Saturday, May 29, 2010

Belated Flashback Friday: A Very Important Day

Short and sweet: The day when our lives changed forever.


"November 14, 2004
LSU GOT THE FACEBOOK!!!
thefacebook.com"

Thursday, May 27, 2010

it's fun to stay at the...

My lunch break usually goes a little something like this:



Therefore, while what I'm about to tell you may not sound all that exciting to you, keep the photo above in mind when I say I feel like my lunch breaks this week should have made the national news. Or at least the local news. Okay, maybe my relative sense of severity is off but what do you expect? I'm at the point where I'm making up star-crossed love stories of pretzel heir/esses. Give me a break.

My boss is out of town, and my night classes start next week (and with them starts no hope of my going to the gym after work) so I decided to test out whether I could get to the downtown YMCA branch (which I had never been to) for a pilates class at noon and back to my office within an hour.

So I Google mapped my directions out; it would take 6 minutes to get there.

Turns out "there", which Google maps told me was the Y, was a homeless shelter. I figured this out as I got out of the car with my bright green, flowery yoga mat and noticed lots of... dirty people standing around outside.

I couldn't bring myself to believe that Google Maps had failed me -- was I going to have to start using MapQuest?? -- so I decided that the logical reason for all of these homeless people was that the YMCA must be next to the YWCA, which I knew had a shelter of some kind. So my increasingly lame yoga mat and I went inside.

Yeah, it was a homeless shelter. Just a plain old, non-YMCA affiliated homeless shelter.


NOT A GYM.

The lady that worked there gave me directions to the actual Y. I got lost and confused because there were movie trucks lining most of the streets I needed to turn down - Butter (whose movie set Yoni and I happened to stumble upon once), was filming somewhere downtown. When I finally got to my pilates class, 20 minutes late for a 45 minute class, I discovered where exactly the movie was filming: in the pilates workout room.

The movie crew had infested the gym, and I tiptoed around them, thinking I might see someone famous. Nope. Just a lot of racks of clothing you might see at a butter carving contest.

While looking around, I noticed what an interesting old building I was in. I was sort of teetering on whether I thought it had a lot of character or was just plain creepy. When I asked one of the guys who worked there to show me where the pilates classes had been relocated to, he took me up some really narrow stairs to a platform above the building.


And as he started to lead me up the next flight of stairs, I had to ask him if he was kidnapping me.


By the way, I decided on "just plain creepy".

On my way to the locker room after my workout, I passed a bank of directors' chairs where Kristen Schaal was sitting. You might know her from The Daily Show, Flight of the Conchords, or Modern Family, as poor Manny's date that didn't quite work out.


My celebrity sighting fix satiated, I felt like I was ready to end my adventures and go back to The Office. As I was changing clothes, a woman (who was dressed for a county fair, not a workout) came in and checked her lipstick. She looked incredibly familiar... like an aunt, or the wife of my refrigerator supplier. Then it clicked.


Yep, I had just been staring open mouthed, with no shirt on, at Phyllis from The Office.

How was your lunch break?


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

pretzel wars



Well, it's official. Y and I have run out of things to talk about. Since he's been studying for his boards, we both spend our days locked in closet sized rooms with no windows. He
could tell me about why practice question X was unfair or too hard, but I try to discourage that since I don't speak medicalese. And I could tell him how many times we change one little sentence in something we're editing at work, but well, that's boring.


So when we meet for lunch outside of the med school where I work and he studies, the conversation is pretty much nonexistent. The other day I was checking my Nalgene bottle for leaks while he was reading the back of his bag of pretzels. "Snyders of Hanover," he read, "Not to be confused with Snyders of Berlin. I wonder why they need to put that on the bag." I shrugged. "Probably some tragic, pretzel-based Romeo and Juliet." We spent the next 15 minutes discussing theories of why Snyders of Hanover didn't want to be associated with Snyders of Berlin. And then we went back to our caves.

All in all, a successful lunch break. Join us next time as we debate whether PBJs should be cut into rectangles or triangles (triangles).

Monday, May 24, 2010

the good husband

The other day, after I had cleaned out our refrigerator, Yoni informed me that I had put the yogurt in the wrong place: in the door shelf. You should probably put it towards the back of the refrigerator where it's colder. How sweet, right? He was making sure our yogurt didn't go bad and we didn't get sick. The perfect, neurotic husband.

The next time I looked in the refrigerator, Yoni had moved all of his yogurts to the back of the fridge...



...and left mine to rot in the door. THANKS.



Friday, May 21, 2010

flashback friday: When I grow up

I said this a few blogs ago: I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

Well, it turns out I never did. When I was growing up, I swore I wanted to be a vet until I realized that being a vet requires science. Science and I don't really get along.

In high school, we had to keep a journal and answer questions asked by the teacher each day. One of those was the dreaded "what do you want to be" question. I wrote, "An MTV VJ so I can meet lots of celebrities." Since we were -- for some reason -- graded on our innermost thoughts, when I got my journal back, "Shallow goal" was scrawled in red ink.

Luckily, the rest of my career path changes were documented:

2/18/02
I really want to be on the real world. While most people would hate this, I would love to be followed around by cameras and have my life and relationships analyzed. I wouldn't worry about not being interesting, because they throw things at you to make it interesting. Think of the amazing bonds you would have with your roommates. That's something you definitely couldn't get anywhere else. Plus, the houses are always amazing. I love watching the first episode where everyone gets to the house and is like speechless at the rooms and the furniture and stuff.

5/4/03
I met a girl who works at the sonic by my house and she got like a whole bunch of money(i cant remember if it was 80 or 50 dollars) in tips. i want to work at sonic!!!!!!!

5/28/03
today i went to the mall and applied to some places. i want to work at adopt a bear!!! actually id really like to work at smoothie king or american eagle!!

[Those entries were apparently B.SATC... before Sex and the City.]

7/26/03
one day i will walk(in my manolo blahniks) down busy streets to work. then at night, ill sip martinis out of posh glasses...still wearing my manolo blahniks.


3/13/04
and last but not least, ive decided that when i grow up im gonna be like carrie and write a column for a newspaper. except i dont want to go through all those journalism classes. i dont want to interview people, and all that jazz, i just want to write about my life. and turn all my little adventures into deeper, column worthy stories. just like carrie.

4/5/04
i'm officially quitting school and becoming a maid. for the past three hours ive been cleaning my bathroom, and i dont meant just cleaning it, i mean HANDS AND KNEES using a toothbrush and bleach to scrub the stuff between the tiles. what's that stuff called? is it grommet? i think i heard that, but then isn't that what the holes that you put shoelaces through are called? i think thats just the universal name for anything you don't really know the name of. oh ps im cleaning the bathroom at my house, not my apartment, just so you know which grommits to compliment!

[Pretty sure I meant "grout"]

4/22/04

ive decided to drop out of school again and become a juice taster. how amazing would that be?! [Really? "amazing?"] maybe ill open my own juice/smoothie store. i have this whole dream ahead of me... right now im drinking cranberry raspberry fuze- just for the record, its ok, it kind of makes your mouth feel slippery and sticky at the same time.

5/4/04
i'm going to drop out of college and go to beauty school! after i went to the hair school to get my bangs cut for cheap, i decided i wanted to be a hairstylist, then i scratched that and found my true calling as a chef - i think i could make breakfast in bed all day for the rest of my life , and as of last night im joining the pussycat dolls. what are they? i mean it cant be that hard, they don't even dance in synch. if that doesn't work out, i can make a living designing and selling picture frames!

2/28/05
so i have a plan- after i graduate, (since ill never get a job) ill apply for ten thousand internships in new york, chicago, and dallas. then ill move to dallas for a year, live in a studio apartment, work at jamba juice by night, and be the little bitch to an advertising agency by day- hit the gym on my lunch break and order take out sushi every night. this will be the first half of my life, and at the end ill make a cheesy soundtrack for my life, seduce matthew mcoughnaghy in my sweet bachelorette pad and call it a romantic comedy. and when i get bored of being a corporate career woman, ill go down the desperate housewife road, check out a few gardeners, you know how it goes.

In 2007 I was quoted in a local magazine:

Health care communications is drawing more women. Recent [journalism school] graduate Daci 23, spent the last year working in public relations at [ad agency], but she will pursue a graduate degree in public health this fall to balance her PR background. “I’ve become passionate about health, and I want to find ways to get the message out about healthy behavior,” she says.


Let's be real. I was obviously misquoted. My original quote went something like this:

OMG can you believe 1 of the olsen twins is anorexic?!? i must help her. in grad school, i will learn how to teach anorexic girls to love their bodies -- and maybe even lizzie mcguire too!! what if she has an eating disorder??? omg. no lizzie! you're beautiful! anyway, i'm going to go to grad school and it will be just like on tv. like on grey's anatomy, how they are doctors? they had to go to grad school too! and maybe i'll marry a neurosurgeon. sigh...



I'm calling on anyone with a blog who reads this to participate in Flashback Friday! It doesn't have to be a journal, old pictures would be pretty funny too.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

does that make me crazy, part 2

Poor Y. An inevitable side effect of being a med student is that they start to imagine they have the symptoms of each disease they study. Usually after a few days, they realize their chronic fatigue is probably a result of excessive studying not cancer, and they can move on.

Well this phenomenon finally happened to Y. Sort of. He experienced a symptom, we blew it off, he started studying psychiatry, and now his study tools are urging him to get help.

See, after Y revealed his conversation with The Situation and we all had a good laugh about it, he texted me about another conversation with a celebrity. I'm guessing they, too, discussed their plans for GTL :

Just had a conversation with King George III

Or not.

A few hours later, Y showed me this screencap of part of a practice Boards question. Hint: the answer was schizophrenia.



Edited to add: Y just informed me he was wrong; the answer was that the guy was on LSD. So not only is excessive studying making him crazy, he's not even getting the answers right.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

blah, blah, blahg*


You know how people say dogs start to look like their owners?


Well, I think my blog is starting to
act like me. It can't decide what genre of blog it wants to belong to: Healthy eating, where the food I consume daily gets listed in hopes of inspiring others to eat like me? Sounds kind of boring, but you should see the free samples Carrots n Cake gets ;) Fashion, where I take pictures of my outfits and list what stores they came from? It may seem shallow, but some of my favorite blogs like Kendi Everyday and The Chloe Conspiracy get it right. Cooking? Where I document the recipes I make so you can, too? Sure, except a) I'm a terrible cook, and b) When I do cook or bake, I get most of my recipes from Annie's Eats or Homemade by Holman, so you might as well just read their blogs.

Okay, so maybe my dog resembling owner analogy wasn't the best. My blog is obviously ADD because it's my puppet, and I'M blog ADD.

Keeping up with the number of blogs I subscribe to is like a second job; I read blogs that review books, in anticipation that someday I'll read
The Diary of Anne Frank and can not feel guilty about reading for pleasure. I read the aforementioned (and then some) cooking and fashion blogs. I even read blogs on organizing in the hopes they will make me organized. I read articles that are linked to from the handful of public health blogs I read. And I read Perez Hilton because, well, I'm addicted. My name is Daci, and I'm a blogaholic.

I guess I feel like I my little blog has to keep up with the ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE blogs (on 10 different topics) that I subscribe to. A random sampling from my iPhoto "possible pictures for blog" folder can attest to that.

Pictures taken in case my blog decides to be a cooking blog:



Or a house blog:



Or a fashion blog:


But when it comes down to it, I think my favorite blogs are the ones where totally normal people manage to keep me entertained by sharing their completely normal lives. And since I don't really excel at anything (except maybe owning a cute dog), well, that's really my only option.

All this to say that I hope my little blog audience won't judge the randomness and ADD, because it's not going away. Have I mentioned I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up? More on that later.



*I'm aware that blah, blah, blahg is the name of a blog. I read that one too.

Monday, May 17, 2010

discussing flashcards with the dog, and other studying side effects


I've heard horror stories about what it would be like to live with someone studying for the exam Y is currently studying for. But honestly? It hasn't been that bad. Well, for me at least. Y's been having imaginary conversations with Jersey Shore cast members, so you be the judge in his case.

Pros:


He studies so much during the day, that he takes nights off (usually, he goes to class all day and studies most of the night). This means we get to actually hang out, and do things like see weird, weird movies (Greenberg) and do yoga. not that yoga is a competition, but, uh, he's beating me
.


He wakes up at 6 am, and I can't help but get up with him. This might seem like a con, but it gives me 4 hours of free time before work. I read, I make myself a huge breakfast, and I work out. It's a pretty sweet setup.

Since the test is written, I'm not a guinea pig for any physical tests. Yoni has been known to wander over to me when I'm minding my own business and just start banging on my knee with his stupid little doctor hammer.


Cons:

He's set up his computer so that he can't access the internet. Which means that I'm doing double the surfing duty, and occasionally my tabs look like this:


He thinks that with all of his evening free time, he can hog the tv. Especially on Tuesday nights. Sorry buddy, Glee > Justified.


Neutral


Because of his free time in the evenings, we can go to friends' weddings. (Pro)

However while in the car for two hours round trip on the way to said wedding, we listen to med school lectures. (Con)


Don't I look thrilled to be learning about melanoma in the palms of African Americans?

He discusses flash cards with the dog. This is funny (pro), if not slightly unsettling (con). But if you'll remember, Ike is into that sort of brainy stuff.



Sunday, May 16, 2010

the oatmeal fairy


Y and I have developed a really mature way of dealing with each other's habit of leaving stuff out on the counter.

The first time it happened -- okay, this was probably the 800th time it had happened, but the first time it bothered Y enough to confront me -- he yelled into the other room, "What, do you think the OATMEAL FAIRY is going to come by tonight and put away your oatmeal?"



Since then, here are a few conversations that have been heard around our house:

Me: Oh, I didn't realize we were having guests over today!
Y: What? Who?
Me: THE KETCHUP FAIRY AND THE MILK FAIRY.

Me: Ooh, I can't wait to meet this one. I bet she's hot.
Y: Uh, who?
Me: THE COFFEE FAIRY.

Me: Oh, this will be nice! I bet they will really get along.
Y: Who?
Me: THE PEANUT BUTTER FAIRY AND THE JELLY FAIRY.

Me: Did you leave the door unlocked?
Y: What? Why?
Me: How else is the SPLENDA PACKET FAIRY going to get inside?

I bet he is so sorry he started this.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Flashback Friday: Speaking of Lindsay Lohan

Looks like I owe Lizzie McGuire an apology as well. She wasn't the only tv princess in my heart:


April 22, 2004

first and most importantly, i know ive said before that the olsen twins were not very cute babies- i would like you to know i fully retract that statement!! they were definitely, officially the cutest babbas ever!!!

btw i can NOT tell them apart!!! how do you do it, someone teach me!!

April 27, 2004

by the way - did anyone else try to download 'i cant wait' by hilary duff and end up with WHAT IF GOD WAS ONE OF US by joan osborne?!!? who does that?? who lies to poor innocent hilary duff fans like that?

May 1, 2004

sorry guys ...

lindsay lohan is the new hilary duff.

May 2, 2004

ps where can i start buying big drapey dresses like the olsen twins wear? oh wait, that only works when you're 5'1'' and 95 lbs. oh well. ew i always read my journals after i write them and HATE the way i sound... but hey what can i do, im obnoxious. oh well.

I completely remember buying that brown blazer because I remember seeing one of the Olsen twins in a blazer in a tabloid.

May 24, 2004 [Are you as shocked as I am that I went 22 days without mentioning a teen idol?]

i have a new role model. her name is lorelai gilmore, can i PLEASE be her when i grow up?

May 30th, 2004
by the way im officially obsessed with cameron diaz. shes hilarious, she seems like she would be the most fun person in the entire world. plus shes the only person in the world to make tartan look cute. pretty sure i need to be her when i grow up.

June 4, 2004

speaking of lindsay lohan.. i was just thinking about how in mean girls, janice insisted on saying cady's name like it was pronounced... "caddy"...like "catty". smooth, tina fey.



If you're sick of hearing about child stars, don't worry, this will probably be the last recap of my early 20s days of idolizing teenagers (and Cameron Diaz). I wax poetic on many, many other topics.

Also, I'm just going to throw out a giant, comprehensive [SIC].

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Welcome back! Who are you??

Confession: I just finished a book. It wasn't The Diary of Anne Frank. It was also about a talking dog (well, a crazy woman who imagines her dog talking).

Sounds pretty silly, right? It was. But it was used (aka cheap) at Powell's (aka heaven). The author's sarcasm and cynicism turned what could be an incredibly silly book into just a slightly silly book. It didn't hurt that a lot of the conversations with the dog in Walking in Circles Before Lying Down were the SAME conversations that this crazy lady has had with her dog.


"Okay Ike, I realize you don't have any thumbs, but this is NOT that difficult."


A few of my favorite lines from the book (dog's voice in italics):

The scene: someone new shows up.
"Thank God you're finally here! We missed you! Where have you been? Welcome back! Who are you??"


"Can I ask you a personal question that's been bothering me?"
"Sure."
"Why do you not strew your garbage around?"




"We see things differently. That's just the way it is. I don't get why you pull the eyes out of stuffed animals."
"Seriously? You really don't get it? The eyes are the caviar of the stuffed animal. If I don't grab em right away, someone else will!"


"Before you pass out from a life that is too exhausting to bear, can I get a favor?"
"I guess so," I said.
He placed a soggy, muddy teddy bear that was missing its face very gently on my chest.
"Throw this."
So I did.


Saturday, May 8, 2010

guilt trip from my dog

I think Ike has figured out my dirty little secret.

See, Ike lives here.




He's never shown any interest in sniffing or chewing on any of the books above his bed until a few months ago, when he chose one book from one of the stacks to bring to me in the living room.


Can you see the title?




Why did he want me to have this book? Is it because he knows that I happen to be looking for a new book to read? Does he somehow know that this Jewish girl, who went to Sunday school and Hebrew school and participated in 4378453 Holocaust programs at Jewish summer camp and SHARES THE SAME BIRTHDAY AS ANNE FRANK has never read her diary! I mean, I've been to her house! How did they let me in??



So, thanks to a guilt trip from my dog, I swore I would read this for the first time. Six months have passed, and well, I haven't read it. I think it's time. Maybe I can have a book club with a local 5th grade Sunday school class.


Friday, May 7, 2010

Flashback Friday: This is What Dreams are Made of

If you were my friend when I was 18-23, I need to apologize.

When I was looking back through old journals for my bright idea of Flashback Friday, I realized that I used to be (maybe I still am) really, really annoying. But the specific reason I'm apologizing is that when I looked at my journals from this month in 2002 - 2004, I realized that I mentioned Lizzie McGuire, the Olsen Twins, or Lindsay Lohan in NEARLY EVERY ENTRY. I'm not exaggerating. How did anyone put up with me?

Below, May 2003: The Aftermath of The Lizzie McGuire Movie.


May 4th, 2003 11:28 pm
i think all of my friends saw lizzie mcguire this weekend. but not me :(


May 11th, 2003
6:05 pm

it seems that me seeing this dumb movie [Lizzie McGuire] was just not meant to be.


May 12th, 2003 7:24 pm
i finally saw lizzie. i hate her. she is a shot to everyone's self esteem.


May 15, 2003 4:22 pm
omg the matrix reloaded was awesome!!!@@@! **
the other day i was like, when i grow up i want to be lizzie mcguire.
now im like, i wanna be trinity!! i want to be both.


[**Present Daci note: One day I should compile all of my "movie reviews", because I found similar in-depth reviews of Shrek 2, Finding Nemo, The Italian Job, and X-Men 2. I also found an entire entry describing how I was in love with Nightcrawler from X-Men 2, but I'm just going to leave that alone.]

May 24, 2003 3:10 am
watching ange dance+sonic w/ loud obnoxious boys+watching lizzie for the third time!+dressing like lizzie+not being a spaz like lizzie+realizing that we'll never be lizzie



June 2003: road trip to Texas. We decided that 1) our cowboy hats were awesome, and 2) the Olsen Twins were better than Lizzie McGuire. So naturally, if you were wearing your hat you were an Olsen Twin. If you took it off, you were a Lizzie. Sigh. Really, Daci??


And, bonus! May 17, 2002 I was in California visiting my brother and sister-in-law and I guess I had Lizzie on the brain then, too:

11:58 pm
We drove down the 405 like OJ in his white Bronco! And i went to the club where Lizzie McGuire hangs out!
OH i saw where the guy who created friends lives. he has a fountain in his front yard. There are so many malls here, WEEEEE!

~May 2002.


If you couldn't tell from the title of this post, from now on I'll dig out more treasures from my past journals every Friday. Stay tuned - I just get cooler and cooler.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

does that make me crazy?

Not too much has been going on in the Dandy household lately -- just your basic high school med school activities like prom 2nd Year Ball. Now I sort of joke about how med school seems like high school to me - they see the same people everyday, and there are even cliques -- but I can admit that I exaggerate. But a BACKDROP at your formal? Come on. Now you're just asking for it.



Once prom was over, it was time to start studying for SATs Step I, which from what I understand is pretty much the most important test ever. This is the first part of the boards, and 2nd year med students get six weeks off to study for it. And when I say 6 weeks off, I mean, Y locks himself in a room in the library and studies from 7 am to 5 pm, 7 days a week -- and sometimes after he gets home, too. Some people even spend thousands of dollars and go to what I think of as Study Camp, and what sounds like a Kaplan or Princeton Review course for 8 hours/day, 7 days/week for at least a month.


It's times like these I feel really lucky that I never had any desire to go to med school. I'm pretty positive I would go crazy having to study that much. Apparently... Y's the same way. As proof, I'll leave you with this text message conversation:

Y: I just had an imaginary argument.
Me: With who?
Y: The Situation.
Me: Um... about what?
Y: He made fun of me for not being ripped, so I told him he was a waste of space. Then he said I was lame for studying all the time*.




*To be fair, I have imaginary conversations all the time -- but in a "things I should have said" sort of way, not a "Tuesdays with The Situation" kind of way.


Sunday, May 2, 2010

Yoga Pose May

One night (morning?) in New Orleans, some guy told me I looked like I did yoga. I don't exactly know what he meant by that, since I was wearing an outfit that, in retrospect, looked like something out of Hilary Clinton's closet.


Boyfriend blazer photographs as a pantsuit. Noted.


Well, creepy guy in New Orleans, it turns out I don't do yoga. My stance on exercise has always been
if I want to fall asleep during it, it's not exercise. Standing around like a flamingo in a dark room = wanting to fall asleep.

But then, I tried it. And I
guess I could have fallen asleep, if I wasn't standing on my head. Or supporting my body weight with my arms for what felt like 3 hours straight. I ate my words after that class, because my other stance on exercise is, If I can't use my arms for three days straight after a workout, it's exercise.

It worked out that just when I decided to make yoga part of my routine, one of the [zillions of] blogs I read regularly, Carrots n Cake, decided to host a blog-wide yoga pose challenge. Each day, a few bloggers will post about a "pose of the day", in hopes of encouraging their readers to try yoga. Not a bad idea -- I haven't even posted my pictures yet, and I know I've already inspired one, um, person:




Today's pose was Warrior III. Here is my novice interpretation of it:


As usual, Ike has to be center stage.


And here's what it's supposed to look like (& a description):





I have two goals by the time I get the hang of yoga. 1) Find a mountaintop to practice on. 2) Be able to actually keep my back straight. And 3), look half as good as the teacher of the Piyo class I just went to, who looks like
Kristen Chenowith might in 15 years if she were to keep up a mild steroid regimen.

The other bloggers highlighting this pose today are Marathon Val, Two Feet Ten Toes, It All Changes, and Savvy Eats, who I'm sure all have more yoga experience than just wearing a pantsuit out to the French Quarter.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

hero

You may have noticed I was MIA for awhile and I have a very good excuse, I promise. Not only did I, as usual, procrastinate on studying for my exams and writing my papers for grad school, I've been saving babies.

Okay, fine. I saved one baby. On my way home from work the other night, a little boy around 2 years old and a dog crossed the street in front of me. I stopped, and waited for the adult that was sure to follow... and waited. And waited. There was no adult.

This is how I know I suck at snap decisions: my first thought was "Aw, this boy and his dog are embarking on an epic journey where they will encounter lots of talking animals and arrive home safely a few days later!"

Luckily, the part of me who's watched a few too many Disney movies was joined by Rational Me, and together we decided we should probably do something. I rolled my window down and asked the boy where his mommy was. He looked at me very seriously and pointed to his dog.

"DOGGIE!"

His "doggie" was a snarling pitbull who had walked up to my car window and was barking furiously at me. I had always heard pitbulls were mean, but I refused to believe it.



I called Y to stay on the line with me in case this was some kind of reverse abduction plan - babies are lured with candy; people like me are lured with babies. Y reminded me that where we live, this was a normal occurrence. More than once, I've seen an infant riding on the handlebars of a bike being steered by a 5 year old. No shirt, no shoes, certainly no helmet. Y said I shouldn't risk getting eaten by the anti-Ike, but I kind of felt like I had to do something.

So, I knocked on a few doors and finally found a man in a wifebeater, halfway down the street from where the little boy was, who seemed shocked that his baby, who had just been "out back", had escaped. I wanted to offer my words of wisdom ("Don't leave your baby out back.") but figured he got the point.

Anyway, the moral of my story is, before you nag someone about updating their blog, THINK OF THE BABIES.