Know Your Enemy

I got my first pair of glasses when I was 15. God, I hated those things. They were HUGE. Took up my whole damn face. So I never wore them. Well, I did to drive and if I really needed to see the board in class, but that was about it. Eventually, I got contacts and all was right with the world again. Anyway, this stumble down memory lane is courtesy of our trip to the optician's office to get 7-year-old Hannah her first pair of glasses. We had no idea she had any kind of vision problem until she told us she had trouble with the vision test at school in the fall. It's not shocking, really; Deb needed glasses around that age, too. And Hannah is fine with it. Actually, she's kind of excited. I think she just assumed that everything was supposed to be a little blurry, so she's looking forward to not squinting anymore. (She doesn't need corrective lenses to play soccer; hell, I played my junior year of high school soccer without them. The ball's big enough to see from anywhere on the field.) She picked out a cute pair of frames; the lenses should be ready by Tuesday.

The other kid has been more of a challenge this week. Deb had meetings or other events to attend almost every night and Lily conveniently decided that she didn't like going to bed. So she voiced her displeasure by refusing to stay in her bed and ultimately screaming at the top of her lungs; this happened more than once. Not fun. I think she's just pushing buttons at this point, trying to see how much she can get away with.

No hockey this week; the Tuesday night skate in Reading has been pretty full, so they don't need any more guys yet. I've been promised if they do, I'll get a call. It was just as well. My legs were pretty beat up from last week. The first couple of runs were difficult this week; my right IT band is still really tight from the marathon, I guess. But my last few runs were good, including a 7-miler I did this morning.

Speaking of hockey, the second round of the NHL playoffs wrapped up this week with a heartbreaking game 7 OT loss by the Bruins to Carolina. Boston's downfall was its lackluster play in games 2-4 and falling behind 3 games to 1 before coming back to tie up the series. So it's Carolina-Pittsburgh and Chicago-Detroit in the conference finals. Should be some good series. I'm going to predict Penguins in 7 and Wings in 6 for a rematch of last year's finals. I hope Chicago can take Detroit, because I'd love to see them go all the way, but I don't know if they're deep enough.

The LOST season finale this week was intense. Two hours of awesomeness. The only downside was we won't get any new episodes for another eight months or so. I'm going to watch it again sometime this weekend.

Just picked up the new Green Day opus "21st Century Breakdown," their long-awaited followup to their huge "American Idiot" concept album. This too is a "rock opera" and I've only listened to it once through, but it sounds pretty great.

Get your wings:

• Can Danger Mouse get any cooler? He's already mashed up the Beatles and Jay-Z on "The Grey Album," produced the Black Keys and Beck, churned out some cool albums with Gnarls Barkley, and now this: EMI won't release his new album, "Dark Night of the Soul," which features Sparklehorse, Iggy Pop, Frank Black and the Flaming Lips, so DM is releasing it as a blank CD-R with art and liner notes. Buyers can then download the album off a P2P site and then burn it to the disc. You can listen to the album here. Apparently there are some "legal issues" preventing the album from being released, but DM's giving EMI the digital finger.
• So they should change the name of Deb's favorite TLC show to "Jon and Kate Plus 10 or More" to account for all the alleged cheating going on by the respective spouses. Frankly, I would start watching the show if they added that extra element to it.
• There's a cute story in the Globe today about a couple who's getting married on the commuter rail train on which they first met. Which is nice and all, but I'm glad Deb and I didn't get hitched in the fitness center at the Beverly YMCA.