Or maybe you could yell, This is the police! and it'll open right up!

OK, Badger’s post re: posting kids’ photos on the Internet has sent some of us – well, me and Gina - into a tailspin. Gina and I exchanged several emails about issues surrounding posting our kids’ names and photos, and should we go back through the archives and delete? Gina suggested just deleting her posts altogether. Which I think would just suck, because I LIKE her posts.
A few months ago I changed the boys’ names to pseudonyms. And I recently decided that I will no longer post readily identifiable photos of the boys, and this policy now includes the baby, which it didn’t at first because he’s SO.DAMN.CUTE, and how could I not share? And I kinda think all babies look alike.
I don’t know that I’ll go through the archives and delete photos. I did offer to do it for Gina if she wanted me to. And I will.
I myself have never used my real name mostly due to a weird but ultimately harmless episode of stalking that happened lo these many years ago now. Also because, what if – in some alternate universe, but still - my mother-in-law learned to set up and plug in her computer, set up and access her email and the Internet, and somehow came upon THE BLOG? I can’t afford a divorce. Although she might see her way clear to lending me the money…
I don’t post pictures of myself because I am FAT. And I want you all to like me. And you might not if you saw how wildly unattractive I can be.
But my children? Are adorable. As some of you well know. And while Behind the Stove may never grow to Dooce-like proportions (God, I hope not! I couldn't take the pressure!), it’s still best to be safe and cautious and what not with your readership. Because you know, for all we really know, one of us may be an axe murderer, or a black-market body-organ profiteer. Or – this is where I get serious – a pedophile. The thought of any sicko seeing my little boys on their computer screen and then twisting those images to suit their own perverted fantasies makes my skin crawl and my stomach roil. So, those of you who have seen my kids, I am glad you got to. Because have I mentioned that they are adorable? And those who haven’t – sorry. I can’t post pictures of them anymore. At least not close-ups or identifiable ones. Because I need to be able to sleep at night. And let me tell you, with three children, I don’t do too much of that anyway.
I’m sorry if I am going on and on about this, but it really upset me, how naïve and careless I can be, with the most precious people in the world to me.

***************

My plumber has (FINALLY!) come and gone, and I now have a functioning laundry pipe system/doohickey thing.
Let the Laundry Games begin!
[Oops. I spoke too soon. The babysitter just called me. She ran a load of towels and put them in the dryer and the DRYER DID NOT WORK. As in, the towels are still wet. As in, please just kill me now and put me out of the misery that seems to be my lot this week. Like having my mother-in-law fold all my towels.]

****************

Literary snippets:

No, no idea why "The Poseidon Adventure" is on the brain. Sorry.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06113/684139-294.stm
Scroll down for the winners of caption contest #25. All you librarian types will especially appreciate this.

Gina and I also figured out why I so enjoyed The Thief Lord but not so much Inkheart - different translator. Yes, we have become such geeks that the translator matters now. I spent fifteen minutes trying to find out if Inkheart had been translated by more than one person, in the hopes that I could still read it without being BORED. Of course, I did go out of my way several years ago to find Dante’s Inferno translated by Robert Pinsky, so I suppose I knew translation mattered. But still…it so explains the difference between the two.

I am thoroughly enjoying the latest Mary Russell, although the part where Holmes meets Dashiell Hammett is a leetle too…too. So far. But gosh, I have a weakness for heroes with tuberculosis. Color me weird. I also find Sherlock Holmes incredibly sexy. Color me even weirder, I suppose.

Don’t know what I want to read next. I am feeling out of sorts with everything right now, including my reading choices.

I just called one of circulation people the “”reserve goddess.” Which would be ok except HE is clearly a man. Fortunately for me, a man who is my friend. I need a drink or a nap or both.

The library is having their annual Scholastic book fair this week. I need to walk across the aisle and see if they have any Magic Tree House books, cheap, for the Primo. [They don’t. Bummer.] But check this book out: Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? Looks pretty cool, eh?


**************

All right. As you were.