It's so wonderful to hear about the good things the CIA is doing for us. They have always been so open and honest, so trustworthy. And efficient! The agency epitomizes efficiency. Now, in its latest missive, we are told that Al-Qaeda still aims to use weapons of mass destruction against the U.S. How reassuring it is to know that the top intelligence agency in the world is still keeping tabs on that dastardly group.

I guess my only question to the CIA is, uh, isn't it YOUR JOB to make sure Al-Qaeda doesn't succeed? And perhaps a little more stealth is in order. That's what we pay you those big bucks for. Quit pestering us with your cheesy threats and do your bloody job.

And speaking of blood, my husband, Uncle PC, had a little bout with skin cancer on his nose and had surgery for it a couple weeks ago, called Moh's surgery. He's doing fine, they cleared the margins of cancer and grafted some tissue from his ear area, without making him hideous. But he does have a fascinating small, round, black scabby thing on his nose which is supposed to clear up....after 2-3 months. He usually keeps a little bandage over it, for meeting clients and whatnot, but I get to see him au natural. Frankly, I love looking at the scab, I've never seen anything so ugly, so multi-textured, so...UGLY. It's worse than what I imagined a chancre would look like. I want to touch it, but we can't until tomorrow.

It's the little things that keep life lively. Even the CIA, with its dour doom & gloom, can't douse that.