Owen's class is having Occupation Week. I'm going to speak tomorrow about being a stay-at-home-mom. And I'm going to read Mars Needs Moms.

AH looks positively adorable pregnant and that dress is to die for. I can't imagine how freakin' beautiful that child is going to be.

OK, who else read the above paragraph and thought, "Just like that episode of Star Trek" ?

Not me! I thought, "Staph's been cured by a Hooloovoo!"

I can't imagine how freakin' beautiful that child is going to be.

Totally. And yeah, that's a gorgeous maternity dress.

Blago's just been convicted by the IL Senate. Now they're voting on whether or not to bar him from holding public office in the state in the future.

The highway people are going to be covering up the signs with his name emblazoned on them tonight and taking them down very soon.

Timelies all!

Have a bit of a sore throat. Bleah.

Scola, that's a wonderful picture. I love it.

And now, for some Israeli election politics humor I felt like sharing: my university's paper made fun of the stickers of the parties. I'm translating (with explanations):

Original: Liberman: I believe (in) him
Parody: Liberman: I believe (in) him (and therefor afraid)

Original: Netanyahu: Strong in security, strong in economy
Parody: Netanyahu: Strong in security, strong in economy, strong on the weaks in general (in Hebrew, "strong on" means "taking advantage of")

Original: Barak: Seeing clearly (literally in Hebrew: looking to the truth in its eyes)
Parody: Barak: Seeing clearly and yet on the race

Original: Yes. We can (but it has nothing to do with the parody)
Parody: Shas: If you're not voting for us, you're gay

Ra'am: Because dead Arabs get votes not only for the Zionists

Hadash: For bicycle lanes in Tel Aviv (and the destruction of Israel)

And I saw too much stickers for Livni, saying, in English, "Belivni".

< /60 seconds on election politics. As you were>

Question for medical types: Do pain drugs like ibuprofen and various OTC types mask the pain or do they do something about the cause. I see the ads that say, "I couldn't play tennis, but then I took Brand X and I'm on the court," and I think, sure, you can now play on that damaged tendon and do more damage. I suppose it's my Puritan upbringing that only whimps took drugs when you hurt. So am I suffering stupidly when my hands hurt and I don't take anything or am I relieving the cause when I down a couple of ibuprofen?

Depends on the drugs, Connie. Some are anti-inflammatories, which may help the symptoms as well as mask the pain, whereas others merely mask the pain.

MY SiL who is a nurse who has rheumatoid arthritis takes anti-inflammatories more for that than for the pain. So, yeah, you might want to look into that.

I'm on the keyboard all day, and sometimes I'm fine and sometimes it hurts, especially when the weather's changing. Poor Hubby, at home in a narcotic haze and he still hurts. I suppose it's time to check for actual arthritis.

Yeah, Advil and Motrin will cut down the inflammation, at least temporarily. They're NSAIDs, which is the same class of drugs as the ones usually prescribed for arthritis.