G&V are over 1000 as we suspected, but he hasn't logged them yet, so now they catch us at over 4000 in a little more than a year. Heh.

I ran my virus checker and had 60 more virii in 2 weeks. Some people need to get a life.

Yesterday, the little baby born with the heart problems, the same time as Eric, came to church. He's so beautiful. He's tiny, slightly blue, was asleep, and is on oxygen, but he's beautiful. He's been at the top of my prayer list and I'll continue to pray for him.

Not only are we getting a new pastor but a new associate. Too bad, I like our Nigerian. These guys are Hispanic: the iron grip of the Irish has loosened. Also, our pastor-in-residence is leaving. The church secretary wonders if it's her breath mints!

Chris Matthews said "almost a thousand" Americans had died in Iraq. Since when is 793 almost a thousand? Does this display a little bias? What media bias?

Yesterday afternoon we went shopping for bird seed, among other exciting things. PetSmart had Happy Tails adoptions and we oohed and ahed over the nice cats and kittens. In back they had a tiny baby kitten, too young to adopt out, probably, though many of my cats were that age when we got them. SOOO cute!

Then we went to the nursery where I picked up a new plant, a relative of the Christmas cactus but with purplish star-shaped flowers. I hope I can keep it going. In fact, I think I'll take one to Casey's foster mom as a housewarming gift. There was another cat there, a marmalade cat completely zonked out in a stack of plant boxes. What a cutie!

I also got new basil. I dithered over the type, and went with "Holy basil." Maybe I won't sneeze as much with this variety. This time we put slug bait on it. I got chives and more oregano (Greek.) I was intrigued by the peanuts so Rich got three of those. He says he's tried them before, but he's up to trying again.

When we got back to the house, I left him to it and went for a leg of lamb to cook in the roaster (Yummmm.) I got back and he was very still, asleep in the chair. It was a relief to see him breathing. One thing about finding someone dead is that you keep checking ... Once was enough.

I got an Ofoto ad... OK, that's 2.5 weeks.

Today we replaced the logsheet on one of the BIT (Because It's There) caches. This one itself was a replacement... for some reason this cache has trouble keeping logsheets.

Then we went bowling, and won three. I had a particularly good day. I keep saying if I could only have three good games... well, I had 159, 135, 135. This should up my average to 135.

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Michael Barone:

To the criticism that they report and overemphasize bad news, reporters say, correctly, that bad news is news. But in a country like Iraq, ruled by a vicious dictator for the last 35 years, good news is also news. Reporters readily fan out to find bad news. But they seldom seek the good news -- readily available in Iraqi and military weblogs and confirmed in polls of Iraqis -- that incomes, electricity, schools, water quality, medical care, religious freedom and security are improving in Iraq. Some reporters, as the Daily Telegraph's Toby Harnden reports from Iraq, deliberately avoid good news because they think it might help George W. Bush win re-election.

Guarded Optimism. National Review has more, and involving Fallujah.

Liberal Parallel Universe.

Mark Steyn on Iraqi elections.

Glenn has some doubts about the "wedding party."

Grief doesn't entitle Sept. 11 families to their entitlement attitude By Nolan Finley / The Detroit News:

If Bush really were Hitler, it would be different. A Nazi America wouldn't be worth saving, and its polity would be worth separating oneself from. But we're so far from that situation, as [Cathy] Young herself notes, that such discussions are entirely academic, and those who are rooting against America in Iraq have hardly demonstrated the moral courage and personal sacrifice that such a serious step demands, if it is to be taken seriously. If Bush is really Hitler, is filing slanted copy a sufficient response? But the real problem isn't that Bush is Hitler -- just that he's a Republican, which puts a very different face on things.

Moving the Goalposts.

The Kerry War: Longer, More US Dead.

Things are getting better:

And it's amazing how much easier it is to address "root causes" once you've dragged a Maximum Leader out of a spider hole for his colleagues to see. True, this is mostly lipservice so far, but so were the Helsinki Accords at the time.

Omar reporting from Iraq, and Jeff Jarvis has a roundup of Iraqi blogs.

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Dailypundit about Bush's bike fall (but not on Kerry's nasty "training wheel" remark):

To me, the telling part of this story was the fact that the accident took place in the 16th mile of a 17 mile ride, and that while he was offered a ride back to the ranch, he got back on the bike and finished the ride. I think that the lesson here is this: Bush finishes what he starts, and doesn't let a small spill and some minor scrapes deter him from completing the mission.

About Kerry's trial balloon:

In other words, Mr. Kerry embraced the rules when they helped him but now wants to ignore them when they don't.
...
even David Broder of the Washington Post sounded disillusioned. "Once again, unanticipated consequences of new rules are largely subverting their intended purposes," he wrote. "It is virtually impossible to control the flow of money from the private sector into the political world." Now he tells us.

Libertarians v. Bush. Glenn comments: "But my support for Bush has more to do with the character of his opposition, really, than with Bush himself."

On WMD:

If the left has no problem with George Tenet staying on after 9/11, and has no problem with Norman Minetta staying on the job, and they certainly weren't calling for reno to resign after she burned Waco down, then they should STFU.

Unforeseen turns.