I think I prefer viewing the corpse. It's so very obvious that the person isn't there anymore, at all, when you do. Whereas when you don't, the goneness is a more abstract idea, which makes it a bit harder to process, I think.

ETA - Nora, I hope you're doing okay, and that things are as easy as they possibly can be for you and yours.

Hi Nora, how are you doing this morning?

Did people get hammered with snow? It's chilly here this morning, kinda nice.

Doing pretty well this morning- off for the funeral stuff shortly.

I guess Boston got hammered- it was less snowy here, but still pretty messy.

A tiny petty part of me is hoping Boston gets totally hammered and flights are cancelled and DH won't be able to go home for Christmas, and he'll have to stay here with me. I am a bad person.

Knitting getting twisty like that is very likely because the stitches are too tight. It takes some practice before you figure out the right yarn tension.

My memories of pulic school seem to indicate that creationism had no place in the public school system, at least not before 1987. Why do you think that was?

That's because evolution is a scientific fact (that's what the word "theory" means in science-speak). It was only by about '87 that the religious right had enough clout to start forcing the issue.

If they teach evolution and creationism "side by side" evolution should be taught in cience class, and creationism can be taught in religion class.

People like to say that there are gaps in the theory of evolution. This is incorrect. There are gaps in the evolutionary record, which just means that look back into the deep past is difficult, but the theory of evolution has never been stronger.

I went to Catholic schools and they didn't teach creationism. Apparently a newfangled notion.

That's because Catholics believe in evolution.

I have been up since six and in the office since half seven.

Owch!

You can at least sit on the couch drinking tea and watching Daignosis Murder.

True, dat.

o_a, I too am without knitting expertise. Every time I tried to knit something when I was a kid it was always a strange amorphous blob of a thing, and oddly I always used to gain stitches. Like I'd start out with 20 stitches, and then somehow it would end up with 37 stitches. Weird. So I'm cheering you on from the sidelines, in a Knitting Deficient kind of way.

Went shopping today! I bought 4 blouses, 2 for £7 each and 2 for £8 each. I also bought one bra, for £9.50 (Marks and Sparks). All of these will be jolly handy for life in Bangkok, and all of them were in the sales.

So far so good.

...but then I bought a sort of coat/jackety thing for....£39.

A velvet jackety thing.

And I live in Bangkok, where it is STILL BLOODY STINKING HOT right now, and that's what passes for winter, so I have no use for a velvet jackety thing at this point.

But...purple! Velvet! Swingy! Long! Jackety thing! All swirly swishy lovely!

Laura, I agree about the no carb thing being the devil. But oatmeal is okay - you can still do yourself the world of good if you just cut back on refined flour type things, like bread and pasta and cookies. Oatmeal + banana = healthy goodness.

We're back!

Fay, the velvety coaty thing is actually a sound investment. This way you won't wear it in Thailand, but eventually and occasionally you will be in places chilly enough to wear it, by which time inflation will mean that the price you paid for it is much less than the prices you might conceivably have to pay for it in the future. So you're actuallysaving money by buying things you don't really need now.

Long sentences can justify anything, yay!

((((Karl and family))))

((((Sean and S))))

Coming in a little late on how the deceased doesn't look as in real life. My grandmother died when I was about 13, about a month after her sister Ruth. We got to the visitation and grandma had been made up to look like her sister Margaret. It also did not help that the funeral itself was held on my brother's birthday.

I've often wondered since how Aunt Margaret got through February and March that year.