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The Sun's Olympic correspondents, Rick Maese and Kevin Van Valkenburg, are blogging back and forth to each other at baltimoresun.com/olympicsblog. An excerpt: To Kevin, et al. It feels like years, but a couple of weeks ago I wrote a column about Michael Phelps moving back to Baltimore after these Olympics. I had a small line toward the end of the column, mentioning how Phelps hopes to nab Ravens tickets when he returns home. Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti took note of the line, and I was asked how he could get in touch with Phelps.

Ricky Ratliff couldn't believe his eyes. Standing on a corner near his West Baltimore home was a little boy, maybe 2 years old, in pajamas and flip-flops. There was no one else in sight, and the child looked as though he was about to amble across the street. "It was really crazy," Ratliff recalled yesterday morning, a day after he saw the boy at West Lanvale Street and North Warwick Avenue. "Who let this kid out here? He looked like a little kid looking for his mom." Ratliff, a 53-year-old commercial artist, said he walked up to the boy, later identified as Nazaiah Johnson, and asked him, "Hey, little man, where's your mother at?"

An announcement from President Bush that we will not return to 12-month tours until after the summer will do nothing to relieve the burden of those currently deployed for 15 months - some of whom will not return home until summer 2009. Almost half of the active-duty Army's front-line units are currently deployed for 15 months. Three of these units are on their fourth tour. Almost all have served at least twice. This is the group of soldiers that has borne an immense, disproportionate burden from our wars.

Kimmie Meissner has a message for her friends in Bel Air who haven't seen her since late January. She's on her way home, and in a big way. The former world and U.S. champion will be performing tomorrow in Smucker's Stars on Ice at 1st Mariner Arena. The touring company features 2006 Olympic silver medalists Sasha Cohen, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto and two-time U.S. champion Evan Lysacek. "I can't wait to do the Baltimore show and actually see all my friends. They've been messaging me, `Are you ever coming home again?

WASHINGTON -- If Iraqis could elect America's next president, chances are good that the next occupant of the Oval Office would be Gen. David H. Petraeus. Barring that unlikely development, Sen. John McCain will do. Or so I hear from an Iraqi journalist with whom I've corresponded the past couple of years, a woman whose family was once courted by Saddam Hussein but who later became a victim of his torturers. Mayada al-Askari, about whom I've written previously, is today a reporter for the Gulf News.

When Angela and Duane Collins house-hunted, they didn't think twice about where. Not that they didn't like the other places they'd lived, but only Catonsville would be home. After all, it's where Angela grew up, and near where Duane was raised. "We chose it to have the home, the family and the support system that we need," Angela Collins said. "We know what the schools are like - we turned out OK; we know the neighborhood hangouts - we have friends there. We always liked it." It's not just that her parents, who still live in the Catonsville house where she was raised, can babysit or that they help each other out. Angela recalled her childhood there, down to the time spent with her grandmother, and she wanted to foster that kind of bond between her parents and her daughter Mackenzie, who is now 2. Lynn and Gary Morningstar watch their granddaughter learn to swim at the YMCA.

After the band had played, the politicians had spoken and the 180 returning members of the Maryland National Guard had been recognized for serving their country overseas at yesterday's "Freedom Salute" welcome home ceremony, it was 3-year-old Evelyn Joseph who took to the stage and received some of the day's loudest applause. Evelyn, in a red dress, white tights and pigtails, walked on stage at Loch Raven High School with her mother, Petronella Henry-Joseph, who received an award for heading up one of the National Guard's family-readiness units.

Iftin Iftin dodges through the crowded halls of Patterson High School. In low-slung khaki pants and black-and-white sneakers, a backpack thrown over his shoulder, the slight senior blends in as students pass by him, slapping his hand. "Iftin, wassup?" says one student. The 21-year-old flashes a smile, nodding his head in recognition. "What's up?" the Somali Bantu refugee responds, his strong African accent belying his appearance. A small black pin reading "Amini" is on his powder-blue shirt.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- At the edge of a Nairobi neighborhood called the Ghetto, there is a bridge across a gray, stinking creek, on a street called Mother Teresa Road. The creek has become a frontier between two worlds, and the bridge the border crossing. Yesterday, under the protection of paramilitary police, people shuttled from one side to another, carrying furniture, bedding, bags and pots as they steadily divided themselves by tribe. On one side of the bridge, in the Ghetto, no Luos can live.

During the Vietnam War, May, 1968, MAURICE H. MOORE will return home for burial after 39 years. Close casketed remains will lie instate at the WILLIAM C. BROWN COMMUNITY FUNERAL HOME, P.A.; 1206 W. North Avenue on Monday, December 3 from 3 to 7 P.M., where family will receive friends on Tuesday, December 4 at 11AM. Funeral Services 11:30AM, with full military honors. Interment King Memorial Park. www.williamcbrownfh.com