I shoulda been a mortician.

My work is most interesting when I am uncovering bad news or tracking depressing trends or discovering that someone screwed up. Why is that? I started writing something up for some dean and now they want to send it wider, because it's a useful summary. It's basically about how fucked every public Big Ten university is when it comes to state appropriations, and how deep the deficits are in their states. And how some of them have been screwed for two years now, and how big tuition increases have been. It's basically just rotten news, squared. And it FASCINATES me.

We had such a lively book club conversation last night. And in the end we started talking about cosmetics, a funny thing because none of us wears makeup regularly. We were making recommendations about makeup we do wear--makeup for girls who hate makeup. I actually HIGH FIVED someone after we simultaneously blurted out "Max Factor 2000 Calorie mascara!" In retrospect, what a disturbing incident.

Today one of people reviewing travel charges asked me if "Big Brassiere" was a movie. It appeared among the room charges of a Dean's hotel bill. I thought it sounded like a pretty tame adult title for an in-room movie, but what the hell. We are not going to reimburse someone for an in-room movie, whether it's "National Velvet" or "Naughty Stewardesses." I couldn't find anything in an online search, so I asked to see the bill. It was "Big Brasserie." Like the hotel pub or coffee shop. Oh brother.

Here's your fact for the day. Typically, as much as 25% of the body's water is is lost daily through the skin and lungs via water evaporation. Which is why human breastmilk is over 88% water--to meet infants' hydration needs.

This is a vacation?

Tomorrow my friend and I are throwing our four-year-olds in the car and driving to Indianapolis, leaving behind two husbands, one 16-month old, and one rapidly-healing dog.

We're staying in the hotel that is part of Union Station, which is going to drive Kirk wild.

When I originally contemplated this trip, I was planning to get to Kokomo to meet you, Politzania, but that was before I decided to (a) drag my friend along and (b) go through Dayton.

Who goes to Indy for vacation? With toddlers? I do. One of my April-99 due date friends lives there. Plus it's a very kid-friendly town. I think my husband will love a weekend on his own.

Thank god for a TV-VCR combo with a special case that fastens in between the two front seats. And lots of kid tapes.