I've known a few other people who had the tooth randomly breaking thing.

I've got a chipped front tooth, from an accident when I was a kid. (Lesson learned: playground swings are meant to swing back and forth, not diagonally.) The dentist put a cap on it, but the cap fell off after a few years. I kind of want to get it recapped, but insurance wouldn't cover it since it's cosmetic, and the dentists I've talked to about it have all said that it would be better to cap all the front teeth, so that the color would match, and that seems like more hassle than I really want to deal with. The chipped tooth is obvious to anyone who looks even somewhat closely at my teeth, but it's not a huge piece, and people that I just have casual conversations with don't always notice it, so it's not really that big a deal.

Ah, life without dental insurance. It's just ridiculously expensive for individual coverage. The tooth that ended up costing me roughly the price of a trip around the world started by having two pieces of the tooth just fall out. That was two days after surgery after six months of chemo, so hardly the same, but it was very startling. I inherited my mother's teeth, which have roughly the strength of a Chiclet.

I hope yours is just a bonding job, Bonny. From my experience, I'd say that if the dentist starts talking about a crown, really quiz her about the strength of the tooth that's left. I would have been way better off going directly to the implant. My dentist did let me space out payments.

Good luck with the tooth, bonny.

Hil made my head go BOING with her talk of a house somewhere with Andy Dick and Rodney King inside it, and called Sober House to boot. And it's a real show, really on tv? What is wrong with people? Do we have no dignity or sense of shame?!

My head is still boinging.

Hil made my head go BOING with her talk of a house somewhere with Andy Dick and Rodney King inside it, and called Sober House to boot. And it's a real show, really on tv? What is wrong with people? Do we have no dignity or sense of shame?!

It's a real show. It's a reality show of celebrities (although that word is used pretty loosely) who have just gotten out of rehab, living in this sober-living house for a few weeks before totally going back out into the real world. It's a kind of in-between step, where they're allowed to go hang out with friends and leave the house and stuff, but there are also rules, like curfew and that they have to get regular jobs, and their stuff is regularly checked for hidden drugs and things like that.

It's got Rodney King, Steven Adler (drummer for Guns 'n' Roses, who managed about four hours before he got high again), Seth something (he did that "come my lady, come come my lady, you're my butterfly, sugar, baby" song in the late nineties), Mary something (a porn star), Amber something (no clue who she is), and Nikki something, who was on American Idol a few years ago. And now, Andy Dick.

Also, Dr. Drew as the therapist. My initial feeling about this show, and still my feeling after watching a few episodes, is that "on national TV" is probably one of the worst ways to try to get clean.

Also, in last week's episode, everybody except Rodney King went out to a nightclub. The staff people all told them that it was a spectacularly dumb idea, but they wanted to go anyway, and they were allowed to, as long as they got back by curfew. Rodney King was the only one who decided not to go. He went out to dinner with the staff people instead. And on the way back to the house, they passed by some cops arresting someone. And one of the staff people said to Rodney, "You see that? That could have been you tonight. That might be one of them tonight. But you made the right choice, coming out to dinner instead of going to the nightclub." And while he meant well, it seemed to me that drawing his attention to cops arresting someone was not necessarily the best idea.

Yes, this show is atrocious. And no, I can't stop watching. I don't think there's a sober house for bad reality TV addicts.

The house is in the Hollywood Hills. It's a really gorgeous house -- not my style, all modern -- with several levels of patios and arranged so that, a bunch of times, the fastest way to get from one place to another is to go outside. Also, if I were living there, I think I would never leave simply because there appear to be about fifty stairs to climb to get to the front door.

Egad, Hil. The show sounds atrocious and yet I can totally see why one would be compelled to watch.

Also, Dr. Drew as the therapist.

I remember him from his KROQ talk show days. He is just awful.

My initial feeling about this show, and still my feeling after watching a few episodes, is that "on national TV" is probably one of the worst ways to try to get clean.

Yeah, to the point of me wondering about the ethics of running that house.

Well, the feeling that I've gotten from several of them is that they wouldn't be doing it if they weren't getting the exposure (and I'm assuming they're getting paid for being on the show, too, though no one on the show has said anything about that.) There are a few who absolutely love the cameras.

Wow, the UK is really getting hit by snow.

Oh, bonny! Tons of tooth~ma. I am terrified of something happening to my teeth right now, so I feel your pain. I technically have some dental insurance, but I can't find anyone who accepts it! It's craziness!

sj! I got to see you last night! Which, you probably remember... And I get to see you next week too! YAY! I'm all for some good sj time. I also got to see Victor and thessaly. Life is good.

Except for the part where I feel like crap this morning. This Evil Death Flu is trying to kill me. I feel fine one minute, like crap the next. I talked to my doctor's NP yesterday, and she said to expect it to go on for another week. UGH.

I hope you feel better soon, vw. Take care of yourself.

Lots of tooth ~ma, bonny. My DH laughs all the time at my phobias surrounding my teeth, because when doing things like hang gliding my biggest fears are not for breaking bones (and I have cracked a rib on a bad landing) but for chipping/knocking out my teeth.

eta: Oops, my biggest fear just changed for today, as one of my co-workers just called to say she has Norovirus. If anyone needs me, I will be hiding in my office, as far away from her desk as I can get.