juliana, if you have any trashy paperbacks you can live without for a couple of weeks I'd be happy to borrow them. I'm a cheap-paperback whore -- anything from eyerolly vampire romance novels to true crime to Le Carré to goofy vintage stories about grooving beatnik detectives and their kooky sidekicks will make me perfectly happy, and keep me lying down and quiet for a good long time.

Also, root beer is always welcome.

Yay! A co-worker let me have some of her leftover Mexican lasagna. And tortellini!

JZ - my mom was just talking about clearing some of her book shelves. She went through books like mad when she was doing hemo-dialysis. I'll see what I can snag from her.

Aw, bless, Suzi! Would your mom want the books back at any point, or would it be okay if after I was through I passed them on to the family waiting rooms at the hospital?

Mexican lasgna? Ohh, that sounds good. What's in it?

I really needed to call the dog many things so he could choose his own name.

I've never heard of anyone doing that with dogs. Cats, yes, but not dogs. When we did obedience training, the first exercise was "How to teach your dog his name" - the theory being that it should mean "stop what you are doing and listen to me" to the dog. Which has come in handy. Walter isn't particularly well trained - we just took the one class - but he does stop what he's doing and listen quite well. And that's enough to keep him out of trouble most of the time.

And I just read Pratchett's Unadulterated Cat in which he advocates giving pets short names that you wouldn't mind calling when you are wandering the neighborhood looking for them. Pookah passes that test.

Robin's honeymoon report perked up my day. It's just happy-making.

Mexican lasgna? Ohh, that sounds good. What's in it?

Chicken and beans. Possibly some sort of vegetables.

I will double check, but I'm sure she would be happy to have them passed on.

Oh, there are olives, at least.

Skipped with a tiny side of skimming.

From earlier this morning:

::suspects Sean is still sitting around in his underwear playing Halo::

Snicker. Actually, it was sadder than all that. I was reading about big-time fannish kerfuffles, for fandoms I'm not involved in, about people who have a much greater level of involvement in their fandom than I have in anything.

See? Sad.

I need to find the study I read that actually shows people who have a more cynical view of life tend to actually be...not right, exactly, but more aware than people who are more optimistic.

Plus? When we cynics are right, we're less surprised, and possibly even a little prepared for whatever is trying to bite us/the world in general on the ass, and when we're wrong, it's a happy little surprise that makes the whole day better.