With me, it's Dave! He's the one standing with his hand on the doorknob talking for a half hour. So I can't open the door myself and just leave, nor can I sit back down and take off my coat.

Around here they refer to that as a Minnesota Goodbye.

I think my mother was Class Treasurer.

My mother? Totally Class Secretary. I have put the phone down, gone to the bathroom, come back to pick it up and she didn't notice I wasn't there.

My M-i-L is so like that. J will be on the phone with her for 45 minutes, saying mm-hmm every minute or so. After he hangs up, I'll ask what she had to say. "Nothing at all." is his answer. And it's true. She likes to tell long medical stories about people you don't know, like someone from her work whose son's wife had gallbladder surgery and then they found cancer and then.....

Oh, Burlesque. You make me feel dirty, but I do want to see you.

My mom does the meara-mom thing. Tells me anything but important stuff; she figures if my sister, who loves with them, knows, then I know.

G'ma is still hanging in but it's obvious that she is in the "transitional" stage and she's in a lot of pain.

askye, I hope she has a peaceful passing and you and your family are in my thoughts.

It turns out I am really picky about stuffing/dressing but I can't articulate it until I realize what I don't like. I love nommy-to-me stuffing but I don't know if I like the whole genre.

Mom is still here and it's almost entirely good. Everyone else leaves in the morning so we're no longer trying to juggle a lot of different people who are passively-passively aggressive at best. We all just try to guess but no one *says* what they want out of habit.

So much wonderful food eaten, wine drunk, fires sitted near and sights seen.

OH! My uncle and uncle in law got me a hostess gift the first night we were here. A set of creme brule ramekins and a mini-torch!

I set dessert on fire tonight. And live to post the tale.

{{{askye}}} I'm sorry. You're all in my thoughts.

Meanwhile, Hollaback Israel is getting TONS of positive feedback. Kinda gobsmacked about it all, really. I'm so used to be in the "nobody understands me" position, that it feels unreal.

Hivemind question: I haven't legally changed my name yet because I am waiting for the official marriage certificates to come in. In the meantime, what do I do about checks made out to Mr. & Mrs? Do both of us have to sign them? Can TCG sign them over to me so that I can deposit them in my account?

A check made out to two people must be signed my both people, unless both people are on the checking account. TCG can sign it over to you.

OH! My uncle and uncle in law got me a hostess gift the first night we were here. A set of creme brule ramekins and a mini-torch!

Cass, that's a freakin' AWESOME hostess gift; I want a torch BAD....

If you happen to be having a nice brisk walk down a sidewalk, everyone waves at you from passing golf carts. and they have separate garages for the golf carts.

Some of my mom's friends live at The Villages. My mom likes going to visit them, and she kind of wants to retire there, but my father really doesn't.

Do they say, "Be seeing you" and refer to you as Number Six? I can see where that would disconcert...

Great Black Friday picture: [link]

Don't wanna go to work. It's cold out there. And I may have stayed up too late finishing avatar last air bender.