Here and Now

Catching up on some things that have happened sort of recently.... A while ago (hmmm, could it have been a year ago now? Anyway, quite a while ago) Elie saw a fly swatter and asked, "What is that?" Lori said, "It's a fly swatter. You use it to kill flies." About a week later, Elie was with Lori's mom when she bought two fly swatters. Elie asked her something like why did she need two or something and Lori's mom said something like, "To get you with them." And Elie got all wide-eyed and asked, "Do you want to kill me?" Now...I don't know what she really thought, but it occurred to me yesterday while I was mowing that I tend to talk to and around my kids like they're adults - like they get irony or sarcasm or humor or whatever when they hear it... And they don't. At least not always. I can probably say to a friend (within earshot of the girls) if they are misbehaving, "You want to take some kids home with you?...

...I feel like this.

So, a guy at church asked me as I downed my fifth Diet Pepsi of the day if I'd read about the studies connecting drinking soda from aluminum cans and Alzheimer's Disease. I hadn't, and I kind of dismissed it (after all, there's lots of "internet science" out there, so...). Today I was thinking about my consumption (or lack thereof) of soda from aluminum cans the past couple days...and I got to thinking about the possibilities... What if this feeling of finding thoughts difficult to reach was somehow related to the fact that I drink way too much Diet Pepsi? Okay - it might be nothing...but, well, it might not be...um...nothing... There was a note here about symptoms of aluminum toxicity and I've got 'em. Here's the relevant quote: A 2005 research study from Poland examined behaviors in 67 males who had worked in an aluminum production facility for as few as two and as many as 34 years. These workers exhibited headaches, irritability, difficulit...