I've been tagged...

The ABC's of Me

A. Attached or single? Attached to the best husband in zee world.

B. Best friend? Rob.

C. Cake or Pie? Cake. My mom's pumpkin chocolate chip, Cake Man Raven's red velvet, almost any homemade cake with chocolate involved

D. Day of choice? Saturday, um-hm. With my boys

E. Essential items? Bible, water (I'm always thirsty), toothbrush, music

F. Favorite color(s)? olive green and purple

G. Gummy bears or worms? bears

H. Hometown? Carmel Valley, California

I. Favorite indulgence? Sleeping in

J. January or July? January

K. Kids? One spunky, sweet little Bennett, and one on the way :)

L. Life isn't complete without? Jesus

M. Marriage date? April 17, 2004

N. Number of brothers and sisters? 1 older sister, 1 younger sister; but I also consider my cousin Jocelyn my sister (she is 7 mo.'s older than me)

O. Oranges or apples? Apples(gala/fuji) but oranges when I'm pregnant. This was Drea's answer, and it's the same for me!

P. Phobias? Something happening to my family (more of a fear, really)

Q. Quotes- Shakespeare sonnet 116 "...Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken..."

R. Reasons to smile? Time alone with Rob, all things Bennett, a good conversation with a friend, being with family, fresh flowers.

S. Season of choice? FALL!

T. Tag 5 people: Nope.

U. Unknown fact about me? I was kind of a bully (to boys) when I was little

V. Vacation of choice? Back to France and Ireland

W. Worst habit? Being lazy

X. X-ray or ultrasound? Ultrasound I guess-that's a wierd question

Y. Your favorite food? Mexican and Middle Eastern

Z. Zodiac sign? Taurus

Have You Heard of This?

Slydial.

This info. is directly from their web site:
What is it?
It's a voice message service that connects you directly to someone's voice mail.
Why?
Because you are short on time, want to avoid an awkward conversation, or you don't want to bother someone.

Does anyone else think this is completely lame? I get that we live in a technologically savvy society these days -hey, we have a blog- but come on! This seems so phony -pardon the pun-to me. Basically, you use this service if you want to look like you care, but let's be honest, you don't actually have the time for this person.

I am not a fan.

My Boys

I took some snap shots of Rob and Bennett the other day that give a little glimpse of their relationship. Bennett is a generally happy guy, but when Daddy comes home (or is off for the weekend), Bennett's good mood reaches a whole new level. On Saturdays, Rob usually gets up with him in the morning, allowing me a little more sleep; I always hear tons of giggles coming from the other side of the bedroom door.

This week Rob has been in Chicago...man do we miss him! Bennett seemed to understand that Rob was away; it helped that we dropped him off at the airport. This is the conversation we have had over and over:

Bennett: "Dad-dee?"
Me: "Daddy went on a trip."
Bennett: "Eh-pway?"
Me: "That's right, he went on the airplane."
Bennett: (doing the sign for airplane) "Ya."
Bennett: "Ah-wu-woo!!!"
Me: "Daddy loves you too, Buddy."

I gotta love my boys.

Thank you for the congratulations on baby number 2! I am in my 10th week, and my tentative (long story) due date is February 19th, Michaela B.'s birthday. I am feeling strangely well, just a little tired and a little fat (yep, already). We will be sure to give updates on the little one as we have them. We are really excited to meet our fourth family member, and to see Bennett as a big brother. They will be 2 years and 3 months apart-perfect!

Doyle Springs

This past week we went up to the Thomases cabin in the sierras; just north of the little town Springville, this place is beautiful. We had an incredibly relaxing and enjoyable vacation with our friends. It was wonderful to get away, spend some time outside, and just hang out with great friends. There were 8 of us: 4 adults, and 4 adorable little boys. We played, swam, slept, hiked, ate, talked, and laughed. We really needed a vacation, and our families have so much fun together! Thank you to Jake and Stace for sharing their very special place with us. Here are some memories:

Saving my office, one computer at a time!

Allow me to introduce the most vital member of my office team: Pandora. If I had to sum up Pandora in one word it would be: scrumtralecent. If I had to sum up Pandora in 4 words they would be: selflessly devoted to me. There is no one in our office who would go to the lengths that Pandora does to assure that I have a stress-free work environment. Pandora reaches to the ends of the Earth, finding fresh new music for me. Never, ever does Pandora grow weary; never, ever does Pandora complain; never, ever does Pandora stop.

********NERD ALERT NERD ALERT NERD ALERT********
********What your about to read has been known to ********
********contain high amounts of nerdiness********



Okay, so what's Pandora and why is it so great? Well, my friends, I'm about to drop some serious knowledge on all y'all. Pandora is internet radio based on the Music Genome Project. Like most other internet radio stations and programs like iTunes, Pandora is a suggestive system. You tell it an artist or song you like and it will play music it believes you will like. How it arrives at these decisions is what makes Pandora stand head and shoulders above the rest.

iTunes, Yahoo Radio, Amazon, and the rest all make suggestions based on what other listeners listen to/bought. Say you preordered Hannah Montana's new album and a reissue of the original NKOTB album, these programs will suggest Hannah (that's right, we're on a first name basis,) to someone who buys NKOTB.

Pandora is quite different. Rather than comparing trends, Pandora relies on the Music Genome Project. In short, this project is an attempt to distill the essence of music. Not in some new-aged essence of a rainbow way. The Project has defined over 400 musical attributes (tonality, rhythmic pulse, instrumentation) and created an intense mathematical algorithm to organize them all. It will make obvious connections, say the Cardigans, No Doubt, and Lily Allen. How about Club 8? Who? Coldplay? What (okay, maybe Mr. Martin does sound a wee bit like a girl at time)? Not only does the algorithm take into account musical characteristics, it will also discern lyrical content.

How are these attributes discerned, you ask. Great question. At this time, Pandora employs listeners to classify music. They will generally give each new song 20-30 minutes and create a laundry list of characteristics with which to categorize the music. The next step, however, is to create a software system that will analyze digital music and create these lists themselves. Efforts to this end are based largely on the MP3 codec (I could wax on for days on this topic, I'll spare you my ultra-nerd diatribe), which uses programs to determine what parts of a music file you can live without.

The main problem with comparative systems is: they cannot find you anything new. If no one who bought the Tom Waits also bought Serge Gainsbourg, you'd have no idea that they're related. Pandora picks music based on music.

Well, thanks for staying with me. I'll make the next one more enjoyable for the non-nerds out there. Here's a little something for your effort: Odontophobia is the fear of teeth.

A Little Something

Hi friends and family. I have been lagging on the blog front because it seems like every entry that I write is exactly the same lately. A little blurb followed by 10,000 pictures of Bennett. I can't help it, I just think he is so cute, and well, I don't have anything interesting to say :). So, I guess that was my blurb, and the pictures will follow. I promise to come up with something more inspired soon...or someday! These pics. were taken a few Saturdays ago when we went downtown to check out an art festival, and then went out for a special dinner.

There was a little jazz trio playing, so we enjoyed the music
for a bit; Bennett had a special connection with the drummer.

There was a great community garden in the middle of downtown: beautiful!

We ended our weekend with a lovely dinner. The restaurant was
a bit much for a nineteen month old; he did well until he had to...well...



Self photo:

"Cheers!"