Okay, lovelies. Here’s what’s coming up within the next few months around the midwest:
(and keep in mind that I’ve been out of new indie for a few months, so I might have missed a bunch)

Iowa City
1/30 - G Love and the Special Sauce - IMU
2/08 - Willy Porter - The Mill
3/28 - Cowboy Junkies - Englert
4/04 - Cursive - The Mill
5/05 - Randy Newman - Englert

Omaha
1/16 - Reverend Horton Heat/Nashville Pussy - Sokol Underground
2/09 - Daniel Johnston - Slowdown
3/01 - They Might Be Giants - Sokol Underground
3/08 - Tilly and the Wall - The Waiting Room
3/15 - Jonathan Richman - The Waiting Room
3/20 - Jose Gonzalez - Sokol Underground
4/02 - Nada Surf - The Waiting Room
4/08 - Why? - The Waiting Room
4/10 - The Black Keys - Slowdown
6/27 - Willie Nelson - Harrah’s Convention Center

Chicago
1/16 - John Vanderslice - Schubas Tavern
1/19 - Talib Kweli - House of Blues
1/20 - The Walkmen - Schubas Tavern
1/23 - Cornelius - Metro
1/25 - Supersuckers - Brauerhouse Bar
1/25 - Marah/Hot Hot Heat - Vic Theatre
1/26 - Girl Talk - Metro
1/30 - The Go-Go’s - House of Blues
1/31 - Todd Rundgren - Park West
2/01 - DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist/Kid Koala - Park West
2/01 - Mute Math/Alanis Morissette - Sears Centre
2/08 - Iris DeMent/John Prine - Chicago Theatre
2/10 - Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues - Vic Theatre
2/15-16 - Flogging Molly/Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band - House of Blues
2/15-20 - Wilco - Riviera Theatre
2/15 - Spice Girls - United Center (who’s with me?)
2/23 - New York Dolls - Double Door
2/27 - HorrorPops - Metro
2/29 - Sia - Metro
2/29 - John Corbett - Rialto Square Theatre (I don’t care if it’s country, it’s AIDAN!)
3/01 - PM Dawn - Double Vision (HAHAHAHAHAHA)
3/05-06 - The Pogues - Riviera Theatre
3/14-16 - The Magnetic Fields - Old Town School of Folk Music
3/15 - Xiu Xiu - Reggie’s Live
3/18 - The Raveonettes - Double Door
3/21 - John Vanderslice/Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
3/22 - Les Claypool - Vic Theatre
3/29 - Electric Six - Double Door
4/04 - Nada Surf - Metro
4/12 - The Black Keys - Riviera Theatre
4/17 - Hot Chip - Vic Theatre
4/18 - Reverend Horton Heat/Nashville Pussy/Backyard Tire Fire
5/17 - The Cure - Allstate Arena
6/20 - Willie Nelson - Ravinia Festival

Minneapolis
1/26 - Marah - The 400 Bar
1/30 - Hot Hot Heat - Fine Line Music Cafe
2/04 - DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist/Kid Koala - First Avenue
2/11 - Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues - First Avenue
2/24 - New York Dolls - Fine Line Music Cafe
2/26 - Sia - Fine Line Music Cafe
2/28 - The Hives - First Avenue
3/14 - Xiu Xiu - Triple Rock Social Club
3/19 - John Vanderslice/Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - First Avenue
4/03 - Nada Surf - First Avenue
4/11 - The Black Keys - First Avenue
4/20 - Reverend Horton Heat/Nashville Pussy/Backyard Tire Fire - First Avenue

Madison, WI
1/19 - The Walkmen - High Noon Saloon
1/29 - Hot Hot Heat - Majestic Theatre
2/09 - Willy Porter - Thrasher’s Opera House
2/09 - Iris DeMent/John Prine - Young Auditorium
2/29 - They Might Be Giants - Barrymore Theatre
4/03 - Cursive - University of Wisconsin
4/21 - Reverend Horton Heat/Nashville Pussy/Backyard Tire Fire
6/22 - Willie Nelson - Crystal Grand Music Theatre

Maybe sometime soon I’ll get around to making up my list of movies to see. Here’s hoping!

I’m going to try to plan a trip for next year. I get itchy feet every so often, and whereas that has usually resulted in a move (or has been satisfied by a move, such as when I was a kid), I think it’s safe to try to quell the feeling by simply getting away from my everyday life.

So! What do I want? This:

• Fly away on a plane
• Needs to last more than 3 days(can include the weekend, of course)
• Somewhere I’ve never been before
• Preferably Europe, but it’ll really depend on cost of travel

Any ideas? I’ll take them all!

I’m having pains from exercising. Most notably, I’m having a pretty bad pain in the side of my right foot that radiates a little up my ankle. It got pretty bad last night during my “workout”, so I had to slow down my already too-slow walking for a couple of laps. This morning, I feel it with every footstep. Could this be tendinitis? I know I have weak ankles from too many tears of the ligaments (I’m accident-prone, and have been since early childhood). I also know that I’m babying my left leg because I twisted it about a week ago and it still feels a little unstable.

Is this the type of pain that I can work through, or should I take a break and rest it? I’m on a roll and don’t really want to stop. Time for research.

This holiday season, I plan to take a lot of time out of my busy gift-buying (more on that later), exercise, and work schedule to put on my apron and bake massive quantities of sweets for my loved ones. I had plans to attempt this last year (in my tiny downtown kitchen with mini-stove and no storage space). Grand, grand plans that never came to fruition. I did, however, attempt and achieve baking what might possibly be the yummiest cookies in all the land, some scrumptious almond Sandies-type cookies from a Martha Stewart recipe. They were divine, and my family, friends and I ate them all up before I was even able to put the finishing touches on them.

This year, with a mightier kitchen, more storage space, and more money at my disposal, I’m going to try again to assemble goodie tins with enough crap (good crap) to cause heart attacks and cavities. Here’s a list of some possibilities:

• almond cookies again, this time with finishing touches
• divinity, a family tradition carried out by my grandma until her death. I’ve made it a few times since then, but this year I’m going to start it as a yearly tradition.
• English toffee, aka homemade Skor bars
• fudge, maybe?
• chocolate truffles, preferably with booze in them
• sugar cookies with peppermint frosting, mmm

Have any favorite recipes you’d like to share?

When I woke up this morning, my pee was dark and smelly. What could this mean? It means I’m dehydrated! Why am I dehydrated? Because I don’t drink enough water!

But it also means that I got sweaty last night. Which I did. And it was awesome.

I’ve decided to start exercising. Now, I’m not going to turn this into some big to-do, where I’m all diet-y and “zomg, must wear abercrombie butt-shorts!”. I’m already working on a huge life-change by budgeting and getting my financial shit in order, and I don’t want to pile another huge change on top of that so that neither of them stick. I’m just working out, trying to sweat for 30 minutes a day, hopefully 5 days a week. I’m not going to change my eating habits for now, which leads to a lot of stress for me, in having to concentrate on everything that goes into my mouth.

If I were in my usual gung-ho-mode, I’d run out and buy a $100 pass to the fitness loft at work. Then I’d fall off the wagon and stress about the money I wasted on the pass. Instead, I’m going to walk/jog the track at the gym for free, and maybe just buy a locker for a semester, and do that for 3 months straight to build the habit and make sure it sticks. If it does, and I’m in better shape by then, then I’ll buy the pass so I can have access to the exercise equipment like elliptical trainers and recumbent bikes.

I know from previous experience that I’ll tend to eat better if I’m working out on a regular basis, and if that happens fine. I’m just not going to focus on it. I know that exercise is the key to me getting into better shape, the catalyst. Here’s hoping I stick with it.

In the meantime, I’m going to make sure I drink plenty of water. Wish me clear pee!

Kevin and I have been eyeing this beer since it first came out in October, but have been a little hesitant to try it for various reasons. I’m not crazy about a lot of different apple-flavored things, other than apples themselves or caramel apple lollipops, and Kevin is pretty stuck on his stouts and dark beers, and is leery of wheaty, paler brews.

On Saturday, Iowa City got hit with a mega icestorm, and we decided that if we were supposed to stay home to wait it out and possibly get iced in, we would have to pick up some things to entertain ourselves. We picked up some calzones from Sam’s Pizza, got Beerfest from That’s Rentertainment (better than Puddle Cruiser but not as funny as Supertroopers), made our weekly detour at Artifacts to see if they’d gotten any new goodies and to see if the bar we want was still there, and stopped at Dirty John’s to finally pick up a six pack of this beer. We decided that now was as good a time as any to try it, before it went out of season and we’d be left to wonder about it until next year.

As far as other Leinie’s beers go, we’re both big fans of Big Butt, which is another seasonal beer than only runs from January to March. It was actually one of the first beers we bonded over, having both tried it for the first time while together and loving it. I’m also partial to their Creamy Dark, although Kevin isn’t crazy about it.

On first pour, this doesn’t even smell like beer. Instead, it smells like regular apple cider. In fact, I was afraid that it was going to taste like Woodchuck Hard Cider or something of the sort, which is a drink so close to wine that I can’t stand it (no, I don’t like wine, either). The first sip of it was VERY apple-y, although the aftertaste wasn’t bad. It was fruity, but much much smoother than hard cider. I’d have to say that while I didn’t outright enjoy the beer at first, it wasn’t terrible, and I was willing to at least finish my glass. As the drink wore on, however, it began tasting more and more like Woodchuck, and eventually I had to wood-chuck it out. Not my cup of tea, although I understand how others would like it. Thankfully, we’re having a NYE party, so hopefully we’ll be able to pawn the rest of it off on our guests.

We’re trying to find a replacement rug for our living room, and I’m finding it a little difficult to locate one that won’t break the bank but will also leave the room open to future design choices. The rug we currently have in the living room is some cheapie deal that Kevin probably bought for $20 at Wal-Mart. It’s a neutral blue and is about 6′x4′. It’s also thinner than hell and doesn’t do much in the way of acting like padding for our feet or keeping us warm from the cooler hardwood floors.

As far as decor in the room, we’re hoping to slowly replace all of the more “college apartment” items with things in a more retro vein. So far, we’ve gotten rid of a super junky couch (hope you’re enjoying it, Sarah!) and replaced it in the room with a great little bookcase with angled legs. We also replaced a gross reclining chair that wasn’t used by anyone except the cats with my fabulous red ikea chair (which has since been discontinued and of which I can’t find a picture online).

A better place to start would probably be to decide what kind of color scheme we’d like to go with in the future, but that’ll probably be dictated by whatever couch we end up with. Our current couch is DEFINITELY not our style, and the only reason we have it now is because it was free and we don’t have a replacement yet. I think my ideal couch would be one of those that’s sort of like a sectional, only with a chaise lounge-type thing instead of an arm of the couch. Because of the unknowns, it’s probably better to go with a more neutral-colored rug that’ll go with anything. This one looks fun:

I’d kind of like to bump up to the next size, though, which is 5′x8′. We tried looking at Menards, but their selection of cheap rugs was pretty gross.

Seen any neat rugs lately?

Yes, I know it’s actually spelled vinegar. I’m an ace speller, I swear (pls to be ignoring netspeak).

This story starts in the 5th grade. The spelling bee was coming up, and I was in fierce competition with my best friend/arch-nemesis, Natalie Patterson, to be our class’s representative in the event. I call her my arch-nemesis because we were involved in a constant fight over title of “Smartest kid in class”, and the ever-present partner to that title, “Teacher’s pet”. We both knew all of the answers to every question, and secretly delighted in the other’s failure, even though we spent every weekend having sleepovers and commiserating about which boys in class we would one day marry. It was the way of the world at that point in my life.

When my teacher, Mr. Wilkerson, announced that he’d be administering a spelling test to see who would get to participate in the bee, the entire class eyed Natalie and I, and we all knew the fight was on. I won out, but I think it may have been by just one word. I’m slick like that.

I honestly didn’t spend much time studying for the test, which was a running habit for me that continued through high school and would later prove to be my downfall in college. Spelling came easily to me, mostly because I had a knack for memorizing words and read pretty voraciously, which is the key to building the ridiculously large vocabulary that I have today. I don’t remember much about the spelling bee itself, except standing there on the stage in front of the 4th and 5th grade classes and spelling that word wrong. Sometimes, when given a word that I’m not on friendly spelling terms with, I try to visualize something I know the word is spelled on (for example, looking at that bottle of vinegar every time Easter came around and it was time to dye the eggs). This didn’t help that time, and in fact I knew I had spelled it wrong as soon as the -er came out of my mouth. The rules of the ‘bee are hard and fast, though, and I knew it was too late. The only other thing I remember about that day is the long walk of shame from the stage to the table my class was seated at, and the look of condolence given to me by my teacher. I might also remember some hateful glee coming from Natalie, but I could also be projecting from the future on that one.

In high school, my best friend Rachel and I decided to start a band, even though we both played clarinet and didn’t know any cool instruments. I think I had decided to play bass in this band, and Rachel was going to be the bitchin’ guitarist/lead singer. I insisted on the name Vineger for the band. We also had notebooks that we’d decorate and pass back and forth and sort of journal in, instead of writing notes to each other. We named them, and one was of course Vineger. So then, when it came time for me to purchase my first domain, I naturally went with this one.

So here’s the site, up and mostly running again. I’ve taken quite a hiatus from having this place functional, and spent a lot of time at livejournal. I’ll still stick around there quite a bit (I do love it so), but mostly for commenting and reading my friends’ pages and communities. For real, honest to goodness content about my life, I’m going to try to make the transition to blogging here.

I’m hoping to be able to detail a wider variety of content here than I did back on LJ, like my crafty-bitch projects and cooking/baking fiascos. Interested? Keep reading!

I’m going to update this, make it cooler. Like James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub.