Vortex, it's been much longer for me, and those scenes... yeah. Hugs, if you want them.

Hil, i can totally see you doing that.

That sounds like a good idea, Hil.

That sounds great, Hil. You were really great at figuring out the Italian village my grandparents were from. Also, do you have the link, because I might be interested

Hil, that sounds like a solid plan. Shoot, you found my bio-dad's home village in England in 0.2 seconds when I couldn't find anything for 25 years.

Thanks, everyone. Here's the link to the program: [link]

I talked to my sort-of-cousin who is a professional genealogist (she works for a law firm, figuring out heirs to estates and things like that) (she's my sort-of-cousin because we're not actually related, but my grandfather's uncle was married to her grandfather's aunt), and she was already planning on taking this course this summer and says that it has a really good reputation, so I just signed up for it. That's a significant hit to my bank account, but I can manage it.

That's great, Hil. As you said, if nothing else it will be beneficial knowledge.

I think that's a good idea, Hil.

Oh gosh. My sister is coming over tomorrow. I asked her to help me with a couple things, and now I have to clean up! What was I thinking?? (I know, I don't *have* to, but ugh. I have to.) Last minute panic is the only way I get anything done.

A couple days ago, my mother asked if I'd decided on a new bed to buy, and I sent her a link to the one I was getting. Today, she sent me a bunch of links to other ones that she thought I might be interested in (all from the same website as the one I'd decided on), and I said thanks, but I've looked through a lot of listings, and I've decided on the one I want. Then, about ten minutes later, she sent me a link to the one that I showed her a few days ago, with the comment, "I think this is the one you wanted." Yes, it is? And I have no clue why she's emailing it to me?

Hil, maybe she plans to buy it for you? I would hire you to do my genealogy. A cousin did it a few years back, but some of her results were a little odd.

Hi guys, sorry for bailing. I was interested in the flower discussion, but things got hectic lately. Our water heater died (and it's kind of weird/amazing to me that my first impulse is to call it a hot water heater, which is redundant, and I found it listed that way in my searches about half the time, which says, to me, it's a sort of universal thing).

The water heater isn't a big deal, really. We'll get it replaced, but it's a thing we didn't need, you know? But then the air conditioner died in the car, and we haven't actually needed it much yet, but we will this summer, and the idea of having to drive 4 hours for some of my doctor visits with no air conditioner in an Arkansas summer is kind of horrifying, so we add that to the bill

... and then Aidan, who REALLY doesn't like change, is freaking out over it all,

...and then Kara, who is having some interesting challenges of her own, has started getting woozy and has fluctuating blood pressure, which the last couple of days has shown up kind of low, so we're going to get her to the doctor on Monday to try to figure out what's going on...

And.. I'm not sleeping well, Greg is feeling absolutely overwhelmed, and work is kind of hit or miss right now...

And I'm just kind of done in! It's a lot.

I like coming in here to find everything ticking along, though. It puts things in perspective.