I think that either ethnicities are not as easy to tell by looks as some people think, or people just aren't as good at it as they think they are. I've been asked "Are you _____?" for just about every ethnicity that's not usually blond. (Most recently, random guy on the street, who also had ethnically-ambiguous looks, came up to me and asked, "Where are your people from? They ain't from this country, are they?")

I got asked if I was French all the time in London. I do not think I look particularly French at all! Perhaps it was my air of degage ennuistiphication?! Heh.

When I was living in Philly, I got picked for English most of the time. Scottish a few times, and on one occasion, Welsh. I had one guy spend an entire dinner listening to me and an actual English person, and still claim he couldn't tell our accents apart.

Somebody from a number I don`t know just called me at 2 in the morning. WTF? I ignored it. But now I`m freaking out with the middle of the night call adrenaline. They would have left a message if it were actually someone I knew and an emergency, right? Worst part was I was just getting to sleep. I`m always up amped after a gig. Like I haven`t been having enough sleep problems anyway. With my body clock the way it is I`m due to wake up in another two hours anyway. Why can`t I sleep like normal people?

So I know you were all waiting with bated breath to see what happened next...oh, no you weren`t because you are all asleep! Anyway, they called back. So I picked up. Somebody very young but polite enough when I informed them they might have the wrong number. But now I am so wide awake, for serious, you all. When will people wake up to talk to me?

I pretty much never stick my head out of the Gaming thread because every other thread either moves too fast or it's on something I don't know about, but Natter called to me tonight.

Hello Liese! Perhaps we can benefit from each others' insomnia!

Just gave the cat his 4 am feeding .

Got up ,all ready to go and I tripped over the cat buffet. so the said "yay snack time" and decided to eat. which - yay , that is the point of this assisted feeding. but seriously , at 4 am I have no idea what to do .I'm not waiting an hour to feed him stuff down the tube. gotta call the vet on monday.

So this is my life at 4am

This morning Spare Cat managed to strand herself inside a glass-fronted cabinet. (It has a magnetic latch, and evidently it was ajar when she got in and swung shut.) She can't have been in there for long, anyway.

However, before I let her out I had a wonderful laugh watching her trying to figure out how to get out, and tried to take a couple pictures, which didn't come out all that well, oh well.

Red dots represent locations where there are more bars than grocery stores, based on results from the Google Maps API. The Midwest takes their drinking seriously.

My old home town (Alpena, MI) looks red, with yellow north and south of it. Understandable. If I still lived in Alpena I'd probably be drinking as much as I could afford.

New England still has some "dry" towns, "blue laws" about selling alcohol on Sundays, and New Hampshire has their state liquor stores. In general around here, liquor licenses are highly regulated and hard to get.