Hayden, I'm glad your brother is safe, and I hope he can come home soon.

Kat, I'm glad Grace came through the surgery alright, if a bit contentiously.

I hope the people who dragged the shetland pony behind their car each fall headfirst into a hornets' nest. Bastards.

I adore my present kitties, and would definitely spend for vet bills, but I simply would not take extraordinary measures. They are adored and loved, definitely, but faced with a $3000 bill, I would be VERY hesitant, unless it was a sure fix and they would have years more of a good life.

Yeah, while I'm very--perhaps overly--attached to my cat, there are limits to what I'd spend. The limits would vary depending on how flush I am, but I would not prioritize his health over keeping a roof over my head. That said, he sleeps on my bed, has the run of the apartment, gets walked on a leash regularly, and eats pretty well. He'll be a significant feature in my future living arrangements--no pet-free apartments or houses for me in the next 10-15 years. He'll have a good life until he no longer can, and then I'll have him euthanized as gently as possible. I hope that'll be years from now.

Your driveway looks like mine. Le sigh.

That shows only about 1/8 of the junk in it. Like the several lawnmowers. (This one shows a lot of the shit: [link] Not actual shit, like dog shit.)

There is also a frigging 10-foot tall drill press in the driveway and I am not even kidding. I'm looking through the pictures to see if I have a shot of it.

We are about 2 toaster ovens away from being on Hoarders. (Okay, not really. But...if we [read: *I*] don't keep an eye on all the shit we [read: *he*] bring home, we could get Hoard-y.)

I take it back, Tep. Your driveway looks like my backyard.

Also, Hayden, I'm hoping your brother makes it home ASAP, but it's wonderful he is able to do some good while waiting.

That story of the 4 month old baby made me teary. Truly awesome.

I hope the people who dragged the shetland pony behind their car each fall headfirst into a hornets' nest. Bastards.

They're in Australia. We have taipans, crocs, blue-ringed octopi and box jellyfish, all standing by for your call.

I have created a monster. I taught CJ how to cook bacon. We had bacon and eggs for dinner. I told him we would use the extra for bacon bits...but I don't think he is going to leave any extra.

Sara would eat four or five pieces of bacon every morning if we let her. It's a good thing I don't let her near the stove.

Okay, here's the drill press in the driveway: [link] We are PURE CLASS. Note that it has a tarp over it to protect it from the elements, because you wouldn't want the NEVER-USED drill press to get rusted, WOULD YOU??? (The drill press may be a bit of a sore point in our relationship.)

All the shingles in the driveway are from when the house next door (the brick house in the right of the picture) was being re-roofed. For some reason -- and DEFINITELY without our permission -- the roofers decided to throw all the old shingles (AND NAILS) in our driveway instead of, say, renting a dumpster or throwing the shingles in the backyard of the house they belonged to.

(That was actually the purpose of the series of pictures this one is from -- proof in case the homeowner didn't clean it all up. To his credit, the roofers cleaned it all up the next day -- like a shopvac had been through. But it still shouldn't have happened in the first place.)

I have an entire book of bacon. I can't wait to crack it. The bacon mary cocktail seems a decent place to start, but, plain bacon! Maybe I should put bacon on top of my popcorn and not bacon salt. Real, trufax bacon.

Smonster, what about something like "Rebuilding Lives"?

It's a good thing Tim and I didn't get together, because I'm thinking, "Cool. I want a drill press."