When NOT to Blog

Note to self: Do not blog about any ongoing litigation against me.

Thanks to Shappy for calling my attention to this.

BookBonds: Like Covalent Bonds, only better!

Since my blog receives millions of hits*, I figured there's no better place to advertise Rachel's new start-up: BookBonds.

The idea is simply this: New parents love to take their babies to all manner of "mommy and me" type classes, for things like swimming, music, and tumbling. But there's a void of classes that are educational in the classic sense. Leveraging her teaching skills and experience -- not to mention her love of little ones -- Rachel has designed a curriculum to teach parents how they can give their kids an early start on reading and learning.

The principle behind the class is largely based upon Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook. This volume cites numerous statistics suggesting that the greatest predictor of success in elementary school is the frequency with which a child was read to from an early age. Children who are read to daily will hear 3-4 times as many spoken words as those who are not, and subsequently have a much easier time grasping language and communication skills.

Bookbonds is a class that meets one hour per week for six weeks. Parents bring their infants or toddlers to the class. Rachel's curriculum is designed to make the classes fun for the kids and educational for the parents, as they pick up skills they can use at home with their children.

As Rachel put it, if BookBonds had existed 10-12 years ago, she might not have so many kids in her remedial reading class in Alexandria Public School.

Tell all your friends! Especially the ones with babies who live in the DC metro area.


*Hit count is based on extrapolation of monthly hits to a projection of total visitors per century.

P.S. - I don't really remember what Covalent Bonds are all about, but I'm pretty confident that BookBonds are better.

Funny Baby Stuff

There are some very funny baby items at Cafepress.com. This may be the bored-silly-redeployed-guy talking, but I recommend paging through at least the first dozen or so pages.

Woot-off!

I'm reaching the point of being bored silly, since I'm still expected to show up at work. All that's really left for me to do is to transition my work to other people, but they haven't decided who whose people are yet.

Fortunately, there's a Woot-off today over at Woot.com. Woot, which you'll find in my permanent links, is a site that normally sells one item a day until it's sold out. The price is usually good, and the $5 flat shipping for everything from a plush monkey to a 62" Projection TV is outstanding.

During a Woot-off, a new item is posted after the previous one sells out. The fun goes on for hours, sometimes days. Get your credit card ready for some impulse-buys!

Oh, and watch for the infamous Bag of Crap - usually a part of every Woot-off. The BOC contains three random items. Usually worthless (e.g. mousepad, etc), but occasionally they'll throw in something expensive. Most Wooters consider it $6 well-spent.

Too many commercials

The following people have appeared in so many TV commercials that it's become impossible to take them seriously in their roles as journalist/commentators:

Charles Barkley - "Is this your Dad?"

Howie Long - Rode the Radio Shack gravy train a little too long

Suzy Kolber - She's terrifying in those Chevy ads. There was one where she she touted that the Chevy Impala had a remote starter and a tighter turning radius than the imports. I can't imagine the person for whom those are the deciding factors when choosing which car to buy, but maybe Chevy cornered the market on lazy people in Alaska who live on narrow dead-end streets.

I know there are others out there - let's hear it in the Comments.

In the news

If the government wants to keep track of you, give them so much information they won't know what to do with it all. What happens when an innocent (not to mention resourceful) individual finds his name on the terrorist watch-list.

Seth isn't the only brilliant baby. Turns out, they're much more astute than you thought. In some cases, more perceptive than most adults.

Who's going to argue with a hungry three-ton extortionist?

The money pit

I like surprises -- just not when they come from my house. Perhaps the most frustrating part of homeownership is that you try to make plans for improvements you'd like to make, and suddenly find that repairs are a more urgent priority for your time and money.

While working from home today, I suddenly started to hear a terrible scraping/grinding motor sound, like an old car trying to start. It continued going non-stop. After 30 seconds or so, I realized it was our attic fan.

I hate our attic fan. It's hard-wired to a thermostat, so there's no switch to turn it off. It's mounted in an incredibly stupid location -- the center of a triangular gable vent -- which practically guarantees that it won't actually provide any useful ventilation. It just sucks in air from the corners of the vent and blows it back out the middle, while the attic temperature climbs into the 120's every summer day. The fan runs for hours on end, and drives up our electric bill without actually doing anything beneficial.

When I realized today that something was wrong, I climbed up into the attic to find it wobbling like crazy, scraping its housing and still running full-speed. Since the thermostat was already on the highest temperature and there's no power switch, the only thing I could do was run downstairs and switch off the circuit breaker. When the fan stopped turning, it became very clear what was wrong: one of the five blades had completely broken off, leaving the fan off-balance.

The same circuit breaker controls several rooms, so I couldn't just leave it switched off. I had to open the electrical junction box in the attic and disconnect the power supply, capping off the "hot" wire with a plastic cap and electrical tape.

The good news? I got an estimate from a contractor we trust, and they're coming later this week to install a useful attic fan, mounted into the roof. Once that's done, I'll probably buy more insulation for the attic -- something else that's long overdue. So I guess some surprises are also opportunities to make improvements... I just wish the surprises were fewer and farther between.

Infinite Monkeys!

If you aren't familiar with the Infinite Monkey Theorem, it's the scientific concept that a metaphorical monkey seated at a typewriter, with infinite time, would eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare. Or alternately, that an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters would immediately reproduce the works of Shakespeare. Nevermind that the amount of time (or monkeys) required to produce Hamlet alone would be approximately 1,000 orders-of-magnitude more than the number of seconds that have elapsed since the Big Bang. That's the beauty of Infinity, folks.

So anyway, I was wondering... if you could somehow assemble 100 of the greatest minds in the world, without ever teaching them a single postulate of modern science... how many of our common scientific laws/theories/etc. would they reproduce? How many would they disprove?

New Comments Gadget

Hey folks - wanted to introduce you to the "Recent Comments" gadget on the sidebar of my blog. If you're anything like me -- and if you are, I'm sorry -- you occasionally browse through my blog looking for new comments. Well, I'm happy to save you the trouble.

Thanks to Aliza for recommending this. I didn't know there was a gadget for this, and in fact there isn't... I had to sign up for a third-party hosted service that just collects email notifications each time a new comment is posted. But it'll be helpful for me, and hopefully provides you a little extra incentive to post comments. You'll get to see your name (or alias) in the sidebar!! Wheee!!!

A peach is a peach?

Wikipedia is a wonderful thing. It's a brilliant demonstration that most people are good at heart. The accurate information far outweighs the BS - the trick is distinguishing the two.

Which brings me to peaches.

I noticed a tree in the backyard today, and it's growing near the spot where I remember tossing a peach pit last fall. Excited that I might have a peach tree, I checked Wikipedia to see if there were any pictures to confirm my hope.

This led me to three disappointing realizations:
1. The tree is some type of Oak, not a Peach tree.
2. Nectarines and peaches are the same thing! Really!
3. Peachtree Street in my beloved Atlanta isn't really named for anything related to the Peach. It's a bastardization of "Pitch Tree," named for a large tree from which the Creek Indians used to draw sap, or pitch.

Just when things are going well, everything you thought you knew about peaches turns out to be a bunch of lies.

More sports...

Everybody has their opinions of Barry Bonds inevitably passing Hank Aaron's career homerun record of 755. I'll abstain from that argument for a moment, and look at another stat.

Aaron also holds the career record for total bases -- a record which I think is quite underrated (got that, Jayson?), and one could argue a more significant record than 755 HR. It's clearly a more accurate depiction of a player's overall offensive prowess than HR alone.

Bonds is currently fifth on the records of career TB, soon to pass Ty Cobb for fourth. But to put things into perspective, he would need to hit 250 more homeruns, walk 1000 more times, or any combination of those two, in order to catch Aaron's record for total bases.

In fact, Henry's record of 6,856 Total Bases is so unreachable that second-place on the TB list (Stan Musial with 6,134) is more than 12 miles' worth of base-running behind him.

Can we talk sports for a minute?

ESPN.com currently has an excerpt from the new book The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History. It's written, of course, by ESPN's own Jayson Stark, whose name contains an unnecessary "Y". Y? Because it prevents his name from showing up along the X-axis of chronological charts everywhere, unlike all those regular-old Jasons. (JFMAMJJASOND)

Anyway, the excerpt they posted claims that Andruw Jones is the most overrated center fielder of all time. The meat of his argument is that Andruw (please don't pronounce it awn-drew) burst onto the scene in 1996, rose to something comparable to stardom around 1998-2002, and has been in decline ever since. Jayson goes on to cite various statistics that indicate his decline as both a hitter and a fielder.

I can't argue with statistics, but his argument fails to convince me on one key point: that Andruw is still overrated. In order to be overrated, the player's reputation has to far exceed his actual ability. I don't deny that his performance has generally declined over the last few years, although probably not as severely as Stark would argue -- but I think his reputation isn't what it once was either. He's gone from being thought of as "the best center fielder of the last 30 years, bar none" to being "a pretty strong candidate for Cooperstown, if he keeps it up for a few more years" -- all in all, not a bad place to be.

The true measure will come when he enters the free agent market in the fall.

she's a brick... Tabernacle!

There are a lot of people who have too much time on their hands. In fact, I aspire to become one of those people.

But when someone who has too much time on their hands also happens to be a person with some strange motivations, you end up with this: The Brick Testament.

It's dozens of biblical stories acted out in Lego form. Some outstanding work here. Here's a taste, from the destruction of Jericho.

Thanks to Shappy for the tip!

The smoking gun

This afternoon, I confirmed the existence of tooth number two. It's nestled right next to tooth number one, which is now clearly visible -- and capable of inflicting quite a painful bite on Daddy's nose.

Tooth two just looks like a couple of bumps starting to push through the gum. I guess The Boy must have read my prior entry, which promised steak... and he's growing 'em as fast as he can!

What's Niue?

I came across this on wikipedia. Niue is an island nation in the South Pacific, independent but under protectorate of New Zealand. It's 100 square miles, and looks like a classic Polynesian paradise, complete with stunning coastal features.

From the CIA World Factbook:

The sale of postage stamps to foreign collectors is an important source of revenue.

I wonder what it would be like to spend a week there. There's only one flight per week, so I guess that's the minimum stay. And there are fewer than 90 hotel rooms on the island. I can't decide whether this would be an amazing vacation, or if I'd be bored silly by day two. There are probably a thousand islands like this. Seems like the type of vacation that's worth trying one time during your life. Maybe someday...

Seth Vader can sleep-eat

The Boy has some nasty congestion this week. He's often wheezey (no, not George Jefferson's wife) and he has a very hoarse cough. I think it might be related to teething -- anything can be attributed to teething.

Anyway, as a result of his wheeze, his breathing sounds like a little bitty Darth Vader. He's still cuter than young Anniken, though.

This morning, around 5:15, his coughing led to crying. I got up and gave him a bottle, and I'm not sure that he was awake for any of it. He ate it up rather quickly and I put him back into his crib.

I've been known to talk in my sleep, and I even had occasional episodes of sleep-walking when I was a kid... but sleep-eating is a pretty unique skill.

Tooth + tooth = teeth?

Rachel picked up Seth from day care today. When they arrived home, he was asleep in his carrier and Rachel was exclaiming that his second tooth was beginning to show. He woke up for just a few minutes before falling asleep in his current position (on my left arm), and I wasn't able to see any convincing evidence of Tooth #2. It's often difficult, since he almost always sticks his tongue out whenever his mouth is open.

Stay tuned for future updates on the elusive tooth on the grassy knoll.

(Long as I mentioned Seth's present position: It's interesting re-learning to type one-handed. I'm not nearly as fast this way, but I'm getting more efficient.)

Busy weekend!

The Boy is becoming quite the social butterfly, as evidenced by his busy weekend. For starters, his grandparents came in for a visit -- ostensibly to see "us" collectively, but we're under no misconceptions about the real draw in our home. Saturday afternoon, we had a few friends over for a barbecue* and Seth was, as usual, the life of the party. While I'd like to think my grilled chicken was worth the price of admission, I'm pretty sure that Seth is more memorable. Finally, on Sunday, we joined up with a new parents' group that Rachel is involved with for a picnic at Burke Lake Park. About a dozen babies, ranging from about 3 months to about 8 months of age, with all of their parents, strollers, teethers, and diaper bags in tow. It was interesting to note that (despite the week-by-week baby development authorities) there is only a very loose relationship between age and relative size. There were kids Seth's age over 20 pounds, and others his age who look like he did 3 months ago.

This morning, the grandparents said their tearful goodbyes (I don't need to tell you toward whom those were addressed) and Seth headed back to day care. I've never stayed around for long when I drop him off, but I wonder if he's the life of the party there, too.

*I use "Barbecue" liberally. To a connoisseur, it would imply a many-hours-long roast of meat over indirect heat. In reality, I was simply grilling burgers, chicken and hot dogs (not barbecuing). I offer this disclaimer in deference to those to know the true meaning of "a barbecue" -- I just use the term because it sounds so much less pathetic than having "a few friends over for a grill-out".

Closet bloggers?

Alright, who else out there has a blog? Admit it...

If you have a blog, give me the URL and I'll link to it from here. And if you don't have a blog, you should be expressing yourself by posting witty replies on my blog! Release that creative energy!

In the news

Happy IDAHO! I think it's wonderful that they named it for such a liberal, open-minded state.

That kid's packin! (Not the same meaning as when Seth's got a diaperful.) Personally, I think it's just a glitch whereby any application with the name "Bubba" on it gets automatically approved.

"Singin' in the crib..."

Evidently, Seth likes to celebrate milestones at odd hours. You may recall that he celebrated his 5-month "birthday" by waking up and wanting to party. He decided that his first tooth warranted a similar celebration.

He started singing around 4:30 AM and didn't let up. For the most part, he wasn't upset -- although he welcomed a bottle at 5:15. After he finished, he went back into his crib and picked up with Act II of his performance.

His first tooth is just beginning to poke through. It's sharp enough to inflict some pain with his bite. If it wasn't so tough to get him to pose with his mouth open, I'd post a picture!

Welcome to Orientation

Yesterday, I attended a 90-minute Orientation for Redeployment. Yep, they've made layoffs so complicated that you have to attend an orientation session to understand how it works. And better yet, they offer a dozen or so optional classes that I can take over the next few months "as I make my transition." I'm not complaining -- it's actually pretty generous, and they offer free workshops on resume-writing, interviewing, identifying career paths, etc. That last one is essentially "what I want to be when I grow up."

I guess I'll be very busy, what with getting laid off and all.

If the price is right...

As you might have heard, Bob Barker has announced his retirement from The Price is Right a few months ago. I've always been a big fan of the show, watching it every time I was home from school as a kid. In fact, I still remember getting upset when they interrupted The Price is Right for breaking news of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Between the show itself, the harem of Barker's Beauties, and his memorable appearance in Happy Gilmore, Barker seems like a pretty cool guy. Now, thanks to a New York Times column, I find out he trained as a WWII fighter pilot, too.

Pretty cool, indeed.

Milestone #27B: Teeth!

Last night, Rachel noticed that Seth's first tooth can be easily felt starting to jut through his gum. It's his lower left, and it's sharp! This is the beginning of a slippery slope -- in a few weeks, he'll be crawling; next month he'll be walking, and by the end of the year he'll be asking if he can stay out late with the kids that have noserings.

Cutting teeth, as it turns out, isn't so pleasant for the kid. Which is understandable, seeing as how he's got a sharp piece of bone trying to poke its way through his gum. I don't quite understand why congestion is a side effect of this process, but he's producing plenty of snot. The fact that he despises having his nose wiped doesn't help matters. He's still very good natured and it's interesting to watch him go from giggly to fussy and back again in the span of a minute or two because of the discomfort.

His food repertoire now includes banana, pear, sweet potato, and rice cereal, in addition to formula. Another tooth or two, and we'll try steak.

Broken?

I have a permanent link to "This is Broken" in my links column. The site is all user-provided content. Pretty much daily, they post a user-submitted entry of something that is "broken" -- e.g., something that has been poorly designed. I recommend watching the video of Seth Godin giving his explanation of "Broken", linked from their site header.

Anyway - just wanted to call out today's submission, which was sent in by your humble blogger. I wonder if I should ask them to change it to "my former employer runs a coach bus..."?

Job description: Don't get fired

As part of my redeployment, I'm expected to wrap up my work and transition ongoing work to other people over the next 2 months. Fortunately, I'll be on vacation for part of that time. But for all intents and purposes, I'm only motivated to not get fired, sort of like Peter in Office Space.

For starters, I've decided that I absolutely must sneak this chart into a serious powerpoint, when the opportunity arises.

Here's my question to you, faithful reader: What would you do in my situation? I'm looking for pranks, jokes, or other amusing things that won't get me fired, and might amuse my co-workers.

Mom's Day

Hey, kids. Don't forget that Sunday is Mother's Day.

Here are some totally inappropriate gift ideas. Unless you have a really cool, or really strange Mom.

Required reading

If you like Boston, sports, baseball, or the Braves -- or like me, all of the above -- you'll love this article from the Boston Phoenix.

Taking after Daddy...

Seeing as I now have more time on my hands... (see entry below)

The update on Seth is that he's as much fun as ever. He's really into eating solids now. The repertoire includes sweet potatoes and bananas, and pears are next. We're making all of it ourselves, which seems to impress people -- but it's remarkably easy. For most foods, the recipe is: Cut into pieces, Boil until mushy, Puree. (For bananas, only the final step is needed.) It's much less complicated than, for instance, cooking dinner for ourselves.

Last night, after a bottle and a hearty serving of bananas, Seth was in a great mood. We discovered that shaking his blue elephant rattle in front of him generated a hearty laugh. We kept it up -- "shake, shake shake" "heehee!! heehee!" -- until one of his giggles coincided with a spit-up. The result? Milk out the nose! It was hilarious, although he was a little startled by the new sensation.

Tomorrow night he's due to attend his second baseball game at RFK stadium.

Redep-what?

Geez, some people. You go a couple of days without a blog entry and your fans turn on you in a heartbeat.

Anyway, I haven't blogged in a few days because I've been busy, and besides, I haven't had much news to share. That all changed today, because I'm...

Redeployed!

Redep-what? Redeployed. It's my company's fancy word for laid off. Sounds much fancier. Personally, I think it's a petty way of stealing military lingo to make things sound more official. Soldiers get redeployed (which, oddly enough, means they have a job to do). Office workers just get canned.

I really can't complain. I was more-than-ready to make a career change, and my soon-to-be-former employer is quite generous with redeployment. Probably because they have enough disgruntled customers out there; they don't need disgruntled ex-employees too.

In any event, I could possibly remain on the payroll for several more months, at the end of which I'd get a severance package. So it's a pretty good deal -- basically, getting paid to look for a job, then getting paid extra when I find one.

The bad news? I'm not such a fan of writing cover letters. The good news? I'm hoping to find a job that's a much better fit for me, and my faithful audience will probably get to indulge in more frequent blog entries.

And for the record: Blogging during working hours was not cited as a reason for my termination!

In the news

Some doof is pushing torts into ever-more ridiculous territory. Did I mention that said doof happens to be a judge?

The NRA wants to convince you that suspected terrorists should be allowed to buy guns. After all, how can we know for sure that a would-be terrorist has evil intentions unless we give him a fair chance to kill some people?

Number Five is... alive!

The Roll-over

The boy demonstrated a new talent today. For the first time, he managed to get from laying on his back (as we always put him to sleep) to face-down by the time we got to him in the morning.

This is quite a momentous occasion in baby development, or so I'm told. I think it's celebrated because it's clearly a developmental milestone, but it doesn't come with the inherent dangers of crawling or walking (at which time everything in the house becomes a potential projectile, or worse).

Seth celebrated his roll-over by getting upset. I suspect he may have startled himself. And despite that he's frequently demonstrated an ability to roll the other way (front-to-back), he chose not to do so this morning. However, once he was helped to a face-up position, he showed a new dexterity in putting his pacifier into his mouth, removing it, and repeating.

It's worth noting that he also had his first taste of "food I'd eat myself" last night -- in this case, mashed sweet potato. Coincidence, or are yams an unappreciated brain-food in infants?

I don't mean to make light of the numerous developmental milestones. It really is exciting to watch him grow. His growth is so rapid, and yet gradual -- he might grow an inch or two, but we don't realize it until he gets measured or outgrows his clothing. But the milestones (like rolling over) really give us a tangible moment to realize his growth.

The World Traveler

Rachel and I are planning to bring The Boy to Israel this summer on his first international trip. Thanks to tighter travel regulations from the State Department, all international travelers of any age must have a passport.

Today, eleven weeks since we submitted his application, his passport finally arrived. This is a great relief both for us and for the travel agency that is planning the trip.

There's something funny about a passport for an infant, and it's not just that he's expected to sign it. Passports for children have a five-year expiration.

As you may have noticed, babies look different almost week-by-week as they grow. When we leave for Israel, Seth will be seven months old and look very little like his passport photo, which had to be taken at about ten weeks of age in order to get his passport in plenty of time for our trip. How recognizable will the photo of this two-month-old be when he's four years old?

You've been traded!

I've been reluctant to delve into the sports world here, since that's not the focus of this blog. But as several of my loyal readers know, I'm a fan of the Atlanta Braves.

A few days ago, the Braves traded their slumping Left Fielder, Ryan Langerhans, to Oakland for cash and/or the notorious "player to be named later", which incidentally, I think would make a great name for a hip-hop artist.

Today, Oakland traded Langerhans to the Washington Nationals for OF Chris Snelling. I fully realize that professional athletes are accustomed to a lot of travel, but it must be a little exhausting to be traded to a team that's at the far other side of the country, only to be traded back to the East Coast a few days later.

This got me to thinking... what if other industries had trade arrangements?

"Well, Frank, I hate to be the one to tell you, but we've decided to trade you to TGI Friday's."
"But I've been working for Ruby Tuesday for three years!"
"And we do appreciate it. But Friday's needs a good short-order cook, and they're sending us a top hostess and a busboy-to-be-named-later."
"I don't know what to say -- I'm shocked. Which Fridays am I going to? The one downtown?"
"Well, actually... you've been picked up by their outlet in Billings, Montana. Pack warm!"

I guess there are certain elements of job stability that you have to give up in return for that $380,000 minimum salary...

The next time-waster

From a blog post on Woot:

It's the latest addictive time-wasting online game.

Speaking of which, here's a really long list of time-wasting online games. My favorites include Micro Pac-Man, Fishy, and Guess-the-Google -- Kill Time is pretty amusing too.

Here's to parent-teacher conference night!

A very good reason to visit your child's school.


Personally, I think it was just a very clever, sustainable way to maintain her supply of students.

Free Beer!!!

Okay, so there is no free beer. But now that I have your attention, here's the next-best thing:

Cheap Ice Cream!

Today from 5PM til 10PM, Baskin Robbins is offering scoops for $0.31. It's part of a promotion to raise money for the Fallen Firefighters Foundation, which sounds like a great (and delightfully alliterative) cause.

So get out there and do your part!

Thanks to the lovely and talented Rachel for this tip.

Update: Is it just me, or did old-school keyboards have the ¢ (cent) symbol? I'm pretty sure of it... I think it's a conspiracy to cover up the effects of inflation. The Man (not to be confused with The Boy) had the ¢ symbol removed from our keyboards so we'll think in terms of dollars. Now you have to go into the extended symbol set to find ¢. Well I'm bucking the trend: Baskin Robbins will have scoops for 31¢!!

Update 2: Thank you, kind Mr. or Ms. Anonymous. I've corrected my mistake.
"That's Babar."
"Two B's?"
"One B. B-A-B-A-R"
"That's two."
"Yeah, but not right next to each other. I thought that's what you meant."

The Boy's got an appetite

One of the remarkable things about babies is how much they eat. Relative to their size, it's really pretty remarkable.

Seth's been eating about 5 or 6 bottles a day, each around 6.5 ounces. That's roughly 30-40 ounces per day. Or, as I like to think of it, 3 cans of Coke. I'm pretty sure I've gone 24 hours on roughly the same amount of nourishment in the past. And my weight is more than an order of magnitude greater than his.

Anyway, he's been eating more frequently lately, so we decided to experiment this week. On Tuesday, we sent him to daycare with 9 ounce bottles instead of the usual 6.5 ounces. Of course, he drank 3 bottles dry. I guess that's his way of saying "Finally, you people got the message!"

To further confirm his satisfaction with 9 ounce bottles, The Boy decided to sleep until after 8:00 this morning. That's 1-2 hours later than usual. And he went to bed on time, before 8:00 PM. So we've learned our lesson -- he's graduated to the range of 40-50 ounces per day. And that's with a body weight of around 15 or 16 lb. He's also started Rice Cereal, although he doesn't seem to be a big fan... and we cooked up some sweet potato mush that he may get to try this week.

In other news, I came home this morning and grabbed a Dannon yogurt, coffee-flavored, from the fridge. Now I have no one to blame but myself, since I bought the stuff... but boy, is this a bad choice for a yogurt flavor. It tastes like bad coffee, and looks just like something we'd find in The Boy's diaper. Unlike egg and bread -- two breakfast foods that combine deliciously in breakfast sandwiches -- coffee and yogurt are much better as separate items.