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The other day on the radio, I swear I heard some factoid that if the Pentagon were an independent nation, it would rank, like eleventh or so in terms of wealth, beating out even India. Could that possibly be true? That's astounding if so.

(I couldn't quite Google the fact up, but India's 2005 GDP was $785 billion, and the Pentagon just requested $622 billion budget, so it's in the ballpark at least.)

Sheesh.

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Personal Story of the Moment

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, a little girl was born.
The time, actually, was the 13th of March, 1975.
And the place, actually, was the #13 hospital in St. Petersburg.
When this little girl turned 13 (there's that number again!)
she was taken out of that cold and far away place to see the world....
Austria, and Italy, and then finally, the city of Boston.
Still cold! But much less far away.
So the little girl grew up in Boston and experienced
So Much of the world around her: yoga, and the beaches,
and music, and crazy diets, and, of course... boys.

After carefully considering boys from many countries,
she finally chose a wonderful Dutch fellow,
for Dutch fellows have many wonderful qualities.
For instance, this boy agreed to color his hair for her.
And he made the cutest kitty-like "Mwaaaa" sounds when happy.
And he even moved all the way to the United States to be with that girl.
And so the girl and the Dutch boy got married,
and decided to have a baby....

The other day Lena enlisted my help polishing this story. But the odd thing is... it's her story, but as it's told here, in all its particulars, it's also the story of her friend Ina! (Whose wedding Lena was writing it for.) They share a birthday, birth hospital, and have lived an uncanny amount of parallels since.

And I wish both of them the best in the "now they live happily ever after!" part that comes next!

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Doodle of the Moment

--Snuck in between taking notes during a meeting. Yay for Tablet PCs!