no snow on the ground!

Stressed Out?

This is guaranteed to make you laugh. click here

Is it Friday Yet?

I have to preface this post by saying it has been one of those weeks. I have One Main Thing I need to get done at work, and yet all day long I am interrupted by a bunch of little things that are important, but with all the juggling I have been unable to finish the One Main Thing, and the deadline is fast approaching. Not to mention being behind on the One Main Thing has put me behind on some other things that need to get done.

So I have been attempting to budget my time and spend it wisely. Tonight I had hockey tickets, our first game of the year. But Husband went without me and took his dad, because I felt I needed an evening to work late, get some things done, and most of all print out a bunch of stuff for a holiday party tomorrow night for which I have been the principle event planner. All the files were ready, just needed to print and I was going to have an a-ok evening and go to bed knowing I am prepared.

I got home around 8:30 after working and running a few errands. I go downstairs to start printing. I use Husband's computer because it's already on. Get everything all set, and discover Husband's computer is not hooked up to the printer. OK. I cannot use my laptop, so I switch chairs and boot up Brandon's computer. I go to retrieve my file, and alas, discover the keyboard is not working. I can't type anything. I check the connections, look good. I reboot the computer. Still nothing. I try another keyboard, because there happens to be two spare keyboards underneath the desk (I'm not kidding about this). I know one of them is good, so I try it. Still nothing. I bang on the keys in frustration. That doesn't work either. Like any self-respecting 21st century female, I go upstairs and google "keyboard doesn't work" on my laptop. They tell me to do the things I've already tried, and if that doesn't work, they tell me to do some computer gobbledeegook that I don't understand.

So here I am. We have 3 functioning computers in this house, and I currently cannot use any of them to do one simple task. The universe is telling me something, but I'm not sure what.

It's kind of how I felt when I opened the mailbox yesterday. This weekend I addressed my Christmas cards. I did not order return address labels in time, so I hand wrote all of the return addresses. Yesterday the free holiday address labels from our insurance company came in the mail. I guess everything is just meant to take me twice as long these days.

It will be a late night, because I have to wait until Husband gets home all happy with a head full of hockey to fix the keyboard. Hope everyone else enjoys their sleep.

Six Months of Wedded Bliss

Today I have been married for six months, half a year. It has really flow by – sometimes it seems like just yesterday that we were having the wedding, other times it seems like so long ago already.
For as completely AWESOME as our wedding day was, and all the fun we had on the honeymoon, I knew that what followed would be a difficult road. If anyone ever tells you that marriage is easy, THEY ARE LYING. It’s such a huge adjustment, especially if you have never lived together. I also think when you are a little older when you get married, it’s even more difficult, because you have been doing things a certain way for so long. And you’re doing it that way because you think it’s the best way. Then someone else comes along and has the gall to suggest that it’s not. Geez. :)

There’s also someone there 24/7, calling you out and making you accountable for every emotion, action and reaction. Sometimes I don’t know how I feel, or why I feel that way. I just do. And that must be incredibly frustrating for Husband. I can relate because when he’s in a mood, I want to know why, I want to know how I can help. But sometimes the best thing is to just leave him alone, and that’s hard.

So I’m learning. But I do know that at the end of the day, it’s a wonderful feeling knowing that someone is always there for you, no matter what. And sometimes that person knows exactly what you need, even when you don’t have a clue.

Love you, B. Happy 6 months.

Happy Birthday, Mom!