It's being used as an adverb, but I can only make it mean- in a way that suggests prayer- which doesn't work in the context.

Well, "full of prayer"; or, following the examples of pitifully, "causing prayer," or hopefully, "deleting prayerfully and sticking a '[subject] pray[s]' onto the beginning of the sentence."

want to come live in the cave with me? We'll install one of those hugeass jaccuzi tubs.

That sounds quite lovely.

why slow starvation instead of a relatively quick overdose of painkillers

I can see a justification for this, in that someone would have to give her the overdose, and it would probably have to be a medical professional, and that's a really tough thing to ask someone to do in a professional capacity.

My brother used to work in a nursing home that had a lot of residents that were near death. Some of them chose to stop eating to shorten their suffering. Hard for me to imagine, but it makes me think that it might be harder for those of us left behind to see the wasting away than for the one who is doing the dying.

Or maybe that's just something I tell myself to feel better about the whole thing.

I'm certain her parents are loving, devout people of faith, but their lawyer's comment (whether with their approval or not) is very crassly aimed at the religious right and the people who support it, and is only and expressly intended to paint a "the side of the parents is holy, righteous and blessed, and any other view point is heathen, godless, sinful, wrong and bad, regardless of fact or nuance," picture.

I'm with the Minister, I think. And not just cause I want a franchise.(Although I'd better send people, no? After a few times, Wheels of Death get noticed.)

erika, have you read Infinite Jest? There's a group in it known as the wheelchair assassins, iirc.

I'm not certain I can really recommend reading the whole thing, but you might want to skim through for passages relating to this feared and deadly group.

Dammit.

I wish we had a peephole.

Someone knocked on the door. I thought it was probably our neighbor, but went to check at the window before opening the door.

It's a very shabbily dressed man that I don't know. Could be homeless, might be one of the contractors working next door just dressed that way because it's dirty work. But I'm still not about to open the fucking door to a man I don't know when I'm home alone with my baby. Call me a coward, call me heartless, but that's the way it is.

He knocked again twice, and yelled, "Hello!" And he's probably harmless, but STILL.

I just wish we had a peephole so I didn't have to feel like such an ass about it.

I think he's gone now. But if he's still there in about 15 minutes when I finish what I'm working on back here and take Annabel into the front room to eat, I'll be real tempted to call 911.

And not just cause I want a franchise.

You totally get a franchise.

I'm icky about removing the feeding tube as a means of euthanasia myself, but in this particular case she can't feel pain anyway.

that's a really tough thing to ask someone to do in a professional capacity

Asking a medical professional to do it is basically asking them to forfeit their license to practice and perhaps face prison time.

It makes me sad that we allow our pets to die with more dignity and comfort than our loved ones.