I just had dinner. Alaskan king crab, key lime pie and a martini made with raspberry vodka and Godiva's white chocolate liquer. I have a nice buzz....

He was born Heinrich Ludwig. It was a German Immigrants Want to Sound Less Like German Immigrants thing. (His parents were the immigrants, I mean.)

Ah. I'm pretty sure my great-grandfather was Heinrich when he got here, but Henry thereafter.

I'm realizing that some dialect falls in my category of "bad grammar."

It's a hard line to draw. My parents were assiduous about my sister and me learning standard English, not allowing patois in the house. Nice idea -- but they both grew up speaking patois and have uberperfect English. And good patois, which is important in national identity. My sister and I have to patch our patois together -- as a result, I very rarely speak it. I'd rather put my French up for dissection than my patois -- what with not being French, it's much less stressful.

Some people recognise patois as a dialect and worthy of preservation. In the early 70s when I was learning English, these people were few and far between -- instead it was just bad grammar in mispronounciations.

I don't know where I draw the line between bad English and dialect of its own, but I hope any kids of mine benefit from my decision, instead of losing.

For all my parents' attempts I did get a "But you wouldn't say 'et' in an interview, surely?" from Kat. Of course I would. My parents say 'et' too. To me it's perfectly proper English. To an English teacher? NSM.

How's the back, Lee?

How's the back, Lee?

Better. The PT/Massage guy and the adjustments seem to help, and I now have the name of a real PT person who is in my network that I need to call.

I'm trying to decide if it would be too self indulgent to get another massage at BW tomorrow when I get my eyebrows done.

Gah. Somone save me please. I'm sneaking a break during my staff conference followinga FIVE HOUR session on best practces. In fact, forget save me, jst shoot me.

web tv inthe room - huh. It's very strange. And the screen res is crappy enough that I cn't really see what I'm typing.

God, what I would'thave given for a sidekick or somesuch today. So. Started at 7 this morning

Five hours? Sounds like they could use some best practices oversight themselves.

Sounds more like an endurance test, or an EST seminar from the 70's.

Whoops, lost te cursor. Suffice to say I'monhour11 a won't be through until 9. And then alll over agian tomorro

But, my boss just read me my performance review, which was glowing. So that's cool. And there's obscene amounts of good food and wll be plety of liquor at dinner, even though,like lucnch, dinner will be anothermeeting.

Thank god we only do this three times a year.

Too self indulgent? Dude, that's what BW is for.

I'm trying to time my next massage. My first two were either side of a solid week of phase training. But the next phase training is two long weekends, separated by a weekend. I'm flummoxed.

You, on the other hand, have it easy. Go!

I just substituted 1oz of unsweetened and 1oz of semisweetened for 2oz of bittersweet chocolate. And I swear I've never seen Dutch processed cocoa in the stores. Unless it's the default process.

Still, I suspect the chocolate cupcakes will turn out quite okay.

Hmm. The Sci Fi Channel is rebroadcasting The 4400.

I think I just might do that, ita. I think you should have a massage just before the training, one on the separating weekend, and one right after.

I'd be happy to test the cupcakes for you, if you want.

And I swear I've never seen Dutch processed cocoa in the stores. Unless it's the default process.

It's not default. It would say it on the tin.