Mystery solved on why Ian is so fussy. Rich discovered four bulges on his gums where his top teeth are coming in all at once. It looks painful to me and Ian concurs, loudly at times. I'm due to return the Mini Cooper on Monday for its lease end. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the second key for it. I had just used it a month ago and "put it in a safe place" where it promptly sprouted legs and disappeared.

I have found all kinds of stuff in our house the last two days! I found $14 in various coats and jeans. I found the tripod mounting plate for the camera I've been looking for. I've found countless baby socks in every corner of the house (dammit, cat!). But I had not found that stupid key.

Since the Mini has "Comfort Access" (where the key just has to be on your person to open and start the car), that missing key is very expensive. When I talked to the Mini guy today just hypothetically asking about it, he confirmed that they cost about $300 to replace. I was sick to my stomach.

And then Rich found it! It had fallen behind the desk (dammit, cat!) but not all the way to the ground and was resting on a next of network and power cables. Rich is the hero of the day! All hail Rich!

Despite Ian's teeth and my fretting over the key, we still went out for our holiday photo shoot. It went reasonably well all things considered. While we waited, though, I asked Rich to take my photo so I'd have a new avatar for Flickr/Twitter/Facebook. I'm continually amazed at how much I look like my brother. I really am him only 6" shorter and with more hair.