You could live out by me and commute by train!

Not really, it would be extremely impractical, but fun for me. I can't even you offer sushi near the train station, that restaurant is Italian now. But what could be more citified than the City of Suisun City? (answer: many many places. There's a cow pasture a quarter mile from downtown and the tallest building is three stories if you count the bell tower)

I just lit a fireplace match with a kitchen torch so I could light my candles. Because I couldn't get the striking surface on the box of matches to work and I knew where the torch was.

Does Huckabee have any associates who aren't embroiled in child molestation scandals? [link]

Consuela, my heart goes out to you.

Matt, maybe that explains some of the "but wouldn't everybody molest their sleeping sisters if they could? I want to be a trans lady so I can shower with girls!" BS that those folks come out with?

Thanks, everyone. We got some good snuggling in tonight.

shrift, I hate to say it, but don't listen to -t. You could live in the East Bay, but the commute would be a bear. Although I don't know what Your Employer's rules are about telecommuting. There is a bus at the West Oakland BART station (which got attacked by protestors in some recent anti-gentrification protests).

SF or the Peninsula would be better, even though I'd love to have you in the East Bay...

Suela, I'm so sorry.

shrift, whoohoo, sounds promising.

-t, that sounds like excellent engineering, not, you know, laziness.

My news for the day that I can't share anywhere and also that I don't want to jinx: my parents, whose house has been on the market for almost two years, are going to sign an offer tomorrow! Lots of logistics, but the idea is that they will be buying and renovating my sister's neighbor's house (who has been patiently waiting for them for these two years to be ready to buy) in Dallas. Their buyer has sold their house, but haven't closed yet, and this deal is contingent on that. My mom has been making herself insane over all this. But the end result is that my dad, who has Parkinsons but who has seen marked improvements on his medication, will be able to manage the move, and then as his condition continues to deteriorate, my sister's family will be able to help my mom as his caregiver.

Up until recent years, we'd assumed that the SO & I would be their primary caregiving support, since my sister was, you know, in Africa. But since continued political unrest and minor things like ebola have brought them home, they are now the more stable of the two of us. He's VP of the company now, and she's finishing up their decades-long translation job.

The SO & I are probably looking at some transitions our own selves. This year's sabbatical has been lifesaving for us, but we still have a lot of mental health damage, and as we get older, we can't envision continuing to do this physically and emotionally taxing work indefinitely. So getting mom & dad settled in with my sis, while it will be an enormous undertaking and will take a lot of effort over the next couple of years, would be a tremendous weight off our minds.

And I'd only say this here where y'all won't take it the wrong way, but also losing the SO's dad means that we would no longer be expected to come back to help care for him. So if we get my dad sorted, his mom's in pretty good health generally, so we would suddenly have a lot of freedom to look at our own future. Scary, and exciting.

So overarching ~ma, please! But mostly sale & move~ma for my folks.

Oh, and that also reminds me: I strongly suspect I'll be helping them move, and their closing date is currently set for the end of July. The SO tours in early August, which probably means I'll be spending some time in Nashville again 'round about then. Will Nashville peeps be around? I know Kate may be a little occupied! Ooh, and I need to email you, amyth, about your friend J. we met. (I really like her, btw!)

Sale~ma, Liese!

Shrift, I have a great-aunt in Albany, which is across the bay and not far from a subway stop (BART?). Her neighborhood looked nice when I visited, and she's pretty happy there. Of course she's 90, so her lifestyle and yours might be pretty different. Anyway, I hope you get a living situation that suits you with minimal bother.

That's a lot, Liese! But sounds like a lot in a good direction, overall. (And you don't have to explain to me about not taking things the wrong way...)