Timelies, all. Nora, you most certainly are awsome. vw, I'm sorry you want to eat everything in sight, but very glad your breathing is back on track. beth, glad you're feeling better. {{{{}}}} to all who need 'em.

My cookbook did not arrive yesterday, and this is my morning at the grocery store -- very distressing.

Ooh, Sparky, that's exciting. How do you have eligibility to work in NZ?

NZ has a points system, much like Canada. There are bonus points for college and graduate degrees, double bonus points if you work in an identified industry, etc. I also have relatives with NZ citizenship, who live there and are gainfully employed. With an actual job offer, I'd be way off the points scale, an automatic admit to the place. Without the job offer, I have enough points to qualify, and then it's a lottery system.

Morning, All.

loads of ~ma to cass & Jen & MNGirl & lisah&family

feel-better-ma to beth and Nora and CashFamily

Kristin, I feel your pain. (As I listen to the water dripping down into the Recycle bin that been re-purposed into a bucket about 2 feet behind my chair).

Very cool, Sparky!

vw & crew, I got my cookbooks this weekend! So awesome! You guys did a great job!

ION: I ran out of Claritin, and I'm trying to stop using so many decongestants. So now ALL OF THE MOISTURE IN THE WORLD is congregating in my head - with occasional forays out my nose (so tempted to type "by dose" 'cause that's how I'd pronounce it just now). Uck.

I've heard that NZ is one of the hardest places to emigrate to. Good on you, Sparky.

My cousin just got permanant residency there (in NZ)

I met a lot of emigres when I was there in August. It's a wonderful country, I can't wait to go back.

{{{Nora}}}

Best of luck, SA.

I just dropped my Social Psychology class. I just couldn't do it this semester. I am still going to keep Abnormal Psychology. I feel like such a loser right now.

Went to Jacques Imo's this morning and got begniets for breakfast. I only had gold and green beads so they gave me a purple strand.

My tummy is pretty happy right now.

I forgot to wear my beads to work, darnit. Unfortunately, a low-sugar regime makes beignets or donuts or any sort of "last fling" Mardi Gras pastry verboten for me. Rats. Why can't I have one of those squirrel metabolisms?

Stabby stabby stabby TYPE S stabby

So there's a scheduled demonstration in front of the embassy at 3:00 pm today. In morning staff meeting they tell us that we won't be dismissed early, as it should be short and harmless.

Then at 5:40 the Marine comes on the intercom and says "This is not a drill. You have 5 minutes to evacuate the building due to a demonstration." We all sweep our desks into our safes and pile out of the building. Right as I'm passing the Marine at the front door, he announces that they are closing the blast doors. Which are behind me and the Marine - I'm out.

But I ask, "Can I still get out of the compound?" He says yes, the gates are still open.

I book for the back gate (not dumb enough to go out the front into the demonstration), and the guards there say "Sorry. Marines ordered us to close down."

Naturally, I politely point out that the Marine told me it was OK and have the guard phone the Marine. Which he proceeds to not do, picking up the phone, punching some buttons, and setting it back down.

Minutes pass. There are now about 20 embassy people who made it out of the building but are fetched up at the fence. MUCH SAFER @@. The guard has retreated behind his bulletproof glass and refuses to come out. I haul out my cellphone and call the Marine, who says "I'm sorry ma'am. The instructions were explicit."

Being an idiot, I try to reason with him. One of the other officers says, "Let me handle this." I hang up, she calls in on her phone and puts on the voice she used in her previous life as a pre-school teacher. The Marine lets us out.

And if that wasn't enough, once I get to the metro stop (I hiked to the one not in the middle of the demo), I find that all but one ticket machine are broken. Greeks queue according to some chaos theory I don't comprehend, but I'm bigger than most people here, so that's the theory I went on to get my ticket.

A 2-mile walk after getting off the metro, and I am told by some guy lounging in a caterpillar and smoking that I can't go onto my street. Because they are pouring the new sidewalk. This is beyond funny, for so many reasons, but the main one is that THERE'S NOBODY ELSE IN SIGHT. I stare at him, at the abandoned street (with the intact sidewalk on my side), back at him, and head around the caterpillar. He says something I don't catch (probably just as well).

I have no idea why I'm still in a good mood.

I have no idea why I'm still in a good mood.

Because you escaped with your LIFE?!?!?