The problem may be, where do words cross the line from Strong to Inappropriate to Abusive? Not so much with Alec Baldwin -- I think there's general agreement thathe was Abusive or else very close to it. But I've heard any criticism at all of a child labeled as Abusive. And that can't be good, either -- if nothing else, kids can't learn from their mistakes if nobody points out the mistakes to them.

Steph, it's relatively obvious to me that you're het up about the topic, and it seems to me that you are responding to calm comments with emotional and judgemental language. That's -- my definition of high dudgeon. If that's not how you're feeling, okay, but that's how you're coming across to me.

I didn't accuse you of anything. Nor did I intend to.

I guess your not-accusingness wasn't clear to me from how you phrased it: It never ceases to boggle me that people would [...] [make] excuses for him when he verbally damages his child. Since the previous graf had been a direct response to me, this seemed like a direct response to me as well. And so it looked like an accusation, especially when it was couched in such obviously angry language. If that's not what you intended, then thank you for saying so; I'll retract my saying that you accused me of anything.

But, like, you don't seem to be coming across as clearly as you might wish, at this moment, if I've ministerpreted you twice in a single post.

And now, a thorough change of topic: [link]

Japanese people who bought "poodles" over the internet (apparently poodles are rare in Japan) and did not realize for quite a while that they'd been swindled into buying lambs, not dogs.

Hint #1: lambs don't eat dog food.

That lamb-poodle story is very funny. I wonder at what point they figured it out?

ION, people in my office have the craziest ring tones and it drives me nuts. Crazy laughter, creepy little kids saying the Lord's prayer, screaming, and so on. Does vibrate not work for any of you???

Mine is "Watching the Detectives." I almost never put it on vibrate because Elvis makes me smile.

I just took part in a CDC survey in which I was no help at all.

The Alec Baldwin thing isn't new. But the stories in 2000 were about being verbally abusive to his wife instead of his daughter. There were implications of physical abuse at the time, too. The dude is a good actor, but he seems to have the emotional self control of a 2 year old.

Hey... this poodle has hooves!

I just sneezed loudly enough that the person across the hall came to see if I was okay.

Can it stop being spring now, please?

It needs to actually be spring first. Tulips and rain? Check. 40°F? Not quite there yet.

Crappity. Dog threw up a few times yesterday, but seemed okay today. I just through all the cleaning up rags and towels in the wash and he tossed his kibble again. I thought he just ate something he shouldn't have - there's plenty of plants that I don't know what they are in the backyard - but now i'm wondering if I should be worried.

He's such a good boy. Got caught by surprise on the rug and immediately headed for the door.

Poor guy. Is it his usual kind of food? Sometimes putting them on super bland for a few days (like white rice and chicken breast) can calm down their stomachs.

As I've said before, for creatures who gleefully comsume the nastiest shit they can find, they have remarkably delicate GI systems.

So my annual review is freaking glowing. Which, considering I didn't finish filling out the paperwork on it (procrastination, mmmmm) is kind of amazing. But anyway. Apparently actually providing useful customer service counts as a good thing. Go figure.

I hate reviews. Even the good ones. And now I have to set up a discussion time, and I'm crampy and pukey and the advil is barely taking the edge off and I don't wanna think about it right now, damnit.

Mmmmm, procrastination.