The bed is cleared, and I'll change the sheets in a few minutes, get a cup of tea, and then will take a shower. In the meantime of getting my bed clear and get some floor surface to step on, I even packed another box.

About an hour ago a friend sent me the site in memoriam of the friend I lost a year ago to cancer [link] [Hebrew, but there's a nice pic of her. For me, btw, that's her: [link] ] I spent there about 30 minutes, reading about her and of her, looking at her photographs. The last 10 minutes I spent smiling, and with "Cracker" on as a soundtrack (she loved them.) And I was reminded of something I wanted to share with you a while ago, and I can't remember if I linked to it before; if not, it's probably because until now it felt like it's hers to own, not mine to share. It's a series about her disease, and I think it was done wonderfully. [link]

I'm so glad I've had her in my life. I can't believe that now I'm older than her: that just doesn't seem right.

And much health~ma to all sick Buffistas and Buffista sprogs.

Ok, what's the first thing that comes to people's minds for a knife thrower's assistant's costume?

Kevlar.

Michelin Man.

Shir, your friend's artwork is beautiful (and oh, she had such a great smile!).

I bet Tep looks as adorable in the new cut as anyone not named Pete can possibly look.

Huh. I was just snacking on delicious but obviously horribly bad-for-you candy corn from the sweets bucket in the nurses' office, and then googling around for organic candy corn, and found this recipe:

Homemade candy corn

And, just for Hil, Homemade vegan candy corn.

If I can assemble all the ingredients, I may have found the next rainy Saturday Zmayhem sprog activity.

And, just for Hil, Homemade vegan candy corn.

I'm going to a vegan potluck on Halloween. That is perfect.

I've never gotten into candy corn, but now I'm interested in picking up the stuff for almond bark! Easy to make (melt in the microwave, mix almonds into the white chocolate, pour over waxed paper, let cool, break apart) and oh, so yummy.

(JZ, did you see the Mucha-Sarah Bernhardt patterns I posted in Natter?)

Ok, what's the first thing that comes to people's minds for a knife thrower's assistant's costume?

Actually, Kevlar is a bad thing. Kevlar stops high speed small projectiles, but ya get jabbed in a knife fight. Something to think about when the riot police come at ya.

Just spent 15 minutes scritching the shop cat. He has a rear paw in a cast, and is trapped in the carpenters office for another couple weeks, poor bugger. He jumped down from his perch by the window that looks into the shop, onto the desk, into my lap, stayed there for a bit getting scritched, purring, then slowly crawled up my torso, onto my shoulder, with his weight it tipped the chair back some, and hopped onto the cat tower thingie. Very funny. Now off to Fry's to see if they have a video quad display thingie and some IR panels. Weeeee!

{{{ Shir }}} just because. It's not an easy time for you in many ways, but we all love you here, and have your back.

Healing~ma to all and their sprog that need it. if it makes you feel better, our head of Development (i.e. fund raising) has Swine Flu! Just in time for the grand opening of the new theater. Fun, right?

I'm thinking of getting my hair cut really short. It's all damaged from too much processing and hard water, and there's just no fix for that except letting it grow out. Which I'm doing but it's hideous. So I'm thinking of basically starting over, cutting it really short and eschewing commercial dye from now on in favor of henna. (It should look pretty cool, the gray streaks will turn red and the black will stay black. Hopefully.)

But I'm skeered. What do you hair experts think? It's really curly; will it end up TOO short? Will I look like a tiny head on a huge body?

I did, Kathy. I swear, someday when I live in a palatial mansion (or just an apartment with lots of windows and cozy window seats), every appropriate space is going to be littered with Art Nouveau cross-stitch pillows. They are SO GORGEOUS.

I won the auction on the ruched pencil skirt! I was the only bid, even, so I paid less than I was willing to. I think my costume is complete, except for possibly some lipstick.