Cashmere, how is your brother-in-law doing?

Hec, thank you for the bob pictures. My hair is wavier than all of those, but you provided a really nice group of shots, so nice, I'm having a hard time deciding. Thanks again.

I spoke to him today, Cindy. He's very well. They performed angioplasty on him on Friday and he came home yesterday. He sounded great on the phone and was puttering around in his garage.

Oh, so he did have a blockage, then? Yikes! I'm so glad he went to the hospital and is doing so well.

Cashmere, glad your BIL is doinig well. That's scary stuff.

Prom sounds lovely. If the gods smile on me (HA!) perhaps next year I can make the F2F.

Back on a break between shows. Still not quite enough time to list off specific impressions, but one other general impression is that Buffistas are much hotter in person.

DX: There's something about DX that demands honesty.

Yes, this. DX seems like such an interesting, likeable guy in person, but there's something about him that says "Low Tolerance for BS."

What Zenkitty says.

Ok, I just have to vent. Today, my mom left a long message on my phone saying basically that I don't do what she says, so I am a bad daughter who doesn't do what she says, is fat and unhealthy, and make her feel helpless, apparently just to thwart her. She continues that fortunately I lucked into good friends and a good church and a good job, which I clearly don't deserve, except maybe the job because she will allow that I am smart, at least in work type stuff that doesn't really matter, if not in life, which does matter and includes only aspects of life at which I suck. All this is, it seems, a long way of asking if I'm concerned about visiting her next week. Um, I wasn't.

Those of you who have met me or seen my photos know that I have a serious weight problem. My mom is thin as a rail. She seems to think that I don't care that I'm overweight. That without her to nag me about it, I might somehow forget about social issues or health issues. That I'm not thankful everyday that I've managed to find friends who accept me for who I am, since clearly she doesn't, even though she insists she's the only one in the world who will.

I'm turning 40 next year. I thought I would be past this crap by now.

Regarding playing Halo 2 and fragging your friends and loved ones, I'm all for it. Alas, I do not currently have an XBox Live account... Maybe I'll buy myself one for Christmas.

Also, does anyone know if one can play Halo 2 via XBox Live between XBox and Xbox 360s? (Since I now have the old-school XBox, many thanks to KristinT!!)

Welcome home, ND! See you soon for some festive holiday theatre.

Oh, libkitty. I'm so sorry you have to listen to that. Would it make things worse if you gently laid some ground rules.

Oh, {{{libkitty}}} I am so sorry. She has no idea the damage her attitude does.

Would it make things worse if you gently laid some ground rules.

Neither worse nor better. I've tried that, but then she says that I'm trying to say she's not allowed to talk, at least not about anything serious, and then ignores any ground rules I've tried to set. Seriously, because I don't want to hear her trash my dad (nasty divorce 34 years ago ), I'm in denial about all of my childhood trauma.

Usually, I've gotten to the point where I'm pretty ok about things. Just every now and then she catches me by surprise and I feel like I'm about 13.