Like Father, Like Son

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...It's Finn!

Last night Bennett was having tummy time with the dogs. They are still a little freaked out by him, so we put him down and let the dogs kind of explore him a bit. So far so good- all was going well until someone pulled up outside, then this happened:
Yikes! I must just say that both dogs expertly avoided Bennett!

Could my cat be mad at me?

I got my cat, Ponch, in 2000 when I was in law school. He was not an only cat, as I got John at the same time. Unfortunately, John went MIA during the great storm of December 2007, and Ponch has not dealt with that loss well. Ponch has had a rough life for a spoiled kitty. He used to have me all to himself. Then I packed him up and moved him from sunny Las Vegas to rainy Washington. This did not make him happy at all, and, to add insult to injury, at the same time poor Ponch had to compete for my attention with a human male. This is obviously Nick. And, not only did Nick take me away, he also took Ponch's spot on the bed.

Since that time, Ponch has had to deal with a steady stream of intruders: first we got Atticus, the adorable 9 lb puppy who wanted a kitty playmate. Atticus grew to be 90 lbs, but still wanted a kitty playmate. Ponch has made it resoundingly clear over the past five years that he wants nothing to do with a 90 lb. lab. Then we got Finn, who was smaller than Atticus (well, shorter at least), but what he lacked in size, he made up for with his insitance that Ponch be his playmate, no matter Ponch's feelings on the matter. Finally, our house has traditionally been the drop-off point for all sorts of four legged houseguests (I guess people have always figured what's one more), most of which are not used to treating cats with the respect and deference they deserve. Ponch does not enjoy our houseguests.

If our other four legged friends have gotten Ponch's nose out of joint, then the addition of Bennett, our new two-legged friend, has him downright angry. I cannot claim to be surprised by Ponch's feelings. What has surprised me is that Ponch is freakishly protective of the baby- it's me who he has decided to grace with his anger. Here are just a few ways that Ponch has decided to let me know in no uncertain terms that he is not happy with me:

- Ponch's new favorite toys are bottle nipples. He takes them out of the sink, off the counter, and even off of the bottle dryer. He does this and drops them in defiance in front of me. He also likes to play with the Dr. Brown bottle inserts.
- Ponch often waits to do this until I am breastfeeding the baby or otherwise engaged in such a way that I am stuck on the couch and helpless to discipline him to do his misdeeds. Then he laughs (OK, I made that last part up).
- He also like to come and sit on my computer keyboard and stare at me....again, this is always when I am in no position to kick him off.
- Ponch's new favorite comfort zones are anywhere I want to put the baby- the crib, the co-sleeper, the bouncy chair. Wherever I plan to put the baby next.
- The other day, Ponch came into the bathroom where I was getting ready, looked at me, meowed, and proceeded to pee on the bathroom rug and shower curtain.
- He has also begun projectile vomiting, but only when he is up high and gets the best arc for the vomit.

Ponch has also become decidedly more aggressive with our friends when they come over (not just our friend Josh, who he has always hated). Maybe he thinks they're going to stay? At least the dogs still like me.

I wonder who I should vote for?

More pictures...just because

Who is that cute baby?

It's been a long, hard, exhausting, yet exiting, three weeks and four days (but who's counting?) Babies take a lot of work, a lot more work than I've ever given new moms credit for, and much of that work is pretty monotonous (eating and crapping and eating and crapping), but it's completely worth it! I was blessed with a baby with lots of "personality," which means he parties all night instead of sleeping (takes after his mom), is defiant just to be defiant (takes after his dad), and is super gassy (again, takes after dad). We have been learning a lot and wouldn't trade a second for anything, but we did appreciate our first night off tonight (Nick and Norah's Infinate Playlist and dinner at a really nice restaurant), leaving Bennett to be fussy for Nick's folks. I also had my first experience with the pump and dump- I was too paranoid to feed the baby after a glass of wine and a glass of Champagne (back in the day I called that breakfast- now, it's the most alcohol I've had at one sitting in almost a year). It's definately a new kind of life. Anyway, enough of the deatils, you all want to see pictures, so without further ado, here are some pictures from the past few weeks. I may be biased, but I think he's pretty cute!

NICK PASSED THE BAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I have tons of good intentions of posting all the adorable pictures of Bennett that we have been taking over the past few weeks, but I had to take a minute and post our good news! In case something about the title is not clear, Nick got his bar results today and he passed! Not that there was any doubt in my mind, but needless to say someone in our house was on pins and needles all week!

Stay tuned for Bennett pics, hopefully today or tomorrow! Poor kid with two lawyer parents!

Nonna and Bubba Stop by St. Joes

Nonna and Bubba stop by last night to see their new grandson Bennett.

Welcome Bennett Patrick Andrews!

This is Nick updating Jen's blog. Bennett was born today Sept. 16th, 2008, shortly after noon 12:04p.m. to be exact. Bennett was 9lbs 5oz and 23inchs long. Jen did great and I could not be more proud of her.

Ask and you shall receive....

I have had numerous requests for a pregnancy picture...by those of you curious about my girth and swelling, or else you're just plain cruel! Here's a picture Nick took of me today in the baby's room. Clearly, we need to put stuff on the walls still. Please be forgiving and remember I am 38 weeks pregnant and swollen everywhere!

I also thought I'd post this- I'm not sure if it's cute or creepy:

Giving birth to Joe Dirt

So, Nick wants me to post at least one last time prior to birthing this monster, so I will. I am to the point where I am so uncomfortable, the thought of two more days is horrible, and the thought of two more weeks is unfathomable. Each day I seem to lose (semi)permanent feeling in another digit - totally bizarre.

Anyway, we had an ultrasound last Thursday and the radiologist said given the size and development of the baby (8lbs-ish and totally developed- functioning, breathing and the like), she would put our due date at Sept. 4 - that's just four short days away. I'm actually OK with that because 1) the very important gear I ordered should be arriving via UPS on Tuesday or Wednesday, and 2) I need just a couple more days at work to clear off my desk to the point where I am comfortable abandoning my co-workers for 3 months.

Also at our ultrasound we of course saw the baby again. I'm with a big HMO, so no fancy 3D pictures for me! We were kind of expecting to "see" the baby- you know, see what he looks like, but that was not the case. Our ultrasound tech was able to point out the short little hairs on top of his head (hello, heartburn)! But wait, then she pointed out the longer hairs on the back of his head....What? Short on the top, long in the back? Could it be? Could our sweet, precious baby boy be an 80s throw-back with a mullett? But of course! This goes along with the other messages karma has been sending me throughout my pregnancy...make fun of cankles? You're sure to get them by the end of your pregnancy. Brag about how easy your pregancy is and how lucky you are? The last month is sure to be a nightmare. Finally, set mulletsgalore.com as your favortie website 10 whole years ago and give birth to Joe Dirt! Oh well.

My Big Fat Irish Baby

Yikes! I went to the doctor early last week, right at my 34 week mark, and measured 38 centimeters! This is no typo, and if you don't know what this means, at 34 weeks I should be measuring between 32 and 36 inches. The doctor was dead silent for a moment and then asked me if there were lots of big babies in my family. Great.

In other news about how big my stomach is, at my shower last weekend my adorable 7 year old niece guessed my belly to be double the size it actually is! Thanks, Olivia!

So, what do you think? Will the baby be early, or late, or on time? My due date is September 17, which seems like a lifetime away...Vote in the poll or leave your comments here!

Lyle Lovett- still in my top five, ten years later!

So, anybody close to my age has seen the Friend's episode with the "Top 5." If you lived under a rock in the late 1990s, I'll summarize: Our friends at Central Perk each make a list of their "Top 5," a list of celebrities they could sleep with guilt free should the occasion arise; a sort of get-out-of-trouble-free card. I think this episode came out my junior year of college. Seeing that this was Cedar City, Utah (where there is really nothing much to do besides watch Friends on a Thursday night), and pretty much none of us (OK, except Mary), were actually in a relationship, we did what only made sense at the time: we each made our own Top 5 list. This was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that I included Lyle Lovett in my Top 5. Nobody could get it (except perhaps Julia Roberts), and I was the subject of relentless teasing. But I stood by my choice then, and I stand by it now.

Last night Nick and I went to the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery in Woodinville, Washington for the Lyle Lovett concert. I am a huge fan (clearly) and I feel that I would be doing my readers (even the world) a disservice should I not just take a moment to stump for the wonderful Lyle Lovett. I am not really a fan of country music. However, Lyle is not really a "country" musician. I would say that primarily he is a song writer - and he writes beautiful songs. He is a master with weaving in small, intimate deatils and painting a vivid picture of whatever he may be singing about. He does this in his folk songs, gospel songs, jazz songs, and yes, even his country songs. And Lyle seems to have a sort of love affair with the Northwest. He comes at least once a year, and Nick and I go see him every couple of years (this was number 4). He was there with (part of) his Large Band (It's not Big, It's Large), although unfortunately Francine, my favorite member of his Large Band, was not present.

We had a really good time. Besides Lyle, this may have had something to do with the fact that it was our first outing since the bar exam, so really, our first stress-free outing probably since we went to Italy in March. It may also have something to do with the fact that the weather was incredible- a little cloudy, but no rain and about 70 degrees and the sun didn't set until after 9 pm. It also probably had something to do with the venue- Chateau Ste. Michelle was by far the best venue I have ever been to for a concert. Our general admission seats were awesome, and there's nothing more intimate than enjoying a concert on a blanket, with some low-backed chairs, a Costco chicken, some Dubliner cheese, and wine from the winery 20 feet away (none for me). I could probably see anybody at that venue and still enjoy it, but the fact that it was Lyle made it so much better. And just so I don't break my streak of talking about the baby on every post, I will add that he gave his 2 thumbs up as well. He danced away almost the whole concert and was clearly overjoyed at the experience, judging by the state of my ribs.

So, hopefully I have completed my mission, and inspired you to listen to at least one Lyle Lovett song. Might I suggest Sonia? It's the first LL song I ever heard (freshman year of college, introduced by my really-into-music friend Jimi), and still my favorite.

Baby classes

So, I realize that this blog is quickly morphing into "all baby, all the time," but that's pretty much what our lives are morphing into (except for that pesky bar exam thingy). So, this holiday weekend Nick tore himself away from secured transactions and limited partnerships to spend a relaxing 5th of July taking a break from his studies....at a birthing class.

This is the second full day of classes we have taken the first was a marathon a few weeks ago that included the informative Newborn Prep, the eye-opening Breast Feeding Prep, and the I-hope we-never-have-to-use Infant Safety/CPR. Child Birth class was eye opening to say the least. We learned A LOT. Maybe too much. There really were things I just didn't want to know and more things I definitely just didn't want to see. My theory is that by the time the baby comes, I'll be so ready to not be pregnant anymore, I won't care how he comes out! So here is my top three list of things I wish I hadn't seen:

1. The number one thing I could have died without ever seeing is the "birth" of the placenta. I do not plan to watch mine- why would I want to watch someone else deliver their placenta? The placenta is disgusting. And huge. And while I know it serves an essential biological purpose for the well being of the baby, really? A big, meaty, throbbing purple thing? No thank you.

2. We also watched a video- a montage if you will - of women in the mid-stages of natural birth. The sounds coming from many of these women were unnatural. For a while, I thought I was watching video of the psych ward. Really. Makes an epidural much more attractive, and also illustrates why we will not be videotaping the birth!

3. The other thing I did not need to see is my instructor demonstrating Kegel exercises. Can you even see anything? No. So please don't point towards that general direction. (No disrespect meant towards our instructor- who was awesome- it was just SO much to take in).

Baby classes came and went so quickly- I hope we remember everything when the baby comes (maybe not everything).

Baby Registry

One of the most exciting moments in wedding planning is when you and your future spouse go and register for gifts. There is nothing cooler than going to Macy's, getting that little gun, and going gangbusters on all the stuff you need, want, and would never, ever buy for yourselves. Some people think registries are tacky- a big gift grab telling people what to get you. I do not agree- registries are a practical way for the gift giver to ensure that their gift will be wanted, appreciated and used. I am always a fan of giving gifts from a registry, because if the bride and groom want a toaster, they may want the red Kitchen Aid toaster, not the metal style toaster I would pick out from Target. Also, gift registries put all the guests in sync- even though I don't know your Aunt Myrtle, I can see that she purchased 4 of your chosen wine goblets, and I can supplement that with the remaining 4 wine goblets, and you will have the desired set of 8 wine goblets. Brilliant.

Registering for baby gifts is the antithesis of a wedding registry. There is nothing more stressful, anxiety ridden, and confidence shattering than walking into a Babies R Us and recognizing just how inadequate you are- realizing that you will be a horrible parent because you don't know an infant car seat from a convertible car seat, or that you should get a "cool mist" humidifier, or that you should make sure you can't fit a soda can through the slots on a crib. This is what we went through a few weeks ago when we were stupid and naive enough to walk blind into a Babies R Us. On a Saturday. At 2:00 p.m.

I was excited to go to Babies R Us, waiting to duplicate to pure exhilaration of the wedding registry. This was not to be the case. Instead, we entered an unknown jungle of pregnant woman, reluctant men, infants, and aisles and aisles of items of god-knows-what; but apparently we needed one of each. After several misguided attempts on my part to figure out 1) what we needed and 2) what had the highest safety ratings, Nick assuaged my anxiety by taking the gun away and starting to shoot: he paid no attention to what he was shooting. I pointed, he shot. He shot items that were cool, items that we wanted, and items that we would never, ever buy for ourselves. For a brief moment we had matched the pure high of the wedding registry. For one moment (OK, about 30 minutes) we didn't think about safety ratings, prices or necessity. For
one moment we were free.

We left the Babies R Us, satisfied that we had completed our mission, warm from our victory. We celebrated the day with some drinks (Virgin Pina Colada for me) with friends in Seattle.

The next day I looked at our online registry, and changed every single thing.

Dreams

Since I've been pregnant I've had a lot of funky dreams. I don't know if I am having more than usual, or if they are just more vivid and memorable, or if I am simply remembering them because I wake up four times a night to use the bathroom.

When I was first pregnant, I started having what I'll call the "party" dreams. These dreams all were about good times and living it up. I'm pretty sure these dreams were a manifestation of the concerns I was having on how my life would soon be changing. More recently, I have moved on to the "fear" dreams. These dreams are horrific, and illustrate the subconscious concerns I am obviously having involving child birth, my safety, and the baby's safety. I don't talk about these dreams because they are completely disturbing and they make me wish I hadn't watched so many horror movies in the past, and that I haven't read so many horrible police and CPS reports.

Last night I had a new kind of dream. I am referring to this type of dream as the "absurdist" dream. I hope I have graduated from "fear" to "absurdist" permanently because it was pretty damn funny. Some background: Nick catches a lot of salmon, and he smokes a lot of salmon. He is famous in three counties and four states for his wonderful smoked salmon recipes. He has an old "L'il Chief" smoker he bought from some guy on Craig's List for $20. Lately, Nick has been looking at upgrading his smoker (did I mention I hate smoked fish and the smell of smoking the fish?), and last night he showed me the $250 smoker on the Cabela's website that he would like to procure. Clearly, given the state of things, we will probably not be spending $250 on a smoker anytime soon.

So that is the background to the dream I had last night. (This will be much funnier to those who know us both).

In my dream, I walked into our non-existent garage and Nick was in there packing up our baby mattress and crib (we just got one last week). I asked him what he was doing, and he told me, quite matter of factly, that a guy on Craig's List needed a crib and mattress, and he was going to trade ours for a new smoker. I asked him calmly if he was crazy, told him that we needed the crib, and where the heck would we put the baby? He said "Don't worry, this guy has an old twin mattress he's also giving me; we'll just put the baby on that." Just then the Craig's List guy showed up with the smoker and a mattress: I don't know who Craig's List guy was supposed to be: he was very skinny and hunched over with unwashed hair and an oversized coat. The mattress he dragged in with him was burned out, stained, and just plain nasty. I told Nick I would never put a baby on that thing and he again said, "Don't worry, my dad is going to help me repair it with old sheets."

It was at that moment that I woke up (because I needed to go to the bathroom). When I told Nick he simply relied "You have issues" (which of course I do).

Let's hear it for more absurd dreams!

Graduating from law school...twice!

Nick graduated from law school on May 17th at Safeco Field. I know this was his weekend, but I couldn't help but be just a little proud of my accomplishment: I have now graduated from law school not once, but twice. Besides my little known law school graduation in 2002, it is apparently even more revered to survive three years as a "law school widow." This was a theme not only in the speeches given by the speakers, but in the personal congratulations we received. Apparently the people "congratulating" me were not aware that I have been practicing law myself for almost 6 years now, and, were not aware of the little known secret that the only thing worse than being the spouse of a law student is being the spouse of a lawyer (especially the first few years of practice).

So, that being said, congratulations to Nick, for getting through the nightmare of law school with (relative) grace and (inappropriate) humor, and for surviving living in a home with me through my first years of practice (affectionately dubbed "the alcoholic years"). Also please pray for me, as Nick begins studying for the bar exam and I am seven months pregnant- I'm not yet sure which of us will be more hormonal.

Why I love summers in Washington....

"You can love your dog, just don't love your dog." Janeane Garofalo...

Need I say more?

Results are in!

Despite the vote giving a slight edge today for baby girl Andrews, today our ultrasound showed us definitively that it is, in fact, baby boy Andrews gestating in my womb. All you haters can just pay up!

The ultrasound was awesome- we saw the fully formed spine, heart, brain, stomach, bladder, arms, legs, and even the face! The picture in the ultrasound doesn't do him justice, but it is apparently of his face, skull, and eye socket. It's not a very flattering picture, but it's the best we can do right now...

At any rate, thanks for all the votes and comments- that was fun! Hopefully I'll be back to posting soon.

Vote Vote Vote!

In honor of the Pennsylvania primary, and with a scant 8 days left until we (hopefully) find out the gender of our spawn, I thought I would post a poll of our own. My mother and Nick, as well as most of the people at work, are sure we're having a boy. My father and grandmother are equally sure it's a girl....As for me, all I care is that it's one or the other. Regardless, things are clearly set in place today, we're just hoping that he or she will make an appearance for the ultrasound person!

So, what do you think? Let me know!

Is that truffle in your pocket?

Well, I am finally posting after being back from Italy for three weeks. The trip was incredible- the only flaw was that it was too short! The jet lag was a little harder on me than it would usually be- the time change made me slightly nauseas – little Alf (alien life form) was quite confused by everything! I am happy to report, though, that now that I am well into my second trimester, Alf seems to be no longer trying to kill me!

Anyway, back to the trip: we had a blast exploring the hill towns of Umbria, Tuscany, and Rome. Nick’s inner Mario Andretti came out on the Autostrada, and he averaged about 160 km/hr. We saw real live Italian prostitutes- not just in Rome, but just on the side of the road in Umbria, right alongside the truffle hunters. Very random (this from the girl from Vegas)! I fared as well as could be expected without wine- Nick actually drank enough for him, me, and the baby. I also would like to say we saved a lot of money without me drinking, but since wine is cheaper than water in Italy, this would not be true.

Since being back, everyone asks us what our favorite part of the trip was, and I really can’t say. We really enjoyed the hill towns of Orvieto and Civita- not much to do in Civita, but it’s this incredible medieval town that’s built into a mountain. We spent a day visiting the Uffizi and the Academy in Florence- and because Nick was so well behaved at the art galleries, I granted him one day of wine tasting through the Chianti region. It was fun for me even though I couldn’t drink. Nick ignored all my really valid arguments as to why it’s a bad idea to purchase wine and pack it in our suitcases and we managed to get 7 bottles of wonderful Italian wines (all red!) back home without incident.

Everywhere we went we met wonderful people from all around the world. The first place we stayed, Locanda Rosati in Orvieto, was run by the exuberant Jean Pierro. We ate dinner family style on the grounds both nights we stayed, enjoying conversation with people from Holland, Australia, Italy, London, and yes, even Seattle.

In San Gamignano- the Disneyland of Italy- we got some much needed practice on our English skills. In the smaller hill towns, there are not as many English speakers, which is actually kind of nice. However, we did enjoy San Gimignano, and, as our agritourismo was a scant 2 kilometers away, we went into town for dinner on four occasions. San Gimignano at night is lovely, and the food was tremendous and quite inexpensive compared to the larger cities. The truffle gnocchi I had was so good that I am thinking I can never have it here again- certainly not the kind from the package that I make!

After leaving Locanda Rosati, I thought nothing could compare – then we checked into our room at Casanova di Pescille. By room I mean “apartment”. This place was fabulous, and we were the first guests of the seasons. This agritourismo was run by Roberto, whose family had owned the land since the sixteenth century. He, and his dog, Ettere, were quite friendly and welcoming. We loved the agritourismos and wouldn’t want to do it any other way. I am not a huge bed and breakfast fan (they’re always kind of creepy and remind me of being at somebody’s grandmother’s house), and I was worried agritourismos would be similarly creepy. This couldn’t have been further from the truth – We loved that where we stayed produced 60% of what they consumed, and the people were so friendly without being overbearing. In fact, upon returning home, Nick has made it his life’s goal that we will soon begin producing 60% of what we consumer. I told him if we could live on tomatoes, weirdly small corn husks, raspberries, and lettuce, we will be good to go. Oh, and rosemary in the winter. I won’t bore you any more with details- I could go on for days. I will just leave you with a few thoughts:

1) Europeans hate Americans for a reason: most are loud, obnoxious, demanding, and closed to change or differences;

2) Europeans LOVE Barrack Obama (except the Dutch, who inexplicably think that he will close our borders);

3) The Dutch are obsessed with Natalie Holloway, are sure Joran Vandersloot killed her, and want him out of their country;

4) The dollar is very, very weak, and Italians do not like this, as most of their tourists are American, German, or Japanese, but Americans are the only tourists who buy things.

5) The Japanese are almost universally hated by Europeans (hey, I’m just the messenger), as are the Germans. Notice that these groups go hand in hand with the highest number of tourists. I am assuming that Americans also fall into this group, but our new friends were too nice to tell us that.

6) Italians appreciate it when you at least try to speak the language, even if they laugh at your pronunciation.

7) I definitely regret not going to the Cinque Terre. Maybe on our next trip. Although, we would like to go to southern Italy too (but not until the dollar is better!)

Writer's Strike

We leave for Italy Thursday, and have been busy getting ready for that. I've also been dead exhausted and have had morning sickness in the form of all-day dry-heaving! Good times. After we get back, I'll start posting pictures, and well, maybe just start posting something worth reading.

Who has time for this?

Really? All of you super women out there, I'd really like to know! I started (OK re-started) this thing a few weeks ago with every intention of delivering weekly, ne, bi-weekly, witty, intelligent musings of my life on the Olympic Peninsula...I don't even have pictures up yet, and in my last two (of a scant three) postings I have just talked about me being a slacker...


Oh well. We are busy gearing up for Italy- we leave in less then two weeks, and I am doing a bunch of stuff last minute because we kind of changed some plans (and simply slacked on planning). Here's to hoping my International Driver's Permit and new credit card with no foreign exchanges fees get here by March 12! Cheers!

Already slacking!

Even though we've had a busy three day weekend, I suppose I can't let it pass without posting something! We've been busy because we found a house we like, and we've been looking at it, crunching numbers, figuring out what we can sell our house for, and that sort of thing ...anyway, I am hoping for a more substantive post later this week, but until then, here's a picture of the house we're looking at...the BIG selling point for me is the water view!

It's only been 9 months since my last post and I'm already posting again!

So, it's been 9 months since my last post. Certainly my life is not so boring to have nothing to post? Anyway, I'm trying to get up and going again so I will start by doing what MHN did: I shuffled the songs in my iPod and here are the first ten that come up:

1. "Momentum" by Aimee Mann from the Magnolia soundtrack

Great song from a great album. Of course, the album is very Aimee Mann-centric, so if you're not depressed when you start it, you will be by the end! Of course, this album also gets props for reminding me of Tom Cruise in the movie, where "his character" is a crazy motivational speaker (nothing like real life).

2. "I like It" by The Dixie Chicks from Taking the Long Way

What can I say? I heart my Chicks! They are so sassy and this is their best album EVER...especially if you've seen Shut Up and Sing, one of the best documentaries about sassy songstresses ever! (If you live in a bubble, you may not know that the Chicks were ostracized, personally attacked and even threatened by crazy rednecks and Toby Keith when they exercised their right to free speech at a concert in England and verbalized displeasure over President Bush's foreign policies).

3. "Grace is Gone" by Dave Mathews Band from The Lillywhite Sessions

I don't think I could do a shuffle of my 15,000 songs without a DMD song coming up. This has nothing to do with the song, but is my favorite DMB story. When my husband and I were dating, he took me back to Charlottesville, Virginia to stay with his grandparents in their modest home (OK, the home was actually an estate with a name -Woodlawn- was built by the builder of Montecello, and was on 100 acres). For a girl born, raised, schooled, and settled in the west, a home with a name is a big deal. Anyway, we're at dinner, and Grandpa Jim says "They sold the old Klugge estate to some sort of musician or something. Have you kids hear of this Dave Mathews fellow? Apparently he must be pretty good to be able to afford the Klugge property."

4. "Riga Girls" by the Weepies from Say I am You

I am not a huge music person. I enjoy it, and there's a lot of music I like, but I'm not one of those people who "discover" bands. I leave that for my cooler friends, and then steal their finds. Well, my very cool old friend KT from college always makes me the best mix CDs with new and interesting artists. My 30th birthday CD, appropriately entitled "30, Flirty, and Fabulous" included a great song from The Weepies that made me go out and buy the album right away (OK, I got on itunes and downloaded it).

5. "Lesson 6d" from disc 2 of Italian

We're going to Italy for 10 days in March. We're really excited because it's kind of a last hurrah, before he gradates from law school in May and we try to live more grown up lives. For reals. So I was at Border's last month going through the bargain bin (of course) and got a Fodor's guide book, language supplement, and six CD language lesson for $10. That's right, folks, I said $10! So, I thought, "Hey, I'm great with languages (or not), I'll learn Italian before I go to Italy in 8 long weeks." Let's just day I'm on lesson 3 of 35 and leave it at that.

6. "Delia's Gone" by Johnny Cash from American Recordings

There are a lot of songs on my iPod that I did not put there. Last spring, Finn, our youngest, ate Nick's iPod after taking it out of his zipped up back pack. (Nick stayed surprisingly calm). So, being the wonderful wife that I am, lent Nick my iPod for Mancation 2007, yet another summer trip to Alaska. Upon his return, I noticed that my iPod had about triple the songs on it. I have since taken off many of the songs, including most of the TuPac, but left the Johnny Cash. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a man in black.

7. "Sharing Song" by Jack Johnson from the Curious George soundtrack

I am actually not a huge Jack Johnson fan- I don't hate him, just rather indifferent. So why then do I own not one, but 2 Jack Johnson albums? That would be be because Nick can never remember that I am not a huge JJ fan, and keeps buying them for me. :)

8. "So Far Away" by The Dire Straits from Sultans of Swing, disc 1

I love the Dire Staits, and this little ditty is often over-looked for the equally romantic (if you like hookers) Romeo and Juliet.

9. "Burlesque de Don Quixote", from Sighs of Love for Dulcinea

I am not cultured enough to put this on my iPod. It is part of Nick's classical music repertiore that he put on my iPod. He doesn't think it's strange that he puts this lovely classical music piece next to Kanye. Ya.

10. "Better" by Regina Spektor from Begin to Hope

This whole album is fabulous. Besides the fact that it's just plain good, it evokes good memories of a really fun trip to Oregon wine country we took last January.

I am actually surprised that more embarrassing songs did not come up. I easily could have had to list some kickin' Air Supply or even "Barbie Girl" by Aqua (it's in my work-out mix). So, hopefully I will be blogging more, so check back soon!