One-sided catfight!

Yesterday, I took off from work a little bit early to take Yamaarashi-chan up to her eye appointment. I was supposed to meet her at her bus stop, but apparently she got dropped off before I got there-- even though I was there ten minutes early-- and I found her at her home. There's a serial rapist attacking women in her neighborhood so I was pleased when she reported that her sisters were locking the doors. Good.

The trip was uneventful. The doctor reported that her depth perception was improving and her general health was excellent. I took her home. Omaha had just gotten home from taking herself and Kouryou-chan to the hair salon, and there was a question of what we were going to cook for dinner.

We had a ton of leftovers from the party. Mostly vegetables of nibbly quality, but there was also meat and mushrooms from the kebab mix. There were also some small, boiled potatoes in the back of the fridge, leftovers from last week.

I sliced up the meat into smaller portions and tossed them into a pan for browning, then sliced up some celery, carrots, onions, and bell pepper while Omaha smashed up the potatoes and mixed in some milk, and in less than twenty minutes we had made more room in the 'fridge, used up the leftovers, and had a rather delicious faux shepherds pie. Not too bad.

I took Yamaarashi-chan home, then turned about and got home in time to clean the kitchen, then put Kouryou-chan to bed. She got her bath and then read all of Mr. Brown Can Moo all by herself, and then I read a bit of some bowdlerized version of Dumbo to her.

At about four this morning, Omaha and I wake to a bizarre noise, like some weird animal in the house. It takes a few seconds for my brain to sort the sound out: cats fighting. In my house. I get up instantly and, naked, take to the source of the sound. Realizing that I'm naked and about to locate two clawed and pissed-off animals, I grab a throw blanket off the couch in one hand and a pillow with the other.

As it turns out, the battle is entirely one-sided. Dinah is having a hissy fit over a cat on the other side of a window, stuck on the deck outside our dining room. All the screaming she was doing, all of the swatting, was at a big, thick piece of glass. We closed the shades in the dining room and went back to bed.

I have a theory about the soldiers

So, there have been a spate of theories about what happened in Iraq, about how the soldiers were influenced by America's obsession with movies about bad taste, or pornography, or feminism, or lesbians, or football hooliganism, or whatever.

I have my own theory. They were the victims of abstinence education.

I mean, the evidence is pretty strong. These were people who had no understanding of sexuality, not their own, certainly not of other people. Their only attachments were to their own tribes and ideologies. And it's clear that their activities were the result of the kind of pent-up rage that can only happen when one's natural inclinations are denied their expression.

It's no loonier than any other.

Shopping for...

A laptop backpack. I have a regular commute bag, but it's not appropriate for the bicycle, and if I'm going to start riding more often I need a decent backpack that can carry: a laptop, two to three notebooks (plain, laboratory, and sketch), two modest textbooks, and a change of clothing. And it has to be comfortable when I ride.

Anyone have any recommendations? A bag they particularly like?