Spending as much time with a six-month old infant as I have for the last month, I can't help but wonder sometimes what exactly is going through that little head. She can't speak yet, at least not in any form that is decipherable to anyone but herself (of course, I know some adults for which that last statement also holds true...), so I just have to guess. For instance, last month when I first met my niece, she stared at me for a moment, grabbed my beard and looked up at my brother-in-law. The look that she gave him conveyed a number of possible thoughts, ranging from "Oooh, fuzzy." to "Who is this transient and why does it have my Yellow Dog?"

She'll never remember this of course, because she's only six-months old. So by the time she's able to speak, I won't be able to ask her what exactly she was thinking when, say, she decided it was a good idea to grab the cat's stomach while his claws were pointed directly at her. She won't be able to tell me if she really enjoyed the taste of the cork coasters more than the pureed broccoli, or why banging herself repeatedly about the head with her play phone seemed like fun. And when I ask her why she incessantly tried to eat the dog, she'll probably look at me as if I were crazy, which isn't altogether inaccurate.

As I mentioned in my previous post, she enjoys playing with that expensive baby toy which we'll call my old laptop. I'll even let her play with this one once in a while, since she tries to get at it no matter where in the room it is in relation to herself. One day it was nowhere in the room. I picked her up and her eyes lit up as if she knew it was time to play with the computer, until she actually looked around and couldn't find it. She then looked at me as if to say "So...where's the laptop? What good are you without the laptop?", and proceed to try to escape to her own toys.

Since I have shaved off the beard, I think she now recognizes me as someone who is not going to steal her Yellow Dog. Whether that recognition is as "Uncle Grumpy Monkey" or "Hey you! With the face!", I'm still not sure, but at least she knows who I am.

RANDOMNESS THINGS

Thing That Everyone Needs to Witness: A deaf couple arguing.

I'm not making fun of deaf people here, it's just an amazingly interesting phenomenon. The really interesting part is when one walks away and the other starts yelling to grab their attention. It seems kind of pointless. I wouldn't quite equate it with rubbernecking at a traffic accident, but it's up there. It's exactly like watching any other couple argue, except you don't know if your supposed to feel bad about being entertained by it. I also learned that it's actually possible to shout sign language. Who knew?

Thing That Needs to Go Away: Carrie Prejean.

Quick, how many other Miss California USA's can you name? Can't think of any? Neither can anyone else, for which there is a reason. Nobody cares. But this particular media whore is milking it for all it's worth. It couldn't be that she blatantly broke many of her contractual obligations, it has to be her opinion on gay marriage that got her fired. Nevermind the fact that the girl who is replacing her publicly holds the same view about it. Apparently she doesn't get that most people would have fired her just on stupidity alone. Her rambling about "opposite marriage", in this monkey's opinion, ranks right up there will all the USmericans who are in desperate need of maps. 14:55...14:56...14:57...

Thing That I'm Too Pissed to Write About: The New York Mets.

Maybe after I stop fuming about Friday's loss to the Yankees, I'll mention how terrible they are and how if I still lived in Pennsylvania I'd become a Pirates fan.

Before I sign off, what does everyone (anyone?) think of the new layout? It's based on this design, and I changed the code a little to suit my liking. I think it looks pretty sharp. I'm still tweaking the code, so feel free to comment on any problems or abnormalities. Anyway, that's all for now.

Later, monkeys.