pet_names jinx I've never really used them much. Coming from me, they feel fake and over-used. If I use them, I don't want to use the generic dear, honey, ect. I'll use names that have meaning to me and to him. Until then, I'll feel awkward with the fact I don't return the sign of affection. 030215 ... epitome of incomprehensibility Inspired, weirdly enough, by what_is_your_favorite_nut, I'm listing things I've called Shiloh: -hyper little chaos demon (or just little chaos demon) -dude (as in "you've got food, dude") -baby (as in "hi, baby!" with a head-scratch) -cutie pie (as in "hey, cutie pie"; I also say this to spiders as I escort them outside, though I simply smushed and killed a small annoying one recently) -Shiloloh -Shiloloh-stan -pup, puppy, doggy, shaggy doggy, etc. With the exception of the ones riffing on his name or doggitude, a lot of these could be applied to people. But I keep people's "pet names" mostly separate: e.g. a boyfriend is not "baby" to me. He can be "sweetie," though. I am a "snoose" because I showed him the music video for Jennifer Lopez's on the floor where Pitbull goofily de-voiced the "z" in "snooze." He (David, not Pitbull) speculated that a snoose could be a mischevious woodland fairy with birdlike tendencies who mooches food. Lia would get upset if David voiced his concern that pitbulls might be more violent than other dogs. Before Trixie, she had a pitbull, a rescue, who was a dog of gentle affection, if not as cool and nonchalant as Trixie usually is. Anyway. In the past, I called my brother Freckles and Snorbly (terms of annoyingness, mostly). Now that he isn't a child I call him "the child": e.g., "What IS the child doing?" When we were young, Mom called him "bugaboo" and me "honeybunch." Sugar and spice. I am what I mooch. 220708 ... raze my dad has called me "papa" for the last twenty-six years. he was inspired by barbra streisand's emotive performance of "papa, can you hear me?" in "yentl" — a film he saw in the theater the year i was born. i've been calling him "dickhead" for just as long. that's a nod to walter matthau and jack lemmon's barbed banter in "grumpy old men". at this point, i think if he called me by my actual name and i called him "dad", we would both be seriously weirded out. some things just stick. and some private jokes are really a shorthand for telling someone you love them. 220709 ... kerry goblin monster little prince little bear sausage piglet nebbish 220722 what's it to you? who go blather from