Two very good reasons to mark today on your calendar

First, the Iraqi elections, and all that will come after. I don't think "ground-breaking" covers this. From tyranny to democracy in two years -- that's earth-shattering. If you pray, say one for the good people of Iraq who have joined us in this Grand Experiment.

Second (and, more importantly, as far as I'm concerned), it's the anniversary of my seester's birth.

My Seester in her toddler years, originally uploaded by leucanthemum b.

Not so earth-shattering an event for the rest of you, I suppose, but she's two years and nine months younger than I am (by the calendar's reckoning), and has been the one I've turned to for advice, so that must make her my big sister, right? Or, at least, the bestest... She's smart, she's pretty, she's funny, she's fun, she's responsible, she's successful, she has great taste in husbands, and she's multitalented... not only can she play the cello and sing like a nightingale (okay, like a contralto nightingale), but she can speak fluent Engineerspeak (both kinds -- geek and choo-choo), and get along with civilized people, too. Plus, my seester has the old art gene in her (she thinks she's not so hotsy-totsy at it, but the experts who have seen her work from her adolescence onward have agreed, she's got what it takes if she ever chooses to use it).

But, above all, she's the coolest person I know. If she hadn't been born, the world would be a truly sucky place.

Seesters, originally uploaded by leucanthemum b.

So, get out there and celebrate! Great things happen in mid-December!