For those of you who care about this sort of thing ... a little birdy told me that a certain local actor who was fired from Sterling Cooper this season is under contract for Season 4. Hooray.

In slightly related news, I've been seeing those oh-so-funny signs in my neighborhood again.

We waited all night for the news but we weren't nearly as anxious to meet him as his parents.

Welcome baby Cole! You must be the new boy in my life the French Quarter psychic was talking about.

Congrats Alex and Kristy!

I hold the customer reviews on Amazon in high esteem. I'm a little obsessive about reading them for every single product that I buy -- then reading the ones for the competition. The blurbs are usually straightforward and concise which makes them very helpful. That said, if you have a moment, check out the reviews for this Play Mobil toy.

The internet can be a very funny place.

I just realized that it's been well over a week since I've read anything on NOLA.com and you know what? I'm not missing it at all.

This is my problem ... When it comes to internet and money, it's all about the "click thrus." The more clicks, the more ad revenues. As a result, the more salacious or incendiary the headline, the more people choose to read it because that's the way we are and have been since the beginning of recorded time.

So, when headlines about dead, naked girls being found start showing up on NOLA.com when the story has absolutely nothing to do with the city, never mind the STATE; or a piece is written just to make us all mad at the mayor for going to Cuba when the population is obviously too apathetic to corruption to do anything about it other than complain to one another ... I simply had enough. [I'd include links that but would require me to go to the site.]

It's four years post-K, I don't feel the need to be so entrenched in the goings on of the city right now. Maybe I'm just switching obsessions but one hour of local TV news is all I need.

I was cooking dinner this evening (thanks to Martha ... but more on that later) and the girls were in the other room. As I'm slicing leeks and gala apples to create a side to complement my pork tenderloin, I start getting that feeling. You know, the one when you realize that the kids have been entirely too quiet for too long.

I call. No answer.

As I make my way to the front of the house, I am of course preparing myself for what they could have gotten into -- I had an open can of paint lying around, scissors could have been within reach as well as the cat, crackers in the VCR ... you name it.

When I entered the room I was surprised to find Adelaide and Daisy at opposite ends of the dinner table. Each quietly perusing their Daddy's law text books, "Property" and "Evidence Under the Rules," respectively.

Heaven help me.

Yesterday I ...

... sealed and primed a downstairs ceiling stain from early 2006.

... caulked my tub.

... de-molded, patched, sanded, sealed and primed year-old ceiling damage from not properly caulking the first time.

... sealed and primed an upstairs ceiling stain from 2008.

... sanded, spray textured and painted gaping eyesore in stairwell.

... painted over some of the "artistic" crayon renderings a la Daisy.

... executed a long workout.

... cooked a well balanced dinner from scratch.

All that to avoid folding laundry.

Answer: Cucumbers and blueberry muffin batter.

Question: What did I have for lunch today?

Answer: $80

Question: How much does the vet want me to to pay for tests to confirm that the $300 treatment he gave my cat worked? [I think that the fact that she is no longer peeing on the floor is evidence enough. Daisy on the other hand ...]

Answer: "Heene kid vomit"

Question: What is the last thing I googled? [What? I hadn't seen it yet and everyone was talking about it ... ]

I think that I am going to refrain from reading NOLA.com for the next six months or so. It just makes me angry.

Don't like the gays? Join the Catholics.

It's OK, you don't have to show up for work to keep your job.

Oh, and that boondoggle Nagin took to the South Pacific that was supposed to have been paid for by someone else ... that someone else was YOU!

Fall came today. I had a nice walk to pick Addy up from school and did not have to drink a gallon a water to replenish my reserves.

Whenever cold weather arrives I am reminded of my first winter here in 2000 when I had just returned from Christmas in Vermont. My landlord was out of town for weeks, I had no heat and the wind was coming up through the floorboards. I had never been so cold in my own home. It was torture.

There is a reason why I don't live in New England anymore.

On a completely unrelated note, if you have not yet seen Wanda Syke's I'ma Be Me, SEE IT. She does not disappoint.

He obviously studied up on Charity and several other issues we have here but he failed to mention where he ate lunch and what he was having for dinner in his speech.

THOSE are the issues that matter most.