I swear by these: [link] Comfortable for long walks and look good with jeans or dresses. They are way cuter on than they look in the picture.

Ooh, those might be the best yet for me, Scrappy! I have a real problem with too-thin soles on shoes.

I have very similar sketchers, in black, that I wear all the time.

Me too, but in brown. Love them.

In Florida, I got into the habit of no hose with dress shoes. I may amend that here in Seattle, at least in the winter, and go back to tights/stockings with pumps, at least.

Those MJs are way cute. Hmm.

Also, I just saw that ad with the guy doing the "news" off Facebook and Twitter: "This just in: The search is on for cute boots" always makes me laugh, especially right now!

Man, uncle G as babysitter for mac afterschool is like THE BEST THING EVER! homework was done, dishes were washed, library books picked up, playing was going on, and he apologized for not starting dinner! Glorious. So I am going to talk to mac's normal babysitter and have her sit him at the kitchen table for homework time and have her wash whatever dishes are in the sink while he does the work. Such a simple thing, why had I not thought of it before?

I think the difference between family and really, truly hired babysitters is that you need to spell out what you expect and be willing to pay for the extra work and effort.

ION, looking at some photos of men I knew in college on Facebook, so many of them have that fat neck thing going on. My husband kinda has it too. Is this an inevitable part of being a 40-year old man? mr. flea isn't fat, though he could stand to be more fit. But the neck bloat. What is that about?

Speaking as a 40 year old man, I have no idea. I've never really thought of my neck as being bloated, though I am certainly overweight, so maybe I'm just deluding myself. (Or at least in denial about my neck bloat.)

Of course, when I hear the term 'neck bloat', my mind immediately turns to siamangs. That would be pretty awesome, being able to generate siamang-like volumes. Be nice to have a defence against interminable office meetings.

This post was brought to you by the Internet quiz, "Which Higher Primate Are You?"

Woohoo! Husband got a job interview with my company. This could be good in several ways.

But here's a question: both of his parents have advised him not to mention in the interview that I also work there. That seems weird to me. What does the hivemind think?

Do you have a company handbook that references family members working together/at the company/hiring practices for that, Dana? Often they do. Might give you an idea of where to start, at least--he may be SUPPOSED to mention it.