sj, it's hard to even imagine anyone feeling that way about you. She must be nuts. Sorry you two have to deal with it.

smonster, I hope this eases up for you so work gets easier and you can enjoy your vacation!

I want them to name the kid Stewart, but they totally won't.

Speaking of vacation, I haven't been taking enough and now have 19 days to burn off before the end of the year. It'll all be staycation, because I don't have any more money for travel. I wish we could still carry it over.

sj, I forgot to say I'm sorry you're dealing with this. Her loss, and most certainly not your fault.

sj, I don't have much to say that is useful. But I join in the bafflement that someone would treat you like this.

No, I'm pretty sure it means that she wants us on our knees begging for her forgiveness.

sj, you have nothing to apologize for. It's a power game; the only way for you to win is to not play. I'm going through much the same with my sister - she wants me groveling and begging for forgiveness for not being sufficiently devoted. Ain't gonna happen.

And, sigh, my AC's dying. It started making some truly scary noises - sounds like either there's something caught in the fan or it's hitting someting. I called the nice people who sold me my last AC unit and they're going to bring me a new one, install it, and haul the old one off (they're charging me a lot for the service, but it's worth it!). The new one's more powerful than the old one, so I may be, literally, one of the cool kids.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the support and validation.

Imagine if Michelle and Barack were having a baby, though. The media here would be all over that, I think.

Also, the new prince is one of those children that's famous at birth. I always find them fascinating, just because they end up living such different lives than other kids in a lot of ways.

She's nuts. Nuts and manipulative in a really unpleasant way.

On a different note, today is Cleveland's 217th birthday. And it has made the top of a list of best cities to be in when the world ends. [link] Usual caveat on comments applies, but there is one of note: "In Cleveland, Armageddon is business as usual."

Me:

Am I a heretic for not really caring about the birth of the Royal Baby Boy? Granted, I also can't understand why everyone fusses over celebrity babies period.

Also me:

They could get my attention by naming him Aethelred.

I also note that I have friends both here and elsewhere who are into it, and I'm genuinely happy to see their squee, just for the fact that they are a-squee-ing -- but the object of squee, or rather his family business, just ain't my beautiful cake.

If I were monarchy, I wander around all the time saying "I know monarchy is problematic, but...NOT GIVING IT BACK."

Or I'd be like that secretary who discovered she was a Ghanaian king and be all good deedsy about it.

Or both. I'd try both.