Motor Vehicle Administration. Had to go do an emissions test.

Kristen and I have very different dog-raising disciplines.

Kristen has purchased a doggie car seat and several dog training books. She watches the Dog Whisperer faithfully.

My approach is more like, "Whatever. She's a dog. She poops a lot."

Motor Vehicle Administration. Had to go do an emissions test

Oh, me too. But I did mine at a gas station.

Now that I think about it, I think I went to Target during the Super Bowl last year, in hopes that it wouldn't be crowded. Sadly for me, it didn't work out that way.

Doggie car seat! That seems really cute.

Does anyone know something good to do with chicken leg quarters? Last time I threw them in some crock pot lentil stew and they were good, but they got slimy and tendony. Maybe cutting them apart is the answer?

I wish I could find somebody local who wants to go to IKEA or Old Sturbridge Village with me tomorrow, because they're both likely to be deserted....

Actually target is not so bad, at least not yet.

We are replacing our vanity top in the bathroom today! The one there is one of those plastic fake-marble ones which has lots of chips and stains and I have wanted to replace it since we moved in. The bathroom has dark beige tiles, and the woodwork is all a warm off-white, so it's hard to find something to match. We went to Lowe's last night and after much waffling bought this one: [link] a granite top which has brown, gold and cream flecks, with a white sink. I hope it looks good and I REALLY hope we can install it with no mistakes.

Interesting. This article about the octuplets mentions the mother's name. [link] Haven't seen that anywhere in mainstream media before. And it's weirdly buried way down in the middle of the article. (It's actually not that difficult to find. I got curious yesterday, since it seemed weird that they were releasing the grandmother's name but not the mother's name, and it took less than a minute on whitepages.com to figure it out.) The grandmother seems to be talking to the press a lot, though. She said that she's not going to help take care of the kids anymore.

The CBS article I read, Hil, said that the grandparents had released the mother's name to the AP, so a lot more details are emerging.

And you're right-- the grandmother seems really ticked off.

The more that emerges about this, the more... weird it gets, for lack of a better word.

Perverse as I am, the thing that's struck me most forcefully is that this woman a) has, according to her mother, had an obsession with having kids since she was a teenager and b) was working towards a Master's in counseling after a Bachelor's in child and adolescent development.

Maybe it's the writer brain going strange places, but it has an almost Frankenstein feel to it.