Quick 30 x 5 Update and Pink Floyd Cramer is at it Again

Woo! Monday! What's your mindset this beautiful (and cold, if you're near me) Monday morning? Are you still committed to the project, or are you like the cat in yesterday's video? Do I have to come to your house and hold you up on the treadmill and coax you to walk while your limbs go limp and you roll your head under your body so that your shoulders are what's on the treadmill?

I'm happy to report that I'm still in, 100%.

REMINDER: You and me, Baby, and over 70 others--We committed to two weeks, and that will end Thursday, upon which I will post another Mr. Linky, and you will write a post for that day about this experience and link up so that we can all come visit you and you can visit us. Because we are committed, and I just mis-typed that with three t's, which probably shows the depth of my fear that you will not link up this Thursday, and I will have to go join the cat in the video in a basement far away from here out of shame.

Don't make me give my power to the cat.

So if you did not move all weekend, so what. You're back in with a vengeance today. Just move. I don't care if you march in place 30 minutes today; just move. I'm going to strongly encourage you--please hear me--do NOT let this Monday pass without moving for 30 minutes. That's all I'm going to say at this point. Because I'm going to come around checking up on you randomly today and tomorrow. Subliminal last thought: Don't make me give my power to the cat.


Pink Floyd Cramer Is At It Again

So remember this post about my daughter, aka Pink Floyd Cramer, the piano player?

Well, the other day, as I was busy with the usual household goings on, I became gradually aware of a sweetly haunting melody coming from the living room. Dropping my dish towel, I walked hypnotically to the music.

"That melody ... it's gut-wrenchingly familiar ... it makes me feel young, but sad. Sad, but young. Sad, but happy ... what is it? What is it?"

And then I recognized the opening "cross-over" bars: Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen's magnum opus. 1975. I was 13.

So now Pink Floyd Cramer has taught herself one of the most poignantly affective melodies ever written. Well, at least to top the Billboard 100.

And not only is it beautiful, but for me, as it wafts through the air on mercurial (pun!) wings, nostalgia is riding shotgun. Double whammy.

Plus, my adorable kid is playing it. Triple emotional whammy.

Anyway, another day, Katie, the older sister of Pink Floyd, and Pink and I were driving around, when the girls started singing BR, very loud and very proud of knowing all the lyrics and harmonies etc.

And then the AMR (Alarmed Mom Response) went off in me as the lyrics sank in anew: "Mama, just killed a man, put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he's dead...." Ooh, bad Mom vibes--don't wanna hear my kids singing those words!

So I said, "Can't you change the lyrics a little bit and make them less ... violent?"

Only a mom would say this. The lyrics didn't bother me when I was a teenager.
anyway, I just hated to hear my kids singing about pulling a trigger and killing someone. And then making a confession to "Mama," of all people.

So without missing a beat, Katie bursts out singing: "Mama, I just baked a flan."

Where that came from, I do not know.

Well, she did spend a lot of time at my side when she was little. That might explain it.

So then we proceeded to massacre BR by changing lyrics. So here are the originals vs. ours. And I've also included a 30-sec version of the ballad, which doesn't really do Freddie Mercury's teeth justice, but oh well.

The Queen Version:

Mama, just killed a man,
Put a gun against his head,
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead.
Mama, life had just begun,
But now I've gone and thrown it all away-
Mama ooo,
Didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on.

The 2nd Cup Mom Version:

Mama, just baked a flan
I Was gonna bake some bread
Baked a caramel flan instead
Mama, when will it be done?
I think I should’ve made a crème brulee,
Mama ooo,
Didn’t mean to make it dry
It was tough to find vanilla beans at Walmart
They were gone; they were gone.

Now isn't that a GREAT improvement? Perhaps next we'll take on Rod Stewart. Or Neil Diamond.