After 4 days of water aerobics at the gym this week, I decided to be worthless today, stay in my pajamas, do nothing. Pam and Jean have gone to Pensacola for the week-end to celebrate their family's October birthdays. I'll have to wish my October babies Happy Birthday here and over the phone. I'm planning a trip to Tampa on Nov. 2, and we'll celebrate Fall birthdays while I'm there. Mary Ann is 42 tomorrow and Ricky will be 43 on the 8th of Nov. You kids are not kids anymore! Happy Birthday, Mary Ann!

My plans for the week-end were to do a little cooking and housecleaning in preparation for Laura and Sarah's visit next week, but I learned they've had to cancel. Laura just started a new job at NPR on a brand new show, The Bryant Park Project, not carried on MPB, yet, but I'm going to request it. I listened to today's show online and was immediately hooked. It's hosted by one of my favorite TV personalities Alison Stewart, who fills in for Keith Olbermann a good bit on MSNBC's Countdown. She and co-host Luke Burbank have a news show that is more conversation than a straight newscast. It has reports and interviews of several newsmakers. and a cool website where interaction with the show's hosts is provided, and a blog. Congratulations and good luck on the new job, Laura!

While surfing the NPR website, I found some Rabbit Ears Radio stories available on CD in the NPR shop, not nearly all of them, but several. I wonder what happened to the original program hosted by Mel Gibson and Meg Ryan? We had a whole set of cassette tapes, which we recorded for Bonnie, wonderful narration by well-known actors, accompanied by famous musicians. Seems we gave them to Clay. I would think there is still a market for the recordings of these classic tales, especially since the original fans of the radio show are old enough to have children of their own.