This soup is amazing. Takes about 24 hours in a crock pot. Worth every bit of the time, and makes your house smell heavenly. Serve it with some of that fresh bread you learned to bake, and a good salad. Yum.

2 cups dry black beans.

8 cups cold water

3/4 cup cooked ham, diced (turkey ham works too)

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons salt (yes use that much)

1/2 cup diced yellow onion (or more if you like it)

2 whole cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (or more if you like it)

1 tablespoon chili powder (or more if you want it hotter)

Juice of 1 lime

(these next ingredients are for later)

1/4 cup rum

4 green onions, chopped

grated Monterrey Jack cheese

sour cream

lime wedges

The evening before you want to serve, dump all the first ingredients (black beans through lime juice) in the crock pot, put the lid on, turn it on High, and go to bed. It does its little crock pot thing all night. Yes, the beans go in dry, not soaked.

In the morning, take the lid off. It will simmer throughout the day. When it gets to the consistency you want (anything from soup to road tar, your pleasure), put the lid back on and turn the heat to Warm.

Just before you serve, stir in the rum. Garnish with green onions, cheese, sour cream, or lime, as you prefer.

I have a really big crock pot, I usually double the recipe. Not quite all the water fits when doubled, but it still works.

Yum!

Seems like every week I get a note from school (middle class suburban elementary school) that some kid has lice. Everyone gets them. Everyone I know seems to have a kid or a friend's kid who has had them... then the flurry of lice treatments, washing, cleaning... every TEXTILE in your house. Especially beds, pillows, HEADRESTS. Kids give them to each other by trading hats, batting helmets in baseball, HEADPHONES, anything that goes on or touches a head can spread lice.

I saw those new fancy seats, and even the older ones, and thought, what a perfect transmitter for headlice. It's only a matter of time before there's a major outbreak on an airline. Won't THAT be great for the bottom line?

I'd like to see airlines be as diligent about disposable headrest covers as they are about disposable cups or paper napkins.

From someone who had to spend an entire weekend washing everything on hot and vacuuming.

One of the superdelegates in my state wrote an editorial in the local paper... she's not declaring until after the state votes. Which hasn't happened yet. I think she's right, and has the right attitude. Let's see how the whole state goes, then decide.

So... sorry Howard Dean. There are a few states out here that have yet to have an election, and we deserve to have one. I specifically do not want a superdelegate from my state just picking their own personal favorite without seeing the will of the people first. Yes, she has the right to make up her own mind. I appreciate that she's taking the state's vote into account.

We're in the process of putting in commuter rail (in addition to the region's existing light rail system). This is a train line from suburb to suburb (Beaverton in the north-west metro area to Wilsonville in the south), along existing tracks which have to be upgraded. The point is to avoid putting extra lanes in an already overcrowded freeway system with nowhere left to expand.

Of course the naysayers think the whole plan is nuts. Who is going to ride it. People just want to drive. It's not convenient. Yadda yadda yadda... No one was planning on $4+ per gallon and rising gas numbers when they planned this a few years ago. If this really is the end of cheap oil, and the costs will continue to go up and up, this rail line is going to look smarter every day.

Target started producing wedding dresses a couple years back, for about $200. Decent, classic, not a lot of frills. I remember thinking they looked fine. There's nothing wrong with a $200 dress! Go Target.

(My wedding dress was homemade. Thanks mom.)

The countries listed at the end of this piece, in Western Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and so on, all have nationalized health systems. Everyone has access to at least some health care. It's a well-known problem that poor and low-middle income people don't have access to adequate health care, or money to pay for expensive prescriptions. The British have better lifelong overall health as a population than the US does, even without the same level of high-tech medical machinery that we have.

We have the best health care in the world, for people who can afford to use it.

I'm a freelancer. I work at home. I chose this, and some days I wish I had an office to go to, just to get out of the house! So my kids see their mom hard at work every day.

My husband is a nurse. Can't bring kids. They could visit for 5 minutes on a break, but aren't even allowed in the part of the hospital where he works. No can do.