All told, it’s been as tolerable a first week back in the real world as one could reasonably expect. There were, as there always are, challenges (figuring out where the hell we left off at the office), weirdness (kitchen fixtures showing up in decidedly not kitchen places, for example), non-sequitir (I have been served so many ads for local boudoir photography companies this week….) and impending disaster in the form of snow coming to the mid-Atlantic region.

Although we’re not expected to get pounded too much (the RVA is expected to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-6 inches), my experience living here for the last 19 years (and yes, I just counted in my head, it’s been that long) is that two inches is good enough to shut the place down for a couple of days. I had to run to the grocery store last night for, coincidentally, milk, bread, and toilet paper (not because of the oncoming storm, but because my kids eat and poop constantly so we were running out). My local Kroger was a freakin’ madhouse.

Actually, it could’ve been worse (like say if I went today, which I still might have to do…argh), and the shelves were rapidly emptying, though I still got my staple items.

Normally I wouldn’t necessarily mind a nice weekend storm, though I had plans to go to a friend’s “after holiday” party in NoVA tomorrow night, which this weather might scuttle. We’ll see. Either way, I’ve got music to rehearse for Marscon next weekend (yay!), a couple of bombers of good local beer to drink, books to read, and a new PS4 to spend time with (the No Man’s Sky universe isn’t going to explore itself!), so I’m good.

Below you’ll find the first random eleven of the new year. The first half is, interestingly, a neat alternating pattern of Viking Metal and late 80s New Jersey Glam Rock, before settling into the usual really weird eclectism:

1. “Schwertzeit” – Varg
2. “Youth Gone Wild” – Skid Row
3. “The Pursuit of the Vikings” – Amon Amarth
4. “Wanted Dead or Alive” – Bon Jovi
5. “Havamal” – Falkenbach
6. “I Ran (So Far Away)” – A Flock of Seagulls
7. “Take it Off” – The Donnas
8. “Father O’Blivion” – Dweezil Zappa
9. “Shia LaBeouf Live” – Rob Cantor
10. “Ha Ha Ha” – The Julie Ruin
11. “Bad Horsie” – Steve Vai