I tried to have an intellectual conversation with David last night which distracted me halfway through diapering the baby. She's usually fairly reliable with her diaper off and is very difficult to dress. David and I conversed for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, Elizabeth crawled down the hall and around a corner, pooping as she went. I was a huge mess. Luckily, we have carpet cleaner on hand.

Speaking of poop, I've discovered a new way in which people out here outsource domestic tasks. There's an outfit called When Dooty Calls you can pay to pick up after your dogs. (I suppose one has to coordinate this carefully with the yard service schedule!)

During the last NYRSF work weekend, when I was busy working on the magazine, I gave Peter all the seeds in the house and told him to go plant them. Yesterday, I discovered beanstalks emerging from the lawn. Although we didn't intend to use the yard service this summer and David had been mowing our lawn, after David's heart adventures, we had to reengage their services. They come with enormous mowers and powerful weed whackers and are quite indiscriminate about what they mow, whack, or run into with the mower. So Peter and I built bean teepees yesterday, hoping this will protect the beanstalks from the yard service. Peter has been dead set against us using the yard service ever since they mowed his toy manta ray that a friend of his had tossed out of the kiddie pool onto the lawn. Peter's right, of course, but our options are limited for now.

HOMELAND SECURITY UPDATE:

Did this one get lost in the mail for a couple of years?

Memo Warns Of New Plots To Hijack Jets

Terrorists operating in teams of five may be plotting suicide missions to hijack commercial airliners on the East Coast, Europe or Australia this summer, possibly using "common items carried by travelers, such as cameras, modified as weapons," according to an urgent memo sent last weekend to all U.S. airlines and airport security managers.

The "information circular" issued July 26 was drawn from recent intelligence reports that detail the most specific terrorist plots involving passenger aircraft in the United States since four hijacked jetliners were used in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania.

Um, isn't this why we have all this additional security at airports and such since 9/11? Is there anything much new here? (A few very minor plot twists are suggested in the memo, but it think that to keep it from being too embarrassing.)

I think what's really being said here is BE AFRAID! BE VERY AFRAID!, probably with the thought that frightened people will support Bush.

Perhaps they feel people out there aren't scared enough if they're giving to Howard Dean? I haven't given him any money yet, but if I get more scared, I just might.