Moby loves Mr Plow!

He didn't have the mustache for it.

Also a crime.

Late to the discussion but i was a very late start reader. Freaked my parents out to the extreme when the first time i ever wrote my name, i wrote it entirely backwards. Pretty sure it had a lot to do with trying to mimic a series of right-handed teachers; eventually my left-handed dad had to show me letters and numbers for them to make any sense in my brain.... Once it clicked, however, i was off like a racehorse and reading at a college level by third grade.

And i was always a Miss Smartypants but never got any resentment or anger out of it....on the contrary, in high school and college all my teachers adored me because i was the only kid who would actually *talk* in class without being point-blank forced to say something and the other students thought i was great for not making it so obvious that they weren't doing the required reading for certain classes. I found it refreshing to be able to discuss literature and philosophy with teachers since other students didn't seem interested. I wish i had known a Willow in school!

• shrug* I sat in the back of the room so i'm pretty sure i would have caught any angry glares directed my weay.....(ok, in elementary school some of the girls reviled me for being too bossy but that wasn't just educationally-based...and the boys didn't seem to mind...)

et fix terrible spelling.

I'm watching Ninja Warrior & one of the guys is named Kobayashi. I puzzled over it for a moment before asking D where I'd heard that name before. Without looking away from his computer game he mumbled, "Kobayashi Maru". durr. Gads we're dorks.

Oh, night shift, how i did not miss the slowness. It's not even 3 am yet (when it traditionally gets slow) and yet i've only handled 5 calls in the last 3 hours. Seriously, i usually handle about 30 in that time frame. Slooooooooooow. I might run out of internet AND my current brain candy book before i get to go home at 6am!

eta: ooooh, i found my sunday newspaper still untouched! all good here for at least another hour.

A French tribute to Star Wars: [link]

I am fairly positive that I would not have been able to keep saying no if I weren't thinking of you guys, so thank you again.

P-C, you are AWESOME. It's hard to stand your ground at first, but it gets easier. I swear it.

Somebody living in Chicago is Most Definitely not a dealbreaker!

I was gonna say!

Well done, P-C. And it sounds like your father is trying to keep the peace by cutting things off before they get out of hand -- a good sign.

David, best wishes for your best man and his family, now and in the future. Kidney transplants change your life and the lives of those around you.

I was also an early reader. I pestered my mother about it, and she finally started to teach me when I was 4. Though I don't remember how much she taught me and how much I did on my own.

I also taught myself cursive writing when I was in first grade by copying the letters from the front of a notebook. And at some point, I just started cursive writing. Then my second grade teacher demanded that we write her way, which was supposed to be easier. In some ways it was, but Capital F was almost impossible. Which, of course, is one of the letters I use most frequently.

Apropos of nothing, but because I'm thinking about it today - we're changing our names really soon, like REALLY soon, because of having to postpone our civil partnership. (I send off a paper for publication this week or next week, so we start using it then.) On the one hand, I'm nervous as hell over what people will think. Which is funny, because if I were marrying a bloke, it would be entirely normal that I was changing my name. But also: yay for having a whole new family with its own little name! Happy-making.

And my sister just sent me a picture of my niece next to a snow-dog they've made. It's bigger than her. Heh.