Nota bene--Given the medical professional recommendation, and the burning, tingling, burning (did I mention burning) in hands, forearms, and biceps coincident with typing, I may not be posting much. Not to worry. Just need to marshall resources.

So, I read in your blog that you'd been invited to respond to yet another "romance novels aren't" essay by yet another pontificator. "Yay!" I said to myself, and happily clicked over to your piece.

Oh, dear.

Sarah, honey, next time you write for the Huffington Post, you MUST insist that they give you the same word limit, grammar limit, and punctuation limit as everyone else. The only excuse I can see for the appalling writing here, which is really quite below your usual standards, is if they gave a strict limit on the number of active verbs, nouns, commas, and independent clauses you were allowed to use, while simultaneously requiring you to use a certain percentage of your word allotment on purple-prose adjectives.

Now, I have it on good authoritity that Arianna is a really reasonable person to work with. Next time, before you agree, make sure that you get an unlimited grammar, punctuation mark, and coherent statement allotment, or just tell them you won't do it. Really.

*Kiss kiss*

Ms. M

P.S.
Nice list at the end, BTW. And for what it's worth, I think Sea Swept is not just a great romance novel--it's a great novel, period.

BBC America is sometimes a place of treasure. Back in the day (okay, not that long ago, but life was different then) one of our favorite shows to watch was a British show entitled Manchild. It was funny, and sad, and true all at the same time. It had some of the same flavor as Coupling, but without the stupid. Smart, sassy, complicated, and lots of metrosexual heterosexual male silliness, and the quiet tragedy of that life, too.

There was a pilot shot in 2007 for Showtime! that looks like it was the usual American wrecking of a Brit model. But now TNT has Men of a Certain Age, and all the promos of it make me think that it is, in fact, Manchild, re-imagined for American life. It has a promising cast, and the clips I've seen are, well, funny, and sad, and true. I am hopeful. And, best of all, it's on Monday at 10--which means I can avoid Horatio Caine!!!

So, Sons of Anarchy.

Last night was, I believe, the second season finale. Just when you thought it was safe to be a Son in Charming....

Damn.

[And, for myself, I am glad to see them showing the complexity of Clay and Jax's relationship--it isn't all Claudius and Hamlet, which means when they finally have their showdown, it will really hurt....Yup--I like my tragedy complex and bloody.]

Take that, universe.
On a day I realize I've put on weight, it seems hardly fair that all I can think about is
...making cookies
...buying cookies
and most importantly...

....EAATTINGGG COOOOOKKKIIIEEEZZZZZZ!!!!!!

So, here is some stuff, because I'm not really feeling reflective, and while the 5 question meme is intriquing, not a chance in hell I'd feel comfortable doing it, so this is what you get.

1. BCS standings. As I look at the list I'm looking for Michigan (either), the Irish, the Cornhuskers...nope. Talk about paradigm shift. Is anyone else tired of the _ _ Gators? Jeez.

2. Not to assume, but usually December sees people giving us stuff. For your consideration, if you're in the "I have more money than time" or "I don't know what the heck to give them" frame of mind (yeah, I know, Ha ha), may I posit that Best Buy cards would not go amiss. We need to replace the telly, and are considering a PS3 or Blu-ray player, and we have been very happy with Best Buy in the past. I hasten to say this is if you A) are in the gift giving frame-of-mind, and B)do not have specific, more personalized notions.

3. Not sure what Christmas will be like on our end. I have all these delusions of carefully made or selected gifts for postive rafts of people. Given my follow-through lately, well, let's just say it's a good thing I've already found at least 6 gifts for Duchezz I mislaid last year. And along those veins, have you ever noticed that it seems like every few years whenever you turn around you find the perfect gift for person X, and only person X? I swear there is one person on my gift list I could, single handedly, cover the entire ground under a Christmas tree for. For others--zippo. Not fair.

4. I'm lovin' the fact that the Saints are still undefeated.

5. The Bears are playing The Big Carrion birds tonight. I foresee pain. Last I checked the Eagles quarterback has thrown fewer interceptions this season than ours has in a single game. Never thought I'd long for McMahon back. On the other hand, I've never stopped missing Ditka.

6. Um, excuuuuuuse me? Since when is Troy Aikmen an expert on wings? Jim Kelly, maybe. But Aikman. Be real! (Giants post-game show commercial)

7. In terms of quality of play overall, both the 'skins and the Browns got robbed today. Oh well. That's why it's called a "game."

8. Okay, time to get back to work.

Those of you who have ever come to our home and been tormented by the constant beeping from the kitchen will be glad to know, *cue Glenn Frey*

"The beep is gone...
Its gone to stay...
There's a new oven...
It's a happy day...
And the beep is....
Gone!"

Duchezz got home from training in another city, and came upstairs to say "Hi." I was reading LiveJournal and trying to keep Jiro from destroying the laptop.

"How was your," she started, then spotted the glass on the bedside table, "...oh. I'm sorry."

"I didn't fill it. Really. But, well, I needed it up, not on the rocks."

"Sorry."

"Yeah, well, it happens."

Tennessee corn and Martini and Rossi red stuff in a bottle. Some sugar and red dye 2 in something alleged to be cherries, and tonight, skip the bitters. It's even in my Knob Creek Manhattan glass.

Delivery people will call between 6 PM and 9 PM. They're so...customer service oriented. Yeah.

Edited at 8:18 PM:

Sears called. Wonder of wonders, I don't have to cancel my office hours or the English class, just the film class. That's about as good as it gets, and unless the gas company people get there at the beginning of their window, and refuse to wait, we should achieve functioning stove. *Man, it's hard to type with your fingers crossed*

1. Duchezz was installed as Matron of Winfield Chapter #418, Order of the Eastern Star of the State of New York last night. Her Patron, who is a friend of ours, and was a friend of Morguhn's, disappeared just as he was to be installed, and reappeared dressed as a knight, complete with crested helm, coif, halbrek, chausses, mantle, and ceremonial sword (he borrowed them from his Scotish Rite [the Shriners] temple), in order to "Make Right Worthy Loie feel more at home." It was a wonderful, touching, funny gesture, especially since the day before he fell Morguhn had decided he would join our Chapter so he could be Patron with her. The mantle was even green.

2. I got my report (I'm the chapter historian) written and delivered. Four pages, single spaced, and no one ever complains it's too long, so I guess I must be doing something right. Of course that meant no school related work got done yesterday between 3 and chapter. And we ran very long, so no work got done when I got home. I either need a longer pipe on my snorkle or to just inhale the damn water and get it over with.

3. Had a conversation of sorts, small one, with someone who has been thoughtless and unkind lately, about that thoughtlessness and unkindness. It is a start, but I am not hopeful. The most tangible result of the conversation was a nightmare that was clearly, directly, connected.

4. I'm fairly convinced I have angered two ladies, one across the continent and one somewhat closer, and I'm not sure exactly what I did or how to fix it. :-(

5. Fairly convinced I am not only suffering from clinical depression but that its shopping buddy paranoia has come along for the trip.

6. Tomorrow comes the great stove adventure. The delivery people "don't coordinate with third parties" and the gas company "would have been happy to coordinate when we called, but we "didn't give us a time range then." Um, because ... oh, never mind. *Sigh*

7. I would really, really, really like to remember what fun is--fun without interpersonal dramah undertones, awkward revelations, guilt about squandered time....Maybe in December. I can hope.

8. By the way--you all have saved my sanity for the last 14 months. Thank you.

For those mathematically inclined:

Since the people delivering our stove only do our "area on Fridays," and the gas company people need 72 hours notice for a hook up, and the stove deliverers give you less than 24 hours notice of their 2 hour window...

What are the odds that

I won't have to cancel all three of my sections on Friday, the stove guys will deliver the new stove before the gas company people come to hook it up, and that all of the necessary parts, valves, wires, and outlets will comply and the stove will be hooked up by 5 PM Friday

vs.

The delivery people will schedule at exactly the worst time, so I have to cancel all sections; gas company folks will arrive, but the stove won't be there yet and so they leave; then the stove folks will actually arrive, thus insuring no functioning stove for the entire weekend; and that one or the other of us will have to take time off on Monday for the gas people, who will then find that they don't have the right parts?

Guess where I'm putting my money?

So, yup--we couldn't wait for the great Christmas prezzie conspiracy, and the beast wasn't fixable. No oven was making the Meirwen even grumpier, and given the rest of the crap going on....well, we decided waiting was not an option.

Went with cheap (less than $400).

Apparently some boys in Australia behaved badly. They did behave badly, and to my mind are a perfect example of a level of hooliganism, bullying, and punishable action that is seen more and more often in schools and is working it's way up to the entering classes of college students. Frankly, I begin more and more to think we need Security in all the buildings here on campus, all the time, walking "beats." And not just the classroom buildings. Not something I thought I'd ever say about a college that wasn't located in a major city.

That said, this particular kind of thing (that the boys did) isn't all that rare. More importantly, it isn't new.

When I was in elementary school (back when rocks may not have been soft, but were still warm to the touch) Fridays were still fasting days. This was also back in the days when schools prepared 1 main dish with veg and 1 soup and sandwich (choices: X or cheese). On Fridays all of the options were "Catholic friendly," because we weren't allowed to eat meat on Fridays. Simple fix--everyone could eat the things the Catholics could, so make it the default on Fridays. So, mac and cheese, or tomato soup and PBJ or tuna fish sandwich. Or the hated tuna-noodle-casserole (yuck!). Sometimes a grilled cheese sandwich.

So, one of the Protestant or Jewish boys came to Friday lunch one day with a roast beef sandwich. The Catholic boys were...not amused. Much of what transpired in Oz is very familiar to my memory of that day, though rather than the bathroom smack down I think it was snowball (read ice ball pummeling) on the playground. There was huge anti-Catholic bias in our small town even before this incident (to the point of having to watch videos and calling the community together for a "meeting"), yet this incident never made the national press. Nor even the local press. Not considered "news."

That week it was a roast beef sandwich that triggered the fight. The next week the fight was about something else, and the "victim" from the first altercation was actually part of the "agressors" that week and some other kid had offended the hive mind over something. Maybe he was wearing black sneakers instead of white, or something else equally morally significant.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that if the incident the news article was about had involved anything other than a group of Muslim boys, we never would have heard about it. It seems to me that the world is turning into that thing so many of us decry, a small-minded, gossipy, small town--one more like Peyton Place than Mayberry. Rather than the global village taking on the best of what a small community has--sense of support, responsiveness to local needs, sense of community--the global village has instead taken on the worst of a small community: the screaming over "your dog was on my lawn," the gossip that morphs in the telling into something unrecognizable, xenophobia, and parochialism.

Of course, my view is a little skewed--I never was a "townie."

But I suppose in a world where someone can bail on a 4 year job commitment in order to do a book tour, I should just pull my head back in and grade some papers.

Today many, including myself, have said words in praise of Veterans. This is good. As one who was a teenager with classmates whose "number came up," as one around to see the response many in the world made to returning veterans in the years at the end of the Vietnam conflict, and even Grenada and Panama, it is beautiful to see that we have learned from that mistake. Even those who hate the current wars honor the courage, dedication, and sacrifices made by those in uniform.

Thanks are important.

But so are deeds. So I humbly suggest that you not only speak, but do. Is there an agency in your town, city, county that serves veterans where you could volunteer for a day, an hour? A VA health facility or adult living center that needs donations of objects or time?

And, if none of those suit, may I suggest this organization: The Wounded Warrior project. I know a veteran's family who this project touched. It is the rarest of all things--an organization that exceeds its promise.

Words matter. Words and action--priceless.

Am receiving incentive beyond my friends north of the border to get my enhanced license. Can I resist the combined forces of much_ado, matthew_g, damedini, retiredmaj, and the fair spouse of last? Not likely.

Hair is curled, tummy full, and too many Manhattans consumed. I'll call it a win. Thanks much to friends. Truly, a good Saturday.

It's funny how something as simple as the way someone communicates, using language inculcated by years of service, can make the listener feel. Talking to Yosh, or Tony, or Carrie, or Dennis can sometimes bring to mind a place. It is a place that was never mine, but its echoes fill me with calm, and have an aura of purpose that envelopes me when they use language of that place for something we are going to do together. It doesn't matter if it is a serious purpose, or a trivial one. It is still a feeling. Welcoming the stranger.

I am the stranger. It is their world, was their world, but for a moment, they share it with me. It is good.

Sun is shining. Pugs are being very insistent about lap time and ball tossing. Later my friend will put curls in my hair, and there is a possibility of dinner with the V&V and son.

Unlike the night, when I am trapped at home without options, the day is full of promise and choice. Yay for sunshine!!

I put this up for myself a couple of days ago, but the recipient has gotten them, so I can unveil. The yarn was an exquisite unworsted superfine wool in Aran weight. If I make them for myself I think I'll go with one size down, but I am happy with how they came out! ( FO behind the cut to save your bandwidth )

:-(

I have decided to follow Thumper's father's injunction for the day (at least in outside voice), so....

Yay!!! Bears won!!!!!