Aw, the Star Tribune printed my letter!

Dr. George Tiller was murdered today.

My heart goes out to those who will be affected by this tragedy -- Dr. Tiller's family and friends, and also his patients.

Maria had a little girls night at her house yesterday evening. Everyone brought food, and it was delicious. After dinner we built a fire in the portable firepit that she and Jason have and sat around on the patio in her backyard drinking and talking.

As the night progressed, we grew more and more, um, adventurous with the fire. And by that I mean that we started piling on the wood and, later, when the wood ran out, the scrap cardboard, like there was no tomorrow. This culminated with Kristen, Jessica, and I standing in front of a small but raging inferno that nearly set the patio umbrella on fire.

I managed to use the garden hose to soak the umbrella and drive the flames away from it, though now that I think about it in the cold, sober light of day I can see that probably a more sensible course of action would have been to extinguish the fire itself.

But then we would have been cold.

I love xkcd.

I accidentally fixed my sewing machine.

No, really. The bobbin winder was being a huge pain in the ass and not working, and I got so frustrated that I just started taking it apart. While this was a very bad idea and I do not recommend it to you if you are having bobbin-winder troubles, it actually ended up working out for the best. The problem apparently had to do with the lack of tension in a spring that I angrily unscrewed/unhooked. I had to spend an excruciating fifteen minutes replacing it, but while the process left my forefingers a little mangled (tiny springs and wires are sharp!), it apparently increased the tension to an appropriate level. Yay!

Moral of the story: Sometimes doing something stupid helps.

Now back to sewing. I am making this blouse for my mom's birthday, which is tomorrow. I have some gorgeous fabric that I bought at Crafty Planet, and I'm excited to see how it turns out. I think it's going to be pretty.

I wasn't able to get her measurements, and I am a little nervous about it fitting properly. It's hard to casually measure someone, you know? "OH HI MOM! Can I measure your bustline? Oh, no reason. Just curious, you know."

I guess the smart thing to do would have been to sneakily measure some of her clothing, but as you can see from the above example, that's just not my style.

I am very full of Easter dinner. We used to go to my grandparent's house on Easter -- we'd hit The Good Shepherd for mass and then walk back to their house for a gigantic brunch. However, as the years have passed, we have grown less pious and my grandmother (sadly) has become less able to host a houseful of people. So this year, like the last few, we had Easter at my parents' house, sans churchgoing.

My mom made the traditional ham, which I did not sample (though the pineapple glaze on it looked and smelled very tasty). She also made a delicious potato dish and a raw veggie salad, and I ate plenty of both. (Possibly a bit too much of the potato dish.)

I made a marble cake with chocolate glaze for dessert. I used this recipe for the cake, and this one for the glaze.

It came out beautifully, though I got started a little late and had to glaze the cake layers while they were still a bit hot, and the glaze got a little melty and slippery. If I do it again, I'll allow enough time for the cake to cool fully.

Now I'm relaxing and half-watching The Departed with my dad. I say half-watching because a) he keeps flipping channels and b) I am distracted by my ongoing and increasingly obsessive search for Silky Underwear Solid Perfume. It's a discontinued Lush product, and I love it so, so much. I currently have two little tins of it, one that I bought at the Lush store at the Mall of America a while ago, before it was discontinued, and one that I recently purchased on eBay. I'm contemplating buying yet another tin on eBay, just in case. I live in hope that one day it will show up on Lush's Retro page, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

ETA: Okay, I've just bought not one but TWO tins of Silky Underwear on eBay. I think I might be set now.

It's been almost a month since I rejoined the Y and I can confidently say that it was the best thing I've done for myself in a really long time.  I've been going to classes four nights a week and it's wonderful, just wonderful.  I feel strong and healthy again.

Also, I have been asked by Maria to solicit your very best fart stories.  Normally I wouldn't indulge her like this (it only encourages her unrealistic expectations) but I also love fart stories and have thoroughly enjoyed the ones people shared on my last entry.

So as well as being a paean to the YWCA, this entry is an open call for your very best fart stories.  (Anonymous commenting is enabled, so you can leave an anonymous fart story if you're so inclined.)  Ready?  Go!

Tonight in my Pilates class, someone farted while we were doing Hundreds and I almost lost it entirely.

I know that most people would likely feel a bit embarrassed about having farted in a setting like that, and would feel worse if another class member burst into hysterical giggling immediately afterward. There's no graceful way to say "Hey, I'm not laughing at you, or laughing in a mean 'OMG, Becky, that person over there farted, gross'-type way at all. I'm laughing because I think farting is funny, that's all" and I didn't want to make anyone feel bad, so I held it together and did not laugh.

But I think that my Herculean effort not to laugh might have strained something. My abs are really, really sore.

Poll #1379402
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Do you think farting is funny?

For those disheartened and/or disgusted by yesterday's entry, there is good news: George Tiller has been acquitted of all charges!