The sock hop tape

Playlist of the sock hop tape, dated 12/87 on side A and 2/88 on side B.

Side A

1. Shake Your Love -- Debbie Gibson
2. I Think We're Alone Now -- Tiffany
3. You Give Love a Bad Name -- Bon Jovi
4. Living on a Prayer -- Bon Jovi
5. You Give Good Love -- Whitney Houston
6. Always -- Atlantic Starr
7. You Be Illin' -- Run DMC
8. I Want Your Sex -- George Michael
9. Fight For Your Right (To Party) -- Beastie Boys
10. Secret Lovers -- Atlantic Starr
11. Pour Some Sugar On Me -- Def Leppard
12. Armageddon It -- Def Leppard

Side B

1. Jam On It -- Newcleus
2. Pop Goes the World -- Men Without Hats
3. It Should've Been Me -- Tiffany
4. The Lion Sleeps Tonight -- The Tokens
5. With You All the Way -- New Edition
6. Anything For You -- Gloria Estefan
7. Make It Real -- The Jets
8. Rush Hour -- Jane Wiedlin
9. Hands to Heaven -- Breathe
10. Let It Be -- The Beatles
11. The Promise -- When In Rome

In my dreams

Last night I had strange dreams. It was hot, and our bedroom was rearranged because the roofers were in the middle of having it painted. In one of the dreams, I went into a store, which had ice instead of a floor. I expected to go in and skate a program, but I was able to skate a little on the way in.

The first thing I did was try a backspin, and I held it for five revolutions. I was excited when I got to two, and although the spin slowed down, I hung onto it, and I was so happy that I screamed at the end of it. In real life, I've never gotten past just under two revolutions, and the dream was really great because I could finally feel what the spin is supposed to feel like. I dreamed about my one-foot spin before I was able to do it, so I hope this is a good sign.

We worked on my backspin in my lesson this week, and my coach had me keep my free foot behind my skating foot on the entrance, which helped a lot. I did one that felt really good on Thursday night, and I hope it continues to improve.

Songs on the Abba tape

Abba Arrival, Abba the Album, 2/1/81

Side A

1. When I Kissed the Teacher
2. Dancing Queen
3. My Love, My Life
4. Dum Dum Diddle
5. Knowing Me, Knowing You
6. Money, Money, Money
7. That's Me
8. Why Did It Have to Be Me?
9. Tiger
10. Arrival
11. Eagle
12. Take a Chance on Me
13. People Need Love

The Album cont'd, Abba Greatest Hits

Side B

1. The Name of the Game
2. Move On
3. Hole In Your Soul
4. Thank You for the Music
5. I Wonder
6. I'm a Marionette
7. SOS
8. Honey, Honey
9. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
10. Waterloo
11. Dance (While the Music Still Goes On)
12. Fernando
13. Bang-a-Boomerang

Sold!

Steph just called to tell me that she left the closing a few minutes ago and she no longer owns her old house. Yay! We have one fewer mortgage!


Seriously, the sale of Steph's house will free up many hundreds of dollars per month, money that we will use to replenish the emergency fund, work on our new house, and save for the future. Oh, and we might go out for a celebratory dinner at some point as well.

The Abba tape

A few weeks ago, we were going through some stuff, and I found something I'd misplaced several years ago: the Abba tape. My dad made the tape from some of his Abba records back in the early days of cassettes (it's dated 2/1/81), and we listened to it often. I used to put it on the stereo and roller skate to it in the hallway -- I had those skates that went over your shoes. The tape also accompanied us on almost every vacation, and we'd listen to it in the car. This, to me, was the definitive Abba, so some of the songs on Abba Gold and More Abba Gold (their greatest hits discs from the 90s) were new to me. Now I have quite a bit of Abba music on CD and MP3, but I know I'm missing a few songs that were on this tape, including one about an ocean that I haven't heard in years and never knew the actual title of. It sounds better than I expected it to after 26 years -- not great, of course, but not bad for a very old and heavily used tape.

I've been planning to recreate it as a playlist in iTunes, and this morning I rewound it, stuck it in the tape player, and started to write down the song titles as they played. (I also located a blank tape to make a copy of it at the same time.) I'll post it when the tape finishes.

In the same drawer as the Abba tape was the sock hop tape, which is a topic for another post. I promise to post that playlist too so you can make fun of the questionable musical taste I had in high school.

NYR update 4

1. Floss: Still flossing consistently. My dentist was happy with my teeth two weeks ago.

2. Lunch: I have gone out for lunch less than one time per week so far this year. However, I did go out three times last week for stress relief and co-worker bonding.

3. On time: Not doing so well.

4. Flip: Started working on flip with new coach this morning. I'm happy with the exercise she showed me and with my progress today.

5. Save: I can't complain -- we've not been buying much.

6. Recipes: Last night I made rosemary-peach chicken, which turned out well. It was supposed to be rosemary-orange marmalade chicken, but we didn't have any orange marmalade.

7. Trans fat: I'm still making a good effort. Except for the french fries on Sunday.

8. Perfume: Almost done with the bottle I'd been concentrating on. Second bottle (small) is just over half full, and third bottle (large) is about three-quarters full. I may not finish all three this year, but I'm reasonably certain that I'll come close.

9. Compact: Doing okay but not perfect. I did buy my loop a shirt on Saturday, after all.

Apparently it can be bribed.

So yesterday on the way to the competition, I told my loop that if it showed up, I'd buy it a shirt.

I forgot that it likes clothes.

My freestyle program went well, although I didn't land the loop. The ice was hard, but I coped with it pretty well. After my second spin, I looked up and saw my friends Patti and Kurt from synchro standing by the boards watching me -- I didn't expect them to be there, but they had a lesson nearby in the morning and decided to stop in and see some of the competition. I skated clean except for the loop. I placed second out of three, which I'm happy with.

My showcase program went well, too. I attempted the loop in the warmup, but it wasn't happening, so I moved on. I had to get off a minute early because I was the first skater in my group, but I was ready. My old synchro coach, Susan, was standing by the boards cheering for me and holding the Wicked monkey I'd brought as my mascot. (I considered skating with the monkey, but I thought it might throw me off because I hadn't done that before, so I let her hold it.) I skated the program much better than I did in Wyandotte. It was faster, and I felt more comfortable with the changes we'd made. I landed my loop and was so surprised that I wasn't sure how to get into my next element -- I'm used to landing (incorrectly) on my left foot. I placed second after Rhonda's very cool program as Daphne from Scooby Doo.

I had to buy the competition shirt for my loop -- I was afraid that if I didn't, it would never show up at a competition again!

Three loops

Tonight at practice I managed to land three loops. They weren't pretty, but they were on my right foot. It's been several weeks since I landed one -- lately they've been few and far between.

I'm competing at Skate Cincinnati on Saturday, and I had two good program run-throughs tonight. My loop even showed up in one of them. I probably shouldn't even suggest this, but if my loop wanted to accompany me to Cincinnati and show itself off in front of a bunch of people, I wouldn't argue.

Fish craving

On the way home I had the most incredible craving for fish. Not healthy, good-for-you salmon or tilapia, not expensive shrimp or orange roughy, but that fish from elementary school that's breaded and shaped like a plank. (My craving may have been precipitated by a Filet-O-Fish commercial I heard on the radio.)

So I went to Kroger on the way home in search of this fish. I was happy to find that Gorton's makes it. It comes six to a package (a serving is two pieces) and you bake it in the oven. Even better, it contains no trans fat.

I purchased a box of fish (and various other things -- honey, I got you a twelve-pack of diet Dr. Kroger or whatever they call their Dr. Pepper knockoff; I also scored two jars of pizza sauce for 35 cents each). I came home and preheated the oven while I let the dog out, and now, if you'll excuse me, I have some fish to eat.

ETA: Yes, yes, I know, no one cares what I had for dinner.

Weekend update

Steph's in Austin, TX, for SXSW this weekend, having a fabulous time. I'm keeping busy.

Friday evening I hung out with some co-workers at Alan's house and then came home and watched a little TV.

Yesterday I met with the roofer, who's finally finished with the gutters; took Lucy to the vet (just a checkup, though today she wouldn't eat -- she might be feeling bad from the shot they gave her. She just peeked downstairs, so I hope that's a sign she's feeling better); checked on my house; took Spike for a walk around the neighborhood, during which I picked up a bag's worth of garbage and one of recycling and Spike peed on everything and made friends with a few neighbors; took Steph's truck to get an oil change and filled it up with gas; went to Best Buy; and attended Douglas's birthday party.

Today I remembered about daylight savings time when I woke up, so I changed most of the clocks. Then I called my mom, gave the dog and cats special food, skated, and got out on the roof to finish priming the balcony railing.

While I was on the roof, my dad called to say that he won a European vacation and he doesn't want it, so he's giving it to me. (Yeah, I know, he must be crazy.) I almost fell off the roof. Fortunately I didn't, because broken limbs would make it uncomfortable to walk around Europe.

Interesting site on traffic jams

A physicist has figured out all sorts of stuff about traffic jams, complete with animations to illustrate his points. Years ago I looked at a book that explained why traffic jams occur, and I've been using parts of this guy's technique ever since.

The difficulties of making coffee

We have three coffeepots at work, one each for stronger coffee, weaker coffee, and decaf. They don't have a window to show the level of coffee remaining, but you can tell how much is left by the resistance of the lever you press to dispense the coffee. When there is no coffee left, pressing the lever causes the pot to dispense an unfocused squirt of coffee that sprays all over the place.

Several of my co-workers do not make coffee when they take the last of a pot. The rest of us can tell when the person before us knows they have depleted the pot; it's apparent. A few individuals (all, coincidentally, of the male persuasion) have remarked to me upon walking away from a coffeepot they emptied that they do not know how to make coffee and are afraid to screw it up. It's as if their time is worth more than mine -- or that of any of the other people who make coffee when they run the pot out.

There are directions posted on the wall next to the coffee bar. It's not hard. If you are capable of holding down a professional job -- which you obviously do -- then certainly you can make coffee. I'm sure your penis is not large enough to get in the way.