Interesting nurse today. Could not work out who she reminds of. Very informative without being condescending. She just finished explaining some of the science behind analgesia, including some stuff I didn't know.

And she's on my side. She went to bat for my second dose of painkillers over the doctor's reticence.

She's also recommended some books (like sff, not medical), and I hope I repaid her in kind with Steven Brust.

Nice lady.

Glad you got a good one, ita !

The cats let me sleep in until after 8am (normally they start campaigning around 5:30am). I'd love to crawl back in bed, but we are heading down to a rodeo in a couple of hours. Yeee-haw.

Nice lady.

I'm glad. Too bad the system depends so much on lucking into the right person on any given day.

how do you feel about the woman's assessment of that neighborhood? Are you going to pursue living there in spite of the blunt assessment or will you look elsewhere?

Oh. It wasn't the neighborhood we were looking in. It was the one that she lives in to the southeast. We weren't looking there anyhow because of expense, but I'm not surprised. And I don't know that it was the neighborhood so much as the public school (again, not a surprise).

Oddly, when I go to church though that's where the church I attend with the twin is and no one has been anything other than extremely gracious.

Because it needs it's own post. Oh Sophia. That sounds like a disconcerting discover. How are you feeling about it?

Yay for a good nurse!

I've been running around PA supporting my Mom's 90th birthday party, which was a very good time for all. I made tactical mistakes with the vegan raspberry-chocolate sheet cake, one of which was how melty the frosting would get, even with it wrapped inside an insulating blanket with lots of icepacks around it -- enough that the Happy 90th slid off to the corner.

That led me to running out to Wegmans where I got to tell the bakery woman that I had a Cake Emergency. So we had a small 'presentation cake' to put the candles on and sing around, and then served out the vegan cake to universal acclaim.

The second tactical mistake was getting a sheet cake, which under normal circumstances would have been twice what we needed... but I had underestimated how DENSE the vegan cake was. Seriously, fruit-cake soaked in rum several months DENSE. You couldn't eat large portions of it, so it was more like for three times what was needed.

So after I begged my relatives to take large chunks home, we've still got like a third of the cake in the fridge. Plus the presentation cake frozen up. I guess two cakes isn't overdoing it for a 90th birthday, but sheesh.

Sending you hugs, Sophia. That's such an intense discovery, a lot of moments to put together.

And now I know what neighborhood you mean, Kat. Yeah, too expensive. But you're looking north of there? I've always loved that area. If I had any power to tempt you over to the Westside I would, for purely selfish reasons of course!

Do you know any fabulous principals or anyone who is qualified to be an LAUSD principal by any chance? Isaac's school is starting a search for a new principal, and I'd like a good one. I figure at least it's a highly desirable school, so at least the job should attract some good people. But it's likely to also attract some assholes and some folks who just won't be a good fit. I'm a bit worrired.

Emmett's struggling to pry some coconut out of the shell and Matilda just helpfully suggested, "Why don't you flex your sixpack at the coconut, Emmett?"

Sophia, wow. I’m glad you found the information though, as it sounds like you’ve been thinking about it a long time.

In unrelated news, some bitey creature (not ND or any of the cats) apparently spent the night in bed with me and had a feast. I am covered in itchy bites. Evil!

"Why don't you flex your sixpack at the coconut, Emmett?"

LULZ. Very helpful, Matilda!