Remind me to stop bitching here.

Dad is back in the hospital. When/if he gets out, Mom is planning to put him in a nursing home, because she's just not up to caring for him at home anymore.

It's strange. On the one hand, this all seems so sudden, since when we saw Dad last summer and at Thanksgiving, there was no indication of this, and he'd gone so long without a major health scare that I was really hoping he might live another 5-10 years. But now that we are where we are, it feels like it's all so excruciatingly, horribly slow, and I just hate to think of Dad being in the world in pain, and without the sharp mind and enthusiasm for life that made him who he was.

{{{{Susan, Dylan, and Annabel, canines and all}}}}

Don't worry or beat yourself up about venting. You need someplace to let it out before it chews you all up. That's a big toxic load of stress and sorrow weighing you down, and you have every right to set it down every now and then and kick at it.

ION, one of the people at the hat store on Valencia Street explained to me how to steam and shape felt, and now I'm seriously mulling over giving it a try and maybe trying to sell the results on eBay, if they don't suck.

Animals Have Problems Too

Mahvellous! And poor thing.

I am in Canberra. Later there shall be a party to celebrate the aging process in the form of my nephew. It's all good.

Punctuation to Susan W. I suspect from the entire Buffista hivemind.

On the lighter side for anyone who needs a quick "heh" :

[link]

An Episcopalian church desided to send copies of it's current fiancial balance to the entire congregation via email. Unfortunately they forgot to change Quickbooks default message in the header - so every congregation member got the balance sheet accompanied by the statement: "Dear Customer. You have an outsdanding bill. Please remit."

This is such a hard time Susan. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Ugh. I had sucked a few hundred posts, then while I was scanning I clicked where I didn't mean to click and closed the tab. Stupid watching tv while posting.

And now I don't remember what I had to say. Blah.

I wish I had some real advice , Susan.

I told DH that I felt like I was storming a well-defended city--pushing, and pushing, and pushing, and not getting anywhere for all the pointy and explody and generally hurty things life is throwing at me. He says he feels more like a besieged city.

Susan, I wish I had something useful or insightful or anything for you right now. My thoughts are with you.

Sadly, I have felt both like Susan and her DH - at the same time. Usally for the same thing- a willingness to chage things but no acceptance from the outside world that this is what is going on. It will happen .

New tagline in accordance with my mood. Nothing for it but to keep charging at Life until it yields. Kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight and all that.

In better news, Annabel? Still cute: [link] I cut bangs for her today to get her hair out of her eyes, but no pics of that yet.

Also, Isabel Allende's Zorro? I'm only on page 80 or 90 or so, but I'm ready to marry the book and have its babies.