_Things I've Learned from Women Who've Dumped Me_, ed Ben Karlin

I. picked this up at Willow Books, read it and left it for me since I'd expressed an interest. I was hoping for something along the lines of _Bastard on the Couch_. _Bastard_ was a companion to _Bitch in the House_, which was conceived by a woman writer who as a new mother noticed she was really, really, really angry at her husband a lot -- and so were all her friends who were new mothers (angry at _their_ husbands, that is). It was an amazing, entertaining and enlightening opportunity to hear several sides of the effects of a bomb going off in a relationship, that is to say, the arrival of a new baby, particularly the first one. Generally, by the second and later children, people have run out of time and energy to write and communicate, so you're just not going to get the details out of them.

_Things_ is not as clearly True Stories. Sure, some of them almost certainly are (pretty close to) the raw truth of a painful dumping told by the dumpee, including the Moral of the Tale. A lot of them are really humorous, unfortunately, the funny ones are less obviously detailed and/or believable. Expectably, we get (yet again), Dan Savage's story of how he learned he wasn't going to be able to live the closeted life he had planned. One of the not very funny but pretty believable entries is by a guy who says he's never been dumped (doesn't count the on-again-off-again mutual dumping of the high school girlfriend), but expects to be divorced some. Painful. That and another entry emphasize the importance of dumping to drill into a guy's head What Not to Do (and whose advice not to take). Odenkirk's 9 year relationship entry is chilling but hilarious in a thank-you-for-that-not-being-me way.

I got it free; I would have paid kindle or used for it. I'm not sure I would have paid new. Grab a copy from the library. It's a quick read, judging by how fast I. and I both got through it.

Toddler Fun: yellow Little People school bus

He's been doing with the bus what he does with everything with wheels: drive it around on the floor. I've taken to singing "The wheels on the bus go round and round...". Today, he started singing it, too. The tune is readily recognizable; the words much less so.

today's activities included: receiving a letter and acting upon it

Specifically, we got the promised letter from the pediatric neurologist. The next step was to identify who/what/where to contact to deliver the letter and line up the prescribed therapies. Fortunately, in Today's Wired World, the appropriate person and organization were (a) online and (b) answering e-mail on a Saturday. Having established that I'm in contact with the appropriate person, we're now negotiating when we meet.

R. and T. went down to Acton after buying a double futon mattress. R. set up the futon at the new house and then installed one or more toilet paper holder/towel rack/shower curtain rods. Meanwhile, I assembled a list of what we need to move to "camp" in the new house (some of which has already moved -- this would be the list of what _else_ we need, where need is defined as easy to move and very desirable).

I also found out how much transfer station stickers cost in Acton and e-mailed a request for a quote for curbside pickup from Waste Management. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to contact any other haulers for a competitive quote. I guess it'll depend on what WM says.

The fridge is looking mighty empty. I foresee grocery shopping tomorrow.

early detection of cancer commentary at Newsweek

http://www.newsweek.com/id/191428

by Sharon Begley.

Quite shockingly good. This worries me, because I typically am very unimpressed by Begley.