Oh crap, connie. How awful.

And what crummy news, Aims. I'm really sorry to hear that.

maybe trying the Rosetta Stone program.

My DH started with this, and he got some vocabulary out of it, but his pronunciation was the pits and he couldn't make himself understood. It's quite possible his ear just wasn't very good at picking up the nuance needed.

lisah - that sounds awesome... you should leave work early and get a macaroni and cheese pizza from BOP as a reward... also, insent.

{{Aimee}} downward-facing dog for the bureaucrats.

teeth~ma all around. for good measure.

It's quite possible his ear just wasn't very good at picking up the nuance needed.

I suspect Arabic is one of those languages where having a good ear helps a LOT. I have a pretty good one myself (to the point of being able to identify famous people doing voice-over based on very small samples.

ugh Aimee I'm so sorry. that's just fucking ridiculous.

you should leave work early and get a macaroni and cheese pizza from BOP as a reward

a what now? That sounds ... really, really good to me right now. Sadly, an almost 90 minute "lunch" means no leaving early. I do have some almonds I can snack on. This evening I will be going to hear Dishwasher Pete talk about his new book and there will be beer there and it will be good.

Maybe one of the colleges/universities has an Arabic speaking lunch table you could get to, Sean? Berkeley's International House had all sorts of those going on for people who wanted to meet up and practice.

Sox is a mac & cheese pizza pusher. But have I ever actually seen one? No!

connie, that's awful. So sorry.

Aimee, WTF? Buggering bureaucracy! That's insane.

Lisah, it sounds good! Hope it works out the way you want!

I stopped using fluoride toothpaste years ago. There's enough fluoride in municipal water to protect your teeth, just from rinsing with it, and there's some evidence that ingesting fluoride is not good for you. I use Tom's of Maine toothpaste with xylitol in it. There's plenty of evidence that xylitol aids in remineralization of teeth. That's what I attribute the vanishing of my last cavity to. It was clearly there on one x-ray, about four years ago, and the dentist was quite disgusted with me for refusing to fill it. Last year, different dentist, no cavity. She looked at me funny when I asked her about it, and showed me the x-ray to prove I had none. She of course didn't believe it had been there at all. Whatever. I wish I'd gotten copies of the x-rays to prove it.

Yup. Sucketh mightily.

I explained for over an hour and to anyone I've gotten on the phone over there. I told them my reason for quitting was no child care and that child care on a Saturday would have eaten up my entire check. Apparently, this doesn't matter. Nor does it matter that the job that actually fired me paid me twice as much. I asked the people how the fuck I was supposed to feed my child and they had no answers for me.

I can appeal and all that, but that means an actual hearing. In California. In person. I have to weigh whether or not it would be worth using our FF miles to do it.

Sigh.

Oh Connie. That's horrific. I am so sorry. {{{{}}}}

I can appeal and all that, but that means an actual hearing. In California. In person. I have to weigh whether or not it would be worth using our FF miles to do it.

Aw, crap. I know that's going to be a hard decision. I know you guys (and me too) want to use those miles to bring Joe out here for the Halloween Horror nights build, but....

If you decide you need to use those to come out here for an appeal, S and I just bought an aerobed, and would love to have you stay with us.

No Breakfast:

Tale of an Aimee-Imitates-Lucy Moment:

Mom had her pre-school class here to play in the water, play with the bunny and mom's dog, etc. We opted to leave Ollie out of it as he gets too hyper and can knock the little kids down and scare them, even though he's being friendly. I ran inside to grab some snacks and as I was leaving the house, Ollie got out. I threw the bags of chips down and made chase.

About 2 feet of chase.

My foot slipped on the stairs of the deck - hand towel someone left there - and I ate it, face first, into the wood chips and hard ground. I just missed the brick walkway by about 6 inches.

Joe jumps off the porch thinking I've busted my head and I just moan, "Get Ollie. Kids." He runs off for Ollie.

I jammed my right arm and wrist, my jaw is killing me cause I was chewing when I hit and jammed my jaw against the ground, and I have the beginnings of a nice shiner PLUS abrasion on my left face cheek.

t shakes head

As usual, I have some 'splainin to do.