The balance could easily shift, it's an unstable equilibrium at best. I'm assuming the open eyes weren't a fake out, And if that's wrong I'll have to re-evaluate big time. And it's getting to be a lot of kids, I hope they don't get too many plot lines.

Man, I really need to go grocery shopping; my only vegetables are lettuce and carrot tops and the cats are eating dog food.

Googling cabbage soup gets you borscht? Huh.

Eventually it does! Obviously many borscht recipes don't have it.

Is anyone else still watching Gray's? I think the disaster/soap balance is where I like it, based on the premiere.

Yeah, maybe. It might help me if they would stop reminded me about HOW MANY of their friends have died over the past seven (or whatever) years.

Oh, eventually. Yeah, that makes sense.

That history made the whole medical directive/next of kin discussion funnier, though.

True, true. Good times.

Finbarr Fancypants has a nice ring to it.

So, a coworker was talking to her boyfriend. Now, she has a tick, where she's multitasking and gets distracted and trails off mid-sentence when she's talking to you. So she is saying "I want to google something." Full stop, notion forgotten. So her boyfriend googles "Something" and finds the Something Store. Where for ten bucks, you'll get --wait for it-- something.

So she ordered something, we'll see what it is in a few days. It's guaranteed to be at least ten bucks worth, but sometimes it's a bit more according to reviews, but we figure that's a random gimmick to get more purchases. We're thinking about doing this for a Christmas White Elephant at work, take the agita out of finding a gift that could suit at least one coworker.

I checked out the website, and the list of things that they will not ship is hilarious. (I guess with the mystery of it, they have to be quite explicit about what they're dealing with).

Dinner has been et, papers have been graded. A bit of pumpkin cider was had. Today was okay, despite the pesty kids.

Glad for an okay day, Burrell. I am intrigued by that cider, I can't quite imagine the taste, except I'm sure it tastes like October.

My Grandfather on my fathers side came to the US from Russia fleeing a murder charge. (Spoiler: he was guilty. Though since he was Jewish and the person he killed was a Cossack, odds are he had good reason.) Though the family story is he changed his name in Ellis Island, apparently that was not a thing. But he did not disembark under are family name (Lipow) so even when I had full free access to the major geneology sites I could not track him down. Other than family stories which are probably highly inaccurate, I have NO way to track my Grandfather or his ancestors pre-arrival in the USA. Don't even know his real name. If I knew what his last name was when he got off the ship it would help. But his first name was "William". And I could not find any "William" with a last name of "Lipow" or "Lipowitz"/"vitz" "Lipowitzky"/"vitzky" "Lippowitz"/"vitz" "Lippowitzky"/:"vitzky" or other reasonable variation who disembarked 1915 plus or minus a few years. Hell, maybe his original last name was "Goldstein".

My Grandfather on my fathers side came to the US from Russia fleeing a murder charge. (Spoiler: he was guilty. Though since he was Jewish and the person he killed was a Cossack, odds are he had good reason.) Though the family story is he changed his name in Ellis Island, apparently that was not a thing. But he did not disembark under are family name (Lipow) so even when I had full free access to the major geneology sites I could not track him down. Other than family stories which are probably highly inaccurate, I have NO way to track my Grandfather or his ancestors pre-arrival in the USA. Don't even know his real name. If I knew what his last name was when he got off the ship it would help. But his first name was "William". And I could not find any "William" with a last name of "Lipow" or "Lipowitz"/"vitz" "Lipowitzky"/"vitzky" "Lippowitz"/"vitz" "Lippowitzky"/:"vitzky" or other reasonable variation who disembarked 1915 plus or minus a few years. Hell, maybe his original last name was "Goldstein".

Want me to give it a try? I've gotten pretty good at finding stuff like that, and I have fun with it.

Steph, have you tried the TJs pumpkin poptarts yet? Noah loves them.

I saw them and would love to try them, but I can't eat them b/c of stupid gluten. But maybe I can get them for Tim and try one bite...

I have a pumpkin product recommendation: The Ace pumpkin cider at TJs. It's even gluten free. It's like they have Steph in mind or something.

Oooh, I was just there yesterday and didn't look at the alcohol section. Damn it! I had their pumpkin pecan oatmeal for breakfast today (good, if a little too sweet), and their pumpkin ice cream after dinner (Sweet Jesus that's amazing shit).

ION, OMG MY ALLERGIES. Eyes won't stop watering and itching, and I would like Wolverine to claw out my nasal passages. This is with three weeks of daily allergy med taking..

My sinuses don't *hurt,* per se, but they're so perpetually inflamed that all my upper teeth hurt. It's pissing me off. I need to use the neti pot and see if that helps.