My whole life I have been waiting for a White Christmas,

and a husband like this

who spends hours making me a scrapbook filled with letters from friends and familyand he still surprises me with a chair I saw in a store months ago.

I love you Matthew.


harsh basketball picture bonus below...........

this picture does not involve Christmas, snow or chairs, but when you assembly a crew like this for a two hour basketball session you can't not post it.

Top 40

2007 had to have been one of the most musically packed years of my life. i think that it even rivals those great pre-missionary years when Peter Dangerfield and I practically lived at used record stores. So, here is a list of my 40 favorite albums that were released this past year. There were a few other albums that I liked that aren't here, and a few that i know i'll like but I haven't had the chance to hear yet (jimmy eat world, ghostface killa, wu-tang clan), but the list had to end somewhere, and 40 seemed about right.
Also, for some of the bands, I've included some links in case you want to exercise your clicking and reading muscles.
Oh, and I do have to make a confession about #39 on the list. I haven't actually heard very much of this album, nor do I own it, but i've included it because a lot of the songs that I have heard were in ryan's room the other night while Tony Salvucci gave us a very emotionaly charged karaoke session. so that pretty much made it a lock for the top 40.
--matthew
TOp 40 Albums of 2007
artist - album
40. Okkervil River - golden opportunities ep
39. R. Kelly - double up
38. Yeah Yeah Yeah's - is is ep
37. BOAT - lets drag our feet
36. Shocking Pinks - shocking pinks
35. Yeasayer - all hour cymbals
34. White Rabbits - fort nightly
33. Modest Mouse - we were dead before the ship even sank
32. Liars - liars
31. Sunset Rubdown - random spirit lover
30. Kevin Drew - Broken Social Scene presents... Spirit If
29. Bishop Allen - the broken string
28. Apostle of Hustle - national anthem of nowhere
27. Grizzly Bear - friends ep
26. St. Vincent - marry me
25. the Deadly Syndrome - the ortolan
24. Wilco - sky blue sky
23. Kanye West - graduation
22. LCD Soundsystem- sound of silver
21. Justice - t
20. Interpol - our love to admire
19. Black Kids -wizard of ahhhs ep
18. Caribou - andorra
17. Blitzen Trapper - wild mountain nation
16. Band of Horses - cease to begin
15. the Shins - wincing the night away
14. Chromeo - fancy footwork
13. M.I.A. - Kala
12. Jay-Z - American Gangster
11. Albert Hammond Jr. - yours to keep
10. the National - boxer
9. Okkervil River - stage names
8. Radiohead - in rainbows
7. Animal Collective - strawberry jam
6. Menomena - friend or foe
5. Panda Bear - person pitch
4. Spoon - ga ga ga ga ga
3. Feist - the reminder
2. Handsome Furs - plague park
1. Arcade Fire - neon bible

Let the 2007 Look-Back Begin

Here is a little slide-show of some of our favorite photographs from the past year. There's not much more to say about it than that. Oh, but if you find yourself bummed out because you didn't make it into the slide-show -- don't fret, because you can always just try harder next year.

A Wedding and a Funeral

The wedding was Julie's, the funeral was Ashley's. Sometimes at weddings they serve a full buffet line for dinner. Sometimes they have D.J.'s. D.J.'s always, not sometimes, play awful music and make pervy jokes. Sometimes while you wait for your table to be dismissed to the buffet line, D.J.'s play trivia games. And sometimes, rare and alarming times, you look up to find your sister singing the theme song to the Jeffersons with an unknown partner. These are the times you are grateful that you have a digital camera that takes video and a blog so that you have a platform to broadcast it over the internet.



(During these same times you are able to capture a family picture like this:)

When I was single I used to frequent nail salons to have my fingers and toes serviced. I would go on Saturday afternoons, sometimes I would go with my sisters or other lady friends or by myself, it didn't matter. I just liked to go and read trashy magazines and listen to over caffeinated middle age women yell at their husbands and children on their cell phones. It was fun, but never did I think it was necessary, I was sure that I would be capable of maintaining and painting my own nails. I got married and then I got poor so I no longer went to nail salons on Saturday afternoons. And sometime after that I realized that in fact I am not capable of painting my toes and fingers. It is hard, I am very messy at it and whenever I attempt it I become depressed and miss my days of expendable income and youth. If I were ever a Young Womens leader I would give a lesson stating the facts about being young and married.

sometimes this:
also means this:
(I would use this very picture because it is grotesque and scary and reminds me of the photos they used in health class to scare you into being abstinent)
and this:
(enlarge photo to view this poorly executed polish job.)
Can you deal with it?

How do you say Happy Birthday in Portuguese?

December 4th is an important date in the Brown household. It's a day to celebrate the births of a few of our favorite people... Atticus Minharo (our half brazillian nephew), and Sean Carter (aka: Jay-Z).
I don't want to downplay our respect for Jigga, but we are able to see him anytime we want on the internet, or listen to one of his many albums that we own.But Atticus and his sister Macey are now in Pittsburgh, and that makes us miss them a lot more than Jay. So since their parents have yet to start a blog so that they can show us new pictures of them, we will celebrate with these pictures from last Christmas.

Happy 2nd Birthday Atticus!
oh, and happy 38th Jay-Z!

November Rain

Yesterday, mother nature said goodbye to the month of Novemeber with a nice little Guns and Roses salute... lots and lots of cold Novemeber rain. So we too decided to pay homage to Izzy, Slash, and Axl Rose with everyones favorite childhood video.


It's a little long, but so the circle of life, and that's what this video represents... Love, supermodel weddings, death, and face melting guitar solos.
Oh, and just because of the awesomeness of his solos in front of the church in the desert (halfway through), or the funeral solo (at the end) I can forgive Slash of all his trespasses (ie. Slash's Snakepit, and Velvet Revolver).