Hot fudge isn't one of my favorites, although I do appreciate chocolate chips (in coffee or mint ice cream).

Last night I tried making a kind-of DIY pizza - a flatbread, olive oil, chopped roma tomatoes, chunks of kalamata olives, shreds of fresh basil and grated mozzarella. Not bad ... and the flatbread was surprisingly good when heated in the oven.

FWUMP

Back at work after 2 weeks of vacation that was actually only about 5 days of vacation due to (in chronological order): dead hot water heater (replaced after 1 week), dead stove (replaced same day as the water heater), massive storm that knocked down all the trees/power lines (restored after 3.5 days), and BEES (still living in the wall of the house when I left).

It turns out that being the adult in charge of the 120 year-old cabin isn't nearly as relaxing as being one of the kids.

I skipped to the end but would like to add my support to those in favor of burritos and ice cream.

I'm sorry vacation was less than relaxing, but it sure looked pretty! I hope work is not too annoying so that you can recover from the vaca.

I just helped neighbor get 2 yard waste bags full of dead tree limbs and sticks, and 3 bags of magnolia leaves picked up in prep for trash pick up Wednesday morning. Now showered and my plan is to be in bed by 9. I need to get my head in a better place.

Geez that does not sound relaxing Jess!! Yikes.

I got no emails from my client today and I can’t figure out if the silence is good or scary. I’m leaning toward scary and possible IT issue that they would probably blame me for. Sigh.

rapid meara:

Oh, Tep, I am so relieved that your dad turned out, improbably, to be a REASONABLE hallucinating gun-owner, and so sorry for all the monumental stress that preceded that resolution. Also, I fully endorse every single food item you described as a possible self-soothing/feelings-eating/culinary therapy option, and I hope you took advantage of all of them and they helped. And YAYAYAY for Tim being back on the day shift!

Ugh, Jess, you need a post-vacation vacation. Bees in the wall sounds alarming, much less bees STILL in the wall after all that.

Hooray noncarcinogenic House of Scrappy!

Gud, ITA with everyone noting that TCBITW has grown into a beautiful bride and a glowing, lovely young woman. I also TA with my husband's recommendation. You are better than this and you deserve better, and nobody should feel like admitting a fact about their emotional state to their spouse is a fatal misstep. This is 10000% on your wife, none at all on you. You've been an extraordinarily generous, devoted, giving, creative, hard-working husband and father all your adult life. You are worthy of boundless, unconditional love, not whatever this is.

Toddson, your DIY flatbread pizza sounds amazeballs.

Personal update: Working on my dad's memorial, stressing over meeting deadlines thereof and making sure that it stays small and manageable so it can actually *happen*, because if Delta causes a cancellation I don't think we'll ever be able to make a go of it. The only good thing to come out of the stress is that I'm fully back in the groove of an old coping mechanism, burying myself in gigantic-ass books. Reading intently and voraciously feels like a piece of me that went into hibernation, and I missed her. (Currently, diving into Helen Oyeyemi, Kate Atkinson and Octavia Butler and loving them all.)

Also, that personality quiz informs me I am 84% Willow Rosenberg, Tina Belcher and Will Byers and 83% Charlie from Perks, which is all quite nice, but also 81% Bran from GoT and 76% Georgiana Fucking Darcy and Buster Bluth, which HOW DARE. Also only 71% Radar O'Reilly or Chidi Anagonye, which I question. But at least only 24% Mister Wickham and 19% Gaston, so that's a relief.

eta: Also, Tom, take the class! Any photography teacher on earth would feel lucky to have you as a student.

Can I just say that I love me some JZ? Cuz I do.

::turns beet-red::

I'll just stand over here with Scrappy. (Hi, Scrappy, lovely to see your pixels.)

My Dad's been in the hospital since Saturday evening when he had a fall and then was very out of it. He didn't seem to hurt himself falling but they haven't figured out what's going on yet other than not a stroke. He's ok in the sense that he's not in pain and has been eating well but he's pretty confused. He keeps thinking school is starting "tomorrow"and he doesn't know what grade he's teaching yet (he's been retired from teaching for 15 years or so). I feel so bad for him. It's like a stress dream you can't wake up from.