Still Dancing with Groogrux King

The new Dave Matthews Band album came out today, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux king came out. I'm a pretty big DMB fan, not quite the caliber that Jo is, but they're pretty good. It's been rather easy to enjoy, since they've done a rather good job of marketing it, and I was able to catch their live performance last night a Beacon theater streaming commercial free on Hulu, and Hulu also has a bunch of stuff from them, from a documentary on the latest CD, to music videos, to live performances.

So, I bought the CD today, and I was tempted to play it in the car, but you never know if Giz is going to keep the CD's I put in her, or worse, chew them up, so waited. And I have to say, at first, I was mildly disappointed. After all the promotion, and the majority of the band agreeing that it was their best, I felt there was nothing that really compared to some of their greats like "Crash Into Me" or "Grey Street". SO I sat out in the sun for awhile and listened to it on repeat (and got a sunburn on the bottom of me feet. didn't know that could happen, and it finally began to click. It still doesn't have anything quite like the aforementioned songs, but as an album, it's really good. Not having really listened to any of their former albums as an album, together in order as they were originally, produced, I can't vouch for it being their best. It's hard to compare it to Dave's solo album, "Some Devil", which, with the exception of the title track, I am a huge fan, but him sans the band is just a different sound.

Not to mention the album art. It is fantastic. The polar bear might be my favorite, and that's just the cover. Suffice to say, it kept me rather amused for at least a whole run through.

I don't know, Jo and I enjoyed it. It was about time.

Funny The Way It Is

I heard the new Dave Matthews Band song on the radio, and immediately had to come home and download it for Jo. She loves her Dave. Pretty good song though; the new album comes out June 2.

Still though, Dave Matthews reminds of traveling with Jo. She's pretty belligerent when she doesn't get her way, and for awhile even Giz wouldn't give me back the CD changer, and of course, the three CDs in there at the time were all DMB, and Pittsburgh radio is pretty terrible, so I rocked mostly Dave for a couple of months. It got old, but I can imagine worse things.

That 200 miles of road between my old apartment and my parents' house holds a lot of memories for me. Asides from when I'm running, I do a lot of great thinking while driving. Especially once I'm on the highway, set the cruise control, and just sit back and dream, focusing only enough attention on the world around me to keep me alive.

There was meant to be a point to this blost, but it's gone. For someone who only wants to tell his stories to the world, I'm rather selfish with them. I think I had started writing this because the Dave Matthews song had me thinking about Graham again, and I'd really love to tell his story. I've told a few people a little bit, but I need get over this possessiveness. It's not like it's mine.

So, I'm going to start by giving a gist of the core stories. These are the ones that I've seen play out thousands of times, the ones that are the most important to me, and to each other. I'm going to do it over the blog, onto the internet, for my whopping eight followers, and whoever else happens upon my blog. It ain't much, but it's a start.

Of course, having decided this, I need a run to clear my thoughts, so I will postpone this, but I will hopefully start tonight after my run, provided I don't go straight to bed. I'm tired.

Until then, look forward to it in anticipation.

Teaching a Dumb Cat Dog tricks

It occurred to me that Jo isn't a very "fun" cat. I mean, she runs from me, and attacks me, but she doesn't really do anything cute like play with string. I'm not saying I'm not grateful for what she is, a great companion, but still, I was at my old neighbors for pizza tonight, and Kim showed us that her car, Nala, will play fetch.

Nala, or Bast, as i want to call her because of her Egyptian-cat ears and demon tail.

Nala, an adorable cat with a forked tail, will, time and time again chase after and retrieve a ball when thrown like a dog. Unlike a dog, she won't bring the ball back to you. If you're lucky, she'll deposit it next to your outstretched hand, or if you're unlucky, she will leave it halfway down the hall for you to retrieve. She's nobody's fool she knows that she's doing all the work and she's having none of it.

Her creepy forked tail. It's really awkward when you're petting her under the table and the tail slips between her fingers. *shudder*

Also, unlike a dog, she's not an idiot. I tried the pretending to throw the ball trick, the one where any dog will go running off after nothing, but she was not fooled; her eyes never left that ball.

I was having a great time with this (she actually got bored with it before I did, but that says more about me than the cat, doesn't it? Conveniently, she got bored as soon as I got my camera out too. Unfortunate), and thought to myself, why doesn't Jo, or even Julius do something this cool. That's not to say they have their own tricks. Jules has to get up, no matter what, if you whistle at the right pitch, and Jo, well, she knows every possible way to get under my skin, and also, she can open the handles on my parents old fashioned ice box, where we used to keep her food.

As unimpressive as that is after seeing it a few hundred times, it still proves something. She can be motivated by food. So, starting tomorrow, I shall begin trying to teach Jo to play fetch.

Against the Wind

Sorry about the silence of late. I've been, well busy isn't the right word, but it's close enough.

Anyways, I was right about running the other day, and how sore I'd be. But I've been keeping at it. More progress than I've made in almost two years now. I think I might do at least the Frederick half marathon. So what if I can't do a full marathon, if I can crush a half, what's to stop me from pumping out two back to back later. Something to strive fort anyways, and a reason to continue, to not quit. Something to commit to besides myself.

Today was mildly annoying though. I ran in a big loop near my parents' place, and while I usually enjoy the wind (kiting is my favorite activity ever) it was rather chilly, and the wind was less than pleasant. Also, thee real frustrating part was, when running in a glorified circle as I was, you expect full well to be running against the wind for some of the time, but at the same time, you expect there to be a roughly equal amount of time spent running with the wind.

Not the case today. There were a few brief moments when I was shielded from the wind altogether, but the wind was not once at my back, and probably three quarters of the way, I was running against the wind, thinking of good ol' Bob Seger, and thinking about how awesome it would be to have a windsurfer. Seems the wind gods wanted me to by flying kites today, but that would require either buying new kites or repairing the mess of busted ones in my trunk. Not likely to happen today.

Also, speaking of kites, I saw a long piece of red plastic that looked suspiciously like a kite tail, stuck in a tree a mile or so away from where we were flying kites.

Also also, it is my nephew Jack's second birthday today. Unfortunately, I had agreed to work for my boss this weekend, so I won't be going to Pittsburgh to see him. Jo and I will have to give him our regards via webcam later, a lame substitute, but what are you going to do?

Despite this, Ben and will have to try and do something interesting this weekend. It's been a while, and the blog has suffered this week.

Jo's Quest

Every spring we go through this. Jo, for whatever reason, decides she needs to find her birth mom.

This is, surprisingly less funny than it sounds. She can be very, very annoying when she wants something, and I know that when her food dish is full and she still insists on not letting me get any sleep, there is clearly a deeper issue.

Look at that face. How can you say no to that?

A bit of history. I got Jo over four years ago, back when I was working at the PetLoft. It was the near the end of my first summer, and some woman and her daughter came in with this tiny, tiny kitten. My boss guessed the little thing was probably only four weeks old, and since they're a pain to keep alive when they're that young without their mother's we had a policy of not taking them. My boss, Sarah, encouraged me to take it home with me for two weeks until it was old enough to bring back in and let it be the store's problem. And that's how I got stuck with this one.

Needless to say, I didn't take her back after two weeks. It wouldn't be fair to say I intended to keep her from the get go. After all, I didn't name her for a whole year.

But anyways, being seperated from her mother so young has left its mark on her. I have this one blanket that she likes to try and nurse on. I guess it reminds her of her mum, but still, I keep telling her she is way too old for that to be cute, but does she ever listen to me?

So finally, in the interest of getting a full night's sleep, I looked into those organizations that help reunite seperated parents and children. It took me awhile, but I found an organization based in D.C. that seemed pretty legit, and was about to give them a call.

Now, I'm the kind of guy who doesn't like to talk on the phone. Not being able to see the other person doesn't do wonders for me, so I like to mentally map out where the conversation will possibly go. And no matter how I looked at it, I was pretty sure I was going to be making a prank call.

"My friend Josie is looking to find her birth mom. It's difficult for her, so I'm helping out."

"Does she know where her birth mother might be."

"No. Some woman found her on the side of the road when she was like, four weeks old, and brought her to my store, so I took her in."

From here, things start going downhill. I have no idea what I would say to that, let alone what someone who does this kind of thing for a living would do. I almost called anyways, figuring I could just run with it, and worse case scenario, just hang up. What do I have to lose? Nothing really, but at the same time, this is an organization that is doing great things, and in the end, I really couldn't bear to waste someone's time for this. I considered sending an e-mail, but I'm still wasting someone's time, and I'm not likely to get a response.

But we'll get by. We always do. And pretty soon, it will be warm enough for me to leave the windows open at night, and she'll forget all about her lost mom, and be transfixed with the outside air. She is, after all, a cat.

Jo's real admirer

Don't look too hard for that sack Ben. It seems the polls were irrelevant.

My sister Kellie and her two kids Jack and Gail are staying at my parents this week, and well, Jack is enamored with "Kinny." Any Kinny, to be truthful, but Jo seems to have a soft spot for him (she's more tolerant of him than she is of me, anyways, if that counts as a "soft spot").

Still, Jack is only here until Thursday, and they don't see each other very often (that's probably what makes the relationship work), so if you've already bagged Cross Eyed Cat, don't release him.
Speaking of "him," check on that.