It's a strange thing. I think I've mentioned before that for someone prone to fall dramatically apart over the small stuff, I'm very cool-headed when something is truly serious. So I'm like that now.

I'd been suspecting cancer ever since they spotted something on his lung, but the fact they also found something on a lymph node worries me more. I'm still hoping they caught it early enough, though.

And since I don't know, can't know, and can't control when I'll find out, I'm coping by staying busy. If it's bad, I might have to get on a plane in the near future, so I've been doing things like contacting my main freelance client, my choir director, etc., to let them know there's a possibility I'll have to disappear in a hurry. And for various projects I'm working on, rather than being my usual deadline-flirting self, I'm trying to get them done now, so if anything bad happens, they'll be off my plate and I won't have to figure out what to do about them.

It's strange, I know, but it seems to be who I am under these types of circumstances.

Susan, I hope it's not bad, and I hope that if it is cancer again, they've caught it soon enough to do something.

Too many people I know have had people close to them either diagnosed with or dying from cancer in the last month, damn it.

Plei, do you have a good suggestion of who makes this color? Preferably one that doesn't wipe off or smudge too easily.

sj, which works better on you, cool tones or warm tones? In the world of bright red lipstick, there's an awful lot of variation in what one should use, depending on your skin tone. If I'm going for the 50s look, myself, I tend to use about three layers of stuff to get the effect I want. (There are reasons I don't do it often, the first one being that it's hell on my lips. I start with a stain, then lipstick over it, then gloss over that.)

sj, which works better on you, cool tones or warm tones?

Cool tones.

I start with a stain, then lipstick over it, then gloss over that.

This is how I usually wear lipstick too, but finding the right red has been impossible for me.

The right red can be *so* hard to find.

With cool reds, you'll be risking the goes-too-pink factor (I'm a warm red person, so I risk the goes-too-orange thing). Christian Dior's Holiday Red is a good, classic red for those who wear cool tones. (I only know this because my BF wore it for the first decade I knew her. I chose my bridesmaid dress fabric so that it would go with her lipstick.)

With cool reds, you'll be risking the goes-too-pink factor

Yes, this tends to be the trouble, my lips seem to want to turn everything pink. It helps sometimes if the red has some brown in it, I think.

Christian Dior's Holiday Red is a good

I'll have to look for this. Thanks!

my BF wore it for the first decade I knew her

I read this as boyfriend the first three times I read it until I finally got best friend out of it.

Oooh, a chef who I met in Ireland while staying at her hotel/cooking school is on the Food Network right now. I love it when things like that happen.

It's because of the cock, right? Everybody wants one.

And you can all have one! They're only like, $15...

I just learned the ASL sign for "lesbian." I'm not sure if I should be offended or not. You make an "L" with your right hand and put the webbing between your thumb and forefinger under your lower lip, palm on chin.

Don't worry--the sign for "gay" is the same position, but instead of making an L, you make a G.

ASL is lots of fun! I encourage people to take it! Except, not the program I did, at Gallaudet.

Were you a senior scout? Did you get to go on the cool trips and get scholarship money?

I was a very lazy Girl Scout, in high school--our "meetings" involved going to Hardee's and playing cards. But I was a camp counsellor!

a nice grandmother with a prescription pad

Awww, that sounds so much better thna the usual doctor-patient interaction...

I must turn my computer off and go to sleep before I bid on this. Which I totally cannot afford.

All the best kinds of ~ma to askye, Susan and their fathers.

Work cruelly conspired with meatspace stuff to keep me from the board, so this goes back a ways.

Jilli, Cindy nailed it right on the head. My wedding is Oct. 1. I haven't ordered the dress yet, but if I don't find a cheaper alternative that I like just as much, I'll be doing so on Monday. Profile addy is good if you want to tempt me.

Cindy, can I hire you to keep track of things for me? I seem to be failing miserably at that task lately.

Tep, I'm so with you only substitute "Connecticut" for "Ohio". Maaaaaaan....

The crossword puzzle has yet to be designed that would allow that.