OK, this may be a really silly and tiny thing, but I am totally in love with the left sidebar menu on Sew Mama Sew!. See when you hover over the items, a little bird appears? I love it! I would do something like that if… well, if I had any idea how to go about it and/or the time and energy to tweak my blog template (which was, for the first time ever, completely designed by someone else who I paid to do it because PHP is beyond my skill set when it comes to websites).
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A quick update to say that I had a wonderful birthday. Photos will be posted later. Still cleaning here at work. Brought my label maker in today and went crazy. Yesterday I organized paper. Like, colors of paper that sit in supply waiting for someone to make something pretty. I know. Class this afternoon.
Carpet install scheduled. Windows nearly ordered (waiting for a phone call). Estimated time until house is on the market: 10-14 days. I am starving. Tried the Starbucks Doubleshot Energy + Coffee today (B vitamins, guarana, ginseng and natural proteins from milk, coffee and vanilla). Not really feeling anything, but it definitely doesn’t have enough calories to substitute for breakfast. Also, I had orange Jell-O Jigglers for breakfast. My tummy said, “stupid, you’re not 14 anymore, you can’t have that much sugar for breakfast!” I wonder if the sugar-free Jell-O would have the same effect. Must try (found some on clearance at Target the other day – yes, you can get Jell-O on clearance, and I often do). More recipes coming in the next few days, assuming I can get enough time at my desk to do so. Yes, that’s right, I’ve passed a milestone. To celebrate, here are some pictures of what I’ve done lately:  Got to hang out with Grant (along with Mom and Alison and Prince Charming) on Sunday.
 Worked on some sewing projects. Made some cookies.  Chocolate Chunk Mountains
 Lemon Butter Crumb.
Other recipes posted too, including:  Cinnamon Rolls
 Turkey Wild Rice Sandwich Loaf
(Check the sidebar occasionally for more recipes that I’ve tried and I recommend.)  Took some pictures of my cats.
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 Today is clean-up day at work, and this is what happened in my cube. I tried to build a fort, obviously.
 And I got a lot of birthday cards from co-workers, which was fun.
Hope you’re having a great day as well! And the Question of the Week is… This week’s question is in honor of George Carlin. What words do you, personally, find offensive? Ah, an easy one for me. The F-bomb (and all its variants), and I’m not really a fan of most of the others. Since I stopped working in a church, I use dammit more often and rarely/occasionally b*tch or sh*t, but I still like my tried and true “crap,” “darnit,” and “freakin’”. Oh, and I detest the f-word that refers to people who are homosexual, all variants of it; don’t know what it is about it, but I’ve always found it offensive. What people don’t always understand is that it’s not that I don’t say those words, it’s that I don’t think them either. When I say something is “freakin’ annoying,” my actual thoughts are not that something is “f*ing annoying,” but “freakin’ annoying.” I have about… 20 years of mentally training myself to not be able to say those words or even think them, so I just don’t. Yes, they pop into my head every once in a while, especially when I’ve been around someone who uses them prolifically or have watched a movie where every-other-word is offensive, but that effect fades after about 24 hours. And to be honest, I’d be perfectly happy if I never had to hear the f-bomb ever again in my life. Ever. Some people know this about me and choose to not use those words around me ( And I know plenty of people who think swearing isn’t a big deal and those words don’t mean anything, but they do. Language is a social construct that is agreed upon by everyone together what each word means symbolically. And beyond that, communication itself is a two-way process that involves the speaker saying something and the listener interpreting what the speaker meant, all of which is confused by language, gestures, posturing, the relationship of the people, etc. Language is a part of that communication, and I learned in college (in a class called “Communicating to Adolescents,” which was basically Speech 201 since we’d all had to take Speech 101 already) that it is your responsibility as the speaker to communicate what you mean to your listener, and if your listener misunderstands what you are saying, you have to take some (note that I said some and not all) responsibility for that. So knowing your listener and how they’re going to interpret the words you use is a big deal. So yes, my external vocabulary is almost entirely acceptable to use around That being said, if one of my aforetomentioned offensive words actually comes out of my mouth, be wary, because I’m that upset and you should probably tread carefully. I just read the other comments to this question (on Snarkland) and have to add that I agree that the N words referring to people of a certain skin color (since I’ve recently been studying Anthropology and learned, as I suspected, that race doesn’t actually exist) is horribly offensive, as is taking the Lord’s name in vain. And swearing around kids is a no-no (and by “around kids” I mean anywhere that might possibly contain children under the age of… 12 who can year your voice, which probably extends in a much larger radius of your person than you think it does because voices carry and people talk louder than they think, and if their parents are present and you swear I think you better be prepared for their wrath because they may just not want their kids to hear words like that, and before you say it, no, I don’t think they should have to keep their kids out of all public situations just to avoid your potty mouth). So you’ve been warned, if you swear around my as-of-yet-unconceived, unborn children, I’ll hurt you. Last night I had Ugh! All I wanted was a simple machine to make some clothes and pillows with. Forward and reverse stitching. I don’t even actually need it to be able to do fancy stuff, though button-holes would be nice. Why is this so hard? I’ve got even more clothes cut out and waiting now, and more fabric that I could cut out and prep. At least I have interfacing now, so I can do that small part of the projects. My back doesn’t itch that much today, so that probably means I only have a few sensitivities and no actual allergies. Oh well. It’ll still give me something to go on and maybe I can find some soaps and lotions that don’t irritate me. I am looking forward to my shower this afternoon when I get home. Actually, I’m going to start making dinner first (because it’s a bread thing and the dough has to rise for 60 seconds), so I’ll have to wait a bit. It’s a better plan than showering first, then cooking, and then taking a nap while the dough rises, because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t wake up from the timer and then dinner would somehow end up ruined. That’s no good. I did get some good sleep last night, which only served to point out exactly how little sleep I’d gotten the previous two nights. So I’m still quite tired. WebMD wanted me to know that one of the reasons I may have gained weight is that I’m not getting enough sleep. Or I’m going through menopause. I vote on the first one. I do get significantly less sleep than I used to (you know, back when I was single and lived 2 miles from work and was a slacker when it came to morning work schedules). They also want me to eat yogurt, but that’s not related to weight gain. So basically, while I haven’t finished reading all my books yet on insulin resistance and PCOS and so forth, what I’ve come up with so far is that 1) my diet needs to change, though I’m not exactly sure in what ways yet, 2) I need to exercise regularly or I’ll die, and 3) I need to find some willpower, somehow, because I don’t want to do either #1 or #2 and I’m pretty sure it’ll be hard to accomplish them without any willpower. Oh, and I’ve switched hairdressers. Sad, I know, because I’d just started going back to Kerry, but it’s not exactly convenient for me to get to the Midway and really hard to get an appointment with her these days. So I walked into the Salon that’s in the mall where the Transit Center is and they got me an appointment for Monday (could have gotten one for tonight, but I didn’t want to cut into date night, even if we don’t have plans) for a cut and style, and for a pedicure (birthday present to myself). Problem solved. Now that my hair is long, I don’t need a stylist to be all that talented, seeing as how there’s only so much damage she can do (unless she cuts it too short, in which case that will be the last I see of her). And… I’m bored at work. And sleepy. Not as sleepy as yesterday, when I could have actually put my head on on the desk and fallen asleep, soundly. Birthday dinner with I may be staying home tomorrow just to get some sleep. I haven’t gotten much work done this week, and while part of it has been there hasn’t been much to do, another part is that I’ve found it hard to motivate myself because I’m so tired. It might be healthy for me to spend a day at home relaxing. I definitely have the sick leave available. I itch. My back, that is. From the patch testing. Specifically, from the tape that is holding the patches on my back. I will be very happy to get that off. The patches themselves don’t itch much, and would be much less irritating. I might not even notice them, were it not for the tape. Seriously, who thought this plan up? I hope that I get some quality sleep tonight since the tape will be removed (today at 2:30). However, it’s possible that removing the tape and patches and exposing the chemicals to air will only anger them (I presume that’s why this is done – I have to sit in a room for half an hour without a shirt on letting the patched spots get air), and I won’t get any good sleep. Who knows. Last night I told The problem is that I’m friggin’ tired. If I get a bad grade on my test today (who planned this week, anyways? emergency vet visit and Realtor on Monday, patch testing Monday through Thursday, test today, and on top of everything it’s that time of the month), I’m blaming it on lack of sleep. Because I studied from 7 to 10 last night, and then again while giving blood this morning. (They were only alarmed temporarily about the patch testing, until they decided they didn’t care.) Tonight I would like to fix my sewing machine (which I have determined may involve trying to sand down one of the parts so it fits better, or giving the machine back to the repair shop, which I just don’t think I can handle right now), do some sewing, and most importantly get some sleep. In the hour I have left at work, I’d like to make the hotel reservations (that I’ve been putting off making for over a week now, because I hate doing it) and start setting up the PO system for 2009 (because 2009 starts in 22 days, if you’re on a state fiscal year that is). My life is so exciting, I know. Oh, and for those of you who were wondering, Today is my grandpa’s 95th birthday! So this morning, my cell phone rang at 7:36, which never happens (we’ve talked about how my cell phone almost never rings, and when it does, it’s I told him I mailed a card. He said that my uncle was taking him out for breakfast (husband of my aunt who died in October) and that So I’ll try to let go of the “slightly annoyed” feeling I now have about being unnecessarily panicked about the death of a loved one and being reminded of something I remembered… and just say…  Happy 95th Birthday Grandpa!
There is a spot on my back that itches! Two, actually. This is good news, albeit an annoying development. I was afraid that nothing would come of this patch testing, and, well, now I have hope that we will get some results and maybe someday soon I will stop itching. [Want to see an early picture of the patch testing?] The bad news is that while this patch testing continues (through Thursday afternoon), I can’t take Zyrtec. And, of course, my legs itch like crazy. For no reason, actually, since I didn’t put on lotion today. Must be leftover from yesterday’s lotion. Or maybe detergent on my pants. Or who knows what. Last night was a rollercoaster of emotions, the end result of which is that I could use about 8 hours more sleep. After getting the patches applied to my back at the dermatologist (there’ll be a fun post by the end of this week on that), I ran my errands (new toilet handle at Home Depot! dropped off extra table at Goodwill!) and got home around 3:30. I finished cleaning up the house, including vacuuming all the hard floors with our new vac and cleaning the kitchen counters with Soft Scrub with Bleach. I had finished that up and finished making the bacon for dinner (turkey cobb salad) when I noticed some soapy spots on the floor. And then more, and then it became quickly evident that there was a sick cat in the house. I found So we quickly ate dinner and the Realtor showed up, right on time. We did the walk-through of the house, he explained the whole process and what his job was, and talked timelines, etc. He thought our wishlist for a new house was easy (it’s only 6 or 7 things, none of which are particularly difficult to find), a goal of moving at the end of August wasn’t impossible, and that we could get a decent price for our house. All good news. Of course, we have to get to work right away, which includes looking for the house we’d like to buy and talking to the bank people. I think, unless I misunderstood something, that we can get it on the market as soon as the carpeting is installed. We’re optimistic. He stayed for 3 hours, so by the time he left it was bed time. So today at work is rough, but I did find a whole bunch of houses that were nice. I went to catch up on my “weekly blogs” list and didn’t realize how many people I know of whose fathers died in the last year. Seriously, the Father’s Day blog posts could make a girl cry when it involves someone’s dad being gone. A snippet is “the worst thing that I’ve ever gone through.” And I know this because I still vividly remember my Aunt Shirley’s funeral back in October and watching my cousins sit in the row in front of me trying to deal with their mother’s death. It was bad enough trying to deal with my own grief that I can hardly imagine their own experience. And this week, on Wednesday, my grandpa turns 95. 95! I sent him a card of an old man on a tricycle being a kid, which reminded me of watching him open his Christmas presents each year. I know that the day will come when I have to travel home for his funeral, and that day will probably be sooner rather than later. And though I will not want that day to come or expect it, I will in some sense be prepared, because we’ve almost lost him twice already. And I know that the day will come when I have to travel home (or to whatever state Wow. That is totally not the direction I meant this post to take. Where I meant to go was… the depth of these Father’s Day posts took me by surprise because the holiday nearly flew by me with very little interaction. I mailed In other news, my dermatologist appointment is in less than an hour. I remembered this about a third of the way into my shower this morning, and decided to take an extra few minutes and enjoy the opportunity. I mean, I don’t get to shower again until Thursday late afternoon. Yech. Not a huge fan of that. Oh sure, “sponge baths” are allowed. Let’s hope it doesn’t get too hot, that’s all I’m saying. And you know I’m going to have to wash my hair in the sink at least once. Hopefully I won’t itch too bad, because Wednesday (when they take off the patches) I have my first (of two or three, I can’t remember) test of the semester and I really don’t want to be distracted. Also, it said right on my info sheet not to itch the area with the patches. I can apply pressure with a fingertip, but otherwise I basically have to wait until Thursday afternoon, when they’ll apply a soothing balm of some sort. Of course, it’s also possible that nothing they put on will make me itch and it’ll be a huge waste. OK, not really a waste, because then we’ll know I’m not officially allergic to anything. But I won’t get a printout of “safe” products and I’ll just have to keep taking Zyrtec until I build up an immunity and then will just pray to whatever gods are in charge of skin and itchy things to have them provide me with something else. So, yeah. 20 minutes of work left. Boring day. I know I promised pictures of our cars from Thursday’s drama. Here you go (if you click on the pictures, it’ll take you to Flickr and then you can browse the other pictures we took, and hopefully a front-view one of  Focus bumper damage (just the scratches, not the crack)
 BMW damage
And then here’s the fabric I got from J Caroline Creative last week (clicking on the picture will take you to the Flickr page which links to each individual fabric where I talk about my plans for them – so exciting, I know):  New, colorful fabric
 Plus, my Amaryllis bloomed last week.
We had an entirely exhausting weekend. Most of it was spent doing small home repairs (lots of patching walls, sanding, and painting) and cleaning and moving furniture. We also took another load of stuff to the storage unit, and the back seat of my car has some stuff for Goodwill in it. When I get home from my dermatologist appointment today, I’ll finish cleaning up. The Realtor comes at 7 tonight. We were really ridiculously busy (with very little to report). We did manage to go to Target (twice, both times for the same vacuum cleaner, which has already had to be returned once and may just end up getting returned again), the liquor store to re-stock, and do our grocery shopping. We also watched Juno, which is good. There was also a big storm that mostly missed us (seriously, we had about 3 minutes of heavy rain and maybe half an hour of strong wind, which is not much compared to parts of the metro area that had downed power lines and who knows what else). And, Oh, and on a related note, I’ve decided to be OK with turning 30. Who knew? Well, mostly OK. There are still moments (like when I write it down and then stare at the screen) when I want to freak out a little and my heart starts beating faster, but then I move on with my life. I really need a haircut. Think I can get that done any time soon? I might need to change salons. We’re a one-car household this week while the BMW is getting repaired, which is made more difficult by the fact that I have to drive to work 3 times instead of my usual one, due to my allergy patch testing Monday-Wednesday-Thursday. We seem to have worked things out though and will hopefully not be too inconvenienced. Back to work. Not much time here today and there’s not much to do, but I should probably get it done.
… we bring you this uncharacteristic entry on politics. Read at your own risk. As most people know, I don’t like to talk about politics. In fact, the few times I have talked about it on this blog, I think I mention that. In particular, I don’t like to argue politics. If I’m in a particularly agreeable mood, I may be interested in calmly discussing and sharing, but if anyone starts trying to convince me to change my opinion, I no longer want any part of that conversation. And while we’re on that note, let me state for the record that I am not (consciously, at least) attempting to change anyone’s views today. I’m simply trying to put into words some thoughts that have been roaming about my head for the last few months. If you feel like I’m trying to persuade you of anything, and you are offended by this, then by all means stop reading and let me know what I did wrong, because I certainly don’t want to be thought of in the way that I think of those who try to persuade me of disagreeable things. That being said, I have a few thoughts on the presidential nominations, race, gender, and the status of those things in America. Added to current events is the fact that I am currently taking “Gender and Culture,” an anthropology course, at Metro State, which has taught me a lot in a short (6 weeks) time. Back in the beginning of the Democratic race, when it looked like it was close between Hillary and Barack, I said (to at least one other person, I’m quite sure) that Barack would most certainly win, because historically in our country, African Americans make advances before women do. From my limited (albeit recent and probably less limited than the average American’s) history education, I remember that in fighting for suffrage (the right to vote), the 15th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race or color or “condition of servitude” was ratified in 1870 (though not upheld everywhere until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The 19th Amendment guaranteeing the right of women to vote (or the right to vote regardless of gender) was ratified in 1920 (and from the Wikipedia article, you can read how much more difficult it was to pass that one; and yes, I know that Wikipedia shouldn’t be considered scholarly, but it is a nice succinct and easy to read version of events with little bias). The Civil Rights movement in the 1960s was much more about racial equality than gender equality, with major strides being made towards racial equality in the1960s and early 1970s, and major strides being made towards gender equality in the 1970s and 1980s. Now, it could be argued that the steps towards gender equality, when eventually made, were more successful than those towards racial equality. I believe that while women still make somewhere in the range of 85-90-cents on the dollar (compared to men), the gap for minorities is much greater. Searching for statistics on this is not easy to do and, well, I’m just lazy at the moment. (This article in the Washington Square lays out some statistics on gender and race-based wage gaps.) At any rate, I thought it was a pretty safe bet that we’d have an African American president before a female one. And it looks like I was right. It also looks like, as I suspected, sexism is much more socially acceptable than racism. There was an interesting article in today’s NYTimes about Sexism in the Presidential Campaign Race. And, quite frankly, if Katie Couric speaks out about it, that definitely lends some credibility to the argument as far as I’m concerned, because she’s not known for overreacting and being overtly feminist (at least I wouldn’t consider her that way). And that’s not to say that there weren’t some wholly inappropriate racist remarks against Barack, including the recent “baby mama” issue that’s just, well, rude and wrong. But in my limited interaction with the Democratic nomination race, there was far much more sexism than racism. Furthermore, I’m pretty sure that the reason Hillary didn’t get the bid has nothing to do with her politics and everything to do with her gender. Here’s the thing: there are lots of people who don’t like Hillary. Why? Because she has some very strong personality traits that are, well, masculine, and people don’t like masculine women. Women don’t, but occasionally tolerate it, and men really don’t. Hillary has traits that, if she were a man, she would be lauded for and admired for and respected for. But, because she’s a woman, it’s distasteful. Someone (or multiple someones, I don’t remember) that it wasn’t a gender thing, because they’d vote for Condi. Well, politics aside, Condi is much more feminine than Hillary. While being a strong woman, she still comes across as womanly, and she fits in with our idea of how women should act and be. She might crack the mold, but she doesn’t break it. Is now the appropriate time to bring up the fact that when women were originally fighting for the right to vote, back in the days of the female ideal of being a mother and a wife, people didn’t want women to get involved in politics because it would invariably pollute them with the evils of politics, and women were responsible for bringing up moral, upright children. I also feel it appropriate to bring up that when women were fighting to work (you know, after WWII during which they went to work because they “had to” and were doing their “American duty” and then found out that they liked it and got a sense of satisfaction from it and wanted to keep doing it), they feared more women in the workplace because if they were exposed to all those men, they would certainly be tempted to have affairs and leave their husbands. But decades (or centuries, whatever) of men having affairs with their secretaries (or just prostitutes) aren’t bad. See, now, this is where I take a turn from rational and calm exposition and go down Bitter Lane. I’ll try to do a U-turn. My apologies. I would like to think that this country is ready for an African American president, especially since that means that soon we might be ready for a female president. Back when I was declaring Barack the winner, I also decided that whoever got the Democratic nomination was going to win the election, because considering Bush’s popularity, in addition to the current economic situation and everything else, I just don’t see our country electing another Republican, even one as “middle of the road” as McCain (don’t get me started on him and gender equality, because I’ve already blogged about that and don’t want to go there again). There are still four-ish months left before we find out if my initial prediction was correct. Is it too late to add that I haven’t explored any of the candidates since my favorite dropped out of the race (John Edwards) and have no idea who I’ll vote for? If anyone is still reading (my guess is that I feel a bit out of touch with the world, mostly of my own doing, and I thought I’d attempt to set that straight. Monday night, we went out to dinner (Panera) since we’d forgotten to go grocery shopping on Sunday. We stopped at Barnes & Noble (for me), Hallmark (for my Grandpa’s upcoming birthday and Father’s Day), Best Buy (for So Tuesday we learn that the radiator is completely shot, and since there was some other work we knew had to be done on the car, we just got it all done at once. $2200 later, his car is returned to us that night. Tuesday night was basically spent picking up his car, getting dinner, and then doing the homework I should have gotten done Monday night (and would have if we hadn’t been delayed by that pesky car problem that ended up with us getting home at 9:45pm). Last night was ever so boring, since it included cleaning, re-organizing some crafting supplies, and cutting out fabric (oh, and two loads of laundry). I also spent much of the evening feeling hungry, despite my best attempts to get food into my belly (I was successful at eating, mind you, just not in getting to that “I feel full” point, or even the “I’m not hungry” state). This morning, Good thing I forgot to bring the phone number to work for the property management people (to get the phone number for the other window company) and the Realtor, huh? Tonight we’re going to Home Depot to officially order the carpeting (it’s all picked out and measured, we just have to give them money). And I’m going to fold laundry and iron. Oh, one exciting thing did happen last night. I finally figured out how the buttonholer works on my sewing machine! Turns out that the little lever you have to pull down and “slightly push back,” well, you have to push back hard enough so that you think you’re going to break your machine, and then it clicks, and then it works. They don’t look all that good, but it works most of the time (it’s a little finicky). The bummer is that I’d done a lot of reading and was hoping the other problem I was having with my machine was related to improper bobbin loading, and unfortunately it is not. Drat. And, also exciting, So, to make up for my failure to communicate with the world, here are some cute pictures of  ...
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Oh, did you want to hear about my weekend? Well, if you paid attention to my Flickr Stream, you’d already have most of the story. But, since you probably don’t (because really, who does?), here’s the scoop. Friday night, while eating dinner, my phone rang (this is valid blog fodder because my phone rings approximately once a week and half the time it’s  To my great surprise (no, it wasn't your mom), it was the store calling to tell me that my sewing machine was fixed and I could come pick it up! Ecstatic, we finished dinner and hopped in the car.
And of course, had to stop at JoAnn’s afterward, where I spent way more than I should have, but got some really fun stuff. (Check out Flickr if you don’t believe me.) Friday night:  For the master bedroom
 For the spare bedroom
 For Prince Charming
Saturday morning:  Spare bedroom "quilt"
And then I made it partway through several skirts before I ran into problems not having all the notions I needed. Thankfully, JoAnn’s is having a sale on buttons and thread and interfacing (the last of which I need approximately 9.5 yards of to create that which I have both patterns and fabric for), all 50% off. Unfortunately, this sale does not begin until Sunday. Next Sunday. Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to work on the knit items I have cut out, none of which require interfacing (but some of which require learning how to use the buttonholer on my machine, and after half a dozen tries Saturday morning, I gave up). I have little hope for these items to turn out well, mainly because previous experience tells me that patterns are not nearly as good stylistically as store-bought items are when it comes to these items (sweat pants and elastic-waist shorts, etc). I also made these on Sunday afternoon:  Why yes, those are English muffins. I'll hopefully be blogging about them soon (with a recipe, nonetheless!). They turned out very yummy.
 And, Prince Charming and I finally got the baseboards in the kitchen installed.
 (This project has been over a year in the making.)
Since this required some patching and touch-up painting, I ended up painting all the trim in the kitchen. And And as a final crowning achievement on the weekend, we got a little more stuff boxed up, cleared out, and moved a dresser out of a closet, and almost finished reading a book. Oh, and did most of my homework. Whew! |
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‘s car is fixed, but it had to be sent back. Conveniently, we’re back to 2 cars because they gave us a rental for the day. I’ve got the rental, since we hope to get his car back tonight and he’ll be in the northern suburbs past closing time, so today I drove a newer model Focus. It’s mostly the same, just a “new and improved” version. It rides better (i.e. smoother and quieter), but it was still enough the same that I didn’t have to think about where my turn signal flipper was, or exactly where the gear shaft was or anything. Also, it’s black, instead of the hideous beige-gold that my car is.
and 
specifically come to mind) and even occasionally apologize when using them in my presence. It’s a small courtesy I appreciate, but don’t expect. Also, my language is workplace appropriate, which comes in handy since I… work, in a … workplace. Yeah. There have been articles I’ve read sometime in the last… 6 months or so that talk about how swearing is inappropriate in the workplace. That may not be true in every workplace, but it certainly is in mine.
and in a church, but so is my internal vocabulary. Why? Because when it gets down to it, I don’t like those words and I don’t think they’re necessary. If you’re frustrated, why not just say so? Quite frankly, using epithets like “for the love of all that is good in the universe,” and “mother of pearl” and “ugly monkey butts” is a lot more fun and expressive, and if I’m really frustrated, it can kinda take the edge off that because what I’ve ended up saying is kinda funny.
is bringing as a salad and to drink and 
. And everyone is bringing presents for me! That’s always exciting. I’ve already gotten birthday cards from my two aunts (OK, I have 3, but the last one almost always forgets to send a card and when she does remember, she sends it on my sister’s birthday and then forgets hers instead). I was briefly sad last night when I realized that I wasn’t going to be getting another birthday card from my Aunt Shirley. Perhaps Uncle Bob will remember to send a card, but maybe not.
is definitely back to his old self and completely healthy. Weird and scary what happened, but all over and back to normal now.
called me about two weeks ago to remind me, so I verified the date with him and then sent out a card (at the same time I sent out his Father’s Day card, since conveniently all the men in my life of any importance have birthdays within 5 weeks of Father’s Day – seriously, check the notes at the end of this post).
