The calendar keeps ignoring my requests to stop, and so it turns out today is another birthday for me. Celebrations are pretty subdued here, however, as we spent the day in the hospital yesterday saying goodbye to my step-grandma, as she requested to be taken off all of her life-support after her kidneys finally gave out. If she hasn't passed yet, she'll go soon, and we are heartbroken. She was a remarkable woman who lead a magnificent life for 93 years, and she will be missed... one of the next couple of days I'll write up a bit to justify that hype. On the brighter side, I'm considering my present this year to be Hudson the wonder dog, and the way she is hanging in there pretty well for the time being. There had been indications her kidneys were likewise failing due to her medications, but they have rebounded and she's doing better at the moment. Hudson and Grandma Belle are the same age (if you do that dog years math), and in an odd coincidence, each suffered a bout of congestive heart failure at the same time, and have spent the past several weeks sharing symptoms and prognoses in an eerie way, and only just in the past week did their seemingly intertwined outlooks diverge. Hats off to Belle, Hudson, and all their fellow elders who have to have the final frontier so bravely, and who have less need to live for themselves than for the rest of us who struggle so hard to let them go when they are ready.

Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Infectonator: Hot Chase. Transmyter Games.
Story:	North Texas Drivers Stopped at Roadblock Asked for Saliva, Blood. Thanks Slashdot.
Science:	Wolf to Dog - Scientists Agree on How, but Not Where. Thanks j.c.f.
Media:	Computer Chips in Your Brain. This is why you never turn your back to a tiger. Dog Uses Stream and Ball to Play Fetch By Itself. Gunnar-man does the same with a hill.