I have a stupid 9am on my. Day. Off. staff meeting tomorrow later this morning. Perhaps I shall wear my tiara.

Y'know, for some reason I read that as WindSparrow having a 9mm, and I was a little curious what she was planning to do with it. Probably just as well she doesn't have a 9mm, as 9AM meetings can cause people to wish they did...

Why am I awake again. last night I didn't feel well. tonight, I just woke up. Why can't I know it is an ambien night before 3 nights pass. I am guessing the full moon woke me up.

Hec, do you have some sort of alert set up to let you know when I'm having a crap day, prompting you to find shiny things to distract me? I'm not complaining, I'm just kinda bemused.

Well, it's more like there's a little corner of my mind that's dedicated to What Jilli Likes and when I gather enough I need to share it with you.

I'm back from dropping off Emily and Tom. I declare Scola Fest: The San Francisco Leg to be a complete success. Drinks were quaffed, karaoke was sung, tasty food bits were consumed, dancing happened, drunken swaying happened, jokes and gossip happened, inappropriate touching happened, appropriate touching happened. We met Motorcycle Boy. Some karaoke girl got all up in Juliana's grill (though there were no coloraturas involved), but I think it was really UST.

It was very fun and buffistaful. Tom took pictures.

I forgot to wish Tom a happy birthday.

Happy Belated Birthday, Tom!

Scola Fest sounds like it was a lot of fun.

Boo to staff meetings on days off.

I stayed up late trying to finish some laundry and Liv decided that 5 a.m. was perfect babbling time. She's in my lap trying to type this post. We're of in search of toaster waffles.

I was going to default to eTrade since there was a button right there with my stock options.

PC, can I add to the suggestions above? If you're going to invest, I recommend going in with the idea that you're not going to dick around with the money once it's placed. If you invest in a mutal fund (best to pick several with different levels of aggressiveness), don't panic if there's a sudden dip in the value of the fund. Something like one year out of three, your funds will show a loss, most likely. But over the long haul (ten, twenty years), the value will go up. Moving stuff around because of a temporary downswing is generally a bad idea.

Also, if you do have a significant amount to invest, you might want to go to a financial advisor. They can help you figure out how much risk you can tolerate, what your long-term goals are, etc.

Speaking of financial advisors, does anyone here have any advice of a company you can go to and say, "These are our long term goals, tell us what we need to do to reach them". Preferably a company that isn't trying to sell us a bunch of stuff?

Happy Birthday, Mr. Scola!

There was no meat in the cafeteria today. Fish only. No lunchmeat, no hot dishes with meat. Holy Week sucks. My meals today have been a big doughnut and some baklava with custard frosting (I didn't even know you could put frosting on baklava!).

Frosting on baklava? Sounds worse than gilding the lily. "Oh, here - that honey isn't sweet enough, let's add some sugar."

sj, what you want is an Independent Financial Planner. They are nationally certified, I think, and not affiliated with any company. (Signed, listens to that NPR show about money too much.)