One advantage of living 2K+ miles from your parents is if you get sick when visiting, they go uber-parent, and not only baby you, do other random shit out of helplessness. Disadvantage? They sometimes forget and treat you like you are 12. When you are healthy.

For those not on fb, Maria is still flu-ridden, but kicking, if by kicking you mean she is somewhat better than yesterday, but still the kind of sick wherein accomplishing a shower is a major accomplishment and leaves one wiped out.

Someone gave me a link to this jewellery. I don't know where that goes, and I already took Safesearch off at work once (bondage has non porn uses!) and I don't want to reverse image search anything risqué...

I had to double-check with my better half, but that goes in the urethra, and the small ball on the side is meant to come out where a piercing for a Prince Albert is.

On Teppy can you rely for all your whack-ass needs.

Thank you all. I would be so happy if she turned up safe and alive. It just seems so unlikely given the circumstances. She as an actress and a stage manager at our theatre, and I as her stage management reference, as out (male) head of the department said he "could not in good conscience give her a recommendation as a stage manager" even though she was quite wonderful (he does not like women so much), and I found her crying outside the theatre after that encounter.

I think that it's a Buffista thing. You got a wacky or embarrassing question? Ask the Buffistas. We have no shame, and a wealth of arcane knowledge.

I think that it's a Buffista thing. You got a wacky or embarrassing question? Ask the Buffistas. We have no shame, and a wealth of arcane knowledge.

Yeah, whenever Tim has a weird question that he can't find an answer for (or figure out where to even start looking for the answer), he always tells me to ask the Buffistas.

Woo! Fed tax refund landed. Now to be a grownup and put it all in savings. I'm going to try to count it as savings this year. Ditto on my healthcare reimbursements. Because it is now Year 4 of mortgage, and while I've been breaking even more or less, I really haven't been able to put anything into savings like I used to regularly. I know I'm lucky, but this isn't my comfort zone. Even as I got my retirement annual statement and was pleasantly surprised for once.

And my savings is my emergency fund: plumbing epic fail, car epic fail, lesser discretionary big home improvement projects, fear of layoffs.

It's a start.

Was kind of astounded by my bonus, considering I only started my job the last week of August. I can afford to pay all of my owed taxes and also put a bit into savings. Thank goodness.

Sara, shall we get our grown-up cards laminated this weekend?

Nunya's new bad habit: tapping on the window. I wouldn't be bothered, except that the girls have a habit of slipping out the door after my last cigarette and I don't realize they've been out in the cold night for five or more hours until I hear scraping or meowing at the door at two in the morning. So when I hear that tapping in the wee hours, I wake up in a bit of a panic.

Why the heck is she tapping at the window? Anybody else have window-tapping kitties?

If I can wait until tomorrow to move the money to savings and just bask in the balance of my checking account for a wee bit!

The card isn't as impressive as I'd like... Needs more sparkles.

I have blinds-banging kitties. And Devi used to scratch at the sliding doors in the apt when I was on the other side. OH! And Pumpk has figured out how to get herself into all the deck facing windows when I'm out there. She's positively cartoonish in her meowing.

...but tapping? NSM.