Gris, I don't think these are internetable answers.

Judaism has a great deal of debate and nuance within it. Talking to a Rabbi or a series of Rabbis is the only way you're going to find the answers to these questions -- and they may not be straight yes/no doctrinal answers even when you do find them.

This is a really good resource: [link] It's an inter-faith center for religious inquiry. I'm acquainted with the clergy in charge of it (a rabbi and an episcopal priest). They would be very able to help you research these things.

I could find Orthodox churches / Rabbies that would convert me without forcing me to dress in a suit or avoid looking at bikini-clad women.

There are certainly flavors of Orthodoxy that don't have the Eastern European Lubavitcher baggage. However, I think any Orthodox rabbi is going to expect you to obey the laws of kashrut and of "family purity" (sexual abstinence for a week after menstruation.)

We really need Nilly here.

Let's say some wonderful person just brought you a care package filled with Lush products. There are so many you have to store some of them away for later use. Do you store them in just a drawer? Or do they have to go in the fridge?

I thought you lot might know the answer.

if you're not converting b/c of your own personal faith/relationship with God/spirituality, then you shouldn't be converting at all

I've wondered about that ... thinking that if I'm a born adherent to a faith, it'd be weird and strange to have my boyfriend convert just so he could marry me, or just so we could have a church wedding, or whatever. But I have no faith, so it's unlikely to come up for me.

In totally mememe news, I just heard a friend of mine had her baby seven weeks early after unexpected pre-eclampsia -- 3 lbs. something, and in the NICU, but doing fine so far. So scary.

And my brother and his wife are expecting again, which is very good news. I'm thrilled, as are they, although I don't know how SiL is going to manage -- my brother is in the navy and going out to sea for six months November 4. He'll be back in early May, and she's due in June.

Today a program starts here at the school, and if it flops, it's all on my head. I'm both excited and wishing I could hide under my desk.

Program ~ma! I bet it's an unqualified success.

I store all my Lush stuff in the fridge except for bath bombs, but I'm probably overcautious.

Rio has nice friends.

I stored my Buffy the Backside Slayer on the shower windowsill which gets no direct light, and during the insane weather last week it melted and ran down the wall. The upside is that I now have concentrated slaying. The downside is the slippery shower floor.

I stored my Buffy the Backside Slayer on the shower windowsill which gets no direct light, and during the insane weather last week it melted and ran down the wall.

Same thing happened to my last King of Skin.

I had mine in the soap dish and it got all moldy and rotten. Ew.