Oh Bev. Now you've done it. I haven't cried, or let myself go all day (except, of course, for celebrating LIFE! with french fries). Now, tears are running down my cheeks.

...and Trudy and her family were obviously blessed, too.

Hugely. Everyone was wonderful.

I went to the first fitting for my new ankle brace today. It was at National Rehabilitation Hospital. I took a cab there.

To make this story make sense, you need to know that National Rehab is part of a huge hospital complex that also includes Washington Hospital Center and Children's National Medical Center. There are at least six different buildings, and the roadways between them are kind of twisty, and the signs aren't great.

We got to the complex without much problem. The cab driver asked me where in the complex I wanted to go, and I said that I wasn't sure which building it was, but it was the main building of National Rehab. He said OK, then drove right past an entrance sign that said "National Rehabilitation Hospital." I thought that maybe he didn't get that "Rehab" was short for "Rehabilitation," so I said, "National Rehabilitation Hospital." We get around to the other side of the complex, and there's another entrance. I point at the sign and say, "Over there, National Rehabilitation Hospital." He says, "OK," and then drives right past it.

He then turns to me and says, "Children's National, right?" I said, "No, National Rehabilitation." He said OK and turned into an entrance that only led to a parking garage. There were some official-looking people standing around, so I asked the driver to stop and I asked them for directions. They gave directions, and then the driver tried to follow them, but made what I was certain was a wrong turn. I said, "I'm pretty sure you need to be on that street back there." He said, "No, this is it. See, right there, Children's National." I said, once again, "NO, National Rehabilitation."

Some more people walked by. He rolled down his window and asked for directions to Children's National. I shouted, hoping the people could hear me, "No! National Rehab! National Rehab!"

After driving around the complex twice, I figured out where I wanted to go and which entrance to take, so I just told the cab driver where to turn, which he did, grudgingly, while assuring me that I was not going the right way.

In total, we spent 20 minutes driving around that complex.

When I had my huge orange cat, Solomon, who was HUGELY skittish and RUNAWAYNOW!we had a fire alarm go off at about 9:30 pm at night, when I lived on the 9th floor.

I didn't have a carrier, and I grabbed him and stuffed him in a pillowcase, and grabbed my purse, keys and pants and hustled a yowling, spitting, thrashing pillowcase down 9 flights.

It was just a little fire in the garbage chute. Solomon was NOT pleased.

BT, OMG those pictures are so, so adorable! Ryan is a darling baby.

Say, has DCJ checked in since his wound specialist meeting? I hope everything went ok and that they found a way to take care of things.

Hil, I'm sorry getting to your fitting was so bothersome.

Hil, how you did not smack him in the head I'll never know.

Your cabs are zones not meters, right?

Your cabs are zones not meters, right?

It's meters now. He turned off the meter pretty soon after he realized he had no idea where he was going.

Say, has DCJ checked in since his wound specialist meeting? I hope everything went ok and that they found a way to take care of things.

He went straight on to work afterwards. Treatment is simple, if a PITA. Antibiotics and wrapping his leg from toes to knee to squish the excess fluid out to let the area heal.

Um, as regards fires in buildings, if you can't get out, hiding in a closet with a closed door and shoving fabric at the gap in the bottom gives you a sporting chance, particularly if walls are made of sheet rock and/or drywall. Last summer during fire safety training for work, the local fire chief showed us a lovely slide show of homes gutted by fires, but with closets relatively undamaged. He kept saying if anybody had hid in there, they would have survived.

Hil, I'm glad the cab driver didn't stiff you for his stupidity.

Dooooo eeeeeet noooooooow.

Done. I'd rather regret the things I've done, than the things I haven't done.

I went to Soul Vegetarian for lunch, and now I'm having leftovers for dinner. Yum. I've got mac and cheese, some sort of protein thing with bbq sauce and rice, sweet potatoes, and collards.

I've got another phone interview tomorrow, with a school that seems to really want me. I emailed them asking what my status was, they said that my application looked good but they hadn't really looked through all of them yet, and asked what my timeline was. I said I had another offer that I needed to get back to by Friday. Then they emailed me today to say that they really liked my application and wanted to schedule a phone interview with me for tomorrow so that I'd have an answer by Friday. It's a one-year position at a place that definitely looks like a good fit for me. There's also one other one where I had a phone interview a few days ago and they're supposed to get back to me on Friday.