I'm a poor swimmer - Mom's fear of the water kept me out of anything bigger than a kiddie pool until 4th grade, and swim lessons then went so bad any chance of catching up flew out the window. (They had me dive off a 3-meter board into a ring life preserver. I shot right through the hole in the middle, proceeded to drown, and then racked my instructor in a desperate bid to kick off him toward the pool's edge. So, to recap: avoiding drowning = fail, but on the bright side dropping an attacker 3 times my mass like a stone = roaring success)

Any attempt to dive into water, even from pool's edge, results in me sputtering and coughing up water for several minutes. And I've never been able to swim submerged, I always bob right back to the surface like a cork, even during my painfully thin school days. Though I suppose since the only scenario in which I'll ever be in the deep stuff is treading water awaiting a rescue boat, automatic floating isn't such a bad thing.

Can't even read or hear any stories about Michael Vick being allowed back in the NFL. Pisses me off so much, I can't stand it.

The Humane Society is saying he deserves a second chance, and I tend to trust their opinion, so I'm VERY warily coming down on the side of giving him a second chance.

And if he fucks up, I think a pit bull should eat his nuts.

And if he fucks up, I think a pit bull should eat his nuts.

Works for me.

I can't talk about Vick anymore. I did on another forum, yesterday, and it done wore me out.

And yes, those Sarah Mc commercials--I have to change channel immediately.

Headed out to the Oakland Art & Soul fest now, though I am having a hard time pulling away from the Mets/Giants game on the tele. My boys are actually scoring and it's suck a rarity, I wanna watch. But my friend Mary is saving me awesome first row seat to see Shawn Colvin, so gotta get going!

And if he fucks up, I think a pit bull should eat his nuts.

Works for me.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, lose your nuts.

But my friend Mary is saving me awesome first row seat to see Shawn Colvin, so gotta get going!

Have fun! I only discovered yesterday that they moved it to this weekend! Live105 doesn't have a stage this year, so there's no one I'm interested in seeing anyway.

My brother and I were commiserating about the Vick thing and saying that at the very least, since our antipathy for the Eagles goes way back, we don't have to hate a whole new team. We're bracing for the day they come up against the Vikings and we have to...no, I can't even say it. Maybe I'll just hope for an earthquake.

Jesse, they do not melt! It is awesome. they get soft and people say you have to test them all again, because some lose their ability to re-zip, but the big ones especially seem to do ok even more than once! I am terribly excited.

I can't talk to any more of the neighbors about it. I have written a note and am leaving it with the info pack under doors. I can only do so much shame and ass-feeling. I am full up.

Swimming for us was lessons at the local hotel pool (first at the Hotel Rossi then at the HoJo's) which both of our parents supported. Dad had grown up going to public schools big enough to have their own pools, so he knew how to swim as a kid even though he grew up on a farm. Mom was another farm kid, but went to Catholic schools without a pool so she never learned how, at least not until she was in her early '40s and we belonged to the Y. She still doesn't swim well (she can barely stitch together three front strokes with her face in the water before she comes up sputtering), but the fact that she can put her face in the water is a huge thing for her.

It was a special event for us to go to a place with natural swimming water (not a pool), either Lake Michigan on occasional summer drives to the city, a family vacation up to Minnesota or Michigan, or a weekend visit to the Braidwood Country Club, where some of my stepmother's family belonged. (A Pakistani friend of mine in high school had to be smuggled into the Braidwood club in the trunk of his friend's car due to the color of his skin. Mom didn't belong there for that reason.)

We've discussed the civet-poop coffee around here a bunch of times, but as far as I recall, never from the perspective of OMGSOCUTE!!!1!