So, Intrepid decided to plead to simple assault and accept a year's probation. He is back at the townhouse with the kids; I am at my parents right now until I sort things out. But he and the kids needed to see each other as it has been over a month. This is not a situation I ever thought I would be in. Maybe we can work things out, maybe we will not be able to do so. It is going to be trying few weeks coming up. Intrepid is being apologetic and wanting marriage counseling; I just want no part of any of it nor do I feel much right now. My ability to seal off my emotions at times astounds even me.

My best friend Prolixity has been helping a bit by texting back and forth with me and sending a few cyber hugs my way. Only problem is that he has not had a nice week either. He is an interesting character, that one -- engineer (PhD no less), lawyer and reserve police officer. His interest is accident reconstruction, so he told me once the law degree was for the legal aspects and courtroom understanding of reconstruction, and the police work to learn accident procedure, etc. I told him I think he is an overachiever. Anyway, background aside, he was on duty Wednesday night like he always is. I kept getting a weird feeling, just a vague feeling that something was not right as far as he was concerned, like something happened to him on duty. But he does not get off until midnight, so I was not going to call him. Besides I told myself I was just being silly. So, I call him Thursday night instead to let him know what was going on with Intrepid. Turns out his house was burglarized while he was working. The thief got away with most of the electronics in the home and 16 guns. Of course the place was crawling with cops and the CSI unit was there right way once it was discovered, but they turned up no useful fingerprints. Everyone is just thankful his family was not home at the time. Although they being home might have prevented the burglary.

Anyway, we are both here dealing with our own traumas while trying to help the other deal as well. It seems a bit like the blind leading the blind. I am going to meet him halfway (we live about 375 miles apart) for lunch and some face time next weekend. We always both feel better after seeing each other, even if others tease us about our "strange" relationship. Very few seem able to understand that a guy and a girl can actually have a platonic friendship. Maybe it can happen because I really have no interest in trying to puzzle my way through the emotional drama female humans engage in. Guys just do not seem to be on that emotional rollercoaster the neurotypical women I try to befriend typically ride.

Yeah, because the week has sucked. My firm does not make enough yet and I am stressed because I cannot find a part time job to fill in the financial holes. I am "overqualified" as I have been told many, many times now in phone calls and emails rejecting my resume. Go figure. Should have just stayed in school and gotten an LLM. Twenty-five of our class of 130 did that. Usually one or two per class do.

What does this mean? I will have to take back Intrepid, which I really do not want to do, but what choice do I have? It will be temporary, but it still stinks. See my last entry for information on that.

To make matters even better, the townhouses where we live were sold. To complete jerks. They have a maintenance guy who drives around the complex about every three hours or so and knocks on people's doors for perceived violations of their rules. Since these new owners took over 3 weeks ago, he has been at my door over 10 times complaining of things like my garage door staying open too long, not getting my trash can off the curb fast enough (I am home a lot during the day. If I do not need to be in the office, I work at home to save on daycare and apparently I should just jump right up and wheel my garbage can in the garage as soon as the trash is picked up.), debris on the lawn during windy days (Hey, they mow the lawns, they can pick up the debris on them. Only thing in the rules is to keep our porch and driveway clean), asking questions about the black car that has been parked down the street for two days (what am I, the neighborhood watch?). I finally called the office to complain and got the rudest response ever. Apparently they are of the mind that since they have a recorded deed, they have the right to annoy the hell out of people. They even told me to go to the recorder and look at it. *blinks* Umm, are you so stupid that you think merely owning a place means you can bug the people who live there? Oh yeah, and the Code of [State] says they have the right of access and can enforce the rules whenever they want. Rude Lady told me she had the Code right there on her desk, but when I asked her for the chapter and section that statute was in, she could not answer me. I mention that right of access cannot be used to harass and since she has the Code right in front of her, she should know that. Plus, I tell her, there are some laws that are not written down, like the covenant of quiet enjoyment, part of which says tenants have the right to peace and quiet. Then I got "Well, we can release you from your lease." To which I reply. "No you can't. Not without paying damages. I'd say since you are kicking me out of my house and leaving me with no place to live, it would not be unreasonable to ask for moving expenses, money for a couple month's worth of storage, my security deposit back, and first month's rent on the new place I find." She hung up on me. Creepy Guy has not been back, though.

Some background checks on these people, after learning some unsavory stuff about them from upset neighbors found that Rude Lady, the daughter of the owners, has been convicted of stealing several times and the owners themselves have had no less than 5 properties go into forclosure. Which leaves me wondering -- where did they get the financing to buy up this development?

Situation as it stands right now: My husband ("Intrepid") is gone and has been since last Monday. Let's just say I have a no contact order against him and leave it at that. He is the main breadwinner right now because the law firm three of us who went to law school is just getting off the ground. I am still getting money from him because he wants to keep a roof over the kids' heads. Yet things are most likely heading for divorce. Anyway, this has put my parents into a panic because a) they are traditional and feel we should try to work this out for the sake of the kids; and b) since it does not look like it is going to work out, I had better get a job like yesterday since I am not getting much in right now. I have been considering some little part-time office-y job just to give the income a needed boost.

My parents wanted to take the kids for the weekend, since it was a stressful week for me, and I took the opportunity take a 6 hour road trip to visit a friend and fellow lawyer who has been my greatest champion and mentor for as long as we have known each other. Although driving through the Flint Hills is enough to make you want to pound your head on the steering wheel. One hundred miles or so of natural prairie. Very pretty at first, but one soon gets tired of seeing nothing but cows, grass and the occasional oil rig. There is the back story.

I had a great trip ("Prolixity" loves to instruct me in lawyer-like stuff and even gave me some common forms I can adapt to my own state) and returned this afternoon to have dinner with the parents and pick up the kids. My dad meets me at the door with the classified section of the Sunday paper in his hand, all the jobs he felt were "appropriate" highlighted. I was just shocked. I am not 16; I know the basics of job hunting and I am capable of doing it by myself. I thanked him for the classifieds and told him I appreciated getting the want ads from them since I do not get the paper. I also added that I knew what I was looking for in a part time job and could handle it by myself. Dad got his offended look on his face, mumbled "Well, I was only trying to help." and stalked off. He did not talk to me again until it was time to say goodbye.

It was when I was leaving that I upset my mom. I am on some medication that leaves me drowsy after I take it. I was due for another dose at the time we left, which is why I excused us and said we really needed to get home. My mother said as we walked out the door. "Don't take your pills until the kids are in bed, ok? You don't need to be falling asleep while they are awake. They need someone watching them." To which I replied, "Mom, I realize that you are just trying to help out, but I have been on these pills for 2 months and am aware of their effects." She says these kinds of things often so I also reminded her that I am an adult now, and I would really like it if she treated me like grown offspring rather than a 16 year old. We have had these talks before. She cuts me off midsentence by huffing "Goodbye!" and shutting the door in my face. Was I too rude? Did I phrase something wrong?

Prolixity is no help in this manner because there is little love lost between him and my mother (that is a story in and of itself), I do not have Intrepid to bounce it off of, and my other close friend, Nando, is a self-professed boor. There are times I hate not being able to gauge such things on my own.

(Everyone referred to by screen names to protect privacy)

The local college has a trick or treat night for the kiddies. Costumed kids are taken on a tour of the dorms by a college kid acting as a guide and get candy. Oftentimes, the hallways are decorated and the college students dress up in costumes. I love it because it means a warm, dry place to trick or treat. The only time we're outside is when we moving to a new dorm.

Anyway, we got stuck in a group last night with a mother who was trying to wrangle twins who looked to be about 2 and an older daughter. She seemed to be around 8 or 9. Mom and the twins got lost on the tour twice, leaving the daughter alone in the group and rather upset. It upset the other kids, too, because we all had to wait for about 10 minutes while mom and her toddlers were located. She did not pay any attention to where the little ones were going. They just shoved their way in everywhere and I almost stepped on them three separate times. One of them went barreling down the stairs in one dorm, tripped, grabbed the skirt of my 4 year old, almost taking her down with him. Why was Mom not holding these kids' hands?

And she further irritated me by constantly calling her daughter "Sister." "Sister, we're right behind you!" "Sister, take only one piece of candy." Etc, etc. The boys were addressed by their names, but not that girl. You would have though Sister was on her birth certificate. That is one of my pet peeves. You gave your kid a name, why don't you use it? I just hate those people who refer to their older children as "Sister" or "Brother." Their little siblings should really learn their names, not just their titles. It seems to sort of objectify a child to refer to them simply by one role they play in their lives. Takes away individuality to some extent. Your little brother has a name, but your parents insist that "Sister" is more appropriate for you. When I did daycare, I had a 5 year old boy in my class who had no idea what his older sister's name way. To him she was just "Sissy." Nobody else called her Sissy outside of the immediate family, so it was not a true nickname. Drove me crazy.

Since the temperature is dropping all the spiders and insects have decided to invite themselves over to my nice, warm house. I found a spider in my bathroom so big I saw the glint in its eyes when I turned on the lights. Ladybugs are clinging the window screens. And the flies are everywhere. I have counted about 6, but the way flies are they make it seem like we have hundreds.

And what I found in the guinea pig cage really grossed me out. Sometime last night after I went to bed someone peed in the food bowl. This morning when I went to clean it out, I found that the mushy, peed-in part was full of tiny, wriggling newly hatched maggots. I nearly threw up.

Later I wondered if I had missed putting pellets in their bowl yesterday or something. How could there be maggots in it. A little research told me that fly eggs can hatch in as little as six hours. Oh. Yay. So, today the pets went with the kids to Grandma's, the plants were locked in the bathroom and we fumigated the place. I hate having to use chemicals, but the maggots are the last straw. I do not have the luxury of checking my pig's cage every six hours to make sure some housefly has not left me a present. And all it takes is one gravid female fly to cause a problem.

We moved last month from our old apartment, which went downhill soon after we signed our year long lease to a new townhouse in a new development. A bit more upscale and mostly good people in the area, except there is always that one family. Thank goodness they are across the road and down the street from us, because if they were next door, I would be finding myself someone to sublease and a new place to live. So far they:

-have a pickup with no muffler, not that the police care that our windows shake every time they start it. And they do love to rev the engine.
-park all three of their vehicles in the visitor's parking. No parking on the street is allowed.
-have about a 10-year old who threw a scooter at my son because he did not want to prank the neighbors. Then the kid had the audacity to go tattle to my husband when my son fended off the scooter with the toy light saber he was holding and grazed the kid's arm with it. While I was there watching the whole incident
-do not care if the kids prank the neighbors by knocking on doors then running
-do not supervise the kids at all, unless some neighbor has yelled at the kids for some reason. I yelled at them tonight for deliberately throwing a football at my car's back window. Dad was out of the house and watching them like a hawk before all the words came out of my mouth
-allow the 18 month old they babysit to wander into the street. I saw that when I had my own emergency to take care of and if I see it again, I will be making a phone call
-allow the kids jump the curb by driveways and ride their bikes through yards. The kids also dig in yards and throw rocks at whatever they can
-play family games of catch in the street and refuse to move if someone in a car wants through

We got a lot of talk about being pillars of the community at our swearing-in ceremony, but there are some people out there who make it hard to be nice and respectful to due to their horrid behavior. I so cannot wait until I can buy my own house out away from the idiots of this town.

On the ramp is one of them. That is a sure way to get your butt kicked by Cloudy when she wants to get by. Gabby does have some tenacity; that towel was on the top level, under some fleece and tucked into the coroplast.

Bar exam results were posted September 11. Whoever decided that 9/11 was a great day to tell people that they could go forth and practice law in this state is beyond me. I passed. At least 3 years of schooling and 18 hours (over two days) of testing paid off for me. They do not tell you your overall score, but do give out the score of the multiple choice portion of the exam. My mentor told me that my score on that puts me in about the top 10 percent of exam takers on that portion of the test. I am not sure whether to believe him or not.

We are moving, the car is in for repairs and I am out of hay here. I have a nice big box of KM's bluegrass that is currently residing at my parents' shed six miles away because it is just taking up space here that we need for packed boxes. I have been fetching it from them as needed in those ubiquitous plastic bags everyone gets when they shop at anywhere from WalMart to the grocery store. I went to fill hay today and found that the bag containing good, clean hay had been tossed instead of the bag containing filthy hay pulled out of the cage last night before the last refill of the day. I call, but my dad is on errands and cannot get over with a bag of hay until about 2:30. It is 7:00 when I go to refill the hayloft like I do every day and there is but a few wisps of hay left. Great. Ok, let's give an extra helping of veggies to take their minds off the hay situation.

Cloudy is not buying it. She sniffs the veggies and nibbles a bit, but is not interested in them. She gets hay in the early morning, then veggies after I get the kids off to school (boy, is she in for a rude awakening when I get a job and the routine changes). She wants her hay, not those stupid veggies. Up the ramp she goes the the hayloft and sits in the few remaining pieces of hay waiting. She makes a not quite wheek, then she makes disgruntled noises. She paws at the hay and noses a few pieces around. And much to her dislike, nobody is burying her in hay like happens every morning. She does not touch the scraps of veggies left over from her greedy cagemates until around 9:15. Around 10:30, I toss in a bit more lettuce and make sure the pellet bowl is full. I am not too worried about the 1/8 cup per pig ration today, since they have no hay to forage on until this afternoon.

I can tell how upset Cloudy is by the lack of hay by her attitude. She lays around in the upstairs alcove snapping at anyone who gets near her. Usually she's pretty active and spends a lot of time nosing around the cage investigating whatever it is that guinea pigs investigate. But there is a complete change when my dad shows up with the bag of hay. She hears the rattle and bolts for the hayloft. She does not usually wheek. Let Gabby, the young, noisy one wheek; Cloudy will just wait for the food to show up, thank you very much. She just waits there while I pile hay directly on top of her, as is the usual ritual and nanoseconds later I can hear her munching away happily. And suddenly everything in the cage is back to normal.

If she could talk I could just hear her say. "Oh my God, seven hours without hay .... I thought I was going to die!"

As if my pets were not weird enough, Gabby has decided her favorite place to sit when I hold her is in behind my neck. I would not mind that so much if she was not a champion poop machine. Give her an hour and she can turn a corner of the cage into a place that looks like I have not cleaned for a week. Seriously. Her out-of-cage record is 15 poops in 10 minutes. The skinny pig metabolism has nothing on Gabby's.

So nobody gets jealous, I have included pictures of the other two. Cloudy loves to lie with her head on her paws like a little dog. This is the only picture I have been able to get of her doing that because she always raises her head when I break out the camera. Of course it was right before cage cleaning time that she actually sat still. Murphy's Law. Roxie used to enjoy the pillows when they were new and would lay on them in strange ways. I need to make more pillows or restuff the old ones because they have become lumpy and unpopular except as headrests.

The four year old loves cows and so much so that she refuses to eat beef. Not that I mind. Unfortunately we live in town and the only time she gets to see cows is grazing in pastures when we head up into the larger cities or go out to the babysitter's or my parents, who live in the same area on acreages.

So, when the county fair is going on, we head over to stare at the cows she loves, the horses her sister adores, and the chickens her brother is interested in for whatever reason. I have nothing against chickens myself, I just never saw much of anything interesting in them. It is free, so I am not supporting anything and it helps reinforce little one's love of cows seeing them up close and personal. Plus it is a good teaching tool. My youngest son is nine and we talked on the way home about the conditions the animals are kept in. Squeezing 3 or 4 sheep and pigs in a pen, 2 or 3 chickens in a cage, ducks without water to swim in, cows tethered to rings in the wall so they cannot move very far. Only the horses have nice, big loose boxes and owners who take them out for exercise. Maybe it is not very nice of me to be using a fair as a teaching device like that, but if they do not see the bad conditions farm animals are kept in and negative people's attitudes towards them, how are they ever going to learn to respect all animals and advocate for them?

Two weeks until the bar exam and I feel like I know nothing. Other than people in practice questions do stupid things. To illustrate:

-will their land to someone in with some kind of condition attached, like "to A and his heirs if A grows a mustache." Just give it to them in fee simple absolute (basically you own the land with no strings attached, or mustaches for that matter)

-seem unable to complete a simple contract to paint a house. How hard can it be? Show up, paint it completely without monkeying around, collect your money, leave. If you forget to paint a closet or something there is going to be big trouble that will land you in court.

-do things that seem criminal but are not because the person did not intend to do something illegal. Do not go into your neighbor's garage in the middle of the night and borrow his wrench with the thought that you are going to return in the morning and he will not mind you are borrowing it in this manner. Even if you are not guilty of burglary, you still are going to end up spending a night in jail.

-sue for false imprisonment because someone barricaded them in for 12.5 seconds or sue for assault because someone threw a baseball past their head. In real life most people would get over it and the rest would be laughed out of the courtroom by the judge.

Because of the wet weather my parents' rain barrel has become the hot place for frogs to meet and apparently drop off their children. The kids have been catching frogs there for the last two weeks. Plus, last Sunday my 9 year old boy found the world's tiniest tadpoles there and would like very much to bring some home to raise. I have no idea how to care for a frog at any stage of its life.

My dad is trying to find a way to filter out tadpoles so he can actually use the rainwater to water the plants if needed without scooping up tadpoles as well. Mosquitoes have been laying eggs there, so tadpoles are a welcome site for more than one reason. With the weather we have been getting, my parents might not have to use that water until the tadpoles are big enough they will not fit through the watering can's holes. It is one of those ones with the little shower head-like contraptions screwed on to the spout. Then my mom can water her flowers and dump the tadpoles back in the rain barrel.

I going to die. Either my brain is going to explode from the two months' of review I am doing before the end of July, or I am going to have an aneurysm right there while I take it. I now understand why my friend and mentor, Brian, was so tetchy before he took it.

We were out planting the garden when Jossie noticed a little toad. She just stood and watched it as it sat there in the grass. She asked if she could touch it, so I shooed it on to my hand and she ran a finger down its back. I took it down towards the house where the other kids could see it. First we put it in the bug container we have that has a magnifying glass in the lid because Ilan wanted to see its skin up closer. I let him peer at it for about 5 minutes, then said it was time to let it go. They each petted the toad then Maddie and Ilan asked to put it near the little bog pond by the porch where it would have water to drink and lay eggs in and lots of wildflowers to hide in and hunt for bugs. Jossie, being only 4, wanted to keep it as a pet. Just what I want around the house, something that eats bugs.

Our commencement was last night. It started at 7, but all us 3Ls had to be there at 5:45. So we could stand in alphabetical order with our feet hurting until the bagpipes started and we marched around the track surrounding the athletic center above the seats and floor below. Then it was back downstairs to the staging area to wait a few moments for "Pomp and Circumstance" to start. We then filed out one by one to our seats, the second year who is the next SBA (student body government basically) president showing us which rows to fill. I, being 5'1" tall, get stuck between a linebacker and a tall girl who fidgets the entire ceremony. Her constant movement irritated as she rubbed shoulders with me every time she adjusted her hat, leaned forward, sat back, played with her shoes and tried to figure out what to do with the academic hood she carried. We all had one made of the purple velvet that represented law and lined with royal blue and white satin, our school's colors.

The speakers started. First, the Dean of the law school, then the President of the university, and finally the outgoing SBA President, a member of our class. He kept it light and spoke of our triumphs and setbacks, the bond we had formed over the last three years and peppered the speech with references only those soon-to-be-graduates in front of him would understand. I do not feel much of a bond with my class, save a few select individuals, maybe because of my Asperger's or maybe because I was an outsider in the first place. I started law school in 2005 with the 2008 graduates, but left halfway through when I was diagnosed to learn how to cope with the Asperger's and the different demands of law school. Undergrad was rote memorization; law school is analysis. I spent a year relearning how to go to school and fitting my brain to higher education's demands.

Our keynote speaker was a federal circuit judge, an alum of the law school who maintained strong ties. One would think his speech would be formal, traditional, and dry, but it was not. He spoke of his time in law school and how he was the class slacker; the one who chose his classes by what study aids he could get for them. He was told he would amount to nothing and graduated as the only member of his class without a job offer. From his words, I wonder if he graduated last in his class, or close to it. But he did not amount to nothing. He started his own law firm, embraced techology, became a respected civil rights lawyer, eventually becoming the federal circuit court judge who brought techology to his courtroom and inspire other judges to do the same in this state's courtrooms. And lastly, before he ended his speech, he pulled off his academic hood, unzipped his gown, and unbuttoned his shirt to show us his Drake Bulldogs T-shirt. Drake blue after all these years.

Then it was time for all of us to file up upon the stage, have our names announced, get hooded and cross the stage to shake the Provost's hand while photographers snapped pictures I will not purchase. The flashes just annoyed me and I hated having a camera flashing a foot from my face at every point in that small moment from my hooding until I exited the ramp on the opposite side of the stage. It seemed to commercialize the experience.

My mind wandered as graduate after graduate went through the same experience. I could not see them anyway through the corps of photographers lining the front of the stage. Eventually, the music started, our usher (or whatever his official title was) pointed us the way out and we marched back to the staging area where some quickly stripped off their gowns and handed them back to the people stationed there to collect them. Some of us wandered out to get pictures with friends or talk with family. I snuck up on my two good friends, tugged on their hoods and eventually ended up taking picture after picture with them. Unfortunately, my family and camera were elsewhere so I must depend on one of them to email me some shots.

The most important part was when I was approached by the one professor who knew about my condition approached me and congratulated me on graduation. She was the one who held eye contact with me after we all had had our moment on stage and the professors in the first row in front stood up and turned to face us, applauding with the crowd. "It was more important to me to see you graduate than the top ten percent." she told me. "Because I know you will pass the bar and do fine." I cannot explain what I felt when she said that, and I feel that going to graduation was worth it to hear that.

Gabby, the youngest pig, has developed the most annoying habit. She screams at the top of her lungs whenever one of the others comes within about a foot of her. And it is that nasty "Oh my God, something is trying to kill me!" type scream. Although I have been busy lately with exams and whatnot, I have not noticed any fighting or anything. It seems to be status quo in the cage except Gabby's newest antic. I hope this phase passes quickly because it is getting on my nerves. And it is not like I can send her to time out when she starts that garbage like I can the human children.

I really hate the weeks before exams. I really start feeling the burnout and this is not the time for that to happen. And my schedule is not that bad, really. It could be better. I have two more intense classes and two easier classes. I should have dropped Criminal Procedure II. I did well in Crim. Pro. I, but found out the professor is more concerned with us knowing case names more than anything else. The more case names you stuffed in your answer, the better your grade. I see no point to knowing a bunch of case names when it is the law that comes out of those cases that is important. So, it seem unreasonable to me that I did not get points on that exam for explaining the court's decision in the case and how it was en pointe with the issue when I blanked on the case's actual name. Yeah, it is much more important that I know the case is called Miranda v. Arizona rather than that the case established Miranda rights (you have the right to remain silent, blah, blah) This time around I am really studing case names for whatever it is worth...

Are no fun. They need even more information although I send in my life story already. Apparently 4 traffic tickets in 16 years shows an "apparent disregard for the laws of this State" and they need an explanation on this issue. Geez, I wonder what they said to the guy with 15 tickets in 2 years...

And I get to do this again when I apply to take the Kansas/Missouri bar in February. Oh yay. Oh yeah, and possibly reciprocity in Nebraska, who gave my friend 2 months' worth of fits despite his clean record. Not that I want to collect bar licenses, but my fate is tied to the aforementioned lawyer friend who is currently in Kansas, but might be going back to Nebraska.

I want to advocate for those of us with Asperger's and other forms of autism, but I cringe at people's perceptions of us.

"Oh, like Rain Man." No, we are not all like Rain Man. He was a savant, which is very rare. 80% of autistics are high-functioning, meaning we have the abilities need to make it in the big, wide world. Nor am I retarded. A few autistic people are, which is unfortunate. But those of us with Asperger's Syndrome and high functioning autism are often very bright and our inability to connect on a social level with neurotypicals does not mean that we are stupid. Even the kid who can only communicate on a very basic level and bangs his head when frustrated may be very intelligent; he just lacks the communication ability needed to express it properly.

"I've heard autism is on the rise and it is just an awful disease that ruins a family." No, contrary to what Autism Speaks says, studies show that the disorders have plateaued. Also, that organization is trying to scare you because they want more money for their worthless causes. Listen to their executives speak and you will learn that they see autism as an embarassment for the family of the autistic person and this embarassment must be cut out. True, it is not always a bed of roses, but most autistic children are functional, loving people with their own thoughts, feelings and goals with proud parents who understand the rewards and challenges. They need understanding, not stigma. Google "autism speaks criticism" sometime for the autisic community's view on that organization.

"Why don't you just try that diet that eliminates casein and gluten. I hear it really works." Someone somewhere came up with the idea that these two proteins leach out of the autistic's GI tract and travel to the brain where they act like opiates. Meaning the person is "stoned" for a while after. Apparently this is why we behave the way we do. My Asperger's is not caused by a leaky gut. It is caused by genetics. My brain is wired differently; I do not have some kind of curable disease. If this diet really works then why are there no major studies showing its effectiveness? Why is there nothing about it in respected medical journals? If the proteins act like opiates, then why do people who take opiates not act autistic? The best research I can find says that some austics have GI problems caused by these proteins which results in pain and bloating. Pain and bloating increase the behavior problems. Elminate the distress and the behavior calms down.

Maybe all I want to say is that we are fighting an uphill battle and misinformation does not help. Misconceptions, scare tactics, embarrassment and quack cures do not help. We need real interventions, and real understanding. We are not really so bad once you get to know us.

You do not realize how diverse their personalities are until you own them.

Dearly departed Bunny was a sweet old pig. She was really in touch with us and enjoyed human company as much as Cloudy's. She would come say "hi" to us and enjoy a scratch behind the ears instead of running in fear. She hardly ever made a sound and when she did it was very hoarse and quiet. We never knew why because she was never found to have throat problems. She took it easy, never one to run crazily around the cage, but she came to us with cataracts and arthritis, so was no spring chicken. She was pig that enjoyed a comfy pillow.

Roxie is our skittish, standoffish pig. She really has never liked any of her cagemates and her communications with them seem to be limited to grumblings. If you stick a finger in the grids she might let you pet her nose, but she is not a big fan of being held. It took a while to get her to take food out of my hand. She does enjoy if you kneel beside the cage and talk to her. She will look at you with her head slightly cocked to one side. Cloudy used to bully her something terrible, but Roxie has grown a spine and sometimes nips back. And she has learned to trick Cloudy to get what she wants. Want that pillow Cloudy's on? Just stand in front of it and Cloudy will get upset and rumblestrut a circle around the cage. Meanwhile her spot has been taken. Gabby just annoys her and Roxie will not tolerate her nearby.

Cloudy is the dominant pig and the current attention hog. It is pretty much a given that you can reach in and pet her, but for how long is determined by her. When she is done she will jerk her head away in some sort of offended manner like we should have known that the petting session was over. She is very comfortable out in the open and you will find her in the uncovered hayloft as opposed ot the hidey areas. She is a lot less of a bully than she used to be. She keeps the peace in the cage with more rumblestrutting than nipping and mounting anymore. She is a bit arrogant and expects to be personally handed a lettuce leaf, or other veggie when it is salad time. She will not move or shut up until I do.

Gabby is small, fast, loud and food-oriented. She runs crazy laps around the cage while the two older pigs watch her, but she is a young pig while the other two are almost four. Her antics and inexperience get her into trouble a lot. She uses the tents I have pinned up as hammocks, wriggles under the fleece and gets caught when someone else sits on her escape route, jumps on the other two (why I do not know, she just gets her butt kicked), and loudly wheeks whenever she hears plastic of any kind or sees anyone head for the kitchen. I am hoping I can socialize her better given some time because right now she does not want a thing to do with humans unless they have food. I do not expect lap pigs, but I do like pigs who are used to being handled and know what to expect even if they do not like it. Nobody likes their nails clipped or being turned over during health checks, but she is almost too wild to handle right now. I am hoping it is her young age. Otherwise she is a delight and I love watching her just "be a kid" because the other two most definitely act like middle-aged women.