Judecorp.

Thinking about scheduling a portrait session for the kids to order our holiday photo cards. I could schedule it tomorrow and get it out of the way BUT their matchy-match holiday formal outfits have not arrived in the mail yet. However, I do have matching elf pajamas from Crazy 8 that they could wear.

Or I could wait until next Wednesday afternoon to do the portraits and the outfits probably will have arrived by then, BUT the cheaper photo card pricing promotion will be over.

DECISIONS.

[Poll #1796050]

Get your guesses in before Wednesday at 2pm!

[Poll #1581945]

So I decided to get my car seat professionally installed by a cute fireman. Hey, why not, right?

Anyway, I have the Graco SnugRide with EPS Foam or whatever, and the base is usable with seatbelts or LATCH. The LATCH system for my car (Neo the 2007 Toyota Matrix) has LATCH anchors properly spaced for the two outside rear seats (behind the driver and behind the passenger), but the anchors are improperly spaced for the rear center.

Cute Fireman and I had a discussion about which is better - using the LATCH system and installing the seat on one of the sides (thereby increasing risk in a side-impact collision), or using the seatbelt and installing the seat in the center. CF said that the seatbelt should not be any less safe than the LATCH system because the seatbelt has that funky locking mechanism. But I'll be honest, I've watched that sappy YouTube video about that kid in the booster seat too many times. (You know, once is too many.)

So... what do you think? Is LATCH safer than the seatbelt? Right now, CF has the car seat in the center with the seatbelt pulled and locked tightly, and it really does feel nice and snug and tight. And I do feel better having the seat in the middle for crash purposes. But I'm interested in your opinions.

Do you choose "LATCH on the side" or "Seatbelt in the center"?

[Poll #1006608]

Thanks!

I took an hour-long work at the Pope John with Coworker Marti Maraschino. It was a good time, though she probably heard more than she ever wanted to about our fertility process. HA. Dudes seriously, don't get me started because I /will/ talk for an hour. All it takes is a smidgen of interest (or even feigned interest). I am unstoppable.

As an aside, I wonder if she minds that I call her Marti Maraschino. I can't stop. I've called her that since the very first day.

I just heard Drunk Guy out the window. He was talking to The Movie Thief about us... something about how he didn't damage our car to be malicious and didn't even remember it happening. I'll have to ask TMT about the whole conversation (I missed some) but I wanted to yell out the window, "DUDE, JUST PAY THE FRICKIN COURT AND SHUT UP." (When the DA took him to court on the vandalism charge, the judge agreed to drop the charges provided he paid $515 - for our estimates - in restitution by the end of July.) I don't want to deal with him on a personal level, I just want to get the car fixed.

I'm not hungry but I want to eat more blueberries. This is a serious problem. I tried having some lemonade instead in the hopes that it would take the edge off, but nope - still want blueberries.

[Poll #769017]

A little while ago, technodyke got the amazing idea to ask her readership to state and describe those parts of our bodies that we hate. It was very eye-opening, both to see what things were hated by people whom I happen to think are totally beautiful, and also to see how common everything was, how normalized. So often in my work I try to make people feel better by normalizing their fears/difficulties, but never really knew the total effect until I participated in her little experiment. And people were able to get great feedback from other people, which was also awesome.

Since I (and a lot of other people) found it so helpful, I thought I would try to start a similar dialogue about another touchy subject: personal flaws. We have them. We don't like to admit we have them. We don't like to talk about them. And when things happen because of them, we look for anything or anyone else to blame. We say we're working on them, or we need to work on them, and then we let things go along swimmingly and put them aside until the next dilemma.

I'm going to start the hard work now by telling you all some of the flaws that I have, some of the issues in my life and in my personality that I really and truly need to work on. And you might think less of me and you might not, but I encourage you to list some of your own just the same, if you dare. Come on, let's see how painfully /human/ we all really are. Shall we?

( The gory details. )

That's enough for now. Do you want to play? Come on, admit it, post it, let it go to the wind. Read the others, see you're not alone, see how strong and self-aware and passionate you are. Support each other. Offer each other suggestions. BE REAL WITH EACH OTHER. This is your life, and it is ending one moment at a time. Make this one count: for you, for me, and for all of the others who are brave enough to post here. No flaming, please.