So I caught the morning show. Usually I'm on the road in another city during the a.m. hours. I actually  really liked the bit they did this morning with the top 5 summer songs.

I'd say I liked Dave's picks the most, but if I had my picks they'd be:

1. Wild, Wild West by Escape Club

2. Toy Soldiers by Martika (I feel cheesey cause it was the summer before 7th grade for me and every song on the radio could be placed here, whether it's Prince's Batdance, She Drives Me Crazy by FYC or Neneh Cherry's Buffalo Stance. I spent almost every day outside at the beach or sneaking out with my friends at night to ding-dong-ditch and egg houses all summer long...)

3. Pretty much anything from Bobby Brown's Don't Be Cruel Album, but mainly My Prerogative

4. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something

and last but not least, the best summer song ever to be blasted on a hot summer day:

5.  Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def  Leppard!!!!!

I'm not saying that I actually like these songs all that much anymore, but if I hear any of them, it brings me back to when I was a kid and I can taste the summer of past memories... Damn am I glad I've grown up though.

But my wife and kids are, so it's kind of like a vacation away from a vacation. Next year I'll be able to afford taking a week off to travel, but this year I just don't have the funds to miss work.

While their gone I get to:

Sleep ungawdly amounts of sleep.

Do whatever I want, whenever I want (minus working, I still gotta do that every night and morning).

Maybe play some poker randomly at the casino

Play more video games to turn my brain into mush

... But I'll counter that with working out more than I usually get to (I'm only 5 weeks away from my first triathlon this year).

And last but not lest, sleep some more on top of that.

It's been longer than that since I've posted anything on here. Since then I've gotten my tax returns, blown them already on almost nothing I wanted (bills), gotten strep throat for the first time since I went vegan over a decade ago, missed three days of work because of it (with no sick time available), been poked in the eye by my 15 month old son who ended up scratching my cornea (OWWWWWWWWW!) which ended up getting infected, and most of all enjoyed every minute of the crazy, windy, "wintery mix" that's been dumped on Iowa and Wisconsin every four days since January (insert sarcastic tone here).

Luckily, the days are looking brighter, even as I type. I'm going to miss the hell out of them, but my kids and wife are going to D.C. for ten days this weekend, which means I get to a little mini vacation myself. Sure, I still have to work (I don't have enough holiday time banked to travel with them yet) but I'll get to sleep in on my days off, work out whenever I like and pretty much live the bachelor life again for a couple of weekends in a row- which for a nerd like me includes a lot of Ps2, poker, movies and maybe some more Ps2.

My brother's about to get married in April and it just dawned on me: Being the oldest, and also being a groomsmen (not his best man), am I expected to make a speech at the reception? I've seen it happen, and I've been to A LOT of weddings (I was raised catholic, go figure), but nobodies really filled me in on this... The idea of a speech makes me nervous. What do you think? Any suggestions?