Keeping up with the news

Hey all,

I'm a fan of the Brit newpaper the Guardian - the on-line version is pretty awesome - and saw this article last week on an unprecedented study of child development, comparing Romanian orphans in an orphanage with those in foster care. How this ever passed an ethics board, I don't know but 'proves' what we all could've guessed, a loving home is the best for human development.

A rather scary article for those of us with sons - 1/5 of boys in their 20s in the UK are still living at home and it looks like up to 57% of boys aged 20-24 in Italy still live at home! Wow!

Maybe its 'cause I'm a girl but just as I was graduating from high school at 17, my Mom said to me, "It's time you lived on your own and it's time I lived on my own"... she gave me a week after graduation to be out, then she sold the house I grew up in. I might not be quite so harsh with Rian (he can have 2 weeks) but some of the qualities I would love Rian to have are a sense of adventure, independence, confidence and to want to experience all that life can offer. Part of that is slumming it in dorms and shared houses, not still under my roof into his 20s!

And one other article that I keep thinking back to is the estimated cost of the Iraq war - $1-2 TRILLION dollars! I keep thinking how different the US would be with $2 Trill put towards healthcare, or into social housing, or education, or the environment, or... anyway, I can't seem to get that figure - and the lost opportunities - out of my head! Nobody's even touching the oil stocks in Iraq given the situation there... a sad sad waste of lives and money!

But lets end on a nice note - here are my two guys at Belcarra Park on the weekend! Awwwww.....