vw, love the quilt and I hope your stupid!group member(s) get their acts together. Perhaps Deb G would be willing to loan you her crossbow ....

O's teacher is, indeed, awesome - it's wonderful she could help out when you needed it.

And yay D for sleeping! and letting mommy sleep (you know what mommy would probably appreciate even more than something shiny - hours and hours of uninterrupted sleep!).

Sparky, those stupid students ... they deserve to burn! them and their little laptops, too! (I once snapped at someone making rude comments about a neighbor waking her up in the middle of the night, when it was because there was a chance of a fire.)

In re wine - I don't like reds and I tend to like the sweeter whites. I once had a Tokay d'Alsace that was incredible; possibly the best wine I've ever had (to my taste, at least).

Aimee, that sounds really ambitious - my best wishes. And may your throat feel better. And your trip go well. Also - have you ever read Alice Hoffman's "Property Of" - her first book and I remember it so well because it was the first book I'd ever read that treated a young woman seriously, didn't concentrate on her looks or social life.

For all the sick, hope you feel better soon! And I was on an antibiotic that had, as one of its side effects, sleeplessness. Lots of fun. It also seemed to induce really weird dreams ... I never remembered much of them, but I'd doze off for a few hours and wake up knowing I'd had one.

WTG Dylan!

Sleep wasn't so kind to me. I found some benadryl in the medicine cabinet and took it at bedtime, and I was fine until 4:30 in the morning, at which point something woke me. And DH was snoring. And snoring. He's not usually so noisy, but he's had cold/allergy issues the past few days.

I started by turning up the thermostat until the heater kicked on, even though it wasn't especially cold, hoping that the blower would run long enough that I'd fall asleep. Didn't work. Then I tiptoed downstairs to try to sleep on the couch, only to discover that was worse, because apparently at 5:00 a.m. the birds are waking up and starting to sing, and the song echoes down the chimney so you can hear it in the living room by the fireplace, but NSM upstairs in the bedroom. So I crept back upstairs, and DH woke up long enough to realize what was going on and roll onto his stomach, which quieted the snores enough that I fell asleep around 5:30 or 5:45...only to wake up at 6:15, 15 minutes before the alarm, because Annabel woke up and climbed into bed with us.

So now I feel sleep-deprived and vaguely drugged.

Then I tiptoed downstairs to try to sleep on the couch, only to discover that was worse, because apparently at 5:00 a.m. the birds are waking up and starting to sing

Believe me, if the plants are having sex, so are the birds.

Signed,

Saw what looked all the world like a duck three-way while up in Maine.

Saw what looked all the world like a duck three-way while up in Maine.

Ah, but was one of the ducks dead?

Believe me, if the plants are having sex, so are the birds.

Heh. Good point. Just wish they'd do it at a more civilized hour. C'mon, birds, try an afternoon delight! Let the humans get some sleep!

Ah, but was one of the ducks dead?

and Billytea was just posting somewhere about carnivorous ducks... (can't find it though!)

Ah, but was one of the ducks dead?

No - they were all definitely moving (and honestly, I'm pretty sure the second male duck was just trying to cut in/drive off the male in the saddle, but at times it really looked like something else was going on).

The ducks better get (more) busy, because some of the Canada goslings have already hatched! I love seeing the geese families waddling around, although I get all anxious when the babies are in the street.

I just passed a house for rent. For only $6750/month. It is not a nice house. It is an unfinished McMansion on a barren lot that overlooks the Toll Road connector on one side and I-66 on the other.

People, if I could afford to give someone $6750/month, I wouldn't be so stressed about buying a house!

second male duck was just trying to cut in

There's always something kind of pathetic/"You're too late, dude, find your own girl already!" aboutg that behavior.

Or I should take a closer look at my anthropormorphosizing of animal behavior.

Aimee, that sounds like loads of fun!

I read the hot new teenlit vampire sensation Twilight' a couple of months ago, and it just about made my head explode. It's sort of like Season 1 Buffy/Ange...if Buffy had never been chosen, and if she had a total personality transplant - all Bambi-eyes and Victorian 'Angel of the Hearth' style values. Seriously - the only agency she shows in the whole damn novel is in her determination to throw away her life to protect her lovely new vampire boyfriend. Other than that, she's Little Miss Passivity. And for HER to act upon her impulses of lust is shown as dangerous, whilst for him it's all sexy and okay - she has to be damn sure that she doesn't make him hot for her, because then if he rapes her drinks her blood, it will clearly be all her fault for being a flirt.

Ack. And it's enormously popular, this book and its sequels, afaics - which is unsurprising, because that whole vampire-metaphor thing is a great way of cranking up the sexual tension without ACTUALLY writing about fucking, so all the young girls are swooning for the hottitude of the Byronic vampire hottie without actually registering that, hmm, maybe Our Heroine needs to have value as something other than an object of desire/adoration for her man.

I was reading the book at the same time as my 16 year old fellow cast member at the time, and we had several discussions about the book (...er, most of which involved me saying the above, with added 'Maybe you guys should watch 'Buffy') and it made me feel pretty wistful about being able to teach A Level Literature, rather than working with six year olds. So GO YOU, Empress! You get out there and make 'em think about grrrl power!