Saw that Shari was responding to Pat, who was bitchin' about her alleged infrequency in bloggin'. So I checked to see his rant and saw that I was included on his list of sad sacks. I wanted to verify. I checked. I had gone from 11/15 to 11/29 without bloggin', (with a national holiday squeezed in there to boot), while Pat had himself gone from the 16th to the 27th with nary a blog. By my math, I went a whopping four days longer than Paddy did. Four days. I feel like such a loser. Really, now. I think we need to quit getting on people's cases when they don't blog for a while. Let's get on them for more important things, like the fact that Chris suggests "Townsend Ansaldo" as a name for our favorite fetus. Unless he is referring to the wacky and talented Robert Townsend, I must assume that he misspelled the name of the oh-so-rockinest Pete Townshend. Get it together, Huffman.

And I have been thinking about a new name for this thing, although Jimmah is correct as to the origin of the title. Any suggestions? Or are the baby-makers getting all the name attention these days?

Many grand and spectacular things litter the world today, but I am on my prep period with little time to spare. Thus, I shall devote this posting to the delivery of my public commendations on Jimmah's and Dani's success with fecundity. Having elucidated on my happy history with Jimmah at the time of his birthday, suffer me to focus my energies on Dani. I met her while working at Christole (a group home for some of the grooviest kids in the world) during the early 90s. It wasn't long before situations had rendered us de facto managers of the place. Actually, Dani was my supervisor, and did far more than I, but I got paid more because I possess that oh-so-cherished Y chromosome. Sexism in the human service industry! Nonetheless, the person with whom I shared my workspace consistently inspired me with her drive, compassion, and intellect. We confronted challenges that regularly brought us to anger and tears, and Dani prevailed with her values intact. She helped me to learn how to win for our charges, even when those who held the reigns of power placed barriers before our very steps. She helped strengthen the belief I still carry today in this classroom that there are few greater joys in the world than those of witnessing a kid figuring "it" out for the first time. And we had a lot of fun too. Now she's going to have a little darling of her own. How wonderfully splendid. The faces of Davey, Jimmy, Gordie, Danielle, Chris, Jason, and Jonathan are passing through my head when I think of Dani as a mother. And those faces are smiling.