Thanks for all the well-wishes, everyone. Mom's procedure went fine, and her doctor seems to think that continuing in that vein rather than risking general anesthesia for surgery in the hospital is the way to go moving forward.

If only the Blackhawk pilot hadn’t been distracted by the transgenders? I mean FFS.

I hope he gets enough blowback on that executive memo to keep his BP firmly above 300.

I feel that, MattTBF.

Glad it went well Matt.

I’m glad your mom’s procedure went well, Matt.

Barkley sounds adorable!

We’re still doing DEIA work and there don’t seem to be plans for that to change at the moment. I work at a private university, so that helps.

Glad your mom’s procedure went okay, Matt.

I attended my first class at the local technical college in nonprofit leadership. I am in the class with the founder/director of the local Pride event and he is excited about my idea for a Queer Resource Center.

about my idea for a Queer Resource Center.

I see synergy coming with the roller derby community.

Dropped Matilda and her luggage off at the CIEE center this morning then came back to the Ryokan, put up a DND sign and took a frickin' nap.

Matilda has met her fellow students. They are all a bit shy, but Matilda (much like Cybervixen at the first F2F) is a human icebreaker and she got them talking by the end of day. Matilda typically bonds with the teachers even more than the students and that was no different here as she got on well with Sayako, who had lived 10 years stateside, four in the Bay Area.

In about an hour, Matilda will meet her host family and they will take her home to Osaka where she will spend the weekend. I probably won't see her again before I leave on Monday, but I thought I wouldn't see her after I dropped her off this morning and she forgot her scarf, so I made my way back to the center this afternoon and delivered it and got a big hug from her.

So far my cunning plan to awaken Matilda from her grief torpor seems to be working. The minute we walked into our room at the Ryokan, she put on her Yukata (robe) and sat down at the low table and began to work on her phrasebook.

She has not shown a jot of interest in any academics since JZ was diagnosed so it's heartening to see her engage with learning here.

ION, I just discovered I'm about 4 blocks from Kyoto's best cocktail bar, and that's about two blocks from an otter cafe. I'm just not going to exhaust this neighborhood before I have to leave.

Alas, the crash is big news here in Boston, several prominent members of our very competitive skating club were on the flight.

All of Trump's deficits were on display in his 'press conference'. Such a strong and decisive leader!

Am I perhaps a touch bitter?

David, I’m so happy you and Matilda were able to take this trip and she is going all in on being there. JZ would be so proud of her. And, in the brief time I’ve spent with her, I can definitely see how she’d play that icebreaker role. The group is lucky to have her with them!

Glad to hear about the trip's good effect on Matilda! I bet this is going to be an experience she treasures all her life.

This is an incredible experience for Matilda. So happy for her.

I've avoided almost all of the vile response from TFG to the crash. Alas, I did see the DEI bit. My first thought was that he looked worse and more clownish than ever. I've started trying to dip into some morning news, on delay so I can fast forward as needed. I was watching BBC news, but I don't get a delay option with that channel. This week I tried CBS morning news. They are more excited about being awake than I am, but they have some arts coverage.

Today I have to clean all the things. I have SIX women arriving in the next couple days. SIL and 5 friends. My sister is also arriving on Monday night, but I am picking her up at the airport at 11 PM and heading directly over the alley to my FL sister's place where I will stay for a few days leaving DH to deal with the house full of women! We have adequate couches/air mattresses for all the bodies, but I can't even imagine where the luggage and toiletries will accumulate. I am leaving six little stacks of beach towel/bath towel/face cloths for each of them on the dining room table. I suspect DH will give up and take Skinner and head to a friend's house and just let the girls have the master bed/bath too. eta: the beach cabana here at the condo has a great private shower in the women's room so that will be a help.