I might make a note of some of the music that's defining our lives right now, since that's such a huge part of painting a picture of what things are like for us. I have become obsessed with Amy Winehouse -- downloading huge numbers of her songs (but of course never buying anything, since we're flat busted). I'm also in a hip-hop mode, listening to lots of Talib Kweli, the Roots, Redman, Jay-Z, Nas, Ludacris, a little Common, Kanye. W is in the other room listening to "Don't Let Go" by En Vogue, and singing along at the top of her lungs. Oh, now it's Justin Timberlake.

In the kitchen -- you know, the one with a mini fridge and no wall space for a paper towel dispenser -- we have a boom box sitting in a cabinet (since there's no other surface to put it on). It's a pain in the ass to switch the CD in there, you have to take the box out of the cabinet because the CD thing is on the top of the box, and there's a shelf directly above it. As a result, I tend to put a CD in there and listen to it over and over. For a long time I had "The Carnival" by Wyclef in there. It's an old album, and I sometimes think it's pretty corny, but it's really good. I always get the sense that you can tell he really likes music -- he's got a song based on "Guantanamera," a song based on "To All the Girls I Loved Before," one based on "Stayin' Alive." I just put in a CD that my Mom gave us, by a Frenchman recording in the 40's called Charles Frenet. I think I'm going to really like that too. It's that real corny French music, but exactly the kind of thing I like. Lots of strings, lots of catchy melodies.

UPDATE: Just another note about old Charles Frenet -- I realized after hearing the shit maybe twice that Django Reinhardt plays on some of the songs. Not much more to say but that. But I thought it was significant.