I woke up bright and early and got to work at the unheard of hour of 8:30 in dreadanticipation of my dentist appt. And guess what? I have a toothache!

This is going to go so badly.

Any suggestions on good mattresses?

I remember an Oprah expose years ago about the mattress industry and how the manufacturers purposely use multiple names of various models, which makes it nearly impossible to comparison shop. She also said to immediately ask for a 20% discount because the prices are so ridiculously inflated.

Test drive lots of models but not all on the same day...it's difficult to discern minor differences.

I've had good luck with good ol' Mattress Discounter, I must say. Reasonably priced and stuff I could like in each of their three price ranges...Overpriced, You can't be serious, and Head Explody.

Which pokes a pet peeve...things that are hugely over-priced simply because we will pay it...mattresses...custom framing...

eta: I meant to say, Decent service...they took away the old stuff upon delivering the new...which was a huge relief.

Exotic puppy today - do you think his name is Beldar because he is from France?

Kathy,

bon gave me the lowdown on what Consumer Reports said about mattresses here:

bon bon "Natter Five-O: Book 'Em, Danno." Mar 16, 2007 6:40:46 am PDT and people give some other good advice in subsequent posts.

Also, I found that this blog/FAQ had good answers to questions on what kind of mattress is good for specific conditions, though the writer is a bed seller and does seem to have some biases.

[link]

I think that Beldar looks like a wire-haired collie.

Hmm. I remember a moment of extreme clarity in last night's dreams. An epiphany, if you will. I'd settle for just remembering the topic, right now. Stupid taunty brain.

I remember a moment of extreme clarity in last night's dreams. An epiphany, if you will. I'd settle for just remembering the topic, right now. Stupid taunty brain

The few times I have remembered when this has happened? It was some whacked out thing that made no sense in the waking world.

I just realized...I'm going to be starving and probably not wanting to eat a damned thing in about 2 hours. My timing skills suck.

I slept so little last night that it could very well have been something that occurred to me while awake, just trying to sleep, and might stand half a chance at surviving the light of day.

Thing is, with dreams--they're so damned convincing. So no way to tell the difference without actually remembering.

My two cents' worth on communion (late, as usual) - Episcopalians, among other denominations, do communion - my church does wine (with water added) and thin wafers; some people take only the wafers, some people don't let their children take the wine, some people sip from the communal cup, some dunk their wafers in the wine. It's open to anyone who's been baptized - any church, any time, any condition (one friend, baptized in a plastic bucket by her mother and "hippie aunt," using the Book of Common Prayer, was told that, yes, it was good). Unitarians, except one church, don't do communion - symbolic ritual cannibalism, is how it's been called. There was a fuss a while ago about a little girl who wanted to take communion but couldn't take wheat - her parents got special rice flour wafers ... and the priest refused to use them, said that if she didn't take the wheat wafer, it wasn't communion. People get weird.

Beldar looks cuter than any dog has a right to.