Ugh. I know people are often wrong on the Internet. But I hate when people I like post wrongheaded articles and maybe don't totally agree...but then have friends who are even worse. TRIGGER WARNINGS ABOUT RAPE IN A MOVIE YOU HAVE TO WATCH DUEING CLASS IS NOT CENSORSHIP YOU ASSHAT!

I'm having, it seems, leadership issues. Either I suck or the interns are clueless morons or a bit of both. I keep finding them staring at me like zombies wanting to eat my brains after giving them a task I've seen them carry out successfully before. "Intern 1: go do A, this is how you do it, intern 2, go do B, this is how you do it". Look back to find intern 1 is still staring at me mumbling "so . . . ". I'm trying very hard not to be an ass about it, but that tact usually leaves me speechless, because I'm a giant ass.

So I am asking for advice on how to gently and kindly but not in a pushover way to say "is there something you didn't understand/how were those instructions unclear otherwise why tf are you dawdling now?".

I've noticed it too, meara, how upset some people are getting about the idea of giving trigger warnings for classroon readings. I'm not sure why it's such a problem. I mean, if I am assigning a text with disturbing content, isn't the expectation that we are going to address it, or at least discuss it?

I wish my dad would take advantage of being in assisted living. Mostly he sits in his apartment and watches tv and reads naval history novels (he's very happy with the pile of Hornblower novels I gave him). And calls me late at night to complain about his computer.

Hugs to all with parent troubles. It's so fucking hard.

An actor on "The Shield", Michael Jace has been arrested for murdering his wife. This just happened a few hours ago in LA.

Thank you Daniel for the alert about Silk soy milk. Good grief. It would have been unpleasant but not dire for this household. I can only imagine.

If more people discussed the senior issues before they were there it might help, although it may still be tough to recognize you are there.

A woman in my book group has been awesome this way. She, her husband, and a bunch of their friends pooled together to get in at the pre-construction phase of some condos downtown. They were able to have design input to make everything handicapped accessible, they're close to restaurants and shopping, and they're near a bus hub for when driving becomes fraught. She's thinking they'll be good until they need full-time nursing home care.

Mom talked a good game and checked places out. But she kept saying she wasn't that old until cancer and mobility issues pretty much trapped her in the house. After she passed, Dad moved into a senior apartment complex. He stayed pretty active in his church and had friends who checked in on him. And, for the last year or so he had me there nearly every weekend. It's a good thing I don't have kids, because juggling both would have been fraught.

If I were planning to stay around here, I'd try doing what my book group friend did in about 15 years. (Getting everything planned and built took ~3 years.)

My grandfather (91) and his wife (early 80s) moved to a senior living place more than 10 years ago when she was in great health and he was doing okay (could still sail). But it's still hard - my mother (64) is flying to MD from MA this week to help coordinate care when he goes in to get a pacemaker. My aunt was doing a lot of this - she lived 45 minutes away - but she died a year ago, rather unexpectedly. I don't know if the facility is not doing enough or they are reluctant to ask for more help. (They have also had issues with somebody stealing Oxycontin - my grandfather has a ridiculously huge prescription for it, although warranted. I should note that this is a super-high-end senior living place, the kind of place people who own a sailboat move to.)

Of course I certainly expect to never ever get old or sick, but I at least feel comfortable that DH and both boys each have strong nurturing qualities. I trust them to make decisions and/or convince me to do what I should.

I will be posting pictures some time later in the week, but my level of glee with the house projects is off the charts. We have done a huge amount of work the past few days. Tearing out the patio screens, lots of yard stuff, changing the exterior paint color. The results were better than I imagined by far. I told my neighbor he deserved vast quantities of hugs and kisses for his suggestions. The parental units will stop by tomorrow on their way north and I am anxious to show off. Many hands helped. My boys, and basketball kids, and friends of friends. Awesomeness.

Are these preparing to sell the house projects, Laura? I'm glad they are going well, whatever the purpose.

Definitely a coffee and pie for breakfast day for me. Lucky for me I happen to have coffee and pie available.