It's really that day today. Either I need a time out or the world does. I don't really care which.

Yeah, it REALLY is that day.

Faucet fixing is pretty easy and cheap, Spidra. I have done it for my mom. If you can't do it, probably one of your family members can. [link]

Ugh. The students are back, and the radio station has set up a display in the middle of campus (right next to my office) and is blasting music. Good music, but still.

Thanks guys. My siblings were laughing off my mom's antics, but I am not around here so often, and I found the whole thing upsetting. Though, to be fair, it was mostly over the top worrying about our safety, which was always her norm. Now she's imagining actual imaginary bad people to worry about.

Today's highlight so far: Somebody called me back that I didn't expect to.

Thanks, scrappy. I'm pretty sure it's too much for my hand strength, but the problem is getting someone here to care enough about it to do something. Which is another reason I let the water pile up to measure. The effect on the water bill might get through to them. The other thing is that these are faucets for a tub/shower so I'm not absolutely positive they're washer type. I'm a little afraid to look in case I can't put back when I undid.

Checked my solar cake and it's done. Yay!

The gardeners are gone so it's time to go skinnydipping!

re: the highway sign--what's the alphabet game? Did I grow up in some mega-isolated community that wasn't tied in to the game-zeitgeist of America?

Apparently! Or you never went on family road trips. Of course, I just learned a new version of the alphabet game recently. The way my family played it was that you, as a collective, were looking for words that began with each letter of the alphabet in order (with an exception for X because come on). The way I learned recently was a competition to find the letters of the alphabet, period, in order.

NO EXCEPTIONS!

Ahem.

We do it in order, taking turns. So if I start with A you have to get B and so on.

We played Geography on road trips. One person names a place, then the next person has to name a place starting with the last letter of the first place, and so on. After a while, you usually get stuck in A for a while, until someone remembers Amsterdam. And you can't repeat places that someone else already said.

Yeah, we go in order. It's always a bummer when we pass Quincy too early...

Oh, Sue. Sorry.

In fun news, I was idly considering going to get something bad for dinner, when someone on the street handed me a thing of Pringles! Pickle-flavored Pringles. They're pretty good, actually. And totally satisfy "something bad for dinner."