1. Also raining buckets here, and very, very windy. I generally love rain, but I'm so tired of it at this point. Another big storm is supposed to come in day after tomorrow.
2. Headed out of town for a night this weekend. I haven't left the city limits since January 1, so it'll be good to get away.
3. My pants are still wet from walking from the bus to the building this morning. I'm going to take off in an hour or so, without ever having had the chance to dry out.
4. There is no four.

(Sorry, that wasn't in the full spirit of things. tangerine, I meant to come across as empathizing with your weather. Aren't you sick of it? Here's hoping you don't float away and you and Crosbie stay warm and dry.)

1. Tangerine, are they red rain boots or red cowboy boots or some other kind of boots? I need to know.

2. Looking forward to the first Triangle meetup in a while, and it's even during my birthday week!

3. Also looking forward to going to the Elephant 6 Holiday Party show on Saturday. I have no idea what to expect but it'll be entertaining for sure.

4. It's been a slow week at work and I'm super bored right now. I need new websites to visit!

1. I have often thought I would enjoy red boots. So much more fun than black. Beverly Cleary writes about that in one of the Ramona books.

2. Still feeling tired and overworked and unenthusiastic. Having trouble getting myself to lift weights so these days I run/walk on the treadmill for 3 miles or so every day and watch the cartoon Phineas and Ferb (highly recommended).

3. Went to the eye doctor this week. My eyeballs are in great shape but when I get new glasses they will probably have to be bifocals. *sigh*

4. Starting to wonder if Maine has had enough of me and I should up sticks and go . . . somewhere.

JL, I totally love that show too! Also, don't feel bad about bifocals, I started wearing them when I was 8.

1. Red boots! I think I need a pair of bright red boots, or bright purple boots. You have spurred me to this thought JUST IN TIME: my favorite boots are finally starting to wear out and I need new ones. I'll look for a bright color this time.

2. Eating romesco sauce and hummus in fresh warm pita bread. I love making pita --- every single time, it's like a little gasp of magic to watch those rounds puff up!

3. Looking at a bunch of daffodils (which I bought myself) and a bunch of bright red ranunculus (which my sister gave me). I so rarely splurge on flowers, and I forget how much pleasure they give me. Ranunculus is my favorite flower. It means "little frog."

4. JanetLand, do you ever get down Portland-way? Maybe a change of scenery would brighten your view. I'd love to meet you, too!

Sneaking this in to answer leesh's question: these boots, only they're not so upstanding any more and are squished down around my stubby calves.

Cute!

(Also empathizing with mudpups's wet legs, JanetLand's ennui. Envying Elsa her pita, and wishing I had links to offer leesh.)

RAAAAAARRR, red cowboy boots! I used to have a pair of sizzling-fuschia cowboy boots. I wore them with EV. RY. THING. I wore them until I wore holes in the soles. I loved those boots.

1. Leesh, Triangle meetup? Somehow I missed that over on the gray. When is it?

2. Metafilter is being wonky for me today, anyone else having problems?

3. I had so much blood drawn this morning, they had to take it out of BOTH arms. My left arm looks like I got punched repeatedly.

4. Met an old friend's wife for the first time today and I enjoyed her company instantly. They are visiting from Brazil, and are planning on moving to the area so the husband can go to school and the wife can learn English. We don't have the heart to tell them just yet that we are moving BACK to Brazil right about the time they are moving here....

msali, they're on IRL now--you can sign up to be notified if there's an event near you--it's on the 8th. When are you moving?

Found it Leesh, I'm gonna come! My husband will be out of town that night, so hopefully I'll catch a ride with Thivaia.

We are going to move some time in July, maybe early August. We haven't gotten tickets yet. Who's gonna come visit me in Brazil? Balneário-Camboriu, to be exact.

Awesome! And I totally won't punk out this time, it's less than 5 minutes from where I live.

Elsa -- maybe we should set up a Portland meetup.

Great idea! The first half of April is a muddle for us at the moment, but is there a time that looks good for you?

1. I am still mad at my sister and have been thinking all day about her poor little dog bleeding to death internally. Tomorrow I will call the RSPCA and see if there's anything they can do, after the fact.

2. I am still feeling sick but have dosed myself up with ibuprofen, vitamin C and zinc, enough that I could get through the day at work and then go to ...

3. The Ideal Home Show!!! It closes tomorrow, it was open until late and was only £5 to go in after 5pm. I bought:

- a new shower head that is guaranteed not to scale up;

- a kit to help you make your own nori rolls;

- a spiffy new whisk, which was two for the price of one - I already know who I'm giving the other whisk to;

- a fab hairbrush that doesn't tangle your hair yet allows you to give it body when you blow-dry it;

- a lovely cheese, made in Sussex, which is a bit like Brie but not as pungent;

- sausages! Lovely sausages!

4. Sausages are cooking as we speak, for my dinner. I will have them with tomato ketchup.

1. I set my alarm for 8am this morning. I woke up 1pm. Stupid jetlag. It's good I have nothing to do today.

2. It was bright and sunny when I woke up. It looks like it's about to rain now.

3. Every night I lay in bed waiting for the supposed earthquake the Pacific Northwest is supposed to get any day now. I hope the house I'm in can take it.

4. I've been building an emergency kit, because I didn't have one in Japan. The guys at REI said that everyone else is doing the same, and that they run out of emergency supplies as soon as they get them in.

1. I love red boots too!

2. I'm skeered to get my eyes checked but I'm doing it next week.

3. Ranunculus are one of my very favourite flowers and now I know it means "little frog"!

4. I will happily strangle Senyar's sister if I ever see her in the flesh again.

Elsa -- pretty much any day at all works for me.

JanetLand, I might suggest we make it sometime in the second half of April, if that works for you. I hope my own schedule will settle down then, and that the unsettle-able part will at least be mapped out.

Are weekends better for you? If we can meet in Portland proper (say, Old Port or downtown), I can do either weekends or weekdays, but I suspect we'll have more takers if it's a weekend.

I've also sent out a bat-signal to a couple of people who might want to chime in on the planning. Really looking forward to meeting you in person, JL!

Oh, but I meant to say: if sooner works better for others, then set a date and I'll do my best to make it!

1. Had a pre-doc eye appointment today to get scanned, so my eyes are all wonky (dilated). Wish there were drops to undilate me eyeballs.

2. Gorgeous weather the past two days - 15C/60F. Heaters are turned off and windows are open! The only negative is the fresh air sends Oliver into a tizzy and he's quite annoying at the moment.

3. The mister has made it a week without going back into afib, yay!

4. I ♥ red boots/shoes/etc. I'd love to get a pair of Converse high tops in red.

I've been slowing building an emergency kit for our family of 5 for the last year. We live in tornado country. The item I'm most puzzled by is prescription drugs. How am I supposed to get together a weeks worth of meds for each family member, including pets! and also make sure they don't expire and the dosage etc stays up to date? So complicated.

Our 12-year old dachshund died last weekend. I'd like to smack Senyar's sister.

I've been ill for days. So sick of snot.

Where's that blanket fort??

1. I have a gaudy as fuck pair of purple rain boots with cupcakes on them. I wear them to work unashamed (even though the boys thing they're hilarious). Do not fear the bold boots.

2. I've successfully finished week 1 of Couch 2 5K. Aside from a slight hiccup on the first day (running to the week 2 playlist), feeling like I was sneaking about on the second day (running in the dark and then juuuuuuust as the sun started to come up), and today (running on the park trails and scaring the shit out of a deer that scared the shit out of me too)--I think I can do this. (I'm on Nike+, if anyone wants to friend me.)

3. I have purchased ingredients for smoothie making. Including whey powder because I think some of my tiredness might be due to a lack of protein. I just attempted to make the "orange sunrise" smoothie I used to always get at Lyco and I think I went too heavy on the OJ and it wasn't quite thick enough. (I only have the ingredients: orange juice, orange sherbet, pineapple, strawberries, and bananas, but not the proportions. I'm trying to make it off memory. I think I might've needed more banana, but I'm afraid of overpowering it with banana because I don't care for them.)

4. I'm trying to decide if I want to go to a "Wicca 101" thing at The Crystal Fox this weekend. I think I'm fairly well versed, but it might be nice to get to know some other people so I don't feel quite so isolated, especially considering the fact that I'm hiding in the broom closet from my family.

How am I supposed to get together a weeks worth of meds for each family member, including pets! and also make sure they don't expire and the dosage etc stays up to date?

Would this work: buy two weekly pillboxes (big ones, the kind designed for arthritic fingers; I've seen them at the dollar store, so you might be able to find 'em on the cheap) and some of those teeny tiny plastic ziploc bags (I find these at craft stores).

Write each med-requiring family member's name on seven tiny bags. Put each person's daily dosage of ALL meds in one bag, and put the bags in the respective daily slots of ONE pill box. (For example, in a family of five people and a dog all taking prescrip meds, the Monday slot would contain six envelopes.) Now you have a pillbox with everyone's meds all in one place, but they aren't mingled.

Every six months or so (or however often the fastest-expiring drugs require it, or whenever your family's changing medical needs require it), you rotate that pillbox: fill the second pillbox in the same fashion with current meds, put it in your emergency kit. Pull out the stored pillbox and use those packaged meds as the current daily dosage for a week.

It sounds complicated, but it actually seems like it would work pretty well in practice... though it only works for shelf-stable solids, not for liquids or perishables.

I know it violates the rule that you always keep prescriptions and instructions together, but in a true emergency, you might be grateful to have them all in one place. You could even include scanned-and-reduced printouts of the instructions/bottle labels, if you're that organized.

1. the support.dell.com site is uber-sucky and will not load. the contact page to tell dell that the page won't load also will not load. Dell - you suck.

2. Maine had some nice weather for several days, including being clear for viewing the Big Fat Supermoon. Now it is cold again, snowing again. Warm sunshine - you rock my world.

3. Carpenter came by this morning to make a punchlist of tasks for finishing some work in the kitchen. This could be very nice.

4. Work continues to be awful, in a tl;dr way. Lawyer-ing-up awful. Documenting everything awful. Work - you suck.

If there is meeting-up, I would love to participate.

1. A friend of mine once told me her mom always said: "Red shoes, no knickers." Not sure if it applies to boots.

2. Recovering from dental mayhem this morning. I have an above-average tolerance for Novocaine!

3. Looking forward to a (mostly) unscheduled weekend.

4. After I manage to get through work tomorrow...

JoanArkham, that just makes me want red boots all the more.

1. Home sick today with a migraine.

2. Took the opportunity to watch some things that were languishing on my DVR, including the Masterpiece Classic (originally BBC, I think) 2-part series Small Island. It was really good. I've put the book on my 'to-read' list.

3. Mac and cheese for lunch.

4. I would love to attend a Maine meetup.

Okay, the attempt at a Maine meetup is here.

1. I had red shoes once; my mom got them for me for my birthday (like my 40th birthday or something, this was not one of those things where I was all cute and tiny and saying shooooooooooooes all day) and they were adorable, or so I think, because the dog who was a puppy then ate them that night. Well, you cannot have both new shoes and puppies and now I have black rain boots with tattoo designs on them that are extraordinarily slick so that is all okay.

2. As of this week I am a cashier at a large giant chain of home improvement stores and today was my first afternoon on the register. I think I did okay and actually if my knees hold up I might kind of like this job. If I figure it out and don't screw up so horribly I get fired soon. Perhaps I am even going to learn to flirt, finally, at my advanced age because every man in the world shops there. Many of them are also extremely cute; it is true that I have always had a thing for carpenters. So, yay. Pity it's not enough money to live on.

3. We sell ranunculus! There are a couple out right now I have my eye on, they look just like yellow roses.

1. I actually meant more interaction in general on MeCha, not necessarily in the update threads, but whatever works. :-)

2. I went for a half-hour walk in the drizzle/rain/fog/wind this evening, which was nice.

3. I'm running a therapy group for teenage girls, and it's been a bit overwhelming, but today's session was really great, so that was nice.

4. I have been completely exhausted all week, no matter how much I sleep.

1. Charmed as hell by TPS's MeFi post "Party in Rob's Room." Sent it to my sister.

2. Why does the shirt I love so much cost $62? Bastards!

3. Still arguing with health insurers and providers about healthcare services provided three months ago. Bugs the shit out of me. Isn't the point of health insurance not having to worry about this shit? You submit a claim. It's paid for. And that's that.

4. Because of number three and some other stuff, my mood has been heading south over the last couple of days. Will be visiting my psychiatrist on Tuesday. Maybe I can persuade him to bump up the meds?

Just went to look at what occhi said - she said

Actually, I was thinking the last time we had one that what I'd *really* like to have are more separate threads where we respond to each person's stuff, rather than one giant thread in which there's very little interaction. I kind of feel like we've lost the "chat" and it's more just status updates all the time.

That would be nice. I always enjoy hearing from people in these threads and getting updates, but then I feel like I'm interrupting the flow if I respond to them. But one good thing about these threads is that they're very inviting to newcomers, low barrier-to-entry in that you don't need to know anyone else or feel like you need to be legitimized to respond - it's a format and you follow it and there you are.

So these threads have pluses and minuses to them. I tend to like "check-in" roster-calling threads like this as a great point of entry for newbies, but we have less other kinds of threads than we used to so they feel a little lonely. The only cure for that is for people to post more threads that begin with an individual question or topic, letting others respond.

1. mygothlaundry, the point of working is to make money, not give it back to your employer ;-) Good luck with the flirting, though!

2. Went to the Doobie Brothers concert last night, which was pretty awesome.

3. Have sore thighs after 30-second sprint intervals in runners' group this morning.

4. Hopefully, this afternoon's training walk will stretch out the thighs and make them not hurt tomorrow.

Yes, I definitely like three-point status update threads; they're structured and easy and encourage participation. I just like other chatty threads, too. That is what I meant originally.

Elsa, you are brilliant! I've been fretting over this for ages. It seemed so freakin complicated and look at you,figuring it right out. Thank you!

I love these threads. They're like a crowded meetup but you have the advantage of following all the various conversations. And pants are optional.

I just like other chatty threads, too. That is what I meant originally.

Oh, yeah, I got that, was just agreeing with you in general - the status update threads are good for some things, not so good for others, and it'd be a shame if that's all we had left.

Mygothlaundry, one of my coworkers has a second job as a cashier in a chain home improvement store and loves it...I envy her, because I too have always had a thing for blue collar workers..yum.

1. My 14 year old missed the bus (again) because he's "tired" and "feeling weak". Imagine his surprise when I turned around and left work and arrived home. Goof off? I think not! Now he's doing house chores, and grounded for a week (this is the second time in two weeks he's missed school.)

2. Teenagers! Aarrrggghh! My first son was easier......But I'm liking my unexpected day off, so it's a win for me.

3. Thinking of taking the kids to Cape May for spring break. We like to visit the area at least once a year - they have a great zoo, we visit the lighthouse, and I think we'll go to Elaine's Haunted Dinner Theatre this time.

4. Red boots...I had a pair of red booties around twenty some odd years ago; red leather and suede, two inch cone shaped heel, I loved, loved loved them. Wish I still had them now - looking back, their style was timeless.

1. I too love red boots. And red shoes, for that matter. I take the fifth on the undies issue. I am sad I live so far from Maine. And I love this new chatty format for the updates.

2. I am still thrilled in retrospect that the black tie wedding last Saturday came off so well. It is amazing how dependent on MeFi that was: I got my Rent the Runway referral for my dress, and the tuxedo rental place referral for my husband, from AskMeFi, and my critical nail polish advice from MeCha and AskMeFi, and I'm just amazed at how wonderful all that helpful and timely advice was.

3. Headed in a couple of weeks to a conference at Hilton Head, South Carolina. I am surprisingly excited about it though not looking forward to leaving my Bear, even for just a few days.

4. It is gorgeous in Seattle today. I can't get over how beautiful the Olympic Mountains look, towering over the Sound. Yes, I'm feeling quite upbeat this Friday in the later afternoon.