Harmon, Hits, MIA

Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Have you heard the story of Harmon?

An eaglet on Minnesota Bound’s Bald Eagle Cam was seen struggling for many hours, causing many people to write and call in asking if he could be helped.

Here’s the story: 

First, they inspected Harmon and took him out of the nest…

Then he had a thorough check-up and some medical attention at the Raptor Center:

Here’s the latest on Harmon:

Thursday, 17 May 2012
So, as I do every week, I headed over to Billboard.com this morning to check on the #1 song and album. The number one song, again, is Gotye’s “Somebody that I Used to Know.” That’s not terribly interesting. But what I did notice is this: We are now more than halfway through the fifth month of the year and every single #1 song’s title begins with a letter in the second half of the alphabet.
Yeah, I don’t know why I notice these things, but I do.
Here’s a list of the song that have achieved number one status so far this year:

“Sexy And I Know It” (LMFAO)
“Set Fire to the Rain” (Adele)
“Stronger” (Kelly Clarkson)
“Part of Me” (Katy Perry)
“We are Young” (Fun)
“Somebody that I Used to Know” (Gotye)
…That’s six songs that have gone to number one this year, that all begin with letters between N and Z. You can also add to this list the song “We Found Love” (by Rihanna), which was already number one when the year began (it thus counts as as a number one hit from 2011), and the total rises to seven. In fact, you’d have to go back to mid-October of last year to find the last time a #1 hit’s title was from the first half of the alphabet, when Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger” barely qualified for the top half.
I was curious…is this a record? The answer is: Yes.
As you can imagine, there are more #1 songs from the first half of the alphabet, and so most years begin the year with a song from A-M. In most other years, the second or third song of the year breaks whatever “streak” might have been starting. In fact, there has never been another year when the year began with more than three hits from the lower half of the alphabet. 2004 was the year to beat: there were three #1 songs in a row to kick off the year that began with the letters W, S, and Y, respectively. The fourth #1 song began with the letter B, and it hit #1 on May 22nd of that year. So, this week (posted for May 26th) beats both the number of #1 songs and the length of time (past May 22nd).
Pretty cool, huh? Alright, I know, it’s really dorky.

Friday, 18 May 2012
I took the day off work today to volunteer as a chaperon for my son’s first greade class. They – or, rather, we – went on a field trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
I, and this other student’s mom, were assigned to watch over a group of eight students. I rode on the bus with them, which is always a trip, and when we got to the museum a guide was assigned to us.
I guess I had this idea that we would be walking around the museum on a guided tour, but instead, the guide just took us straight to certain pieces of art. This meant flying past other noteworthy pieces of art. It also meant having to weave around people a lot. I didn’t really like the style. We spent time sitting in front of, and discussing, about five pieces of art. There were another five or six pieces that we talked about in passing simply because one kid in the group thought it was “cool” or “neat.”
I think it was fieldtrip day at the museum, as the place seemed pretty full with groups of children. So, maybe the museum sets aside one day a year to whisk a bunch of kids through their halls.
This marks the second time I’ve been to the MIA without actually getting to look around. A couple of years ago, Jennifer, Owen, and I went with another family of three to attend the event “Rock the Cradle,” which is just a loud, crowded event at the museum that lets kids stand in line and wait for activities and get upset when they never get a chance.
Anyway, I’m done whining. All in all, I had a fun time, and I think Owen liked that I was there. Afterward, I joined him and his class for lunch in the school cafeteria, where, again, I had a fun time.

Saturday, 19 May 2012
Mere days after inquiring about my life insurance policy, my wife tried to kill me today.
After several hours of unremarkable weather, she asked if I wouldn’t mind going to the store to pick up a few grocery items. Cluelessly, I went outside and, sensing it was going to rain, decided to roll up the windows on my Cavalier. I then hopped in our Saturn and drove off to Mississippi Market.
Actually, I first stopped to get gas. Right as I was returning to my car after paying, it began raining. No big deal. I sprinted to the car and then continued on my way to the grocery store.
Almost immediately, it began raining. Like, REALLY raining. I had the wipers on high and, even then, my visibility was limited. Some drivers were pulling over to wait out the heavy downpour.
Then it began to hail. The hail was so loud in my car, I shut off the radio since I couldn’t even hear it. I began to worry that balls of ice were going to smash through the windshield. As I approached the grocery store, I decided to park under a tree to mitigate the hail damage at least a little bit.
During a brief respite from the hail, I ran inside, where an employee quickly corralled me into the bulk section – the one part of their store that is neither near windows nor under skylights. I waited there with a few other chumps for about ten minutes. Then they let us shop.
Jennifer seemed really happy that I made it home safe. But it might have been just an act.