Well we all know that all Americans are the same. The same way every Indian has a red dot in the middle of their forehead and drives a taxicab.

This is very true!

I just find it so hard to fathom that she finds it so hard to fathom that you silly Americans are very, very important to me.

Polter-Cow, you are family to me because you matter to me.

Aw, thanks. I was musing the other day that I seem to be very attracted to stories about The Family You Make for Yourself (e.g., everything Joss writes) because I generally like that one more than the one I was born into. Although I also like The Black Donnellys, which is Family Above All, and strong family relationships (e.g., Wonderfalls), so who knows what's up with me.

Holy Fuck, AmyLiz! I hope the replacement of your money is quick and easy. And I wish dire, swollen ass boils on the thievin' bastards that took it.

P-C, how about we take your mother to my next freakin' hillbilly family reunion. My mom's one of 12 kids and all but three of them live within a half an hour of each other. Our family reunions require the rental of a hall to get all the people in. They are scary close and take very good care of each other.

I just bought these shoes for Olivia. Man, they are tiny! And PINK! With glitter! And they were considerably less on sale at Kohls.

Owen picked out his own cammie sandals.

SA, congrats on grad school! Your news is a much needed bright spot.

Okay, back to an all-day meeting with a trio of computer programmers. From India.

Since we're on the subject of stereotypes.

Oh, good, I don't actually have to be there. Can I just reiterate that my boss is awesome?

I'm extremely close to my family, and I don't just mean my dh and kids. Because I was an only child, my parents took extra care to make sure I was close to my cousins, growing up. We're very close to Scott's family, too.

Holy Fuck, AmyLiz! I hope the replacement of your money is quick and easy. And I wish dire, swollen ass boils on the thievin' bastards that took it.

And I wish them lifelong recurring dreams, in which Tom Scola's mom and P-C's mom give them what for. Nightly.

Cash, those shoes are adorable! of course, in her size anything is adorable.

In mememe news, I just got these shoes. I have them in black and they're amazingly comfortable.

You have no idea how much I want to put my Mom on speaker phone in therapy like the caveman in the Geico commercial.

My best friend recently printed out a bunch of emails from her crazy mom to take into her therapist so he could know exactly what she was dealing with.

My mom came to a couple of psychiatrist appointments with me, the idea being that it would shed light on Teh Craxy From Which I Am Made.

My brother's reaction said it best: "You took MOM to THERAPY?!? Are you dumb??? You KNOW how well she fakes 'normal'!!!"

Well, not that they don't have families, but they're not close.

And there's a reason for that. It's called mental health.

SA - congrats!

Theo that really sucks!

AmyLiz, that's scary, glad the bank realizes that you were victimized, hopefully they'll improve their security so that this doesn't happen again.

ND, so very sorry you didn't get the job.

Toddson, Mom had catract surgery and it was relatively uneventful for her (well, there was that issue about her having a crappy eye surgeon) but over all she was fine and the techniques have vastly improved since then. This was about 20 years ago when she was in her early 40s, she has old eyes.

Can we just divorce our crazy families and adopt each other?

Let's go with this plan. I'd much rather have a family member who quotes Gaudy Night.

The tiny shoes always set off the worst cute spasms in me. Little tiny running shoes! Miniature Crocs!

"You took MOM to THERAPY?!? Are you dumb??? You KNOW how well she fakes 'normal'!!!"

so, how did it go with her there? (If that's not too nosy) My friend's mom does the same thing. She can be totally nice and normal and seemingly worried about her daughter's well-being to me while being a complete selfish witch to my friend in private.

I'm okay with this adopting each other as family as long as we can be kissin' cousins. IJS.