DCJ, that video is EPIC. Seriously, what an amazing feat of...well, every kind of thought! The planner in me wants to go have a lie down to let the detaildetaildetail fascination pass.

Phew.

Barb! You. Must. Fuel. A friend once asked me if 'Contra Dancing' meant standing still...yuckyuck...but falling over is definitely anti-dancing.

As for me, I've been fasting today. I did a 7 day prep and have been drinking 8 oz. of either water or a special juice, every half hour.

Believe me, I am not hungry.

And, I actually feel pretty good. Maybe a bit muzzy, but I didn't sleep well last night, so I'm chalking the muz up to that.

I haven't done one of these for a while and I'm really glad I got myself together enough to do it.

I fear for the new, frat-boy renters next door, if they have another party tonight, though. I might just snap.

The testosterone is overflowing over there and it got a bit out of control. I swear, every time I look over into their yard, one of the five is punching another.

My landlord facilitated a conversation with the most coherent of the dudes this afternoon, in which I assured him that I do not want to harsh their buzz, but the screaming like apes at 12:30am is not on.

Seriously, guys. Drink yourself as close to death as you like but please, please dial down the decibels for goodness sake. There are children in this neighborhood.

Most importantly, he was able to articulate why he loved this school and why, for the first time, he enjoyed going to school.

This is so extremely awesome, my first thought was, "I bet that award is just the icing on the awesomecakes of Barb's week." (On the grounds that I consider good cake way more important than icing of any quality.)

Since we are on the BID topic, can I please get some applause for not smothering an otherwise quite decent supervisor.... Last month, an individual at one of the houses gained 10 pounds in the space of less than a week. This individual has congestive heart failure, and consumes no more than 1500 calories per day. At the time of the weight gain, there was considerable evidence of pitting edema, i.e. visible and palpable signs that this was water weight, as opposed to adipose tissue. Cue panicked encouragement to restrict food intake. Also, cue doctor prescribing a temporary doubling of diuretic dose. Results a week and a half later: a loss of 11 pounds. Frickin' supervisor told the individual it was because of all the hard work of cutting back on eating.

I wanted to put a pillow over the supervisor's face and hold it down until she stopped kicking.

Large round of applause for amazing self-control above and beyond the call, WindSparrow.

That's just crazy.

Barb, so good to hear about Nate's success and happiness.

Trudy, hi! Forgot to say that before, and how awful for your friend.

Steph, thoughtless skinny bitch, indeed. She needs a cluesticking with a telephone pole.

Since we're at the beach, the BIDs are hard to avoid - but as I noted to my sister, I'm less self-conscious about my body now than I was in high school, when I barely weighed enough to donate blood. Thank god for rugby and bellydance. Now I just need to quit smoking and find some new exercise, although apparently I've lost weight from working outside.

And in more mememe, I've burnt the backs of my thighs. I do it every time. The sunscreen comes off on the chair, and I forget or am too lazy to reapply. Dur.

Barb! Protein before a workout is your friend!

I try to be very, very careful about complimenting weight loss. For all the reasons stated above. I have definitely experienced the depression-related weight loss, and the perverse pleasure that it brings.

Wish I had more time at the beach. Also wish there were "non-talking" sections at the beach. We had three very chatty groups around us today, and one women in particular would. not. shut. the fuck. up. I tried to breathe and focus on the ocean, but I pretty much failed. Oh, well.

Oh, yeah, I knew I forgot something. Windsparrow, WTF? That is some major clueless stupidity.

"Fuck you," can be a very heartfelt response. "Heartfelt" does not mean tender or sympathetic or kind.

"Fuck you," can be a very heartfelt response. "Heartfelt" does not mean tender or sympathetic or kind.

Words to live by.

Went to the LDS baptism of my step-grand-daughter today. This is an event that takes place around the kid's 8th birthday, the age at which allegedly they can tell right from wrong and at which sins begin to count. I muttered dire imprecations, as I always do when I have to go to an LDS service, but it's the grand-daughter, so I went.

All the grandparents were there, and this was the first time I'd gotten to meet my stepdaughter's husband--soon-to-be-ex-husband, by the way, for reasons I am not privy to. It was also the first time we'd seen Hubby's ex-wife in about 20 years.

Hubby's first response upon seeing her was "Oh my god," and not in the good way. In strict fairness, I have no idea what medical issues she herself has been dealing with, and Hubby himself isn't the man he was. But I have to be honest when I compared myself very favorably to her. Highly petty, but I'm OK with that. I may have dropped within hearing of her that this month is Hubby's and my 25th wedding anniversary--just in case she'd forgotten.

Unfortunately, mine was not the only less-than-charitable attitude. Daughter's husband's parents--lovely people, who were initially suspicious of Hubby, until they got the other side of the stories they'd been told--told Hubby that they had already hired a lawyer to make sure their son would have all the visitation rights he was entitled to, because Daughter had in the past told her husband, "Oh, you don't really love me, if you really loved me you'd sign this paper saying you'd never challenge me for the kids." Turns out this is the same thing Hubby's ex-wife had done to him, before he knew that there was a divorce in his future. She then proceeded to deny him access on whatever grounds she could think of, then took them out of state without asking permission (and he was too blindsided to make a challenge).

At lunch after the service, Daughter's apparent current boyfriend was there, Husband quietly said he didn't want to sit at the same table as him, so Daughter said, "Fine, I'll sit with him at the other table." Apparently his parents are of the opinion that their son married down.

So a day of drama, history, and religious services I find annoying. Fun! But we went to Ikea afterwards, and we learned what a dangerous place that is.

Connie, you my my complete commiseration about the drama

But IKEA!

re: Ikea

Hubby discovered lots of stuff in the kitchen section that he wants, I had to keep saying, "But I don't have a reason to buy it" in the home organization area, and we did really look at furniture. Next time we'll try the meatballs.