Yeah, there's a gun range down the mountain from us, where city and county law officers train and qualify. There was a class the other day.

There's still less overheard gunfire than where we used to live, between hunters in and out of season, and transitioning neighborhood.

I mean I think four is a great age for the child herself (neutral for the parents). You're big enough that you can do loads of things, but you're little enough that nobody expects much of you. It's a great low-pressure mix of freedom/ability. If I had to be a child, I'd be four, again.

It's definitely a fun age. I think this is about the most quotable kid's age. They're just beginning to put stuff together and their imaginative play is taking off but it hasn't gotten all bracketed with the media they watch.

For myself, I always think of 10 as being the golden age of boys. You're riding your bike all over, there's very little social pecking order going on at school (unlike middle school), summer lasts forever, big summer annual comic books come out, you go to the beach (or shore, river or lake or out on the boat - as we did in Florida).

Homemade ice cream and snow cones. Oh! I went into Barnes and Nobel the other day and they have recreated the original Snoopy Snow Cone maker that was popular back in the sixties. Those are fun. Though we had a Snowman version.

I need to get one of those and make my own fancy pants fruit syrups.

Remember the drive by in my old parking lot? Mar car behind crime tape? Yeah.

I have to say, I'm alarmingly blase about hearing gunshots. Growing up, you'd hear them out in the desert, lotsa people with bb guns illegally hunting. Here, it's people shooting people. And even in this neighborhood, I occasionally hear gunshots from the neighboring areas ( the Greenmount corridor is just rough) followed by the police copter. I don't even go inside. The upside of Baltimore's neighborhood variations?

One of my neighbors went on an eastside ridealong recently. Said it was eye-opening, how patchworky, and dramatically so, this police district is. Doesn't surprise me much.

OK, going to go vacuum out my car. Uhg.

Huh. Didn't post that. Well, car is vacuumed. It filled up the canister, which I've never done before. Then again, it probably hadn't been vacuumed in years. Apparently a bag of catfood exploded in the trunk at some point.

Hey, all. It sounds like a scam, but it's not. missingmoney.com is a clearinghouse that searches the state departments of rev to see if you have unclaimed property. (Wow, I feel like I'm writing spam, but I'm not, I swear.)

I searched, and now I'm filing 3 claims with Kansas for a total of about $96 bucks, from old electric co. deposits and dental plans.

I also found a couple of claims for friends of mine.

You can also just go to the dept. of revenue site for every state you have lived in and search. (Use your maiden name, too, if applicable.)

I know a lot of people who could use whatever they might find. Thought it might be useful for a lot of peeps.

(xposted with Bitches)

In California it's the Bureau of Unclaimed Property. (We got bupkis.)

Planted a mum in my hanging basket. Maybe I won't kill it.

Oh dear, megan! Yikes.

So my future-giant little cousin is now 5'6", with size 11.5 feet. At 13. His older sister was awesomely married off last night, so that was good. They were so happy! And I was stunned to hear she is changing her name (not professionally) and is totally on the baby train. Huh.

WTF is going on in my neighborhood today? The following is going on right now about 5 blocks away:

Sections Of Franklin, Sutter Closed After Man Barricades Self In Apartment

Officers and crisis negotiators are responding to the 1400 block of Franklin Street where a man refuses to leave an apartment building, San Francisco police Officer Chan said.

Maybe stay inside, away from windows...

Where is Steph?? I have to share something posted to Facebook by an NYC friend:

Ahh one of the surest signs that Fall is here: Mallomars back in the grocery stores.

THAT'S RIGHT.

There's a company based in Brooklyn that makes vegan Mallomars. I was all excited, and found a place to buy them, and bought one, saved it for a special occaision, and then was sorely disappointed when it was way too much marshmallow and not enough chocolate, and the cracker part was soggy.