Bastet

I am always so tickled by the random stuff that gets offered and taken on Freecycle. I'll see an offer post for something seemingly useless, with a note like, "I have no idea what someone might do with this, but in case there's someone out there who can re-purpose it," and then a taken post with a note saying, "This has been picked up, and will be turned into X" and I just get the biggest grin. I still smile thinking about hodgepodge of things I offered at the tail end of cleaning out my grandpa's house - some bamboo posts, part of a light fixture, etc. - and the update photo the person who picked them up sent me, showing the cool items she'd transformed them into.

I've been using Freecycle to give things away for years, and mostly have good luck but have definitely endured some flakes. And on some big ticket items, too. It's bad enough when someone flakes on buying something from you, but when you're giving them something, especially an expensive item, and they don't show? And then don't follow up with an "I'm sorry, here's what happened, can I still pick up?" email? Or when they know damn well it's something I can't just leave out for porch pick-up and have thus stayed home to hand over? It's ridiculous, and they permanently go on my "not even if you were the only person who responded" list. Also, the people who ask for every.freakin'.thing I offer. You're either a) a hoarder, in which case I feel sorry for you but am not enabling you, b) someone who's scooping up inventory to sell at your swap meet booth even though that violates the rules, in which case get stuffed, or c) just a greedy twit, in which case see b. The flip side of that is the people who post unending "Wanted" requests, for basically an entire life worth of expensive stuff. That's obnoxious enough on a gift registry (the acceptability of "I'm getting married, so please furnish my home" is just lost on me), but at least that goes out to friends and family. Asking random strangers in your city is another level.

It's a great show, and Adam is a good character.

That has been a recurring bug. There's a thread in the Bugs forum where Dave asks for info from those who get it, to try and pin down what's causing it.

Was she parked outside the lines of her spot, or just in a way that didn't leave you the extra clearance you need? Because it's unlikely I would happen to look at the sticker on your window, so I wouldn't know you needed extra space. So if she parked within the lines (just crooked within the allotted space), I don't think you can fault her for that (the parking itself, not the attitude), because maybe she didn't see the sticker, either. But if she took up more than her space, screw her. A friend was just complaining to me about her neighbors doing (or not doing) the same thing, saying it happens all the time. My response was, "So why do you keep waving at them?" Don't get me wrong, I agree it's rude to completely ignore someone who offers a friendly wave. I just don't know why she keeps doing it, when she knows the neighbor isn't going to respond. That is really weird! If they don't trust him to be alone in the house for some reason, they should have someplace for him to stay between school letting out and them getting home on the days when the weather makes it uncomfortable for him to just hang out in the porch/yard. That they seem to have something like that set up for the other teen really makes me wonder what's going on with that kid. I wonder if he get kicked out of something, or mouthed off about what they had arranged. You now have me oddly curious about why this kid can't go in the house.

I think sometimes there's a chemistry between two actors that sparks the imagination of a potential romance, even though the characters aren't written that way. (Expecting it to happen on the show, rather than just thinking about it as some sort of alternate universe in your mind, is another step.) I also think there's a very real effect of conditioning, by society at large and TV in general, to devalue friendships and professional partnerships as compared to romantic pairings. I'm not much of a shipper. I have enjoyed some shows where the whole point is to root for the characters to get together romantically and watch how they get there, but in general I find friendships and office dynamics more interesting than romantic relationships so I'm more drawn to shows that focus on those. And it follows that in those shows centered around platonic relationships, it's rare for me to start imagining a romantic relationship between the characters even though they're not written that way. In fact, I'm usually opposed; for example, I loved Elliot and Olivia's partnership on SVU and would have been incredibly ticked off had the writers suddenly gone down the sexual tension road.

I'm the same way. Moonlighting permanently cured me of the idea that if I'd already spent years watching, I should go ahead and stick it out to the end even though I no longer liked the show. As I've said ever since, once entertainment ceases to entertain me, I'm done.

Oh, yes. On the Nextdoor group for my neighborhood, barely a week goes by without someone posting to ask for housekeeper recommendations. It's ridiculous; just click on "Housekeeper/Maid Service" and read the recommendations from the umpteen times they've been posted in recent months. And speaking of annoying posting habits, Nextdoor has but seven categories (although Recommendations has a ton of subcategories). These include a Classifieds section for sales and the aforementioned Recommendations sections for recommending/soliciting a recommendation for local businesses and services. Yet, time after time, people advertise their garage sale or ask for a gardener recommendation in General instead. This is not hard, people! I could be here all day with Nextdoor peeves, but I'll limit myself to one more. One of the rules is to communicate via private message, rather than posting to the newsfeed, when it's a private conversation, such as responding to someone's classified ad. But time after time, people reply to the group. If the ad has been posted to nearby neighborhoods, you can be flooding thousands of people's inbox (and cluttering up the archive) with shit like, "Is it still available?"

I simply cannot abide jealousy, and have little patience for people who make stupid relationship decisions in general, so I'd have never been able to have a productive conversation with Cristina -- knowing how inept I'd have been, I was all the more impressed with how her parents and, especially, Rachel handled it. Because, come on! You have to ask my permission before becoming friends with a woman? Women have to ask my permission before speaking to my fiancé? I got my knickers in a twist, so I'm going to carry my ring around to make sure people notice, and then you have to stage a public proposal - again - before I'll put it back on? Yeah, you're ready to get married.

I've only blocked out snoring (a noise that makes me homicidal), not a backhoe, but in my limited experience silicone ear plugs work exponentially better than foam; they seem denser and more pliable, so that they truly seal off the opening and block the sound.

I guess it's not all that different than the bustier as outerwear trend from the early '90s, and I looked up what I think is the commercial in question online and they look like lacy bikini tops. And there are situations in which it's perfectly fine to walk around in a bikini top and shorts/skirt, so I guess it also works to wear one of these things under certain circumstances and the commercial didn't show anyone wearing these to work or anything like that. It just seems like an odd ad campaign, though.

Glenn was the one who joined the house later, and was the lead singer (I think) of a band -- Perch? That's all I can remember about him.

Last season, we learned Megan has never even met some (all?) of her half-siblings, and it's been pretty clear the dad's involvement in her life has been limited since he left. In that group meeting about arranging for the kids' care after the parents die, Kris was sad about the fact when she's gone, Megan's care will be up to the system. Megan's dad saying his other family will take care of her is probably pure bullshit. Cristina's parents are not only great with her, they were very good with Rachel, too. They thanked her for talking with Cristina and then bringing the issue to their attention, and they defused the situation when Rachel started to get a little upset.

Is that really the exterior paint color? The grey inside is one thing, but that exterior looks like stucco that is only at the brown coat stage. My parents' next-door neighbors recently renovated their home with a grey exterior, and it looks great; I don't automatically hate a grey house. That El Monte house, however, looks like ass from the outside. Even for El Monte.

I really can't take seriously a list that labels innocuous people "the worst" and Puck one of the ten best on the apparent theory it's better to be memorably awful than mundane.

I have really liked Rachel, and Cristina's parents, since the beginning, and that was on full display tonight when they shut Cristina's shit down. I missed a little something with Angel's parents; his mom said she didn't give birth to him, but he's her baby -- is he adopted, or is she a stepmom? Kris continues to impress me with how she talks to Megan about her father (who is so here for the cameras).

That's fantastic; Blue Smoke made the first time she'd been in the top ten since the late '80s, and it's so great to see her follow up with a return to the very top.

The squad made a video for Brenda and Fritz's wedding; that's the only one I can think of.

I have only heard the caution to wait until later on neutering with regard to truly large-breed dogs. But since I'm a cat person, my knowledge comes only from reading discussion on pet forums over the years, not personal research or conversations with my own vet. It's a risk to adopt out unaltered pets with a contract requiring the new owner to get it done, rather than spaying/neutering before the pet transfers from shelter to owner. I know you'll have it done, at whatever age you and your vet decide is appropriate, but too many people don't. I can't wait to hear about who you wind up adopting.

Yeah, what is that? Are they taught in drama school or something? I have a peeve about weak handshakes to begin with, and an extra one about the ones you describe -- where it should be a normal handshake, but they turn their hand over. And pretty much every single person who's done it to me is a female actor.

Minus the continued obsession with making drastic changes in every character's life (and accelerating romantic relationships to warp speed), so that as the show ends no one will still be doing the things that made me interested in watching them all these years, this was a more old-school episode than I've seen in a while. The case made little sense, but Maura and Jane had more than two scenes together and felt like best friends. Among this final stretch of episodes, the bar is set so low that's enough to make me breathe a sigh of relief.

A video sounds like a cute, fluffy thing that would irritate me in most finales yet would feel right for this show. I wish the past several episodes hadn't made me think the finale is going to suck, so I could look forward to this. Alas, time will tell.

Before Labor Day, nothing - I can't deal with it any time before Thanksgiving.

It annoys me that pumpkin starts showing up in everything every October, including beer. Pumpkin this, pumpkin that. Go away! (I know, I know -- all I have to do is not eat/drink it. It just annoys me that for an entire month pretty much all the food and drink specials everywhere involve pumpkin.)

I'm fine with the commercials (those I've seen, anyway) for the same reason -- there are parents out there denying their kids this safe, effective, and potentially life-saving vaccine solely because of some twisted notion it endorses teenage sex, and, while I may very well be wrong on this, I take the ads as aimed at them. I think they should feel guilty if their offspring winds up with health problems caused by HPV because s/he wasn't vaccinated during the appropriate window, then went on to have sex at some point in her/his life as 99 percent of the human race does and wound up being infected with HPV as nearly 80 percent of those 99 percent are. We, my friends and colleagues, talk about this vaccine in my social circle, about how we wish it had existed when we were young. To think of kids today who have the chance to avoid this oh-so-common virus that is usually harmless but can be so awful for those who aren't on the lucky side of that statistic, who are denied that protection -- yeah, bring on these commercials.