Tommy, I was so sorry to hear about Senor Socks. It sounds like he was a great companion and I hope you are taking care of yourself in every way possible today.

I took off the day after my best friend's dog died unexpectedly so I could go with her to get a memorial tattoo of him. He was also a good dog friend of mine so I needed a chance to mourn also.

My old dog fell down my stairs yesterday and freaked me out. He's fine. I really need to get some kind of skid pads or something to prevent that from happening again.

Cybervixen, that is so terrible about your cousin. I know the self-defense organization I've trained with highly recommends Gavin De Becker's Gift of Fear (not specifically to rape victims, to basically everyone). I haven't read it myself, though.

You guys with suggestions for CV should make sure you email them to her since I'm not sure she reads regularly, and if so which threads.

You guys with suggestions for CV should make sure you email them to her since I'm not sure she reads regularly, and if so which threads.

Thanks, ita, I was just going to do that.

Ugh, that's just horrible. Why do people have to suck so much?

I'm sorry about Senor Sock, Tommy. I hope that you are able to take a day today.

{{CV and CVsister}} God.

Thanks, ita, I was just going to do that.

Sorry to herd. Just wanted to make sure nothing gets lost.

I've heard of that book you mention--probably in a krav context now that I think about it. It was recommended.

Rape kits just shouldn't be left in the hands of people who can't be decent to a rape victim. That's just pain on top of pain.

Also, they gave me a little clay pad with his pawprints on it. I'm baking it right now (to make it solid).

When our cat died, the vet clinic had this as an option but having paid $250 for cremation, we passed on the paw pad imprint. A few weeks later, the receptionist from the clinic called us - she had arranged for a print to be taken at her own cost. Now THAT made me cry. *sniff*

I still can't believe the friend of my aunt's who off-handedly mentioned that her dog had been killed that morning -- in a tone that suggested it was the equivalent of a lightbulb burning out.

My father did something similar -- two days into a family get-together a couple years ago, my brother asked after the dogs, and got, "Oh, they're fine. [pause] Well, Robert died last week." Mind you, I think he just didn't want to make us sad, and he doesn't like getting sympathy, but it was bizarre. (I adore my family beyond the telling of it, but it does have... quirks.)

Also, and unrelatedly, HELP! I need lesson ideas! Today I have jury duty, then I have to go to school and sort out what to tell the sub to do with the kids tomorrow AND with the books which need to be (somehow -- I'm really struggling with the physical HOW here) returned to the book room, then go over to my brother's so I can borrow his car to go give a demo lesson tomorrow. And somewhere in there (well, I am assuming there'll be lots of sitting-around time today) I have to figure out this demo lesson thing, even though after fretting about this for a couple of hours last night I got nothing!

Main problem, of course, is that I have zero confidence right now. Come up with an engaging, varied, challenging yet accessible lesson for precalc students? When I've spent the last couple months concentrating mainly on how to find a 20% discount and also please god would you sit down and if you have to throw things, please try to avoid the scissors?

Okay. Enough bitching. Off to dress and go.

My mother remembers her mother receiving a phone call from her elderly great-aunt Inez, probably in the mid-1960s. Any contact other than the ritual weekly, very short check-in phone call was unusual - Inez was from a generation before the telephone was for chatting. My grandmother said, "Is everything all right?" and Inez replied, "Well, Ava [her sister] is fine, but Bert [her brother], he's dead."

Need I note they were Yankees?