Isn't she lovely?

You know, I'm not always the merriest ray of sunshine in the rainbow, but right now, I'm pretty happy. Why is this, you might be asking. New TV commercial compilations? Finally won the Super Friends birthday party set on eBay?

Nope.

Digging up memories and videos from the past is a tough job, and everyone here in the Siftin' Labs does a bangup job. But I'm happy because the ol' lab just got a new assistant.

Her name is Ramona (yes, after the Beverly Cleary character), and she is perfectly adorable. She was born yesterday, and already everyone is in love with her. She gets that from her mom, I think.

Once everyone is home and we settle into a routine (that involves little to no sleep for Jen and I), I can start thinking about more frequent updates to the old blog.

Famous people Ramona shares a birthday with: Lucille Ball, Robert Mitchum, M. Night Shyamalan, Soleil Moon Frye, and Elliott Smith, among others. While out to lunch with my family yesterday, I heard a cover of Smith's "Between the Bars" in the restaurant, which was just a bit unusual and cool, too, as I'm a big Elliott Smith fan.

Right now, I'm just a big, giant spaz, all excited about dealing with all the stuff that having a daughter means. When we found out that we were having a girl, I decided to draw a cartoon of what I thought she'd look like.

I also wrote a letter to Beverly Cleary (yes, I'm a nerd) to tell her how I was tempting fate by naming my daughter after one of kid-lit's most rambunctious youngsters. I got a postcard in return (form letter, but still cool that I got it right before she was born) with a drawing of Ramona surrounded by books. The one she's reading in the picture is "The Mouse and the Motorcycle," which is the book I got autographed when I was a little kid.

So happiness abounds here at Siftin' Headquarters, so I thought I'd share and annoy the crap out of people. Enjoy!