My Favorite Christmas Song

I know my last post was a "favorite" post too. I don't care. Maybe, in an effort to be more positive (something I need to do better) I'm just exploring my favorite things. Heidi will always top the list, but there are other things on there as well.

I'm not sure when I settled on this as my favorite. I know when I actually used to play the piano this was one of the songs I knew how to--and liked to--play. I love the way it sounds.

My mom dislikes this one. She says it's sad. In the context (the song does come from a Charlie Brown episode) I guess she's right. Charlie Brown may be the most depressed cartoon kid ever. There are times when I wonder at his popularity. When I act like him, people don't want to watch me.

Anyway, I think what I like about this song is that it's mellow. There's no screaming, jingling, or loudness to it. I think the minor chord progressions (I think that's the right phrasing) kinda force you to slow it down a little. It makes you pay a little attention. Even if the tune sounds sad to you, the lyrics are all joy and happiness--and honestly not in a sarcastic way.

That's why I opted not to take a clip directly from the show. Charlie Brown interjects during the song to melancholize about his life (I just realized you always have to say his full name or it doesn't quite feel right). So, this video is from another group with a video that is a little hinky in places but is at least a happy one rather than a mopey one.

Enjoy it.

My Favorite Person

I nearly neglected to do this, but this week is a prime opportunity to celebrate my favorite person in the whole wide world. I remember the first time I told Marcus that this person was my favorite and it crushed him, because he thought he was my favorite. Sorry, Buddy, but this person wins. You come in a really close second, though.

On December 1st, less than 30 years ago, this person was born. Named after the place where parents met, and the season of her birth, she tends to go more by Mommy now than her given name.

I first saw her in high school, thought she was dating a guy I didn't like (turned out I was wrong) and decided I wouldn't really like to get to know her because of that (turned out I was really, really wrong). We got reacquainted when I started dating her best friend shortly before I left to serve a mission in Texas (yeah, she's from Texas, but her Texas is a great deal prettier than mine was). We wrote the whole two years I was on my mission and when my former girlfriend and I parted ways, we pretty much started hanging out and never stopped.

Since then, she's been a stalwart focus in my life. She has maintained habits and traits that I want to emulate. She has always taken me for who I am while simultaneously pushing me to be my best self (try to do that without becoming overbearing. Yeah, it's really hard. Darn near impossible. But she makes it look easy).

If it weren't for her, I'd probably be some wannabe actor bemoaning the fact that no-talent hacks kept stealing my jobs. Instead, I'm on my way to becoming the first person in my family, ever, to get a PhD (as far as I know. We do have a couple of MDs, but I'll be the first with the philosophical version).

When I had an opportunity to go to Oxford to study fantasy literature, even though she was pregnant with Lukers, she supported my desire to go. In fact, she was more adamant about it than I was.

See, we're both "white" types. We like to avoid conflict and try to get along with everyone (as with pretty much every aspect of our lives, she's better at this than I am). So, I've constantly been willing to subsume my will to make her happy. She knows this and has forced me to do things I really want to. So much so that she had a secret stash she was saving from her work watching kids to put toward my motorcycle. I've suggested that we use that money for more important things and she gets mad at me for it.

If you're not yet convinced that she's awesome, my former Elders' quorum president (think of it as the president of the men's organization in the LDS church) once made a very true observation. He was in our home for a visit and was looking at our engagement and wedding pictures. He looked at me and said, "You know I love you Brother Bahlmann, but how did you get her? She's way out of your league."

I said, "I don't know, but I'm sure not complaining."

Since I like metaphors, I think I'll end with the following.

When we went shopping for a ring, the jeweler we talked to showed us a diamond that was pretty inexpensive. He told us that the reason it was so cheap was that there were several flaws in the diamond, but it was unique in that they were so small that you couldn't see them with the naked eye. Essentially, the diamond was nearly flawless as far as anyone can tell. That's Heidi. She's not perfect, and she freely admits it, but her imperfections are so slight that it takes some effort to find them and it's an effort I'm just too lazy to make.

Happy slightly belated birthday, my dove.

Music Moment, uh, Thanksgiving

So, this was a recent youtube post by the Muppets. Already has over a million views. I can see why. It's nearly five minutes, but while you wait for your turkey to digest, you might as well watch it.

And, I caught a snippet of a discussion with the director of The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Included was the opening song and discussion of the soundtrack. It sounds like they kinda aimed for an old-school feel to the movie and it made me want to watch it. Here's the song I understand will be playing over the opening credits. This one is also long, but I wanted the multi-singer version 'cause that's what they're supposed to be using in the movie as I understand it.

I hope your Turkey Day is awesome.

Hello Dan

As you all know, we lost our minivan a short time ago. It's been rough and hard on my homework and hard on our overall stress levels and kinda just hard for us in general to deal with. But we've finally found a replacement that we think will work for us for the foreseeable future. I would like you all to point your eyes to the left and bask in the glory of Dan the Un-Van.

Since Heidi and I aren't natural hagglers, we were very swayed by the idea of Carmax's no-haggle pricing. We were even more pleased when we realized that the prices really were good. I won't say the best out there, but very good certainly. It's definitely a place I'd suggest as an option if you're looking to buy a car. They were pleasant enough from start to finish.

If you don't recognize the make and model, Dan is a 2007 Kia Rondo. the online reviews say it's a good car, but kinda ugly. Since I don't think it's ugly, it seemed like a good choice. It fits into that almost-an-SUV category so I was worried we wouldn't fit. As you can see, I fit nicely and I can even sit in the back seat behind Heidi without too much squishing, so Marcus should be good back there for a while.

One of my favorite bits is this little shifter. To the right of the D, you can put the shifter there and pretend you're driving a manual transmission instead of an automatic.

We settled on Dan after a flurry of suggestions. We discussed calling it Snowball, Snowflake, Flake, Dandruff, and then Dan (see the progression?). What kinda sealed the deal for me and the kids is when I said, "Hey, Dan the not-van." and Marcus replied, "Dan the Un-Van." Heidi's less excited about the idea, but since I wasn't too happy with Mimsy, she decided to let this one go.

Theoretically, if we need to, we can add another row of seating back here. If we don't need to we have some awesome trunk space. Truth be told, for what it is, Dan is about as roomy a vehicle as I've been in.

It may not be the manliest vehicle ever, but we should own it clean and clear well before 2010's over and done with and it'll take care of getting us from point A to point B with minimal fuss and muss (now if we could get the kids to agree to doing the same thing, we'd be golden).

Goodbye Mimsy

So, usually Heidi snags the pictures of events and blogs about them before I do. This means I end up saying something about how Heidi blogged about X so if you want to read about X follow the link to her blog. But not this time (bwah ha ha). I did the damage; I did the leg work to get the pictures; I'm going to post first (and then she'll post and it'll be more nuanced and I'll hang my head in shame and go back to my cave.)

We also found out what the number-crunchers had to say about the value of our van. If you're interested, that'll come after the pictures.

The damage was extremely localized to this side of the van. Even the front passenger door was pretty much untouched.

See that "square" of plastic? Somewhere in the wreck, that whole rear-most window either popped out or disintegrated completely.

This is the inside where Anneke almost always sits when she's in the car. I get a little sick when I think about what this might have done to her if she had been with me.

On the Las Vegas DMV proof of title, it lists an MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) of $26,865. Now, we didn't really expect to get all of that since the value of our van has obviously dropped since then. However, that MSRP was apparently based on when the car was brand spanking new or something. Whoever it was that checked Mimsy over to see what she was worth decided that it was a little less than that. So, our budget for our next car is . . . . $10,169.38. That factors in a $1,000 deductible which I will be supplementing with the contents of my motorcycle fund. This brings our grand total to $11, 169.38. We're trying to stick as close to that number as we find feasible. If we manage to do that, we'll actually end up owning our car clean and clear from the moment we drive it off the lot. That'd be nice and free up a fair amount of income for to survive better on.

The question we have now is this: do we want to try to replace Mimsy with a vehicle that we intend to drive until it falls apart (what we intended to do with Mimsy) or do we want to get something that will survive for now with the understanding that Marcus will outgrow the back seat in four years or so? Whaddaya think?