I'm afraid that if I had to have someone around the house, I'd be the world's grumpiest employer and would spend a lot of time channeling Dawn's "Get out get out get out."

It does take some getting used to, especially as I am a moody sod and I reeeeeally like my own company. If the assistants can just learn be quiet some of the time, though, we get along pretty well.

Sorry to hear about the insomnia. If you make it to the Y, I hope it helps with the tired.

Seska, is there something she can be doing when you don't need her so she doesn't feel like she is waiting around for you to wany something?

Headed to Mom's beach house for the weekend! We'll have it to ourselves as part of her birthday gift to TCG.

(he mocked Kirk's punching technique)!

This is hilarious to me because Shatner was my stage fighting instructor's favorite role model when I did stage fighting workshops in high school. Sure, he'd probably get his ass kicked in the real world, but he always knew how to take to the camera after each hit.

I may skip the Y. I'm getting plenty of exercise trying to dig out my yard after the Great Deluge. Considering the number of casualties and destroyed homes, my rearranged landscape is a minor problem, but there's certainly a lot of digging and retaining wall rebuilding in my future.

Grrrr. After 9 months of using the litter box religiously, my cat chose this morning (when I was running late and after I'd cleaned for out-of-town company coming in this evening) to pee on the rug by the front door. He isn't showing signs of a UTI, and his litter box gets scooped 2-3 times a day. He's just unhappy with me for not taking him out as often as usual just when the weather's gotten glorious. And he's probably still unhappy for me skiving off to Greece for 11 days and for me getting rid of some of his favorite furniture.

Still, little dude—you couldn't have made your point Sunday, after my friend had left?

Calli, keep an eye on him. Just in case.

I will, Fred. If he continues with the non-box peeing, starts peeing more often, starts licking his genitals more, or gets lethargic it's straight to the vet for him.

(Guess who spent the first 20 minutes in the office researching cat UTI symptoms?)

I'm also hoping to leave work early today to check on him. My manager's a cat person. It's helpful.

Seska, is there something she can be doing when you don't need her so she doesn't feel like she is waiting around for you to want something?

Oh yeah - the very first part of assistants' training goes 'Bring a book. You may get bored.' She knows I need someone around but I don't actually need her every second. She's just finding that a bit tricky to get used to, I think.

Have a great weekend, sj! Beach house sounds fantastic.

Health~ma for your cat, Calli.

An over-analytical type?

No, Seska. Pretty much what Ginger said. He's just angry about something (God knows what), and it comes out on everything and everyone.

He's just grumpy. And the thing is, I take everything (or most things in my life) personally. My motto is "if it's not personal, why should I bother?" (in the sense of being aware why I care about somethings/others and that reason has to be strongly connected to me of my beliefs). I can not to. I work very hard on my life to be with meaning, and that meaning is in the personal. So my dad, who is a huge influence on my life, affects me. His moods affects me. When I told him that once, that a lot of things he does affects me even when he's not aware of that, he nearly burst into hysterical laughter, and told me I should tell it to a psychologist. I don't think he realised where my remark came from.

I try not to take to the heart some things. With most things, I can't. I'm passionate, for better or worse. Ant right now, more than anything, I just wish it wouldn't come with such a huge side-dish of physical sickness. I believe some of my stomach stretched on 2/3 of my esophagus since last night, and I ain't too happy about it.

Now edited with extra clarity and context.

But I did learn that my first aid training is out of date -- they no longer recommend giving ipecac to a kid who swallowed poison.

It depends on the poison, right? You shouldn't induce vomiting with caustics because they can do more damage coming back up.

They actually don't recommend keeping ipecac at home at all anymore. It can have cardiac side effects, and some studies have shown that it's actually not all that effective -- there isn't much difference in how much poison makes it to the bloodstream between people who take it and people who don't. Current recommendation is to call poison control and get the kid to the ER, where they'll use charcoal.