Parenting. The following bit of overheard conversation appears to me to sum up the quintessence of parenting: what you don’t know can’t gross you out in the middle of the grocery store. “Mom, I got boogers. See?”“Tommy, I don’t want to hear about boogers any more today, okay?”“Okay, Mom.”“Thank you.”

Family in Town. Lee’s brother Mike, his SO Connie, and her two daughters, Hannah (7) and Alexis (4) are in town visiting us. Today, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and possibly the Shrine to the Sun. We’ll hand-feed the giraffes, see if the wallabies have settled down enough to want to be petted, goggle at the

Eragon Forwarder.* Lee’s brother Dale pointed out the movie adaptation of Eragon, by Christopher Paolini, is coming out in 2007. Click here for the in-production-type trailer. Dunno. Looks altogether too full of bombast. It’s being directed by Stefen Fangmeier, who, admittedly, is a great visual effects guy, but who’s never directed a movie on his

Question. What, if anything, would you like to inherit from a distant relative whom you’d never met, but who had heard stories about what you were like as a child and had decided that you would be the only person to truly appreciate this thing? I would like to inherit a house with a library

The Story of Goody Two Shoes. goody two-shoes (GOOD-ee TOO-shooz) noun A smugly virtuous person. [After the title character in The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, a children’s book believed to have been written by Oliver Goldsmith.] In this moralistic nursery tale, Margery is an orphan who has only one shoe. One day, when she

Jim Baen Dies. Jim Baen, sci-fi editor extraordinaire, died yesterday after a stroke.

Harry Potter Dies? The Guardian passes along a hint that Harry Potter may not make it past the end of book seven, based on something J.K. Rowling said in an interview. “Jesus, Grandpa. What did you read this to me for?”—The Princess Bride

Cell Phone Hell. I heard at work today that effective July 1, businesses may start soliciting people’s cell phones. Not sure whether this is true or not, but I’ll post the link to the National Do Not Call registry anyway: www.donotcall.gov You can also go here to register complaints — but remember, it may take

MDA News. News from the Missile Defense Agency: “Missile Defense Test Results in Successful “Hit to Kill” Intercept“ And here‘s a link to an overview of the MDA. The sphere-thingy is radar.

Johnny Bench. Somebody asked me who Johnny Bench was today. Major League catcher for the Cincinnati Reds, 1968-1983, according to some the best catcher of all time. “I want to win, but there’s the grind. There’s so much responsibility for a catcher…My arm feels good. My legs will be all right. How long will I