Gossissippi

Psst! I have some hot gossip that I have to share here because I don't have any friends at my new job who would appreciate this...

A's brother M (who is short-term working for A until he takes the Bar) negotiated a deal with a girl's dad (the girl was there) last week, and M, as always, wrote his cell number on his biz card. The girl thought she was being picked up, and so she called him and they went out on a date last night. This would be a cute story except that he is 28 and she is 19, and at first I was all judgemental about the fact that he was taking advantage of a young (but legal) girl in order to fill his 7-months-since-the-big-breakup void. Then I met the girl when they post-dinner'd at our house and she was

• chugging beers like only someone underage would do on a Sunday night. (At the end of the evening, we actually served her a frozen lemon-lime gatorade and told her it was a margarita! HA!)
• dumb. (There was an entire hilarious exchange when she was asking about the rules of Washers about whether it's better to get it in the Box or get it in the Can, and it totally went over her head.)

They disappeared into our house for about 30 minutes, and although I don't think M sealed the deal, I am sure he at least got a little rubbing.

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On a related note, does your man share gossip with you? I always feel like I have to force stuff out of Alex because he still holds such Secret Loyalty for his brother. Then, once he spills it, he gets all nervous that I will slip that I know, and tells me like a hundred times not to say anything about it to anyone. I know guys don't gossip like girls do, but I thought that it was a Girlfriend Privilege to get the news.

Sock Soup

Coconut was spayed on Thursday, and you'd never know it based on how she's been running around. Alex's dad and brother were over on Sunday night, and they had her zipping in circles around the yard. I warned Alex that the vet said she shouldn't be running like that, and that she is supposed to be on a leash at all times outside for the next two weeks, but his response was, "Look at her! She feels fine!"

Monday morning, she woke up with a huge knot behind her incision. I called the vet's office last night, and the receptionist told me to put warm compresses on it for 10-minute intervals, and to call back to schedule an appointment if it doesn't go down. Anyway, I tried. I couldn't find any clean washcloths, so I took an old sock, soaked it, dropped it in a pyrex measuring cup, and threw it in the microwave. However, what the receptionist didn't tell me was how to get a 5-1/2 month old terrier to sit still for 10 minutes while attempting to hold a warm compress on her shaved belly. If you have suggestions other than, "hand-feed her treats for the entire 10 minutes," they are welcome.

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It's no secret: I don't really cook. Occasionally I will run across a recipe that seems like it might be worth its while, and of those occasions, even fewer result in actual This-Was-Worth-It cooking. Most of my dinners (I eat alone except for about twice a week) are comprised of pasta or boil-in-bag rice and some sort of once-frozen protein (tonight: rice and Archer Farms garlic & herb shrimp), or a long list of unhealthy snack foods that eventually result in me not really being hungry enough to cook a meal (last night: string cheese, orange cranberry muffin, Halloween candy, a couple bites of leftover and probably-not-good-anymore lo mein, Finding Nemo fruit snacks).

My classroom aide is about my mom's age. However, while my mom was growing up in a household with two working parents and either cooking dinner for her family or fending for herself, my aide was growing up in a house with 9 siblings and a mom whose sole purpose was to "make home" for her family. There is definitely nothing wrong with either scenario, but I think the difference just helps to explain why I prefer Easy, and my aide prefers Less Expensive. And also why she still does her 25-year-old son's laundry, but whatever.

That said, she gives me a very hard time about my pre-cooked, pre-prepared (er, I guess the "pre" is already in the "prepared," but you know what I mean) preferences. When I mentioned that I might buy a precooked turkey for thanksgiving, she said, "why doesn't that surprise me?" And then tried to argue with me about how much better home-cooked turkey would be. (To which I responded 1. The side dishes are the main event anyway, and 2. My family ate Thanksgiving dinner in a restaurant last year because there were so few of us, so what's the difference?)

I guess my point is, why "slave away in the kitchen?" If you think of it as slaving, then you are not having fun. If you enjoy it, then by all means, go for it (and then invite me over)! But if I want to spend more on precooked bacon because I value my time (time that will not be spent standing in front of a popping, messy skillet, and then having to clean up the greasy mess later) more than my money, whose business is it to judge me?

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While reading another blog, I was pointed in the direction of this site, which I find "hilarious." It makes me want to put quotes around "everything." Also, it "inspired" me to buy "this book." I am "enjoying" it thoroughly, and also using it to procrastinate reading Pride & Prejudice for book club. I am not "proud" to admit, I have a "prejudice" against the "classics." Oooh that was painful.