Well thank God and all his angels that this year we have an extra day in February so that I could squeeze in this month’s list before time ran out.  I suppose I should explain my prolonged blog absence this month but I don’t really want to and likely you don’t give that much of a shit so let’s not waste our time.  It’s enough to say that I have been in red-zone burnout territory and when I haven’t been trying to juggle regular life with doing virtually everything for another human being I’ve been suiting myself with only doing what I want at that moment.  Writing didn’t seem to be one of those things.

Listening: Gah.  Davy Jones, famous Monkee and, while not the original, likely the most famous Artful Dodger in the stage musical Oliver!, has passed away.  I’m bumming out pretty hard.  I’ve been digging this guy since before I went to kindergarten.  I even remember seeing a few of the original airings of The Monkees in the 60s but later on when they were shown in syndication is when I watched every episode.  Repeatedly.  I regularly take shit for saying this but really, if you want an example of some pretty excellent clocks-in-at-about-two-minutes pop music, look no further than the Monkees.  I’ll make the case that they’re just as deserving to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as some of the other acts in there.  Anyway, I’ve been listening to my collection of Monkees songs today.  Here’s one of my favorites:

C’mon!  That’s a pretty great song written by the very talented Harry Nilsson.  And if admitting that I’m a Monkees fan isn’t silly enough, I’ll admit that a good deal of my oh-so-amazing dance moves are inspired by Davy Jones, examples of which you can find in the above video.  In truth I dance a lot like I’m the love child of Davy Jones and Belinda Carlisle.  As a kid watching Monkees reruns with my neighbor, Susan, we would naturally pick our favorite Monkee romantic figure and Davy was mine.  Obviously it could never be a reality because the guy was 16 years older than me.  As life turns out my first husband was over 18 years older than me.  I could have married Davy Jones after all!  Ah well, it was not to be.  Rest well, Davy, and thank you for the happy memories.

Reading: Woo!  I’ve been a reading maniac this month.  You can click on the link for my Reading Challenge 2012 to see what I’ve read lately but let me mention here two books – one I liked very much and one I don’t.  Liked: The Kite Runner.  I realize I’m a little late in reading this book – it seems to have been on everyone’s read list years ago – but I’m glad I finally did take the time to read it.  It was a poignant story of friendship, family, and guilt and trying to right some pretty profound wrongs and it made for compelling reading.  Don’t like: Wicked.  I have friends who love this book beyond all good sense and I’m trying to like it but I am not succeeding.  It’s not keeping my interest in the least and I can barely remember the names of the characters.  I’m about half finished though so I’ll keep plowing ahead.

Eating: Pistachios.  I’m trying not to eat them to excess but once I start in on a bag I have to drag myself away from eating the whole thing.  As I get older I find myself becoming more like my father in that I could simply eat nuts until I expire.

Watching: Doctor Who.  Burkhard has been a Doctor Who fan for years but I never liked to watch it in German.  I think it was translated pretty well but I never seem to like to watch fantasy-based shows or movies in German.  Then our pay TV service started showing Doctor Who starting with the…well, I don’t know which number Doctor he is.  Matt Smith plays the Doctor.  That’s where I came in.  I started to watch it because I could see it in English and I hoped that would make me get interested in it.  I can’t say I love it but I like it pretty well.  It’s growing on me as I go along.

Wearing: Well I’ll tell you what I’ve stopped wearing and that’s my winter boots.  We had that three week long brutal cold spell that had me digging out my warm footwear and now that temperatures have gone back to normal (and above!) I’ve retired them.  Good thing too because the deep tread soles picked up every tiny stone the city threw out to give grip on icy sidewalks here and I dragged them into my flat.  By now I’ve vacuumed up a gravel pit.

Anticipating: Restringing Lira the ukulele.  As Lira was an inexpensive beginner’s ukulele the strings on her are crap.  She came with a set of replacement strings but I suspect they are at best one step up from crap.  I’ve read in a few places that even an inexpensive beginner’s uke can sound so much better with new, high quality strings so I ordered me a set of Aquila strings.  Now I need some quiet, unstressed time to sit down and replace them.  I’ve read over and over in Ukulele for Dummies the instructions and have watched a few videos showing how it’s done and I think I can do this.  Burkhard suggested I begin as practice with using the cheap spare strings I already have on hand before potentially messing up 8.50€ worth of good string and if that goes well then I can swap them out again.  If it goes badly I can trot down to the local music store with my tail between my legs and see if they’ll do it for me.  But I can do this!  I taught myself to knit so surely I can change out ukulele strings by myself.  And speaking of knitting:

Knitting: I haven’t knit all month.  Not one time.  I can hardly believe it myself.  I think this is the longest I’ve ever gone without knitting.  Needless to say I’m still working on my One Row Homespun scarf.  I’m certain you will all be thrilled when I finally get it finished and stop mentioning it.

Anything you really loved or hated in the past month?