So my brother called to wish me a happy new year. In the background, D was going "Grrr. Ahrg." over and over. He's obsessed with the Grrr. Ahrg. monster from the Firefly credits.

I gave my brother the Firefly series for xmas. Somehow, he hadn't seen it, but rented the movie and had told me I HAD to see it, that it was awesome. "Uh, you know there's a series. That you gave me on DVD a couple xmasses ago?" "NO WAY!"

He loves it. Even if he only managed so far to see the first eps on every disk because he had lost the dvd remote and somehow didn't realize there was more than one ep on every disk. Buh? Sometimes, he is odd.

The lighting on [link] is just great.

Especially considering that's an iphone photo.

ita, I'm glad you got a nice doc. I hope you got a bit of relief this time.

Allyson, it's easy to forget that kind of thing when you're missing your family. I made it a policy when I was younger to ask my family to avoid some of the more inflamatory things they say around me and they do, for the most part, refrain from the worst bigoted, racist and homophobic things when we're around. As I got older, I realized that I can't change their minds, just ask them to respect my opinions, too.

I did have to ask my brother in law, point blank, not to use the words, "nigger", "spic" and "fag" in front of my children--EVER. He's so far, complied.

Still, it's mind-boggling that these things are said by people I love and respect. I. just. don't. get. it.

My uncle got a very nice obituary. I decided not to try to risk driving with the kids into snowy weather to attend his funeral.

Bacon salt is fantastic in black eyed peas!

Seriously, Cashmere. If I could get them to stop saying faggot, I'd feel better. But I can't stop them from saying it when I'm not here.

And I don't know why my mom sits silently by and says nothing.

It's disturbing. And it stings. I feel slapped in the face every time I hear it.

Jesus, I can't even imagine. Yikes.

I made a deal with my mother a few years back that I would politely ignore a lot of what my uncle says in that vein, but both/either of us will say something if he uses the N word, and I get to say something if he uses fag/faggot.

Mt father started in on a story about how his mom used to read Uncle Remus stories in dialect to elementary school children and how when people started being bothered he just doesn't get it. "It's historical" yadda yadda yadda. "People have been speaking like that for years AND the kids loved it."

not even really thinking about arguments on either side I absolutely HAD to say. "Well people did minstrals for years and the general population loved them too, but I would hope that you would not defend them, what with you having AN AFRICAN GRANDCHILD and all."

I have a whole part of my family that does not get the point of, if the people/country/heritage being depicted is offended AND if that is coupled by the depiction being done by someone NOT from that peoples/country/heritage - then can't we all just consider that it is not so much our place. I mean really.

I'm not saying I don't have racists or whatever in my family, but it doesn't come out casually. A personal favorite story of mine is showing my prom pictures to my grandmother and her sister. My date was black. My great-aunt was like, "I just don't think it's right for our family..." (My grandmother came from a Very Good Family.) My grandmother was like, Whatever, STFU. (Paraphrased.)