This month seems to be dragging towards the end. Come on February! Not that I have any particular affection for February. Er, Valentine's day, I suppose.

I neglected one aspect of my dentist story last time. He must have me marked down (not incorrectly) as a wuss. Sally gets fillings without anesthetic; I on the other hand get so much stuff pumped into my jaw that the whole left side of my face was immobile for over an hour afterwards. I couldn't even blink! Well, I could, but it felt weird. And when I flared my nostrils, only one flared. Now that's a cool trick.

Some friends of ours are getting married (woo hoo) in June and in Venice no less (woo hoo!). We've booked our flights out there but not our return as we don't know what we want to do after the event. Do we hang around Italy (not a bad option, but we were just there recently) or do we go home and go somewhere else later? Or do we do some mad hop to somewhere else like (my preference) Barcelona?

All these choices.

Mr Lileks was pointing out an inconsistency in the media the other day, whereby former or current communists were never taken to task over their affiliations in the same way right wing individuals were. I could only ruminate that communism was an ideal gone wrong and that I don't think Stalin or Cold War when communists are mentioned in the same way that I don't think Auto-da-fe when Christians are. But my own bias does show through because I think of babies being exposed on hillsides when I think of capitalists.

Bush gives the state of the union address later. I wonder will it be war.