You can get CFLs in whatever brightness you want. The only problem is that more brightness = larger bulb, so it might take some looking at different types to get one that fits. The ones in my office burn 16+ hours a day, and they haven't been changed in about two years. It does sound like a problem with the wiring or socket. Also, there are CFLs that are made to work with dimmers. That is probably way more than you want to know, but I have spent a lot of my time trying to convince people to use CFLs. That said, if you had conventional bulbs everywhere and left them all on, they wouldn't come near the power use of a large-screen TV. Some large plasmas use more electricity that a new refrigerator.

I can't imagine a one-day mixup in a drug test will make a difference.

meara, I agree. I'm sure so long as you take it Monday, it shouldn't be a problem.

Meara, that sounds crazy. But Kristin's right, it sounds like Monday should probably be OK.

Someone please remind me to stop looking for continuity in made-for-TV skating movies.

meara, that same thing *just* happened to my dad! Someone at his new job mailed him some sort of testing equipment, and then he had to drop it off at a lab, but the FedEx didn't come till almost five on a Friday afternoon, and the lab closed at six or something.

Of course, these folks also accidentally gave him the wrong fax number to use for faxing back his job acceptance, so.

Just call first thing Monday! Not your fault.

Well, they TOOK the sample today, so if someone says it's OK, I think they can just send that one. And I emailed the job people, and they're on the East Coast, so hopefully bright and early Monday morning, they'll say "No worries!" But meanwhile, I will worry.

Oh, meara. How frustrating.

Wedding over. Me sleepy. Me also feeling completely inadequate. What is it about extended family that can make you feel so completely shitty. They don't even know me any more. They don't know I've changed and that I'm doing better. Instead, they treat me like I'm crazy. The cousin getting married, who I've never been overly close to, and his new wife were the nicest to me. Everyone else was just weird. And now I want to cry.

Instead I'll read my dad's comments on section 2 of the thesis. That probably won't cheer me up, but at least I'll feel like I'm doing something to better my life.

Oh another thing about CFLs lasting. CFLs are designed for a standard range of temperatures, unsealed, indoors. In areas of high humidity or extreme temperatures or enclosed fixtures they won't last. (CFLs designated as "indoor outdoor" lights will stand up to greater ranges of temperature and sometimes humidity. But I know of no CFLs that will work with enclosed fixtures.

it might not have had anything to do with you, vw. A lot of people have no idea how to behave at weddings.

They don't know I've changed and that I'm doing better.

But you do, and that's the important thing. If they don't bother to ask how you're doing it's their loss.

it might not have had anything to do with you, vw. A lot of people have no idea how to behave at weddings.

And family gatherings with family you're rarely in touch with tend to be weird and awkward, IMHO. You can't treat them like ordinary strangers, because you're supposed to know them, and yet you don't, really.

OK. This post contains spoilers for the second and third Cutting Edge movies. I seriously doubt anyone would care, but I thought I'd start with a warning.

The second movie is the standard cheesy skating movie plot -- guy and girl who are totally wrong for each other end up as skating partners, and then they admit, on the night of the big competition, that they love each other. All well and good, and they live happily ever after.

Except. Then comes the third movie, and the girl from the second one shows up as the coach in this one, and in her first scene, she mentions that she's just gotten divorced. The writers just screwed up their own franchise's happily-ever-after! And the happily ever after is pretty much the entire point of cheesy skating movies! Well, other than the snark and the cheesy skating, of course.