when does the fall season start?

Shows start premiering this coming week.

eeeexcellent.

It is hitting the point where the travel restrictions are going to start having an impact on commerce.

Starting? I'm sure that U.S. businesses that were able to do so have permanently reduced air travel in response to kabuki security. Of course Visa restrictions and the stuff people may be put through have really affected international travel. I work with a number of international non-profits that won't schedule conferences in the U.S. any more. Too damn likely that at least one speaker won't be allowed into the U.S.

My sister works for a small German company, and the owner and CEO recently had to skip a conference at which he'd been invited to lecture because of sudden Visa restrictions. He's owned a HOUSE here for ten years. He lives here half the year! Ridiculous.

Pet Peeve: My name is RIGHT THERE in both the e-mail address AND the signature. There is no reason for you to have TWO errors in the spelling of my name.

I was just grousing about this the other day! Dude, it's RIGHT THERE.

Happy b-day, Nora!

Feel better, Laga and Tom (and me)!

Laga, was that you pondering whether to urge Boss to conform to the little fiddly things y'all do to help things run smoothly or not? Here's what I'm thinking - can you present this to her (or him) as something she should get in the habit of, so that if/when the time comes for someone else in the office to move on, she will be prepared to train replacements in these little things, so as to help the transition go as smoothly as possible (or would that come across as a hint that you have your exit strategy planned, and she might paint over your parking spot)?

good idea, WindSparrow. She knows I might not be here much longer. I got transferred here in February resulting in me spending lots more money on gas with no raise in pay. I should have revised my resume back in February.

The problem is that she knows it's stuff she's supposed to do. I get the feeling that she thinks she gets a pass because she's the boss. I'm sure she would tell my replacement everything that's expected of him/her and continue not doing the stuff herself. Perhaps I should concentrate on the big things, one at a time, and see if it makes any difference.

I saw PoTCAWE this afternoon with Mom, she liked it but realized she hadn't seen the second so was very confused.

Then I came home and started to get industrious. I have little flies. They won't go away, I've cleared all the food that's out, I've been washing dishes and not leaving a scrap of anything anywhere. And still they are here.

I was thinking that maybe something had fallen behind the stove so I unplugged it and moved it. Nothing there but a greasy disgusting mess of spills and drips and grease build up. So I scrubbed all that down, found my coat hanger hook and pulled out everything that was hiding behind the cabinets -- my spring loaded tongs! A pairing knife I had no idea was missing! Some dishcloths and my magnetic hook that goes on the range hood. Anyway I scrubbed all the walls and surfaces I could reach, rinsed everything down with a solution of vinegar, water, and essential oils as a degreaser for extra cleaning. I've got a fan on to dry everything so I can plug the oven back in and move it into place.

After that's done I'm cleaning all the walls, cabinets, little weird spots, and moving the fridge and give it a good cleaning.

Of course all this hard work is a form of cat vaccuuming because what I really need to do is fold and put away my clean clothes.

I wonder if askye would come and clean my kitchen so thoroughly. Because there's no way in hades my lazy ass is going to do it.

askye, if that doesn't give you the results you want, you can always try fly paper. Back in college, a roommate brought in a bunch of fruit flies on a basket of peaches she got from her grandparents' farm. She did not notice they were in the appartment. For a time, I kept spraying them, yet there were still swarms of them. I got really frustrated because she was not lifting a finger to fight these fruit flies (other than eat all the peaches). Finally I asked her if she knew of a way that would work better than the spray, and she suggested the fly strips. I'd never used them before, but I went to the hardware store and got some. About half an hour after I had put the first one up, it was black with flies. When she saw that, she apologized and told me that she had not seen them so she had thought I was imagining them due to the emotional upset of having spoken to my mother on the phone earlier that day.

...she had not seen them so she had thought I was imagining them due to the emotional upset of having spoken to my mother on the phone...

OK that's just bizarre.