N is for...

N is for Nikki, who I asked to assign me a letter to participate in the ABC Game that's been floating around... and she gave me 'N.' Coincidence? I think not :-)

So, here are my 10 favorite things, that start with an N:

1. NCAA March Madness – For me it’s hands down the most exciting time in college athletics, really any athletics unless the Cards are in the World Series! To top it off, I won my NCAA Basketball Pool at work this year, no matter how the game turns out tonight. Woo-hoo! Check out my perfect West and nearly perfect South & East bracket divisions:

2. November – I love the fall and it’s the month we got married.

3. Nighttime – I’m a total night-owl; I feel like I’m missing so much if I go to bed early!

4. “The Net” – Give me Internet or give me death. Seriously though, I actually think I may be addicted to “the net”.

5. Neighborhoods – Chicago is a huge city made of a ton of neighborhoods. They each have a unique vibe, and I love exploring them. I have lived in only 3 over the 4 years I have been here, so I have a long way to go! According to wikipedia there are around 228 named neighborhoods of Chicago and 77 distinct community areas. Yikes!

6. Notes – Remember passing notes to your friends/boyfriends in grade school & high school? I used to keep a box of them, talk about memories! And now I still love to send handwritten notes to my friends via snail mail, I just don’t get around to doing it nearly enough.

7. Noodles – Mmmmm... I love my strings of carboliciousness!

8. Numbers – I have a weird thing with numbers. 16 & 73 are my favorite and have been since I was a child. I think I was a bit OCD as a child and those numbers were for some reason my obsession.

9. Networking – In person and online. Professionally and Socially. I love connecting with people and introducing people I know in my life with others that they would never know on their own, without that connection. Networking makes the big ol' world seem very small after all.

10. Nicknames – Now this is not to be confused with simply shortening a name, like David to Dave, etc. I love the nicknames you have for people/pets that have become so diluted, you are not even really sure why you call the person or pet that any more, or at least how or when it started. Our dog Louie is called everything from "Larry" to "Lucifer" to "Luda" to "Boo-Bear". Do you have any fun(ny) nicknames for your friends, family or pets that may sound like nonsense to most? 

Thanks, Nikki! If anyone else wants to play, leave me a comment, and I'll assign you a letter!

Davey Jr.

So we are not married yet (only 10 days away) and once we are we won't plan on having kids for at least a few years, BUT Dave has already announced that if we have a boy it will be, David Jr.

This does not please me. At all.

Just to be clear, I have nothing against other people being juniors. I know plenty of them. And I think it's cool when it's a unique family name or when it's a long standing tradition like "the III" or even more. But I feel like I am way too creative to name my child the same thing as I call my husband. I really just don't want to spend 18 years of our life having people call the house asking for "Dave" and I say, "Big Dave or Little Dave?" Imagine the confusion!

Am I being selfish here? I feel like since this fictional-for-now baby will be living in my future-womb, I should have at least 50% say in this, if not 51%. I'm fine with David as a middle name, but he is pretty dead set on a Jr. So what's a girl to do?

In the meantime, check out what our fictional Junior looks like:

I made him using this ! Check it out.