I’m drinking decaf coffee. I’ve begrudgingly accepted that I cannot have caffeine in my life. The first few months I didn’t drink coffee at all and stuck to various decaf herbal teas for my hot beverage. My love for coffee was too great to jump right to decaf without a buffer period. Yesterday I bought the decaf. It tastes yummy. A few times I have had a cup of decaf in restaurants, but none at home until today. Oddly it makes me feel like a little old lady to order decaf in a restaurant.

Laura, if it's OK to ask, why are you giving up on coffee?

The best thing in coffee, IMHO, is its smell.

Congrats, Raquel and DH and Mallory James!

What Fred Said. And, Nilly, wrod.

Coffee is not helping with my morning stupid.

The real tragedy is that it doesn't make other people seem less stupid either.

But I am at work without the burden of the Handbook hanging over my head. There might even be birdies chirping outside.

Laura, if it's OK to ask, why are you giving up on coffee?

It breaks my heart because I am big with the coffee love, but it does evil things to my body. The caffeine at any rate. I'm testing the decaf. It causes me problems on 2 fronts. Major insomnia. If I have a diet coke at lunch I won't be able to sleep that evening. Also, I was getting stabbing pains in my temples and they magically disappeared when I stopped the caffeine. Alas, they come back if I stray. It is sad making.

edit to note that on the plus side I am sleeping like a log and wake up early and alert. This is a new treat.

Welcome, Mallory James. All the best to Raquel and dh!

I was just talking to a friend who finished a PhD here, and for some reason the conversation went to "why wouldn't anyone make tv shows about physicists?", and from there it was a short way for him to start casting the other students around here (meaning, who would play them in a tv show/movie). So it was all fun and games, and then he said that I should pick who would play me. Of course, I had no idea. So who did he pick? Halle Berry.

That's crazy talk. Whether he is nice or not, clearly--clearly the part of Nilly will be played either by Summer Glau or Amy Acker.

Chris's pre-school teacher wants me to have Chris evaluated, because she literally thinks he is a genius. I want him to realize his potential, but I also want him just to be a kid, and be comfortable in his own skin. My cousin's wife, who specializes in special ed., thinks we're making the right call for now.

Congratulations, Raquel! And welcome to the world, Mallory James!

Which makes me think of that Pretenders song, you know the one...

Argh, must go work. See you later, Buffistas!

Cindy, I wouldn't push, either. If he's happy being his kid self, let him enjoy it. If he proves later that he needs more, you guys can always have him evaluated later. You know what's best for him.

shrift, may I tag?

Heh. Be my guest.

The morning stupid seems to be endemic in my office. People have been coming to me all morning, sheepishly admitting, "Can you pull these files from backup? I accidentally deleted/overwrote them."

Although why they trust a fellow stupidhead to fix their boo-boos, I couldn't say.