After DaVinci Code came out, I went about finding everything Dan Brown had written and giving it a try. Angels and Demons I liked for its plot structure but the ending tanked the whole thing. Digital Fortress was good in a simple, Clancy-esque sort of way. Geeky crypto without heavy military.

I studiously avoided "Deception Point" because I had no interest in government cover-ups and NASA discoveries. But when I had a vacation coming up and no book to read (Shakespeare biographies do not make good vacation reading) I grabbed Deception Point.

The whole premise of the story is that NASA sucks so bad in the public opinion that it becomes the crucial issue in the upcoming presidential election. The president is pro NASA no matter what, his opponent wants NASA shut down. All they need is for NASA to have one really big goof.

Keep in mind that I'm reading this this past week. When the latest shuttle took off...and a piece of foam flew off and, as of right now, may have damaged the shuttle itself and put the crew in jeopardy. The whole shuttle program is grounded.

Traditionally I'd call that a "the universe is small" moment, or say something geeky about plates of shrimp. But the perfection of it, his description of NASA failures, and how they're all about the publicity and so busy saying "Look what we did!" that when all eyes are turned their way and something breaks, they look stupid... Suddenly I'm very interested in this book. And to tell you the truth it's actually quite good. The basic plot and characters are all standard stuff, but I like the way that the author is stringing along each piece of the mystery in a way that makes me want to carry the book along with me so that I can get to the next section as fast as possible.

And no Catholic Church bashing. At least, not yet. He's involved the President and the head of NASA, so I can't be sure that the Pope is not coming in the next chapter.

When Kerry and I recently went shopping for a new vehicle, one option to consider was the built in DVD that many SUVs/minivans come with. I decided that it wasn't for us, because Katherine wasn't even 3 at the time, Elizabeth just a few months, and it seemed quite extravagant.

Well, we took a 7+ hr drive down to Pennsylvania for vacation this year, and before going I decided to pick up a portable DVD player at Radio Shack for like $129. There's a large variety, some with two video screens so that you could attach one to each seatback, but I just went with the basic. I figured that she could sit it on her lap and watch. For around $100 it was just an experiment, really. If she didn't watch in the car, maybe she would watch in the hotel, leaving the television free for Kerry and I to watch our own shows.

The player is such a huge hit. If you're doing any car travelling, pick one up. The only times we heard from Katherine were to switch the movie, or to let us know what was happening ("Donald Duck's all done, now it's Goofy's turn.") Of course we didn't let her sit glued to the thing for 8 hours of driving, she had to take breaks and rest her eyes which turned into a nice 2+ hour nap ("Daddy, when you talk too loud you wake us up and people can't go nightnight. You can't supposed to do that.")

I'm glad we got it. Get one that has all the options - battery, AC adapter, and car adapter - so you can use it anywhere. Highly recommended. I have no special love for the one we got (Axion), I just picked it up because I spotted a good deal. Depends on what you want to spend.

Hey, we have new s on the finale!

Seems that the mysterious "12 minutes" of footage is actually an alternate ending to the cliffhanger season finale that we all saw, apparently instead of Meg riding off with Chris. So NBC's plan now is to re-air that show, this time with the series finale in place of the cliffhanger. Jeff Zucker (who I'm sure all the fans have a much better name for that rhymes just fine) says that the network "owes it to the fans."

What the network owes to the fans is to let the show get picked up by some other family friendly network like WB or ABC-Family or something. Turning off Dateline this evening (which had a dead body lying in the street and some 911 call) I said, "Let's see if we can find something nice on." "American Dreams," replied Kerry. "That's what I think of when you say something nice on tv." True.

Anyway, according to the article the finale would air before Labor Day. So be on the lookout, and if you see an announcement before I do, LET US KNOW!

So one day I come home from work and Elizabeth is hanging out in her high chair watching Kerry make supper. Elizabeth has a stuffed toy telephone that, when you squeeze it, plays a variety of tunes. So I invent a game on the spot that involves balancing the phone on her head and pressing the button. She finds this hysterical as I take turns balancing it first on my head, then mommy's, then Katherine's, then back to Elizabeth, taking turns. I creatively dub the game "telephone head." It is a big hit.

I did *not* anticipate that I had just created parallel games of "cereal head", "noodle head", "pizza head" and the particularly filthy "ravioli head".

Sorry about that, Kerry. :)