Birthdays abound

Today we'll go to Tess's first communion today. Mike says that 100 people will be coming to the party afterwards.

The fence around our yard is in serious need of repair or replacement. We asked a local fence company to give us an estimate, which arrived on Friday. This morning, as I was preparing to pay this week's bills, I saw Marley walking through the neighbor's yard Yes, it's time to fix the fence.

If you work in a bank and someone tries to deposit a $25 million check, try to be a little suspicious, ok?

Michael Francis and I had an instant message chat as we tried to track down a book for a critique that he was writing. Because of copyright laws, it wasn't possible to find a copy of the book on the web. (He has already read the book and has the report written, but just needs a couple of quotes.)

Lost in the brouhaha about whether it's appropriate or not to sing the national anthem in Spanish is the basic fact that the tune is unsingable. My personal preference would be Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land. His son, Arlo, has some definite and differing ideas on that. Arlo says that if it becomes the national anthem, we won't be able to have as much fun changing the verses when we want and need to.

More about the national anthem at Scott McLellan's press briefing.

"Q Scott, I wonder -- on Friday, the President firmly said he believes the National Anthem should be sung in English. Kevin Phillips, the Republican analyst, wrote a book called American Dynasty, and in there he claims that during the President's 2000 campaign, he did sing the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish at some Hispanic festivals, various campaign events. Are you aware, do you recall that from the 2000 campaign?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I don't.

Q Do you think that that would be counter to what the President laid out on Friday?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't recall that, and I'm not going to try to speculate on something I haven't looked into."

We saw two Baltimore orioles (the birds, not the baseball players) snacking on the blossoms on our apple tree. Beautiful birds.

Congratulation to Val and Scott on the birth of their sons, Phillip and Scott.

Happy Birthday, TJL