In Which This Is Probably Something I Would Do.

The Wise One and I saw this on the Today Show this morning; it was too good not to share. It’s always good to start your day laughing together, at someone else:

In Which The Boys Play House.

One game the boys play, as do most children, is “house.” I haven’t figured this one out, though, because it usually consists of them playing cars, legos, etc.; they stop in the middle of whatever they are doing, one of them declares, “Let’s play house!”, they pick roles and then they just go right back to whatever they were doing. So I’m not sure what the actual game is, but they seem to enjoy themselves.

The Wise One overheard this exchange a couple of weeks ago:

Peanut: “Chester, let’s play house!”

Chester: “OK. I’ll be the father.”

Peanut: “OK. . . . I’ll be the Holy Spirit!”

Things I Never Thought I’d Say, #5.

“Huh. I didn’t know you had a lizard collection.”

Things I Should Be Surprised To Hear Larry King Say, #3.

Heard this one the other night, asked of Surgeon General Dr. Sanjay Gupta who was discussing hypothermia in relation to the water landing in New York last week:

“You can only get hypothermia in the water?”

How many mountain-climbing-related stories and interviews do you think Mr. King has covered over the years?

In Which The Clock Starts.

Sixty days. One hundred days. We’ve been unable to say exactly how long I would have a job; the paper is for sale for sixty days, but then how long after that process does the whole operation shut down? And for those of us in the IT department, do we have to stick around and check in laptops, unplug equipment, etc?

Today I got the official letter, and it answers the question at least a little more specifically.

On January 9, 2009, Hearst Communications, Inc., the parent company of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, announced it was putting the P-I up for sale and that, if a buyer is not found within 60 days, publication of the P-I as a six-day-a-week newspaper will cease. If that occurs it is anticipated that all jobs at the P-I will be eliminated, including yours.The facility closing and loss of employment will be permanent . . .

It is difficult to provide an exact date of closure, but permanent layoffs will not occur any earlier than March 18, 2009, and may extend to April 1, 2009.

So there it is. In black and white, addressed to me. Poop.

At least now I have a target to keep in mind: March 18.

In Which This Gave Me A Much Needed Laugh.

After a couple of days feeling pretty down, this made me laugh pretty hard when I watched it Saturday night — the whole show did, actually, but this was just the right combination of hilarious, weird and awkward that I needed:

[Update: Apparently, it's been yanked from YouTube, but for now you can see it here.]

In Which A Change Is Coming.

If you had asked me a week ago what I would be doing on this particular Sunday morning, among the last things I would have guessed would be skipping church, staring down a table of job-hunt career-path books at Barnes & Noble.

Yet that’s exactly where I found myself this morning.

I’m not buying, because there’s nothing in those books that’s going to help me right now — the shock of what’s happening here in Seattle is too fresh, too thought-process-blocking, too . . .

I don’t know where I’ll end up when this plays out. I’ve been feeling restless for a long time, like some big change was coming, but I expected it would be gradual and I would have some input on the timing. Instead, the rug was yanked out from under me and I find myself alternating between knowing it’s going to work out and just plain freaking out.

I’m bouncing around the stages of grief like they are bumpers in a pinball game, but I also recognize that this is an opportunity to take my life in a completely different direction. I’m working through the best way to spend the next 58 days, and I hope to be posting my thoughts here as I work through this.

In the meantime, I ask for your prayers — for me, and for my colleagues. The P-I is just a cool place to work, with so much talent and history and class (not to mention the neon globe and the fantastic views), and it’s really a huge loss for Seattle if it does go away, as seems the most likely option at this point.

In Which I Post The First List Of Songs.

As promised in an earlier post, here’s the first round of songs that have been copied onto Peanut’s “iPod.” There are some glaring omissions (no Stevie Wonder yet), and I have many to add based on your suggestions, but I wanted to share the first round.

Leave a comment if this list brings any other songs to mind, or if there’s anything with lyrics I may have forgotten or misunderstood.

Things I Never Thought I’d Say, #4

“Your mother just burped really loud, right in your ear, and you didn’t even show her any appreciation.”

In Which iAsk The Internet For Rock & Roll Advice.

As part of my duty to educate my children, we bought Peanut an “iPod” for Christmas (it’s a $25 off-brand that will probably last 6 months, but iCan’t bring myself to spend that much money on something that’s probably going to go through the wash before it would otherwise die a natural cheap electronic death).

He loves Rock & Roll. I’ve got some lists of The Greatest Rock & Roll Songs of All Time that I’m going to read through looking for ideas for what to put on his mp3 player, but wanted to ask the internets for suggestions. I’m looking for anything that won’t be objectionable lyrically, but is a bit more complex, musically, than Raffi.

There will be Police songs on there (of course), U2, some Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Boston, Paul Simon — hopefully a good mix of old and new, fast and slow, just good songs that will help foster an appreciation of music. His two favorite songs right now are Sweet Home Alabama and Smoke on the Water.

I’ll post the playlist here, once we get it loaded. So, internets, what songs would you suggest?