You can all thank HF for sparing you the rant about my mother

This space was going to be devoted today to a diatribe about my manipulative and annoying mother, whom I love but who drives me out of my freakin' skull an awful lot of the time (and, yes, I know I'll regret writing this "after she's gone," but I'm willing to take that chance). However, because I poured my vitriol into an e-mail to Hermann, who might have time to read it before the end of this month, I will spare you. Suffice it to say that when someone tells you that this trip to NY is NOT the trip during which they will have time to see you, it is a very bad idea indeed for mother-daughter relations if you then PLAN A TRIP to NY to coincide with the offspring's arrival from California. NOT COOL.

In other, more important, news: I don't know whether anyone reading this is a believer in prayer or its efficacy, but if you are and/or do, kindly send a prayerful shout out on behalf of my friend Mihal, a wonderful spirited woman with a 7-year-old son. Mihal has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, at the age of 38, and her treatment and future are presently uncertain. I believe in the power of positive thinking (and also in G-d, although I admit we don't always know what plans there are for us, nor do I believe in a hands-on, micromanage-y type G-d) and in prayer in the general universal sense, so I'm looking to gather some good energy for Mihal. Yeah, sorry if that sounds like I've lived in the land of nuts and berries for jussssst a little bit too long, but I'm sincere in my wishes for her to get all better, as soon as possible, with as little fuss as possible. Thank you, and peace.