I'm pretty sure everyone knew this, but I am now officially unemployed.

If I could have some of the patented Buffista -ma around 10:30 AM EST, I'm meeting with the mortgage specialist of my bank and will most likely find out if I'm pre-approved or not.

Releasing the -ma back out to the ether. I'm pre-approved. There may be a sticking point, but all that means is that I might need to go through another, smaller bank.

Not sure I should be this in F2F, but I was wondering if any Buffistas in Cinci or St. Louis (I THINK that's where the Buffistas I know are living between KC and Benington, IN) would be willing to put me and my husband up for the night on July 27th. We have to drive to Bennington, IN to pick our son up on the morning of the 28th from camp, and a Motel is WAy out of our budget.

If not, no big (and Steph, you are WAY TOO STRESSED.)

We are clean, polite, easy-going, clean up after ourselves, not allergic to kids or pets and will be happy to sleep on a flat place on the floor. I cook, and D washes dishes.

E-mail addy is good, and no big if people aren't able to do so because of that Life Thang. I thought I'd give it a shot.

(FYI this isn't bad planning on our part. Ex-wife is Bad Planner and assumed we'd be delighted on short notice to be ordered to drive 11 hours with no money offered on her part to drop him off at her new husband's grandparents. @@)

Thanks for even considering it!

Could I have whatever interview~ma you can spare tomorrow (Thursday) from 9 am to 5 pm Eastern? Yes, it's an all day affair. I've got a fantastic shot at this, but I won't turn down extra help. Thank you so much.

Strix asked me to let everyone know that she will be grey through 8/1. She can be reached via email, but a response may be slow in coming.

MFNlaw, thanks. I have net back, which is great.

I will not go into detail, but any private advice people have on family law and custodial and child support payment issues would be extremely welcome.

This portion of the message will likely self-destruct in a day or so.

This is going to be very stressful.

Tomorrow I leave for two weeks at the cabin up in Canada. I'll probably do some posting from the road but after that I'll be mostly dark. Unless I'm at the ice cream shop which has free wifi.

If I could have some kind of -ma for a friend of mine who seems to be going through a bad patch, I'd appreciate it. He went AWOL for 24 or so hours including blowing off teaching a class at the college he teaches at, but has gotten back in touch with people.

Granted, he has had a history of depression problems and his stint at the college is just about done as he didn't make tenure (does ANYONE anymore?) so this may just have been a blowing off steam of epic proportions for him, but I'm still worried, mainly due to the history and this being VERY untypical behavior even when things aren't going so well. I think the fact his mom is going to be 80 is freaking him out in some big ways as well, especially since he knows me and another friend of ours have dealt with our share of parental loss in the last decade or so.

I've known the guy since grade school, and been a close friend of his since high school, so I am very concerned. Just another thing to make the last 12 months SUCH A FUCKING JOY!!!

My latest book review is here. [link]