sj, (1) that's just ridiculous, and (2) it might as well have been aimed at you and that's infuriating. How dare she give you any shit at all.

WS and Daniel, I had a blood clot in a leg once. Given that it's caught early, I bet that's easier to deal with than cellulitis. Best outcome for the leg ~ma, either way!

Good ~ma all around to all who could use it.

It's so good to see you people again.

Leg~ma, Daniel!

Timelies all. My mom had cataract surgery this morning and I'm in nova for a couple more days ostensibly taking care of her (at least doing the driving) till she can see again.

My catchup: still living in the PNW, still working for emergeny services (tho actively looking for alternative employment as the high stress, low staffing, staggeringly high call volume and constant forced overtime has me worn down, exhausted, and constantly rethinking what I want to be when I grow up. Then I remember that I'm 40 and not likely to get much more grown up. And I already had a midlife crisis at 30 when I quit theatre and moved to a new city with nothing but housing lined up in advance. So that's odd.

Relatively new is that I actually met a really wonderful guy (on okcupid, ftr, so it's not all a huge waste of time, tho it sure as hell felt like a waste for a seriously long time) and he moved in almost a year ago with his big dog and he's marvelous and fantastic and loves Buffy and Angel and Firefly and carrots. I kinda wish he were more into housecleaning because now with a big dog and two cats and me there is always hair everything. Not dust bunnies anymore, not even dust kittens, we have dust puppies and dust hippos and a couple months ago I had a full on meltdown about work stuff and life stuff and sobbed while cleaning for a good three hours before he got home and listened to me blubber about how we live in filth and I just couldn't deal with it anymore. Then he found an old roomba on Craigslist and got it working....but the poor thing can't handle all the hair and fur much better than I can (and all three animals really hated the thing) so he found a stick vacuum that can almost handle the fur. Almost. But still an improvement over my swifter/DustBuster combo that worked fine when it was just me and two cats but really wasn't up to adding the dog fur on top of that.

And I'm starting to suspect that the air in Portland is literally choking me (or at least filling my lungs with crap they can't absorb or expell) and not loving having to carry and regularly use an inhaler again after almost three decades asthma-free. On the bright side, my PCP hasn't told me to lose weight even tho that scale just keeps climbing.

Hello, erin! Good to hear you're doing well despite the pet hair and the stressful job. Eye ~ma for your mom.

Having pets makes it SO much harder to keep a place clean! Good lord. I replaced the carpet in half my house with vinyl and it's so much better, easier to clean and better for my asthma too. I have trouble with asthma on the East Coast, but West Coast I can breathe like a normal person. Funny it's just the opposite for you, erin, maybe we should trade places?

flops exhausted into thread.. waves to peeps not seen enough

By the time I read all the stuffs I have to go attend to other things and don't get to say as much as I'd like.

And now it is 5:40 my time and I haven't yet showered so I am going to go do that before I cook dinner.

Thank you for the ~ma, darlings. The ultrasound tech found no evidence of a blood clot. So its' cellulitis. The doctor has faxed a prescription for an antibiotic to the pharmacy. Given that there was improvement over the weekend just from putting a dab of triple antibiotic ointment on the area, and that Daniel has no fever - maybe we are getting off easy. Still I am having a lot of deja vu. Doc said if the area begins weeping, or a red streak starts creeping up his leg toward his heart, or if Daniel develops a fever, he will need to be admitted.

sj, that is some crappy mom-shaming. Why on earth should a mom do something, anything she wants while simulataneously breast feeding? Whisky Tango Foxtrot.

One of my friends breastfed her baby, who was in a sling, while she taught math classes. She figured out a way to arrange the sling and her shirt so that the students couldn't see what was happening inside the sling.

I completed every item on my to-do list today. If I keep this up all week, then I won't have to work next weekend! Well, except for some grading.

Because you should be bonding 24/7? At least that's the message mom's get all the time.

a post meant to shame mothers for using cellphones while feeding their babies.

Yeah, no, fuck that person.

I am pretty sure my mom always fed us with baby in one arm and book in the other. One of my first memories is her feeding my little brother that way. And we all bonded with her pretty well (and we all love to read)!