What a gorgeous cut! You look lovely in that photo.

I am making tempura.

That is to say, I am sitting over here listening to the oil get hot, because I'm afraid to start the next bit which involves spattering and possibly cursing. Everything else is ready.

I like the hair, megan!

I use the oil to keep the water from boiling over and it keep the pasta from sticking to the too-hot pot sides and burning. Could be solved by buying a more expensive pan, but no.

Lovely hair, megan! You do have beautiful eyes.

Matt, just have a sandwich. If he's gonna call, he'll call halfway through it. You know how the magic works!

I took a freakin' two-hour nap this afternoon. I may be more stressed than I realize.

I ate a chicken foot. And a lot of other stuff.

Then went to Mom's. Nephew was tired and cranky and shouty. SIL would not stop interrupting me. Repeated uses of "Hm, what I was saying..." had no effect. Soon I was tired and cranky as well, so I left before I got shouty.

Also, I have resolved to start being rude when people tell their children to give me a hug. It pissed me off when I was the child being told to hug random adults, and it pisses me off even more now. And if I explicitly told you that I find it creepy, why would you keep doing it?

I wanna go live in a deep dark cave.

OK, guys, It Begins. Am I crazy to have a Catholic wedding ceremony when I am not, in fact, Catholic? I don't care so much about the ceremony mass and jazz, but all the pre-wedding counseling and stuff-- are there any non-catholics who have gone through it and can advise? Is anyone familiar with doing it with a foreign parish?

The reason I am thinking about this so early is that Bob liked this one wedding we went to at a chapel in Phoenix and I don't know if I should even try to book a Catholic church.

Ooooh, Strega, that "Give so-and-so a hug" thing creeps me out too. I have an acquaintance who not only does it with her son, but says Uncle or Auntie so-and-so, no matter how infrequently the poor kid may see the grown-up in question. He's gotten more and more surly about it as he's gotten older (he's now six, and he'll still coldly hug others as per orders, but the last time he was told to hug his mom he refused point-blank even after being punished for it), and everyone else has gotten more and more visibly uncomfortable, and yet she still does it. Symptomatic of so many problems. t shudder

I used to tell him, in front of her, "If you don't feel like hugging, that's okay."

Bleah.

In short, I suppose I'm saying (a) go you with the rude! and (b) can't you send those other people to the deep dark cave instead?

bon, it varies parish to parish -- I know mine pretty much frowns on it, and mine is definitely both pretty enough to get requests and poor enough that it'd be totally reasonable to say yes. But it really, really varies.

You probably would have to go through the counseling and such; the counseling also varies, but I've got to say that the session Hec and I went to grated on both of us and stuck in our craws, and I'm pretty active and gung-ho about the whole thing. I can't imagine what it'd be like for someone totally outside the Church. Possibly anthropologically interesting but likely also incredibly irritating.

Oh bless you, JZ. It seems universal. Or, okay, it seems that way in my universe where I don't know too many people with kids. But even some very non-huggy friends do it with their daughter and I'm just like, what the hell? *You* don't hug me when you see me, so why are you telling your daughter, who does not even recognize me, to do so?

I used to tell him, in front of her, "If you don't feel like hugging, that's okay."

I did do that once, actually. Because the poor kid looked so hesitant about it.

Spontaneous hugs = good. Weird ritualistic display hugs = creepy.

bon, my brother did the counseling thing since the SIL is Catholic. When we asked him how it was, he said "It-was-won-der-ful-and-int-er-est-ing" in a mindwiped monotone. And, er, then we changed the subject.

Were either of you raised Catholic? Will anyone be hurt if you're not married in a Catholic church?

Well, TAR has started 26 minutes late. I don't know why.