Allyson, I forgot to mention The City, Not Long After, an atypical post-apocalypse book by Pat Murphy in which the heroes are artists, not macho types.

Grace was in my dream last night talking. She is in my thoughts as are her mommies.

I am so glad Perkins opened the package. I got dragged away from my computer by a manchild.

This is cool and trippy: Awesome Mirror Filter Driving Video

Photographer Craig Shimala recently mounted his camera to the inside of his car's windshield and filmed himself driving around. When he got home, he took the footage and applied a mirror filter as an experiment.

The result is this awesome, eerie, Inception-esque drive through a snowy city, and since he's saying that this one is "just a test" I'm hoping there will be more to come.

Be well, Grace.

Happy birthday, Shane! Know your cake!

Awww, man. RIP Steve Landesberg.

Bummer. What a genial presence. And, as that obit noted, rumpled.

Matilda's original observation was from a couple years back when somebody had a birthday party at her daycare.

"So did you have cake?"
"Yes!"
"Was it yummy?"
"It was chocolate."
"Did Emma and Diego eat cake too?"
"Mmmhmm."
"Did Baby Carl eat cake?"
"He's just a baby. He don't know cake."

Aww, msbelle, that's a lovely dream. Hope it comes true soon. My thoughts are with your family today, Kat.

Here's the link to the set of eclipse photos on flickr. They are really of varying quality, because it was a fiddly process with the cameraphone, but I am still amazed that that was even possible.

Our kiddoes just to the south of us didn't see any of it; total cloud cover. We got to see it all the way past greatest totality, and then it succumbed to the clouds from the south. So as far as I know, the moon turned red and disappeared, and now we're all going to die because it's the end of the world.

It was really fun.

Vibing best outcome vibes to Grace, and calmness to K&K.

good wishes to Grace

Here's the link to the set of eclipse photos on flickr.

Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing them. I was sorry to miss the eclipse but it was 1) in the middle of the night and 2) raining. Now I can enjoy it vicariously.

Liese, those photos are AMAZING. I cannot get over the clarity you get of the moon itself. And a camera phone. COOL.

I'm getting antsy. Grace went in at 8:40. We didn't ask how long it would take, and I wish we had, but knowing how long they might take won't change how long it will take.

Fantastic photos, Liese.

Kat, I remember how stressful it was when Emmett went in for routine surgery to fix his broken nose. Just try to breathe and "maintain an even strain" as the aviators like to say.