P-C well done. You will almost certainly have to do it again. it is worth it. You can live your life, find out more about who you want to be as you think less about who your family wants you to me.

Yay for your new name, Seska! Did you and The Girl pick a new name unique to both of you?

Good news: A family friend went in for a biopsy for a lump on her pancreas and not only was there no cancer, but the lump completely drained with the biopsy so she will not need to have surgery to remove it either!

Yay for new family name, Seska! May you wear it for many happy years together!

sj, that is not only good news, but pretty damn cool as well. I, for one, needed to hear something that cool today.

And now I must get my behind moving, as there are many errands to run on my day off.

sj and WindSparrow ~ thank you! We did indeed pick a unique name. We kept trying to make double-barrelled fit, and it wouldn't. Neither would either of our mothers' maiden names. But many years ago, my grandfather changed his name (he was a Jewish EastEnd-er) to my current family name. So I've always been aware that my current surname isn't right. We started considering the original family name, and it worked. We both feel completely right about it. It's so exciting.

And if I can just get my book review written for this journal, I'll even be published under that name in June!

sj, very good news about your friend's biopsy. How fantastic that she won't even need surgery.

We kept trying to make double-barrelled fit, and it wouldn't.

"Don't tell me she's going to be 'Noble-Temple'?!"
"No...Temple-Noble."

sj, glad to hear it.

We started considering the original family name, and it worked. We both feel completely right about it. It's so exciting.

I like that story.

We started considering the original family name, and it worked. We both feel completely right about it. It's so exciting.

That's a wonderful story.

Why is it when a repair man is around the thing that was broken stops acting broken?

"Don't tell me she's going to be 'Noble-Temple'?!"

Heh. Yes. That. (We both have surnames with two syllables. Four-syllable double-barrelled names sound odd.)

Plus, as my friend said on Facebook today: "I'm sick of the double-barrelling. It's turning into the hippie gay Christian marrieds' badge of honour." And then he went on to suggest all manner of English names that are pronounced oddly. Like Leveson-Gower, pronounced loosen-gor. And Featherstonehaugh - go on, guess how that's pronounced in upper class circles.

I got a raise! And a promotion! I knew the former was coming (though not the amount), but not the latter.

I'm also starting to get survivor's guilt, what with all the very good people we lost in the last round of layoffs. Or more of it. I was already feeling survivor's guilt the last month.

Furston?