I was at the G. household on Saturday for babysitting duties again. I thought I was only babysitting for the twins while Larry and Sarah took the two older boys to see Harry Potter, but that was a misunderstanding on my part. Larry and Sarah wanted to see Harry Potter. Because the older boys had seen it with their grandparents during the holidays. Because Goblet of Fire was considered far too scary for four-year-olds (and it is), so they went to the aquarium and looked at fish instead of watching dragons and Voldemort attack Harry and, as a result, screaming in terror. The twins, not Harry. Or the dragons and Voldemort.

So I arrive at the promised time, which was a silly thing to do, because neither of my two Small Town South of Richmond friends are generally on time. Not Heidi, and not Sarah. This is a habit I have picked up from them. (Okay, actually, I picked it up myself, but it’s nice to have someone to blame, and so I’m blaming them.)

Larry and Sarah do last-minute parenting things, and finally take off for the local Millionplex theater while the kids and I decide exactly which Star Wars movie we’re going to watch. I finally win with my “But we never finished watching The Empire Strikes Back when I babysat last time!” whine, and Empire goes into the DVD player. I start fast-forwarding to the scene where we last left Han and Leia (the kiss in the Millennium Falcon, oooh!), and discover that Rebecca simply Will. Not. Allow. fast-forwarding. It upsets her greatly. She started crying. I sighed and stopped in the middle of the fight on Hoth. She stopped crying and started talking. “Ooh, baby Walker!” she said as the Imperial Walker (possibly the stupidest weapon in the Empire’s armory if you don’t count the Storm Troopers) let loose with the one-person version, which, when you really think about it, does kinda look like the Walker was giving birth.

Meantime, Jake and Nate have conned me into letting them use the computer to play games, and I did not buy into Jake’s insistence that it was his turn to go first, meaning that he got to play on the computer for an hour, even though Nate asked to use it first. I told him to find a game they could both play or Nate would get the computer first. And use it for an hour. That worked. They put in Lego Star Wars (hilarious game, go look it up), and the sounds of various other Star Wars movie music came from the other room as Empire was playing in the living room.

Just as we’re all sitting comfortably and getting into our various activities, Sarah shows up, surprising us all. Apparently, Sarah and Larry weren’t the only ones who wanted to see Harry Potter on a holiday weekend, and it was sold out. So the babysitting was cut short, and we spent the day together instead.

The most amusing part of the day was Max’s reaction to the cake. Sarah made a cake for dessert, and started putting it together shortly before dinner. And since it was a cold day out, she put it on the patio table to cool. This action utterly confounded Max. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it rocked his entire worldview. He could not wrap his brain around cooling a cake outside instead of in the refrigerator. He went so far as to drag his stool to the door to watch the cake, which of course inspired his sister to do the same. And which I caught on disk.

And so I give you: Max and Rebecca, watching a cake cool on the patio.

Utterly rocked his world.

You do not need Amazon.com when you have Plan 9.

And when it’s on the way home from work.

The Sam Phillips A Boot and a Shoe is nowhere else in the Richmond area, but it’s at Plan 9. They put one aside for me.

I am going to be a very happy woman when I get home from work.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has proof that Iran and Syria were the finance and inspiration behind the latest suicide bombing in Israel:

The defense establishment has “decisive proof that the attack in Tel Aviv was a direct result of the Axis of Terror that operates between Iran and Syria,” said Mofaz. “Iran supplied the money, and [Islamic] Jihad’s headquarters in Damascus directed the organization’s operatives in Nablus, giving operational orders and instructions.”

Israel has already given details of the intelligence behind Mofaz’s statements to the United States, the European Union and Egypt. The decision to share this information was apparently meant to provide additional ammunition to the West’s campaign to refer Iran to the Security Council over its nuclear program.

Mofaz noted that the blast occurred while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in Damascus meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad - a meeting he termed “the terror summit.”

Following the meeting, the two convened a press conference at which they issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Palestinian terror.

“Continuing the resistance is the only way to restore the legitimate rights of the Palestinian nation and put an end to the occupation of holy Islamic lands,” the statement said.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for the UN to respond. The IAEA is, as always, refusing to issue a condemnation of Iran as the EU would like. Big shock there.

Looks like the Arab boycott could possibly claim millions of Muslim lives–because Israel has developed a flu medicine that is working extremely effectively against avian flu in tests so far:

Retroscreen Virology, a medical research institute subsidiary of Queen Mary College, University of London, yesterday announced that a medical preparation, Sambucol, developed by Israeli company Razei Bar Industries (1996) Ltd., reduced the quantity of cells infected with the avian flu virus by 99%, compared with a control group not treated with the virus.

Retroscreen Virology examined the effectiveness of Sambucol against the H5N1 strain of avian flu, and found that it was at least 99 per cent effective at reducing the virus.

So go ahead, Saudi Arabia–keep that boycott. Go ahead, Muslim nations–don’t use Israeli-made products. Worst case scenario, Israel won’t have to worry about being nuked if you all just keep resisting using anything developed by Israelis.