Your teenage child is transsexual & actively lives as the opposite sex they were born as. You moved to a new town a few years ago so only your family & a select few of your childs friends know that your child is actually transsexual.

Your family are very church-going people & one day your child decides to go to the priest/rabbi/etc. for guidance. They are shocked but kind & tell your child that they think the heads of the church need to know (he doesn't say way) but no one else. Your child agrees to this & the priest/etc. promises that no one else will be told.

A few days later you & your family walk into your church & are greeted with disdain. You're told that your family are welcome in the church as long as your transsexual child does not attend anymore. Some people threaten to physically remove your child if they refuse to leave. Turns out the priest/etc. told the whole congregation because they thought it was the right thing to do.


Now people, what do you do?

Your child has been secretive lately. If asked if they are OK, all they say is that it's something that they have to work through on their own.

At what point would you intervene? Does it matter if the child is 14, 18 or 25? Whether they live under you roof? Something else?

You have a funny smart 11 year old child who has befriended another funny smart 11 year old - with about 6 siblings. The family of this friend hear about the relationship and the father calls and invites your family over to dinner so you guys can meet. You and your spouse accept. During dinner you realize that the husband has 3 wives - two of whom are pregnant. Do you let your child continue to play at their house? How do you explain why your child's friend has three mommies and one daddy to your child's siblings? What else do you do?

So, my commute today was greeted by a (very) light dusting of snow at the edges of the freeway.

This means that, naturally, one must brake-check every 1/10 of a mile, even when the driving lanes are dry and there's nothing to indicate black ice at all.

God, I hate the way people in this city refuse to drive properly in even the slightest of adverse conditions.

holy crap this is the scariest commercial. ever. i am wondering how they got pennywise the clown to star in a garmin commercial? just add a werewolf and a zombie and it will contain all my childhood fears. lol.
what were they thinking?

OK, yeah, maybe capitalism is evil and yada yada, but this guy really is OK.

I called him about three things: recommending a carpet cleaning co. (since my Hoover doesn't do a good job at all), getting a programmable thermostat to save energy, and and getting new light covers in the kitchen since I broke one and the other won't stay in.

Re the thermostat: "Get it done, save the invoice and instructions, I'll pay for it." Re the carpet cleaning: "I can't remember who I used, get an estimate from any reputable company and we'll go half and half." Re the light covers: "I'll take care of it as soon as I have time."

• 08:03 Got some good news on Friday. Now I'm impatiently waiting for the official phone call. #
• 08:09 @judecorp Way to go! I keep putting off weighing Quinn, but I think she is darn close to 35 pounds & thus needs it too. :( #
• 08:12 @herbadmother However, if most hoarders were as organized as Wall-E, I could fit in my Mom's house. #
• 09:36 RT @bzzagentjono In the spirit of the season here's a whole website dedicated to sketchy Santas sketchysantas.com/ #

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Yes, I *AM* this lazy

What kind of day has it been:

07:50 Everything is temporary anyway. When the streets are wet, the colours slip into the sky. #

13:30 Confirmed 2010 travel plans: Atlana and NYC in January, Melbourne in September. Somewhere in between maybe Las Vegas? Want to see "Love". #

13:32 RT @mrbrown: RT @iheartapple: A quick look at Singtel & Starhub's iPhone-specific price plans bit.ly/6z137b #

17:39 Pondering summer travel. If not Las Vegas, maybe Italy. Florence, Venice, Rome... yes, this is to indulge my Assassin's Creed fantasies. #

21:49 "Always count your steps, Saruba Velak... you never know when you might need to escape in a box." #

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Are there are any beliefs that a daycare provider or babysitter could hold that would stop you from using their service? For example, political or religious beliefs? What if it's a belief relating to how to take care of children, but which has nothing to do with what they'd be doing with your child--for example, they're anti-vax and your kid's getting all his or her shots, or vice versa? Does it depend on how vocal they are about their beliefs, or is there anything that's an automatic no if they hold them?

You and your children's father (or mother, but whichever it is, you're the custodial parent) are divorced and have been for about twelve years now. Two of your children are college-aged (18 and 21), and one of your kids is in high school (15). Your ex is in town for the weekend with his wife and six-month-old baby, and they're staying at your ex's mom's house. You're on good terms with everyone, and you do not object to your kids seeing their father, grandmother, stepmother, or half-sister.

Nobody told you about the visit until the evening before. Your 21-year-old is away at school and talks to your semi-weekly, and she made plans to meet them at Grandma's house after she got off work. (She comes home on weekends to work, and stays with you during her breaks from school.) Your two younger kids live at home, and they made plans for when they should meet their father. No one consulted or informed you until the evening before, not your kids, or your ex, or your ex-mother-in-law, who you regularly socialize with.

Are you angry? Should kids that age make plans on their own if they still live with you for the most part? Is this any different from them making plans with friends? Does this infringe upon your rights as their mother/parent-they-live-with? Is it disrespectful? Or do you not care? If you do care, what do you do about it?

*Edited a bit for clarity.

so groupon gives out $10 in credit for everytime someone buys something at groupon for the first time. usually this is a tiny thing; when I mentioned to truffle making class, a couple people followed it and I got $10 because one of you was new to Groupon. It's not been a huge thing but it's a pleasant thing, since I only bulk recommend deals I'm buying, anyway (if I find something someone individual would like that I'm not buying, I send email instead)...I normally prefer Living Social's deal (get three people to buy (they could have bought before) and you get that day's deal free. It's easier, because generally, if I'm buying something, I totally know between LJ, facebook and twitter, I can get the word out and find 3 other people who want it.

A few minutes ago, my computer crashed, and I rebooted. On starting thunderbird, I found I had 20 emails from groupon saying I had a reward notification. Uh.

I figured it was a glitch, so I hopped on to check. Nope. $200 in credit at the site.

That Redbones voucher the other day sure seems to have been a hit.

I *should* carefully squirrel it away to use for practical things, like when stuff comes by at local bakeries and restaurants in Davis so I can be social with people and take people who have been kind to me out to dinner. Or for the next time something wonderful like the truffle class comes up, I can buy it.

But part of me is thinking the next time a massage therapy spa day thing comes up I'm gonna totally snag it and just let someone rub me into jelly.

The fun thing is that I actually used the credit I had there to buy myself a Redbones voucher, so it cost me $5. And then all that lovely free credit. Whee.

Like TOny Bourdain?

Hate Sandra Lee?

Either? Both?

Bourdain blogs about meeting Lee at the premiere of Julia & Julia.

I've been reading a fair bit of http://foodnetworkhumor.com/ of late.

I went to the gym on Saturday, btw. Intended to do an hour on the treadmill (not a mileage, just a time, and that's not counting time spent off the treadmill (I find for every 20m or so I do, I need to get off and stretch for a few minutes). Wound up doing more like an hour and 20, as I watched 20 minutes of Extreme Dr. 90210 (with a tongue splitting!) and watching Iron Chef: Battle Egg Nog. Which included Morimoto soaking a whole chicken in egg nog, stuffing it with kefir limes, and then boiling it in a pig's bladder.

At which point I knew I was in for the whole show.

[01:20] Stephanie: COME OVER RIGHT NOW.
[01:20] fabulous_redhead: aroo?
[01:21] Stephanie: there is...cake, and it's going to make me eat it.
[01:22] fabulous_redhead: hee. :)
[01:22] fabulous_redhead: "eat me...eat me..."
[01:22] Stephanie: stupid cake./
[01:22] fabulous_redhead: so you found a good recipe, then?
[01:22] Stephanie: once I decided not to try my hand at processing uranium, yep.
[01:23] fabulous_redhead: hehheh
[01:23] fabulous_redhead: the yellowcake is a lie!
[01:23] Stephanie: http://www.ehow.com/how_11464_make-yellow-cake.html
[01:25] Stephanie: if you were going to be totally 'must make pretty cake' about it, I would actually use a full mix of that per cake, because it develops enough of a bell curve at the top that it definitely needs to be levelled.
[01:26] Stephanie: however, since I was making it for myself and the roommates, I just evened out the curve on the bottom cake by adding icing until itwas level.
[01:26] Stephanie: you know, there are reasons why they didn't cast me on The Next Food Network Star.
[01:27] Stephanie: me using icing as spackle is probably a good reason, even if they didn't know I was the type to do that.
[01:27] Stephanie: maybe they saw it in my eyes.
[01:27] fabulous_redhead: *grin*
[01:28] fabulous_redhead: I love that word.
[01:28] fabulous_redhead: "spackle."
[01:28] Stephanie: mukluks.
[01:28] fabulous_redhead: PANTS.
[01:28] fabulous_redhead: rutabaga!
[01:30] Stephanie: I take it you're leaving me alone with the cake?
[01:30] fabulous_redhead: alas, I must sleep shortly.
[01:30] Stephanie: THE CAKE CALLS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE.

if anyone wants to come over RIGHT NOW, I will give you cake. because it is some really good cake, and it wants me to eat it. Which is really sort of mean of it. I'm trying to be good!!!

Jeani is festive tonight

Your parents live very far away. They don't see you or your child but once a year, if that. They send your child 2 fairly expensive presents for their birthday. Your child plays with one of them a few times, and the other is still sealed in the box. The charm wears off and now both toys sit gathering dust. The toys are in great shape, and you know your parents spent a lot of money on them to just toss them. They are not able to be returned, either.

You know you are able to list them on a place like eBay, Craigslist, or local paper and use the cash on something your child really wants or needs.

Would it be wrong to sell the toys that aren't being played with? Would you tell your parents?

robdamnit posted a replay to my Alton Brown video at 3:09. Livejournal actually *sent* me an email with it time stamped at 10:37.

This has been happening for a couple days. responses to me of a time sensitive nature should be CCed to me as well as posted.

I have yellow cake and dark chocolate buttercream icing. it didn't merit it's own post, but I thought you should know.

The search for "yellow cake" delightfully goes back and forth between the recipes and tips and uranium powder and Iraq.

I brought our kitties home tonight from my parents house. I'll admit that for a few moments (and ok, even still), when I reached for one of the cat carriers and it had a piece of tape on it that said "Dmytri Meli" I got sad. The dude should be here. He wasn't that old. I can just imagine him getting into all the boxes and snuggling into us at night....I miss him. The other day when Saff and I were in the car, she said that she dreams about him. *sigh*

Anyway, they're doing ok. Alexi is out and about as normal and Cloud has hidden himself somewhere.

As expected, most of the boxes are where I left them, but most of the electronics are set up since Eric was left alone over the weekend. :) Such a boy.

I had a great time with each of my parents individually this weekend. It's so great to see them each one on one with Saffron and I know they have a more special bond with her than they have any of their other grandkids simply because she's closer than any of the others have been geographically. She loves them so much and they love her. She's so comfortable with them...and they love that...and I love that.

Saffy is watching Dora's Christmas special right now. She's snuggled up on the couch with her daddy. I'm sitting near them in a chair with my laptop. I'm "off the clock" for a while. It is soooo nice to all be under one roof again. Seriously. My anxiety is noticably better. I can drink coffee again without feeling like I need to rush to the ER (don't laugh, it's true!) My face has cleared up considerably. I'm sleeping better. It's crazy how out of whack I got in the last six months.

The only bad thing about being under one roof, is that I can't run much any more. Since it's winter and light hours are limited - I don't have much time (lighted) and we don't have a treadmill. Saff was sick last week so I didn't want to push the stroller. This coming weekend I fly to Texas to participate in a marathon relay and I'm afraid I might let them down because I haven't been able to run much lately. Oh well...hopefully they're just happy to see me.

Is it bad that I'm not looking forward to Christmas this year simply because Eric's parents will be here and we won't be with my family? I'll miss playing games with my brother and his family. I'll miss laughing with my parents. I'll miss staying up til all hours of the night and filling up on crap food and wine and beer. Instead I'll be working on the house, trying to drown out Eric's mom and going to bed early to escape. I feel awful for admitting that - but I'm not at all looking forward to their visit...or Christmas morning.

Life is good. Still lots of boxes to unpack, but it'll all get done when it gets done.

Sleeping is hard work.

Threadless is offering their t-shirts for $9 again (you can't have the Friday I'm In Love Shirt, though. It predictably sold out in record time).

I bring this up because I know several people here who will want this new design of theirs (links to page):

You get a call from the hospital. Your teenager (under 18) was admitted because of a few broken bones. Apparently, they decided that your roof was a good place to try to parachute from.

Upon making this decision, they took some of your nicest blouses and sewed them into something resembling a parachute, which they heard were made out of silk. These clothing items are damaged beyond repair.

Do you think that the broken bones are enough of a punishment? Do you do something further to your child for damaging your property?

It's so funny how there has to be so much research (and politics) back and forth over no shit Sherlock matters

From champignon

You somehow discover that your child (12-14 years old) has been using your belongings to masturbate. It is not limited to one item, or even type of item. It's pretty clear that the items themselves are not what interests them, it's the fact that they belong to you.

What is the proper reaction here?
Does gender of the child matter?
Are you less likely to be upset if the child is discreet and cleans up after themselves?