Banjo, ice penguins and little touches

I'm in Wichita for client meetings and just got back from a run through the city's "Old Town." It's a nice area, surrounded by an area you don't really want to run through at 5:45. Stayed at the brand new Courtyard, which actually managed to impress me with the little touches included in the room.

Free wireless (when will this be a cost of entry?) that started up quickly the moment I launched my browser. IPod-compatible bedside radio and a little "sounds of nature" console that you can set to "ocean," "waterfall" or "wet the bed." There's a Dunn Brothers Coffee attached, and the best thing: the newness. I'm a fan of knowing only four months of very bad things have happened in this room, as opposed to years and years. Yes, I'm one of those kinds of travelers.

Everything was great until I got back to my room and was forced to listen to the local NPR station's spring fund drive, which consisted of off-the-cuff songwriting paired with banjo playing. Horrible. And it keeps going. I'm not sure who it is that keeps finger picking measures of annoyance, but he's making me want to turn the radio off, not pledge. I think it's one of those very intelligent fund-raising tactics in which the fund raiser hopes to get donations to end the
inconvenience. How about ending the banjo?

And now, for the ice penguins. A nice Earth Day week reminder.

Back to the radio, how bout some live blogging of the lyrics? Share in the pain.

"...radio pals won't you call in today/make us a pledge/please don't delay...978-6700."

and the encore, sung to the tune of "This Land is My Land":

"...this station's your station, this station's my station, with music and news from (pause) all over our nation, the only catch is, they need your pledges...this station's here for you and me."

i'm going to turn the waterfall on again, and call to pledge the remainder of the goal.