Oh, that sucks. The only possible upside to strep is antibiotics curing it faster than a bad cold would go away?

Also, my cat is so into me, he just puked at my feet. Good times.

Oh, sad, msbelle.

Do I want to get spoiled for the next season of Leverage? Since Angel ended I've been a spoiler ho for just about everything, but I can't decide.

eta: bah! foilers! I fell for the bait.

msbelle, I hope you fix up right soon. This was definitely just coughing setting it off. I don't think I even have much of a fever (can't tell if I get warm from the exertion, hormones or something else.)

Tommyrot, that's superawesome!! Mermaid!

OMG, afrin helped so much. There may be rebound issues later, but at least this way I don't have to make another dinner.

I need to get back to my realtor. I've got to drive through a hood tomorrow to check it out. Can't recall what we're seeing Saturday. Need to ask.

This is also awesome: [link]

After a decade of quiet tinkering around the margins, the dream of making Chicago the center of a high-speed rail network finally is taking real shape, thanks to a massive infusion of cash tucked into President Barack Obama's stimulus bill.

Big clout -- by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Sen. Dick Durbin, D, and other well-placed Illinoisans -- likely guarantees that the Chicago-based network soon will get as much as $2 billion for new track, rolling stock, high-tech signals, bridges and other fixes.

If so, in as soon as three or four years, reliable train travel to St. Louis in under four hours, and Madison, Wis., in under three, will be on line, with other routes to the Twin Cities and Detroit on the way.

...

The next best bet, according to Mr. Weber and others, is the Madison line, which eventually could be extended to Minneapolis/St. Paul. From Chicago, trains would travel the same route as existing 87-minute service to downtown Milwaukee, then travel at 110 miles per hour west to Madison on tracks Wisconsin wants to upgrade.

Aw, Taylor just offered me some of her birthday cake. She's 14!!!!

Here is my favorite buying-a-house story: a professor of mine in college was looking for a place in a marginal/up-and-coming neighborhood, so he went by the place at different times of day, different days, etc., before he bought. But he never went by after midnight, which was apparently when the local drug business really took off. Somehow, he never had any problems in the neighborhood, and we're talking about a slight, fairly nerdy guy. But he was also a Latino guy with a fancy sportscar. He figured the neighbors thought he was some drug kingpin.

provide boxes and labels - one color label for each person or some scheme like that (we had numbers - every single person in the move had a number)

Yes, this. Get a million stickers with a number identifying the individual/office, and sticker them on multiple sides. I've never coordinated an office move, but this is how my old work replaced the carpets in our offices in 48 hours.

My stomach cramps slightly subsided, so I'm no longer convinced I'll be the first person to pass a kidney stone during the California bar. I have Bar Cancer.

We could have a whole thread devoted to Crazy Things Republican State Senators Have Said. Like this:

Schultheis: HIV testing for pregnant moms rewards ‘sexual promiscuity’

Democrats were outraged Wednesday morning when Republican state Sen. Dave Schultheis said he planned to vote against a bill to require HIV tests for pregnant women because the disease “stems from sexual promiscuity” and he didn’t think the Legislature should “remove the negative consequences that take place from poor behavior and unacceptable behavior.” The Colorado Springs lawmaker then proceeded to cast the lone vote against SB 179, which passed 32-1 and moves on to the House.