The kiddo sleeps like a rock. Inherited from his dad.

Aims, I point n nod at what all the smart buffistas said above. And give ya big hugs.

Strix, that is awesome!!! Congrats!!!

I'm currently in my new place. If NYC was made of boxes, I think my place is staten island. Found the boxes for bathroom stuff, and took a wonderful shower. Those curved shower rods make a tub feel so much bigger!! And the view from my bed is stunning! The moon is out, the city lights glimmering. Now, how to use that as a pick up line. Still gotta clean old place. And so much to do here. Don't wanna go to work in 7 hours.

My car was broken into tonight.

They took my backpack. The backpack my mom got for me. The backpack that I carry everywhere. The backpack that I basically feel naked without. The backpack I thought would be too much of a pain to lug around tonight. The backpack I didn't put in the fucking trunk because what could happen, nothing has ever happened before.

Inside were my work laptop, charger, and wireless mouse. My Kindle Touch and case. My camera with a new SD card I only got a couple months ago (thank fucking God I already got my Comic-Con pictures off of it). Various chargers. An eyeglasses case with, I think, $60 or $80 cash in it. My copy of The Kindly Ones with a $750 Spelling Bee Cheat bookmark. The Resistance, with sleeved cards. Famiglia. A Rosemary and Rue pen from Seanan's first book release party at Borderlands. I keep remembering more things.

They also took Smellerbee, the iPod Shuffle I got as a groomsman's gift at my friends' wedding.

Thankfully, I had an amazing friend who wins the Friend of the Year Award for helping me clean out most of the glass, coming with me to the police station so I could fill out a police report, spending half an hour looking for trashcans or Dumpsters to look through in case the motherfucker just stole the electronics and dumped the backpack, and generally being someone to lean and cry on.

I've actually shed fewer tears than I would have expected. I'm mostly just dead inside. This is the sort of thing I always fear hypothetically. It's not really supposed to happen.

I'm sorry, P-C. Someone broke into our family car once many years ago and stole my CD Walkman. I was devastated. I was lucky to have my parents to "make me whole", instead of the adult feeling of just the loss and anger.

Oh, P-C, that sucks. At least when I got my car broken into in Spain, things like iPods and Kindles didn't even exist. The most they got away with was a full bag of clean laundry. Which ticked me off a little at the time as it had my Christmas party dress in it, but still. I'm sure it all ended up at the local gypsy market then next weekend. (Called gypsy markets for whatever historical reason. Doesn't mean it was all run by gypsies or that I think they were responsible for the theft. There was 26% unemployment in that area of Spain; theft was a major problem while I lived there. My car got broken into three times, by house twice and I got mugged once. People were pretty damn desperate.) Chances are your bag is in a dumpster, but chances of finding it are pretty damn slim. I'm sorry for the loss of those items that had personal meaning for you; that is the suckiest part.

Yay for major editing gig, Strix! I hope word gets around and you get even more of them.

Aims, I got no advice other than to say listen to all these fantastic people. Truly, the hive mind comes through every time.

o_a, your condo is sounding really awesome. May it continue to bring you pleasure the longer you live in it.

Kate, my sympathies. I remember those days well; but not at all fondly.

Damn P-C. Sorry about that.

{{{P-C}}} I'm sorry; that really sucks.

P-C, I am SO sorry! That is awful.

I got my car stolen on Halloween night once, and then, in 1998, I got woken up to a call that my beloved dad had had a heart attack; they live 70 miles away.

I ran to my hoopdee and its window was smashed, glass all over the front seat and I just laid a blanket over the glass (I was in a blazing panic) and all that was stolen was about 76 cents in change and ONE Birkenstock. ONE. WTFF? Did I mention it was Februaru in Missouri, and I drove home without a window in about 20 degree weather?

I am really sorry, love.

I'm sorry, Sunil. One of the most stricken looks I've seen on Emmett's face was when they broke into our car just to steal his Gameboy. (And thank the gods that Emmett's life has been blessed enough that his worst traumas are Gameboy sized.)

It made such an impression on wee Matilda that she still talks about the Bad Men Who Took Emmett's Gameboy.

Fortunately, Tom W. stepped up very generously and he gave Emmett his own gameboy. A very gracious and kind deed.

Oh P-C. I'm sorry. That is awful.

So, hi. First, let me say I'm sorry for promising to come back and then disappearing again. There were reasons, though, such as friends having breakdowns and meltdowns, or the annual conference at work that was planned so poorly that I ended up working 11-14 hours per day (and I commute for 2-3 hours), 4-5 days per week (instead of 8-10 hours per day, three days a week). But hi, that got me a raise and possibly a bonus. I don't want to pat my own back, but I saved the day several times. Running sci-fi conventions for 5 years surely helped.

This is gonna be a long post. I read everything from July 3rd (kept thinking I'm so close to catch up on everything and resume to present tense!), but not the cat vomit talk. Apparently I do have a line, somewhere.

So, first thing's first...

{{{Nora}}}. And {{{zenkitty}}}. And {{{Maria}}}, and to {{{Cass}}} And a general {{{smonster's family}}} ~ma. And also for {{{Aims}}}, {{{sj}}} and {{{sj's family}}} and {{{Karl}}}, dear, I'm so sorry.

All kinds of loves and ~mas and thoughts to you, from many and different kinds. I just wish I could be on the other side of the Earth sometimes, making pancakes for you folks. People I managed to lost their brackets in between the different notepads files and the gmail draft I kept for reading Bitches are included here, of course.

bonny, thank you for the pictures of you and your dog. You posted them just when I needed to see something like it. The pictures of the hat are very nice, too.

Happy belated to everyone (I remember sj and Zenkitty, and I'm pretty sure there was at least one other birthday).

Yay Strix for awesome gig!

Dana - good to know about your heart.

Pix - sorry to hear about the budget cut.

Also...

Thank you also for your discussion on July 4th and patriotism (and Liese - you rock, you rock, you rock).

I also regard it as my job to stand inside the church and wrestle.

Replace "church" with Israel/Israeli "left", and that's me, at most times (though I think we're far beyond "left" and "right" at this point).

showers discussion

I was so confused for a few seconds. I have no problem with bath-loving people, but I really didn't get the hating of showers at first. Probably because that thing doesn't exist here. I don't know if it's because the tradition Hill mentioned or not;

if you talk too much about something you love or want, or you're too "proud" of something, you'll lose it because God will take it away from you.

I always thought that was more Murphy's Law thing than a God thing. The joys of growing up in an uber-secular house.

sink Lutherans

Have no idea what that is, but I prefer to leave it to my imagination as I keep imagining tiny Lutherans-leprechauns, hiding in sinks.

omnis - first, much moving~ma, you poor thing. Second, I saw your email, but still didn't have the time to read it. Sorry. Thirds...

if I recall, it was you wanting chains and basement

I looked, and it seems like it started here. Am I wrong? omnis_audis "Spike's Bitches 47: Someone Dangerous Could Get In" Feb 9, 2012 6:36:45 pm PST

liquid chocolate while chained....

A. are you nuts? Think of the stains! B. Personally, eww. I really dislike being sticky, and it's a waste of perfectly good chocolate. (It also took me three different attempts to do from "I really dislike being sticky and waste things that could perfectly fit in my month" to this version. I hope you can appreciate this).

All i know is, big hole in floor going to a garage, where vapors could seep up and kill me

You say hole, I read basement opportunity.

I also saw this and thought of bt: [link]

I don't know if you're one of those people that retreats further into your shell if someone pokes at you to get stuff done or not

A friend did this for me last week. This was VERY helpful. I'm going to use her kind services again.

I'm being a motherfucking adult in a T-shirt that says "BITE ME!"

Storytime: The 4-5 online boards of BtVS fans in Israel decided to (continued...)