It was really worth going to . I liked her a lot. Valerie Jarrett was really amazing -- someone you would want to invite over, but might forget to answer because of her awesome brain

Sadly, I had to find the bees a different home, Cindy. My city narrow-mindedly forbids them within the munipal boundaries, as it turns out. I miss them.

We had megan walker over for food and games! So we were BuffistaSocializing.

EM is picking Matilda up early tomorrow morning and driving her up to see Emmett at the camp where he's working. So that's exciting - she hasn't seen him since early June.

In much sadder news, Matilda's friend N. (who lives around the corner and we have more playdates with than anybody) was with her Mom at a river today, and they both witnessed the drowning of a 9 year old boy. N.'s mother was one of the parents diving into the river trying to find the boy's body. Somebody else found him and pulled his body out, and they watched as they tried to save the boy with CPR but they couldn't. I can't imagine how traumatizing and strange that will be for N.

How heartbreaking.

Hello from Maui. Project Vacation is going wonderfully so far--we've seen lots of ocean and swum in a pool and drove through the hills on a crazy windy one lane road. Wild chickens run around everywhere here which is unexpectedly delightful. Gonna have a massage tomorrow and then go to a big touristy luau for our anniversary tomorrow night. Nice to be away with just my dude.

Oh how awful, Hec

Oh, Hec, I didn't see your post. So sorry--what a difficult thing to experience!

Hec, I'm so sorry. What a terrible tragedy.

Scrappy, you're in Maui?! You totally deserve to be in Maui.

Sadly, I had to find the bees a different home, Cindy. My city narrow-mindedly forbids them within the munipal boundaries, as it turns out. I miss them.

Oh, I think I knew that and forgot. I'm sorry, -t. They seemed to come along exactly when you needed them.

Somehow I read this in the "well that'll give you bees" sense and was super confused.

meara, when I posted the question to -t, I had that story in my head and was trying to figure out a way to ask in a "That'll give you bees," sense, but decided there was no way that joke wouldn't be overwrought. That, and "Dog in Elk," remain two of my favorite internet stories.

When I mentioned the long work hours and stressy responsibilities, I meant more that they were sacrificing things like quality time with their families and the ability to leave work cares behind on weekends and vacations, not that doing hard work in and of itself was a sacrifice. Someone who gives up the chance to see all their kids' recitals or Little League games for meetings with lobbyists is never going to get those back, y'know.

Hi, Matt. I do agree with what you've said. I think I have some sort of income cut-off in my head (which I realize is a bias). I'm not caffeinated, so this isn't going to be elegant. Poor, working class, and even middle class families I think of as sacrificing family time, as you mention.

At a certain point though, when a person and his/her family's financial needs are more than met, giving up those times to attain more wealth becomes more about choice to me -- and I'm not condemning that choice writ large -- than sacrifice. I know this is semantics, though.

I think in this case the conversation is focused on sacrifice specifically for the greater good -- at least that's where I would put the Khans, and their son. He risked (and lost) his life for the greater good, they lost their son for the greater good. (Greater good being, of course, always open to interpretation, I guess.)

Trump hasn't sacrificed anything for a cause other than his own gain, in my opinion.

Hi, Amy. I certainly agree with both points. I think that's why I can't think of Trump's work as sacrifice (and I don't think of my own work as sacrifice). It's an exchange: do this; earn that.

She has not had to sacrifice. physical comfort, but she has had to sacrifice lot of mental comfort, personal well-being, and knowledge that her family is not first.

so I suspect there are levels of sacrifice, just maybe not always all or nothing

I think that's true, beth. Some of it goes back to what Amy mentioned about sacrificing for the greater good, which Schaaf is doing.

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I am so tired of the GOP candidate's (yeah, I'm doing a Voldemort thing) rhetoric. Being criticized does not rise to the level of a "vicious attack." Running your own profitable businesses is not "sacrifice."

To me, that man's ego is so out of control, that when George Stephanidontknowhowtospellitopolus asked him about his own sacrifices, the candidate was unable to utter a normal, human response along the lines of, "Look, that family lost their son -- a hero -- in service of his country. The sacrifices in my life do not compare."

He seems compelled to always position himself, his deeds and achievements, as "the best," "amazing," and "really great." That is likely why he has been successful.

He's a salesman following the ABC rule (always be closing). Where a normal person would not think twice before conceding that s/he hasn't sacrificed what gold star families have, I don't think this candidate is capable of it.

I went to this Moral Revival event last night, and it was AMAZING. Many speakers, capped by Rev. William Barber, who tore the roof off, as you might imagine if you saw his DNC speech. Part of what I really loved was how smart they are about symbols and rhetoric -- you can see the standing image that on TV screens around the sanctuary at the link, but it's an American flag superimposed on a map with the words "Time for a Moral Revolution of Values." I cannot express how much I love the idea of taking back that kind of language and symbolism.

My boss told me to give the difficult princess authors of the editorial "what they want", and I had to clarify with her -- she was out yesterday -- to be SURE she means that I should revert the editorial to its unedited state and run it (because what Princess #2 said was "I cannot endorse any of these changes."). Surely she can't mean that.

It's too damn early for this shit.