Okay, I'm buying my lifetime Tivo and the woman is a complete ditz. She keeps saying "awesome!" I am currently on hold because she has to consult with a supervisor because the computer keeps saying "District of Columbia" instead of "Washington DC" ARGH.

So glad next weekend is a 3-day. I am over working (and school, for that matter).

I am dieting and working out and I AM losing weight. Happy to say I have lost 9 lbs so far--almost halfway to my goal!

Yay for the intentional, healthy weight-losing!

Ack, Kristin, sorry about the wildlife encounter, and good luck dealing with the aftermath. That's...tough. So far we've been skunk-lucky, though opossums abound here. They're pretty stinky, but skunks have the first-place stinky award pretty well sewn up.

Yay for all the healthy Bitches!

My sister tells me that in the Topanga Canyon Banjo & Fiddle contest, my nephew placed 3rd in the advanced fiddle division, my niece placed 4th in the intermediate fiddle division, and the family band came in 2nd to a family that homeschools and travels around in an RV from Bluegrass event to Bluegrass event full-time. They're pleased.

I am dieting and working out and I AM losing weight. Happy to say I have lost 9 lbs so far--almost halfway to my goal!

When are you back on roller skates?

(I like to imagine you in sassy satin shorts swooping around the rink.)

I'm watching Clean House. The homeowner on this episode seems to have real psychological problems with stuff -- like, she doesn't want them to sell anything because she just can bear to let any of it out of her sight. Usually on this show, people have a ridiculous amount of stuff, but they can admit that and they want help with figuring out how to get rid of it. This woman is hugging a pillow of an old ratty couch because she "loves" it and doesn't want to sell it. It's really uncomfortable to watch.

You know, my mom was like that. Seriously. We spent the last ten years ferreting stuff out of the house when she wasn't looking, and if she didn't see it leave she never missed it.

DH's mom ran as an 18-year-old bride from the communists straight into Hitler's Germany, spent the war and gave birth to DH in a Displaced Persons Camp, emigrated to the US with a husband, a four-year-old, one suitcase, a wooden box of handmade cobbler's tools and no English. Her house has always been preternaturally neat and clean, almost Spartan in decoration and furniture alignment. But not static. And as soon as something new comes into the house, something old goes to a neighbor, a co-worker, or a charity.

I'd think because of her background she'd cling to possessions, but she emphatically does not. I guess giving things up voluntarily before they can be taken from her is her form of control.

When are you back on roller skates?

In the Fall, probably. Depends on money. I can't be both in a gym and pay the rink fees, and I really needed the weight-training and pilates classes and all that gym stuff.

Ay. I just got a work email. About some acronymic meeting I do not yet know about. For a project I have just started on and do not know anything about yet. Saying that they have these twice a month meetings, and to accomodate the five people in China/Taiwan/Australia they've been having TWO meetings, one at 8AM and one at 8PM. But since there's been some reoganization, and none of the [people wiht my job title] has attended the last two 8PM meetings, they are canceling those as a waste of resources, and everyone will hereafter be attending the 8AM ones. And China/Australia should just send notes ahead of time. And email if you don't have the meeting on your calendar.

And so I email, all "I don't have this on my calendar, cause I'm new. And also, is that FIVE AM PACIFIC? Do you, er...send out meeting minutes??"

Cause I know I"m three hours off of the headquarters, and I know I work from home and have even bloody offered to attend a 7AM PDT teleconference....but FIVE AM? Regularly? The fuck I will.