We have been watching the extended DVD version of The Two Towers. My wife has officially become a Tolkien nut, and we both love the films.

This edition, however, is nothing short of a completely new film. It adds more than 40 minutes to the footage, bringing the total length of the feature from a respectable 179 minutes to a whopping 223 minutes! And the additions are not some low-grade stuff either.

This is simply awesome. I can't wait till December 17!

I am getting old.

Really.

This is not because my back is killing me. From biking like an idiot yesterday. Neither does the fact that I have almost no hair anymore, at all, figure into this revelation.

However. I did figure out the other day that I am losing my hearing. On the right ear. That might have something to do with this.

No. Mainly, it is Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog. I mean, I used to find this stuff funny. Beavis and Butthead were funny. Sort of. South Park was hilarious. Still is, probably (I don't have a TV, remember?). And I want to think that this guy is funny, too. It's just... Nothing is happening. I try and I try...

Is this what impotence feels like? That's probably next...

This was an excellent day. Not that there has been any lack of those for the last, oh, ten years or so. But this one was one, anyway.

First, I attended a real-life baby shower. Not one of these cozy little afternoon things, were a few friends come and have some tea. No. This was an all-out, all-American, organized, big-time Event! It had an organizer, a very surprised mother-to-be (mainly because she had attended another surprize baby shower yesterday), a special venue for the occasion (a local club house), a mountain of presents, twelve quiches, and twenty women. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Then, one of them took me bike riding this afternoon. Because, you see, Nature is teasing us these days. She is acting just as if spring was coming. So we had sun, calm, clear skies and temperatures in the fifties. And it's less then six weeks till Christmas!

Finally, I got to spend the rest of the day with two beautiful women. My daughter is looking more like her mother by the day. Which is a good thing.

Thank God for women!

A perfect day.

One of my little qualms is that I hate it when there's hair in my food. Hate it. With a vengeance.

Which kind of put a damper on my joy of eating this risotto I made last night. I made it with squash. And panchetta. And chestnuts. And fresh sage, and chili. And coreander seeds. And a lot of other stuff.

But it was the butternut squash that made it look as if there were hairs in my risotto. Which was a turn-off.

My wife liked it, though. Actually, she really liked it.

Said it was the best thing she has had. Ever.

She did!

Not that it matters. Any more. Maybe it never did. But it felt strangely good to hear Don Imus cut his broadcasting of George W. Bush's speech this morning short, halfway through, noting that he wasn't really saying anything.

Mr. Imus maintained that the speech was only a litany of excuses for "this stupid war".

Can't say I disagree.

My daughter has got her first computer program (sorry, Mac only). And she loves it! When she taps the trackpad, a random, brightly colored shape appears on the screen, accompanied by a random sound. If she taps a key on the keyboard, that letter appears, in jumbo size, on the screen. You can even have the computer read out the letters as she types. And the name of each of the shapes! This is so cool!

Writing computer games for small children. That's what I want to do when I grow up.

I can't believe how easy this is. Now I understand how 13 year olds can be dangerous hackers. This stuff is mindnumbingly simple. Or deceptively simple. Maybe it's just me that's 'deceptively shallow'.

Packet sniffers are scary.

Mommy, I'm scared. Please make the Net secure and safe and good again.