Shir, yes it is worth paying attention - the braces may be the simplest, most likely explanation. So in your shoes, I would try using nutrition shakes for your snacks, as that will get around the problem with the unhappy teeth and gums. Try that for a couple weeks and see if that helps. Ensure is kind of expensive, but if you have Carnation Instant Breakfast powder available, mixing it with milk will give you a similar nutritional value to the Ensure (at least that is what the doctor told my mother when my grandmother needed the shakes to keep her strength up). But if that does not do the trick for you, then you really should go to the doctor.

he treats me with respect and love and I really like him and we can be really silly together.

It's nice to have a lot of stuff in common with your fella, but this is the real foundation of a relationship - respect, love and humor. Anything else is negotiable.

Yeah you can either not talk about politics or talk about them a lot - depending on whether or not you both love argument and know how to argue for sport with making it personal.

I have picked up my copy of Bust with Jilli in it! The sales clerk at the bookstore was a very nice, gothy looking girl. So, I showed her Jilli's picture and sent her toward Gothic Charm School. She was very pleased. Then, as I was leaving the bookstore, I saw the cutest little girl wearing a tiara, which I told her looked fabulous. It was a very buffista-like afternoon.

Now to make split pea soup and brown rice for dinner.

I couldn't walk out of Target without spending less than $50 to save my life.

I seem to have insuted my MiL. No idea what I did because she stopped speaking to any of us after breakfast. We decided to leave a day early rather than deal with the silent treatment.

Dude--she didn't even say good bye to Owen & Olivia. Which pissed me off to no end. It will be awhile before we go back.

I couldn't walk out of Target without spending less than $50 to save my life.

I seem to have insuted my MiL. No idea what I did because she stopped speaking to any of us after breakfast. We decided to leave a day early rather than deal with the silent treatment.

Dude--she didn't even say good bye to Owen & Olivia. Which pissed me off to no end. It will be awhile before we go back.

Dude--she didn't even say good bye to Owen & Olivia. Which pissed me off to no end. It will be awhile before we go back.

That's pathetic on her part, really. Whatever she may be upset about, why take it out on the kids?

I have big and small Target trips. I'll run in for one thing.

I'm sorry, Cash. How odd for the kids. Speaking of MIL, I need to call mine before I am in big trouble there...

I'm sorry, Cash. How odd for the kids. Speaking of MIL, I need to call mine before I am in big trouble there...

Echoing the weirdness-- I hate that kind of gamesmanship. Tell me what I did and then be pissed off at me and whatever you do, don't take it out on my kids. They don't know any better, but you should.

Speaking of which, I need to call my mother. Already spoke to MiL. I'm a good girl, I am.

I have picked up my copy of Bust with Jilli in it!

I went to the indie record store, which has all kinds of kick-ass magazines that are not really mainstream (BUST, Bitch, and Adbusters, out of all the magazines they have, might be the closest to mainstream), but they didn't have the new BUST yet. Feh.

Am making vegetarian chili for a party tonight, and the whole house smells yummmmmmmy. Need to shower as soon as The Boy vacates the bathroom.

Or maybe I'm mostly freaking out about this because of me, the control freak.

Shir, can you switch to softer food for a while? Peanut butter is soft (especially straight out of the jar) but calorie-laden. I think at least 25 pounds of my weight are due to peanut butter.

Also cheese? That's soft, in the sense of being not crunchy or hard like carrots. And has more calories than carrots.