People seem to think "vegan" means "flavorless." Unfortunately, the options I run into around here go to "so we'll add lots of peppers and spices!" Subtlety, people!

Yeah, Vegans care what food tastes like. Who knew? [Ducks]

Man, those ducks have spies everywhere.

and was part of a group of lesbians who were all pregnant with our first at the same time.

I will add on, sj, and note that any kind of online hive-mind would be a good thing. Just helps having people go through the same stuff. A lot of parenting is ephemeral - super important at that particular stage but you'll be somewhere else entirely in a month.

But remember Kate P.'s important lesson on breast feeding! No shame! Ask questions! Many here have done the baby thing and will have a variety of intelligent perspectives on the subject.

Also, you're fortunate to have a new cohort of recent Buffista Babies so memories will be fresh.

Zen, could I get a 7 am wake up call tomorrow? Thank you very much.

You got it, my dear.

I accomplished a lot by proxy today. The lawn guy came over and trimmed back my shaggy shrubs (and my scooby shrubs too), and transplanted a wild thing that we think is a mountain laurel into the back garden bed, and rescued my struggling rose from being smothered by an azalea, and put together my new blower/vac, and cleaned off my filthy and spider-infested porch. I did a lot of decision-making and sweating-while-not-actually working and rescuing of mantises. So the outside of my house looks pretty good now, for a change.

Oh, and I need to note that my super duper hippie-food stir fry tonight (served over a wild rice medley!) was entirely vegan and extra delicious.

Okay, I cheated by using the TJ's Island Soyaki marinade on the tofu. Well, it's not cheating on veganism. But adding the orange juice and hot sauce and oyster sauce was pure genius.

Marinated tofu, red bell pepper, broccoli, asparagus over wild rice.

To be honest there are times when my stir fry comes out kind of "meh" but tonight it was the opposite of that.

The lawn guy came over and trimmed back my shaggy shrubs (and my scooby shrubs too), and transplanted a wild thing that we think is a mountain laurel into the back garden bed

If it's a wild thing, I trust you put it in the bed without any supper. According to Ryan's storybooks, it's standard operating procedure.

I will add on, sj, and note that any kind of online hive-mind would be a good thing. Just helps having people go through the same stuff. A lot of parenting is ephemeral - super important at that particular stage but you'll be somewhere else entirely in a month.

Other online groups are scary, but I don't know what I would do without the buffistas. So many spicy brains. What do other people do without buffistas?

sj, the shirt is an old Joe's Crab Shack shirt I got at a garage sale and attacked with scissors. It's all cleavagey and Flashdancey now.

smonster, I KNOW it's too far. Dammit.

I am critiquing a 4 chapter MS sample. How can I say "This is terrible, you can't punctuate, your sentence structure is more confusing than a Rubik's cube and you often use exactly the wrong words for your intended meaning. Don't quit your day job. Here's my invoice." Seriously, my eyes are bleeding.

This person wanted another opinion before a vanity press charged to pub her, and...and...SCAM. NO, NO.

Thank GOD I am not doing line or copyedits. I would stab myself.

I think I need to clean my desk. It's on my to-do list, and I can't look at this thing for more than 15 pages at a time. I'm going to have to finish it in the morning or I will have nightmares of being paper-cut to death by a copy of Strunk & White.

But tomorrow my BFF is coming over to do yoga (2 months it's been! I CREAK!) and then we are gonna pool it with the kiddo.

sj, the shirt is an old Joe's Crab Shack shirt I got at a garage sale and attacked with scissors. It's all cleavagey and Flashdancey now.

Awesome!

oyster sauce

Generally not vegan. Unless you're going by that weird article that came out a year or so ago that argued that oysters should count as vegan. No other shellfish, just oysters. I don't remember the reasoning.