Ellie has seen me use Siri on my phone a few times and has been pretty impressed. Just now, she was watching a Netflix movie that froze. So she pushed the button to get Siri to appear and told her "please keep playing Thumbelina". It didn't work but I loved that she was polite and totally confident in the phone's ability to fix her problem.

Oh Bonny, I would be livid.

Barb, see F2F for Long Beach plotting.

smonster--cutest dog EVER. Except mine. When she’s not barking at nothing loudly, which she is at the moment.

Maria, wow. Good for you.

Daniel, I am so sorry for all you have already been through and for what you are still facing.

Medical~ma for Fred’s DH and coping~ma for Fred.

Welome back Erin!

sj, I meant to say last time I checked in that I can’t believe your apartment situation. I hope you either get out of there or the people upstairs actually leave ASAP.

Typo, eep! Practicing for Halloween?

Teppy, I hope your allergies are better soon.

.....

Sort of caught up, for a second anyway.

HI! I'm kind of caught up! (For values that equate lots of skimming, so I'mma point to what Pix typed and say "what she said.") I'm on a sugar and white wine high!!! Because I've been frosting holiday (Halloween) cookies all night! And watching silly horror films!! I need to invite other people over for cookie-decorating, because doing this alone leads to drinking white wine and watching Lost Boys: The Thirst. Which is hilarious, and I'm comfortable in the notion that the filmmakers wanted it that way. (Lost Boys: The Tribe was just too sad for me. Poor Corey.) I mean, cookie-decorating always involves white (or sparkling wine) and watching silly movies (one year it was Cannonball Run and Bill && Ted's Excellent Adventure), but it's better if there's more people, right?

So, who wants to come over mid-December and decorate holiday (mid-winter, take your pick) cookies with me???

t TACKLEHUGS JULIANA

I do, I do!

OKAY! Come on up! (Really, it's ridiculous that we never see each other. We're only 8+ hours away!!!)

Okay. Back to frosting. Mmmmmm, delicious frosting. I put some cinnamon oil in this time. It's gooooooood.

OKAY! Come on up! (Really, it's ridiculous that we never see each other. We're only 8+ hours away!!!)

I’m saying.

Cookie decorating for me involves eating a lot of escaped frosting and getting a cranky sugar high. Maybe I should try alcohol.

I finally managed to lure Mr Peabody inside from the excitement of having a small cat perched in a tree on the other side of the back fence. The cat was curled up in a very Cheshire cat way and didn't seem distressed, except perhaps for the annoying noise from a small dog. I don't worry a lot about cats in trees, because I used to have a cat who loved to climb trees and stay up there for hours mocking the people below.

My back is now to the point where I don't actually scream when I stand up or lean over, which is progress. I'm going to go curl up with some ice.

Oh Ginger, I’m so sorry. Back and neck pain is awful.

Cookie decorating sounds fun.

I woke up coughing a few hours before the first dose of codeine is supposed to wear off. Guess it's not quite as magic as I'd thought last night.

Ginger, I hope your back starts behaving itself soon.

Cookie decorating sounds fun.

Come over!! "Underworld" is next!!! I really hope that I get done by then, because I don't want to have to go on to "Underworld: Evolution". I mean, I always can go on to "Ginger Snaps" or "The Addams Family", but I'm enjoying the cheesy vampire flicks. Wait - I have all three "Blade" movies. Problem solved.

(I promise, for solstice/Festivus, the movies are more like "Lilo & Stitch" or "Black Adder". Something ridiculous to take away the winter blahs.)