Now that I have fully calmed and reflected, I should note that the hitting and kicking did not hurt, which is really telling. It was measured and he was never out of control. Mad, but not ballistic. The note is also really telling, it is communicating the anger in another medium - HUGE! and shows him controlled enough to write out things, not just hard scribble on paper or rip it to shreds (both are things we try getting him to do instead of hitting).

I am more bothered by the lying about and hiding of homework. Not more upset by, but more bothered by.

Everything in our dynamic has a short term thing and a long term thing.

A Slashfood link just for Hec.

Noted with comment!

Best sandwich I had last week: Texas Brisket at Memphis Minnie's in the Lower Haight. Damn skippy, that guy knows meat. (He slow cooks his brisket for 18 hours.)

Frank! I did see that Honey West was out on DVD. I have about five eps on tape, and they're very swanky fun. I have some Johnny Staccato on tape too. Come on out to SF and we'll have a viewing party.

Emmett and I are just back from driving down to LA, doing my Tom Waits tour, and driving back. It was fun but now I'm wiped after driving 800+ miles in a weekend.

The Sunday Tribune had some readers' suggestions for mascots if Chicago gets the 2016 Olympics. I liked these:

"Gimme"--an alderman holding fistfuls of cash
"Grafty the Pig"
"Kickback the Fat Cat"
"Casper the Friendly Ghost Payroller"
A flaming cow
"Lockup"--a Chicago politician in prison jumpsuit
"Car" (a deep-dish pizza), "Diac" (a Chicago-style hot dog), and "Arrest" (an Italian Beef sandwich)
A giant greased palm
"Pidgie"--a giant bird wearing a sash bearing the city's unofficial motto, "Ubi Est Mea?" or "Where's Mine?"

Many readers were enthusiastic about "Chalkie", an outline of the body of a murder victim holding the Olympic torch. That idea first appeared at the ChicagoCityCop blog and now has its own website, where enthusiasts can order souvenir hats and T-shirts.

I think it was Emily that use to throw notes to her mom saying that she hated her. and her mom saved them.

Oy, msbelle. Sounds tough.

But that is one unfairly tough fucking exam.

Indeed. I have never felt as stupid in my life as after day 2 of the California bar. I went home and crawled into bed and pulled the covers over my head; I could just feel the brains leaking out my ears.

FWIW, I passed it. But I swore I'd never sit for another bar exam again, and I won't. Finally gave up my bar membership this year, in fact, when I realized there was no way I'd ever go back into practice.

I love risotto. Must make it soon. My default is usually mushroom, but Kat's sweet potato risotto is yummy.

I don't think I get bumpits. My hair tends to do that on its own, esp when I sleep on it funny.

I'm perplexed by Bumpits. In too many cases it's creating a weird extended forehead slope. Like they'd been doing forehead binding. And the TV ad is even worse. Big hair is back?

I'm perplexed by the name.

Well, not as perplexed as I was before I looked at the website. But still a little perplexed why you would pick a name that could just as easily be read "bum pits" as "bump its".

I may need Kat's recipe for sweet potato risotto. My DH might actually eat it and like it, since sweet potatoes are a relatively new favorite of his.

I whiffed on Thursday morning's essays, which is approximately 20% of the exam.

As someone who used to grade (NY) essays, and who has seen that you are able to write a number of sentences in succession that all make sense together . . . I suspect you did better than you think.

The dog got me up early, and she has now gone back to bed - perhaps I should learn from her example.

Holy Cow. NYC Public Schools are CLOSED! Well, I never. Now the scramble is ON!

But still a little perplexed why you would pick a name that could just as easily be read "bum pits" as "bump its".

I read it as "bum pits." Made me wonder if someone was marketing the whole homeless fight club thing.

The actual site looks like they're marketing Amy Winehouse hair. I'll be a little sad if big hair is back. I have dead straight hair that does a chin-length bob pretty easily, and the way that I've been inadvertently fashionable for while has pleased me.