Insurance in the USA is very crappy for people employed by companies with less than a couple hundred workers.

Really small businesses are forced to offer things like $2500/year deductible just to offer any insurance at all.

I've read about this before, but it deserves special note here:

Police in Southern California know what the man looks like (from surveillance video) but have not yet apprehended the well-dressed, 70ish man who has robbed four banks since August, with the latest being a Bank of America in Rancho Santa Fe in October. The man has shown special dexterity to pull off the robberies, since he is on oxygen and has to carry around his own tank. [KSWB-TV (San Diego), 10-27-09]

You're never too old to learn new skills.

Or are they new? Maybe he's an old-time bank robber who lived past his loot and decided he needed to stock up...

"Mollywhopped"? Really?

Has anyone ever bought stuff from myshape.com?

I have! I've liked almost everything I've gotten from them. If you enter your measurements, they take the guesswork out of what size will actually fit you, and they do a good job of finding clothes with a flattering cut.

Guy's gotten away with four bank robberies and he's carrying around an oxygen tank? Dang, that's impressive.

Movie meetup was enjoyable, once I found the tiny fricking theater, tucked into the side of a restaurant. The woman who organized the thing wasn't wearing what she said she'd be wearing (madam, a black jacket is not a black cardigan, although I suppose the color of your hair could generously be called "blonde") and nobody looked much like their posted photos, so we all arrived at the theater and stood awkwardly in the tiny lobby, wondering if the other people were our people, until finally a girl who was not the organizer asked me my name (I was wearing what I said I would be, so I suppose I was most identifiable), and we coalesced. Gelled, as it were.

The movie was the French Coco before Chanel with subtitles, and I liked it a lot, although I discovered my French is even worse than I thought. I never knew Chanel totally reinvented women's fashion like that, 180degrees from froofy feathers and corsets to sleek and understated. They didn't show as much of her inspirations as I would've liked, but they did a good job showing how that more practical sensibility came to her. My favorite line, regarding lack of corset: "It's too loose! I can feel my fat jiggling under it!"

The woman sitting next to me made not-subtle sounds of distaste at an early scene where a man shoved his face into a woman's ample cleavage, and I thought, my god, we haven't even gotten to the actual sex. One woman later said she didn't like movies with sex and foul language, and everyone (else) agreed that Coco had basically been a whore for moving in with a guy and letting him support her when they weren't married. And then she went off for a weekend with another guy, with her patron's full consent ("Have fun!") and that guy ended up actually paying for her business start-up, so she was whoring with *two* guys at once. I said, I should be so lucky, which got the reaction you'd expect. I pointed out that this was an era when women weren't expected to work, and she'd been poor as dirt with no real chances to get out of poverty without a rich man giving her a hand up at some point, and well, they're not going to do that because she's pretty. If not for her patron and her lover, we'd never have had Chanel.

at least one person who clicks with you enough you want to hang out in other contexts.

Possibly, one. We'd both done what one apparently does in downtown C'ville when looking for a hidden bit of local color: park in the central garage and hunt on foot. So we walked the five blocks back to our cars together and had a nice chat.

Zenkitty, just remember you're way cooler and foamier than everyone else around.

In this case at least, I think I was. I could have gone by myself and had as much fun. Oh well.

Don't talk about ass-hooks on the first date. Unless a cute guy or gal looks you deeply in the eyes and says, "I sure wish I could meet somebody as cool as you are that knew something about ass-hooks."

That's exactly what happened! In a parallel universe where ass-hooks are sold in specialty hardware stores.

just like plutonium!

Ah well, Zenkitty, you tried.

I said, I should be so lucky, which got the reaction you'd expect.

I can't help but grin at the salty reputation you have no doubt developed with this group.

Happy belated birthday, ChiKat!

Ugh. Have been asleep most of the afternoon. Supposed to be working on the Dissertation From Purgatory. And no one has told me whether or not I'm needed at a thing at church this evening that I was going to volunteer at, but then there were e-mails about whether or not I was needed, and the e-mails stopped without resolution, and now I can't get hold of the organizer, and ugh.

I am horrible during this dissertation. The Girl is going to Israel on Tuesday, and we're trying to decide whether she should stay there longer than planned, until my deadline has passed. So that I can't kill her.

If I actually do end up doing a PhD, I'm moving into a hotel for the final three months. I'll save up for it.

What I did Friday night: rope corset, front; rope corset, back, rope gauntlet.