How to date yourself and reveal your musical tastes in one fell swoop

Fun little game below from my friend Chris. What did I learn from this exercise? There was A LOT of R&B in '96 along with the beginnings of emo-rock and some sap thrown in for good measure. I can't say I really HATE any of the below...I don't if it's indifference or I dislike too many of them to start to decide if it's hate or not. I mean, these were the TOP songs in '96?! Perhaps I belong to an emotionally stunted generation. Or maybe I was born at the wrong time.

The Rules:
A.) Go to Music Outfitters.
B.) Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year (the top link).
C.) Bold the songs you like, italic through the ones you REALLY hate.

1. Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix), Los Del Rio
2. One Sweet Day, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men
3. Because You Loved Me, Celine Dion
4. Nobody Knows, Tony Rich Project
5. Always Be My Baby, Mariah Carey
6. Give Me One Reason, Tracy Chapman
7. Tha Crossroads, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
8. I Love You Always Forever, Donna Lewis
9. You're Makin' Me High/Let It Flow, Toni Braxton
10. Twisted, Keith Sweat
11. C'mon N' Ride It (The Train), Quad City Dj's
12. Missing, Everything But The Girl
13. Ironic, Alanis Morissette
14. Exhale (Shoop Shoop), Whitney Houston
15. Follow You Down/Til I Hear It From You, Gin Blossoms
16. Sittin' Up In My Room, Brandy
17. How Do U Want It/California Love, 2Pac
18. It's All Coming Back To Me Now, Celine Dion
19. Change The World, Eric Clapton
20. Hey Lover, LL Cool J
21. Loungin, LL Cool J
22. Insensitive, Jann Arden
23. Be My Lover, La Bouche
24. Name, Goo Goo Dolls
25. Who Will Save Your Soul, Jewel
26. Where Do You Go, No Mercy
27. I Can't Sleep Baby (If I), R. Kelly
28. Counting Blue Cars, Dishwalla
29. You Learn/You Oughta Know, Alanis Morissette
30. One Of Us, Joan Osborne
31. Wonder, Natalie Merchant
32. Not Gon' Cry, Mary J. Blige
33. Gangsta's Paradise, Coolio
34. Only You, 112 Featuring The Notorious B.I.G.
35. Down Low (Nobody Has To Know), R. Kelly
36. You're The One, SWV
37. Sweet Dreams, La Bouche
38. Before You Walk Out Of My Life/Like This And Like That, Monica
39. Breakfast At Tiffany's, Deep Blue Something
40. 1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New), Coolio
41. The World I Know, Collective Soul
42. No Diggity, BLACKstreet (Featuring Dr. Dre)
43. Anything, 3t
44. 1979, The Smashing Pumpkins
45. Diggin' On You, TLC
46. Why I Love You So Much/Ain't Nobody, Monica
47. Kissin' You, Total
48. Count On Me, Whitney Houston and Cece Winans
49. Fantasy, Mariah Carey
50. Time, Hootie and The Blowfish
51. You'll See, Madonna
52. Last Night, Az Yet
53. Mouth, Merril Bainbridge
54. The Earth, The Sun, The Rain, Color Me Badd
55. All The Things (Your Man Won't Do), Joe
56. Wonderwall, Oasis
57. Woo-hah!! Got You All In Check/Everything Remains Raw, Busta Rhymes
58. Tell Me, Groove Theory
59. Elevators (Me and You), Outkast
60. Hook, Blues Traveler
61. Doin It, LL Cool J
62. Fastlove, George Michael
63. Touch Me Tease Me, Case Featuring Foxxy Brown
64. Tonite's Tha Night, Kris Kross
65. Children, Robert Miles
66. Theme From Mission: Impossible, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen
67. Closer To Free, Bodeans
68. Just A Girl, No Doubt
69. If Your Girl Only Knew, Aaliyah
70. Lady, D'angelo
71. Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First), John Mellencamp
72. Pony, Ginuwine
73. Nobody, Keith Sweat
74. Old Man and Me (When I Get To Heaven), Hootie and The Blowfish
75. If It Makes You Happy, Sheryl Crow
76. As I Lay Me Down, Sophie B. Hawkins
77. Keep On, Keepin' On, Mc Lyte
78. Jealousy, Natalie Merchant
79. I Want To Come Over, Melissa Etheridge
80. Who Do U Love, Deborah Cox
81. Un-Break My Heart, Toni Braxton
82. This Is Your Night, Amber
83. You Remind Me Of Something, R. Kelly
84. Runaway, Janet Jackson
85. Set U Free, Planet Soul
86. Hit Me Off, New Edition
87. No One Else, Total
88. My Boo, Ghost Town Dj's
89. Get Money, Junior M.A.F.I.A.
90. That Girl, Maxi Priest Featuring Shaggy
91. Po Pimp, Do Or Die
92. Until It Sleeps, Metallica
93. Hay, Crucial Conflict
94. Beautiful Life, Ace Of Base
95. Back For Good, Take That
96. I Got Id/Long Road, Pearl Jam
97. Soon As I Get Home, Faith Evans
98. Macarena, Los Del Rio
99. Only Wanna Be With You, Hootie and The Blowfish
100. Don't Cry, Seal

Wow, I'm bad at blogging consistently.

Well, here we are nearly a month and a half since my last post. There are reasons why past blogs have gone defunct and you, my likely-non-existent-blog-readers, have just caught a glimpse of one. My complete inability to keep up with writing and posting on a regular basis.

Here are some interesting things that have occurred since my last post, a measely copy-and-paste number, back on September 12th:

Luke and I had our first anniversary. Someone told me that once you've reached one year you are no longer a "newlywed." Yet, I still do not feel wise in the ways of marriage, especially when compared to mine and Luke's parents, married 51 and 32 (? I think 32) years respectively. We celebrated with a lovely dinner at W.A. Frost. The night ended strangely, however, when a man wearing a t-shirt and jeans and carrying a sleeping kid in PJ's, his (presumably) wife and other child (also wearing pajamas and crying lustily) asked us first if we knew how to get to Stillwater without taking the freeway (we did not) as he and his family needed to walk there, then if we could give them a ride to Stillwater for $20. We declined. I felt really bad later, because there were children and it was a chilly night (September 29th), but I have a thing against letting strangers in my car or even near me when I'm getting in my car, especially at 10 o'clock at night. Later, after thinking about it some more, I really wished I had thought of the obvious: calling the non-emergency St. Paul police line (which I have in my cell phone). I think they would have reponded since there were children involved and hopefully the wee ones would have gotten out of that scary situation.

The most prominent thought that struck me with our anniversary is that I cannot believe a year has past already, and that I cannot wait for more to come. Last summer, while in the process of buying our house and settling in and planning our wedding, we kept saying to ourselves how things would slow down once we had the wedding. It didn't. But I suppose it never does. :)

So we've had a busy autumn, which is my favorite season of the year, by the way. Aside from both of us being extremely busy at work, Luke took up the new hobby of bike-riding. No, not BICYCLE riding. I'm planning on getting my motorcycle endorsement next February so we can ride off into many sunsets together. In the meantime, I've reached back to my roots and been a canning queen this fall. I put to use the extra tomatoes in my garden (bolstered by some more from the farmer's market) and put up 17 quarts of tomato juice and a dozen quarts of stewed tomatoes. Not only THAT, but my friend Lynn was generous enough to give me some of her abundant raspberry crop, which I froze immediately as I was up to my eyeballs in tomatoes at the time.

Finally, I would like to point out how awesome autumn is. No complaining here about the crisp, cool air and the beautiful colors. I think my favorite thing about fall is stomping through the dry, crunchy leaves on the sidewalks while walking Howie. So satisfying; it makes me instantly break out into smiles. So if you see a short woman with an adorable white & rust beagle stomping through leaves with a goofy grin on her face, that's me. :-)