Naps: Wherefore art thou?

Maya's largely abandoned the traditional definition of "naps" while still holding true to an amazing nighttime sleeping schedule (a nice 7-ish hour stretch, a feeding, then a 3-ish hour more stint before her morning suck-fest). And after we lost part of the fleece lining for her car-seat in the course of gate-checking her stroller/car-seat, she's been a smidge cranky on her walks in Golden Gate Park the past two mornings. We're planning to pick up a few travel items today including a replacement fleece-lining. But we still are wondering...should we be worried that she's only really napping when we hold her and watch TiVo'd episodes of "Deadwood" or "Molto Mario"? Enquiring minds want to know.

I'm overdue on giving a not-entirely-original rundown of the stories that have given me "abyssmal news intestinal distress" or ANID recently. So before we load up and head for the blue bonnet-festooned glory that is Chappell Hill, TX supa-early tomorrow morning, the following are the thoughts that I hope to purge before hoping we have as good of luck as we did in our travels with Maya to Montreal last weekend.

This Week's ANID Remedy List (take a shot, and hope the discomfort passes)

• Ann Coulter's cover piece in "TIME" magazine. The questions of publishing this "7 years late" as noted by Wonkette are still unanswered. Personally, I believe that Ann's about as funny as Ray Romano (never watched his show, naver loved Raymond).
  
• George Voinovich showing some backbone, instead of the supposed moderates on the Senate Foreign Policy Committee. And what did he get in return? An early and unbelievably poorly-worded attack ad from a bunch of crazies that call themselves "Move America Forward" dot org. But now Chaffee and Hagel are looking like they'll scuttle the Bolton nomination. How nutsy is Washington when the only way a jerk who has no bizness even visiting the U.N. is only tripped up by a single Senator that no one thought would even attend the Committee meeting that ended up being the best theatre of the Spring?
  
• Pope Benedict XVI. Nazi youth? Conservative throwback? Way too old? All of the above, and yet still the favorite in most seminaries' office pools. What does that say about the embrace of modernism of the Roman Catholics. No question - just a rhetorical shrug that leaves me wondering why this crap had to be covered like a Moon landing by the cable networks.
• The Republicans in the Senate continue to push the "nuclear option." Never since the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis or the Three Mile Island disaster has the word "nuclear" appeared as often in press reports.
  
• The stock markets continue to tank (although today's rallies are showing some promise) while Dubya continues to push for privatization accounts to further ruin Social Security. In politics, timing is everything.

Maya's raising holy hell so I'd better give this a rest for a while. Hopefully I'll add more soonish.