Trudy just called me to say that her grandmother died while they were in transit.

They had been planning to go to her aunt's funeral in Pittsburgh, but got the call that her grandmother was dying, and took a flight to Louisville, instead. So, it's not been the best week ever.

I'm sure she'll be by eventually to give more details, but would appreciate people keeping her and her family in your thoughts.

Last night at 2 am we were futzing around at Mom's house. Since we had a nine hour train trip to Aunt Mimi's funeral ahead of us we were in no big rush to get to sleep. The phone rang and it was my Aunt Dona. My Grandmother, who had struggled with Altzheimers for several years now, had gone into a rapid decline. A few weeks ago they had done an intake with hospice for when things got worse and, bless them, hospice showed up about twenty minutes after Dona called at midnight. The nurse told us Gramma was "in a state of dying" and that's what we should tell the airline.

Mom was still on the phone when I went onto Orbitz and found a flight that was leaving at 6:00 AM. We cancelled Amtrak, got in the car, and booked the flight on our cell phones on the way to the LaGuardia.

My Aunt Dona met us at the Louisville airport at 11:00 and told us Gramma had died a few hours before.

My Aunt Mimi was an adamant woman. We all laugh but none of us are kidding when we say that after her death on Friday she told her sister Esther that it was time for her to go too and off they went. We came as quickly as humanly possible, but Mimi never WAS patient once she was on the move.

Coretta Scott King, Wendy Wasserstein, Betty Friedan, my Aunt Mimi, and my Gramma Esther left us this week. Maybe Alito was more than they could take. Maybe they felt that it was time for the rest of us to get to work.

The publisher that i really loved just made an offer on my book.

yes. I'm flipping the fuck out.

I'm having a Birthday party on Sunday Feb. 19., starting at 1pm, going into the early evening. If you didn't already get an eVite, It's probably not because I don't like you, but because I didn't have your email handy (probably). Drop me a note to my profile addy and I'll send one off to you!

Like Jon, I too am having a birthday party. It's this coming Saturday at World on Wheels (yes, total dive roller skating rink...back to the 70's, man!) from 7 on. What Jon said about evites and why you may not have gotten one. Profile addy good.

I hereby release the job~ma back into the wild. I just accepted an offer for a full-time position at the Evil Empire. Thank goodness for gainful employment!

On the subject of jobs, I have a job interview this Thursday at a pharmaceutical company in the Bay Area. The person who makes the hiring decision on this position is my uncle. So, um, my odds are pretty damn good. But I could still use any job-ma (congrats, Jilli!) you have available.

Also, I am going to be free on Friday (until around 6), so if any localistas want to hang out, drop me an e-mail.

Behold Piney, our cute new puppy:

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I was in a car accident this afternoon. Not hurt (so far as I can tell), but Ripper's front end is a wreck and the initial estimate to repair is up over $4K, which aint gonna happen. The nice body shop people are looking for OEM parts.

Some vibeage, aimed at them getting the repair costs down to under $2K, would be deeply welcomed. I really don't want to have to junk my lovely car.

My father is having some routine work done on his heart tomorrow. He had heart bypass surgery over 10 years ago and they are just checking everything out.

Just asking for a little everythingisjustfine~ma for him. I'm down in San Diego now so that I can take him to the hospital and pick him up tomorrow, Mom can't drive anymore.