The best kind of gifts

I got home last night fairly late after a few days spent down in Oregon for work. Sam was already in bed but still awake. I went in to her room to give her a hug and she presented me with an envelope full of "treasures" that she had collected for me. She was so excited about them she could hardly sit still!

I opened the envelope up and this is what I found:

Two drawings (one by Sam, one by her friend Kylie), a piece of plastic string or twine, and a broken off bolt and washer. Missi told me later that Sam had found the bolt and washer and had been carrying it around all day waiting to give it to me.




Here are all the treasures laid out and the Hello Kitty envelope that they were in.


This is one of the drawings I received. Notice all the hearts - hearts are a big deal to Sam right now.


The other drawing. Again, notice that there are over 10 hearts in this drawing. Do you see a theme developing?


The string and bolt/washer I received.

Music I'm currently listening to...

I love music. I'm not a musician, although I did play saxophone and drums in middle school band and I've got a guitar gathering dust in the garage (doesn't really qualify me as a musician, does it?). I've often thought that in another life it would've been fun to be a music critic or work for a record label. Going to live music concerts is one of Missi and my favorite date activities. I usually have music of some type going - whether it is soft, instrumental piano music while I work, or music playing off the computer while I work around the house or cook breakfast on a Saturday morning. If you don't know about it yet, you should definitely check out Pandora. This is a great service that allows you to enter any artist you enjoy and then Pandora will find other artists with similar sounds. It's a great way to learn about new artists and listen to them before buying their entire album.

Besides Pandora, here are a few of the artists I've been listening to lately:

Blind Pilot

I first heard about Blind Pilot when I was back in law school and someone sent around an email to the student body saying, "Check out my friend's band called Blind Pilot." I listened to a few songs on their MySpace page, didn't think too much about it, and totally forgot about them. Fast forward to about 6 weeks ago, when my coworker invited me to go to their concert. Missi and I went to The Triple Door, had front row seats, and were completely mesmorized by what we heard. Blind Pilot hails from Astoria, Oregon and is technically only a two-piece, but they travel with a six-piece band backing them. Plus, I think it's pretty cool that the band actually toured up and down the West Coast by bike. That's right...they rode their bicycles, hauling all their gear behind them. There is even a documentary in the works called "We are the Tide" (the name of one of my favorite BP songs) that should come out later this year. I cannot recommend this band highly enough.

Here is Blind Pilot's MySpace page.

Here is Blind Pilot's blog.

You can also find quite a few videos of them on Youtube, just search under "Blind Pilot"


The Decemberists

These days, The Decemberists are really well-known. They are an indie rock band from Portland who often base most of their songs on some type of historical story or myth. For example, the title track from their album "The Crane Wife" was based on a Japanese folk tale that lead singer Colin Meloy came across in a Portland bookshop. I am very, very excited about their new album called "The Hazards of Love" that is coming out in March. I'm sad to say that I haven't had an opportunity to see them live in concert, but if you want a taste of what a Decemberists show is like, I highly recommend listening to the recent concert available on NPR's All Songs Considered. NPR is also going to be streaming a concert from SXSW where the whole "Hazards of Love" album will be played. Another testament to the band's theatrical side came from a friend who saw their show in Bend, Oregon and said that the band staged a reenactment of Lewis and Clark's discovery of the Northwest. How cool is that?

Another thing I like about The Decemberists is their quirky sense of humor and their unique vernacular (I am, after all, a huge fan of the written word). Take, for example, this recent excerpt from an email I received from The Decemberists:

"Adored Mailing List Recipients,

While it has been less than a week since our last petulant Relatively Unobtrusive e-Missive graced your inbox, we Decemberists feel it important to remind you, gentle Recipient, that the public ticket on-sale for Phase One of The "A Short Fazed Hovel" Tour 2009 starts today! Simply follow this simple, user-friendly chart to deduce the applicable date for your city"




Ray Lamontagne

Ray Lamontagne is a soulful, dark, introspective character who plays stripped-down music, which I love (and conversely I can't stand "over processed" music). He recently put out an album called "Gossip in the Grain," which is great. I also highly recommend listening to his concert from the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C., also available on NPR's All Songs Considered.




I'm also dabbling around with M. Ward, Andrew Bird, My Morning Jacket, DCFC, ALO, Tea Leaf Green, and a few others, but I'm always looking for suggestions for new music. Got any?

Social networking sites

There have been tons of articles written over the past few years about the advent of social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook. A certain law student even wrote a law review article about some of the legal issues that arise on such sites. Well, Missi and I are fully immersed in the movement/trend/fad. We both have "profiles" on MySpace and Facebook, although we don't check our MySpace profiles very often. We also update our Facebook "status" on a fairly regular basis, which just gives a tiny snapshot of what we're doing at that moment. If you're not on Facebook, I would encourage you to join! It's a great way to connect (or re-connect) with people.

This is my Facebook profile.

This is Missi's Facebook profile.

Conversation with Drew

Drew: "Dad, I heard somewhere that old coins are worth a lot of money. Is that true?"

Me: "Well, sometimes certain coins can be very valuable if they are rare or unique."

Drew: "So if I have I have a really old coin I could maybe sell it to someone and get a lot of money?"

Me: "If it was a coin that was really special you could possibly do that."

He rushes off to his room to empty out his piggy bank and look through all his coins. He excitedly rushes back to see me 15 minutes later.

Drew: "Dad, you're not gonna believe this! I think I found I really old coin that could be valuable!"

Me: "What is it?"

Drew: "It's this nickel right here. And it says 1966 on it! That's so old!!!"

Me: "Hmmm...[trying to suppress laughter] Well, there might actually be some coins that are a bit older than 1966 and they might be more valuable."

Drew: "Oh....well I also have one from 1969. That's really old also."

Some Photos from the Weekend

Here are some photos from last weekend's trip down to Portland to visit with my sister Jessica and her family (brother-in-law Phil, Trevor, Oliver, and newest member Linnea).

Always a classic...

The other day I randomly thought about one of my favorite Youtube videos of all time - if you haven't seen the Mini Mall you HAVE to watch it.

A few recent photos

These were all taken on my cell phone. I definitely appreciate the opportunity to snap photos of interesting sights during my daily life.



Here is a photo from today of my friend Richard and me. Richard is a "Nickelodeon" - a resident of Nickelsville. I posted a photo of him a few posts back. He is quite the character and he really has a head of hair on him!

P.S. Look at Drew poking his head into the photo (he is wearing the "W" hat)



You know you live in a big city when they have "needle collection boxes."


I took a photo of this sign because it seems incredibly deceptive. In HUGE letters it says "$6" but in little tiny letters it says "price is per half hour." If you were in a car looking for a parking lot, wouldn't you see the $6 and think you were getting a great deal, only to discover that it was actually $12 per hour?




I may have posted this previously, but I couldn't believe that "Denve at Portland" showed up on the front page of the Oregonian's sports section. This is yet another example of my pet peeve - misspelled words in public places - showing up.

Found in Drew's Room

Sectert Mission:
Topic: Spiing
belogns to: agent drew wilson
mission: kill bad guys

Now I'm even more glad the Steelers won...

Please read this great story of why we should all be glad that the Steelers won the Super Bowl.

For Terrible Towels, A Wonderful Legacy

Here are a few photos of the people mentioned in the story (all photos from NYTimes.com)