In Other News

• Avocado will not be next year's 8th Grade President.

• There's hope: it appears that one's brain does get soggy during menopause, but it dries out and gets to work again.

• From the same Science section of the times, it appears that animals can feel regret. Anyone who's ever seen a dog in a state of mortification could have told them that.

• And Brazil is reporting that wreckage from the Air France jet has been sighted off the coast. The eerieness of this story--that there was no human contact saying "Help! We're in trouble," only a message sent by the onboard computer to Air France's maintenance database, reporting electrical system failure and cabin depressurization. There's a Stephen King-ish quality to this that is deeply scary to meell, (but I'm a cowardly flyer).

Well: pages written, coffee and blueberries ingested. Wandering through email, the web, and The Times before I take on the day. And the dog (who is curled up as tight as it is possible for a dog to be against the San Francisco chill, and looks not one whit remorseful for any of her criminal activities).

Big Change

The Household 19-year-old, known here and elsewhere as Sarcasm Girl, has taken an apartment with her really swell boyfriend. The apartment is about the size of my laptop, so she won't be removing most of her property from the house. Even so, it's a big step, and I'm, like, really excited for her.

Gee, with SG living in the East Bay and Avocado (her younger sister) at camp all summer, it's going to be just me, the spouse, and the dog for almost eight weeks. My mind boggles--and then I start thinking of what I might do with all that time and space.

So Close, So Close

Glutton for punishment that I am, I watched Law and Order: SVU tonight. For a moment I thought perhaps Elliott Stabler was finally going to either implode, or be taken out by the Bad Guy du Jour. No such luck. Ah well. Maybe next year.