Oh, that reminds me, we have our new house. We'll be moving in about a week or so.

Woo! Very exciting. How is Wallybee feeling? A new house should satisfy those nesting urges.

Language is confusing. Things that are chav, according to the internet: referring to the evening meal as "tea." (OK, I've got no idea of linguistic history of that one.) Referring to the sweet thing eaten after a meal as "dessert." (I thought that was just American.) Referring to the bathroom as the toilet rather than the loo. (Huh?) The names Kevin and Candice.

One year my brother, who always claimed brown m&ms were the best and would trade with us to get them and sometimes steal them, made me a heart of only brown m&ms glued on a piece of paper.

Sweet! (sucker for sibling love stories right now)

sj, I took pictures of the cupcakes so I'll share those later.

I love Halloween. I have many fond memories of it both growing up, in college, post-college, and post-parenthood. I've seen the Cramps on Halloween. I've gone to dress as the opposite sex parties on Halloween. In high school we had huge candy brokerage trade-fests after halloween. Best of all, was Emmett's year at Harpo Marx. That was cool.

I don't have a problem with the commercialization of any holiday. It's just what capitalism does. You can take or leave what you want from it. You can make it anything that pleases you.

I lost my virginity on Valentine's Day, and that set a lovely precedent for me. I've had Valentine's Day in New Orleans and did my coolest card ever for a Valentine. I've experimented with champagne and chambord cocktails. I've made meals and received them. I have worn red.

JZ doesn't like it, though, so it's just as well to switch over to cupcakes and kids.

Woo! Very exciting. How is Wallybee feeling? A new house should satisfy those nesting urges.

She's happy having the house, but the pregnancy is a more significant influence on her day-to-day moods. (She's been feeling a bit low the last day or two, nothing in particular, just a bit down.)

Language is confusing. Things that are chav, according to the internet: referring to the evening meal as "tea." (OK, I've got no idea of linguistic history of that one.) Referring to the sweet thing eaten after a meal as "dessert." (I thought that was just American.) Referring to the bathroom as the toilet rather than the loo. (Huh?) The names Kevin and Candice.

'Dessert' is the standard term in Austraila too. I don't think people here pay much regard to whether one calls it a toilet or a loo, and we'll also throw in 'dunny' for good measure.

Oh, Doctor Who's Rose got called a chav in one episode.

You know what sucks? Having a chocolate craving the day after Valentine's Day, but not being able to eat any, because everything still tastes weird from the allergic reaction to the antibiotic. Well, yeah, I *could* still eat it, but... Ghirardelli chocolate is tasting like Brach's with black pepper added to it.

So. Um. There's no polite way to tell a neighbor that she's being way too loud during sex, is there? Because I've turned my radio up pretty high, and can still hear her, and it's getting really annoying. This building has ridiculously thin walls.

There's no polite way to tell a neighbor that she's being way too loud during sex, is there?

The usual technique is to say "I hope I'm not bothering you with my noise. Those walls are really thin." and hope she gets the message.

So what is the non-chav term for the sweet thing you eat after dinner? (Or should it be supper? Or, anyhow, not tea.)

I adore Scrappy's entire childhood V-Day tradition.

Yay new house! Pictures?

Yay new car!

And I don't actively dislike Valentine's Day; it's just that a checkered romantic history has left me indifferent-to-wary. I'm willing to be won over, though.

And the kid-having definitely helps; my mom always made a big deal out of every holiday, and Valentine's Day always meant a card and a pink or red stuffed animal for each of us, which we found at our places at the kitchen table, which she would set late the night before (weekend V-Days, nice homemade breakfast; weekday V-Days, cereal, but fancy sugar-crusted fruity/marshmallow/fake graham cracker sweet stuff that we usually never got, with five or six boxes lined up on the kitchen table for us to choose from). So this year Matilda got a Winnie the Pooh, which she's been hugging nonstop since then, and Emmett got a Life Is Good t-shirt and some homemade marshmallows (not homemade by me, though).

And Hec got this book.

(((WS))) Brach's with pepper? That's adding insult to injury. Most unfair.

(((Kristin))) Don't clean. Don't organize. Don't fix. Just flump around with furry critters and maybe an old movie or something.

So what is the non-chav term for the sweet thing you eat after dinner?

Pudding.

...interesting. Just heard two men leave from the apartment across the hall.