For some reason I could not handle all the nice words the Internet funneled my way at birthday time, so I turned off my computer and walked away. I thought my self-esteem issues had been mostly resolved but I guess they have not! And so I responded to your kindness by hiding under the Birthday Throne until it was all over. I hope that didn't trigger anyone's abandonment issues; I can't imagine anyone being that invested in this web site, what with me taking off for weeks at a time nowadays. Fortunately, I don't feel a shred of guilt for not posting; what I do feel shreds and great hanging gobs of guilt for is not keeping up with sending out any drawings for the last month. My only explanation is that I was both overwhelmed by family obligations and stumped by the request for "a fat old lady talking about sex." Then I was taking a lunch break last week, sitting on a bench outside of Pierre Lafond's in the sun. I spent the first half of my lunch reading San Miguel (which I really like so far) and the second half noodling around on a blank piece of paper and wondering whether human faces need to be (a) symmetrical, or (b) realistic. I concluded that they do not! And then I made this:

I'm not so sure about the story but I love her face.

Jack reminded me that no one has a symmetrical face (except for Nefertiti and Cybill Shepard) so I now feel freed up for all sorts of mayhem.

On Friday I spoke to an insurance agent who seemed poised to send me a check for actual money that will go towards buying a replacement car, so I have been reluctantly picking around various online car sites to see what's available and for how much. I've got my face covered half the time, peeking through my fingers at the horrible amount of money it's going to cost to replace a car that had been paid off since 2007. Buying anything on eBay with a "Buy It Now!" price of $7,500 seems absurd, but I'm going to have to suck it up and make a decision pretty soon. Big purchases terrify me. I would like another Volvo because it's like driving around in a fuel-injected tank, but I don't know if I can afford one that was made in this century. I could pocket the money and use it for 20 years of bus fare, I suppose. I'd certainly get a lot of knitting done that way.

I have also been spending some time every day on Pinterest and woe betide you if I find you are posting incorrectly attributed pins, for I am the self-appointed Pinterest Police. Oh, you want me to believe that's "Einstein and his therapist"? No, it is Einstein and Cord Meyer, Jr. in a photo from Life Magazine. Or I guess after being shut up in prison and becoming so ill with meningitis that spinal fluid leaked out his ears Oscar Wilde could have said, "I think it's very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone, and not be defined by another person," but it's a lot easier to believe that Olivia Wilde was the actual source of that quote. And for the record, Eisenhower did not sign civil rights legislation with Martin Luther King, Jr. looking over his shoulder, but Lyndon Johnson sure did. LAZY PINNERS BEWARE.