(pops back in for just a sec) Lee, next weekend would be better for pie. Or maybe Thursday. Will send e. (runs off to tackle dinner prep)

Oh, and remembering Accept No Substitutes for JZ? The lady sitting next to me on the first plane on my trip was laughing out loud over her book and totally had JZ-ish hair and eyes and lipstick. Seemed especially weird that the likeness was strong because her style was so very different - the laughing book reader was all decked out as a shiny upper crust suburban matron with a tan and lots of diamondy gold bling. Fortunately for me this was not really like meeting an evil twin, more like a distant cousin.

And now I've used the Internet to shirk my dinner prep responsibilities, alas for my bad habits.

Sounds like a plan, Katie.

t x-posted with Bitches

Thanks so much for all the -ma and the calls and good wishes. I was telling Hec last night that thinking about the Buffistas made me think about the young wife's final monologue in Angels in America, where she talks about flying to San Francisco and seeing all the people who have passed on shimmering through the air around the airplane, joining hands and making a shield of themselves for all the scared, sad, sick people still walking around on the ground.

Not that any of y'all are passed on, but I felt the floaty hands and the loving wishes shielding me and the Halloweenie, all around us. So thank you all, so much.

All continues well, except that I'm now here through Monday morning at least. And my ass is all sore and cranky from excessive bedrest and the steroid injections. But I'm okay and the Halloweenie is vigorous and steadily heartbeaty and the placenta is staying put for now, so yay.

Brief post 'cause this keyboard is all rubbery and weird and sucks.

Sorry you're bored and cranky-assed, but I guess that's the best-case scenario, so ditto on the yay.

Oh! I saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman at dinner tonight. At a really mediocre place, but in a good location with outdoor seating.

That's cool, Jesse, except for the medicore part.

JZ! So happy to hear from you.

I saw a shirt that tonight at a street fair that would have been so fucking perfect for the Halloweenie, except that it was for a dog, so the armholes wouldn't have lined up. Unless you know, you want to more or less straitjacket her. Must find same shirt in human infant desight!

Desight? Make that design.

What I came here say, I'm reminded, is that I had a really nice night out with some friends I don't see very often.

It's so great to hear from you, JZ. I have this weird combination of being sorry that you're bored and being so thankful that you're bored, because boredom is a sign of ok-ness, or at least not horribleness. Very sorry about the uncomfortable, though. Continued ~ma and prayers for a healthy Halloweenie, who saves her charming curiosity about the world around her for later, and also for a healthy and comfortable JZ.

{{{{{ZMayhems}}}}}

No bath for JZ tonight, as they decided they didn't want the baby monitor off that long. Maybe in the morning.

We watched animal planet shows tonight.

My reviews:

Badgers: Dishing the Dirt Terribly padded. They used the same footage over and over, and worse, the script reiterated the same points ad nauseum. And they were stupid points like, "How does the badger put it all together to survive? It has the instinct to lunge..." Also the entire narrative was an anthropomorphized: badgers are grumpy because other predators are always scarpering off with their food.

Vastly less entertaining than Meerkat Manor where we were twisting our handkerchiefs in concern for poor Tosca the Meerkat, driven from her pack for the crime of being a subordinate female who had the audacity to bear a litter. She kept lurking about the perimeter hoping to be let back in. JZ kept comparing Tosca to Wesley, with the meerkat matriarch, Flower, as Angel. Kudos to brave Shakespeare the meerkat who knew better than to leave the kits with the doofy teen meerkats who got distracted by shiny stuff, abandoned their posts and got lost.

Let's Leave It To the Real Beavers: Better because social animals just make better film than solitary curmudgeons like badgers. Plus, baby beavers! Who'd be so stupid as to do a badger doc without baby badgers? Plus points for following the local Canadian citizen who disliked the trapping practices that killed off beavers when they dammed up culverts and worked for half a year to find an ecologically safe and sound solution. Minus points for extensive gratuitous shots of the Oregon State Beavers football team and cheerleaders in the rain. Minus points for continuously mispronoucing Oregon as "Ora-gone."

Anybody watch The Closer?

I have a bunch saved up on the Tivo that I haven't gotten to watching, but I threw one on tonight and damn, that's a good show.

Poor unbathed JZ.

Hec, I think I am going to head up your way about noon or 1:00 tomorrow, assuming it's okay. I'll call before I leave the house.