Where You Been

I know, I know. A few quick thoughts before I hit the sack:

• Lily hits the big uno tomorrow. We threw a party for her over the weekend. It's amazing to think it's already been a year since she arrived. And Miss Hannah's 3rd birthday is right around the corner. Yikes.
• And some sad news. My grandmother died two Saturdays ago at the age of 84. She was my last living grandparent and was living in India, so I hadn't seen her since I was 12. It was one of those things where I've been meaning to go back to visit (I've been twice), but it's expensive, you can't go for less than two weeks, and it would be tough to do with the kids right now. I definitely want to go when the girls are a little older.
• So it turns out my high school in New Hampshire, the one I actually graduated from, is planning a 20th reunion of our graduating class. If I had the means, I could attend two 20th reunions (the one of the high school I attended in Washington state) and feel twice as old.
• Speaking of reunions, the original lineup of the awesome Dinosaur Jr. is reuniting for some shows in the UK and Japan this summer, according to band founder J. Mascis' Web site. If Mascis and Lou Barlow can keep from killing each other, they should play some U.S. dates, and by gum, I'll be there. Yes, I just wrote "by gum."
• In hockey news, the NHL owners were offered $3 billion by Bain Capital for the league and all its teams. There was no chance it would ever go through, but was interesting nonetheless. The owners and the union are supposed to meet again this week. Meanwhile, the revived WHA (rival league in the 1970s where Wayne Gretzky made his professional debut as a 17-year-old) is kicking off with a round-robin tournament in May featuring a number of big name NHL stars including Jarome Iginla, Nicklas Lidstrom, Martin St. Louis, and Jose Theodore. We'll see if they can actually kick off a season in the fall. I see on the WHA Web site that they're accepting applications for franchises in Europe, Russia, and Japan, in addition to North America. Good luck with that.
• Sad to see Sony file a lawsuit to force the great Beatallica--which combined the Beatles and Metallica with amazingly good results in songs like "Leper Madonna" and "Got to Get You Trapped Under Ice"--to fork over publishing royalties. These guys weren't in it for the money, they just posted their songs online. The Beatallica guys have taken down their Web site for the time being as they weigh their options, but it just strikes me as lame that the Beatles' publishing company has to go after a group that obviously loves their music and is just having some fun.
• Okay, the girls are screaming, which is always fun at 11:30. More later in the week, including an MP3.