But now I totally want to do a Family Obligations Guilt-Wielding Cage Match between him and P-C's mom.

Heeeeeeeee. I love you. Also, did you ever recover from the Dana Gould thing and finish reading my post?

{{{JZ}}} Honey, want me to come by the baptism with a cluestick? Oh, wait. That'd be more people...hmmm...need a new/better plan.

Just got home from a big exam. I'm not worried about it at all. That's a nice feeling.

It'll be an additional 16 people, 19 if we include the three additional extended family members who are the only ones Hec and I feel really close to anyway. 30-35 people, NOT SMALL.

!!!!!!!!!

...

...

I got nuthin'. But my eyeballs just rolled right out of my head, so it's a bloody miracle I'm typing this with anything approaching accuracy.

ion - I didn't know your family was Greek, JZ! That's cool. Well, no, clearly it's Very Fucking Annoying, actually, what with the whole My Big Fat Greek Baptism rubbish. Er. But interesting, at any rate.

ioon, I have just dyed my hair for the first time in about 4 years. ie for the first time since I had the whole exciting 'Holy Fuck, my hair is falling out in clumps' fun and games. Said hair has never wholly returned to its former extreme hairbrush-snapping thickness, but is very much thicker than it was. (I lost between 50 and 60% of the density of my hair, at a guess. It's now maybe back to 70 or 80% of its original density.)

Nope, they never did find out why the fuck it was happening, beyond confirming that I had polycystic ovary syndrome.

Please God I haven't just pushed any kind of chemical shed-hair-now button by colouring it again.

gnaws inside of cheek.

ioon, man, I do love my family. Bless them. They rock. My sister and my mother are, hands down, my best friends.

Ok. I just have to share these pictures of Toto. A friend of mine made a blankie for him, and he LOVES it: [link]

Okay Jaqueline, here's what you do. You, Hec, Emmett, Matilda and Hec's dad meet your dad and whoever he decides to bring at the church for the ceremony. Then you and your nuclear family go home so Grampa Smay can have grandbaby time, and you and Hec can have Grampa time.

Your dad can take his coterie off to brunch in a place of his choice and celebrate his granddaughter's baptism the way it *ought* to be celebrated. He can take pictures, to show you guys later.

This way, one Grampa gets what he needs, and the other Grampa gets what he wants. Mostly.

I'm sorry, I know it's not this easily settled, but it should be. And you shouldn't have to be the adult in the equation, either. Masses of tact and determination to you, love.

And now I'm off to take Mom to the doctor. Wish me patience.

My whole apartment smells like cigarette smoke again from the apartment upstairs. There is probably nothing I can do about it short of buying an expensive air filter, right?

sj, when I lived in the smokehouse of doom (my apartment previous to this one), my landlady living downstairs smoked like a stack. Which meant I did too. It was hor-eee-blay. I ended up buying a Hunter air filter from overstockdotcom for less than half price and it worked fairly well...but only in one room.

I even bought my landlady one of those 'smokeless' ashtrays...but I'm not sure she used it.

Good luck!

Thanks, Beej. The smell is filling up my whole apartment, but it seems to originate in the bathroom, so maybe if I put a filter in there it would work. My asthma isn't going to be able to take this every day.

Toto = cute!

My asthma isn't going to be able to take this every day.

If it's a health issue, I would think that your landlord would be required to do something about it. And if he/she won't do anything about it, you should contact the Board of Health.

Hell, someone in my building contacted the Board of Health because they thought that their apartment was *too cold* (and this was 6 weeks AFTER the heat had been turned on, so it wasn't me).

Asthma is an even more serious issue.