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We’ve been previewing songs off the “top 250 requested wedding songs” list the DJ gave us.  Lets us veto the ones that are utter schmaltz or otherwise inappropriate…

And maybe I’m crazy, but some of these choices are downright weird for wedding songs:

• Righteous Brothers – You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling  ??? Not exactly the mood I want to set for a day when I’ve committed to spend my life with someone.
• John Cougar Mellancamp – Hurts So Good… Even if pain’s your idea of a good time, do you need to advertise it at your wedding?
• Rolling Stones – Satisfaction
  
• Kanye West – Gold Digger… I guess it gives some insight about the motivations for the wedding?
• Dion & The Belmont – Runaround Sue…… ‘Cause infidelity is a cheery subject on your wedding day
• Fountains of Wayne – Stacy’s Mom …. great song, but not really a romantic sentiment.
• Creed – With Arms Wide Open… This one had me snickering.  Do people only play that for weddings that take place in a hurry?
• Garth Brooks – the Dance….  Not that I’m a country fan anyway, but even if you like country this is just wrong for a wedding…
• James Blunt – You’re Beautiful… anyone who plays this at a wedding has never actually listened to the lyrics closely or watched the video.
• Luther Vandross – Dance with my Father…. Again, why introduce thoughts of death and grieving into a joyous occasion?

Sigh.  Nothing like a list of what other people like to make me realize we all have different tastes.

By the way, if you want to quickly pull up recordings of songs that you don’t own, without paying a bunch of $$ or downloading questionable software, YouTube is fantastic.  From a list of 250 songs, there were maybe three that I couldn’t find with a quick search for song title and performer.

I have been deficient in posting at all, much less keeping up my committment to

to post my exercise habits so she’ll be inspired. 

has been doing a much better job.

A few weeks ago I thought I’d made some breakthrough – able to run for longer stretches of time (sometimes 5 whole minutes on end, ooh-la-la!) and taking on greater challenges as far as speed and incline on the treadmill.  And my workouts with the trainer were going great… then I hit not just a plateau, but a slump.  Starting having major fatigue at those levels of exercise, if I pushed through anyway I just cramped up.  So, backed off a bit, listened to my body, and just tried to maintain status quo.  Last night’s workout seemed to be getting me back on the right track; I was back to seeing noticable improvement on my previous days’ workouts.  Just gotta listen to the body, and someday maybe I’ll actually be able to run a non-embarrassing amount.  Have been good about consistent workouts, anyway… I have not had a week with fewer than 5 workouts since October or so.  Usual workouts are 30-45 minutes, either cardio or weights.  Weight sessions are two days a week, each a 30-minute session with my trainer. 

The inventor of ramen noodles died today.

So if you’re in Houston (Galleria area) with kids and a limited budget, what would you go do?  In particular,

– If you had a few hours to spare?  In the daytime versus the late afternoon or evening?
– If you had all of Sunday free?
– If you had a free weekday morning before catching an afternoon plane out of IAH? Or a weekday morning free before afternoon social committments?

How about… if you’re in Houston and DON’T have kids, and have some free blocks of time in the aforementioned categories?

Sitting here in my living room, looking up music videos on YouTube.  Because the DJ sent us a list of their 250 most popular songs and I have never heard of a bunch of them.  But, I quite like “She thinks my tractor’s sexy”, as well as a few of the others, so the search is turning out to be fun…

Then there starts this weird thunder-like noise outdoors. K says “I think it’s gonna rain” and the cat climbs to safety (in my lap). 

But the booming continues.  And gets more frequent.  After ten or fifteen minutes, I stick my head outside to see if I can tell what’s going on; the neighbor across the street has done the same, and we confirm we’re both equally ignorant.  By now the booming is near constant.

I don’t see anything and there’s not a lot of point in standing around sock-footed in my front yard.  I do enjoy that it’s comfortable to stand around in my socks outdoors in December; there’s a reason I live here… but I go on back inside.  A few minutes later, the booming doubles or trebles in intensity for a few minutes, then stops.  OK, then, fireworks.

Googling “fireworks december 28 houston” gave me the answer; it was apparently the celebration at the end of the first annual “Texas Bowl”.  OK, I can sleep now that I know that it’s not just someone bombing the Astrodome…

The 12:30 physical exam didn’t bother to show up.

The 12:50 appointment just got here at ten after 1.  At the same time as the 1:00 physical exam appointment.

So if people start showing up now, I’ll be running late all afternoon.  On the other hand, I finished all the morning’s paperwork while I was waiting.  Which is why I’m posting again…

So apparently the Friday before Christmas starts slowly.  It’s 8:20 and my 8 AM patient hasn’t arrived.  Either she forgot she’d made the appointment, or remembered but then decided she had better things to do with a day off.  I can guarantee it wasn’t traffic because I just drove in myself and the roads were lovely and clear.

On call last night, got the usual people who call in the middle of the night because their kid is congested.  I gave sympathy and a promise that if they call before 8:30 this AM I would guarantee to see them in clinic today. I notice that no new appointments have appeared on my schedule, though, which suggests that the problem was not important enough to actually come to the doctor for – which makes me a little irritated that they felt it was important enough to wake me in the middle of the night for…

I went to 5 or 6 different stores looking for a particular goofy gift for K – didn’t find it anywhere.  Eventually gave up and stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things and saw the perfect item – at Fiesta! And was only 8 bucks so if he hates it, no harm done… we’re not doing a lot with gifts this year, since we’ve been putting our creative energy into this wedding thing instead.  Still need to come up with some vows, though.

My future mother-in-law sent me her list of people to invite to a rehearsal dinner – which was way short of the actual number; she’d left off one of her own sons and his family and their kid is actually in the wedding.  I suspect she’ll be embarrassed at this…

OK, one of my patients has finally showed up – actually, 3 showed up at once so I go from being bored to being behind in the blink of an eye.  TO work!

The stereotype, of course, is that all non-Xian people go out for Chinese food on Christmas. Because nothing else is open.

K and I will be on our own for the holiday, and hadn’t really planned anything. I just can’t see cooking up turkey and all the fixins for just the two of us. Last year, we ended up going out for … Chinese food.

This year, we were talking about it and wondering what our other options might be, if we weren’t in the mood for pork dumplings and sesame chicken.

Anyone know of any good restaurants open on Christmas in Houston?

We all have some sort of food that we just love, even though it’s the furthest thing from high cuisine. K, for example, willingly consumes strawberry-flavored Quik…

For me, that guilty pleasure is Taco Bell. Their particular variety of not-really-Mexican-food is one of my favorite comfort foods. When I was a kid living in Kentucky, with no idea what real Mexican food (or even Tex-Mex) tasted like, Mom would buy those hard taco shells and pre-mixed seasoning kits and we’d brown up some ground beef, cook up pinto beans and mash ’em up in a pan with a little bacon fat, chop lettuce, onion, and tomato, grate cheese, and put the carton of sour cream on the table, and that’d be good eatin’. Somehow, it all came out remarkably similar to Taco Bell’s offerings, actually.

Later, when I was in medical school, there was a Taco Bell just a few blocks from my home. I’d be driving home post-call, having not slept or eaten for a couple of days, and didn’t dare stop at any of the drive-throughs near the hospital, because only the gnawing hunger was keeping me awake… Pulling into the Taco Bell meant relief from that hunger and also that I was almost home and could crash for a few hours. So now, when I’m stretched too thin, I crave Taco Bell – my hind-brain says that will make the pain go away.

The point of all this rambling is that I was driving home and listening to the radio DJs talk about whether the recent e. coli outbreak at Taco Bell was caused by the onions or the lettuce, and all I could think was “Mmmmmm. Tacos……”

And I decided that was kind of funny in a twisted sort of way.

I have released several dozen books “to the wild” at this point, registering them all at bookcrossing.com and hoping to learn where they went. Today for the first time, someone actually posted the fate of one of the books! She dropped it off at a school today…

I’m so excited.