Hey all. Some dog~ma for my baby girl, who is in her last hours as a four-legger. Surgery is scheduled for this afternoon, and I get to pick her up and take her home tomorrow, cancer-free.

Here she is getting a pre-surgery workout to strengthen her other hind leg and get ready for life as a tripod: [link]

need a Boston hotel...

So I'm going to GreenBuild in Boston (Nov 18-21st or so), and every damn thing is full. Looking for a not-too-expensive boutique hotel or short-term apartment rental convenient to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC). Public transit is cool. Need accommodations for 3 people.

Anyone got any ideas? Please send info to profile addy.

Hoping to see some Buffistas, not sure of my free time yet. Will post in F2F when I have that sorted. Need hotel first.

Just a quick note to say we're home and resting, more or less comfortably. More tomorrow.

Thank you! Barb, the box from Barnes and Noble arrived today. Imagine my surprise to find so many copies of A Brave New World. You are not only a kind and generous person, but also a marvel. Thank you so much!

Hey Chicago People,

If anyone is interested in, say, getting drinks or something tomorrow (Sat. the 25th) email me at my profile address. Sorry for the short notice but I am a somewhat poorly organized visitor to your city.

Sweet good news

A is continuing to recover. He is breathing on his own. He can speak and take a few steps at a time. His neurological tests are good. He is coughing up sand and sea shells which is painful.

His little brother R was much better once they let him into the ICU to see A. Having seen the other boy die, he didn't really believe A was alive until he saw him. R sits next to him and puts a washcloth on his head an holds his hand for hours at a time. When a nurse offered to take R to the playroom he replied, "I have my brother and that's all I need."

Thanks for the ~ma guys. And please continue to keep the family of the boy who was lost in your thoughts.

Sumi!

If the neighbors moved fewer than six months ago the post office if probably still forwarding their mail. You could send them a letter that their kitty has turned up.

(Stompies -- I realize this is unorthodox, but it seemed the most efficient option. Thx.)

I'm not as active around these parts as I used to be, much to my chagrin, so I kind of feel like an interloper in this thread. But here goes anyway. I'm leaving NYC effective almost immediately. My stuff was loaded onto a moving van this morning and I'll be camped out with a friend in Brooklyn until Tuesday, at which time I will make my way to sunny southern cal. I wanted to say a huge thanks to all of the NYistas for welcoming a crazy Santiaguina by way of LA into your fair city. Super special love and adoration for, among other things, being the first internet people I met in real life, welcoming me into your homes for various game nights, x-mas parties, birthdays and co., trekking all the way out to the wilds of NJ to visit me before I became an official NYista, schlepping all the way to the upper east side (once I finally got there) for the Joyous Birth, to visit me and/or have coffee or a light snack, being my willing accomplices in BBQ sauce theft, introducing me to the Bliss store in Herald Square and just generally being really nice . . . and also foamy.

Hey all! I just thought I'd let you all know that I passed my masters degree, and in January of 2009 I will receive my shiny, $30,000 piece of paper. Yay!

I hope this isn't considered spam. I just thought I should pass along this warning about tainted Halloween candy for all the other buffista parents out there:

There is a new warning put out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency....

Sherwood brand Pirate's Gold Milk Chocolate coins are being recalled due to the fact that they contain the industrial chemical melamine, a substance at the center of the tainted-milk controversy in China that has been implicated in the deaths of four infants and illness of 54,000 other babies.

These candies are sold at Costco, as well as many bulk and dollar stores. Please make sure to check your childrens Halloween candy and DO NOT LET THEM EAT THE PIRATE COINS (you know the ones wrapped in the shiny gold foil) and please let other parents know about this! They also recall White rabbit candies, so make sure they don’t eat those ones either.

"Product was distributed to the states of CA, GA, HI, IL, MN, NY, OR, TX, WA through wholesale distributors to retail stores."

As Quoted from the FDA website.