Somewhat strange question, sparked by a recent conversation with my mother: is it polite/appropriate to ask someone you just met (and might consider dating) what they do for a living?

I would say it's usually appropriate, but since my world tends to intersect with the intelligence community, I've learned not to ask.

Of course, since the Foreign Service has something like a 70% divorce rate, I also don't ask after people's spouses.

And to complete the FS theme of this post, the officer in charge of my husband's entering class, so probably the first FSO we knew well, was the first person into Jonestown in the aftermath. He said the smell will stay with him always. (He was also one of the Iranian hostages; clearly the target of a Chinese curse).

ION, or maybe still FS news, ARRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!! I just found out they are going to film Voyage of the Dawn Treader here, and my husband would be the embassy liaison for the American studio. If we were still here this summer. Argh. Missed the Olympics, missed the Narnia movie, argh.

I saw People's Temple in Berkeley with JavaCat and Consuela. It was amazing.

Dawn Treader might have been my favorite Narnia book. It's the mouse that gets me every time...

I loved Dawn Treader, too, except I rolled my eyes a little at the end. (Yes, I know, the end was kind of the point.)

Last day of Passover! I made some matzo brei for breakfast. It's much softer and eggier with Aviv brand matzo than it is with Streits.

My DH is very excited about having a meal tonight that includes bread. He usually chooses pizza for the meal, but that was in Berkeley when he had a favorite place.

Yeah, I'm trying to decide what my dinner tonight will be. I'm thinking about maybe seeing if some of my friends want to go out for Indian food (mmm, naan), but it'll be kind of later than most of them usually have dinner.

Timelies!!!!!

There was a baseball game last night. The kids and I went. CJ and I ended up in the paper. Voice is gone. My team lost. Tis a long season ahead and we are not known for a strong start.

Separately, I'd appreciate a bit of work-sanity~ma today. Lots going on here.

That's a great picture of both of you, Suzi. ::raise your hand if you're not surprised that Suzi was first in line::

Mmmm, naan. Too bad my DH doesn't care for Indian, except the naan.

raises hand

You can have all my worksanity, Suzi. I didn't need it today. They're installing a new phone system, so I haven't been able to be in my office at all. Instead, I've been playing on the internets and reading Cosmo.

I'm not sure about this manager for the A's, I have to say. We shall see.

(Mallory update: It was a spider bite. It's now down to a red "Z" about 1.5" tall)

Yeah, I wasn't sure why we intentionally walked a guy to get to the #4 batter. The guy who, two innings before, hit a homer. Whatever.

We weren't actually the FIRST in line, but it is nice having friends and a creative photographer. Supposedly the Contra Costa Times also has a picture, but I haven't found it yet.

We came over all Reform and had pizza last night. Yum.

After we were both too tired to go to Yizkor in the morning, so, had a pretty good-sized portion of guilt with that. But it's a fairly usual level of guilt, nothing extraordinary.

Who schedules a conference call for 6 AM? I swear, DH was calling in from the shower.

Poor Mal with the spider bite.

Oooh, pictures. Eta: and now I've seen them. stripey tight girl! Minion=cute. GREAT picture of Suzi&son - that green hair really suits you, girl.