A watermelon Tootsie Roll pop I got for free at the boat show on Saturday is making me very happy this morning. In case you were wondering about my mood and the reason for it. Write this down: My joy is due in part to the lollipop, mmmm, mmmm, artificial watermelon.

I had to wait to eat it owing to a superstition instilled in me by my former ballet teacher, who taught her pupils that if we ate chocolate before 9 a.m., we would instantly blow up into balloons. On the other hand, she also told us that if we ate Smarties, we would become smarter, so I don't know how tightly I should cling to her philosophies.

In other news, I'm feeling a little displaced because the Keelhauler has been out to sea for a couple of days on our boat--he and a group of guys took our boat to the islands for a bachelor party. I got a text message at 2AM the morning they were leaving, stating:

Blowup dl and crew on board. Short nap, then meeting Rob at Chinese.

I know Rob, and determined that Chinese was Chinese Harbor, but the "blowup dl" confused me. When I sent a query back, asking him about the presence of strippers, the Keelhauler wrote:

No! Inflatable sheep and creepy inflatable girl!

So, I'm interested to hear how the weekend went. Note that he didn't term the inflatable sheep creepy, just the girl.

I couldn't spend too much time thinking about it, because my friend Alli and I were driving through San Francisco at that moment, on our way home from our friend Kara's birthday party. Kara is a lovely and talented artist, and was wearing a very slinky black ensemble. In her absence, one of the guests, whom we'd only just met, told me and Alli that he found Kara very beautiful. "And she loves to get finger-banged!" yelled Alli, helpfully.

I don't know if it all went uphill or downhill from there, but let's just say it was an interesting starting point.

Star of the day. . .Jo Stafford