Oh tommy. I am most grieved to hear that your Senor Socks has passed. What a fortunate kitty he was, to have lived with someone who treated him the way you did. I lost my old kitty Chloe two months ago, and I'm still very sad and missing her most terribly. So I am right there with you in the bereaved kitty huggers department.

Happy belated birthday Sean! Many happy returns, pinches, and spanks to ye.

For Aimee-the-Wedding-Planner: I once attended a wedding where all the bridesmaids loved their dresses. The bride picked out a flowered fabric, and told them to go forth and sew something suited to their shapes. So the tall drink of water sister had a slender sheath with a bolero jacket; the pudgy best friend had a full skirt; somebody else had huge puffed sleeves. ALL of them looked fabulous, and the photos were harmonious.

For everybody else: Hiya! Howzit going?

Katerina - we're thinking that we'll probably tell the girls David's Bridal Apple Red. Buy what you like in the seperates.

I just got a baby shower invitation and the information contained therein tells me that that the parents have registered at a place called Buy Buy Baby.

I know nothing of this place, and yet I find that I hate the name with a white hot passion and my opinion of this couple is a little lower than it was before.

Today I am easily influenced.

At my cousin's wedding that I went to last week, it appeared that all the attendants had a particular pink fabric specified and were told the colors were pink and green, and they went forth and made whatever dress they wanted. Two of them should never wear that color pink, so it wasn't a total success. Everything at the wedding was pink and green, from invitations to the flowers, and I got tired of pink and green pretty quickly. I may be prejudiced because of my abiding hatred of the pink.

Aimee, congrats to your sister. And if you're planning the wedding, shouldn't everyone be wearing tiaras? perhaps even the priest ....

I remember one creative young lady who got married on Halloween and had an Awful Bridesmaid Dress Makeover event at the party. She had glue guns and permanent markers and boxes of stuff for customizing, and the girls just thrashed their most hateful bridesmaid gear for fun. I thought this was a delightful entertainment.

I think the option of separates is most brilliant. Nobody will hate those enough to want to customize them.

WHEEEEEE! It's so nice to see some good news to follow the bad.

Congrats to your sister, Aimee!

JULIANA! I am *so* happy for you. I'd squee and jump up and down, but I'm playing the radio version of The Scottish Play for my students, so that might be a tad distracting.

Years ago, I was home sick, and one of the daytime shows -- Sally Jesse Rafael, maybe? -- had a show on women who had been bridesmaids numerous times but never brides. They each changed into a different bridesmaid's dress at each break, and the dresses were universally horrifying.

Will this telephone conference never end? I'd like to shower at some point.

The what what? Is this the Jane Austen biopic??

The Naughty Hot Romance that you don't know that Jane ever had biopic.

Becoming Jane isn't really a biopic -- it's more along the lines of Shakespeare in Love or Marie Antoinette.

That's the impression you got, Jess? I think that's what bothered me, the trailer was all " true story you've just never heard about Jane and her Hot Romance." But I love Shakespeare in Love. And I read the Jane Austen mysteries. I'm cool with "we're just playing here." Maybe I'm internalizing the "single woman must be unfulfilled" implication. And/or thinking too much. Did I mention psycho?

Did it bother you that Mel Gibson added in all sorts of stuff THAT NEVER HAPPENED to The Passion of the Christ?

Actually, never saw Passion. I know the story already. (So, wait, I guess, yes, it would bother me if I saw it).

I think you have to let this one go, Epic. I don't think that movie execs really care about stuff like that.

I don't think the studio execs gave one single thought to biblical correlations/implications.

This, I believe with all my heart.

I guess I don't like the basic premise being "God lied", or "changed His mind", or "couldn't Foresee that Humanity would suck this bad" or whatever.

Seriously? I think the basic premise is "We think that the average American will find this funny." I don't think the studio execs gave one single thought to biblical correlations/implications.

I guess I mean underlying premise.

Epic, that said, I think you're adorable and I feel your annoyance at this stuff, but it's a losing battle, I think.

Thanks, Cindy. I think I just wanted to talk it out a bit with people who would discuss rather than just giving me that look. (You all know the one). And I think you're adorable, too. Thanks for hanging with me in the annoyed, yet adorable, corner. *Mwah!*