I use my laptop a lot for the convenience of being able to be way from the desk (or I did while it was working well), but I've never been able to transfer my touch typing skills from the full size keyboard to the smaller.

Easy enough to plug a keyboard into the laptop if I'm not balancing it on my knees, though.

Again, you say this, but it isn't really true.

No, no, I think he really can't deal with them.

Oddly, I'm having some issues going from an IBM laptop keyboard to a... what is this, an iMac? Anyway, this keyboard. Not sure why -- they would seem to be the same size. The keys are a little flatter... dunno. What I miss is my split keyboard. That was nice.

Uhm, please don't interpret JZ's request for reading material as an invitation to send us all your paperbacks. (This is not directed at La Bug, but to anybody in earshot.)

We've spent months culling books from our shelves to get rid of bookshelves to make room for baby furniture.

There are still dozens and dozens and dozens of not-yet-read books here.

She could certainly use a few trashy novels to bide her time, but honestly, all I've been doing for the last several weeks has been hauling books to her Dad's basement for storage, or donating them to Goodwill or selling them to Half-Price books.

In sum, Some Books would be good. Lots of Books (right now) would be bad.

Signed,
Tired of Hauling Away Books

Um...I said I'd pick a couple of my favorites. I'm not sending all six milk crates.

Besides, that'd be really expensive, and I'm kinda broke right now.

I need to find the study I read that actually shows people who have a more cynical view of life tend to actually be...not right, exactly, but more aware than people who are more optimistic.

It's mentioned in Seligman's Learned Optimism. That could be the place to start.

Yeah, but the optimistic people live longer and are happier in their bubble of inaccurate optimism.

Hee. This is in the book too.

I've been working at home unofficially one day a week with my manager's blessing & he just asked his boss if I can keep doing that and he said no. I know a lot of people have it way worse but this commute is too much for me 5 days a week. It's just getting worse and worse with the traffic.

Oh, yuck. Stoopid boss. If he doesn't get that your manager understands your position better than he does, he probably deserves for you to leave. I actually had an interesting conversation with my boss yesterday in which it emerged that I actually have the right to work from home, within work constraints of course (e.g. I can't attend client meetings at home). I shall be making use of this.

Um...I said I'd pick a couple of my favorites. I'm not sending all six milk crates.

That's fine!

Again, you say this, but it isn't really true. I've gotten so used to the keyboard on my powerbook (and, before that, my iBook) that my hands feel lost on a full-sized keyboard. Whatsmore, the laptop keyboard gives me FEWER RSI issues - i can program on a laptop all day with no major pain, whereas the sides of my hands are hurting like a bitch right now.

Whereas with exercise and six asperin a day and injections of cortisone twice a year I can manage to type fairly long on a normal keyboard - but will be in agony after twenty minutes on a laptop. Note though it has to be a normal keyboard on the small end. So called ergonomic keyboards, even large regular keyboards kill me too. You know the ultimately cheap Dell keyboard you get if buy a dell and don't specify what keyboard you want? The perfect keyboard for me.

My uncle was all, "So did you talk to him, and did you just not bother?" Oh! I didn't realize those were my two options. I told him I talked to him. He asked what he said, and I said I agreed with him, that he had every right to charge me...no, no, this wasn't about rights, my uncle said. He knew he had the right. Did I tell him that I would be paying double rent? That's what I needed to do.

"I don't like lying," I said.

He shrugged, all, "Okay, if that's what you want to do." He then suggested I do the 27th instead or some weeknight; he could get me moved in in no time flat with his magic Suburban. I told him the 26th was fine.

Your uncle sounds like my ex-husband, P-C. Always looking for a way to work a deal, even if he had to lie to do it. One of the reasons he's my ex, I couldn't keep agreeing to keep my mouth shut every time I heard him lie to a salesman, a buyer, a landlord, anyone. At least you were able to tell him how you felt and he sounds like he accepted it and didn't give you grief about it.

Emily's making me dinner.

We like Emily.