1. Haagen Dazs has a few new flavors, and while they are not Jeni’s, they are super tasty. I picked up 2 pints last week, the Mayan Chocolate, which is dark chocolate with cinnamon, and the caramelized pear and toasted pecan , which is one of the best store bought ice creams I have ever had. The pear is apparently a limited edition, so I would highly recommend picking up some as soon as possible. Your life will be made better by these ice creams.
2. I was listening to the Lightening Seeds while on a short road trip with Oliver. The Lightening Seeds were one of my favorite bands during the period between the second semester of my sophomore and junior years of high school. I like to bring back past loves for the nostalgia value occasionally, and I had the funniest memory come back to me when Joy came on. I had just turned 17, it was the second semester of my junior year, and I was spending the night a friend’s house whose dad was out of town for the weekend (she lived with just her dad). Her boyfriend had abruptly broken up with her in the totally devastating way the 17 year old boys were accustomed to doing. When I got there she was wrecked, crying and listening to Joy over and over again; it was a cassette, which meant that she had to keep rewinding it. I told her that she had enough of the self torture, took the tape, put in the Ramones and we made cocktails with Hi-C Boppin’Berry juice boxes and vodka, got a little bit buzzed and watched Valley Girl 3 times in a row. It was one of the first few times I had ever drank, and I remember having that excited and slightly scary feeling of having a bit of autonomy that happens when teenagers are first left to themselves.
3. I was giddy in that memory when we got back from our short trip only to have it ruined by the sounds of “A Prairie Home Companion”. We stream WBEZ on Saturday mornings; the line up is just perfect: Car Talk, Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me, Sound Opinions, This American Life, and Re-Sound. It is so good, it is hard to leave the house, so we find reasons to putz around, listening all morning. I left the stream going while out, so it was on when I got back. I had to feed Oliver so I did not have time to shut the stream off; I was forced to listen to the show for about a half an hour. I have never really listened to "A Prairie Home Companion" before and it is truly an awful show. I have never been a fan of Garrison Keillor, and now I like him even less.