Oh snaaaaap. Wow, I can't wait to go to Berlin!

bonny - didn't mean to leave you hanging - I do not recall any psychological support services. There was minimal job search support.

P-C, that was pre- Wall fall. I've been to Berlin and other places in Germany since with no such experiences.

Peacock tights! [link]

I find if I am polite to folks, they are polite to me. NYers aren't ones to smile and nod hi in passing. They are finding a path, and moving through. WRT the person on phone not completing the transaction, I say, if you are behind them, tell the cashier to add your stuff to his/her bill. When they complain, say you thought that's what they were making the rest of the line wait for. The self check out kiosks suck donkey balls. In order to take stuff out of the cart, I rest a crutch against the machine, which then insists "there is a foreign object in the lane, please remove object and continue scanning." Suck it bitch, it was made in the USA!

The picnic went well. The iTunes was fine, but iphone couldn't connect. I'm guessing a port was blocked in the school wi-fi. Humbug. My brownies were a hit. Seems folks never heard of cinnamon in brownies before.

ION- seems my new workplace is in the news today, and not for pretty reasons: [link] Who knew when I was applying?

A bunch of us left MD and went to Turkey and I remember my friend Jamie being so excited that the flight attendant would mix cherry and apricot juice for her.

This reminds me of taking the bus from Istanbul to Edirne (Turkish city near the border with Bulgaria). During the three-hour bus ride, we were offered juice, cookies, water, candy, and hand sanitizer, each in a separate trip for the poor bus attendant. First, I don't think I'd ever been on a bus that had a bus attendant before, so that was a novely in itself, but then they kept giving us stuff! And with the hand sanitizer, they would just squirt a big glop of it in your cupped hands, way more than you could possibly need, so it dripped everywhere. Weird experience.

Blargle. So Pete is feeling under the weather with a mild-ish version of what I had two weeks ago. I, on the other hand, am still feeling a bit dodgy and am easily tired, which led to Plei telling me I should go see my doctor and get checked out for walking pneumonia. (Not unreasonable, as someone in our vanpool apparently had it.) I AM TIRED OF FEELING SICKLY, DAMMIT. And if I AM going to still feel sickly, I want someone to bring me tea and soup and cupcakes. And laudanum.

The banning of laudanum was a sign of the decline of Western culture and deprived us of the chance to write our own Kubla Khans.

Please forgive the elevator people. There are days I can't face the screaming knee pain from arthritis and the bone spurs on my knee caps and an elevator is a blessed respite.

Midwesterners are the nicest people in the world. Southerners tend to say "y'all come," but never say when. Midwesterners show up at your house with a coffee cake and an invitation for bridge. I think New Yorkers get a bad rap. I've always found them willing to go out of their way to help me, although sometimes they complain about tourists the whole way. There are parts of the country where people very politely don't help you.

I find the people who talk too much in the South are mostly the people who talk too much everywhere, mainly little old ladies with time on their hands. The difference is that in the South people weren't raised to cut them off and are therefore at their rambling mercy.

Publix has always been blessedly free of people who talk to me, but they seem to be having some kind of friendliness drive among their employees and suddenly random employees are asking me if I need any help. I've been shopping there for more than a decade. I don't need help, although it would be nice if they stopped playing "hide the cake flour."

So, I was about 10 minutes late, she's not here, shocker. I sat at the bar, both bartenders walked be several times, didn't even look in my direction. When the girl next to me asked a question, the bartender ignored her. They were clearly busy with a big round, but they should have at least acknowledged a waiting customer.

I wasn't particularly excited about the restaurant, but my mother gets hurt feelings about stuff likr that. And, I didn't have another suggestion.

I am cranky, which will not be improved by her bullshit apology when she gets here. Last time, she was 30 minutes late in the middle of the day for a lunch date.

Good morning, all!

Morning for me...I'm on my third week of completely fucked up sleep; bedtime is about 9 am, and I get up about 4:30 or 5. HATES IT.

And stepson arrives Thursday morning, so switching around is necessary, but the doing of it will kinda suck. Everything is soaked about 3 inches up. The flip side of this is that all of the crap his exwife left in the basement (to pick up...when? she lives in frickin PA now) is kinda ruined, so I can toss a bunch of stuff without compunction.

I have done a LOT of laundry in the last day -- our washer/dryer is down there, and a couple of hampers of clothers got soaked, so I am getting it all washed. Needed to be done anyway, I suppose.

I am from the Midwest; I am very nice. Except when I am not, and then I am a fucking bitch.

P-C, have you watched "The Guild?" It's on Netflix streaming, and I decided to give it a go last night, and it was pretty cute. I ask because there's a most excellent smothering Indian mother, and it made me think of you. It's also pretty cute and geektastic, even though I am not a gamer.

The IT Crowd is also on Netflix streaming. D. loves it; I think it's pretty clever and funny. I'll have to tell him Series 4 is coming up. I think we get BBC. (The TV is still a mystery to me....)