My current object of adoration is trader joe's dark chocolate almonds sprinkled with sea salt and turbinado sugar. *drool*

I must have these.

d, that's good to hear about your dad!

Btw, meara there was this totally hot and cute dyke on What Not To Wear the other day, and she's a firefighter with buff arms and she's in Seattle.

Oh! I watched the beginning of that last night. She was totally cute even before the makeover (although she only wore completely unflattering jeans...also, tie-dyed shirts. ick) and she was very good natured about having been told she should change her entire wardrobe. She really seemed to get into the spirit of the change!

jesus, hangovers just suck more and more the older i get.

am wearing the same clothes to work today, because i did not make it home last night. (no sinning was involved, just drinking and crashing at a friend's place instead of subjecting tom to a late night drunken arrival.)

god. please send naps and capital letters.

Awesome news, d! I'm so happy for your dad and for you.

Also, yay on the car-progress report, Stephanie.

Yay so much good news!

And I can add to it. My faux-mom was moved to a decent rehab facility.

God love teaching hospitals but, in some cases, the corporate model that includes some form of customer service is the way to go.

I actually want to marry this facility and all its employees. I'm feeling poly-AIM-orous towards every single one of them.

Niki is up, clean, supported and actually walked her first strong steps in more than a month.

Extra added bonus...the facility is one half mile from their house...so 95 year old hubby feels leagues better too.

Thank you God...in all your manifestations...is what I have to say.

I'm going up to take care of Gordon next week. That won't be fun because he's just him and I can't seem to just be zen with his him-ness. But, whatever. I can do it.

I'm so grateful the family actually listened to me about moving her out of GW and about dealing with her feelings as much as with her body and about conference calling all the kids so we all know what's going on at the same time. It's all worked out well. Pays to have been in this position before...in a weird way.

So add my YAY to your YAYS and we'll have a YAY old time!

Yay for bone and breathing and, um, bad-ass new girlfriends for meara.

d! great news! I'm so glad.

In Trudy Fighting News:

Class last night rawked, but now that the weather is cold pretty much as soon as I step outside after class my left leg locks up like a locking thing. Oy. I'm going to have to start wearing leg warmers, aren't I?

Beautiful Former Instructor was, for whatever reason, wearing clothes last night instead of his usual gi. Oh dear. Now I know what jeans were invented for... And if you're going to wear a t-shirt, must it be one with a big winged sort of design on it? Some peoples chests? Impossibly broad. Like, you can't see around them broad. You needed to emphasize that? Dear LORD. Gah.

Erin is going to meet me at my school next week when we hang out. There she will come in from the cold and use the potty and, possibly, look at fighter boys. Mmmm fighter boys.

And finally, I did a right round kick last night that nearly knocked the person holding the pad on her ass. Suh-weet.

Today is payday. I seem to have gotten a spot bonus - both a cash bonus and a non-cash something that I have paid taxes on. Ummmm, thanks? I mean, bonus's are nice and all, but I have no clue what this is for or who it is from or what the non-cash thing is. Not complaining, just confused. Appreciative, but confused.

Thank you, universe?

d, that's wonderful news. Go team regenerating bone! Wishing your dad empty roads and much pleasurable driving, right soon.

And more excellent news, bonny. I never seem to use any of my own store of Zen, so I'm sending you as much as you need for dealing with Gordon. When you start to run low, you can just remind yourself you've got an emergency tank of back-up Zen ready to go.

Poor Dylan! One of my brothers had terrible asthma as a kid, so bad that he didn't sleep lying down once between the ages of 2 and 14. Then he outgrew it, and now he's the only one of us who doesn't suffer from crippling seasonal allergies. I'm vibing "Outgrow!" vibes at Dylan right now.

Must now go, as Matilda needs changing. Which will be agonizing, as over the last couple of weeks she's suddenly become hideously transition-averse. Clothed is fine, naked is fine, but that time in between when garments are being added to or subtracted from her person is punctuated with unearthly shrieking and yowling and floods of tears. My only consolation is that she does it with Hec, too, which mitigates the overwhelming sense that I am a complete failure as a mother who is torturing her child with brutal abusive applications of fabric.

Oh, poor Dylan! As a fellow asthma sufferer, I am so empathetic to the little guy. And poor mom and dad too. So scary for everyone.

Good news, d!

Suzi, insent in a minute.

I am a complete failure as a mother who is torturing her child with brutal abusive applications of fabric.

Awwww...poor JZ! So not true.