I am really lackidaisical about settings. Really. Fixed.

Well, that bites.

Yep. I've missed almost the entire season 'cause I kept forgetting it was on. I've resigned myself to waiting for the dvds.

sara, you have so many AWESOME photos!! Little Mac, baby Tyler, BABY Noah! OMG the sweetness.

Yay, house!

It took me a while to trudge home from work this evening, what with the snow. The grocery store was only slightly mobbed when I stopped on the way home for some basil, an avocado, some cheese, and wine.

As for international travel, when I went to London, I looked it up and discovered that my bank had a partnership with Barclays, so when I used my debit card to withdraw cash from their ATMs I didn't have to pay an additional ATM fee. I tried to use my credit card sparingly to limit the foreign transaction fees. And for some reason I could only put 10 pounds at a time on my Oyster card, any more and the transaction couldn't be authorized.

shrift, I did the same. In fact, I copied and pasted the list of all the country banks that BofA has reciprocal agreements with and have it in my iPhone notes. So useful!

aww tiny Jesse! And big guy mac! Dag! the years...

We just watched The Road. Jolly times!

Now we are detoxing with an old Parks & Rec. ha! Now Leslie Knope is imitating Tim Gunn. Hope that is what my subconscious holds on to tonight and not post-apocalyptic Viggo.

Shit, I'm gonna have to do research. Thanks all who gave advice. It's been quite a bit since I travelled in Europe (16 years!) and I'd heard bits and pieces about the new cards, but wasn't really paying attention cause I didn't think of it.

When I was last there, it was a brave new world where you could survive with credit rather than travelers checks. And subsequent travels have been 2nd and 3rd worlds where US credit is like that was.

I don't want another fucking card ( I have one I use regularly, one that's a monthly bill to keep it alive tied to the mortgage, the shared with my parents so I can arrange flights when they can't, the HomeDespot that saved me half a grand on purchases by opening, the one from the old First Union turned Wachovia turned Wells that I just chop on receipt... It's nuts) but there's enough time to get another if it saves on fees.

I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty damn comfort foodlicious.

Absofreakinglutely. I may branch out and try your version one of these days. Two tuna casseroles in the repertoire cannot be a bad thing.

Oh, wow. I downloaded Google Voice tonight. I may be in love. Who's using it? I've been reluctantly thinking about changing my cell number to a local area code... and now I don't have to, because Google let me do it for free. And, my god, the functionality! How is all that free? I feel like I just got my first hit for free, and we all know what comes next. Oh, well, too late for me.

My mom emailed this morning to tell us kids that dad may have had a small stroke over Christmas but refused to go to the doctor at the time. Which. Uncool, dad?

But it's more motivation to keep up with the healthy eating and exercise so that's not me in 20 years.

Did they just find out now that it happened, or is it one of those "the kids don't need to know yet" things?

My mother had a bad day today, and I wasn't there for her.

But I wasn't exactly here for me. I did call, but we only chatted briefly.

I can't work out how to surprise her with something cheerful tomorrow morning.

Maybe I should hunt through my flickr pictures or something. Putting together a set to cheer her up feels a bit impersonal. Is there any other way to make a digital series for her to flip through? A not that complicated digital scrapbook? I don't intend to do any digital editing...

I don't know what I'm thinking of. I just want to do something nice, and it's not like I can get her flowers. Or that she needs more flowers. Good god, they moved a garden into her hospital room, and she still has half of it, because it was plants and not cut flowers.

Help my Mummy!

Oh, you Chuck-missers, there was good use of national anthem. Artfully done.