Snuck out but don't have my smokes on me and can't find anyone else smoking! So much for tobacco building this state (and its universities) (I'm kidding, mostly).

Nothing more annoying than a Helicopter parent. Worse than a swarm of mosquitoes!!"

Amen.Thank god for caller ID. I had parents that I refused to talk to. I would return their calls at odd hours or only communicate by email. I have been asked for cell and even home numbers. FUCK, no!

I did our family whistle

that's awesome that you have that.

My uni graduation was spread over several days so I was lucky to get the tip off from friends whose departments went the day before to bring a book. It was a lifesaver.

My uni has this huge thing on The Lawn (the quad for less uptight schools) where people throw beach balls and drink champagne. My year, we were pissed that the president insisted on speaking because his kid was graduating. We were reading the paper and openly chatting with the people around us.

The Girl went to Tesco's and got me World's Greatest Cough Syrup. And cake.

I miss the almond shorties (they don't make them anymore). I'm the crazy girl that has to go to Tesco's whenever I'm in England and buy store brand stuff like mustard and cookies.

that's awesome that you have that.

It's a long-short-long with rising tone at the end. I think it started as the honk my grandfather would give when he got home from work. Very useful over the years for calling us off the playground or finding each other in stores. I used it just yesterday in H&M.

Le sigh. I was in the freakin' plane, with the propeller turning. Then my instructor got a call that freezing rain had started falling ten miles south and seemed to be moving north. (It came up fast, too. Nothing on the radar before we got in the plane, all over the place when we checked afterward.) So, anyway, there's the third flying lesson this month canceled. My instructor said he usually has 50-75 hours of instruction in by this time of the month, and this December he's managed 15.

So I came home, sanded my stairs and my neighbors', and walked the cat in the snow. Not a bad afternoon at all, but not what I'd planned.

And now it's sleeting. I hope the parents let us out of the house for our long-awaited celebratory drinkfest.

NC wintry weather xpost! And... You sanded your neighbors?

Dear Charter Cable
Thank you for being so generous to credit the $1.99 charge to pay my bill over the phone, seeing how the auto bill pay service you provide has neglected to actually pay my bill. And I hope you realize, when you ask me to take a brief survey at the end, I will not give favorable responses.

You sanded your neighbors?

How else would I make them all smooth and shiny?

[sneaks back to add vital apostrophe]

If it *is* pneumonia, it's not severe, and most likely not treatable with antibiotics (because of the lack of green snot or other proof of bacterial infection). So all I would do is treat the symptoms and keep an eye on it. Which I'm doing anyway.

Fwiw, Tep, pneumonia coughing is usually non-productive, which means you won't often see the snot. Graphic, but it was true for me. I had no idea how sick I was when they admitted me to the hospital. I saw nothing green, but it was bacterial pneumonia that needed crazy antibiotics. Get thee to urgent care! I worry.

Well, we went and had dinner with friends of my parents, and back to the house for cake, and we're all so tired and the weather is so crappy that we're postponing the drinkfest. We might watch a DVD. Besides, I've got my colleague's funeral tomorrow at one, and being hungover would not be ideal.