When we moved into our new office, my co-worker and I found it a little too quiet and decided to get a radio for background noise. Most local radio stations are so repetitive that it became more annoying to keep hearing the same songs than silence. However, we did come across a local station that had changed format in the last couple of months. When first tuning in, I thought it was great – I must have hit upon a good programming day. Any station that plays Notorious by Duran Duran will pique my interest.
We’ve been listening to this station for a few weeks now, and I have noticed an odd pattern. While they do play songs not normally heard on the top 40, light rock, or classic rock stations, they seem to be just as repetitive. I’m fairly sure that they play Tom Sawyer by Rush every day. While I don’t have any like nor dislike for that song, I find it odd that they would play the same song by Rush with such regularity. Rush has a large catalog of music, why not spread it around? Another example is Nova Heart by The Spoons. I’ve heard this quite a few times now, but where are the other Spoons songs they could be playing?
They play a large amount of Canadian Content, which makes me curious if they are under a different set of rules. Since they are a smaller station, do they have to play more CanCon that the others? Or do they just love resurrecting Canadian 80s songs? While I’m happy to hear some Blue Rodeo and Glass Tiger, I am not sure how much more April Wine I can take. SJers seem to love April Wine, as evidenced by the number of times they’ve played here.
I’m gathering evidence by starting to track the songs being played. It should be interesting to see how often things really are played.
Halloween candy distribution didn’t go as badly as I thought. Even the older kids were polite, and I got lots of compliments on the carved pumpkins. One even fist bumped me and gave me props. I had about 70 kids in total. No really good costumes this year.
I sat outside and tried to read, but wasn’t feeling like it in the end that night. Instead I grabbed the laptop and did some wireless surfing, trying to come up with a very last minute Halloween costume, to no avail. I just couldn’t produce something that quickly. We also could not find the shirt that belonged to John’s renaissance outfit, so we both decided to go to a party un-costumed. We walked in the door and got some comments on our lack of costume, but whatever. The party was more subdued than previous years. I think a lot of people were tired from the week and/or Chicago rehearsals. I wasn’t interested in playing Rock Band, so a bunch of us sat around and talked.
Work encouraged us to dress up on Halloween, but then also scheduled security badge photos on the same day. I questioned that decision and was basically told to stuff it.
Didn’t end up going to Calais on Saturday because my package didn’t say it had been delivered. Mum went to Bangor today so I’m getting her to stop and pick up my parcel. I think we’ll be heading to Calais again either the 15th or 22nd to get a turkey for Thanksgiving. I also want to buy a bunch of stuff online for xmas presents, so if I can get organized and order a crapload of stuff, I can save some money. Saving money is paramount right now after all of the moving debt and John still being unemployed. We have some leads for him, and his resume is getting out there, so I hope we’ll get movement soon. He’s bored, and we need the money. :)
I’m headed over to Mare’s tonight to do some knitting. Dre and possibly Emily are coming over too. I may try to hit Michael’s tonight before heading to Mare’s to get some yarn on sale. I’m going to try knitting another blanket. I have a sample piece of fabric that will be used for Regan’s baby room. I think the light green/white combo yarn may be the best match. I liked how that yarn knit up, so I’d like to stick with that rather than something adult and more scratchy.
Tomorrow night is knitting club at the library again. I am almost finished the mini-purse we’re doing as our project. I just have the strap remaining to knit. Maybe I’ll finish that off tonight. I restarted a scarf for myself and can keep working on that too.
Correction on the previous post: It was not the same neighbour who I spoke with about the kids in our yard. It was a different neighbour who told her kids to cut across our yard on their bikes.
Melissa: "Was that...?"Last weekend, while John and Stew were installing the satellite dish, they walked up to the back basement door and discovered a dead mouse lying in the middle of the stone area. Why was it there?
· Someone is trying to pull a Godfather on me, and is leaving me a sign
· The mice are mobilizing and have gone from my office to my house
· The mouse jumped from the retaining wall and didn’t make it
· A cat left us a “present”
The last option sounds the most plausible. We’ve been getting visits from a neighbourhood cat who has taken a liking to John (most cats love John). She may have decided to leave us a present as thanks for the scratching. Frankly, cat, I’d prefer a bottle of wine, even though I don’t drink. Given the placement of the mouse, it seems odd for it to have just walked up and died right there. We think it was either left there as a present, or an animal intended to come back and get it later.
I’m really glad I wasn’t the one to discover it; that would have been a bad scene. I just hope this isn’t a recurring pattern. I’ve been living mouse-free since I moved out of the apartment and the Great Mouse Invasion of ’04. Having them at the office is bad enough, but that will end next month with our new office building. I need to pay extra special attention when bringing the wood in this year that we don’t have any unexpected bonus gifts.
