It's been a while since I've updated this thing. We went to Iowa City tonight and Heidi bought a new pair of shoes while Anna and I wandered around the mall. We're gearing up for Anna's second birthday which is next weekend. My folks are coming down and Jeff and Mary are coming as well. It should be a pretty fun time. Hard to believe that she'll be two already. However, she's acting every bit the part of a two-year-old these days, so I guess it's not that hard to believe.

We listened to that Dolly Parton tribute CD on the way home tonight. It's surprising how good that is. As I've probably mentioned before, remakes--and especially tribute albums--almost always end up sounding like celebrity karaoke. But these are some very capable covers of Dolly's music. The song choices are a bit on the odd side, although there's the obligatory "Coat Of Many Colors" and "Jolene" Probably the biggest surprise on the CD is Me'Shell NdegéOcello's (say that three times fast--hell say that one time slow!!) version of "Two Doors Down" which is unconventional to say the least. I also really like Alison Moorer's version of "Light Of A Clear Blue Morning" (which will always be that crazy song from Straight Talk to me) even though at first it didn't really do all that much for me. The only time it really comes close to being bad celebrity karaoke is Melissa Etheridge's version of "I Will Always Love You" and (sadly) Shania Twain's take on "Coat Of Many Colors."

Speaking of remakes, I freaking love the No Doubt cover of "It's My Life." Absolutely awesome.

And tonight I was going to buy that new REM best-of set but when we were at Wal-Mart, I couldn't manage to find it. Too bad as I'm really itching to get that for some odd reason. I've been listening to a lot of their music these days which is quite odd because I've only ever been a casual fan of theirs. Maybe it's the time of year. Hard telling I guess.