Having my mother-in-law around can be fun, but also a zen challenge. When she's being vulnerable and honest, I enjoy her presence. When she crosses the line into acting helpless, she is annoying. When she crosses over the opposite way, and is meddlesome and argumentative, she pushes my anger buttons. Those are her three basic modes: vulnerable, helpless and meddlesome.

A successful visit entails enjoying her good moments, and just breathing through the psycho ones. I only had one little flair-up of anger, and I kept it to myself, and managed to keep moving along. So I rate this a highly successful visit.

Yesterday, we went to the Met with her and my dad. We hit the old classics: the Egyptians, who are always good for instantaneously inspiring awe, and the good ol' Impressionists. My favorite part, though, was an exhibit called Blithe Sprit: The Windsor Set, a display of evening wear from the 30s and 40s by Chanel and Balenciaga and that ilk.

We followed that up with dinner at a really charming li'l French bistro near the museum, and then we put Dad in a cab, and took Mom-in-Law home to watch Safe, which warrants a whole entry, which I shall add later.

In pup news, Coney has a new trick. We bow in Namaste, and he bows back. It's really fucking cute, if you don't think too hard about the ramifications.