Vortex, that would be much appreciated!

sarameg: I see your Whoa and raise you an OMG!

What happens when you feed sticky rice to a baby: [link]

The Nilly wedding report was great!

Hey, that's a first fail repeat. That's just not right.

Re: closet for rent:

9. We are open to having kids in the closet or other family arrangements, but we cannot answer for what the Department of Child Services might think about such a living situation. Keep that in mind beforehand. We do not want to see another family broken up because of the closet.

10. By entering our closet, you are entering our lives. Respect the closet and it will respect you. Also ignore the slightly moldy smell. It's part of the charm. And for under 400 dollars a closet in the Village is a steal.

Dylanism of the day:

Bonjour means hello on the bench!

(He wanted an explanation of "Bonjour, Eloise!" while reading Eloise, and slightly misheard the answer...)

I'm hearing more about the 9-12 protesters. Man there is a lot of talk about revolution and stuff. I wish elected officials didn't stoke that aspect, not that all of them do.

I do think there is a legitimate concern of the increase in debt and to some extent this is spectacularly bad timing for health care reform, even though I have respect for Obama trying to tackle the issue instead of putting it off.

I'm not a fan of some of the spending, but TARP seems to have worked. However inefficient it might be, the financial system didn't collapse. The stimulus package is still up in the air, but there is no longer talk of another depression and of course there a big chunk of it was tax cuts, not spending. The economic condition has a huge part to play in the deficit as well. I kinda wish Obama could have a major speech to talk about the deficit and debt.

The cold hard facts are that there is no solution that isn't going to hurt. I don't know enough about the drivers of health care costs to know what the solution is there and that's the biggest problem. Spending less on the military is probably needed. Raising the cap on the social security tax is probably needed. After those areas, there isn't a lot out there to do aside from cutting back on Wic and food stamps or eliminating the department of Education.

My desire for reasoned debate is probably a pipe dream.

We do not want to see another family broken up because of the closet.

I love this a lot.

I actually think this is a perfect time for addressing health care. So many people are without employment (and therefore insurance) there are likely to be more people it affects.