I'm seeing a banana bread in my near future as well, since I bought way too many at the store today. But I've been getting foot cramps, so I figured I need them.

Scrappy, I'm sorry to hear the bad news on you neice. My thoughts to you and her family.

And sara, I can't imagine that situation. I think I would just totally shut down.

I just watched the Kate Beckinsale version of Emma. I think I spent most of it thinking about how different KB looks, and how cute her nose was, and why would she change it.

Good god, sara. That's unbelievable. I hope she's able to recover without any more trauma.

shrift, you'll look terrific in that dress. Congratulations on impending aunt-hood!

No packing for us in the foreseeable future. Our stay in this house for 3-5 years has morphed into 5-7 years instead. We do have to some serious weeding out of the storage room. DH has a set of encyclopedias from his childhood in there and I've got boxes of VHS tapes, among other things. There's no more room for stuff we NEED to store, like Christmas decorations and the extra vacuum cleaner.

This is cool: Death of massive star creates brightest burst ever seen

Astronomers have found by far the most distant naked-eye object ever seen.

Gamma-Ray Bursts are the most powerful explosive events in the Universe. They occur in far-off galaxies and so are usually faint. But on the morning of March 19th 2008 the Swift satellite found a burst which was so bright it could have been seen without binoculars or a telescope even though it was seven thousand times further away than the Andromeda galaxy.

The burst was discovered by the Swift satellite on a fantastic day for GRB hunters. Swift typically finds only two a week; but for the first time Swift found five bursts within 24 hours. The second burst of the day is the new record holder. The enormous energy released in the explosion – brighter than the light from all of the stars in five million Milky Way Galaxies – was caused by the death of a massive star which collapsed to form a black hole.

I read somewhere else that if this explosion had occurred in our galaxy, it would have briefly appeared as bright as the sun. Imagine that - in the middle of the night, it suddenly turns into broad daylight. Or it's day, and suddenly there's two suns....

eta: If night turned into day, there'd probably be a bunch of people who woke up in the middle of the night, saw it was day, got up and rushed to work, when suddenly the star faded away and it was night again....

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone! My mom actually found a "Happy Easter Birthday" card to send me, and it's the only time in my entire life that my birthday will be on Easter, so the card is really cool.

{{{{Scrappy and her family}}}}

And more {{}} to those not feeling well--headaches, GO AWAY!!!

My dad delivered the Lazyboy on Friday, and my cat has fallen in love with it. It's covered in microfiber, her favorite fabric in the world (she's constantly kneading my microfiber blanket), so she's taken to clawing the edges and back. I have to get some tape to cover her favorite spots. While I was catching up here, my foot happened to be right in front of the chair, and all of the sudden, a black cat paw reached out to scratch at it. I had no clue she could get herself under there!

My eyebrows are stuck up at my hairline. I wish all the peace and strength in the world to Scrappy and her family and to your housekeeper's family, sara.

On the trivial hand, cool about the "bright as day" thing. I wonder what twice as bright as day looks like while you're just going about your normal stuff.

Today==stupid day.

Maria, why do you have an *extra* vacuum cleaner??

Even so, you're attaching an address to the use of the card, presumably an address where you might one day be when someone comes looking.

Yeah--one time I got my bill and had a random charge from Domino's. I disputed it, and they took it off...I didn't change my number at the time, because nothing else came up that wasn't mine. I kinda wondered if the card company ever checked into where that pizza went...

I just came back from a freak show. It was pretty good, but they really need to rehearse more. The dwarf dancing barefoot on broken glass was the best part.

I'm watching the Beckinsale-starring adaptation of Emma, and...it's so damned fast! Why is it moving so fast? I feel quite tired.

Somehow the idea that a freakshow needs rehearsing sits weirdly with me.

why do you have an *extra* vacuum cleaner??

Because I, um, am known to be harsh on vacuum cleaners. Growing up, part of my chores included NOT touching any vacuum cleaner in the house under penalty of death. I am the Grim Reaper of expensive floor cleaning tools. My special gift is sending them across the Carpet Styx. Ergo the need for one in reserve.

It also comes in handy when one of us is too lazy to come upstairs and grab the main one out of the foyer closet. (The storage room is in the basement.)

Yeah--one time I got my bill and had a random charge from Domino's.

This happened to me with my Corporate Amex. Someone in the Detroit suburbs decided that they couldn't stomach paying for Domino's either so they stole my number, probably from one of the times I was at the Ren Cen Marriott. I called to dispute the charge, it was immediately taken off my bill, and I had a new card and number the next day. I never heard another word about it.

Allyson, congratulations on the new apartment, though I'm sorry for the aggravation your soon-to-be landlord has put you through. Yay for more than one room!

I'm sitting in the weird corner with ita. It's just odd.