yeah, that's, uh... that's him, all right.

Big thanks to spacechild, Holly, themadhatter26, Vangie, and fishymcb for coming over here and keeping this boy company.

And a special big thanks to bloo_mountain for calling me up, and offering her phone line open at all times. That really means a lot, coming from her. And so, by way of thanks, I offer you this, Bloo:



SHOE!!!

Also, big thanks to fiveseconddelay, who came over for movies. He brought THE SHOOTIST (John Wayne gets cancer and has an existential crisis) and even bought THE FOUNTAIN (Rachel Weitz gets cancer and Hugh Jackman has an existential crisis), knowing that it's one of my favorite films and the film I most wanted to see that night. But my stupid old DVD player was screwing up with it, so we couldn't watch it after all. That really upset me.

So instead we watched BUBBA HO-TEP (Elvis gets cancer and has an existential crisis... also, a mummy is involved). He'd never seen it before. A good time was had by all.



And trust me, guys... I needed the lift, especially yesterday.

You see, I went to the funeral home to sign the authorization for cremation. While there, the director informed me that, legally, the body still had to be identified. He said that Nita said that she'd be willing to do it, if I didn't want to. I had no idea this would have to be done at all, much less asked of me, and I had just a few seconds to make my decision.

( So I said yes. I'll do it. )

But don't worry, folks. I'll end this particularly grim chapter on an amusing note.

Mere minutes after I got the news on Friday, I told Mom, and we held each other, crying. In came Gordon, my stepfather, who asked, in his stern, authoritarian way, "Hey, what's going on here?"

I said, "Dad died."

Seriously now, he said, "Oh?"

Mom said, "I've lost a husband."

Gordon thought about this for a second, then said, "Well, won't be the last time," and walked out.

We burst out laughing. Good ol' Gordon.