Life Downtown

Another month has passed and I'm due for an update. I've meant to write sooner but life just seems to get busier and more complicated every day. Most recently, I've thrown my back out and had to take a mandated few days of rest which is a nice byproduct of injury. The less fortunate byproduct is that I haven't been able to lift Dahlia so Peter and our nanny, Noeleen, have been taking over most of the heavy (she's 20 pounds now!) lifting.

The good news is that rest, stretching, and acupuncture seem to be working and I'm feeling much better. I hope to resume some significant yoga practice asap as I think that strengthening will help immensely.

Other than our family's injuries, life is good so far this summer. I enjoy taking Dahlia on walks on the Embarcadero or through North Beach, and we've picnicked in the nearby park twice already. Nana (my mom) was here for two weeks through the Fourth of July, including a weekend at a rustic B&B in Healdsburg, and Uncle Brennan visited with his girlfriend, Linnea, for the holiday weekend. Unfortunately, Aunt Molly is in Chicago for the summer working at her law firm's office there, and has missed out on the fun, but her boyfriend, Adam, joined us in the park on the Fourth.

Here's a recap in pictures:

One weekend I took Dahlia on a walk to the Chinatown branch of the SF Public Library. We were delighted to find that the children's room is on the first floor with a wheelchair- and stroller-friendly entrance. After that, we walked to Washington Square Park in North Beach and I FINALLY got to put Dahlia in a swing! I've been thinking about this day since before she was born and just hadn't gotten a chance to do it since moving downtown (there are no playgrounds near our apartment, only this one and one at Pier 39). I think she really liked it!

Another "first" that day was placing Dahlia down in the grass. Having never encountered this strange surface, she studied it intently, watching it move in the wind and gently feeling the blades in their different forms. She also enjoyed watching other little kids and dogs running in the park.





On Father's Day we ventured to the park near our apartment (on Jackson across from the Safeway) for a small family picnic. This was Dahlia's second time sitting in the grass and she enjoyed playing with the tiny grass flowers and watching the birds that approached bravely in hopes of eating some of our food.

We've found that whenever we eat in front of Dahlia, she stares at us with a quizzical look that says, "where's mine?" so we've started making sure that we carry half an avocado and a sippy cup of water whenever we go out to eat. She loves her avo but she is crazy for her sippy cup. We started giving her a little water just to wash down her meals but she goes crazy at the sight of her cup and gets all excited and grabs it from you and chews and drinks from it all herself. It's a good way to help her entertain herself for a good 15-20 minutes while we eat.



In the picture with Peter, you can see our building behind him (the tall white one with all the balconies).

The first weekend that Nana was here, we packed up a rented Subaru with our various equipment: wheelchair, walker, stroller, carseat, and Pack-n-Play, and drove up to Healdsburg for two nights at Gipson B&B, or what we have dubbed "Dan's place."

It was planned for a couple months and the only bummer was that Molly and Adam couldn't come, but we had a lovely time anyway.

It was HOT -- upwards of 100 degrees -- but we spent the weekend sitting by a pool and finding a couple of local, air conditioned places to eat. Dahlia experienced another first -- getting dipped in a pool -- which I think she enjoyed but still felt the water was a bit too cold (it cooled down significantly at night so the pool was pretty cold). We all appreciated the chance to get out of town and out of the apartment for a few days.

Then, for the Fourth of July, Brennan and Linnea arrived to spend the weekend in SF. We had another fun weekend picnicking in the park and going on a walk in North Beach. Here are my final few pictures from that weekend.

Dahlia playing with her new phone rattle (thanks to Uncle Chris who was in SF for two days that week as well and brought us toys from the cousins!) and her favorite baby doll from Grammy.


Brennan and Dahlia enjoyed the swings.

Yay for family visits!

Peter's update: Saw the doctor on July 7th, who looked at X-rays and declared Peter ready to start walking again. Yay! Now it's a matter of starting physical therapy and moving on to crutches instead of the wheelchair and walker. Once that transition is complete, we should be cleared to return to our Mission apartment after 3+ long months of recovery. We are hoping for the end of July but don't want to put any additional undue pressure on Peter. He'll recover quickly once exercise begins, I'm sure!

Later....

Solids!

As someone who loves food and eating as much as I do, this month brought exciting developments for the Butler family.

Dahlia turned 6 months on May 25th, and since just before Peter's birthday on the 19th, we've been feeding her a couple meals a day of solid food. We started with avocado and it continues to be one of her favorites. She's also eating banana, peach, sweet potato, rice cereal, and we're currently working on peas.





Dahlia eating her first meal of banana on May 16th

At first Dahlia seemed like she'd eat anything, but when we tried steamed and mashed apples and carrots, she gagged on the tiny chunks and puked into her conveniently located bib pocket. So we're sticking with soft foods for now; relying mostly on avocado for dinner, and rice cereal with peach for breakfast, and banana for a midday snack with our nanny, Noeleen. Our pediatrician, Dr. Julia Getzelman, recommended feeding her mostly savory vegetables before moving ahead with any more sweet fruit, so she's sure to keep eating her veggies. So I tried peas, and next up are spinach and summer squash.

When Dahlia gets a spoonful of peas, she makes a disgusted face, gags and coughs but manages to move it around in her mouth and eventually swallows it. I've read that the way to get your baby to eat veggies is to give it to her as the first bite of a meal for 10 days straight. If she doesn't like it, don't force it, just give her the one bite, then finish the meal with food she likes. After 10 days, or sooner, she will love the new food.

Except for the rice cereal, I've been making all her food myself. With the farmer's market located so close to our "summer home" at the Embarcadero, I have access to fresh, gorgeous organic produce every week. I'm steaming or baking her food, pureeing it and freezing it into 1 tbsp cubes in rubber ice cube trays. It's inspiring having the market so close, but I'm also finding guidance and inspiration from a cookbook my friend gave me called The Petit Appetit Cookbook, and a blog run by a high school friend of Peter's called weelicious.com.

On the eve of her 6 month birthday, Dahlia cut her first baby tooth. I know it was that night because she had a particularly tough time going to sleep; she fussed and cried for an hour, even with Daddy singing to her and soothing her. She usually goes to sleep with only a little help so this was very unusual behavior. Poor girl! That night she woke up several times and we finally gave her some baby Tylenol which helped her sleep the rest of the night. A day or so later, I heard a "tink" sound against the spoon during a feeding and on Friday her doctor showed me the tip of the bottom right front tooth just poking through the gums.

Speaking of the 6-month check-up, Dahlia is doing great, the doctor says. She weighed 18 lbs, 8 oz, and measured 27.5 inches, putting her in the 90th percentile for height, weight, and head size. She is sitting up confidently, having been stable in this position for about 3 weeks now. She doesn't show much interest in rolling, so for now she still isn't mobile, which is nice.

The doctor also recommended cutting out the nighttime feeding, which usually happens between 2:30 and 4:30am. This could be tough, because we all sleep in the same room and don't have the option of moving her to her own room until we move back to our apartment in the Mission. So for now I have to try to soothe her when she wakes up at night using just her pacifier and my hand on her chest -- without resorting to picking her up and bringing her to bed for a nursing. If she's particularly upset, I cave pretty easily. Unfortunately, her teeth have been keeping her up, and nights have been somewhat eventful for the past couple weeks. But we'll get there -- she has a couple times gone all night without needing the comfort of mommy's milk, and we hope to improve on that in the weeks to come.

Lastly, her new favorite toy is "the pond," an Exersaucer on loan from my friend Mimi. Dahlia loves the variety of toys to explore, the sounds and music, and the chance to stand up and jump around a little. In all, it's quite a play-time adventure! And it has the added bonus of keeping her safe and occupied while I start dinner or whatever.


Dahlia playing at the Pond

And finally, an update on us in general. We've settled into a good routine at our condo downtown and I'm actually enjoying the change since it's such a great location. And since Dahlia is back at our house in the Mission for share-care, I can bike to work and save about 30 minutes on my commute each way.

Peter is improving every day, and is now helping out so much more, doing things like: reading to Dahlia on his lap, feeding her solids, and even assisting with dinner preparations while I get little D off to bed. His days are long and a little boring, as he's home alone most of the time, except when friends and sisters can stop by for lunch. He's also started working from home for 2 hours a day, mainly checking email and communicating with people again.

We get out for family walks on the weekends, with me carrying Dahlia in the Moby wrap and pushing Peter in his wheelchair. Our location is perfect for long, flat walks, so we can't complain. Now if the fog would just lift and we could have a taste of summer... for now we'll have to rely on the delicious summer produce to remind us that it's hot and sunny somewhere out there in this great, bankrupt state of ours.

Bye for now!

Movin' on up

It's been a busy, exhausting, and emotional 2 weeks since Peter's bike accident, and we're finally settling into our new digs downtown. With lots of help from family and friends, we found a nice 1-bedroom apartment in a high-rise near the Embarcadero with a view of surrounding parks, downtown buildings, and the Bay Bridge.

Dahlia is adapting well; she's been amazingly good natured during all this drama. She's a very happy girl and she's growing bigger every day. She had more vaccine shots this week and weighed in at 16 lbs, 12 oz. She's outgrown most of her 3-6 month clothes and has lots of new cute things from the 6-9 month bin.

Nana and little D in some of her new clothes.

We are so grateful to our parents for flying in to help us through this tough time. Dad and Gloria helped by babysitting Dahlia while I spent hours visiting Peter in the hospital last weekend, and helped us figure out what kind of living situation we needed to prepare for his release. Mom arrived this week and spent a day scouting corporate housing apartments, then helped me pack and schlep all our necessities to the new place in time for Peter's arrival. Peter's mom arrives tomorrow to stay with us and help care for Dahlia and Peter while I get my new work/commute routine figured out.

Poppa took this picture of Dahlia with her favorite lion.

We thank you all for all your support during this tough time. The past two weeks were intense but I think we're out of the woods and on the road to recovery. And we have a sweet downtown apartment in which to rest and recuperate. I think that one "silver lining" to all this is the chance to experience our city from a new neighborhood and perspective. It's so close to the Ferry Building that I was able to take Dahlia to the farmer's market yesterday morning for a quick hour before it got crowded. Bonus!

The view from our balcony at night. That's Three and Two Embarcadero Center.

Parrots from the famed "Parrots of Telegraph Hill" like to roost in the trees below our place. This one sat on our balcony for a few minutes today.

Back to work

Since our last post, I have returned to work after 5 1/2 months of maternity leave. It was such a wonderful, long time to spend getting to know Dahlia and learning about being a mother. Though I loved spending all that time with her, I'm glad to return to work and have a little more balance back in my life. She seems happy with our nanny and since we're doing a share care, she gets to spend her days with another baby girl, Muriel. She's napping better than ever, sleeping well at night, and is close to sitting up on her own. She's also showing signs of wanting to crawl, so there's that to look forward to (time to baby-proof the house!!). She's also quite big, probably over 16 lbs now; she'll be 5 months next week, on April 25th.

Back at work, I get to take 3 breaks every day to sit in a quiet, private room and pump breastmilk. I find it helps me produce more milk if I get inspired by looking at pictures of Dahlia, so I'm trying to take one every morning with my phone so I have something new to look at. This is one of those pictures.


Just before returning to work, my mom came to visit for a week, and we spent one sunny afternoon in Dolores Park eating lunch and playing with Dahlia. I took a short video of little D to show how much bigger she is, and to listen to her fun verbal noises.



Nana and Dahlia in Dolores Park:

Florida 2009 Slideshow

We've been ridiculously lax with the posting recently, but it's been a busy month. Here's a quick one from our recent adventure with the larger Butler family--including Grammy, Poppy, Uncle Chris, Aunt Wendy, and cousins Josie and Nick--to the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Mom, Dad, and Dahlia were lucky enough to stay with Grammy and Poppy in a beachfront condo for a week, replete with a patio for watching the sunset or watching the cousins in the pool as well as the absolutely essential AC and crib that helped us help Dahlia get a decent amount of sleep.

Chris, Wendy, Josie, and Nick stayed in a similar condo two floors down, and the kids had a plenty of fun getting spoiled by playing with the grandparents and, of course, lots of swimming in the pool. Here's a quick montage we threw together with some great photos from Amy and Aunt Wendy.

Videos of the motorboat mouth

Here are two videos to illustrate Peter's post below.


Motorboat mouth


Dahlia with Sophie the giraffe

And a bonus picture of Dahlia rocking tummy time. She's getting so good at it!

Bronx Cheer Bandit, or L'il Miss Motorboat Mouth

Little Ms. D takes a rest from her mouth farting.

So what's Dahlia been up to for the past month and a half?

Well, all sorts of stuff like learning how to roll over from her front to her back (the lazy baby's solution for getting around tummy time), going on fun trips around town and down to Southern California, getting two sets of vaccinations, celebrating her 3-month birthday, and grabbing stuff with her hands. We're also pretty sure that her teeth have started coming in, 'cause she drools like nobody's business.

One of the more amusing recent developments is Dahlia's habit of ending words or sentences by blowing bubbles with her lips, which makes a sound like a motorboat, or actually, more like a bronx cheer. (Some call them raspberries?)

Anyway, it's pretty funny to hear Dahlia respond to some of our questions with a grunt, gurgle, or squeak, followed by a fake fart sound and bubbles. A sample conversation:

"Hi, cutie. Aren't you a good girl?"

"Urgle blerg pbbbbbbbbbbbt."

"Do you want to see what mommy's doing?"

"Erra hoo pbbbbbbbbbt."

Maybe you have to be there. ;) We'll try to get it on video and post. I don't think it will last long.

Thank goodness for a daughter who likes to make fart sounds with her mouth. Hooray!

Videos of Dahlia making baby talk

Here are a couple of videos where I've tried to capture Dahlia talking. She sometimes really talks up a storm, in sentences, and with sounds like "oww", "ooh" and squeals.

Sorry we've been so lax about posting. We'll post more soon!

This first one is on the changing table. See how Dahlia loves holding onto those fish curtains.



This was taken later the same day, when Sarah and Lisa from Adobe came to visit, bearing a scrumptious dinner.

Dahlia talks ... on video

We're working on broadcasting our Webcam so that anyone can watch, but until then, Amy has been recording some videos for Facebook and YouTube. This one's not the greatest, but she's talking a little bit.

Play time

Dad and Dahlia in Dolores Park enjoying the sun

Today we met up with Craig and Gerald, got food from Bi-Rite and sat in Dolores Park for a couple hours enjoying the sunny January day. Dahlia was such a good girl, really enjoying the fresh air and people watching.

So yeah, after all this time I'm finally finding time to write a post. For some reason, I thought that being home all the time, you know, "not working," I would have time to do housewifey things like cook, clean, and write blog posts (and thank you notes, and Christmas cards, etc.). However, as any parent could have told me (and probably tried to), it seems that all I have time to do every day is feed Dahlia, change her diapers, play with her, and try to get her to sleep.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it. Playing with Dahlia, even feeding her, changing her diapers, and rocking her to sleep are all amazingly fun and rewarding. And now that she's sleeping for a little while, I will attempt to write a blog post.

Some of the things we do to play during the day are: read books like the new Mother Goose nursery rhymes book from Aunt Molly, compare Dahlia's hands to Mommy's hands, play jump-up and airplane, peekaboo (though she's still too young to see what's funny about it), dance to the new jazz CD from Aunt Wendy and Uncle Chris (or was it officially from Nick and Josie?), and sometimes, when she's starting to fuss, I take her to see the view from our back porch.



Playing peekaboo with Daddy

Tummy time with the chicken rattle

Tummy time has to be Dahlia's least-favorite of our play-time activities. It's like she doesn't even realize how good she is at it! She's always had a strong neck -- she was holding her head up and looking around in the delivery room, truly. But that might have had more to do with adrenaline than anything else. I think tummy time for her is like doing push-ups for me. In fact, I figure it's only fair if I do push-ups while she is on her tummy and the longer she goes, the longer I have to go.

Dahlia loves watching the safari animals spin in circles over her head

In the mornings is when Dahlia is at her best. After her breakfast, and after I've eaten my cereal, I change her diaper and put her in her crib to watch the mobile while I take a very quick shower. They really should make the music and spinning last longer -- 10 minutes would be perfect so I can shower and get dressed before it stops and she gets bored looking at the unmoving animals. It is a life-saver, however. She gets this super cute look of excitement when I reach up to turn it on and she sees the animals start moving.

Looking at her favorite fishes on the curtains over the changing table

Another great call are the curtains that my mom and I made -- I chose the fabric and she made them. Dahlia loves them! She stares at the fish during diaper changes. The way the light comes through them, giving them a glow, really attracts her gaze.

She likes all windows in daylight and particularly likes going outside. She's fascinated by all the things to see, especially when they're lit up with sunlight. I take her out in the Moby wrap (like a sling but she's upright, held tightly against me with her head peeking out the top) and she stares intently, so alert and so curious. After about 2 minutes of walking and taking it all in, however, the vibrations get the best of her and she falls asleep.

Fortunately for me, she's happily asleep for awhile and I can either walk for exercise (wearing my new pedometer; thanks Chris and Wendy!) or get a quick meal. Since Peter returned to work, he's been coming home for lunch or occasionally meeting me out for lunch at a restaurant. We ate at Weird Fish on Friday and Dahlia was so good and asleep the whole time and I was able to enjoy my favorite sandwich, the Black Cat (blackened catfish with mango salsa and shredded cabbage on French roll).

Ah, there's my call -- I'll post again soon. Working on making videos so will include some next time. Until then...

Childbirth class reunion / baby lineup

Left to right: Dahlia, Lia, Russell, Annika, Muriel, and Ari

This past Saturday, Amy and I attended a reunion of our childbirth preparation class. We took it this summer at Natural Resources on Valencia, and it was taught by Tracy Dillen Massillon, who is now about 34 weeks pregnant herself.

The class was 3 hours every week for 6 weeks, and we got to know everyone pretty well, so it was great to see everyone again and especially to meet all the new tiny people! Jim and Martha Sue hosted at their wonderful apartment on Oak St., and everyone brought plenty of food. All the moms nursed; all the babies slept at some point, and almost nobody fussed. What a wonderful day!

It also offered the invaluable chance for the most excellent baby lineup picture above. You can see little Dahlia asleep on the left. As the photo session went on, she slowly and surely slumped over onto poor little Lia, who didn't seem to like it one bit. Poor baby!

Here's a shot of the entire crew, Tracy excepted (she's taking the picture).

Back row: Peter, Amy, Dahlia, Russell, Hiroko, Annika, Stacey, Lia, Martha Sue (hiding), Muriel, Denise, Jessica, and Ari. Front row: Aaron, Micah, Jim, Eric, and Matt

My favorite 10 albums of 2008

OK, OK, this one has nothing whatsoever to do with Dahlia, at least not directly, but I figure (hope) that she'll want to know what sort of music Daddy was listening to the year she was born. And I know that at least Uncle Brennan and Uncle Chris will be interested in my picks.

For the rest of you, I promise to post more pictures and stories about Dahlia very soon. She had a doctor's checkup today and she's doing great, in the 75th percentile for height and weight for babies at 2 months, even though she's only 6 weeks. Huzzah.

Here's my list for 2008. I'm sure I forgot something, so tell me about it.

10. Tapes 'n Tapes - Walk It Off

I know these guys were waaay overhyped in the first half of 2008, but c'mon, with some good reason. If you heard the second coming of Echo and the Bunnymen (a comparison that comes up waaay too often these days), wouldn't you be jazzed? Plus, they wrote a song about my favorite "Arrested Development" character.

I found myself playing this album over and over quite a bit in the spring of 2008. Nothing perhaps matches the catchiness or intensity of "Insistor" from 2006's The Loon, but "Le Ruse," "Hang Them All," and "Conquest" were among my favorite songs of the year.

9. Islands - Arm's Way

Everybody was super sad when The Unicorns broke up, amirite? But then Jamie and Nick got back together as Islands with Return to the Sea," and we were all, "WTF," but in a good way. Return was weird dancey stuff that eventually grew on me, and Arm's Way is similar in that regard, i.e the growing and growing. Whereas Return was full of eclectic dance pop, Arm's is pure guitar pop, and extremely polished at that.

I remember the first few times I heard "Pieces of You," I thought, "Get this adult contemporary crap off my MP3 player!" The only song I really even liked at first was the last, "I Feel Evil Creeping In." But then my Sandisk shuffle feature fell in love with "Life in Jail," and so did I. Then Arm's Way and Pete lived 2008 happily ever after.

8. Vetiver - Thing of the Past

Cover album? WTF, Pete?! Well, how often do you hear an album of "standards" where every song is better than the original (apologies to Townes Van Zandt), with the possible exception of Bobby Charles' "I Must Be in a Good Place Now."

Not only that, but I'd never even heard of some of these songs before: "Houses," "To Baby," "The Road to Ronderlin," and "Lon Chaney" were all very welcome additions to my musical database. The songs are all incredibly restrained and moving performances. This album won't blow anyone away, but it will provide high-quality easy listening for years to come.

7. No Age - Nouns

How can two small vegans make a sound so big? With Randy Randall (is that his real name?) on guitar and Dean Allen Spunt on drums, No Age exploded into 2008 with their first full-length album. I hadn't heard "Weirdo Rippers" before, so listening to the first, short track "Miner," I was all, "Hmmm, pretty good," but then "Eraser" kicked in, and I was all, "Hey, this is really good," and then "Teen Creeps" starts a rocking, and I was all, "OMGGTFO, who are these guys?!"

I bought a ticket to their June 2008 show at The Independent, but I double booked myself into a poker game the same night. It's a hold 'em tournament game, so I figured I could go big or go home early, and then hit the show. Well, I did very well, and won the tournament in about an hour and a half, with plenty of time to make it down to Divisadero and Grove ... but because the tournament ended so quickly, everyone wanted to keep going with a table-limit game of hold 'em, and with $80 of their money in my pocket, how could I say no? I won another $25-30 in the cash game, and the No Age ticket was only $13, but I still think I made the wrong choice. TRUE STORY!

(My sucky Sandisk shuffle feature loves "Cappo" even more than I do.)

6. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

Less of an album per se than an hour of "Lunchtime Workout"-style mix, "Feed the Animals" rises from the sludge of FM radio to the heights of near sublime by the remarkable skills of 27-year-old mashup czar Gregg "I Pronounce it Greg-Guh" Gillis.

Mixing up OutKast, RATM, Butthole Surfers, Yo Majesty, Procol Harum, INXS, The Spinners, Donna Summer, BTO, The Cure, and oh, another 500 artists or so, Girl Talk improves on 2006's Night Ripper to become the greatest "hypermashup" of all time ... so far.

Plus, the album was released on Illegal Art in name-your-own-price fashion, and when users enter $0.00, the site asks you why. It may not be as artistically innovative as something like NIN's Ghosts I-IV (another quality "free" album released in 2008), but it's a heck of a lot more fun to listen to.

NB: If you "don't like rap music," then don't even bother.

5. The French Semester - Open Letter to the Disappeared

Every respectable Top 10 list of the year needs a from-left-field wild card, so here you go. I would have never heard of these guys if they hadn't toured with Built to Spill. And anyone who's A-OK with Dug and crew is A-OK with me. They don't even have a Wikipedia entry yet!

Every reference I find to this band online calls them "breezy lo-fi pop," and that's fairly spot on. Loaded with jangly guitar, hooks aplenty, and introspective, personal lyrics, this band sounds like everything you've heard before, but what's so wrong with that? Take GBV + Pavement + Big Star + The Monkees, and you're pretty much there. (How cool is a band that lists The Monkees as an influence?)

Another army passes by and I'm wondering why
People run and hide, seeking out the West Coast vibe
When in a heartbeat they are all gonna die
All gonna die
You know better than to let your internationalisms
Unleash the heart-attack dogs on your neighbor

4. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

I had heard a number of the songs on AMZ from live Wolf Parade performances in 2007, and since Apologies to the Queen Mary was probably my most favoritest album of 2005, and since I had no real new Wolf Parade stuff to devour since then, and since I'd fallen in love with Sunset Rubdown's Snake's Got a Leg and Shut Up I Am Dreaming in the years hence, the latest album from Wolf Parade was easily my most anticipated release of the year.

And it doesn't disappoint. Well, not really. Considering the amazingly high expectations I had for AMZ, anything less than a Purple Rain-quality album would have been slightly disappointing. And I'll admit that I could have used 1-2 more songs on Zoomer. However, repeated listens (probably 20-25 in the first week) bore out its greatness to me.

Everybody seems to like the epics best--"California Dreamer" (6:00), "Fine Young Cannibals" (6:31), and "Kissing the Beehive" (10:52)--and those are all great, but I was most captured by the understated "The Grey Estates," and the Dan Boeckner-penned frantic rocker "Language City," where "eyeballs float in space."

3. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down in the Light

There was a time (1995-1997?) when I listed to a heck of a lot of Palace, Palace Brothers, or whatever the heck it was that Will Oldham was calling himself those days. I durn near wore out the grooves of There is No-One What Will Take Care of You.

Then he became Bonnie "Prince" Billy, and, sure, I bought some of his albums and EPs, but ... I slowly and surely lost touch with the guy (aside from his very respectable acting turn in Old Joy). Somehow it seemed like the dark side of his soul had taking over, and songs were just, well, too dark. See: I See a Darkness.

All of a sudden, in 2008, out of nowhere, I hear his cover of R. Kelly's "World's Greatest," and I think, "wow, that's really good," so I check out Lie Down in the Light, and I'll be durned if it isn't one of the most inspiring albums I've heard in years. "I'll be Glad" is a jaw-dropping new hymn for the millennium:

When you get your flock together
Please take me along
Lord, I'm too weak to travel
I'll be glad you're strong
... And I'll lean on your arm

2. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

I can barely understand a single word sung (or screamed) on this album, and I certainly can't tell you what the hell "Horrrsing" with 3 R's means. I can tell you I couldn't stop listening to this album this summer. There's obviously a lot of noise rock out there these days, but there's something about Fuck Buttons that drags you in, lifts you up by the armpits, and refuses to let go until you've taken a look outside the universe.

At its best, Horrrsing sounds like giant computers from the 1950s having wild, passionate sex: a cacophony of whirs, blips, and kraangs that builds to a heavenly crescendo where inexplicable expletives pour out of the mouth of Skynet's John the Baptist. I don't know if this album is too cool for school or what, but I do know that if you like interesting and evocative yet engaging noise rock, it's definitely worth a listen.

1. Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

The biggest surprise of 2008 for me was this unsigned (?!?!) band from--you guessed it--Toronto, Canada (lead singer Nils Edenloff calls Alberta his hometown). Sure, the Neutral Milk Hotel comparison between "non-singers" Edenloff and Jeff Mangum is pretty obvious, but the addition of counterpart singer Amy Cole and especially drummer Paul Banwatt turns the trio into something much different and perhaps even better than NMH (gasp).

The first track, "The Ballad of the RAA," starts off with an electronic-esque beat and light cymbals, and, sure, you're all skeptical. It's like, "who do these guys think they are, the Canadian Postal Service?" and then Edenloff's plaintive wail kicks in and Cole is playing the ... xylophone? And then halfway through the song, Banwatt starts drumming like Stephen Morris on crack, abruptly stops, and lets Edenloff strum and croon, "And all these things will past; It's the good ones that will last; And right here what we've had; Is a good thing, it will last." Oh yes, it will. Then "Rush Apart" kicks in with its country beat and you're hooked. Or at least you should be.

If you like precision indie-rock drumming, Banwatt's stuff is the best I've heard since The National's Bryan Devendorf on Boxer. Just drop a listen to "Don't Haunt This Place," "Drain the Blood," or "Luciana," sit back, and enjoy. All of the songs weigh in at 2-3:45 minutes, and I just can't stop listening every time I start this album. The last song, "In the Summertime," is the best love song I've heard since, well, "Slow Show" from Boxer.

... But when we're middle-aged
Tell me I loved you like a renegade
And how I say the things that make you sway
Mostly told you you did the same

Since Hometown's release early in the year, the band has since been selected as part of the "eMusic Selects" program for November 2008, which means I don't know what, but I hope it means a record label deal and much money for these three fine musicians. Right now, you can only buy the album at live shows or via Paypal (ugh) on their Web site. I highly recommend it.

I've got two honorable mentions for albums that didn't come out in 2008 but that I listened the heck out of:

A. The Roadside Graves - No One Will Know Where You've Been

I first heard these guys on an older track, "Jesus is a Friend of the Family," featuring the classic lyric "Jesus Christ, yer pancakes are good" (the band's site even showcases an animated Jesus and dropping hotcakes), but the seven-piece outfit is no novelty act.

Their 2007 release is loaded with heartfelt alt-country smashes, including the plaintive "If California Didn't End," the incredibly addictive and earnest "West Coast," and the rollicking "Stranger." Frontman John Gleason even holds down a more-than-respectable day job as an elementary teacher. Even though it didn't come out this year, I found this album in 2008 and couldn't stop listening to it.

B. The Format - Dog Problems

I briefly listened to their first album and EP a few years ago, and I didn't think too much about them, or else I didn't give them enough of a chance. I glommed onto their 2006 sophomore album this year, and it quickly exploded into a daily listen. At first I thought they were the second coming of the Pooh Sticks, but I quickly realized they're much, much better.

From the soulful intro of "Matches," and the perfect pop of "Time Bomb," to the inimitably theatrical title track, the understated "Snails," the miserably jaunty "The Compromise," and the stunning final track "If Work Permits," Dog Problems may be simply the greatest breakup album of all time. Singer Nate Ruess bares pretty much his entire (failed) relationship, even spelling out the name of his ex-lover in the title track.

Can you hear me?
Are you listening?
This is the sound of my heart breaking
And I hope it's entertaining
Cause for me, it's a bitch

Why, yes. It is entertaining. Very, thanks. The band even gave away the album for free for a week during its first anniversary. That's when I picked it up, but I never listened to it until this year. My loss.

It's too bad that The Format broke up last year, but it looks like Ruess is in a new band called fun that supposedly already has a single out and an album to come in 2009. I'll be looking out for it ...

Christmas, part 2, with Poppa Joe and Gloria

Everyone loved Dahlia's stocking jammies, but she seemed unimpressed

After the Christmas extravaganza on the 24th and 25th in Eugene, we made the trek back to Portland on Friday to celebrate Christmas and open presents with Poppa Joe, Gloria, Uncle Brennan, Nate, Jared, Shahleena, and Kobe. We conference called Aunt Molly to make sure that she could partake in the yard-of-beef and candied pecan goodness.

We had also gone over to Poppa's house to decorate the Christmas tree on Tuesday, when Dahlia and Nate received special ornaments from Gloria--a cherub angel for D, and an Ironman ornament for Nate (who completed the triathlon in Kona back in October). Jared and Shahleena made the treacherous drive down from Seattle and arrived in plenty of time for Christmas dinner.

Plenty of fun was had by all. Highlights included Kobe opening his present of Milk-Bones (for the second time in two days), Poppa Joe's "unique" hominy dish, and Uncle Brennan juggling Hickory Farms meats. Here's a sampling of photos from the festivities:


Poppa and Dahlia


Uncle Brennan juggles meat


Jared, Uncle Brennan, and Nate prepare to pound some brews


Sitting down for a dinner of burgers and hominy ... and plenty of Pinot


Dahlia's first videoconference - Skyping with the Taylor clan in Dumas, Texas