I read several hundred posts last night and didn't have to do it in a hurry because I already knew Shir and Nilly were physically safe. I had a long luxurious phone convo with Suela the day after the initial massacre and it was the first thing I asked her. Thank goodness. I also appreciate the endless generosity of spirit that Shir and Nilly feel about humans while they're in the middle of hell. My love to both of you. I'm going to be reading on a regular basis now because I'm living for your updates.

I was glad I took the trip to see Jacqueline when I did, I knew I was choosing to see her alive rather than the funeral, a terrible choice to have to make. David I know I check in via text but it's really good to see you have a safe space here to vent about family and paperwork shenanigans. Charlie's life was SO much less complicated than yours and Jacqueline's and it still took quite a lot of effort to sort things out. That said, his was a mess because of course no one expected it, and he had none of his affairs in order. I remember what a constant stressful struggle it was just to keep getting things notarized and making sure I had enough certified versions of such and such.

I also don't know what I'd have done without Facebook because checking in with my people far and wide on an almost daily basis kept me alive. It's why I'm so glad you have here and FB and people in person.

I plan to be there for the memorial in May.

Good work on building your advanced parenting skills, Nilly!

Cashmere, both your kids were into Minecraft? Have they ever played together, or to each their own?

They both loved it. One actually still plays. I have photos of them (so tiny!) in a room full of kids between 6-10, on laptops, playing together. They also played remotely with friends on a private server.

And, yes, the absurdity of, at the same time, convincing the girl who wants to go to school that she should stay at home, and convincing the boy who doesn't want to go to school that he actually still has to do it, is not lost on either of us. Oh, well.)

Ha! Kids: you never know what you’re going to get.

I'm sure it's far from pleasant or easy to subject anybody's catching-up and writing on B.org to the constant reminder of sad and frightening things happening, even far away.

The subject is hard to avoid. But you are on everyone’s mind, so I welcome the knowledge that you, your family, and Shir, are safe and sound.

aurelia, lots of health vibes for your grandmother.

I'm very glad to see Nilly and Shir continuing to check in. I'm sure y'all have a lot on your plates right now, so thank you for making time for us.

Aurelia, much recovery~ma to your grandmother.

Re: minecraft. I've never played, but my nephew used Minecraft to build, I think, a castle in the shape of a heart and used that to woo his future (and utterly delightful) wife. They're now married, with one kid and another on the way. So I'm very fond of this game that I've never played.

Grateful to get the in-person updates from Israel. Keeps everything on a human scale, and, of course, it's reassuring to know our beloved humans are okay.

I plan to be there for the memorial in May.

You made the right choice coming to see her while she was still alive. She was so happy to see you.

I'm also so glad we had the Zoom call, though in retrospect, we should have done it a bit earlier. Still, she heard everybody and that's what mattered.

I'm still recovering from my dermatological procedure on Friday. The immediate effect was just Bad Sunburn and I felt well enough to go to an Oktoberfest cookout on Friday and Misfit Cabaret on Saturday night.

But last night my face turned beet red and was hurting as much as it did immediately post-procedure, and I woke up this morning with my eyes swollen shut and my whole face puffy. After much icing my eyes have opened up more but I'm still sporting a hideous puff face.

I just have to go to the bank and PO today, so I'm just going to keep things simple today.

By normal standards this would be a pretty rough month physically and emotionally but my graph line is slowly ascending from August and September.

After much icing my eyes have opened up more but I'm still sporting a hideous puff face.

Would ibuprofen help? You've probably already thought of that. It always helps when I get a sunburn, so I wondered if this is a similar situation.

I have just read nearly a week's worth of posts, so I'm caught up but technically "working" so can't meara. Just know I'm glad to hear from everyone who's checked in (just now recognizing the irony of posting that as such a sporadic poster my ownself), and wishing the best for everyone's family, health, and (I almost want to cry as I type the words) war-zone situations.

In mememe news, I spent a large part of this past weekend at a Dr Who convention. I'm still very exhausted a lot of the time so I might have been tempted to skip, but I'm on the committee and co-chair of the Friday night event (Pub Quiz). I wasn't going to screw my co-chair into having to do everything theirself, so I pushed through the tired to get our stuff done - and once you've managed to get your shit together to run an event on Friday night, just showing up on Saturday & Sunday isn't quite so overwhelming an idea. People here seemed very pleased to hear that I'm recovered enough to make it to a Con, even if it was for less time than usual (and I definitely didn't help on the manual labor side of things like I usually do!), so I thought you guys might be pleased to hear that update as well. I was pretty tired last night and slept Very Well, as you might imagine, but feeling pretty okay physically today. And definitely glad to have gone and seen everybody and re-connected and got in a ton of socializing that I hadn't realized I was really missing.

More scans and tests and etc. this week and next. I will update as I get info. For now, I'm going with "no news is good news" as my motto.

Would ibuprofen help?

On Not-A-Doctor Teppy's advice, I just took two.

Not-A-Doctor Teppy

But also Extremely-Pale Teppy, who burns even when she doesn't mean to (never mind certain husbands who shall remain unnamed who managed to not adequately put sunscreen on my back, leading to one hell of a sunburn). Hooray for ibuprofen, I say!

I just took two.

I hope it helps!

Epic - so glad to hear you were out and about and doing whovian things.

I just had my physical and nothing major is of issue, but blood pressure is up and weight is a new milestone and not the good kind. I’m not beating myself up, but I need to get this under control.