I should have known better. Only six days have passed since I decided to take up biking, and the weather has gone from 50s, sun and flowers appearing, to the 20s and a foot of snow! So much for spending the weekend on a new roadbike.

Well, I guess I can take out my skis again...

The tiny heart is beating so fast. It's like it's running the marathon in there.

Last time we did this, it kept kicking the sonar microphone. Exactly where it touched my wife's belly. No matter where we moved microphone. Now, it just tried to move away. That made the heartbeat go even faster.

This time, I brought a tape recorder.

Listen. It's mesmerizing.

More pictures of those who, despite all the rhetoric and 'good' intentions, are feeling the wrath of the United States of America.

None of them is Saddam Hussein.

Being used to getting my news not just from the US media, but from all over the world, I didn't particularly need any confirmation of the tremendous bias of the mass media in this country. This bias has now been officially confirmed, anyway: Today, NBC fired one of its reporters for expressing views on Iraqi television that are not 'accepted' by the invaders and their supporters. And what were the insidous remarks in question? Answer: That the unexpectedly great resistance from the Iraqis had forced the war planners in Washington to change tactics.

Not surprisingly, given their disdain for a free and independent press, US representatives have been screaming for this reporter's head, e.g. this quote in the New York Times today:

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida, said on Fox News Channel that she found the interview "nauseating." She added, "It's incredible he would be kowtowing to what clearly is the enemy in this way."

In other words, reporters better shut up, report the stories they're told to and not engage in any 'fraternizing with the enemy'. They need to realize that they are soldiers too. Fighting for a favourable picture of the invasion in the minds of the American public.

This is sickening.

I think I'm addicted to endorphins. High on life. I've been going to the gym two and three times a week. Running. Flat out. In a little under two months, I have lost close to 20 pounds. I can now run almost 4 miles in half an hour.

Did you know that Webster defines endorphins as "any of a group of peptide hormones that bind to opiate receptors and are found mainly in the brain"?

I guess that makes me an opium junkie.