Myssery hole shirts sound like an excellent gift. A far second, of course, is a Mystery Spot shirt.

Ahaha. MYSTERY HOLE.

Gah, really? See, I suspect that what I grew up with was just a jam-roll pudding and it just got called Roly-Poly. This shorthand mislabeling seems to have happened a lot in my parent's house.

Well, the suet's the shortening used in the dough part. So you mightn't have even known it was there.

so.... what's the difference between suet and lard? I could google it,I'm sure.

Suet is beef and lard is pork, right?

I think so.

Mystery hole? Oh dear.

Just poking my head in thread to say that I have F2F pictures up on Flickr here: [link]

I'm pix_kristin on flickr and will gladly friend you if you can't see them. Add me as a contact and I'll do the same. These pictures are all House on the Rock and Sunday brunch. ND has Prom pictures that will get uploaded when possible. We really had a great time this weekend and already miss everyone terribly.

Verra tired. For those not in the F2F thread, ND's dad is in the hospital for something that may or may not be serious. His mom is really upset and needs help regardless, so we've cancelled our Chicago plans and are catching a flight home to LAX tomorrow and will then drive directly to San Diego. (Omnis, I will be back by Wednesday night to relieve you of your catsitting duties one way or the other--I may need a pick up from a train station depending on what happens. I'll drop you an email when I know more.) We're trying to stay optimistic that it will turn out to be something minor.

Hugs and brackets and ~ma to those that need it. I'll check in again soon.

I went out to brunch today with my parents and sister, and then grocery shopping with my dad. It's getting more difficult to freak out my dad with "weird" foods. He doesn't even blink at scrambled tofu anymore, and he even likes tempeh. I did manage to buy one food that made him get that "What the hell is that?" look, though: chocolate hemp milk. I swear, he looked less grossed out the time he ate alligator.

(My dad seems to treat grocery shopping with me as a sort of anthropological expedition, where he gets to find out about the eating habits of the modern urban vegetarian.)

OMGWTF Alligator! In Chicago. In the river. [link]

Hey, Pete: what exactly do you look for in a Roly Poly Pudding?

Oooh, jam roly poly! But, yeah, I'd expect it contains suet - all those stodgy things like spotted dick (ho ho) and treacle pudding and christmas pudding and so forth contain suet, don't they? I think? They're hardcore OurCountryIsColdAndNobodyHasInventedCentralHeatingYet foods! Which should be served with lashings of custard!

Mmmmm, custard!

Meanwhile, I'm still reeling at the astonishing rudeness of the customers at Hil's restaurant. That's shocking. I hope and trust that the cook spat in his food.

Mystery Hole. Heh.

...I'm sort of torn between not wanting to know about all the F2F fun, and also wanting to see the photos. Hmm. Anyone point a girl to any linky links?

Oh, Kristin and ND, best of wishes to his dad. Eep.

chocolate hemp milk.

That does sound kind of weird, admittedly. They make milk out of hemp??

I hate to be offering unsought advice, but the sooner you stop flirting with the GILF the better. She's a tease

I know this. I know this. I just can't. I'm a moth to the flame.

I don't recommend emailing her about the conversation because I think you need to see her face when you say that. I think you need to judge that reaction and not give her time to compose a reply.

Oh, I think I'm not actually going to email her, and I probably won't bother to ask, either (since I won't see her until this coming weekend at the earliest, since I'll be out of town).

But I did go on my date with the semi-shy internet girl. And it was fun, we met up at a coffee shop and played some scrabble, but they closed earlier than we thought they would, so we headed up to a park near my house, and played some more there, and people watched, and talked about stuff. And she's nice, and we laughed, and she told me about the gayboys that cruise in the bushes, and we ended up making out for like an hour on a bench in front of the bushes and amused ourselves by seeing whether the gayboys were bothered by us being there (some avoided us, some ignored us, one couple cheerily said hi and told us to use a condom!). We tsked under our breath at a couple that we thought were just strolling by who ducked into the bushes with a STROLLER!

...but at the same time, while I had fun and all? Even though this was actual making out, and all the GILF did last night was talk, and lean into me, and pull my hair a little? Last night was hotter. Goddamnit.