Nature does not seem disposed to giving breaks. I'm so sorry, Amy. Don't beat yourself up about making an unfortunate comment, if you can help it.

Oy, Amy, that's really unfortunate. I'm sorry.

(who are 77 and 65, respectively)

WTF?! Your stepdad is three years older than me!

David, I'm glad your face feels better!

Thanks! It does feel better. I'm about to go hiking up hill to Walgreens to get my topical ointments but steroids being the magic drugs they are, have already quelled much of the allergic response.

Matilda's godmother, Marta, is coming by this afternoon to make Hungarian Mushroom Soup with me.

Me, Marta and Matilda (in the Christening gown that Bev gave us): [link]

Thank you all.

Glad your Mom is someplace she can get quick and good care, Amy.

(who are 77 and 65, respectively)

WTF?! Your stepdad is three years older than me!

My joke is that my mom could never have married someone her age, because they wouldn't be able to keep up with her, so she had to marry someone 12 years younger than her. It's not really a joke, though, because she is a tiny dynamo. She recognizes that she is very much an outlier in terms of her ridiculously robust good health, and yet she doesn't have time for anyone who would slow her down. (She also doesn't *look* anywhere near 77, thanks to a combination of genuinely good DNA that makes us all look younger than we are, an admirable skincare regimen, AND some judicious cosmetic surgery. [edit: Also hair dye.] If I had to guess, I'd say she looks about 63 or 64, maybe even younger.)

My condolences to you and your family, Karl.

lisah, Amy, so sorry about the bad news for your parents.

What Matt said.

The dryer repair guy (who is a very young Millennial or a very old Zoomer) is here, and he is the most cheerful, chaotic neutral individual I've met in a long time. I'm not sure "chaotic neutral" is what you want in an appliance wizard,* but here we are.

*(The name of the company is literally "Appliance Wizards." I am DEEPLY disappointed that Cheerful Chaotic Neutral Guy isn't wearing a wizard hat or robe.)

My condolences to you and your family, Karl.

lisah, Amy, so sorry about the bad news for your parents.

Yeah, what Matt said.

Hang in there, Sheryl. That is also tough.

And sorry for your mom's vacation, Steph!

Uggggggh I don't know if this is depression or burnout or a secret third thing my stupid brain made up special, but I miss you guys and I wish I had the spoons to remember to check in here more often.

Friends: Wish I had some local ones. Proximity matters so much. (There are a handful of people in my town if not neighborhood where every time we interact I'm like "this is great, why aren't we friends" but it's because I am unable to do any proactive peopling and so I just sit at home wishing people would invite me to things.)

Re Teams - we use Chime here because why license something that works if you can force people to use a proprietary knock-off they hate instead? (We have Slack too but not all teams use it, and Chime is the conferencing system that's built into Outlook and meeting rooms.)

Salesforce - being forced to work on launching an instance of Salesforce is what drove me away from Audible way back when. I used to literally spend my entire 2-hour commute crying in my car because of fucking Salesforce.

Dryers - We have an ANCIENT machine up at the cabin, and when it started leaking this summer the repair guy said flat out "never replace this" because the new machines are all garbage.

I am thinking about Shir and Nilly every day. Thank you both for letting us know what's going on.

So, legal abortions, legal weed, save our railroad.

This is the future liberals want! And congrats on the legal abortions! (My grandparents were Diamond-awarded supporters of Planned Parenthood in Cincinnati for over 50 years, if there is an afterlife, I hope they're celebrating this.)

yeah, wow, sheryl. hope he gets the help he needs.