What I am is a. vocal

b. Stubborn enough that "deathgrip" was a childhood nickname for a while.

c. Perennially underemployed.

which pretty much leaves phone volunteer or someone who does the "Serial Mom" thing and leaves nasty notes in letterboxes(Of course, with Twitter, I could do both. I don't, mostly.)Thanks, though, glad you liked it. I, too, could do with a bit less 9/11 retrospection.(Not that people should forget someone they care about, but I don't think soaking in it is healthy... I'm no shrink, but I have a lot of survivor's issues of other kinds...we want people to be able to go forward, right? Without forgetting, and without selling towers of coke. (Which is fucking horrible, but it almost made me smile because it was so tacky and not reverent. In a gross way, that felt like America being itself.)

DH is out of town for the night, comes back for tomorrow night, then leaves again for a week. Tomorrow, I take our lovely elderly poodle to the vet. He's having very bad back problems and the latest month-long regimen is up for review. He may just have to be on pretty strong pain meds from now on.

Sunday, I'm going to see this with friends: [link] Theater, yay! And I've never actually seen this play.

It's very good, Scrappy. Just saw a preview last night (one of my best friends is assisting the sound designer). Depressing (of course) and highly stylized...and more than a little disturbing. Very powerful. The set, lighting and sound design are amazing.

Got kicked out of the pool halfway through; chem out of whack. However, the guard stopped me and said "you're gonna hate me, but I gotta close, chlorine and ph are way off." Can I have 6 more laps? That'll put me at a mile. " Oh, sure! I'll just start kicking the others out and pretend to miss catching you!"

Which is exactly what she did. She also said she suspected something was off because my wake had too many bubbles, but they have strictly appointed testing times. I wondered, as when I got in, every damned tiny knick and bug bite stung, but I've swum in worse (once, my eyebrows totally bleached to near gone after 2 hrs.)

I think I've spent the rest of the evening hooking up potential good landlords with existing landlords, hooking up neighbors into local things and sharing contractor recs. Why can't I manage to call a damned roofer?

The NY Times did an article on Syrian food, with recipes from Syrian refugees, and the first recipe here is from one of my ESOL students! [link]

That's awesome, hil!! And recipe sounds delicious. I think I'll try with some ground lamb this weekend.

I've only met her once, but her husband is a regular in my class, and I taught her oldest daughter over the summer.

That is cool. I've really gotten a taste for Middle Eastern food.

Went to lunch with my brother the restauranteur, and was surprised to learn he didn't know what harissa is. OTOH he is in Chicago, but still. Turns out roasted cauliflower with harissa is really tasty.

Nice day off, although I didn't get a ton done. Did file some papers, and determined that I underpaid my father's taxes -- but not by much, which is a relief.

Now I'm going to drink a manhattan and read some Patricia McKillip.