My official derby name is Rose Redrum #217.

I'm going to the roller derby in Vermont next weekend! It's The Border Patrol Brawl, featuring the Green Mountain Derby Dames vs. The Montreal Sexpos!

And going to a truly kickass restaurant. My bro says it's one of the best places he's ever eaten, and, although he hasn't eaten at French Laundry, he's certainly had his share of meals at other world-class restaurants. And I trust his taste. I'll have to remember to take my menu so I can share it here for the foodies, like Nora and Hec.

Also -- I am GIDDY with anticipation -- my bro's brewpub has gluten-free beer on tap. Not just any GF beer; GF beer which won a gold medal at the World Beer Cup (Category 14), beating out Budweiser's new GF beer. t /proud sister

I expect we'll make our required pilgrimage to Ben & Jerry's, and get a cider donut (gluten intolerance be damned) at Cold Hollow Cider Mill, and bring back amazing chocolate from Lake Champlain Chocolates.

That would be guilt chocolate, since I'm going to Vermont with my dad, not The Boy.

One day I want to go to Steph's brothers brewpub!

One day I want to go to Steph's brothers brewpub!

Any time I hear of someone going to Vermont, I try to steer them that way. I know I'm not objective, but it is SO good.

Well, I'm kind of objective. I mean, I love good food, you know? I wouldn't pretend that my bro's food was awesome if it was just limp greasy shoestring fries and a grey hamburger, you know? It really is good food.

And the beer? Fucking awesome. Same dealio -- I wouldn't pretend it was awesome if it was warm Natural Light out of a can. It really is fantastic beer, and I bitterly regret that I can't drink 95% of it any more.

(Well, I'll probably sip them all, but I can't just toss back a pint any more. But their GF beer -- I tried it last summer, before I knew I was gluten-intolerant -- really is excellent. If I hadn't known it was GF, I would never have been able to tell. And I've had Budweiser's new GF beer, and -- you can tell it's GF.)

Oh, me too!!

sarameg, at my pool the guards are all very quiet, except for when they're yelling at the kids in the other pool to calm down. I've had to flag one down occasionally to ask them to tell me what time the clock on the wall says (can't see anything without my glasses), and I get weird looks from them that I initiate conversation.

Me three!

I would say "F2F Vermont!," but there's not a lot in the way of exciting activities like the House on the Rock and whatnot.

But gooooooood beer! And the Ben & Jerry's tour!

I dunno Steph, F2F Vermont sounds pretty good to me.

I am so frigging tired today. I was carting the kids around on errands from 9:30 this morning to 7:30 tonight. Yeeps. But then when we got home, my BiL greeted us with a mango mousse cake from Portos. All's well that ends well. mmm.

When my sister and her family were here a few weeks ago, we all went to the Aqua Center that opened this year over in the next town. It's pretty fabulous with lap swimming lanes and diving boards and slides and fountains and a bit with a current. My sister and I, the responsible adults, were admonished twice by the lifeguards for being wrong (in two different ways. We didn't know!) in the current. The first guy was practically apologetic, but the second one was brooking no nonsense.

I need to get back over there, I bet it isn't crowded at all during the week now that school is in session.

I dunno Steph, F2F Vermont sounds pretty good to me.

Word. (also, hi burrell! I miss you!)

When I started school I was half deaf and extremely nearsighted. No one knew about the latter, so I didn't get glasses until 3rd or 4th grade. I think I missed a lot of socialization and cue learning, because I couldn't see or hear a lot of what was going on around me. But I looked "normal," so other kids just assumed I was stuck up and weird. I became the school scapegoat and punching bag for the next six years. I have a lot of blank spots in my memory from that time, and when I asked my mom about them she just shook her head and said that it's just as well I don't remember. In 7th grade I finally got so fed up with things that I took on the biggest bully of the school and fought him to a draw. After that I was invisible until I moved in the summer before 11th grade. That episode of Buffy with the invisible girl? It didn't really resonate because being invisible was the high point of middle-school for me. My last two years of high school were nice—I had friends, went to some parties, did the whole "hanging at the mall" thing. It wasn't a John Hughes movie, but it was enjoyable.

But the whole thing from elementary is part of why I won't be having kids. My spotty memories of what kids are like makes that thought appalling. All the truly delightful kids I've met as an adult haven't been able to change my knee-jerk horror at the thought of living with what my formative experiences of children convinced me they are—bullies or victims.