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It's been a series of unfortunate events around Casa Brillig the past couple of days, and when life throws lemons like this at you, the only thing to do is... make strawberry lemonade! Follow me inside...
Casa Brillig was in Storrs, CT this weekend for a USA Swimming meet that K1 was racing in. We drove down from Boston Friday evening because warm-ups Saturday required us to be at the pool at 7am. We'd planned on taking our Subaru WRX, because it's the most comfortable car for Mr. Brillig to drive. However, after being delayed an hour on our departure because I ::blush:: turned off my new laptop and initiated Installing 1 of 33 updates, please do not turn off or unplug your computer hell, we were 10 miles out when (a) Mr. Brillig says "does this feel like it's vibrating funny?" and (b) our check engine light goes on.
We turn around, drive home, and while switching cars he feels the tires... the left front one is screaming hot. We forget about it for two days, get to CT at 11PM, K1 swims spectacularly, and we come home.
Yesterday I call the garage to schedule a repair. They tell me that based on what I'm telling them we canNOT drive it the one mile over, but should call a tow. Being a AAA member, I go "umm, okayyyyy" and do so. What arrives is a giant flatbed truck with a winch, the kind that the neighbors come out to watch. ::groan:: I take a picture...
...and off we go to the garage. I leave the car, walk the mile home, go to call Mr. Brillig, who's on his way home to get K1 to practice, and... no phone. Garage doesn't have it, and I realize... it must be in the tow truck. Thankfully I was right, but the truck is 10 miles away in an inconvenient place. We go get it, get K1, get both K's to sleep, and I go to relax in Second Life for a bit.
Enjoying an excellent concert inworld when out of the corner of my eye I see motion. Small, furry motion. MOUSE motion. I scream, wake up Mr. Brillig (who is thoroughly Not Amused at 12:30am), and we go to sleep.
Any one thing would have been OK to deal with; the combination of it all just sent me over the stress edge (as those of you who are Facebook friends with me can attest). My best friend told me I need to make the choice to de-stress occasionally, to run at some level less than Type-A on a caffeine high. He's right.
This diary is about the difference a day can make. I have eleventy million things to do to get ready for K1's 12th birthday party Friday, so what did I do? Took a friend up on her offer to drive K2 and I strawberry picking. Blue skies, warm temperatures (but not TOO warm), good company, and 10 pounds of strawberries will do wonders for one's mood and outlook on life.
K2 loved it!
We have a ton of delicious sweet juicy amazingly succulent strawberries!
Life is good. I'm not even mentioning the call we got from the garage today. Life is good, and I'm sticking with that mantra.
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Life is good today at Top Comments, the mailbox looked like K2's picking basket!
From WarrenS:
Gooserock sums up the dilemma of capitalism with clarity and eloquence in Monday's eKos diary.
From Miep:
Gardening philosophy, from DaveinBremerton in my diary What aren't I doing?.
Dbug's mini-essay on Ursula LeGuin, because he asked.
From sardonyx:
Crashing Vor writes a touching farewell to a lady, and JaxDem gives us pictures, noting that was was quite the beautyŠ
From SciVo:
Dallasdoc made several great points regarding the front page story Frank panel recommends almost $1T in defense cuts.
From weatherdude:
The Twitter addicts amongst us (myself included) have been in withdrawal all night as Twitter was down from about 11PM yesterday and sporadically screwing up worse than BP through 3AM. Spedwybabs started a diary for us to cope with our withdrawal, and Ray Radlein explained exactly why Twitter was screwing up.
From Land of Enchantment:
sardonyx did a great job filling in for the irreplaceable jotter today. (Diarist's note: I can honestly say I've never included a Tip Jar before. First time for everything, and this one was well-deserved :-))
From carolita:
*Bob Guyer* details a frightening analysis of our situation from Jared Diamond in bobswern's excellent, but equally terrifying, must-read diary On Peter Sutherland and Being Unfazed by Reality.
From RLMiller:
Timaeus' diary starts off snarky, but LaughingPlanet supersizes the snark to Biblical Proportions.
From LaughingPlanet:
I normally skip over the long, ugly swath of comments in reply to tip jars, but in one's own diary, it is harder to do. Today that resulted in catching this gem by DorothyT.
From Angie in WA State:
Because any comment that starts with the title: The Republicans Will Blame the Dinosaurs needs to be read. Especially when the author is JekyllnHyde. From Lawrence Lewis' diary Tell the People.
From trashablanca:
In a filter clogging trolly diary, Bouwerie Boy posts the perfect gif which illustrates how to clean up such diaries.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
baldheadeddork gets an amen from me. So does RLMiller in his reply.
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Top Mojo is as sweet as ever! As always, thanks to sardonyx and cskendrick for making the magic happen in my hands. :-)
Top 30 Comments excluding tip jars, first comments and stuff:
1) I'm amazed by the grace by in2mixin — 220
2) The administration ceeded control to BP by FishOutofWater — 181
3) Watching Countdown rerun right now by Dallasdoc — 155
4) That ship has sailed by Dallasdoc — 136
5) Thank you BDW. by christine20 — 129
6) She has transcended by stunzeed — 121
7) Because it's irrelevant? by nightsweat — 114
8) Sincerely, I hope Rachel survives this mess by Lize in San Francisco — 114
9) CBS News Reporters -- threatened with Arrest by jamess — 104
10) My thoughts exactly: by kitebro — 103
11) Damned right. by rb608 — 102
12) Prove it. by dance you monster — 92
13) We definitely needed this today, especially by OIL GUY — 86
14) on Countdown, Jonathan Alter said that by primarydoc — 85
15) Shame the military doesn't like him at all by James Robinson — 84
16) Thank you once again blackwaterdog by spiraldancer8 — 83
17) Thanks, I needed that today. by Nena20409 — 81
18) BP, Bush, and Cheney by JekyllnHyde — 80
19) Her sense of outrage is so authentic... by DorothyT — 80
20) first things first ... by jamess — 78
21) First, by brooklynbadboy — 78
22) We need reporters with some cojones by david78209 — 75
23) The "Cold and Detached" President by JekyllnHyde — 74
24) Corporate Super-Personhood by Mosquito Pilot — 72
25) saw POTUS speech live on TV - amazing by ericlewis0 — 71
26) I don't think Eugene Robinson is right, in by RLMiller — 69
27) Whats Obama doing by GlowNZ — 68
28) Thank you ! Pundits = Vuvuzelas by LaurenMonica — 68
29) For me by TexanJane — 67
30) She has years of pro Obama diaries by FishOutofWater — 65
Top 30 Comments with no exclusions, aka the Tip Jar & Pooties list :-):
1) Tip Jar by blackwaterdog — 554
2) Tip Jar by TexanJane — 402
3) Tip Jar by teacherken — 363
4) Tip Jar by Nashville fan — 328
5) Tip Jar by GlowNZ — 306
6) Tip Jar by Stranded Wind — 266
7) Don't you....forget about HIM. by LaughingPlanet — 249
8) Tip Jar by LaurenMonica — 235
9) I'm amazed by the grace by in2mixin — 222
10) The administration ceeded control to BP by FishOutofWater — 181
11) Tip Jar by bobswern — 174
12) Watching Countdown rerun right now by Dallasdoc — 155
13) While we struggle big corps hord record cash by FishOutofWater — 151
14) Tip Jar by RogerShuler — 144
15) Tip Jar by icebergslim — 140
16) That ship has sailed by Dallasdoc — 136
17) Thank you BDW. by christine20 — 131
18) She has transcended by stunzeed — 121
19) Tip Jar by Ojibwa — 120
20) Because it's irrelevant? by nightsweat — 114
21) Sincerely, I hope Rachel survives this mess by Lize in San Francisco — 114
22) CBS News Reporters -- threatened with Arrest by jamess — 104
23) My thoughts exactly: by kitebro — 103
24) Tip Jar by Liveblog — 102
25) Damned right. by rb608 — 102
26) The Criminal and the Scene of the Crime by JekyllnHyde — 95
27) Prove it. by dance you monster — 92
28) Tip the entire crew. by Tomtech — 86
29) We definitely needed this today, especially by OIL GUY — 86
30) on Countdown, Jonathan Alter said that by primarydoc — 85