Suela, I hope posting here helps you, and I wanted to tell you that some of us are taking copious notes, because right now our mother is 63 and in excellent health, but boy does she have the inherent personality potential to be just as much trouble in 20-30 years.

So, we got a piano last year and nobody is any good at playing it yet. My goal is to teach myself a Christmas carol a week until Christmas, notes and chords (I have a book and am quite good at picking things out by ear, although I need chord notes). I can almost do Jingle Bells. Suggestions for other easy ones? Silent Night has got to be simple, right? Good King Wenceslas?

Frosty the Snowman is easy.

12 Days of Christmas is also easy - and repetitive.

White Christmas is pretty easy if you have the basic music book

'suela, I am sorry that this vacation sucks, but I am glad that at some point in the future, you will have less stress to deal with. Also, that your brothers are here helping.

flea, I'm jealous. Not of the piano, but of the learning something fun and interesting.

I made a wreath out of stripey straws and hung it in our front window. It's making me happy.

I was planning on weeding this morning, but it is gray and drizzly, so I am doing brunch and Tjs instead I hope it clears up later, but it is also excellent going back to bed weather.

And separately, consuela, I am sorry about the melt down. I am glad having you brothers here has helped some.

Aw, poor Homer can't reliably jump up onto my bed anymore -- but he can climb up the bedspread....I guess that's OK.

Sorry for the rough transition, Consuela. I hope she settles in and makes less trouble for you before too long.

I have mowed the lawn, but I think edging and weeding and everything will have to wait for another day.

Jesse, can you put a footstool, or a box, or even a suitcase at the spot where he most often jumps up? With a gimpy three-legged cat we had to provide "steps" to the best off-the floor spots. The funny thing was, he'd use them to get up, but jump straight down.

'Suela, you'll be sure you did the right thing very soon. It will just be her new normal. There are no words to describe the relief of having trained staff handy to take care of things that used to be your responsibility--both that she's better taken care of, with less upset, and that you don't have to do it.

It sucks right now, but very shortly it will be so much better. I wish her and you all speed toward "all better."

This effort is front-loaded, Consuela Front loaded, and you're in the middle of it, which is closer to the end of it that you seemed to predict two months ago, right? Through. The only way out is through.

Today's ER visit also went perfectly unremarkably, so that's two in a row, and I'm not going to get excited, but I am kind of excited. I can't ask them if a stick has been recently removed from between their buttcheeks but I sure can hope.

So, tea and a lie down.

It made me think of (and tell the nurse about) Busty Girl Comics when the nurse started using my boobs as a shelf to keep stuff close to hand. My optimal shelf angle seems to be reclining at about a 10% angle. Problem is, that also served as a shelf for the graham cracker crumbs, but hey...

Unrelatedly, I'm missing a code, right? Why Spiderman here (safe for work, not sure about life) is interpreted as a bottom three times in the comment--I am not sure how much the interpretation is being made WRT sexual positions or or bottoming as part of a power play scenario. And the assumption that he's the only bottom is because all the other guys face forward?

I'm trying to read into something with no consistentcy, aren't I?

But I like meaning, dammit.

Yay for the ER doing what they're supposed to, ita!