bonny, thank you! The thought had passed my mind!

I thought until I was 14 that Mary was "round young virgin" a well fed virgin who was both a mother and a child.

This is so me! And I thought for a long time that another carol was about some guy named Augie Faithful!

Well, I really came here to bitch. But, I've just downed a pint of gluten-fee beer and my spelling may suffer.

I planned to go shopping at a large craft sale in Iowa City today to buy things for my Secret Santee and keeping with my "buy local" ethic. I got halfway there when something went mysteriously wrong with my car. It started making an awful noise and shaking and I pulled over. At first it wouldn't start again; so I called AAA. I had to wait an hour for a tow, in the rain. I was pissed because this is the 4th week in a row that I have had something go wrong with the damn car! And, I had just had it at Jiffy Lube for an oil change and they replaced the air filter, so I thought, they had screwed something up.

Finally, the tow guy gets there, he looks at my engine and says it all looks okay, but your passenger side front tire is blown, there's a big hole in it!

I guess that was the noise and the vibration. So, no AAA approved auto shops are open on Saturday in the Eastern Iowa Corridor area! So, he took me to Sears, which was at the big mall in Iowa City. The last place I wanted to be spending 3.5 hours waiting for my car. I now have 2 new front tires, yay? but have now spent a total of $1600 dollars on the damn car in one month!

So, that's my rant. Please resume normal Bitching.

Sorry for the car troubles, quester.

The pretty necklace I bought has arrived! I'm glad I bought it, for it is just as pretty as I hoped it would be. I'm wearing it right now AIFG.

Hola, Bitches!

I think it's kind of funny that you're talking about Christmas carols right now, as I ran across a few of those earlier when I was introducing Lloyd to the hymnal game I used to play during chapel and before church to entertain myself (it's much like the fortune cookie game). There was much horror and laughter.

Ryan has learned the Happy Birthday song. He spent a substantial portion of today (including about half an hour in his cot after waking up from his nap) singing happy birthday variously to:

• himself;
• Mummy;
• Daddy;
• Waigong and Waipo;
• his carers at childcare;
• big slides; and
• cake.

One can only imagine his excitement once he discovers the celebrations that will accompany an actual birthday.

And yet there's no video ....

quester, car troubles suck. I'm glad that at least this time it was only tires. (Yeah, I know they are spendy enough, especially on top of everything else you have had to throw down your money for.)

My mom is in a hospital. During Friday she lost her hearing in one ear. When she went to the doctor today, he sent her straight to the ER to check up. And because my country doesn't have a functional health system, she's staying overnight until a specialist will be able to check her ear. We don't know anything yet, but the clinic doctor suspected nerve damage.

I might come home tomorrow, especially if she will have to stay for more than one night.

I really, really don't like that aspect of being an adult.

Oh, Shir. I hope everything goes all right with your mom.

Ryan is a cute cutiehead who is also cute.

Interwebs still on at home. WOO! Have purring cat in lap and strong coffee.

Note to others: Sucker Punch (the Synder version) is Very, Very Bad. Don't waste your time.

sending the ma~~~ towards your mother, shir