I slept in a little bit this morning, until about 9:15 or so, and after about fifteen minutes of being up, I went and laid down until about 10:15. I got up around 9 because Beth was in the shower and Kirstin was a little fussy. I can’t say I blame her, because she had one eye matted shut. Well, not really, but she had a lot of gunk in one eye and could open it at the time. So, while I got that cleaned up and waited for Beth to get out of the shower I was up and around the house. Didn’t really sleep during the latter part (from 9:30 through 10:15), but it was good to just vegitate for a while. Of course, due to the NCAA tournaments, I didn’t get to sleep until 11:45 last night because the late news was preempted by the tournament coverage.

I might add, I am incredibly upset with how the post-game show is handled. They would do an intro (about 30 seconds) of what was coming up after the show, then about a minute-thirty of interview-ish material, then two minutes of commercials. Where it got frustrating for me was that they did this three or four times before the post-game show was over. Had Beth and Kirstin not been sleeping in the same room, I’m pretty sure we’d have been looking for a new TV today, because I was ready to throw heavy objects at it.

Anyway, the usual Saturday morning ritual of cereal, mail, and newspaper reading (because the Morris paper comes out on Saturday and Wednesday), it was time to get ready and head to Alexandria. Of course, it was after 2pm when we finally got going, but that’s beside the point.

When we were at Wal-Mart, a strange thought occurred to me (since I’m intending to get our taxes done this weekend yet). One can get taxes done at Wal-Mart by visiting with a professional (the kiosks I’ve seen are from H&R Block). This begs the question — do people (and more importantly, how many) actually do this?

I’m not saying it’s a bad idea; I can certainly see where the convenience would come in handy. And I’m sure returns are done well (with a fairly reputable organization). But for me there would be this mental block. “I got my taxes done at Wal-Mart” is a phrase I can’t imagine ever using. It just seems too southern American (e.g. Arkansas) and redneck. But it must pay off, because they’ve got the kiosks there and they wouldn’t do it year after year if it didn’t make money for someone… I would be very interested to see some statistics on Wal-Mart usage, though.

Often times when I make an entry here I’m listening to music. Those of you who know me fairly well also know that I have an MP3 collection which spans several genres and is in the 4,500 individual title range (last I checked). It was also (last I checked) somewhere in the 20GB range. Many of these titles I’ve accumulated over the years, and most of my CD collection is also in this list. Anyway, that aside, I often go through phases where I listen to the same thing frequently. Conversely, I often listen to very random things…and considering that it usually takes me 15-45 minutes to make each post…I often listen to several items during a post. I’ve thought about trying to somehow catalog or note the tunes I’m enjoying while writing this, but the list would often dwarf the post…so I’ve given up on that idea from a practical standpoint.

Anyway, tonight’s musical choice is a rendition of Daydream Believer done by Mary Beth Maziarz. I’m not a huge fan of the original done by the Monkees (I’ve got that in the collection), but I get into certain moods sometimes where a fresh version of a tune really makes a significant difference. She (Mary Beth Maziarz) is a solo artist who (in this particular case) plays the piano while singing the tune in a deliciously crisp and relaxing way. I’m a sucker for a killer piano riff (or player), and this definitely falls into that category.

Another tune that I periodically enjoy is a recording of Etta James’ “At Last,” which was originally released in 1961. I have two words for this particular recording — deliciously slutty. It’s an amazing tune and vocal performance. In just checking up on Wikipedia, I noticed that she’s actually still alive and touring! Amazing.

Okay, I need to move on to a different topic or post before I use the word delicious to describe something (aside from del.icio.us, which is something else entirely) before I start to sound too homosexual…

–MZ