I'm craving roasted chicken for lunch. Fortunately the Ferry Building is right over there, and I have several options. Will undoubtedly go for the extra tasty with extra not-healthy Provencal style rotisserie.

Nice that in two days at the new job, I've done like no work, and I don't really care. I am the worst employee ever.

Where I have 11 days of school left, I have nothing planned and I refuse to teach anything new.

So, maybe you aren't the worst employee ever. Though you are in contention.

I had some damn fine roast pork for lunch, along with a weird plantain/ground beef/american cheese thing and some yellow rice and salad. It was free.

Is an hour and a quarter before show time early enough to get to Batman tonight?

Hec, it's not the plastics, it's the plasticizers.

Phthalates! Dead!

(btw, phthalates are what makes new cars smell like they do.)

I'm actually not doing so bad, considering the start-of-job bullshit. No computer, person with all the information I need forgot I was here, no computer again, etc., etc. AND I've done enough prep work that I can come in on Tuesday, bust a move and come up with something that looks impressive already.

So there.

Tomorrow, men will outlaw plastics

What about boning your friend's Moms? What's the future of that?

In contrast, certain men (and women) are getting bigger balls.

Mechanic can call me ANYTIME NOW and tell me my car can be picked up.

Obviously the rise in the use of plastics in this century is responsible for women getting the vote, the feminist movement, and metrosexuals.

ION, they are going to drill some big holes through the concrete walls in our office next week. Guess who gets to pack up the material from the two carrells affected, since both occupants are out of town? Yes, your fair heroine. One of the occupants is in a hot race for messiest desk in the building. I am tempted to just recycle the mountain o' paper so arrives back from vacation to a bare desk. But I suspect I lack sufficient chutzpah.

In other exciting science news, genetic manipulation can turn fruit flies gay:

New research has shown that the manipulation of a single gene in female fruit flies can make their sexual behavior resemble that of males, in a study that demonstrates the power of individual genes and the profound impact of genetics on complex sexual behavior.

The research was done with the gene "fruitless," which is present in both male and female fruit flies and some other insect species. Ordinarily, only in males does this gene result in the creation of proteins that guide male sexual behavior patterns – such as approaching females, tapping them, singing to them and performing little courtship dances.

However, through genetic manipulations the research group of university scientists was able to cause these same proteins to be produced in females, and when they were, the females showed classic patterns of male sexual behavior.

"When this genetic process was triggered in females, they acted as if they were masculinized," said Barbara Taylor, a professor of zoology at OSU. "And this was a single gene expressed in just a very small number of cells, controlling a surprisingly complex behavior. In a physical sense the females looked perfectly normal, but they acted like males and, if they were physically able to, I would not be surprised if they would have attempted to mate other females."