The above photo of Todd was taken on August 29, 2003, at Chuck E. Cheese in Tampa with a Canon PowerShot G3. It was his last birthday without children. When asked repeatedly to pick where he wanted to eat, we'd receive no reply — so Dan and Stacy finally just booked him a big-boy party at The Chuck™. To show his thanks, Todd nearly burned the place down.

Tomorrow Today is Todd's 33rd birthday (click here to pass along your greetings). Figures that we'll spend it watching the events unfold from yet another hurricane... Although this one won't effect us directly this time — we are left worry about close friends who live less than a couple of miles from the water in Gulfport / Biloxi, their newborn baby, the hotel we got married at in the New Orleans French Quarter, and the place I used to live in Mobile (which is just blocks from the Bay / River downtown in the de Tonti Square historic district and could be under as much as 20-feet of water tomorrow). Not to mention worrying on the behalf of other friends and their relatives... Mobile, Biloxi and New Orleans skirted near-disaster last year during Ivan when his landfall was further east than expected, but don't look to get as lucky this year unfortunately.

And don't look now, but unlucky number 13 is already creeping west... Can someone please pass it the memo that our new roof won't be on until late September? K. Thx.

Good luck to everyone along I-10 on the northern Gulf coast. You're in our thoughts and prayers and we hope the power-gods-that-be stay with you!

And a quick review of an online shopping site I just discovered — The Happy Woman Store — home of cute, kitschy, quirky gifts and such. The customer service was amazing, the shipping was lightning-fast, the adorable gift-wrapping was free, and they even threw in great freebies with the order to boot. I highly recommend them and give two snaps in a circle!

Repeat announcement:
To close, just a quick PSA and apology. It's only taken me two three days to get this entry together...and you should see my inbox right now (currently with 198 245 messages)... By all means, fire away with the e-mails as I love reading them and getting the 'adult conversation' when time permits. Just please allow for turn-around time. Lots and lots of turn-around time. I have good intentions on writing back I swear (and I'm sorry if you're still waiting to hear back from me), but unless you are the owner of one of these sets of cute little baby toes (or are the male owner of this fine derrière), unfortunately you don't get first-come, first-serve priority for the next few weeks. Please continue to hold...