claiming you "adore" something, or are "fascinated" by some aspect of history, for example, are very "feminine" uses of language.

Mr. Spock was girly?

I now have a Frankendog with a face full of stitches, and I've realized that the pleading look said dog kept giving me was not "I've had a hard life." It was, "My head hurts." I have also discovered that he will eat pills, or, presumably, dynamite, if they are covered with cheese.

Go Fay with the not running away! I am trying to convince myself to talk you out of getting more lovely clothes, but I am far too enamored of the descriptions. Peacock silk coat!

Hooray for cheese for Mr. Peabody. I am really cheering for the pills but I don't want him to know that.

Eta: I think some of my cognitive dissonance with the idea that "adore" = girly vocabularly is that it has mostly religious connotations for me. Whole other thing.

The temptation to stick around and battle with the idiocy might be there, but I'd suggest spending your time seeking a supportive group without the wacky closed mindedness.

That's the plan. I could stick around and try to change the place, but they seem happy with themselves the way they are...and this isn't the molehill I want to die on.

Any writer that would refuse to use certain words because they're considered "girlie" is an idiot. A painter doesn't refuse to use pink in his or her pallet and that's what words are to a writer.

Exactly. In my WIP, one of the major characters is a 9-year-old girl--a bubbly, vivacious, feminine, and precociously intelligent kid. I'm not going to sell her personality short by refusing to let her express herself as the girly girl that she is, partly because she's also intelligent and tough and I like showing that those traits can go together...but mostly because that's just her. By the same token, I'm not going to limit the masculinity of my vocabulary when I'm in the head of my manly-man general. That would be, to use my daughter's favorite word, silly.

Yay for date, Fay! And I have a hard time talking you out of those clothes, because they sound fun.

Actually, I'd say the "girliest" thing in this whole situation is the internalized misogyny in that very notion. Or maybe just the saddest.

Everyone is right, but brenda so very much so.

Is this a private email exchange, or is it going out to your whole list? Because if it's the latter, you can probably rest assured that every single other person on the list is boggling at her jackassery (if that's an acceptably non-gender-coded word -- maybe "assholery" would be better?).

I have also discovered that he will eat pills, or, presumably, dynamite, if they are covered with cheese.

Poor doggie. I remember our childhood dog, Missy, would occasionally get terrible infections and scratches and injuries that we didn't pick up on right away just because she always wore that pleading look and refused to whimper even a little until the pain was nigh unbearable. Dogs can often be too patient and stoic for their own good, poor things.

H A P P Y

! !

Indeed, Happy! Birthday! Jilli!

I am not as ambitious as Lee with the tags, but the sentiment is true.

I'm at work today, which is dull because it is almost finals time and the students are studying not asking questions. My DH tells me the painting is almost finished and that the bug guy is doing his thing at the new house. (Buh-bye crickets!) My parents and niece are coming up this afternoon and will get to see the new paint before I will (harumpft!). The workmen start on the floors on Monday, and by the time we get back from Thanksgiving in Richmond, the new house will be as shiny as it will ever get.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JILLI!!!!

boo work!

YAY shiny house that we need pictures of.

Lucy got in an actual fight with another dog at the dog park last night. Freaked me right the hell out because she's never done that before. And I have a small bite on my finger from pulling them apart. Not bad, just going to make writing and stuff less than fun for a while.

boo work!

I'm preparing a talk for a canon law class from the theology school that I'm giving on Monday. Because it's a roomful of priests, I feel like I have to change all of my usual examples that involve same sex-marriage, etc. Not because I think any of it will shock them, but because I don't want to have to answer any substantive questions on these subjects.