There ARE pumpkin pie spice candles.

They did a study on the smells men find sexiest, and IIRC the number one fragrance was...baking cookies. (I'm sure there's a feminist joke in there somewhere.) But it seems to involve vanilla plus cinnamon and things like clove and nutmeg. Since I like those smells too, this works for me. (And my husband, who'd really rather I'd baked chocolate chip cookies than sprayed them on my neck, but this is because he's a cookiehound, not a sexist oinker.)

Has anyone ever seen the Aromatherapy Interventions candles? Those are gag gifts, with names like "co-dependent," "lighten up,and "chill out." I think they're hysterical. Going to try to get some for gift exchanges this year.

I was a bit slow on the uptake there, comes of not posting until your coffee break.

Damn. I think Palin is a really good choice. I was hoping he'd pick somebody really awful. Well, he might pick up some of the Hillary supporters...you know, the ones who are showing support by ignoring her specific stated wishes...?

A plane from Alaska arrived in Hook Field in Middletown this morning (a tiny airstrip ~24 miles from the Nutter.)(and less than 5 miles from me.) Unless it's deliberate misinformation, it looks rather like a certain Governor from Alaska is sneaking into Dayton for the afternoon.

Just sayin.

RIRedinPA:

"How was the rookie cop in Tampa who said he thought Bush should be shot in the head and he'd be happy to do it to his dry cleaner more of a viable threat than these guys?"

I have no idea. If you think I'm going to defend THAT one, I'm not. Nor do I think the guys in FL should have been rounded up. I'm assuming that most "false positives" are politically motivated (politically because someone hates Arabs, or politically because someone wants to run for DA or sheriff next year, or some other reason.) I assume "false negatives" are rare, because who doesn't want to get elected (or at least laid) on the story of foiling an assassination attempt? I'm sure they let go of those dreams only reluctantly.

FilthyHarry: no, actually, threatening to kill someone isn't actionable per se. Look at Rebecca Schaeffer, who was killed by a nutcase stalker. He told EVERYONE that he was going to kill her when he got out of jail. Hell, I think he told his PAROLE OFFICER that. It wasn't that they didn't believe he'd try, but they couldn't do anything about it, because it was still talking, no action. They couldn't even stop him from taking a bus to her town. That, obviously, turned out very badly, but technically he hadn't done anything illegal up to that point.

They take threats to the president a hell of a lot more seriously, and yeah, I think they drag you in a lot earlier than they would if you threatened to kill your next-door neighbor.

I also think that some of you are being sarcastic, some are generalizing to make a political point, but a few of you are right off the Reason Magazine website. The conspiracy theories are amusing, but improbable.

These guys are trained to recognize a credible threat from a bunch of mouthy losers. Thank God. They don't have to waste time on a bunch of methheads (sp?) and can go looking for real threats to Obama.

That's what they get paid a civil servant salary for.

I can guess how many of you are thanking God for the fact that making jokes about Cheney going hunting with W and Rummy doesn't get you a jail term for conspiracy.

This was a media tempest in a teapot, handled exactly correctly by professionals.

Ah, the LW has just discovered the dirty little secret of marriage. When I went through this same thing (at somewhere around 3 1/2 years) I felt better when my marriage counselor told me how common it was. And since then, I've heard and seen it time and time again. It happens more often than people realize or will tell you.

So I'll say what I've had to say to a friend of mine recently: THIS IS THE POP QUIZ. It's worth at least half your marital grade. It's open book, for the same reason any test is open book. You can talk to as many people as you care to, but when it comes down to it, you're the only one who can answer the big question. You have to learn to communicate with your husband, and both of you need to get over your tightly-held resentments and figure out how to function as "we" instead of "me" and "me." A good counselor can help a lot with this, but fundamentally you'll be the one to do the work.

I've certainly seen really unhappy relationships break up (including abusive oens), but over and over again I've seen people who really should have made it break up because they just couldn't turn a "me" into a "we." And that breaks my heart as well.

PS My counselor said that most of those marriages that break up, do so before the 5-year mark, and if you can tough it out for 5 years the divorce rate drops dramatically. I haven't checked those figures myself, but anecdotally I'd say that ws about right.

PPS. Everyone will tell you it's work, it's hard. And I've also seen people get scared off by those words. Actually, once you make the choices as a couple, it's remarkably easy.