Burrell, your kids sure don't look like you're failing at parenting. Snapping at your kids or losing your patience with them isn't the best, but it's hardly a failure.

You love them a ton, you're keeping them safe and fed and healthy, and you set limits. That's the whole of your job. You do that and they will grow up to be their own strong willed selves.

Hec, I want you to know that your "good enough" advice was the biggest kindness ever paid me, when I was a young mother. I was hellbent on unachievable perfection and my anxiety disorder kept me in constant pursuit of it. You (and, well, meds) woke me up and made life more bearable.

>Also, Teppy? You're dead right.

I like the sound of that! Which thing, though? Sometimes I am a crackpot.

Darned if I know. I'll have to scroll back, now.

Tep, I think it was this:

And here's another thing: sometimes the work in a relationship/marriage isn't about working on the relationship -- it's about working on your own shit. Because oh, my god, has this relationship forced me to work on my shit (and continue to work on it). I mean, I *chose* to work on my shit because (1) I hope it makes me a better person in general, but WAY more important to me (2) I want to BE a better person IN this relationship.

But it could have been the next post by you.

Thanks meara, I will say I have awesome friends, and I try to aspire to be worthy of that friendship.

Thanks, meara, we'll see. I'm going to bake the crust tonight and tomorrow I'll need to get some apricots, I think.

I went to see Dad and he was kind of wobbly and out of it -- turns out they'd given him a sedative yesterday and those really knock him out. So I asked them to see if they could give him a lower dose, it doesn't seem right that he's so incapacitated the next day.

Went to the street fair in my neighborhood, which was fun, and took the dog, who was quite good except for constantly scanning for food on the ground. She's such a moocher.

We call that breed a "crumbhound" Consuela. Our last dog was one of those. Outwardly she nay have appeared to look like a Chow mix, but she was 100% crumbhound.

I'm one ride away from making my 75 ride mark for the week, which means free rental. Come on, somebody!

Ah hell, gonna have to find another pool today.

Crumbhound is a great name, Scrappy.

And riots in Milwaukie overnight.

Damn, that's not good. I guess we've been bracing for riots all summer, but still makes me sad and angry. And the tweets! So much bullshit in the twitter feed! (I usually don't read twitter directly and now I'm seeing how much the feeds I do read filter out the SMH bullshit)

I was at a party last night with the woman who sent me the weird FB message wanting to know what I like about Hillary Clinton. (I mentioned this to our BFFs last week, and they were like, "Oh, her? Yeah's *she's* really weird." So apparently I'm not just being a dick when I think she's weird.)

I walked into the kitchen to get some ribs, and she was in there using the tongs to get ribs, and she immediately dropped the tongs onto the platter and said "Here! You get what you want; I don't want to get in your way or take what you want!" And I said "Uh...you were here first, actively picking out something -- just go ahead and finish up; it's cool." And she said, "No, I want you to pick yours out. This way I get to spend more time in this small room with someone I find really interesting!" [Again, we've crossed paths like 4 times ever in the past 10 years.]

So, look. I am awkward as HELL. I mean suuuuuuuuuper awkward. And I totally think this woman is just awkward and enthusiastic, but also weird. And, as someone who is awkward, I do have empathy for her.

But that's weird as SHIT, right? I was super duper uncomfortable and grabbed the first ribs I saw and skedaddled.

t edit We did *not* discuss politics. The dude who I Snopsed earlier in the week was also there, and he didn't bring up politics, so it was all good.