WARNING: Lizard Sex Pictured Below

Oh! You didn't look away fast enough, did you?

Headline: Ancient Sex Lizard Makes Babies

The National Geographic, or NatGeo, tells us this New Zealand tuatara (the one on top), a rare direct descendant of dinosaurs that walked the Earth 225 million years ago, is 111 and just fathered 11 babies.

Tuataras can live to be 250 years old, so really, he's only middle aged.

His keepers thought he was "out of the mating game" because he was very grumpy and attacked other tuataras who came near him -- even females -- until they removed a cancerous tumor from his genitals.

Yep, that would do it, all right.

Our nation's Capitol

Just thought I'd post some of the photos I took while I was in D.C. this weekend. It was a great, lovely, cold, snowy, icy trip, so wonderful to see Kevin, as always. We crammed in visits to the National Archives, two Smithsonians, a monument tour and a delicious tapas-and-paella dinner at Jaleo.

We got the hookup tour through Mike's congressional connections with our own park ranger from the Department of the Interior, who drove us around all day and explained all the mouments' symbolism and history to us.

A LOT of the setup from the inauguration was still in place, especially around the Capitol, and there were a great many porta-potties still on the National Mall, and the only good view we could get of The People's House was from the top of the Washington Monument.

Here are some views:

Our Capitol, as seen from the top of the Washington Monument.

My favorite president -- so far.

The Supreme Court.

The People's House.

Yes, that's the real Constitution.

The World War II Memorial.

Our nation's largest penis. Oh, I mean, The Washington Monument.

Many Bears of Thursday

Thanks to Patti for the Many Bears of Thursday. They are at the Chengdu breeding center in China. I would love that job.

Them: "Here, we'll pay you to play with baby Panda bears. You'll bottle feed them and cuddle them."

Me: "Um, YES!"

I'm getting very excited for my trip to D.C. on Saturday, except for the getting up at 5:30 a.m. part.

Hope everyone watched the new show "Lie to Me" last night, because my fabulously talented nephew did the sets. Tim Roth was, as usual, awesome. It was a pretty interesting show. I could see myself getting into it. Check it out if you get a chance, Wednesdays at 9 on Fox.

Today would have been my daddy's 86th birthday, so I'm going to wish him a happy one anyway. Who knows? Maybe he will hear me.

A rare day

Wow. Just wow. Check out the front of the Capitol and all the way down the National Mall. Two miles of people, all cheering.

And it did, indeed, snow in MB today. It didn't stick, but it snowed.

So...

It feels like forever since I last posted here. No particular reason for the absence, really. Maybe just too lazy. Heh heh.

Thanks to Peter, Kevin and Dan, I had a lovely birthday weekend bash in Boston, playing Wii until all hours of the night (Yay for Raving Rabbids!), visiting witchy old Salem and eating too much amazing food. They took me to Blue Ginger in Wellesley for my birthday, and while I never was that tempted watching chef Ming Tsai cook on PBS, his restaurant is incredible.

Plus, because Kevin and Dan's friends Al and Doug joined us, I got to spend my birthday with five handsome men.

What more could a girl ask for? Well, Clive Owen wasn't there, but I understand. He's busy.

Then, right after I got back from Boston, Ms. Schnakenberg graced me with a visit, all the way from Bangkok. Well, really she was just coming from Baltimore, where she visited before MB as part of her Month in the US Tour.

We shopped, or rather she shopped, we ate, we watched movies, we talked and talked and talked and plotted me going to Bangkok, maybe next year.

And this Saturday, I'm catching an early flight up to D.C. to spend five days. The first three will be all sightseeing, and the last two, I'm covering our city's lobbying trip as officials try to nab some of the new federal stimulus money.

Kevin's coming down from Boston to meet me for Sunday and Monday, and because he has never been to D.C. before, we're going to try and squeeze in as much museum time as possible. At least two Smithsonians -- Natural History and Air and Space, I think -- the Spy Museum, Ford's Theater, all on the list.

My friend Mike, who works for a California congressman, is hooking us up with a VIP tour of the monuments on Monday, with our very own park ranger who will drive us from place to place so we don't have to try and run the National Mall, and even take us up the top of the Washington Monument. He said the tour includes Arlington Cemetery, which is always moving, and maybe more so now because of the Iraq War graves.

If there's a way to fit in the White House, I'm gonna try. But it seems doubtful. There's just too much else to see, and we won't have time to wait in line. That's the other thing about the VIP tour -- no waiting. Because we are VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE, dammit.

I'll bring my laptop because I'll have to file stories from DC, so I'll try and download some pictures, too.

It'll be fun to go back there. I haven't been since I left in 88, and I haven't seen the FDR memorial yet. But I'm packing long underwear, because it's going to be frozen tundra up there.

Speaking of which, we have an 80 percent chance of SNOW in Myrtle Beach tomorrow. 80-freakin--percent. Snow.

And they say there's nothing to this climate-change thing. Huh.

Anyhow, Happy New Year. Buon Anno.