Thanks for the offer! But I am just noodling until Bob has done more than just consider applying.

Good luck, Brenda.

And bt, you're at the other end of Australia from Monica, correct?

And bt, you're at the other end of Australia from Monica, correct?

That's correct. And I'm following the weather reports and thinking "at least it's not another El Nino year".

How are those japanese girls keeping their socks up?

They use glue.

No, really.

Japanese high school girls wear outrageously oversized socks called "loose socks." How do they keep their socks from falling down? You guessed it -- they use "socks glue" (also called sock-tachi in Japanese). Here's some authentic socks glue for you, straight from Japan -- an incredible handy water-based glue that you apply to your calf to ensure your socks don't fall down. They go great with the sailor uniforms we carry by Matsukameya of Nagoya!

I'm not familiar with the Nibelung story, but I assume it's more interesting than this.

I don't think so. People don't go to Wagner operas for the story. I watched Dark Kingdom with DH, who has some sort of handle on the Ring Cycle, and his only comment on how it was different from Wagner was the lack of gods.

Good luck, brenda.

A bizarre way to die (ranks up there with interstellar deathray): Man dies in plunge after huge sinkhole opens in his home

ALTA, CALIFORNIA -- A large sinkhole opened in the middle of a house, killing a 27-year-old man who plummeted 10 feet and was covered by the rubble, officials said Sunday.

The two-story home, built in the 1980s, might have been sitting atop a decades-old underground mine, authorities said. Recent rains possibly softened the ground under the home, in an isolated area near Lake Alta, northeast of Sacramento.

"It's unbelievable," Placer County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Dena Erwin said. "From the front of the house, it's absolutely normal. Then, in the middle of the house, is this enormous hole."

The victim was on the ground floor about 9:30 p.m. Friday when the concrete foundation near the kitchen gave way, Erwin said.

brenda, I hope your Monday gets less Mondayish.

People don't go to Wagner operas for the story.

But the story survived long enough for Wagner to write the opera, right? It must have been interesting in some regard to do that. The miniseries, less so.

I guess I have some reading to do.

I would like to have been home sick today. But I was only slightly dizzy this morning, so work it is. I forgot my migraine pills. Which puts me in a weird place, because I could totally stress out so about not having them that I get one.

Deep breaths.

Fun festivities for 6-6-06:

Anyone living and driving in L.A. the past few weeks has seen them. Looming over the city, black and ominous, the billboards and posters announce "You Have Been Warned" and "The Signs Are All Around You." Each is anchored with the date "6/6/06."

Drop the "0," and you get 666. That's "the number of the beast," according to the New Testament's Book of Revelation, just one of many interpretations though all of them are dark and frightening. For some Armageddon believers, it represents the date upon which the Antichrist will spread universal evil over the Earth.

For marketers, 666 has also become an ideal date — to launch movies, records, books and other products or events, particularly those with religious undertones.

Like The Omen. And Coulter's new book.

The online radio station Radio Free Satan, based in Chicago, is heading to Los Angeles, where it plans to celebrate its sixth year and also ring in the "sin-tennial" with Satan's Rockin' 666 Eve at Zen Sushi in Silver Lake.

The Anton LaVey-founded Church of Satan is hosting a satanic high mass at the Steve Allen Theater, during which Church of Satan High Priest Peter H. Gilmore will bestow his blessing upon those assembled to, as Gilmore puts it, "champion reason, pluralism, skepticism and abundant joy in life."

Huh. Chicago has a Satanist radio station - who knew?

[link]

ita, I hope the anti-migraine force is with you today.

Good luck today, brenda.

I decided not risk the monday voodoo, and called in sick. By the time I reported it to everyone I needed to, and changed everything I needed to, I had been at it for half an hour.

As a result, I'm tuckered out and am going back to sleep.