It's up to you Mrs. Cow. Lay off the kid or your family tree gets it.

Heh. Nice.

Parentheses for them as needs 'em and kisses all round.

Wow, downloading music from iTunes is frighteningly easy, isn't it?

::waves goodbye to money::

Today I have purchased:

2 x pair sparkly beaded/sequinny ballet shoes (1 pair red, 1 pair black)

1 x pair bright pink high top canvas sneakers (with small sparkly design)

2 x pairs beaded/embroidered ballet shoes, (1 pair brown, 1 pair black/purple/red)

1 x pair cream pinstripish cotton trousers w/sparkly gold bits

1 x pair red cotton trousers

1 x pretty chinese-style cream coloured blouse

1 x book (Kushiel's Dart, which seems to be All About What Companions Might Have Been If Joss & Co Could Be Arsed To Think Hard About Space Whores)

1 x ticket to see Big Gay Pirates Strike Back for the 2nd time

1 x delicious dinner at Pizza Express.

Sadly I have to report that my Platonic Ideal Pizza Express meal is no longer possible, as they don't do the yummy Pear Tart with a side of marscapone anymore.

::is sad::

Had I realised this, I wouldn't have strayed from the Salade Nicoise, which is The One True Salade Nicoise. I had a very nice chicken salad full of yummy things, but it was not my One True Salad. But the wine was yummy, and the sparkling water was yummy (yay for slices of lime instead of lemon), and the cute Irish waiter was quite yummy too.

I have had A Nice Day.

Also, my mum bought me 4 new blouses from the charity shop, because she rocks. She's bought me quite a few things clothes wise, as she is fabulous and is constantly scouring charity shops.

Oh, and also also, the lady at the cinema said "Don't you look lovely? You're much too good for round here!" which was quite the non sequiteur. ( I think it was the hat, although I must admit that today's ensemble was particularly nice and very co-ordinatey. AND I'd just donned my fabulous new Not Quite Dorothy ballet shoes. So maybe it was the shoes. But it was A Surprising Remark.)

Laura those pictures are AWESOME! The place looks lovely.

Bev, I'm glad for the progress. Continued recovery-ma and lots of coping-ma.

I just skipped a hundred posts because the story of Emmett's baseball victory was SO AWESOME that I had to come forward and post IMMEDIATELY.

GO EMMETT WOO!!!!!!!

(for some reason, the spelling of his name looks way wrong to me in caps, but when I looked back it was right, so I now feel safe making this celebratory post).

I'll read the rest of the thread after I pan-fry some trout.

Oh wow, I just saw Bev's Beep Me and will now send long, hard strings of ~ma in her direction.

t SENDS with all his might.

Those were the playing at Otter Lake pictures. This is the shed rebuild. Most of the place is in good shape. The shed and the chimneys not so much. Work: [link]

I'm so behind that I'm almost afraid to post ~ma because I'm sure I'll miss someone, but I finally decided that missing someone is worse than missing everyone, so:

Health and noncancer ~ma to Raq and Vortex.

Yeah for improvement and continued healing and coping ~ma to Bev and family, especially (I hope I didn't remember this wrong) StE.

Yeah for being home and continued ~ma to JZ and Halloweenie. The two of you are on my church's (new) prayer list. I almost put JZ and Halloweenie, but decided I just didn't want to answer all the questions, so I wimped out and put JZ and baby girl instead.

Car and health ~ma to those that need it, and glitter all around.

IOmememeN, last night, as I was watching TV, Rocky, the huge lug of a cat who is generally so paranoid that the slightest movement usually scares him to the other side of the apartment, laid on the back of the couch and let me encourage the front of him onto my shoulder. He ended up being a kitty-scarf for about 15 minutes, just letting me pet him calmly. It was the nicest thing evah.

(for some reason, the spelling of his name looks way wrong to me in caps, but when I looked back it was right, so I now feel safe making this celebratory post).

Emmett Spelling Made Easy: Two of everything. Two "E"s, Two "M"s, Two "T"s.

Thanks, Gris! Both his walkoff, and his game-tying hit were triples as it turns out. Which is even cooler for some reason. We celebrated by going to Foster's Freeze for dinner after camp today.

Get well soon vibes for JZ and Bev's StE.

Thought I'd share a more light-hearted family experience. Tonight's dinner was pav bhaji, and I hung around in the kitchen to see what I could do. The girls were taking care of the vegetables, and the butter needed melting, so I took care of microwaving the butter. It was rock hard, though, so it took a while. Finally, when we couldn't actually get it to smoosh, my aunt said I could just jab the fork into the butter and use some of the melted butter to paint the bread. So I laid the bread out onto a pan and spread the butter on it, and my cousin cooked it on the stove.

Fast forward to the end of dinner, when my aunt says that "the boys" are responsible for cleaning up, doing the dishes, and all that. Now, the reason this is so is that she has a policy that if you do the cooking, you don't have to do the cleaning.

"I don't have to clean!" I said. "I helped cook."

"What?" said the girls.

"I did the butter."

"He's right," said my aunt.

"Doesn't cooking involve a pan...and some heat?" asked my cousin.

"There was a pan!" I said. The pan I put the bread on.

My aunt said that I microwaved the butter.

"And the microwave, that was heat!" I said.

Which is why I am here posting and not downstairs cleaning.

yay for aunt being very fair! I love that story. now , however I have to go look up pav bhaji.

great pictures Laura! esp our new superhero - underwear boy.

rest well everyone, wake up strong and healthy .