On Elderly Dogs and Babies: A Primer
@bananapants I just teared up. My elderly boy who loved babies and toddlers died last weekend. His eyebrows were faded, too.
*sob*
6
On Friday Open Thread
@everybody: Thanks, y'all. I've been doing okay, then not okay, then okay. This is one of the not-okay days. I think I'll just drink all day (wine with CUBES!) and then, this evening, try to unfuck the habitat for the guests I have coming over tomorrow.
The worst thing about losing the Max-Zoats is the way my brain twitches toward the back door, or his food bowl, or his bed, at specific times of the day. Then I realize that I don't need to let him in out of the heat, or that he doesn't have to come in for the evening (he preferred to be outside, playing Braveheart, in any weather except hailstorms/tornado warnings), or he doesn't need dinner tonight. It's a series of small losses that's way worse than one big loss.
I was out of town, and my neighbor called to let me know he had just gone to sleep and not woken up. When I got home, he was lying in the same place, looking so peaceful. No signs of distress, no nothin'. He just laid down for his mid-day nap. It was the death he deserved: Max was a peaceful, sweet, laid-back, enormous dog with a soft spot for kitties and toddlers.
Tomorrow will be better, or maybe this afternoon will be better. I know things'll keep going back and forth for a while. It's just that the hours of bad-ness suck. I miss him so, so much.
0
On Friday Open Thread
So glad this week is almost over. My beloved big dog died on Saturday, and I've had four twelve-hour shifts this week, so almost no downtime.
*sigh*
2
On Friday Bargain Bin: What to Do With Your Allowance This Week
Apropos of nothing: when did "gift" start being used as a verb? And why is it "Mos-Koh" now rather than "Mos-Cow"?
2
On Beauty Q&A: ID Photos, Gaudy Shoes, and Looking 10 Years Younger
LW1, I, too, am a pale redhead. I looked 30 at 20, and now I'm 42 and look 28. (I just read back over that sentence and wanted to add "HUT! HUT!" at the end, like a quarterback.) That's the way we age.
Some of your problem is genetics. Some of it is your build and coloring. The only part of it you can change is hair, makeup, and clothing. Listen to everybody else on makeup, by the way: ditch the matte foundation and go with something like Garnier's BB cream. Punkahontas reviewed it, I bought it and love it.
Also, learn how to do a low-key cat's-eye line with purple or brown gel or liquid liner. Do that, then add brown-black mascara, and stop. You already have gorgeous skin, because you are redheaded and use sunblock and are 23. You don't need anything else. (Except maybe some eyebrow powder/pencil if you lack eyebrows.)
Good on you for the sunblock, by the way.
1
On Stunning Nuts & Other DIY Projects for Preteens
@allofthecrafts I would happily act as one of a varied cast of Olds for this. Imagine the stories I could tell about my diaphragm while sucking on my gums and pounding my cane on the floor!
1
On On Second Chances
May I point out, too, that the conversations you have in your head and the reactions you imagine That Girl having to things are probably NOT those that the Actual Girl would have? You, dear LR, are idealizing TG. That never ends well. The whole emotional-bludgeoning thing is already a little creepy; don't make it worse by trying to get the real Girl to conform to the imaginary Girl you've created.
Ryan Gosling, you are not. Sorry.
8
On Really Good Books About History: Part One
LIZA PICARD LIZA PICARD LIZA PICARD ABOUT EVERYTHING LONDON EVER. "Elizabeth's London," "Victorian London," "Doctor Johnson's London," "Restoration London." All the best ever. Dense and scholarly, but with moments of surprising humor.
Also "At Day's Close: Night In Times Past" by Roger Ekirch: he's the guy who popularized the theory that human sleep had historically been segmented. The chapters on travel by night and segmented sleep are go-to comforters for me.
For WWII stories from enlisted women's perspectives, may I recommend "We Band of Angels" (lost my copy and need to rebuy) by Elizabeth Norman and "And If I Perish" by Evelyn Monahan? Both of them are gripping, occasionally nightmarish (I haven't bitched about my working conditions since reading about American nurses in Bataan), and thoroughly absorbing books.
Hey, Nicole, can we have books about medicine and science? I'm your gal on the medicine part.
1
On Friday Open Thread
@SarcasticFringehead "a ferocious fish which has a large mouth and aggressive territorial behaviour. When two fringeheads have a territorial battle, they wrestle by pressing their distended mouths against each other, as if they were kissing."
Now I want to meet all the Sarcastic Fringeheads and hang out with them.
1
On Never-Complainers, Workaholics, and the Balding-and-Manly
@redheaded&crazie I agree. I was married to a workaholic like this, and it never. ever. ever changed. He missed graduations, birthdays, Christmases. It will never change. If it's important to him, he'll make time for it. Sorry to be blunt, but it's true.