12:37 a.m. Today I was lucky to have a wonderful little boy crawling and walking and climbing and playing around my house. It's true I made another batch of cookies, and sure enough: another cute boy shows up!

The particular boy in question is Tamar's adorable son Damian, who reinvigorated my entire formerly static decor. I worried a lot about his little noggin and the edges of the tables -- they line up just about perfectly, and yet Damian knows how to get around. He's very curious and energetic, yet careful.

And he just worked so hard at playing all day. A little pile of walnuts and another of hard candies and a basket or two and he was basically pretty busy. And for one glorious chunk of time, I didn't have to worry about all the jobs still waiting on my list to be crossed off before this weekend.

It was very relaxing, actually, to worry about the table edges instead of what I'm going to put on top of it in a few days.

Later this evening we went to a special advance screening of Galaxy Quest, the new Tim Allen sci-fi comedy. Lots of fun, great special effects; an affectionate sendup to the whole Star Trek culture and subculture. Plus, you get to see maybe the tiniest edge of Tim Allen's tush -- I think.

For once, there's gratuitous nudity, and it's a guy who just happens to be doing the scene without any pants. For no discernible reason. And for some reason, a couple of the scenes in the earlier TV promos -- scenes *I* thoughts were funny, were dropped from the movie. But ours is not to wonder why, but just to applaud and cheer.

In other news, I heard on the radio yesterday that NASA is quietly closing down the shuttle mission and bringing eveyrbody home early -- because they don't want to have that thing up in orbit Dec. 31/Jan. 1. That gives you pause, right?

And I read that the song replayed the most on radios and TV shows this century is the Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling. I don't know. That just doesn't sound right. Wouldn't it have been Disco Duck or Midnight at the Oasis? But who am I to question statisitcs?

In other, other news, our heater indeed has blown its last warm air into this particular house. It's getting ripped out tomorrow and a new one is going to be installed, and maybe, just maybe, this house will seem warmed.

The lovely gritty guys who are lugging it here on their truck will be knocking at the earliest possible time tomorrow, hitting sheet metal with anvil-like implements and shredding the quiet morning, and since I haven't had but a mere two hours of sleep from last night, I will make this entry shorter than short and really try to do better tomorrow. But for now, I've lost that sentient feeling, whoa-a-whoa-woo.

Tomorrow I will shop, if all goes according to my carefully constructed Plan B. But first, Plan A: A good night's sleep. A long winter's nap. If your wandering eyes should appear here again tomorrow, I would be ever so grateful.