I don't get identified as anything beyong generic British Isles. My parents' first, third and fifth kids are swarthy enough to indicate there's something else in our ancestry; me, I just tan unuexpectedly well if I get too much sun. (Which I've avoided since I left school.)

Kathy, that's simply lovely.

OK, I should be asleep but I think I just returned a favor. Dreading tomorrow, I cleared what was on the walk and car with a broom. And did Ben's too. Of course, still more inches to come down, but this is wet, sloppy snow, every bit helps. And he and I are the ones who use our front walk, rather than the alley.

OK, bed now.

me, I just tan unuexpectedly well if I get too much sun. (Which I've avoided since I left school.)

I've either seen you tan or seen a picture of you tan because I remember being surprised at your stealth melanin.

When I have traveled people always assume I am American. I am not sure what people have generally thought my ancestry was/is, but I do remember being confused by people asking what I was and where my family was from when I came to college - it wasn't something I ever think was discussed growing up.

You can imagine the types of question I have received about mac. Thank goodness not many and not usually in front of him. I may hit the first person who asks if he's my real son.

Tell them he's a hologram!

Pleeeeeease?!?!

Then, once you cold-cock them, you can glare down at them and snarl, "Too bad you're not, huh?"

I do remember being confused by people asking what I was and where my family was from when I came to college - it wasn't something I ever think was discussed growing up.

ChiKat once told me that, growing up in the South, she was never asked about her ancestry, but that it was a very popular question up here in Chicago. It was something everyone I knew always was able to answer, usually to the fraction (I'm 1/2 Irish, 1/4 Swedish, 1/8 French Canadian, and 1/8 English, for example).

Jesse - from a bit back - not X but Sheikh-ol-Eslami. Might as well have been X. Clearly spoken English but with a last name like that? Somehow must equal Militant Black Muslim.

J is so lucky we love her anyway. She with her deep New York accent and funny, sick sense of humor. These last few months were more bearable with her kind heart and support. And I always have that story of their meeting to make me laugh like a loon.

Huh. Isabella Rossellini's daughter looks like Terri Hatcher.

She's prettier than Terri Hatcher.

Dear smoke detectors:

Fuck you. I have three (I know I need more) and I disabled 2, one long dead without battery but it leaves a nasty space in the ugly ceiling spackle (but I took it down anyway,) because of the death cheep that kept me awake. I've found my nemesis, I think. I'll buy new batteries for sure. But fuck you for waking me up in a panic. When I have to get up early for your evil cousin, snow.

me