So I'm in my office, working on stuff, when all of a sudden my speakers go haywire, then dead. Yup: Parker bit right through the speaker wire, destroying the best computer speakers I've ever had, which were about $150 back in 1998.

You know, sometimes I forget things. Today, for example, in getting Parker to give my boots back to me and rushing to get to the play group, I forgot the ParkerCam at home.

So, Parker is in the office, but this is probably the only office-puppy shot we'll have today:

The temperature in Chicago hasn't gotten above freezing since the 27th, and we're getting more snow—50 mm so far today. At least it's warmer: for 7 of the past 9 nights the temperature has fallen below -18°C, but right now it's a balmy -3°C.

Oh, who am I kidding? Syracuse, N.Y., has over 30 cm of snow on the ground, which is nothing compared with the 3 m reported in parts of nearby Oswego County. And up in Crane Lake, Minn., it's -31°C, and not likely to get warmer any time this week.

I guess it's not so bad here.

It's amazing how long the hand puppet has survived, despite Parker's best efforts:

It seemed like the perfect toy: a hand-puppet with extra padding and a squeaky, so that Parker could play with our hands and (a) not really compute that hands are involved and (b) not bite our hands to shreds. When finished with the toy, we put it back in Parker's toy basket.

Well, last night, Parker decided to play with the toy, and as is his wont, he disemboweled it:

It turns out, despite a brief plateau in January, Parker continues to grow by about 600 g per week. He's now up to 22.4 kg:

Ordinarily I would not be happy to wake up at 5:15am. Today, however, I was overjoyed, because except for a brief moment around 1:30 when I had to shove Parker's fuzzy butt out of my space (he was laying across the bed almost completely), we both slept through the night.

I love Parker. Who wouldn't? I mean, look at him, sleeping so peacefully:

But last night around 2:30am he was neither peaceful nor adorable.

The smartest person in Texas, Molly Ivins, died yesterday at age 62. She knew Dubya better than he did. She will be missed.

If there was one thing Molly wanted us to understand, it's that the world of politics is absurd. Since we can't cry, we might as well laugh. And in case we ever forgot, Molly would remind us, several times a week, in her own unique style.

[T]here was more to Molly Ivins than insightful political commentary packaged in an aw-shucks Southern charm. In the coming days, much will be made of Molly's contributions to the liberal cause, how important she was as an authentic female voice on opinion pages across the country, her passionate and eloquent defense of the poorest and the weakest among us against the corruption of the most powerful, and the joy she took in celebrating the uniqueness of American culture—and all of this is true. But more than that, Molly Ivins was a woman who loved and cared deeply for the world around her. And her warm and generous spirit was apparent in all her words and deeds.

The President (for no more than 721 days and 13 hours more) signed an executive order that puts a political office in each executive department for the purpose of clearing what the department publishes. In other words, factual reports generated by the government will have to go through a political hack for approval before publication, instead of just being published by the generally apolitical civil service as they are today:

In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.

Now for the laugh line:

In an interview on Monday, Jeffrey A. Rosen, general counsel at the White House Office of Management and Budget, said, "This is a classic good-government measure that will make federal agencies more open and accountable."

Let's not forget, the Administration wants to reduce the credibility of government. This may be a good way to do just that.