I’ve also updated the music countdown (I updated it last week too, but didn’t write anything about it). We’ve got a new #1: Hwy 5 by John Doe & Neko Case. You can listen to it by clicking the play button below:

The countdown this week also features a few new songs:

• Maureen by Fountains of Wayne – from their upcoming two-disc album, continuing a string of songs from them that include a girl’s name, just as catchy as “Stacy’s Mom”
• Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) by Arcade Fire – Arcade Fire is one of the better bands to debut this year. This melodic tune is a good one. I’m looking forward to seeing them at Lollapalooza later this summer.
• Get Well Soon by Reggie & the Full Effect – this song joins Green Day in representing the punk rock genre on the countdown

See this week’s countdown here.

In other news, the Memorial Day weekend is coming to a close. I had a great time at the 4th annual Erin/Lisa Memorial Day bash yesterday, and you can view my photos here.

Also, there are new photos from a Brewer Outing last Monday and sometime this week, I’ll upload a ton of pics from our Kiwanis clubs Winners Wear Helmets day last Thursday.

And keep in mind that I’m not a hardware/network guy, so I’m mostly just watching my guy work on that stuff so I can follow up with some database comparing and maybe even some manual data copying. Good times…

On top of that, the president is pre-empting Survivor tonight to talk to us about Social Security and my Tivo will probably not know about this because of course, why announce a news conference a day or two early? That would just be crazy. Ugh.

I just hope to make it home before tomorrow starts…

Oh, and in case this is the only site you’ve been to online today, here’s the breaking news of the day: Tom Cruise is dating Katie Holmes

I left work early yesterday and stayed home the whole day today with this cold that’s going around.

It’s not fun.

Yesterday, it was mostly “I feel kinda weak and tired and it’s hard to think straight.” Today has been more of the weak and tired with a nice helping of “why won’t my freakin’ nose stop running?” mixed in. Good times.

If there was any benefit to being pretty much planted on my couch for an entire day, it was the fact that I’ve made a huge dent into the number of TV shows that were saved on my Tivo. I’m now caught up on 24, House (a show that has really grown on me despite the fact that I typically don’t like the “mystery of the week”/CSI-type shows much), and The Amazing Race.

Speaking of Amazing Race, the second hour this week was some excellent reality/competition TV — from the accident to the foot race at the end, good drama. I’m totally cheering for either the brothers or Uchena & Joyce (the black couple) to win this edition.

hopefully he can’t read yet, or at least isn’t allowed to surf questionable internet sites like this one, cuz i’m going to tell you what he’s getting for his bday. it’s this little fisher price musical rocking horse. seems cute, and he apparently has outgrown whatever size rocking horse you get to ride when you’re less than 1. it also doesn’t have any of those springs to chop off digits like my rocking horse did when i was a kid (luckily, i kept all the digits, so i can type this story fast)

anyway, as i was driving home, anticipating some time as a mouse potato, i was thinking (and this is where casey comes in) that maybe instead of just occasionally posting songs i like, it could be kind of fun to maintain an ongoing top 10 list of music on this here site. i’m warming up to this idea, so watch for something soon. if you’re lucky, maybe i’ll make a long distance dedication for you.

and if you’re wondering why i’m typing in all lowercase, well, tony at busblog does it, and he wrote a whole article on how to blog, so i thought i’d give it a try. i think maybe it’s not for me, but it was fun to try (i actually had to focus on not touching shift – strange feeling)

and yes, i’m now stooping to posting pictures that i get from my sister because i’m too lazy or forgetful to bring my camera places and take pictures myself

Sometimes, you’re in the middle of a fascinating conversation and someone uses a word you’ve never heard before. Pretty often, you probably just ignore it, but if the speaker happens to be cute, the word can stick in your head. Such was the case when I heard about the Nutria. I don’t remember the context of the story about this whisker-ey rat relative (it had nothing to do with the later-spotted racoons, I’m sure of that) but my Treo web browser was unable to come up with anything good about this little rodent I had never heard of.

That was very babbly.

Now that I’m back home, I have my whole high speed internet and searching for info on the Nutria was easier. So, here’s what I’ve learned:

• Scientifically, it’s the “Myocastor Coypus” of the Rodentia family
• Native to South America
• Can only tolerate winter in temperate areas (which is why you won’t find them in Wisconsin, thank you very much)
• 14 inches long — yikes, big!
• One male usually has 2 or 3 mates sharing his burrow. Polygamists!
• Many females breed within two days after giving birth to a litter. Sluts!
• Considered old at the age of 4

Here’s a recipe for Louisiana Nutria — in case you ever catch a couple and want to cook them up for a tasty meal.

More exotic recipes can be found here (it shows 6 for Nutria). Roast beaver sounds really yummy, don’t you think?