From this day forth, you shall be called...

So it occurs to me that throughout history, things have changed names.

Historically, Istanbul WAS Constantinople. ...so if you have a date...okay, never mind.

More current examples include Pope Benedict. I mean, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger becomes Pope Benedict, right? And noone cares. In fact, many people, mostly Catholics, because really, if you aren't Catholic, it doesn't matter quite so much, rejoiced.

Bob Dylan? Robert Zimmerman (also the name, by the way, of the metal shop teacher at my high school, although I've never heard a discussion of the poetic genius of that Robert Zimmerman; ice fishing genius, yes, poetic genius, I don't know).

Izzy Stradlin? Jeffrey Isbell.

Katherine Nervig? Katherine Dietrich.

My point is, names change sometimes, and life goes on, right?

This is all going somewhere, by the way. We are considering, just considering, a name change in our family. I wanted to give everyone a heads up, just in case. You see, for the past few months I have been thinking that, should we have a baby boy (and no, we don't know the sex of our baby, because Katherine won't let us know), the name Jack would be a pretty good name.

Jack Nervig.

Good name.

One problem, however:


Jack and Jak might be a bit confusing.

So we are contemplating some changes to Jak's name. Of course, if we have a girl, this whole discussion is moot.

But Kalee, one of the Hmong employees in the section, said today that, based on how Katherine looks, she is 100% sure we are having a boy. And this morning, Vone called to Katherine while her back was turned, and she looked over her right shoulder. This, Vone explained, means that she is having a boy. Look over your left shoulder...girl. So, you know, it's pretty much guaranteed.

Anyway, Jack is but one name in the hat. The others stay in the hat for the time being.

But, come the day of birth, we may have two announcements... IT'S A BOY! and WE HAVE CHANGED OUR CAT'S NAME!

Twice the fun.