I made a pie with the top crust looking like the Aperture Science logo

We do what we must because we can.

What's a few small thermodetonators between friends?

puts bubblewrap around auckland.

I think in protest we should have the zodiac sign changed.

hmm. the zodiac sign is good. especially with some old bay and a nice pot of hot water. it's the name of the sign that's related to something what deserves a round of being assed in the ear.

Mmm, pi day. I think I will convince my friend to make a pie tomorrow...

Sadly, I am feeling like complete SHIT today. I got in (several hours late last night) and was like "Um, can our first and only stop on the way home be a pharmacy or target? To get cough syrup? And cough drops?" And now I have used up all her kleenex, and slept most of the day (poorly, because people were...doing bizarre loud things in the hallway, I don't know what. And because of jetlag). And my head hurts. But I really really really want to see all my old coworkers who are getting togehter (another old coworker is also in town, from Colorado, I timed my trip to overlap hers). So I will get off the couch and leave the apartment and try to look less deathly. But BLAH, this is NOT what I had in mind for vacation!

It seems vacation illness is the In thing in the last year.

Nail Clippers aid jailbreak in Canada.

Six prisoners in Canada used nail clippers and other makeshift instruments to break out of prison.

While fellow inmates blocked the guards' view, they were able to dig through to an outer wall, which they then scaled to escape.

They were later recaptured and said they never expected to get away with it but the work gave them something to do.

Write out the fact that four were facing murder charges, and you could have a wacky caper comedy movie.

Add in the guy who wove a ladder out of dental floss, and you've got something.

I'm trying to figure out if Elsie Dinsmore is supposed to be set before or after the Civil War. It takes place in the south, and the servants in the house are referred to as "servant," and they're all black. Elsie's relationship with her "mammy" seems really odd -- her mammy, called Aunt Chloe is the one who seems to have done the most in terms of actually raising her, since most of the other adults pretty much just paid enough attention to make sure she was fed and clothed and quiet until her father returned when she was eight, so Aunt Chloe is the one who's doing a lot of parent-type things for her, but Aunt Chloe is also most definitely seen as her servant -- there's one scene where Elsie needs some beads, and asks Aunt Chloe to ask one of the other servants to buy them for her while he's in town. The other servant says that he won't have time, so Aunt Chloe decides to go herself to buy them. But before she can go, she has to ask Elsie's permission to leave the house.

This book just keeps getting more disturbing.

Elsie's relationship with her "mammy" seems really odd -- her mammy, called Aunt Chloe is the one who seems to have done the most in terms of actually raising her, since most of the other adults pretty much just paid enough attention to make sure she was fed and clothed and quiet until her father returned when she was eight, so Aunt Chloe is the one who's doing a lot of parent-type things for her, but Aunt Chloe is also most definitely seen as her servant -- there's one scene where Elsie needs some beads, and asks Aunt Chloe to ask one of the other servants to buy them for her while he's in town. The other servant says that he won't have time, so Aunt Chloe decides to go herself to buy them. But before she can go, she has to ask Elsie's permission to leave the house.

Not actually that odd for the South (sadly, even fairly recently). There's a story in my family about one of the children slapping the black woman who raised them, and no one so much as raised an eyebrow.

awww

Why does Elsie keep trying to please her father? Can't she see that this man is a psychopath? Any even vaguely normal child would at the very least resent him, but she keeps trying and trying to get even the tiniest little bit of approval from him. If he smiles at her at breakfast, she's happy all day; and if he ignores her, she spends all day trying to find some way to be a very very good girl so that maybe he'll love her. And he's enforcing this -- he demands complete obedience, won't let her visit her friends, won't let her do the stuff that all the other kids in the house do, and generally just keeps on narrowing her world until his approval is the only reward she can get, and she's desperate for it. Why the hell would anyone write this stuff in a book for kids?