It's February 1st! Which means it was two years ago today that my niece was born. I'd point you to her blog link at right, but it hasn't been updated in a very long time. I ordered the kid a set of bongos, because she's got the groove, baby, she's got the motion.* These bongos, which the website says are not a toy but a "real beginner's instrument," should hold up better than the children's bongos I got her for Christmas, which broke on the very first toddler hit.

*Speaking of 80s songs: For the past few weeks, during my morning shower, I have been getting the song "Careless Whispers" stuck in my head. I'm not cheating on anyone, nor is anyone I know (to my knowledge, at least), and I'm not dancing or thinking about dancing, guilty feet or no. It's kind of been driving me crazy, because it's not a good song (seriously, think about it without the kitsch factor. Bad song.) and once it's in my head, it takes a while to get out. Like I'll be walking to work and notice I've started whistling parts of it. This morning I think I might have discovered where "Careless Whispers" has been coming from: the ventilation fan, which has a high-pitched drone that may be the exact note George Michaels hits when he sings, "nooooooow! that you're gooone..". Since I rent, I can't do anything about the fan, but I may be able to do something about the song: I just need to find a less-objectionable song that has that same note as "nooooooow!" in it, and try to steer my brain towards that new song. The trouble is that if I had such a song already imprinted onto my head, it would have popped up already. Damn you, brain, and your perfect memory for top-40 80s pop hits!