I'm taking the easy way out today. I'm sick. I've been sick for 17 days and counting. Some days I feel like I'm turning the corner and getting better. Other days, like today, I feel like crap. So, I'm taking the easy way out. I'm not posting anything clever or profound. I'm just going to put up some more pictures of my cute baby. The end.

Picture Perfect

You know what's awesome? When people who aren't related to you love your kid as much as people who are related to you. This past weekend, Harper and I took a trip up to Cincinnati to visit all of our friends who have recently had babies. It was a great trip - but way too short. You just can't see everyone that you want to see and spend as much time as you want to spend with them when you're trying to cram it into the timeframe of a weekend. One of the highlights of the weekend was a photo shoot. I asked my friend Andrea if she would take some pictures of Harper (we need a picture to use for our Christmas cards, you know). Not only did she take pictures, but our friend Kelly - who is a professional photographer - also took some. They came out absolutely great! I am so grateful for all of our Cincinnati friends who love us and make us feel like family.

Birds on a Wire

Once again NPR has provided me with a blog post. I heard this story the other day and I think it's one of the coolest things I've heard in a long time. A Brazilian composer named Jarbas Agnelli saw a photograph in his local newspaper of birds sitting on five parallel wires. He immediately thought that the birds looked like notes on a music staff. He sat down at the piano and played what he saw. Below is a video of the photograph along with the music that came of it.

Miscelaineous Music - Entheos

I'm really excited to share some music with you today. Entheos is a great band out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Here's a link to their MySpace page and blog. They just released a new album entitled Sense. You can download it here. In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to admit that I have a selfish reason for plugging this band. Rob and I are friends with one of the band members, Alison, and we did the string tracks for the album. Recording for this project was an awesome experience. We did it in an old church that had been converted into a recording studio. I was all of 9 months pregnant with Harper so I kind of thought of it as our very first family music project. Here are a couple tracks from the album. Enjoy.

Lost:

Everything:

Colors:

Role Models

There have been a lot of celebs behaving badly in the news recently. First Serena Williams, then Kanye, then Roger Federer. By the way, why did Serena's outburst get so much more attention than Federer's? I realize that Federer's was toned down, but it was still disrespectful and still contained swearing. Anyway... it seems to me that it's getting harder and harder to find celebrities who are good role models. I know that this topic usually disintegrates into a circular discussion about whether or not celebs are inherently role models. I'm not interested in going down that road today. The bottom line is that kids (as well as a lot of adults) do look up to celebrities. My question for you is are there any good celebrity role models out there?

I'm Back

Did you miss me? Wait, don't answer that... Anyway, I'm back. Sorry for the lapse in posts. I had an overnight work retreat/conference over the weekend and I had a cold. No fun. Nothing super exciting to report about the retreat except that I won an award for my presentation - a small consolation for having to be away from my baby and husband. But, Harper and Rob seemed to have a great time without me (can you believe it?). I think they spent the entire time outside. Thank goodness for cell phones. Rob sent me pictures of their activities all weekend. Here are two of my favorite. They had a picnic breakfast in the front yard on Saturday morning. I love how her hair is totally out of control.

When I got home on Saturday afternoon, Harper really wanted nothing to do with me. She was still in Daddy mode. In fact, she was kind of a booger the rest of the evening. For instance, she whacked me in the face with a spoon and cut me right under my eye. She also peed on the floor that night instead of in her potty. Welcome home. The funny thing is that I couldn't be happier to be back.

Can You Dig it?

Here are some things I dig right now.

1. This blog is great. Very clever and thought provoking.

2. The Closer - my new favorite tv show.

3. Football season - Go Bucks!

4. This next one comes with a serious disclaimer. This video is outrageous. It's totally disgusting and yet fascinating all at the same time. I do not recommend you watch it under any circumstances. Actually, I don't really dig this video at all. Forget I mentioned it.