Kind of abrupt after the judges but I wanted to say thanks for all the birthday wishes for Ellie. She had, I think, a great day. She ate a huge dinner (spaghetti) and earlier in the day, had a great time at daycare playing for a few hours.

I woke up early again this morning, and may actually make it to work early this time! It's "clean up day," so we get to wear casual clothes, but I still have a ton of Actual Work to do, which is kind of annoying -- one government deadline, one (phone) meeting called by people outside our org. But I'm still wearing capris and a t-shirt!

Huh. I really did fall asleep after all that time awake! And now I feel materially better than I did before.

I'm torn -- should I keep The New Practical Home Repair For Women book, pub. 1966, 1972, with a foreword by the wife of the author? There's a blurb from Modern Bride on the cover!

I do love Hell's Kitchen - I felt sorry for Julia (the waffle house cook) - she COULD fry an egg properly. And what was up with Aaron - he kept crying - I don't think he's going to last long. But they keep promising that something really, really dramatic is going to happen this season - aside from setting Gordon Ramsey on fire, or going after him with a cleaver, I think they've already done about everything they could.

Toddson, maybe somebody will be swept overboard by a rogue wave?

Man, I love Gordon Ramsey. The thing this ep reminded me, and that I'd noticed in other seasons, is that for all the shouting and berating - when someone's really on the edge, or actually injured rather than belly-aching about tiny kitchen burns, he switches gears instantly and 100 percent. And no passive aggressive "fine, now I have to take care of you" overtones. It makes the rest a lot easier to watch because it makes it so clear how much of these people's distress is their own self-indulgent BS.

It's kind of amazing to see in action. He's very, very good at pulling people back, calming things down, getting to the bottom of things.

I don't know what the fuck was up with all that nastiness towards Julia, but I was very impressed with how Melissa handled things. She's got a decent BS detector her own self, it looks like.

Brenda I agree with you about Gordon and I think if someone had made comments about Julia not being worthy to be on the show because she worked at Waffle House he would have ripped that person a new one. Also I think the "fireworks" promised are the guy who called him a Shar Pei getting cocky with Ramsay and trying to "give back". Ramsay's arrogant and rants but he's earned the right to be like that. This guy hasn't earned that.

&*&*(&#(*@@)!!!

I had a Dr. appt. with E this morning that I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT!!

It is and important consult and I have a call in to see if we can get squeezed in later today or re-schedule for soon.

OMG not enough suck in the world for me right now.

Anybody around who speaks German?

I took a year of German in high school, about 30 years ago. So I might be able to figure out something that's really, really simple.