I need to contact some yoga studios and see if I can trade some editing/writing work for a weekly class.

I wash towels for my yoga studio in exchange for free classes. It's a pretty sweet deal. They also have have people to work the front desk or deliver things between their 4 studios in exchange for classes.

Dear Dean: Do not call me on Friday afternoon 20 minutes before I leave with a big research project that you need tonight. Your needs do not trump my nanny's. Better luck next time!

Thanks for the tip, msbelle.

Jerome Ponette Wrecks Six Cars After Getting 86'd From Strip Club

Wow, helluva night at the strip club for 40-year-old Jerome Ponette. First, he got kicked out of Mirage Cabaret on West 34th Street for allegedly being drunk. Then he got behind the wheel of his Mercedes Benz and went all Mallachi brothers in the parking lot, and before his impromptu demolition derby was over, he had smashed into four cars and pissed off some pretty dangerous dudes.

Ponette finally peeled out of the parking lot and headed down TC Jester. Two bystanders had not approved of his vehicular temper tantrum. They gave chase, and each of them fired numerous shots at Ponette's car. In the course of eluding these hunters, Ponette crashed his bullet-riddled Mercedes into two more cars.

Luckily for everybody involved -- not least Ponette himself -- the cops got to him first.

Police found him at a gas station at TC Jester and the North Loop feeder road, battered from the car crashes but somehow unriddled by bullets. (The two guys who had been shooting at Ponette melted away into the night.)

Ponette was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where more than just a thick sheaf of bills awaits him. He was charged with aggravated criminal mischief, and according to court records Hair Balls dug up, was already on community supervision for a second-degree felony charge of possession of 4-200 grams of cocaine. (His record also includes a bust for carrying an unlicensed weapon, assault-bodily injury and driving with a suspended license.

lisah - U R NOT A BAD SO!!! Anything in the form of an experience (tickets, dinner, game) he would be into?

Oh, I saw the cutest little Brit minishow on Netflix streaming last week, and it seems like it would be completely up some Buffistas alleys. (Not in a dirty way!)

It was called "Lost in Austen" and it starred Jemima Rooper; if anyone watched Hex, she played Thelma. I loved her character in that show, and she is just as charming in this. It was, IMHO, pretty charming and clever. Light and fun. I quite enjoyed it.

Here's her speaking of the miniseries to the Guardian:

I guess the best way to describe the programme is that it is about a modern-day, young woman living in London who is slightly obsessed with Pride and Prejudice. She loves the idea of the Georgian lifestyle - the etiquette and morals of it - and is very dissatisfied with her life. Her boyfriend is a bit crap, she's tired of the hustle and bustle of London life and people being rude on public transport - she is feeling a bit lost.

Then she thinks she is going mad because Elizabeth Bennet appears in her bathroom (I know it sounds strange, stay with me here) and she is shown through a door that leads her into this weird house that turns out to be the Bennets' home. She starts to meet all these people she has imagined vividly for years and realises she is in the beginning of the novel - and her presence is sending everything off kilter. Lizzie is not there to meet and fall in love with Darcy - Mr Bingley is paying Amanda a bit too much attention - so she is ruining the novel she loves most in the world. Does she go for Mr Darcy herself or is she keeping the way open for Lizzie? That's the big dilemma.

[link]

I still don't know if insurance has approved the Monday hospital admission. Helloooo? I'm assuming I'm going in, but I do need to know before I actually incur any costs.

Lost in Austen is a lot of fun.

I am an accent sponge; if I spent more than a couple of hours around someone with an accent, I start to mimic it.

Me, too!! Especially if the other speaker is Irish, then I definitely slip into a brogue.

ION, last week I was watching a PBS show on flappers and the 20s culture, and now I really want to find/make a flapper-style coat and cloche hat for winter wear after I lose my weight--I love that look!

And I was surprised when I saw foxes in my neighborhood: [link]