JZ, the C&P of all but the last para should work. What version of Word?

Hec and I were just lamenting that one or the other of us has met you at several but we've never yet heard you sing a note.

I hope I'll be able to see her sing when we are in New Orleans this Christmas.

I just squashed a black widow that was crawling on Noah's back. And I did it without any thought other than spider on baby = bad.

Oh my sweet Jebus, that is horrible! There are black widows crawling around in Los Angeles? SHUDDER TIMES A ZILLION.

I saw a special on black widows on Nature or something--some people who work outside in proximity to them, if bitten, will forgo use of the antidote because of a high risk of allergic reaction or a possible lessening of the effectiveness of the antivenin later on (if they continue to have a high risk of bites from black widows or rattlesnakes).

Kids who are bitten usually can't take the antivenin, either and have to be treated with muscle relaxers and pain killers to get through the awful pain.

It was actually a really tiny black widow spider. Not like the one we killed in front of the front door. This one was super small. I only figured it was a black widow after I squished it.

Still have to make it to LAX and then into the airport then onto the plane and then I hope an uneventful flight.

Travel ~ma appreciated.

black widow...baby

I'm still twitching.

Sitting here in the dark and feel something largish fall off from my sock. Take a freaked-out peak and it's one of those weirdly squat crickets/grasshopper/katydids that are slow as molasses.

Nature and I? We are not one. Time to put bells on the cats and fix the screens.

::twitchtwitch::

found the other cricket I thought I'd booted out the door wiggling in the toe of my clog. Good thing my toes don't jam all the way up. Toe cricket jam and all.

Aaargh! I think Tino just got a new job. Chase has doubled the minimum payment on the student loan balance I'm carrying with them. So now I have to find an extra $200 in my monthly budget.

I suppose this is another of those regional food questions: have you heard of blondies? As in, the dessert item? I baked some and brought them into my office today, and no one had any idea what I was talking about when I offered them. I had to explain to everybody what they were.

have you heard of blondies?

Yes. And knew them intimately while growing up in DC. I think this is another case of the hopeless dorkitude of your office, not a regional problem at all.

Well, I offered them to five different people, who grew up in a bunch of different places (all in the US), and only one of them knew what they were.