Travel~ma for both of you, Seska, and health~ma for your future father-in-law.

~mas to you, The Girl and The Girl's Father, Seska.

I didn't read a lot of Derrida yet, so I can't comment. And while Barthes is... well, kindda like The Annoying One, I did make a progress using Camera Lucida.

Of all those French guys, I prefer Latour and Baudrillard, myself. It's really easy - and fun - responding to their theories in papers.

sj, that's wonderful news about Aunt C. Continued speedy recovery~ma to her.

I need to figure out what to buy a 5 year old girl between now and then.

My suggestion: Anything by this author.

sj - Just noticed, 300 posts back, that you asked where home is. London, with The Girl, which is where I have returned. I was living in Leeds for a year to do my MA at Leeds Uni. I was only living in one room in Leeds, but it was a big room and it was all mine. This little flat (despite its glorious little balcony and also the niceness of being able to live with my partner again) is too full for all my books...

I get the feeling it's going to be a long day.

• hit the wrong button on alarm. didn't snooze it, turned it off.

• put polo shirt on backwards (thankfully I immediately noticed it was wrong when I had a face full of collar)

Don't these things come in 3's? @@ I's going to be a long day.

Oofdah. Survived the first morning commute with Emmett and Matilda. Getting an almost 13 y.o. and an almost 3 y.o. out the door by 7am is tricky business. Fortunately, JZ had us all fed, caffeinated and dressed and out the door on time.

Emmett's first class of the morning is Science at 8am, and if he's even five seconds late he gets detention. The teacher makes them roll a die and their detention is the roll times ten. So it can be as little as ten minutes and as long as an hour.

Of course, Emmett is the only kid commuting across the Bay Bridge from SF and sometimes the traffic is just not going to be accommodating.

I dunno, maybe that should go in the gaming thread. Either way, tons of no-traffic~ma so Emmett doesn't have to do detention, and may that ~ma last all the school year long.

May the -ma be strong. But at least three or four times a year there's going to be an inconvenient backup on the Bay Bridge or Matilda will just be difficult. Last year we had a little grace because his first class was gym. Nobody wants gym first class, but they do have five minutes to get dressed that he could use when we were late.

So maybe just some low rolls.

Y'all, I need someone to talk me off the edge here-- I've got a guy here pressure washing the house and driveway and when his water/chemical stream hit one of the outside GFI outlets, it flared up and burned-- I'm concerned that the outlet didn't trip immediately and of course, fire. It looks like it's out, but I've got the fire extinguisher by the front door and I'm checking every few minutes.

I'm not sure whether to be annoyed at the guy because something he did might have caused this or relieved because he may have uncovered something potentially bad.

Either way, I'm scared to the point of tears right now. I've called an electrician and they're going to be here within an hour. I think it's going to be the longest hour of my life.

Speaking of which, I need to figure out what to buy a 5 year old girl between now and then.

My niece is turning 5 in a couple of weeks (how is that possible????). I got her a little Tigger backpack and a Paul Frank Julius memory card game (she loves playing memory): [link] She also loved the Cranium game I got for my nephew for his b-day back in July: [link] Oh and both nephew and niece love the Rody, but it's kind of pricey: [link]