Sophia -- you didn't really know why your dad or your mom weren't there, ( even if you get it now), so that is why you get mac.

Msbelle, you are doing great. It is so hard to go against your nature

and I think the pumpkin cheesecake should come here. I look like I am close to all the bay area people, but by the time they make it here - it could be all gone.

I could just hop in the car and head north, right?

I could just hop in the car and head north, right?

Of course, you could do that without cheesecake. But, admittedly, the cheesecake is extra incentive.

Meanwhile, I think I need to make an old-fashioned in honor of the Mad Men finale.

Msbelle, you consistently amaze me with the job you are doing raising mac.

Yeah, want to chime in with the msbelle love. I don't have kiddoes myself, of course, but I work with kids who appear to have issues very similar to mac. I only have them for maybe forty-five minutes every week or so, doing something they voluntarily asked to do, and I still struggle sometimes.

But I can definitely relate to how you've got to just show, over and over again, that you can be trusted not to bail, that you're there no matter what, that they can't earn their way into or out of your love. It's just such a tough, wearying thing to do, time after time. But it's what they need.

In completely unrelated news, public surplus has an auction running right now where they are selling two "micro fish readers" and a "paper shreader."

Thanks everyone. Reading here was a nice way to start the morning.

Chiming in late, but damn, msbelle, what you manage to do is amazing. Your patience and forbearance are tremendous and you are totally the right mom for mac.

msbelle, I think you're pretty wonderful and am in awe of everything you do, day after day.

Which means up at 6 at the absolute latest.

ita and Cashmere, your response to this killed me. Seriously. Granted up at 4 is not normal and yet? still my life.

(Not an Onion article!)

Swearing helps to relieve pain, according to one motherfucking study.

The idea for the study first occurred to psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University in North Staffordshire, when he hit himself on the finger with a hammer and let loose with a few choice words. It solidified when his wife swore gustily during a breech delivery of their daughter and one of the midwives “mentioned that women often swear in childbirth, which I found intriguing,’’ said Stephens in an e-mail.

So he set up an experiment in which he compared the pain tolerance of 67 male and female undergrads when they uttered neutral words and when they cursed as they endured a painful stimulus, in this case, putting one hand into icy water and leaving it there as long as possible. In most people, swearing increased pain tolerance - they could keep their hands in the ice water much longer - and decreased perceived pain compared with not swearing.