The above is another photo of our son taken at Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park on April 17, 2005. It was digitally altered in Photoshop using the Sepia Toning action.

I was originally going to use this image instead, but Todd and I both decided it looked like it needed the accompanying sound effects from the "evacuation complete" scene in Austin Powers.

Question of the day: "How to throw a pregnant woman into early labor - when she's already got a history of it - for $200, Alex..."

Have her look out her sliding glass door this afternoon onto the enclosed patio, shortly after putting the wee one down for his nap, and find her cat tangled up in a wrestling match with this. I could NOT get the stupid cat to quit and come inside either — she kept biting it and it kept striking her back.

After calling Todd in a TOTAL panic, he finally suggested opening a can of cat food and she got inside quick enough for the snake not to get to the door as well. (It was less than 18" from the entrance to the sliding glass door at the time.) Then it slithered back behind our hot tub. Good luck ever getting me out there again!

A quick search at the "Layman's Key to the Snakes of Florida" showed it was a (non-poisonous) Southern Black Racer, or Coluber constrictor priapus. But in my opinion, there really are only two types of snakes — alive and dead. This one unfortunately still falls in the wrong category.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have furniture to crawl up on top of...