Lazy Late Summer Workday #5

Well, we made it to Friday. Here's our reward.

Lazy Late Summer Workday #4

Don't rub it in, Calvin. Just don't.

Lazy Late Summer Workday #3

Half-way done!

Lazy Late Summer Workday #2

Yes, it's still only Tuesday.

Lazy Late Summer Workday #1

Well, it's definitely the dog days of summer now. Temperatures in the upper 90s and 100s. Summer teaching is over, and the fall semester won't begin for three weeks. (Meaning I don't have to think about my syllabi for at least two.) All the girls' summer camps and programs and shows are done. The tomatoes are finally ripening, the cucumbers have gone nuts, and after working to save the zucchini and peppers from various infestations, I'm just happy to see any growth on them at all. So I'm feeling lazy. Isn't this when all of Western Europe takes a vacation for about a month? Ah, to live in a civilized country.

But no, unfortunately, all the stuff I was too busy to do earlier has come around. A book review. An article proof. Plus, of course, I can't just pretend that the garden still doesn't need to be weeded every morning. Much as I'd just kind of like to escape, to steal away, to sail on, and just sleep away the next month or so, the work day still calls. Unfortunately.

So you knew this one was coming, right? Good for you. Now get to work; you're running late.

My Weird Al Favorites

Weird Al Yankovic is performing a sold-out show in Wichita tonight, and I snagged front-row balcony seats from my daughter Alison (our own "weird Al") and I. Like so many geeks, my affection for the man stretches back for decades (me and another equally miserable/insufferable sixth-grade loner-misfit did a skit for our class based on "Another One Rides the Bus" back in 1981) and across continents (thank you, Armed Forces Korea Network radio, for carrying the Dr. Demento show regularly back in the late 1980s, so this disobedient Mormon missionary could secretly listen in). I've never seen him live before, and I'm not sure when I've last looked forward to a concert quite this much. He's got a huge catalog to draw upon, but if it were up to me, I would make sure this is what we'll here about two hours from now. I make no apologies for it skewing towards earlier stuff; deal with. Also, I can't rank these, so I'll just stick with alphabetic order:

1) Dare to be Stupid
2) Don't Download this Song
3) Eat It
4) Fat
5) Foil
6) Headline News
7) Midnight Star
8) Mr. Frump in the Iron Lung
9) One More Minute
10) White & Nerdy

Maybe I'll have to post the set list later to report on how it went.

[Update, 7/1/2015, 10:48pm, CST: The full set list at tonight's (tremendously entertaining!) show was as follows:

Tacky
Lame Claim to Fame
Mandatory Fun polka medley
Perform This Way
Dare to Be Stupid
Fat
First World Problems
Foil
Smells Like Nirvana
A massive, delightful, and surprisingly tight medley of: Party in the C.I.A., It's All About The Pentiums, Handy, Bedrock Anthem, Another One Rides the Bus, Ode To A Superhero, Gump, Inactive, and eBay
Canadian Idiot
Wanna B Ur Lovr
A medley of classic Weird Al songs, with some really clever acoustic arrangements, including: Eat It, I Lost On Jeopardy, I Love Rocky Road, and Like a Surgeon
White & Nerdy
Word Crimes
Amish Paradise
And ending with a rousing, extended, genuinely touching combination of The Saga Begins and an old favorite of mine which I failed to mention above (and how could I have forgotten? I sang it as part of a talent show at Scout Camp back in 1982!), Yoda