music and gardening tips

Oh mighty flist, I need some advice.

Music:
I'm driving north for a bonspiel this week and due to scheduling I'm driving by myself. So that's 6-7 hours each way. Definitely doable. I generally like driving by myself given that I have good music. Now, I'm pretty lazy about music, once something's in the car it lives there *forever* (or on the ipod, but I don't want to fuss with the ipod thingy in the car if it's just me) and I prefer CDs to mixes.

( Here's what's currently in the car: )

So what would you suggest? I'm thinking maybe the new Pink album? I'll take pop, folk, rock, even some dance/techno stuff is okay for car. Points for anything I can loudly and overdramatically sing along to or car dance to. Or anything that will make me cry (but not sob, I'll be driving). If I get my act together ellen_fremedon will lend me some Dr. Who audiobooks (woot!), but if I get sleepy or cranky or happy I'll want music. Thoughts?


Plants:

Not only did we buy a house we also bought a yard. I had ideas for the house, not really so many for the yard. This year might be all about maintenance and neutrality (eg buy lawnmower, use lawnmower, deal with dead tree branch, fix door of shed that's falling off, find something to do with pile of sand?, also unused concrete pad?, trim bushes around hottub).

I want to put something out in front at least. Maybe bushes? And then I would perhaps like flowers and maybe vegetables in the back? But I have *no idea* what I'm doing.

Does anyone have any book, website, or blog suggestions? Anything along the lines of "How to think about designing your backyard" to "How to put plants in dirt and make sure they don't die". 101 is great. Is there a gardening equivalent to apartment therapy? Help me procrastinate plan, please :)

The Song I Wish Taylor Swift Would Write

I quite enjoyed this parody of "Fifteen".
"Just 'cause you wear thick glasses in marching band. Don't mean you're undesirable."

Inspired by the excellent article Why Taylor Swift Offends Little Monsters, Feminists, and Weirdos.

Russia House

How have I not seen any figure skating/ice dancing yet? Also, ski jumping is *insane*.

Friday D. and I went out to Russia House for a belated Valentine's Day celebration. We had a good time, would recommend. Lovely atmosphere (dark, cozy, and Russian, duh), and yummy drinks (I had a Moscow Mule, D. a Sputnik, the vodka menu is extensive). We had the wild game sausages, the rabbit was awesome, and the other two were good. My beef stroganoff was very tasty (much better than the "stroganoff" my mother used to make with canned soup) and D.'s lamb was incredible, even though his blackbread pudding and greens were a little too salty.

We had a great time. It looks like a fun place to go out for drinks. The bar area was pretty noisy, but it's 4 levels so our little dining room was quiet and intimate. We went because we had a groupon. Groupon is bringing date night back! We've gone out a few times now, it's really nice. Even if some place is overpriced (Russia house isn't, an Indian place we went to earlier was) you don't feel so bad because of the discount.

Saturday I went out to Reston with ellen_fremedon and then to the curling open house, which seemed to be a great success! When I got home D. had cleaned the house! And not just the regular cleaning, but some of the annoying cleaning that I keep avoiding. It led to exchanges like this:

D: have you ever noticed that spot [that is annoying to vacuum] was really dusty?
me: yes, I notice it several times a day and it annoys me (but apparently not enough to drag the vacuum up there)
D: oh, I just noticed it.
me: thank you very much for cleaning it.
D: did you dust area X?
me: yes, when I see things are dusty I often dust.
D: I thought it was funny that there wasn't any dust there when the other room was so dusty.
me: I do stuff! Including a lot of cleaning that you don't notice. :) Thanks for doing all that dusting and cleaning the floor! clean house yay!
D: clean house yay!
*hugs*

Sunday we went to the YMCA, worked out together (!), and then joined! The only annoying thing is that the Y doesn't have a squat rack. How can this be?! Squats and deadlifts are my favorite things ever. I guess I can make do with the smith machine and dumbbells, but it's just not the same. I'll get over it, just whining a little. Am exciting to try to exercise regularly again. We've also done some cooking this week: chicken/chickpea/cardamom thing, roasted cauliflower (omg so good), cucumber salad, bean soup, spinach, quinoa, salmon. Nothing fancy, but more than we usually cook. I'm hoping we can keep it up.

Gym, cooking, and housecleaning. Our life is so exciting.