Not to be rude, but no offense

Photo by Kate Tomlinson

Benjamin was firing up the Wii this morning, and "The Imperial March" was at a pretty high volume when "Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga" was ready for play.

"Where's the remote?" he shouted.

"Next to the TV," I replied from the kitchen.

"It's too loud." he said.

"...then you're too old." I added instinctively.

"I'm not old!" he shouted indignantly. "You're old!"

Pause.

"No offense..." he added.

That addendum is commonplace in our house these days, though it's usually said as a preface.

"No offense, Dad, but...." Even better is "I don't mean to be rude, but...." There's always a but.

The good news is they are trying to be polite and truthful -- two behaviors we are working hard to promote. We are realizing, however, that those two altruisms may not always peacefully co-exist.

File under "Be careful what you wish for."

Fashion faux pas

As the snow fell throughout the day on Saturday, thoughts of some in the house turned to housecleaning and re-organizing. Benjamin with his usual zest decided to go all out, dumping the entire contents of his bureau onto his bedroom floor so that he could refold, resort and restack his clothing.

Brandy and I were largely oblivious of the project, until we found the following on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

Guess those shirts will be headed to the hand-me-down pile. Hopefully the recipient will like them better. The good news is they were lightly worn, if at all.

Kids really do say the darnedest things

I already loved Michael Lewis' writing before I watched this video, but I love his delivery of his writing even more after watching it.

I also aspire to write a blog post like this some day. What a great, well written story. I promise you it is worth the full 11 minutes.

2011 Year in Review in Photos and Video

Welcome to the fourth annual installment of the family photo album in review. Cuteness and general entertainment value are courtesy of Sam, Mason and Ben. Music mix comes from the mind of DJ Commuter Daddy, contributions from various artists, and a couple of voice clips from Mason. Easy mixing of our photos and videos enabled by Animoto:



It was a jam-packed year, which is likely something a family of 5 could say about every year, but we really did have an active year in 2011. Highlights included a surprise 40th birthday trip to San Juan; a new role in my day job; first trip to SXSW; completion of a long overdue bachelor's degree; coaching stints for basketball, soccer and baseball, the latter of which included an extended season with Mason's all-star team; a couple of band concerts and parades for Sam; Ben's first seasons of baseball, basketball and hockey, plus learning to ride a bike and losing his first two teeth in one day (not related to riding the bike); a guys' weekend for me at Pinehurst and a girls' weekend for Brandy in Kittery; excursions to see the Harlem Globetroters, Bourne Braves, Boston Red Sox, Providence Bruins and the Museum of Science, plus a couple of family golf outings; driveway was paved and basketball hoop was installed (twice); escaped most of the wrath of Tropical Storm Irene; and we hosted Thanksgiving dinner, while later attending Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve gatherings with friends.

Putting this slideshow together is another one of my favorite activities this time of year. It takes a while to pull it off, but I have equal amounts of geeky fun mixing the music and picking just the right amount of photos to fit the soundtrack. I hope you enjoy the results.

Previous editions:

• Best of 2010
• Best of 2009
• Best of 2008

Seen on the commute: Bumper sticker edition

Seen on the back of a pickup: "I'll keep my guns, money and freedom, and you can keep 'THE CHANGE'!

Not sure why "the change" was in quotes, though....

2011 in Review: Commuter Music

As the calendar annually renews I have a couple of favorite activities, and each will lead to blog posts this week. The first is perusing what music has been collected through the year, and exchanging lists of favorites with friends. It not only affords a chance to create a playlist for myself that recaps the year (and doubles as a good party shuffle when we entertain), but also a chance to add some new music, culled from friends' lists.

This tradition (2010's list is here; and more commuter music musings are abundant here), was started by my friend Geoff, and I have wholeheartedly embraced it. The double bonus is the exercise provides content for this blog. Bloggers love it when an email to friends can double as a blog post. For the benefit of those friends who received the email and also read this blog (bless you!), I added some new content at the end. Stay tuned!

So, on with the show. Here are my favorite (commuter) tunes of 2011:

About three dozen songs comprise my favorites for this year. I will start with my hands-down favorite album of the year: Mine Is Yours by Cold War Kids. I loved every song. Louder Than Ever, Out of the Wilderness, and Skip the Charades were in heaviest rotation. Cold Toes on the Cold Floor is seasonally appropriate and worth a listen.

I'll also add that I loved everything I heard by The Civil Wars, though I do keep coming back to Barton Hollow, Birds of a Feather and Oh, Henry as keepers.

The Best of the rest (in no particular order):

• Lost in My Mind by The Head And The Heart 
• No Silver by Chris Bathgate
• Fixin' to Die by G. Love
• Crocodile Tears by little hurricane
• Alone in This Together by Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs
• Some Day Soon by Alexi Murdoch
• Don't Gotta Work It Out by Fritz & The Tantrums
• Dance Without You by Skylar Grey
• Arms by Christina Perri
• City of Refuge by Abigail Washburn
• Daphne by Lia Ices
• The Kind You Can't Afford by Madeleine Peyroux
• Strawberry Amazing by Miguel
• Sophia by Laura Marling
• WHALE by Yellow Ostrich
• Gray or Blue by Lee Coulter with Kate Vincent

Honorable Mention (songs from other years discovered in 2011):

• Used to Did by J Roddy Walston and the Business
• Revel in Contempt by Buke and Gass
• Greenback Boogie by Ima Robot
• Heart of Steel by Galactic
• You Are Not Alone by Mavis Staples
• Around the Bend by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour (thanks, Keith!)

As for the kids, Maroon 5, Pitbull and LMFAO seem to be among Ben's and Mason's favorites, while Sam mixes it up with Rob Thomas, The Black Eyed Peas, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Motley Crue and Lenny Kravitz.

Speaking of playlists, MapMyRide published my cycling mix earlier this year. Recent additions to that list include Moves Like Jager by Maroon 5, Dirt by WU LYF, Wonderland by Natalia Kills, Punching In A Dream by The Naked And Famous, and Die Trying by Art Of Dying.

If you have made it this far, I have wrapped up all of the above in a zipped 216MB bow. Help yourself to what you like, but please also support musicians with your wallet. Explore other offerings by these artists and let them lead you to musical discoveries. Please share your favorites in the comments, too.

Other 2011 paths to discovery:

• Bill O Writes: The Best CDs of 2011
• Bouv's Blog: The 2011 Holiday Mix
• Famous Blue Blog: Best of Uncharted Waters Part I, Part II and Part III
• GeekDad: The Nerdy Dozen: 12 Must-Hear Songs of 2011 (includes It Is Splendid! by Supercommuter)