Alanis Morrisette and Dave Coulier

Perhaps I've just not been plugged into the right circles, but when I was on the wikipedia page for "You Oughta Know" to confirm that Flea and Dave Navarro played on that tune (and they did), I came across this fun fact: the song was written about Dave Coulier. You know, Joey from Full House? The blonde, un-funny comedian? For some reason this makes me laugh.

Snopes reports: Alanis will not confirm it and Dave says that some of the lines seem to fit their relationship, but that's far from a confirmation.

That's all.

The Horse Head

So my wife is really good at finding bargains. One day she spotted a rocking horse at neighborhood garage sale. It was a well constructed white wooden rocking horse. It had some wear - missing the mane and tail, but otherwise was in good shape. So Robin determined the manufacturer and tried to buy the missing parts to make the horse complete again. Their website was a little confusing, they didn't post any prices for the replacement parts on any of the main pages. Robin filled out a form with our address and explained what the situation was - she bought this rocking horse at a garage sale and wanted to get a new mane for it... That's it... No credit card numbers were given nor promises made to pay upon receipt.

That was in December. A couple of days ago we get a box pn our door step that has a brand new rocking horse head in it. Aside: It is never good to unexpectedly receive a horse head that is not attached to a horse body. No paperwork other than a sticker that says "Prepaid." So I got online and started scanning all our credit card and bank statements trying to find out how much we inadvertently paid for the horse head. I found nothing afoul on any of our credit card or bank purchase records so I go on their website to investigate. It turns out they provide free replacement parts and shipping for some of their products.

We were blown away by their customer service - Finally a modern toymaker that makes good old fashioned toys. And they stand by their product. They are even willing to support it for people who weren't the original purchaser.

http://www.kidkraft.com/

Oddly enough they sent us a second horse head today. I guess they felt that we weren't "getting the message."

Here's the horse:

Last Year in music

So I was thinking that a ton of good music was made this past year. I did a little research and found that while quite a few of my favorite artists put new records out - it wasn't as many as I had originally thought.

Here's a list of some of the albums that were released this year by some of my favorite artists in no particular order.

The Killers - Day and Age: I did not like Human at all the first few times I heard it, but then I saw their performance of that song on some MTV award show and was blown away. After that I bought the record and have enjoyed it thoroughly. Their songs are interesting and fun to listen to.

Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns: I really enjoy listening to this album, but it's not as good as their previous two offerings. For me, SP doesn't get any better than Final Straw.

Keane - Perfect Symmetry: Most of the songs on this record are a total departure from typical Keane. Which is cool - they did it without losing their identity. Oh, and the song Better than This... David Bowie called, he wants his sound back.

Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends: It's a terrible album title, but who really cares. This was probably my most anticipated album this year. I downloaded it one morning, got on a plane and listened to it for the whole flight. For that reason I now associate it with Zuma (a really fun iPod game). It delivers the goods. I'm glad my first impression of this record was NOT their most recent SNL appearance - Chris Martin was so creepy and so over-excited.

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs: This was my second most anticipated album of the year. I don't love their first single from the album, I will Possess Your Heart. I'm not sure how they pick a single and I'm not sure there is another "radio" single on that record, but I haven't learned about new music on the radio since... I can't remember. I do like this album, but it is not Plans and that's okay.

R.E.M. - Accellerate: This was totally unexpected to me. I used to be a huge R.E.M. fan, GREEN was my first cassette (Not sure why it needs ALL CAPS). I stopped being fan sometime after Monster mostly because it seems like Michael Stipe wasn't singing with the passion and feeling that I was accustumed to (Eddie Vedder lost me for the same reasons after Vitology). He's back. He's singing and screaming. They sound like a cross between Monster and Life's Rich Pageant. It's a good thing.