Lee, my family has a thing similar to your guy's Sam thing. Only ours is Fred, and not limited to living things. Anything that needs a name is Fred (for example, the virus on our computer.)

Except the girlfriends of the former theatre teacher at my old HS (with whom we still socialize). We call them Darcy.

Pointing fingers is RUDE.

hey, I wasn't talking about anyone is particular. Are you maybe feeling guilty? hmmmmmmmmmm? :)

My father's nickname is Sam. For the life of me, I can't figure out how they got that from his actual name, Martino.

I posted the Cheney link very late last night, Allyson. It still makes me mad. Did you read what he said at Auschwitz earlier that day? Try taking a look in the mirror, buddy...

I just dream of health insurance. At the rate things are going I'm never going to have any. If I get sick I go bankrupt.

Are you maybe feeling guilty? hmmmmmmmmmm? :)

I'd only feel guilty if I actually stayed home when I was properly sick. I'm one of the other employees, the one more likely to come in and infect people than stay home (though mostly it's headaches and random uninfectious stuff).

However much they say employers don't want sick employees in ... who gives enough sick time for one good cold and one migraine?

Even worse was the fact that, Joliet being a relatively small town despite its official population, Mom knew the family, as did others on the hospital staff.

One of my friends from high school became a paramedic. He was first on the scene for the two separate-by-a-year car accidents which killed his brothers. So freaking unlikely you couldn't put it in a work of fiction without destroying its credibility.

Oh, Hec, that's terrible.

Unrelatedly: custom fit clothes from Target.

I getthe equivilent of 10 days, but they accumulate by the number of hours I work - ( ditto vaction) they can accumulate. This is the first time I have ever worried about there not being enough.

Oh, Hec, that's terrible.

Truly. And both accidents took place on the same bridge into the same canal (this is in South Florida where there are a lot of canals).

My friend was a really nice guy too. Buff little surfer dude, easy-going, fix your car for you, come over with a six pack and hang out.

I've neglected to share my conversation with JZ this morning.

I turned on the TV while I was eating cereal and the TiVo was picking up something under its own initiative. I watched for about a minute.

Me: "Jacqueline! You have to come see this."
JZ: [comes over. Watches for a minute.] "So. Is this Korean furry mpreg? And why is it on PBS?"

See it was an asian guy in a large bunny suit. With white paint on his face. Doing...exercises. And his bunny suit had a very large pregnant looking belly.

The name of the show was Fruity Pie. It looked like a mandarin language children's show.