Trudy, I am so, so sorry.

David - CJ is playing AA this year. He is league age 9.

We have a bunch of folks over to watch the commercials, I mean the Super Bowl.

We did math for more than five hours today.

Math is hard.

Math might even suck.

But, Emily and Hil are wise and wonderful.

I knew Barbie was right. You don't get a pink corvette, a cruise ship, a town house, and those accessories by being stupid.

I'm sorry, Trudy. I hope things get easier.

In other news, what are the implications for Wally?

By the sounds of things, unless I start trawling the youth hostels for action, surprisingly little.

The topic of "real" faith has been large in my life lately...regardless of what that faith may be.

And on that lead-in, I had a date on Saturday. Very nice woman, also very much on the shy side. Took a while to get a conversation going properly, but once we did, it was very relaxed and comfortable, as they say. Oh, and apparently I made her nervous because I was nicer than she was expecting. Oh, and that I looked younger and nicer in person. Which is lovely, and apparently I need to do something about that photo.

Anyway, I worry that she's too nice. eg, I doubt she'd get my interest in Buffy, D&D, and other such. (The main thing she remembers about Doctor Who is that a lot of the monsters are pretty ugly.) But it's been a while since I've had such a relaxing conversation. I suspect there will be a second date.

Oh, another potential problem. See, in the meantime I've had replies from, I think, four other women. (Quick count: S___, W___, M___, there was Bec twice but she doesn't count, oh, and K___. Yup, four.) Ok, on past performance, it's unlikely they'll all go anywhere, but from something my date said, I get the impression that she regards this as playing around. Which, obviously, I don't, but it does make me a bit uncomfortable. And this is a rather sensitive person, and I don't want to cause her any anxiety.

PS: the lead-in is that she's a Christian, attends services each week. But apparently the hard-line conservatives in her church cause her some worry, so I don't think it's a problem. But we did talk about religion (and politics, specifically the situation in China, as I like living on the conversational edge) and survived.

What a gentleman! Me, I dreamed of a new electric toothbrush. If I hadn't already been sleeping, the boredom factor would have knocked me out.

I dreamt I was wandering around an aquarium after hours. It added little to my self-knowledge, but it was lots of fun. There may have been geeking out. No Patrick Stewart though.

When I was reading through hockey blogs the other day I ran across a story about a guy who was drafted but decided not to play hockey so he could study to become an actuary. I can't for the life of me find the article now, but he sounded enthusastically geeky explaining what an actuary was does.

t falls over laughing That's funny on so many levels. Including ground level, apparently.

Which is lovely, and apparently I need to do something about that photo.

Are you using the one where you and your brother are pirates? (Wait, was that you, or Hayden? Back when we were on WX, and I was haranguing all the guys to post pictures of them in glasses, and -- I swear it was you -- you posted a picture of 2 unsavory-looking pirate dudes, neither of whom wore glasses, I might add.)

Because the pirate one might just throw a few women off track.

Are you using the one where you and your brother are pirates? (Wait, was that you, or Hayden? Back when we were on WX, and I was haranguing all the guys to post pictures of them in glasses, and -- I swear it was you -- you posted a picture of 2 unsavory-looking pirate dudes, neither of whom wore glasses, I might add.)

Hee. I'm afraid that wasn't me. No, I do want to do something about said photo. We had new office pics taken last week, and some of them are very good, so I'll probably appropriate one of those for the purpose.

So, in response, may I just say, yarr.

Hee. I'm afraid that wasn't me.

See, dressing as pirates is just something that I would expect you and your brothers to do.

{{{Trudy}}}

Trudy, I'm so sorry for your loss. Your family is certainly full of spectacular women, and your aunt and grandma sound like they were worthy of that descriptor as well.