The trains and busses have had a lot of city-sponsored ads and artwork in the last few years

That, or blank spaces. This is something that continually causes me some mild unease - I'd rather see *real* ads!

One of the ads I see a lot when I'm out is one urging people who feel really, desperately ill to just stay home or call an ambulance rather than taking the train because, as they point out, if you get sick in a tunnel there ain't heck of a lot they can do for you until the train pulls into a station! Plus (although I don't think they say this outright), you don't really want to be in a closed environment with that one guy who coughs all over everybody and never covers his mouth.

The signs in English all say "Feeling under the weather?" at the top, with under it a cute little (not so little, I'd guess it's about a quarter the length of the paper) picture of rain falling on an umbrella, and under the umbrella are some tissues and an ice bag (and who uses ice bags, anyway?) and I think a thermometer. Then at the bottom, in smaller print, they say what I just said about staying home if you're sick.

Usually, right next to the sign in English, they'll have the sign in Spanish. The signs in Spanish say (in Spanish, of course) "Not feeling well?" at the top - and then they have that same picture, even though clearly it doesn't make any sense without the context!

I don't know that you can even *say* "under the weather" in Spanish and have it mean anything.

Although, really, even in English the signs are wrong. If you're so unwell that you can't even take the train to the doctor because you might need urgent medical care while on the train, you're sick enough that the phrase "under the weather" doesn't really apply, don't you think?

(I don't actually say ill a lot, and I have no idea why I used it twice in this entry. Edited the second one to say unwell.)

Tuesday, we went out to soccer and gardening

I don't think Ana will do soccer this year - soccer for fives conflicts with gardening, and she alternates between loving and hating it. We'll do something more informally.

But she is still four until next Thursday, so we tried it one more time to see if she'd gotten over her issues with the coaches (she's holding a grudge because one of them corrected her once, which is why she doesn't like soccer all the time. This was nine months ago, and the program only runs May through October anyway), and she hadn't. I was with a friend of mine whom I *really wish* hadn't come, because her children are not old enough for the program, named "soccer for fours". Yes, last year they said her little ones could join in, but they should not have said that. This woman had to hover over her two and chase them around the whole time, and it just got in the way of the four year olds - the program is for kids who can more or less do what the coach tells them while their adults sit on the side and provide water.

Another woman was there with her two year old, and I was playing the silly game with Evangeline, and Evangeline said, finally, that my name is not Eva. Who am I, I asked? "You are Connie!"

Other woman thought that saying "are" is adorable, instead of just saying "you Connie" or even "Connie" - I totally didn't get this because, of course, are has been in her vocabulary almost since she started using sentences. She's a very verbal child.

Doesn't use contractions, though. Oh, she did - for about three weeks, when she started using sentences. Then she realized that contractions are, well, contractions, and since then she hasn't used a one. It's always "That is FUNNY" and "You are being SI-YEE!" and "I can not, Connie!" (her whine every time she's frustrated before even trying to do something) and even sometimes "I did verb" in situations where normally we would not say "I did" but just "I verbed".

Nary a contraction in the lot, ever.

Just call her Data. I do... or I would if calling her Evangelooney weren't more fun.

(Oh, and another example of not using contractions? We were playing Sleeping Queens today (it's a fun game, even for adults, and Evangeline can REALLY PLAY IT if we keep her from bending the cards and help her distinguish some of the power cards. She's even won a few times), and at one point Evangeline had a chance to take a queen from another player, and she decided to take one of MY queens, even though Ana had more cards and was therefore closer to winning. (Ana also had a dragon, which would have prevented the queen from being stolen, so she got irritated by this, but I'm the one with a view of her cards, not Evangeline.) When asked why she did this, Evangeline answered (sensibly, I think, although it does indicate very clearly the need for good sportsmanship!) that she didn't take Ana's card because "Then she will cry if I take her card, Nanen. My sister will cry." I don't cry, of course - I'm a grown-up, and am expected to Set a Good Example... even if I'm losing to a two-year-old, and if you can't reasonably cry then, when can you cry?)

Dear God, really?

How much hyperbole are they engaging in, here? Because if the numbers really add up that way, I'm even more pissed, if possible, than I already was at the needless deaths goin' on!

Wonder how many solar ovens could be bought for $3 trillion.

Edit: That is to say "Is the cost of the war really that high? I honestly had not been paying any attention at all!" rather than "Could we honestly have done this much shit instead?" because, as noted in comments - who can tell?