Got an unofficial Internet use smackdown at work today, and most likely will be dark but for evenings and weekends. If you've got anything you want to be certain reaches me, best bet is e-mail.

Yet another long whooooosh of relief, two weeks later.

Nic passed his background check with flying colours. He starts Monday morning, on his 49th and my 50th birthday.

Thanks, all.

Oh, man.

For those who knew Selena Ullrich (kitsune76 at livejournal), I just got word from London: she was in hospital for chemo to treat her leukemia, got an infection, and her organs went into systemic failure. She's gone.

I am on my way to the airport (to watch Sparky1 get married and see Plei!!) and will be dark for the weekend, and then will dark gray until Mid-July for work reasons.

Got back from Brazil this morning. We had a great time. The beach was great, the food was greater, and the friends were the greatest. Although I love living in the US, I really felt like I was home while I was there.

Here are some photos from our trip.

(I am the one wearing the glasses.)

Also, in a side note, I saw ads for Wonderfalls which will start there on July 8. It looked like they would be showing the whole season.

deleted by Gus

Hi. I'm on the road. (You can tell, 'cause I keep moving my pin on our map.) Went on a spiffy family vacation to the local amusement park last weekend. One niece passed out twice (low blood pressure), and one broke her arm in three places. Not actually quite as amusing as the advertisement.

Niece number two is going in for surgery Wednesday at 11:00 Indy time, so your thoughts and prayers are appreciated. Two of the three breaks are okay and will heal, but the third is pretty bad and needs set, thus the surgery. We're hoping for the least invasive process as possible, once they get in there and see how bad it is. Our goal is no screws necessary.

Hugest thanks for all of the ~ma for my promotion- last night I had a talk with my boss, and I'm getting an interview, which she said was pretty much a formality. (Crosses fingers and does Anti-Jinx Dance.) If this comes through, its only one job for me, with two whole days off a week!!

Anyway, it's much appriciated, and promotion~ma released back to the needy!

Have officially completed first year as a teacher - go me! However, my employers continue to be the most unprofessional, disorganised shower of shite it has ever been my misfortune to encounter. Thus I'm going to request a large portion of -ma, if it can be spared, for 2 friends of mine who have been fired today, on the last day of term, over something which was not their fault, because the Senior Management at my place of employment fucked up and need to shift the blame. Now I'm not saying that they were wholly blameless - I'm trying very hard to be objective about the situation, and I'll grant that they could have bent over a bit further backwards to try to avoid the problem that arose arising. But if they were lax, SMT were more so. The head, however, has no conception that there is a difference between taking responsibility and taking credit. He's in it for the ego-massage and the money, and he is utterly inadequate in every single facet of his job.

I do not exaggerate. His incompetence is breathtaking, and angry-making, and scary. And now 2 of my friends are out of a job. One of whom is a single mother with 2 young children, whose ex husband lives in a different country, who has just signed a binding lease on a house here and finally spent her savings on furniture for it. Her support network here is pretty limited, as she's only been in the country for 2 years and the work and the kids don't allow for much of a social life outwith work colleagues. Her flat in the UK is being rented out, and her mother died just before Christmas, so if she ups sticks and returns to the UK she's not really got a home to go to. She's the ditziest woman I've ever met, arty and weirdly unworldly and really not capable of looking after herself very well, and yet she's responsible for these 2 kids who are having a mad bohemian life of adventures all over the world. And now she's suddenly lost her job over something that her line manager should have taken responsibility for.

My other friend I also fear for, for different reasons, but I'm hoping that with some luck and some -ma it will be a good thing for her that she's escaped from a job that was making her bitterly unhappy (she's now on Prozac, for first time in her life, as a direct result of this place).

So, yes. Any spare Good Luck vibes greatly appreciated.

If you haven't already noticed, I'm going grey to completely dark for a while, starting last week. I have no idea when I'm going to emerge into the sunshine again, so don't forget me.

Profile addy is good, if anyone needs me or wants to make sure I'm alive.