News backup

After spending last weekend in DC, Maya's settled back in nicely this week to her regular San Francisco schedule. Morning nap after breastfeeding early. Out into the Park to listen to podcasts and interact with the homeless people getting their days underway - Maya's still awaiting my podcast to begin this Fall and she looks forward to helping with the promotional work. Afternoon nap after taking down increasingly prodigious amounts of oatmeal and fruit/veggie goop. An early evening bath. Wrapped around time on her activity mat where she no longer seems interested in sitting up when she can toss toys out in front of her and then lunge after them. Maya's even occassionally begun a sort of backwards crawl maneuver when she gets splayed out on her tummy doing that sort of toy retrieval exercise. We're still waiting for official crawling to commence. Today I put up a playpen that I'd forgotten we'd received from one of Sarah's collegues and Maya seemed content in her new space. But I think she realizes it is little more than a glorified cage. Anyhoo, her head's also filling up with teeth - her two bottom front teeth will soon be somewhat unequally matched by one up above that's almost poking through. And she's chomping hard on her left side so we know something else is coming in there. The gleeful exclamations and hard-charging rants that she's been emitting for months have become much more insistent. About what, we're still unsure. No words yet. Unless "ahhhhummmarrrrguhmaaawaaah" is a word. So, as I've been somewhat less voluminous in presenting as of late, I hope all her fans realize that she's doing great and progressing accordingly. Tomorrow we start swimming lessons - expect some pics soon thereafter.

I haven't recapped our DC trip as of yet, so I'll step back just a bit to do so. The protest march and festival on Saturday were huge and largely well-contained. I hated to see all the coverage of the counter-protest bunk, especially because those groups amounted to at best a few hundred people (militant frat boys and off-kilter preacher-types holding aloft their Bibles). Maya did fine with the roiling masses and she's surely a vitriol-melting weapon against foes and unruly friends alike. And then on Sunday we did a tour through the National Zoo. The Giant Pandas were zonked out, the Great Apes were placid and no Komodo Dragons were viewable at the time we strolled on through. Yet Maya seemed playful and impressed with the spectacle, taking special note of the Pygmy hippos (one of nature's cutest ugly animals). We got to show her off to some close family friends - Robin and Paul and their middle daughter Megan. Good times. Even while the Pack fell to 0-3 and the nation mourned.

For those of you that check here for my take on the newz of the era outside of Mayaness, I can hardly keep up. This week especially. Tom Delay gets indicted. William Bennett makes himself the story once again by saying that one way to reduce the crime rate would be to abort all black babies. John "I won't comment on my even my middle name which may or may not be Glover" Roberts gets confirmed for life. Gross abuses of the billions being sent to the Gulf Coast coming to light. Judith Miller finally getting a get-out-of-jail-free card from what I believe is far from the only Bushie nicknamed "Scooter", Cheney's Chief I. Lewis Libby. The Guvuhnator vetoing the gay marriage bill here in Cullyforneeya. The start of the new TV season, featuring a less-than-tight "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and some crackin' good episodes of "Lost". The New Brew Crew pulling to 80-79 with 3 games to play en route to their first .500 season since '92 (I LOVE this team and for the first time since I had a long red ponytail look forward to next season). Stories, stories, everywhere. If August is the slowest news month of the year, September is the red hot opposite. And with everyone expecting a Dubya announcement of his new Sandra Day O'Connor replacement this coming week, October will only turn up the volume. In all this, it's easy to miss the fact that 13 American soldiers died in Iraq in the last 4 days and we're rapidly closing in on 2000 dead. People are paying attention, though. That you can count on. At least until the baseball playoffs begin this week. Kidding.

Thanks for checking in. Podcast ideas and technical specs for my offering are forming into a delicious sauce. If you've got suggestions on things I should include, let me know. Rock on.