Yesterday was Mother's Day! We spent time at home, then at my brother-in-law's, then at my folks' house. Liam wore himself out, Evelina giggles like a mad-lady, and hopefully all the moms had a nice relaxing day.

Also, my dad had fat-free hot dogs that were wayyyy too white-guy colored. It was like eating a fresh human wiener. Hold the mayo.

How great is this song? I'll tell you: Groin-grabbingly great.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical

Dicks.

On Tuesday I came home from work, and went downstairs to feed the kitty-cats. I heard this insane growling noise coming from the backroom, where the chimney is. At first I though it was Nox (our black cat), but this seemed a bit too feral for his lazy ass. I went in a little deeper and found that the noise was coming from inside the chimney! Some giant animal was in there! I called the police and asked which city service could remove it. They sent Critter Control my way.

The Critter Control dude was super nice, came down, opened up the chimney hatch, and - whammo - pulled out FOUR baby raccoons! They were kinda cute, actually, but that didn't mean I wanted them living in my chimney. He put a mirror up the chimney and said that mama-raccoon was about halfway up, sitting there ninja style. He said once she notices her babies are gone, she'd leave.

Sure enough, that night, mama raccoon was having a shit-fit in the chimney, squealing for her babies... which made me feel bad, but I suppose getting rabies would make me feel worse, so blah. At around 1am, she must've given up, because we heard her scurry across the roof, and she never came back. The Critter Control dude came back Saturday to put a screen on the chimney to prevent further break-ins. Hopefully now the cats will stop pissing all over the basement (not sure if that's related).

In another critter story, some birds had built a nest inside our attic, and chirped all day and all of the night. I wanted to go in from the attic and remove them, but our attic is about 5 inches high, so no way was that happening. I had to put a screen on the outside, so they couldn't come back. The bad part is I think there was still a baby bird in there, who I think is dead now. Which means there's a mummified bird in my attic.

Artist's rendition

On Saturday, I took Liam to see his very first movie-theater movie, The Lorax! Since his class did a few days on it, he was mildly obsessed. Liam hates loud noises, so I've been hesitant to take him to a theater - I didn't want to scare him! We bought some earplugs and headed out to a matinee...

And he loved it! He was a bit freaked when the previews first started, but once his ears adjusted to the sound, he was fine, and even took the earplugs out. He kept hugging me and saying "I love the movies!" A great dad moment :)

The movie itself is pretty good. I thought they glossed over the bit about making thneeds, but the rest of the story was good. Much better than Horton Hears a Who, which I felt was stretched way too thin. So - milestone reached - First movie! Next up: Eating sushi.

After the movie we went to Target to see if they had the new Marvel Lego sets yet. They had the Hulk and a Captain America motorcycle set, so we bought them and went home to play - or so I thought. Liam was a bit tuckered out and napped for almost 3 hours.

Bah - yesterday my phone (Droid X) just decided "Ya know what, I'm not gonna work." Then it shut off. Then it wouldn't start up again. At all. I couldn't even do the hard reset that Motorola recommends. Oh well. So today I ordered my next phone, the RAZR Maxx. I'm up for a new phone and was going to buy one this weekend anyways, so I guess this happened at a good time. Just sucks not having a phone for a few days.

Razr Maxx... beautiful.

So, if you're trying to reach me, you won't be able to until at least Tuesday. I tried re-activating an old device, but it was incompatible with my current data plan, and if I change my current data plan (unlimited), I can't get it back.

This makes me laugh.

click to play Meade Mix 89

• The Ting Tings - Hang It Up
• M83 - Midnight City
• Coldplay - Paradise
• fun. - Some Nights
• Skrillex and The Doors - Breakn' a Sweat
• Hooray for Earth - No Love
• Estells feat. Janelle Monae - Do My Thing
• Ladyhawke - Black White and Blue
• Santigold - Disparate Youth
• Sleigh Bells - Demons
• The Black Keys - Sister
• Lissie - When I'm Alone
• Jack White - Love Interruption
• Calvin Harris - Feel So Close
• Charles Bradley - Stay Away
• Lana Del Rey - Off to the Races
• Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Everybody's On The Run
• The Time - Faithful
• Terence Trent D'Arby - Wishing Well
• They Might Be Giants - Robot Parade

I randomly won tickets to see Andrew WK last night, so I called up The Strak and we ventured downtown to PARTY HARD (which at our advanced age meant "drink two beers and talk about politics".

Ha - here's his ode to Giant Eagle:

Ah, the fun that can be had at a dollar store...

I miss The End. I'm talking about WENZ, 107.9 - Cleveland's Alternative Rock station in the 90s. Through the magic of Spotify, I created a playlist of 18 hours of End Music, feel free to check it out, and add your own. Surely the big guys are on there (Pearl Jam, Nirvana), but also some of the obscure stuff like The Boo Radleys and Luscious Jackson. It's amazing how music can trigger so many memories, from high school through college, The End was the background music for the whole Billymeade movie (and WMMS during its brief tenure as an alternative station).

I haven't written anything about Spotify on here yet - I'm obsessed with it. At first I didn't really see the point, but now I do - having any song ever at my fingertips is worth the $10 a month. I've rediscovered a ton of stuff, finally heard things I've always wanted to hear (Maggot Brain GOOD!), and their slick mobile app is just icing on the cake.

Hey - did you know they made a movie about The End? Me neither?!

I always thought the new 107.3 that launched last year captured the same feeling of The End - a "play what we like" atmosphere... but unfortunately that ended as well. I guess with things like Spotify, Rdio, and Rhapsody, there's really no need for those type of stations. But part of me wants them because there's kids out there somewhere who just need that spark of inspiration to go out and find those cool bands, to stay up all night just to hear that one song again, to learn how to air-guitar the solo to that sweet-ass song. Bah, I'm an old man.