See, my brother neglected to tell us for months. Dad and I went to Africa with him just after and didn't know. He was convinced he had the day of. He hadn't. And he always called my dad the absent minded professor...(We knew they were planning on marrying eventually. And now their eldest is 13.)

Congratulations, Kalshane!

And I still like to remember the guy who, after Obama's first election, said he'd be moving to Australia because their president was a righteous Christian man ... overlooking the fact that (1) they had a prime minister who (2) was a woman who was (3) an atheist and a lesbian. (I think ... I may well be wrong)

At the time of Obama's first election, our PM was Kevin Rudd, who was a Christian man (I don't feel qualified to speak to his righteousness). Still a leftie though. Julia Gillard replaced him in a leadership spill on 24 June, 2010. She is an atheist, but not a lesbian. However, she and her partner, Tim Mathieson, are unmarried and childless by choice, so I'm sure that guy would still find something to complain about there.

Alas, at the next election, we voted in Tony Abbott, who fits that guy's requirements. Sadly for that guy, Abbott's also an idiot. He managed to alienate his party and astound the electorate with such brilliant moves as conferring a knighthood on Prince Philip. (Biyi's comment: isn't that a demotion?) He's since been replaced by Malcolm Turnbull, who in theory is a moderate, but seems to spend most of his time placating the conservative wing of his party.

In conclusion, please note that in the Howard government, the ministry really did contain two blokes called Abbott and Costello.

Wow! No. We told everyone today that didn't already know ahead of time. Took a lot of people by surprise.

Work will be interesting tomorrow since I didn't tell anyone why I was taking today off.

Congratulations Kalshane!

When I was a teenager I had a nightmare about some unseen but gigantic thing outside charging at my bedroom window like a freight train (thanks, Dunwich Horror!). I woke in the process of doing a rolling leap out of my bed and through the open door to the hallway. Thankfully sleep-jumping me has better coordination than I do when awake, or that could have turned out badly.

I'm happy to report that a casino named Paris has kick ass French onion soup.

Congrats, Kalshane! We need more good news for 2016.

Congratulations Kalshane!

FUUUUUUCK. I have been planning a big trip to chile with a friend for months. It starts in two weeks. She's just gotten an amazing job offer that won't let her take the two weeks off (she's a contractor so it's lots of money and potential future work, but not a perm job). She's trying to bail on me. But the whole POINT of doing this was so I wasn't in a foreign country and trying to arrange sightseeing tours of the desert on my own. I understand this is a big opportunity for her but she would literally be ruining my one big vacation for the year.

(flailingly and not very hard and obviously not on purpose) punched me in the face while we were both asleep

My dexh smacked me in the nose with his ham-fist on the 3rd and very last time we slept in the same bed. Bloody nose like whoa. He never woke up. Feh.

Kalshane, congratulations to you both. Happy Decaversary and beginning of the continuation of your happy life together.

During the W campaign, I actually began the process of emigrating to New Zealand. It came down to my not being able to take Bartleby without 6 months quarantine. And, the head of the NZ counseling organization being quite shirty about my not being so welcome.

While I'm glad I didn't go then, I'm not sure I can hack what would be a monumentally worse situation for humanity.

My dexh smacked me in the nose with his ham-fist on the 3rd and very last time we slept in the same bed. Bloody nose like whoa. He never woke up. Feh.

I get that it must have been aggravating, but isn't killing him in his sleep going overboard?