We are boarding for our flight to Chicago. It’s Tommy’s first airplane trip!

The first game in the books and the Tigers did great. So did Jake, with two hits and one inning at 1st base.

After Sophie’s trip to Build-a-Bear, the boys got a surprise box in the mail. It was from Ridemakerz, which is the boy version of Build-a-Bear, but with cars you make and customize yourself instead of bears. We had to order by mail since Dallas doesn’t have a store yet.

Tommy got an orange Dodge Challenger and Jake got a blue 2010 Mustang (or DaddyStang, which is Jake’s word for it).

She’s eight today and just made her annual trip to Build-a-Bear with her Daddy!

Jake figured out a way to reach the pedals on NASCAR 09 for Xbox 360 (and having a blast wrecking the field)

Jake LOVES corn. If you look closely, you’ll notice he had been crying because he wanted Tommy’s and Sophie’s corn, too. He’s a corn monster!

Tommy and I are big Doctor Who fans. Not only does Tommy have a sonic screwdriver, his bedroom door is now designed to look like the door to the TARDIS!

Here’s my personal selections of the music albums not to miss from 2008. I would be wearing them out except that of course they are on an ipod instead of vinyl/tape/cd. I would say it is guaranteed to make you younger to listen to new music instead of the same stuff you’ve listened to since the 80s, but since I have too many friends that are lawyers, I’ll only imply it instead. Here goes:

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement
Rue Royale - Rue Royale (cd is out of print already but mp3s are easily found - that’s indie music for you)
Glasvegas - Glasvegas
Darker My Love - 2
The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
Does It Offend You, Yeah? - You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into
The Republic Tigers - Keep Color
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Sneaky Sound System - 2 (only legally available in Australia)
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends
Bloc Party - Intimacy
UNKLE - End Titles… Stories For Film
The Whip - X Marks Destination
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
CruelBlackDove - Full Powers (only available through the band’s website)
The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost
Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul
DeVotchKa - A Mad & Faithful Telling (try putting this one in a genre)
UNKLE - End Titles… Redux

And for the uninitiated, to listen to any of this, try searching on google for the artist name plus the keyword “myspace”. Every band nowadays has a MySpace page where they have full songs available to listen to through your web browser.

Enjoy!