It was the headline that caught my attention:

Owner: Man tried to hide guitar in pants

So what I want to know:

What would have Kay have written if Ana didn't like Harold's barley flour?

(Stranger Than Fiction. RT-73%. IMBD. Recommended.)

So I went to an Over the Rhine show at Regent College... shoot... two weeks ago now. I'm not sure what to say about it, except that it was awesome. As usual. And that it still sticks in my head like it happened last night.

I've seen them live three times, and I own their live stuff. Every time, with or without a full band (this gig was just Linford and Karen), they've been nothing short of excellent. It's a fantastic experience.

The guitar work isn't all that complicated, but you still wish you could play that well.

It’s just as natural to hear Karen sing about pain, life, death, and the human condition as it is when she turns her bedroom voice full-on for the new tune North Pole Man. It was a chilly night; but after that song, not so much.

though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Is 1:18

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Ps 51:7

One thing I’m thankful for, and one thing I miss during these long weekends, is work. I like what I do, and I like the people I work with.

And I like the coffee machine and that which it dispenses. Says Gary Larson, "I know that's not profound or nothing, heck we all do. But for me, it goes much more beyond that."

To remind me of the caffeinated benefits of work, here’s a pic of my lonely office coffee mug:

The spot in the middle is my nose print.

I live alone by choice. Sometimes I can’t wait to get home and away from everything. In a bit of irony, I love having people over, and I think it’s great when people just drop by. It reminds me that I’m not really alone, and that the people I love really do love me back.

Sometimes the silence and the alone-ness scream louder than my neighbors’ revved motorcycles.

Since I live alone, I choose not to spend a lot of money on heat. Since it is only I, I don’t mind donning a sweatshirt and ducking under a blanket if I’m just going to watch TV.

Last night, it was quiet and cold. I crawled in to a chilly bed with crisp sheets and shivered for a few minutes before it warmed up.

If you’re being thankful for things, please remember to be thankful for your spouse and for the love and warmth the relationship brings. Give your wife a squeeze and smooch and say something nice. Snuggle up to your husband and run your fingers through his hair. Do something to show that you cherish each other and never want to be without him/her.

I like music. I’ve expressed that before.

I try to make a point of buying music that I’m going to listen to later. My basic rule of thumb is this: If I’m not going to like it in 2 years, I don’t want to buy it now.

Sometimes the rule of thumb fails, or I ignore it, and my music collection starts transforming or growing to include albums I won’t listen to anymore. Like extra clothes in the closet, I must occasionally go through everything and throw out the warn out stuff, stuff that doesn’t fit, or stuff I just don’t like any longer.

A few weeks ago I sorted my music library alphabetically by artist/band first-name first (then by song title) and hit Play. My crude calculations suggest that I have more than 250 hours of music.

I do have a number of doubles. That is, identical tracks that appear on different albums, or the same song by the same artist performed differently (say, one studio track and one live track). I skip the doubles.

If the software spins up something I don’t want to listen to, that’s a sign for me sell or BALETE. So far I’ve liked everything enough to keep it.

An unexpectedly fun part of this whole thing is music translations. I go from Dan Russell’s cover of Mark Heard’s “I Just Wanna Get Warm” to “Benzi Box” by Danger Doom (it came on a Paste Magazine sampler) and then to “Alarma!” by Daniel Amos. Another weird transition: dcTalk to Diana Krall.

On a really good day I can listen to 70 tracks. It’s been a month since I started, and today I left my computer mid-way through the Gs (Glenn Kaiser). Yesterday I was in the Fs (Fleming & John), so I guess I’m making progress. It took me 4 days to get through the Bs (thanks to Bill Mallonee).

It’s been killer not skipping ahead to the Os, what with an Over the Rhine concert coming up on Wednesday night. Two OtR shows in one year. How ‘bout them apples.

#1 and #2 from today’s sermon on Generosity... and giving... and having stuff and how you use it:

You never see a U-Haul trailer behind a hearse.

#2:

“Hey, share that.”
“No.”
“Fine... when you pass on, I’ll buy it at the garage sale.”

#3 is a throw-away comment from a football announcer. Does a player really want this said about him?

... who is not playing today because of a bad groin.