We went to a 'neighborhood' fireworks party last night that will surely rival the city display tonight. We have gone for previous years, but this one was crazy. The mosquito app on my phone did a decent job combined with repellent. I'm thinking I should probably stay home with the poor dog tonight and not go to the beach to watch.

Our 5-year anniversary is this year (how?), and I *still* haven't changed my name legally,

I changed my license and voters id, but didn't get around to doing Social Security for probably 20 years. I just filed my return with my previous last name so it wouldn't get kicked out. It had to be done in person so I didn't get it done promptly.

Mosquito app? Pray tell what is this fascinating-sounding device?

There are a number of them for your phone that send out a tone the critters hate. In theory, but it seems to work for me and I am super tasty.

I can easily predict how people are going to react and what will be the final result that it is very frustrating

Yeah, I have this, too, Sophia, and it can be really annoying. I call it being overly empathetic.

It never occurred to me to change my name when I got married and it always sort of surprises me when a woman of my generation or younger does. I understand that it's complicated for some people.

On the mosquito app, they are very theoretical and many say they don't work, but it seems to help me. At a price of free it is worth a shot.

When I first married in 1973 changing your name was just what one did. When I married in 1984 and 1990 it was a matter of keeping my previous husband's name or rolling back to a name I hadn't used since 1972 and that seemed silly. I have to confess that becoming Laura Holt held a certain appeal too. (Remington Steele reference)

I've always figured it would depend very much on what the other person's last name was! But there's less of an expectation with the gays to change it, and more options like combining names.

I had to get up at 4am and put on clothes and go next door and ask the people to shut the fuck up. Grrr. Took me a while to get back to sleep—should've just stayed awake and taken a nap later

But there's less of an expectation with the gays to change it, 

Oh, yeah, I can understand that.

I woke up at six this morning, watched a little TV, and then I went back to sleep until eleven! Don't know where that came from.

Then I had a most unpleasant trip Outside, a mistake I don't plan on making again today.

Did a big run this morning, and although the weather was cool and I only had one glass of wine last night, it was hard, argh. So tired. I need protein but we're tailgating at the game in 2 hours so it's pointless to eat breakfast now.

Soon I should start filling creampuffs. I think I have too much filling for the number of puffs, woe. Maybe I'll make another batch tonight to fill for the folks in the office tomorrow.