Oh my friend got the bacon salt and baconaise (like a BLT exploded in your mouth...in a good way) and with her package she got bacon lip balm! It's her new pickup line "my lips taste like bacon."

Puppycam needs a cleanup in aisle two, though.

Huh. My firm just sent out a communication to managers around new policies on pay increases given the current economic state. Never a good thing, but I really like how they've done it:

The new process was designed to be fair and equitable, protect employees who are most vulnerable to the current downturn and reward our top performers.

Employees below $X base salary will be eligible for merit increases (to both base salary and target bonus) providing performance is at an acceptable level (manager discretion)

Employees between $X - $200,000 base salary who are “top performers” will be eligible for a merit increase to both base salary and target bonus (top performers will be determined using evaluative data, such as IPMP scores, talent review data and calibration of contributions relative to one's peer set)

Employees over $200,000 base salary will not be eligible for merit increases in 2009 to either base salary or target bonus

They've also bumped the effective date to March 1 instead of Jan 1, which sucks - no retroactive bump as in past years.

But still - it's really nice to see an actual progressive approach to this kind of thing so that it hits hardest where people have most capacity to absorb it, rather than holding the line on the lowest end of the food chain while people at the top keep raking in big bonuses.

Infinity bookcase: [link]

From here: The Infinity Bookcase

The puppies are going apeshit.

Infinity bookcase -- neat looking idea... but practically, how do you get at the books in the middle?!

A not-for-Hec link: Guidelines for Cats

The humans would have you believe that those lumps under the covers are their feet and hands. They are lying. They are actually Bed Mice, rumored to be the most delicious of all the mice in the world, though no cat has ever been able to catch one. Rumor also has it that only the most ferocious attack can stun them long enough for you to dive under the covers to get them. Maybe YOU can be the first to taste the Bed Mouse!

Remember all those neato Schoolastic books? Here's a Flicker set of them: Nostalgia for the Scholastic Book Club, circa '60's & '70's

Do kids still read those Ramona books? ("Ramona the Pest", etc?)

Yeah, the pups are definitely feeling their oats today. I'm a little worried about the camera.

Infinity bookcase -- neat looking idea... but practically, how do you get at the books in the middle?!

That's what I was wondering.

Do kids still read those Ramona books?

I still do. Em will read them.