I somehow did not use enough apples in my pie/cake! So it is much more cake-ish. But still delicious! And I'll do better next time.

You can let them decide about the second, and then decide if you want the job, no?

Yeah. It's basically just a contract until the end of the year, so I will feel like a wuss if I don't accept it. But they can't really pay my asking rate, and it's all oily and gassy, and why doesn't the damn Symphony just let me know about that job application?

Y'all are making me want pie.

Hiddleston is a good dancer.

I am fucking tired of this Congress. How soon can we get a new one? Can we hold national special elections?

Am I the only one freaking out a little over the looming, y'know, default apocalypse? My BFF says we're too poor to worry about it, and she does have a point... but then I have some stocks and a mortgage and she doesn't, and I'm freaking out a little. My sister is freaking out about her stocks, wondering if she should sell, or pull out everything and put it in CDs, she's asking me like I know anything! I wish I knew more about the actual financial details behind this sort of thing, maybe I'd feel more like I knew what to do.

The latest I've heard is that the Treasury has enough on hand to cover the interest on loans, so they wouldn't default. But things like, you know, Social Security would be in jeopardy.

I have no idea what it would do to the stock market.

Concord grape is my very favouritest pie. A bitch to make.

Huh, I must have done it wrong. Only made it once, though.

I am thinking I should find out where John Boehner lives - I'm guessing it's some gated community in the deep suburbs - and go stand in front of his house with torches and pitchforks. You're with me, right, Teppy?

I'm torn between "I could totally do this" and "they really need someone with an engineering background."

If it's any kind of communication, they probably don't. After years of working with engineers, I've concluded that most of them need translators.

I just use a regular top crust on blueberry pie and cut some slits in it. Fruit(ish) pies: blueberry, cherry, blackberry, rhubarb, strawberry-rhubarb, peach, cranberry, raisin, green tomato

On the pumpkin front, I have a (non-white) friend who recently began a Facebook post, "Dear white people: what is it with you and pumpkin?" So I had to tell her about "Eat a muffin, whitey!"

Zenkitty,

how close are you to retirement? If I were going to retire within 5 years, I might have put all my holdings in cash long before now. Given my time horizon, I should be fine leaving everything where it is and waiting for the markets to come back in 2-3 years.

After years of working with engineers, I've concluded that most of them need translators.

A lot of the staff are Vietnamese, so that might literally be true.