Question #1: Who did you vote for in the last election?

This is an amazing time of year for sports fans, even if your teams are among the suckiest. Week 2 of the NFL season, baseball down the stretch, and all the assorted college and autumnal stuff. From my sporty perspective, the Packers look horrible and the New Brew Crew got swept by the Astros over the weekend to take the air out of the sails for Milwaukee and Brewers Nation. As far as the Pack goes, Favre looks sad. Our defense is horrid. Losing to the generally-lowly Browns at Lambeau. Sheesh. Times have most surely changed for our legacy. And the briefly bright Brewers's future is once again a struggle with undershooting even the most modest goals. Finishing at .500 would mean a lot for that team. Finishing below .500 will have an even greater effect. They need to pull it together - 73-76 with 13 games to play. Totally doable, but they need to go at least 8-5, which ain't easy this time of year. Regardless, it's a very different atmosphere than anytime but the early '80s when the Brewers have a brighter future than the Packers.

The stories that are coming out of N'Awlins! continue to darken. The NYTimes goes big with a piece on those that died in nursing homes and hospitals, with a current total of 154. So all that crap from Conservatives about those people that chose not to leave looks as ridiculous as it should have looked when they were allowed to say those sorts of things. But the bigger issues that I see are the money ($62.3B and counting) and contracting practices that're gonna make the corruption of the Big Dig in Boston look like a neighborhood park retooling. And the remaining storm season that's looking pretty ugly right now has to be a concern for anyone living in coastal areas. Just imagine if we need to rely on the Bushies to manage another big storm. So I won't be surprised if we pre-emptively attack some upcoming tropical storms. "Because if we fight 'em over there, we won't have to fight 'em here."

We started interviewing nannies yesterday. 2 of 3 showed up - one a young Irish chick (or squirrel or whatever the kids be called these days), the other a rather scary older Austrian woman. The Austrian governess-type had a baby talk voice that could curdle milk. Maya played nice with both, but she didn't ask a single one of the questions I put together for her. Slacker. We need to interview more folks. We've even got a manny (male nanny) on the list. Hope he's cute.