Mom and Lex and I went to the big park on Saturday and when I was pushing the boy on the swings, a woman about my age and her daughter about Lex's age took the other swing. We ascertained that we both had 2.5-year-old kids, and then she looked at me quizzically.

"Do I know you from the baby massage class?"

"No," I said. "I didn't take that one. But we took the getting-ready-for-birth class, and I went to the Mommy and Me group at the hospital a few times."

"I went to that, too," she said. "But just a few times."

"Yeah. The last time I went, everyone was bagging on TV and I couldn't take it, so I stood up in support of it."

"THAT'S IT!" she cried. "That's where I saw you. Oh, God, I was so glad you said that back then."

"I'm not one to keep my mouth shut," I understated. "I remember, I blogged about it when I got home, about the grandma who was there who was so proud of her grandkids because they didn't watch TV but did play hours-long imaginative games with sticks. And at that point, I realized that apparently, nobody cool gave birth when I gave birth. They were all way too sanctimonious for me. Present company excluded, of course."

She nodded. "I had the same experience. My daughter was premature, and every time I went, people said,"Oooh, she's so tiny! I got tired of it."

"Frankly, I'm impressed you remember me," I said.

"I always remember faces. It's kind of a curse."

"Going through life wondering, 'where do I know that person from?'" I asked.

"Exactly," she said.

Lex was tired of the swings at that point (or, more factually, I was tired of pushing him), so I took him down and went back to the bench where Mom sat. She had a bemused expression on her face.

"Did you hear that?" I asked.

"Most of it. It appears your reputation precedes you."

"It usually does, Mom. It usually does." And I picked up my ukulele and strummed out the IZ version of "Over the Rainbow."

I went to Maryamie's blog today and noticed she has put me in her blogroll, and that my own blogroll was Maryamieless. In the only words of Jar-Jar Brinks worth quoting, "How rude!" I have since rectified the error. She's a funny mom with good stuff to say, and her husband is Robert Scoble, technology terror of the San Jose State University Spartan Daily newsroom, from whom I took the mantle of Production and Design Editor (and was a bit of a terror in my own right).

Welcome, Maryamie! I'm sure my link to you won't help your Google PR as much as your link helped mine, but I'm sure my loyal gluttons for punishment readers will enjoy your musings as much as I do.

Q: What charge can pepper never be booked on?

A: Assault!

nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Prayers, please, for Dean and Emily, who will be welcoming their first child today! Dean has been a best friend since high school -- pretty much one of two (ok, three) friends I've retained from that era.

Dean was looking for "strong, masculine" names for his new son. Our mutual best friend suggested "Testosterone." Dean-o wasn't crazy about that suggestion. Then I jumped on the bandwagon with a name I saw on the Sprout channel this past Father's day, but Dean didn't like my idea, either. I don't know why... I think "Arsenal Testosterone LastName" would look *awesome* on a birth announcement. Some people have no taste. I mean, really.

Last night, Matthew McConaughey and his girlfriend welcomed their infant son into the world. True to his roots, baby Levi McConaughey was born without a shirt.

I *love* to save money. Usually by getting a great deal on something I was going to buy anyway. Like the $120 worth of bras I bought today for twenty-two bucks.

Another case in point: Monstro needs a laptop that will run XP and Word, so he can write his dissertation somewhere other than a house with a screaming baby (no, I'm not talking about myself). I was looking at newegg.com at $500 laptops when I decided to cruise over to Craigslist for our region. Viola -- an Acer Aspire 3610 laptop, complete with 1.50 MHZ processor, 1GB of memory, A 60 GB hard drive, 128 RAM of video memory, and a DVD/CD-RW drive is for sale in the next town over from ours for three hundred bucks.

Monstro called about it and it's still available, so he's on his way to the bank right now.

Gee, with all the money I've saved us today (I count it at three hundred smackaroos), maybe I'll see about that new Mac Mini that's so very cute. Hey, a girl needs her new toys, too!

Lex's buddy and my mother's helper was over today so I got to go shopping. By myself. For clothes and food and home accessories. The first two were for our place, the last for my mom.

I started at Marshall's, where I bought two new bras, size ginormous (because my merely enormous ones no longer fit, and are giving me ugly red welts along my ribcage), for $10 and $12 respectively. Pretty much the deal of the century, as 1) they were Walcoal and 2) the original price of each was *sixty bucks*. So the girls will be transported in great lacy style for the next seven weeks (or so).

Also hit Linens'n'Things for my mom's place. Bought her some soft throw pillows (the ones that came with the rented furniture are scratchy and not conducive to napping), cute curtains for the kitchen, room-darkening curtains for the bedroom, a TP stand and a towel holder. Oh, and a chrome over-the-door hook thingy.

Old Navy was kind of a bust -- they had about three summer items left so I bought two of them. The other one was ugly so I left it alone in its cavernous space. It's 92 degrees today and you know they're going to be unpacking their autumn/winter styles this afternoon. Retail makes no sense to me.

Finally, I went to Trader Joe's. Kinda stupid to have a Trader Joe's that doesn't sell Two-Buck Chuck (that's a cheap but reasonably palatable wine, for those of you who don't know), but I'm not drinking much swill these days so I guess the point is moot. Did buy an enormous tub 'o coffee beans for eight bucks, and more food for our freezer, and snacks for Monstro whilst I'm in labor. Then I asked the cashier if I could have a red balloon to give to my at-home two-year-old, and she said I could have it even if I didn't have an at-home two-year-old. Very sweet.

In other news, bending down to pick things up off the floor is a Herculean task, and I'd take a bath but I'm not convinced I could get myself out of it. :)

Lex is sick *again*. I have a bunch of work to get done and you know what? It ain't happening.

She got an offer when it had been on the market for only four days. All-cash deal. Closed in 15 days. Done and done. Praise Jesus!

I received an e-mail from a man named Duncan who lives in Calgary. He wrote to say that I was mentioned on a national radio show called Adler OnLine today. Apparently, Charles Adler was interviewing the man behind motormouth.ca -- he's an auto reviewer -- and the man said he'd tried to buy the motormouth.com domain name from me.

I have no recollection of his offer, but I get e-mails about every six months from people who want to buy it, so the offers kind of run together.

I wrote him back and thanked him for the information. I also told him, "I've actually been to Calgary -- a children's chorus I was in performed at the Stampede when I was in eighth grade. It was a great trip until we stumbled upon the campground of serial killer Charles Ng. Thankfully, he wasn't home at the time."

Also wrote to the Adler OnLine people, to find out if I could get a transcript or .mp3 of the interview.

OK, back to watching "Wiggle Bay" with Lex, who finally decided to wake up from his nap!

Dear God: I'm sorry I called you "stupid." Please don't let my tantrum affect Mom's home-escrow closing tomorrow. Thank You. Amen.

If you want to make some really good chocolate-chip cookies, buy some almonds and toast them for five minutes, letting them cool before you chop 'em up and mix them into the cookie batter. Trust me on this one.

I just sent three dozen milk-chocolate-chip-and-toasted-almond cookies to Chico via UPS Next Day Air Saver. Not gonna tell you how much it cost. I figure it's 1/6th the price of an airline ticket.

My beautiful funny friend Shannon King, in whose honor Monstro and I Relayed-for-Life the other week, died on Saturday.

I am heartbroken.

Shannon and her husband Phil advised the junior-high youth group at our Chico church the same year I advised the high-school group. We coordinated a junior/senior high VBS class and put on a great skit at the end of it, about the worshiping of a golden idol. One of our seventh graders dolled herself up in a shimmering toga. I fell at her feet. Shannon pulled me away.

"Now, we don't worship golden idols," Shannon admonished me.

"But it's so shiiiiny!" I whined.

"Come on, now. You know the better way," she said.

We also took the high-school group to see the movie "Saved." She and I howled all the way through it.

"When that character said she'd rather have cancer than be pregnant, I just wanted to give her a hug and take her home," Shannon said as we left the theater.

Her service will probably be on Thursday, but I can't go because I'm pregnant and stuck in stupid Massachusetts.

Stupid Massachusetts. Stupid cancer. Stupid God.