Intact Internal Thermometer

I went out this morning to walk the dogs and got about 10 feet and thought "this is pretty cold." I spend the next several minutes of the walk trying to decide if it was really as cold as I thought it was, or if I had become a wuss and my internal winter temperature was broken. About 1/4 the way around our block River was clearly starting to get cold, so I turned back. So we got home after a half walk essentially and I checked the temperature. It is 4 degrees, which is about what I was thinking (single digits that is). I was happy to find out that my intenal thermometer is indeed intact, and that I did not wuss out by bringing She-with-little-hair back inside. It is a beautiful morning though, sunny and crisp, with virtually no wind.

In other news... not much.

How about more music reviews?? A quick note first, I listened to a little more Grateful Dead yesterday morning and they grew on me a bit, they have a lot of throw away songs but there were one or two with a great beat and sound.

Band: Pearl Jam
Pre-Existing Knowledge: I knew that they sang "Alive" on Rockband, which is one of my favorite songs to play on there, I love the guitar solo. Also, DH said to me about a month ago that he thought I was a closet Pearl Jam fan becuase how much I liked "Alive" and because I knew all the words to the song about the motorcycle crash (which was madly popular one year at summer camp).
Opinion Now: Turns out I was a closet fan. I love tons of their songs, I like the singer, they have some interesting lyrics, and I love the guitar parts. I sort of want to buy their entire collected works for Rock Band now.

Band: Def Leppard
Pre-Existing Knowledge: Virtually none. I only know of them because they occasionally get mentioned at trivia. Oh, and they can't spell.
Opinion Now: To me, correct or incorrect, their sound is the epitome, or perhaps the archetype of "80s rock". If you had asked me to listen to them 5 years ago, I would have absolutely hated it, but Rock Band has significantly increased my ability to enjoy a wide variety of rock, and while I will not be buying their album or anything, they aren't bad.

Band: Alice in Chains
Pre-Existing Knowledge: I guess the theme of the morning is Rock Band, because my only pre-existing knowledge of this band is that they sing "Man in the Box", which is one of my favorite songs to sing and guitar at the same time on Rock Band.
Opinion Now: I do like their sound, but after listening to about 15 songs, I really feel like they are "one trick ponies". All of their songs sound the same and even share similar word and lyric choices. I have another 15 songs or so to go for them, but I don't see the pattern changing anytime soon. Its another band, like Rammstein, that is good angry music, but I would only want one or two songs of theirs on my play list.

Band: Diana and the Supremes
Pre-Existing Knoledge: I know the name, I knew that they were "classic" and that I probably knew a lot of their music, but I had no idea what it was.
Opinion Now: I recognized about 75% of the songs, this is one of the cases where I just never assigned a name to the music, a frequent problem for me. They are fine, but nothing I would seek out.