Is she called Cynthia, or Cindy?

Both, I think, depending on the situation. I think it's usually Cindy in practice, but she introduces herself as Cynthia. I dunno, maybe people do call her Cyn and I just don't notice.

Cyn plus our last name is ... either fun or very bad, depending on how you look at it.

I think extracting spit up from nostrils is worse.

Whose nostrils? I'd think perhaps one's own, or the dog's might be tops?

AS my cousin said about labor--"Sure it hurt like hell, but so do really bad cramps, and you get a BABY at the end of it."

It was bits of turkey suspended in chicken-fat-gelatin.

Oh god. My first meal in Russia (still Soviet at the time ) I asked for salad, because the meat pods were scary looking. I got this, on a bed of oil drenched cucumber slices.

I learned to like the meat pods. And buy carrots and cucumbers and tomatos from the little old babushkas selling them on the black market.

Is it bad and wrong that I am actively seeking out a recipe for the turkey in gelatin thing Raquel mentioned?

Just call it aspic and you'll be totally trendy.

I apparently just got a job. This wasn't the one I was crossing my fingers about, hoping for, but that one might still come through. I made a phone call for a job posted on craigslist, and within a couple of seconds, the guy said I was hired.

I think they were kind of desperate. Also, I think they want me to hand out paper things on street corners, but whatever. It's paid work, and I'd get free dance classes out of it, and it sounds like the hours are very flexible. Which is all good.

That's awesome, Ali.

I used to clip the babies' nails when they were sleeping, but not during night-sleep.

This is how I do Oz's claws. He's not squirmy so I can get a real good look at what I'm doing. Especially important since he has black nails so it's hard to see where the hurty part is. I usually clip them to long and I have to file the rest, but he'll still be still and half asleep.

My friend Cynthia is a Cyn. (There's a whole cheesy thing with it too that I won't repeat for her and my sakes).

Jobs are good, Alibelle. Handing out papers on the street sucks, but if they hired you in a second, you can quit in a second, too.

I think I only like tomato aspic.

Betsy, you and your family were in my dream last night. I stood by while your husband was chatted up by Jeff Bridges following some lecture, and Jeff really liked him and said they should hang out. Your husband gave Jeff a business card. Then your family took me out to dinner at a fancy & good restaurant.

Then the dream changed and I was stuck in Camden, ME for a week with teenage girls, Dick Cheney, and Geroge H. W. Bush. That part was all about cheap hotel rooms and bad pizza.

Hey, I live an exciting dream life.