Found out my neph had his tonsils removed (I knew they were putting new tubes in his ears, but not the other.) Going to have to find out if he was combative coming out from under. He's about a month younger than the twins.

Just spent the evening with my neighbor's kids, who are basically the same ages as my nephews (though the younger is a girl.) I'm pretty sure my trip out to take care of the nephs is going to EXHAUST me. I was only over there 2 hours, and yes, the older boy has some form of adhd, but honestly, it was the 4 year old who WORE ME OUT. She's a picky eater and was somewhat appalled by my salad. She kept insisting she didn't like various components of her dinner until I sampled them and declared them good, but would NOT try anything in my salad. She was adorable. We had to come back here to shoot Mister Kitty and she loved all over MK and Loki until Loki was all "AHHHHOVERWHELMED" and ran upstairs. But MK loved it. And she did that adorable thing 4 years olds tend to: "Sara, I like you." Aw, kid, I like you too. And her brother was keen to show me his legos and drawings and tell me all about the new legos they have now and and and. Whew. While over here, he was just drawing and Devi poked her head out to meep at him, which...given girlet was roaring all over throwing toys, fairly surprising. And he gave me a hug when I left, unprompted.

Good news is it looks like their dad gets sprung from the hospital maybe tomorrow. E hadn't been able to go see him yet today because she had her daughter with her all day, so I'm glad I had one of those days where I was done by 4 and with swim by 6, or I wouldn't have gotten her message asking until too late.

Neat kids, really sweet.

I think it is pretty clear where I stand with my cats.

What baseball team should you root for? [link]

Wikipedia is in Hec's butt...pass it on.

Better that than Wikileaks.

The 1976 Tangshen earthquake in China killed between 242,000 and 779,000 people.

Yeah, Wallybee's family felt that earthquake when she was growing up. In Chengdu, which is not remotely close to Tangshen.

The death tolls that come out of China for natural disasters are truly staggering. Especially floods, historically; the Yellow River is extremely prone to flooding. The high volume of sediment it carries (hence 'Yellow' River) has led to it changing course maybe nine times in recorded history, and the river bed is now elevated above the surrounding (very flat) plains over much of its lower course.

I keep wanting to grab news people and say, "Get a grip. This isn't On the Beach."

I read that book just last year! Nice to know Melbourne is the last to go. Unless you count Hobart, and really, who does?

At any rate, the World Health Organization estimates that the people in living in the highly contaminated zone near Chernobyl received about 33 millisieverts (mSv) of exposure, or the equivalent of three to five cat scans.

I saw a program on the wildlife around Chernobyl. They're thriving better than anyone expected, even though the environment still contains radioactive material. The absence of humans apparently outweighs the doses of radiation they're receiving (so far at least).

It'll never beat 65 Billion years BC. That was a real disaster. Disasters these days don't know shit.

Pfft. You kids today with your Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction events. The Permian-Triassic, now that was an extinction event.

What baseball team should you root for?

Dude, that's lovely. Except that Phils fans should never have made it past "look at me like that again and I will punch you".

And I really needed to hear some amazing rescue stories

I kind of figured we all did.

"Sara, I like you."

Awwwww!

Hivemind! I need help. I'm trying to come up with a pithy title for myself for a business card. "Badass deconstructor" isn't quite appropriate. Maybe something about reusing, rebuilding, revitalizing? Argh.

Aw, sara. Kids that age are so awesome. Total id.

What baseball team should you root for?

The answer to that question is always the Mets. In this house, anyway.

One of the things I love about that age is the verbal heart-on-sleeveness of it. Even when it is negative. But most especially stuff like that. We get older, we tend to hold back more.

Domicile Reanimator?

Except that Phils fans should never have made it past "look at me like that again and I will punch you".

Seriously.