Ohio Bound

The advantage to not being in a relationship around the holidays is that I only have to fit in one family. The last two years have been "surgical strikes" - see her parents in Indiana Christmas eve, see mine Christmas day, drive home the day after Christmas. This year, I'm leaving for Ohio this afternoon and coming back on Saturday. I'm looking forward to spending more time relaxing into the week, hanging out with my brothers, eating good food, seeing some high school friends and extended family.

Being gone for so long meant...cat sitter. I considered bringing the critters with me, but they hate riding in the car and it's a six hour drive (possibly more as I will be stopping at truck stops along the way looking for gaudy Christmas sweaters. I'll tell you about that later.) Plus, my brother Bob has two retired greyhounds he adopted and I wouldn't want them to confuse the cats for mechanical racetrack rabbits. Houdini and Oona are okay on their own at home for two-three days, past that, they start ordering pizzas on-line and running up their credit cards. My friend Cate has graciously volunteered to be their buddy while I'm gone. That means she's entitled to gingerbread cookies and that really great chocolate nutty ball candy thing I can't pronounce that's like eating an angel's testicles.




THE BS NEWS QUIZ OF THE DAY

On Friday, I asked...

"A pediatric neurosurgeon says a tumor he removed from the brain of a Colorado Springs infant contained a what?"

50% said "image of the Virgin Mary"
- Sorry. It was Elvis. So close!

8% said "part of a condom"
- There's a fine line between "most effective" and "100% effective" and that fine line is really an umbilical cord.

No one said "small stone"

42% got it right with "foot"

According to The Huffington Post, a pediatric neurosurgeon says a tumor he removed from the brain of a Colorado Springs infant contained a tiny foot and other partially formed body parts.

Dr. Paul Grabb said he operated on Sam Esquibel at Memorial Hospital for Children after an MRI showed a tumor on the newborn's brain. Sam was 3 days old and otherwise healthy.

Grabb said that while removing the growth, he discovered it contained a nearly perfect foot and the formation of another foot, a hand and a thigh.

The growth may have been a case of "fetus in fetu" _ in which a fetal twin begins to form within another _ but such cases very rarely occur in the brain, Grabb said.

The baby's doing fine, by the way. Meanwhile, Stephen King wannabees everywhere, start your novels!

Don't get too creeped out by this photo. It's not the actual picture, just a stock baby foot photo. The rest of the baby is on the other side of those hands. Must be an ugly baby since they're only willing to show the bottom of the left foot.