Also, Alibelle, I just gave a stack of romancey type books away. Or a few. I may have more (I think I do). If you wanted to come over and meet Noah and get books, I could do that.

I would love that! I have a bunch of things I have to do today, so I'll call you later if I can make it, and see what you're up to.

Happy Birthday, Emmett! You share your birthday with the Boss! (i.e., Bruuuuuce)

I went running with my sister, and introduced the new dog to my sister's huge St. Bernard. This went better than it might have, if not as well as I hoped for--she ran away from him for a while, and then when she did let him approach, after a bit she snapped at him a little bit, although she never connected. I think it'll be a while before they can be left unsupervised together, and even longer before she's willing to actually play. We'll do more play-dates this week, I think.

And now I have to make fruitcake. Yum!

I get sprung in an hour! And there are crocs and hippopotami on the TV. Sure, I'm cranky and overheated, but no migraine.

Hippos sweat sunblock. And can frolic unmolested around crocs. I think they're crocs. I always forget.

Happy birthday, Emmett!

Yay freedom! And yay no migraine!

Happy Birthday, Emmett! You share your birthday with the Boss! (i.e., Bruuuuuce)

He does. Also John Coltrane and Ray Charles.

Probably a mistake I didn't sign him up for music lessons.

Yay to being sprung!

Hippos sweat sunblock.

I so need this. I usually sweat it off.

Give us free! And a washcloth and toothpaste.

Well, I'll settle for not being hooked up to the monitors. Couldn't have visited Grace like this, but maybe I'd look a touch familiar with my blinking and beeping.

Cereal:

Can Worchester Sauce go bad? We're talking a bottle that is younger than Emmett, but older than Benno.

I think that they are crocs too - if it's the Nile. And why wouldn't it be?

Are alligators only in the western hemisphere?

I was confused by Emmett having his party yesterday - so Happy Birthday again Emmett!

An MIT-led team of planetary scientists has found that the southern pole of Mars contains the largest deposit of frozen water in the inner solar system, outside of Earth.

[link]

Huh? So more ice than on Mercury and Venus? Or does the "inner solar system" include the asteroid belt?

Anyway, this part is interesting:

The new results show that water, not carbon dioxide, is the predominant frozen liquid found in the southern polar region of Mars, said Maria Zuber, MIT professor of geophysics.

Zuber said scientists have suspected that the southern polar cap of Mars is comprised of a thin veneer of carbon dioxide that rests atop a layer of dust and ice. However, scientists have also observed a surrounding area much larger than the polar cap that is dark and smooth, and it was uncertain whether that region was also composed of dust or ice--or both.

"What we found is that water ice is the dominant constituent beneath a thin dust veneer," said Zuber, lead author of a paper on the work appearing in the Sept. 21 issue of Science.

Yay frozen liquid water!