• Simple Mom is hosting a Lisa Leonard giveaway. She makes super-cute jewelry.
• “Bio-diversity” by Christopher Niemann.

Ten Songs for Doing Math and Getting Ready for Tae Kwon Do

1. I’m an Animal, Neko Case.
2. The Rising Surf, Richie Allen and the Pacific Surfers
3. Baby It’s Cold Outside, Dean Martin
4. That Lonesome Road, James Taylor
5. Hardest Geometry Problem in the World, Mark Mothersbaugh
6. Fire and Rain, James Taylor
7. Spiders, Wilco
8. Go Find Your Saint, Frank Black
9. Now the Day is Over, The Innocence Mission
10. Short Skirt, Long Jacket, Cake

1. Poor Boy, David Byrne and Brian Eno. This entire album is good for rainy days.
2. Daddy Went Walkin’, Neil Young. Poppy asked to listen to “Old King” three times in a row in the car this morning. This one reminds me of that one. Probably because they both feature dogs.
3. Blue Bayou, Linda Ronstadt. I love to sing along to this song. I am, however, surprised that I don’t hear howling dogs and screeching cats when I attempt that final note.
4. Goodbye, So Long, Farewell, Music Together.
5. That’s Right (You’re Not from Texas), Lyle Lovett. But Texas wants you anyway.
6. Wonderful, Sam Cooke. I originally typed “cookie.” One-track mind.
7. Night Sight, Air. I once saw Air filed as “Air, French Band” in a record store. Now I can’t think of the band as just “Air.”
8. Zousan (Little Elephant), Elizabeth Mitchell. My iPod loves this song. It plays it at least once a day.
9. You Don’t Know How It Feels, Tom Petty
10. Be My Covering, Bebo Normal
11. Yogurt Stand, Poppy. What, you’ve never heard “Yogurt Stand”? It’s the dance sensation that’s sweepin’ the nation. Not on my iPod (yet) but still awesome and heard frequently in my kitchen.

Yogurt stand
I really want to spin around
and it’s fun if I want to
and I love playing with “Another celebrated dancing bear”
and I love it so much
that I feel like spinning right now
‘Cmon and spin with me
wooo wooo woooo
If you wanna spin around
just ask a grown up
Alright!
Falling down, cha cha cha!

These don’t really have anything to do with cleaning the kitchen, except that the iPod played them while I was cleaning.

1. Soma, The Strokes
2. Wigwam, Bob Dylan
3. Y Control, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4. Islands, Cat Power
5. You’re in My Heart, Rod Stewart
6. Zousan (Little Elephant), Elizabeth Mitchell
7. This Little Light of Mine, Elizabeth Mitchell
8. The Maker, Daniel Lanois
9. Round and Round, Neil Young
10. Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois, Sufjan Stevens

Also: I took a spinning class last night, and now it hurts to sit down.

Update: Now the iPod is playing “Keep on Loving You” by REO Speedwagon, which would have been a perfect kitchen-cleaning song because you can sing it like this: “I’m gonna keep on scrubbin’ yoooooooooouuuuuu, ’cause it’s the only thing I wanna dooooooo,” and so on. Which isn’t true but is fun.