Annabel's GirlyAunt it is! Also, yay for cousins, Annabel! Let the bossing commence.

I think you should denote her in the Madrigalian nomenclature: Bitey Sis, Baudelaire Sis, Biggy Sis.

So she can be Girly SiL.

Women like that puzzle me, Susan, and that is without your knowledge of firearms. That is why I saw in Kay Howard a sister, though. Even if her hair is perfect...it's just sort of naturally perfect though. I can't feature her buying volumizer and this and that.

Cass calls those "medical peas".

Girly SIL works for me. Girliness doesn't puzzle me as such--all the Buffista women who out-femme me don't, for example. And I know that in the big scheme of things, there are a lot more women like Girly SIL than like me. But she does take it to an extreme level, and we're so opposite we hardly know what to do with each other at family gatherings.

And, yes, I know the odds are very high that ten years from now Annabel and her cousin will be sitting around at family reunions complaining about their mothers, because Annabel will be sick of having a tomboy-geek mother, and her cousin will be equally tired of having a hyper-feminine mother, Southern style.

...and the next thing you know, you're starring in your very own real-life reworking of The Parent Trap!

one of those (freakish) people who keeps her flour in the freezer

Hey!

I know it's weird, but I had a nasty bug problem in Romania (the bugs were apparently already in the flour), resulting in me both keeping it frozen to keep them dormant, and sifting the flour through nylons before using.

Also, the DH is opposed to anything on the counter, so no chance for canisters until we get a house with two kitchens. Seriously. He threw out my dishrack, and puts the blender and food processor away every time he sees them on the counter (which is about every day, since I use them to cook). Your housemates may vary.

Hee. Nah, I understood the reasoning behind it, Raq. I just wish I'd heard of it when I was younger. When I lived in Arizona I had a really bad problem with bugs in just about any kind of grain product: flour, cereal, oatmeal, grits. I just couldn't get rid of them. If I'd known keeping the stuff in the freezer would have helped, I would have done it. But, since I've never had a problem here, I just mock my daughter.

I love my job.

I spork the people I work with. So glad I do not own heavy weaponry.

Well, I don't mean that they puzzle me in a "heretic. Burn her!' way. But when I spend time with them for the most part, I feel like the exchange student whose vocabulary is "Yes. No. Thank you very much. No coke, Pepsi. Ok, fine. No problem."