My car is not acting right, so I am going to take it in on my way to therapy today and Mom is going to give me a ride. I hope it is nothing serious (or expensive).

Cheap car~ma, sj. I need new rear tires, myself. I'm avoiding getting them because even the cheap tires for my car, aren't.

Good car luck, sj.

Just returned from having the vet. take a look at the bald spot on Harvey's back. She confirmed my suspicion that it was just a minor local reaction, and nothing to be concerned about at the moment. She did advise keeping on eye on it for changes - injection site sarcoma occurs in about 1 in 10,000 cats, and they do not really know much about it yet. They did not charge for taking a look at him today. That would have been the deal-breaker - it is one thing to say, we can't tell what the problem is unless we see it, because they are cautious and thorough; and another thing entirely to say that as a means to get a client to pay more fees. The vet we saw today was much more informative than the others we had seen there. Next time I will try to schedule an appointment for when we can see her.

Andi, that's good to know. Both about the bald spot and which vet seems the more involved.

A little bit of job-ma would be appreciated this morning. I'm meeting with Job Guy and I hope he likes my stuff.

Hope the car astuff is OK- it may just be cranky from the heat, like the rest of us.

OK, I am writing a letter to the president of New ENgland Verizon, and am ccing the following: the CEO of Verizon, an editor at the Boston Globe, the Better Business Bureau. I am trying to find a good name at the Herald and will also cc a consumer advocate from a local news team. Who else?

Happy Anniversary Day, Aimée & Joe!

sj, I hope it's just something small (teeny tiny! miniscule!) wrong with your car and I hope that today is a great therapy day.

Andi, I have to do the same thing at my clinic. There's at least ten vets that practice there but I only like, I think, two of them. And the receptionists try to get all shirty with me and schedule me with just anyone every. damn. time. I call, but my non-confrontational tendencies fly out the window when it comes to my furry housemates.

It was an interesting day in my town yesterday. Big assed thunderstorms rolled through--but in my neighborhood there was a 70-mph microburst. Buildings torn apart at the airport, trees down everywhere. One of the plum trees in my front yard went town, portions of the fence blew out.

Hubby was in the living room when it hit. We have a big window there with a solid middle section and two side windows, which were open. He says the wind was coming in through one window and powering out through the other. The air conditioner in the outbound window was blown out onto a chair on the porch, plus a couple of models he was working on on the far side of the living room got blown out into the front yard.

Then, just as he had the living room windows closed and was breathing a sigh of relief, he realized the noise he was hearing was heavy rain hitting the wall of the hallway after blowing *through* the bedroom. The bed was soaked but is drying--hooray for low-humidity places--only a couple of books got wet, and my computer keyboard should be fine once it dries out.

Lots of trees and power poles down, but no one was seriously hurt. Interesting days.

Holy cow, Connie! I'm glad you're both ok but that sounds like a ton of damage. I had no idea Utah had crazy storms like that.

Cashmere, you have all of my job ~ma this morning. I hope Job Guy LOVES your stuff. (That sounds a little bit porny. Sorry.)

I think you pretty much covered the perfect cc peeps, Nora. Oh, and GO YOU!

Happy Anniversary, Miracleborns!

I just found out that a co-worker's religion bars the celebration of holidays, and thus they co-worker is offended when birthday celebrations are discussed/planned at work.

...well, I did try fleetingly to muster some understanding for the co-worker, but I find myself returning and returning to the opinion that the co-worker is an ass. Getting offended by people discussing the ritual sacrifice of a goat, I guess I could understand. (Although when all our neighbours were slaughtering their Eid sacrifices IN OUR BACK GARDEN, and we were woken by the hacking of bone and the fretful bleating of soon-to-be-steak, I was not offended. Squicked, yes. Offended, no.) Getting offended by people discussing doing something nice for somebody to celebrate their birthday? Really fucking stupid. And possibly jealous. (It's not like they're saying the birthday person get extra points with God, even! Just 'hey, we like you! Today is your day for people doing nice stuff for you!')

In conclusion: let's make out. But not with the co-worker.