I'm a little homesicker than I realized.

I'm sorry, smonster. It's hard, especially around the holidays. I've been feeling waves of homesickness too, and although we're going back to MA for Thanksgiving it's only going to be for four days -- nowhere near long enough. Will you be in NOLA for Christmas/Hanukkah too?

Road Food. You don't have to have Dennys.

I just checked that site for places near Bloomsburg, since that's where I generally stop for lunch, and everything it lists is at least 20 miles away from the highway.

We have a couple of Road Food guides, but it's not that easy to find places they recommend that also have decent vegetarian food -- they're all about the barbeque, hamburgers, ice cream, and pie. I'd imagine they wouldn't be much help to you, Hil.

Pix, yikes! I'm so sorry, but glad you are being well cared for. I don't know much about ovarian cysts -- will you have to have it removed? Whatever the treatment is, I hope it goes smoothly and works like a charm.

Pix!! Scary and not fun. I'm so glad you went and got it checked out when you did.

Kate, I am going home for five days at Xmas/Hannukkah. And then my sister is flying back with me for New Year's!! Which will be great, both of them, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that there's no way I'll see a good chunk of the people I'd like to see while I'm home.

::smishes Ryan::

I envy you people who have remained close to your families. My blood family is more an interesting adjunct to my existence rather than an ongoing presence. Granted, I didn't put myself too far out to maintain connection, but I never got the impression that anyone felt the loss of my presence too strongly either.

Oh my, leaving my blood family in the rear view ended up being a fantastic relief to all involved.

I sometimes share that envy, Connie, but more often than not, I relish my chosen family and feel like I've dodged a bullet when I see them having to deal with their families.

Yay for going home, smonster! I'm so glad to hear it, and that's awesome that your sister will be spending New Year's with you.

Yeah, it's hard to figure out how to see everyone you want to see. I'm finalizing our Thanksgiving plans now, and it's going to be pretty exhausting, except maybe for T-day itself. Fly in late Weds. night, spend Thurs. with my family, see friends for brunch on Fri. then drive an hour and a half north to see another group of friends, then lunch with M's former "host mom" on Sat., followed by visitors from Boston, then brunch with another big group of folks on Sun., then fly back to Nashville. Good lord.

It looks like I will be holding "office hours" at a bar on the 27th in Chapel Hill, and I'd like to have dinner with a smaller group of friends, maybe. IDK. Because my chosen family is as important to me as my blood family, and it's vital that I see some people. amyth, Calli, my bellydance peeps, my former boss, R & C...

Dark and weird dreams last night.

17th century France. A wealthy Count publicly beats his wife and mistress. His mistress for "tempting him to sin", his wife for "troubling him with reproachful glances, when she should have borne her troubles patiently." The next day he comes to his wife's bedside while she lies recovering, to say goodbye before going hunting. She apologizes for provoking him. He sees a full glass of wine by her bedside and drinks it up, not realizing it contains poppy juice for her pain. She says nothing to him.

He heads out hunting, continues to drink heavily as he always does on such expeditions, but due to the combination of poppy juice with the alcohol gets much drunker than he normally does and falls off his horse and cracks his head and dies.

The mistress confronts the wife, suspicious of the accident in a many who normally had almost infinite capacity for alcohol. The wife indignantly denies any responsibility saying "Margurite, henceforth we should be friends, for I saw the joy in the Count's eyes when he beat us, and believe God took him from us to spare him the sin of an eventual double murder."

I also dreamed a really dark, twisted and creepy take on "The Parent Trap" which I have noted, and will put aside to some day write up and submit to Ellery Queen. Not that the "Parent Trap" and the million and one varietions and imitations over the years were not fundamentally twisted and creepy to begin with.

I also dreamed a really dark, twisted and creepy take on "The Parent Trap" which I have noted, and will put aside to some day write up and submit to Ellery Queen. Not that the "Parent Trap" and the million and one varietions and imitations over the years were not fundamentally twisted and creepy to begin with.

When I was a kid, I had friends who were identical twins, and their mother couldn't watch that movie, because she just got too disturbed at the thought of parents separating twins like that.

Hil, do you or a colleague know anything about the 48th Mersenne prime? (Scavenger hunt.)

Hil, do you or a colleague know anything about the 48th Mersenne prime? (Scavenger hunt.)

Sorry. It's unknown. The 47th (or what they think is the 47th) was just discovered a few years ago.