My Dad's 53 years old today. Happy Birthday!

His hip is doing much better now, too. He's driving himself to physical therapy, and ambulating with a cane or crutches.

My cousin Kim and her husband Dave just had her second baby yesterday.

Elana Abigail was born at 5:00pm, she was 21 inches long and weighed nine pounds three ounces. According to my other cousin Tiffany (Kim's sister), "She is absolutely beautiful." (I believe it... Kim and Tiffany are both beautiful.)

This is, apparently, the season for babies. Art and Sarah are about to have their first baby (she's due in a week or two). They've done three ultrasounds, and they still don't know the gender of this kid. The doctors keep saying s/he is very modest.

Tiffany (Kim's sister) is due again in April.

Jim and Cheryl Roepcke are about to have their second. I remember when Cyan (their first) was born! Unfortunately, they've elected not to name this one Magenta, as I suggested (to stick with the theme of primary subtractive colors... the only other choice is yellow... blah). Chartreuse was another good choice, but they didn't like that eiter. (Maybe next time I won't offer my help naming the babies. That'll teach 'em!)

Of course, we can't forget the twins born to Greg and Katie, but they're practically all grown up now that they're two months old.

I hope I'm not leaving anybody out, or I know I'll be in big trouble. Oh, wait... don't forget Ysabel. She's even older than the twins which, for a cat, really is almost grown up. Ysabel's mom Xodus obviously thinks so, since she's trying very hard to convince Xerxes to give her another one (or four or five or six...).

In brief: K-Mart filed for Chapter 11. That's not the "goodbye" type of bankruptcy, it's the "protection from creditors" type of bankruptcy that allows them to reorganize and sort of "start over".

This is the largest bankruptcy of it's kind in U.S. history.

Why put this in my journal? Corinne and I both worked at K-Mart at different points in our lives. I ran the Garden Shop in KMart's Amherst, NH, store the year after I graduated from high school.

Man I hated that company... but I really don't like seeing this, because Wally World is even more irritating. (Zorro-the-smiley-faced-gay-blade slashing at your perceptions of high prices, every day!)

The best thing that could come of this, IMO, would be Martha Stuart's snooty empire going belly up with them.